Facts, Geography About the West African Nation of Ghana

Facts, Geography About the West African Nation of Ghana Ghana is a country located in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. The country is known for being the second largest producer of cocoa in the world as well as its incredible ethnic diversity. Ghana currently has more than 100 different ethnic groups in its population of just over 24 million. History of Ghana Ghanas history prior to the 15th century is concentrated primarily on oral traditions. However, it is believed that people may have inhabited what is present-day Ghana from about 1500 BCE. European contact with Ghana began in 1470. In 1482, the Portuguese built a trading settlement there. Shortly thereafter for three centuries, the Portuguese, English, Dutch, Danes, and Germans all controlled different parts of the coast. In 1821, the British took control of all of the trading posts located on the Gold Coast. From 1826 to 1900, the British then fought battles against the native Ashanti and in 1902, the British defeated them and claimed the northern part of todays Ghana. In 1957, after a plebiscite in 1956, the United Nations determined that the territory of Ghana would become independent and combined with another British territory, British Togoland, when the entire Gold Coast became independent. On March 6, 1957, Ghana became independent after the British gave up control of the Gold Coast and the Ashanti, the Northern Territories Protectorate and British Togoland. Ghana was then taken as the legal name for the Gold Coast after it was combined with British Togoland in that year. Following its independence, Ghana underwent several reorganizations that caused the country to be divided into 10 different regions. Kwame Nkrumah was the first prime minister and president of modern Ghana and he had goals of unifying Africa as well as freedom and justice and equality in education for all. His government, however, was overthrown in 1966. Instability was then a major part of Ghanas government from 1966 to 1981, as several government overthrows occurred. In 1981, Ghanas constitution was suspended and political parties were banned. This later caused the countrys economy to decline and many people from Ghana migrated to other countries.By 1992, a new constitution was adopted, the government began to regain stability, and the economy started to improve. Today, Ghanas government is relatively stable and its economy is growing. Government of Ghana Ghanas government today is considered a constitutional democracy with an executive branch made up of a chief of state and a head of government filled by the same person. The legislative branch is a unicameral Parliament while its judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court. Ghana is also still divided into 10 regions for local administration: Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, and Western. Economics and Land Use in Ghana Ghana currently has one of the strongest economies of West Africas countries due to its richness of natural resources. These include gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, and limestone. However, Ghana remains dependent on international and technical assistance for its continued growth. The country also has an agriculture market that produces things like cocoa, rice, and peanuts, while its industries are focused on mining, lumber, food processing, and light manufacturing. Geography and Climate of Ghana Ghanas topography consists mainly of low plains but its south-central area does have a small plateau. Ghana is also home to Lake Volta, the worlds largest artificial lake. Because Ghana is only a few degrees north of the Equator, its climate is considered tropical. It has a wet and dry season but it is mainly warm and dry in the southeast, hot and humid in the southwest and hot and dry in the north. More Facts About Ghana Capital: AccraBordering Countries: Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, TogoLand Area: 92,098 square miles (238,533 sq km)Coastline: 335 miles (539 km)Highest Point: Mount Afadjato at 2,887 feet (880 m)Ghana has 47 local languages but English is its official language.Association football or soccer is the most popular sport in Ghana and the country regularly participates in the World Cup.Ghanas life expectancy is 59 years for males and 60 years for females. References CIA - The World Factbook - Ghana. Central Intelligence Agency, May 2010.ï » ¿Ghana. United States Department of State, March 2010.Ghana: History, Geography, Government, and Culture. Infoplease.

COMMERCIAL LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

COMMERCIAL LAW - Essay Example The ways that are used to launder money include using the financial systems or services that cover up the tracks or sources from where the money is being transferred. Whereas, some countries may only consider money laundering when being used in a crime in that administration is being cheated on. The amount of money laundered every year is in billions, posing a policy threat and concerns for the governments. Many governments release the amount of money laundered each year either all around the world or only within their economy. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) in 1996 stated that about 2.3 percent of the global economy consisted laundered money. Therefore, FATF (Financial Action Task Force) is an organization set up to fight money laundering. FATF does not publish the exact figures of money laundered each year because it is impossible to estimate the right amount. Governments and other International bodies have made measurements in order to prevent and combat money laundering2. Financial institutions like IMF and FATF have made efforts to detect these sources and the transactions involving laundered money. International large scale criminal organizations and activities such as drug wars are the main benefactors of money laundering. Issues related to money laundering have existed as long as these international criminal organizations and activities have existed. It has been understood recently that anti-money laundering legislations have been the reason for the drop in both these acts of crime because these acts usually require transmission of funds that have untraceable sources. METHODS The process of money laundering consists of basic three steps are3: 1. Placement 2. Layering 3. Integration PLACEMENT: This is the process of introducing the cash within the financial system through some illicit means. LAYERING: This step consists of covering the tracks or camouflaging the illegal source. INTEGRATION: It is the acquiring the money generated from illegal sour ces from the transactions carried out by illegal funds. To chase away any kind of further suspicions, money launderers convert form of their dirty money into various types such as: 1. Smurfing is a method of breaking the money into smaller deposits of money or purchasing bearer instruments such as money orders and the depositing them into further smaller amounts. 2. Cash smuggling in bulk and then depositing it into offshore banks with greater chances of hiding money. 3. Depositing cash into the accounts of business that involves greater amounts of cash such as strip clubs, casinos, tanning spas etc. 4. Trading money by using over-value invoices to cover the movement of money. 5. Buying controlling interest in a bank that has less rigorous money- laundering legislations and then moving the money without having the bank scrutinize it. 6. Buying gambling chips from the casinos then cashing it after playing for a while in the form of a check or get a receipt proving it as a gambling wi n or spending the money in gambling with the higher odds then showing the wins while hiding the losses. 7. Through paying black salaries to the unregistered employees of a company and black cash is used to pay them. 8. Fictional loans 9. Hiding the money at home or other places 10. Tax evasion and also that legalize unreported assets in tax havens. ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING IN UK Anti-money launderi

'Going global, acting local - communicating global brands to global Assignment

'Going global, acting local - communicating global brands to global markets' - Assignment Example For instance the issues related to the differences in the cultural, political, social and economical factors. This report highlights on the Global, Local and Glocal Strategies followed by various brands. Global, Local and Glocal Strategies The theory of standardization for the marketing activities works on a marketing level but is often seen to lack richness of details that is needed to act at a tactical and operative level. Marketers of multinational organizations are facing difficulties in creating products and advertising programs that can communicate effectively with the diversified target markets. To provide a solution to this problem and assist in this task various frameworks have been developed that would determine the degree of effort required and which effort to follow global, local or mixed. Globalization Robertson (1992, cited by Waters, 2002) stated that globalization can be defined as a concept that leads to compression of the world and at the same time intensifies consc iousness. Speaking broadly two complementary disciplines namely sociology and political economy are seen to make significant contribution to the study of globalization (Coca-Stefaniak & Parker, 2010). From the political economic point of view globalization is defined as an integration of nation economies with the global economies through investment and trade further advanced by technology, â€Å"the process is driven by the theory of comparative advantage, the goal of international competitiveness and the growth model† (Hines, 2000, p. 4). A more diverse viewpoint has been presented from the sociology view point. Ritzer (2004) and Giddens (1991) has seen globalization as standardised and homogenised phenomenon and finally construed by Albrow (1992, p. 248) as â€Å"the process whereby the population of the world is increasingly bonded into a single society†. Hence globalization addresses the business issue by taking a product to the global market (Pym, 2009). While des igning marketing strategy the whole world is viewed as a single entity and standardised products are developed and marketed in the same way everywhere (Vignali, 2001). Zara is a leading international fashion clothing retailer and one of the successful and fastest growing companies in Spain (Hill & Jones, 2009). The designers at Zara create approximately 40,000 new designs every year from which only 10,000 are selected. Zara offers clothing for men (about 22% of sales), women (about 58%) and children (about 20%) (Torun, 2007). It is well known for its fashion sensitive product being manufactured internally. The products offered by Zara are designed as such that it matches with the climatic, cultural and physical differences of the country like small size cloths for people of Japan, cloths matching to the different seasons of South America and special cloths for women in the Arab countries. However 85% to 90% of the basic designs available at Zara are common for all the countries in w hich it serves (Ghemawat And Nueno, 2006). This commonality is due to the regular interaction between La Coruna, the creative team and the local store managers. About 10%-15% of the product offered by Zara does not differ from country to country; they are retrieved from the same menu of products. The products

Management Service Quality and SERVQUAL Research Paper

Management Service Quality and SERVQUAL - Research Paper Example SERVQUAL as a quality analysis tool takes various facets of customer expectation into consideration and matches them with the real experience (Kettinger, and Lee, 2010). This can be used as a measure by managers of medical insurance companies to establish the true nature of their customer’s feelings. There has been almost a 60% growth of medical insurers in the Middle East, especially in the Arab Emirates. The competition for this limited market has inevitably been high over the last decade. Therefore, many firms have adopted professional marketers to handle the selling of their products (Burns, 2012). However, the packaging of these policies may not be as realistic as they ought to be because sales agents aim for commission and may add untrue facts so that they excite the customers.The health sector in the UAE has grown over the past decade because of the massive investment, both in the country and private players in general. Both local and international companies have set ba se in the country because of its reputation of being economically stable. There are various factors attributing to the exponential growth of the general insurance in the country. These include the fact that the health sector no longer operates in the conventional aspect where the government had the highest stake. In this day and age, there many countries have adopted the competitive free market. Secondly, the use of marketing tools that the corporate world was previously using in this industry.

Should Animal Experimentation Be Permitted Essay

Should Animal Experimentation Be Permitted - Essay Example Experiments on the regeneration of spinal nerve endings were conducted at the University of Zurich. In test-tube testing, nerves dismembered from rats were left open to immunoglobulin that blocked regeneration. The nerves regenerated successfully though not fully. The rats were the animals of choice because there was no other suitable replacement. The use of animals in these studies is important as those involved cannot present a raw form of treatment directly to humans. Opposition of experiments conducted on animals is a threat to medical advances and the furtherance of human knowledge. In relation to medical research, since there are no suitable replacements for animals, animal experimentation should be allowed. On the hand, due to the emotions attached individuals to animals, activists call for a ban as this is a selfish act for humans. The claim also is that, â€Å"will humans keep experimenting and murdering animals for these selfish gains till they are endangered?† Moreo ver, still on medical advances, animal testing should not be permitted as the same animals do not have the complexity of the human body (Murnaghan, par 3). Thus, should the products tested on animals fail on humans; it will be a waste of animals such as rats and mice. As a replacement for animals, computer models and simulations can be used to predict the likely reactions from an experiment (Murnaghan, par 3). Animal experiments should not be permitted if at all they are carried out unnecessarily (Environment commission, p.1). This is, in cases, such as those carried out for aesthetic value where animals should not be allowed for use. Instead, they should test their products by looking for volunteers, as it is the humans to use the products. At the same time, it tests on animals should be allowed as the animals conditions are put into considerations during the tests. In this case, they are not to suffer according to the law. This is such that, when the animals acquire adverse condit ions and complications from the experiments or reach the â€Å"human endpoint† (serious respiratory problems, loss of weight and extreme tumor growth), the animal is euthanized if the case is severe (Vos, p. 1). This is to mean that as long the animals welfare is taken into account, testing should be allowed. In drug experiment, animal testing assists in ensuring the wellbeing of medication taken by human beings or stuffs that human being are uncovered to frequently. Animals are used to test the dangers of these substances on humans thus lowering the potential harm and saving lives. Animal experiments should not be allowed as there are alternatives. Despite not being the best alternatives to animals, they can be used to reduce the numbers of animals used as well as the level of their suffering during experimentation. Replacements could be; cell cultures, which reduce the, number of animals used, use of statistics, which uses comprehensive data to gauge the spread of disease, and finally the use of advanced scanning technology that allows for investigation of disease through human scans rather than performing animal testing(Paul, 7). The use of animals for experimenting increases the knowledge and understanding of the animal being used for the experiment. This means that the animal species being used is a beneficiary of the experiment in that researchers may come up with ways to help the animals survive. This is as in cases where

Satellite Centers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Satellite Centers - Essay Example The initial paragraph of the agreement states, â€Å"This Satellite Center will be responsible for establishing a knowledge of and capacity for initiating and supporting accelerated schools for at-risk students in its local school district and to spread this capacity to schools in districts in surrounding areas. The Stanford staff will work with the Satellite Centers to build this capacity and all activities will be geared to that end† (Satellite Center Agreement, 1990). The Satellite Center approaches to Accelerated Schools for a number of reasons. Prominent among these was the desire to get leverage by establishing local capacity and advocacy that would be far more effective with school systems in a specific locality than would be a program operating out of a single national site, We also wanted to try to provide the conditions and incentives for teacher and administrator training programs to transform their activities in conjunction with the hands-on transformation of the schools they would be working with. The Satellite Center Project has a number of objectives (Satellite Center Agreement, 1990) which may be grouped together into three major goals. The first goal of the project is for the Satellite Centers to become the focus for Accelerated Schools training, evaluation and facilitation in their geographic area. They win serve as a vehicle for implementation for many different educational entities desiring to participate in the Accelerated Schools Project. They are expected to provide a forum for the promotion and understanding of accelerated schools through the sponsorship of and participation in conferences and the production of and contribution to publications. Accordingly, Satellite Centers are also expected to revise their teacher education programs to include the Accelerated Schools principles and processes in the curriculum in meaningful ways and to place student observers,

Should Animal Experimentation Be Permitted Essay

Should Animal Experimentation Be Permitted - Essay Example Experiments on the regeneration of spinal nerve endings were conducted at the University of Zurich. In test-tube testing, nerves dismembered from rats were left open to immunoglobulin that blocked regeneration. The nerves regenerated successfully though not fully. The rats were the animals of choice because there was no other suitable replacement. The use of animals in these studies is important as those involved cannot present a raw form of treatment directly to humans. Opposition of experiments conducted on animals is a threat to medical advances and the furtherance of human knowledge. In relation to medical research, since there are no suitable replacements for animals, animal experimentation should be allowed. On the hand, due to the emotions attached individuals to animals, activists call for a ban as this is a selfish act for humans. The claim also is that, â€Å"will humans keep experimenting and murdering animals for these selfish gains till they are endangered?† Moreo ver, still on medical advances, animal testing should not be permitted as the same animals do not have the complexity of the human body (Murnaghan, par 3). Thus, should the products tested on animals fail on humans; it will be a waste of animals such as rats and mice. As a replacement for animals, computer models and simulations can be used to predict the likely reactions from an experiment (Murnaghan, par 3). Animal experiments should not be permitted if at all they are carried out unnecessarily (Environment commission, p.1). This is, in cases, such as those carried out for aesthetic value where animals should not be allowed for use. Instead, they should test their products by looking for volunteers, as it is the humans to use the products. At the same time, it tests on animals should be allowed as the animals conditions are put into considerations during the tests. In this case, they are not to suffer according to the law. This is such that, when the animals acquire adverse condit ions and complications from the experiments or reach the â€Å"human endpoint† (serious respiratory problems, loss of weight and extreme tumor growth), the animal is euthanized if the case is severe (Vos, p. 1). This is to mean that as long the animals welfare is taken into account, testing should be allowed. In drug experiment, animal testing assists in ensuring the wellbeing of medication taken by human beings or stuffs that human being are uncovered to frequently. Animals are used to test the dangers of these substances on humans thus lowering the potential harm and saving lives. Animal experiments should not be allowed as there are alternatives. Despite not being the best alternatives to animals, they can be used to reduce the numbers of animals used as well as the level of their suffering during experimentation. Replacements could be; cell cultures, which reduce the, number of animals used, use of statistics, which uses comprehensive data to gauge the spread of disease, and finally the use of advanced scanning technology that allows for investigation of disease through human scans rather than performing animal testing(Paul, 7). The use of animals for experimenting increases the knowledge and understanding of the animal being used for the experiment. This means that the animal species being used is a beneficiary of the experiment in that researchers may come up with ways to help the animals survive. This is as in cases where