The Inevitable Spread of Soviet-backed Communism in Eastern Europe Essa

The Inevitable Spread of Soviet-backed Communism in Eastern Europe At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States were principle players involved with reshaping post-war Europe. The region most affected policy changes was Eastern Europe, which includes those states that would eventually fall behind the Iron Curtain. While the camaraderie between the Big Three deteriorated, Soviet-backed communism was spreading across Eastern Europe. The argument during this time was that expansionism was inevitable since Stalin had already decided to establish Soviet power and Soviet-typed systems in the lands his army occupied; resistance was pointless. While nothing in history is inevitable, to a great extent, expansionism was highly probable, especially due to Eastern European political traditions, its political structure after World War II and the West's inactivity in the region which left the area more susceptible to Soviet-backed communism. As George Schopflin states, "Stalin, however ruthless and powerful he may have been, w as not possessed of superhuman abilities" (58). Prior to the war, Eastern Europe did not have a history of strong democratic traditions. Schopflin, who describes the region as "backward and authoritarian" goes on to say, "The bulk of the population was excluded from any significant control over political decision-making and tended to acquiesce in the old, established patterns of rule and deference" (38). From 1918 to 1944, Eastern Europe was dominated by great empires, such as the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, but almost overnight, that structure toppled, leaving a power vacuum. During the years between World War I and World War II, Eastern Europe looked to the West for a suc... ...ge Anglo-Soviet relations and conceded much of Eastern Europe. However, it was beneficial to the British and the Americans to sacrifice the region because they needed evidence to define the Soviet Union and communism as the enemy. Soviet-backed communist expansion was not inevitable, but it was greatly aided by international factors and Eastern European domestic factors. Bibliography Ash, Timothy. "Hungary's Revolution: Forty Years On" The New York Review. McCauley, Martin, ed. Communist Power in Europe 1944-1949. New York: Harper & Row publishers, 1977. Schopflin, George. Politcs in Eastern Europe 1945-1992. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. Seton-Watson, Hugh. The East European Revolution. London: Methuen & Co., 1956. Yergin, Daniel. Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977.

International Business Strategy Essay

The Shangri-La hotels and resorts initiated in 1971 with a flagship hotel in Singapore. The Hong Kong based hotel chain now has around fifty five deluxe hotels and resorts across the world. The Shangri-La currently has hotels and resorts in Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America. Shangri-La hotels and resorts shall soon be opening hotels in the regions of the Maldives, the Philippines and in Bangalore, Mumbai, Thailand and India. We can concur from this rapid international growth of the Shangri-La that the hotel is expanding its operations to various countries and increasing its international presence. The hotel not only needs to devise strategies for entry but for overall operation as well with respect to human resource, marketing, services and general management. This paper shall discuss the intricacies of the entry strategy employed by Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, the corporate strategy that it observes, the competitive strategy and the competitive business strategy that it exercises. The paper shall also perform a functional analysis of the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts in terms of the Human Resource Management strategy that it exercises. The paper shall conclude by identifying key organizational dimensions that have been established through the study performed in the paper. Introduction to the Subject MNE The launching of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts began in the 1971 with a flagship hotel, in Singapore. Till the year 2008 it has been recorded to have 55 deluxe hotels located in major cities of Asia, Europe, Australia, United States and the Middle East. Along with these the Shangri-La Resorts and Hotels bear alliance with their Sister Company the Trader’s Hotel that fulfills the catering requirements of business travelers. This chain of hotels was set up by Mr. Robert Kuok and now his nephew Mr. Edward Kuok Khoon Loong holds the position of chairman of the board for Shangri-La Asia Limited. Despite its ranking as a 5 star deluxe hotel, it has had quite a few unfavorable reviews. But it appears that the positive reviews far supersede the negative ones. For instance one guest reviewed the hotel as part spectacular and part unimpressive. According to this guest, The Horizon Club Premier room was far from the exemplary 5 star deal originally promised. However this guest goes on to suggest that while the Horizon Premier wing was unimpressive, when asked for a transfer to another wing, known as the Valley wing this guest was highly pleased, it was everything the hotel had promised and more. The luxuriant 5 star deluxe tagline was apparent in the spectacular yet cozy furnishing and the service was described to be incredible. Another guest however described the service of the hotel to be despicable. First not only were the details of their payments messed up, they were forced to pay more or if they could not, they had to move to the lowest paid room, which was a far cry from the luxurious settings of the Valley Wing, there they were submitted to zero rated service, as it appeared that only affluent guests were applicable to affluent treatment. However their being ushered into a lower class room meant that they were not worth the special brand treatment reserved for the high paying guests. Contrary to the above negative reviews, a couple who stayed at the Shangri-La Hotel described the treatment, services, luxurious settings and furnishings as unbelievably fantastic, they too stayed at the Horizon club and in contrast with above reviews, they described it as a highly pleasurable experience. Many such guests describe their stay at the Shangri-La hotel as a memorable and nostalgic experience. Every hotel despite its efforts at flourishing, obtains bad reviews, this most probably is dependent on the fact that environments are subject to every individual’s personal thoughts and interpretation, what was unpleasant for some, in contradiction was fantastically better for others. Motivations for Internationalization Internationalization is one of the major elements of growth for any enterprise or organization where companies take advantage of the global business environment involving various countries in the world. There are various factors that motivate companies to invest internationally and expand business from local to international levels. These factors include exploring new markets and taking advantage of growth patterns of certain industries in various countries. The Shangri-La hotel also focuses on new markets where there is good potential for hotels and resorts. Take the examples of India, U. A. E, Australia, Thailand and Maldives. These markets are becoming tourist destinations for individuals from all around the world. These countries are not only tourist destinations but also offer attractive environment for businesses like hotels and resorts. Another motivation for the hotel to internationalize is the lower cost of doing businesses in various countries and high level of revenues the hotel can generate from those areas. The foreign exchange a company earns by doing business abroad is also one of the causes of internationalization. Various countries also offer lower tax rates in various specific industries such as hotels, education and other industries. Shangri-La has gained from opening hotels in new locations both financially and in terms of goodwill. As the company opens new hotels and resorts in various locations, it draws closer to becoming a member of the highly reputed hotel chains of the world. The hotel has to keep up with the challenges being faced in the new locations both regarding the culture of the local populace and catering to the tourists flocking to these locations. The hotel has not only opened in various locations but the plans for extending to newer location and increasing the number of hotels in the present international locations identifies the hotel management’s ideology regarding internationalization. As the company benefits in terms of revenue and status from the international locations, its local popularity grows as well as Shangri-La now signifies a multinational hotel resort chain with five star hotels and resorts at various international locations catering to the needs of a diverse clientele base. The intention of opening hotels in U. A. E and Maldives implies how far the management is willing to go to introduce the hotel chain to newer markets and benefit from the hotel and resort friendly atmosphere in these locations despite of major cultural differences. The hotel chain invests in culturally viable human resource to tackle with the cultural differences and relies on a local and expatriate workforce as well. The hotel like other multinational companies depends heavily on these foreign locations for a constant and sustainable growth which is the most significant cause of internationalization of Shangri-La hotel and resorts chain. Functional Analysis – HRM Modern day Hong Kong based multinational organizations are choosing to establish a work force they can rely on to provide them with a working infrastructure that can adapt to various cultures. This is because of the fact that for multinational hotels, the aspect of human resource adaptability has become just as important as the professional abilities that the candidates posses. This becomes all the more significant in scenarios where hotels and hospitality establishments such as Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts are concerned. In the last few decades, the trend of hiring culture adaptable human resource has undergone a significant degree of growth. This is because of the fact that in order to cater to a global clientele and to serve them, it is essential that the elements performing the services are well versed in the language of the clientele. In order for the working elements of hospitality to function on a global scale, they have to be capable of thinking on a global scale. Albeit, one cannot ignore the fact that their functioning will be within a perimeter where foreign clientele will visit, therefore, it is essential to note that the human resource has to be proficient in the areas involved in the functioning of the immediate locale as well. Because of the same reason, hotels & resorts such as the Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts now choose to hire personnel who can entertain clients from all over the world with the same degree of hospitality. The candidates that Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts now seek out are ones who can be cordial, sociable and have former experience in the area of adapting to clients from across the world with a consistent degree of hospitality. For Honk Kong based Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, knowledge of the language of an immediate region is just as essential as the knowledge of the language used by their clientele from across the world. As Hong Kong based multinationals prepare to expand, the need for personnel who can not only function but also manage the infrastructure at the same time increases. The room for errors is decreasing exponentially over time. The Hong Kong based multinationals are also searching for a workforce which includes people who are affordable. Due to a substantial rise in the operating costs, doing business in Hong Kong has become more expensive in the last ten years. The firms based in Hong Kong are not enthusiastic about giving the incentives and bonuses to foreign workers as they did earlier. The same goes for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, the cost of doing business has affected the human resource policies in hotel management as well. The companies based in Hong Kong including hotels such as the Shangri-La now offer a salary package that includes housing and living costs on into the basic salary. The companies are also starting to offer performance based salary arrangement which are more attractive to new employees (Meijob. com 2008). Entry Strategy  There are three factors which determine the entry strategy for any hotel into international markets which are control of the hotel, commitments of resources and level of risk diversification. The entry strategies available to hotels include complete ownership, franchises, management contracts, joint ventures, strategic alliance and forming a consortium. The entry strategies adapted by Shangri-La hotels for various international locations include sole-ownership, management contracts and equity participation in the form of joint ventures or strategic alliances. These strategies vary from location to location depending on the specific environment of the host countries. The company operates sole-ownership hotels in countries where the gain on real estate is higher and the hotel operations are profitable and have a good potential for growth. In countries where a significant level of risk is involved the company opts for other options such as management contracts where direct ownership of real estate is either not possible or not viable for the company. The hotel chain uses joint ventures in areas where the cost of doing business and the cost of capital is quite high or in locations where there are certain property ownership constraints. The hotels established by the company in various areas were the first luxury hotels of the area and in some areas the company provided luxury hotel services solely. The company had signaled a long term planning structure for the time to come as in 1989 the company started a second hotel chain called Traders. This was a four star mid-ranged hotel brand with lower level of standards than the company’s main hotel chain. The company amended the newly acquired chain and upgraded services to meet the current luxury levels of Shangri-La. The main ideology behind this amendment was to introduce the concept of luxury hotels to newer markets and eventually establishing five star luxury hotels in these regions. Again this market entry strategy reflected the company’s long term goal to take luxury hotels and resorts to newer locations. Though the hotel chain saw difficult times the company gained substantially from its investments in China as the economy of the country flourished. In the starting of the new century the company amended its entry strategy slightly to adapt to global conditions. The company had now acquired hotels in Dubai and Canada. The growth of the company enabled it to open various hotels in different locations during 2000-2005 and there is a long list of hotels which are being planned for newer locations. The entry strategy for global locations has now changed slightly as these markets are already familiar to luxury hotels. The company now aims to gain from its reputation as one of the largest hotel chains of Asia. The company invests heavily in areas with high tourism capacity and targets areas which have a high potential for luxury resorts such as Dubai, Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia which have now become tourist hubs for individuals from around the world with diverse cultural backgrounds.

The Sound and the Fury Quotes

The Sound and the Fury is a complex and controversial novel set in the Deep South. Its author, William Faulkner, is considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. The novel is required reading for many high school and college students as an interesting study of humanity. The quotes from the book below have been separated out by chapters for an easy way to get a sense of the storyline and characters. Notice how Faulkner developed his characters further through the use of intentional misspellings and poor punctuation. April Seventh, 1928 Youre not a poor baby. Are you. Are you. Youve got your Caddy. Havent you got your Caddy. Father and Quentin cant hurt you. Carry Maury up the hill, Versh. Versh squatted and I got on his back. They aint no luck on this place. Roskus said. I seen it at first but when they changed his name I knowed it. They aint no luck going be on no place where one of they own chillens name aint never spoke. We watched the muddy bottom of her drawers. You got him started on purpose, because you know Im sick. Caddy held me and I could hear us all, and the darkness, and something I could smell. And then I could see the windows, where the trees were buzzing. Then the dark began to go in smooth, bright shapes, like it always does, even when Caddy says that I have been asleep. June Second, 1910 I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. That never had a sister. Because if it were just to hell; if that were all of it. Finished. If things just finished themselves. Nobody else there but her and me. If we could just have done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell except us. I have committed incest I said Father it was I. Its not when you realize that nothing can help you—religion, pride, anything—its when you realize that you dont need any aid. Holding all I used to be sorry about like the new moon holding water. What a sinful waste Dilsey would say. Benjy knew it when Damuddy died. He cried. He smell hit. He smell hit. I didnt mean to speak so sharply but women have no respect for each other for themselves. Father and I protect women from one another from themselves our women. There was something terrible in me sometimes at night I could see it grinning at me I could see it through them grinning at me through their faces its gone now and Im sick. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. Its nature is hurting you not Caddy. And maybe when He says Rise the eyes will come floating up too, out of the deep quiet and the sleep, to look on glory. And after a while the flat irons would come floating up. I hid them under the end of the bridge and went back and leaned on the rail. Only you and me then amid the pointing and the horror walled by the clean flame. I could not be a virgin, with so many of them walking along in the shadows and whispering with their soft girl voices lingering in the shadowy places and the words coming out and perfume and eyes you could feel not see, but if it was that simple to do it wouldnt be anything and if it wasnt anything, what was I. Ill tell you how it was it was a crime we did a terrible crime it cannot be hid you think it can but wait. Dont cry Im bad anyway you cant help it. Theres a curse on us its not our fault is it our fault. Listen no good taking it so hard its not your fault kid it would have been some other fellow. I hit him I was still trying to hit him long after he was holding my wrists but I still tried then it was like I was looking at him through a piece of colored glass I could hear my blood. I seemed to be lying neither asleep nor awake looking down a long corridor of gray halflight where all stable things had become shadowy paradoxical all I had done shadows all I had felt suffered taking visible form antic and perverse mocking without relevance inherent themselves. The dungeon was Mother herself she and Father upward into weak light holding hands and us lost somewhere below even them without a ray of light. A fine dead sound we will swap Benjys pasture for a fine dead sound. it was to isolate her out of the loud world so that it would have to flee us of necessity and then the sound of it would be as though it had never been. April Sixth, 1928 Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say. Ask her what became of those checks. You saw her burn one of them, as I remember. Im bad and Im going to hell, and I dont care. Id rather be in hell than anywhere where you are. I never promise a woman anything nor let her know what Im going to give her. Thats the only way to manage them. Always keep them guessing. If you cant think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw. I began to feel sort of funny and so I decided to walk around for a while. Mother was going to fire Dilsey and send Ben to Jackson and take Quentin and go away. Im glad I havent got the sort of conscience Ive got to nurse like a sick puppy all the time. If Im bad, its because I had to be. You made me. I wish I was dead. I wish we were all dead. Sometimes I think she is the judgment of both of them upon me. And just let me have twenty-four hours without any damn New York Jew to advise me what its going to do. I just want an even chance to get my money back. And once Ive done that they can bring all Beale street and all bedlam in here and two of them can sleep in my bed and another one can have my place at my table too. She had been a big woman once but now her skeleton rose, draped loosely in unpadded skin that tightened again upon a paunch almost dropsical, as though muscle and tissue had been courage or fortitude which the days or the years had consumed until only the indomitable skeleton was left rising like a ruin or a landmark above the somnolent and impervious guts. April Eighth, 1928 It was as different as day and dark from his former tone, with a sad, timbrous quality like an alto horn, sinking into their hearts and speaking there again when it had ceased in fading and cumulate echoes. I got de ricklickshun en de blood of de Lamb! I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin. harshly recapitulant, seeming to get an actual pleasure out of his outrage and impotence. The sheriff did not appear to be listening at all. Of his niece he did not think at all, nor of the arbitrary valuation of the money. Neither of them had had entity or individuality for him for ten years; together they merely symbolised the job in the bank of which he had been deprived before he ever got it. Caddy! Beller now. Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! There was more than astonishment in it, it was horror; shock; agony eyeless, tongueless; just sound, and Lusters eyes backrolling for a white instant. The broken flower drooped over Bens fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and faà §ade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place.