Annual Financial Report Analysis for British Airways PLC Essay

Annual Financial Report Analysis for British Airways PLC - Essay Example e years und the light of the important sections in the company’s annual report i.e., notes to the accounts, statement of accounting policies, directors’ report, operating and financial review statement, chief executive’s statement, chairman’s statement and the press releases of the company in order to illustrate the impact of any of the company policy, market and environment on the company’s financial performance during the year. At the end of the report, important factors critical to the company’s future growth and financial performance have been presented based on the analysis. British Airways is the worlds second largest international airline, carrying more than 27 million passengers, and one of the worlds longest established passenger brands. In the financial year to 31 March 2004, more than 36 million people chose to fly on flights operated by BA. An average of 51,939 staff were employed by the group worldwide in 2003-2004, 85.0 per cent of them based in the UK. Unlike some of the worlds other airlines, BA is owned entirely by private investors - with around 260,000 shareholders, including some 49 per cent of the companys own employees (British Airways Plc, accessed 6.12.2005) The main activities of British Airways Plc and its subsidiary undertakings are the operation of international and domestic scheduled and charter air services for the carriage of passengers, freight and mail and the provision of ancillary services (1) BAs main business is the provision of scheduled passenger services, which accounted for approximately 83% of the Companys turnover during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 (fiscal 2005). The Company also provides other services to outside parties, such as aircraft maintenance. The Companys operations also include certain ancillary airline activities, including air cargo (British Airways, accessed 5.12.2005) British Airways Group fleet as at 31 December 2004 comprised 293 aircraft - one of the largest fleets in Europe. The

Child labour defined as economic exploitation

Child labour defined as economic exploitation CHILD LABOUR Child labour is unacceptable in developed countries for its negative impact and should be discouraged in every society. Child labour can be defined as economic exploitation and performing any work that is likely to be dangerous or hinder the childs education, and harmful to the childs health. Children under labour are denied their educational right and a normal childhood. Some children are restricted and beaten; some are denied freedom of movement that is, the right for them to leave the workplace and join their families while some are abducted and forced to work. Child labour deprives children of their childhood and their dignity. Many of the children in every society today work long hours for low or no wage, often under the conditions harmful to their health, physical and mental development. They are also deprived of an education and they may be separated from families. In my interview with Dr Quaye, a faculty member in American University of Nigeria, he stated that â€Å"Children who do not complete their primary education are likely to remain illiterate and never acquire the skills needed to get a job and contribute to the development of the current economy†. It was stated by United Nations Secretary General Kofi, Annan that â€Å"Child labour has serious consequences that stay with the individual and with society for longer than the years of childhood†. Young workers not only face dangerous working conditions but they also face long-term physical, intellectual and emotional stress. They face an adulthood of unemployment and illiteracy. Furthermore, child labour occurs because of the high level of poverty and lack of development. For example, there were these two kids in my own town Benin, Osagie and Uwa. Their parents were very poor and had no jobs, because of the level of hardship their parents were facing; these kids were forced to work in a block industry for there were no other alternative than sending their kids to work. At the workplace these kids were tortured by their employers. They were beaten anytime they made a little mistake and they were given heavy load of blocks to carry. This over a long period of time stunted their growth. More also, there was a case of an abused eighteen year old girl in Casablanca. She narrates her story I started working when I was fourteen, my mother died when I was twelve. I lived with my fathers wife. We needed money so I went to work. It was me and my half sister, who is now eight years old. My fathers wife works now [that I dont work anymore], but I havent seen her for a year. A neighbor found me the job. I wanted to commit suicide, but then I thought, â€Å"No one will miss me.† So I went to the neighbor and she found me work in Casablanca. We were very poor and I didnt see a way out. The work was prostitution, and I thought that killing myself would be better morally than dying of AIDS from prostitution but I had no choice, I have to do it. (Human Rights watch 2005). Therefore, child labour is a source of income for poor families. A study conducted by the international labour organization (ILO) agent of statistics found that â€Å"childrens work was considered essential to maintaining the economics level of households, either in the form of work for wages, of help in household enterprises or of household tasks in order to free adult household members for economics activity elsewhere† (Mehra Kerpelman 1996, pg 8). In some cases, the study found that a childs income accounted for was 34 to 37 percent of the total household income. The study concludes by pointing to the population of people living in India â€Å"the percentage of the population of India living in poverty is high. In 1990, 37% of the urban population and 39% of the rural population were living in poverty† (International labour organization 1995, 107). Poverty has an obvious relation with child labour, and study have â€Å"revealed positive links in some case a strong one between child labour and such factors as poverty† (Mehra Kerpelman 199, 8). Family that are poor need money to survive and their children are the only solution. They thought by sending their children to work, will yield more income to their financial aims. In addition, child trafficking led to child labour. Receipt of a child for the purpose of sexual or labour exploitation, severe physical abuse, as in a case cited by Human Rights watch report, Contemporary form of slavery. Pakistan: July, 1995. Two year ago at the age of seven, Anwar started weaving carpets in a village in Pakistans province of sindh. He was given some food, little free time and no medical assistance. He was told repeatedly that he could not stop working until he earned enough money to pay an alleged family debt. He was never told who in his family had borrowed money or how much he had borrowed. Any time he made an error with his work, he was fined and the debt increased. Once when his work was considered to be too slow, he was beaten with stick. Once after a particularly painful beating, he tried to run away, only to be apprehended by the local police who forcibly returned him to the carpet looms. More also, thousands of children are also bought and sold within and across national borders. They are trafficked for sexual exploitation, for begging, and for work on construction sites, plantations and into domestic work. The vulnerability of these children is even greater when they arrive in another country. Often they do not have contact with their families and are at mercy of their employer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For child labour to be totally eradicated these things must be fully met. Firstly, the government of every society should ensure that the needs of the poor are met before attacking child labour. If poverty is totally addressed, the need for child labour will diminish. No matter how hard the society try, child labour will always exist until the need for it is removed. The development of the society is being held back by child labour. Children are growing up as illiterates because they have been working all of their life and not attending school. Sequential rate of poverty is formed and the need for child labour is reborn after every generation. Every society that is affected by this act of child labour, need to address the situation by dealing with the primary cause of child labour through the governmental policies and the enforcement of these policies. Only then will the society succeed in the fight against child labour. Secondly, government should try improving schooling and health care in general will help child labourers because if children are healthy and well educated, they will grow to up to help their society which will become a better place. For instance, making education compulsory and free will motivate most parents to send their children to schools, instead of engaging them in commercial jobs. Finally, employers should not use child labour in ways that are socially unacceptable and that lead to a child losing his or her educational opportunities. The difficulty of the issue of child labour means that companies need to address the issue sensitively, and not take action which may force working children into more abusive forms of work.

Clapham Junction By Paul Theroux :: essays research papers

*Meaning of the title: A junction is a place where roads come together or such as in this story break up in different directions. This regers to the end, where Mrs. Etterick asks for 'one single and one return to Sunbury, please'. Mrs. Etterick is going to drop her retarded daughter, Gina, at a special institution in Sunbury for Christmas. She doesn't want her daughter around: their ways are separated in the station (although Mrs. Etterick travels with Gina to Sunbury). 'Clapham' is a word that is often used by Theroux (the writer) in his other short stories (not in this book). Narrator: The narrator is an omniscient and unintrusive narrator: he knows everything but he doesn't give a comment. Hints in the story: * In the beginning they are talking about Gina and Mrs. Etterick says that 'hers is not the sort of affliction that can be cured in a place like Sunbury'. We don't know what's in Sunbury but we know that there's something with Gina that cannot be cured there; she has a disease. * Cox asks Mrs. Etterick 'Are you going away for Christmas?' and a bit further he asks 'So you might be alone?' and she answers 'I'm not sure'. * p.111 They hear Gina's present: a transistor. Mrs. Etterick explains it 'I decided to give Gina her present early' characters: All the characters (4-Mrs.Etterick/Rudge/Cox/Gina) are telling stories but the important thing is that they don't listen to each other, they constantly interrupt each other; they 're very selfish in a certain way but they apparently work in the same company/building: Cox says that 'When I didn't see you in your office (p.111) ...' And Rudge said that is was 'a party with all the secretaries'. Another similarity is that they sill don't know what they're going to do with Christmas (where/with who?). Mrs. Diana Etterick: She has a daughter, Gina who is nearly thirty but she's retarded. She lost her husband Richard (who works at the university) in Thailand (while they were living there) to a twenty-one year old Chinese girl, who was determined to leave China. They're both now in Australia while she's alone (except for now). She's very cynic avout that - p.112 Rudge asks 'Was it a tropical disease?' 'Yes', replies Diana 'she was about 21...' She hates Christmas: she didn't went to the par ty at work and on p.112 she says 'In Bangkok, you never know it was Christmas' and 'I'd like to spend the next eight days in bed,watching rubbish television.

High School and District Championship

Holding the ball in my hands, sweat pouring off my forehead into my eyes, I stare confidently at the hoop, ready to shoot my first free throw. My teammates are lined up behind me at the half court line yelling words of encouragement. I shoot my first shot and the ball flies through the air. After what seems like centuries, it sinks in the rim with a loud swoosh, and the crowd roars. My teammates rush up to me, high- fiving and slapping me on the back. The game is tied and I have one more shot. The eferee tosses me the ball and the gym falls silent.Adrenaline coursing through my veins, I shoot the second shot. It rolls around the rim and falls in. The gym is alive with excitement as the final buzzer sounds and all my teammates are on their feet jumping and cheering, some crying with Joy. We won the state championship! In the midst of all this, a strange thought enters my mind. Where would I be if I hadn't been in basketball? My basketball career started in 4th grade. Back then the onl y thing I really wanted to do was run around, dribble a ball, and hang out with friends. Practices were all very basic: plenty of layups and dribbling drills, and not much shooting or running.When our season began, we went into the games Just for fun; however, we started getting better and going into games with a â€Å"NO LOSE† attitude. We ended our fourth grade season undefeated. This is where my love of the game started. This devotion continued throughout later elementary and middle school. We have been extremely lucky to have 5 girls who have remained constant through all of the adversity we have faced together. When I started high school, I had to go hrough a big change that I had never experience before. I was no longer the star. I had girls four years older than me, not to mention much better.I had to earn my spot. Though I didn't play much varsity my freshman year, I learned many ways to improve. The last game of my freshman year was the district championship against our arch-rivals St. Thomas More, which we lost. As I was sitting in the locker room, watching the senior girls cry and listening to them apologizing for not getting us farther, I started setting goals in my head. Our coach came in after the game, gave us piece of paper and told us to write down what we needed to improve, so the seniors the following year wouldn't feel that way.That next summer we pulled those papers out and we started to improve on our flaws. My sophomore year was one that I will never forget. The transition from my freshman year to my sophomore year was a little more drastic. Instead of sitting the bench like I had the previous year, I was now starting varsity as a point guard. Starting the season with this big of a responsibility was very nerve-wracking on me, but my teammates and coaches, gave e a great deal of confidence that carried me through the season.We had two amazing seniors that were great leaders and very effective on the court. The night before the dis trict championship, I was admitted into the hospital for appendicitis. It was the worst feeling I had ever had in my life. The thought of letting my team down tore me apart. I called my head coach at 4 am the morning of the game, letting him know what had happened and that I wouldn't be playing that day. Three hours later I nad my appendix taken out. All I remember is lying in the hospital bed crying, hinking why this had to happen to me when it did.When I woke up after surgery, my coach had come to see how I was doing and to let me know that this had happened for a reason and that we would make it work. He told me that if I wasn't able to go to the game, he would bring me a radio on the way so I could be sure to listen, and that he would stop afterwards to let me know how it went and I could see the team. After all day lying in my hospital bed crying, I was released at 2 pm that day and the first place I went was the gym. When I walked in, my team gathered around me to make ure I w as 0k.As I continued to watch them shoot, I decided I wanted to go to the game, but I didn't want to ride with anyone other than the team. I checked with my mom and she allowed me to ride the bus to the game. Sitting on the sideline, I watched my team win the district championship. My day went from terrible to amazing in less than two hours. It was a great feeling when a few of my teammates came up to me and said, â€Å"This was for you! † The season continued after that, and we won the regional championship, and we made our first trip to the2009 State Tournament, and we placed 3rd.After all that success my sophomore year, we hit some adversity starting into my Junior summer. After our trip to state, our head coach got an offer for a different coaching position at a bigger school, and our assistant also got another Job offer teaching. We were left coach-less, and the 5 of us that had been together through everything up to this point didn't know what we were going to do. A few of us started going to open gym in another town, so we could play, because we had no one to open it for us at home. We older girls tried getting everyone together to see what their thoughts on the situation were.Finally, in August of my Junior year, they hired someone. It was such a relief knowing that our season wasn't going to be dropped before it even started. We had a few open gyms with the new guy, and suddenly he quit. He left us a week and a half before our official season started. There we were again, shocked and hopeless, some of us wanting to move to another town, Just so we could play. Then our current coach took the position. He had been the boys head coach for a few years having Just a couple successful seasons.The team had a meeting the Tuesday before practice started and he asked us to make eam goals for the season; we told him, â€Å"A trip to the state tournament, and an undefeated season. † Coach looked at us crazy but wrote them down. We started the season off stronger than ever, winning all of our games until it came to the West River Tournament, which we had been back-to-back champs the previous years. We played Wall and they ended up beating us by 3 in the championship game. It was devastating; we couldn't believe they took our perfect season, Just like that. After that game we came back ready to kill, and that's exactly what we did.We went into the istrict championship 21-1 . That â€Å"NO LOSE† attitude came back into effect and we won the district championship and the region championship for the second year in a row. We went back to state and played our hearts out, with the help of one amazing senior who played a huge role in our team's success. We finished 5th as consolation champions. As I reflect on the many years I have put into this game, I can't help but still wonder where I would be without it. I have learned so much about life, relationships, and hardships through this experience.With the help of basketball I m a ble to be a good leader, can work through adversity, and am a competitor through any obstacles I am torced to tace. As a senior, this year is the beginning ot the end of my high school basketball career, and I want nothing less than a state championship. I want to feel the rush of being on the line, with the game in my hands, and seizing that opportunity to make my teammates proud; to prove that all that hard work and hours in the gym has paid off. I want to leave the Newell Lady Irrigators knowing we accomplished something great, and that we will always be remembered.

Firoozeh Dumas Essay

â€Å"To deny someone and education is not just a crime but a sin, because you are denying that person the opportunity to realize who he or she is meant to be. † This quote represents Firoozeh Dumas’s view on learning and becoming the person that she is today. Through her hardships, struggles, good times and the bad times, she has matured and learned a great deal. In the autobiography Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, the themes or clashing cultures, new environments, and learning through experience comes into play. The story begins as Firoozeh moves with her family to the United States in 1972, as a seven-year-old. From the moment her airplane lands, she starts to see differences; not only in the geography of the land and the appearance of the people, but the look of the whole place. She is used to bustling cities in Iran, crowded with enthusiastic workers, shoppers, and people socializing. In contrast, her new neighborhood in America seemed fairly unexciting; she describes it as uniformed houses, all the lawns in perfect order, as if everything was constantly being maintained to achieve the ideal look. But little did she know that this was only the beginning of differences. Entering a new school would open a whole other orbit of biculturalism. As she enters school, she sees everyone; completely different looking from her, and all of them fluent in English. Curious classmates peered around her desk, examining her from head to toe trying to figure out who she is; what type of creature she is and where she comes from. To make things even worse, Firoozeh’s mother decides to attend school with her, to learn proper English. This leads to ultimate humiliation for Firoozeh. Not only is she an immigrant student, but an immigrant student with her mother in elementary school with her. Students constantly ask her where she comes from, as if she’s an alien of some sort. She slowly learns to respond by saying â€Å"You know, the country where Persian cats come from. † She hopes to one day learn English properly so she can fit in and communicate with her fellow students. Her first day is completely confusing as she tries to embrace all that is happening around her. On the way home, the bus driver drops Firoozeh and her mother a few blocks away from their house. Not so familiar with the location, they get further confused and can’t recognize their own home. To them, the homes all look alike, and can’t distinguish their own from the rest. These incidents represent the difficulties that Firoozeh goes through in her first couple of months in America. However, after a couple of months time, she learns more and more about the American culture and believes she is on her way to â€Å"Americanization. † During summer vacation, the family celebrates their first year completed in America by voyaging to Disneyland. Being a child, Firoozeh is completely star-struck and amazed by the tiny world created for the sole purpose of entertaining people. All her favorite Disney characters that she had only heard the names of in Iran were now walking amongst her in real life! Firoozeh wasn’t the only one who enjoyed herself. Her father Kauzem described Walt Disney as a â€Å"†¦ genius, a man whose vision allowed everyone, regardless of age, to relive the wonderment of childhood. † (p. 17) Their lives in America seemed to be improving, until the Iranian Revolution ten years later. Firoozeh, now a seventeen year old, was again suffering from racism everywhere she went. People were now staring at her again, questioning her and calling her a terrorist, just because of what was happening in her country. The pain of not fitting in was now something she became accustomed to, and she decided to overcome it by further educating herself. She was thankful to have the opportunity to be educated, and she wanted to take advantage of her chance. Firoozeh spent high school learning French, until she got fluent in it. She was offered an opportunity to travel to Paris for two months because of her immense skill and fluency at the language. There, she again faces racism, where she is interviewed and labeled as a seventeen-year-old spy. She begins to ignore the racism around her, and advances in her studies. From education, she learns who she really is. The strength is now ingrained in her and she knows who she is: a young Iranian woman who has succeeded through many hardships. Nothing can stop her from learning, the main factor that helped her develop her personality. The main conflict she faces over and over again throughout the story is intense racism and not being able to fit in with every other American. By end, she realizes that by using education she can overcome all her struggles. Firoozeh Dumas ends up marrying a Frenchman who she meets in college, and they both live happily together. She realizes that her own encouragement and drive to study has brought her all the way to college, and finds her a perfect partner. As she said before, education is what helps a person realize what they are meant to be. In my opinion, the character goes through many hardships; and just as things begin to turn up, she again falls into another political conflict because of the Iranian Revolution. With these multiple problems she has to face, she realizes that one key factor can help her survive through it all: education. She knew that as long as she kept studying and taking advantage of the right of education, she will succeed; and she did. I think she dealt with her hardships perfectly and came out extremely strong at the end. This book is an ideal representation of an immigrant girl coming from Iran. It shows the perfect perspective of what someone like Firoozeh might think, and the problems they will face. It gives an opportunity for the reader to advance their knowledge on a new culture, to see an Iranian immigrant’s point of view. By adding some humor in the story, it becomes even more entertaining and interesting to learn about Firoozeh’s struggles. This book has given me an increased amount of respect for people who come from a different country. Firoozeh’s education helped her go extremely far and be successful in life, and I hope the same will happen to me because I’m blessed with the right of education that Firoozeh describes.