General Mills Financial Analysis Essay Example for Free

General Mills Financial Analysis Essay From ready-to-eat cereal to convenient meals to wholesome snacks, General Mills is one of the biggest food products manufacturers and competes in growing food categories that are on-trend with consumer tastes around the world. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Haagen Daazs, Yoplait, Betty Crocker, Totinos, and Cheerios, among others. Main rivals include Kellogg, Kraft, Conagra Foods, and Sara Lee. General Mills sells its products in three segments: U.S. retail (63% of net sales), International (25% of net sales), and Bakeries and Foodservices (12% of net sales). In addition, General Mills sells cereals and ice cream through its Cereal Partners Worldwide and Haagen Daazs Japan joint ventures. General Mills continues building its presence in developed markets and increasing presence in emerging markets worldwide by investing in established brands while also developing new products. The company’s goal is to generate balanced, long term growth. Profitable performance through the past years General Mills has shown a strong profitable performance during the past years. The company has achieved during the last 3 years an average RoE of 28% supported by strong efficiency, financial leverage, and a moderate profitability ratio given the nature of the business. This has resulted in a positive trend of the share price that delivered 3 year returns of 44% from 2009. The upward trend in RoE that peaked in 2011 reaching 30.6% reversed in 2012 that closed with a RoE of 24.5%. The RoE drop of c. 600 bps in 2012 compared to 2011 is explained by a reduction in profitability that was affected by high input-cost inflation primarily in food ingredients and energy that was not fully transferred to customers (370 bps Gross Profit Margin drop). Performance was also affected by restructuring actions (60 bps impact on profitability) taken to improve organizational effectiveness to drive future growth. General Mills managed to continue improving efficiency as the increase in sales (3 Years CAGR of 6.7%) outpaced the average assets growth (3 Years CAGR of 5.8%), reachin g in 2012 the highest efficiency ratio (83.8%) of the past 3 years. Efficiency improvement was primarily supported by inventory reduction efforts that, coupled with increase in accounts payable derived from shifts in timing of payments, reduced the cash conversion cycle to 43 days. It is worth noting that during fiscal 2012 the balance sheet had an important growth as a result of the acquisition of the international Yoplait business, including goodwill and other intangible assets of $2.3 bn USD. Sales growth also benefited from the acquisition and will be discussed in the next section. General Mills runs a leveraged operation where, in average, the total assets are 3 times shareholders equity. Leverage ratio has decreased since 2010 as retained earnings have increased at a faster pace than assets driven by strong business performance. A slight revamp in the leverage ratio during fiscal 2012 was mainly driven by an increase in other comprehensive losses related to pensions and postemployment activity, and foreign currency translation that offset retained earnings for the same period. Sustainable growth while generating strong levels of cash flows General Mills has shown a strong, sustainable growth throughout the last years. Net sales increase has been driven by a moderate average growth in the US Retail segment (3.8%), coupled with the expansion in the International business (13.4%). The big year on year increase of 12% in fiscal 2012 is driven by the acquisition of the international Yoplait yogurt business that contributed 7 points of sales growth, while underlying business grew 5%. It is important to note that sales growth has been mainly driven by volume growth with a slight component of net price increase and a favorable mix. Segment Operating Profit has also maintained a sustainable growth. The slowdown during fiscal 2012 and drop of Gross Profit Margin is driven by high input-cost inflation as previously mentioned. Despite high costs, the company managed to increase segment operating profit to exceed $3bn for the first time in the company’s history. General Mills has managed to generate strong levels of cash flowacross the years. Over the most recent 5 years, the company operations have generated almost $10bn USD in cash. A significant portion of this cash has been returned to stockholders through dividends and shares repurchase. In addition, this cash is used to fund Capital expenditure. In the most recent year, the company operations generated $2.4bn of cash compared to $1.5bn in the prior year. The major increase is driven by a favorable change in working capital supported by inventory reduction efforts, prepaid expenses, and other current assets. Cash used by investing activities had a significant increase in fiscal 2012 that is mainly explained by the acquisition of international Yoplait ($1bn USD). General Mills invested in fiscal 2012 c. $700m USD in land, buildings and equipment, similar to previous years. Cash used by financing activities includes a constant payment of dividends and purchase of treasury stock in the last years. In addition, General Mills has been actively managing their cost of funds by issuing / pre-paying long term debt and commercial paper as convenient. General Mills performance has outpaced main competitors in the recent years General Mills strong performance is accentuated when benchmarked against Kellog Co, another of the key food producers. Both companies present similar profitability with General Mills having a lower gross profit margin compensated by lower marketing investment and general expenses. Nevertheless, General Mills has managed to grow sales and has delivered higher returns at a faster pace than Kellog. In addition, General Mills produces higher levels of free cash flow and has grown dividends per share faster. Finally, Kellog has a heavy debt load while General Mills has lower leverage ratio. Solid position to face a challenging, uncertain future In a nutshell, General Mills has shown a strong performance in the recent years and has outperformed his competitors mainly in compound growth rates and value creation. A challenging future lies ahead with uncertain economic environment and increase in commodity costs. Pricing strategy to maintain margin while not impacting market share will play a key variable in the company’s performance. Strong brands, innovations, expansion in diversified markets, and solid cash position and moderate leverage should support General Mills to face these challenges and continue creating value in the following years.

Hamlet is a thinker not a man of action Essay Example for Free

Hamlet is a thinker not a man of action Essay Hamlets one mission in the play is to revenge the death of his father by killing Claudius, however his procrastination leads to his untimely death, the deaths of many others in the Danish court and the relinquishment of Denmark to Fortinbras. Hamlets first words show a desire of revenge towards Claudius A little more than kin and less than kind. But later in his soliloquy we see that he is actually closer to killing himself, than killing Claudius or the perpetrator: O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, He doesnt even contemplate killing Claudius; he hopes that the situation will resolve itself, which it never will, showing his unwillingness to act. This soliloquy also shows that he is not the bravest of people, as he cannot tell his mother how he really feels, another restrictive character trait when trying to revenge someone: But break, my heart for I must hold my tongue. In his soliloquy straight after Hamlets conversation with the Ghost he seems determine to kill his uncle, thy commandment alone shall live / Within the book and volume of my brain. The use of the word commandment shows that he will follow the Ghosts word religiously. This shows that he is resolute, as a man of action would be. However, this is countered almost immediately at the end of the scene O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right. This shows that Hamlet is scared to carry out what he has to do, he would much rather someone else revenge his father than he. The first device that Hamlet uses to carry out his revenge is to pretend to be mad. By this pretence he hopes to draw the attention away of the court away from him so that he can watch and follow Claudius to see if he is showing any signs of guilt. He tells Guildenstern of his madness. I am mad but north-north-west. When the wind is / southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. His stated intention is to gain irrefutable evidence of Claudiuss villainy. He initiates this by visiting Ophelia in a state of undress and handing her a love letter, making Polonius believe that his madness is due to Ophelias rejection of him. Hamlet uses his feigned madness to show his true emotions and insult people he doesnt like: You are a fishmonger. A fishmonger in Elizabethan times could have meant pimp, showing that Hamlet thinks that Polonius is using his daughter to gain favour within the court. Hamlets feigned madness does affect Claudius: in the first act he delivers long speeches, but by Act 2 he is reduced to short sentences like We will try it. This is an action, but it is one that allows him to procrastinate. When Hamlet is left alone he laments his weakness and inactivity. An actor could weep at the imagined grief of Hecuba, whereas Hamlet fails to respond to the murder of his father: Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, / A broken voice, and his whole function suiting / forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! / For Hecuba! Hamlets principles cause him a great deal of self-criticism: Why what an ass am I! This is most brave, / That I the son of a dear father murderd, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must like a whore unpack my heart with words/ And fall a-cursing like a very drab, He curses his inactivity, showing that, although he is a thinker, he would prefer to be a man of action. At the end of the soliloquy he seems resolved to revenge Claudius, the Mouse-Trap play is a form of revenge against Claudius, but again it is not direct revenge, as he is still procrastinating. The fact that he has not confronted Claudius four months after confirmation from the ghost that Claudius is the guilty party shows that he is definitely a thinker. Hamlets soliloquy at the start of Act 3 still shows his overwhelming desire to think, particularly about suicide To be or not to be. The fact that he is still has time for soliloquies, and that he is not trying to hunt Claudius down and kill him, shows that he is definitely a thinker. Hamlet shows a lack of self knowledge as he cannot, as he intended in Act 1 sc 5 with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love / May sweep to my revenge. Instead he broods on his fathers death and even when he gets proof from Claudiuss reaction to the Mouse Trap play, Ill take the ghosts word for a thousand pound. He hesitates and needs further spurring by the ghost in Act 3 to whet thy almost blunted purpose. Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius in Act 3 sc 3, but again he procrastinates, letting himself think about what will happen to Claudius soul A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven. He doesnt act, because he thinks that Claudius is praying, cleansing his soul. This would send him to heaven, not hell where he belongs. The irony is that Claudius himself has too much on his conscience and cannot pray, My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Hamlet curses himself in a later soliloquy for his lack of action. Hamlets first action of physical revenge is to stab Polonius behind the arras. This action shows that he can only do something on the spur of the moment. If hed had time to think about it, he would have found a way around stabbing the person behind the arras, electing instead to procrastinate. Hamlet meets Fortinbras army in Act 4 sc 4, which makes him feel depressed when he compares himself to Fortinbras: the Norwegian Prince is prepared to fight over something of very little value, while he hasnt yet taken revenge for the murder of his father and the seduction of his mother: How all occasions do inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge. Hamlet does what he always does when confronted with a problem; he has a soliloquy. However, this is his last soliloquy, which could suggest that he is done with thinking now, and will finally carry out his revenge. Hamlet shows another decisive action, in dealing with the betrayal of his one-time friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and with Claudius attempt to have him killed on his way to England. He replaces his own name with that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the letter, ensuring that they will be killed in his place. He also Boards a pirate ship so that he can return to Denmark, these are all very decisive actions focused to towards revenging his fathers death. Hamlets entrance into Ophelias funeral certainly is more action-focussed than his previous actions: This is I, / Hamlet the Dane. His fight with Laertes, declaration of his love of Ophelia and his switch from prose to verse show that he is longer talking his self into lying and misleading others. Therefore he is not thinking as much as he is acting. Hamlets next action is to duel with Laertes, not knowing that it has been fixed so that Hamlet will die, but as with most strategies in the play, it does go according to plan: Both Laertes and Hamlet are wounded by the poisoned sword, Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine, and one of Hamlets dying acts is to force Claudius to drink the poisoned wine, which he does with relish, enjoying the power he has, and the fact that he is killing the person who killed his father, seduced his mother, taken his thrown and plotted to kill him twice Here thou incestuous, murdrous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? / Follow my mother. His action here was done purely, without any thought. As he dies Hamlet names Fortinbras as his successor to the throne of Denmark. He admires Fortinbras as a man of action, seeing that that is what his country needs to return stability to it, I do prophesy thelection lights / On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice. The time frame of the play helps to reinforce the impression of time passing. Individuals in the play travel from Denmark to Norway, Poland and England, from the court to the countryside. Contrasting the activity of Laertes and Fortinbras with the prolonged inactivity of Hamlet. As the hero in this tragedy Hamlet doesnt have one, sole, character flaw that leads to his untimely death. He is a thinker involved in a dilemma that can only be solved successfully by a man of action. His inability to act swiftly and decisively without high motivation in connection with his fathers murder brings havoc to the Danish court, his own death and the death of many others in the court. If he had been a man of action Claudius would have been killed months before.

The Criminal Trial Process Of England And Wales Law Essay

The Criminal Trial Process Of England And Wales Law Essay The Criminal Justice System trial process in England and Wales are operated on the basis, and can be described as an adversarial system of justice. Perhaps, I am directing my attention, the criminal trial process, how has been changed. I should begin an adversarial system, where the parties are responsible for presenting evidence before passive and neutral trial judge or jury. This differs from an inquisitorial system, which is exists most of Europe. In many jurisdictions the criminal laws can be traced the date when a new system of government was introduced bringing change to the role of government to criminal procedures in particular. The criminal law is the system of practices and possible represent justice. English criminal trials from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth centurys were different from those of today. Trials were really quick, lawyers were rarely presented. After the Criminal Justice Act 2003, has made certain change to the mode of trial procedures. In highl ight for going important to address the restorative justice program, which is bring victims and offenders focus on the crime, address problems within communities. On the other side highlights the mistakes and injustices in the criminal trials. Unfortunately, it seems this would be impossible to achieve. However, miscarriages of justice occur in the criminal justice are rare and wrongful imprisonment. The creation of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee and in 2005 the trial and pre-trial process were brought together in a new criminal procedure rule. The management of cases is a new feature of the criminal justice system, the rules more accessible and together in ones place. It is a significant step, powers of judicial case management. Before the introduction of Due Process, people accused of a crime, given private trials with no defence. The main objectives of the criminal justice process are, against all offenders who break those rules. In England and Wales the criminal justice system has evolved over the years a considerable period. There are many features of the criminal procedure followed by more detailed descriptions of policing, and prosecution criminal courts, sentencing and the panel system, and the governmental and, administrative context of criminal justice. I shall shortly identify a striking example of the benefit of a joined up to criminal trail process. The goals in England and Wales aims to reduce crime by bringing more offence to justice, and to raise public confidence that the system is fair and will deliver law for citizen. There are many advantages and disadvantages having in the criminal trial process of England and Wales. Particularly important to understand the influence of rule of law, and how these of principles shapes the way that criminal justice is defined and implemented. Must be criminal cases start in the Magistrates Court. In a year more than one million cases are heard by Magistrates, they are simply citizen, without any kind of training. The other area where, those cases are seen is in the Crown Court where juries are used, they are part of the criminal justice trial process. The system of jury trails are twelve honest citizens who offering common sense and values. Let me highlight some very important advantages of the system having juries. It gives to the public confidence and acceptance for juries decisions. It gives a person a right to be tried by lay people, who have no legal knowledge and juries do understand the situation better than qualified people, who only look at the situation, with their special knowledge, and this can be sometimes lead to a miscarriage of justice. Perhaps, it is have to avoid as humanly possible. Another example for an advantage of the criminal trial process, when the jury has a power and decide cases on their idea of fairness. Although, as we shall see for example, in R v Ponting (1984). When the civil servant leaked information to a MP on the ground of public interest, and the jury refused to convict despite the fact that, the defendant had no legal defence. In the above case, therefore, it seems the legal system more open because member of public involved and whole process takes in public. Basically the trial involved a confrontation the victim of the crime and the defendant. The defendant was expected to explain the evidence presented against them. However these procedures provided reasonable means of determining guilt and innocence, from a modern point of view this is disadvantage the defence. Shall we see now of the other end, trials without a jury. Directions are no more than matters of common sense. The cases where the judge is satisfied to the evidence of real, able to present the danger that jury tampering would take a place to it. After the reform the criminal trial has some beneficial advantages. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) it is amends the law relating to police powers, which is particularly useful in cases where computer or financial evidence may need. It has a dramatic change has been made in the role of trial judges. There was no time to inform the judges of all the details of the case. Well, it is an advantages of the trial, the judge have a time to identify the issue. I agree with that, it is highly beneficial of the trial. I would like address the defence statement and disclosure. The Act makes amendments to the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996. As we shall see it, before the reform the prosecution would provide primary disclosure to the defence, and the defence would provide a defence statement, and the prosecution in response would provide secondary disclosure. This may demonstrates the weakness of the prosecution cases. Section 8 of the Act is made to the extent the evidence disclosed by the prosecution under its duty of disclosure. However, we shall see also disadvantages of the criminal trial process, after the reforms. The prisoner right to make an application to the High Court, it is my point of view, every cases takes longer than it should be. The right source can be take time, while the jury seeking further information can be confusing for judges. There is expensive cost for all this. Although, we can see now, some disadvantages of having jury in the criminal justice process. Unqualified people may not understand the points of law. The trial process placed defendants at a disadvantage. Without the benefit of legal assistance, they had to organise their cases on their own, while in prison awaiting trial. Until the actual trial, they were unaware of the specific evidence that would be presented against them and therefore had to respond spontaneously to what the witnesses said. This was thought to be the best way of ascertaining the truth. The lawyers had a right to address the jury, and gave prisoners the right to see copies of the depositions against them. Prosecutors could also suffer under this system. They also frequently went without counsel, and judges could be sympathetic to defendants. However the prosecutors had the advantage of being able to plan their case in advance, at liberty and at their leisure. It is arguable that the criminal trial process of, on t he one hand, the rules of evidence, which is require proof at trial, but on the other hand, the party prosecution have a detrimental effect on the capacity of the system to identify the truth. Criticism of the jury system in criminal trial process has emphasised the high cost of juries to the court system. In addition the technical nature and trials difficulty for lay people to understand purportedly leads to unintentional jury nullification. In the light for going of the recent miscarriages of justice occurs not only when an innocent person is convicted but also when a guilty person is not convicted. Therefore has much to lose by cooperating to archive justice. According to my opinion from an ethical point of view should miscarriage be avoidable every possible measures should be taken to prevent those regardless of the costs involved, however I must accept that in practice this route is often not the viable one. In conclusion a jury trial is of necessity predicated on continuous and adversarial oral presentation of evidence, but such a method of determining criminal cases is time and resource intensive. Criminal trial to be heard without jury, would thus probably reduce cost, and would also enhance opportunities to deal with matters in alternative ways not subject to the same concern about admissibility and evidence, and hence possibly also increase predictability. To my mind, however the criminal justice system England and Wales, the system of jury trial depends on twelve parties and true coming to court and listening to the case. Witness who will give evidence and answers the questions, counsel speak address the jury, judges speak and give direction. The current criminal justice process, in major trials involving fraud is made available to jurors on screens, but not without difficulty. The implications of all this for the criminal justice system are important. However, in jury trial in particular the public opinion can never really be kept out of the court room. Not everyone agrees with these changes when opposition is expressed on principal, it requires attention.

Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown †The Romanticism and Realism Essay

â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† – The Romanticism and Realism  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   The reader finds in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† a mix of realism and romanticism, with the former dominating the latter.    Commenting on the presence of romanticism in Hawthorne’s short stories, Morse Peckham in â€Å"The Development of Hawthorne’s Romanticism,† talks about the author’s usage of romantic themes:    In his early short stories and sketches Hawthorne was particularly concerned with three Romantic themes: guilt, alienation, and historicism. These three are so intimately intertwined in his work, as in most Romantics, that it is extremely difficult to separate them. . . .The Romantic historicist used the past for a double, interconnected purpose. On the one hand it was a means for separating oneself from society.. . . .He can be aware of the failure of the institution to fulfill its avowed intentions and its social function. . . . Romantic historicism, therefore, is never an end in itself but a strategy for placing the current social conditions in an ironic perspective. . . .(91-92)       Peter Conn in â€Å"Finding a Voice in an New Nation† comments on the blend of realism and romanticism in Hawthorne†s short stories:    Almost all of Hawthorne’s finest stories are remote in time or place. The glare of contemporary reality immobillized his imagination. . . .Hawthorne, however, despite his disclaimers, had long since discovered in the early history of his own New England the ruins and gloomy wrongs he found congenial. The elusive geography of romance, that lanscape in which imagination and reality could collaborate in acts of transformation, had perhaps disappeared f rom the bustling commercial world. . . but i... ... Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Leavis, Q.D. â€Å"Hawthorne as Poet.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Melville, Herman. â€Å"Hawthorne and His Mosses,† The Literary World August 17, 24, 1850. http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/hahm.html      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Peckham, Morse. â€Å"The Development of Hawthorne’s Romanticism.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Swisher, Clarice. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.            

Outlaw Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone Now Essay example -- Argument

Outlaw Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone Now    For a moment, put yourself in John Elway's shoes. Imagine getting paid thousands of dollars to do a milk promotion. Now, would you still do the promotion if you knew the milk had come from a cow injected with hormones? The use of rBGH, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, has become a concern in the dairy industry. The controversy is over whether or not the hormone is harmful to the cows and people. In animals and humans, there is a growth hormone produced. This protein hormone, produced in the pituitary gland, is fundamental for normal growth, development, and health maintenance. It was discovered sixty years ago that by injecting cows with GH, the growth hormone extracted from cattles' pituitary glands, milk production was increased. Using recombinant DNA processes, it became technically possible and economically feasible to produce an abundance of rBGH, which is essentially the same as pituitary derived bGH (Rachel. "Report..."). On November 5, 1993, the United States Food and Drug Administration, FDA, announced rBGH safe for use in milk cows. In February 1994, Monsanto, a chemical company, began selling its version of the drug to dairy farmers. Their form of the drug was to increase milk production by 5% to 20% (Rachel. "Hormones..."). The Consumers Union, an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers, made claims and presented evidence that byproducts of the hormone treatment are weighable in milk and are not safe for humans or the cow ("About..."). Today, the Consumers Union wants genetically engineered milk to be labeled so that milk consumers are able to make an informed choice about the milk they are purchasing (Rachel. "Ho... ...tp://www.enviroweb.org/issues/biotech/bgh/nogood.html, December 12, 2000. "Monsanto." Monsanto.com. [online], Available: http://www.monsanto.com/, December 13, 2000. Rachel. "Hormones in Milk: No Right to Know". RACHEL'S Hazardous Waste News #381. [online], Available: http://rachel.enviroweb.org/rhwn381.htm, March 17, 1994. Rachel. "Trouble with Milk." Milk. [online] Available: http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/milk.html, February 29, 1996. "Report on the Food and Drug Administration's Review of the Safety of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin." Report on the Food and Drug Administration's Review of the Safety of Recombinant BGH. [online], Available: http://www.biotechknowledge.com/showlib_us.php3?1308, January 21, 1999. "We're Starting a Food Fight!" Ben & Jerry's rBGH. [online], Available: http://www.benjerry.com/bgh/index.html#what, January 7, 1997.

The Horse Dealer?s Daughter :: essays research papers

In D.H. Lawrence’s â€Å"The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,† Mabel â€Å"did not share the same life as her brothers †(195). Mabel Pervin was not close to her brothers, because there were personal and physical separations. Mabel was a plain, uninteresting woman. She seldom showed emotion on her face. In fact her face usually remained impassive and unchanged. Her brothers could be described as three handsome and well-spoken men. Mabel was independent, having taken care of the house for ten years without a servant. Even though they depended upon her, they seemed to have control over her. The Pervin brothers â€Å"did not care about anything† (195). They were poised and felt secure about themselves. Her brothers felt superior to her. â€Å"They had talked at her and round her for so many years, that she hardly heard them at all† (196). She would either give a neutral response to her brothers, or remain quiet when they talked to her. Instead of giving her encouragement, they teased her. This treatment could have led to her insecurity. They would tease her about becoming a maid or about her â€Å"bulldog† face. Her brothers were full of energy and very talkative. Mabel also seemed to be alone in the world. Unlike her brothers who had many companions, she had had no friends of her own sex. Sometimes it seemed that Mabel wanted to escape her life. One place Mabel felt secure and immune from the world was at her mother’s grave. â€Å"There she always felt secure, as if no one could see her† (200). Mabel was extremely devoted to her deceased parents, especially her mother. She was mindless and persistent. At the graveside, she had many different feelings. She seemed to be coming nearer to her own glorification. Also she would become remote and intent. She seemed to feel contact with the world that mother had lived.

Movie Review The Lord Of the War Essay

Lord of War almost didn’t make it to the big screen. In fact, it barely even reached the production stage due to its bristly, accusatory subject matter of illegal international arms dealing. Yet despite its Hollywood feel, â€Å"Lord of War† is an excellent introduction to the opaque and oft-ignored activities of the merchants of death, or lords of war. Writer/director Andrew Niccol (The Terminal, Simone, and The Truman Show) insisted upon strictly adhering to true life events that shed an unflattering light on many of the world’s wealthiest nations. Although telling the truth in Lord of War makes for a riveting tale of international intrigue and finger pointing, it wasn’t really a great way to secure funding for a major motion picture. It took the gumption of several foreign investors who were willing to take a chance that the film’s powerful message would resonate with audiences. Count me as one of those moved by the film’s cruel honesty. Still living with his immigrant family in Brighton Beach, Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) has had enough–the family restaurant has no customers, his cook brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) can’t cook and his mother nags his devout Jewish father who is anything but Jewish. So instead of getting sucked into a go-nowhere life, Yuri naturally gets into arms dealing. After selling a local hood an Uzi, Yuri discovers that he might actually have the knack. He recruits his younger brother–more for moral support than business acumen–and begins to soar up the arms dealing food chain, attaining wealth, luxury and an exciting lifestyle along the way. The only thing he lacks is his dream girl–Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), a Brighton Beach beauty queen-turned-supermodel. But Yuri finally wins her heart, too, by posing as a legitimate businessman with more money than he actually has. Ava senses he’s not legit, but just as long as they have their penthouse overlooking Central Park and a chauffeured limo, she’d rather not know what he does. Meanwhile, Yuri’s interests clash with his chief rival, Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), an old-school gunrunner, coming to terms with the end of the Cold War. Backed into a corner, Yuri is given a choice between continued competition or none at all, and his decision sends Yuri into a spiral of rapid moral decay despite ever-increasing profits. His greatest struggle through it all has been with himself. In the end, he learns to accept the Golden Rule of arms dealing: Never wage war with anybody, especially yourself. Lord of War shines its cinematic spotlight on the shadowy world of illicit arms trafficking – a global scourge that has claimed millions of lives since the end of the Cold War. According to Yuri in this film, owning guns or bullets is the second most basic human need behind eating. The skeleton is here for a truly revolutionary film that simply ties with the real world of today which ways reveal bold strokes about the amorality of world politics, and how every single one of us has rationalized the wholesale export of violence because it keeps us in comfort. The world is a business – it’s about money, of course, and as long as someone is paying, actions toward fellow man are burdensome, if not irrelevant. There is only the bottom line, and every man, woman, or child who has died on the field of battle has done so in the name of profit, usually of the corporate variety. As we compare to this existing world of today, a lot of business intelligent men chose to profit from human frailty. Lord of War narrates the proceedings by breaking the third wall with a cynical, matter-of-fact voice-over that lays out a gritty, dirty snapshot of a world – the devastating consequences of the worldwide trade in weapons that we don’t want to know exists. Though we’re uncomfortable knowing the truth, seeing how it actually works is absolutely captivating. Nations throughout the world are implicated in wrongdoing, as Niccol’s pointed story pulls no punches. His brutal honesty often hurts. It is, for instance, fascinating and horrifying to learn that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are the world’s biggest arms suppliers, which technically, is correct; and also dares to suggest that death is the biggest business of all.   Most viewers won’t find comfort in accepting the film’s political accusations, and its moral dilemmas will undoubtedly offend many, especially in today’s increasingly volatile world. But good, thought-provoking filmmaking is good for us all. REFERENCE Niccol, A. (Director/Writer/Producer). (2005). Lord of War [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox -Arclight Films.