California History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

California History - Essay Example Had I surveyed myself, the percentage would have been even lower. The story of Califia is largely classified as a myth but to what extent is known only to Spanish explorers. The island of California, as described in a 1510 novel by Garci Ordonez de Montalvo, was located near the coast of Southeast Asia and inhabited by only women, large, muscular Amazon women. Califia was well known for her humanitarian efforts and for her sense of loyalty to the island people. She dealt fairly with friend and foe alike and had the ability to travel the world whenever she pleased. The weapons were made of gold as were all other metallic objects because gold was the only type of metal found on the island. A glorious, exotic setting to be sure whether it was real or imagined (Wright, 2005). When Spanish explores found what is today known as Baja California, they thought it to be an island. No shame in this as GPS positioning systems would not exist for another half a millennia or so. Maybe the explorers found gold or dark woman when they landed, no one knows, or maybe the recently published novel was fresh on their mind and the story was deemed worthy of naming a previously unknown (to Europeans) piece of land. The name ‘California’, as some have suggested, may not originate from Queen Califia at all but was derived from a combination of the Spanish words Caliente and fornia meaning ‘hot oven.’ Others point to the Latin words Calida and Fornax meaning ‘hot furnace’ (Zwinger, 1961). Baja California’s climate has certainly been described accurately as both metaphors but the Amazon story is much more entrancing. The romantic and adventurous lives that the Spanish explorers led is evidence enough to me that they would likely nam e what they found to be a large exotic island after a large, exotic and adventurous Queen rather than the benign and unimaginative name.

Corporate Social Responsibility Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Social Responsibility - Assignment Example Thus, CSR is simply amalgamating environmental and social concerns into business policy and procedures. Potential benefits of CSR relative to the costs for businesses and stakeholders Apparently, CSR is an ongoing responsibility held by businesses to ethically behave and economically develop while improving the quality of life of their employees and their families, over and above, that of the local community and society at large. Scholars argue that companies must be prepared to merge both the business and society through the principle of shared value. Shared value incorporates economic value that creates value for society through addressing needs and challenges.2 For instance, the Coca-Cola Company participated in a Corporate Social responsibility by sponsoring World Cup, 2010 in South Africa. In essence, the potential benefits associated to CSR include human response, risk management, brand differentiation, operating licence, and diverting attention. In human resources aspect, CSR acts as an aid to retention and recruitment especially in relation to a competitive market. Moreover, managing of risks is crucial as one of the important corporate strategies that are achievable through building a culture of doing the right thing within a corporation. Besides, the competitive market requires companies to have a unique factor that differentiates them from other brands that are in the market, thus separating them from the competition in the minds of customers. Consequently, companies tend to take substantial voluntary steps of convincing the government about their participation in social responsibility such as health and safety and environment. Never the less, companies may involve themselves in high profile CSR programs so as to divert the minds of the customers from their perceived negative impacts. Of importance to note is that CSR has cost of aiming to satisfy the customers both in product quality and ethically sourced a process that requires additional costs. In essence, companies use extra cost in creating brand loyalty, which assist in increasing revenue that is meant to attract customers. Additionally, companies have a cost of corporate social responsibility which is the capital investment. Capital investment is taken to handle a different kind of investment that a specific company prefers to take into account and find out if the investment is worthwhile.3 The importance of CSR relative to other corporate objectives Corporate objectives are goals that are normally laid down by the board of directors putting more influence on the critical factors that are necessary for company to excel in the market. Once companies are formed, the people in charge understand that social responsibilities in respect to the society must be accomplished even though it is not in the expected set out. This is because companies have different issues that they work on. For instance, a particular company may have an excellent customer but have the worst record of employment, so as to reduce the cost of the company. One crucial responsibility that companies should pay attention to is legislation. Essentially, some areas of corporate social responsibility are covered by legislation and regulation, which should be compiled by every company according to the law. Besides, public companies are expected to give reports on their environmental impacts in their own reports that are later combined to form an annual report and accounts. Consequently, companies have various laws they must follow depending on the type of firms