The Emperor's New Clothes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Emperor's New Clothes - Essay Example (Wullschlager) The author altered the story line and changed the theme to courtly pride and intellectual vanity. (Wullschlager) Andersen lived in a time when the bourgeoisie was a class of its own. Many believe that Andersen had chosen to change the storyline and the ending of the Spanish story to make fun of the bourgeoisie and their snobbishness and hypocrisy. The satirical attempt was obvious in how Andersen described the king as someone who â€Å"wanted to be always well dressed† and â€Å"spend (sic) all his money in order to obtain† his clothes (Andersen), not caring for anyone else. Intellectual vanity was not only limited to the bourgeoisie class, however, as the old sensible minister, courtier and other officials who worked for the emperor lied to the latter about what they saw since they also did not want to be called stupid. In fact, Andersen writes â€Å"Everyone in town...were anxious to see how bad or stupid their neighbours were.† (Andersen) By mak ing the foolish emperor decide to parade his nude fat body proudly under the invisible new wardrobe because he did not want to admit his stupidity, Anderson effectively showed how much people valued their pride. The need to keep face was also evident at the end of story when, after realizing the truth, the emperor said he must bear the humiliation till the end. Also, the element of irony is present because the swindlers’ cloth which is supposed to be seen only by superior people actually made the emperor and everyone else around him who praised the new wardrobe stupid. James Finn Garner’s retelling of Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes is a â€Å"politically correct version† with the author making fun of how people are trying not to be insulting, sometimes to a fault. Garner stuck to most of the storyline but changed the ending and consequently, changed the moral lesson of the fairy tale as well. Using modern language, Garner described the empero r, his kingdom and the people around him as nicely as politically correct advocates would not be expected to. Examples of such would be the tailor, who deceived the king, being decorum-impaired. The emperor was a â€Å"wisdom-challenged tyrant† who felt good about the idea of an empire that made him look good, like a â€Å"trophy wife†. (Garner) Although most of the storyline remained the same and the story was still about vanity, the author used the language of today to describe the situation, characters and feelings of the people in the story. The empire was supposed to be of people who were non-alcoholics, non-smokers and listened to country music among others. (Garner) The irony in the story is still shown in how Garner made the seemingly astute leader who believed that males were superior look inferior when he himself could not admit to the truth as to the existence of his new wardrobe. As with Andersen, Garner describes the new emperor’s body as â€Å"an ugly mass of puffy white flesh† and yet the emperor â€Å"saw this too, but pretended that he could see the beautiful, politically correct robes.† Again, Garner pokes fun at how some people already see the truth but still want to appear politically correct and say nice things to avoid being insulting. The alternate ending Garner did was to make the crowd decide on joining the nude emperor by undressing and declaring a â€Å"clothing optional† day from thereon. With this, Garner presents the issue of nudity with a thumbs-up

Value Chain Model Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Value Chain Model - Research Paper Example The principle aim of Audible is to integrate literate listening so much that it becomes the core tool for anyone who is seeking knowledge to be more productive and well informed. Audile’s collection is massive. It‘s collection includes over 85,000 audio programs that have come from above 1000 content providers. These content providers vary from audio book publishers to broadcasters to entertainers to magazines to newspaper publishers to business information providers. The content can be easily downloaded and played back on various wireless mobile devices. Audible is also the leading provider of for audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store. (About Audible) Audible’s Value Chain Activities: According to Porter(1885), the core value chain activities are as following: 1. Inbound Logistics 2. Operations 3. Outbound Logistics 4. Marketing and Sales 5. Service Inbound logistics include some core value chain activities such as receiving the raw materials and stockin g them in warehouses. After stocking in their warehouses, the materials are distributed to the distribution and from there to manufacturing. Audible is an online store that delivers digital content. It delivers audio content and its stock includes DVDs at the most. Hence, its warehouses are designed to keep CDs and DVDs. Its core business model enables customers to shop, purchase and download audio content from their online store, www.audible.com. The operations include customizing the audio content to the standards that run at audible; adding the audible logo on the audible media content and copy-right protecting. Out bound logistics don’t involve brick and mortar here. The customers are given the opportunity to download their desired digital content on the media of their choice. Marketing and Sales involves coming up with customer needs and targeting them for sales. Audible markets itself through online media, social media and through the online big wig, Amazon.com. Audible has a toll free number through which customers can get in touch with their customer services department. (Value Chain Model) The primary activities in value chains are a combination of various things. These include the infrastructure of the firm, its Human resource management, its technology development, and its procurement. Audible is strategically aligned with Random House Inc for the production and publishing of audio content. Audible uses various technologies to support value creation for its business. Audible cut down on all the brick and mortar expenses such as paper, printing, warehousing and shipping by opting for online delivery that not just ensured that the customers were immediately delivered but were also offered a wide ray of DVDs to select from. Moreover, Audible also created value allowing the authors to dub in their own voices. Eventually the population and the masses started with drawing themselves from books because they found themselves too busy to read. Audible offered them the opportunity to become accustomed to reading amidst their busy schedules. They weaned away from books and started looking up to digital content available to them to read. Before this audio publishers found it difficult to ship physical products. An online shop store made it possible for them to come out of that limitation. Audible was the first company to center its

Change Management Processes in Business

Change Management Processes in Business Task 1 | Creative and Innovative Change Management Tasks  (Jump to) a) Identify and describe management processes in the organization that have led to successful innovation. b) Explain how management in your selected organization would lead staff to accept and implement innovation c) Evaluate the influence of the organizations vision and mission on supporting innovation. d) Use appropriate tools and techniques to identify at least two potential creative and innovative ideas e) Assess at least three risks and three benefits of the ideas identified above f) Describe at least two appropriate change models to support the implementation of the creative and innovative ideas identified above in the organization Task 2 | Influencing change  (Jump to) a) Identified and describe the characteristics of the main groups of stakeholders. Produce a rationale to persuade stakeholders of the benefits of a creative and innovative idea b) Create a plan to communicate a creative and innovative management idea to the stakeholders identified above, persuade them of its benefits for the organization, and generate stakeholder feedback. c) Show how you would use feedback from stakeholders to identify key goals and priorities for the innovation. Task 3 | Overcoming barriers  (Jump to) a) Identify at least four possible barriers to the implementation of change in an organization b) Plan a strategy to overcome these identified barriers. c) Explain how the strategy plan will help overcome resistance. d) Create a PowerPoint presentation to communicate the strategy plan to at least five groups of stakeholders CREATIVE INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT Task 1: Innovation management processes Identify and describe management processes in the organization that have led to successful innovation. The good organizations become best by adopting innovation. It is more than an invention as it also includes an attitude that encourage new concepts and risk attach with that new concepts. Excessive investments are not needed if a company has awareness about innovation and can use it to create products with unique features. So they create a friendly behaviour for new concepts, ideas, risk, change and even failure (Fortune, March 3, 1997). Managerial innovations are those adjustments in the process of management that gives ideas of products and services and than help in their production and delivery to the customers. It is not essential that effectiveness and efficiencies of product or services get effects from innovations by management (http://tumipc.info). Product versus Process Innovations: Innovations in processes and products are very significant classifications of technical innovations. Product innovations either generate entirely new products with distinct features or may help in increasing the performance and physical features of old products and services. Process innovations are changes in the way products or services are manufactured, created, or distributed. Whereas managerial innovations generally affect the broader context of development, process innovations directly affect manufacturing (http://tumipc.info), the implementation of robotics. Thus product innovations are particularly important during these beginning phases. Later, as an innovation enters the phases of growth, maturity, and decline, Vodafones ability to develop process innovations, such as fine-tuning manufacturing, increasing product quality, and improving product distribution, becomes important to maintaining economic return (http://tumipc.info). Explain how management in your selected organization would lead staff to accept and implement innovation The Human Energy of Innovation Innovation is difficult. Its hard not to be constrained by organisational history, politics and budgets. Its even harder to think of innovation as a human energy and not a process (www.10again.co.uk). Lead the Way to Successful Innovation in Vodafone The collaboration necessary, general cultural differences that can influence the process and the importance that organizational culture has on creating an environment that supports innovation, after these presentation keynotes, I often get a few people who approach me with their stories about innovation in their organizations. They tell me how great the information was and wished they could apply it into their own organizations, but they know that it would never be supported (www.bia.ca). It seems that while individuals are given the necessary time in their jobs to generate ideas, they are not given the time that is really required to explore them through a proper process for innovation. This therefore makes it difficult, if not impossible, for true innovation to happen. Now I realize that those who asked me the question may not necessarily be in positions to change their organizations cultures but maybe they could start to create change within their own spheres of influence, such as a department, plant, location, store, etc. Sometimes Vodafone need to think on a smaller scale and then demonstrate to the organization the value of what they are doing, demonstrated success will help greatly to sell the idea. Implementing innovative cultures and processes into organizations they have found that executives often ask themselves, Why are not they better at innovation? There are lots of examples out there and lots of advice. But in reality innovation challenges differ from one organization to another. Just as each innovation is unique, so is Vodafones culture. The process of innovation that works in one place will not necessarily work in another. They must consider the culture (www.bia.ca). Vodafone India further demonstrates their commitment to innovation when they build innovation into performance management. They measure managements performance on the basis of their ability to create new value-added products, services and ideas. As well, they assess the extent to which managers undertake this jointly with staff, rather than independent of their staff, because this demonstrates a clearer understanding of the use of an innovation process versus simply the result of management directive. Vodafone managers can demonstrate this in their regular department meetings by focussing on the exploration of new ideas. They can train employees in the innovation process. They can allow time for employees to explore their ideas. They apply an aggressive effort to build new opportunities based on the development of new services and products (www.bia.ca). Evaluate the influence of the organizations vision and mission on supporting innovation. In todays fast moving economic situation, mostly category breaking business environments meet their mission, vision and objectives. Only such companies meet their estimate growth, gain profit, out run their competitors and show excellence in execution. They achieve by the culture of innovation. In every industry, the leading companies are the innovators. However the cadre of innovators keeps changing (www.scribd.com). Companies may seize upon a good idea that gives them an advantage for a while, but sooner or later, they cede this advantage to a competitor who has found an even better idea. As Nicholas Stein (2000) correctly mentioned, Innovation is at the heart of sustaining Vodafones competitive advantage. This holds very true as long as they wants to stay on top of their competitors and win the innovation game. Innovation is very important criterion for success in the future, (Horibe, Frances Dale Emy, 2001) an important study done on the rate of return of 17 successful innovations shows a mean return of 56% in comparison with an average Return on Investment (ROl) of 16%. It is clear that organizations need to innovate to survive and achieve good profit figures. What to innovate? Now we understood the importance of the role that innovation plays in Vodafone. The next important question now arise is where and which things to apply innovative ideas in Vodafone India. Suggestion and recommendation for where to apply innovations are as follows (www.scribd.com): Innovation can be applied to products, services, design, invention, development, process, and systems. To make a product or service compete with the new economy. This is essentially to educate organizations to move out of their traditional old habits1 to the new innovation culture. To avoid high risks: Avoiding high risks involving money, staying ahead of competition and high pay off opportunities are the essence of the innovation To gain long term market focus, as a result the Vodafone can save money. Use appropriate tools and techniques to identify at least two potential creative and innovative ideas Creative and Innovative Culture, Change Management: Three Easy Tests Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation and innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. From this simple definition, it is clear that certain cultural characteristics ought to be prevalent if creativity and innovation are to be maximised. And maximisation of these ought to be a priority for senior leaders, as those organisations that take them seriously, tend to be leaders in their field, tend to maintain their leadership position longer and are quicker to bounce back when competitors leap frog (http://ezinearticles.com). There are many blocks that prevent expression of problems and hinder idea generation. Some solutions include (http://ezinearticles.com): An environment of psychological safety and freedom accepting an individual as unconditioned worth; recognising that the individual is capable of producing but that their value is not based on producing; understanding empathetically; understanding the individual from their point of feeling and view (Vernon, 1970). Tolerance of failure Accepting that many ideas will fail before one worthwhile one will surface and reach commercialisation; recognising that there are benefits to failure, such as competency expansion Blade Runner was initially a commercial failure yet Ridley Scott went on to make some very successful movies. Though senior leaders pay lip service to the above, the reality is often much different. Below are some easy and simple tests to gauge how well Vodafone is performing in practice. Employee interviews. Are interviewees expected to conform to the prevalent norm of not contradicting the interviewer? If they do so, are they less likely to be selected? Interviewees who throw up many ideas and challenge existing methodologies at this stage are more likely to be expressive when they find problems in Vodafone and more likely to bring them to the attention of decision makers. They are also more likely to persuade others to do the same. Thought leaders are good drivers of change and prevent complacency though as a result it is not unusual to find that they cause friction with senior leaders who for some reason or other may be resistant to change. Remember, todays thought leaders can easily become tomorrows established bureaucracy (http://ezinearticles.com). Are senior leaders confident enough to leave themselves open to evaluation from all others in Vodafone? Status deference has many negatives including (http://ezinearticles.com): Higher status individuals tend to dominate the session and reduce the participation of others, People allow higher status individuals to do all the idea generation People place higher value on ideas produced by higher status individuals and People have a greater tendency to allow higher status individuals to get away with bad ideas. Assess at least three risks and three benefits of the ideas identified above There are a number of reasons why creative ideas fail to become innovations. Sometimes it is because the idea, which seems brilliant in concept, is flawed in application. More often, the problem is that organisations invest in creative ideation initiatives (often called innovation initiatives), such as brainstorming events, idea management, ideas campaigns and the like, but fail to invest in implementing the most creative ideas that come from those initiatives. Indeed, they have probably experienced this typical scenario: Vodafone invests in generating ideas via brainstorming events that involve a lot of highly paid managers and researchers. A number of promising creative ideas are generated. Sometimes business plans are developed. Sometimes prototypes are built, sometimes not, but, at some point between the identification of a promising idea and beginning to implement that idea, the idea is killed (www.jpb.com). There are many reasons why creative ideas are killed however almost all of them have to do with risk. Implementing a new idea is perceived as risky and people in the Vodafone do not wish to undertake that risk. So, the idea is killed. Needless-to-say, investing in a creative idea generation initiative in order to generate creative ideas they will never implement is an expensive method of accomplishing absolutely nothing (www.jpb.com). Unwillingness to implement creative ideas is not only a weakness with companies, individuals have the same problem. Imagine a young person applying for a job with Levi Strauss Co and having the idea to write her CV on a pair of Levis jeans and sending it to her perspective employer. Such a creative approach to applying for a job would almost certainly stand out and grab the attention of the hiring person. It could very well result in an interview particularly if the Vodafone values creativity as Levi Strauss does. Or it could result in the CV imprinted jeans being promptly rubbished as ridiculous. In my experience, most people who had such a creative idea would be unwilling to risk carrying it out (www.jpb.com). Such a waste of creative time, energy and money does no one any good and makes the world a more boring place than it could be. The Idea Before Vodafone implement their idea, they need to describe it in detail. Separately, they should describe what makes the idea special, that is: what is the unique selling point (USP)? Once Vodafone have done this, ask their self how they might push the USP even further in order to make their idea even more special. Benefits and Risks The next step is to do a simple risk versus benefits analysis. That may sound complex, but might simply be a matter of drawing up a table with a column labelled benefits and one called risks. Then simply lists the benefits and risks in their appropriate columns. If the risks are greater than the benefits, they need to rethink their idea and focus on greater benefits (www.jpb.com). Describe at least two appropriate change models to support the implementation of the creative and innovative ideas identified above in the organization Integrated Innovation Process Management Vodafone as an innovative organization, however, should not have a single innovation process cycle in operation. Rather it should have many of them! Large cycles are suitable for enterprise-wide innovation. Meanwhile, business units can run somewhat smaller innovation process cycles in order to manage their own ideas (although it should be noted, collaborative groups need not be limited to employees of that business unit). Teams, departments and any other group can also run their own innovation process cycles (www.jpb.com). However, these innovation process cycles should not be in isolation. Rather they should inspire and feed other cycles elsewhere in the organisation. For instance, the implementation of a new product idea should inspire innovation cycles in the marketing, sales and customer service divisions as well as at the enterprise level (www.jpb.com). Managers should watch their colleagues innovation process cycles and ruthlessly copy ideas as inspirations for their own cycles. Task 2: Influencing change Identify and describe the characteristics of the main groups of stakeholders. Produce a rationale to persuade stakeholders of the benefits of a creative and innovative idea Thomas Edison had all the characteristics of a risk taker innovator. He was a divergent thinker, making observations about the natural world. He was not afraid of failure. The lessons learned in one of his failures led to success in another project. In addition to the light bulb, his 1,093 patents included familiar ones such as the microphone batteries (The Creativity Handbook, 1994). Creative leadership must facilitate positive relationships in organizations to produce profitable growth through innovation. They now know that creativity is not a personality trait that is available for geniuses. Everyone has unique knowledge and experiences that can be tapped, given the proper environment. This environment must be freed flowing and non-judging to take people through the mental block they learned in early childhood. These blocks are associated with the risk of being wrong (www.aiu.edu). The motivation for innovating comes largely from the joy of doing something that has never been done before. It is like going on an expedition and risking everything to be the first person to climb a mountain or sail around the world. It taps the same drive that exists within a composer or an artist who wishes to create something forever. Create a plan to communicate a creative and innovative management idea to the stakeholders identified above, persuade them of its benefits for the organization, and generate stakeholder feedback. Open Innovation or expanding the pool of brains thinking about their business problems outside of Vodafone is a concept that has gained significant and recent traction. The concept is very sound (http://blog.thinkforachange.com): Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology. The boundaries between a firm and its environment have become more permeable; innovations can easily transfer inward and outward. The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions (e.g. patents) from other companies. In addition, internal inventions not being used in a firms business should be taken outside the company (e.g., through licensing, joint ventures, spin-offs) It used to be that innovation was something that happened deep in the bowels of corporate RD departments. Secretive folks lurked there and lived by the code of NIH or Not Invented Here. A motto that held that if RD didnt think of it, then it didnt exist or wouldnt work or should be ignored. Except a funny thing happenedthe ideas started drying up. Game changing ideas became few and far between. More of the same survived and less of the unexpected was developed. Then one day, some very smart innovation management consultants showed these organizations that there is no such thing as an all or nothing approach to innovation. Open innovation is but one branch of a well-rounded and comprehensive innovation management program. And for open innovation to truly work, they need to have their internal house in order first as it relates to idea and innovation management. Vodafone must have a solid and well managed internal innovation capability before seeking ideas from the outside world (http://blog.thinkforachange.com). That means: Having a strong executive sponsor engaged in the innovation strategy of the organization Having a proven set of processes, tools, techniques and training for moving ideas into prototypes and, eventually, products Having enough resources (human, financial, time, space and capability) to adequately support the idea and innovation management system Vodafone are putting into place Treating innovation and idea management, not as some singular event, but as a true business discipline and strategy for growth Developing a list of problems and/or opportunities that the organization wants to invest money and effort into finding solutions Developing a strategy for seeking ideas from inside and outside of the organization Developing a clear and communicated set of selection and filtering criteria for idea submission and consideration to ensure the idea pool is manageable Determining the utilization of the closed innovation system for the research, development, prototyping, portfolio management and launch planning that Vodafone dont want their competitors finding out about Developing a workable system for protecting the intellectual property rights of all parties in the process Show how you would use feedback from stakeholders to identify key goals and priorities for the innovation. Focusing on Customers Executives acknowledged that business has had to learn these lessons many times, and the need to create a culture where innovation can thrive is not new. A big part of the leaders role is to distract the organization away from itself and its own inner workings and dynamics, and shift the focus to customers, creating the openings where innovative ideas become possible (www.poststone.com). Allow enough time The rapid pace of business tends to create an overload of initiatives and a rush to complete projects as quickly as possible, and creates a significant barrier to sustainable progress. Business moves too fast; you need tenacity to innovate One approach recommended is for leaders to lengthen the time for goal achievement, and encourage staff to spend the necessary time thinking deeply about a problem, gathering data, and moving forward in a thoughtful way (www.poststone.com): People tend to give up when they cant get results quickly. You need to give longer goals, give people time, and ask them to do it slowly and thoughtfully. Generating good ideas is not always the issue: prioritization and resourcing of a few key initiatives is often more important in making significant progress. Task 3: Over coming barriers Identify at least four possible barriers to the implementation of change in an organization De-bunking the Myths of Innovation The executive panel saw little merit in much of the conventional wisdom about innovation, and de-bunked the myths for Vodafone India: The new product myth There is a strong tendency to focus on product innovations, however executives generally see this type of innovation as highly visible, but not necessarily critical to business success (Levitt, et. al. 2005). The breakthrough idea myth While creating the environment where Vodafone staff will speak and tell them their ideas received considerable emphasis, the idea itself is rarely sufficient. Canada was noted as the home of many good ideas that have not had enough sustained effort, persistence and resources to achieve results (Soto, Hernando de, 2000). The creative chaos myth Many business processes support innovation better when they are consistent and measurable. With a consistent and known process, ideas for change can be implemented in a way that employees can understand and execute successfully. The new process can then be integrated into routine and evaluated (Collins, Jim, 2001). Without a consistent baseline to build on, its difficult to see if a new idea would work, and just as difficult to implement successfully. The creative individual myth The power of creative individuals with insight is rarely enough to move the organization, regardless of the level of seniority. High-potential young managers cannot sally forth as ambassadors for a new order and meet with success. The whole organization needs to be mobilized, through accountability at all levels (www.poststone.com). Plan a strategy to overcome these identified barriers. Most approaches to strategic planning put an emphasis in answering the question What should the organization do? The answer to this question is very important for Vodafone. However it does not ensure that the organization is enabled to create value and to make the right strategic decisions. Strategy execution and monitoring of success have been identified as characteristic problem areas in organizational practice (Avila, et. al., 1995). Putting the proposals into practice, the Vodafone can address a more comprehensive set of issues related to fundament, execution and funding (Deloitte, 2005): Fundament:  Why should the organization choose this way? What are the underlying assumptions, the tradeoffs, and the risks? How should the organization respond if one of these assumptions turns out to be flawed or changes? Execution:  How does the organization do it? What are steps for implementation? Who is accountable for this process? How does the organization keep track of execution and success? Commitment:  How can the organization achieve commitment among the management team and all employees? How can the organization inform employees? Funding:  What will the outcome of the strategic planning cost in total? How will the organization fund the planning results? What is the expected return and will it meet the internal hurdle rates for return? Taking into account the broad perspective for strategic planning and considering execution, monitoring and funding issues, the organization and its managers can gain a clear view of where they are going and why. They will also know how to monitor the progress and can assess the payoff. Monitoring of both market data and operational data against planning assumptions as well as sustaining organizational flexibility represents another field of strategic planning improvements (www.themanager.org). Due to consideration of capital allocation and funding issues it is also clear, which other critical corporate processes will be influenced from the strategic planning outcome. Summarizing and bundling this outcome in so called strategic campaigns or strategic initiatives helps the organization to focus and improves intra-organizational communication (Dye et. al., 2007). Explain how the strategy plan will help overcome resistance. Hitchhiking creates ideas that combine the best ideas of everyone on the team. It can also help during implementation if all members see a piece of their idea in the final solution (www.aiu.edu). Creating an environment that is tolerant of mistakes is difficult. It must be made clear that mistakes are acceptable if they are based on solid thinking, enhance learning of what will not work, and are caught early before damage is severe. There must be support for the people who were on the team of the project that failed. The Kirton Adapter: Innovator (KAI) inventory measures preferred styles for problem- solving. The adaptor prefers to be creative within the present system. The innovator wants to create new definitions of the problem and new systems. Thus, both types are creative, but their styles are different. Adapters include bank managers, accountants, production managers, and programmers. Innovators include persons in marketing, finance, and fashion buyers (www.aiu.edu).

Blindness in Richard Wrights Native Son Essay -- Native Son Essays

Blindness in Richard Wright's Native Son Does it seem sometimes as if people are ignorant to other feelings? Have you ever had a friend get away with something or toy with someone's thoughts to benefit him or her? Similar types of blindness occur in the novel Native Son by Richard Wright (1940). The story starts in the Great Depression with a poor black family waking up to a foot long rat in their one room apartment. Bigger, the main character, and his younger brother Buddy narrowly kill it without bodily harm. Bigger is supposed to start a job for a rich white man as a chauffeur. Bigger has never really interacted with white people before and is not wanting to be there. After an accident on his first day, he kills the man's daughter and throws her body into their furnace, severing her head from her body to make it fit. He acts like he didn't do anything and slyly puts the blame on Jan, her communist boyfriend, while leaving a ransom note. It almost works until the media finds remnants of her bones in the ashes of the fire. Bigger believes that he will be blamed and runs away with his girlfriend, who he also ends up killing. He ends up being cornered by a mob of white people and taken to jail. His trial is fast and unjust, but he is convicted regardless of the surprising help of Jan and his lawyer. During the course of the novel, there are many instances where people were blinded by the actions of others or did not realize that their actions were negatively affecting their own lives. The following will better explain and demonstrate this. When Bigger first meets Mary, he instantly hates her for her ignorance in prodding him when all he wants is to be left along. Her blindness about his thoughts and feelings makes him hat... ...nd pray because she thinks she is only drunk. This is may be considered somewhat ironic. However, Bigger could also be considered 'blind' in this situation because he doesn't see what he is doing and how it will eventually end his own life. There are other instances where Richard Wright uses 'blindness' as a symbol. Bigger considers the whites 'blind' of blacks and blacks 'blind' of freedom after he kills. During the entire story, the reader senses that Bigger is lost in life. He never understand why he acts the way he does until his lawyer, Max, explains to him why whites seclude blacks and why blacks naturally push back. In the end, everyone is 'blind' for one reason or another. Work Cited "Native Son" Native Son Richard Wright. 30 April 2004. Barnes & Noble. <http://www.sparknotes.com/> Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

Edna come back from amrecia Essay

What do you think motivates Muriel to identify June as Edna? Does she act on the spur of the moment when she sees June at the water’s edge, or has she been searching for some time for someone who can solve her problems for her? Do you think she really believes that June is Edna? Muriel has been searching for some time for someone who can solve her problems for her because she was at her wits ´ end, but when June appeared Muriel understood that June was the perfect person to take care her family members who were mentally ill. To illustrate, her brother was a violent alcoholic, her niece was a mentally ill girl and her mother had Alzheimer ´s. There are many facts to support that supposition. First, June was left with nothing by Alastair ´s wife, and then when she was on the train on her way to the place where she had once been happy with her father, a friendly youth had stolen her handbag with all her belongings, so June did not have any documents which would identify her. This suspicious fact I think was prepared by Muriel. Second, perhaps Muriel had been following her because she knew that June was homeless without money and hopes. Coincidently, June was going to commit suicide when Muriel suddenly had appeared like her rescuer to offer June her help, and also she told her that she was Edna who had been in America. Third, in Muriel ´s house June was introduced to Ted, Muriel ´s husband, who studied June seriously and closely as if she was an examination paper before giving his acceptance to Muriel about June. Fourth, Muriel had convinced June to revert her new style to the old style which includes her hair and clothes because that is how Edna had dressed before. Fifth, also to convince June more easily that she was Edna, Muriel told June that her mother had passed on, but she had left a bit of money and a house for her. Finally, when Muriel gave June Edna ´s handbag, she found a snapshot, which showed June that she had also had a husband and a little daughter. All these facts were used by Muriel to convince June to accept that she is Edna and not June, but really Muriel knew that June is not Edna.

Buka culture, Oceania

Residents of Bukas are called Buka after the island and though no English definition of the word can be found it most likely originated from a Malaysian word. Foreigners refer to the people as Bukas but in the country they are know by their clans. It can be assumed that there are rude names that names used for respect within the different inhabitants but I have a feeling that to learn those one must actually visit the island. 2- The Buka reside on Buka Island, Bougainville Province, in Papua New Guinea.Buka Island itself is separated from Bougainville by Buka Passage, a swift flowing sea channel. There are five small inhabited islands found off of the west coast. The east coast of the island has many cliffs as it is unprotected from the ocean wind. The west coast has the Richard Parkinson Range, with its highest peak, Mt. Bei which is 458 meters high. The entire island is surrounded by coral reef rings, with large lagoons on the west coast.3- There are two distinct languages spoken o n Buka, though with dialects there are about 4 different languages, Hanahan Halia is spoken along the east coast, Haku is spoken in the north coast villages, Selau a dialect of Halia is spoken in the Bougainville peninsula, and Solos is spoken within the North Bougainvillean Austronesian families. Halia and Haku speakers can easily understand each other, with Selau being there most distant dialect. However Solos and Halia speakers do have difficulty understanding each other.Tok Pisin is also used as a lingua franca between the three different dialects and this language is spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. All of these languages are part of the North Bougainvillean Austronesian languages which can be traced back to South China and Formosa. There is a clear division between the south and north of this island mainly dealing with those that immigrated to these areas. 4- Most settlements are villages and hamlets. The island itself is divided into five electorates, the pewit, Halia, Hag ogohoe, Tsitalato and the Haku.These areas are connected by narrow paths and through trade partners. These villages would move and change depending on the weather and with new alliances or reorganizations of clans. Some of the first towns grew around missions and near airstrips or by good harbours. This area did not have much European settlement until after WWII so there is still much of the traditional life present. The main town, also called the capital, is located on Buka Passage and on most maps is still labelled â€Å"Chinatown†. The family-household is still the basic social unit and can consist of many generations.The most important buildings in the villages are the tsuhana. Funerals, reconciliations, memorials and feasts are all held at the tsuhana, and the building for the tsuhana is quite elaborate as a pig must be sacrificed for each step of the construction. Town are the center of commerce and then reach out to the nearest villages. There are not many roads and sh ips and air travel are needed to reach certain areas. Due to the geography much of the inner island is not populated. Currently at the capital there is more modern buildings arrived as the settlement has grown to incorporate businesses and some tourism.This urban Mecca contains representatives for banks, the government and agricultural businesses as well as some resorts on the beach. 5 – Buka houses contain many generations, as many of three. One type of house built in this area is made of silt. Silt houses last between 20 and 30 years and are constructed above the ground to allow for the high tide. These houses are quite large and require about 20 men to set the posts (the foundation) of the house. There are also traditional houses made of wood, huts made of woven reeds and roofs that are thatched with hay. Almost all houses are built up on stilts.If no paint is used then most house are a brown or beige colour, as paint is a big upkeep because it has to be reapplied so often due to the humidity. 6 – Bukas economics are mainly based off of agricultural, as the sweet potato is a main staple in the villages not only for food but also to trade. Copra and cocoa are cash crops and there is some small amount of money to be made in spices and vanilla. Other popular crops are breadfruit, yams, taro, rice, bananas, mango, coconuts and other fruits. Many animals have been domesticated for food and birds, marsupials, cassowaries and turtles are hunted for their meat.Tea is drunk throughout the day. There is also a substantial amount of fishing done and collecting shellfish as most villages are very close to the coast. Many families keep chickens and pigs those pigs are considered to be very important and only used for rituals and formal occasions. A lot of time is spent collecting water as fresh water is in short supply. Tourism has slowly sprung up on the island allowing for some small change sin income though moist businesses found in the main city along the Burka Passage all deal with agriculture products.Most villagers produce their own food and townspeople may have their own garden or they trade with village women who sell their produce at markets. Small trade stores supple kerosene lanterns, matches, blankets, clothing, soap, tinned fish, tea, sugar and rice while large urban supermarkets import expensive food items and other products. There is also some work in the gold mining and oil industry though most industry is horticultural. 7 – The political system in Buka is based off of chiefs though both men and women can be â€Å"chiefs†.These chiefs then build alliances and trade routes with other chiefs and clans. Most authority positions are inherited and chieftainships, called tsuono, though many times this heredity is ignored. The tsunono represents the interests of their clan. Each tsuono will look over about 20 families though many tsunono clans can come together under the tsunono mal, of a superior clan. The mo st powerful of all the chiefs, the munihil, is put forth or â€Å"elected† by the tsunono, and has power over clans of a moiety class.(Moiety classes are associated with prestige, with Nakaripa and Naboen being higher class and Nakas and Natasi of lower class. ) Moiety class is important for resolving conflicts and organizing authority. Women can also be chiefs but they are looked on as sacred objects held with great respect. Though ever since the Bougainville civil war women have become more prominent in leadership roles. Those that want to participate in higher politics within the Papua New Guinea government must be very wealthy and use the traditional campaigning methods; much of popular politics does not exist throughout Buka.8 – Kinship terminology is Hawaiian and descent in is matrilineal. Most newlyweds tend to live with their maternal relatives at first but will move to the wife’s native land as children technically belong to the wife’s clan. So u nder this kinship all females in the parent’s generation are referred to as mothers and all males in the parental generation are fathers. All brothers and male cousins are referred to as brother and all sisters and female cousins are called sister. 9 – There are two types of marriage offered in Buka that are clearly described in the marriage act of 1963.Customary marriage is where the individuals follow the customs of their tribes and you do not need any proof of marriage beyond those of the traditional custom, though the definition of a native of automatic citizen is not very clear. The extended family is very important to the formation of the marriage, husbands may have several wife’s and the husband or husbands family must pay the bride price. Once they are of age men and women spend time in supervised courtship sessions. Exogamy is a must and women marry outside of their clans most of the time.Is a women is unhappy then she is able to leave her husband, get divorced and return back to her clan. A statutory marriage must be performed by a district officers, Registrars or ministers of Religion or anyone else that has authority from the government. Marriages must have seven day notice, and all participants must be over 21 years of age unless they have their parents consent. The ceremony must have two witnesses and you will receive a marriage certificate. 10 – Both men and women are involved with horticulture though there is still a clear division of labour as well as payment.Men will clear the forest so that the women can plant gardens and keep the pigs. The crops and cash crops are planted and tended by men, banana, sugarcane, cocoa and coffee and though the women will help to pick these crops the majority of the money is given to the men. Women do all of the cooking though both the men and women will look after the children. In towns and large villages the women take car of the domestic chores and child care while the husbands ar e at work. If a woman has a job then one of her family will take care of the chores.Women have begun to take part in men’s jobs though they deal with a lot of prejudice and harassment, while men that do traditional women’s work are stigmatized. Females are very important to building authority as the participate in female exchange event and redeem matrilineage lands. The men with the most power have achieved it only with the help of his female relatives. As times change women are slowly redefining their roles though there are not many job opportunities for them. 11 – Current religious beliefs are Christians divided between Roman Catholics and Methodists.There has been a lot of assimilation of indigenous and Christian beliefs ad God is called Sunahan. Sunahan is a creator figure from Buka tradition. Traditionally Buka religion focused around keeping good relationships between the living and the spirits of the dead, including the spirits that inhabit all named geog raphical features such as pools of water and large rocks. Spirits can impart positive and negative attitudes and they are all powerful. Spirits are important for success in fighting, horticulture and all things sexual.Bukas communicate with spirits using fire mainly to celebrate funerals. Sensory is also believed in and there are two kinds of sorcery, one that is used by the chief to punish transgressors and contemporary sorcery which is secret and is illegal, it was thought to have been brought in from outside of Buka. IN current society most people still have knowledge of sorcery and use spells to promote, healing, gardening, prevent minor illnesses and to bring about love. Most rituals focus on health and fertility and focus in maturation and future success of those participating.Initiates will find their spirit guide that will help them in their life. Bukas use both traditional and western medicine to overcome illnesses. Western medicine is used to deal with symptoms while tradi tional methods are used to uncover the cultural cause of the illness. There is a hospital in the main city, though most villages will have a mid-wife or other lightly trained women to deal with medical issues. There is not many medical trained professionals available outside of the urban areas so traditional medicine is still prevalent throughout the island.13 – Buka is actually the site of a large social movement called Hahalis Welfare Society. This is referred to as a cargo cult by the church and Australian government. This society was established as a result of new taxes. They were supported by cash crops and ‘baby gardens’ in which young women were encouraged to build the societies population. Over 400 Australian police were needed to restore order. Eventually the society became very prominent supported the Me’ekamui Onoring Pontoku (Fifty Toea Movement) which was a source of much conflict at the end of the 1980s.This society was one of the first to di splay Bougainvillean nationalism and brought about many militant formations. 14 – Barnard, A. , (2006) Patterns of Masculine Protest among the Buka, Journal of Personality, 11 (4), 302-311 Haviland, W. , (2002) Cultural Anthropology, Wadsworth Publishing Resture, J. , (2008), Bougainville History, http://www. janesoceania. com/bougainville_history/index. htm, accessed November 29, 2008 Zimmer-Tamakoshi, L, (2007) Culture of Papua New Guinea, http://www. everyculture. com/No-Sa/Papua-New-Guinea. html, accessed November 29, 2008

The Thunder of Hooves and the essays

The Thunder of Hooves and the essays The Thunder of Hooves and the Thrill of the Race: Technology and the Horseracing Industry There is quite possibly nothing more thrilling than standing at the rail of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky as a field of thoroughbreds comes charging around the turn; unless it is standing at the rail holding a ticket on the horse bearing down on the leader. This experience affects all six senses simultaneously. The eyes focus on the colorful silks, ears strain to hear the announcers call over the roar of thundering hooves and screams of the crowd. The aroma of the surrounding racetrack swirl fills the nostrils and the palms of the hands begin to sweat holding the pari-mutuel ticket. All this excitement joins together as the horses cross the wire in the midst of a cheering crowd. Whether the race is the Kentucky Derby or simply the first of a horse's career, everyone becomes involved in the suspense and excitement. When buying a ticket and betting on a horse, people become part of the whole scene that makes thoroughbred racing the thrilling sport and spectacle it is. Technology played a role in the thrill and excitement of horse racing from its infancy. Throughout the development of the sport, various technologies assisted in the delivery of the experience, particularly in the realm of wagering that has been a part of racing from its inception. Technology's role continues to influence racing as the industry adopts the latest measuring and computing methods to increase the interest of the public and make the sport more accessible to larger segments of the public. This is seen most recently with the advent of electronic wagering systems that provide people in remote locations the opportunity to participate immediately in wagering on races from many different venues. This paper will review briefly the history of Thoroughbred racing and the role technology has played in the past, what current technologies are employed in the...

Marxist Criticism and Christian Perspective of Macbeth

Marxist Criticism and Christian Perspective of Macbeth It is clear from an analysis of Macbeth that it embodies aspects of the dominant ideology at the time that it was written. The play acts as propaganda for a monarchial leadership and therefore a marxist criticism of the play should be looked at. As the essential meaning of any text is ultimately dependent on the responder, a look at a second reading of a Christian perspective, with it‚s views on natural order, gives a more holistic view and deeper understanding to the play.At the time that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth(approximately 1603-1606) England was an absolute monarchy with King James I in power. There were clear social classes and everyone stayed in their place. The rich benefited and the poor suffered. Shakespeare‚s plays were directly funded by the king. This appears to have influenced Shakespeare a lot when he wrote Macbeth as there is a clear underlying message of support for the king and a monarchial system in the play.Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sarge nt...

Free sample - Nature of Frost. translation missing

Nature of Frost. Nature of FrostThis essay centers in one of the renowned poet of the twentieth century of the United States of America known as Robert Frost. I have chosen two of his popular poems of his career. Briefly i have looked at his private life and his career life for the purposes of this essay so as to understand the person Robert Frost was and his works. The biography in this essay is giving an account of the life of Robert Frost and how his career spanned during his lifetime. Frost was born in San Francisco, where he lived for the first eleven years of his life. Upon his father's death, a journalist, he moved with his mother and sister to Massachusetts near his paternal grandparents. His first poems he wrote as a student at Lawrence High School, he later was to marry, Elinor Miriam White in 1895. He entered Dartmouth College in 1892 but was there hardly a term; he retuned home to work at various jobs, such as factory-hand, newspaperman and teaching. In 1894 he sold the first poem, 'My Butterfly: An Elegy', to a New York magazine, The Independent. Both Frost and his wife taught school for some time, then in 1897 Frost joined Harvard College as a special student for a short period. He performed quite well at Harvard, but at the time his health became uncertain, he rejoined his wife in Lawrence. At the time his wife was expecting their second child. In October of 1900 his family settled on a farm in New Hampshire, bought for him by his grandfather. Over the next nine years, he wrote many poems that would constitute his first published volumes. Besides writing he tried his hand in poultry farming though not too successful. In 1906 he started teaching English at Pinkerton Academy, a high school in New Hampshire. During this time two of his most accomplished early poems, 'The Tuft of Flowers' and 'The Trial by Existence', were published. At the time he and Elinor had produced six children, two of whom died as infants. In 1912 he sold his farm and sailed with his family Glasgow, settling in Beaconsfield outside London. During his life he did spectacular works writing many books, poems and plays which were published both in England and in America. However Frost having been a polished writer he really believed in his capabilities to thrill his readers with captivating works and Frost's own formulation to an American friend in 1914 is helpful in thinking about his achievement: he told the friend, Sidney Cox, that the true poet's pleasure lay in making ‘his own words as he goes' rather than depending upon words whose meanings were fixed: 'We write of things we see and we write in accents we hear. Thus we gather both our material and our technique with the imagination from life; and our technique becomes as much material as material itself.' It was this principle that Pound saluted in Frost when, in his review of North of Boston, he remarked conclusively: 'I know more of farm life than I did before I had read his poems (Terry 52). This essay is focusing on the works of Robert Frost, picking part of his work to analyze literary and their application in the real life situations which gives reader a feel of someone who committed his whole educating people about the experiences of life and how to cope with challenge as we live.   One of the works of Robert Frost is his poem of 1916 known as 'The Road Not Taken'. In this particular work   can be interpreted in two perspectives. The first perspective is based on a personal interpretation of the works. This depicts how an individual can exercise his or her own independence and self reliance without necessarily involving other people in their decision making. Critically speaking in this work Robert Frost portrays and individual literary who is confronted by life situation to make a choice between two options which are a life challenge as well. The individual is seen first taking a look at the available options and evaluating the best available option though he does not know exactly what lies ahead in either of these options, the individual is convinced that whatever decision he is going to make will meet his desires and goals and therefore there is no need for any influence from third parties such as society and family members (Pritchard 15). In this work Frost also depicts the individual as having taken a decision and convinced that he had made the right decision soldiered on and true to his convictions that thy shall not regret about a decision once made it turns out that he had actually made a decision of his life time and in deed it was a good decision and that he has actually had great benefits. This work centers on encouraging individuals to face life boldly and never fear any challenges in life.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Always assess the situation within your self and do not shy away from taking decisions for it only you who can exercise your personal desires and goal while ignoring other influences. In political philosophy, individualism theory of government is such that they should protect individual liberty to act as they wish, so long as they do not infringe the liberties of others. There is what is termed as collectivist political theories, where, rather than having individuals to pursue their own ends, the governm ent ensures that the individual serves the whole society. This is a contrast to the individual liberties. The second perspective is mainly an ironic interpretation of the works. The ironic interpretation is that the poem is about making choices and rationalizing the decisions we hold with high esteem or regret .In this view, "The Road Not Taken" "is perhaps a famous example of the author's own claims to conscious irony. In the American poetry of a wolf in sheep's clothing, Frost warned â€Å"be careful of this one; it's a tricky poem – very tricky. According to this poem is made to a gentle jab at his friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas, with whom he used to take walks through the forest. Thomas always commented at the end-we should have taken different paths and seemed amused at the interpretation of the poem as inspirational. It also gives us the vigor to continually face life with an open mind so as to take up the consequences which may arise as a result of a decision or decisions we have made in life. In this interpretation it is in order to the view that the end justifies t he means (Finger 478). In this interpretation it is seen as inspirational in life and the works are taking life in another level where as one grows up they should know that they will face a life full of choices and these choices are about realizing ones desires and goals. Decision taking in life cannot be over emphasized in this piece of work and that whatever it whether an individual or the society as a whole they must face the choices available in life and take a decision which is in their best interests. However, if those decisions do not work in their favor they should face the repercussions with their heads high, for this is a show of taking responsibility in whatever actions one takes in life. It is the sociological element in this work which is of great interest since this may lead us to look at a political perspective because the society decision making may have to be shaped by a certain political leadership or dispensation. The society will depend largely on decisions made at position of leadership to look after the society's desires and goals and so their political, economic, social independence and self reliance as opposed to individualized decision taking which is informed by personal convictions. There are also situations whereby the society is segmented in groups in which case the decisions taken by a particular group will be informed by common goals of that particular group and decisions will always be taken in a unanimous agreement amongst the members of that particular group of people. The belief in the importance of the freedom of individuals also termed to as liberalism which is widely accepted in the United States of America and most western countries where i ndividuals are given the liberty to make personal decisions without the interference of the state is widely rejected by religious faiths such as Islam and many countries in Asia. The two interpretations are interrelated with the decisions we make in relationships. These decisions about relationships and family will largely be informed by individual pursuit for personal satisfaction or by societal affiliations. The same can also be affected by certain political aspects of groups and regulations of government. For example there are countries which permit gay relationships and others which are very strict that relationships should be purely between two adults of opposite sex. This political aspect will shape the kind of decisions one will make in relation with love and family. The society groupings will also shape these decisions since culturally they are bound to a certain way of life and that informs their daily life. Robert Frost in his poem 'Out, Out-''(1916) he is looking at death as speaks about a young man who dies as a result of injuries on body where his arm is severed off by a buzz saw. Death is the act of life ending. Naturally death is usually sudden and has devastating effects to the individual, family and the society at large which in ancient and modern society ist received with shock. In the United States of America a person is dead if a certificate is certified by a licensed medical practitioner. In literal interpretation of this work frost is depicting death as something which is investable and may occur at any time. It is also pointing out that death can occur to any person young and old alike. The young man dies minutes just before they could up their activities of the day. The way the death occurs is such that even the sister could not save him from being injured, and upon injuries even the presence of a professional doctor could not save the life of the young. The doctor tries to resuscitate the young man but all in vain (Parin 64). Death is also depicted as something which is individualistic and cannot be passed to someone else and cannot be shared to educe it severe effects on an individual. The young man dies in the presence of his dear sister who could not help out or even share the death effects. When death occurs different people receive the news with a lot of sorrow and tears and at times some waves of grief. The effects of death are adverse since when a family member dies and has been the bread winner of the family what it means is that the family will experience difficulties in terms of paying for their bills, it also causes emotional problems due to the loss of loved ones. Death has economic and social effects in the society when it occurs on persons who are on the productive age. It can also lead to low production as it affects labor as a factor of production when it occurs as a pandemic. However, in his work here Frost shows that death can be stopped if a little caution is exercised, had the elder and experienced operators of the buzz saw worked closely with the young man (Parin 64).   Coping with death in the modern society is varied and it entails a list of therapeutic measures which have been formulated to deal with the effects. These measures includes counseling, stress management and stress therapies to the affected persons so as to torn down the effects and help the affected persons deal with the loss. In his work Frost, he shows that once death occurs in as much as the affected have to deal with the loss, he points out that life has to continue for those who are living. Whether it occurs to loved ones life has to continue anyway and that once death occurs the next thin is to deal with the challenges ahead as a living person and the dead are dead no more. It also cites that death used to occur in the olden days and it occurrence did not mean that life will stop. In this poem it is cited that after the boy's heart is felt as it beats slowly dying and the doctor confirms the boy's life was no more and he informs the rest of the person present they are seen walking away in clear indication that life has to continue. In conclusion, Robert Frost works although some critics challenge his work based on literary perspective and criticism have helped people face life challenges will force and power and that as one continues to read his works you get the feeling that this is connecting you with real life situations. Finger, L. "Frost's "The Road Not Taken": A 1925 Letter Come to Light". American Literature 50 (3):   November 1978).   478–479'' Grant, R. Frost’s Destiny. New Hampshire: Time Books, 1924. Holt, D. Frost’s Poems. Chicago: Peterson Books, 1923. Parini, J. Robert Frost: A Life. London: Macmillan, 2000.   Pritchard, W.   "On "The Road Not Taken"". Illinois: University of Illinois, 2001. Pritchard, W.   Frost's Life and Career. New York: Routledge, 2000. Terry, D. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Oxford:   Oxford   University Press, 1994.

Edinburgh International Comedy Festival Assignment

Edinburgh International Comedy Festival - Assignment Example This company follows the services religiously to minimize the errors by double-checking. If a mistake occurs it has to be corrected sooner and then delivered to the people because if we make a mistake it would affect us for a long time as there are major long-term commitments we have made. Our operation managers keep check on every single thing that distinct our company from others as a signature like the type of music, lighting and sounds are chosen very carefully and so is our official logo of an importance that reflects our brand loyalty and recognition. The designed logo with the writing style and vivid colors represents the theme of our cafà © (Wong). It is very important to display our updated new official logo for the promotions of the event or advertising because it widely recognized all over the world and there are networks of shops where many tourists but the products or items with the official logo of Hard Rock Cafà © and the company is getting the 48% of the sale from m erchandise. Therefore it should be considered that all the customers and event participants might be getting into the confusion or may doubt the brand status by seeing the old logos at the websites and announcements promoting the annual event organized by your organization. I hope that you will try to prevent the usage of outdated logos of Hard Rock Cafà © and for the recent event promotions I would be grateful if you try your best to make changes in the web designs and announcement by the 1st of June so that we can together fix the blunders that could impact our brand reliability. This act of yours may prolong the benefits of the annual event Edinburgh International Comedy Festival.   

Weber or Foucault Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Weber or Foucault - Essay Example Through this people in North Korea lack proper knowledge of what is happening. They also do not enjoy the freedom of speech something that has been widely criticized. North Korea has been on the spotlight in the recent for cases of human rights violations. It is impossible to establish the full extent of the violations but the country has been on the spot over different kind of violation affecting human rights according to Paul Walker. It has also been realized that the extent of human rights violation is accelerated by lack of awareness. North Korea’s constitution has been accused on infringing on human rights (Walker). Currently the freedom of speech has been limited to radio stations, televisions and music providers who are legally owned by government or government operated. Moreover, humans have been subjected to forced labor as prisoners in concert ration camps in North Korea. As a foreigner it has been difficult to access this country with more strict rules which monitor every visitor in that country. The situation is worse for aid workers who are under constant surveillance and scrutiny as well as exclusion from certain government

The study of motivation in consumers which stimulates them to purchase Dissertation

The study of motivation in consumers which stimulates them to purchase luxury goods despite the steep and increasing price - Dissertation Example For instance small production volume leads to rarity, along with high level of effort and quality to make it extraordinary, aesthetics and create a good story behind the product, which automatically increases the price. The products that are more than ordinary and necessary are required to be scarce and not possessed by everyone. This paves the pathway for making the product too expensive so that only few can access. The recent recession in the year 2008 has made crafty luxury the new buzz word. It is all about consumption of good that has extraordinary features and are expensive but at the same time it is very in-the-know and discreet. A dramatic shift has been observed in the market of luxury products. The recession has adversely affected the rich people. Now the consumption of luxury products is more due to the increased practicality and higher perceived value. The branded name are still the strong sellers, which shows that increase in price is not a big factor that affects the pu rchasing decision of the consumers. The rising demand of luxury goods in the emerging countries like China, Thailand has aroused the interest among the researchers to indentify the motivating factor behind such an increasing interest. It is also seen that the price of the luxury products are increasing over the time but this is not creating any adverse impact on the demand of the luxury product by decreasing the demand for it. This factor has initiated this study that focuses on the study of motivation in consumers of Thailand towards purchase of luxury goods despite of increase in price. The research was aimed to finds the value that the consumers attaches with the luxury goods, the perception that they have relating to increase in price and the consumers behaviour that they display due to the price change. The study found that consumers of Thailand are more inclined to attach social status with the purchase of luxury product. The consumers are seen to use price as an indicator of product quality, rarity, extraordinariness etc., and the study suggests that the Thai consumers are willing to pay higher price for the products that are dissimilar and not possessed by everyone. The increase in price is seen to enhance this social status and thus, the demand is seen to increase when the price increases. The study reflected that if the price of the luxury product decreases then the Thai consumers are more eager to switch to the brands that are offering same products at a higher price. Table of Contents Abstract 2 1. Introduction 7 3. Methodology 9 4. Findings and analysis 18 5. Discussion 31 6. Conclusion and Recommendation 34 Reference List 37 Appendix 41 1. Introduction 1.1 Overview The world market in luxury goods in recent years has experienced enormous growth. The appeal of the luxury goods in the global market is as a result of the recognizable style, perceived superior quality, reputation and limited accessibility. As per the perception of the consumers who p ossess luxury goods the characteristics signify the symbolic, experimental and emotional value. These characteristics of the luxury help the owner in bridging the gap between the external world and inner satisfaction. For instance for a wealthy customer the possession of a luxury handbag is a mark of economic power and social status symbol to the less wealthy ones. On the other hand for the

The effect of liquidity risk on carry trade returns Thesis

The effect of liquidity risk on carry trade returns - Thesis Example isk caused by huge volatility in financial market can lead investors or speculators into operating with extremely high margins that could eventually compel traders to scale down or totally halt their positions to avoid currency crash; (iv) finally, liquidity risk can lead to a drastic reduction in investor’s expectation for gains, which invariably helps to correct the violation of Uncovered Interest Rate Parity (UIP) normally referred to as â€Å"forward premium puzzle† (Brunnermeier and Pedersen, 2009). In this paper, qualitative research methodology is employed by scrutinizing related literature. Any observable limitations in this study stem from the body of literature consulted in the course of preparing this research, and attempts are made to restrict the subject-matter only to liquidity risk and its effects on carry trade returns. The financial crisis that has recently hit the global economy has highlighted an important concept that has long been ignored by economists, policymakers and other stakeholders in the industry: the importance of liquidity in the health of financial systems. According to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve System, the â€Å"weak liquidity risk controls were a common source of the problems many firms have faced" (Bernanke, 2008). But it was only after the financial meltdown in 2007-2008 that it was acknowledged and sufficiently recognized by the industry. The financial speculators have long operated with such greed that eventually resulted to the vulnerability of the financial and banking industry with the gigantic risks that have been accumulated, which is unprecedented in modern history (Froot, 2001). The practices of unwinding of investors’ positions, higher liquidity risk, higher margins and the consequent low returns have eventually created the volatility in the financial market. An investigation on the liquidity issue and its effect on all financial markets are quite comprehensive and so, for this paper, I would be

Critical Literature Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Critical - Literature review Example 6.5 million and a medium enterprise can have up to 250 employees with a turnover of ?25.9 million. (BIS, 2011). SMEs are not only playing a significant role in the economy of United Kingdom but they are also major contributor in reducing the unemployment in the country. â€Å"Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of UK economy. Out of nation 4.3 million business enterprises 99% are SMEs, accounting for well over half of the employment (58.9%) and turnover (51.9%).† (Dyerson & Hari, 2008, p. 139). Today, adoption of IT or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by SMEs is not an option but a compulsion and business requirement. Businesses cannot afford to live and exit in isolation rather they have to integrate themselves with all new technologies that happened to exist and prevail in the society. The impact of information technology on the society has instigated new domains and horizons of information technology in the SMEs businesses and aware ness has begin to increased among European states some two decades back with the invent of internet and information explosion. â€Å"Earlier EU policies in support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) tended to focus on their role in creating employment. Over the past decade, there has been a pronounced shift to encourage greater SME participation in the information society and increased policy interest in the role that SME may play in innovation.† (Stanford-Smith, Enrica & Mireille, 2002, p.987). Apart from the size of an SME, the significance of an information technology framework is unquestionable for its existence, operation and growth. The role of IT in any business is multi faceted and it may range from internal operations and data repositories to eMarketing and eCommerce. The globalization of businesses has necessitated the induction of tools and trade of information technology into the SMEs all over the world. The strategic importance of SMEs in the economic growth of a country has grown multi times and governments try to enhance and boost economic escalation through the growth of SMEs to achieve sustainable economic strength. The adoption of information technology by SMEs is the tactical side of this strategic objective. Therefore, the governments not only encourage the use of technology but also enforce the use of these technologies to ensure better management and to guard public interest through IT enabled services by SMEs. These efforts were not limited to individual states but were also collaborated internationally by organizations like OECD. An early example of these steps includes the establishment of â€Å"Technology Development Centers (TEKES) in order to assist SMEs in planning development programs which include new technology and international cooperation.† (OECD, 1998, p. 82). United Kingdom being a member of OECD has been playing a pivotal role in the growth of SMEs and thereafter in the strengthening process of the SMEs wh ich includes but not limited to the adoption and encouragement of information technologies in these businesses. â€Å"Here again the operations are concentrated on the OECD countries and the main sectors include: technical and engineering studies, agro foods, chemicals, parachemicals and pharmaceuticals, information technology and electronics.† (OECD, 1998, p. 83). Threats and challenges always come bundled with the adoption of any technology and the information techn

Leadership Styles Movie Analysis Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Leadership Styles Analysis - Movie Review Example What follows is 2 hours of unabashed manipulation targeted less at impassioning racial synchronization than leaving the viewer with a lump in his / her throat and tears in their eyes. In these events, the theme of leadership dominates that environment of an extremely racist society which has to collaborate to achieve in their children’s football. Situational leadership holds the idea that someone changes his or her style of leadership in response to a given situation. Situational leadership appears to be more evident in the movie that any other type of leadership (Kippenberger, 2002). According to Blanchard and Hershey, the leadership type that is suitable for any given situation gets driven by follower development or readiness. Readiness gets normally based on factors like ability, skill, and experience, willingness, or confidence, motivation and commitment. Coach Herman Boone applies any type of leadership that suits the situation on hand, from autocratic dictatorship to dem ocracy. When the coach forces the teammates to share rooms with their different races teammates, a symbol of dictatorship is demonstrated, but it is for the best interest of the team. He changes his leadership when need arises to solve or implement any of his strategies, as we are going to see in the paragraphs below. Autocratic leadership remains an extreme system of transactional type of leadership, where a leader exercises high levels of authority over his or her team members or a society. People within the team get few opportunities to make propositions, even if these suggestions would be in the organizations or team's interest (Kippenberger, 2002). Most people tend to begrudge being treated like this. Hence, autocratic leadership generally leads to high level of rebellion and absenteeism. Also, the team's production does not gain from the creativeness and experience of each team members, making many of teamwork benefits lost. In the movie, the main leader is the character Coach Herman Boone. Coach Boone demonstrates qualities of a firm and inspirational leader. The main obstacle the Coach faces are changing the ethos of a football team in a way that the society did not agree with at that time. He makes autonomous decisions for the team. This type of leadership seems to work since the he is the only team member with the knowledge of the game. He must dominate to diffuse the skills to the young players (Kippenberger, 2002). Bureaucratic Leadership is also demonstrated in the movie. Bureaucratic leaders work by the book ensuring that the ruled and ruler follow procedures precisely (Kippenberger, 2002). This stands a very appropriate style especially when working with young people and in cases where a mistake will cost the team heavily. Coach Boone and some of his team leaders go by the book to play football despite being affected significantly by racism. A charismatic leadership style may appear similar to the transformational leadership style, where the lea der injects enormous dosages of enthusiasm into the team, and gets very energetic in driving the team forward. Coach Boone starts tackling the problem of blacks and whites integration from day one in the football training camp. The coach makes the team gets off from the buses and sit with an opposite race team mate, and then he goes ahead to make that person their roommate for the duration in the camp. Through Boone's discipline

Critical Literature Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Critical - Literature review Example 6.5 million and a medium enterprise can have up to 250 employees with a turnover of ?25.9 million. (BIS, 2011). SMEs are not only playing a significant role in the economy of United Kingdom but they are also major contributor in reducing the unemployment in the country. â€Å"Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of UK economy. Out of nation 4.3 million business enterprises 99% are SMEs, accounting for well over half of the employment (58.9%) and turnover (51.9%).† (Dyerson & Hari, 2008, p. 139). Today, adoption of IT or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by SMEs is not an option but a compulsion and business requirement. Businesses cannot afford to live and exit in isolation rather they have to integrate themselves with all new technologies that happened to exist and prevail in the society. The impact of information technology on the society has instigated new domains and horizons of information technology in the SMEs businesses and aware ness has begin to increased among European states some two decades back with the invent of internet and information explosion. â€Å"Earlier EU policies in support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) tended to focus on their role in creating employment. Over the past decade, there has been a pronounced shift to encourage greater SME participation in the information society and increased policy interest in the role that SME may play in innovation.† (Stanford-Smith, Enrica & Mireille, 2002, p.987). Apart from the size of an SME, the significance of an information technology framework is unquestionable for its existence, operation and growth. The role of IT in any business is multi faceted and it may range from internal operations and data repositories to eMarketing and eCommerce. The globalization of businesses has necessitated the induction of tools and trade of information technology into the SMEs all over the world. The strategic importance of SMEs in the economic growth of a country has grown multi times and governments try to enhance and boost economic escalation through the growth of SMEs to achieve sustainable economic strength. The adoption of information technology by SMEs is the tactical side of this strategic objective. Therefore, the governments not only encourage the use of technology but also enforce the use of these technologies to ensure better management and to guard public interest through IT enabled services by SMEs. These efforts were not limited to individual states but were also collaborated internationally by organizations like OECD. An early example of these steps includes the establishment of â€Å"Technology Development Centers (TEKES) in order to assist SMEs in planning development programs which include new technology and international cooperation.† (OECD, 1998, p. 82). United Kingdom being a member of OECD has been playing a pivotal role in the growth of SMEs and thereafter in the strengthening process of the SMEs wh ich includes but not limited to the adoption and encouragement of information technologies in these businesses. â€Å"Here again the operations are concentrated on the OECD countries and the main sectors include: technical and engineering studies, agro foods, chemicals, parachemicals and pharmaceuticals, information technology and electronics.† (OECD, 1998, p. 83). Threats and challenges always come bundled with the adoption of any technology and the information techn

Simple Gift Essay Example for Free

Simple Gift Essay The novel ‘the simple gift’ is written by Steven Herrick. He describes three main characters in this book. This book is about one 16 year old boy called Billy, he run away from his house and meets other main characters, Old Bill and Caitlin. Each of there characters received a gifts. Billy is a 16 year old boy. In Billy’s life his father is an alcoholic and is very mean to him. Billy always wants someone who looks after him and then he can learn how to care. This became true when he runs away from his father and meets Old Bill. Old Bill is like a loving father figure to him. So he considered the friendship with Old Bill as a gift. When he stays in the carriage he felt that this is the home for him and Old Bill is his only family. Old Bill is an alcoholic man. He lost his wife and his daughter Jessie. Which makes him a hopeless man and he started drinking to getaway for the suffering (pg.95~98)†I lifted the glass and downed it in tone ignorant gulp and I called for another as all thoughts of truth and beauty washed from my mind†. Old Bill lives in a carriage. Even though he has his own house with a big backyard but he still doesn’t want to live in the house with no one else but himself living in it, with no one else care about him, even himself. This has changed when he met Billy. Every morning Billy brought him breakfast with a bowl of milk and Weet-Bix (pg.76)† Every morning that kid has woken me with Weet-Bix.†, spent time talking with him, and Billy also tried to stop him from drinking heavily. (pg.77, 136)† This kid’s going to turn me into a health. He brought out the ginger beer I swore and laughed.† Caitlin is nearly 18 year old. She works at McDonald’s as a part time hob, to get out of her house (pg.36~37)†I can leave home and that’s why I work at McDonald’s and mop floors.† She’s rich, she had everything she wants but she needs a lover (pg.88)† I know what I really need and it’s not in my bedroom. And it’s not able to be bought in any damn store†. She wants to have a good time with someone she likes. When she met Billy, she had a romantic love experience. They shared food with each other and when she had a lover, her life was perfect (pg.135)†what can I say, it was like stepping into heaven, no less than perfect†. Steven Herrick describes three main characters. Characters offered each other gifts and their gifts had changed each other’s future and are making their life perfect.

Types Of Software Testing Computer Science Essay

Types Of Software Testing Computer Science Essay Software testing gives independent view of the software to which allow the business to understand the risks of implementating the software. The software Test system are not limited to executing a program or application to finding software bugs in existing software or the developed one which has created for customer request. Software Testing can also define as the process of validating and verifying software programe, application and product meets the business requirements which helped to design and developthe software.The most software testing occur when requirements fulfilled and system has developed for execution of programe. Software Testing Team The software testing mostly done by professional software testers. The software tester term was used generally until 1980, but after 1980 the software tester term became a proper separate profession. In software testing there were many roles has been established like,Managers, test lead, test designer, tester and test administrator. Functional Testing The functional testing normally takes test to vereify some specific function of the code and also action of that code.These kind of testing normally found in those documentation of code requirements.The functional testing of software normally takes to answer some following question i.e.user are ables to do thisor does particular part of codeing or feature work. NON Fnctional Testing The Non functional testing normally takes test of software that could not be related to specific function,user action.like security.The Non functional testing normally takes to answer following question for example how many user can log on at once or is it possible to hack this software easly. Software validation and verification: The software testing can take place in association of validation and verification of software. Verification: The verification of software testing means that to know if Software which has developed is that built right.for example it fulfill or match the user requirements or specification of software. Validation: The validation of software means that have we built the right software.i.e.is it that software which customer wants to be built. The software Testing Methods The box approach There issoftware testing approach which can taken to perform software testing. The Box approach The box approach manly divide into two parts Black box testing white box testing Black Box Testing The black box testing will treat software as black box,that means this testing will take without knowing any knowledge of internal implementation of software.The Black box testing approach include.fuzz testing,model based testing and specification based testing. Specification-based testing: The specification testing use to test the functionalty of software system according to requirements.The software tester inputs the data and will only be able to see the output on test object.This type of testing normally requires some test cases to provided the tester and the tester can verify that data with given input the output of testing either is or is not same as it was expected . The specification testing is important or necessary but this would not be good for some certain risks. White Box Testing. The white box testing is another method which test the software.The white box testing method is done when the tester has internal access of data structures and programe code that implement .Here is few types of white box testing API Testing Code Coverage Testing Fault Ijection Testing Static Testing API Testing: The API stands for application programming interface .The API testing will test those application which using both public and private API. Code Coverage Tsting:This testing purpose is to test some code coverage.For example The software tester will take test on all programming code to execute once while testing the software. Fault Ijection Testing:This testing purpose is that improve the code coverage. Static testing:In static testing all the testing which took in white box testing is static testing. Testing Levels There are few testing level Unit Testing Integration Testing System Testing System Integration Testing Regression Testing Alpha Testing Beta Testing Security Testing Unit Testing:The unit test is takes to test the functionality of some particular section of programe code.This testing normally takeing at functional level of programe.for example In Object Oriented language this testing will be taken at class level,the unit test in object oriented include destructor and constructor.these tests are normally written of those testers who work on coding to make sure that every specific part of codeing is working properly.In this testing there could be many tests taken at one fuction of coding.The only unit testing can not test the functionalty of software.The software works independently.The unit testing also called component testing. Integration testing:The integration testing is type of software testing that verify the interfaces between components against a software design. The components of software could integrated in an repertation of process or together .The integration software testing will test to find the defects in the interfaces and interaction between integrated components. The large number of software tester groups will test all the elements of design of system and will test until the software works perfectly. System Testing:The system testing will tests the complete system to make sure the software fulfill all requirements. System Integration Testing:The system integration testing is that if any third party or external member wants to intergate with this system will be able to do and the system define the system requirements. Regression Testing:The Regression testing means the tester will focus on finding a defect after the major part of coding for some reasons has been changed.In this testing the software tester focus on old errors that could occur again.Those regressions happen whenever software functionality which was working before test but stops working after that.The regression happen when some code changes,for example when the newly built code of software collide with old code or existing code.The mane purpose of regession testing is that testing that software which has already been tested means retesting again whether the previously resolve fault may have come back.The fully testing is happen when software is in release phase and when there will be risk for developer will add some more features.The changes depends on early part of builting a software. Alpha Testing:The alpha testing is that which have been done by the end user ,customers or an independent means the actual user who is going to use this software will test this software at developers site.The alpha testing is normally done before the software will go sale or before handing to customer.i.e.off the shelf testing after this software will go for beta testing Beta Testing:The beta testing will take after alpha testing.The beta testing means that the software will release for limited people outside the developers to check the functionalty of software.The other purpose of testing is the further testing will take to find bugs or faults.sometimes the beta version of software will release to open public to get more feedback from maximum number of peoples. Security Testing:The security testing is most important for any software that process the personal details of customers data .The security is important to prevent system from hackers. Sample Testing Cycle There is commonly used cycle for testing.The below sample is very commonly used with in organisations which is using waterfall development model. Requirements analysis: This phase should begin in requirements phase of software development life cycle.In design phase tester work with software developer determine what design of software is testable. Test Planning: The test planning or test plan in this there will be many test taken so there should be plan for testing. Test Development:The test developer or Test procedures, test data, to use in testing software. Test Execution: The tester will execute the software based on plan and will report any bugs or errors to developer. Test Reporting: In this phase once the testing is completed then tester will make final report on their test which they have taken throw many phases and report will show whether the software is ready to release or not. Test result analysis: The test result analysis or Defect Analysis,is normally done by the developers with client and make them sure what defects should be treated.for example the software is working properly or it could be done later. Defect Retesting:In this phase once defect has dealt by developers than it will bw retested by testing team. Regression Testing: In any programe it is likely to have samll testing program built into software to test when user wants and it make sure when new development or fixed software and modfied will come to software will not disturb the software completely.The complete software will working properly. Test Clousure:After completeing all test and test fulfill the exit requirements than it is important to key outputd ,logs and documents related to software should kept safe for future development..

Odysseus as a Leader Essay -- essays research papers

The owner of a show horse has many tasks to keep her horse fit and beautiful. She must spend time cleaning, stroking, and combing his hair to keep its gleaming shine. She must make good choices time after time for her horse, allowing him to be in his best condition. She must also train with him day after day and spend hours after hours with her baby, giving him her unconditional love. Like the dedicated owner to her horse, Odysseus shows wonderful leadership skills towards his men with his wily intelligence, warm compassion, and vast bravery. One of Odysseus’ best traits as a leader was his brilliant mind. Without his continuous wits, Odysseus would have never gotten his crew as far as he did. A great example of this creativity is when Odysseus and his men were trapped in the Cyclops’ (Polyphemus) cave. It was Odysseus who came up with blinding the drunken monster with a sharpened log and it was he who tricked the great Cyclops with his â€Å"Nohbdy† scheme: â€Å"My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends/everyone calls me Nohbdy† (827-828), sang Odysseus to the intoxicated Cyclops. The dazzling intelligence of Odysseus also helped him and his men escape from the evil Polyphemus to safer grounds. He said, â€Å"I drew on all my wits, and ran through tactics, reasoning as a man will for dear life, until a trick came – and it pleased me well. The Cyclops’ rams were handsome, fat, with heavy fleeces, a dark violet† (887-891). With this, Odysseus tied three rams together and â€Å"slung a ma...