Walmart Synthesis esssay 1st draft

Wal-Mart, why it isn’t a gift

Synthesis Essay on Wal-Mart
Submitted to: Mr. Garrioch
By: HaeUk Ko
Student ID: 111009
For: English Composition
Should have been On: Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Actually submitted on: Friday, March, 9th, 2012


The relationship between customers and producers is an intimate relationship that is central to the modern citizen who is not capable of producing all the things one needs. This has grown even more important as nowadays, world-wide enterprises take a big role and the average citizen is belittled by his/her counterpart in the relationship. Because one side of the deal is too powerful compared to the other, certain cases arise where citizens believe themselves to be cheated by their counterparts. One such case is the Wal-Mart crisis. Wal-Mart should be blamed for harming the economic base of the local society, forcing unjust relationship regarding the producers of the product Wal-Mart sell, and maltreating the employees of Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart becomes the dominant workplace around the local are as soon as it is built. This means that a substantial part of the local workforce is drafted by Wal-Mart as its ‘associates’. A society where the majority of the job offered is Wal-Mart ‘associate’ is neither attractive nor healthy. It is widely known that Wal-Mart associates are part-time workers. The associates do not receive a monthly salary they would have gotten if employed at the local herb-store but rather get hourly fees. A monthly salary is beneficial in the sense that the worker earns a stable income and that workers are free to leave work at any time after the pre-assigned time without having to worry about the hours their manager count. On the other hand, part-time workers earn hourly fees counted by the hours they put into work. This means that if a worker is sick or otherwise occupied due to unpreventable reasons, the worker’s income becomes drastically different based on whether he/she is a full-time employee or a part-time worker. Hence, a significant portion of the local area’s workforce becomes dependent on Wal-Mart and loses the power to pursue their economic rights if Wal-Mart violates it.
Furthermore, Wal-Mart doesn’t only affect people who work at companies but also people who own a company in the area. The documentary, “Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price”, does a splendid job of illustrating how local-owned mom&pop shops are negatively affected by the establishment of a Wal-Mart. From the documentary, a case can be seen where a shop dealing with hardware such as bolts and nuts was forced to close because Wal-Mart moved into the community. H&H hardware, located at Middlefield, Ohio, was affected in such a way because Wal-Mart’s field of sale overlapped with H&H hardware. The short clip, “When Wal-Mart comes to town: a success story”, John O’Leary, owner of a contractor equipment shop emphasizes how Wal-Mart helped his store by making more traffic and consequently, more customers. However, this situation can be seen as a result of the comparative freshness of the Wal-Mart in his area. Wal-Mart does not usually touch all fields of sale when they first move into town. Rather, they wait until they get settled and stable in the area before expanding. If the local Wal-Mart decided to include contractor equipment as a part of its sales, Mr. O’Leary would have stood no chance.
Retail stores do not produce the products they sell, but rather buy them from the producers and then make profit by selling the products at a higher price. This indicates that the original price of the product determines to a certain extent, the market price. However, this becomes different when the market is dominated by a large enterprise. In this case, Wal-Mart, who should be determining their price based on the original price they purchase, rather indirectly lowers the original price by setting the market price at a low price. Because Wal-Mart has grown so big and so many producers are dependent on Wal-Mart for their products to reach the market, Wal-Mart wields the power to set the price. Consequently, producers are forced to sell their products at a very low price in order to meet the Wal-Mart standards. This harms the producers in that they cannot sell their products at an adequate price and it also harms the customers because producers try to use cheaper, less-secure methods of producing. Despite Wal-Mart’s slogan that it saves the producers by granting access to the market, Wal-Mart threatens the producers by granting access that is controlled by Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart mal-treats its employee regarding health issues, racial issues and job-contract issues. Because most Wal-Mart employee are part-time workers, they are vulnerable to unfair contracts or change in their contract concerning their health-insurance and job-contracts. In most countries, part-time workers are guaranteed less legal security when it comes to health insurance. This makes health-insurance contracts prone to unjust adjustments by the company, such as Wal-Mart, which is one of the biggest promoters of part-time jobs in the world. Wal-Mart employees have been reported to be exposed to on-the-spot firing. According to “The High cost of low prices”, Wal-Mart has repeatedly used on-the-spot firing to firing workers who were too loud in voicing complaints. This also worked against union forming process among Wal-Mart employees.
To conclude, Wal-Mart does not benefit the people in the sense that it harms the local economic base on both the work-force level and the enterprise-level. The local work-force are presented with only a limited number of choices which are oftentimes part-time jobs. Local shop-owners quit their business because Wal-Mart does not leave room for competition. Producers suffer from not getting enough out of their produce due to Wal-Mart’s tyrannical price policies. The “Associates” working at Wal-Mart are not treated as any proper associate should be, but are rather deprived of their rights. If the governments will not act for the people, then at least, may some divine being strike this monster down.



Works cited:
The High cost of low prices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hftb_DVuelo&feature=player_embedded#!
When Wal-Mart comes to town: a success story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtcBiaflUQ&feature=player_embedded
Chicago approves its first Wal-Mart
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5069992/ns/business-us_business/t/chicago-approves-its-first-wal-mart/

Our Pokemons for the class~!

Goodbye 이건우 !

His last song in K-Pop star, a Korea auditon program


his first song


singing with others as a group


Singing JYP's song as usual kkk

Walmart crisis -defendant's say

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/markets/business/3957-in-defense-of-wal-mart.html
Article in defense of walmart

Walmart crisis- the dark side

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmarting
walmarting -wikipedia

Ode to Fever

Ode to fever
How have you been my friend? Are you surprised that I refer to you as a friend, when we have been in dispute since the earliest fringes of my memory? But, remember this, my friend; we were born for each other! Just looking at my parents will settle you, I think. When one is born for the other, there is no choice but to accept the simple fact and make the best out of it. Thus, I have made peace with you.

But will you? And if you do, will I be able to bare it?

Doubt clouds me as I recall that you have wounded me of not just body but also of mind. As I strove to drive you out of me, I centered my focus on you when others of my age put focus to toys and games, later on moving to dates and movies. During the laggard combats, one or two friendly spirits would occasionally chance on me, haggard as I was. But, none would come to me willingly as you enveloped all my good will and want of companion. At such times I would weep bitter tears and confine myself to a cellar I had constructed under the deepest of pools in my heart, brooding on the bleak life you presented. Biding my time for revenge, I searched long and hard of what and perhaps, who you are. I started by analyzing what features you let me glimpse during my struggles. I found that you are a shape-shifter fully capable of, but not licensed of, changing into the various forms I fought. Yellow phlegm was one that I despised the most. As it stuck at my throat and refused to budge, I was helpless while my voice was lost and my throat became raw. Then there are the snivel and snot. Of late, you seem to enjoy this form the most. Mark my words, my mother will kill me if she finds out that I made peace with you just for this fact, oh the money she spent on all the tissues! Last of all, there is the thrice damned cough as well. Though you don’t take this form as much as the earlier one, this is the one that really threatens to get me an early coffin. Ah, the sleepless nights! But, don’t worry, I not thinking of making you pay the blood price for all the blood I lost when my lung veins burst, in the near future at least.

Then why try making peace in the first place, do you ask?

Because as much as all the hate and fury gone in to my dispute with you, a strange kind of love always followed, grooming the hurt lands where we struggled. With time, I have come to accept what is you and furthermore have come to respect you as I would a living being, rather than a lifeless disturbance. Thanks to you, I learned care for my neck and its cord with the delicacy that one could not have gained without years of experience. Thanks to you, I have earned the funny nickname, the most efficient water intake in history (all that sniveling equals the amount of liquid I drink), something most wouldn’t ever be able to boast of. Thanks to you, I now understand what my mother went through during pregnancy, as asthma ravaged her lungs. Thanks to you, I have come to value what I have, regardless of its grandeur and quality.

I will be looking forward to increasing the viscosity of our friendship, at least we should equal that of your phlegm!

FAO resolution at KMUN2012

Committee: FAO
Topic: Proposing new paradigms of aid for the horn of Africa
Signatories: Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Argentina, China, Chile, Switzerland, India, South Sudan, Germany, Sudan, Djibouti, Egypt, Turkey
Deeply concerned that people of the Horn of Africa, with their nationalities of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and South Sudan, is suffering under successive years of fatal famine,
Reminding all nations of the celebration of the 64th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which recognizes the rights to standard of living,
Reaffirming this committee’s resolution numbered as FAO-A2, on which the member nations of the FAO have agreed upon working against food price volatility to protect poor households and rural farmers,
Noting with satisfaction the past efforts of various relevant UN bodies, governments of the member nations, and nongovernmental organizations, empowering underdeveloped nations of resilience,
Regretting a recent closure of a MSF(Medicins Sans Frontieres) office in Somalia after its two personnel have victimized by a terrorist attack, and any other frustrations against NGO activities in the region,
Stressing the fact that there should be enhancement of current missions and programs, as well as implementation of new methodologies to resolve the region’s fundamental politic chaos,

1) Promotes the integration of agricultural and industrial aspects(industrialization of agricultural industry) through combining resources in the Horn of Africa with developed nations’ industrial capacity with the partnership with African Union and FAO to;
a) Pursue general good of the Horn of Africa to develop general economy to step out of famine with fairness and transparency with new paradigms suggested,
2) Promoting better transportation in the Horn of Africa for the purpose of better distribution of crops both domestically and internationally by;
a) Receiving aids from developed countries in order to build new railroads and reinforcing currently existing railroads to transport the year’s harvest from arable regions to arid regions, in case where land transportation is promoted
b) Requesting aids from developed countries in order to stabilize river systems to transport the year’s harvest from arable regions to arid regions, in case where river transportation is promoted
3) Urging the developed nations to allow developing countries to take their technologies that consists of;
i) Bio-technologies, which indicates certain positive qualities such as but not limited to;
ii) Limited use of a Genetically Engineering technique which is expected to grant the plants flexibilities towards standing hostile conditions of Africa in support of irrigation system;
iii) Help regional farmers yield their food claiming their ownership upon the produced crops to revive the first level industry presented by agriculture;
iv) Promotion of biodiversity that allows the farmers in the Horn of Africa to diversify the plants they grow ultimately warding off plant-related diseases and reducing the use of pesticide;
v) The establishment of seed data-base for better accessibility of various seeds to ascertain what seed is appropriate for a certain land use
vi) Vaccines for plant-related diseases,
a) Cash crop-related technologies, which will allow the region to independently produce refined-cacao and coffee beans that can be sold in higher price than the crude ones, in order to allow the governments to provide the local farmers with financial aid,
b) Infrastructure-related technologies to pursue for betterment of living condition of people and to allow the region to be free from draught that consists but not limited to:
i) Irrigation technology,
ii) Technology for reviving the arid regions
4) Promotes Feed-in-Tariffs system to encourage developed nations and multinational corporations to share their skills with the developing nations in a mutual contract in order to increase farming land in developing nations and provide financial benefit to the developed nations in vice versa;
5) Requests the United Nations General Assembly to agree upon establishment of a UN Peacekeeping Operation(PKO) in the region as an effort for some areas such as:
a) Coastal countries, to implement peaceful atmosphere within the nation which local military rebel such as Al-Shabab threaten rural farmers and force them to grow money-making crops, instead of main food crops of the region;
b) Newly independent countries, to help its newly founded government to peacefully gain control through all of its territory;
c) Refugee camps, to protect unarmed civilians without any nationality from local military rebels;
6) Urges an implementation of an emergency plan to make farmers be aware of upcoming weather conditions by:
a) collaborate with FEWSNET(Famine Early Warning Systems Network) to locate future weather fluctuations or possible disasters via satellite such as but not limited to:
i)sudden precipitation of lack of precipitation
ii)natural disasters
iii)drought
b) conduct the emergency plan by taking actions such as:
i) making governments to activate their irrigation system when FEWSNET predicts possible drought
ii) making NGOs prepare surplus amount of food before possible drought or natural disasters
iii) dispense telephones to the horn of Africa. In consecutive regions within walking distance
7) Urges governments to introduce a ‘charter to end extreme hunter’ that is designed to:
a) enforce ‘accumulate tax’ on the rich in the Horn of Africa to invest in local food production
b) Request ‘accumulative tax’ on the rich in the Horn of Africa to provide aid to the financially lowest 10%.

My Position on Agenda B regarding FAO of KMUN2012

Agenda B: Proposing new paradigms of aid for the horn of Africa
The Food and Agriculture Organization of UN needs to turn its attention to the Horn of Africa and renovate their efforts in combating starvation and other relevant problems in the area. The FAO previously focused on the supply of food resources from other regions. This was because in most countries, starvation is primarily due to lack of edible and nutritional food gained through harvest. However, Kenya suffers from a different type of starvation problem. Kenya’s fertile farms produce enough crops to feed the whole population with crops of rich nutritional value; yet, every day thousands of families cry because they cannot find something to eat.
The primary reason why many Kenyan families have problem finding food is the low level of stable transportation. Because transportation between areas with farms yielding more crops than one area can consumes and areas where crops are rare is not stable, farmers cannot sell their crops to starving people even though they want to do so. If the Food and Agriculture Organization will aid Kenya’s efforts at constructing better railroads and water ways, the crisis in Kenya can be elevated by a great degree. This is also beneficial for both Kenya and the donor countries of FAO because if the transportation problem is solved, Kenyans can become independent of food aid brought by FAO and donor countries can put to more efficient use of their donations.
Moreover, the increasing rate of farms growing only cash crops is another fearsome problem in the Horn of Africa. In recent years, horticulture produce and tea have become crops of more value than most staple crops in Kenya. Since then, more farms in the fertile highlands have turned to harvesting cash crops. This is not merely an issue of Kenya because the Kenyan highlands are one of the most fertile lands in Africa and with proper adaptation of stable transportation, can become the main supplier of food for all of the Horn of Africa. Therefore, the FAO need to take measures to stop the decrease of farms growing staple crops. To illustrate, sending FAO agents to help the Kenyan government at forming an education program for farmers can be a way for FAO to help ease the problem.
The current cassava crisis is another problem threatening Kenya and the rest of the horn of Africa. Recently, a deadly virus has been found that attacks cassavas and make them inedible. This epidemic started from Uganda and is spreading into adjacent Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is an especially fearsome problem because the signs of infection are shown only at the roots of the plant and farmers become aware of their failure only when they start their harvest. This virus might just be the cause for the next Irish potato crisis back in the 19th century. This is due to the similar rate of dependence Irish people of that time had on potatoes and East African people have on cassavas. Since cassava grows exceptionally well at places with relatively low rainfall and poor soil, it has become the staple crop of many drought-ridden countries at the horn of Africa. Thus, the FAO needs to organize their scientists and fund them adequately so that they will find a cure before the next crops are planted. Also, FAO can help countries to regulate the distribution of cassavas in the area so that the disease will not spread to the already drought-ridden regions.
To conclude, the Food and Agriculture Organization have to renew their methods of aid in Kenya and the rest of the Horn of Africa in order to properly combat food and agricultural problems in the area. FAO should not limit their aid to merely fields of agriculture and food import, but also focus on the foundations on which food is delivered to the tables of hungry people. FAO needs to be wary of the decreasing proportion of staple crop growing farms in the region and help local governments to maintain a sufficient level of staple crop producing farms. FAO is sorely needed in combating the casaba crisis in East Africa and can make a significant difference to the search for the cure.