Comparison between hmv and itunes stores

Comparison between hmv and itunes stores Introduction: In the past 10 years the internet or e-technology has altered how the industries operate. More affected by the new technology is the music and video industry later the book industry with eBooks. Traditionally consumers have purchased music, video or a book from a store. If it is a music or a video it is bought on CD / DVD and but with the internet came new ways of getting digital content. Apple has launched ITunes for delivery of digital content directly to the consumer, with no physical presence. HMV is using a mixed strategy of maintain a physical store as well as having a website for selling the digital content but the delivery is through shipment of CD/ DVDs. They both operate under the same model B2C. But they have different ways of delivering the goods / services to customer. HMV HMV is the UK and Irelands leading specialist retailer of Music, DVD/Video, Computer Games and Related Products. The company operates around 200 stores in key shopping locations nationwide, equating to over 1million sq. ft. of trading space, as well as a successful online store at www.hmv.co.uk, operated by HMV Guernsey1. HMV sells content in physical from and operates in physical as well as virtual space. ITunes Store The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase; it was as of April 2008 the number-one music vendor in the United States. As of January 2009, the store has sold 6 billion songs, accounting for 70% of worldwide online digital music sales and making the service the largest legal music retailer. As of Sep 2009 the sales of ITunes are 8.5 billion songs, 1+ million HD movies and TV episodes, 2 billion apps with a combines revenue of $ 6.7 Billion 2 . ITunes sells digital content and has virtual presence only. SWOT Analysis: HMV Strengths: * Has both online and physical store presence. Customer can access any of the 2 ways to interact with HMV. * Can sell any item MUSIC/ DVD/ GAMES, no need for any arrangement with HMV. * Can deliver physical items like gaming consoles, posters/ cards etc. Weakness: * Cannot sell individual items in music albums or individual episodes in TV shows. * Not available all the time (except online, which requires shipping of product) Opportunity: The opportunity for stores lies in enhancing the customer experience at the stores. Threat: The physical stores are fast losing significance; the rivals like Zavvi, Woolworths have closed most of their physical stores. Becoming obsolete is the threat faced by the stores of HMV. Itunes: Strengths: * Suits the needs of the current generation. * Content is immediately available for consumption. * Available anytime and anywhere. * It is backed by one of the best companies in the tech world, Apple. Weakness: * Can sell only the products like music that it has been agreement with companies and is authorized to sell. * Cannot sell and deliver online physical items like posters/ cards etc. * Cannot sell items that are huge in size in terms of memory. Games DVDs are usually of a size of 4 Giga Bytes or more and are difficult to download online. * Not available in all the countries. Opportunity: The opportunities lie in expanding into other segments of digital content like eBooks. The Ibooks which is a past of iStore is planning to sell eBooks directly to the customer. Threat: The model of ITunes is easily replicable. The threat is from rivals like Amazon and HMV who want to sell digital music to sell directly to customers same way as ITunes does now. SLEPT Analysis Before creating any business strategy or while evaluating an existing strategy it is extremely important to scan the external environment. SLEPT analysis is an investigation of the Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological influences on a business3. Social: The changing demography of the people will have an impact on the business. The social changes can be psychological, demographical etc. The psychological change that is witnessed is the need for making things happen fast. People do not want to wait for placing an order and waiting to receive it by post. Most of the music albums have one or two hot songs and todays consumers are not willing to pay for the entire album. They want to pay only for the songs they like. Legal: Since the advent of new technology the music industry has been losing its revenue. The illegal file sharing has eaten into the revenues of music companies. Music companies have been suing the file sharing sites like Napster and more recently the piratebay. Even the individuals are sued by the industry; Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has successfully sued a Minnesota woman for copy right infringement and illegal file sharing4. Legal battles resulted in buying of digital content by the consumers. The legal issues lead to the online stores like ITunes that sell music legally online. Legal structure is well in place to support the business of ITunes and HMV. Economical Economy and business cycles affect the business. We are in the middle of an economic recession. Customers will be counting every penny they spend. The most the costs associated with dealing a company the more the customers shy away from that company. HMV: The costs associated with purchasing content from HMV are far more compared to buying music from iTunes. Customer needs to visit a store, browse through a variety of catalogues before zeroing on the music / video to buy. This involves time and travel cost. ITunes: customer can access iTunes by sitting in their homes. Carry the music with them in an iPod. Buying a single song instead of buying an entire album is always cheaper. Political Political changes are related to the influence that government has upon the industry. The political changes usually do not affect much the entertainment industry. In rare cases the governments may feel that some music / video content may be decided to be inappropriate for their country or will hurt the sentiments of the people. They ban the particular content from distribution and delivery. Technological: If there is any singular factor that changed the dynamics of an music industry, it is technology. With the ubiquitous internet, people are able to share digital content freely, which includes music, videos etc. Technology also facilitated the illegal copying and distribution of music and video. Technology also deintermetized the content delivery. As the music is directly delivered to the consumers there is no need for the manufacturers or suppliers of CDs/ DVDs. Technology made it possible to carry the content with us in our IPods, Laptops, Phone etc. Digital content everywhere and on any device is the MANTRA of technology. Companies that fast adapt to this tsunami of technology changes survive while others perish. BCG MATRIX: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) MATRIX is developed by BRUCE HENDERSON of the BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP IN THE EARLY 1970s. According to this technique, businesses or products are classified as low or high performers depending upon their market growth rate and relative market share ITunes: Growth: The Itunes is the undisputed star in the BCG matrix . Between 2000 and 2009 the population using internet has become 1.7 billion from 360 million5. High internet users mean high growth potential for the itunes. Cashflows: Itunes revenues are steadily increasing every year. Strategy: The strategy to be adopted for stars is to hold or invest for growth. Apple is investing in ITunes store by adding app store, which sells games and applications for mobile and computers. With the launch of Ipad Apple is adding the fastest growing segment , eBooks to iTunes , calling it as iBook store as a part of Itunes. HMV: Growth: The growth of the HMV stores has been moderate and better. The increase in sales also partly due to the demise of its closest rivals like Zavvi , Woolworths6. Cashflows: The cash flows for the physical stores are steady but not exactly encouraging. The online stores sales are increasing, hmv.com grew by 16% and waterstones.com grew by a phenomenal 60%7. Strategy: The recommended strategy is to hold or add market share. The company is losing sales as well as sales in the physical stores domain but is growing in the online space. That is why HMV is launching its own delivery of music and other content through direct download from its own website. Shopping Experience: The shopping experience is diametrically different for both HMV and itunes HMV Customer has 2 ways of interacting with HMV. A physical store visit and through online at the website of HMV for purchasing content. its own web site, which operates a sales model of e business. Customer can walk into the HMV stores, touch and feel the products and buy them. This is required especially while buying products like cards and posters. They can seek assistance from the store assistants, whenever they need it. When a customer visits the website www.hmv.com he can buy CDs that are delivered to him by post. When a customer buys any product directly from the store he can use it immediately, but when ordered online using the stores, he needs to wait till he receives the product by post to start using the product. The payment methods are cash or card for physical store payments and only through cards for online payment. ITunes To be a part of ITunes customers need the following: 1. A computer 2. Access to Internet 3. Download iTunes software 4. Have credit / Debit card 5. Error free internet connection. Customers are connected virtually. Customers can search the item they are looking for in no time. Customers can buy the item and start using them immediately, no need to wait for any shipment to arrive. The payment method is only through cards and NO CASH payments. Pricing of goods: HMV: The pricing of goods is entirely dependent on the content (CD/ DVD) that customer is going to buy. Music is sold through albums and the price is fixed per album. The individual items in a Music album or individual episodes in a TV show are not available for purchase. ITunes: The items are sold as bundled products like albums or sold separately as individual items. For example a customer wanting to buy music has an option of buying the complete album or individual songs in the album. Return Procedures: HMV The return policy is dependent on the kind of product purchased. Unwanted, damaged and incorrect or faulty items can be returned to HMV and customer can get a refund or get a damaged item replaced. ITunes When shopping with the iTunes Store, all sales are final. The customer needs to decide what are the items he wishes to buy and add them to the shopping cart. As soon as he clicks the BUY button, the purchases are charged to his account. The money is taken from his debit or credit card account. Once the order is placed there is no way a customer can cancel the order or get a refund. It is the responsibility of the customer to check for compatibility of the items purchased. Type of technology for website: HMV: The technology used by the HMV is * A browser interface for content viewing, no need to for any software (like iTunes). Anyone can view the content with the help of popular browsers like IE, Firefox or Chrome. * Order acceptance via website. No user account needed for buying items from HMV.com * Handles acknowledgement of payment and shipment delivery details for the order ITunes: The technology used by ITunes is Apple proprietary. Items are not sold through a web browser interface like other ecommerce sites. Anyone wanting to access ITunes need to download the software from APPLE and all the actions are through the software. The ITunes comprises of: * An interface for viewing the music/ video catalogs * An order processing system via iTunes account and credit card/ debit card * A delivery system via download from iTunes. ITunes restricts the sale of digital content to those people who are not having iTunes software. HMV and ITunes and E-Business Ladder Technology has changed the way the business happens. E-business is any process that a business organization conducts over computer-mediated network channels. Business organizations include any for-profit, governmental, or non-profit entity. Examples of these processes are on-line purchasing, on-line sales, on-line logistics, customer support, employee training and recruiting, and vendor-managed inventory, production design and control 8. The e business ladder is the ladder that shows where the organization stands with respect to what is possible to achieve in terms of available technology. The ladder shows how effectively the organization is using the advantage of technology and has integrated with business strategy. We will see where HMV and ITunes stand with respect to e -business ladder model of Cisco e-Adoption Ladder (DTI, 2000) HMV needs to move up the ladder to compete with Itunes. HMV is making moves towards this. HMV is adding another business dimension to its website www.hmv.com. The new delivery channel is by means of downloads directly from the website of HMV. This is currently under construction and will be available soon9. Which means HMV is moving up the ladder from just taking orders online and processing them offline to accepting orders and delivering through internet. ITunes is at the top of the ladder. It has tie ups with all leading content providers (music production companies, TV studios, movie producers etc). The customers just need to visit iTunes store to buy any content. This is a seamless integration of suppliers and buyers by iTunes acting as a intermediary facilitating B2C transactions. Emerging Technologies in e-business The emerging technologies that can be used for e-business are * Cloud computing * Mobile computing. ITunes has already made inroads into mobile computing by offering iTunes in its iphone. But iTunes is available only for iPhones. HMV can use the other platforms for mobile computing like Android from Google, Windows Mobile from Microsoft for building applications to sell content on mobiles. Cloud computing is the area that both iTunes and HMV needs to explore. The current business model is delivering the content to the customer by means of download or physical delivery of CD/DVD. Apple restricts the number of machines that can play the content that is downloaded from iTunes. We cannot play the content on more than 5 machines and those machines need to be authorized using the users iTunes account. With cloud computing the content is not necessarily delivered but it can be accessed from anywhere when connected to internet. A customer who buys a music album or songs need not download it to his computer but can access from anywhere and from any computer or any device, say , mobile. Cloud computing is possible only when the connectivity is always established with internet, which is not impossible in near future. How can HMV and ITunes increase market share HMV 1. Showing growth in the existing websites which is possible by new offerings like making downloads available 2. Introducing new product range like selling e readers and new gaming hardware like DSI 3. Introducing loyalty cards. 4. Strong tie up and product sharing with group company Waterstones for selling books and eBooks. 5. Live ticketing , HMV wants to sell tickets for events of the artists along with albums. 6. Starting Pay to Play gaming centers as the new gaming fever catches up across all age groups for games like Call of Duty. ITunes 1. Make it accessible to more people, via browser interface. 2. Make eBooks available 3. Remove the restrictions on the usage of the content bought from iTunes. Conclusion There are valuable lessons to be learnt from the strategy and models adopted by HMV and ITunes. Companies need to be aware of the forces that affect their business including competitors, customers, technology, suppliers, and at times most importantly new entrants into the market. The ITunes has once again proved that, the how ever dominant is the firm in the market it is never safe. Companies must be aware of the technological circumstances that surround the business in order to be on the cutting edge of new developments in the market. New entrants must also be aware of the technology that can give them the advantage over firms that are already dominating the market. Disintermediation is one important way that firms can use technology to streamline production and increase profits. And most importantly, a firm must never become complacent; they must always be on the lookout for new markets in which to expand. References http://hmv.com/hmvweb/navigate.do?pPageID=1083 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theoryslept-analysis235.php http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/business/69220.html?wlc=1264844838 http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/company-news/rivals-demise-boosts-hmv-100114-0729-31157.aspx www.hmv.com www.census.gov/econ/estats/papers/digitalecon.pdf http://hmv.com/hmvweb/navigate.do?pPageID=1530

British Telecommunications and the Drivers of Globalization

Globalization is a phenomenon most often discussed among economists. Most of us have often heard that business is no longer restrained by political or cultural boundaries. Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) expand with little regards of geographical or cultural distance among their target markets. All decisions within a company are made with the additional consideration of how the international world will affect the results of that decision, a factor that most businesses ignored in some earlier decades.As indicated above, discussions about globalization are mostly about its effects toward the business environment, rather than its causes. Companies are more interested toward how a phenomenon will affect their financial conditions rather than where or what the phenomenon is actually coming form. Within this paper however, I will discuss several drivers of globalization. The drivers will be taken from various perspectives about globalization. To provide more connection to the internationa l business environment, we will use the British Telecom, one of the most successful MNEs in the global communication industry, as a reference to help define and justify the drivers of globalization.Furthermore, this paper will discuss the view of whether MNEs are actually competing globally or only regionally. There are arguments among scholars that the global economy do not actually existed. Globalization has taken us through national boundaries but it stopped in regional limits. In other terms, MNEs are not actually operating with global factors within their considerations, but rather regional factors. This view will be examined as we discuss the development of British Telecom.I. Literature ReviewII.1Corporations as Principle DriversAccording to Ron Blackwell (2002), corporations are the principle drivers of globalization. In the process of increasing their market share, corporations found that they need to expand further that their national boundaries allowed. While rapidly inter nationalizing their operations, most corporations fundamentally altered their structure and strategies, boosting the change of their national economy into a more globalize economy.This phenomena might not be observable in the US or European soil, because the process of corporations breaking through national boundaries have occurred several decades ago. However, the phenomenons are still happening today within the Asian and other developing economies. Economist have long predicted that Asia will be the center of massive economic growth in the near future, and the prophecy is fulfilled as China and India are increasingly integrated to the global economy.II.2Political, Technological and Social ConditionsIII.2.1 Market Oriented-PoliciesBeside the principle factor mentioned above, many arguments brought forward other causes of globalization. One of the popular ones is the influence of market-oriented policies. In China for example, the change of governmental policies regarding foreign in vestment and trade was the greatest factor that supported growth of the economy. Several decades ago, China was a country considered to have a ‘closed economy’. Today, the country is the largest recipient of the world’s Foreign Direct Investment and recognized as the most potential market in Asia (Diaz, 2001).III.2.2 Communication and Transportation TechnologyTechnological changes have also contributed to the process of turning the world into a single global economy. The internet spawned the e-commerce, which displayed a tremendous increase in its role in business and trade. As people in modern countries crave the ease of trade provided by the internet, the growth of e-commerce is predicted to last indefinitely. Furthermore, advanced transportation equipment also has a significant role in accelerating the globalization process.II.2.3  Ã‚   Global PhenomenaSocial conditions that supported globalization process consist of several important phenomena. One of those phenomena is the end of the cold war. The reduction of conflicts causes competitive environment for business development and population growth. It was recorded that the number of people on the planet is more than doubled since the 1960’s (Kohl, 2000). Both the reduction of conflicts and the increasing population created more economic, social and environmental linkages, which in the end, spawned globalization. Further analysis and identification of the drivers of globalization will be performed using the British Telecom plc.II. British TelecommunicationsIII.1  Ã‚  Ã‚   Corporate BackgroundBritish Telecommunication Plc is responsible for approximately 25 million telephone lines in the United Kingdom. The company is an international corporation which own and runs most of the telephone exchanges, trunk network and local loop connections for the vast majority of British fixed line telephones. The company, British Telecom is formed in 1981 and has developed itself into five larg e business divisions today, they are: BT Retail, BT Wholesale, Openreach, BT Global Services, BT Exact/One IT. The divisions provide communication services ranging from retailing telecoms to consumers to research & development and consultancy.There are several reasons why the observation on British Telecom is connected to the study of globalization and considered interesting by many. First, the UK telecommunication market was among the first telecommunication market that was deregulated in the early 1980’s. Several of the most influential regulatory innovations, like the price cap regulation was also developed and first implemented in UK telecommunications. Second, the British telecom was the first communication company in the world that was privatized in the early 1980’s. Third, because the UK telecommunication market was the first to be exposed to public interference, communication within the industry is ten years ahead of other European countries.III.2 Corporate Int ernationalizationIII.2.1 Role of Government PolicyAccording to the theories mentioned in the second chapter, there are several drivers of globalization with different emphasize on their significance. Generally, economists acknowledge that companies are the strongest driver of globalization and its processes. Despite the fact that this statement might be true for most MNE’s, regarding the British Telecom, I found that governmental policies are the most influential factor comparatively.Before its privatization in 1984, the British Telecom was granted the right for a monopoly over the fixed line network operations. This boosted the development of the company long enough to provide itself with strong infrastructure to face competitions. Having a major early start at the game, since its privatization, the company has been known as one of the strongest companies in UK. Government monopoly policies which then followed by the market oriented policies helped brought the company to its current position as a market leader in communication (Summanen, 2002).II.2.2  Ã‚   The Role of Corporate ExpansionThe second largest factor, which I believe was the effort within the corporation itself, came in some time after the company was privatized. In 1993, the company announced a joint global alliance through a new joint venture company. This new company is considered as the bridge which leads British Telecom into leading the global telecommunications operator. In order to expand the business by obtaining multinational clients, BT formed and acquired stakes of several joint venture companies overseas. Some of them were Albacom in Italy, Viag Interkom in Germany, Telenordia in Sweden, Dacom in Korea, etc. All of this was performed after there is a leadership change from Sir George Jefferson to Sir Iain Vallance as chairman of the group. This displayed the tremendous role of managerial decisions in the process of BT’s internationalization (Summanen, 2002).II.2.3  Ã‚   Role of Technology and Social FactorsThe changing culture and the increasingly rapid growth of the economy boosted telecommunication business. The 2001residential fixed telephone volumes were recorded to double as much as it was in 1996. Within the same period, local call volumes decreased and national and international call volumes increased. Furthermore, the role of technology in the development of British Telecom can be observed through the statistics also. From 1997 to 2001, calls to mobiles have been recorder to increase tremendously. This increase continues until today (Summanen, 2002).II.2.4  Ã‚   Competing GloballyIn terms of strategic market share, the British Telecom displayed a global approach throughout its lines of business. BT’s overseas activity targets were set to various markets in the world, divided into three segments: the North America market, the Mainland Europe market and the Asia-Pacific region. In North America, the company partnered with MCI to s upport growth. The largest focus is still in its home market and the mainland Europe using its core brands and the market Asia-Pacific region is still being developed (Sumanen, 2002).BibliographyBlackwell, Ron. 2005. ‘Hearing before the US-China Economi ad Security Review Commission Regarding Corporate Globalization Strategies China and the Future of Globalization’.Diaz-Bonilla, E and S Robinson eds. 2001. ‘Shaping Globalization for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security’. 2020 Vision Focus * Washington, D.CKohl, R and K, Orourke. 2000. ‘Whats new About Globalization: Implications for Income Inequality in Developing Countries’ Paper for Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development Conference on’ Poverty and Income Inequality in Developing Countries’ Paris.Summanen, Tuamo. 2002. ‘British Telecom: Searching for a Winning Strategy’. Available at: msl1.mit.edu/CMI/furd_2002_a/btcase.pdf

Psychology and Christianity Integration Paper Essay

Psychology and Christianity: two subjects that have seem to become almost impossible to talk about hand in hand. Psychology has become one completely different subject than Christianity (theology) and both have lost all contact with the other. Psychology is strictly a science and Christianity is solely based on faith and religion and the two can not be integrated together. The real question is why? Why can’t psychology and Christianity be integrated and used together as one? This paper will give some dictionary definitions of both subjects, will provide definitions based on the authors opinion, and will discuss the authors viewpoint on the integration of the two. The American Heritage dictionary defines psychology as â€Å"the science that deals with mental processes and behavior† (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) and defines Christianity as â€Å"the Christian religion, founded on the life and teachings of Jesus† (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). As you could see, both definitions used the words science and religion placing both subjects in their own categories. In modern days, religion and science can not be compared but rather contrasted. The integration of the two does not make sense for those who believe there should be empirical evidence for everything or people who are dependent on the Christian religion and this is where society runs into a problem. The author of this paper, however, believes there should be no problem integrating the two. In her eyes, psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, not necessarily a science but more a study. She does not use the word science because she understands that there are things in the field of psychology that have no empirical answer and therefore can not necessarily be a science, because all things science can be tested and proved. Being a Christian, she believes Christianity is a name for the faith in her Lord Jesus Christ. Because she is a Christian, her window to the world has been shaped through the Word,  her experience and what she knows to be true. In her eyes, God is the creator of the Earth and the Heavens and all things work because of Him. She believes that all things can be integrated with Christianity (theology) because God brought everything to this world. She has confidence in the fact that psychology and Christianity can be integrated. She sees the faults that can come of it but she also does not see a reason for complete separation. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (2000) defines integration as making something a whole, unifying different things as one. The author of this paper understands the integration of psychology and Christianity like this†¦psychology is the head (mind) and Christianity is the heart (soul) but neither one can work without the other. Because of the progression of the world, with technology, science and the need to prove all things empirically, faith has, in a way, been pushed away and not as important, but this is wrong. God is the one that has placed people on this Earth to provide progression and advances and without Him all things would not be possible. So, in order to fully understand these different non-theological subjects it is important to understand that faith and religion are the reason for all other subjects and that integration is actually completely necessary. But there are limitations to this. The advances of science and technology have molded the human mind into thinking that there is a need for proof because are very few things that cannot be proven and why would believe in something that cannot be proven when there are so many things that have been empirically proven? This is where the idea of integration gets messy because there is no experiential way to prove the existence of God and his all-mighty power. But this argument can be debated even further. Let’s take a peek at the idea of the unconscious mind. Clearly this is a psychology topic but why can’t it be related to faith because indeed the unconscious mind has not been completely proven. There is proof that there is such thing as the unconscious but no tangible proof of what goes on and what controls the unconscious. For example, there is no way to prove or disprove the topic of ones dream. A scientist can set someone up to an EEG and measure their brainwaves while they are dreaming but there is no way to prove or measure the content of  their dream. This is much like faith. One can be tested on the existence of their faith and religion but there is no true way of proving it; but there is also no true way of disproving it. So what now? Well in the eyes of the author there is no answer. Either you believe in the possibility of integration or you do not, and a majority of people who do have had an experience that has allowed them to see the true importance of said integration. The other problem that arises with integration is that some Christians are overly explicit with their beliefs. This is bad because people, in these days, are afraid of explicit people so these type of Christians are shut out by people in the scientific realm, because yes God created science but for those that do not understand that going after it in that way turns them off. Psychology has its domains and Christianity has its domains but there is some overlap†¦it is when to approach that overlap that gets messy. There is also the secular stand of â€Å"Christians being hypocrites.† There is a chance that psychology and Christianity have become so separated because some Christians do not want to be judged by other Christians. Back in the day, Christians would go to their pastors for help but now, because of fear of judgement, Christians want an outside view, a psychologist. Now, in this context, it is hard for integration. But this is not what integration needs to mean. Integration is simply unifying two things as one. Understanding that God created the Earth and the Heavens and that all things are made and work in God’s power allows for integration to happen.   So what do we need to do? Do we need to come up with both a psychological and theological definition for integration? No. We simply need to come to the conclusion that Christians will believe in Christian ways and scientists will believe in scientific ways and how both understand integration will be dependent on each individuals life, experience and truth. Because on both ends of the spectrum, there are unanswered questions and there will always be unanswered questions. Questions like who is God? what is sin? how do we measure God’s truth? who says Scripture is true? what does faith look like? what is the unconscious? how do we measure the content of dreams? how do we  measure the idea of â€Å"seeing the light?† These are all important questions but questions that without extreme progression and world advances will not be answered. That type of progression will not exist in the lifetime of this author so what she has concluded is that God created the world and the Heavens and that he creates all things in it. Therefore, in order for science to work, in order for psychology to work, there must be an acceptance of it being God’s world. Because if there is no God, there were did all this stuff come from?

What Do Canadian Senators Do

There are usually 105 Senators in the Senate of Canada, the upper chamber of Canadas Parliament. Canadian Senators are appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister. Canadian Senators must be at least 30 years old and retire at the age of 75. Senators also must own property and reside in the Canadian province or territory which they represent. Sober, Second Thought The main role Canadian Senators have is in providing sober, second thought on the work done by the House of Commons. All federal legislation must be passed by the Senate as well as the House of Commons. While the Canadian Senate rarely vetoes bills, although it does have the power to do so, Senators do review federal legislation clause by clause in Senate committees and may send a bill back to the House of Commons for amendments. Senate amendments are usually accepted by the House of Commons. The Canadian Senate can also delay the passage of a bill. This is especially effective towards the end of a session of parliament when a bill can be delayed long enough to prevent it becoming law. The Canadian Senate can also introduce its own bills, except for money bills which impose taxes or spend public money. Senate bills must also be passed in the House of Commons. Investigation of National Canadian Issues Canadian Senators contribute to in-depth studies by Senate committees on public issues such as health care in Canada, the regulation of the Canadian airline industry, urban Aboriginal youth, and phasing out the Canadian penny. The reports from these investigations can lead to changes in federal public policy and legislation. The wide range of experience of Canadian Senators, who may include former Canadian provincial premiers, cabinet ministers and business people from many economic sectors, provides substantial expertise to these investigations. Also, since Senators are not subject to the unpredictability of elections, they can track issues over a longer period of time than Members of Parliament. Representation of Regional, Provincial and Minority Interests Canadian Senate seats are distributed regionally, with 24 Senate seats each for the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec and Western regions, another six Senate seats for Newfoundland and Labrador, and one each for the three territories. Senators meet in regional party caucuses and consider the regional impact of legislation. Senators also often adopt informal constituencies to represent the rights of groups and individuals who may otherwise be overlooked - the young, poor, seniors and veterans, for example. Canadian Senators Act as Watchdogs on Government Canadian Senators provide a detailed review of all federal legislation, and the government of the day must always be conscious that a bill must get through the Senate where the party line is more flexible than in the House. During the Senate Question Period, Senators also routinely question and challenge the Leader of the Government in the Senate on federal government policies and activities. Canadian Senators can also draw important issues to the attention of cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister. Canadian Senators as Party Supporters A Senator usually supports a political party and may play a role in the operation of the party.