BHS 427 - Health Care Finance (Module 4-SLP) Essay

BHS 427 - Health Care Finance (Module 4-SLP) - Essay Example If the husband or wife has paid Medicare taxes when employed, such people are enrolled to Part A without paying monthly premium. If Medicare taxes have not been paid during employment, they can apply for Part A and pay premium which changes year by year. The premium rate for 2009 is as follows: Part B: Medicare medical insurance is taken mainly to avail those services which Part A does not cover and it is optional. It offers the rights like doctors’ services, outpatient care and other medical services. The premium is decided by the individual. Some pay a standard monthly premium of $96.40 and others on the basis of their income. A case if costs more than the â€Å"fixed-loss cost threshold amount (a dollar amount by which the costs of a case must exceed payments in order to qualify for outliers).† (Outlier payments, 2006). Medicare payments to hospitals fall under two categories-prospective payment and physician payment. The prospective payments include costs like operating cost, capital cost and outlier cost. Operating cost is paid if the patient has to stay long in the hospital. Capital cost includes cost for treatment and care to the patient. If a patient uses extraordinary resources then outlier cost is charged which is an additional payment. Physician payment is calculated on the basis of current procedural terminology (CPT) codes. The payment rate depends upon the Work RVU, Practise expense RVU and Malpractice RVU which may vary by region. What are the Medicare premiums and coinsurance rate for 2009?: Answer: For each benefit period you pay. (2008). U S Department of health & human services. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from

Impact Of The Collapse Of Pan Electric Industries Finance Essay

Impact Of The Collapse Of Pan Electric Industries Finance Essay Pan-Electric Industries was a Singapore-based company that specialized in marine salvage work and had 71 subsidiary companies, it including hotel and property interests with a market capitalization of S$230 million (Wikipedia). The main business of Pan-Electric Industries was the manufacture of refrigerators. In March 1985, Pan-Electric Industries Ltd had joined Tan Koon Swans business kingdom. Pan-Electric defaulted on S$7.5 million installment for S$75 million syndicated loan by Standard Chartered Bank. It also voluntarily requested Stock Exchange Singapore and Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange to suspend its shares on 18 November 1985. The reason given is need to revise right issue and restructure financing. Besides, two other Tan Koon Swan related companies, Sigma and Growth Industries Holdings also request and are granted suspension. Consequently, when it announced a rights issue for S$80 million meant to generate more liquidity, it causes the underwriters to look more closely at Pan-Electric Industries financials and fiscal fundamentals. It also discovered that the company was S$453 million in debt from 35 banks, which there is S$283 million is unsecured. The rights issue was then cancelled and a rescue plan to improve Pan-Electrics position proposed. On the other hand, the loan package for Pan-Electric Industries is unveiled; gain the financial assistance from the banks. There are two ways that the company get loan: (1) to be raised S$200 million through the equity and right issues from other investors of the company. (2) Get the interest-free loan of S$40 million from Tan Koon Swan. When the rescue plan falls through, Tan Koon Swan refuses to pump in the S$40 million unless the repayment priority is raised. However, the creditors are refused to do that. Besides, the legal impediment arises. That money from Tan Koon Swan comes from Sigma, which owns more than 20 percent of Pan-Electric and is therefore not allowed to lend it money under the Companies Act. Due to these reasons, Pan-Electric Industries was officially insolvent and was consequently placed in receivership. This was the trigger that started the domino effect of defaults on forward contracts. In the end, the company collapsed due to unsettled forward contracts, and forcing the stock exchanges of both Singapore and Malaysia to shut down for three days during the year of 1985. The collapse of Pan-Electric following its huge debts and incapability to make good on forward contracts precipitated a systemic crisis that threatened the entire then-nascent stock broking industry. At its demise, the company had a total debt of S$480 million, and all its shares held by 5,500 shareholders were found to be worthless overnight. After that, all the receivers were appointed, and the significant decision was to suspend all trading on Stock Exchange Singapore to forestall panic dumping which threatened to wipe hundreds of millions off the exchange. Tan Koon Swans case was the first ever case of stock manipulation in Singapore which went to the extent of shutting down the Stock Exchange Singapore for three days. Because of that, it is representative of the trend of the white-collar crimes becoming gradually more sophisticated and impressive. In the end only one count was proceeded upon against Tan Koon Swan is that abetting Pan-Electrics finance director, Tan Kok Liang, to commit that the criminal breach of trust of about S$145,000 (which belonged to Pan-El) for which Tan Koon Swan was jailed two years and fined S$500,000. The amount embezzled was applied to pay the interest on three million of Grand United Holding (GUH) shares bought by a Pan-Electric subsidiary, Orchard Hotel. The Orchard Hotel purchase the sh ares were in turn a part of the scheme by Tan Koon Swan to artificially boost the GUH share price. However, Tan Koon Swan was spared any market manipulation charges. As a result of the collapse for Pan-Electric Industries Ltd in December 1985, the key people in the company such as Peter Tham, Tan Kok Liang, and Tan Koon Swan were prosecuted and given varying jail sentences. The collapse of the company shook public confidence in the Stock Exchange Singapore, causing prices of stocks to plunge. -Stock Exchange Singapore had closed trading for three days. The collapse of Pan-Electric Industries Ltd, though incorporated in Singapore, led to the unprecedented closure of both the Singapore Stock Exchanges in December 1985 for three days from 2 December until 4 December. This is due to the failure of a large public company, Pan-Electric Industries Ltd. Since that, the prices of property fell by over 30 percent. The combination of tight liquidity, low inflation and a sharp decline in share and property prices exposed to the financial over-commitments of many entrepreneurs. Moreover, the court issues an order that Pan-Electric Industries has been put into liquidation and accounting firm believed that it had also been dismissed as the conglomerates provisional liquidators. The Pan-Electric along with its 71 subsidiaries had owes about US$168 million to more than 30 banks. Besides, Pan-Electric subsidiaries that cannot be sold as going concerns will be liquidated later but the larger properties, such as the Orchard Hotel in Singapore, and Selco Marine, a salvage operation, had attracted some potential buyers. Creditor banks suspended talks to rescue Pan-Electric soon after Tan Koon Swan, a major Pan-Electric shareholder, also a Malaysian businessman and political leader was arrested as a result of Government investigations into the financial dealings of Pan-Electric. In December 1985, when Pan-Electric went into receivership after failing to meet US$187 million in debt payments, the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stock exchanges were forced to close for three days. It was a series of inter-linkages which dragged six brokerages to the demise together with Pan-Electric and caused a crisis of confidence that caused the stocks markets to plunge when the Singapore Stocks Exchange re-opened in December 1985 after 3 days of closure. In the local context, it is a day that known as Black Thursday. In addition, it created a movement for stricter regulation of the Singapore Stocks Exchange by Monetary Authority of Singapore. After that, the market had transformed from a self-regulated entity to a tightly-regulated one, in particular with regard to brokerage capital requirements, gearing and margin limits, as well as reserve fund requirements. Because of that, this has since loosened to a disclosure-based regime, where the obligation is on the individual investor to exercise caveat emptor. During the closure of the stock exchange, the Association of Banks and the Stock Exchange of Singapore held some emergency meetings as the affair cast further gloom on the economy, they already forecast to shrink by 2 percent during that year. Besides, there are many comments about the effect of the market to the public and the actions will take by the government. The Singapore Stock Exchange Chairman Ong Tjin An declared that the decision was taken to cool off the market and the public to digest the news of the receivers being appointed at Pan-Electric Industries. There are no details were immediately available, however, some stockbrokers thought that the stock exchange was running out a new plan to strengthen the deficiently shaken local securities industries while banks sought to minimize losses and tighten the credit lines. Furthermore, the financial daily Business Times said that no matter what is the next incident in the Pan-Electric crisis brings, Singapores reputation as a fi nancial capital had suffered as a consequence of this debacle, the gravest in the republics financial history. However, the Stock Exchange of Singapore and the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange did not indicate when they would allow trading to resume, but stockbrokers expected the suspension just will last up to a week. Yet, a senior bank official said: Once you close, there is never a good time to open. Share prices are definitely going to slide. A prolonged closure will worsen market sentiment. In other way, those stockbrokers generally welcomed the suspension in both exchanges, which they believed prevented panic selling and a possible collapse of the stock market. The Stock Exchange of Singapore and the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange work closely because most of the shares are quoted on both exchanges. When the trading was resumed on 5 December 1985, all the share deals had to be conducted on an immediate delivery basis. This means that all the payment had to be made within 24 hours of a trade. Trading on a settlement basis (payment within a month) was suspended indefinitely, while forward trading (payment more than a month later) was completely banned. This settlement period was subsequently changed to T+5 on 6 January 1986, after some overseas clients complained about difficulties in fulfilling the 24-hour delivery rule. At the moment, the settlement cycle is on a T+3 days basis, where all share deals have to be settled three days after the transaction has been entered into. As a result of the shorter settlement timeframe, there is less uncertainty. -Economy of Singapore. The stock market prices of Singapore to plunge. Furthermore, the economy of Singapore seriously gets influence by the Pan-Electric collapse during the year 1985. This is because Singapore was the third most important financial centre in the Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong by the mid-1980s. In the financial sector, Singapore have sustained double digit growth over the past few decades, accounted for some 23 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employed about 9 percent of the labor force. However, the growth in the financial sector slowed to just 2.6 percent and Singapore Stock Exchange had suffered a Pan-Electric crisis which forced to close for three days in the December. Due to the major crisis in the year 1985, this had troubled domestic economy and there are some people worried that Singapores future as a financial centre looked a bit problematic. Besides, the market underwent a major, prolonged reorganization following the collapse of a Singaporean company, Pan Electric Industries which revealed a massive web of forward share dealings based on borrowed money. The collapse resulted in a tighter regulation of the financial futures market and the securities industry. In addition, the Singapore Stock Exchange Chairman Ong Tjin An said to cool off the market and for the public to digest the news that Pan-Electric Industries had fallen into receivership. The S$230 million Singapore-based conglomerate had collapsed because a complex web of forward contracts involving its shares could not be unwound. The Pan-Electric debacle hurt Singapores reputation as a financial centre. When the Pan-El crisis hit, the Straits Times Index (STI) was already deep in a downward spiral of a bear market that dated back more than two years to May 1983. Because of that, there are a few companies have collapsed and the arrests have started in the wake of the Singapores Black Thursday stock market crash. The economic fallout and political repercussions are expected to last for months as authorities try to untangle a complex maze of transactions that involving banks, stock exchanges, brokerages and speculators in the shares of listed companies in this island state, one of As ias leading financial centers and in neighboring Malaysia. Everyone was hopes for an orderly solution to the financial crisis ended in the late January with the arrest in Singapore of Malaysian financier-politician Tan Koon Swan and the abandonment of efforts to rescue the Pan-Electric Industries Ltd conglomerate. On the other hand, it was replaced by two new committees of the banker-creditors. The purpose to replace the two new panels is that one of the banker-creditor is try to keep the Selco salvage unit afloat as a going concern until a buyer can be found, the other to sell off other divisions. Selco describes itself as the worlds second-largest marine salvage operation and the profits are erratic. However, since they depend on unpredictable events like ships being wrecked by accident, or fighting between Iran and Iraq. The Netherlands-based Smit Tak International BV, the marine salvage industry leader, and the Singapore government-controlled Sembawang Shipyard Ltd have been mentioned in published reports as possible buyers of Selco. One foreign banker who served on the steering committee, and who spoke on condition that he remain unidentified, said any hope of reviving Pan-Electric ended when the Singapore government declined to guarantee new financing. Some brokers say the uninhibited us e of forward contracts led to Pan-Electrics downfall. These now-outlawed agreements to buy or sell shares at predetermined prices three to six months in the future often were used as collateral to raise cash. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of forward contracts that contributed to the financial squeeze still threaten the markets stability, brokers say. Extensive financing on margin of stock purchases by brokers buying both for their own and the accounts of their clients helped maintain share prices at inflated levels until October. The market became nervous and began drifting lower after Pan-Electric shares were suspended from trading on November 19. It was ordered into receivership by a court on November 30 after the collapse of negotiations aimed at restructuring nearly US$199.7 million in bank debt. The steering committee blamed the breakdown of talks partly on Tan Koon Swan, widely recognized as the most politically powerful and economically influential Chinese in Malaysia. It is quite important to highlight the impact that the Pan-Electric collapse had on the financial system which caused the Singapore Stock Exchange to take such a drastic step as to suspend all stock trading for three days. The forward contracts that Pan-Electric Industries entered into implicated a whole food-chain of banks and brokers. On the other way, an Monetary Authorities of Singapore paper summarised that With forward trading, a whole chain of parties is linked via promises of sale and purchase to the same lot of stock, the line only ending with a purchaser which either wants to keep the stock, or that cannot find someone else to sell it to. If this last purchaser is unable to meet its obligations to pay for the stock when they fall due, a domino effect is created and defaults could occur down the chain. -Investors and stock broking firms. Many investors could not get back their principal money. On the same time, the stock broking firms had make losses. The Pan-Electric crisis can be broken down into two parts. First, there was a systemic threat to the survival of the whole stockbroking industry as the forward contracts the stockbroking firms were involved in came due without buyers, they were forced to settle these purchases, which in some cases amounted to the entire capitalisation of the company many times over. Second, there was a widespread loss of public confidence that followed the collapse of Pan-Electric and the financial troubles of many of the stockbroking firms; this evinced itself in plummeting prices on the Stock Exchange of Singapore. This was what happened during the Pan-Electric, given that the massive amount of forward contracts it had entered into, when Pan-Electric was unable to find a seller for these stocks, its liquidity position, already unstable, was plunged into insolvency. This in turn affected the numerous companies who had contracted to sell shares to Pan-Electric and who now had no buyer for these shares. In addition, stockbroking firms, which had acted as financiers in putting up the margins for forward contracts while the latter were in the process of being re-sold, found that their financial commitments far outweighed their net worth when the pool of buyers dried up. Brokers and bankers in both countries said a number of smaller companies caught in Pan-Electrics stock swap deals, might be forced to close if the banks do not bail them out. Pan-Electrics problems included forward purchases of stocks for US$64 million by some of its subsidiaries. The Singapore Stock Exchange is suspended trading in Pan-Electric and two of its related companies on November 19, and the stock index has since fallen by nearly 70 points to 691.81. The temporary closure does not mean the end of buying and selling. Traders can still come together in the gray market, which will be unsupervised. Besides, concern over Pan-Electrics problems spilled into Hong Kong, where stock prices fell sharply during that time, with the market index dropping 22 points to 1,694.57. Some stockbrokers said the prices were forced lower as Singapore interests sold shares in Hong Kong to raise cash. There is one European broker in Hong Kong said that the retreat was widespread as local and foreig n (investment) institutions joined the Singaporeans in selling today. In addition, a Singapore broker said that the whole affair has left us numb and almost every investor just wants to get out of the market. Other than that, these investors in the stock would have their individual hard-luck stories, all 5,500 of them who ended up with nothing, but the biggest loser in the fiasco was the man at the centre of the storm: Tan Koon Swan, a substantial shareholder of the company holding an indirect 30 percent stake, and the most well-known Chinese politician in Malaysia, as newly-elected President of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). Exercising tremendous influence over Pan-Electrics directors in the entering into of forward contracts that were to bring the company to dire straits in 1985, he was later found guilty off and jailed for attempting illegal funds transfers from various sources, including from Multi-Purpose Holdings, the commercial arm of the MCA, during the Pan-Electric crisis period in 1985 in his vain attempt to raise capital to rescue the company from insolvency. A witch-hunt always follows a debacle, that much is certain; and in this case it brought an end to both Tan Ko on Swans business and political careers. Most analysts agree that the system of forward contracts, in which shares are re-sold before their purchase has been settled, was the crux of the Pan-Electric crisis. With forward trading, a whole chain of parties is linked via promises of sale and purchase to the same lot of stock, the line only ending with a purchaser which either wants to keep the stock, or that cannot find someone else to sell it to. If this last purchaser is unable to meet its obligations to pay for the stock when they fall due, a domino effect is created and defaults could occur down the chain. Impact in Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange had stopped trading for three days. Due to the Pan-Electric crisis, the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange actually closed for a few days in the December 1985. The main reason is the failure of the large public company Pan-Electric Industries Limited. This crisis had brought a big crash on the economy of Malaysia. The property prices fell by over 30 percent. The combination of tight liquidity, low inflation, and a sharp decline in share and property prices exposed the financial over-commitments of many entrepreneurs. In addition, with the three-day suspension of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, and the subsequent collapse of the share prices where $10.8 billion shares value was wiped out on the resumption of trading because of Tan Koon Swans Pan Electric crisis scandal. Malaysian attention had been distracted from a radical departure from NACSE Endorsed Provider (NEP) guidelines. This is the government decision recently too arbitrarily, without nation or consultation, to raise the bumiputra quota for new shares issue from 30% to as high as over 70%. On the other way, there is a latest report from Singapore that four more Pan Electric Industries subsidiaries have been placed in the hands of receivers and managers highlight the gravity and complexity of the Pan Electric crisis, which had cause the three-day suspension of the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stock exchanges, and wiping out $10.8 billion of the total shares value in Malaysia on the day Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange resumed trading. Political of Malaysia had been affected because chairman of Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) involved in the crisis. During the year of 1985, Malaysia government plan to hold a general elections in end February or early March at that year, but it was sabotaged by the following scandal of the arrest in Singapore of Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) President, Tan Koon Swan, on 15 charges on criminal breach of trust, cheating and fraud in connection with the Pan-Electric crisis, which closed down the stock market of two countries for three days and wiping out S$10.8 billion from the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. However, after a month of the Tan Koon Swan MCA leadership, it is clear that the MCA had never had such weak and unsuccessful new leadership in the MCA party history. MCA can never hope to have any effective voice in the government as long as the MCA leadership and in particular Tan Koon Swan is bogged down by the Pan Electric crisis. The Pan Electric scandal also has weakened the hand of MCA leadership that it dare not put pressure on the UMNO leadership on any issue, for it had to depend in the final analysis on the government to help bail out Tan Koon Swan, whether directly or indirectly by giving government blessings and encouragement to UNICO to salvage Tan Koon Swan. Furthermore, the Pan-Electric crisis not only weakens the MCA leadership but also the politic of Malaysia. The new MCA President, Tan Koon Swan has failed the Malaysian Chinese community for up till now, they have refused to let the people know the full story of the Pan Electric crisis. No wonder, the MCA leaders are unable to press for the publication of the Ahmad Nordin Inquiry Committee final report into the $2.5 billion BMF loans scandal in Hong Kong. The new MCA leadership should hold an emergency meeting to discuss the Pan Electric crisis, and how the MCA has been made more ineffective and impotent by Tan Koon Swans personal involvement in the Pan Electric crisis. Instead, the new MCA leaders seem to be more interested with building up their new political empires. Besides, the new MCA leaders are spending a lot of time and money renovating the MCA Headquarters, where every floor that is occupied by the MCA is being renovated, and the express could be as high as a million dollars. Other than that, if the MCA leaders, branches and members could not differentiate between charges involving corporate crimes, leading to a crisis which resulted in the three-day suspension of the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stock exchanges and billions of dollars of shares losses by the invertors and politics, then it is a sad indication on the level, quality and standard of the new MCA. The MCA leaders, branches and members had been organising demonstrations throughout the country, stop the Singapore cars at the Johor causeway, threatening the economic boycott of Singapore goods and services and even threatening to out the water supply from Johor to Singapore. However, by making all these empty threats, those people are doing more harm than good. As they follow the MCA leaders, branches and members in such wild threats. It has also not escaped the attention of the Malaysian Chinese that on vital issues affecting the fundamental political, economic, educational, cultural, and religiou s rights of the people and future generations, the MCA leaders, branches and members are incapable of any demonstrations. At the same time, Tan Koon Swan had explain that the conflict with his explanation last December on his rescue of Pan Electric Industries. The $23 million controversial sum of Multi-Purpose is becoming more and more out of the ordinary. The explanation by Tan Koon Swan about the circumstances of the loss of the $23 million by MPH last November, conflict with his explanation last December on his attempts to save Pan Electric. Tan Koon Swan said yesterday that on 21st of November 1985, the MPH Board passed a resolution authorizing to the company to make a $23 million investment in Pan Electric. This is to relieve the MPH of its shipping company which was facing grave losses and authorized the sun to be disbursed on Tan Koon Swans instructions. But on 3rd December 1985, after the collapse of Pan Electric and the three-day closure of the stock exchanges of Malaysia and Singapore, Tan Koon Swan mid that he had been having sleepless nights for the past two weeks trying to come out with a financial package to help save Pan Electrics problems. This means that when the MPH Board met on 21st November 1985, Tan Koon Swan was already unable to sleep over Pan Electrics problems. Clearly, he could still sleep over MPHs problems. But how, we are to believe that even at that date, Tan Koon Swan was trying to save MPH from its shipping losses, rather than save Pan Electric. Pan Electric shareholders have expressed out their great shock at the latest revelations, for this was in total conflict with the picture that Tan Koon Swan had presented later, but Tan Koon Swan went to the rescue of Pan Electric without any personal interest. What is involved here is not just what exactly transpired in last November, as to whether Tan Koon Swan was trying to save Pan Electric or Multi-Purpose or merely himself, but the question of the credibility of the President, of MCA, which claims to represent five million Malaysian Chinese. The MCA central Executive Committee to publicly declare their agreement that a public inquiry be recognized into this matter, to determine the exact circumstances leading to the pay-out of $23 million of MPH funds into Pan Electirc, it resulting in a total loss. Tan Koon Swan should bear the full $23 million although he had explained that this decision was taken by the MPH with full knowledge of the circumstances of Pan Electric, then it is most unreasonable whether legally or morally. This should be the moral responsibility of every MPH to share in its losses, including the MPH chairman, Datuk Lee San Choon, and the MCA youth Leader and Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Kee Yong Wee, who was also a MPH Board Member for the full year in 1985. If the MPH Board are so heartless as to make Tan Koon Swan to bear responsibility for the $23 million, when it is public knowledge that Tan Koon Swan is hard-pressed for money and the MPH Board Members owe the people an explanation for thei r merciless conduct. After that, the press have reported that the balance of $5 million had not been paid, as the cheque was not presented for payment. At the end, Tan Koon Swan was responsible for tens of thousands of people using their hard-earned savings to buy MPH shares and were also prevailed not to sell by Tan Koon Swan who phoned up from London- or they would not have to face so great a lost where MPH shares is struggling between 35 to 40 cents a share. Not only that, there could be no heated discussion that Tan Koon Swans voice in the highest Barisan Nasional council is so weak that he had to try to rally Gerakan support, although it was none other than Gerakan President, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, who predicted early of the month that the MCA would disintegrate into another major party feud within 30 days-showing utter lack of confidence and contempt in Tan Koon Swans leadership. After Keng Yaiks contemptuous statement, Lee San Chooh or even Neo Yee Pan would have pleaded for Gerakan support like Tan Koon Swan. UMNO leaders will never allow Tan Koon Swan to forget that if not for their intervention in the 22-month MCA crisis, Tan Koon Swan would have no chance in being elected as MCA President on November of 24.There is now circulating in the country the talk that over the Pan Electric affair, a top government and UMNO leader had intervened with the Singapore authorities on behalf of Tan Koon Swan. If this is true, then Tan Koon Swans voi ce and influence in the highest Barisan Nasional councils is even less than before. Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA). The Chairman of MCA Mr. Tan Koon Swan had been jailed due to this crisis. During the Pan-Electric crisis, Tan Koon Swan was charged in the district court with six counts of abetting criminal breach of trust that designed to dishonestly dispose of the equivalent of S$2.6 million worth of assets in the Pan-Electric group. Pan-Electric is involved in marine salvage, real estate, hotels and manufacturing. It has more or less 5,500 stockholders and 1,500 employees in 68 subsidiaries and affiliates in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brunei and the United States. A steering committee representing Pan-Electrics 38 creditor banks disbanded in the late January of 1986 after agreeing to orderly disposal of the companys assets. Later on, Tan Koon Swan has been arraigned with another nine new charges, bringing to a total fifteen charges which he had to stand trial in Singapore in connection with the Pan Electric crisis, covering the breach of trust offences, fraud and cheating. Tan Koon Swan was required to hand over another S$20 million for the additional charges, breaking his own world record when he had to post S$20 million for the first six charges-bringing a total of S$40 million bail. On 23rd of January 1986, As mention that Tan Koon Swan was charged with six counts of criminal breach of trust offences amounting to S$5.6 million, there was surprise and shock that such a sum of S$20 million bail was required. Similarly, a total of fifteen charges involving more than S$29 million were read out against Tan Koon Swan, there was also surprise and shock a total bail of S$40 million was required. But what is even more surprising and shocking is why Tan Koon Swans lawyers had not raised any objection to the gi gantic bail in both instances, whether the initial S$20 million bail was imposed, or yesterday, when a total of S$40 million bail was called for. At the end, Tan Koon Swan is being jailed for two years and fined S$500,000 due to the Pan-Electric crisis that had a huge impact to the stock exchange of the two countries which are Singapore and Malaysia.

Human Rights Violations Against Children Essay -- Universal Declaratio

As human beings, children are entitled to all the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the various treaties that have developed from it. But children also need special protection and care. They must be able to depend on the adult world to take care of them, to defend their rights and to help them to develop and realize their potential. Yet, violence against children is endemic: each day, terrible abuses and acts of violence against children are committed worldwide. They suffer as many of the human rights abuses as the adults, but may also be targeted simply because they are dependent and vulnerable. The Fifth Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Nevertheless, children are being tortured and mistreated by state officials; they are detained, lawfully or arbitrarily, often in appalling conditions; in some countries they are subjected to the death penalty. Countless thousands are killed or maimed in armed conflicts; many more have fled their homes to become refugees. Children forced by poverty or abuse to live on the streets are sometimes detained, attacked and even killed in the name of social cleansing. Many millions of children work at exploitative or hazardous jobs, or are the victims of child trafficking and forced prostitution. Because children are "easy targets", they are sometimes threatened, beaten or raped in order to punish family members who are not so accessible. Amnesty International has been one of the organizations that has denounced this terrible situation in a new report published prior to the Human Rights Day. The report of Amnesty International sho... ...taining 46 children. The children fled outside where they were made to lie face down on concrete, some only in their underwear, for hours. Several were allegedly sprayed in the face with mace while on the ground. The memorandum in support of the injunction noted that "penal officers at Jena have rubbed inmates' faces into cement floors, taken away clothing, slammed youths against doors, walls, and floors, and forced naked juveniles to squat with their buttocks in the air while searches are performed ... evidence exists showing officers actually have encouraged peer violence." The situations mentioned above also apply to other institutions such as orphanages and refugee centers that in addition can be vulnerable to a great deal of exploitation by being used like subjects in drug experimentation and undergo cruelty, negligence, confinements and corporal punishment.

Jollibee

I. BRIEF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY Jollibee Phenomenon Jollibee is one of the Philippines' phenomenal business success stories. Starting in 1975 as a two-branch ice cream parlor, it later expanded its menu to include hot sandwiches and other meals. With encouraging success, Jollibee Foods Corporation was incorporated in 1978 with seven outlets to fully explore the possibilities of a hamburger concept. Thus was born the company that revolutionized the fast food industry in the Philippines.In 1984, Jollibee reached the P500 million sales mark, catapulting the company into the list of Top 500 Philippine Corporations. In 1987, barely 10 years in the business, the company joined the ranks of the Philippines' Top 100 Corporations. It then became the first Philippine fast food chain to break the P1 billion sales mark in 1989. In 1993, Jollibee became the first food service company to be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange; thus broadening its capitalization and laying the g roundwork for sustained expansion locally and beyond the Philippines. Undisputed leadershipJollibee is the country's leading fast food chain. The size, geographic expanse and breadth of the company's operations have grown exponentially – from a handful of Jollibee stores twenty-five years ago to over 400 stores in the Philippines and several international stores in countries like the United States and Hong Kong. It is now an international brand with phenomenal milestones that has made millions of Filipinos proud. But Jollibee's leadership is not only reflected by market share (the company enjoys more than half of the entire fast food industry); numerous local and global awards attest to this as well.Recipe for success The foundation of Jollibee's rapid growth has been its strategy to establish dominant market coverage complemented by its superior menu line-up, creative marketing programs and efficient manufacturing and logistics facilities in support of its widening restauran t chain. It is powered by teams of well-trained individuals embracing the culture of integrity and humility, working in a family-like environment of fun and togetherness. As a corporate citizen, Jollibee is also committed to serve its host communities.The company not only nourishes bodies but also people's spirits through countless socio-civic projects. A triumph for and of the Filipino Jollibee dedicates its continuous success to those who have supported the company from the very start – the Filipino people. Jollibee has grown to be so well loved that every time a new store is opened, especially overseas, Filipinos form long queues to the store without fail. It is not just a place where they feel at home; it is a stronghold of heritage, a monument of Filipino victory. Values †¢ Always customer first †¢ Excellence through teamwork Spirit of family and fun †¢ Frugality, Honesty and Integrity †¢ Humility to listen and learn Mission †¢ We bring great tas te and happiness to everyone Vision †¢ Become the most dominant and best-tasting QSR†¦ †¢ The most endearing brand†¦ that has ever been †¢ We will be within reach of every Filipino†¦ †¢ We will lead in product taste at all times†¦ †¢ We will provide FSC excellence in every encounter†¦ †¢ Happiness in every moment. Jollibee Operations Bee happy†¦. Langhap-Sarap sa Jollibee! Day in, day out, Jollibee serves over one million Filipinos who flock to its more than 400 stores all over the country.In ways, small and grand, Jollibee's tasty food, cheerful service and friendly crew touch the lives of so many people who leave its stores with happy memories that will last long after that birthday party, first date or even just that simple meal a customer had when he dropped in one rainy day. From a modest beginning, Jollibee has grown to become not only the number one fast food chain in the Philippines with over 400 stores nationwide, but is also an international brand that has the distinction of being one of the world's most admired companies by the Far Eastern Economic Review. But Jollibee is not stopping here.To reinforce Jollibee's capability to enhance it leadership and build growth, the Management embarked on a broad range of strategic initiatives. Since its starting 1975, the company has expanded tremendously. The phenomenal growth is attributed to the company's unwavering quest to serve and delight the Filipino customer as well as its ability to anticipate and adapt to the ever-changing market environment. Jollibee continues to push its store network expansion maintaining lead over competition, focused on optimum results from right -sized stores on the best site selection in trading territory.This ensures effective and efficient market coverage. To meet the challenges of a more intensely competitive market and to manage the business more effectively, the company undertook a major initiative to re-align th e structure of Jollibee Philippines. The new organization, which has successfully been put in place, has the capacity of enhancing continued dominance in the quick service industry. In 2000 Jollibee Philippines was decentralized into four autonomous Regional Business Units (RBU), corresponding to the country's major geographic markets: Mega Manila, North Luzon, South Luzon and Visayas-Mindanao.The decentralization has structured each RBU into a more manageable business size and span of control. Key support functions like human resources and administration, finance and network development have been transferred to the RBU for greater efficiency in the delivery of products and services, quicker coordination and more timely decision-making. The Head Office/Corporate Services functions (Marketing, Finance, Restaurant Systems, Engineering) have been re-aligned as Support Center to provide continuing assistance to the RBUs and provide corporate-level directions.The new structure has proven to be more responsive to the needs and challenges of a rapidly growing organization and an even more dynamic market. The program has resulted to better execution of programs and renewed enthusiasm and commitment from the Jollibee people. Parallel to all of the above initiatives is the continuous improvement of operating productivity and efficiency across the Jollibee fastfood chain. It continues to initiate improvements on equipment and facilities as well as store procedures to generate faster volume turnover and achieve better quality in the delivery of products.Jollibee remains firm in its resolve to maintain its dominance in the fastfood industry. It will continue to push forward with its strategic programs and aggressively pursue further network expansion to ensure superior market coverage nationwide. Most importantly, it will continually apply itself to the paramount task of consistently delivering superior tasting products at the most affordable prices and services of the hig hest standards in a bright and clean store environment. MARKETING STRATEGYIn line with its long-term goal to be the dominant food service leader in the country, the company acquired Greenwich Pizza in 1994 enabling it to penetrate the pizza-pasta segment. From a 50-branch operation, Greenwich has established a strong presence in the food service industry. A year later the company acquired the franchise of Delifrance, an international food company. This further expanded its penetration in the food service industry particularly in the French cafe-bakery, a growing segment of the Philippine food market.In 2000, the strategic acquisition of Chowking solidified the company's position as the dominant leader and allowed it to have leadership in a major fast food market – the Oriental quick service restaurant segment. The incorporation has revitalized Chowking; providing a platform for the growth of the business and further increasing the enterprise value of the Jollibee Group. Jolli bee's advertising is deeply rooted in the traditional Filipino values of family and love for children. Fueled by Filipino creativity, its expression â€Å"Atin ang Langhap Sarap! is anchored on its products' unique taste and superiority. It aims to be perpetually in the public consciousness through television, radio, print, cinema advertisements and billboards. The company also sponsors selected community activities. Moreover, premium items and toys are offered to bring home and display on the toy shelf. Likewise, as a way to ensure that the superior equity is sustained and a strong, cohesive and comprehensive visual identification in all Jollibee stores is created, a system – wide Jollibee retail identity was initiated.The international graphic design group, Addison was commissioned to formulate the new retail identity that is more dynamic and fun-oriented. The new retail identity is an integrated system encompassing the total restaurant design from the menu-board and vario us signages, the dining equipment and area, to the Playland and other facilities. The product menu is continually reviewed to sustain consumer excitement. Existing products are improved and re-launched. New products are test-marketed in keeping with the strategy of having a continuing fresh line up of products.All these to respond to customers' changing needs and preferences which has been a major factor in Jollibee's success. At the forefront of innovative marketing and advertising program are the Value Meal product upgrades and additions. This has indeed proven to be an effective response to the narrowing consumer spending power brought about by the current economic crunch. Jollibee owns the children market and will endeavor to keep its stronghold on this segment. Hence, Jollibee continues with its Jolly Kiddie Meal promotions, offering a choice of Regular Yum, Spaghetti Special or Chickenjoy.SALES FORECASTING, PRODUCTION SCHEDULING AND MATERIALS REQUISITION PLANNING Sales Forecas ting The sales forecasting done by the store manager is the main determinant of the amount of supplies the store will need. Sales is proportional to the number of products sold so forecasting sales in advance would tell how much supplies the store need to order. Sales is projected daily or weekly and is based on the store’s sales history. From the sales history, the store manager can determine the store’s day type. The day type refers to the categories of a day’s performance.These are Slack, Semi-Peak, and Peak. Knowing the store’s day types will help the store manager determine the sales projection. Production Scheduling Production scheduling is done after determining the demand for each of the products. Each of the product has different production schedules. This is because the demand of one product is different from the demand of another product. They have also different times of peak sales. The schedule determines the number of product to produce for every hour of the day and the number of product to maintain on the warmer bin.Supplies Planning It is the system of planning the amount or volume of materials needed by the store to meet the demand for products at specific volume of transactions for a given a period. Objective of Supplies Planning Through supplies planning, the store manager gets to determine the actual order for each item in the store. Supplies planning prevents overstocking and stockout of supplies. The steps in supplies planning are: 1. Plan the supplies needed by the store based on sales projection. 2. Ensure correct perishable and nonperishable inventories. 3.Update the stock factors according to changes in sales trend. What are the supplies? The store’s supplies vary from cleaning materials to hand towels to frozen patties. Supplies are categorized into two: Daily Supplies – wet/frozen/items that are highly perishable Weekly supplies – dry items like packaging and cleaning materials Actual Order of Supplies The actual amount of supplies that the store will order from Commissary. This is relayed either thru the web or iBOS. This is where supplies and requisition comes in. The prerequisites of the actual order of daily supplies are: . forecasted sales – is based on store’s sales history. 2. adjusted sales – sales is adjusted for unexpected occurrences. 3. stock factor – amount or volume of a product or a raw material needed to serve customer demand for every hundred pesos of sales. SF=Average Quantity of Products Sold Average daily Sales 4. forecast stock – refers to the number of items to be stocked in the store for a given type. FS=Adjusted Sales x Stock Factor of Raw Material 5. ending balance – remaining available stock of items prior to ordering. 6. aily supplies requisition form – is a form used to compute the actual order of daily items. It includes a list of the wet /frozen/bakery items. AO=Forecast Stock  œ Ending Balance The prerequisites of the actual order of weekly supplies are: 1. average daily usage – average daily usage, or ADU, is the average quantity of items sold in one week. It is affected only when there is a change in the weekly sales forecast or weekly sales trend. It does not include bulk orders. ADU =Total quantity of products sold for one week 7 days 2. rdering cycle – is the sum (in days) of the delivery interval, forecast usage coverage and buffer period. 3. stock build up – total usage for the whole length of the ordering cycle. It also represents forecast stock. SB=Ordering cycle ADU 4. par stocking – average quantity of stock needed to sufficiently supply the needs of the store for the whole ordering cycle. 5. ending balance – remaining available stock of supplies. 6. weekly supplies requisition form – is a form used to compute the actual order of weekly items. It includes a list of the wet /frozen/bakery items. Steps in Daily Supplies Planning Step |Activity |Key person | |1 |Gives the daily supplies requisition form to stockman |Production Manager | |2 |Gets the ending balance (EB) by conducting a physical inventory count of the items|Stockman | | |on the list | | |3 |Checks the EB at random to ensure accuracy |Production Manager | |4 |Gets the forecasted from the store manager then writes this on a equisition form |Production Manager | |5 |Computes the Adjusted sales and writes this on a requisition form |Production Manager | |6 |Computes the stock factor (SF) of each item and writes this under the SF column |Production Manager | |7 |Computes the forecast stock (FS) of each item and writes this under the FS column |Production Manager | |8 |Gets the actual order (AO) of each item and writes this under the AO column |Production Manager | |9 |Signs the requisition form in the blank provided. |Production Manager | IV. ANALYSIS OF THE COMPANY’S PRODUCTION PROCESS Forecasting is an indispensabl e tool in the production process of Jollibee Foods Corporation. Demand is forecasted based on the sales of the store for the past periods. This data can be obtained from its sytem called iBOS. This forecasted data is adjusted for some occurrences or factors that might affect their sales in the period that the store is forecasting. This forecast is then translated to production schedules of different products. After making the production schedules, the Production Quality Manager (PQM) performs the supplies planning.Jollibee Corporation has policies and processes concerning supplies planning and requisition. The PQM of each store has the hand on how to go about the planning and ordering of supplies needed for his/her respective store. Jollibee Corporation has already installed a system of ordering supplies needed by its store branches – the AMWS. Jollibee, City of San Fernando branch has the following system of production. The schedule of ordering for wet/frozen supplies is eve ry Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Delivery of such has a lead time of 2 days. On the other hand, schedule of ordering for dry supplies is every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, with a lead time of 3 days.If the PQM Manager has already placed his/her order and there are some unexpected orders that can affect the consumption of supplies, he or she has the benefit of making adjustments to his or her order a day before the delivery date through its system — AMWS. Special Holidays and events are highlighted in the store’s calendar to incorporate these in the determination of demand and to prevent stock out of supplies. If there is really an unexpected bulk order, and the store cannot accommodate such order, the store has the option to decline the order. Otherwise, the store borrows from another store in the area to avoid opportunity loss from that order. V. RECOMMENDATIONOur modern technology is continually giving advances to business organizations. And Jollibee is one of thos e that continue to search for more improvements in their systems concerning their operations. With the case of iBOS, the product quality manager can easily create, modify, inquire and maintain useful data by just a click of a mouse. Once the program/system is entered into the computer, the PQM is supplied with needed information on inventory balance, order listing and sales. Truly, the advantage of this system is to increase the productivity of the PQM and making it accessible to other department managers who might need the above mentioned data in making business decisions.Poor decisions may affect the firm’s profits by requiring expensive corrective actions and may be driven out of business by a much more vigilant competitors. Thirty years of solid experience made Jollibee Corporation produce and adapt the nationwide computer aided system to their advantage. It would not make it as the number one fastfood company in the Philippines if not for its expertise in their productio n. It is therefore recommended that Jollibee Food Corporation to continually improve its production and make use of technology to further enhance its systems. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Brief History/ Description of the Company II. Marketing Strategy III. Sales Forecasting, Production Scheduling and Materials Requisition Planning IV. Analysis of the Company’s Production Process V. Recommendation

To what extent are writers also detectives in the novels you have studied?

The crime and the detective novel and their conventions have changed considerably over the last century. As societies have changed, these genres have adapted and branched out to meet the needs of writers attempting to express new concerns. Edgar Allen Poe's detective novel, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) follows conventions we would now consider to be traditional in mystery writing. Bearing a close resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, we find a detective who relies on reasoning and deduction to solve a mystery that to all intensive purposes appears unsolvable; a locked room mystery such as Doyle's The Speckled Band (1892). In America, between the world wars, emerged the ‘hard-boiled' private eye novel, featuring tough private investigators, often themselves outcasts from society. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are examples of authors from this school of detective fiction. After the Second World War there was increasingly a feeling that literary fiction was an inadequate means of accurately describing the horrors of the modern world. ‘New journalism' emerged, a term coined by Tom Wolfe to describe non-fiction novels by authors such as Truman Capote. His true crime novel, In Cold Blood (1965) is one of the texts that will be examined in this essay. Later in the century literature became more preoccupied with issues of alienation as a result of city living and capitalist expansion. Postmodern concerns were expressed in detective metafiction, such a Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (1987). This novel will also be examined. Lastly, this essay will look at James Ellroy's My Dark Places (1996). Ellroy himself has described this as an â€Å"investigative autobiography†, but it also contains elements of the police procedural novel, which came into being in 1940's America. This sub-genre deals with the more detailed elements of police detection, in comparison to that of the private eye. The extent to which writers are also detectives in these three texts varies greatly. The fact that they are all very different in terms of the sub-genres of detective or crime fiction makes direct comparison difficult. Therefore this essay concentrates on each in turn, drawing together the main arguments in the conclusion. I have tried to give equal attention to each text, but the fact that each story in Paul Auster's New York Trilogy can stand alone as an individual piece of writing has made this difficult. In New York Trilogy, the distinction between writer and detective is particularly indistinct. This is complicated by the fact that Auster continually subverts the conventions of the detective genre that are expected by the reader. For instance, in a detective novel there is generally an expectation on the reader's part that a crime has been committed, and that the mystery surrounding this crime will be solved thereby restoring the social order. In the first story of the novel, City of Glass, no crime takes place. The central character, I will for now call Quinn (this term as I will later explain is also problematic), accepts a surveillance job, which only becomes a mystery when his employers, Virginia and the young Peter Stillman disappear. Rather than providing a solution to this mystery the novel instead throws up more questions and leaves the reader increasingly confused. It is with this central character, Quinn, that the distinction between writer and detective first becomes unclear. Quinn is an author of detective fiction. He has created the character Max Work, a private eye, under the pen name of William Wilson. At this stage Quinn has already to some extent become a detective. For Quinn the roles of, â€Å"the writer and detective are interchangeable†1. Both the writer and the detective must look out in to the world and search for thoughts or clues that will enable them to make sense of events. They must both be observant and aware of details. Quinn appears to exist only through the existence of Max Work, â€Å"If he lived now in the world at all, it was only at one remove, through the imaginary person of Max Work. â€Å"2. He even finds himself imagining what Max Work would have said to the stranger on the phone after receiving the first call. Perhaps this is why the next time he answers the phone to the stranger he finds himself taking on the identity of the unknown detective, Paul Auster. Surely this is not an action one would expect from the uncomfortable writer Quinn, but one that could be easily identified with the confident private eye Max Work. From this moment on, Quinn the writer has also taken on the physical duties of the detective. Adding to the complication, by taking on the identity of an unknown and apparently non-existent detective named Paul Auster, Quinn also takes on the identity of an existing writer Paul Auster, who agrees to cash the checks paid to Quinn by the Stillmans. At this point Quinn (as his name suggests3) has five identities. Three of these are writers and two are detectives. As a detective, Quinn finds that the thought processes in which he must engage are not dissimilar to those of a writer. As â€Å"Dupin says in Poe†¦ ‘An identification of the reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent'†4is necessary. In this case Stillman senior is the opponent. This is similar to the process in which Quinn must put himself in the fictional Max Work's place in order to determine what course of action he might take in order to make him appear realistic to the reader. In the second story of the trilogy, Ghosts, the reader is introduced to Blue, a professional rather than sham detective. A man named White hires him to watch a man called Black, and to make weekly reports on his movements. In contrast to the first story in which the writer becomes detective, in this we see the detective become writer. Faced with very little understanding of the case he has embarked upon, Blue finds himself making up stories in order to bring some meaning to the position he is in, â€Å"Murder plots, for instance, and kidnapping schemes for giant ransoms. As the days go on he realise there is no end to the stories he can tell. â€Å"5. Blue is hardly restricted in the number of theories he can advance because he possesses only a small number of facts they have to meet. The detective becomes a writer in his attempt to reconstruct a possible crime. This can be seen in any number of detective or crime novels, including In Cold Blood and My Dark Places. According to Peter Huhn in his article ‘The Detective as Reader: Narrativity and Reading Concepts in Detective Fiction', †¦ he text of the novel can be said to have two authors (at least): the criminal (who wrote the original mystery story [by committing the crime]) and the detective (who writes the reconstruction of the first story). As a detective, Blue has never previously had difficulty with writing reports. It is only when he sits down to write his first report on Black that he encounters a writers struggle to find a way of adequately expressing events. Before, action has always held â€Å"forth over interpretation†7 in his reports. As he feels pulled towards interpreting events he becomes more a writer than detective. In one report he even includes a completely fictitious observation, that he believes Black is ill and may die. The incident in the Algonquin Hotel, in which Blue approaches Black under the guise of a life insurance salesman named Snow, the reader is made aware that perhaps Black is also a private detective (unless he is lying). If we take this to be the case then it could be considered that Black the private detective is also a writer, in that his actions determine those of Blue. Blue must follow him wherever he goes, is trapped by Black's routine and so Black is, in effect, writing Blue's life. Conversely then, the same must be true for Blue. If Black really is a private detective, as Blue is, then Black must follow Blue, becoming trapped in his routine. Blue is therefore the writer of Black's life. In the third story, The Locked Room, the central character, an un-named author is a writer who turns detective in an attempt to locate his childhood friend Fanshawe. Until Fanshawe contacts the narrator in a letter, he has been presumed dead. Initially, the process of detection begins under a pretext of writing a biography of Fanshawe's life. As a writer of a biography, one is expected to stick to facts, as is a detective. However, as this biography would be written under the illusion that Fanshawe is dead it would actually in effect be a work of invention rather than accurate reconstruction. The narrator tells us, â€Å"The book was a work of fiction. Even though it was based on facts, it could tell nothing but lies. â€Å"8. Thus, in this story, the central character even through the process of detection remains, in essence, a writer. The extent to which writer is also detective in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood must be looked at in a very different way due to the type of crime novel it is. Tom Wolfe has as I have mentioned, described it as ‘New journalism'. Capote himself, however, distances his novel from this school of writing. He views his work as â€Å"creative journalism† as opposed to for instance, a â€Å"documentary novel†9. The distinction for Capote is that to be a good creative journalist a writer must have experience in writing fiction so that he has the necessary knowledge of fictional writing techniques. Writers trained in journalism for example would not possess the skills needed to write a creative journalistic piece, but are more suited to writing documentary novels. Capote's distinction is relevant to the question because it gives us an insight into the extent in which In Cold Blood was created as a compelling true crime novel, largely based on fact (by a writer), in comparison to the extent in which a crime and it's effects was accurately reconstructed and completely based on fact (as a detective would attempt to do). In order to determine the real extent to which Capote as author of this novel was also a detective a number of issues need to be addressed. To begin with the opinion that in researching and writing In Cold Blood Capote was in fact acting as a detective will be examined. The research Capote undertook in writing this non-fiction novel was indeed extremely thorough. He arrived in Holcomb in November 1959, the same month of the murders and a month before Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were arrested. He was therefore present during the time in which the initial police investigation was taking place. He conducted hundreds of interviews with residents of Holcomb, and other individuals who had come into contact with the two murderers. Some of these interviews, as he told George Plimpton in an interview for the New York Times in 1966, went on for three years. Capote also undertook â€Å"months of comparative research on murder, murderers, the criminal mentality,† as well as interviewing, â€Å"quite a number of murderers† in order to gain a perspective on Smith and Perry10. In his interviewing of Smith and Perry after their arrest, he acted to a great extent as a detective is expected to. As the men were kept apart following their arrest, Capote was able to cross-reference their interview answers in order to determine fact from fiction, â€Å"I would keep crossing their stories, and what correlated, what checked out identically, was the truth†11. In Cold Blood has been widely accepted as an extremely accurate portrayal of the Clutter murders and the following investigation. However, the opinion that In Cold Blood was as much a work of fiction as of fact needs to be considered. Within this novel there are several instances in which Capote could be said to have used artistic licence. The clearest example of this is the last scene of the novel in which Detective Alvin Dewey meets murdered Nancy Clutter's childhood friend at the graveyard in Holcomb, four years after the family's deaths, ‘And nice to have seen you, Sue. Good luck,' he called to her as she disappeared down the path, a pretty girl in a hurry, her smooth hair swinging, shining – just such a young woman as Nancy might have been. 12 We know this to be an utterly fictitious scene because, according to Dewey's biographer Gerald Clarke, Dewey never met Susan Kidwell until the executions of Smith and Hickock in 196513. According to Capote, however, the meeting at the graveyard took place the previous May, in 1964. In the novel, the reader also cannot escape a feeling that Capote is somewhat biased towards Perry Smith. As a writer, personal opinions and feelings are perfectly acceptable inclusions in a reconstruction, but as a detective they are not. Of course this bias may arise directly from Capote's observations of the two men, and of factual, psychological evidence. In which case this would be a fair assessment. However, it has been suggested by some that this bias arises from Capote's feelings for Perry Smith and the relationship they developed whilst Capote was conducting his research. Ned Rorem, referring to a dinner conversation with Truman Capote in 1963, said of Capote â€Å"he seemed clearly in love with him [Perry]. It must be remembered however that this is just speculation. In Cold Blood has also been seen as a polemic against capital punishment and the American justice system. By indicating in the novel that Perry Smith was in a â€Å"psychological cul-de-sac†15 at the time he committed the murders he insinuates that the death penalty was an unjust sentence. With regard to Capote's attack on the justice system, his criticism can clearly be seen in his account of the jury selection for the trial, The airport employee, a middle-aged man named N. L. Dunnan, said, when asked his opinion of capital punishment, ‘Ordinarily I'm against it. But in this case no' – a declaration which, to some who heard it, seemed clearly indicative of prejudice. Dunnan was nevertheless selected as a juror. 16 If this is indeed a polemic, it must be the case that opinions and facts in opposition to Capote's argument would have been left out. This would make him more writer than detective. He himself confessed that, I make my own comment by what I choose to tell and how I choose to tell it. It is true that an author is more in control of fictional characters because he do [sic] anything he wants with them as long as they stay credible. But in the nonfiction novel one can also manipulate. 17 Ellroy's My Dark Places is also a true crime novel containing, as I have mentioned, elements of autobiography and of the police procedural. Unlike In Cold Blood, in which the reader is aware of the culprits' identities from the beginning, it is more of a ‘whodunit' in that the reader does not know who the murderer is. Through the process of detection, and with the help of a homicide detective named Bill Stoner, Ellroy retraces the initial investigation into his mother's murder in the hope of finally solving it. As in New York Trilogy, however, the reader is denied the solution and restoration of order generally expected from (and often desired in) a detective novel. The novel is written in four parts, and the extent to which Ellroy is both writer and detective varies with each one. The first part, ‘The Redhead' is Ellroy's reconstruction of the original investigation. Although true crime, this section reads as a police procedural novel, involving meticulous detail of each piece of evidence and information collected at the time. Ellroy has had to take on the role of detective in this section in order to reconstruct events as they happened at the time, 1958, thirty-five years before his own investigation. Unlike a fictional police procedural, in which the reader expects at least a portion of the evidence to be significant in solving the case, in the end it proves to be useless. It is Ellroy's inclusion of this irrelevant information that increases the extent to which he is also detective. Rather than using it as a plot device, he has included it for the purposes of accuracy. This section is also largely devoid of emotion, regardless of the significance of the case to Ellroy. The title, ‘The Redhead' is an example of this emotional absence; it provides a superficial physical description of Ellroy's mother with no real clue as to her identity. Ellroy himself, as narrator, is absent. He appears only as a character in the drama, the murdered woman's son. Unlike the last section in the novel, Ellroy does not appear as a detective. The second part of the text, ‘The Kid in the Picture', is autobiographical. It traces Ellroy's personal involvement in crime, such as going on â€Å"righteous burglary†18 runs, and his development as a writer of crime fiction. In this section Ellroy is clearly writer rather than detective. This is made even more evident as he mentions novels written by him during this period, such as L. A. Confidential – which he describes as a novel â€Å"all about me and L. A. crime†19. The third part of the novel, ‘Stoner', introduces the reader to the detective Bill Stoner, the man who will eventually aid Ellroy in the search for his mother's killer. This section is a biography of Stoner's life and cases as a homicide and later as an unsolved crime detective. Ellroy himself is again absent from this section. As a writer he would had to have investigated the events in Stoner's life that are mentioned here. Thus, in writing this section Ellroy has had to, in effect, engage in detection. The other way in which Ellroy could be seen to also be a detective in this part is the language he employs. Much of the information we are given reads as would a police report. As Blue in New York Trilogy is accustomed to writing reports in which â€Å"action holds forth over interpretation†20, we see Ellroy writing in the same manner. This can be seen in the following extract, The Soto guys let her in. Karen verbally attacked John's common-law wife and ran out of the apartment. The wife chased her. They traded insults on the sidewalk until 2:00 in the morning. John Soto ran down. He made his wife go upstairs. The whole of this section is written in the same manner. In contrast to In Cold Blood there is no emotion or interpretation, only facts. For this reason, as Ellroy's novel also deals with true crime, it could be said that Ellroy is a detective to a greater extent than Capote because he sticks more rigidly to the facts. The fact that the reader finishes this novel with a sense of dissatisfaction (as the case is not solved) could also add credence to this idea. This is because as a self-consciously literary exercise, rather than accurate detection, In Cold Blood manages to create a sense of suspense even though the reader knows who has been killed and who committed the crime. Ellroy instead recounts facts as they were rather than attempting to satisfy readers' expectations. Conversely, if we are talking about conventional detective literature, we could say that Ellroy is less of a detective (in the traditional manner) for the very reason that he fails to solve the crime, thereby failing to restore social order. The final section, ‘Geneva Hilliker', is that in which Ellroy is most evidently a detective as well as writer. This section of the novel details Ellroy's own investigation. It follows his collation of evidence, false leads followed and the final (if unsatisfying) resolution to Ellroy's story. Even if the reader does not find out who killed Geneva Hilliker, they, as Ellroy does, find out about her and her life. For Ellroy this provides some closure, as we would expect from a crime novel. It is not conventional to the genre but does resolve some of the questions Ellroy hoped to answer when he embarked on the investigation, thus consolidating his position as detective (however temporarily). In each of these novels, writers have to a considerable extent also been detectives. It is difficult to determine whether this is truer in any of the texts than in the others due to the different ways in which this has been the case. In My Dark Places and In Cold Blood, the authors of the novels have also carried out acts of detection in the research carried out for those novels. In New York Trilogy we see characters that happen to be either writers or detectives exchanging these roles. It may be said that any author is to some extent a detective, whether they are researching a factual book, or writing a fictional novel in order to discover something about the world in which they live. As Quinn believes, â€Å"the writer and detective are interchangeable†21.