Sapakin Kita Diyan

Table of Contents Title Pagei Table of Contentsii Brief History/Background of the Company/Company Profile1 Summary of the OJT Experience5 Assessment of the OJT/Practicum Program9 New knowledge, attitudes, and skills acquired12 Theories actually seen in practice17 Feedback that can be given to the company/hotel/restaurant20 Benefits gained Problems encountered23 Appendices A. Company brochure and/or pamphlet25 B. Copy of the Endorsement Letter26 C. Copy of the Training Plan27 D. Copy of the signed Waiver Form28 E. Daily Time Record29 F.Quarterly Performance Appraisal Forms30 G. Certificate of Completion31 Brief History/Background of the Company/Company Profile Link Network Solutions Inc. is a formed corporation engage in all computer related consumables and parts. We aspire to give exceptional service by providing your needs in Printer Consumables; Toner, Ink Cartridges, Ribbons of all brands OKI, HP, CANON, SAMSUNG, EPSON, BROTHER, LEXMARK, FUJI XERORX. We also offer Office Equipment ’s: Printer, laminator, shredder, Fax machine, Copier, Computer and accessories among office and computer supplies.We guaranty that we can give you fulfilling commitment in our business with you, improve business practices, and ensure, reliable, secure our product to be delivered just on time. Above all, we value our client’s partnerships by guaranteeing complete customer satisfaction, and we will always provide our partners with the highest level of service and professionalism Summary of the OJT/Experience Assessment of the OJT/Practicum Program New knowledge, attitudes and skills acquired There are many knowledge, attitudes and skills acquired being an on the job training in Link Network Solutions Inc.I know how to setup and install high end printers. I know how to troubleshoot a printer. On attitude I must go to office early don’t be late. If you want to be absent tell the manager or any high staff so they know it early. Be honest and trustworthy. Being a tra inee is not only a subject to be passed or a requirement to be complete but on the job training is an opportunity to show what skills, talents and techniques that the student learned from the school and also opportunity to experience life outside the campus; serving companies like a professional on the field of students specialization. Theories actually seen in practiceFeedback that can be given to the company/hotel/restaurant I. Introduction I decided to have my on the job training at Link Network Solution Inc. at 5700 Pagulayan St. Poblacion, Makati City. It’s a little bit far from Cubao but I have no choice because I really have a hard time searching for a company where I can have my on the job training with. Good thing my classmate has a connections on one of the head of that company and luckily, me together with my two other classmate happened to start out our on the job training there. The Link Network Solution Inc. is the fourth company that we had applied.We first sub mitted our resume to POEA, SSS East Ave and PLDT Mandaluyong, but none of those companies had entertained our application maybe because they already have their chosen applicant or it may either be because we applied late. I started my on the job training on Jan 2013. It is from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday. II. PERSONAL ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING FROM THE COMPANY A. Cognitive or Intellectual Learning  I’ve learned a lot from the job given to me. I know how to setup a printer, troubleshoot, and deliver an item to a customer. I learned the daily routine inside the office. I also earned how to make a receipt when we deliver some items for our customer. Sometimes I voluntarily deliver when no one is available to do it. I learned every supply or item that we delivered it always have a receipt. I know how to go in different places riding jeeps and other transportation. B. Affective or Emotional Learning  I  learned how to love my job and all the staffs. I learned to a ppreciate the work given to me. I was so dedicated that I do all my best to give correct service but sometimes there were errors. I also experience that the manager get a little bit mad at us when we are absent.For the staffs, they were so kind and friendly and I never experience â€Å"out-of-place† there. They treated us like a family. I remembered what the manager said to us, â€Å"If we are in work, we work. If we are on outside, we’re friends. †Ã‚  Ã‚  I always put that in mind and  I became closer to my manager, supervisors and staffs. C. Psychomotor or Physical Learning  I noticed a lot of improvement on me. I became flexible. I also noticed that I became faster in moving. III. RECOMMENDATIONS a. For myself – I must recommend to me that I must omit my tardiness because coming early is really important in the job.I must be ready for all the work that they will give to me because I accept being an on the job applicant from their company. b. For OJ T Company  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ I recommend that they place OJT students nearer on the branch where they live, in order to avoid hassle in travelling. Also in scheduling of time. They must give students earlier schedules in order to go home early especially for those who travel from far places. c. For OJT Program  I recommend that they must put OJT programs at the earlier years in order to expose students at an early time and to learn the concepts and hands-on training in our industry.They should treat each on the job applicant equally. IV. AREAS TO IMPROVE A. About Self  I think I must improve my time management. Sometimes I came late especially on Friday because I must report in school B. For the OJT Company  I think they must improve the scheduling of time of their OJT students in order to go home early especially for those who travel from far places. C. For the OJT Program  I think they must improve the OJT program because I felt that we were late on having OJT. We have co-OJT stu dents in other schools and they were only 2nd  year and yet they were having an OJT.Benefits gained Problems encountered We are an On the Job Training in a company that focuses on printers so these are the problems that I encountered during our time there. A. Paper Jam If a Kyocera printer has been properly maintained, most paper jam problems are directly related to the paper that is being used. Although this is never the answer anyone wants to hear, it is the most overlooked component and the simplest to remedy. If persistent jamming is the problem, the first test would be to remove all of the paper in the printer and replace it with paper from a new ream, or of a different manufacturer.Check the label on the new package of paper to verify the paper meets Kyocera's specifications. Grain structure is very important. Short grain paper will cause frequent jams. Always use long grain paper. Most paper is manufactured to have a top side and a bottom side. This has something to do with grain structure and the natural curl of paper. Try flipping the supply of paper over. This will test the â€Å"curl† in case the paper was put into the printer upside-down. If all of these methods do not alleviate the problem, the problem is probably mechanical.Refer to the remaining questions on paper jamming. First check the paper and shuffle it properly. Second if the paper is stock inside the printer. Easily open the printer tray and remove the specific paper that is jammed. B. Blurred Letters Check if there still a toner, remove the drum and shake it and you will know if it’s empty or not. Check also at the report from the printer and print the status page. C. Poor print quality Check the drum if it’s dirty or there’s something in there. If the drum is dirty clean it. Check also the printers’ charger; if it’s dirty clean it. D.There’s a line on the text Check first the drum of the printer; it its dirty clean it. Check the Fuser Kit if it does have a scratch or have a defect you must change it. E. Empty Toner The toner is empty. The toner needs to be change. F. Invalid Cartridge The programmed chipset is done. G. Routine Maintenance The Charger in the printer needs to be change. The benefits that I gained from our company. We gained so many benefits as an on the job training in Link Network Solutions Inc. We know how to setup and troubleshoot a high-end printer. A. Company brochure and/or pamphlet

Argument of Love Essay

Precious Howard-Torregano September 20, 2010 English 112 â€Å"Young Love Becomes True Love† Have you heard the term ‘’high school sweethearts? ’’ Well, just in case you have not, it is the significant other that you spent most of your high school career with. By staying with this person through good and bad times, and inspiring them to do better you are guaranteed the relationship will remain strong. On the other hand, people feel you should grow and experience the world in order to learn and understand the complexity of love. But how can we learn about something or someone without any experience?It takes being around someone on a regular basis to know and see how he/she handles different situations. This helps you know if this is someone who compliments you. So, why not give yourself time to experience the questions and answers you would ask if you would have met later in life. When people meet at an older age, they do not know anything about their partner’s character. Both people in the relationship are experienced and ready to settle down, usually before having time to figure out each other. On the other hand, when a couple starts out young you can catch the flaws as they grow.You can get used to the changes, leave them, or work it out. You are able to be together and become friends before lovers. You will know where the person came from, where they seem to be going, and what has already been accomplished. This is better than meeting a random person and trying to learn them quickly, â€Å"because life is too short. † Our parents are often loving, however, they have the meanest way of expressing it. They seem to always try to save you from the heartache and trouble they know you will encounter because â€Å"they have been there done that. They have lived and experienced life so they know more than we could imagine. This only made them stronger because â€Å"you learn from your mistakes right? † So why i s it so bad for us to experience and learn from our own mistakes? They expect us teenagers to watch how their relationships went, and do what they did or the opposite. They would even tell you to look at your friend and how she/he started young and has a child. But everyone does not end up with the same outcome. I am not saying the first person you find at sixteen will be your lifetime partner.However, just because you are in love at sixteen does not mean the relationship will not last or the love is not true. Let us say you meet a person in the eighth grade and you have a crush on that person from the start. Whether it is their style, charm, or the fact he/she can answer many questions the teacher asks that attracted you to this person, you may also notice their flaws or disagree with them on many occasions. By being around your crush day by day, some days you may like them a lot, and some days you will not care for him/her at all.This is the beginning of what I feel is true love. When you see a person’s true character but still look past their imperfections just to be with them shows how much you care for that person. The older generation may call this naive or say we do not know any better. Now you are in high school and in a relationship with your crush. You begin to go on dates to the movies, skating, or just sitting on your sofa at home, it is not anything major but it is still spending time. When things start going great, one or maybe both of you start cheating. This is when your feelings are put to the test.You may break up, make up, and/or do it all over again. This process is the beginning to the perfect ending. Adults may call us teenagers stupid, but what we call cheating is talking on the phone, texting, or smiling at the opposite sex. Adults tend to think that sexual encounters with other people are the only type of cheating. When we find ways to work out our insecurities with our partner shows the dedication and potential our relationship has. No matter how people look at other people relationship problems we will all have to deal with the same things.Whether it is learning how to cope with a flirt in high school or trying to save a marriage with a cheater later on in life. Starting off young give you more time to figure your problems out so when it is time to get married you have truly been through it all with your lifetime partner. Once people reach about thirty-five they have had a few relationships that ended up bad, so they become close minded to people’s personalities. However, they still feel the need to settle down. They expect someone to be a certain way and if they are not what they think they should be then etting to know that person is over. Now a year has passed, they have met someone, dated, had sex, and met each other’s family. While overlooking the city sipping wine and smoking cigarettes, you have finally talked about the past, present, and future. â€Å"Oh NOW you are in love? † You were fed dreams in the sunset while washing it down with Alize so it just has to be true. Six years after being married, you are divorced with a five year old and high blood pressure. Your done with men/women but you still want love deep down inside.The one you fell in love with that night as the sun went down turned out to get overly angry when he would mix his Alize with Patron behind your back. Or it could be the other way around; she was a freak in the bed but also with Ned, Fred, and your best friend Simon. In reality, it is better to try and find your true love while you are still young. The first person that breaks your heart may or may not be the person you should spend the rest of your life with. But when you are young it is much easier to start all over again rather than waiting until â€Å"the time is right. Maybe that time would be twenty or thirty years from your first heartbreak. Then it will be like you are forced to settle for the first person that comes back into your life. On top of meeting someone new during middle age, you would have to catch up and learn more and more about a person which you should have experienced together. When you grow with a person you are able to see the whole process. You are there to encourage him/her to do right. You can help the person grow while they are doing the same for you. If you both stick around through the toughest times then that is real love.If you leave and they do the most to get you back it is love. Being shown that they will not let you go no matter what should be enough to show you how genuine ones love is for you. You do not have the time to experience and find these things out when you are thirty-five because the time is limited. If you are able to figure those things out as an adult then you are truly blessed. Parents should be more open minded towards their children teenage love because one day they could be introducing him/her as their son-in-law or daughter-in-law.

Leading the Catholic School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Leading the Catholic School - Essay Example This paper declares that culture is a complex concept that admits of several definitions, but the most comprehensive is the synthesis proposed by Gallagher of â€Å"culture† as a notion that contains the following characteristics: human, traditional and dynamic, evolving and religious, shared by and with others, involves complex visible factors, an expression of a vision, contains behavioural norms and response patterns, institutional or symbolic, adds meaning to what is ordinary, spiritual and religious, self-communicating, fallible and renewable, and rooted in religious consciousness. This discussion explores that culture changes or evolves over time, defined and altered by interactions amongst the individuals who make up human society Culture is not monolithic because the human agents or actors who are imbued with intelligence and free will give culture its dynamism through interaction and co-operation, giving rise to sub-cultures that add to societal diversity. Culture is a feature of any human society and is shaped by the behaviour of everyone in that society who learns and shares that culture with future generations. Culture also shapes their behaviour and outlook on life, and determines how they think, feel, and act. Culture can be analysed using several perspectives and frameworks since it is visible to observers. These manifestations range from the very tangible and overt that one can see and feel to the deeply embedded, unconscious, basic assumptions that form its essence.

Information Systems and Technologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Information Systems and Technologies - Essay Example Information systems are usually confused by management information systems. However, MIS strictly refers to the management of information systems whereas information systems include systems that include decision making as well. In today's every growing fast paced world, information is termed valuable more then any other tangible asset. The reason is that information systems have slowly and gradually taken over the decision making responsibilities from human beings. In this 'Information Age', these systems have become the basis of conducting efficient business. In today's world, the environment changes every other day. With the changes taking place everyday, it is a requirement for the companies to continuously collect and manage information so that they may be better informed then their competitors. This will lead to the development of a viable advantage that will help organizations in better decision making. Gaining competitive advantage over competitors and rival companies is one of the major strategies that can help companies excel in the long run. The question arises that if the application of IT really provides a competitive edge to organizations. Answers to this question have been discussed and explored over many decades and it will be explored for the many years to come due to the ever-changing and evolving economic conditions of the world and transformation of industries. Due to these explorations, we have found out that usage of information technology effectively in organizations can create legendary results. Examples include the American Airlines Sabre System for traveling reservations, the FedEx's suite of tracking shipments and packages and Amazon.com's approach to internet based retailing. All the above mentioned examples have put forward the idea that information technology can help serve as a competitive advantage if it is used to leverage operational and organizational activities and support the collection of critical data at the right time. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS Information Technology soft wares and systems are tremendously used in today's health care organizations to manage the extensive amount of data and analyzing it critically to help benefit the patients, staff, doctors and the overall organization. The basic idea is not applying the system; however, competitive advantage is gained depending on three factors. These factors are how the system is implemented, whether the implementation done was cheaper or not then the competitors and the strengths of the organization's technical and IT staff. Effective implementation of IT in an organization can make the programs used in the organization faster, less prone to error and convenient. For example, accounts receivable applications have made the collection A/R processes faster, economical and less expensive. To improve organizational performance the right kind of information system must be implemented. The leverage of the processes is the most effective when the process on which the technology is applied are core processes that customers usually use to gauge the performance of an organization. For

Discuss the actual and potential implications of Osman for the law of Essay - 1

Discuss the actual and potential implications of Osman for the law of tort - Essay Example In accordance with the decision of the new President of the Chamber, Mr. Bernhardt, the hearing took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 22  June 1998. The Court had held a preparatory meeting beforehand. The applicants were citizens of London, Mrs. Mulkiye Osman, who was widowed by Mr. Paul Page-Leiws on March 7 1988 when he shot and killed her husband Ali Osman, as well as Ahmet Osman, her son who studied under Paget-Lewis at Homerton House School. The Osman’s press charges against UK authorities for failing to act on threats Paget-Lewis was making against their family. The family argued that authorities were given ample enough warning to act and prevent the murder and assault that occurred on their family. The application of the exclusionary rule formulated by the House of Lords in Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police ([1989] AC 53) as a defense against actions brought against the police, constituted a disproportionate restriction on their right of access to a court which proved to be in breach of article 6.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Likewise, in the specific case of Osman v U.K, it was the Osmans’ position that law authorities had neglected the rights provided them in act 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights 1 Under Article 2, it was ruled by The Court that the states had three main duties, a duty to refrain from unlawful killing, a duty to investigate suspicious deaths and, in certain circumstances, a positive duty to prevent foreseeable loss of life. In the case Osman v UK [1998] it was summarized that â€Å"United Kingdom – alleged failure of authorities to protect right to life of first applicant’s husband and of second applicant from threat posed by individual and lawfulness of restrictions on applicants’ right of access to a court to sue authorities for damage caused by said failure 2† Criminal Procedure Code was established in 1952 and made

Business Structure Advice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Structure Advice - Essay Example Companies are large corporations with a huge composition of members and partners. They have complex legal requirements and not suitable first time ventures. In addition, their creation requires large financial resources and is exposed to numerous business risks (Besley & Brigham, 2008). This makes it a bad business venture for an amateur business creation. Sole proprietorships are less complex corporations. Their formation requires only the existence of the owner. In this form of business, the owner may receive aid from family members. This form of business is preferred for a first venture if the owner has enough resources or can receive financial aid enough to create a business venture (Besley & Brigham, 2008). In regards to taxation, a sole proprietorship is only taxed on the business venture. A person’s personal properties are not liable for taxation. However, the business venture is mandated to pay an annual tax for its operations (Besley & Brigham, 2008). Partnerships, on the other hand, are business ventures created with the collaboration of two or more persons. They are referred to as partners. They are easy to create as a person may seek a partnership from a person or persons who share similar business incentives (Besley & Brigham, 2008). The main advantage of this business form is that the capital contribution is shared among partners. In addition, operations are divided among the partners. This makes it easy to operate. In a situation where a person lacks enough capital and business knowledge, a partnership is the most appropriate business venture (Besley & Brigham, 2008). Taxation in partnerships is only liable on the business. However, the tax to be paid by the business is shared among the partners. In addition, personal properties are not taxed on the behalf of the business. In regards to capital generation, a business may have numerous options to consider. One possible way of capital

International management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

International management - Essay Example The organizations worldwide face a number of challenges when they decide to go global. This is a common problem that they face since they do not have any prior knowledge or understanding of the new territory that they will do their business from. However, what best they can do is to find out and research the strengths and weaknesses of this area and hence upon getting the much-needed knowledge, base their theories and strategies in a much more effective and efficient manner. This will help one and all to better understand what the new territory, region or country offers the business and the people associated with it. The best thing is that the benefits and disadvantages are determined even before the organization goes the global way and thus it saves itself from embarrassment which it might face without having the proper knowledge and adequate research within it. The ways and means that are usually taken care of whilst managing a business are aplenty and it is only up to the top mana gement within a company that the same can be handled in several different methods. They are the ones to decide as to what is the real manner in which the firm’s operations would be handled as well as who will head the respective departments, lead the business strategic units and act as legal and media representatives of the said business.

'Crime is a Symptom of Wider Malaise' - from the Perspective of Essay

'Crime is a Symptom of Wider Malaise' - from the Perspective of Positivism and the One Other Criminological Theory - Essay Example Crime is described in a sociological aspect, the behavior that infringes criminal law. It can be described in the course of laws, through official police reports of crime, or in the course of victimization surveys of people who are concerned about it, but possibly not involved with the department of police. In addition to this, â€Å"Crime consists of three principle divisions, 1. the sociology of law, which is an attempt to systematically analysis the conditions under which criminal laws develop and also an explanation of variations in the policies and procedures used in the administration of criminal justice. 2. Criminal etiology, which is an attempt at scientific analysis of the causes of crime; and 3. Penology, which is concerned with the control of crime† (Sycamnias n.d., para. 4). In general, crime has many definitions. One definition is crime is that, an act or an occurrence of inattention that is considered harmful to the wellbeing of the community, or to the principle s, or welfare of the circumstances, and is lawfully banned. Criminal activities keep increasing day by day in this world. The reason behind this could be various, but the crimes should be prevented at any cost, for the wellbeing of the mankind. Crimes happen due to certain reasons. ... ‘Crime is a symptom of wider malaise’, I would agree with this statement because malaise is a stage of mental depression, â€Å"a feeling of unease or depression† (Malaise 2012). A state of discomfort or stress leads to criminal activities generally. This could be treated and cured by increasing mental health and through anti crime awareness. If the reasons behind crimes are revealed, then the criminals should get appropriate punishment. Punishments are given to them in accordance to what they have done, and with the aim of preventing them for doing more crimes. But what I feel is, prevention is better than cure. Policies for preventing any forms of crime should be used awareness should be created in the society, so that criminal activities could be minimized. Punishments should be rigorous, so that those who have the tendency to the criminals should rethink. If the laws and punishments are not severe, it would increase the rate of crimes and would produce more cr iminals. Reasons such as family background, poverty, lack of education etc play a major role in creating criminals. In my opinion, criminals are not born; the circumstances create them as such. Circumstances mean family background, lifestyle, poverty, lack of education etc. There are many causes for crimes. Here I include 10 causes of crimes. â€Å"Lack of faith, imbalance, poor judgement, lack of love, poverty, deprived neighbourhoods, being a victim in a chain of events, poor parenting skills, ecological reasons etc† (Top 10 Causes of Crime 2007). The government has the responsibility to prevent crimes and secure the society. So it is the government’s responsibility to prevent crimes by implementing various

Dramatic principle Essay Example for Free

Dramatic principle Essay The Prelude is a long autobiographical poem, described the poets love of nature and his own place in the world order. Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society. The Prelude had a great influence in prose poetry (Nichols 66 as quoted by Moore). Lyrical dialogue can be observed in it which shows that through Prelude, he wanted to move away from the monologic lyric. His breaking out from the monologic lyric has created the prose poem. The significant idea that the form of the poem should reflect the experience is denoted by his short poems (Rehder 179 as quoted by Moore). He desired for irregular forms to experience uniqueness (Rehder 206 as quoted by Moore). The poetic genres free verse and prose poetry are actually developed from that idea of uniqueness. Robert Browning had won himself the reputation of a dramatic poet and was able to produce the dramatic monologues. Though at his time a dramatic monologue was not yet a genre, this is considered now as a poetic genre with intriguing characteristics in a sense that it gripped the minds of the scholars. This genre has a characteristic of modern criticism. However, modern criticism stresses on the dramatic part, the dramatic monologue stresses the lyrical characteristics. His monologues incorporate action and conflict in the drama thus it involves outpouring of emotions. It is clearly evident in his work that it is a mixture of lyrical and dramatic (Abou-Bakr). Browning’s collection the Dramatic Lyrics shows his concept of poetic genre particularly about being lyrical and dramatic. It seems that Browning saw the dramatic principle by employing the creation of fictional characters who will take the role of the speaking voice I his poems. These characters or the so-called personae are the ones giving the lyrical utterances or expressions. To Browning, lyrical and dramatic can be differentiated by its proximity from the poet himself. The Confessional exposes not the sin of the persona however it reveals the sin of the priest. It was actually lightened by the humor incorporated in it. You think Priests just and holy men! Before they put me in this den I was a human creature too, With flesh and blood like one of you, A girl that laughed in beautys pride Like lilies in your world outside. The fathers head was long and white, With love and truth his brow seemed bright; He told me what he would not tell For hope of heaven or fear of hell; And I lay listening in such pride! And, soon as he had left my side, Tripped to the church by morning-light To save his soul in his despite. Wordsworth’s and Browning’s work are similar in some ways but different in most ways. The main difference of their works is the genre itself. Wordsworth is employing lyrical dialogue in his poems in which he can be one of the persons in the dialogue. He is very effective in showing the beauty of what can be seen due to fact that his poetry are all about those he had highest regard and those he got involve with. His works tell truths of what is truly a happening and there is enthusiasm on it. He developed the prose poetry by employing dialogue in his poems. Browning is more focused on describing what is truly felt. His works dwell on emotions felt by a person in a certain situation. He developed the dramatic monologue which becomes the basis for modern criticism. In his works he makes use of personae to represent the person in the poem. These are actually fictional characters which speak for and express the emotion in the poem. He diverged from what is called tradition of poetry and tried to present his poem in a different view. Works Cited Abou-Bakr, Randa. â€Å"2001. American University in Cairo. Accessed February 8, 2008, from http://www. thefreelibrary. com/ Robert+Brownings+%22 Dramatic+Lyrics%22: +Contribution+to+a+Genre-a082322117 Brians, Paul. â€Å"Romanticism. † 1998. Accessed Februry 9, 2008, from http://www. wsu. edu /~brians/ hum_303/romanticism. html Moore, Dena L. â€Å"William Wordsworth’s Contribution to Prose Poetry. 2002. Accessed February 8, 2008, from http://www. authorsden. com/visit/viewarticle. asp? AuthorID=3247id=5659 â€Å"Romantic Movement. † 21st Century Universal Encyclopedia. Eight Edition, 1994. â€Å"Socialist Realism. † 21st Century Universal Encyclopedia. Eight Edition, 1994. â€Å"Social Realism. † Accessed February 9, 2008 from, http://www. freeessays . cc/db/6/ame195. shtml

Bullying and Fun Thing Essay Example for Free

Bullying and Fun Thing Essay Schools from all over the world should really start preventing all this bullying thats going on. I find it bad that everyone makes fun of everyone. Either if it’s cyberbullying or just bullying, it’s a problem for a lot of students. In order to prevent bullying and all of this harassment, there’s so many things that I’d think can solve this problem. One of the first things that i think could be a solution for all of this would be talking to all of their parents, have a meeting about it, because most of their parents are also bullies. For example, that mother in Missouri who was making pretend she was a guy named Josh Evans on myspace and was cyberbullying her daughters friend just because she wanted revenge on that poor little girl and then she committed suicide. This all needs to stop! Parents are supposed to be setting an example for their children but they’re really not doing that correctly. More and more kids are losing their lifes because of this. It really isn’t a fun thing to do, the only thing you’re really doing is hurting and making them feel really bad. Noone would like it if someone else would do it to you. Changing the subject, the community should be more aware of this in my opinion. I feel like they need to step up a whole lot and make them have some changes around. The police should track on the computer everything that happens with everyone now a days, and if there’s any cyberbullying going on then they should just simply arrest them. They should be more stricter about it, not just around the community but also in schools. Sometimes I feel like theyre really not doing anything about bullying. I feel like noone cares at all, especially after what happened with the young adults that commited suicided these past few years.

Child Soldiers Essay

Child Soldiers Essay What is a Child Soldier? Is using Child Soldiers really ok? Some may say that it’s alright to use child soldiers while others are trying to stop some countries in our world from using children as soldiers. Child soldiers are being used in our world today, these children are used to be spies, decoys, cooks, in the front lines of the battles and the girls are many times used as sex slaves. To become a child soldier many times the children are kidnapped from their homes and forced to kill their own family so they won’t have a home to return to. Many people in our world today do not agree with militaries using children to fight battles because it is ruining the lives children and also it is not fair to put a child fighting against a grown man or woman. The United Nations or the UN is trying to put a stop to children being used as soldiers and they have made a goal to have no child soldiers in the world by 2016. Many people believe that using child soldiers is very wrong and messed up, yet some countries use children as soldiers. The number of children being used as soldiers in our world has been growing every year. In our world today the number of child soldiers being used in wars i s close to 250, 000 children. Of all the child soldier in this world about 60% of them are boys and about 40% are girls. Back in the old days when guns were not as popular as they are in today’s world, child soldiers were not as popular. They weren’t as popular because the weapons used during wars were swords or large knifes which were much too heavy for a child to use against an enemy and would not have a chance against an actual adult soldier. Although in our world today the child soldiers are able to use assault rifles that are light enough for a child to handle. The assault rifles that are commonly found being used by the child soldiers are the M16 and the AK47 because these weapons are very light as well as very simple to operate. These weapons are so simple to use that a child soldier at an age of 10 years old can disassemble and reassemble it in a matter of minutes. Groups will use child soldiers during wars because nobody in the world wants to kill a child duri ng a war. The reason children are used as soldiers is because they are very easy to brainwash and manipulate. When an army or group has a child as a soldier they do not need to pay the child as much as they would have to pay adults in the army. Children also have not developed a full sense of danger so the army does not need to worry very much about the children running away from the battle. Since the children do not eat as much as adults the army does not need to spend a lot of money on food. Another reason militaries like to use children as soldiers is because they can be used as spies or even decoys because children can more easily blend into a crowd than an adult spy could because most people look at a child and don’t think they could do any harm to anyone or be an enemy. Children are very vulnerable to recruitment by groups or armies if they are not educated, poor, not with a family, or they live in a war zone. Many children do not volunteer to join these militaries that have child soldiers but instead they have been forcibly recruited by the militaries. Even though many governments have declared that using children as a soldier is illegal, rebel groups and armies still use children as soldiers. Many times in today’s world children are abducted from their homes and these children mainly come out of the country’s poorest villages and cities. A village may be forced to give a required number of their children to the army or group and in return they would be safe from any attacks by that army or group; a tactic that was made popular by the Lord’s Resistance Army which, is a rebel group that originated in Uganda that is known for using children as soldiers. Some children would be forced by their parents to volunteer because the paren ts could afford to pay for the food and shelter of their children, so if the children went into one of these armies then the child would at least be able to have food and water. Sometimes, the group will say that if the child joins the army then the child will be granted protection, food, and even payment but, most of the time the children aren’t given everything they were told they would get. When soldiers are going to go and get new child soldier recruits they many times make the child kill a member of their own family so then they would not be able to back to their family. â€Å"Once recruited, children undergo varying degrees of indoctrination, often verging on the brutal†¦..Some rebel groups in Cambodia and Mozambique turned children into fierce warriors by subjecting them to a brief period of terror and physical abuse—socializing them into violence.† Since many of these children have been outlawed by their village, have been brutal beaten both physically and mentally as well as being drugged multiple times, they are able to go to different villages and do the same thing to other children and recruit them because they have been brainwashed. Girls are used as well but not found as often in the gun fights like the boys. The girls are instead mainly used as cooks and fetching water for the soldiers. Unfortunately the young girls are very vulnerable the re for they are often used for sexual pleasures by the soldiers. (Children as Soldiers.Children as Soldiers. UNICEF, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014). The effects on the children after what they have done and been through will stick with them longer than it took their physical scars to heal and for them to recover from their drug addictions. Many of these children don’t think anything of the violent acts they commit, whether that is beating someone or killing someone they do not see what they are doing is wrong. This can damage the child’s brain for the rest of their life because when they were committing all of the violence, their brain was in its developing stages. Even when the children that were one of the child soldiers have escaped or set free, the children cannot return back to the their villages and families because they have been outlawed by their community. These children have been outlawed from their village because when the children were being recruited for the army they had to kill a family member of theirs in order to join. A good amount of the girls that are child soldiers can’t return to their v illages because while they were a child soldier they became pregnant from one of the soldiers and now have a baby, which their village would not allow inside the village. Almost all of the child soldiers have little or no education since they missed so many years of school in the early years of their life. Since they do not have much of an education they do not have a very promising future ahead of them so they will go back to these groups that originally recruited them so that they will at least be able to have food and water. â€Å"In June 2013 the UN set a goal to have no child soldiers anywhere in the world by 2016.There are eight Government armies listed for the recruitment and use of children and six of them have already committed to making their armies child ­free. In 2012, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed action plans with the United Nations. The previous year, Afghanistan and Chad made similar commitments. Discussions initiated with the Governments of Yemen and Sudan are expected to lead to action plans in the near future.† Even though most of these governments have outlawed the use of children as soldiers, rebel groups within these countries will still continue to use children as soldiers, (Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers. War Child, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014). The Child Soldiers International is a group of people from around the world that are working together to make sure that all children under the age of 18 are allowed to live in peace, have their rights and grow up in an area where they can thrive and reach their full potential. They believe that if this is to happen then children must be protected from being in any form of military and stay out of the wars. Child Soldiers International says that a child is anyone under the age of 18 years old; also these children must be protected because they are in their most important developmental stages of their lives, where they develop what is morally right or wrong and maturity both physically and psychologically. This international group has set an international law stating that a child under the age of 18 cannot be recruited to be in any form of military or armed group. The use of children through both civil wars and country wars has been obvious over the years. Many times the leaders of these groups and armies give the children false hopes and promises, the children are drugged to kill other people and even kill their own family. Even though using children as soldiers is looked down upon people in our world don’t see the harm it does to the children, they just look at how the children will help them. â€Å"Despite this, in the last ten years over two million children have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma.† There are two arguments when it comes down to the topic of whether child soldiers should be held responsible for their violent acts, (Child Soldiers: Invisible Children Child Soldiers- Defining the Topic. Child Soldiers: Invisible Children. Weebly, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014). One side of the argument says that child soldiers should not be help responsible for their actions. They should not be held accountable because many of them did not have a choice of whether or not they wanted to become a child soldier. Also while they were child soldiers they were brainwashed through the use of drugs. The drugs would allow the child soldier to commit violent acts and not think acts were wrong. Some children would join to get food and water but never would have thought that they would have to do any actual fighting. The other side of the argument is that child soldiers should be held responsible for the violent acts they have committed. Some believe that child criminals and child soldiers are the same thing in a way and should be treated the same and be prosecuted. Child soldiers have been accountable for some of the most disturbing, brutal, and violent acts during a time of war, for example raping and killing large amounts of innocent people in villages and cities. Child soldiers are still being put in jail and put on trial, even though International Criminal Court Article 26 states that anyone under the age of 18 may not be prosecuted in a court of law. It would be a lie to say that all child soldiers are forced to fight because some child soldiers join the fight because they want to avenge a family members death. If a child is not forced to become a soldier but joins by free will then that child should be taken into custody because this child understood what they were doing and that it was wr ong. Some believe that it is not right to the victims of the child soldiers if the children are just allowed to walk free. If child soldiers did not have to be prosecuted for their crimes then their leaders would most likely make the children do all the crimes against others since the children will not be charged with anything. In our world today everyone has different opinions about whether or not child soldiers should be held accountable for their violent acts. The Children and Justice During and in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict report says: â€Å"If a child under the age of 15 is considered too young to fight, then he or she must also be considered too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations of IHL while associated with armed forces or armed groups.† Children are recruited so much to be a soldier because they are very easily manipulated and intimidated. The children are to young to understand what the consequences of their actions can lead to, in other words they haven’t developed much mental maturity. All of the drugs that are used on the children does a lot of mental damage because their frontal lobes which controls what decisions to make is being significantly damaged and will not develop right. Radhika Coomaraswamy, SRSG for child soldiers, said, â€Å"If minor children who have committed serious war crimes are not prosecuted, this could be an incentive for their commanders to delegate to them the dirtiest orders, aiming at impunity,† ( Humanitarian News and Analysis. IRINnews. IRIN, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014). In my opinion, I believe that child soldiers should not be held accountable for the violent acts. I have learned that child soldiers are many times kidnapped from their families and forced to kill a family member and are given many false hopes from their leaders. The child soldiers are drugged and brainwashed so that they can go around and kill innocent people as well as recruit more children like themselves. I believe that any person, especially a child, should not be prosecuted for their violent acts because they were not aware of whether what they were doing was right or wrong. I believe there is a difference in a child criminal and a child soldier because a child criminal is making a decision themselves and are completely aware of that they are doing, while a child soldier does not. For example, lets say a 10 year old boy kills his baby brother by drowning him in the tub. The 10 year old boy would be considered a child criminal and should be prosecuted because the boy was not for ced to kill his baby brother. Now if a child soldier has killed another person then I do not think they should be persecuted because they were forced to commit the violent act. Instead the child soldier should have to go through rehab. The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and Disarmament is a much better way of helping children recover from their violent acts as a soldier so that they can go back out into the real world. Rehab programs have been proven to be successful when it comes to people recovering from war. A good example of someone that was a child soldier in Sierra Leone and went through rehab when he was rescued is Ishmael Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone. â€Å"At age sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal,† (Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 . Print). A child soldier has a very rough and confusing life. A child soldier begins without having a family or village anymore because they have been outlawed due to killing a family member. The children are drugged and are forced to commit the most brutal acts of violence such as, raping and killing innocent people. Some say that child soldiers should be prosecuted due to the violent acts they have committed but, most of these children did not even understand what they were doing when committing the crimes. No child should have to kill to survive, if they try to escape the horror that surrounds them then they are killed. Our world today needs to make a huge effort to stop the use of children as soldiers because it is not right to ruin a child’s life for something they do not even understand. Bibliography Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print. Cambridge Journals Online The Journal of Modern African Studies Abstract Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War by C. Ryan London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Pp. 320.  £59.50 (hbk). Cambridge Journals Online The Journal of Modern African Studies Abstract Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War by C. Ryan London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Pp. 320.  £59.50 (hbk). Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers. War Child, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. Child Soldiers: Invisible Children Child Soldiers- Defining the Topic. Child Soldiers: Invisible Children. Weebly, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Dixon, Robyn. Former Sierra Leone Child Soldier Helps Other Victims. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2014. Government Forces Commit to End Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers. United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict. United Nations, 17 June 2013. Web. 24 Jan. 2014. Humanitarian News and Analysis. IRINnews. IRIN, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.

The Awakening Essay -- essays research papers

The Awakening opens in the late 1800s in Grand Isle, a summer holiday resort popular with the wealthy inhabitants of nearby New Orleans. Edna Pontellier is vacationing with her husband, Là ©once, and their two sons at the cottages of Madame Lebrun, which house affluent Creoles from the French Quarter. Là ©once is kind and loving but preoccupied with his work. His frequent business-related absences mar his domestic life with Edna. Consequently, Edna spends most of her time with her friend Adà ¨le Ratignolle, a married Creole who epitomizes womanly elegance and charm. Through her relationship with Adà ¨le, Edna learns a great deal about freedom of expression. Because Creole women were expected and assumed to be chaste, they could behave in a forthright and unreserved manner. Exposure to such openness liberates Edna from her previously prudish behavior and repressed emotions and desires. Edna’s relationship with Adà ¨le begins Edna’s process of â€Å"awakening† and self-discovery, which constitutes the focus of the book. The process accelerates as Edna comes to know Robert Lebrun, the elder, single son of Madame Lebrun. Robert is known among the Grand Isle vacationers as a man who chooses one woman each year—often a married woman—to whom he then plays â€Å"attendant† all summer long. This summer, he devotes himself to Edna, and the two spend their days together lounging and talking by the shore. Adà ¨le Ratignolle often accompanies them. At first, the relationship between Robert and Edna is innocent. They mostly bathe in the sea or engage in idle talk. As the summer progresses, however, Edna and Robert grow closer, and Robert’s affections and attention inspire in Edna several internal revelations. She feels more alive than ever before, and she starts to paint again as she did in her youth. She also learns to swim and becomes aware of her independence and sexuality. Edna and Robert never openly discuss their love for one another, but the time they spend alone together kindles memories in Edna of the dreams and desires of her youth. She becomes inexplicably depressed at night with her husband and profoundly joyful during her moments of freedom, whether alone or with Robert. Recognizing how intense the relationship between him and Edna has become, Robert honorably removes himself from Grand Isle to avoid consummating his forbidden love. Edna returns to New Orleans a changed woman. Ba... ...worried about the outcome of her passionate but confused actions. Already reeling under the weight of Adà ¨le’s admonition, Edna begins to perceive herself as having acted selfishly. Edna returns to her house to find Robert gone, a note of farewell left in his place. Robert’s inability to escape the ties of society now prompts Edna’s most devastating awakening. Haunted by thoughts of her children and realizing that she would have eventually found even Robert unable to fulfill her desires and dreams, Edna feels an overwhelming sense of solitude. Alone in a world in which she has found no feeling of belonging, she can find only one answer to the inescapable and heartbreaking limitations of society. She returns to Grand Isle, the site of her first moments of emotional, sexual, and intellectual awareness, and, in a final escape, gives herself to the sea. As she swims through the soft, embracing water, she thinks about her freedom from her husband and children, as well as Robert’s failure to understand her, Doctor Mandelet’s words of wisdom, and Mademoiselle Reisz’s courage. The text leaves open the question of whether the suicide co nstitutes a cowardly surrender or a liberating triumph.

Chinese Cuisine - The Food of China Essay examples -- essays research

Chinese Cuisine - The Food of China   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China’s food is very unique and traditional. Grains are the main food in China. Rice is the favorite grain among the people in the South. In the north, people prefer wheat, which they make in to bread and noodles. Corn millet, and sorghum are also eaten. Vegetables, especially cabbage and Tofu rank second in Chinese diet. Roasted sweet potatoes are a popular snack eaten by the Chinese. Pork and poultry are the favorite meats in China. The people also like eggs, fish, fruit, and shellfish.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chop Suey originated in China. Chop sticks and soup spoons are served as the only utensils at a Chinese meal. Tea is the traditional Chinese beverage. Ice-cream has gained popularity in China. Food from the East and Southeast coastal areas includes fi...

Our Country’s Good, Acting Advice For Act Essay

The scene starts off with just Ralph. I think I would tell the actor to look studious and intellectual, as Ralph would be making every effort to make the play to a very high standard so he can impress Captain Phillip in the hope of getting the promotion he has desired for some time. The mood should then change as soon as â€Å"Shitty† Meg enters on stage. She should walk on with a â€Å"tarty’ stride. She is old and thoroughly unattractive but she makes an over enthused effort to look glamorous and highly sexual. She should move toward Ralph in a very intimidating manor. Her sexual innuendoes should be delivered with a knowledgably bawdy tone and charisma, â€Å"I can play Lieutenant, I can play with any part you like†. When trying to convince Ralph into giving her a part in his play, â€Å"You don’t want a young woman peculiar, Lieutenant, they don’t know nothing†, I think she should grab Ralph’s leg as soon as she says the line; â€Å"Shut your eyes and I’ll play you as tight as a virgin†. Ralph should seem very intimidated and should jump up and back away from her in disgust. Meg should continue like this until Ralph has enough and shouts â€Å"Long! â€Å". At this point Meg should be slightly scared of Ralph’s anger but she keeps face by accusing Ralph of being a homosexual, â€Å"We thought you was a madge cull†, she should say her lines in a patronising matter-of-fact way to try and lower Ralph’s high persona of himself. The comic mood should continue when Sideway comes on the stage. He should be lively and full of character as he is your typical London â€Å"geezer†. He delivers his first few lines with an almost fake admiration for Ralph; â€Å"I am calling you Mr Clarke as one calls Mr Garick Mr Garick†. Sideway should have a very â€Å"in-your-face’ attitude to Ralph. Ralph should be very intimidated and suspicious but remain on the spot in a very militaristic manner to give the impress that he is not phased by Sideway’s very forward and friendly approach. Sideway should be walking around Ralph the whole time to try and show that he is nimble and enthusiastic; â€Å"top of my profession, Mr Clarke†. As Sideway delivers his lines, in a very reflective thoughtful manner, Ralph should gradually ease out of his rigid posture and himself seem to be thinking of the wonderful London which Sideway speaks of; â€Å"London bridge at dawn†. Then when delivering the line â€Å"plucking up courage, I pluck her†, he should remove a handkerchief out from Ralph’s back pocket, unknown to the audience or Ralph himself. Then when saying â€Å"the handkerchiefs† he should reveal the handkerchief in a very theatrical way so it is made clear to both the audience and Ralph that Sideway had stolen his handkerchief. Ralph should seem surprised but should then give the impression that he is still very important and pretending almost that nothing had happened. As soon as Dabby and Mary enter, we should realise how different the two characters are. Dabby should be confident and pushy whereas Mary should be quiet and highly reserved. Ralph should be infatuated with Mary as soon as he lays eyes on her. Although he can’t take his eyes off her I don’t think that Mary is either confident or keen enough yet to achieve eye contact with him. Dabby should push Mary forward quite forcefully after saying her line; â€Å"You asked to see Mary Brenham, Lieutenant. Here she is. â€Å"Mary is still very nervous and still doesn’t show any sort of interest in Ralph whatsoever. He intimidates her because he is one of the officers and she is also scared because she is about to audition for a play. Ralph should seem keen to want to talk to Mary rather than Dabby, purely because he is smitten with her â€Å"Do you know what a play is? â€Å". Dabby to him is just an annoyance â€Å"I’ve seen lots of plays, Lieutenant, so has Mary†. Mary must still remain quiet and nervous (this shown in the stage directions when it says that should say some of her lines â€Å"inaudibly’. Although Dabby is very keen to get Mary her part in the play because she feels that Ralph would be a good person for Mary to be with and sleep with on the ship â€Å"Mary wants to be in your play, Lieutenant† but should be very obvious about the fact that she wants in the play as well â€Å"and so do I†. Ralph wants to make sure he gives Mary the impression that he wants her to be in the play by telling her all of the good things that other people have said about her; â€Å"The Reverend Johnson told me you could read and write, Brenham†. The first time that Ralph’s and Mary’s meet should be when they both start reading the play to each other, â€Å"whilst there is life there is hope†. Every time the two look each other in the eyes when they are reading the play the looks should be held and prolonged to show an obvious attraction from both of them. Ralph for the first time in this scene is above the convicts and seems to have intellectual superiority over the two of them. The actor should say this lines in quite a patronising way not because he wants the convicts to know their place but because that is how he treats everyone â€Å"This is a comedy, they don’t really mean it†. Mary should seem very innocent and like a little girl. Especially when Ralph tries to explain the plot of the story which is rather bizarre â€Å"she falls in love with Silvia†. In the stage directions it actually says â€Å"Mary begins to giggle but tries to hold it back’. The mood then changes drastically as soon as Liz enters. Her stride should show that she is aggressive and very confident. Mary should very subtly sneak away and not say anything. Dabby and Liz should give each other evil glares. It says in the stage directions about the characters; â€Å"each holding her ground, each ready to pounce’. Ralph should seem unphased purely because he knows nothing of the hostility between the two characters; â€Å"Dabby: You can’t have her in the play, Lieutenant. Ralph: Why not? † Liz’s anger just mounts until the point at which she nearly cracks, the stage directions say that she â€Å"looks briefly at Dabby, as if to strike, then changes her mind’. The actress playing Liz should be forward and confident and intimidated by nothing â€Å"she snatches the book from Ralph and strides off’.

Mcdonald’s Business Strategy Essay

, Inc. 11410 N. E. 124th Street #223 Kirkland, Washington 98034 USA O: 425-822-3106 C: 206-257-9839 Timothy@McDonaldManagement. com Table of Contents Page 3 Page 5 Page 6 Page 9 Page 11 Page 12 Page 16 Page 18 Page 21 Executive Summary Our Business Plan The Market Defined World View Pilot Program (Ethiopia) Projected Market Share Market Strategy Promotion Competition The Bottled Water Industry Product Development – Four Keys Norit Ultra-Filtration System (Perfector – E) Solar Powered Modules Prototype configuration and assembly The Patented 20-liter Tamper-proof Bottle Organizational Development USAgua Partnership Program US Home Office East Africa Central Assembly Distribution (Operators to Owners) Mile Stones Financial Statements Sales Projections Personnel Budgets Cash Flow Projections Income Statements – Projected Expense Statements – Projected 2 Executive Summary W e are now in a position to profitably enter into the lucrative and expanding worldwide market for pure, clean, safe drinking water. We have developed and will introduce to the world, the concept of small community commercial water purification systems. We call our systems ‘USAguaâ„ ¢ Pure Water Kiosks’. Each of our Kiosks is capable of taking in 8,000 liters of dangerously polluted raw water every day and, through the technologically phenomenal process of ultra-filtration, they process that unhealthy water into safe, clean, purified drinking water. Our systems are containerized, modular, solar powered and ultra-filtered — they function completely ‘off-the-grid’. Our markets are the vibrant, sophisticated, newly emerging middle-classes of the developing world. These middle-class niches represent over one billion people and their numbers are growing daily. These people realize the importance of safe drinking water for themselves and their families but, at the same time, they know that their governments are incapable of providing this most basic need. What is important to our program is that these middle class families are financially capable of paying for our water. The proof is the fact that they now consume literally tens of millions of gallons of bottled water every year. Our competition is the bottled water industry and, very soon, we will have a substantial piece of that market. The product we sell is clean, pure, safe drinking water. How we produce, market and sell our product is through our USAgua Pure Water Kiosks Program. Our Kiosks are a melding of two wonderful technologies just now coming into their own. The first is called ‘ultra-filtration’. Picture a bundle of spaghetti sized perforated tubes through which polluted water is pumped under pressure. The perforations are so small that they block viruses, bacteria and parasites down to a ‘Log 2-4’ EPA rating. This means that the water we sell is 99. 99% pure or better when it leaves our system. And, because the filters require only ‘back-flushing’ instead of costly filter replacements, the long-term costs are minimized. The second basic technology we have employed is Solar Power. Our Kiosks, including all the necessary pumps, batteries, electronics and lighting requirements run perfectly using a Solar Power package designed specifically for our needs. The initial costs of the solar option are steep, but the long term reliability, the fact that we don’t depend on any outside sources of energy and the nearly-maintenance-free specifications we have developed, make them a perfect fit in developing countries. Our ultra filtration systems and our solar power systems have been rigorously field tested by their manufacturers. Our own design engineers have melded the two technologies together, combined them with our storage tanks and lab gear and integrated them seamlessly into our retail USAgua Kiosks. After a final prototype development program, our manufacturer s will ship their modules to our USAgua Central Assembly Plants in our target markets. We will use local technicians to retrofit universally available freight containers and perform final installation and assembly. Once our Kiosks are complete, they will be delivered to our ‘Operators’ in the field. Our Management Team will locate, recruit and train local ‘Operators’ in our various ‘Target Markets’. In time, our Operators will be given the opportunity to own their own USAgua Kiosk, thus allowing us to tap the entrepreneurial energy and spirit that can be found within individuals in every corner of the world. Our USAgua Operator program will ensure our market position and stability through world-wide name branding, equipment standardization, standardized maintenance routines and universally accepted accounting procedures. With the help of some very smart engineers we have developed the concept of our USAgua Pure Water Kiosks. At the same time, we have put together a business model that takes the best of the American business concepts we are so proud of and we, very carefully, introduce them into the potentially lucrative new middle-class markets of the developing world. Our ‘financial package’ is strong. Our assumptions and our projections are conservative, our research is up to date and our key players are heavy on both education and real world experience. We are ready to take the next giant step forward. To that end, we are asking to secure a US $2,200,000 Investment package so that we can bring our USAgua International Program to fruition. Please, feel free to call me anytime for more information or clarifications. Sincerely, Timothy McDonald 4 Our Business Plan The World Wide Market Defined: Of the 6 billion people in the world today, over 3 billion1 live either totally ‘off-the-grid’ or in communities not serviced by safe, dependable water systems. Families within this demographic, no matter their economic level, are left vulnerable to water borne diseases including viruses, parasites and bacteria. The negative social and economic repercussions of not having access to safe, clean drinking water are immense. Some United Nations reports have gone so far as to predict that safe drinking water will be as economically significant as oil within the next decade2. We intend to be a big player in solving the drinking water problem. We have designed both our USAgua Water Purification System and our Business Model to be universally adaptable. Our equipment and our business model will function beautifully in the suburbs of Nairobi, along the Yangtze River in China and in the mountains of northern India. Anywhere there is both a source of water (no matter how polluted) and an open view of the sun, our USAgua water purification systems will work. Anywhere there are energetic and entrepreneurial individuals who aspire to a better life for their families, our USAgua Operator network will prosper. At the ‘Macro’ scale, our market is unlimited. Good business practices, however, dictate that we start small and grow carefully. We will introduce our program to a small, representative market we are familiar with. One that can be easily documented and controlled. In our ‘Pilot Market’ we will learn a great deal from both our successes and our mistakes. Once we have field proven both our equipment and our business model, we will enter additional markets with much greater knowledge and enthusiasm. _________________________________ It is very important to understand that we are in competition with the ‘Bottled Water Industry’ in all aspects of our program. The statistics and the markets for bottled water, world wide, are the statistics and markets relevant to USAguaâ„ ¢. _______________________________________ 1 2 United Nations Development Program Report – August 2008 United Nations Development Program Report – August 2008 5 Our Ethiopian Pilot Program and Our Share of the Market For several reasons, including a thirty year professional involvement in East Africa, we have chosen the country of Ethiopia to establish our ‘Pilot Program’. The Ethiopian Market Defined: Population (millions) 2007 Population growth (annual %) Life expectancy at birth (years) Literacy rate GNI (US $ billions) GNI per capita (US $ ) 78. 6 2. 6 55. 0 38. 5 19. 4 220. 0 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) acquired these statistics: Health of population using improved drinking-water sources, 2006, total 42 (cut and paste from the UNICEF 2008 Report) These UNICEF statistics show us that there is a large segment of the Ethiopian population that understands the need for safe water. The definition of ‘improved drinking-water sources’, however, does not address the quality of the water. It only documents the fact that the water has been drawn from a centralized source and is conveyed to the end user via an established distribution network; either municipal water systems, tanker trucks or bottled water. The water may or may not be processed. It may or may not be safe. The quality of both the tap water and the bottled water in Ethiopia is suspect due to poor infrastructure maintenance and a lack of Health Department regulation enforcement. 3 3 UNICEF Annual Report – 2006 6 The Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA) estimates that currently 4. 18% of the households, nationwide, have access to community water systems and taps within their homes. Ethiopia Total 2004 2. 2 2006 2. 7 2008 3. 3 Current 4. 18 (cut and paste from the 2008 CSA Report) This means the vast majority of people considered to have access to ‘improved drinking water sources’ are using tanker truck delivery (very dangerous) or bottled water. (78. 6 million X 42%) – 4. 18% ) = 31. 4 million people drink non-tap water. ) The CSA also publishes a quarterly retail price listing for nearly every commodity found in Ethiopia. In 2008 the average cost per liter of bottled water was 6 birr. (Ethiopian currency) BEVERAGES – NON ALCOHOLIC Ambo Mineral Water†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 500cc 3. 00 3. 00 3. 00 3. 17 3. 00 3. 00 2. 50 3. 00 2. 96 2. 50 3. 00 3. 00 2. 50 2. 5 Bure Mineral Water†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 500cc – – – – – – – – – – – – – – (cut and paste from the 2008 CSA Report) ! (Or †¦ US $0. 48/liter at the current exchange rate) The CSA has not been able to estimate a total volume of bottled drinking water produced or con sumed. We have been told many reasons for this lack of statistical documentation. The most plausible is the lack of government oversight and a huge black market for recycling local water in used plastic bottles. This is a very dangerous practice and one the central government has taken action to stop. 4 A few assumptions: W e are going to assume, in the interest of simplifying our Business Plan, that within and near the cities of Addis Ababa, Mekele, Bahra Dar, Nazerit and Awassa ( a total population of over 27 million ) there is a need for 27,000,000 liters of pure, safe drinking water every day. (27,000,000 X 365 days = nearly 10 Billion liters per year) (One liter of safe drinking water per day is the World Health Organization’s minimum requirement. ) 4 Ethiopian Health Ministry – 2008 7 Our Pilot Program Cities: 10% Purchase Vicinity of Population Addis Ababa 15,375,000 15% Purchase 20% Purchase 5% Purchase Bottled Water at US $0. 50/liter Bottled Water at US $0. 40/liter Bottled Water at US $0. 30/liter Bottled Water at US $0. 20/liter 1,537,500 2,306,250 3,075,000 3,843,750 Nazerit 3,580,000 358,000 537,000 716,000 895,000 Bahri Dar 1,790,000 179,000 266,850 355,800 447,500 Awasa 1,430,000 143,000 214,500 286,000 357,500 Mekele 4,825,000 482,500 723,750 965,000 1,206,250 27,000,000 2,700,000 4,050,000 5,400,000 6,750,000 $1,350,000 $1,620,000 $1,620,000 $1,350,000 $492,750 ,000 $591,300,000 $591,300,000 $492,750,000 Population Market Value Market Value Per Day Per Year Our Pilot Program Market Our Pilot Program Market focuses on five major cities in Ethiopia. We can take a very conservative but educated guess that 15% of the 27 million population is capable of purchasing 1 liter of drinking water every day for US 0. 40/liter. (about a billion and a half liters per year demand) 1,248,000 liters (62,400 20-Liter USAgua Bottles) is the annual sales figure we have projected for each of our USAgua Kiosks. Or less than one tenth of one percent (. 001%) of our Pilot Program Middle-class Market Demand. Our Kiosks are actually capable of physically producing ,920,000 liters of safe, clean drinking water annually, but for budgeting and logistical reasons as well as a conservative margin of safety, we are building our Business Model on a 1,248,000 liters/year basis or a 4,000 liters per day sales capacity, six days per week. ! The total cost to our USAgua Kiosk Program to produce, bottle and sell safe, clean drinking water is less than $0. 10 per liter The un iversal laws of supply and demand would tell us that we could completely dominate the ‘Bottled Drinking Water Industry’ in our Pilot Program Market. By assuring two things — Highest Quality, Lowest Price — we should expect to capture a substantial share of this huge market while at the same time realizing a very profitable return on investment very quickly. It is not difficult to imagine 40 USAgua Kiosks working profitably within Ethiopia within two years of start-up. 8 Market Strategy The Market for pure, clean, safe drinking water already exists. It is large, growing and lucrative. Our dominant piece of that worldwide market is what we will develop. Branding†¦ W e own the internet web domain and the trade marked name, USAguaâ„ ¢. We are now in the process of building a comprehensive website that will address everything from the biology of parasites, bacteria and viruses to the science of removing those contaminants from our drinking water. It will show how important safe drinking water is to individuals, societies and economies. It will differentiate our USAgua Water Purification Kiosks from our competition, the bottled water industry. Our website will play very well in East Africa. Since the election of President Obama, a new, very pro-American, attitude has emerged. America and all things American are now very popular. Our USAgua Kiosks provide safe drinking water at standards equal to or better than our American EPA standards for domestic drinking water. In East Africa, they trust our standards and want that same high quality for their families. Our Kiosks are painted in American national colors. The USA in USAgua is meant to emphasize our American roots and our American standards. When a USAgua Kiosk is delivered to an African community our customers will feel that part of America has arrived. Our USAgua 20-liter plastic bottles are designed to be used and re-used and re-used by the family to which they are assigned. The boldly branded bottles can not be refilled by anyone other than our Kiosk operator. Our branded one-liter personal bottles will be carried with pride on the streets of our communities. The name, USAgua, will be synonymous with American high quality and good health. Lower retail pricing†¦ W e know there is a large and growing demand for safe, pure drinking water. On the macro scale this is evidenced by the rise of the bottled water industry in every city and village in the world. In Ethiopia, our Pilot Program Market, we know the retail price of a liter of bottled water is US$0. 48. The laws of supply and demand dictate that as the price is lowered, the demand rises. The cost of our water, including all business related expectations, is less than US $0. 10 per liter. We will price our product to maximize both the quantity sold and the profit generated. 9 Flyers and Brochures Distributed Locally †¦. And a billboard or two Because each of our USAgua Kiosks are designed to satisfy the drinking water demand of only 400 families per day, (we are saying 10 liters per family per day) the geographic market area for each of our Kiosks is small, (by design) less than one square kilometer. Prior to our Kiosks arriving at their final destinations, a local flyer and brochure campaign will saturate the area to introduce our program. Community meetings will be held to educate members of our market and sell our products. A large colorful bill-board will be erected so that people will begin identifying our branding. 10 Competition: The Competition for our Pilot Program Market (and every other market in the developing world, for that matter) consists of a handful of legitimate Centralized Water Bottling and Distribution Companies as well as black-market water bottle recycling scams. The government is now in the process of both adopting new quality standards for all bottled water plus they are developing the means to enforce those standards. Because none of the major international bottled water producers (Danone, Nestle, and Coca-Cola) have entered the African markets, statistical documentation is lacking for total production and demand. We do know a few things, however. First is that the existing legitimate bottled water industry depends on centralized plants that are, by definition, saddled with the tremendous costs associated with transporting heir product to market. Plus, they must purchase plastic bottles that will be used only once, but then become potential competition as those same bottles are refilled on the black-market and resold. We also know that the end user of bottled water is becoming much more sophisticated. They know full well the problem with boot-legged water and in most cases have gone back to boiling local water (at a tremendous expense in f uel) rather than purchase suspect bottled water. The Bottled Water Industry is not the answer for the Developing World. 11 Product Development †¦.. some history For generations, scientists around the world have known that viruses, parasites and bacteria are present in much of the water we drink. They have also known that these tiniest of creatures are the source of the water borne diseases that have plagued humanity since Lucy stood up on her two legs and peered over the tall grasses of the African Savannah. Personal Note: McDonald was stationed in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia in 1973-75 only 20 miles from where Lucy – Australopithecus afarensisr – was discovered. On several occasions his Agricultural School and Farm hosted Lucy’s rcheologists. They appreciated the water system he had developed that pulled water from the muddy Awash River and provided them safe, pure drinking water. In the developed world, from our largest cities to our smallest villages, our technology has solved the problem of purifying our waters. In America, we long ago realized the importance of safe water to the overall health and well being of our society. It was so important to previous generations that they mandated our government to set and enforce the highest water standards in the world. Our municipal and community water systems now process and distribute a dependable flow of amazingly inexpensive water to the homes of every citizen. The success of America is due, in no small part, to the overall health of our people. And, the overall health of our people is, in no small part, due to our wonderful communal water systems. On the macro scale, the per gallon cost of water in America is very small; a penny or two a gallon at the most. The reality is, however, that a water purification plant and a distribution network are tremendously expensive to develop and operate; tens of millions of dollars. And, the technical sophistication necessary to maintain these systems is overwhelming to any but the most advanced economies. For so many reasons (economic, political, cultural, technical) there is little hope that the vast majority of people in the second and third worlds will ever be able to build and maintain the water systems necessary to provide safe water for their people. Even now, as a burgeoning middle class emerges, the central governments are powerless to act. The problem is just too large and the costs too high. 12 Product Development †¦. the Stars Line Up The USAguaâ„ ¢ Pure Water Kiosk Program is†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Four Components. The product we sell is clean, pure, safe drinking water. How we produce, market and sell our product is through our USAgua Pure Water Kiosks Program. Our Kiosk Program brings together four independent but equally important physical components. Namely: Ultra-Filtration, Solar Power, Retro-fitted Freight Containers and Keyed, Tamper-proof 20-liter Bottles. 1. Ultra-Filtration†¦ This is a water filtration method developed and patented by Norit X-Flow, a member of the global Norit Companies. Norit is headquartered in the Netherlands with sales offices throughout the world including one just outside of Chicago. Ultra-filtration is easy to visualize. Picture a bundle of spaghetti sized perforated tubes through which polluted water is pumped under pressure. The perforations are so small that they block viruses, bacteria and parasites down to a ‘Log 2-4’ EPA rating. This means that the water they process is 99. 99% pure or better when it leaves their system. And, because the filters require only ‘back-flushing’ instead of costly filter replacements, the long-term costs are minimized. Norit’s filters can be used for months and then ‘back-flushed’ to remove all contaminants. The actual filters will last for years. Ultra-filtration is truly a marvelous breakthrough. One of the first applications that Norit X-Flow developed for its Ultra-filter technology was a very clever machine they call the Perfector-E Mobile Water Purification System. It was originally designed for emergency responders to be used in the aftermath of devastating natural disasters; earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. The systems are small, strong and highly mobile. They can be transported and set up in any disaster area within hours. They are totally self contained and can draw and purify water from almost any source including exposed surface waters, local lakes, rivers, ponds and irrigation systems. The Perfector-E System can provide literally thousands of gallons of pure, safe drinking water per day to a disaster area under the most extreme conditions. And, there is another very positive aspect to Norit’s system. It is not a big energy user. With some adaptations, we can actually run the systems exclusively on solar power. 13 2. The second basic technology we have employed is Solar Power. Our Kiosks, including all the necessary pumps, batteries, electronics and lighting requirements run perfectly using a Solar Power package designed specifically for our needs. Our solar energy system was designed by H-Dot Logic, a solar engineering company here in Seattle. The initial costs of the solar option are steep, but the long term reliability, the fact that we don’t depend on any outside sources of energy and the nearlymaintenance-free specifications we have developed, make them a perfect fit in developing countries. . Our Kiosks – Our Containers. We have chosen to utilize universally available, standard steal 20 foot cargo containers as the physical basis of our Kiosk system. Containers are strong and secure. They are easily transported on any flatbed truck in the world, and once they are delivered to our overseas locations, they will serve as the actual retail Kiosk facility. Our in-house engineers ha ve designed the retro-fit of the containers to comfortably house all the various components in and around the retail shell. The solar panels, the gravel pre-filters, the external raw water storage tank, the internal finished water storage tank with the UV sterilizer, the Ultra-filter modules, the pumps, the battery packs, all the electronics and a water testing system are all neatly configured inside the container. In addition to designing the retrofit, our Kiosk’s will have a copy written exterior color and graphic scheme. The graphic scheme, once painted on our containers will provide a great advertising platform for our USAgua Brand. A prototype unit still needs to be assembled. USAgua Kiosk # 0001, the prototype, will be assembled in Seattle, Washington. A careful documentation video of the specifications and assembly methods will be produced. This process will take about four months to accomplish. Once the first Kiosk is ready it will be shipped from the Port of Seattle to Ethiopia. Once in Ethiopia, USAgua #0001 will be delivered to our Central Assembly ; Fabrication facility. Our local Management will use it to train a team of assembly mechanics. We will then begin purchasing containers on the local market and preparing them for the arrival of our Filter and Solar modules. Within a four month period, we will be assembling and delivering two complete USAgua units per month. 4. The Keyed-Tamper Proof Bottle Program: One of the reasons the bottled water industry is not a good fit for the developing world is because the plastic bottles are disposable. Each new bottle, when discarded becomes a potential competitor as people refill the bottle and sell it on the black market. Our USAgua bottles are specially designed to discourage re-use by anyone but the family to which it was assigned. The bottles will have a tamper proof valve and seal that can only be refilled at USAgua Kiosks. This makes the bottles un-usable outside our network and assures our customers that the water inside our stamped and sealed bottles has not been counterfeited on the black market. Our prominent USAgua Logo on each bottle will help promote our brand where ever it is found. 14 Organizational Development Thirty years of experience working in developing countries has taught us many things. One of the most important is that without a very involved and powerful Management presence ‘on the ground’, no program can succeed. For the success of any project in the developing world, including ours, it is vitally important that we back-up our 21st century technology with an equally robust Management and Operations Program based on century’s old tried and true Business Practices. We call our In-Country USAgua International Management and Operations Program ‘Our Partnership Program’. It is based on five powerful strategies: 1. Recruiting the best and the brightest. Every developing country in the world has vibrant, honest, well educated, hardworking, entrepreneurs looking for an opportunity to improve themselves, their families and their communities. Our Country Director will identify and recruit these individuals. We will offer them a good basic family wage with the added incentive of merit-based pay raises. 2. In-Country Training for our Operators Our USAgua in-country Management Staff will train every recruit in Kiosk system functions, maintenance procedures, program hygiene, local marketing and program bookkeeping. Trainees will work with seasoned Operators during a six month apprenticeship program. If they prove themselves capable, they will be offered a position as an Operator or Operator’s Helper for one of our USAgua Kiosks. . In-Country Operations Management. We will have one Project Manager for every 10 USAgua Kiosk Operators. These Project Managers will visit each Kiosk Operator every month to make sure that the extremely high USAgua standards are being met and maintained. The PM’s are also in charge of auditing and banking functions. There will be zero tolerance for bookkeeping errors. In addition to our Project Managers, we have a Maintenance ; Repair team that routinely visits each Kiosk making sure that no small maintenance problem becomes a big repair problem due to lack of Operator vigilance. 4. Advertising and Marketing Support Each Kiosk comes with an introductory advertising budget for local marketing. We will saturate any new locale with USAgua literature. In addition, our Staff will visit each Kiosk to conduct community seminars in water quality and family hygiene. 15 5. Operators to Owners Program After two years as a USAgua Operator we will offer some of our most gifted and hardworking employees the opportunity to purchase their own USAgua Kiosk. We are wholly convinced that there exists a universally powerful business strategy that assures the success of a program such as ours. This is called ‘pride in ownership’ and we intend to tap that strategy to its fullest. Our US Office The home office of McDonald Management is in Seattle, Washington as will be the home offices of USAgua International, Inc. At the top of our organizational chart is the President and CEO, Timothy McDonald. Mr. McDonald has a BS in International Economics (minor in Civil Engineering) with Masters work in International Economics all from the University of Washington. He has been in and out of East Africa for over thirty years with our State Department as both an employee and an independent contractor. He will oversee day to day operations both in the US and overseas. Norit X-Flow International will provide the Ultra-filtration modules. H-Dot Logic will provide the solar package design and modules. R. L. Clark and Associates of Redmond, Washington will be in charge of Investor Relations, financial program development and implementation. Bahiru G. Egziabiher will be the Country Director in Ethiopia for our Pilot Market Program. He holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and has worked for Seattle City Light for over twenty years. Bahiru holds duel US and Ethiopian citizenship. Dalrymple and Associates will be in charge of our Kiosk design and equipment coordination. In addition his company has designed our logo, the graphic presentation of our USAgua name and our color schemes and themes. RedRover Marketing will be in charge of our website design, maintenance and hosting. Our Office in Ethiopia W e will lease a centralized office/warehouse facility in Addis Ababa where we will identify, recruit and train a team of assemblers and fabricators to retrofit our containers, install our filtration systems, our solar modules and our storage tanks. Our paint shop will brand each Kiosk with our name, our logo and our color scheme. 16 Bahiru Egziabiher, our Country Director, will be in charge of our Ethiopia operations including the central warehouse and assembly facility. He will oversee the assembly of two complete USAgua Kiosks per month once we get underway. McDonald and Exziabiher and, eventually, a small team of Project Managers, will identify, recruit and train a Network of USAgua Operators. These Project Managers will be responsible for assuring the high standards of training, maintenance, product quality and accounting standards for each of their Network Operators. Within two years there will be 40 Kiosks producing pure water in Ethiopia. There will be one Project Manager for every ten Kiosks. Our Operator Network is the key to our program. Once our USAgua Operators are identified and recruited, they will go through a thorough training program. They will serve a two year apprenticeship and then, if they have proven themselves capable of maintaining our extremely high standards, they will be given the opportunity to own their own Kiosk. In this way we will tap the entrepreneurial spirit of those who will make our entire program a success. How Hard is it to Enter the Ethiopian Market? The World Bank ranks countries world wide by their ‘Ease of Doing Business’. Of the 183 countries rated, Ethiopia ranks #107. In comparison, Egypt is #106 and Kenya is #95. Since 1993 when the people of Ethiopia removed their previous communist government and replaced it with one decisively more moderate and business friendly, the new leadership has striven to open its economy to a more capitalistic model. In the past 10 years, Ethiopia has been gradually re-writing its constitution in an attempt to open new markets and stabilize its business community. These efforts have paid off. In 2008-9 the World Bank ranked Ethiopia at #122 for ‘ease of starting a business’. This year they are ranked # 93. And, they are getting better every year. The following statistics are all from the World Bank. Ease of doing Business 107 Starting a Business 93 Dealing with Construction Permits 60 Employing Workers 98 Registering Property 110 Getting Credit 127 Protecting Investors 119 Paying Taxes 43 Trading Across Borders 159 Enforcing Contracts 57 Closing a Business 77 Summary of Indicators – Ethiopia Starting a Business Procedures (number) 5 Time (days) 9 Cost (% of income per capita) 18. 9 Min. capital (% of income per capita) 492. 4 17 Dealing with Construction Permits Procedures (number) 12 Time (days) 128 Cost (% of income per capita) 561. 3 Employing Workers Difficulty of hiring index (0-100) 33 Rigidity of hours index (0-100) 20 Difficulty of redundancy index (0-10) 30 Rigidity of employment index (0-100) 28 Redundancy costs (weeks of salary) 40 Registering Property Procedures (number) 10 Time (days) 41 Cost (% of property value) 2. 2 Getting Credit Strength of legal rights index (0-10) 4 Depth of credit information index (0-6) 2 Public registry coverage (% of adults) 0. 1 Private bureau coverage (% of adults) 0. 0 Protecting Investors Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 4 Extent of director liability index (0-10) 4 Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 5 Strength of investor protection index (0-10) 4. 3 Paying Taxes Payments (number per year) 19 Time (hours per year) 198 Profit tax (%) 26. 8 Labor tax and contributions (%) 0. 0 Other taxes (%) 4. 3 Total tax rate (% profit) 31. 1 Trading Across Borders Documents to export (number) 8 Time to export (days) 49 Cost to export (US$ per container) 1940 Documents to import (number) 8 Time to import (days) 45 Cost to import (US$ per container) 2993 Enforcing Contracts Procedures (number) 37 Time (days) 620 Cost (% of claim) 15. 2 Taking into account the above information provided by the World Bank, it will take McDonald Management about 90 days to secure all the necessary permits, licenses, patent protection registrations and lease agreements in Ethiopia. This will all be done prior to our first Kiosk leaving the US. 8 Mile Stones First Three Months Investors have been identified and secured†¦ A US $2,200,000 credit line is opened †¦ Dalrymple ; Associates secures a short term warehouse lease where the prototype Kiosk will be assembled and the process documented. Norit X-Flow, H-Dot Logic and USAgua finalize specifications for the prototype filter/solar modules The USAgua Prototype is completed and Unit #0001 is prepared for shipment to Africa In Month One, Mc Donald and Exziabiher leave for East Africa to secure business licenses and leases. While in Africa McDonald and Exziabiher identify and recruit a team of mechanics and fabricators as well as a Project Manager. They identify the first five individuals for the USAgua Operators Network. Months 4 and 5 USAgua Kiosk number 0001 is shipped from Seattle to Addis Ababa USAgua – Seattle begins producing and shipping filter/power modules to Ethiopia at the rate of 2 units per month. Containers are purchased and retrofitted in our Addis Ababa facility at the rate of 2 units per month. Assembly begins and the first delivery of a unit is accomplished. Months 6 -12 All elements of our program are coordinated and we are assembling and placing USAgua Kiosks in client communities at the steady rate of 2 units per month. Project Managers and Operators are continuing the training, quality control and apprenticeship programs. Month 13 W e achieve income/expense financial Break Even Month 24 The first 40 USAgua Kiosks are in place and working. The first USAgua Operator recruits are offered ownership of their Kiosks. 19 Business Plan Summary W e are confident that a vibrant and lucrative market for safe, clean drinking water exists in every country of the world. We are also confident that we have the right Technology and Business Model to enter and eventually dominate those markets. To prove this, we are going to introduce 40 of our USAgua Kiosks into the Ethiopian market. There we will show that our technology is exactly right; that each of our Kiosks can be operated and maintained profitably for years. And, that our Business Model is sound and worthy of the trust our investors have shown. We have developed a set of financial projections. These itemize the key elements of our program and put a dollar figure on their implementation. They show that an initial two year investment of US $2,200,000 will produce an operating income/expense breakeven within a year and actual profit by the end of the 40 Unit 2 Year Pilot Program. Anyone interested in viewing our Financial Report, please, call Timothy McDonald. He will be more than happy to send along our spreadsheets. Many Thanks, Timothy McDonald 206-257-9839 20