History - Waiting for Macedonia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History - Waiting for Macedonia - Essay Example Macedonian men and women don’t necessarily feel a kinship tie to their land, unlike Bosnians. Changes experienced by the young female engineers in Skopje include the fact that they feel more liberated to do as they please, and less inhibited. Young modern socialist women in Macedonia are classified on the upper level of the social strata in comparison to Albanian women of the village, who are sometimes pillaged by war, adversity, and infirmity. Unlike women in the European Union, those from Macedonia and Albania are generally regarded as lower-class – but that might be because the countries that they are from in Southeastern Europe are less highly-regarded due to their lower socioeconomic status. Another personal identity that is portrayed in the book is religion. Religion is more relegated to a status that is separated from the state in Macedonia, and people learn to get along with each other even though they are from different religious backgrounds. Religion, in the m ovie, is portrayed as a necessary part of life. In Bosnia, everyone is split up into factions. It might have had a lot to do with the fact that in the early ‘90s everyone in the region had to at least hear about, if not deal with, the Bosnian War. The Bosnian War divided people into three distinct groups: the Bosnian Muslims; the Orthodox Christian Serbians (also known as Serbs); and the Catholic Croatians (also known as Croats). The Croatians were pitted against the Bosnians by the Serbs. But basically, the Serbians were persecuting the Bosnians based on the fact that they were Muslims. President Bill Clinton finally decided to intervene in the Bosnian conflict in order to prevent an even larger genocide from taking place. To be Muslim in Bosnia meant to be the oppressed. To be a Croatian Catholic meant to be caught in the middle between a centuries-old fight between the Orthodox Christian Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims. National Identities Both the book and the film analyze d ifferent elements of national identity as well. Classifications of national identity in Yugoslavia during the existence of the country were never completely solidified because everyone came from different ethnic backgrounds. This only made allegiance to a nationality more difficult to believe in. The uncertainties of life after Yugoslavia, however, were somehow easier to deal with than the fact that much national pride was never lost on many Yugoslavians who were able to assimilate by ethnic groups. Religion can sometimes pose as nationality in the sense that, if someone is a Muslim, they might automatically assume that they are Bosnian. Thus, in a sense, in that region of the world one’s religious identity gets fused with a nationality even though that may not reflect the reality of an individual. In a similar manner – to put it in another way – many people also assume that someone whose religion is Judaism is necessarily an Israeli, but that’s not absol utely true. Nor is it true that someone who is an Israeli is necessarily Jewish –actually, it is the converse. Nothing can be assumed or presumed. While someone may be ethnically Jewish, they may not be a Jewish national (from Israel), and nothing guarantees that someone’s religion is Judaism unless proven otherwise. Therefore, nationality, ethnicity, race, and religion, for some Jewish people, are all one and the same. But certain people do differentiate between

Risk management of petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia Essay

Risk management of petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example The top most leading players in this industry are the state owned company Saudi Aramco and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), their rankings are also at the global level are being one of the largest producers of petrochemical products (Cordesman and Obaid, 2004). The raw materials for producing these products had been available in abundance but now it is being observed that there is shortage being observed in the raw materials and therefore the Saudi petrochemical industry need to work upon their risk management aspects of this industry. Shortages of raw materials from which the products are being produced tend to give rise to high risks in the future therefore it is important to start managing the risk factors beforehand. Risk Management Risk management is usually defined as the elements that cause risk to the organization and accordingly assessments and prioritization of risks are conducted for the purpose of risk management. Risk management plans are made to reduce, m inimize, monitor, and evaluate the risks so that opportunities can be maximized. Risks can be faced from the financial markets uncertainty, from the failures of projects, from legal liabilities, from the factors of credit risk, and other such factors (British Standards Institute, 20). Risk Options There are many types of risk options that can be used for the purpose of managing risk in the organizations. They are as follows (British Standards Institute, 73): Developing new processes of business so that the level of risk can be controlled Risks should be reassessed on a periodic basis Transferring of risks to external organizations such as insurance companies The avoidance of risks by closing down the business units that cause risk Many of the other petrochemical industries operating in Saudi Arabia are planning on with the establishment of acrylic acid complex plants so that any type of downturn in the industry can be overcome in the future. This is due to the changes in the success level trends observed in the country that new business units need to be developed so that the future challenges that are present in the industry forecast can be overcome by the industry. Risk minimization in petrochemical industry of Saudi Arabia The main aspects that should be carefully reviewed towards minimizing risk in the petrochemical industries of Saudi Arabia are (Athearn, Schmit, and Doerpringhaus, 80): 1. Management: All operations should be reviewed, maintenance and engineering operations should take place accordingly, check and control should be maintained for the fire safety and security features of the organization. 2. Procedures: all work operation operations should be carried out under the approved engineering standards so that while insurance premiums are opted for, no loopholes remain for them to gain benefits in times of risk. 3. Plants: the plant design should be according to standards as well, as well as the process controls in the plants and their housekeeping . 4. Protection Hardware: all hardware equipment being used in the plants of petrochemical organizations should be of proper quality. The higher amount of risk may be observed from the