Russian and European Trade Unions free essay sample

A history of the differences between the two. The paper looks at pre-trade union working conditions in factories and elsewhere and describes how the workers in the west realized that they were an essential part of the system and thus gained power. It looks at the rising figures for strikes as time progressed and in which countries they were most prevalent. The last segment describes the rather different appearance of the Russian trade unions, from the end of serfdom to Bolshevism and Communism. From the paper; It is no accident that the power of trade unions has diminished over the past several generations so that now for most Americans it is difficult to imagine the political, cultural and social power that they once had. But unions were once a major force in the age of industrialization, and it is only because we are living at the end of that age of industrialization that we see trade unions in their current weakened condition. We will write a custom essay sample on Russian and European Trade Unions or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This paper examines unions when they were moving toward the height of their powers in the first decades of the last century. Although there were (and are) certain commonalities amongst all unions, there were also important differences among the unions both because of the trade that was being represented and the country in which the union was organized.

Definition and Examples of Short Answers in English

Definition and Examples of Short Answers in English In spoken English and informal writing, a short answer is a response made up of a subject and an auxiliary verb or modal. A short answer is generally regarded as more polite than just an abrupt yes or no. Conventionally, the verb in a short answer is in the same tense as the verb in the question. Also, the verb in the short answer should agree in person and number with its subject. Examples and Observations How did she do in her exams? Maria had already told me she had done quite well, but I was now flailing around to keep the conversation going.She passed.She is all right, isnt she?Yes, she is, he replied firmly.(Vikram Seth, An Equal Music. Random House, 1999)The poor lass took quite a fall, didnt she? Gelfrid remarked. Is she usually so clumsy?No, she isnt,† Judith answered.(Julie Garwood, The Secret. Pocket Books, 1992)Youre asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harms way her whole life long? The answer is no, you cant.(Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees. Harper Row, 1988)Can we change? Yes, we can. Can they change? Yes, they can.(Oz Clarke, Oz Clarkes Pocket Wine Guide. Sterling, 2009)Will, youve been in love before, havent you? I mean, with Anna, of course . . . and your various . . . well, you have, havent you?Will looked into his glass. No. No, I havent.(Jennifer Donnelly, The Tea Rose. Macmillan, 2004) Whats up with him?His stomach is sick. Hes nervous about his speech.Hes got food poisoning! Helen declared. â€Å"Hasnt he?†Ã¢â‚¬Å"No, he has not!†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Yes, he has.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"No, he has not!†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Yes, he has.†(Marian Keyes, Anybody Out There? William Morrow, 2006)No, I wont, Jeremiahno I wontno I wont!I wont go, Ill stay here. Ill hear all I dont know, and say all I know. I will, at last, if I die for it. I will, I will, I will, I will!(Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, 1857) Short-Answer Patterns Answers are often grammatically incomplete, because they do not need to repeat words that have just been said. A typical short answer pattern is subject auxiliary verb, together with whatever other words are really necessary. Can he swim? Yes, he can.(More natural than Yes, he can swim.)Has it stopped raining? No, it hasnt.Are you enjoying yourself? I certainly am.Youll be on holiday soon. Yes, I will.Dont forget to telephone. I wont.You didnt phone Debbie last night. No, but I did this morning. Non-auxiliary be and have are also used in short answers. Is she happy? I think she is.Have you a light? Yes, I have. We use do and did in answers to sentences that have neither an auxiliary verb nor non-auxiliary be or have. She likes cakes. She really does.That surprised you. It certainly did. Short answers can be followed by tags . . .. Nice day. Yes, it is, isnt it? Note that stressed, non-contracted forms are used in short answers.(Michael Swan, Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press, 1995) Short Answers With So, Neither, and Nor Sometimes a statement about one person also applies to another person. When this is the case, you can use a short answer with so for positive statements, and with neither or nor for negative statements using the same verb that was used in the statement. You use so, neither, or nor with an auiliary, modal, or the main verb be. The verb comes before the subject. You were different then. So were you.I dont normally drink at lunch. Neither do I.I cant do it. Nor can I. You can use not either instead of neither, in which case the verb comes after the subject. He doesnt understand. We dont either. You often use so in short answers after verbs such as think, hope, expect, imagine, and suppose, when you think that the answer to the question is yes. Youll be home at six? I hope so.So it was worth doing? I suppose so. You use Im afraid so when you are sorry that the answer is yes. Is it raining? Im afraid so. With suppose, think, imagine, or expect in short answers, you also form negatives with so. Will I see you again? I dont suppose so.Is Barry Knight a golfer? No, I dont think so. However, you say I hope not and Im afraid not. It isnt empty, is it? I hope not. (Collins COBUILD Active English Grammar. HarperCollins, 2003)

DBMS Support and Security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

DBMS Support and Security - Research Paper Example ought to adopt security strategies, for instance, tagging data with a level of confidentiality to make sure only those permitted have access to such data (Connolly and Begg 2009). Security strategies are designed as the overall plans to mitigate risk. As mentioned earlier, most organizations have security strategies, but miss out on database security or do not adequately address the issue. A comprehensive security strategy must lessen the overall possibility of loss or harm to an organization’s data. Furthermore, the strategy must focus on the business data concerns from a statutory, contractual and legal perspective. There exist multiple regulatory standards and requirements that have imposed on the organization to address information security risks. Contracts are making it necessary to organizations to consider security of their data at all levels. Proactive database security management and planning can save organizations significant amounts of money and reduce the overall exposure to risk. Striking a balance between the organizational objectives and security requirements is a task that squarely falls on the IT department. They are charged with developing the ICT policy for companies in consultation with management, operational support and other stakeholders. The policies aim to increase the benefits of implementing IT in business. A comprehensive support and security strategy should touch on the following areas. First, it should have a clear definition of organizational control objectives and have controls to meet those objectives. The organizational control objectives are the processes of evaluating, assigning and regulating resources on a continuous basis to meet organization’s goals. It should then have feasible approaches to meet the objectives with metrics and/or benchmark standards to manage the controls. It is also necessary to have a clear implementation of the controls and have testing and maintenance tasks while going forward. The motivation

What is the difference between civic nationalism and ethnic Essay

What is the difference between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism Can the former exist without the latter - Essay Example In terms of self-determination, it is referred to â€Å"as having full statehood with complete authority on domestic and internal affairs† Miscevic, Nenad (01 Jun 2010 Whereupon, we come into the two theories of nationalism: the civic nationalism and the ethnic nationalism. What makes them different from each other, and could it be rightly expressed that the former can exist without the other? I believe that although the two kinds of nationalism are different from each other; civic nationalism emanates from ethnic nationalism because the former is a heritage that existed during the times of our forefathers; and that civic nationalism has gathered its principles from the experience of ethnic nationalism. Kuzio, Taras (January 2002, pp. 20-39) supports my assertion that civic nationalism could not exist without ethnic nationalism. He believes that the country’s ethnicity and civic universalism â€Å"is dependent on the evolution of its history from ethnic to civic state and nationhood and the depth of democratic consolidation† (Kuzio, Taras). He concluded in his study that evolution from ethnic to civic states does not depend on geogra phy but rather on the positive influence of international institutions, domestic democratic consolidation and civic institution building†. The West, he said has a long history of ethnic states, and that this factor makes its evolution also similar to the states in the East. Drawn from the explanations of Nikolas 2001, ethnic nationalism has ideological bonds from the native history and its people. It is differentiated from civic nationalism because its nationhood is described by its customs and traditions, religion and language (Hill, Richard C. 2003). Accordingly, the ethnic nationalists believe that â€Å"it is not the state that creates the nation but the nation that creates the state†. What make them stay together are the

Independent Variables Taxation Dependent Variable Firm Economics Essay

Independent Variables Taxation Dependent Variable Firm Economics Essay The textile sector accounts for 8-9 per cent of the total GDP, and generates 51 per cent of the export revenues for Pakistan, which is a huge number making it a very important sector. This sector is subject to high operating and financial leverage. Leverage plays a vital role in textile unit. Interest rates are the main determinants of investment and have an inverse relationship with investment. Lower real interest rates will encourage new investment by reducing the cost of capital. More debt means a higher level of interest payment each year, which is paid from net income. Interest is the major factor which is responsible for leverage. As compare to the others countries like Indonesia s Korea Malaysia is 5.5 and 4%. The situation with regard to textile industry is very serious. While interest as percentage of sales was 8.58%, interest as a share of value added was a high 12.9% for textiles. Garments is one sector which seems not be as adversely affected on this account. A consistently declining investment and economic growth rate is the major problem that the Pakistani economy has been facing for the last decade. An in-depth analysis of the determinants of private investment in different sectors of the economy is quite helpful in designing a plan for the economy. Interest rates emerge as the significant determinants of investment in all the sectors. Nominal interest rates and infrastructure are important in the case of agriculture only, while relative prices of imported machinery and real interest rates are significant in the manufacturing and services sectors. Unexplained variation in private investment is observed in the entire sector, which might be due to the different external and internal shocks to the economy. According to (MAHMUD, 2003) showed that economy is not good in Pakistan. Pakistan market capitalization and GDP growth are very low they have undeveloped equity market that is the reason of very high leverage ratio in Pakistan. A high proportion of fixed cost means that very high risk belongs to company. Government attention is not positively towards the textile sector. A high risk involved in the company so very low investment is carried out in the manufacturing sector and also high risk involvement means taking loans to the bank with high interest rate. Good economic policies requires for Pakistan and Japan textile sector (MAHMUD, 2003). The researcher (Denis, 2001) have searched that several academic studies have documented significant shareholder gains and operating improvements following highly leveraged transactions. These gains are generally attributed to changes in the incentive, monitoring, and governance structures of the firms. The results suggest that while high leverage is important in giving managers the incentive to generate cash, high managerial ownership of shares and improved monitoring from the board of directors are important in ensuring that cash is generated in a way that maximizes returns to shareholders (Denis, 2001). According to (V.O Boadu, 2002) the U.S. textile complex has experienced overcapacity of production, global financial crisis, changes in fashion trends and demand; and cheap imports from Asia. To become more competitive and profitable, U.S. textile manufacturers have focused on achieving greater speed, efficiency, and high quality production by investing heavily in automated technology Exports to Mexico and Canada were $9.5 billion, which constituted 51% of total exports. (V.O Boadu, 2002) Low-priced Asian imports believed to have been caused by the currency devaluation of major textile exporters such as Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand Asian currencies stabilized through 2000, and resumed their downward path. (V.O Boadu, 2002) U.S. apparel manufacturers seem to have benefited from the cheaper Asian imports of textiles by the U.S. Global sourcing strategies by the industry in locating manufacturing. Sourcing is explained by the cost of investing in facilities and equipment, production costs, labor costs and availability, quality control, timing, risks which involved language, culture, political, etc. and reliability of product supply in the international market. Firm size relation with leverage: (shah Hijazi, 2004) took the test whose showed that tangibility, profitability, growth and size of the firm effect leverage in textile. There was positive relationship between the size of the firm and board size, high board size means number of directors, larger board means highs leverage. Debt is taken more and more, that will affect the company equity. Leverage board size showed that more out siders, which possibly reflects debt, can act as a monitoring device and also showed that leverage was lower when the CEO had a long tenure in office. (shah Hijazi, 2004) analyzed size of firms and profitability was negatively correlated with leverage. Hence this rejects the static trade off theory, which showed a positive relation between size of the firm and profitability. This shows that firms in cement industry use more equity and less debt. Tangibility of Assets and growth found to be positively correlated with leverage. All the results were Significant except the size of the firm. Thei r results with Shah and Hijazi (2005) were found to be different in terms of growth and size of the firm. They concluded that in developing countries like Pakistan, cement industry usage of short term financing is high than long term financing. (Spuma, 2000)concerned with different variables that indicate the level of leverage in firm. It shows that there is a negative relation among growth and leverage of the firm. Size of the firm is negatively correlated with the leverage of the firm. Interest rate relation with leverage: (N.Majluf, 2004) showed that there is a relationship between managerial operation and high leverage ratio; external investor not has enough information about the country policies, their environment, and firms operations. Inside investor can easily handle that situations comparison with external investor. (N.Majluf, 2004) Present share holder prefer debt financing because of firms need to issue debt when information is larger, stock price decrease etc. that could avoid under pricing and also show that the managerial share holder and long-term debt have a negative relationship. Interest is paid from net income it means more debt change to more interest and more interest means low income. (Chhibber K. Majumdar, 1998)The size of a firm is known to affect a firms performance in many ways. Key features of a large firm are its diverse capabilities, the ability to exploit economies of scale, and the formalization of procedures. These characteristics make the implementation of operations more effective and allow larger firms not only to generate greater returns on assets and sales but also to capture more value as a proportion of the value of production than is possible for smaller firms. Alternatively, larger firms could be less efficient than smaller firms because of the loss of control by top managers over strategic and operational activities within the firm. (Chhibber K. Majumdar, 1998) SIZE is an important control variable for another reason. While our data are cross-section ally extensive, we do not have the ability to measure a firms market power or the level of concentration in the industries in which the firms in our sample operate. This is a major limitation of the data, and we cannot include controls for market-structure factors that are important determinants of economic performance. SIZE reflects the ability of firms to attain economies of scale as well as market power.35 Finally, the inclusion of SIZE allows us to avoid the criticism directed against much empirical work in this area. H. Short notes that a major criticism that can be levied at the majority of the empirical studies is that they tend to concentrate on large firm samples, rather than taking a broad cross-section of firms of different sizes. (chen, 2008) argued that high leverage ratio would increase the possibility of a firms bankruptcy. More debt means a higher level of interest payment each year, which is paid from net income. Once the operation of a firm goes into trouble and net income is not enough to pay the interest, the firm has to face the threat of bankruptcy. This is one of the main reasons why firms cannot employ debt financing as much as they want and keep high leverage ratios. Static trade-off is exactly a trade-off between marginal tax saving from debt and marginal expected bankruptcy cost. Later literature tends to replace the bankruptcy cost with financial stress. Too much interest payment would reduce the cash retained in the firm.(CHEN, 2008) Consequently the firm will not have enough budgets to hire capable workers and executives, to undertake positive NPV projects, to cope with emergencies, etc. Furthermore, a higher leverage ratio would reduce the credit level and increase the operation risk of the firm. When facing new financing needs, the firm would be unable to use debt financing anymore, or unable to collect enough capital, or suffer a higher interest rate when borrowing. Even using equity financing, due to the low credit level and high risk, the firm would have to pay a higher price. Larger firms have larger amount of fixed assets and this amount directly reflects the ability of using collateral debt. Thus larger firms could borrow more than smaller firms and could get a more favorable price- lower interest rate(CHEN, 2008). According to the (Verma, 2002) Indias international competitors have as high an interest cost as in India 70. Its respective ratios were 2.05% and 3.3%. One important reason for this, according to some entrepreneurs, is the fact of predominant decentralized nature of garment sector in India. In Product Specific Cost- Supply Chain Management contain Factor cost (Cost of raw material), In Government Policy (Excise Policy, Technology Up gradation Fund, Strict labor laws), (Verma, 2002) IN Economy-wide costs (Economy-Wide Costs, Transaction costs, Transportation, interest rate).One important reason for this, according to some entrepreneurs, is the fact of predominant decentralized nature of garment sector in India. Also discussed Non-Price Factors in which included (Allow Foreign Direct Investment, Reduce the import duty on textile, Promote fair competition, Remove policy-bias against synthetic fiber, modify Labor related Provisions, Collaborating to Compete- Policies on Investing Abroad ). Furthermore, under the era of managed trade, too many textile. High cost of production relation with leverage: High financing cost relation with leverage: Taxation relation with leverage: (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) the global financial crisis has led to a rising number of unemployed textile and clothing workers in China. The global financial crisis has had a negative impact on economic growth in China. The orders received by textile and clothing companies at the China Import and Export Fair declined by 30 per cent in the autumn. The Ministry of Finance increased tax rebate rates on some textile and clothing exports from 11 per cent to 13 per cent. The global financial crisis has seriously affected the textile and clothing industry in China. (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) Some of those firms have gone bankrupt as a result of the global financial crisis More and more textile and clothing factories have been forced to relocate to the middle and western regions of China or to Asia-Pacific developing countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam. China continues to maintain their unique competitive advantages arising from local textile and clothing industrial clusters with a comprehensive production chain, a pool of skilled labor, innovative fabric technology, sound infrastructure and economies of scale within the textile and clothing industry. The Government of China should continue to encourage the domestic large-scale textile and clothing enterprises to establish textile industrial parks in other developing countries. Provide a better financial package to support foreign direct investment by Chinese textile and clothing firms Improve infrastructure facilities and government efficiency in the least developed countries. (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) Asset Turnover relation with leverage: (fama, 2009) mentioned in firm size, the proportion of tangible assets would probably play a role in debt or equity financing. he discussed that assets with a substantial and stable liquidation value would be a good guarantee for the firms investors. Compared with intangible assets, tangible assets are easier to be valuated and information is less asymmetric. In case of default and bankruptcy, tangible assets are easily to be changed into cash to pay for debt. Thus a firm with larger proportion of tangible assets tends to use more debt. Moreover, the guarantee effect of tangible assets depends on whether resale market is easily accessed. First, plants, machines and other properties that could be adopted by other firms would generally sale at a good bargain and thus are better guarantees for collateral debt. (fama, 2009) Assets that are unique and could not be directly used by other firms would not. Second, removable assets or assets that are close to market or to potential buyers wou ld easily be resold for cash and thus would be better as collateral. Not only proportion of tangible assets, but also characters of assets would play a role in leverage ratio. This researcher (J Ilyas , 2008) use proportion of tangible assets in total assets as a proxy for assets composition. Due to availability of data, characters of assets will not be precisely analyzed. the guarantee effect of tangible assets depends on whether resale market is easily accessed. First, plants, machines and other properties that could be adopted by other firms would generally sale at a good bargain and thus are better guarantees for collateral debt. Assets that are unique and could not be directly used by other firms would not. Second, removable assets or assets that are close to market or to potential buyers would easily be resold for cash and thus would be better as collateral. Not only proportion of tangible assets, but also characters of assets would play a role in leverage ratio. (J Ilyas , 2008) in firm size firm sizes influence on leverage ratio is not necessarily positive. Due to asymmetry information, small firms are more likely to be underpriced by investors than large firms and could not get favorable price when financing through equity. While using debt with a fixed interest rate, small firms could suffer less loss from mispricing. Thus small firms should tend to consider using more debt, compared to large firms..earnings plays more important role in firms leverage decisions as compared to other determinants of the capital structure.Tangibility of the firm is found to be negatively related to the leverage of the firm(J Ilyas , 2008) . (Miao,2005) provides a competitive equilibrium model of capital structure and industry dynamics. In the model, firms make financing, investment, entry, and exit decisions subject to idiosyncratic technology shocks. The capital structure choice reflects the tradeoff between the tax benefits of debt and associated bankruptcy and agency costs. The interaction between financing and production decisions influences the stationary distribution of firms and their survival probabilities. The analysis demonstrates that the equilibrium output price has an important feedback effect. (Miao,2005) This effect has a number of testable implications. For example it implies that high growth industries have relatively lower leverage and turnover rates. the higher the difference between ROA and cost of capital the higher is the return on equity because of the leverage effects. Similarly the higher turnover of assets results in higher return on assets, which in turn results in higher return on equity. Thu s the assets tangibility ratio i.e., ratio between fixed assets and total assets becomes important as capital structure determinant. (Spuma, Waters, and Payne, 1995) hence smaller firms are accepted to increase the profitability of going private, concluded that firms with less investment opportunities apply more leverage that is in accordance to both theories and leverage has a direct relation with the tangibility of assets. They also suggest that more profitable firms use less leverage. (Thornhill P, 1995)find that firms with higher financial deficits, i.e., firms that raise more external capital, tend to increase their leverage. They examine the tendency of managers to time the equity markets by interacting the market-to-book ratio with the amount of capital that a firm raises (i.e., its financial deficit). Their evidence suggests that firms tend to reduce their leverage ratios when they raise substantial amounts of capital when the equity market is perceived to be more favorable, (i.e., when market-to-book ratios are higher). There seems to be a consensus in the literature that suggests that these variables affect capital structures, at least temporarily. (Rajan,r,g zingales, 2002)compared leverage and its determinates across G-7 Countries that are united states, Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and united Kingdom. They analyzed there was a positive relationship of leverage and profitability. Tangibility is positively correlated in all countries. Size is positively correlated with leverage except Germany. Investigated determinants of capital structure and leverage ratio of French, German and British firms with the help of penal data. Their results suggested that size of the firm positively affect the leverage ratio. They analyze relation of profitability, size of firms, fixed assets. (Rajan,r,g zingales, 2002) This study identifies a positive impact on firms size on leverage. While the relationship between fixed asset ratio and level of leverage was mixed means positive in Germany but negative in France and UK. This shows that tangibility of assets is more significant in bank borrowing in Germany. The effect of all these factor s on leverage depends on financial environment and tradition of the country in which firm operates investigated that there are a large number of variables that appear to be related to debt ratio of the firm but only few factors have significant effect on debt ratio. They found that relation between leverage and size of firm is positive. For tangibility of assets Empirical results showed a positive relation among leverage and tangibility of assets of firm. (Harris, 2007) a high leverage ratio would decrease the value of a firms equity. This provides opportunity for managers to buy more shares with the same amount of fortune. Meanwhile, external investors might be reluctant to invest in such firms, as high leverage is often linked with high risk. They also argued that managerial ownership is determined endogenously. Thus it is not safe and proper to assume an exogenous ownership structure and a dependent capital structure. (Harris, 2007) They try to use lagged control variables to get rid of endogenously. One way to address this issue is to use lagged variable. As there is no reason a priori that historical ownership structure would be correlated with current leverage ratio, we try to include historical ownership concentration in the regression. The variable they use ownership concentration during the year of the first listing. It could also be considered as an instrument of current year ownership concentration, if ownership is determin ed endogenously indeed. (Fatehi ,2003) 30 to 50 percent of all the expatriate placements do not work out as anticipated. Besides the direct financial costs involved with a failed expatriate assignment, the firm may incur other costs, including voided business deals, loss of valuable employees, the break up of joint ventures, and poor relations with the host Government. Fortunately, many MNCs have now realized the importance of cross-cultural training and the number of organizations involved in making preparations and arranging training prior to the departure of managers in foreign countries has increased lately(Fatehi ,2003)

Where I Lived, and What I Lived for

In the â€Å"Where I Lived, and What I Lived for† chapter of Walden, Thoreau emphasized that people need to make life simple and slow because it eventually helps you know your real goal and realize the true meaning of life. He begins with his own story –he imagines that he works at farms as a farmer and he cares for seeds in succession. He thinks his farms will bring happiness because all sessions for cultivation are naturally accomplished. However, his imagination ends up with his real financial situation.He wants to buy farms not minding his profit margin but enjoying his time with seeds. However, the owner turns down his proposal because his reason was hardly accepted in modern times where people give importance to wealth. After this experience living in a house in the woods, he feels a natural spirit and he glorifies the beauty of nature. He developed his feeling for nature after he realizes that people should be awakened –â€Å"[They] must learn to reawaken and keep [them] selves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn†.He also came to know why people are so busy and why they work as hard as â€Å"ants† It is because people seem to set count on economical value but people do not know what they really want. According to his examples, there is a railroad which can effectively reduce time between places. At the same time, we could lose our landscape to see. So, he describes a railroad that â€Å"We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us†. Therefore, he criticizes that â€Å"fast† seems to be effective but it brings wrong judgment and lose our opportunity.He mentions that our society is pressured to â€Å"hurry† for our life to be successful. However, he thinks that our society now is complicated and dangerous because we do not have ideas of â€Å"slow† and â€Å"simple† to reflect ourselves. All in all, he states that we need time to be â€Å"slowâ €  and â€Å"simple† for our clever intelligent life. This is his obvious viewpoints – â€Å"Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track†.

Debut Speech Essay

During my 18 years, I’ve learned how important family is. Your family will always be there for you no matter what. My family supports me in everything I do. All their time and money cannot express how much they love me because love is more than any of that. Love between families is a special bond of time, laughs, smiles and memories. Love is something that family doesn’t have to say to each other because we already know and I am blessed to have a family that loves me in every way possible. As for friends, I’ve learned something important about friends. You will meet many people throughout your days and for a moment in time you will be that person’s friend or more. Friends are the ones that stay by your sides during the bad and will never intentionally stab you in the back. To all my friends here tonight, thank you for everything; I hope we’ll continue our friendship for many more years to come. Ahead is a new journey, not only for me but for all of us. And what I have to say to that, â€Å"Challenge accepted. I can only imagine the way my parents are going to feel watching me grow up more and more and having to let go little by little each day but even then my imagination cannot comparable to the feelings they feel. Even then, I willingly accept this new chapter of my life which I wouldn’t have been able to reach without every single one of you. No matter how small to how big of an impact you’ve had in my life, I thank you all equall y. So now I will end my speech with a thank you. Thank you for joining me in celebrating my 18th birthday. Thank you Mc Three McQueens for taking those beautiful pictures for this debut especially to kuya Michael and Kuya Chieboy. Thank you Kuya Elvin Sagun and Kuya Jervyn for coming over countless times to help with all the planning. Thank you cousins and Leo for helping me. Thank you kuya Frederic Rodriguez for making my dream dress. To my friends, classmates titas, ninongs and ninangs for sharing this special day that I will cherish forever. And a special thank you to my Mama and Papa for making this all possible. I love all of you very much!