Red Dog Film

How does Red Dog Use The Distinctively Visual to Present Unique Australian Ideas of Mateship?The film â€Å"Red Dog†, directed by Kriv Stenders, effectively uses the distinctly visual to present unique Australian ideas of mateship and the harshness of the Australian outback. It is though film techniques such as camera shots, sound, colour and lighting that creates the distinct images of the Australian identity.A number of different factors combined create this great film demonstrating the typical Australian values. These include the setting, the comedic script, nostalgic elements, the love story and the pure ‘Australianness’ of the story and its characters. The film highlights the harshness of the Australian outback as well as the natural beauty of the region that serves as a scenic background for the close friendship in rural, working communities. However it is more than just a scenic backdrop, it is a landscape that portrays issues of very real threat of isolati on, starvation and death in the vast dry rural landscape. In â€Å"Red Dog†, the danger of the outback is demonstrated by John Grant’s sudden death on the desert road.In the opening sequence of the film, aerial shots are used to establish the setting and show the vastness of the landscape and the harshness of the environment. Many sound effects of bees, flies and crickets are heard by the audience as Thomas walks to the bar, to indicate that the area around is a dry arid landscape.The film represents the hot, harsh Australian outback through the use of colour and lighting. In particular, the colour of the dust (rustic red or orange) is an iconic and distinctly Australian outback colour. It symbolises the relentless heat in the outback. The degree of intensity is the strong blocks of red that is established in this scene. The bright colours and lighting and high saturation (strong colours) shows how stark the environment or heat is as well as the brightness of the sun. The orange or red tinges highlight the heat. Throughout the whole film, these ‘warmer’ colours have been used to resemble Western Australia, one of the hottest, driest parts of Australia. The colours make the terrain look dry, hot, barren and somewhat isolated.In Red Dog’s death scene, long shots are used to let the audience view the Australian outback terrain. This part of the scene opens up with an extreme long shot, highlighting the isolation that exists in the Pilbara and emphasises the vastness of this land. The film effectively provides a realistic portrayal of the harsh Australian outback through distinctly visual techniques such as camera shots, sound, colour and lighting.The familiar Australian bush-story theme of mateship, loyalty and respect between man and dog, a traditional identity of Australian life, is conveyed in â€Å"Red Dog†. The director uses skilful camera and visual techniques to portray this stereotypical value of mateship. The dire ctor uses an anthropomorphic approach through the anthropomorphism in his representation of â€Å"Red Dog†.This can be seen when the character Jack begins to explain Red Dog to Thomas and states â€Å"It’s not what he did but who he was†. This has the effect of privileging Red Dog as equal to Jack and everyone else. This also gives Red Dog an identity. He is not just some dog that they all loved, he had developed a personality and the townspeople understood Red Dog. Red Dog is a mate of the townspeople.Red Dog is a story about mateship, especially in the isolation of this big harsh country. It is a story about a man and his dog, or a dog and his master, told through the lens of mateship. The Australian notion of mateship is highlighted when Joko suggests that they erect a statue to â€Å"somebody who lives and breathes desolation, somebody that has red dust stuck up their nose and in their eyes and in their ears and up their arses!Mates who are loyal by nature no design†¦ somebody that represents the Pilbara in all of us and I say that somebody, dammit, IS A DOG!† It is also depicted in the line â€Å"More than a man’s best friend. A mate to the entire community†. The unique Australian idea of mateship between dog and human is a key theme in Red Dog which is reflected using distinctively visual techniques.Unique Australian ideas of mateship and the harshness of the Australian outback are presented through the use of the distinctly visual in Stenders’s film â€Å"Red Dog†. The director captures these Australian identities by using skilful camera and visual techniques, creating a film shaped with meaning and life.

Lessons from Enron: Bad Management, Negative Consequences

One of the classic examples of bad management, Enron's collapse according to the Economist (2002) was a result of bad management and poor decision-making of the auditing firm Andersen in handling the account of the company. The primary root of Enron’s collapse was bad management and the power of the management to delegate auditing and accounting responsibilities to a firm that they have chosen. The dependence of the auditing firm on the management in essence creates the break in the accounting and auditing ethics: in order not to lose an all-too important account such as Enron, they would need to abide by the decisions of the management.The lack of willpower of Andersen to question the unethical practices of Enron made it culpable in the same way as Enron’s managers. This led a domino and cascading effect in the corporate world of America: the government scrambling to look for other companies who are also hiding in their auditor’s books, the deterioration of the auditing and accounting profession, lack of trust in companies, and investor apprehension. The collapse of Enron was largely a decision by the top management which also involves its accountants to provide a bogus statement of finances to make Enron look like a profitable company.Auditors of Enron on the other hand, have sought to protect the company by shredding incriminating documents. From an agency theory perspective, the role of the Enron’s top management to that of the shareholders is one that is governed by the principle that managers will act in a way that will benefit the owners or shareholders of the company (Abrahamson and Park, 1994). In essence, what happened to Enron was that the managers or the agents gained too much power and the shareholders did not perform its function of overseeing the operations of their company.Fundamentally, what the shareholders and the managers who did not take part in the Enron scandal could have done was to have the government to appo int an auditing or accounting firm that will monitor the financial movement of the company. In this way, accountants and auditors will not be obliged to follow what the top managers would want them to do. Managers need to be wary of decisions made by the top management or their colleagues. To a significant extent, appointments should be made independent of the managers.In an era where auditing and accounting fraud are prevalent, managers can protect themselves by safeguarding their companies among their peers. References Abrahamson, E. and Park, C. (1994) Concealment of negative organizational outcomes: An agency theory perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 37: 1302-1334. Barefoot, JA. (2002). What can you learn from Enron? How to know if you are creating a climate of rule-breaking. ABA Banking Journal, 94. The Economist. (2002) The Lessons from Enron. 362, 8259: 9-10. Retrieved 1 July at http://www.csupomona. edu/~smemerson/PLS499%20Greed_Need/Enron. doc. Appendix 1. Enron Ar ticle Title: THE LESSONS FROM ENRON , Economist, 0013-0613, February 9, 2002, Vol. 362, Issue 8259 Database: Academic Search Elite Section: Leaders THE LESSONS FROM ENRON After the energy firm's collapse, the entire auditing regime needs radical change THE mess just keeps spreading. Two months after Enron filed for Chapter 11, the reverberations from the Texas-based energy-trading firm's bankruptcy might have been expected to fade; instead, they are growing.On Capitol Hill, politicians are engaged in an investigative orgy not seen since Whitewater, with the blame pinned variously on the company's managers, its directors, its auditors and its bankers, as well as on the Bush administration; indeed on anybody except the hundreds of congressmen who queued up to take campaign cash from Enron. The only missing ingredient in the scandal–so far–is sex. The effects are also touching Wall Street. In the past few weeks, investors have shifted their attention to other companies, m aking a frenzied search for any dodgy accounting that might reveal the next Enron.Canny traders have found a lucrative new strategy: sell a firm's stock short and then spread rumours about its accounts. Such companies as Tyco, PNC Financial Services, Invensys and even the biggest of the lot, General Electric, have all suffered. Last week Global Crossing, a telecoms firm, went bust amid claims of dubious accounts. This week shares in Elan, an Irish-based drug maker, were pummelled by worries over its accounting policies. All this might create the impression that corporate financial reports, the quality of company profits and the standard of auditing in America have suddenly and simultaneously deteriorated.Yet that would be wide of the mark: the deterioration has actually been apparent for many years. A growing body of evidence does indeed suggest that Enron was a peculiarly egregious case of bad management, misleading accounts, shoddy auditing and, quite probably, outright fraud. But the bigger lessons that Enron offers for accounting and corporate governance have long been familiar from previous scandals, in America and elsewhere. That makes it all the more urgent to respond now with the right reforms.Uncooking the books The place to start is auditing. Accurate company accounts are a keystone for any proper capital market, not least America's. Andersen, the firm that audited Enron's books from its inception in 1985 (it was also Global Crossing's auditor), has been suggesting that its failings are representative of the whole profession's. In fact, Andersen seems to have been unusually culpable over Enron: shredding of incriminating documents just ahead of the investigators is not yet a widespread habit.But it is also true that this is only the latest of a string of corporate scandals involving appalling audit failures, from Maxwell and Polly Peck in Britain, through Metallgesellschaft in Germany, to Cendant, Sunbeam and Waste Management in America. In the past four years alone, over 700 American companies have been forced to restate their accounts. At the heart of these audit failures lies a set of business relationships that are bedevilled by perverse incentives and conflicts of interest. In theory, a company's auditors are appointed independently by its shareholders, to whom they report.In practice, they are chosen by the company's bosses, to whom they all too often become beholden. Accounting firms frequently sell consulting services to their audit clients; external auditors may be hired to senior management positions or as internal auditors; it is far too easy to play on an individual audit partner's fear of losing a lucrative audit assignment. Against such a background, it is little wonder that the quality of the audit often suffers. What should be done? The most radical change would be to take responsibility for audits away from private accounting firms altogether and give it, lock, stock and barrel, to the government.Perhaps such a change may yet become necessary. But it would run risks in terms of the quality of auditors; and it is not always so obvious that a government agency would manage to escape the conflicts and mistakes to which private firms have so often fallen prey. As an intermediate step, however, a simpler suggestion is to take the job of choosing the auditors away from a company's bosses. Instead, a government agency–meaning, in America, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)–would appoint the auditors, even if on the basis of a list recommended by the company, which would continue to pay the audit fee.Harvey Pitt, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is not yet willing to be anything like so radical. He has been widely attacked because, when he acted in the past as a lawyer for a number of accounting firms, he helped to fend off several reforms. Yet he now seems ready to make at least some of the other changes that the Enron scandal has shown to be ne cessary (see pages 67-70. ) Among these are much fiercer statutory regulation of the auditing profession, including disciplinary powers with real bite.Hitherto, auditors have managed to get away with the fiction of self-regulation, both through peer review and by toothless professional and oversight bodies that they themselves have dominated. There should also be a ban on accounting firms offering (often more profitable) consulting and other services to their audit clients. Another good idea is mandatory rotation, every four years or so, both of audit partners–so that individuals do not become too committed to their clients–and of audit firms. The most effective peer review happens when one firm comes in to look at a predecessor's books.The SEC should also ban the practice of companies' hiring managers and internal auditors from their external audit firms. In search of better standards Then there is the issue of accounting standards themselves. Enron's behaviour has co nfirmed that in some areas, notably the treatment of off-balance-sheet dodges, American accounting standards are too lax; while in others they are so prescriptive that they have lost sight of broader principles. Past attempts by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to improve standards have often been stymied by vociferous lobbying.It is time for the SEC itself to impose more rigorous standards, although that should often be through sound principles (including paying less attention to single numbers for earnings) rather than overly detailed rules. It would also be good to come up with internationally agreed standards. Although audit is the most pressing area for change, it is not the only one. The Enron fiasco has shown that all is not well with the governance of many big American companies. Over the years all sorts of checks and balances have been created to ensure that company bosses, who supposedly act as agents for shareholders, their principals, actually do so.Yet the cult of the all-powerful chief executive, armed with sackfuls of stock options, has too often pushed such checks aside. It is time for another effort to realign the system to function more in shareholders' interests. Companies need stronger non-executive directors, paid enough to devote proper attention to the job; genuinely independent audit and remuneration committees; more powerful internal auditors; and a separation of the jobs of chairman and chief executive.If corporate America cannot deliver better governance, as well as better audit, it will have only itself to blame when the public backlash proves both fierce and unpleasant. PHOTO (COLOR) ________________________________________ Copyright of The Economist is the property of Economist Newspaper Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Source: Eco nomist, 2/9/2002, Vol. 362 Issue 8259, p9, 2p, 1c. Item Number: 6056697

In the Name of Identity Summary

In Amin Maalouf’s book â€Å"In the Name of Identity† Maalouf emphasizes that we should not judge people on one singular identity. He argues that, â€Å"Identity can’t be compartmentalized. You can’t divide it up into halves or thirds or any other separate segments. I haven’t got several identities: I’ve got just one, made up of many components in mixture that is unique to me, just as other people’s identity is unique to them as individuals. † The essence of Maalouf’s argument is that one should not define another based solely on a singular component of their identity but rather their identity as a whole.In chapter one, Maalouf suggest that, â€Å"†¦ People commit crime nowadays in the name of religious, ethnic, national, or some other kind of identity. † Massacres, racial discrimination, and holocausts have all been done in the name of defending a single component of ones identity. Maalouf makes a valid point when he writes, â€Å"What’s known as an identity card carries the holder’s family name, given name, date and place of birth, photograph, a list of certain physical features, the holder’s signature and sometimes also his fingerprints. Proving that society as a whole selects individual components of their identity to define themselves. According to Maalouf, identity is defined as,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦A number of elements, and these are clearly not restricted to the particulars set down in official records. Of course, for the great majority these factors include allegiance to a religious tradition; to a nationality – sometimes two; to a profession, an institution, or a particular social milieu. But the list is much longer than that; it is virtually unlimited. † Maalouf celebrates the fact that identity is extremely complex.Each person has a single identity, although each identity is made up of many components, causing not one to be the same. In chapter two Maalouf tries to examine his own identity. Maalouf claims he is not trying to find one singular part of his identity to define himself but rather find instances that define him. Maalouf admits, â€Å"As you may imagine, my object is not to discover within myself some essential allegiance in which I may recognize my self. Rather the opposite: I scour my memory to find as many ingredients of my identity as I can. Throughout chapter two Maalouf goes into great detail about what defines him. He clearly states that it is not one component, for instance coming from an Arab background and being a Christian. He does not deny himself of either identity, but instead embraces them both. Maalouf claims that the more allegiances one has the rarer one’s identity is. He clearly states, â€Å"Every one of my allegiance links me to a large number of people, But the more ties I have the rarer and more particular my own identity becomes. Towards the end of chapter two he claimes society gene ralizes and puts individual components of ones identity and judges them based solely on that single component. Maalouf complicates matters further when he writes, â€Å"We blithely express sweeping judgments on a whole peoples, calling them â€Å"hardworking† and â€Å"ingenious,† or â€Å"lazy,† â€Å"touchy,† â€Å"sly,† â€Å"proud,† or â€Å"obstinate. † He claims that these judgments often lead to bloodshed. In chapter three maalouf states, â€Å"Identity isn’t given once and for all: it is build up and changes throughout a person’s lifetime. The essence of Maalouf’s argument is our identity changes over time and different components are added everyday, changing our identity as a whole. He gives a great example of an African baby born in New York, compared to if it was born in Lagos, Pretoria, or Launda. The child would have completely different experiences by the age of 10, and each experience would drasti cally change its identity. Maalouf also argues that people view themselves by the allegiance that is most threatened. Thus, the reason Maalouf believes killers are made.He argues that, â€Å"We have only the events of the last few years to see what any human community that feels humiliated or fears for its existence will tend to produce killers. † It his human nature to defend one’s self when feeling threatened. Maalouf agrees when he says, â€Å"There is a Mr. Hyde inside each of us. What we have to do is prevent the conditions occurring that will bring the monster forth. † In conclusion Maalouf urges us to prevent our selves from generalizing each other based on a single component of one’s identity. He argues that this will prevent wars, murders, and holocausts.

Stock Prices Change And Earnings Changes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Stock Prices Change And Earnings Changes - Essay Example Forecasted free cash flows (operating profit + depreciation + amortization of goodwill - capital expenditures - cash taxes - change in working capital) are discounted to a present value using the company's weighted average costs of capital. DCF analysis shows that changes in long-term growth rates have the greatest impact on share valuation. Investors can also use the DCF model as a reality check. Instead of trying to come up with a target share price, they can plug in the current share price and, be working backward, calculate how fast the company would need to grow to justify the valuation. The lower the implied growth rate, the better - less growth has therefore already been "priced into" the stock The dividend discount model is a more conservative variation of discounted cash flows, that says a share of stock is worth the present value of its future dividends, rather than its earnings. The dividend discount model can be applied effectively only when a company is already distributing a significant amount of earnings as dividends. But in theory, it applies to all cases since even retained earnings should eventually turn into dividends. That's because once a company reaches its "mature" stage it won't need to reinvest in its growth, so management can begin distributing cash to the shareholders. (Plan "B" would be for the CEO to pursue some insane acquisition, just to gratify his bloated ego.) As Williams puts it, If earnings not paid out in dividends are all successfully reinvested... then these earnings should produce dividends later; if not, then they are money lost... In short, a stock is worth only what you can get out of it. We generally find earnings developed in three Anglo-Saxon countries—where capital is traditionally raised in public markets and reporting rules are unencumbered by taxation requirements—to have greater explanatory power for stock returns than cash flow metrics.

Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin - Essay Example uments on the constitutionality of a 2011 law that eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees after the legislation led to huge protests across the nation (Yaccin, 2013). The policy of collective bargaining sought to give most public workers collective bargaining rights through union membership. This paper explores federalism and collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation. It will demonstrate how this policy raises issues of federalism that stretches across state and local government to the federal government level and even the Supreme Court. The collective bargaining in Wisconsin Legislation has been drawing fundamental national attention since Wisconsin’s Republican-majority legislature passed it into law during Mr. Walker’s first year in office. The law sparked major protests in Capitol building and many Senate Democrats left the state to delay a vote on the bill. The policy limited collective bargaining for teachers and most local government workers where they would only bargain for their wages and no other matters concerning their welfare (Yaccin, 2013). These matters were earlier subject to collective bargaining agreements. The policy also barred municipal employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. The policy raised issues of federalism where it divided the state into partisan lines for two years as the Republicans and Democrats took opposing sides. It also threatened the Republican administration as hundreds of thousands citizens appended their signatures seeking to remove Mr. Walke r from power where he survived with 53 percent of the vote (Yaccin, 2013). Moreover, about seven public unions have been challenging this policy since its enactment. Indeed, a teachers union in Madison and a labor group representing employees of the city of Milwaukee challenged this policy claiming that it violates freedom of association and the right to equal protection of the law by subjecting unionized public employees to burdens not

Campbell soup Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Campbell soup - Essay Example From this period, Campbell diversified its products and posted billion dollars sale but small profits. The most important development, however, was due to its borrowings from investors, the company gradually became subject to the decision and pressures of stockholders. The most important of which include the managements protracted legal battles with investors. This dimension to Campbell’s existence has resulted to the adoption of management teams that were desperate to improve Campbell’s positive net margins because it affects the stock price. This the reason why it has pulled all the stops in order to generate the positive earnings that Wall Street demands to the point that illegitimate policies were adopted. Cases in point were the improper accounting, trade loading, among other policies. 1. Identify legitimate business practices that corporate executives can use for the primary purpose of manipulating or â€Å"managing† their company’s reported operating results. Are such practices ethical? Defend your answer. Examples of legitimate business practices that corporate executives can use in order to manipulate their organization’s operating results include: trade loading or the use of excessive price concessions in order for consumers to buy more products thereby propping up the reported revenues or profits for a specific period; and, converting given period-ending discounts as selling, general and administrative expenses instead of treating them as reductions of gross revenues. Another legitimate gimmick that organizations could legitimately use to smooth out its earnings and manipulate its operation reports is by putting excessive reserves on its balance sheet (i.e. for bad debts or defective merchandise) in one quarter, in effect, lowering earnings below what they otherwise would have been, and then reversing the process in another quarter, which would result to the conversion of some of the excess reserves into profit

Drug trafficking analysis in UAE Thesis Proposal

Drug trafficking analysis in UAE - Thesis Proposal Example Financial cost on society and individuals is one of the significant problems of drug abuse. For example, in 2002, drug related cost was estimated at $180.9 billion consisting of various costs of health care and loss of labor according to the national drug control policy office. In 2004, it took US$3 million to set up a sub-office on drugs and crime in the UAE. UAE has been the target by exceptionally determined criminals who have access to adequate capital and labor to produce and smuggle voluminous amount of prohibited substances. Drugs originate from south Asia and pass through the emirates to Europe and North America, the heavy consumers (Shindagah, 1998). States in the gulf remain key destination markets for opium and psychotropic substances. Other countries such as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran continue to be the hotspots for drug manufacturing as indicated by international narcotic control board report (Reinil, 2009). Narcotics are the most trafficked drugs in UAE and are estimated to be worth US$500billion annually, according to Sherman and Tree (2010). This amount is estimated to be double that of the automobile industry (Scott, 2005) Ports are the most notorious places and foremost hotspots and avenues of drug trafficking due to the voluminous imports received daily, with Small scale dealers mostly caught at airports. The commonly used tactic of drug trafficking continues to be through the internal human body carriage. However, smugglers are always changing their tactics and the current trend as indicated by Reinil (2009) is the use of Christmas cards. One of the biggest tasks is to prevent the flow of heroin from Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the worlds supply. According to Jamieson and Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism (1990), most of the drugs grown in Afghanistan pass through the emirates before being shipped to their final destinations. There is a rising use of