An ethical issue

The world bank president is facing a threat of possible loss of job because his violation of code of ethics. The detail about his offense is he abused his power in granting a huge raise to his girlfriend, shaha Ali Riza, while keeping legal and human-resource officers out of the loop. A wide split in the opinions wether to keep him on the job and firing him is getting more fierce.

In my opinion, his offense of favortism to his girlfriend does not amount to resignation proceedings. The board should also take some responsibility in letting it happen so easily. The world bank's internal controal system must have some loop holes that enables such thing to happen. So, instead of placing blames on anyone, the board of world bank should start looking inside and improve its internal control processes and make improvements so that any furthur violations of the sort will be prevented.

China beats India on Outsourcing

As of now, China and India are the two biggest player in the field of Outsourcing. These two countries share some similarities in their success. India and China are both vast nations with a large human capitol. The population in both countries exceeds 10 billions. Therefore, unexpensive labor supply is abundant. It is what the more developed nations needed--unexpensive labor cost. Second, many highly skilled technology workers are in India and China. With the advancement in modern communication, engineers in India and China can be hired to work for companies overseas very easily. However, India has its language advantage over China. Indian workforce is very much fluent in English. As a result, India got majority of call center operations outsourced to them. On the other hand, China is lacking in the English language skill which is highly desired by the oursourcers. However this is changing since Chinese government changes its school curriculum to stress the importance of learing English started from elementary school. In the next 10-15 years, China will have a fluent English speaking workforce to compete with India. And more importantly, China has better infrastructure than india which makes it a winner in outsourcing.

shorttage of veterinarian and food safety

In America, shortage of food animal veterinarians is a threat to public health. Due to the nature of food animal veterinarian work, many graduates from veterinarian school choose to work on small animals in a clinic rather than working on large food animals such as cattles and sheeps. First, the work is backbreaking and messy. Two, the pay is assumed lower than its counterpart, which is a clinical veterinarian. As a result, it is a 4% shortage in the food animal veterinarians supply. The consequence of this shortage can be severe: Salmonella in an untreated dairy herd could be spread by workers who come into contact with feces. Similarly, people who defeather or slaughter chickens infected with a certain strain of avian flu could get others sick.
-- Diseases like anthrax are hard to detect and spread quickly, so a farmer likely wouldn't notice an illness until many animals were sick, potentially wiping out a whole herd.
-- Foot and mouth disease could enter the United States through imported animals or meat. Because the disease can spread rapidly by air, it could hit multiple producers if not detected, leading to a regional outbreak.
Due to this severe consequences it might cause, a solution to increase the food animal veterianians is urgent. Department of argriculture should come up some incentive programs to attract college graduate to go into this field. I believe a viable solution to increase the supply of food animal veterinarians is the way to ensure the food safety for the general public in America.

Walmart's Middle Age crisis

Walmart is famous for its rapid expansion rate. Not long ago, Walmart stores are opened at the rate of one store a day nationwide. And today, sale volume has been very slowly increased barely 1%. What is the real cause for Walmart's slowing growth rate? It is more a substance problem or the bad reputation it gets from giving low wages and benefits to its employees. I think both. Speaking from my own experience, I can see Walmart employees near my residence are not very ethusastic about their jobs. Some of them are not very helpful, some of them are not very friendly. Think about it, in retail business, customer service is very important. When Walmart employees are not compensated right, then they are going to lash out on their customers. Ultimately, Walmart is the victim at the end. Public relations are important for any business. Customers to a business is like water to a boart. Water can float a boat or sink it. On the other aspect, Walmart's failure in boosting sales has to do market saturation. A pond can only hold so many fish. If the numbers of fish exceeds the pond's capacity, fish will die. Walmart has been expanding nonstop for the recent years. Many Walmart stores are competing with itself. Over expanding will only have damageing effects on the company. Along with bad reputation, Walmart will ultimately go into collapsed.

Madame Alexander doll

The classic madame alexander doll is made out of a kitchen of an immigrant from eastern europe--her name is madame alexander. She is the first lady for dolls. Surprisingly, doll collectors of madame alexander doll are more adults than children--maybe is because childern are not old enough to appreciate its quality and design. The design of madame alexander doll may be considered as an innovation in doll making. Madame alexander doll is the first to use hard plastic for the protype instead of using traditional cloth. And the designer, madame alexander is the first to use popular characters in cartoons and movies as models to design her dolls. Madame alexander understands the importance of star power in marketing her dolls and her stratedy made her become the queen of dolls. Nowaday, madame alexander doll is still a very popular collection item for both adults and children. And its operating strategy has changed a little in order to take advantage of today's economic trend---outsoucing. Madame alexander doll's manufacturing is outsourced to China for cheaper labor, but its design studio is still in Harlem, New York.

China became Japan's first trading partner

After reading the article about China and Japan's trading has triumped over the past 4 year, I have some thoughts here to share.
China and Japan, these two nations have very deep rooted anger stemed from World War Two time. Japan has mercilessly killed innocent civilians in the famous NaJin rape. People were buried alive without exception for children and women. Many Chinese nationalists reject Japan-made goods in the effort to make Japan government official to acknowledge the truth, which is Japan invaded China. In recent years, China is growing at a fast rate in its economy and overall national power. And I believe as China becomes more powerful, and Japan will become more reliant on China to be its trading partner in order to get out of its decade long stagnation. If this trend of economic mutual-beneficial collaboration continues, the day which Japan will officially apologize for its war crime committed in China and compensate in monetary terms to people who lost their loved ones in that horrible war time is in the near future.

Outsourcing

Last week, I received a credit card offer from a bank. So, I decided to call the bank to apply for it over the phone. As soon as the call went through, I heard a man's voice greeting on the other side of the phone. His voice has a heavy indian accent which is not unusual. But later when I talked to him about the details of the offer, and I provided my information over the phone, I noticed there is an obvious delay on the other recieving end. And I cannot help asking him where his physical location is. And the answer from him is just what I expected. He told me he is in New Delhi, India. He works for an Indian company which has contract agreements with the U.S bank that offered me the credit card. And it made me think how many jobs are disappearing in the U.S. and the future of job market by the time I graduate would be very competive and demands skills that are specific and unique which means it cannot be easily attained from oversea workers with lower pay rate but can offer the same quality services. I guess outsourcing is necessary for business to compete in today's globalized market; on the other hand, it also puts lots of pressure on domestic labor markets. Jobs that are existed before is now permanently relocated in another country. People in the U.S. have to be aware of this trend, and be prepared for an ever competitive job market ahead.

Fast Food Industry and American Culture

Fast Food Industry is a billion dollar industry in American society. I can say it for sure that everyone in America has tasted fast food at one point in their lives. Fast food culture is so deeply rooted in American society that fast food restaurants are visible in every public facilities such as schools, airports, shopping malls, theme parks and museums. Americans love fast food because it is convenient, tasty and cheap. From the economic perspective, fast food is a very profitable economic avenue. On the other hand, from the social wellfare perspective, fast food is known to cause obesity in children and adults. Fast food contains high percentage of unsaturated fat which will clog arteries and thicken the blood in your body. And ultimately, you will suffer from sudden heartattack, diabetes and high blood pressure. So, for fast food industry, profit making is crucial for the survival of the industry; however, social responsibility is also essential factor to be considered in order to have a prosperousity and longevity for the fast food industry. History tells us that if a business is to be prospered, it has to take social responsibility into considerations. It is possible to make healthy fast food by selecting healthier ingredients and by improving the cooking method. Of course, these changes will increase the cost for the fast food industry, but in the long run, these cost will be recovered by increased sales volumes. And you will be smiling at the end. In fact, everyone will be smiling at the end. It is a win win situation for both consumers and businesses.

consumerism in college students

Consumerism has instilled into every aspect of college student's life. Students are crazy about those expensive brand name purses and clothing. The names often came up from students' mouth are LV handbags and fashion clothes, Chanel glasses and coach purses as well. Especially shocking to me is that a friend of mine, she would spend 5 weeks of her wage in order to get a LV handbag so that she won't look outdated among her friends. I mean peer pressure is a huge driving force for consumerism. And the real important thing for college student is to study and learn the necessary skills that would prepare them for the workforce in the future. So, it is kind of sad to see so many young student fell victoms to the influence of pop culture endorsed by these big businesses and lost sight of their true purpose in school.

Graduation

I am so excited about my graduation in May from Business Finance major. I am excited about what my future holds in store for me after graduation and in the meantime I am a little bit stressed out too. I want to become a financial advisor after graduation. And I know it is a very demanding job, and you have to beat many other competitors in order to get it. Well, I am currently working in a bank which is related to my field of study. And hopefully, this working experience will help me in getting a financial consultant position. Besides all the excitements and stress I feel lately, I am so glad that I have made it this far toward earning a college degree. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment I feel proud of. A milestone in life is reached finally, and I am ready to run toward the next milestone in life---getting a career in Financial Consulting.