Ethical Practices Essay

1. What are business ethics? Business ethics are rules of conduct, principals, and patterns of behavior in business dealings that involve doing the right thing. An ethical business is a business which embraces universal morals and strives for equality of every job and workplace. Although laws and policies are different in every country, some have lower ethical standards than others which for example can promote child labor, unsafe workplace, and many other approaches which can harm a quality of a workers life. The unethical businesses save money in cutting corners through ethic standards. But unfortunately many companies rely on factories based off unethical work to keep them in business. In some cultures unethical work is recognized to be normal such as child labor in an underdeveloped countries while here it is against the law and seen as inhumane because of how our culture is conditioned here. 2. Give two examples in which Primark is operating in an ethical way. Provide two additional examples of ethical practices or behaviours in a business not associated with retailing or clothing. Primark operating in ethical ways: – Primark bases its code of conduct on the International Labor Organization (ILO). The code of conduct provides an ethical standard code which enforces safe, labor free, and security in work. – Primark provides audits to it suppliers to follow up and ensure the supplier is maintaining ethical practices. Additional examples: – To have no tolerance for discrimination in the workplace. Every race, culture, and gender is treated equally in every work environment. For example in an auto business a women is respected on the same level as men are. 3. Why is it so important for businesses to operate in an ethical way? Explain your answer by referring to the fashion industry. It is so important for businesses to operate in an ethical way because it represents how a company is run in all aspects. 4. In what ways could ethical business practices incur costs to the business? Evaluate the extent to which the benefits to a business of operating in an ethical are likely to outweigh the costs. Ethical practices will cost a business. When a company is ethical it builds confidence in the brand and its reputation, which shareholders are pleased to see. Also, it reduces the risk in bad reputation from bad publicity. In addition, many companies chose to save money and cut the corner with ethical standards. Although the benefit outweighs the cost because overall if a consumer understands and can view the company’s transparency they will be more confident in purchasing products or services from the certain business. Therefore, this will increase a based clientele due to their information of how your business runs and that their purchase adds to promoting standard work ethics. For example if you told a customer that a pair of pants cost a few dollars more than the other ones, but explained that the cheaper pair is made by an 11 year old child working in factory for 14 hours a day getting paid pennies to produce the garment or a woman who made them and she is receiving proper incentives and benefits for working for the company to support her family. I believe every costumer would chose to pay those extra couple of dollars. This is why consumers should push for company transparency, to allow you to see what you really pay for! Therefore, for established company ethical standards will cost more to maintain but in the outcome more customers will be attracted and you will build a loyal client base due to many people who are against ethical issues.

Macroeconomics in US

US Economy is a mixed economy where the private sector plays a major role in economic activity and the role of government is minimal compared to other industrialized countries like Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavian Countries and East European countries. However after the Great depression in1930’s the government at least used monetary and fiscal policy to achieve the macroeconomic objectives of full-employment, price stability External balance and non-inflationary economic growth. However the reliance on the above macroeconomic policy varied from one administration to the next after world war II as well the orientation towards fiscal and monetary policy to control or stabilize the economy or in other words there is controversy among economist whether the fiscal and monetary policy will actually work in practice and to the extent to its effectiveness in stabilizing the economy or whether these policies may be counter productive to the market economies and the causes of economic cycles and explanation of the causes of the great depression at least among US economist or among economist in general. However even with these controversies and differing perspectives how the economic variables relate and the differing confidence of market mechanisms to come to equilibrium at full employment if the market is allowed to work without any interference the monetary authorities intervene in the economy to correct market failure and other externalities or for some political and welfare reasons. In this context it is necessary to consider the effectiveness of these policies in the context of empirical evidence and give due  consideration of the structural or institutional framework and the market conditions particularly the labor market conditions in US in goods markets as well as in the financial market structure and workings within the context of global economic interdependencies between economies in the contemporary economic climate as well as how the agents react or form expectation about inflation as well as the political imperatives influencing policy orientation in US. In macroeconomic policy development in the context of the US political institutional structure and political process as well as the probability of economic shocks and political shocks in other parts and how these affects the occurrence of   volatility in economic performance and the current concerns of environmental issues and the cost and benefits and the impact of regulation on the level of economic activity and the rate of economic growth fluctuation and its predictability or uncertainty in forecasting economic outlook for short, medium term . As well the cost of oil and the political instability in the middle east and how the energy issue is addressed in US by the market mechanism will definitely affect the economic performance in a macroeconomic perspective for US in the future and the importance or other wise of macroeconomic policies or the status of macroeconomics in general as opposed to neoclassical economics or microeconomics foundation or neoclassical monetarist perspectives and less preference to fiscal policies and micro economic reform or supply-side economics and minimal interference by government in the market operation. The effectiveness of Fiscal and Monetary policy in US In context of US economic system and the flexibility of markets to responds to changes in demand and supply and other economic information particularly the labor market flexibility in the US compared to other industrialized countries and historically less preference of economic agents for government to be interfere in the market and in its political institutions suggests that rational expectation theory may be mostly applicable to US and there fore the effectiveness of Fiscal and monetary policy may be less effective in US compared to other industrialized countries and microeconomic reform polices and neoclassical monetary theory may be most applicable in the US context. However the expectation formation in reality is not completely rational and adaptation may also be not rational completely and there fore at least in short term monetary policy may be effective in controlling the rate of inflation in the context of US economy and keep the inflation target at optimum level. In practice the monetary and fiscal policy has time lag to work in practice and there fore if they are used to stabilize the economy because of the time lag it takes to work it may increase the cyclical boom bust pattern of economic development and there fore loose its credibility particularly the discretionary fiscal and monetary policy in reducing unemployment or controlling inflation. Or it may be achieving low unemployment at a very high rate of inflation or low inflation at a high level of  unemployment in the short term and in long term the economy will move towards the original level because of the market incorporates all expectation rationally and moves to  the non-accelerated Inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) as well flexibility in the labor market to a greater extent because of less stringent regulation of labor market in US compared to say for example Germany or other advanced European economies. However fiscal, and monetary policy has worked in short term in context of high unemployment at least after the great depression for some time in the 1990’s and still has a role to play at least to control inflation and response to inflationary shocks by monetary policy. In summary given the empirical evidence and the market characteristics of US and the Institutional frame work politically and socially the macroeconomic polices effectiveness suggests in practice to be less effective in US context. Conclusion As discussed above in US Macroeconomics is considered at least in terms of its usefulness to some extent achieve its macroeconomic objectives. However the effectiveness of such policies and the controversy among economists in regards to trade –off between economic variables and its relationships in US context reduces its importance and move towards to microeconomic foundations of Says Low or neo macroeconomic foundations and far from Keynesian Economics of fiscal policy particularly the discretionary fiscal policy and deficit financing to reduce unemployment because of market failure. This to some extent due to Friedman monetary revolution in US and  cased doubt about the inflationary outcomes of fiscal policy and crowding out effect and its impact on interest rat and its effect on investment level and there fore not increasing output and employment level but on prices. In addition as discussed above due to the political institutional structure and expectation formation in US the macroeconomic  foundations are contentious in US. In addition the flexibility of labor market and other markets in US suggests that market may work in an opposite direction to nullify the impact of these policies on macro economic variables such as employment level and inflation and increases the adoption of microeconomic reform and supply-side economics to address economic growth, unemployment, price stability and external balance rather than only relying on macroeconomic policies and macroeconomic theories which has many controversies and diverse policy prescriptions to address any macroeconomic objective and the trade-off between these objectives and the relationships between economic variables. Given the macroeconomic knowledge how an economy works is incomplete and its predicts are far from certain. There foe given the arguments and the discussion it can be said macroeconomics in US has a role to play in formulating polices in the future however given the practical issues of macroeconomic policy effectiveness micro foundations of economy may become important in the future in context of US market conditions and flexibility as well as how expectations are formed and adaptations of expectations in practice and political institutional and political orientation towards a free market perspective. Bibliography Brayton. F, Mauskpf. E, Reifschneider. D, Tinsley. P, Williams. J. (1997). The Role of Expectations in FRB/US macroeconomic model. Federal Reserve Bulletin. Retrieved March, 2, 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4126/is_n4_v83/ai_19405190 Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. (1997). What is the Optimal Rate of Inflation?. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Reteived march 2, 2007, from http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/el97-27.html Fiscal and monetary policy – comparisons (n.d). Retrieved March 2, 2007, from http://www.tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/fiscalpolicy/fiscal_monetary_comparison.htm Palley. T. (1998). Zero is not the Optimal rate of Inflation. Challenge, 41, 1, Retrieved March 2, 2007, from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001329648 Roach.S. (2006). Global economy, Chinese economic policy, US hosing slump, Money Week. Retrieved March 2, 2007, from http://www.moneyweek.com/file/21503/the-two-key-issues-facing-the-global-economy.html                           

Corporate finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Corporate finance - Essay Example In tradeoff theory, the search is for an optimum capital structure. The tradeoff is between the interest tax shield, bankruptcy costs and agency costs. The firm would seek the optimum debt ratio that maximises the value of the firm. It therefore balances the marginal present values of interest tax shields against bankruptcy costs and agency costs. The theory therefore predicts the mean reversion of the actual debt ratio towards a target or optimum and also predicts a cross-sectional relation between average debt-ratios and asset risk, profitability, tax status and asset type. In pecking order theory, there is no optimal debt ratio. Due to asymmetric information and signaling problems associated with issuing equity, financing policies follow a hierarchy, with preference for internal over external financing and for debt over equity. The debt ratio is therefore a cumulative result of hierarchical financing over time. 2. Managers are prohibited from trading in the shares of the firm. This prevents them from going against the interests of the firm, example short-selling the shares before announcing bad news about the firm even though the firm is doing well. 3. 3. Investors use the face value of debt held by the company to tell whether the firm is successful (type A) or unsuccessful (type B). 4. By changing the capital structure, the firm alters the perceived market value of the firm even if the true value of the firm remains the same. 1 period interest rate r t = 0 t=1 V0 V1 Market perception Truth is revealed Manager's compensation, M, paid out at the end of the period t=1: V1 if V1 D M = (1 + r)0V0 + 1 V1 - C if V1 0, 1: positive weights of the value of the firm r: one period interest rate V0, V1: value of the firm at t=0 and t=1 VA: value of successful type firm at t = 1 VB:

Contemporary Issues in Education Research Paper

Contemporary Issues in Education - Research Paper Example Mostly, books, journals, and online sources were incorporated in the study with a view of collecting the most comprehensive information that would help expand the dimensions of the debate. The study was primarily based on public school students in the United States. However, the tone of the arguments extended beyond the specifics in the American context to a global context. From the literature explored, it was found out that both the supporters and those opposed to the culture of school uniforms have important points that merit some critical focus. There was no final answer to the question regarding the relevance of school uniforms for students in public schools. There was no evidence to indicate any association between wearing of uniforms to cognitive development or academic performance for students in public schools as compared to those who do not wear uniforms. The study did not establish any particular preferences from either side as each articulated a range of perspectives on th e same matter. The study also discovered some points of convergence on both sides of the controversy especially regarding the matter of student security as enhanced by wearing of uniforms in public schools. ... in the fact that the subject of discussion cuts into the discourses of freedom, choice, discipline, costs, maters of policy, and various other concerns that relate in concentric circles of perspectives (Burkemper, 2008). The need to uphold tradition and schooling culture comes into conflict with perspectives that favor cultural change with both positions containing a corpus of related concepts that revolve around morality, individual liberties, social order, and security concerns. Few empirical studies have been carried out concerning the preference of the students, teachers, parents, and general society on the matter of school uniforms in public schools. However available qualitative studies provide strong indications of fragmented support on either side of the divide. Currently, no definite or absolute positions exist regarding the subject matter. Other important factors that have weighed into the controversy include the possible impact of the school uniform policy on academic perf ormance, cognitive development, and personality influences (Burkemper, 2008). The debate on school uniforms has been stretched beyond the limits of academic matters to incorporate societal perceptions and the prevalent risks that lie on both sides of the argument. Further, comparative studies conducted on the different aspects of the debate have produced competing expert opinions on the matter. It would seem that there can be no definite last answer regarding the question of whether or not students in public schools should wear school uniforms. Discussion The policy of wearing school uniforms is nearly as old as the formal education system itself. In the course of the historical development of education, both private and public schools have upheld the tradition of school uniforms for their

Social Psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Social Psychology - Assignment Example The people of different races are provided equal access to education and job opportunities. It is largely believed that the provision of equal opportunities would increase the tolerance level and a feeling of fraternity between different races. However racism and discrimination is realities that do exist at some level till date. We still have a long way to go. The results of the Clarke and Clark study demonstrated that young African American children in segregated school gave priority to the white dolls over the black dolls as opposed to children in integrated schools. It is said to reflect the low self esteem, self depreciation and self-hate amongst the children as a function of the segregation. This experiment practically demonstrates that the young children are taught from the beginning to accept and endorse the separation and inequality on the basis of their skin color alone. The children by choosing to opt for the white doll negated the principle of humanity that should be followed at all costs. The young and impressionable minds learned from an early age that they were inferior to their white counterparts. The effects of discrimination in the personality development and the over all perception of on life is drastic because they happen at such an early influence able stage (Killen and Levi, 2010). The black people who tend to face discrimination have such low self esteem that they are known to settle for jobs which pays inadequately. On top of dealing with the inner demons, the black people also have to overcome many a mental stereotypes and a substandard preformed ideology about them at the societal level. Their feelings of self worth is further depreciated and infringed when they are discriminated and segregated at a larger scale. According to the experiment of Clarke and Clark the segregation and discrimination at an early point in life

Curriculum and Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Curriculum and Design - Essay Example The funds are distributed equally to various educational organizations as per the EETT proposals. The main peculiarity is that 25% of the grant available can be utilized for giving proper training to teachers and improve the process of learning among students. The comprehensive training programs to teachers make them capable to deal the proposed curriculum so perfectly. More over the teachers are authorized to give proper instructions to students to promote learning by conducting useful researches regarding the subjects. Thus the new methodology on learning makes the students grasp the matter with less effort. This plus point of the scheme has attracted every educational expert and they have recommended this scheme for better outcome from students. Students enjoy certain advantages by implementing this special curriculum. Preliminary among them is student’s achievements. Students can develop remarkable achievements by means of this technical education. Then students can be technically proficient when they complete their school education. Result oriented research based educational programs is the other advantage of this education. All these can be made available by proper teachers training and adequate renewal of curriculum from time to time. One of the advantages of this education is that the teaching and learning methods can be practiced from concerned website. The valuable data which are available through their Laptops from the website must be helpful to provide students considerable basements with respect to the curriculum. In order to promote aims the EETT grant has some special proposals. Accordingly one position called Grant Coordinator cum staff developer is to be created. Next certain renewed projects which can boost the technical education should be designed. Then digital educator scholarship should be organized for encouraging students. Online training and learning facilities and sources should

Which step in the communication process do you consider to be the most Essay

Which step in the communication process do you consider to be the most important - Essay Example The reason a message is created is to get to the receiver (Krizan et al. 2011). Arguably, without the receiver there would be no message and no sender as well. The sender has to deliberate everything revolving around the receiver. The sender has to deliberate on who the sender is, the message to be communicated to the receiver and how the message will get to the receiver. It is only after deliberating on the above mentioned issues that the communication process can begin. The most uncomfortable step of the communication process is transmitting the message. The sender has to relay a message through a channel that will get to the right receivers. It goes without saying that an inappropriate channel can result to ineffective communication process (Krizan et al. 2011). Therefore, in order to certify that the process is comfortable and that the message reaches the right recipients, it is crucial to ponder on the attributes of the communication since the efficiency of some of the communication networks vary with the attributes of the

Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans Essay - 2

Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans - Essay Example It is due to this reason I choose to venture in the education sector but in a different venture. The business venture is the Online State of the Art Educational Portal. The venture can also be referred to in personal state of the art educational portal. With parents with the thirst of interactive education for their children this venture aims to prove a quench of that. This approach is unique and provides the best quality form of education. To add to its advantages, the approach involves the integration of parents who outline the weaknesses and strengths of a child. Additionally, the approach a rectangular circulation and interaction of tasks. It provides a child-parent-teacher interaction basis. This mode of interaction lacks in most educational systems. With current trends taking over in the society, parents need to be part and parcel of their children growth and this approach provides the best medium of interaction. The implementation of this approach however must come with its shortcomings. It is this logic assumption that makes it possible to have a business environmental analysis. Both the internal and external environment factors can affect this venture. With the environmental analysis, there is a clear picture of shortcomings and the possible ways to dealing with them (De Wit, 2003). Apart from the external environmental analysis there is the need for a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis provides the entrepreneur with a picture of their strength and weaknesses. It is satisfied by one maximizing on their strengths and avoiding and dealing with their weaknesses. Additionally, the analysis tends to provide warning to an organization on which parts to cushion to prevent heavy losses caused by misfortunes. External environmental factors are factors which are not in the capacity of the institution to deal with. However, they must be considered since they affect the operations of the institutions.

Personality Diagnostic Procedures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Personality Diagnostic Procedures - Essay Example This paper describes the results of the Personality Diagnostic assessment, emphasizing Gods interventions. The assessment results indicated that I tend to maintain a balance in relation to communications skills. For instance, the majority of scores were precisely in the mid-range from one extreme to the other. For instance, dominant personality attributes scored at 1, indicating the ability to dominate social situations, while also taking a less-controlling role, socially, when appropriate. Further, in relation to contentious behaviors, a similar mid-range score of 0.71 tends to support the notion that I maintain the ability to voice arguments when appropriate, while also being able to silence personal arguments when required. In todays business environment, positive communication skills are cited as one of the primary elements to promoting a cohesive organizational staff (Nickels, McHugh & McHugh, 2005). A balanced leader knows when to fight for change (argumentation) and when to remain silent when another person generates better ideas for business improvement. Though I discovered that I need to develop my listening skills, with a low score of 34, I believe that the majority of scores related to communication represent a person who maintains a balance of personality attributes. balance employee autonomy with a firm desire to simply do the job myself. Perhaps my firm commitment to organizational productivity and desire for strict adherence to policies could be lightened through exhortation, by coming together to develop the skills of subordinates, visualizing and promoting their ongoing business success (George). This builds trust, camaraderie, and a legitimate commitment in employees as they rejoice in their own accomplishments. This is one of the elements of a competent Christian leader. Supporting the concept of being a

Chapter 32 Ap World History Outline Essay Example for Free

Chapter 32 Ap World History Outline Essay A. Postcolonial Crises and Asian Economic Expansion, 1975–1990 I. Revolutions, Depressions, and Democratic Reform in Latin America 1. The success of the Cuban Revolution both energized the revolutionary left throughout Latin America and led the United States to organize its political and military allies in Latin America in a struggle to defeat communism. 2. In Brazil a coup in 1964 brought in a military government whose combination of dictatorship, use of death squads to eliminate opposition, and use of tax and tariff policies to encourage industrialization through import substitution came to be known as the â€Å"Brazilian Solution. † Elements of the â€Å"Brazilian Solution† were applied in Chile byte government of Augusto Pinochet, whose CIA-assisted coup overthrew the socialist Allende government in 1973 and in Argentina by a military regime that seized power in1974. 3. Despite reverses in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, revolutionary movements persisted elsewhere. In Nicaragua the Cuban-backed Sandinista movement overthrew the government of Anastasia Somoza and ruled until it was defeated in free elections in1990. In El Salvador the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) fought guerrilla war against the military regime until declining popular support in the 1990s led the rebels to negotiate an end to the armed conflict and transform themselves into a political party. 4. The military dictatorships established in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina all came to an end between 1983 and 1990. All three regimes were undermined by reports of kidnapping, torture, and corruption; the Argentine regime al so suffered from its invasion of the Falkland Islands and consequent military defeat by Britain. 5. By the end of the 1980s oil-importing nations like Brazil were in economic trouble because they had borrowed heavily to pay the high oil prices engineered by OPEC. The oil-exporting nations such as Mexico faced crises because they had borrowed heavily when oil prices were high and rising in the 1970s, but found themselves unable to keep up with their debt payments when the price of oil fell in the 1980s. 6. In 1991 Latin America was more dominated by the United States than it had been in1975. This may be seen in the United States’ use of military force to intervene in Grenada in 1983 and in Panama in 1989. II. Islamic Revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan See more: what is essay format 1. Crises in Iran and Afghanistan threatened to involve the superpowers; the United States reacted to these crises with restraint, but the Soviet Union took a bolder and ultimately disastrous course. 2. In Iran, American backing and the corruption and inefficiency of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi’s regime stimulated popular resentment. In 1979 street demonstrations and strikes toppled the Shah and brought a Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to power. The overthrow of an ally and the establishment of an anti-western Islamic republic in Iran were blows to American prestige, but the United States was unable to do anything about it. 3. In the fall of 1980 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Iran to topple the Islamic Republic. The United States supported Iran at first, but then in 1986 tilted toward Iraq. 4. The Soviet Union faced a more serious problem when it sent its army into Afghanistan in 1978 in order to support a newly established communist regime against a hodgepodge of local, religiously inspired guerilla bands that controlled much of the countryside. The Soviet Union’s struggle against the American-backed guerillas was so costly and caused so much domestic discontent that the Soviet leaders withdrew their troops in 1989 and left the rebel groups to fight with each other for control of Afghanistan. III. Asian Transformation 1. The Japanese economy grew at a faster rate than that of any other major developed country in the 1970s and 1980s, and Japanese average income outstripped that of the United States in the 1990s. This economic growth was associated with an industrial economy in which keiretsu (alliances of firms) received government assistance in the form of tariffs and import regulations that inhibited foreign competition. 2. The Japanese model of close cooperation between government and industry was imitated by a small number of Asian states, most notably by South Korea, in which four giant corporations led the way in developing heavy industries and consumer industries. Hong Kong and Singapore also developed modern industrial and commercial economies. All of these newly industrialized economies shared certain characteristics: discipline and hard-working labor forces, investment in education, high rates of personal savings, export strategies, government sponsorship and protection, and the ability t o begin their industrialization with the latest technology. 3. In China after 1978 the regime of Deng Xiaoping carried out successful economic reforms that allowed private enterprise and foreign investment to exist alongside the inefficient state-owned enterprises and which allowed individuals and families to contract agricultural land and farm it as they liked. At the same time, the command economy remained in place and China resisted political reform, notably when the Communist Party crushed the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. B. The End of the Bipolar World, 1989–1991 I. Crisis in the Soviet Union 1. During the presidency of Ronald Reagan the Soviet Union’s economy was strained by the attempt to match massive U.S. spending on armaments, such as a space-based missile protection system. The Soviet Union’s obsolete industrial plants, its inefficient planned economy, its declining standard of living, and its unpopular war with Afghanistan fuel dean underground current of protest. 2. When Mikhail Gorbachev took over the leadership in 1985 he tried to address the problems of the Soviet Union by introducing a policy of political openness (glasnost) and economic reform (perestroika). II. The Collapse of the Socialist Bloc 1. Events in Eastern Europe were very important in forcing change on the Soviet Union. The activities of the Solidarity labor union in Poland, the emerging alliances between nationalist and religious opponents of the communist regimes, and the economic weakness of the communist states themselves led to the fall of communist governments across Eastern Europe in 1989 and to the reunification of Germany in 1990. 20. The weakness of the central government and the rise of nationalism led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in September 1991. Ethnic and religious divisions also led to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the division of the Czech Republic in 1992. III. The Persian Gulf War, 1990–1991 1. Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 in an attempt to gain control of Kuwait’s oil fields. Saudi Arabia felt threatened by Iraq’s action and helped to draw the United States into award in which American forces led a coalition that drove Iraq out of Kuwait but left Saddam Hussein in power. 2. The Persian Gulf War restored the United States’ confidence in its military capability while demonstrating that Russia—Iraq’s former ally—was impotent. Cather Challenge of Population Growth I. Demographic Transition 1. The population of Europe almost doubled between 1850 and 1914, and while some Europeans saw this as a blessing, Thomas Malthus argued that unchecked population growth would outstrip food production. In the years immediately following World War I Malthus’s views were dismissed as Europe and other industrial societies experienced demographic transition to lower fertility rates. 2. The demographic transition did not occur in the Third World, where some leaders actively promoted large families until the economic shocks of the 1970s and 1980sconvinced the governments of developing countries to abandon the pronatalist policy. 3. World population exploded in the twentieth century, with most of the growth taking place in the poorest nations due to high fertility rates and declining mortality rates. Tithe Industrialized Nations 1. In the developed industrial nations of Western Europe and Japan at the beginning of the twenty-first century, higher levels of female education and employment, the material values of consumer culture, and access to contraception and abortion have combined to produce low fertility levels. Low fertility levels combined with improved life expectancy will lead to an increasing number of retirees who will rely on a relatively smaller number of working adults to pay for their social services. 2. In Russia and the other former socialist nations, current birthrates are lower than death rates and life expectancy has declined. III.The Developing Nations 1. In the twenty-first century the industrialized nations will continue to fall behind the developing nations as a percentage of world population; at current rates, 95 percent of all future population growth will be in developing regions, particularly in Africa and in the Muslim countries. 2. In Asia, the populations of China and India continued to grow despite government efforts to reduce family size. It is not clear whether or not the nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America will experience the demographic transition seen in the industrialized countries, but fertility rates have fallen in the developing world where women have had access to education and employment outside the home. IV. Old and Young Populations 1. Demographic pyramids generated by demographers illustrate the different age distributions in nations in different stages of economic development. 2. The developed nations face aging populations and will have to rely on immigration or increased use of technology (including robots) in order to maintain industrial and agricultural production at levels sufficient to support their relatively high standards of living and their generous social welfare programs. 3. The developing nations have relatively young and rapidly growing populations but face the problem of providing their people with education and jobs while struggling with shortages of investment capital and poor transportation and communications networks. D. Unequal Development and the Movement of Peoples I. The Problem of Growing Inequality 1. Since 1945 global economic productivity has created unprecedented levels of material abundance. At the same time, the industrialized nations of the Northern Home to enjoy a larger share of the world’s wealth than they did a century ago; the majority of the world lives in poverty. 2. Regional inequalities within nations have also grown in both the industrial countries and in the developing nations. II. Internal Migration: the Growth of Cities 1. Migration from rural areas to urban centers in the developing world increased threefold from 1925 to 1950 and accelerated rapidly after 1950. 2. Migrants to the cities generally enjoyed higher incomes and better standards of living than they would have had in the countryside, but as the scale of rural to urban migration grew, these benefits became more elusive. Migration placed impossible burdens on basic services and led to burgeoning slums, shantytowns, and crime in the cities of the developing world. III. Global Migration 1. Migration from the developing world to the developed nations increased substantially after 1960, leading to an increase in racial and ethnic tensions in the host nations. Immigrants from the developing nations brought the host nations the same benefits that the migration of Europeans brought to the Americas a century before. 2. Immigrant communities in Europe and the United States are made up of young adults and tend to have fertility rates higher than the rates of the host populations. In the long run this will lead to increases in the Muslim population in Europe and in the Asian and Latin American populations in the United States, and to cultural conflicts over the definitions of citizenship and nationality. E. Technological and Environmental Change I. New Technologies and the World Economy 1. New technologies developed during World War II increased productivity, reduced labor requirements, and improved the flow of information when they were applied to industry in the postwar period. The application and development of technology was spurred by pent-up demand for consumer goods. 2. Improvements in existing technologies accounted for much of the world’s productivity increases during the 1950s and 1960s. The improvement and widespread application of the computer was particularly significant as it transformed office work and manufacturing. 3. Transnational corporations became the primary agents of these technological changes. In the post-World War II years transnational corporations with multinational ownership and management became increasingly powerful and were able to escape the controls imposed by national governments by shifting or threatening to shift production from one country to another. II. Conserving and Sharing Resources 1. In the 1960s, environmental activists and political leaders began warning about the environmental consequences of population growth, industrialization, and the expansion of agriculture onto marginal lands. Environmental degradation was a problem in both the developed and developing countries; it was especially severe in the former Soviet Union. In attempting to address environmental issues, the industrialized countries faced a contradiction between environmental protection and the desire to maintain rates of economic growth that depended on the profligate consumption of goods and resources. 2. In the developing world population growth led to extreme environmental pressure as forests were felled and marginal land developed in order to expand food production. This led to erosion and water pollution. III. Responding to Environmental Threats 1. The governments of the United States, the European Community, and Japan took a number of initiatives to preserve and protect the environment in the 1970s. Environmental awareness spread by means of the media and grassroots political movements, and most nations in the developed world enforced strict antipollution laws and sponsored massive recycling efforts. 2. These efforts, many of them made possible by new technology, produced significant results. But in the developing world, population pressures and weak governments were major obstacles to effective environmental policies.

The Impacts Of Globalisation on Theatre

The Impacts Of Globalisation on Theatre Globalisation refers to the increasing interaction and integration of people socially, economically, and culturally through increasing interconnectedness, in which, theatres are also affected by. Performances originally in English are now performed in multiple languages, allowing other cultures around the world to experience watching similar theatrical performances. Singapore, a globalised community, consists of much cultural variety. Due to the immersed cultural diversity, Singapore would like to expand their theatrical performances, appealing to a broader audience of different cultures and eventually become the Broadway of the East. It is the contention of this essay to analyse the impacts of globalisation on theatres via the examination of McTheatres, modernism, interculturalism, and the impact of Western theatre culture on Singapores theatre culture in accordance to theatre design. In the McTheatre franchise, the workers have little or no control over their conditions of work; all the creative decisions were taken years ago and are locked down. The choreography is fixed, and the movements are largely determined by the automated sets and standardized lighting designs, which means that any deviation from the pattern risks injury or singing in darkness (Rebellato 2009: 44). The concept of McTheatre productions are methods of global imperialism. The pro side to this can be explained when the concept was founded by Cameron Mackintosh during the 1970s when he began working in a British theatre. After experiencing a shabby imitation of a metropolitan original, Mackintosh wanted audiences anywhere in the world to have the same high-quality experience instead of a cheap reproduction. However, because of standardization, the virtues of theatre are depreciated, such as the liveliness, immediacy, and the uniqueness of each performance. In a show such as The Lion King, the costumes are the stars, and the actors merely their operators. When we think of the mega musicals, we often think of the brand images: the big eyes orphan, a cats eye, a combined Japanese pictograph/helicopter. The star performers are never part of the brand image, because in McTheatre even the biggest star is replaceable (Rebellato 2009: 45). Cities such as Toronto, Las Vegas, Basle, and Denve r hold theatres that have been built specifically for these mega musicals. However, they are not built well acoustically, considering all mega musicals are miked performances. Thus once that particular mega musical performance has moved on, the theatre is limited to performances requiring well built acoustics. Musical franchises are successful to a certain extent, but they are limited to an English speaking audience. Musicals such as The Lion King and Tarzan however, even though they are global musical theatre hits, are performed in multiple languages in order to appeal to a larger range of audience members. Cats have been translated into 10 different languages such as Japanese, German, and French and The Lion King will be making its first Spanish debut in Madrid on October 21st of 2011 (Cats the Musical 2011; Gans 2011). Aside from mega musicals, past theatrical performances such as Shakespearean plays are currently performed around the world. Variations of Shakespeares plays are also created to appeal towards the audience of the 21st century, for example, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) is an interactive and humorous parody of Shakespeares plays where improvisation plays a huge roll. Hence, every performance is never the same and is unique. While older theatre acts are adapting to a more modern perspective, new performances are created to relate towards the 21st century audience. The theatre might be thought to contribute to the globalization of politics through plays that critically represent the workings of globalization (Rebellato 2009: 9). The musical Avenue Q, is ranked 21st of longest running shows in Broadway history with 2,534 performances (Avenue Q 2009). The musical, ironically portrayed as an adult version of Sesame Street, isnt a globalized musical because it has been performed around the world, but also because the musical itself is about globalization. Considering its relevance towards the 21st century audience, it is able to connect with the majority of the world population. The puppets in the musical goes through stereotypical problems and activities people go through every day, such as, the relation towards internet within their song the internet is for porn, pokes fun at how the modern day population m akes use of the internet, though not many may admit or embrace the new mentality. Culture and globalisation goes hand in hand with each other, and theatres are no exception from the interculturalism. Defined by nationalists of the Canadian province of Quebec, interculturalism is the philosophy of exchanges between cultural groups within a society. Theatres in particular have been able to share multiple cultures with the world for centuries. This alone is a huge part on globalisation because different parts of the world are able to experience different cultures through the form of theatrical performances, whether it would be through dance, acting, and music. I consider theatre to refer to all cultural forms in which performers and active or passive participant-audiences coexist in the same space for a set time (Knowles 2010: 3). During the Nara period, the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans exchanged performance traditions with each other, hence the bukagu court dance and gugaku, the Buddhist processional dance play, was eventually integrated with the Japanese culture. Western cultures did not intermix with the Asian cultures until American and European invasions in the late 19th century. Ric Knowles makes this point in his book Theatre Interculturalism: Beginning at the turn of the twentieth century and lasting almost a hundred years, the shingeki (new drama) movement saw a turn in Japan to Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Stanislavski, and the performance styles of western naturalism and spoken drama. In the first decade of the twentieth century, in the wake of Chinas defeat in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-5, a similar movement developed in China, largely through the conscious efforts of Li Xishuang and Tokyos Spring Willow society, and visits to the society by Chinese students who produced the first huaju (spoken drama) (Knowles 2010: 8-9). Much like the plays from Shakespeare, as mentioned before, it has come to a point where we have the ability to share knowledge easily around the world, and theatrical performances are also able to be shared with equal amount of ease. One of the most well known types of performances known to globalise are circuses. It is in their nature to be mobile and move from place to place entertaining audiences. This leads to globalization through culture, the interconnection of world cultures, perhaps even the development of a world culture' (Rebellato 2010: 5). The most world renowned circus to this day would be Cirque du Soleil. Originally named Les Échassiers, it was founded by two former street performers in 1984 in Baie-Saint-Paul. It is now a Canadian entertainment company based in Montrà ©al, Quebec, self-described as a dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment (Cirque du Soleil 2010). Cirque du Soleil has a wide variety of performances, all of which are an integration of circus styles from around the world with its own theme and storyline. They attract audiences through continuous live music, which allows the performance to be cross cultural because one doesnt have to understand the language in order to enjoy the performance, hence it appeals to everyone and they are able to expand to different cultures around the world. Cirque du Soleil does not only travel around the world, but they have also left permanent set ups in different parts of the world. Las Vegas, United States, has the most Cirque du Soleil performances in one area. Performances such as KÀ, LOVE, Mystà ¨re, O, Viva ELVIS, and Zumanity are performed to many new audiences because its in an area of visiting tourists from all around the world. ZED Cirque du Soleil is stationed in a theatre build specifically for this performance at Disney Resort in Tokyo, Japan, with seven million people watching this spectacular performance every year. Cirque du Soleil has been able to create and show many different performances, but it couldnt have been done without more than 600 of their performers. (Cirque du Soleil Inc. 2009) Hence, the interconnectedness of culture is shared amongst performers and audience alike all around the world. Though most of the casts of Cirque du Soleil are trained for this specialized art, there are also performers who were past Olympic participants from all around the world. Zoltan Supola, a gold medal gymnast who competed in the Olympic three times, retired in the year 2000 after the Sydney Games. He landed a job with Cirque du Soleil and became a part of the gravity-defying troupe of performers, which now incorporates a total of 17 former Olympians. Another example is gymnast, Paul Bowler, who performs in Mystà ¨re at the Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas after failing to make it with the British Olympic team in 1996 (Martinez 2011). Performances themselves arent the only ones affected by globalisation, but the people who work within those performances as well. It is without a doubt that Cirque du Soleil is one of the most globalised theatrical performances to have spread from North America all the way to Asia. Singapore is known to be a global community with multiple cultures integrated in one city, and because of this, different kinds of theatrical acts dedicated to the different cultures and all cultures are continuously performed. Singapore is a perfect example of interculturalism in general and for theatres. With the amount of international theatrical performances arriving every few months and with the amount of audiences watching these performances, it is clear that Singapore has embraced the idea of interculturalism within their theatres. This is a country in which Western and Asian performances are accepted together and appeal to a large portion of the public, hence Singapores wish to be a global pin point, the Broadway of the East so to speak. As Kenneth Lyen states: Yes, Singapore can indeed be the Broadway of the East. We have several unique attributes. Firstly, there is a wealth of stories waiting to be told in the genre of musical theatre. We also have a fascinating variety of Asian music, with different rhythms and different instruments. Our talent pool is immense, and largely untapped. We have not reached the stage where musical theatre prohibitively expensive to stage (Lyen 2010). Aside from Singapore bringing in theatrical performances from other parts of the world, Singapore themselves are trying to globalise their own local theatre productions. It is obvious how much Western performances have influenced the local productions. By trying to maintain a unique theme to Singapore, the structure is very much of the western style. A good example of this is the musical, Forbidden City. Its Singapores most successful musical first commissioned for the opening of the Esplanade, now in its third run, greeted with interest by American investors whod like to adapt it for Broadway (Yi-Sheng 2010). By exploring the fusion of Western and Eastern styles, there is a possibility for Singaporean theatrical productions to become worldwide and achieve globalisation with their own culture and local acts. Theatre of the 21st century is affected by social standing and social status of the community, hence the design of theatres affect the peoples want and reason to attend a performance based on prestige. Theatre of Ancient Greece was an open air, semi-circular layout with only the use of a skene and costumes for visual distinction between characters and scenery (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008). It was a place for the gathering of people to enjoy a performance by being taken to another dimension. The use of lighting was available only through natural lighting; hence performances were casually held during the daytime. The globalised theatre design of the 21st century however, is incorporated on the theatre experience influenced by the modern American stage design through the use of lighting, props, and moveable stage parts. With the discovery of lighting, theatres became enclosed and performances became a nightly event, which is gives off a more formal experience. Now it i s a place not only for people to gather and enjoy a performance, but also a place of prestige. Theatres in general have become a social marker. The concept of an exposed theatre within the new proposed design of the Victoria Theatre situated in Singapore is aimed to attract audiences through the act of interaction or communication with the general public and raise awareness of theatrical performances to help Singapore reach its goal of being the Broadway of the East. The use of an open-air theatre and an enclosed theatre together is to create two different experiences much like the casual experience of Ancient Greece and the more formal experience of the 21st century. With todays technology and interconnectedness, theatres has become a huge part of globalisation through the sharing of performances and performers around the world not only through the use of McTheatres, but also through the creation of fused cultural performances in order to reach out to a broader audience. Through Western influence, the design of theatres has created a social status through the theatre experience. Singapore, being a social marker and huge globalised community, has attracted theatrical performances from around the world in order to share the multiple cultures with its local audience, to become the next Broadway of the East, and to create their own theatrical performances as well, such as Forbidden City.

Military Essay -- essays research papers

Thank God for our military A Soldier, a Sailor an Airman and a Marine got into an argument about which service was the greatest. The arguing became so heated that they eventually ended up killing each other. Soon, they found themselves at the Pearly Gates of Heaven They meet St Peter and decided that only he would be the ultimate source of truth and honesty, so they osked him: "St Peter which branch of the American Armed Forces is the best?" St. Peter instantly replied: "I can't answer that. But I will ask God what he thinks next time I see him. Some time later, the four saw St. Peter again and reminded him of the question and asked if he was able to get an answer. Suddenly a sparkling white dove landed on St. Peter's shoulder. In the dove's beak is a note guilded with gold dust. St. Peter says to the four men, "Your answer from the Boss. Let's see what he says." St. Peter opens the note. Trumpets blare and gold dust drifts into the air. Harps play crescendos and St. Peter begins to re ad the note aloud to the four young men: MEMORANDUM TO SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN AND MARINES SUBJECT: Best branch of the United States Armed Services Gentlemen, All the branches of the Armed Services are Honorable and Noble. Being a member of the Armed Forces represents a special calling warranting special respect, tribute and dedication. Each of you has served his country well, with distinction, and beyond the call of duty. Be proud of what you have accomplished. very respectfully, GOD United States Air Force (Retired) I want to be like Jesus After dinner, a six- and a four-year-old were fighting over who would get the last cookie. Back and forth they went, "GIMME!" "NO, IT'S MINE!" Finally, the dad said, "Paul and John, listen to me. If Jesus were in this situation, he would say to the other one, 'You take the last cookie, because I love you'." The older one thought about it, then responded, "O.K. John, you be Jesus." Oh-Man A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted Pacific island for years. Finally, one day, a boat comes sailing into view, and the man frantically waves and draws the skipper's attention. The boat comes near the island and the sailor gets out and greets the stranded man. After a while the sailor notices three huts and asks if there is anyone else on the island. "No", rep... ...ot; and gave it a press. Then the three-year-old yelled with glee, "NOW, WUN LIKE THE DICKENS!" Code of Silence Brother John entered the 'Monastery of Silence' and the Chief Priest said, "Brother, this is a silent monastery, you are welcome here as long as you like, but you may not speak until I direct you to do so." Brother John lived in the monastery for a full year before the Chief Priest said to him: "Brother John, you have been here a year now, you may speak two words." Brother John said, "Hard Bed." "I'm sorry to hear that" the Chief Priest said. "We will get you a better bed." The next year, Brother John was called by the Chief Priest. "You may say another two words Brother John." "Cold Food." said Brother John, and the Chief Priest assured him that the food would be better in the future. On his third anniversary at the monastery, the Chief Priest again called Brother John into his office. "Two words you may say today." "I Quit." said Brother John. "It is probably for the best." said the Chief Priest. "All you have done since you got here is complain."

Hary Potter :: essays research papers

Name of book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Type of book: Fiction (Fantasy) Why did you choose this book: I chose Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince because I have read the past 5 Harry Potter books. I waited 2 years for this book to come out, I could not wait to know what happened next in the series as I purchased the book right when it was released. Setting: The Harry Potter books take place in England and an imaginary wizarding word (Hogwarts, Diagon Alley etc) Main Character #1: Harry Potter – Harry potter is the first main character in the Harry Potter series. He has messy hair, wears round glasses and is very skinny. In the Half-Blood Prince Harry is 16 and a much more mature boy then in any of the past books. Having seen death in the face in all the other books Harry is ready for anything. The child they now call the â€Å"Chosen One† is the only one who can save the wizarding world from the dark wizard Voldermort or â€Å"He-who-must-not-be-named†. Harry is now ready to avenge his parents death. Harry’s famous lightening scar on his forehead is a remnant of Voldermort trying to kill him when he was a mere child. Some people accept that he is the â€Å"Chosen One† while others despise of him and want him dead. Main Character #2: Dumbledore – Dumbledore is going into his 6th year as being Harry’s headmaster at Hogworts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He has very long white hair and a silver beard, a crooked nose and is a tall man. He is referred to sometimes as the most knowledgeable wizard in the wizarding world. He is very smart and a very strong wizard. So strong that Voldermort even fears him. Dumbledore was one always to believe when Harry told him Voldermort was back while others didn’t. Dumbledore always looks things over very carefully. He believed in Harry and was the one who told Harry that he alone must kill Voldermort. Was the book believable, realistic, and true to life? Why or why not?: I don’t believe that the Harry Potter books are true and realistic. Magic is Fantasy and not Reality. People cannot just vanish one instant and be some where else the next second (apperating). You can’t just flick a wand and mend a broken bone. None of that stuff exists in the real world. Describe any changes in the Main characters:

The Internet Today: Causes and Effects

1996 was the year of Internet. We constantly saw and heard the word â€Å"Internet† everywhere last year. The beginning of the Internet was the computer network called ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) which started in 1969 and was supported by the Department of Defense in America since they wanted the webbed network which cannot be severed easily. At the beginning, ARPA had been used for the military need; and when it became more commercialized, it came to be called ‘Internet'. Accordingly, you can say that the need of defense caused Internet to begin. Currently, Internet is now changing the concept of nation, the means to communicate with people and even your view of life. Then what should we do to deal with it? Can we be only a fanatic of Internet or be an anti-Internet? First, I'd like to show the positive effects that Internet has caused; then, I will move on to the negative side. Maybe you can come up with many positive effects of Internet. First, you can get the latest news on the web anytime everywhere. It must be interesting if students make a good use of the web because what teachers teach you is not always the latest thing. Even though the teacher say something to students, they can reply like this; `No, that's not true, Mr. [Blank], I asked Dr. [Know-it-all] at [Top] University just a few minutes ago on the web, and he said [Blank-sensei is totally wrong, the correct information is . . .]' You can have an opportunity to keep in touch with things new and what's happening in the world now. This was not possible a decade ago. Second, Internet is changing the concept of organization or system like a nation, an ethnic group, a company and a network of people. Imagine you are Japanese living in Sweden†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.you can't speak Swedish, you don't have any Japanese friends living your neighboring city. Maybe you'll become nervous because you can't get any Japanese news other than the letters from your friends. You don't have enough money to call Japan since it's too expensive. Once you get on Internet account, your problem will all be gone! You can chat with your Japanese friends on the web at a low price and can get any information that you want. Actually, Chinese people living all over the world are now making a network which support them each other on the Internet. For them, Internet is a very practical means to confirm their nationality and unify them as Chinese. You can be one of them (the Chinese) wherever you are. The borders between countries are fading by Internet in this way. In case of company, the differences between the classes are now fading slowly in Japan. You can say what you want to tell your boss or a company president by sending E-mail directly. Consequently, the relationship among people in the company is changing since you don't need someone to communicate with your superior anymore. The working style is also changing; you don't have to go to the company everyday because you can do your work at home and send what you've done by E-mail. You can have more free time and can change your lifestyle as you like. Fourth, concerning a network of people, Internet helped to connect and gather volunteers after the big earthquake had rocked the city of Kobe in 1995. The homepage made by one of the volunteer posted lots of information such as what refugees in Kobe need and which shelter needs helpers. Fifth, Internet is a good means to express yourself. You can make your homepage and introduce yourself there. Then some people who saw your homepage would be interested in you or your information offered on the homepage and would contact you. It can be someone from unfamiliar country that you've never been to. Isn't that kind of a great meeting? Maybe you want to found your own company on the web. It's possible now. Internet is very useful if you have something that you want to do or express. Now I'd like to state the negative effects of Internet. First, an infringement of copyright (or piracy) on the web is one of the most controversial problem that Internet has caused. It is very hard to protect the copyright since you can get any information on the web any time. You can draw some pictures offered in someone's homepage into yours and you can copy everything that is shown on the web-which you're supposed not to do so. Second, subversive materials posted on the web is also a big problem. It's obvious that subversive materials like porno or the picture of a dead body are not good for you nor for children. It can happen that innocent kids cruising the web to find a toy company's homepage stumble across the place where many horrible pictures are posted. Though Singapore's government now started controlling and policing those obscene material on the web, there is a question to be raised: doesn't the regulation offend the freedom of speech? The same question has also been raised from the United States when the obscene pictures on the web were prosecuted. Then, how should we protect our children from those subversive materials on Internet? Is there any way to measure the degree of the obscene materials? To make matters worse, there is currently no universal law that can supervise those problems. As you know, since Internet is worldwide, all countries must cooperate to restrict something on the web; otherwise, you can do it in the country where the law is not enforced. Third, you have to be concerned about the crime on the web. Because you can offer some information anonymously on Internet, some people can also trespass upon your privacy through Internet by spreading some information that you want to private. Furthermore, a crime on the web can sometimes be very serious. If you are a computer specialist, you could steal a secret information like the military secrets of another country. It actually happened a few years ago: a guy from Brazil stole through Internet military secrets from the Department of Defense in U.S.A. Fourth, as some people say, the Internet is a box of waste since most of the information which is offered on the web is junk. All you do on the web is just wasting your time. In addition, E-mails sometimes bother people; you can't write back to a hundred mails! Some mails may even have nothing to do with you. Dealing with E-mail could waste a lot of your time. As I said earlier, Internet, which was first created for military use, causes both positive and negative effects today. Nevertheless, you just can't complain all the time about the negative effects of Internet. You know that it's too late to stop the expanding of Internet. You won't be able to live without it. What is now demanded for us is to deal with both positive and negative side of Internet–and, hopefully, to change its negative effects for the better. by Rumiko Nomura http://www.tsujiru.net/compass/compass_1997/reg/nomura_r_3.htm

Jay’s Treaty Essay

‘’Jay’s Treaty’’ Jay’s Treaty is an agreement between John Jay, U. S. chief justice, special envoy, and William Grenville, a British foreign secretary. Signed in London, England, on November 19, 1794, and ratified by the U. S. Congress in 1795 the Treaty settled disagreements and distress between the United States and Great Britain. Both countries had unresolved issues remaining since violations occurred from the Treaty of Paris of 1783. England refused to evacuate the frontier forts in the Northwest Territory; and in addition seized American ships forcing American soldiers to participate in England’s war with France. The United States passed navigation laws that were to potentially damage England. It was because the commercial war between the U. S. and England that it was no question that both countries would suffer economically from the lack of trade. It was apparent that the American economies health would cripple especially because the war. John Jay then went to England to negotiate disagreements between the two countries. With the signing of the Treaty, the regulation of commerce and navigation were underway. Jay’s Treaty made it possible for American ships to trade with both England and France. The Treaty also allowed for the United States to have trading concessions in England and the British East Indies, along with access to the Mississippi River with Britain’s consent of course. Without Jay’s Treaty America would have suffered economic wise deeply from lack of trade and would have a serious loss of mobility with ships. Exported goods were and still are a major factor in America. Not only did the Treaty help avert war, but it also helped in solving several issues left over from the Revolutionary War. Last but not least the Treaty opened and sustained 10 years of peaceful trade despite being in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Interpersonal Communication Essay

The capability of every individual create effective and efficient communicative mechanisms can help prevent the further escalation of a conflict. Each action, movement, speech is important in establishing such idea. Thus, proper facilitation of interpersonal communication can bridge the gap between two parties and help create possibilities for cooperation. Analyzing the problem critically, there are certain communicative lapses present between the parents and the owner of the day care. These lapses tend to create different perceptions and ideas that in the end result into conflict among members of the group. Another issue that can be argued revolves around the responsibility of the owner of the daycare. It has been elaborated that there are only certain parameters of care that the organization has to offer which is mandated by the handbook of DHA. These contending of ideas of how responsibility of care is administered also bring about struggles and conflict that can further impede and deteriorate the process of interpersonal communication. With these, solutions must be created to administer proper changes and facilitate communication. One important aspect to consider is to be sensitive to the situation and cultural background of the individuals. â€Å"A stereotype, a fixed impression about a group, may influence your perceptions of individual members; you may see individuals only as members of the group instead of as unique individuals. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 4’, p. 1) The next thing to consider is the importance of creating effective listening skills both to individuals and groups. However, there are many factors that affect the way people listen and comprehend things. â€Å"Members of different cultures vary on a number of communication dimensions that influence listening: speech and language, nonverbal behavioral differences, and preferences for direct and indirect styles of communication. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 5’, p. 1) In addition, individuals must be gender sensitive when it comes to listening. â€Å"Men and women may listen differently; generally, women give more specific listening cues to show they’re listening than do men. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 5’, p. 1) Thus, different strategies must be created to facilitate better avenues for listening. The next possible solution can be characterized how people perceive and interpret communication by means of verbal and non-verbal messages. The way to creating effective interpersonal communication is the advancing and merging of both listener and speaker. â€Å"Meaning is more than words and gestures; meaning includes what speaker and listener brings to interpersonal interaction. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 6’, p. ) With this, words, gestures and other meanings given are important in establishing interpersonal communication. â€Å"Meanings are context-based; the context heavily influences the meanings that words and gestures are given. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 6’, p. 1) Thus, these ideas prove to be a main catalyst in achieving interpersonal communication. The last process in trying to resolve this conflict is the communication process itself. The conversation between the listener and speaker plus the mechanisms that were used can be a vital tool in shaping the outcome of interpersonal communication. â€Å"Maintaining conversations depends on the principle of cooperation; the maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner; the principle of dialogue; and the principle of turn taking. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 9’, p. 1) With mechanisms in place, conversation may be able to bridge the communication gap brought about by conflict. â€Å"Preventing conversational problems may be aided by the disclaimer, a statement that helps to ensure that your message will be understood and will not reflect negatively on the speaker. † (DeVito, ‘Chapter 9’, p. 1) In the end, giving solutions to the problem of communication revolves around the capability of an individual to harness and foster efficient and effective mechanisms that will create an environment of understanding, collaboration and sensitivity among the group/s. References DeVito, J. A. (2005) ‘Chapter 4:Perception in Interpersonal Communication’ in Pearson Education. [on-line] Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://wpscms. pearsoncmg. com/ab_devito_intrprsnl_11/43/11047/2828208. cw/index. html DeVito, J. A. (2005) ‘Chapter 5: Listening in Interpersonal Communication. In Pearson Education. [on-line] Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://wpscms. pearsoncmg. com/ab_devito_intrprsnl_11/43/11047/2828276. cw/index. html DeVito, J. A. (2005) ‘Chapter 6: Universals of Verbal and Non-verbal messages’ in Pearson Education. [on-line] Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://wpscms. pearsoncmg. com/ab_devito_intrprsnl_11/43/11048/2828345. cw/index. html DeVito, J. A. (2005) ‘Chapter 9: Conversation. ’ in Pearson Education. [on-line] Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://wpscms. pearsoncmg. com/ab_devito_intrprsnl_11/43/11049/2828563. cw/index. html

Bird in the House

REVISED Vanessa: Distressed Female In Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House By: Adeline Hartono #20336566 For: Professor Vardon Date: Monday November 14th, 2011 In Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House, the female characters in the story are helpless and distressed. Each character struggles to reach their own personal freedoms and is constantly battling through the ups and downs of life. This issue brings about the essence of entrapment, which is apparent in the collection.It can be further seen in regards to the female and main character, Vanessa Macleod. A Bird in the House tells a story about the life of Vanessa Macleod, the protagonist, and the rocky journey she endures throughout the process of growing up. Life is never easy for Vanessa, for she faces many challenges and tragedies throughout her childhood. In the collection, Vanessa possesses a unique quality in that she is able to find ways to deal and cope with the harsh events taking place in her life.One wa y in which she illustrates this is through her many writings of creative stories. When she wrote and developed ideas, Vanessa escapes any feelings of entrapment and helplessness; however, one of the hardest things Vanessa has to endure is the numerous losses of her loved ones: firstly, the passing of her beloved Grandmother Connor, whom she adored and loved very much, and shortly, in months after her death, the passing of her father, Ewen Macleod. Out of the two, the greatest lost in which Vanessa continues to struggle through is her father’s death.Throughout her childhood, she has always wanted to be closer with her father, but with the profession in which he holds, a doctor, it is difficult for the both of them to ever have any time to spend together. She not only believes that her father is the best doctor there is in Manawaka, but also the best doctor in the whole of Manitoba. With this being said, her father frequently travels out of town for work. During one winter in M anawaka, Vanessa’s father became very ill and had developed pneumonia.Almost immediately, in days after, he unfortunately passed away due to being unable to recover from the illness. In the days following her father’s death, Vanessa continues to fight back feelings of regret that she could have somehow been closer to her father and conversed with him more, â€Å"I took the letter and picture outside and burned them. That was all I could do for him. Now that we might have talked together, it was many years too late. Perhaps it would not have been possible anyway.I did not know† (Laurence 107) Hence, Vanessa never got the closure she has wanted with her father and this prevents her from fully reaching happiness. Although Vanessa has suffered the tremendous loss of her father, the pain and struggle of her life did not end there. She continues to endure obstacles while growing up, as she faces the dominance of her Grandfather Connor. Throughout the novel, Grandfathe r Connor is shown as someone of a high power who wanted things to go his way.He has a strong character and will, which gives him authority and as a result, overpowering almost all the members in Vanessa’s family. In one of Vanessa’s first creative stories, she realizes that her writing bears no relation to the life around her, but instead resembles her Grandfather Connor. She realizes that her Pillars of the Nation about pioneer life may well incorporate her Grandfather Connor, who is a real pioneer. She is troubled by the connection of the hateful old man she feared and fought with being apart of her creative writing so much so that she decides to set it aside.Only then does she see how similar she is to Grandfather Connor and how she will never be free of his control, â€Å"I had not thought it would hurt me to see it in other hands, but it did. I wanted to tell them to trim their hedges, to repaint the window frames, to pay heed to repairs. I had feared and fought the old man, yet he proclaimed himself in my veins† (Laurence 191) Thus, Vanessa continues to be trapped in the dominance of her Grandfather, and continually feels distressed and helpless.Ultimately, the theme of entrapment is evident in the book. One of the obvious ways in which readers see this idea clearly is in the character of Vanessa Macleod, the protagonist. The death of her father and the dominance of her Grandfather Connor prevent Vanessa from fully reaching happiness. As a result, she often struggles with feelings of regret and sorrow. All in all, the female characters in the book can be seen as distressed and helpless, for Vanessa was a perfect example of this.

H.G. Wells’s Time Machine

The cultural and intellectual climate of the last decade of nineteenth century was dominated by the theory of evolution and socialist ideas. It was an age when aristocratic gentlemen had the time and inclination to discuss and debate upon all kinds of social and scientific things, including time travel. At the very beginning, the novel succeeds in setting a tone of passionate intellectual curiosity and open-minded enquiry.Protagonist’s Journey of Plot and Conflict The Protagonist: The novel’s protagonist, identified only as the Time Traveller, is essentially a scientist and inventor. He is very scientifically minded, and comes out as a character whose life is dedicated to scientific advancement and understanding the nature of the world and life. Reason is central to his outlook of the world. In his investigations, he has stumbled upon some radical insights in the structure of reality, which lead him to build his fantastic time machine.The initial events: The novel begin s as the Time Traveller invites his friends to inspect his new invention – a time machine. He explains the idea to them†¦There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time†¦ There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it. (1)Scientists and mathematicians have been talking about a possible fourth dimension before him, but our inventor rightly identifies the fourth dimension not with an extra spatial dimension but with time. He then shows his friends a small model of his invention — a metallic frame with ivory and quartz parts. One lever can propel it toward the future, and another can reverse the direction. He helps one of his friends push the future lever, and the model promptly disappears. Where did it go? It did not move in space at all; it simply went to another time, the Time Traveller explains. His friends cannot decide whether to b elieve him.Next, the Time Traveller takes his friends to his home laboratory, to see his nearly complete, full-scale model. A week later he finishes the time machine, climbs aboard, and begins a remarkable journey to the future. The narrative is recounted in flash back, after the Time Traveller is back from his adventures.Seated in his time machine, the Time Traveller first presses the future lever gently forward. Then he presses the one for stopping. He looks at his lab. Everything is the same. Then he notices the clock: â€Å"A moment before, as it seemed, it had stood at a minute or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three!† He pushes the lever ahead again, and he can see his housekeeper flit across the room at high speed. Then he pushes the lever far forward.The night came like the turning out of a light, and in another moment came tomorrow†¦. As I put on a pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing†¦ Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous grayness†¦ I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams. (1)Eventually, the Time Traveller brings his vehicle to a stop. The machine's dials show that he has arrived in the year 802,701. What does he find?The Conflict: In the distant future where the Time Traveller lands, the human race has split into two species: one, brutish and mean, living below ground — the Morlocks; the other, childlike and gentle, living above ground — the Eloi. The central conflict of the novel revolves around these two groups. The Time Traveller identifies himself with the Eloi, at least to a degree, and among them he finds a lovely young woman named Weena, whom he befriends. Weena can be considered as the protagonist’s love interest. But soon he discovers, to his horror, that the troglodytes living below are cannibals and prey on the Eloi. Several adventures follow. The action scene of peak importance is the Time Traveller reclaiming his Time Machine stolen by the Morlocks escaping.The Climax: The novel has a kind of apocalyptic climax/anticlimax. Escaping from the Morlocks, the protagonist pushes the lever into the extreme forward position. By the time he is able to bring the machine under control, he has moved into the far future. Mammals have become extinct, and only some crablike creatures and butterflies remain on Earth. He explores as far as 30 million years into the future, where he discovers a dull red Sun and lichen-like vegetation; the only animal life in evidence is a football-shaped creature with tentacles. Wells's Time Traveller witnesses the end of the world, and apocalyptic vision that he carries back to the present. His revelation of finiteness implies that we can expect and must accept an end to life, an inevitable doomsday.The Epilogue: The Time Traveller then returns to his own time and to his friends. As proof of his experience in the future, he pro duces a couple of flowers Weena had given him, of a type unknown to his friends. After talking to his friends, the Time Traveller departs on his time machine and never returns. The narrator wonders about his fate. Where did he go? Did he return to the future or go instead to some prehistoric realm?Narration The bulk of the story is told from the viewpoint of the Time Traveller. The substance of the story is, however, framed within the narration of one of Time Traveller’s guests. This guest, the frame narrator, introduces the Time Traveller and lets him relate his adventure in an inset narrative. The frame narrator’s outside viewpoint carries a degree of objectivity and gives credibility to the inventor's   inset narrative. He grounds the story in a reality with which the audience can identify before and after experiencing the wondrous trip in the time machine. With the return to familiar surroundings, the reader, like the Time Traveller, might question the reality of such a strange experience (â€Å"Is it all only a dream? They say life is a dream†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ), but the presence of an honorable gentleman in the form of frame narrator gives more plausibility to the narrative of the protagonist who is by nature a dreamer and a visionary.Theme and Meaning Wells's inventor's interest in time traveling seems primarily for the sake of scientific accomplishment, to gain knowledge for knowledge's sake. H.G. Wells' story begins with, and constantly refers back to, the time machine itself. However, the machine is simply a device allowing the author to present his own perspective on a possible future. The main thrust of the story lies in this form of forecasting and prediction and also in the social comment about the conflicts between different classes or kinds of society. The main intent is not so much to explore the questions of time, but to illustrate the ultimate possible consequence of social and economic divisions of humanity. Thus, this story can be seen more as a social and political criticism than science fiction.The Time Traveller does not have a definite cause and effect explanation for the Eloi's society. To shape his theories he relies on the scientific method, using empirical evidence to reach conclusion that he reformulates with the discovery of new information. However, his inconclusive conclusions are largely conjectures.   The Time Traveller bases his hypotheses on socioeconomic conditions and theories (especially socialism) prevalent in his own period of the late nineteenth century, and on a metaphorical image of the capitalist and worker.Without knowledge of some causal chain, he lacks definite information to show what other variable elements may have affected mankind to produce the bifurcation of the human species and the predator-prey relationship of the Morlock and Eloi. While such ambiguities raise many unanswerable questions, the message that comes out of them is clear: any kind of widening gap between g roups of human race can prove costly in the end. The novel also answers one thing most directly: Eventually there will not be a trace of humanity left, the earth will become desolate and barren. The vision of the end of the world is perhaps the most haunting and yet the most enlightening aspect of this work, to me. I also wonder how it would have been if the Time Traveller pushed further, if only to catch the briefest glimpse into eternity.ConclusionNo idea from science fiction has captured the human imagination as much as time travel. We seem free to move around in space at will, but in time we are like helpless rafters in a mighty stream, propelled into the future at the rate of one second per second. One wishes one could sometimes paddle ahead to investigate the shores of the future, or perhaps turn around and go against the current to visit the past. The hope that such freedom will one day be ours is sustained when we observe that many feats formerly thought impossible have now been realized and are even taken for granted.When Wells wrote The Time Machine in 1895, many people thought that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. But just eight years later the Wright brothers proved the skeptics wrong. Flights to the Moon too strictly belonged to the realm of fantasy – until Apollo program achieved it. Might time travel be similar? Wells's swift-paced classic science fiction tale challenges us to dare to dream the impossible. The idea of time travel gained prominence through Wells's wonderful novel. Most remarkable is his treatment of time as a fourth dimension, which uncannily anticipates Einstein's use of the concept several years later.Interestingly, the Time Machine was Wells' first novel, and enjoyed an instant popularity, rescuing its author from obscurity and poverty. Today it stands as one of the greatest pioneering science fiction tales. I would like to read Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Moon after this.References:Wells H. G . (1898). The Time Machine. Retrieved May 10 2007 from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35/35.txt H.G. Wells’s Time Machine The Protagonist: The novel’s protagonist, identified only as the Time Traveller, is essentially a scientist and inventor. He is very scientifically minded, and comes out as a character whose life is dedicated to scientific advancement and understanding the nature of the world and life. Reason is central to his outlook of the world. In his investigations, he has stumbled upon some radical insights in the structure of reality, which lead him to build his fantastic time machine.The initial events: The novel begins as the Time Traveller invites his friends to inspect his new invention – a time machine. He explains the idea to them†¦There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time†¦ There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it. (1)Scientists and mathematicians have been talking about a possible fourth dimension before him, but our inventor rightly identifies the fourth dimension not with an extra spatial dimension but with time. He then shows his friends a small model of his invention — a metallic frame with ivory and quartz parts. One lever can propel it toward the future, and another can reverse the direction. He helps one of his friends push the future lever, and the model promptly disappears. Where did it go? It did not move in space at all; it simply went to another time, the Time Traveller explains. His friends cannot decide whether to believe him.Next, the Time Traveller takes his friends to his home laboratory, to see his nearly complete, full-scale model. A week later he finishes the time machine, climbs aboard, and begins a remarkable journey to the future. The narrative is recounted in flash back, after the Time Traveller is back from his adventures.Seated in his time machine, the Time Traveller first presses the future lever gently forward. Then he presses the one for stopping. He looks at his lab. Everything is the same. Then he notices the clock: â€Å"A moment before, as it seemed, it had stood at a minute or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three!† He pushes the lever ahead again, and he can see his housekeeper flit across the room at high speed. Then he pushes the lever far forward.The night came like the turning out of a light, and in another moment came tomorrow†¦. As I put on a pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing†¦ Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous grayness†¦ I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams. (1)Eventually, the Time Traveller brings his vehicle to a stop. The machine's dials show that he has arrived in the year 802,701. What does he find?The Conflict: In the distant future where the Time Traveller lands, the human race has split into two species: one, brutish and mean, living below ground — the Morlocks ; the other, childlike and gentle, living above ground — the Eloi. The central conflict of the novel revolves around these two groups. The Time Traveller identifies himself with the Eloi, at least to a degree, and among them he finds a lovely young woman named Weena, whom he befriends. Weena can be considered as the protagonist’s love interest. But soon he discovers, to his horror, that the troglodytes living below are cannibals and prey on the Eloi. Several adventures follow. The action scene of peak importance is the Time Traveller reclaiming his Time Machine stolen by the Morlocks escaping.The Climax: The novel has a kind of apocalyptic climax/anticlimax. Escaping from the Morlocks, the protagonist pushes the lever into the extreme forward position. By the time he is able to bring the machine under control, he has moved into the far future. Mammals have become extinct, and only some crablike creatures and butterflies remain on Earth. He explores as far as 30 million years into the future, where he discovers a dull red Sun and lichen-like vegetation; the only animal life in evidence is a football-shaped creature with tentacles. Wells's Time Traveller witnesses the end of the world, and apocalyptic vision that he carries back to the present. His revelation of finiteness implies that we can expect and must accept an end to life, an inevitable doomsday.The Epilogue: The Time Traveller then returns to his own time and to his friends. As proof of his experience in the future, he produces a couple of flowers Weena had given him, of a type unknown to his friends. After talking to his friends, the Time Traveller departs on his time machine and never returns. The narrator wonders about his fate. Where did he go? Did he return to the future or go instead to some prehistoric realm?The bulk of the story is told from the viewpoint of the Time Traveller. The substance of the story is, however, framed within the narration of one of Time Traveller’s gue sts. This guest, the frame narrator, introduces the Time Traveller and lets him relate his adventure in an inset narrative. The frame narrator’s outside viewpoint carries a degree of objectivity and gives credibility to the inventor's   inset narrative. He grounds the story in a reality with which the audience can identify before and after experiencing the wondrous trip in the time machine. With the return to familiar surroundings, the reader, like the Time Traveller, might question the reality of such a strange experience (â€Å"Is it all only a dream? They say life is a dream†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ), but the presence of an honorable gentleman in the form of frame narrator gives more plausibility to the narrative of the protagonist who is by nature a dreamer and a visionary.Wells's inventor's interest in time traveling seems primarily for the sake of scientific accomplishment, to gain knowledge for knowledge's sake. H.G. Wells' story begins with, and constantly refers back to, the time machine itself. However, the machine is simply a device allowing the author to present his own perspective on a possible future. The main thrust of the story lies in this form of forecasting and prediction and also in the social comment about the conflicts between different classes or kinds of society. The main intent is not so much to explore the questions of time, but to illustrate the ultimate possible consequence of social and economic divisions of humanity. Thus, this story can be seen more as a social and political criticism than science fiction.The Time Traveller does not have a definite cause and effect explanation for the Eloi's society. To shape his theories he relies on the scientific method, using empirical evidence to reach conclusion that he reformulates with the discovery of new information. However, his inconclusive conclusions are largely conjectures.   The Time Traveller bases his hypotheses on socioeconomic conditions and theories (especially socialism) pr evalent in his own period of the late nineteenth century, and on a metaphorical image of the capitalist and worker. Without knowledge of some causal chain, he lacks definite information to show what other variable elements may have affected mankind to produce the bifurcation of the human species and the predator-prey relationship of the Morlock and Eloi.While such ambiguities raise many unanswerable questions, the message that comes out of them is clear: any kind of widening gap between groups of human race can prove costly in the end. The novel also answers one thing most directly: Eventually there will not be a trace of humanity left, the earth will become desolate and barren. The vision of the end of the world is perhaps the most haunting and yet the most enlightening aspect of this work, to me. I also wonder how it would have been if the Time Traveller pushed further, if only to catch the briefest glimpse into eternity.No idea from science fiction has captured the human imaginat ion as much as time travel. We seem free to move around in space at will, but in time we are like helpless rafters in a mighty stream, propelled into the future at the rate of one second per second. One wishes one could sometimes paddle ahead to investigate the shores of the future, or perhaps turn around and go against the current to visit the past. The hope that such freedom will one day be ours is sustained when we observe that many feats formerly thought impossible have now been realized and are even taken for granted.When Wells wrote The Time Machine in 1895, many people thought that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. But just eight years later the Wright brothers proved the skeptics wrong. Flights to the Moon too strictly belonged to the realm of fantasy – until Apollo program achieved it. Might time travel be similar? Wells's swift-paced classic science fiction tale challenges us to dare to dream the impossible. The idea of time travel gained prominence through Wells's wonderful novel. Most remarkable is his treatment of time as a fourth dimension, which uncannily anticipates Einstein's use of the concept several years later.Interestingly, the Time Machine was Wells' first novel, and enjoyed an instant popularity, rescuing its author from obscurity and poverty. Today it stands as one of the greatest pioneering science fiction tales. I would like to read Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Moon after this.References:1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wells H. G. (1898). The Time Machine. Retrieved May 10 2007 from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35/35.txt