How Serious Were The Problems Facing Nicholas I at the Start of His Reign? Essay

Nicholas I faced a series of problems ranging in severity at the start of his reign as Tsar, including the Decembrists conspiracy, the Polish revolt and the Russian economy. However the first problem of Nicholas’ reign was in fact the problem of who would become Tsar, himself of his brother Constantine. Since the previous Tsar, Alexander I, had had no children, the rightful heir was his brother Constantine, and next in line was his younger brother Nicholas. With news that Constantine had married and Polish Catholic and renounced his claim to the throne, Nicholas’ was to publish a manifesto declaring himself Tsar. But Milaroadovich, the Governor General of St Petersburg, reminded Nicholas of the custom of proclaiming the eldest living heir Tsar. With this advice given, Nicholas decided to take it, as he knew that the Guards had previously played a part in the succession of many a Tsar. Therefore Nicholas proclaimed Constantine Tsar only for Constantine to do the same to Nicholas. In the end, Constantine refused to travel to St Petersburg from Warsaw, and renounced his claim to the throne and thus proclaimed Nicholas I Tsar. The problem of the succession itself was not too serious but the fact that the Tsar and its administration were in a state of flux had some serious repercussions. This gave more breathing space for the Decembrists to plan their assassination attempt on Nicholas. On 14th December 1825, Nicholas was ready for the Oath of Allegiance ceremony. On that day Nicholas had been informed of both the Northern Society and the Southern Society by General Miloradovich. The general informed Nicholas that the Northern Society’s activities were being monitored, which was true, and that they posed no real threat, which was more debatable. There was definitely unease in the way Nicholas felt he should deal with the problem, he decided to go with Miloradovich’s plans of accepting that he was safe from the Northern Society as he had been reassured that they did not pose a significant threat. Nicholas was worried that if direct action had been used against the conspirators, it might provoke the revolt he sought to avoid. The problem of the Northern and Southern Society was made worse when a Tsar adviser Rostovstev chose to inform the Northern Society of his meeting with the Tsar of the society itself. The leak of information was a serious problem for the new Tsar, although Nicholas probably remained ignorant in the case of Rostovstev. However Rostovstev caused panic the Northern Society, which caused some officers to withdraw quietly but other others decided to go ahead with plan. Nearing the time of the allegiance ceremony, Miloradovich was shot by gathering rebels after trying to negotiate with them. Nicholas then took decisive action and crushed the Decembrist revolt with artillery fire. It was the conjuncture of the attempt on his life; the assassination of his general and leak of information that made the Decembrist revolt a problem of the utmost severity to Nicholas. The revolution so early on in his reign made Nicholas I more reactionary and more suspicious of liberal ideas. Another problem, that faced the majority of Tsar, but was of more prominence in the reign of Nicholas, was the problem of the Russian economy. Nicholas was keen on the idea of a railway system in Russia whereas his chief economic Minister Kankrin was more conservative and felt that it would only encourage the spreading of western ideas and encourage people to travel around more. Another problem was the fact that Russian had fallen seriously behind Western Europe in terms of production, with England far more progressed than Russia could even think. This economic problem brought up the issue of the social system of Russia, and whether or not it was possible to flourish economically without the abolition of Serfdom which was seen as a huge hindrance to Russia trade and it development. This problem was a very serious one, as it needed incredible intellect to find a solution that protected the Tsar’s autocracy and serfdom and that still developed the Russian economy. Another problem at the start of Nicholas I’s reign as the Polish Revolt of 1830 and 1831, a revolt that took place due to the spreading of revolutionary ideas from the like of France and Belgium. It was in November 1830 when the revolutionary ideas hit Poland and the Poles rose in revolt against their Russian overlords. Constantine, Nicholas’ brother, had failed to contain the situation and the revolutionaries had the support of the Polish army. It was nine months until the revolution was suppressed, and the uprising cost many Russian lives, including Constantine’s who died of cholera. Nicholas thought it best to revoke the constitution and replace it with a much more restrictive statute. Universities at Warsaw and Vilna were closed and from then on until the death of Nicholas, Poland was ruled under martial law and the administration was place under greater Russian control. Nicholas aimed to â€Å"russify† Poland, and to impose Russian ways, institutions and beliefs and eradicate the local customs, institutions and beliefs. All in all, Nicholas I faced some very serious problems at the start of his reign in 1825, right from the day he was proclaimed Tsar. It was these incidents at the beginning of his reign such as the Decembrist Revolution and the Polish Revolt that made Nicholas a very reactionary Monarch in the later years of his reign.

Adventure Tourism Essay

Introduction Adventure tourism is an outdoor leisure activity that generally takes place in an unusual, exotic, remote or wilderness setting, sometimes involving some form of unconventional means of transportation and tending to be associated with low or high levels of physical activity. As the name suggests it entails an element of risk and can range from ‘getting wet’ to ‘getting high’ to ‘getting faster’. An Adventure Tourism business provider can arrange a single adventure or a combination of adventure pursuits for paying tourists. When considering an Adventure Business it is probably more cost effective to concentrate on the aspects that you are good at and have a specialised interest in. Unlike other tourism businesses an Adventure Tourism enterprise will rely heavily on the specialist interest, experience and skills. Therefore, the specialist understanding required for adventure activities, is a critical area of experience for a would-be adventure tourism entrepreneur. Requirements 1. Protection: Some adventure activities (for example quad bike racing) are, by their nature, dangerous and can cause injury, and even loss of life, to persons and damage to property. Any enterprise providing access to such activities must protect themselves against claims for loss or damage caused to persons who partake in the activities provided by the enterprise. While insurance costs may be high, return on investment may still be attractive. Health and safety requirements must be adhered to. 2. Training: The first line of protection is to ensure that owners and staff are properly trained and equipped to provide supervision and guidance to participants in the activities, ensuring that equipment is in excellent condition at all times. Ensure that all participants are properly trained in the use of equipment and in the rules of the activity that they plan to engage in. The rules should be designed to make the activity as safe as possible. 3. Legal Requirements: Before launching any adventure activity, find out what specific legal requirements pertaining to the sport or activity being pursued, must be complied with. This can be obtained from the relevant sport or activity coordinating body also check with your solicitor. 4. Insurance: Consult a reputable insurer or broker on the exposure to risk and, in particular, ensure that adequate public liability is in place. Before hosting groups of visitors or planning a public event, check with an insurance agent about adequacy of liability coverage. Be guided by the insurer in how to structure ones business and ensure to minimize exposure to risk to the maximum extent. 5. Land use zoning: Become familiar with all laws applicable to locating an office; licensing and registration; road transportation permits; public driving permits; regulations and by-laws. Consult with the local council and also a solicitor. 6. Grants: There are several different avenues that may help with funding. LEADER gives capital grants for the development of tourism activities and facilities. They also give marketing grants, which can help promote an adventure tourist venture. Contact your local LEADER company for more information. Planning and Marketing your Adventure Tourism Enterprise In depth market research should be carried out and a detailed business plan prepared before proceeding with such a venture. Your Local Regional Tourist Authority and Failte Ireland are only too willing to help you make the connection with the market place. Effective marketing is a key element in any business enterprise and is an ongoing process. Marketing can be as simple as word-of-mouth referral, or involve an intensive media campaign. Your marketing style and message must be directed to your identified audience. If providing quad bike racing activities for example, you could emphasise the experience of all weather crosscountry driving fun. Network with other tourism and adventure providers such as clay pigeon shooting, rifle target shooting and archery to provide interesting packages for the tourist. Useful web-sites for more information www.sac.ac.uk www.headwater.com www.itsadventuresouthwest.co.uk www.failte-ireland.ie

The GeoScot Ltd Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The GeoScot Ltd - Case Study Example To motivate the new and old members of the organization, it is proposed that several strategies be used. By sharing company information with all employees, mentoring the new workforce, integrating the work environment to work in teams and giving personal rewards on good performance are some of the strategies that will definitely increase the motivation. However with the expansion, there is a need to divide the office into two segments. Although an ideal option would be to integrate all employees in the old building, but due to lack of space and due to the disadvantages of shifting the office to another location, having two separate offices is the best option. This way the new employees are in the new building and the old employees in the old office, however both offices will be synced and interaction will be kept strong to integrate their functions. By doing this the experienced and the young graduates will be able to communicate and learn from each other which is essential for any o rganization. This recruitment will be done using the 'Realistic Job Preview' strategy in which the prospective geologists will be given exciting offers and shown the brilliance of GeoScot as well as a chance of earning a bright future for themselves. The drug tested, drug-free workforce will be shown to the world hence improving the reputation of the company and increasing the chances of earning better employees and contracts with partners in the future. Contents Contents 3 Hiring a New HR Manager 4 Factors to Keep in Mind 4 Cost 4 Personal Characteristics/Skills 5 Need for Evaluation 5 Company Dynamics 6 Company Policy 6 Total Employees 6 Decision 7 Motivation 7 Hygiene Factor 7 Mentoring helps in Motivation 8 Share Company Information 9 Integrated Work Environment 9 Encourage Groups and Teams 10 New Blood versus Old Blood 10 New Information 11 Different Perspective of the Market 11 Globalization 11 Location Decision 12 Recruitment Strategy 13 Job Description 14 Selection Devices 14 Application Form 14 Interview 15 Paper n Pencil Test 15 Assessment Centre 15 Drug Testing 15 Advantages 16 Disadvantages 16 Need Creation 17 Creating Awareness 17 Education about Drug Testing 17 Explaining the Need 17 References 18 Hiring a New HR Manager Employing a HR manager is a big decision for a company like GeoScot Ltd. since it is a small sized company and in its introductory phase. Usually when hiring any employee, there needs to be a complete evaluation of the candidates before any decision can be made. For the situation the company is in, the current requirements and the future needs all have to be kept in mind before the decision of part time or permanent HR manager is taken. Factors to Keep in Mind There are various factors that can influence the decision one way or the other. Cost The cost plays a major part in the decision making. A part time employee hired on a contract instead of on a permanent basis can give many economic benefits as well (Zhu, 2005). For example, GeoScot may need to invest in various funds related to each permanent employee, some of which is even paid to the employee when he/she leaves the organization. All these expenses are nil in case of contractual employees. So, hiring an employee on a contractual basis would be economically suitable as well. But since the organization is in the running for 3 years now, it would have some available funding to hire a full time HR manager.

Terrorist Organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Terrorist Organisation - Essay Example They usually term their terrorist movement as a national liberation movement and spare no effort to attract the attention of the world leaders to their cause. A great deal of success has been obtained by the subscribers to this form of terrorism. It can be asserted that the greatest number of benefits have been attained by its adherents. Such terrorists are very careful in regulating the amount of violence and destruction caused by their attacks, whose purpose is to obtain benefits without antagonizing or losing the goodwill of its supporters in the international community. Most of the terrorist groups that indulge in this form of terrorism are voluble in claiming that they should be designated as freedom fighters and not terrorists3. The most dangerous advocates of terrorism are religious terrorists. This is due to the fact that they resort to murderous attacks on innocent people in order to spread fear. The objective of these terrorists is to promote their own brand of religion and they sincerely believe that what they do has divine sanction. Their attacks are aimed at all those who do not subscribe to their beliefs. Due to this fact every person who does not follow their religious commands is at great danger from these fanatics4. Some of the religious terrorist groups are the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, the Hamas which consists of Palestinian Sunni Muslims, the Shiite Muslim group of the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Rabbi Meir Kahane organizations, the Baruch Goldstein of Israel and the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo5. At times a country's government will offer covert help to terrorists, this constitutes state sponsored terrorism. This constitutes a very effective foreign policy tool that is "a cost-effective way of waging war covertly, through the use of surrogate warriors or 'guns for hire'."6 Such terrorists are very effective, in comparison to other terrorists. This is due to the fact that such terrorists have vastly superior weapons, supplies, logistic support and access to up to date intelligence reports. The aim of the so called left-wing terrorists is to replace capitalism with communism. In comparison to the religious and state sponsored terrorists, their attacks on the general civilian population are very limited. This is due to the fact that these terrorists sincerely believe that the common man is the victim of the capitalists. Not surprisingly, these terrorists restrict their activities to kidnappings and destruction of monuments. Some of these left - wing groups are the German Baader - Meinhof, the Japanese Red Army, the USA's Weathermen of the 1970's, the 17 November group of Greece and the Italian Red Brigade7. A vast change has taken place in the field of terrorism. The previous instances of terrorism were mainly of the state sponsored type. Of late, as has been succinctly pointed out by Simon and Benjamin, religious terrorism has captured center stage. This variety of terrorism is independent of any country and is thereby not restricted by any country as to the amount and nature of violence that it can wreak on the general populace. In order to cause the maximum possible harm, these terrorists continually seek to procure weapons of mass destruction. The damage

Innovation and Change - Open Innovation and Strategy Essay

Innovation and Change - Open Innovation and Strategy - Essay Example This creates proper competition in the market as the firms compete on specific value benefits to the customers. The computer industry across the world has greatly been disrupted by new innovations that are always meant to add value to the existing products in the market. Initially, mainframe computers were the only existing form of computers in the market. Such computers had the ability to address all the important needs of people at the time. However, developments in the computer industry led to the introduction of personal computers. These computers were not in any way seen as competitors to the mainframe computers. The personal computers therefore developed effectively without much influence on the mainframe computer market. In any case, these two types of computers had totally different applications in the market. However with time, the personal computers became a great threat to the operations of the mainframe computers which had very great limitations owing to their size and po rtability. This challenge eventually led to the disruption of the mainframe computer industry when the personal computers became much adopted in the market in contrast to the mainframe computers. ... This creates a lot of challenges in the market. The development of personal computers was for a long time totally unrelated to the mainframe computers market. Basically, personal computers were not used for industry applications since they were considered not powerful enough to perform such great tasks. However, with a lot of developments and innovation, much success has really been evidenced. The market for personal computers eventually became much greater than mainframe market. However, much disruption in the market is still expected given the introduction of minicomputers and other smaller computers. The major driving force behind this disruption is actually the need for efficiency and ease of operations. While mainframe computers are still much effective in industry applications, they greatly face a lot of competition from the personal computer market. Fundamentally, it has to be realized that personal computers were actually an innovation and development of the mainframe compute rs. These computers were basically an extension of the technology used in the mainframes which were in much use in the 1970s through to the 1980s. While the personal computers have greatly managed to bridge the gap that always existed in terms of computer applications in the market, some gaps still exist in the market which create the need for more innovation. In this regard, mainframe computers are widely used in industries due to their great speeds and processing ability. In organizational setups, such computers are often used to manage other computers in the organization. While such features are greatly valuable and demanded in the market, most personal computers do not have the ability to provide such

Discuss the Frankfurt School's analysis of popular culture Essay

Discuss the Frankfurt School's analysis of popular culture - Essay Example Till 19th Century the meaning of the term ‘popular’ was considered to have negative connotations, but now in modern world the word popular means something which is widely known by and is accepted. Popular culture represents not only the elite class but something which is also represented in common people too. High cultural values have been associated with things like music, art, ballroom dancing, opera, and theater etc. and these values are related to them because in the past these activities were only undertaken by those further towards the top of the socio economic ladder, but now the term popular culture is considered versatile, but rather popular culture has become a part of every society and has made its impact everywhere. (litnotes n.d.) Popular culture was not generated within one society but it is actually the growth of ideas and modern thoughts, which ended up with the term pop culture. Popular culture had emerged with many other cultures and has become a part o f the original society. Now to separate these new thoughts and values from actual culture and society is impossible, so we can say that popular culture is actually a growing awareness and interest of people which has become a part of them. Popular culture through media has influenced our way of living. Pop culture is defined by the music we listen to, the programs we watch and the way we dress. The whole society is influenced by things which are shown on their national televisions and what they promote and show. Their culture is influenced by norms and trends which are shown in programs, the type of music, the lyrics, their dressing style and everything which comes on air. Popular culture is also often considered as a trivial and that is why popular culture faces much criticism from non-mainstream groups of people such as religious communities. Countercultural groups are clusters which think that popular culture is superficial and has corrupted the society. Mass media and popular cu lture are two sides of one coin. Mass media has made the greatest impact on reincarnation and modification of culture. Through media existence cultures are gradually modifying. Media programs and advertisements have made a great impact on cultural values of the society. It has influenced our language, interests, festivals and norms. They are overall influenced by the effects of mass media which basically is known as pop culture. The term enculturation is used for the process in which individuals in society learn and absorb cultural traditions. This enculturation has become a part of the society and culture which are valued and practiced by people in the society. (Merriam-Webster, 2007) The pop culture through enculturation is being popularised through different mass media mediums like television, radio, advertisements, newspaper, magazines, live programs and all other things related to mass media and internet as well. Many things have become a part of our lifestyle and are related t o our culture because they are promoted on our local national televisions. If we look at the roots then they haven’t been the part of our actual cultural rituals or norms. The culture is modified by media as media is a greatest source of entertainment and information in today’s world. So many influences of pop culture are the same on different societies. These programs have influenced the mind of the masses and the ideas promoted in them

Relocating Work without Bargaining Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Relocating Work without Bargaining - Assignment Example The movement and relocation of the employee is a ploy to weaken the bargaining power of the members who will be working collectively and it is not by means of getting a tax break. The coincidence between laying off and relocating the employees and the successful election of the members of union cast doubts on the claim that they after tax break. Therefore, this is a blindfold to drive their own selfish interest in their own favour. The threat of that presents itself with the position of the Union unity need strategies that will weaken them. This is the score that the employer wants to achieve by moving to Kentucky and laying off some of the employees. 2. The company’s defence that Schulz made the decision to move the company before the organizing campaign got started, was supported only by his own testimony believe Schulz would it change your opinion of defence? Why or why not? 2. The knowledge that Schulz gave the testimony on a support of relocating company. The defence will not change since the main talking point of the argument the timing of the relocating company to Kentucky. The decision was reached at precisely two months after the establishment of the Union body. The motive was a long-range oversight that was aimed to weaken the team of the union. For this reason, the defence cannot change because the reason and rationale for moving were with an affront to section 8(a) which transcends strengths of the testimonials. The plans of relocating to Kentucky is not only an affront to the rights of the rights of the employees but it is also done with malice as forethought. Wherefore, it can be argued that the decision and defence will maintain its stands even with the revelation of testimonial that was done at that time shortly after forming the union. 3. Kentucky, like Michigan, is not a right-to-work state, so union organizing in a plant in Kentucky is as likely as in Michigan. The company’s decision to move from Michigan seems to have been both complicated and expensive.  

Behaviorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Behaviorism - Essay Example All methodologies trace their roots in history. Although, there is no classification which has actually been agreed upon but beside the main three methodological, psychological and logical types, there other few which are titled, like theoretical, biological and radical. The conduct of methodological behaviorism claims that it should only concern itself with the behavior of organisms, not with mental states and environment surrounding them. The focus is on the source of behavior .The essential theme of John Watson (1878-1958) writings is methodological behaviorism. Reinforcement, learning histories, external physical stimuli and responses in human and animals are the claims of Psychological behaviorism. Most of the prominent psychologists, Pavlov (1849-1936), Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), as well as Watson, have worked on it but the most famous work is on schedules of reinforcement by B. F. Skinner's (1904-90).Logical Positivism (see Smith 1986), a philosophical movement, has given b irth to Analytical behaviorism. It focuses on concepts, which refer to behavioral patterns which can or should be interpreted into behavioral terms. It explains how environment controls behaviors and predicts if the environment changes how behavior will change in relation to it. Gilbert Ryle (1900-76), and later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-51) is a good source of analytical behaviorism. An advocated brand of analytic behaviorism, by T. Place (1924-2000), restricted it to intentional states of mind, such as beliefs, which took place to constitute a type, although not the only type, of mentality (see Graham and Valentine 2004). It says that behind every mental state there are behavioral tendencies and situations.Since psychology is a natural science of behavior in organisms, psychologists in a different manner, observed animal behavior. As a result, theoretical concepts were defined. Developmental study was the idea, which appeared at a big scale, during the early research progr ams by the behaviorists. They believed that the routine action of excess activities plays a key role in the development of humans. Developmental studies attracted Watson. Early behaviorist texts, Dashiell, Weiss, Allport and Hamilton also worked on this idea. Internal drive states and motivational theories were emphasized by the behaviorists. The result was "No expression without impression; no response without stimulation" by Dashiell (1994) would conclude this contribution the best. The psychology of habit formation related to trial and error, conditioned stimulus and an extensive explanation of response was the prominent contributions. Behaviorists were highly attracted towards the idea of habit formation through conditioning. Allport (1994) concluded that transferring the right responses to new stimuli was the core of education. The significance of social behavior, social stimulus and reactions which stimulate the social objects relating to behavior was added to psychology. Sinc e 1920's, language acquisition and language itself was always been linked to self-stimulation and response. Language responses were considered as substitute and symbolic stimuli independent of the sensory feature of the original stimulus. Quine (1960) captured a behaviorist approach to the study of language, which was widely

Jamaican Music Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Jamaican Music Industry - Essay Example Several researches were done on the Jamaican music industry between 2001 and 2002 and according to them Jamaican music industry is indeed significant to the national’s economy as it accounts for at least 12 percent of the total gross domestic product. The most amazing thing is the amount of the music export, which usually surpasses the local proceedings realized from the sale of music within Jamaica. In 2002, exported music amounted to 100 million dollars (McChesney, 2009, pp. 195). However, the current state of the Jamaican music industry is unable to sustain the artists due to inadequacy of professional and experienced producers, as well as unappealing distribution sector. The music quality fails to live up to the standards and piracy has risen to the extent that it has become a threat to the industry as it eats away the advantageous end of the industry. Moreover, the royalties from oversees music societies remain uncollected; there is lack of adequate knowledge when it come s to foreign markets and, thus, the amount of uncollected royalties from abroad is hard to define (McChesney, 2009, pp. 200). The purpose of this paper is to provide the information concerning the development of the Jamaican music industry and to access the main features within the industry. In addition to this, the paper will also bring forth the potential consequences with regard to the cultural industries within Jamaica. The main challenges on the way to achieving this aim are inability to get the full disclosure of the potential consequences in the area of cultural industries due to the diversified cultures entailed in Jamaica (Dorfma and Mattelart, 2005, pp. 43). Jamaican Music Development Jamaican Music industry has quite old and rich history but it became successful only in the early 1970s. This success is largely attributed to the late Bob Marley. As such, he has been acknowledged for transforming the reggae genre into an internationally known and accepted phenomenon. During this newly established wave of success, many new artists came up from Jamaica; the industry began its journey with regard to growth and development all over the world. Jamaican music can be said to have sprung from Jazz music, which was a stronghold of the U.S. Since Jamaica is a former U.S. colony, Jazz music was brought into Jamaica in 1949s and at that time Jazz was the only genre (Rutten, 2001, p. 302). This dominated the music industry until the late 1960s when another genre sprung from Jazz that was called race music but later renamed as Rhythm and Blues. Due to the emergence of this genre, jazz music slowly started its journey to oblivion in Jamaica. Indeed, Rhythm and Blues began transforming the music industry in Jamaica. Kingston began holding dances where strong sound systems would be installed and as such, music would dominate the air (Dorfma and Mattelart, 2005, pp. 47). Everybody, from young to old could be seen dancing to the tune of Rhythm and Blues. People would tr avel all the way to the U.S to obtain the new records and this became the trend. During dance sessions, a popular track would be played for up to twenty minutes in raw. The first sound systems to surface were Duke Reid and Clement Dodd. The competition between them became fierce as each wanted to outdo the other. This was ideal as it catalyzed the growth of the music industry in Jamaica. These systems exclusively played records from the U.S as at this time

Good Night and Dance in America Essay Example for Free

Good Night and Dance in America Essay Death is inevitable and comes in different cases, and when it’s nearly there people has different ways on how they deal with it but the most affected of all are the people around them. Just like in Lorrie Moore’s â€Å"Dance in America† and Dylan Thomas’ â€Å"Don’t Go Gentle into that Good Night† both features dying people and how they live knowing anytime soon, they could die. Life is a gift from God; everyone should learn to value his life, maximizing what he can do while he is still alive, especially for his family, friends and other people around him, because nobody knows when will be the final hour. The poem â€Å"Don’t Go Gentle into that Good Night† is strongly emotional and by reading each line, you can feel the author’s anger or bitterness about death. Thomas used the term â€Å"good night† to represent death with respect to the Christian belief that death is a peaceful rest of the body as it enters the next life. Though it can be interpreted in different ways, as a personal note, the poem summarizes his thoughts about the inevitability of death and the way people deal with it. He states that people know that death is for certain, that people already accept the fact that everyone will come to their end according to the will of God but, at the end of the day, they fear leaving the world and regrets start to bother them. He mentioned in his poem about wise men that despite their wisdom cannot truly tell why death is inevitable and just accept the fact that they are dying; of the good men who did good deeds but still end up with death; and those men who lived with serious illnesses who should have enjoyed life more than just wait for their final hour. Then when their time comes, it would be too late to regret things and time wasted. Thomas also addressed there his father as he witness how his father suffered from blindness and illness, crying in pain but seems like just waiting for his end. He doesn’t like the idea that one should readily accept his death but instead, one should fight for his life and struggle against death, whether you are a wise, good, wild, or grave man. Gently accepting death, for him is narrowness, that God’s greater plan is being given up: there’s more to life. For him, death is not the end of life on Earth and the beginning of another life. Life could be more valuable and may be lived longer if people would never give up easily and fight death. (Thomas, Dylan) In Moore’s work, she also tackled the different issue in life including death. A seven year old boy named Eugene was born with a disease that affects the lungs called cystic fibrosis. He got the disease from his father. He also had some relatives who died with it. In the story, Eugene’s case had become more serious that he generated too much liquid in his lungs. But despite the graveness of the health condition, the researchers, doctors, and his family lose no hope that somehow he can survive. But like any parents, Eugene’s experience brings them sadness and grief knowing that their child is suffering from a very serious health problem. They don’t want to lose him not just because he is their only child but also because they believe he is such a good boy for God to let him die at a very young age. Eugene, himself, is also very open-minded about his condition. He understands everything and the disease didn’t pave the way to make him enjoy his childhood. He and his parents are making sure he is enjoying every moment of his life, making things seem normal. (Moore, Lorrie) The death of Simone’s first husband is also mentioned. That he killed himself after she dumped him. The author indirectly tries to say that life is unfair and ironic. There are people who longs and would do anything for a healthy life but then there are people who were granted with a normal life and healthy body would just give it all up and commit suicide. (Moore, Lorrie) In comparison, the two authors both discussed about death and the way people deal with it. Some readily accept their death and some even waste the opportunity to live, while some still fight as long as they are alive. They question its inevitability. They show that death comes unexpectedly. Life is unfair. Thomas argues about struggling in life, same as Moore as she presented the life of Eugene who is fighting against cystic fibrosis. Life is worth living and therefore it should be greatly valued by people. Their writings both presented a clear visualization of the scenarios. The works are both full of emotions and imagery. Thomas’ work is very conversational, that it is directly telling people to value life and struggle against death, especially in the part where he is talking to his father: â€Å"And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. † (Thomas, Dylan) He is saying â€Å"curse me for being still alive saying all these things, and bless me as well. You should have not readily accepted your death just like that. Life is worth living. † While in Moore’s, she leave the emotion and the message for the readers to interpret to themselves what she is trying to say by just presenting circumstances and issues. â€Å"Don’t Go Gentle into that Good Night† has an angry, sorrowful, and persuasive tone which strikes through the heart, while â€Å"Dance in America† has mixed emotions such as fun, sorrow, and anticipation which is more entertaining. The works of these two great authors agrees with the same thing, that life is worth living. Everyone is entitled to take care and value his own life for you’ll never know when it will end. Life can be very unfair and ironic. Live and enjoy your life as if everyday would be the last. Value it knowing there are some people who would have wanted to be in your shoes for having a normal and long life. For those who have serious illness or is determined to anytime soon, one should not lose hope for there are more good things to come and instead of getting bored in life or get yourself stuck on your room crying and just wait for the final hour, spend your time exploring the world with your family, friends and loved ones. There are just too many reasons for someone to stay alive and embrace life whole-heartedly. Do what you want before it is too late. Take care and value life just like what Dylan Thomas said in his poem, â€Å"Rage against the dying of the light! † You can make your light shine brighter. References: Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America. USA: Picador, 1999. Thomas, Dylan. Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night. 19 March 1999. 21 August 2007 http://www. cs. rice. edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/38. html.

The Concept Of Identity Politics

The Concept Of Identity Politics Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others. At its most basic it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality. But it is also about your social relationships, your complex involvement with others, and in the modern world these have become ever more complex and confusing. Each of us live with a variety of potentially contradictory identities, which battle within us for allegiance: as men or women, black or white, straight or gay, able-bodied or disabled, British or European The list is potentially infinite, and so therefore are our possible belongings. Which of them we focus on, bring to the fore, identify with, depends on a host of factors. At the centre, however, are the values we share or wish to share with others. Identity politics was initially defined by and for the new social movements that came to public consciousness from the late 1960s: the black movement, feminism, lesbian and gay liberation and so on. The question of integrating these creative but diffuse and potentially divisive forces into the political mainstream has been part of the agony of the Left during the last decade. Issues of identity are now, however, at the centre of modern politics. When Mrs Thatcher utters anathemas against Brussels and all its works, or interfers in the details of the history curriculum, she is engaged in an exercise in delineating a cultural and political identity, in this case of Britishness, which she wants us to share. When President Gorbachev discourses on our common European home he is striving to re-form our perception of the Soviet identity, and to re-fashion our idea of Europe. When the Bradford mullahs organize simultaneously affirming and fashioning an identity as Muslims, but also as a bla ck British community entitled to the protection of the blasphemy laws like Anglicans and Catholics and evangelicals. When we mourn with students in Beijing, or express solidarity with black South Africans, or run (or sing, or joke) for the world, we are striving to realise our identities as members of the global village, as citizens of the world. Identities are not neutral. Behind the quest for identity are different, and often conflicting values. By saying who we are, we are also striving to express what we are, what we believe and what we desire. The problem is that these beliefs, needs and desires are often patently in conflict, not only between different communities but within individuals themselves. All this makes debates over values particularly fraught and delicate: they are not simply speculations about the world and our place in it; they touch on fundamental, and deeply felt, issues about who we are and what we want to be and become. They also pose major political questions: how to achieve a reconciliation between our collective needs as human beings and our specific needs as individuals and members of diverse communities, how to balance the universal and the particular. These are not new questions, but they are likely, nevertheless, to loom ever-larger as we engage with the certainty of uncertainty that characterise s new times. The Return of Values This is the background to a new concern with values in mainstream politics. Most notoriously, Mrs Thatcher has invoked Victorian values and has pronounced about everything from soccer hooliganism, to religion, to litter. Even the Labour Party, in an uncharacteristic burst of philosophising, has produced a statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values. And these are but the tips of an iceberg. Such flurries have not been entirely absent in the past from British political and cultural history. But on the whole, from the Second World War until recently, the political class eschewed too searching a discussion of values, preferring, in Harold Macmillans world-weary remark, to leave that to the bishops. During the years of the social-democratic consensus, welfarism, with its commitment to altruism and caring, provided a framework for social policy, but offered little guidance on the purposes of the good society. Similarly, in the sphere of private life, the most coherent framework of moral regulation, that enshrined in the permissive reforms in the 1960s of the laws relating to homosexuality, abortion, censorship etc, is based on a deliberate suspension of any querying of what is right or wrong. It relies instead on subtle distinctions between what the law may accept for public behaviour in upholding public decency, and what can be tolerated in private when the curtains are closed. Most of us are probably quietly grateful for such small mercies. As the postwar consensus has crumbled, however, the search for more or less coherent value-systems has become rather more fevered. On a personal level some people have moved promiscuously through drugs and alternative lifestyles to health fads and religion; a number seek to be born again. Perhaps most of us just share a vague feeling that things are not quite right. On the level of politics, various fundamentalisms, on Left and Right, have burst fort h, each articulating their own truth, whether it be about the perils of pornography, the wrongs done to animals, the rights and wrongs of this or that religion, or the marvels of the market economy.   There is a new climate where values matter, and politicians, willy-nilly, are being drawn into the debate. Speaking of values, as the philosopher Paul Feyerabend has said, is a roundabout way of describing the kind of life one wants to lead or thinks one wants to lead. 1 Mrs Thatcher has been clearer about the sort of life she wants us to lead than any other recent political leader. She does not trust her bishops, so the values of the corner-shop and the cautious housewife have expanded inexorably into the culture of enterprise and the spiritual significance of capitalism. From her paean to Victorian values in the run-up to the 1983 General Election to her address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988, Mrs Thatchers moral outlook has had, in Jonathan Rabans phrase, a peculiar integrity. 2 Questions of value have traditionally been more central to socialist debates than to conservatism but during the 1970s and early 1980s the nervous collapse of the Left allowed little room for such niceties. Recently, there have been welcome signs of a revival of concern with basic values. The Labour Partys 1988 statement, Democratic Socialist Aims and Values, intended to frame the partys policy review, may have been too bland for many peoples taste (The true purpose of democratic socialism is the creation of a genuinely free society) but it was the first time since 1917 that the Party had attempted to define its purposes, and in a recognizable philosophical tradition (essentially the rights based liberalism of the American philosopher, John Rawls). At the same time the Party seems to be attempting to resurrect the half-buried collectivist traditions of the British population. The lyrical Kinnock election broadcast in 1987 subliminally told us of the importance of rootedness and be longing as the basis for political advance. The Labour Partys poster campaign early in 1989 The Labour Party. Our party similarly articulated a sense of shared values, of communal spirit, lying latent in the collective unconscious. In part, of course, these Labour Party innovations illustrate the wizardry of ad-agency skills, but it is not too fanciful to see them as a reflection of broader tendencies towards reasserting universal humanistic values, which transcend conventional political divisions. In their different ways, President Gorbachev and green politics have made an impact because of their expression of a human solidarity underlying the divisions of the world. Gorbachevs address to the United Nations in 1988 turned on a call to respect universal human values, and looked forward to an ending of the arbitrary divisions between peoples. Green philosophy calls on the same sense of our common destiny and interdependence, as human beings and as fellow inhabitants of spaceship ea rth, and in doing so claims to displace traditional divisions between Left and Right. It is impossible to underestimate the power of these various (and perhaps sometimes contradictory) appeals to human solidarity after a decade dominated by an ethic of human selfishness. We are reminded that what we have in common as human beings is more important than what divides us as individuals or members of other collectivities. Difference Nevertheless there are difficulties for the Left in an all-embracing humanism. As a philosophical position it may be a good starting point, but it does not readily tell us how to deal with difference. As President Gorbachev could bitterly affirm, it is difference economic, national, linguistic, ethnic, religious and the conflicting identities and demands that diversity gives rise to, that poses a major threat to perestroika, and to human solidarity. If ever-growing social complexity, cultural diversity and a proliferation of identities are indeed a mark of the postmodern world, then all the appeals to our common interest as humans will be as naught unless we can at the same time learn to live with difference. This should be the crux of modern debates over values. In confronting the challenge of social and moral diversity, the responses of Left and Right are significantly different. The Right has a coherent, if in the long run untenable, view of the moral economy. At its most extrem e, expressed in Mrs Thatchers dictum that there is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families, difference becomes merely a matter of individual quirks or pathologies. Social goods are products of individual wills or desires, mediated by family responsibilities. In the economic sphere, this leads to a privileging of individual choice, the essence as Mrs Thatcher put it during the 1987 election campaign of morality. Rut moral choice, in turn, particularly with regard to issues such as sexuality, is limited by the commitment to a traditional concept of domestic obligation, in and through the family. The Left, on the other hand, is heir to a strong sense of collective identities, of powerful inherited solidarities derived from class and work communities, and of different social constituencies, however inadequately in the past it has been able to deal with them. Multi-culturalism, as it was articulated from the 1960s in the legislation on racial equality, embodied a notion of different communities evolving gradually into a harmonious society where difference was both acknowledged and irrelevant. In rather less hopeful times, the commitment to the co-existence of different value-systems is implied in the statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values: Socialists rejoice in human diversity. But the Left has been less confident and sure-footed when faced by the reality of difference. When the Livingstone-led Greater London Council attempted to let a hundred flowers bloom at County Hall in pursuit of a new majority of minorities, the response of the Labour Party establishment varied from the sceptical to the horrified. Nor should we be entirely surprised at that: despite its political daring, and commendable commitment to those hitherto excluded from the political mainstream, it was difficult to detect behind the GLC policy anything more coherent than the belief that grass-roots activity and difference in itself were prime goods. Empowerment, yes; but whom should the Left empower? The Salman Rushdie crisis has dramatised the absence of any clear-cut philosophy on the Left. The Rushdie affair is important for socialists not simply because it concerns the fate of an individual (and an individual of the Left at that) but because it underscores in the most painful way the dil emmas of diversity. At its simplest we have an apparent conflict of absolutes: the right of an author to freedom of speech, to challenge whomsoever he wishes in a democratic society, set against the claims of a distinctive moral community not to have its fundamental religious beliefs attacked and undermined. Rut of course the real divisions are more complex and profound. The Left has not on the whole been willing to endorse an absolute right of free speech. On the contrary it has supported campaigns against racist and sexist literature, whilst a strong minority has supported the banning of pornography.   On the other side, the Muslim communities at the centre of the crisis are themselves not monolithic, bisected as they inevitably are by antagonisms of class and gender, and by political conflicts. At the same time the issues raised do not exist only in a meta-realm of principle: they work their way through the murky world of politics, in this case the complexities of international politics as well as the ward by ward, constituency by constituency problems of Labour politicians. Nevertheless, there is a central question at the heart of the Rushdie affair, and it concerns the possibilities and limits of pluralism in a complex society. Lets take as an example the question of religious education in schools: the government by insisting under the 1988 Education Reform Act that there should be a daily act of Christian worship in maintained schools is in effect asserting the centrality of the Christian tradition to, in Mrs Thatchers words, our national heritage For centuries it has been our very life-blood. People with other faiths and cultures are always, of course, welcome in our land, but their beliefs can only, by implication, ever hope to have a secondary position in relation to ours. Labour, however, accepts a less monolithic view of our religious past and present. As a result it seems prepared to support the principle of state-funding of separate fundamentalist Muslim schools. There is a certain multi-cultural rationale in this: if Anglican, Jewish and Roman Catholic schools are supported by the state, there seems no logic in not supporting the schools of other faiths as well. But schools transmit cultural values, some of which in the case of fundamentalists run counter to oft-declared values of the Left. In this case, the schools will be based on a principle of sex-segregation which elsewhere Labour opposes. As a letter to the Guardian from Southall Black Sisters put it, the Labour Party is prepared to abandon the principle of equality where black women are concerned. Instead, they deliver us into the hands of male, conservative and religious forces within our communities, who deny us our right to live as we please.5 This underlines the danger of seeing communi ties as unified wholes, rather than as the locus of debate and divisions. Not surprisingly, the multi-culturalist values of the Labour Party seem as likely to cause confusion, conflict and distrust as the explicitly mono-culturalist views of the Right. It is ironically appropriate that these dilemmas should have been brought to the surface by the publication of, and reaction to, Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Not only was the book written by an immigrant and about immigrants, but the book itself, as Malise Ruthven argued on its publication, is about changing identities, about the transformations of identities that affect migrants who leave the familiar reference points of their homeland and find themselves in a place where the rules are different, and all the markers have been changed. This is not simply the experience of the migrant: the sense of dislocation and disorientation, of the rules of the game subtly changing, of the co-existence within us of conflicting needs, desires and i dentities, is becoming a major cultural experience for us all. Choice The basic issue can be stated quite simply: by what criteria can we choose between the conflicting claims of different loyalties? To ask the question immediately underlines the poverty of our thinking about this. Can the rights of a group obliterate the rights of an individual? Should the morality of one sector of the population be allowed to limit the freedom of other citizens. To what extent should one particular definition of the good and the just prevail over others? These are ancient questions, but the alarming fact is that the Left lacks a common language for addressing them, let alone resolving them. There have been two characteristic approaches on the Left in confronting these dilemmas. Firstly, there is the discourse of rights, probably still the most potent mobilising force in the worlds of politics and morality. In the United States the protection of individual rights is enshrined in the constitution, and the claim to group rights has become the basis of many of the transf orming currents of recent American politics, from the civil rights and black power movements to the womens movement and lesbian and gay liberation. Elsewhere in the West, a rights-based politics is similarly enshrined in written constitutions, bills of rights, constitutional courts, and so on. In Britain, the tradition is enfeebled. Individual rights, though much bandied around in the political rough and tumble, are not entrenched in a constitutional settlement, and the concept of group rights barely exists. Rights are, however, clearly back on the agenda of the Left: the response to the launch of Charter 88, with its appeal for a new constitutional settlement, with government subordinate to the law and basic rights guaranteed, suggests there is a strongly felt need for a codification and protection of fundamental rights. Unfortunately, the claim to right, however well established at a constitutional level, does not help when rights are seen to be in conflict. To take the issue of a bortion (yet again the focus of moral debate in America and Britain), here the conflict is between two violently conflicting claims to right: the rights of the unborn child against the rights of a woman to control her own body. In these stark terms the conflict is unresolvable, because two value-systems tug in quite different directions. The problem is that rights do not spring fully armed from nature. They cannot find a justification simply because they are claimed. Rights are products of human association, social organisation, traditions of struggle, and historical definitions of needs and obligations: whatever their claims to universality, they are limited by the philosophical system to which they belong, and the social and political context in which they are asserted. This is not to deny the importance of rights-based arguments. But if we are to take rights seriously we must begin to articulate the sort of rights and the type of political culture we want. This is the starting point for the second major approach to the dilemma of choice, the politics of emancipation. In his essay On the Jewish Question in the 1840s Marx counterposed to the morality of Rights a morality of emancipation, and even more powerfully than the claim to rights this has proved a potent mobilising force.8 It offers a vision of a totally free society, where everyones potentiality is fully realised, and a powerful analysis of the constraints on the realisation of human emancipation. At its heart is a denial that want, division, selfishness and conflict are essential parts of human nature. True human nature, it claims, can flourish in a truly emancipated society. Most of us who are socialist must have been inspired by this vision. As a politics of liberation it shaped the rhetoric of the social movements that emerged in the 1960s. It is still latent in the hungerfor utopia and for the transcendence of difference that shades our politics. The difficulty is that the p ractice has rarely kept up with the vision, particularly in the history of Marxism. The Marxist tradition has been reluctant to define the nature of the emancipated society, and has been noticeably blind to questions of nationalism, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Nor do the experiences of the soi disant socialist countries offer much confidence in the attainability of emancipation in the terms offered by the tradition so far. We must not confuse a noble goal with the sordid practices of particular regimes, but we need to ponder whether the very project of human emancipation as conventionally set forth is not itself the fundamental problem. The glorious goal has all too often justified dubious means, whilst the absence of any detailed exposition of the meaning of emancipation has left us floundering when faced by the reality of conflicting claims to right and justice.

Chang and Eng :: essays research papers

During the 1850s, and again after the Civil War, Chang and Eng returned to public exhibitions. In 1860, they met the famed showman, P. T. Barnum and worked for a brief time at his museum in New York City to support their growing families. Barnum also sponsored their tour to Europe. While in Europe, the brothers once again investigated the possibility of separation. The danger was still deemed too great, and surgery was refused. As their health declined, the brothers desired to return home, and they came back to North Carolina in the early 1870s. On January 17, 1874, Eng was awakened in the middle of the night by a strange sensation. Looking towards his brother, Eng quickly realized that Chang had died. Eng called for his son William, who ran through the house shouting "Uncle Chang is dead!" Within hours, Eng was dead, too. Several weeks later, the bodies were brought to Philadelphia by a commission appointed by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. An autopsy was performed by Drs. Harrison Allen and William H. Pancoast at the MÃ ¼tter Museum. It was determined that Chang had died of a cerebral clot. It was unclear, however, why Eng had died. Some physicians suggested that he died of fright. Today, it is thought that Eng bled to death, as the blood pooled in his dead brother's body. Chang and Eng changed the way society viewed conjoined twins and people with profound physical differences. They proved that those who were different can have normal lives: jobs, spouses, and a healthy family. Chang and Eng introduced the term "Siamese Twins" into our language, and introduced the world to a side of nature that was usually hidden away, ignored, or feared. Chang and Eng led the way for numerous other conjoined twins who have since benefited from the acceptance they demanded and received from society at large. For further information on Chang and Eng Bunker, see Wallace and Wallace, 1978. THE "SIAMESE TWINS" AS CULTURAL METAPHOR By the time they died, Chang and Eng were among the most widely known people in the United States. They were the subjects of newspaper articles, books, poetry, satires, lithographs, and plays. They were also a popular subject for masquerade parties. But at that time, these United States were not so united, and in Chang and Eng, Americans saw their own political struggle embodied. Alison Pingree (1996) has documented the tensions surrounding the "Siamese Twins". Chang and Eng :: essays research papers During the 1850s, and again after the Civil War, Chang and Eng returned to public exhibitions. In 1860, they met the famed showman, P. T. Barnum and worked for a brief time at his museum in New York City to support their growing families. Barnum also sponsored their tour to Europe. While in Europe, the brothers once again investigated the possibility of separation. The danger was still deemed too great, and surgery was refused. As their health declined, the brothers desired to return home, and they came back to North Carolina in the early 1870s. On January 17, 1874, Eng was awakened in the middle of the night by a strange sensation. Looking towards his brother, Eng quickly realized that Chang had died. Eng called for his son William, who ran through the house shouting "Uncle Chang is dead!" Within hours, Eng was dead, too. Several weeks later, the bodies were brought to Philadelphia by a commission appointed by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. An autopsy was performed by Drs. Harrison Allen and William H. Pancoast at the MÃ ¼tter Museum. It was determined that Chang had died of a cerebral clot. It was unclear, however, why Eng had died. Some physicians suggested that he died of fright. Today, it is thought that Eng bled to death, as the blood pooled in his dead brother's body. Chang and Eng changed the way society viewed conjoined twins and people with profound physical differences. They proved that those who were different can have normal lives: jobs, spouses, and a healthy family. Chang and Eng introduced the term "Siamese Twins" into our language, and introduced the world to a side of nature that was usually hidden away, ignored, or feared. Chang and Eng led the way for numerous other conjoined twins who have since benefited from the acceptance they demanded and received from society at large. For further information on Chang and Eng Bunker, see Wallace and Wallace, 1978. THE "SIAMESE TWINS" AS CULTURAL METAPHOR By the time they died, Chang and Eng were among the most widely known people in the United States. They were the subjects of newspaper articles, books, poetry, satires, lithographs, and plays. They were also a popular subject for masquerade parties. But at that time, these United States were not so united, and in Chang and Eng, Americans saw their own political struggle embodied. Alison Pingree (1996) has documented the tensions surrounding the "Siamese Twins".

Lesson Plan Background: Pollution and Global Climate Change Essay exam

Lesson Plan Background: Pollution and Global Climate Change Introduction: This lesson about pollution focuses on greenhouse gases. Students will learn about greenhouse gases and how they affect ecosystems. The students will understand the greenhouse affect and how their actions relate increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. In the lesson, students will define the properties of an ecosystem, learn to identify the ecosystems they live in and how they interact within an ecosystem. The students will be able to apply what they learned on a local and global level. The students will be assessed for understanding throughout the lesson as well as at the conclusion of the lesson through activities and discussion. Because the concepts presented are complicated for 4th – 5th grade students, the lesson requires the teacher to continually check for understanding. More detail on the assessments is provided in the â€Å"Assessment† section. This lesson also develops skills that should help the students meet Colorado State standards. These skills reach the sciences as well as language arts and extend across many specific standards such as reasoning and articulating ideas. The students are encouraged to express ideas and interact with each other through discussion and small group activities while reasoning through challenging concepts. This allows the teacher to engage the students and also allows the students to become more comfortable expressing ideas. The students are also expected to propose actions to reduce pollution at the end of the lesson which allows them to think independently and to feel that they can be leaders and effect change. The first building block of the lesson is to... ...n make a pledge to act on the proposals. The students should realize through this that they can be leaders in effecting change and that they can make a difference. Works Cited Cohen, Jordan, and Nick Hopwood. "Greenhouse Gases and Society." University of Michigan. 26 Sept. 2006 . â€Å"CSI: Climate Status Investigations.† The Keystone Center. 26 Sept. 2006. http://www.keystonecurriculum.org/middleschool/too_cool_for_school.html#top â€Å"Global Warming.† Encarta Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta. 27 Sept. 2006. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567022/Global_Warming.html â€Å"Climatic Variation in Earth History.† Class handout. â€Å"Ecosystem.† Encarta Dictionary. MSN Encarta. 26 Sept. 2006. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Ecosystem.html

1. How, Specifically Is the Process of Attribution Illustrated in This Case?

Case Module 5 1. How, specifically is the process of attribution illustrated in this case? Ans. The process of attribution regarding the case referred, flags relatively regarding the behavior of the customer’s eye contact wrong implication. The case study stated that a in certain supermarket dozen females claimed the issue of drawing the unwanted attention for maintaining eye contact. There was no clear information as how many female employees were employed there. This may raise several questions of the internal causes and external causes of behavior.The nature of the twelve women was unknown regarding other issues outside their work place. The case study does not apparently satisfy the â€Å"consistency† of the attribution. This implies the behavior of the female employees and the customers they face behave in the same manner in other situations for knowing the distinctiveness of their claims. If the case study had satisfied the arguments then this would have helped in better understanding of the concept of attribution. 2. What do you suppose is being done to help train people to be friendlier toward customers?In other words, what would you imagine goes on in Safeway’s †smile school†? Ans. There is an underlying concept of positive reinforcement that satisfies the organizations in treating people for the desired returns in the form of sales or goodwill. In the Safeway supermarket they send their employees for the friendliness school called â€Å"Smile school†. They make their employees to follow certain trivial manners that greatly affect the positivity in people like smiling face towards customers, maintaining eye contact for three seconds, calling the people by their name when they pay by check or credit card.Respective to the case study the smile school seems enforcing its policies irrespective of the employees’ consignment. 3. Describe what you believe might be the progressive discipline steps outlined in the warning letter sent to unfriendly Safeway clerks? Ans. The concept of the progressive discipline elevates the steps form letting know the curtness of the respective unfriendly employee individually, and then increasingly enforce the degree of the punishment like officially state the undesirable behavior of the employee, then warning the employee in form of a letter with all negative evaluations.Considering the case study the letter must state all the previous warnings to the unfriendly employee, and then warn the employee that continual curtness leads to suspension without pay and may lead to dismissal for unchanged unfriendliness. 4. What perceptual errors did the customers make? Ans. In accordance to the case study the questions gives ideas regarding the issue of the false judgment. As stated in the case the male customers anticipated the positive reinforcements from the supermarket employees as acts of flirtation.This relates the concept of the Halo effect where the appearance of the employees and their positive behavior triggered the false judgment. The basic idea formation of the first impression is totally based on the internal causes of individual behavior. In another instance stated in that case, one shopper followed a female employee to the car in a false disposition. This may lead to the negative reinforcements form the employees and can effect the other customers. 5. What forms of operant conditioning did Safeway use? Ans.The case study relating to the operant conditions inclines to the policies of the supermarket, one such is â€Å"superior service† policy. The concept states that the reaction provided initially, gets back. It is also called Law of effect. The principle of any customer service is providing best customer service. In the case study the Safeway supermarket also provides it employees a positive reinforcements strategies like maintaining the eye contact for three seconds, smile at customers, anticipating the customers needs. It a lso maintains undercover shoppers to ensure the employees are working properly.There is a â€Å"Smiling school† that helps the employees in understanding the operant conditioning and outcome from it. This can be drawn from its spokesperson that their concentration is not on discipline but on treating customers the best way. 6. What characteristics would a Safeway clerk need in order to be successful in complying with Safeway's policy? Ans. Abiding to the policies of the Safeway supermarket, that employees should maintain smiling face and should have at least three seconds of eye contact. There should be certain point in the causalities of the individual behavior where one can personally realize awkwardness beyond that.Maintaining three seconds of eye contact may be offensive for some of the customers and smiling for that long may trigger false impulses in some of them. These external issues of the behaviors of the shoppers are not in the hands of the employee. As stated first in the case study, smiling and eye contact are basic manners in any customer care services. It is individual realization that smiling and maintaining eye should be at a level that does not cause any false perceptions on the shoppers. In that way an employee may successfully sustain in customer services field with out encountering a surly experiences.

The Spanish-American War and Imperialism

Q5-How did the Spanish-American War turn into a war of imperial expansion? Shawn Lannin 2/26/2013 The Spanish-American War originally started off as The United States protecting Cuba from its Spanish rulers essentially, but quickly evolved into colonial expansion. The war became a war of imperial expansion in the late 1800’s due to America’s new â€Å"outward† focuses on global markets and growing concerns of economic competition/expansion from other world powers. America, once a colony itself was now looking to expand its influence into other parts of the globe as its European cousins had been doing for quite some time.Before, during, and after the war Americans had growing concerns about the Pacific and East Asia. These foreign markets possessed vast amounts of natural resources and fertile lands for the taking; many expansionists had differing reasons for imperialistic expansion. Some argued religious purposes, some the spread of the White-Anglo-Saxon race, (W hite Mans Burden) while others stressed economic and military reasons to expand abroad. Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, a naval strategist, believed in a strong navy and that America should turn its focus outward and expand its influences into the world.Mahan also urged the acquisition of Pacific islands for military and naval superiority. Islands such as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, The Philippines, and Guam soon became targets of America’s imperialistic aim. These islands could be used strategically to protect merchant fleets in route from Asia and also for military and economic purposes, for example the natural harbor found in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor served as a great naval base and served as a stepping-stone to Asia, while the fertile volcanic soils were perfect for sugar plantations.Expansionists also sought to protect their trade rights and foreign policies such as The Open Door Policy, which gave free trade rights in East Asian markets. China was in turmoil at the time and o ther world powers were exhibiting land grabs while trying to carve out â€Å"spheres of influence† to control trade in Chinese markets. Expansion in the Pacific would not only secure our rights to trade but would protect our interests over seas as well.Nations across the world were colonizing weaker countries through the concept of Social Darwinism and America didn’t want to fall by the way side so to speak. We had to keep up with the world powers and protect our best interest. It was a time of empires and after decades of isolationism, America decided it was time to show the world our power. By 1898 America had defeated Spain and with its defeat came the annexation of several island nations that we used to our benefit for years to come.

Holly Farms

Holly farms strategy Introduction In order to revive profits and save themselves from bearing heavy losses, Fred and Gillian Giles had opened a two purposed farm for the general public in 1993. Their ambitious goals had let them to put in all their savings to establish facilities on the farm which would entertain the tourists. This side of the business was apart from the usual farming being carried out which included the distribution of ice cream which was manufactured behind the farm in a small factory, a milking parlor to see the latest technology being used to milk the cows and an additional guided tour of the farm.Even though the business is currently running reasonably well, the owners are facing some serious issues related capacity constraints and competition. Answers Answer 1: There is a no. of issues which Gillian Gales is facing in her side of the business. These issues include the fact that in order to grow the Holly Farm's business, it is not possible for the owners to add additional capital. They have already invested a lot of money and any additional capital available to them will be in terms of a loan.However, the interest rate on the loan is expected to be above ten percent which would not make it feasible since the owners are not expecting to earn that high a return on their investment in order to pay the interest and the principal amount. Other issues which Gillian needs to take notice of include the fact that the ice-cream factory is not operating at full capacity, the freezer which has a capacity to hold 10,000 units is operated at 7000 units' storage to allow for stick rotation.The lack of preservatives used in the ice-cream would also be a factor in this regard where the inventory needs to move out of the factory within 6-12 weeks. This factor would be driving down retail sales to shops and hotels which might be interested in stockpiling the ice-cream for their peak periods (since Gillian is not in a position to increase production for them at that time). Gillian also needs to decide whether to promote coach firms or market to families and schools for trips to their farm.Gillian mentions that on average one out of two coach customers' buys one liter box of ice-cream while a four occupant car buys the same amount. This data, though a good starting point, would not allow for proper decision making since data on how many a coach normally holds. Also the use of averaged data is not advisable when making decisions as to who the target market would be for the coming year.There is also a need for extra staff by the farm, currently the ice-cream manufacturing employs farm workers' wives (three) and a maximum of four flavor can be produced given the time constraints and the set up time (to change flavors). Since capital investment is not possible at this time, Gillian would need to hire more staff for ice-cream manufacturing if she plans to increase the number of flavors to ten, analysis and accurate forecasting of what quanti ties of flavors to produce would also be required if the number of flavors is to be increased.Market researches as to which flavors are being demanded by the customers would also be required and could help eliminate the need to expand to ten flavors outright, but this is currently not being undertaken by Gillian. The lack of promotional activities by Gillian has seen the number of arrivals to the farm cap at 15000 a year; this situation is being ignored as Gillian is concentrating more on expanding the manufacturing side, now she needs to take a more active approach to increasing the traffic at the farm.The issue of farm timings not being conducive to picnics and factory visits (20% of the customers leave before the milking process) and this very fact that many visitors are unable to see the milking process is also one which would be driving lower ice-cream sales and needs to be looked into by Gillian. Answer 2: To increase the number of farm visitors by 50% in a single year is a al most unachievable goal that Gillian has set for herself. Although it is possible that the number be increased, but going from 15000 visitors to 22500 visitors is not a small task which can be achieved in the duration of a single year.This is due to a number of factors which, for Gillian, would be constraints in achieving this growth target. These factors include: 1. The fact that the farm is open to visitors for 7 months in a year, during the remaining months the animals are kept inside and the rides etc available to customers are not safe due to the weather situation. This is a limit which Gillian would be unable to surmount in a single years time without capital investment into building sheds and indoor facilities etc at the Holly Farm. 2.Another time constraint is the fact that Gillian and Fred found that keeping the farm open for more than the four days it is already open (Friday to Monday) is not feasible due to the low traffic during the remaining days. Also the farm workers w ould not be free during the three days of the week (they would be involved in the â€Å"real† farm work), so the only way to keep the farm open the entire week is through hiring extra staff which could only be justified and feasible if Gillian were able to confirm attendance/traffic at the farm during these days via school trips etc.The weekend is the peak period for Holly Farm and it is unlikely that working individuals would be willing to take farm trips during work days. The sales forecast for 1999 shows that Gillian has prepared is highly presumptuous given that she has yet to decide how she would be increasing the number of customers on the farm. Whether she wishes to bring in more customers through coach firms or target the family and recreational travelers (who come by car).With coach firms Gillian would most likely have to offer discounts on the farm visits to the coaching firms to plan trips or revert to her old marketing tactics of giving lectures at schools and ins titutes and market her farm herself. The decision on whether or not to engage with coaching firms is not possible at this time because the number of passengers on each coach has not been identified, thus one cannot calculate the profits to be had from the sales of ice-cream and other produce along with the admission fees (with or without the discounts).Even if the averaged figure of one-liter ice-cream sale per two coach passengers is taken to be reliably accurate without the number of potential customers coming through the coach trips, and via cars for that matter (one liter per four passengers), choice between the options would be more moot point than proper decision making on the part of Gillian. If we were to assume that half the customers come by car and half come via coach trips than promoting coach trips would yield more benefits in terms of ice-cream sales as * 7400 coach trips/2 = 3700 liters of sales & * 7400 car travelers/4 = 1850 liters of salesGiven that 13500 liters we re sold through the retail shop ($27000/$2(selling price)) this would mean that close to 41% of the sales comes through the customers on the farm. A 50% increase in the number of customers on the farm would lead to sales of $40,000 only if the number of customers at the farm window also increased by 50% which is a market not being targeted by Gillian, thus the following calculation leading to a figure of $40,000 would be incorrect as the sales would be lower (higher from the customers on the farm but when including the trend based sales through the farm window the total sales would be lower). 148001. 5=22200 customers * 11100 coach trips/2$2=$11100 * 11100 car travelers/4$2= $5550 * $16650/0. 41 = $40,610 in sales. School parties and trips could be a good tactic on the part of Gillian as they would ensure higher number of visitors and a larger sale of ice-cream and other products which could be made on the farm. Charging a lower admission fees for parties and retaining the catering of the party would be a good source of income for the farm and has the potential of increasing the traffic at the farm by opening a whole new target market for Holly Farms i. e. party venue.Gillian should invest some time and effort into undertaking market research into how many schools would be willing to have parties or field trips on the farm (before offering party packages), also information on the customer tolerance for queuing (to watch the milking process) would be beneficial to Gillian in analyzing how to increase the number of customers on the farm because if the customers are not able to watch the milking process and view this as a deal breaker, they might seek out other sources of recreation and by increasing customers in the short run, Gillian might lose customers in the long run.Information on the actual number of car visitors vs. those coming through coach trips should be sought before Gillian decides on a course of action. Answer 3: Before undertaking a decision to in crease the number of ice-cream flavors from 4 to 10 Gillian should weight the advantages and the disadvantages of this venture. The first factor which Gillian needs to consider is whether a market exists for ten flavors of ice-cream or not, and whether it is feasible for the farm to be producing ten flavors.The fact that capital investment is not possible for Holly Farms means that the additional production would be through an increase in the labor force but the overall quantity of the ice-cream produced would still be limited to an inventory level of 7000 liters (which can be held by the freezer). This would mean that the new flavors would be introduced at the expense of the old flavors. This can be an advantage if the customers of Holly Farm are seeking one or two flavors other than those eing offered (market research would be required to confirm this) and that the quantity demanded would allow for greater turnover through either farm or retail sales. Alternatively this venture co uld lead to unsatisfied customers in cases where the farm could experience stock outs of certain flavors due to the fact that many flavors would be under production. A move to directly offering ten flavors would also create logistical problems as the machines available for production and storing are limited.The fact that more staff would have to be hired would also increase the cost of production of all ice-creams and that would affect the profits of the ice-cream venture and Gillian would be forced to make another key decision on whether to pass on the increased cost to the customers in the form of higher prices, and risk losing some business, or decrease the profit margins of the same.Since an increase in volume is only possible if the inventory turnover is greatly enhanced by the introduction of new flavors (which is not certain) the profits for the farm would be on a downward trend if all other factors remain constant and flavors are added to the product offerings.Since there is no research to suggest that there would be a greater uptake of ice-cream (at retail or farm level) with more flavors, a jump to 10 flavors would be rash and create more problems for Gillian in terms of resource management, forecasting the demand for individual products and overlooking the manufacturing of the same, rather than the advantages Gillian seeks.Undertaking some degree of market research and exploring one or two additional flavors (based on research findings) whilst maintaining the same level of staff could be more beneficial for Holly Farms and they could expand their flavor offerings over the long run when they have the capacity to increase production or maintain higher levels of inventory. ConclusionThe case under review explores the capacity and resource constraints being faced by a small business which was able to attract customers and diversify into other forms of complementary businesses i. e. tours and ice-cream retailing. What we find in this case is that Gillian , the partner in charge of the complementary businesses is facing two critical decisions (a) how to increase the number of customers visiting the farm and (b) how to increase the retail sales of the ice-cream.Since capital investment is not a viable option for the business the means of increasing customer traffic are limited to promotional activities and attracting the right customers for both tours and ice-cream sales. We find that such decisions are not possible with the data available to Gillian at the present time and that the option to increase the number of ice-cream flavors to ten (from four) is also not viable given the manufacturing and storage constraints.Gillian should therefore seek additional data on the target audience for promotional activities and if she plans to increase the number of ice-cream flavors she should start on a smaller scale after conducting proper market demand research. References [Author of Book] (1999), â€Å"Case Study: Holly Farms†, [Name o f Book], Pp 244-248 Read more:  http://www. ukessays. com/essays/business-strategy/holly-farms-strategy. php#ixzz2DakGnUSm

Of Mice and Men Essay Essay

â€Å"The language of friendship is not in words, but in meanings† – Henry David Thoreau While reading the novel, Of Mice and Men, the reader gets a front row view into the relationship of the two main characters, Lennie and George. In every friendship, there are dysfunctional moments, ups and downs, genuine moments and never ending adventures. By definition, a friend is someone to talk to, do things with, be there for each other in time of need and be each other’s crying shoulder. Throughout this novel, Lennie and George display a friendship unlike any other. It is so dysfunctional and rare it makes the reader wonder why these two are friends. For example, the boss says â€Å"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.† â€Å"I just like to know your interest.† In this quote found on page 25, the boss is trying to make sense of their friendship. Even though this quote highlights the rarity of George and Lennie’s bond, this causes the boss to suspect wrong- doing on George’s part. At the end of the novel, George end s up shooting Lennie. This perfectly displays the dysfunctional and rare qualities in their friendship. There are many ups and downs in Lennie and George’s friendship in addition to it being dysfunctional and rare. Lennie is mentally ill. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason behind his actions. For instance, without Lennie, George could â€Å"Go get a job an’ work an’ no trouble. No mess at all and at the end of the month I could take my fifty bucks into town and get whatever I want.† This shows Lennie and George’s Relationship being down. Even though Lennie is a huge burden, George ultimately chooses to not be without him. Even though it seems like George is being held down by Lennie, George stays with Lennie because they both want the migrant dream. â€Å"Someday – we’re gonna get the Jack together, have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and we’ll have a big vegetable patch.† Thus, these two cannot live without each other. Lennie and George have a genuine relationship too. George takes really good care of Lennie, almost like in a maternal way. George says, â€Å"Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much, you gonna be sick like you was last night.† This shows he cares about Lennie. In the beginning, Lennie assaults a lady by tearing the front side of her dress  off in their old town Weeds. George could’ve easily left Lennie to fend for himself but he realized that wasn’t the right thing to do. Lennie hears his dead aunt Clara telling him â€Å"When he got a piece of pie you always got half or more’n half.† â€Å"An’ if there was any ketchup, why he’d give it all to you.† As the novel progresses, Lennie’s past catches up with him and the authorities start looking for him. George knows that if it is caught, the officers would throw him in jail and he wouldn’t survive. So George shoots Lennie to basically put him out of his misery. Clearly, they have a genuine friendship. With every friendship, there are many adventures along the way. The novel starts off in a scenic woodsy area by a lake. Lennie and George run away together from their home town of Weed to run from the authorities and start a new life as migrant workers. When they’ve finally reached the barn, they meet new people and build relationships with them. The boss, Curley, Curley’s wife, Slim, Crooks, and Carlson. Lennie is always getting into trouble and George is always looking to get him out of it. Lennie kills a mouse, strangles Curley’s wife and also kills the dog. Although this book had many twist and turns, it was a heart- warming thriller that illustrated what life was like back in the 1930s. it surely wasn’t easy but having a dream meant a lot to the characters and made them strive to live their dream.

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN A. ADVERTISING Advertising refers to the paid promotion of goods and services through a sponsoring organization or company. While marketing has the objective to choose markets that have the capacity to purchase a product, Â  advertising, on the other hand, is the paid communication through which relevant information about the product is conveyed to potential consumers (2001). In a general sense, the author plans to use advertising in order to be able to impart to interested Christian women aged 13-45 the availability of slots in the Virtuous Woman Pageant.In a way, advertising will also be able to provide critical information regarding the Virtuous Woman Pageant. The author believes that when the advertising campaign for the Virtuous Woman Pageant is achieved effectively, this can lead to an increased interest for Christian women to join the pageant. There are commonly three main objectives of advertisements: (1) conveying relevant informatio n regarding a particular product or service; (2) persuading consumers to purchase the advertised product; and, (3) keep the company under the watchful eyes of the public (2002).But in this particular case, the author plans to mix the elements of all three objectives. Since the Virtuous Woman Pageant is a relatively new event, then it must be supported with informative and persuasive ads. Evaluation of Advertising 1) Advantages The existence of Internet and the continued revolution in the world of Information Technology are certainly positive signs for the successful advertising campaign for the Virtuous Woman Pageant. For instance, the author plans to use Popup ads and email ads as a form of online advertisement. ) Disadvantages In recent years, the public opinion regarding advertising has become very negative. They view it as a medium that only promotes lies. This is of course contrary to the purpose of advertisements to encourage the target market to patronize a particular product or service. Nowadays, most advertisements are either perceived as merely stating opinions or portraying a product or service in a totally distorted idea away from reality. It is his alarming situation regarding the true objectives of advertising that could lead to an increase in the responsibilities that the author and the organizers of the Virtuous Woman Pageant would face. B. PUBLICITY Publicity is a term that is closely related to public relations. While public relations refers to the proper management of all means of communication among the companies and the people involved, publicity, on the other hand, is the careful management of a product or service’s means of communication between the company and the general public. Therefore, it is basically an informative process.However, its main objective is the promotion of products and services being offered by a company. Thus, a publicity plan is being made along the process in order to obtain excellent press coverage for the company’s products (2003). The author and the organizers plan to issue a press release regarding the launching of the Virtuous Woman Pageant, but other methods including Internet releases are in the author’s options. However, in order for these tools and techniques to be effectively utilized by the media, they must be able to generate a great interest from the public.For this to happen, the author and the organizers of the Virtuous Woman Pageant plans to manipulate the press release in order to be a perfect match to the Christian women. The author believes that the most successful publicity releases are often related to topics that the general public can easily relate to. Evaluation of Publicity 1) Advantages The advantages of publicity include having low costs, and its credibility. New technologies such as web cameras and convergence are gradually changing the cost-structure. ) Disadvantages The disadvantages include the lack of control over how the releases will be used, and the accumulation of frustration regarding the low percentage of releases that are being accepted by the media. C. PERSONAL SELLING Sales are an important part of any commercial transaction. The most common approach to personal selling pertains to a systematic process of continuous yet measurable methods in which the person selling describes his offered products or services in such a way that the buyer will be able to visualize ow to benefit from the offered products or services in an economic way. Selling is basically a part of the implementation procedures of marketing. It often forms a particular grouping within a corporate structure, employing independent specialist operatives known as salesmen (2003). The continued interrogation in order to understand a consumer’s goal as well as the establishment of a set of feasible solutions by conveying the necessary information that convinces a buyer to achieve his goal at a reasonable cost is the main responsibility of the sales person.On the other hand, the main objective of professional sales is to be able to know the needs and satisfy the wants of consumers effectively, and therefore convert possible customers into actual and reliable ones (2002). Evaluation of Personal Selling 1) Advantages Some of the distinct advantages that the author sees in the use of personal selling as an IMC tool for the Virtuous Woman Pageant include the immediate access to feedback, the persuasive nature of the endeavor, the option of choosing a target audience for the sales person, and its capability to give detailed information. ) Disadvantages Personal selling may have the tendency to become extremely expensive per exposure, and the gathered information may be different among the sales persons involved. It is a well-known fact that the main objective of selling is to help a consumer achieve his / her goals in a reasonable way. However, this is not always the case. For instance, Christian women can easily be persuaded by outside factors to join the Virtuous Woman Pageant that normally does not have any interest to them.Some sales people are being commanded by their mother companies to sell to consumers odd products that they don't necessarily need. This anomalous behavior is being supported by incentives of sales personnel to increase their total number of sales, incentives from the companies of service providers to sales personnel to sell their products where other similar products offered by competitors are offered, and the incentive to sell a consumer a product that is in need of being wiped out.CONCLUSION The results of the analysis carried out on the proposed IMC tools that would be used for the Virtuous Woman Pageant indicated very significant effects, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the IMC tools could still be expected to contribute to the successful launching of the Virtuous Woman Pageant. The review of the capabilities and resources of the IMC tools revealed very little inconsistencies regarding the overall strategies.This is coherent with the traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for the author and the organizers of the Virtuous Woman Pageant. The analysis among the environment as well as the capabilities of the IMC tools revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment.However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure the competitiveness of the IMC tools. Also, the author and the organizers of the Virtuous Woman Pageant has to find a balance between adherence to internal forces within the management and to the changing forces of the environment in order to implement such strategic options Read more: http://ivythesis. typepad. com/term_paper_topics/2009/11/integrated-marketing-communications-plan. html#ixzz29wJi0bUf