Hawksmoor :: English Literature

Hawksmoor - There are many puzzling features in this novel - Discuss three in detail, looking at the way they are communicated. 'Hawksmoor' as a novel is on the whole, puzzling. As it is a detective story, Peter Ackroyd uses different techniques of involving the reader in his plot so that even if the beginning is not fully understood, we have to go on reading it just to see what happens next. These different features, for example, the juxtaposition of the time periods between the chapters; the post-modernistic aspects of Ackroyd's writing; and the conflicts between reality and fiction all make the novel puzzling. Time in this novel is very confused, with two time periods (the modern day and the eighteenth century) being juxtaposed in alternate chapters throughout the novel. The theme of time is continued on this premise and there are many references to time by the characters themselves. For example at one point, Nicolas Dyer says: "..how do we conclude what time is our own." Nicolas Hawksmoor also asks: " 'Well, Walter, what do you make of that timing?' 'It's impossible, sir.' 'Nothing is impossible. The impossible does not exist'" Not only are there direct referrals to time, like this but also there are tenuous links and suggestions to it as a dominant theme. For example, Hawksmoor is looking for the zero meridian when he is in Greenwich and there are many others. The changes in time are highlighted by the interesting use of language for the chapters narrated by Nick Dyer. Many spellings are different from modern English, for example, corpse is spelt 'corse'. Ackroyd also uses capital letters for nouns in these chapters. The eighteenth century writing is a constant reminder to the reader of which time period is being read about and is particularly prominent when the chapter and therefore the time period changes. Furthermore, it means that the reader has to concentrate more and because of the different formation of sentences it is difficult for the reader to follow at times, which is consistent with the detective story theme. Ackroyd wants the reader to be actively involved in the plot and they need to pick up on any small threads that he drops. As the novel progresses, there is an increasing confusion with time, so much so that at points it seems barley present. Ackroyd highlights this with the abundance of flashbacks that both the main characters have and because of this the time is changing not only between the chapters but also within them. Dyer has many flashbacks to his past and they often come without warning or relevance to what was previously talked about.

International Financial Reporting Standards Essay

1. Introduction: With the announced adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for publicly accountable starting 2011 by the Canadian’s Accounting Standards Board (AcSB), issues about the effect on the usefulness of financial statement need serious attention starting on knowing the similarities and differences between Canadian GAAP and IFRS.   Some critics have argued that IFRS will   give up too much reliability in order to achieve relevance, while others have argued that the increased relevance and comparability will promote usefulness of the financial statements.   This paper attempts to address some of these issues as is seeks to analyze the potential effects of Canada Adoption of IFRS by making an opinion as to whether the change will result in more or less decision useful information, thus making securities markets either more or less efficient. 2. Analysis and Discussion 2.1 What is IFRS and its advantages if adopted? IFRS is being promoted by its supporters as a â€Å"single set of globally accepted, high quality accounting standards† (KMPG Canada, 2007), that is adopted by over a hundred countries, including five of the G8 countries (KMPG Canada, 2007).   It appears to have gained the support of a number of countries and with announced adoption in Canada, starting 2011 by AcSB, there is good ground to believed about the benefits of the said set of international accounting standards in Canada compared staying on with the present Canada GAAP.   To cite names of countries, it could be asserted that as early as 2005, publicly listed companies in European Union member countries , Australia, Hong Kong,   and South Africa and have used IFRS (KMPG Canada, 2007).   In the absence of these countries’ plan or indication of returning to where they came from, with more reason and interest it is to know about the improvement from IFRS adoption in the financial statements of Canadian comp anies. Given therefore the similarities of the two standards under Canadian GAAP and IFRS, there is basis to state that Canada has had considerable input and influence in the development of IFRS over the years (KMPG Canada, 2007).   Therefore, Canada’s decision to join the many countries in adopting IFRS carries with it the intention to benefit enterprises in Canada.   That it would provide better access to international capital, funding and investment opportunities should not come as a big surprise.   The realities of samurai bonds or Eurobonds (Hill, 2009) could be asserted to have strong support from the presence of IAS or IFRS in the countries where bonds are floated as companies seek cheaper sources of capital as finding the same outside each homo country   helps in minimization of cost of capital as an objective (Brigham and Houston, 2002).   The improved information in terms of comparability of financial reports across countries could just be easy to accept as many c ompanies pursue international business. Another advantage of using the IFRS is the belief that it   should also more cost effective for the accounting information compared with maintaining a separate and isolated set of Canadian accounting standards (KMPG Canada, 2007).   This could be the same reason for the move by the US to eventually adopt harmonization of its accounting standards with the IFRS since non-US companies, which want to list their stocks in the US stock exchanges, are required still to make translation of IFRS based financial statements into US GAAP based.   From the practical sense of view, it would be easy to see the added cost for companies making still translations in the same way that non-Canadian companies may be required to make the translation   when they go to Canadian stock exchanges. Another advantage of adoption is to make financial results more transparent and consistent for user globally, which will mean using more judgment and providing more disclosure in the short term (KMPG Canada, 2007).   For this reason,   persons involved in the public company financial reporting of Canada will have to   expect to pass under   a steep learning curve (KMPG Canada, 2007).   IFRS and Canadian GAAP compare in just few important lines   but since IFRS standards are comprehensive and principles-based, it is expected that its application would require greater use of professional judgment than Canadian GAAP.   The availability of more accounting policy choices under   IFRS would take companies longer time now to evaluate these choices for each organization and is expected to result in valuable outcomes in the long-term (KMPG Canada, 2007). 2.2 The impact of the IFRS adoption It is believed that the first and most obvious impact of IFRS adoption would be in the effect on the presentation of the financial position of an entity as set out in its financial statements   (Romano and Grewal, 2009).   Since IFRS represents a statement of principles that must be applied based on judgment and assumptions given the facts at hand, it is expected that many principles will change including possibly modifying the many rigid prohibitions or rules that have become part of Canadian GAAP over time   via either practice or prescription (Romano and Grewal, 2009).   To illustrate since IFRS allows for more fair value accounting policy choices, this would open to a greater degree of interpretation and professional judgment.   The new principles underlying the presentation of financial measures will change both the way in which things are measured and what is included in the measurement as wells timing of measurement and needed disclosure (Romano and Grewal, 2009). The impact of the adoption of the IFRS would be in the allowing greater freedom to exercise professional judgment on which will make the financial statements to have greater relevance that will enhance the usefulness of the accounting information.   It may be recalled that the qualitative characteristics of accounting include both reliability and relevance of the accounting information for decision-making (Meigs and Meigs, 1995). A financial information may therefore be too reliable as to approximate a high a degree of objectivity but may no longer be of significance to decision makers since the decision is already done. To illustrate,   a person buying a car   or any typical product may be interested to know what is the estimated cost of production for a car that he or she wants to buy for the buyer for comparing it with the actual price of the product. On the other hand, another buyer may not really know what is the actual cost but he or she has information that the production possess so much value that is it relevant and unique about the product being sold and could be used for commercial production. The second buyer may not have the actual objective cost of production for the product but he or she has a good and businesslike assessment of the situation because of familiarity of relevant information which can generates value and could make a reasonable estimate of the values of possible input cost of the product.   He is therefore more strategically positioned than the first buyer is.   Thus, relevance at this point may be more advantageous than having greater reliability of information.   Adoption of IFRS is however not expected to amount of total loss of reliability of information. The adoption of IFRS is criticized by the fact that it would provide too much management flexibility or the freedom of interpretation that may be adopted with the concurrence of the independent auditors, thus it would reduce the quality of financial reporting.   There is however, no strong evidence to believe that feared consequence of the adoption on these ground.   In fact, this feared consequence remains to be seen (Romano and Grewal, 2009).   On the hand, one great inducement of adoption is for greater international comparability due from a perspective of globalized-investment market place.   There is now movement towards the implementation of the adoption and there are now plans to effect a successful transition (Romano and Grewal, 2009). 2.3 Sample Partial Application of IAS or IFRS to Business about Fair value Accounting One sample interesting effect of adoption of IFRS is the eventual effect International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39.   It is asserted that IAS 39   is   partial application of fair value accounting since the said standard gives institutions the possibility of irrevocably applying fair value valuations to any financial instrument starting from the concept of â€Å"fair value option† (Enria, et al, 2004). It is argued that one fundamental building block of   developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB),   the present makers of standards under the IFRS based in UK, is to bring the financial statements up to day with market developments hence, a working group on the issue has proposed the use of Full Fair Value Accounting (FFVA) for all financial instruments.   (Enria, et al, 2004).   While adoption of the IFRS by Canada would not immediately result to adoption of fair value accounting, it will open the great possibility because as stated earlier, the use of international accounting standard would give more flexibility to company’s management and accounting professionals and fair value accounting is part of the IFRS. If it feared that FFVA could produce effects on financial stability of banks, the same arguments could be made applicable to the Canadian companies, which are just to co-exist with other international and global companies in the use of IFRS.   The analysis of authors found confirmation about concerns on the potential wider application of fair value in unduly increasing the volatility of banks’ balance sheets, which could reduce possibly ability of companies to react to adverse shocks.   The adoption of fair value could also result to the pro-cyclicality of the bank lending especially if the application of fair value happens simultaneously with other developments under a new accord.   Thus, one of possible consequence is for encouraging banks to react if values change by use of FFVA through panic selling and tightening lending standard (Enria, et al, 2004).   The effect could be far reaching as it could bring a possible financial crisis at the worst case possibly. From deeper tests, however, the researchers have found no significant impact on volatility by the introduction of FFVA standards for companies studied in the 1980s and 1990w.   However, they cautioned about the need to be interpret the result with caution for several reasons and call for further research citing as one reason the lack of clear-cut choice of the cut-off dates on which banks change from one accounting standard to the other (Enria, et al, 2004). 3. Conclusion To conclude, this researcher   believes that the adoption   by the Canadian Accounting Standard Board of IFRS for companies   concerned starting in 2011 will result to   more useful information that would make securities markets either more or less efficient than not adopting the said international; accounting standard.   The adoption, while could result to possibly losing some reliability,   is expected bring   greater relevance of the financial statements and increased comparability which would then it more useful for Canadian companies and the users of these information.   The possibility of losing some reliability may possibly be counter checked by user still requiring from these companies from which they would like to deal with the production of financial statements prepared under the present Canadian GAAP but they could run the risk of losing the benefit of a decision that would be based on relevant grounds.   The mere fact that CASB has announced the adoption should signal there the advantages could outweigh the disadvantages of IFRS adoption.

Demographics Ice Cream Industry - 1600 Words

Demographics of the Ice Cream Industry The Canadian demographic for ice cream has been a constant presence of a sweet treat on a hot summer day. Thankfully, Canadians love ice cream, and enjoy it all year around. But, just who is enjoying this delicious milky treat, and what opportunities and threats does that leave the ice cream industry with? Opportunities Canadians have loved ice cream for centuries, and it shows today as children as young as ages 2-12, and folks as mature as 75 and up love ice cream. (Canadians Crazy for Ice Cream, 2010, Para. 12). Parents have also been giving their children exposure to ice cream at ages as little as one year in moderation. This opportunity will allow ice cream to bring them childhood memories and†¦show more content†¦Yet, where there are micro environmental factors, there’s also macro. Macro environmental factors are affected by natural disasters such as the fire that caused $2million of damages at Chapman’s institution of Markdale (CTV Toronto, 2009, Para. 1 16), which posed as a threat because the result was loss of an entire product plant as well as product growth. Other macro environmental factors also include the economy. If the economy goes down, the less people will spend money and the more they’ll cut out the little things, like ice cream. Other threats to obtaining the demographic span can be as simple as people who are lactose intolerant. Being lactose intolerant is actually having the high sugars in milk products not properly being broken down in the body. However, ice cream provides these high sugars, making it difficult and uncomfortable for the body to digest. (Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, 2013, para.1) While this seems like a mild threat, it holds the value of over 7 million Canadians who suffer from lactose intolerance and are not able to enjoy milk products, resulting in a large loss. (Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, 2013, Para 2) Opportunity or Threat. DEMOGRAPHIC Ice cream is becoming exposed to children at young ages.(Mamapedia, 2012, Para. 2) -This is an opportunity for the ice cream industry because as the ice cream industry grows, people grow with it. The early exposure of ice cream to children can create cravings,Show MoreRelatedThe Market Value of Frozen Yogurt in New Zealand Essay641 Words   |  3 PagesChoice† frozen yogurt company is a speciality shop for frozen yoghurt. In the frozen dessert industry, frozen yogurt is a new popular dessert since ice cream. Although frozen yogurt businesses have developed greatly in the past few years in New Zealand, and are going strong in the future. 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