Cultural Identity paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cultural Identity paper - Essay Example However, when you are a part of the majority, there is not a small community of people who share your culture. Rather, the community of people who share your culture is the larger part of the citizenry, and this makes life more isolated than if I was a part of a minority. Moreover, it seems that these individuals in the minority communities have more of a cultural identity, and this cultural identity is kept within the community, learned within the community, and spread through the community due to the tight-knit nature of their community. On the other hand, when you are part of the dominant culture, there is not the same tight knit community, so it seems to be easier to lose one’s ethnic or cultural identity. This is in contrast, to say, the Masai, which is a tribe in Africa that have consciously rejected Western values and beliefs. They are a further example of the tight-knit community in which the individuals within the community share a commonality of beliefs, values, and a history. For instance, the beliefs that are generally passed on from one generation to the next is the value of having large, strong, families; the value of elders, who are believed to be the wisest of all tribe members; and a patriarchal hierarchy that is a source of pride (Samovar & Porter, 2000, p. 92). The world view and perceptions of the world are colored by their membership in the tribe, which means that they value nature to the point where they will not kill wild animals unless they pose a threat or there is a severe drought; they observe a specific religion with a god with two distinct personalities – benevolence and lightning; and how they deal with death – they leave the bodies of the deceased out for the wild animals to eat, because they feel that they are essentially returning the person to nature. Where, in Western cultures, that last belief, especially, would seem abhorrent and disrespectful, because we bury our dead, for the Masai, this is the way tha t it is done and they do not mean disrespect at all (Samovar & Porter, 2000, p. 92). So, the Masai is an excellent example of a close-knit group that transmits culture, and this is the kind of group that I do not feel that I belong. It was therefore difficult for me to apply my situation to the readings that are in this course. This is because the key aspects of my identity are not necessarily derived from my cultural status. The origins of my family are Germanic, but my family has been living in America for a number of generations, therefore the Germanic identity has been replaced by that of being an assimilated American, and this has been the case for many generations. And, since American is such a large country, with many different customs and is essentially a melting pot, it is difficult to describe how being an American affects my perceptions and so forth. As one of the major parts of our reading states that one’s culture affects how one sees the world (Samovar & Porter, 2001, p. 91) – for instance, a Japanese person will see a person being brash and bold, and find that person disrespectful, where a Navajo person will see that same person as being self-centered and mischievous (Samovan & Porter, 2001, p. 54) – it is difficult to discern exactly how my culture relates to the different parts of the reading. So, the easiest way to approach this

How Internet Has Changed People Essay Example for Free

How Internet Has Changed People Essay The Internet has changed a lot over the year and a lot of people really dont talk to each other anymore instead they talk either on Facebook or another Internet site. With all the things that you can do most families really dont spend any time with each other anymore because everyone is doing something on the Internet. Now a day’s people can log on the Internet where ever they are. Because the internet decreases face to face interaction, makes it easier to retreat into a cyber-world, and vastly polarizes opinions and minimizes basic etiquette, the internet has done much to divide the global population, rather than connect it. About 86 percent of the world population uses the internet on a daily bases. Over the years Internet has decreased face to face interaction quite a bit. Now days if someone want to talk to someone they will just video chat with them over the Internet on apple devices, cell phones, computers, and Xbox. Also when someone wants write someone else they dont get out paper and pen they go on the Internet and email them. Now days it is much easier to retreat into a cyber-world, than it is to retreat in this to in the real world. Social websites like Facebook and twitter have made people a whole lot less social than they were years ago. The average Facebook user creates 90 pieces of content every month! Internet has done so much to divide the global population, rather than connect it. Instead of families spend quality time with each other they are all in different rooms on the Internet doing different things. I have noticed over the years that a lot of people have become more depend on the internet that they don’t know what they would do without it. A lot of things for schools are now on the internet like for my math class everything is online and very little on paper. Now days most parents don’t see their kids because they are usually in their room on the internet doing different things like either video chatting, play a game online, or online chat rooms. According to Pewresearch.org â€Å"A new Pew Internet Project report reveals that 93% of teen’s ages 12†17 go online, as do 93% of young adult’s ages 18†29.† Today every teenage has their own TV, computer, and other electronic devices just in their room. A lot of people think that they need their cell phones or their computers and they don’t know what to do when it dies when the power is out. They think that it is the end of the world when either their phone dies or their computer dies when they power is out. Peoples are lost without the internet. Devices that have internet access are addicting and people sometimes don’t know when to stop. The internet has come a long way since it started and now everything is online from banking to emailing and lots of other things. A lot of education is on the internet more and more each year, for example if you need help and don’t know how to do a math problem and you don’t want to leave your house you can just search the internet for an online tutor. 107 trillion emails sent in 2010 and many more since then. People are now dating other people over the internet, instead of meeting each other the old fashion way. With online chat rooms you can talk to someone that is in a whole different country and not even know that. Individuals are becoming less independent on families than they were before. According to SocialMediaToday.com writer Tim Patterson, Facebook has 518 million users. I think that the internet is making people a whole lot less social than they were before the internet started. My family can be so caught up in what we are doing on the internet that forgets that one another are even home. I think that people should spend less time on the internet and more time with their families. According to InternetWorldStats.com in 2010 the United States Internet Users the top 5 states are California (29.8 million users), Texas (17.2 million users), New York (16.1 million users), Florida (14.8 million users), and Illinois (10.2 million users).

Human Mortality in Masque of Red Death Essay -- essays research papers

Human Mortality in â€Å"The Masque of Red Death† As a gothic writer, Edgar Allan Poe created horror using gloom as his weapon. Hidden within the suspenseful story of â€Å"The Masque of Red Death† is an allegorical tale of how individuals deal with the fear of death as time passes. Frantic activities and pleasures (as represented by Prince Prospero and his guests) seek to wall out the threat of death. However, the story reminds the reader that death comes â€Å"like a thief in the night†(Poe 3), and even those who seek peace and safety shall not escape. Poe uses symbolism to illustrate that man cannot hide from his own mortality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  David R. Dudley states that â€Å"the Red Death symbolizes death in general† (Dudley 169). This can be assumed by the nature of the disease. No cure could be found for the Red Death and all whom obtained it eventually died. Also, the fact that the Red Death contains the word death directly connects the two. This connection clearly suggests that the Red Death symbolizes death. Knowing that, the fortress that Prince Prospero designed to separate himself and his guests from the Red Death symbolizes his human desire to escape death. Just as humans attempt to avoid the topic of death with material goods and busyness, the prince provides his guests with â€Å"all the appliances of pleasure.†(Poe 1) Yet despite all of these precautions, death rules over all as the Red Death is able to sneak into the fortress and claim every life within it. Liz Bren...

Race and Ethnicity: Introduction to Sociology Essay

The terms stereotype, prejudice, discrimination, and racism are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation. But when discussing these terms from a sociological perspective, it is important to define them: stereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people, prejudice refers to thoughts and feelings about those groups, while discrimination refers to actions toward them. Racism is a type of prejudice that involves set beliefs about a specific racial group. As stated above, stereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people. Stereotypes can be based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation—almost anyc haracteristic. They may be positive (usually about one’s own group, such as when women suggest they are less likely to complain about physical pain) but are often negative (usually toward other groups, such as when members of a dominant racial group suggest that a subordinate racial group is stupid or lazy). In either case, the stereotype is a generalization that doesn’t take individual differences into account. Where do stereotypes come from? In fact new stereotypes are rarely created; rather, they are recycled from subordinate groups that have assimilated into society and are reused to describe newly subordinate groups. For example, many stereotypes that are currently used to characterize black people were used earlier in American history to characterize Irish and Eastern European immigrants. Prejudicesarefueledbystereotypes,anexaggeratedordistortedbelieforimageabouta person or group. Stereotypes assume that everyone in a group the same characteristics, leading people to falsely believe that â€Å"they† are all alike. Even when the stereotype suggests positive traits (for example, that women are nurturing), everyone is hurt because these images leave no room for individual differences. No one is born believing stereotypes — they are learned from media, or parents, peers and many other sources. Social scientists believe that children begin to learn prejudices and stereotypes as early as two or three years old. Even though they don’t fully understand what prejudice is, young children may repeat racial slurs or act out stereotypes they see in the media. For example, a group of girls may tell a boy that he can’t play house because it’s a girl’s game. As they are exposed to more stereotypes, young children tend to form attachments to their own group and develop negative attitudes about other groups. As these attitudes deepen over a person’s lifetime, they are difficult to change. As they get older, people tend to see the things that support their views and disregard or ignore experiences that challenge them. I do not think this that if we promote only positive stereotype, then it will be helpful for the society as whole to react positively all the time. However, I think positive stereotype does not necessarily stop racial discrimination, because there are some positive stereotypes that can make other people feel uncomfortable. One of the examples of positive stereotype is that Chinese people are good at mathematics. What can we assume from this perspective that except Chinese, all other groups are bad at mathematics? This positive stereotype underestimates the power of other racial groups too. Besides that, I think people should not pay heed to such generalization about any group, because if someone gets involved in these things, then it’s even harder to come out of; because that really affects your mind completely. As it is mentioned above that we are not born with having stereotypical thinking, but learn them from parents, peers, school. Then, I really think we should terminate this concept of stereotype from its roots by not teaching our children about such things. Teaching about stereotype promotes negative and positive stereotype forms. Positive teaching can lead us to the right path that includes no discrimination and other negative principles. Question 4 Today people of color continue to be disproportionately incarcerated, policed, and sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts. Further, racial disparities in the criminal-justice system threaten communities of color disenfranchising thousands by limiting voting rights and denying equal access to employment, housing, public benefits, and education to millions more. In light of these disparities, it is imperative that criminal-justice reform evolves as the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Racism is an ongoing force that negatively impacts the lives of Americans every day. Also, the race is determine by color skins. The racist mindset in America stems from the times of slavery, where blacks were thought to be inferior to whites. Throughout history, the ideas of race and racism has evolved and developed several different meanings. Today, we can still see the devastating effects of racism on people of color, as well as whites. â€Å"Racism, like other forms of oppression, is not only a personal ideology based on racial prejudice, but a system involving cultural messages and institutional policies and practices as well as beliefs and actions of individual† (Tatum, pg. 9). As a result of this system, it leaves the oppressed at a great disadvantage in society. This includes access to social, cultural, and economic resources and decision-making. . From the time of slavery, to the present, racism has had many destructive and negative effects on the people in our society. White people have more opportunities than black, such as in education and employment, etc. The United States has chased violent law implementation strategies to limit the use and distribution of illegal drugs. Relative to their numbers in the general population and among drug offenders, Black Americans are excessively arrested, convicted, and imprisoned on drug charges. According to reading 26 by David Cole, in Baltimore, blacks are five times more likely than white to be arrested for drug offenses. In Columbus, black males are less than 11 percent of the population, but account for 90 percent drug arrests; they are arrested at a rate eighteen times greater than white males. Similar racial gap are found in confinement rates for drug offenses. From 1986 to 1991, the number of white drug offenders jailed in state prisons increased by 110 percent, but the number of black drug offenders by 465 percent. Thus, the victims of the war on drugs have been overly black. Some argue that this is neither surprising nor problematic, but simply reflects the unfortunate fact that the drug problem itself extremely burdens the black community. If more blacks are using and selling drugs, equal enforcement of the drug law will lead to unreasonable arrest and incarceration of African Americans. As a result, the imprisonment of such a high proportion of young African American males for drug crimes will have significant adverse long term effects on the black community. A criminal record makes it much more difficult to find a legitimate job and disable thousands of young black men at the beginning of their careers. I do not agree with this because, although whites are relatively untouched by anti-drug efforts compared to blacks, supporters of the drug war may not see a problem of race discrimination. Because they do not believe the purpose of drug law enforcement is to harm blacks if anything, drug law enforcement is seen as protecting minority communities from addiction, harassment, and violence. According toDevah Pager, acriminal record has asignificant negative impacton hiring outcomes, which even for applicants with otherwise appealing characteristics. Yet, a criminal record reduces the likelihood of a callback or job offer. Besides, the negative effect of a criminal conviction is substantially larger for blacks than for whites. The ratio of the criminal record penalty suffered by black applicants is roughly double the size of the penalty for whites with a record. This interaction between race and criminal record is large and statistically important, which indicates that the penalty of a criminal record is more restricting for black job seekers than whites. The number of crimes enhances the chances of suspicion against black people, because of racial discrimination black people have been faced many problems. Furthermore, employers hesitate to hire any black person due to the criminal history regarding blacks. Some employers might fail some black based on the criminal background that is not directly related to them, but they face consequences indirectly. The effect of race was very large, equal to or greater than the effect of a criminal record. For example, the survey audited 350 employers, 150 by white and 200 by black team (pg. 232). Only 14 percent of black men without criminal record were called back, a proportion equal to or less than even than the number of whites with a criminal background. This research shows that this discrimination is based on race, every illegal and illegitimate activity intentionally or unintentionally involves blacks, because of their historical notoriety. However, people neglect the history of blacks being slaves of white, when they were ruled over by whites and were being unjust. Despite that fact, people today do not hesitate to think of blacks first when any crime is committed, because somewhere in the past, blacks had committed some crimes. Thus, the discrimination between whites and blacks is somehow lesser than before, but there are still some places where racial discrimination exists and deprives blacks of their rights being the lawful citizen if this country.

Coca Cola Strategy Essay

Slide1: International strategy (tià ªu Ä‘á »  cá » §a slide nhà © c) The enterprise has core competencies => the competitors in the host country does not have or difficult to develop, catch up or imitate Being not under pressure to localize products and to reduce production costs Company’s head office played a central role Slide 2: International strategy of Coca Cola (1900 to 1950) 1899-1909: added to 379 bottling plants across the United States for consumption of about 70 million liters / year. 1906: developing the first bottling plant in Havana, Cuba => marked the first step of Coca cola international market 1936: World War broke out => the bottling plant follow the army and when the war ended, coca has owned subsidiaries in 64 countries. 1950: Coca cola started advertising on TV => effects promote in worldwise Slide 3: Global Strategy A business strategy as global market or single market Company produce and deliver the products which are standardized and identical. Businesses build production facilities globally in locations with low cost as the basis for operational efficiency => save cost The operation of the system will be connected and coordinated through a central management official Make the business does not pay attention to the important differences between different markets => opportunity for competitors to jump in and meet the needs Slide 4: Global Strategy of Coca cola (1950 to early 2000) Coca-cola implementing global business strategy by: producting homogeneity, uniforming marketing strategy worldwide. In the 1970s and 1980s: + very diversified distribution system in both horizontal and vertical, + the bottling plants of Coca-Cola were on around the world + linked the retail stores to serve consumers better. In the 1990s: find new market with the advantages of the new front to the market => Africa and Asia Slide 5: Transnatoinal strategy Make a separate strategy for each country in which businesses consume their  products. Implemented localized products and methods of marketing products to suit the tastes and preferences of each national market Slide 6: Transnatoinal strategy of Coca cola (from 2000s to now) Set up independent subsidiaries, joint ventures in different markets => carry out the research and development stage products, manufacturing and marketing products in the local market. In the early 2000s: success on a global scale with nature is a business providing consumer goods Local adaptation â€Å"Think local, act local†: strategy towards adaptation but not contrary to the traditional strategy of company-global strategy Distributed organizational structure according to geographic area, including five areas: -North America – Latin America. – Europe, Asia, Europe and the Middle East borders. – Asia – Africa. Slide 7: Localization strategy of Coca cola: Localization strategy: the practice of adjusting a product’s functional properties and characteristics to accommodate the language, cultural, political and legal differences of a foreign market or country. For Coca Cola this will be done through a number of actions, first is changing their method of advertising. Ex: In India the use of celebrities would be used more than in Africa whereby football is the bigger love of the people Coca-Cola decided to change their iconic product name to something a little more consumer-friendly for Chinese market, adopted to use Chinese characters to present a truly localized version of their logo. Cuá »â€˜i cà ¹ng là   cà ¡i clip t gá » ­i hà ´m trc nhà © Há º £i.

the pearl essay by john steinbeck

the pearl essay by john steinbeck the pearl essay by john steinbeck English 11 â€Å"That ranch we’re goin to is down there about a quarter mile. We’re gonna go in an’ see the boss. Now, look I’ll give him the work tickets, but you aint gonna say a word.† Prejudice plays a significant role in Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. In many instances, characters are pushed aside. Some characters who are pushed aside are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Lennie. Prejudice destroys people’s lives. In the novel, Curelys wife is discriminated because of her gender. During this time period, women are basically nothing to the men on the ranch. Steinbeck does not even give her a name. This woman is just simply known as â€Å"Curley’s wife.† For example, Curley attempts to find her in the bunkhouse and says â€Å"you seen a girl around here.† In addition to that, nobody even wants to speak to her as the men would like to talk and have discussions with other guys and men as they show prejudice towards her. The idea of prejudice can single handily ruined Crooks life on the ranch a living nightmare. Since Crooks is of the African American decent, he was placed in a small shed. This shed had isolated him to sleep and stay at night. Unfortunately, he was separated from everybody else on the ranch. When Crooks attempts to show self-pride, Curley’s Wife immediately shuts him down. She says â€Å"listen n*****†. On top of being judged, Crooks was kicked in the back by a horse. That is why he is now a hunched back and does not have much going for him in life. The life of Lennie was ruined for him by him being mentally slower than others. He was impacted by the act of being discriminated for his amount

The 15 Best Books on Writing A Reading List for Novelists

The 15 Best Books on Writing A Reading List for Novelists The 15 Best Books on Writing: A Reading List for Novelists Okay, we know what you’re thinking: why compile a list of the best craft-based  books when most people these days learn exclusively from blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos? Well, because we still think there’s something to be said for the long-form enjoyment and value of picking up a book and learning directly from an author - especially if you’re angling to become an author yourself. Indeed, both the technical wisdom and biographical experiences  of these writers can be hugely beneficial as you develop your own process.For this post, we asked an online community of writers to suggest some indispensable books about writing. With their answers in mind, here are 15 of the very best books on writing to help you hone your craft to perfection! 15 incredible books on writing to help you write YOUR dream book 📘🠏† 1. On Writing by Stephen KingPerhaps the most-cited book on this list, On Writing is part-memoir, part-masterclass from one of America’s leading authors. Come for the vivid accounts of his childhood - and his extended "lost weekend" of drinking and drugs in the 1980s. Stay for the specific, actionable advice on what it takes to become an author. Among the many craft-based tips are King’s expert takes on plot, story, character, and more, which he's used to pen countless novels and short stories.From the book: â€Å"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.† Two Types of Writers: Plotters and Pantsers Read post 5. Take Off Your Pants by Libbie HawkerOf all the titles on this list, Take Off Your Pants has to be the most eye-catching. But rather than remarking on the joys of working from home, this title actually alludes to being a pantser: a writer who dives straight into their draft with little more than an idea. Hawker doesn’t dissuade writers from â€Å"pantsing,† but does note that structure tends to help, at least in her experience. This book details her process for planning a story, offering various tools and techniques for nailing your book before you start typing â€Å"once upon a time.†From the book: â€Å"When it comes to the eternal quandary of pantsing or plotting, you can keep a foot in each camp. But if your goals will require you to write with speed and confidence, an effective outline will be your best friend.† "Take Off Your Pants" by Libbie Hawker + 14 other essential books on writingðŸ‘â€" 6. Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley SmithAnd for those who eschew structure altogether, we’ll refer you to this title from prolific science fiction author Dean Wesley Smith. Having authored a number of official Star Trek novels, he encourages writers to go boldly into the unknown, with an approach to writing books that doesn’t necessarily involve an elaborate plan.From the book: â€Å"Imagine if every novel you picked up had a detailed outline of the entire plot†¦ Would you read the novel after reading the outline? Chances are, no. What would be the point? You already know the journey the writer is going to take you on. So, as a writer, why do an outline and then have to spend all that time creating a book you already know?†7. Everybody Writes by Ann HandleyThe full title of this all-inclusive book on writing is actually Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content - which should tell you something about its universally encou raging nature. Not only does Handley have some great ideas on how to plan and produce a great story, she also provides tips on general content writing, which comes in handy when it’s time to market your book. And while the central message of Everybody Writes may be right there in the title, we can attest that its material will make you see writing in a whole new light.From the book: â€Å"In our world, many hold a notion that the ability to write, or write well, is a gift bestowed on a chosen few. That leaves us thinking there are two kinds of people: the writing haves - and the hapless, for whom writing well is a hopeless struggle, like trying to carve marble with a butter knife. But I don’t believe that, and neither should you.†8. How to Become a Successful Indie Author by Craig Martelle Be the architect of your story. (Image: Khara Woods on Unsplash)15. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher VoglerAnd finally we arrive not merely at prolific structure, but at mythic structure. Vogler’s book, originally published in 1992, is now a modern classic of writing advice; though intended as a screenwriting textbook, its contents apply to any story of mythic proportions. In The Writer’s Journey, Vogler takes a page (literally) from Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces to ruminate upon the most essential narrative structures and character archetypes of the writing craft. So if you’re thinking of drawing up an epic fantasy series full of those tropes we all know and love, this guide should be right up your alley.From the book: â€Å"The Hero’s Journey is not an invention, but an observation. It is a recognition of a beautiful design†¦ It’s difficult to avoid the sensation that the Hero’s Jou rney exists somewhere, somehow, as an external reality, a Platonic ideal form, a divine model. From this model, infinite and highly varied copies can be produced, each resonating with the essential spirit of the form.†That’s all the recommendations we have for now - but we’re always looking for more! Tell us in the comments: what are your favorite books on writing, and why?

How to Find the Aquila Constellation

How to Find the Aquila Constellation The constellation Aquila is visible in the northern hemispheres summer sky and the southern hemispheres winter. This small but significant constellation features several fascinating deep sky objects that amateur astronomers can view with a backyard telescope. Finding Aquila Aquila is outlined in faint blue, and its brightest star is Altair. Look for it just below Cygnus the Swan and near Sagittarius. From a dark viewing site, observers can see that Aquila lies in the plane of the Milky Way. Carolyn Collins Petersen   The easiest way to find Aquila is to locate the nearby constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Its a roughly cross-shaped pattern of stars that is high overhead on summer evenings beginning in mid-July. Cygnus appears to be flying down the Milky Way galaxy (which we see from the inside as a band of stars stretching across the sky) toward Aquila, which looks like a crooked shape of a plus sign. The brightest stars of Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus all form a familiar asterism called the Summer Triangle, which is visible in the northern hemisphere from early summer to late in the year.   Historical Interpretations Aquila has been a known constellation since antiquity. It was cataloged by the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy and was eventually adopted as one of the 88 modern constellations charted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Since it was first interpreted by the Babylonians, this star pattern has virtually always been identified as an eagle. In fact, the name aquila comes from the Latin word for eagle.  Aquila was also well known in ancient Egypt, where it was seen as a bird accompanying the god Horus. It was similarly interpreted by the Greeks and, later, the Romans, who dubbed it Vultur volans (the flying vulture). In China, myths about family and separation were told in relation to the star pattern. Polynesian cultures saw Aquila in several different ways, including as a warrior, a tool, and a navigational star. The Stars of the Aquila Constellation The six brightest stars in this region make up the body of the eagle, set against a backdrop of dimmer stars. Aquila is relatively small, compared to nearby constellations. Its brightest star is called ÃŽ ± Aquilae, also known as Altair. It lies only about 17 light-years from Earth, making it a pretty close neighbor. The second-brightest star is ÃŽ ² Aquilae, better known as Alshain. Its name comes from an Arabic term which means the balance. Astronomers commonly refer to stars in this way, using lowercase Greek letters to indicate the brightest as alpha, beta, and so on, to the dimmest ones lower in the alphabet. Aquila features several double stars, including 57 Aquilae. It contains an orange-colored star paired with a whitish-colored one.  Most viewers can spot this pair using a good set of binoculars or a backyard-type telescope. Search out Aquila for other double stars, too. The entire constellation of Aquila shown with IAU boundaries and the brightest stars that make up the pattern.   IAU/Sky Telescope Deep Sky Objects in Constellation Aquila Aquila lies in the plane of the Milky Way, which means that there are a number of star clusters within its boundaries. Most are fairly dim and require good binoculars to make them out. A good star chart will help you locate these. Theres also a planetary nebula or two in Aquila, including NGC 6781. It requires a good telescope to spot, and its a favorite challenge for astrophotographers.  With a powerful telescope, NGC 6781 is colorful and striking, as seen below. A view through a backyard-type telescope is not nearly so colorful, but instead shows a slightly greenish-gray blob of light. The planetary nebula NGC 6781 as photographed through one of the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. This nebula lies in Aquila and can be spotted with a good backyard-type telescope. ESO   Aquila as a Springboard for Exploration Observers can use Aquila as a jumping-off spot to explore the Milky Way and the many clusters and objects that lie in nearby constellations, such as Sagittarius. The center of our galaxy lies in the direction of Sagittarius and its neighbor Scorpius. Just above Altair lie two tiny little constellations called Delphinus the Dolphin and Sagitta the Arrow. Delphinus is one of those star patterns that looks like its name, a cheery little Dolphin in the starry seas of the Milky Way.

A Comparison of Chuang Tzu's Ideas of Life and Death with those of Essay

A Comparison of Chuang Tzu's Ideas of Life and Death with those of Socrates - Essay Example You-Sheng revisited the Chuang Tzu’s argument that through the inaction of heaven, which is purity and that of the earth, which is space, things are brought to existence and are transformed mysteriously (You-Sheng, 2005, p. 14). He went further to explain that it is through this inaction that the living things have the mercy to grow and develop. One is born by chance, but once alive, death is imminent. Therefore, the essay is a comparison of Chuang Tzu ideas of life and death with those of Socrates. Chuang Tzu Ideas of Life and Death Watson examined Chuang Tzu’s basic writings to outline his ideas about life and death. He argues that during old age, the mind comes closer to death and probably nothing could restore the life to light (Watson, 1996, p. 32). Significantly, this comes as an automatic consequence of aging; therefore no one should be afraid of death. As a result, the people are in constant struggle and worry during their life, because they have to toil for the ir daily bread, and think that at one time, the life would be terminated (Watson, 1996, p. 32). Life and death, according to Tzu are fated and bound to happen (Watson, 1996, p. 76). In this regard, he equates their relationship to the succession between dark and down, through compulsion. As the dark nears its end, a new dawn succeeds it, meaning that as life nears its end, death dawns (Watson, 1996, p. 76). ... 77). In essence, he attributes death to a means of change, and since everything is constantly changing, no one has the capability of preventing the change from changing. Therefore, we should accept the facts related to change, and welcome it when it reaches, and there would not be anything to fear about death. Moreover, according to his conviction, in the beginning and end, early death, old age, and at all levels of human development, he/she should be delightful (Watson, 1996, p. 77). Apparently, the belief makes us believe that life that life and death are equal, not any important than the other (You-Sheng, 2005, p. 37). As well, the argument suggests that the people should be aware that at one moment, perhaps after birth, he/she is bound to die, through whichever means. Therefore, he attributed death to an automatic exit from the known world to unknown world, where only Tao has good knowledge about (You-Sheng, 2005, p. 39). Drawing from the Masters’ agreement, he argues that this is something that one should believe (Watson, 1996, p. 80). This is justified from his acknowledgement that non-being is actually someone’s head, life is someone’s back and death is someone’s rump. In another controversial question, he wanted to know whether life and death are all one body (Watson, 1996, p. 80). In reality, there is a common belief that once a person is dead, the aspects of life cease to manifest on the body. The body becomes helpless, lifeless and useless to perform any function. Therefore, life and death, despite being very far apart from one another, are simply one. For instance, life results to death and they can never manifest together, each does distinctively. He also put

Limitations in Reliability of Interest Rate Sensitivity Gap Case Study - 1

Limitations in Reliability of Interest Rate Sensitivity Gap - Case Study Example The researcher states that the use of the interest rate gap in measuring the interest rate risk has various limitations. When there is high volatility in the interest rate in the market the use of gap method does not yield desired results. In the duration gap approach, it is difficult to match the duration of assets with the liabilities. Besides, this analysis is useful only when there are small and identical changes in the short term and long term rates of interest. The grouping of assets and liabilities based on duration is difficult in the case of prepayments by the clients or default. When there is a fall in the interest rates the prepayment increases that make the bank â€Å"asset sensitive†. If the interest rates are anticipated to increase by 1 percent then to reduce the impact on earnings the corporation must keep a Positive Gap. This means that the rate sensitive assets should be more than the rate sensitive liabilities. If this is positive then the increase in intere st rates increases the net interest income. The Gap of the corporation is mostly positive for all the time periods except for the investments that are of less than six-month maturity. In all the classes with a positive gap, the corporation will benefit due to the anticipated increase of 1%. It will only lose on the negative gap because the net interest income will reduce for the assets and liabilities of six months maturity. The interest expense will be more on account of increase in the rate and the gap being negative i.e. the number of liabilities exceeding the number of assets, there will be a fall in the net income. The cumulative gap of the corporation is positive at $1194 million.

Institutional adoption of Open Source Software pros and cons Research Paper

Institutional adoption of Open Source Software pros and cons - Research Paper Example When OSS got momentum, the buzzwords start flying quick and loose. But the very boom of open source software forces the different institutes to take into consideration the OSS depending upon its advantages. The availability of free open source softwares (OSS) is a sort of great help at individual and at institutional or organizational level. The OSS is gaining popularity in both commercial and government domains. An interesting issue in the soft technology is the issue of choice between the proprietary and OSS. Institutes or different organizations are seeing the OSS as an alternative of the proprietary software. The open source applications like Apache, Perl and Sendmail are the focus of different organizations or institutions for their internet based applications or systems. As quoted about open source software: The vision for many developing countries is that by using affordable yet effective open source software to bridge the digital divide, they can achieve rapid and sustainable economic and social development. (Joshua L Mindel, Lik Mui, Sameer Verma, 2007) Most of the institutions or organizations adopt open source software due to certain advantages which open source applications are providing. The advantages which are taken into consideration are low cost of license, more stable features, high security, user friendliness, support cost and facility to upgrade the existing tool according to the new requirements due to the availability of source code. So in the presence of all these advantages we can conclude that open source software is free to use, copy, distribute and modify. In the adoption of an OSS institutes also pay severe attention to economic growth that what is the Return On Investment (ROI). The ROI must be taken into account as an advantage of OSS. But there are certain disadvantages which must also be taken into account by an institute

BMW and UN Global Compact Principles Case Study - 4

BMW and UN Global Compact Principles - Case Study Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the long experience and exposure of manufacturing such a high quality product has earned a respectable status for us in comparison with the several competitor automobile manufacturing corporations, on the foundations of which our company is in a position to make suggestions and recommendations to the Local Network regarding the strict observing of the UN Global Compact principles while exercising corporate strategies and observing business activitiesJohnson & Scholes suggest that strategy formulation might apparently be obtained through the analysis of the organization’s environment and the extent to which the company’s resources or strategic capability are matched with the environment. (1993: 156). Our company looks for the unconditional observing of moral values and corporate ethics on the basis of Global Compact principles in order to provide the consumers the superior commodities on the one hand and best and healthy com petitive corporate environment on the other. Columbia University Press views that corporate ethics have developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction too much ethical thinking. (cup.edu.com) BMW Automobile has devised the slogan of â€Å"sheer driving pleasure† because of its unique outlook, comfortable inside accessories and unparalleled garnishing, which have won the status of one of the most demanded automobiles by the elite stratum of all countries. Bidgoli argues that international markets offer vast opportunities for firms with a product or service in high demand. Newness, cultural adaptation, attractiveness, and appropriate marketing strategies can help tremendously.† (2009, 9) The same is applied to BMW, which adopt all schemes in light of all the ten UN corporate principles. The present paper focuses on Principles No. 7 & 8, recommended by the UN Global Compact, which state: (7). Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; (8). Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility. (unglobalcompact.org) BMW fulfills both of them in their real sense. BMW adopts the Evolutionary corporate perspective articulated by Whittington. The process vehemently looks for the gradual human growth on the basis of Darwinian biological evolution theory â€Å"Survival of the Fittest†, where the notion warns the companies regarding the existence of perfect competition prevailing in the market; only those can survive who are the fittest according to the changing scenario and latest developments being made within the environment. In other words, the industries that are environmental-friendly as well as able enough to mold their strategies according to the alterations being made in the commercial environment, make sure headway on the way to progress. Recom mendations: i) Establishment of Corporate Environment with an Evolutionary Perspective: Benefits & Implications: a. Automobile community can assure its survival provided it sticks to the Darwinian doctrine of adaptability according to the changes within the environment. The companies should be encouraged to devise and revise their strategies keeping in view the global market scenario. b. Our company’s plans and schemes show the light of hope to the network members, where they learn the implementation of dichotomous business policies by cut-short of expenditures and price of product subsequently to make it affordable for consumers.  

Harry Wong Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Harry Wong Article - Essay Example Harry Wong emphasizes upon the importance of creating a good first impression and therefore stresses on even the minor aspects of the first day, starting from the dress to the delivering of a lecture. According to Harry Wong, it is the teacher’s attitude that determines the level and quality of response received from the students. He states that, ‘Students tend to learn as little or as much as their teachers expect.’ Provided that the teacher has an encouraging and positive attitude, the students too will portray their best. It is therefore important, not to expect too little nor too much from them. However, at the same time, it is in the first class that she can create a proper class environment, laying down certain expectations that will be expected of them. He states that the three most essential things that must be laid down clearly and established in the first week are discipline, procedure and routine, and these must not only show in attitude but also in her lecture and in her style of conducting the class. Harry Wong also stresses upon the necessity of the teacher familiarizing with the students from the very beginning; addressing them by their names and encouraging them to be more open with their ideas rather than to remain shy and hesitant. It is only with the proper attitude of the teacher that the student will be encouraged to open up. Moreover, to ensure maximum student output, the teacher must design her lesson in a manner that will demand the maximum response from the student rather than increased input from the teacher. Multiple activities should be carried out in class that will give the teacher an overall impression of what the student understands from his/her lectures. Moreover, tests should also be frequently taken to ensure higher achievement. One of the most important guidelines laid down by Harry Wong is that the teacher must exercise a self-enhancing behavior rather than a

BMW and UN Global Compact Principles Case Study - 4

BMW and UN Global Compact Principles - Case Study Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the long experience and exposure of manufacturing such a high quality product has earned a respectable status for us in comparison with the several competitor automobile manufacturing corporations, on the foundations of which our company is in a position to make suggestions and recommendations to the Local Network regarding the strict observing of the UN Global Compact principles while exercising corporate strategies and observing business activitiesJohnson & Scholes suggest that strategy formulation might apparently be obtained through the analysis of the organization’s environment and the extent to which the company’s resources or strategic capability are matched with the environment. (1993: 156). Our company looks for the unconditional observing of moral values and corporate ethics on the basis of Global Compact principles in order to provide the consumers the superior commodities on the one hand and best and healthy com petitive corporate environment on the other. Columbia University Press views that corporate ethics have developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction too much ethical thinking. (cup.edu.com) BMW Automobile has devised the slogan of â€Å"sheer driving pleasure† because of its unique outlook, comfortable inside accessories and unparalleled garnishing, which have won the status of one of the most demanded automobiles by the elite stratum of all countries. Bidgoli argues that international markets offer vast opportunities for firms with a product or service in high demand. Newness, cultural adaptation, attractiveness, and appropriate marketing strategies can help tremendously.† (2009, 9) The same is applied to BMW, which adopt all schemes in light of all the ten UN corporate principles. The present paper focuses on Principles No. 7 & 8, recommended by the UN Global Compact, which state: (7). Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; (8). Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility. (unglobalcompact.org) BMW fulfills both of them in their real sense. BMW adopts the Evolutionary corporate perspective articulated by Whittington. The process vehemently looks for the gradual human growth on the basis of Darwinian biological evolution theory â€Å"Survival of the Fittest†, where the notion warns the companies regarding the existence of perfect competition prevailing in the market; only those can survive who are the fittest according to the changing scenario and latest developments being made within the environment. In other words, the industries that are environmental-friendly as well as able enough to mold their strategies according to the alterations being made in the commercial environment, make sure headway on the way to progress. Recom mendations: i) Establishment of Corporate Environment with an Evolutionary Perspective: Benefits & Implications: a. Automobile community can assure its survival provided it sticks to the Darwinian doctrine of adaptability according to the changes within the environment. The companies should be encouraged to devise and revise their strategies keeping in view the global market scenario. b. Our company’s plans and schemes show the light of hope to the network members, where they learn the implementation of dichotomous business policies by cut-short of expenditures and price of product subsequently to make it affordable for consumers.  

Introductin to Managment and Welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Introductin to Managment and Welfare - Essay Example The project encompasses three departments: activities manager, funding manager and volunteering manager. My role in the project incorporates activities manager whereby I will facilitate recreational and therapeutic activities for the elderly. The role of the funding manager is to adopt grant models of funding the project, as well as managing and allocating finances to the project’s activities. The volunteers’ manager, on the other hand, will be responsible for recruiting, coaching, organizing, encouraging, and supporting volunteers. Project Objectives The elementary objective of this project is to mitigate feelings of social isolation among the elderly residents. Pursuing the comfort of the elderly is not farfetched as it reinforces their productivity within the society. The provision of comprehensive leisure activities suited for the elderly is geared towards enabling them to remain active throughout the later stages of their life. This is vital in curtailing seniorsâ €™ predisposition to isolation by actively engaging them into leisure activities. Similarly, the project is geared towards integrating the elderly into the community via group interactions and social functions. Ultimately, the project is directed at promoting healthy living and reinforcing social networks among the elderly (Kunstler & Daly 2010, p.341). Roles and Responsibilities of Activities Manager One of the core mandates of activities manager is to encourage the elderly residents to suggest enjoyable leisure activities, which are then implemented. The involvement of the elderly into choice of activities is essential; active involvement aids in maintaining an elevated mood state within the group. As activities manger, I will have to coordinate with agents such as social administrators in order to plan and implement programs geared towards enhancing the lifestyle of the elderly. In addition, I will also need to develop innovative activity programs and events for my clients as well keep abreast with the recent trends in recreational facilities. Recruitment of the Participants Recruiting the seniors into the envisaged physical and social spaces will not be an easy endeavor. To start with, we will approach the local community leaders to gather firm support for the project. Seeking support and endorsement by the local community groups and leaders enhances solid commitment from the community in terms of ongoing support principle, action, and finances. In the recruitment process, we will seek the indulgence of the local community through the use of events and a study so as spot the target audience. Since this project is a daycare facility for the elderly, the project targets older residents who have not yet been incorporated into the residential housing for the elderly, and who bear the blunt of increased levels of social isolation and depressed community involvement. The operation of the project is similar in many respects to other resident care facilities f or the elderly. We are seeking to attract retirees, a maximum of 50, and have devised several ways in which to interact with them. The project is in its resident recruitment phase, which incorporates sourcing information from the social administrators within the community and inviting retirees to apply. We will also hold an â€Å"open afternoon†

Anaylsis of gambling industry Essay Example for Free

Anaylsis of gambling industry Essay Introduction A service is the result of applying human or mechanical efforts to people or objects. Services are intangible products involving a deed, a performance or an effort which cannot be physically possessed (s dibb, 1994). Within this report their will be a number of topics discussed including the marketing mix, the effects of gambling and the ongoing conflict between services and product. These topics will be referred to the specific service which is the gala casino in Edinburgh. Methodology. In the UK there are many different gambling bodies, such as Gala, William Hill and Betfred. The gambling industry is one of the most successful services in the Britain.. Gala casinos are owned by the Gala Group who in 2005 merged with another European gambling business Coral Eurobet to create Europes largest integrated betting group. At present, Gala employs over 17000 people and generates over ? 400 million per annum, serving over 2 million customers (Gala Group, 2005). The casino that this report will focus on will be the Maybury Casino in Edinburgh, which is owned by Gala. Despite it being a large city, there are only two casinos in Edinburgh, the Maybury being the bigger and more successful, rather than the William Hill casino closer to the centre of town. The casino has a high quality restaurant which is used all year round. Unlike some casinos, the Maybury has all the major casino tables, such as craps, roulette, blackjack and various types of poker. It has also has two function rooms mainly used for poker tournaments or mah-jong tables. Main body Marketing mix The marketing mix is key when developing any business whether it is a product based company or a service provider. The marketing mix is a very simple tool yet effect is basically a step to step guide on how to market the product(foxall, 1999). The following are the main marketing mix elements which refer to all business however in some cases a further 3 of physical evidence, people and process, all of these ingredients mask a major role of the retailer which is to select and acquire goods in order to sell their product (d Gilbert, 1999) Place For many different services the location of a business is a powerful marketing tool by itself( d Carson, 1991) . For example: the Waverley Hotel on Princes Street is on one of the busiest streets in the country and is therefore almost guaranteed to make a profit. Although this is not really the case for the Maybury Casino, it is still in a good position. It is situated in Corstorphine which is just out of the centre of Edinburgh. Despite this distance from the busy city centre, its location does allow for increased space. Most customers would want a casino closer to the centre of Edinburgh, but this would almost certainly mean that the venue would be smaller, with higher costs for the customer and the business. Having the business out of town allows for more space which in turn means the company can offer a better service to the customers. The other advantage of this location is that it is situated next to the main road into Edinburgh from Fife, going through Haymarket. This allows passers by to see the establishment. The benefit to having this out of town location is access: it is very simple to travel to the casino as Edinburgh has an award winning bus service with more than two buses running 24 hours a day that go past the casino. Price is one of the most difficult aspects of the marketing mix to tackle. Companies can do many things with promotion and can offer great products, but when it comes down to it, the cost of this is all that the vast majority of customers are interested in(j lee, 2002) Price is tricky when it comes to gambling, as it is an entertainment industry solely based on money. All casinos are always going to cost money when it comes to betting on tables, so there is nothing any one particular company can do differently, as it is generally up to the customer how much they spend. However, there are other aspects that are important in this industry, the main one being the membership price. The Maybury Casino does not charge a membership fee ? this is quite rare for most casinos. This is an enormous marketing tool in itself, as the amount of gamblers and money spent on gambling is increasing. Therefore, if it is free to play then this will entice gamblers even more, and at the end of the day free is free. Another aspect of price is the poker room. This room is used for weekly poker tournaments, which is something that a lot of casinos do. However the Gala Casino differs from others: poker is one of the fastest growing pastimes, which has encouraged Gala to offer poker tournaments every day of the week with different price levels. Having all these different price levels can encourage a larger range of customers, allowing those with less money to not miss out. One of the best reasons for the lower priced tournaments is the large amount of students this attracts. Students generally have less money than most members of the public, and as poker is becoming increasingly popular with younger people today, the casino is therefore an affordable place they can go with friends. The general misconception about casinos is that they are for older businessmen who enjoy an expensive lifestyle and are happy to have expensive food and drink prices, but this is not the case. The prices of the drinks in the casino are the same as most Edinburgh bars with similar ranges and well trained staff. The restaurant is of a high quality and not overpriced. Therefore, it cannot be said that the price of the establishment could be responsible for putting people off going to the Casino. Promotion in general is harder for a service rather than a product. This is especially the case when referring to casinos. The only way in which casinos tend to promote themselves is in the actual casino itself. Casinos cannot advertise in the same way that normal products can, due to legislations so they rely heavily on word of mouth. In some ways, promotion is actually very important to a service, (especially this type of service) as they are relying on their own performance to act as their promotion. Product This is the most important part of the marketing mix for a service, as this is all they have. In regards to a service this element is basically the result of the previous three elements of the marketing mix without this one they all fail. In all aspects of retail, whether it is in a service or providing a product, it is this that matters to the customer. It does not matter how they promote it or at what price they sell it at they will fail either way if the product is not up to standard. The three extra elements only really refer to services due to the intangible element of human behaviour, where quality and its control is off paramount importance(d Gilbert,1999 ) People are also vital in services as they are your promotion they do all the work. Again the service as a whole can be great but if it is not applied properly by the staff then this becomes irrelevant. They employees are the face of the service so they must look and act in the way that is suitable for the service such as in the bank clean and in a shirt and tie. Process is very similar to some of the other elements as this is the procedures that are undertaken in providing the service. Other elements of process are the information that is available about the service, if customers are not aware of the details of the service they are unlikely to take part. Physical evidence is reasonably self explanatory, it is the physical elements the tangible elements of the service for example in a hotel the cleanliness of the curtains would be an example of physical evidence. Effects of gambling on society Gambling is one service (unlike most) where it can be taboo in mainstream society to advertise or promote itself. There are many laws and regulations on gambling such as (Hanson, 2005). For casinos to make a profit and to attract customers they have to rely on peoples need for gambling. Many people feel that gambling is immoral and praying on the weakness of others and their lack of discipline; because of this many people feel that gambling should be abolished completely. However despite those people who do not agree with gambling, there are plenty of individuals who support it. Many people feel that it is their own choice to spend their own money, and the few who lack the discipline to control their gambling should not stop others who can. With the relatively recent boom of internet gambling, especially poker, gambling is becoming more and more of a hot topic with governments and groups throughout the world. Casinos should take advantage of this surge of interest in gambling in order to make a profit and keep it available to customers; however, they should also remember to do so without angering people. Difficulty of services compared to products Citizens of the Western world are living in increasingly service-based economies. Services are no longer a minor or superficial part of economies, but go to the heart of value creation within the economy. (Palmer 2004) What Palmer is suggesting here is that services are no longer viewed in the traditional way as an unproductive aspect of the economy, but are now the base of many economies. In spite of this it is still incredibly difficult to succeed in a service. In general it is much easier to sell a tangible product people can see, touch or taste before purchasing (c gronroos, 1978). Service providers must rely on the quality of their own performance with many variables that can scupper a good experience. This however can all depend on the economy of the country, i. e. providing a service in a country such as Portugal where many other nations go to vacation and for many parts of the country being a service provider is simpler such as bars in a busy tourist area. This is not so much the case in the more powerful countries such as the UK, U. S. A and France. These countries are very much consumer driven and succeeding as a service provider can be difficult in many ways due to the attitude of society in the 21st century. There are, like previously mentioned, so many variables which can effect a service provider and with most customers being viewed as fickle if the service in anyway is not more than their level of tolerance they will try bring this service down. There will always be a conflict between services and products and each has their day in certain societies. Conclusion The service provider chosen has pros and cons from many different topics. The difficulties that a casino like this faces will never change and it is not an attack on the way in which they are providing this service it is always going to be on the service itself and societys view of it. The service encounter was however more full of positive notes rather than negative. In order to get past people views on gambling, they have decided to divert all their efforts on how they provide this service and in this, there are few flaws. integral to the selling activity in all markets( dibb, 2001) They have utilised ever point of the marketing mix well and definitely to their advantage, providing the best service possible to customers. Their use of location is especially impressive, normally out of town locations can prove to be a stumbling block for many services but the casino has utilised it to their advantage and turned being an in-town location into the less popular of the two. The conflict between services and products is always going to be around. However services are growing and growing with 73% of the employees working in the UK are working in the service sector (ILO, 1999). To conclude, if services are to be performed in such a manner as the Gala casino then the service industry will continue to rise.

The Single Child Policy In China

The Single Child Policy In China In 1978-1979 the Chinese government installed an ambitious program of market reform following the economic stagnation of Cultural Revolution. In mid 70-80 china was home of quarter of the worlds population who were having just 7% of world land. More than two third of the population were under the age of 30 years. The baby boomers of the year 1950-1960 were entering their reproductive years. So it was getting important to control the population for the economic reform and to an improvement in living standards, so they introduced one child policy. (Massachusetts medical Society, 2005) This policy consists of different set of rules and regulations .government governing the size of families, sometimes late marriages, child bearing and family planning. This also restricts to couple to one child for one couple but it still allow few cases like twins, rural couple , ethnic minorities and couples who are both only one children themselves. By this policy china controlled more than 250 million births between 1980 and 2000(BBC September, 2012) and about 400 million by 1979-2011(People Daily online, October 2011) This policy is a controversial issue within and outside the china, because how it was implemented, good and bad consequences of the negative social concerns. Due to this policy there were other problems and concerns rose which are against human rights. Forced abortions were increased, female infanticide and under reporting of female birth. These are the main reason of gender imbalance in china, but still after the survey done by Pew Research Center roughly 76% of people living in china accept this policy.(Pew Research Centre ,2012) As now we know about the policy and its implementation, merits and demerits, so now I have to take a clear stand is that policy is ethically justifiable or not and I will go with that is this policy is not ethically justifiable but there are a lot of examples which are proven that with this policy china has controlled population of country so I will be comparing both of the sides of the policy with final conclusion against this policy. First I will discuss about the demerits of over population. Over population is a condition where an organism number exceed the carrying capacity. This is a direct link between human population and its environment. The main reason for the over population is increase in birth and decline in mortality rate. The current population of china is 1319175364 which make china the first most populated country of the world. (US Census Bureau, 2012) China represents a full 20% of world population so every one in every five people on the earth is a Chinese.(Washington Institute of China Studies ,2007) So due to over population because other different problems also like: Healthy Living this is the one of the main concern of the people who is living there because the health resources are limited like fresh air, fresh pure clean water, and greenery which people all people are not getting. Equal opportunities-people living in china to them when comes to access some of the things like public sector jobs, examinations few people dont get those opportunities because either they are not rich enough to support or some other factors. Access to medical treatment- as china is growing up faster the amount of people getting sick and getting congenital disease are also increasing which is also directly related to the cost of treatment, government cant provide those expensive treatments to everyone so a lot of poor people die because of no access of hospital or clinics. Controlling big population- it is not an easy job for the government of china to control 1.5 billion people; police always have hard time when there is any riot, national events going on. Traffic problem. Due to over population need of vehicles on the road is increasing which is creating big heavy traffic jam on the road, and government always try hard to provide public transport but due to more number of passengers travelling that also become hard. Good quality higher education- As families had more number of children at their home which sometimes is also a problem i.e. children cant get good higher education reason behind this is education nowadays is expensive and parents cant afford all their kids the same education. Violation of human rights- like different activities happening often in china which violate human rights like female feticide, gang rapes, abortions.(Bridgeport.edu ,2012) So now I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of one child policy. Advantages The growth of the population decreases: if there was no one child policy in china the population of china must be 2.4 billion today. By this Chinese people are getting more benefits like: Free/cheap health checkups. Their kids are getting god or best education. Women get extra three month maternity leave. Parents have good bond with children, like it will be easy to divide time with one child and it makes it easier to know each other and needs. Disadvantages They dont have any siblings and there is nothing like cousins called in china because everyone is child of the family. Forced Abortions: As we all know abortion are legal in china but having forced abortion is against human rights. Female Infanticide: People kill their daughter because they think they will have only one child and if thats a female then who will take family business and bring up family to generations. 87% of all married women use contraception and abortion which is also not healthy for the females health condition. Ethical Perspectives The one child policy raises many ethical concerns one individuals own liberty, collective rights and state sovereignty. We all understand that will less population there will less environment degradation and pollution but according to me whose rights are more important individual or collective? This one child policy in china asks questions towards the individual rights and collective rights in the community. As per Lockes view in any of the society an individual have the basic human right and more important their negative liberty and rights or the freedom to have choices for self development without other interference.(William Uzgalis John Locke,2006) This one child policy provide community growth which may provide higher quality of life i.e. can be serve malnutrition, good care of medical illness and social and economic problems are uncommon. Communitarians: As we all know china is a communist country so they have only one peoples party ruling the whole big nation. The communitarian argument is derived from Jean Jacques Rousseav Communitarian argue the survival of the community must be protected because individual member depend on it for their self identity, the organization of collective action and the production of public goods So this lighten the view that state of nature as they have not yet developed the capacity to reason . So a communitarian would for the individual thinks, thoughts, individual rights and autonomy for the benefits of the community. (Modern China, 465, 1987) Utilitarian Approaches: It is an ethical theory in which there are basically more happiness and reduced suffering which is based on the word utility. So as per china one child policy peoples behavioral choices are counted and those choices reflect their course of action. By increasing the pleasure and minimizing the pain china is using utilitarian approach perfectly. International Human Rights: Chinas one child policy is seems to be based on utilitarian approach. They argue that policy is installed according to the fairness standards as every family is entitled to have one child and in addition to this those families are getting financial incentive like bonus, better housing options and three months maternity leave which as per rule to international provisions of human rights but on the other side as per policy only one child is allowed per couple so communitarian would be against of those who claim individual reproductive right against the policy of single child.(American Political Science Review,2001) Western Asian Preferences of Individual Rights: China one child policy is mostly offended by the violation of human rights and laws. They argue that as western countries have their own official languages as a mean to protecting communal harmony and Identity similarly Chinese government has the right to implement of population related policies is the responsibility of each and every country and should take a stand into account the economic, social and environmental diversity with respect to all religious and ethical values at international conference on population development in (cairo 1994). This policy also disturbs the fundamental human right of every couple to decide freely the number and spacing of their children. Chinese government relative this policy as Duty to act responsibly in a manner which will benefit their family and community as whole (Population and Development review, 1996) Success and flaw of Chinas One Child Policy Chinas population is both the countrys greatest weakness and strength. China is world 3rd largest economy and 2nd largest exporter. The more population in china makes it cheap labor which attracted a lot of foreign investment. This policy accelerated chinas economic growth in past 2 decades which also helped to create highly educated skilled and more efficient work force. It was reported in 2001, there were almost 20,000 forced abortions and sterilization occurred to the people of Huai ji in Guangdong province of china because those people were not following the rules of this policy.(Telegraph Media Group,2012) After that in 2002 china stopped the physical force to force for the abortion, but still there are news on regular basis of abortion and violence. Even there is news about the killing of the babies during the pregnancy of eight months or its more horrifying of killing of baby during labor in birth canal or immediately after birth. Tons of thousands of children with birth defects, disabilities are handed over to state funded orphanages that often have poor facilities which now become house of adoption of girls for the rich western people. In 2001 there was official 55,000 adoptions registered. So what do you think are these children guaranteed a better life but I am pretty much sure that they will lose all traces of their Chinese identity? (Wei Guo Zhang, 2006) In addition to this one child policy also disturb the male -female birth rate ratio. The sex ratio in main land china is 118: 100. So this means there are 18 extra boys for every 100 girls born which compared to global natural baseline of 103:100. Even the state population and family planning commission admit this problem and think this will create big problem in coming future i.e. finding partner by the time they will reach adulthood or reproductive age. As according to survey there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020. (BBC, 2012) Since 90s there is other problem rising weather this single child will be over pampered. There have been seen many over pampered children in society with poor social communication and cooperation skills. As in upper text I mentioned about the over pampered children, so now here I am going to focus on the policy positive and negative effects of single child . As per (Quoss and Zhao,1995) parents are usually the most important socialization agents in their young age. This gives an impact on their child to learn about social relationship. In addition to this parent- child relationship are complicated cultural, ideological, political, economic and social factor but main can be psychological, cultural and structural to understand parent child relationship. It is assumed those children are the empty vessels which are filled with parents socially defined values. So mostly children learn from parents attitude and behavior. If child is not recognized as an active social person this means he is influenced by parents. These changes in the family structure and size have some major effects i.e. shorting of family tree, weakening of cooperation in the groups and the changes in the way how parents treat their children. According to Cardwell wealth- Flow theory (1982, 1976) the wealth from younger to older generations is related to high fertility rate same as wealth flow from the older to the younger generation is related to low fertility rate. But in China they have only one child there is nothing like that seen which either improve or spoil the parent -child relation. The nations one child policy has lead to the reduced number of births which have highlighted children value in the family and caused more flow of family resources towards that only child. Chinas successful implementation of population control policy shortened the way to Cordwells equilibrium of wealth flow and birth rate declination. Population and Socio Economic Development This over growing population even one child will be creating big problems by 2040. There will be four main challenges faced by Chinese population. Agriculture : Food challenge: It will be a problem of producing sufficient grain for the expending population, as country is growing faster, people are moving to cities and no one is doing more agriculture and because of population explosion there will not be enough spaces to grow crops which will give Chinese community a very hard time in upcoming years. Employment Challenge: It is one of the main signals to economic performance which is correlated with income distribution, poverty and social stability. Before rural people used to depend on agriculture but now its hard to depend as living standards are getting high and 40% of rural labor are not fully utilized or they are under employed and need to be re employed.(Taylor and Banister 1991 ; Shen and Spence 1995) Urbanization challenge: fast pace industrialization and urbanization will be a drastic change in rural-urban population shift. The speed of urbanization was very slow in 1970s as compared to other developing counties (shen, 1994). A large number of towns and small cities are immerged to bigger cities. Old cities are rapidly expanding .Shanghai. increased its urban area from 141 to 230 square kilometer; rapid urbanization resulted in the arable land available Homosexuality In china Associated with One Child Policy. There is also one other problem arising in china because having a single child and that child being homosexual. Homosexuality is legal in china since 1997, but this created a lot of problems in Chinese local community. Chinese couples try and do a lot of efforts to have a son in their family and what if that son is homosexual that can be a big major tragedy in the family. Many gay and lesbian commit suicide because its not much common in there. Zheng estimates there is about 27-30 million homosexual people living in china from which 18-20 million are gay man and 9 to 10 million are lesbian women. So homosexuals are not accepted by social customs at home or at work place. This creates two other different problems: They dont have freedom to enjoy their personal life -> It is seen that gay man and gay women get married to each other as homowives under a formal union they have normal marriages but allowing each other to conduct their homosexual relation outside. Many stories came up how gay man starting loving each other. some said they cant find the right female partner so they changed their self to homosexuality or bisexual and other say the girls dont want to leave parental house as they are the only daughter who want to stay with family.( The New York Times,2012 ) The Effect of China one child policy 30 years To control the population china government and Chinese people did very hard work and much sacrifice to limit the population growth with one child per family. So in condition to hold this population growth there is a heavy reliance on long term contraception with IU device and sterilizations together accounting for more that they dont have any other options except which they heard from health workers recommend for family planning. This helped in 25% decreased in abortion rates. This policy is reduction in the total fertility rate before between 1970-1979 the fertility was 5.9 to 2.9 but after this its less stabilized at approximately 1.7. There are some signals that may be the traditional thinking for boys will change. As a survey done by National family and Reproductive Health reports say 37 percent of young urban women said they have no preference with the sex of the kid either its male or female but on other side 45 percent said the ideal family is one boy and one girl. Ratio of old age Dependency The rapid decrease in birth rate with stable and improved life it led to increased proportion of old people in the community. In 1965 the population of 65 year old people was 5% in 1982 which now is 7.5 percent which is expected to be 15 percent by 2025. (World Bank, 2012) Thats one reason in urban areas the couple who themselves are single children are allowed to have other second kid. The future of chinas one child policy: The Chinese government is facing an important challenge, first will be the need to balance the basic population right of reproduction with population growth. 10 million people are adding to Chinese population every year which is equal to the population of Belgium. Relaxation of this policy can be considered because of baby bomber are getting older, but increased wealth and freedom is not allowing government to relax this policy. End of Cheap Labor: Professor Cai Feng- a Chinese labor economist estimated there will a downfall in the labor force by 1.5 percent points by 2015 and will decrease further in 2016-2020. A fast pace decline of the labor force will cause shortages and rapid increase in wages which will be weaken the chinas export industry in the international marked effecting economic growth .(BBC,2012) Conclusion: The people republic if china and its one child policy remains an international concept as in means of regulation, human rights, birth and fertility, national duties, ethics and principles. In 30 years of this policy china have created dramatic results of controlling population and limiting total fertility rate at 1.7 births per women. It also helped to control the problems which can be occurred with over population. On the other side this policy also created drastic effect on highly unbalanced sex-ratio between male and female. Many couples cant find the suitable match for each other. There is an increase in female infanticide and more use of contraceptive methods. An increased social and economic demand on small families due to aging is also common. According to Xinhua the national press agency of china china have paid a lot of political and social cost for this policy but still it resulted in social conflict, high administrative cost and let to gender imbalance too(Xinhua, 2012). My reaction to this one child policy is that they should not make it very strict at the starting. Second child in family bring the fine of $3500 which is almost equal to the income of 10 year of a poor farmer. Many Chinese women commit suicide under the pressures of one child policy(Amnesty International,2012) . Some rich people who can afford $3500they have two kids in family which is not equal to other resident of china. For poor if they cant pay the fine they have to pay their fines with 200kg of rice. Families in Guangzi province are afraid of breaking rules because they are already poor and this gives them hard time paying the fine. This is the reason of disturbance in sex ratio. I think Chinese government should educate people to the benefits of having lesser children but not to force them for abortion. Couples should have their own freedom they whether they want children or not. The Government should educate people and promote to have more female babies to equal the uneven sex ratio. There is a high divorce rate involving women whose one child turn out to be a girl however the laws have changed by those women have to suffer physical assault at home. It is clearly see there are many advantages and disadvantages of chinas one child policy but when it comes to health, law and ethics it is not justified because of many dilemmas on the ethical ground.

On Another’s Sorrow. Essay -- English Literature

On Another’s Sorrow. There is a strong religious theme running throughout this poem. Black uses the idea of sorrow to show, and how we deal with it to show the difference between humans and God. He does this by splitting the poem into two halves and looking at how a person and then God would deal with sorrow. Blake asks several questions, as it is in first person at this point I feel that it is Blake asking the questions, which are, ‘Can I see another’s woe, And not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, And not seek for kind relief?’ This is an example of Blake’s use for the rhetorical question, which stirs thoughts of how we cope with sorrow, which is shown when he asks, if I can not feel sorrow when I see another feeling sorrow?, and when I see another feeling grief can I not go and find relief from it? He answers this with ‘no it can never be.’ This then leads the reader to ask themselves where he will find this relief. Blake then in the second half of the poem shows that God is the one who you can seek relief in and who is there to help in t...

Employee Engagement Essay

They are more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave the organization. In the best organizations, employee engagement transcends a human resources initiative — it is the way they do business. Employee engagement is a strategic approach supported by tactics for driving improvement and organizational change. The best performing companies know that developing an employee engagement strategy and linking it to the achievement of corporate goals will help them win in the marketplace. Unleashing the Potential for Growth World-Class Average 33% 67% Engaged 49% Not Engaged Actively Disengaged 26% 7% 18% 9. 57:1 1. 83:1 Ratio of Engaged to Actively Disengaged What’s Your Engagement Ratio? Gallup’s engagement ratio is a macro-level indicator of an organization’s health that allows executives to track the proportion of engaged to actively disengaged employees. The average working population ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is near 2:1. Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line, while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U. S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to the bottom line to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone. In stark contrast, world-class organizations that have built a sustainable model using Gallup’s approach have an engagement ratio of more than 9:1. As organizations move toward this benchmark, they greatly reduce the negative effect of actively disengaged employees while unleashing the organization’s potential for rapid growth. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 Gallup’s Research-Based Approach Gallup’s employee engagement work is based on more than 30 years of in-depth research involving more than 17 million employees. This research has appeared in many business and scientific publications, including the Journal of Applied Psychology and the Harvard Business Review and in our bestselling books First, Break All the Rules and the sequel 12: The Elements of Great Managing. 12 Elements of Engagement Gallup has developed and identified 12 core elements that link powerfully to critical business outcomes. These 12 statements emerged from Gallup’s pioneering research as those that best predict employee and workgroup performance. The 12 Elements of Great Managing I know what is expected of me at work. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person. There is someone at work who encourages my development. At work, my opinions seem to count. The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. I have a best friend at work. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow. Copyright  © 1993-1998 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.. 2 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Adding Elements In addition to the 12 elements, Gallup recommends adding questions that address your company’s unique culture or address business issues facing your organization. Gallup’s expansive item bank includes key indices to help organizations measure their strength in areas such as innovation, change management, customer orientation, leadership, and inclusiveness. Gallup’s latest meta-analysis (an analysis of data from more than 152 organizations) shows dramatic differences between top- and bottom-quartile workgroups on key business outcomes. It is through this meta-analysis that Gallup continues to validate the 12 elements. Beyond the dramatic difference engaged workgroups show in productivity, profitability, safety incidents, and absenteeism versus disengaged workgroups, Gallup has proven that companies with world-class engagement have 3. 9 times the EPS growth rate compared with organizations with lower engagement in their same industry. Linking Employee Engagement to Critical Business Outcomes Employee Engagement and Critical Business Outcomes 30% 20% 10% 0% -10% -20% -30% -40% -50% -60% -70% -37% -49% -49% -60% -25% -27% -41% Turnover High Absenteeism Turnover Orgs. Low Turnover Orgs. Safety Incidents Patient Safety Incidents 18% 12% Quality (Defects) Shrinkage 16% Customer Productivity Profitability Top decile companies have 3. 9 times the Earnings Per Share (EPS) growth rate Difference Between Top and Bottom Quartile Performance Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Systematically Improving Employee Engagement Improving engagement goes beyond simply asking the right questions. Engaging employees requires a year-round focus on changing behaviors, processes, and systems to anticipate and respond to your organization’s needs. From the leadership team to the frontline employees, all levels within an organization must commit to making these changes. A Sustainable Approach Gallup approaches employee engagement with sustainability in mind, and thus, provides managers and leaders with tools to help drive performance on an ongoing basis through a combination of measurement, reporting, learning, action planning, and strategic interventions. Using the latest technology and cutting-edge research, Gallup continually provides clients with innovative solutions that drive change. From state-of-the-art organizational mapping software and online tools to first-class instructional designers and consultants, Gallup’s approach to employee engagement reduces the amount of time needed to move from measurement to improvement. The world’s top-performing organizations recognize the critical role managers play in achieving business objectives. As a global leader in the area of employee ecruitment and selection, Gallup has a proven method for hiring managers and employees with the talent to build engagement. After reviewing nearly 10,000 validated pre-employment questions and the global Q12 database, Gallup uncovered a subset of questions that enables organizations to assess whether a job candidate, if hired, will boost engagement levels. This engagement selecting approach will help hiring managers find candidates who have more potential to drive engagement in the workplace. Selecting for Engagement 4 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. What the World’s Best Organizations Do Differently Gallup drives organizations to systematically improve employee engagement using proven interventions at the local and enterprise level. Beyond setting the proper strategy, interventions include finding the right performance metrics that drive accountability, creating a comprehensive communication strategy, and designing development opportunities for every employee, manager, and leader. While partnering with many of the world’s best organizations, Gallup has observed that world-class organizations make employee engagement a priority by focusing on the following: Strategy World-class organizations develop a formula for success by looking objectively and rigorously at the business problems they face and by focusing on finding the right employees and keeping them engaged. For these organizations, an employee engagement strategy is not only fundamental to the way they do business, it is critical to their success. Accountabil ity and Performance The top-driven companies focus on outcomes. They define and rigorously measure success at every level in the organization. These measurements ultimately help focus each person, team, department, and business unit on driving performance and results. Communication Within the best performing organizations there is a cultural alignment between the employees and the company, paired with a strategic alignment between activities and company goals. These organizations use their corporate communication touchpoints to reinforce their commitments to employees and customers. Development As the struggle for talent intensifies, organizations face a continual challenge to build and grow their leadership capacity. The world’s top-performing companies have comprehensive leader and manager development programs, but they also go one step further — these programs are performance-driven and incorporate a comprehensive succession plan throughout the organization. They make it a priority to not only identify leadership potential, but also to focus intently on the creation of developmental paths for current and future managers and leaders. †¢ †¢ †¢ Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Proven Return on Investment Increasing employee engagement directly correlates with a positive effect on key business metrics. A partnership with Gallup enables your organization to design, implement, and execute an employee engagement strategy, and at the same time, your organization will have concrete evidence of the effect of this strategy on the bottom line. Gallup’s proof of ROI goes beyond the case study level. By continually validating the effect of increasing employee engagement through meta-analyses and business impact studies, Gallup can observe ROI trends across hundreds of clients. The observed net gain in key business outcomes for business units that grow employee engagement is a direct link to ROI. Typical Net Gain at the Organizational Level 8. 0% 7. 0% 6. 0% 5. 0% 4. 0% 3. 0% 2. 0% 1. 0% 0. 0% Median Growth in Engagement (. 15 GrandMean) m A Tu r Think about the cost to replace an employee, attract a new, loyal customer, or pay workers’ compensation. Using quick and simple math with the net gain values provided, your organization can begin to model the ROI it is capable of attaining. 6 Tu r Pa t Pr od er uc tiv ity Pr o? ta bi lit y Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. h y et af Q ge ow ty eis ka -H fe -L ua lit C ig te rin Sa tS en ve r ve r no no ien bs Sh us to y Performance Optimizationâ„ ¢: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter Taking employee engagement one step further, Gallup’s Performance Optimization approach offers an innovative, research-based approach to one of the toughest challenges businesses face t oday: how to drive success by effectively managing the moments when employees interact with customers. This approach brings employee and customer engagement on to a single management platform. It combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it. Gallup is unique in its ability to design and execute this aligned approach because our expertise and global capability in marketplace consulting practices is as deep as our expertise and global capability in workplace consulting practices. e Impact of Performance Optimization HIGH TM CE11 CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Boost 70% 240% Boost 1. (Baseline) LOW LOW Boost HIGH 70% Q12 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Our meta-analysis of engagement and financial performance in companies across multiple industries reveals that business units that score above our database median on customer and employee engagement significantly outperform units that rank in the bottom half on both measures. Organizations employing Performance Optimization principles have outperformed their competitors by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth. Their customers buy more, spend more, return more often, and stay longer. Blending strategic analysis with hands-on, practical steps and advice, Performance Optimization changes how leaders view their work, their employees, and their customers. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Gallup’s Global Reach Gallup’s 2,000 professionals deliver services at client organizations and from 40 offices around the world. Benchmarking World-Class Organizations Gallup maintains the world’s most comprehensive historical and comparative employee engagement databases. The historical database contains data collected in 67 languages from more than 17 million respondents in 175 countries worldwide. Gallup updates the comparative database annually, which enables clients to benchmark their organization’s employee engagement levels against the most recent data Gallup collects from around the world. Gallup’s most recent database, covering the past three years, includes data collected from more than 6. million employees representing more than 815,000 workgroups in 16 major industries and more than 70 sub-industries in 170 countries worldwide. Gallup understands the importance of timely data and relevant comparisons in the competitive landscape of today’s fast-paced marketplace. As a result, your organization can compare its engagement data with Gallup’s global, world-class, industry-specific, or custom database segments. Change That Drives Outcomes Transformation does not occur instantaneously. It takes a lot of energy and effort to initiate change, and it takes even more energy to build on that momentum. It takes focused attention to drive engagement. A partnership with Gallup will help your organization influence and inspire engagement by building a â€Å"people† strategy that holds people accountable for performance, aligns communication, and builds development opportunities for leaders, managers, and frontline employees, giving your organization a competitive edge. 8 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 â€Å"Best Buy has already had success in connecting improved employee-engagement scores to store performance: it found that for every 10th of a point it boosted the former, its stores saw a $100,000 increase in operating income.