The Bride Price essays

The Bride Price essays This book was a story about a Nigerian family and the tradition of the bride price. Part of the story takes place in Lagos where Aku-nna, the protagonist, grew up. After her father dies she is forced to move to Ibuza to live with her father's brother in a whole different culture from her own. Her mother, Ma-Blackie married her husband's brother, Okonkwo, making him Aku-nna's step-father This entitled him to her bride price, which was expected to be exorbitant amount. Okonkwo needed this bride price to gain his Eze title. Unfortunately for him, Aku-nna fell in love with, Chike, the school teacher. But, because he was a son of a slave the Ibos wouldn't give their approval of a marriage. It is an Ibo tradition superstition that if a woman is married without the bride price being paid that she will die with the birth of her first child. Aku-nna and Chike ran away from a man that Aku-nna was forced to marry, and they got married. When Chike's father tried to pay a large bride pric e to Okonkwo he would not accept, wishing death upon his stepdaughter. In the end Aku-nna was pregnant and she died in childbirth. This book taught me more about African culture. I think that the bride price and the superstition behind it are interesting concepts. The idea that you can die because a certain amount is not paid to your father is a little absurd. This book basically ended up being a folk tale about the bride price, because at the end the author says that because she died, it was thought that this superstition was true and now the Ibos believe it as fact. The end of the book reminded of Farewell to Arms. The way in which Aku-nna died, the scene with rain, it was very closely related to the scene in which Catherine dies. Yet the baby lives in The Bride Price and the father can live on with a happy memory of his wife. It seemed like after all the obstacles that the characters face and once they are finally hap ...

Gm Business Environment Essays

Gm Business Environment Essays Gm Business Environment Essay Gm Business Environment Essay 1. INTRODUCTION OF GENERAL MOTORS 1. 1 Brief introduction General Motors Company or better known as GM is an American multinational auto manufacturing corporation traded as NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM. Its headquarter is in America. The company was found first in 1908. In 2008, the major recession and global credit crisis drove car sales to near depression levels and dried up private sources of capital. GM, critically short of operating cash, received a bridge loan from the U. S. Treasury, under conditions that the company further accelerate a tough restructuring of its operations that had been underway for several years [1]. General Motors Corporation then filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. In June, 2009, with a support from the U. S. Government, a new GM was reborn with four brands in the U. S. : Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. Since then, the company has grown up rapidly with more than 70% of its sales coming from outside of the U. S and become one of the world’s largest automakers. GM now employs over 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in more than 120 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 31 countries. They sell and provide services for the brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Daewoo, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling and China is the biggest market. After the bankruptcy and getting support from the US government, GM has changed their strategy and now re-emerging at the new GM is a very competitive spirit. 1. 2 GM mission and vision statement The New York Times evaluate that for most of the 20th century, General Motors was the biggest company in the most important industry in the world. : And after one of the biggest corporate collapses in history, the new GM made one of the biggest rebounds ever[2]. â€Å"Vision statement is concerned with what the organization aspires to be†. (Johnson et al. , 2010; p164). GM’s vision is to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles[3]. ‘A mission statement aims to provide employees and stakeholders with clarity about the overall purpose and raison d’etre of the organization†. (Johnson et al. , 2010; p164). GM works to be the leading auto manufacturer in style, technology, services and marketing of the auto business and surely in innovation. 1. Company’s core values According to Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008), core values are the underlying principles that guide and organization’s strategy[4]. GM has some main core values focusing on five main areas: customers, employees, communities, dealers and suppliers. (1) Customers. the company always keep in mind that motor vehicle safety begins with the driver and convince customers with quality and safety. GM listens to their customers and the relationship with customers is critical to their vision. (2) Employees. GM’s business can not be developed well without innovative and skillful employees. GM welcomes and encourages all employees to perform at their highest potential toward achieving the company’s business objectives and each individual’s professional goals. The company invest in educating and training their employees. (3) Communities. GM support communities in various ways including sponsorships and participation in events such as Education, Health and Human services, Environment and Energy and Community Development [5] (4) Dealers: GM wants to create a profitable dealer network across all GM bands that reflects consumer diversity. (5) Suppliers. GM has developed and grown competitive, diverse supply base that will work together with GM to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles. 1. 4 Company’s objectives â€Å"Objectives are statements of specific outcomes that are to be achieved. † (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Like other companies in the industry, GM’s objectives are (1) maintaining consistent levels of investment in engineering and product development to provide clients world best vehicle, (2) become profitable and minimal level of debt, (3) maintaining cost discipline to achieve bigger market share and (4) be responsible and sustainable to community and environment. . GENERAL MOTORS’ BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 2. 1 External environment PESTLE To analyze the impacts of external environment on GM’s business, the framework PESTLE will be used. â€Å"The PESTEL framework categories environmental influences into six main types: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. † (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Political factors: More laws and regulations are applied in different countries due to the economic downturn, import policy, fuel policy and consumers’ concern for environment and safety. For example in tax policy for importing cars in Vietnam is very high 100% 200%. In some poor countries where GM has office or branches, politics problems also affect auto industry. Economic factors: the economic downturn, inflation and unstable exchange rate have reduced the spending power of consumers. The credit crisis in Europe and economic problems in many other countries. Social factors: many people are jobless and reduce their spends or change the demand of vehicle. The gap between the rich and the poor is bigger and bigger in the world. Owning and driving a car shows the owner’s wealth and social status. Moreover, more people like environmental friendly vehicle. Technological factors: Technology is changing everyday and it requires the company to be updated and be more eco-friendly due to the trend of consumers. Many people have habit of using internet to look for a car before going to the shop and buy it so internet is really need to be focused on. Legal factors: more rule and regulations for safety standards and environmental impacts are being applied in many countries. Environmental factors: The environment is more and more polluted, too much smoke from factories and transport vehicles. This means that too much fuel has been used and need to be reduced. Therefore, many recent disasters like typhoons in Thailand, China, Earthquake in Japan and China where GM has the biggest markets really affected to the company’s business. 2. 2 Competitive environment Porter’s five forces framework â€Å"The Porter five forces framework helps identify the attractiveness of an industry or sector in terms of competitive forces. The five forces are the threat of entry into an industry, the threat of substitutes to the industry, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers and the extent of rivalry† (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Firstly, the threat of entry into an industry is low because there are many existing competitors in the industry and it costs lots of money to jump into the automobile business. Secondly, threat of substitutes to the industry is fairly high. Because of the economic downturn, the trend of using eco-friendly vehicles to save fuel and protect environment and traffic jams, other vehicles such as public buses, MRT, BTS are more preferable in many countries now. Thirdly, even the many consumers reduce their demand of buying a car, however, the bargaining power of buyers is low because simply they can not make a car themselves. The power of suppliers is fairy low because they can not produces a completed vehicle and really depends on its the company and the market. Raw materials are also easier to find in the high technology world. The last one is competitive rivalry which is really strong in automobile supplying market. Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Huyndai and many other companies are competing with GM everyday with new models, new shops, new plants For example, Ford is going to set up more plants in India and Huyndai have created more cheaper cars. In general GM is now facing very competitive environment with high power of buyers, threat of substitutes to the industry’s products and services and very strong competitive rivalry in the automobile market. In general the industry is not favorable to profitability and the core competence of GM is innovation. 2. 3 Competitors and markets Even now there are not many new entrants to the industry but there are many existing competitors in the automobile business. They are all big and developed such as Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Mazda, Huyndai, Mercedes and BMW, etc The three biggest competitors of GM are Huyndai Toyota and Honda Motor. Please see the financial report of GM for the last 3 quarter in 2011 and you can see. Toyota Motor Corp is a Japanese auto manufacturer that is the closest competitor to GM, especially in terms of number of cars produced and market share. In 2008, when GM was in the bankruptcy, Toyota Motor Corp. became the largest automobile manufacturer in the world continued remaining in 2009 and 2010. Huyndai Motor Corp is a Korean company that is also close competitor to GM in terms of product lines and competitive price. Huyndai Motors also focus on mini and mid-sized sedans which are more preferable by the middle class consumer. Ford Company is a very closer competitor to GM in terms of its size and innovation. With a long history, Ford has become the leader in harnessing nature as an energy source and using zero-emission hydroelectric energy. Looking at the US News Ranking for cars, Ford is the company who has most cars at the top lists[6]. In 2010, massive recalls from Honda and Toyota caused an alarm to the auto industry and really shared GM more markets. GM is now attracting more customers by innovating their existing products and selling them at very competitive prices; and positioning themselves better into the new markets. 3. COMPANY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 3. 1 Strengths Beside the external and competitive environment, the internal strengths of GM has really helped gain lots of its lost market share since they got back to their business in 2009. GM is still one of the leading company in the world automotive industry. These are the strengths of the company: Large market share is the core strength of GM. According to the Wall Street Journal, by the end of October 2011, GM had achieved the biggest share of the total market (18. 3%) in the US market[7]. [pic] [pic] Technology potential: GM’s global research resources allow the company to quickly investigate and integrate new technical areas of expertise. Safety and quality commitments: GM has announced that quality and safety are at their top of the agenda. GMs Passenger Sensing System is designed to help reduce the potential for inflation-induced injuries or fatalities to smaller occupants New business model centered on GM’s vision of designing, building and elling the world’s best vehicles. Good reputation of many brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and widely global distribution networks. Innovation and responsibility: GM is now providing more and more eco-friendly and sustainable vehicles to reduce impacts on the environment. This is absolutely suitable with the new trend of consumer. GM has the new team focused on results. The company has gathered and promoted many strong engineering talents with rich education. 3. 2 Weaknesses Many people said that retail was GM’s strength. Yes, it was. However it has turned to be a weakness as the company has invested too much money to maintain the their global distribution system for so many brands without getting profit back. GM has launched many new brands recently and spent a lot of money to promote, do marketing and maintain them together with existing brands while many of them don’t make any profit. Looking at GM’s annual reports[8] and comparing with the other competitors, GM has a poor financial strength. [pic] Source: Automotive Industry Competitor Analysis (CPM), available at www. carfreaks. info 3. 3 Value chain Analysis The value chain describes the categories of activities within and around an organization, which together create a product or service†. At GM, the value chain can be analyzed as the table below: (4) 3. 4 Managing people for capability development GM is an multinational corporation and employs about 210,000 employees in all over the world. Their employees are from more than 120 differ ent countries with different history, culture and lifestyle. So to manage well and develop the strategic capability of the company is very important. GM has done quite well educating and training. The company provide and encourage their staff to a lot of education and training. GM has built the content and classroom-ready lesson plans to help inspire students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math careers[9]. GM also applies staffing policies to develop an motivate their employees. The company also develop people’s awareness to direct people doing their right job to achieve company’s objectives. The new business model and the new leadership at GM have changed their management style to manage, value and motivate well their followers. 4. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GM To implement the above portfolio strategy for GM, we use tools to put strategy into action. Implementation strategy is the final step of the strategic management process and many people said that this step is the most difficult step and it’s even more important than the strategy because if the company creates right strategy but implements it incorrectly, the strategy can not be supported to achieve the company’s objectives and vision statement, sometimes seriously the company probably goes to bankrupt or gets bad problems with the business. The tools to implement GM’s strategy can also be seen as the strategic recommendations for GM. They include structural type, leadership, information and control system and human resource. 4. 1 Structural type GM is a multinational company and structure is a key thing for success. The transactional structure which â€Å"combines the local responsiveness of the international subsidiary with the coordination advantages† (John et. al. , 2010, p441) will be a suitable type for GM. Because with this structure, each national unit such as in Vietnam, China and Thailand can operate independently following the strategy of the mother company and be more responsible for their business. Each country manager and management board must understand the culture where their customers and their employees live. GM should use Balanced scorecard to acknowledge expectations of different stakeholders who affect GM’s business, and to learn short-term innovation as well as long-term success. Balanced scorecard can be used at different levels, criterion and perspectives. 4. 2 Human Resources GM is a big company and their employees live and worked from over 120 countries in the world. GM recruits, chooses and employs right local people to work for the company and follow the overall strategy. However, human is not like other resources. Human Resources (HR), managers and management board should understand the local culture and diversify. Employees are very important for GM’s business. Good employees should be valued, motivated and given chance to education and promotion. In each country, GM should have different and specific rules and regulations for employees there. HR also needs to be sensitive with employees’ expectations and difficulties to encourage and motivate them well. 4. 3 Information and control systems GM needs to update and control information to make sure that the strategy is processing correctly. Moreover, information should be shared and communicated between staff in the company to make them feel comfortable to catch up any changes or problems. Information systems are to provide strategy-critical information on a timely basis, and whatever inventory, materials management, customers services, cost accounting and other administrative systems are needed to give the company important strategy-executing capability. These internal systems must support the management process, the way the managers at GM work together, as well as monitor strategic progress. [10] 4. Finance factors Finance is an important determinant of strategic success. To implement the strategy, it may cost the company money and it should be budgeted, estimated and control carefully because financial statement of GM has not been brightly yet. The company still have debts and financing need to be taken care carefully. 4. 5 Market leader GM has many well-known brands and another suggestion for GM to develop their mar ket to be the market leaders is that GM should increase their existing market share to high their growth also find new markets for the existing vehicles. Beside the Red Ocean Strategy which focuses more on head-to-head competition, GM should apply and develop Blue Ocean Strategy to create new markets by developing products, building good relationship with dealer networks and customers, finding niche market to focus on 5. CONCLUSION General Motors Company (GM) with a long history in the automotive industry has got back and step by step gaining its lost market share in the bankruptcy in 2008. With many strengths and competitive advantages, GM has gained huge market share in the U. S. nd many other countries such as China, Russia Moreover, in 2010 Toyota and Honda fell into many recalls which gave GM more opportunities to recover more quickly. [1] Company history and heritages, Globalization section, available at GM’s website: www. gm. com [2] Retrieved from topics.. [3] Akerson D. , â€Å"We are building a New General Motors†, General Motors Company 2010 Annual Report, p. 2 [4] G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R. Whittington, ‘Corporate value’, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th edition, Pearson Education, 2008, p 163 164 5] More information at gm. com [6] U. S. News Ranking for cars, trucks, SUVs and hybrids can be viewed following this link: http://usnews. rankingsandreviews. com/cars-trucks/rankings/cars/ [7] Source retrieved from http://online. wsj. com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales. html [8] General Motors Company annual reports are available at gm. com [9] Company Innovation, information is available on GM’s official website gm. com [10] Information retrieved from: strategy-implementation. 24xls. com/en106

Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster Research Proposal

Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster - Research Proposal Example A disaster can take many forms such as terrorist attacks, earthquakes, snowstorms, floods, among others. Therefore, it is  crucial  to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for a disaster before it occurs. Preparing for a disaster provides better  management  of crises and enables people to be well prepared when the actual  disaster  occurs. It also enables faster and effective response to disasters, and faster recovery of  business  after a disaster. Moreover, it is necessary to  create  an emergency plan and  ensure  it  is backed  daily on-site or off-site in a secure location (Ferrell and Linda, 2010). However, some people may not  find  it necessary to prepare for disaster due to various reasons. Others may fail to  prepare  due to lack of resources like money and time. Hence, it advisable to choose the  best  decision making model in order to make a  proper  judgment. This paper will explain how the 5-step decision making model can be used to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for disaster. The 5-step decision making model The 5-step model is straightforward and easy to use when making a decision compared to other models.  It consumes less time than other models because it consists of only five steps to follow when making a decision.  The first step is to  define  the  situation  or to identify the problem. ... It is the most time consuming  stage  in the process of decision making, which makes it a challenge to the decision maker. However, when it is not possible to get all the information, people  are forced  to rely on their intuition. The third step involves gathering alternatives (Brassard and Ritter, 2010).  When making a decision, there are other alternatives that a person can use;  thus, it is necessary to  list  other available options.  The list should  contain  other options that one is seriously considering and those that  fit  the main objective of the decision making process.  Listing many  unnecessary  options only makes the decision making process more difficult than it should be,  and also  prolongs the time it should  take  to make a decision. After developing a list of other available alternatives, evaluate the options.  This is the fourth  step  which involves assessing and ranking of the listed options. Single out the most p owerful options then  develop  a list of criterions to use when assessing these options. When ranking the options,  choose  an appropriate  scale  such as a 10  point  or 100 point scale, depending on the complexity of  the  decision  and the  total number of criterions that  have been used  to  assess  the options (Graduate school of business Administration, 2010).  After ranking the options against the chosen criterion, assign weight followed by  specific  scores to each option.  Finally multiply the scale score with the assigned weights then add the total scores of each option and make a decision. The decision making  step  is the final  stage  when making a decision using the 5-step model. However, it is the most difficult step that many

Science Project Idea Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Science Project Idea - Research Paper Example Moreover, Kowalski (1987) points out that another research found that several days of fasting produced irritability, muscular weakness and depression or apathy. Since then studies has focused on how cognition is affected by nutrition. The sparse research on effects of food deprivation has created a void for further studies. Up to date no research has investigated perseverance despite its significance in cognitive functioning. According to McLeod (2002), perseverance can be a better indicator other than achievement tests in growth assessments in thinking abilities and learning as perseverance assists in complex problems solving. Testing as many cognition aspects as possible is the solution because the tasks nature is important when doing interpretation of the link between cognitive performance and food deprivation (Crumpton et al, 1966). Therefore, this research will help us understand how food deprivation for a short term affects perseverance and concentration with a difficult task. Particularly, participants starved for 24 hours will be expected to perform worse on perseverance task and concentration test than the ones starved for 12 hours who in turn are predicted to perform worse than the ones who were not starved. ... (ii) Materials Accuracy and concentration speed will be measured using number matching test found online (www.psychtests.com/tests/iq/concentration.html) which contained 25 numbers in 6 lines each as suggested by Eisenberger (1980). Participants will be required in 6 minutes to find in each line pairs of numbers that can add up to 10. Scores will be calculated as a percentage correctly pairs identified out of possible 120 (Eisenberger, 1980). On the hand, perseverance will be measured with a puzzle containing five octagons. Every octagon will include a specific object stencil such as flower or animal. The octagons will be piled on top of another in a particular way to make a rabbit silhouette. However, three of the identified shapes will be altered slightly to make the task impossible. Finally, perseverance scores will be calculated as a number of minutes spent by a participant on the puzzle before giving up (Green, Elliman & Rogers, 1995). Results After following all the procedures and doing the experiment, the results were as follows. Three questions of manipulation check indicated that every participant followed the rules and perceived correctly their deprivation condition. The average score for concentration was 77.78 with a standard deviation of 14.21 which was good. An average time of 24 minutes with standard deviation of 10.16 was averagely spent on the puzzle. From our prediction that 24 hour deprivation grouped participants would perform on the perseverance task and concentration test worse than 12 hour group participants, who would in turn perform worse than control group participants. From one way ANOVA, the results portrayed no significant effect of starvation condition on the concentration. On another ANOVA showed a significant effect on starvation

Inside the mind of a savant Essay Example for Free

Inside the mind of a savant Essay Treffert and Christensen’s article (2005), touches on the important and curious issue: the differences among humans. It is not to hide that jealous and curious species desire to possess what others possess and desire to know how it is possible. The description of savant individual, Kim Peek, leaves the readers wonder about the possibilities that have a mere possibility and right to existence. These authors begin their article with a concrete description of what does it mean to be savant. Their description is well poised and not an eggeduration. They, straightforwardly, describe the concrete features that Kim had without forgetting to mention that Kim also has serious physical disabilities. Kim’s listed abilities are though impressive. I do not know a person who would think twice to have what Kim had – but knot with the price that Kim had to pay. Enduring difficult attitude from others or enduring physical differences are quite different things. Kim endured physical differences that simply made him more different. Now, when he is a grown man (and way into his 50th), researchers took a serious interest in him due to the uniqueness of his case. The authors mentioned in the article that, even in childhood, Kim was missing Corpus Colossum, the connecting neural network that connects left and right human hemispheres. The writers write, â€Å"Yet in people whose corpus callosum has been severed in adulthood, generally in an effort to prevent epileptic seizures from spreading from one hemisphere to the other, a characteristic split-brain syndrome arises in which the estranged hemispheres begin to work almost independently of each other. † This statement, by itself, points out at the materialistic approach that without the synaptic connections between the right and left hemisphere the connection between right and left hemisphere is impossible. There were some ‘guesses’ among the appropriate researchers but no one wanted to mention a possibility that that here is a hidden purpose behind such appearances. The authors conjecture lies within a science fiction, however plausible. They wrote that the person born without corpus collossum learn to connect right and left hemisphere with the non-traditional ways. Their hypothesis consists of an idea that two separated hemispheres learn to act as one, in unison. One major point that the authors noticed was that the ‘abnormalities’ stem form the damage in the left hemisphere only. Furthermore, the suggested that males, per ce, display more frequent number of cases of savanism, stuttering, dyslexia, and autism. Their response to this theory was straightforward: one possible explanation lies within the fetus development in which they suggest that the make fetus has higher levels chemically dependent and left-brained situation. In to this hypothesis the understanding that the left hemisphere develops with a slower rate than that of right has a big part of their study. To evidence the above, the authors use the examples of so called â€Å"acquired savant syndrome† which is resulted in older children after the accidental damage to the left hemisphere. Further, the article speculates upon the implication of the significance behind the corpus collossum. One possibility includes a rationale, which suggests that, the possibility of the right brain compensation if the left-brain cannot function properly. Another possibility makes the readers think that inability to function within one hemisphere unravels the latent ability in another. The latter theory suggests that the left-brain dominance is due to the fact that we live in the techno logical society that prizes the left-brain achievements. Thus, the function of the left-brain, which is prone to science, math, and logic, leads us to what we call Human Rational, the human species that uses conscious analogies in their day-to-day operations (Read, 1997). The dysfunction of the left hemisphere all of the sudden opens new possibilities hidden and latent within the right hemisphere that holds the key to what we call today Human Conscious. It is of interest to the readers that traditional intelligence tests did not really work with the above subject: some parts showed below average while other superior range performance. In another excursion into the case, the authors noted Kim’s unusual versatility with a tremendously large lexicon of vocabulary in his possession. With Kim’s inability to explain the meaning behind the proverbs he finds amazing associations and is being quite effective in long-term memory recall. Such has been evidenced by his unusual abilities dealt with music, as per complex line up of tones and musical styles as well as the names and works of various artists. Here, and despite his dexterous prior complications, he can seat at piano and play a piece he had discussed â€Å"shifting effortlessly from one mode to another. † Even Greehan, the Mozart scholar commented positively about Kim’s abilities. In summary, the authors, refer to the fictional Rain Man produced after Kim’s life story, although the the writer Barry Morrow decided not to outline Kim’s life story. Similarities are striking, however, and cause one is thinking about not-discovered human abilities. References Darold A. Treffert and Daniel D. Christensen (2005). Onside the mind of a savant. Scientific American. Retrieved July 22, 2007 from http://www. condition. org/sa5c. htm Read, S. G. (Ed. ). (1997). Psychiatry in Learning Disability. Edinburgh: W. B. Saunders. Retrieved July 24, 2007, from Questia database: http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=od=100737215.

Gender and Sexuality in The Piano Essay -- Piano Essays

Gender and Sexuality in The Piano "THERE IS A SILENCE WHERE HATH BEEN NO SOUND THERE IS A SILENCE WHERE NO SOUND MAY BE IN THE COLD GRAVE, UNDER THE DEEP DEEP SEA." With these words, The Piano ends and leaves me in a state of confusion about what point the film was trying to express. The film by Jane Campion has been compared to the likes of Wuthering Heights and has been highly lauded for championing freedom of women’s sexuality and identity. Many critics, though, have debated on the final meanings of the film. This is possible because the film has such complicated characters, such as the main character Ada, who have intricate reasons for carrying out their actions. Campion created a film with a complex storyline that has no clear, easily extracted meaning. I believe that most critics have missed the film’s point when they try to argue what Ada’s expression of her gender and sexuality means. I would like to argue that while Ada does find a solution to the question of her identity and sexuality, this solution is not the feminist ideal of overcoming the status of Other and becoming a fully liberated woman that some reviewers claim it is. Nor is her solution an acceptance of the gender ideology prescribed by patriarchal society. Instead, Ada assumes a complex identity that falls somewhere in between these two extremes. The Piano demonstrates that although gender identity theories are complex themselves and help provide understanding, they fail to accurately and completely describe a particular person’s gender identity and sexuality because these can be combinations of many, perhaps even contradictory, factors. So, the movie’s representation of gender and sexuality is more Foucauldian, though some characters may still see thems... ...Winter 1998): 227-244.    Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.    Gillett, Sue. "Lips and fingers: Jane Campion’s The Piano." Screen 36 (Autumn 1995):277-287.    Hardy, Ann. "The Last Patriarch." Jane Campion’s The Piano. Ed. Harriet Margolis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. 59-85.    Hoeveler, Diane Long. "Silence, Sex, and Feminism: An Examination of The Piano’s    Unacknowledged Sources." Literature Film Quarterly, 1998, Vol. 26 Issue 2, 109 116. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO Publishing. March 23, 2001 http://ehostvgw16.epnet.com    Margolis, Harriet, ed. Jane Campion’s The Piano. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.    Sawicki, Jana. "Feminism, Foucault, and ‘Subjects’ of Power and Freedom." Feminist Interpretations of Michel Foucault. Ed. Susan J. Hekman. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State UP, 1996. 159-178.

Crime Are Positivist Criminology Essay

Positive Criminology, an approach which attempts to explain criminal actions not as an exercise of free will or of one’s choosing, but rather as a consequence of multiple different internal and external.   Cesare Lombroso (1835 – 1909), an Italian criminologist views that criminals are born not made, and criminal an example of nature, not nurture. Focused on biological and psychological factors to explain criminal behavior, and studied cadavers of executed criminals in an effort to determine scientifically whether criminals were physically any different from non-criminals, he believed that people were born criminals and facial features of criminals included things like enormous jaws and strong canine teeth. â€Å"Atavism† In the 1960s, positivist criminologists argued that criminal behaviour lies in abnormal chromosomes, the XYY theory argued that violent male (genes)criminals have an abnormal XYY (super male) chromosome (XY is the normal pattern in males) The Positivist theory of criminals being born rather than made died out, and there were moral implications with this. Classical criminology is an approach to the legal system that arose during the Enlightenment in the 1700s. Philosophers like Cesare Beccaria, John Locke, and Jeremy Bentham expanded upon social contract theory to explain why people commit crime and how societies could effectively combat crime. The concepts continue to play a large role in the legal systems of many nations today, although the approach in the modern world tends to be a bit more flexible. It is important to understand the context in which classical criminology was developed. During the Enlightenment, Europe was changing radically, with many nations emerging from feudal monarchies and radically reforming their laws. Across Europe, the law was wildly inconsistent and applied even more inconsistently. Judges and other legal officials often lacked extensive training, and prescribed punishments totally out of proportion to some crimes while ignoring others. Many people recognized the  need for a more uniform and effective justice system, and this approach was the result. According to the theorists, human beings are self-interested animals, but they are also extremely rational. While people will tend to do things that are in their own self interest, they also understand that some actions actually conflict with this, and many societies develop a social contract that dictates human behavior, with humans mutually agreeing to refrain from activities that hurt each other or society. People also have free will, which means that they can opt to violate the social contract. For example, someone might steal or murder to accomplish a self-interested goal. By having consistent punishments in place that are proportional to the crime and applied rapidly, classical criminologists argue, the legal system will create deterrents to crime. Rather than committing a crime with a degree of uncertainty about the punishment, people in a nation with a clear and concise legal system will be well aware of the consequences of violating the law and the social contract, and they may think twice before committing crime. One of the big problems with classical criminology is that it does not allow for extenuating circumstances. Someone who robs a business for profit is treated exactly the same as someone who robs a business in order to eat, and some people feel that this is inhumane. Others feel that the assumption of free will is also somewhat questionable, as people may be forced into making decisions as a result of their circumstances or socioeconomic class. Sociological criminology is the largest number of criminological theories have been developed through sociological inquiry. These theories have generally asserted that criminal behavior is a normal response of biologically and psychologically normal individuals to particular kinds of social circumstances. Examples of these approaches include the theory of differential association, which claims that all criminal behavior is learned and that the learning process is influenced by the extent of the individual’s contact with persons who commit crimes. The more an individual associates with such persons, the more likely it becomes that he will learn and adopt criminal values and behaviors.  Ã‚  Sociological criminology include the following theories; Social Disorganization(Chicago School) is identified with neighborhood studies of crime and delinquency that focus particularly on the spatial patterns of such behavior, especially as reflected in maps of their spatial distributions. It assumes crime as a product of geopolitical environmental, or call as urban ecology(by Park and Burgess). The rapid social changes (e.g. population growth, rapid immigration or migration) causes the breakdown of normative structure or community, the left-alone youngsters becomes the delinquent subcultures, the crime is the transitional neighborhoods that manifest social disorganization and value conflict. And the urban ecology urban cities can be compartmentalize in five zones, from centre to outside are 1.Central Business District; 2.Transitional Zone; 3.Working Class Zone; 4.Residental Zone and 5.Commuter Zone, and the crime and social problems are usually happened in Zone 2, which is contained many recent immigrant groups, deteriorated housing, fact ories and abandoned buildings. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Strain Theory is a sociological theory that tries to explain why people may be drawn to delinquency or crime. According to the theory, some crime may be linked to the presence of anger and frustration that is created by societal or personal strain. When a person cannot legitimately achieve the accepted goals of a society, he or she may turn to illicit means to create success. Three of the fundamental goals that contribute to strain-related crime are the pursuit of wealth, achievement of status and respect, and the need for autonomy. Sometimes is known as â€Å"American Dream†. Peoples see crime as a function of relative deprivation, and the theory assumes that the social structure as the source of crime. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Subculture Theory is that human behavior is learned via social interaction, most of the delinquency/ crime is learnt by exposing to anti-social definitions or becoming part of a group were delinquency is already established. (OUHK, 2013, tutori al 2, unit 2) Drift Theory is telling that human beings will look crime in conformist, give excuse to make the crime become reasonable and not as an illegal action, individual drift in/ out of delinquency by ‘neutralization'(e.g. denial). (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Social Control Theories tells that there is a non-pathological relationship between a criminal and a  non-criminal, delinquent act due to a weak or the broken of ‘social bond’ (attachment, commitment, involvement, belief) to conventional significant reference groups (e.g. family, school) causes the less reluctant to commit crime. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Labeling Theory assumes that individuals would be influenced by stigmatization, crime/ deviance as a result of labeling / stereotyping, a Primary deviance (yet to be labeled) will be reinforced by limited opportunities and ‘self-fulfilling’ prophecy, and then to become a Secondary deviance (subsequent behavior according to the lable given) . (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Critical Criminology is telling that the source of conflicts inside the society is the political interest and inequality (capitalist vs working class), base on this assumption, the criminal law seems only a protection of the dominance, and the crime defined by the powerful. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Environmental Criminology is including four main theories which are Jane Jacobs’s compartmentalization; Oscar Newman’s defensible space; Rational Choice Theory(RCT) and Routine Activity Theory(RAT). Jane Jacobs’s Compartmentalization is a modern design change lead to breakdown of social control hence lead to crime, compartmentalization of urban space into different zones lead to breakdown of social control (e.g. insufficient social interaction, unattended areas )hence lead to crime, the application of compartmentalization theory is to change the land use,(e.g. mixing land use) , or increase security for unattended areas. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Oscar Newman’s defensible space is similarly to Jane Jacobs’s theory, but focus more on building design or location, for example on these main points: 1.Territoriality, 2.Surveillance, 3.Image, 4.Envirnment, the theory thinks that the factors of the high crime rate is because anonymous open public space, many corridors and exits, insufficient lighting, location next to ‘bad areas’, etc, which is a bad design in the building or locations. To solve these problems , Oscar Newman suggest a thinking is call Crime prevention through environmental design(CPTED). (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Rational Choice Theory(RCT) emphasize the crime ‘opportunity’, offenders which is rationally weigh information on their personal needs and situational factors involved in the difficult and risk of committing a crime which is gain greater than lose. It will become easier to reduce crime by  increase the risk of the offenders and reduce the opportunity of the offenders to commit crime. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) Routine Activity Theory(RAT) emphasize social context, it thinks that crime is a function of 1.motivated o ffender, 2.availability of suitable target and 3.absence of capable guardians. In this theory, assumed that motivated offender can not be change, we have to reduce availability of suitable target and increase security measures to reduce crime. (OUHK, 2013, tutorial 2, unit 2) As a result, Environmental Criminology is the most practical approach to the security manager, consider the Positive Criminology is the theory that criminals are born, and which their biological problems makes them to commit crime, a security manager can not control the customers biological problems and how they are born, so this Positive Criminology is not a suitable approach a security manager to use; the Classical Perspective suggested that the greater punishment issue, the less crime will be, but as a security manager, when they detected crime happen, they can only refer the crime to the legal system and the security manager do not have to right to issue any punishment to the criminals; the Sociological Criminology is telling that criminals are infect by the social structure, economic, social interactions, which are the factors that a security manager can not control any of them, the Environmental Criminology suggested that Crime prevention through environmental design(CPTED), wh ich a security manager can change the design of a shop furnishings, or a plaza settings that can reduce availability of suitable target in the shop or plaza and increase security measures inside to reduce crime happen in a security manager control area. References List The Open University of Hong Kong (2013). LESM A204 tutorial 2 Criminology for the security manager (unit 2). Hong Kong :OUHK http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143163/criminology/272204/Sociological-theories http://psychologydictionary.org/positivist-criminology/ http://sociologycriminology.wordpress.com/positive-theory-positivism/ http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-classical-criminology.htm

Elderly Abuse

Everyone has the right to be protected in any means of abuse. Abuse of the elders will be considered as one of the worst. Elders are so vulnerable from such abuse causing them to feel distrustful and alone. Incidents of abuse are commonly occurring in nursing home facilities, impatient mental health hospitals, or within the person’s residence where the elders are not treated as how they should be.Abuse may come in verbal, physical, or even sexual means. Most of the victims were left with bruises, wounds, broken bones, or bed sores. Even worse, many suffer from trauma. Every year, many thousands of elderly abuse incidents are recorded. The sad part of it was most of the elders suffered the abuse, neglect, and extortion from their own family, relatives, and other persons in contact with them.In California, and in every other states of the United States of America, care givers and every other direct care workers ranked number one from the ones who commit the responsibility of suc h abuse. These include the physical abuse through hitting of any object and mishandling of the elders causing to bruises, sexual abuse from mean touching to rape, mental abuse implied with screaming and yelling to the victim, medical mistreatment through improper usage of drugs and inadequate treatment of sicknesses, and extortion.Abandonment would be another type of abuse wherein the caretaker always leaves the elder alone, causing the victim to be very inferior and just choose to isolate his/her self. There are many signs that may help you know if your elders are suffering from abuse and neglect. They always experience depression, confusion, dementia, and anger. How will the abuse be stopped? It will be possible through prevention. Once you noticed some signs of abuse, try to report it to your officials as soon as possible.

Free Essays on Juveniles In Adult Prisons

The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian Stevenson, Director of the Alabama Capital Resource Center said, â€Å"We have totally given up in the idea of reform of rehabilitation for the very young. We are basically saying we will throw those kids away. Leading To Prison Juvenile Justice Bulletin Report shows that two-thirds of juveniles apprehended for violent offenses were released or put on probation. Only slightly more than one-third of youths charged with homicide was tr ansferred to adult criminal court. Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The decision of whether to waive a juvenile to the adult or criminal court is made in a transfer hearing. The two major criteria for waiver are the age of the child and type of offense alleged in the petition. Some jurisdictions require the child to be over a certain age and charged with a felony, while others permit waiver if the child is over a certain age regardless of offense. Still yet, others have no conditions. Juveniles can b... Free Essays on Juveniles In Adult Prisons Free Essays on Juveniles In Adult Prisons The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian Stevenson, Director of the Alabama Capital Resource Center said, â€Å"We have totally given up in the idea of reform of rehabilitation for the very young. We are basically saying we will throw those kids away. Leading To Prison Juvenile Justice Bulletin Report shows that two-thirds of juveniles apprehended for violent offenses were released or put on probation. Only slightly more than one-third of youths charged with homicide was tr ansferred to adult criminal court. Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The decision of whether to waive a juvenile to the adult or criminal court is made in a transfer hearing. The two major criteria for waiver are the age of the child and type of offense alleged in the petition. Some jurisdictions require the child to be over a certain age and charged with a felony, while others permit waiver if the child is over a certain age regardless of offense. Still yet, others have no conditions. Juveniles can b...

Why I Want A Wife Essays

Why I Want A Wife Essays Why I Want A Wife Paper Why I Want A Wife Paper In our current age we have both sexes going to school and staying at home. A stay at home father is more common than ever. Unfortunately, this is not how society has always worked. In the sasss, women were treated very differently then we do today. We use to be treated like door mats and mutes. In Why I Want a Wife by Judy Brady, she reveals her anger In a different tone. She uses sarcasm and humor to get her point across. As if all of the expectations of a wife is laughable and presumed as a joke. How can anyone possibly do all the work that she has listed and not even complain once. Her message may not have been as powerful and motivating, if she Just simply made a list of her grievances. Also, Brady learned to never complain, thanks to her husband, about her feelings and would be a reason why she did not just say outright all the injustice she felt in her marriage. It could be a way around her moral obligations to her husband, while still getting her message across to married and unmarried women. Brady realizes her husband was sexist, unsupported, and how she was once oblivious of her surroundings, which contributed to her becoming a role model to women everywhere. Brady writes against sexism and warns women of the life of a bride. Based on our past In the demographics of a household, a man would not be caught doing any cleaning or cooking. Brady was classified Into a group called wives. She and other wives are outsiders according to men and are only good for taking care of the well being of them family. The presentment that Just because she is a women does not mean she does not yearn to educate herself or become financial independent. He husband does not allow these things simply because she Is a women Brady explains how just because she is a women, she still has wants and needs just as important as the next men, and not to automatically write her off because she is a women. She shows us how she finally saw that her husband was unsupported and how she hoped her writings would change the future, Throughout the essay, Brady speaks of the want for an education and a life outside her home. Although, at the end of the essay, after the husband completes his school, she is still to stay at home with the children and household work. Even after she was loyal and encouraged his schooling, the husbands view did not change. His wife was to now stay at home and to focus solely on all her previous duties, with the only break is not helping her husband with school. The husband should now take his turn in helping raising the family so that Brady can finally evolve herself out of the classification of a different breed. A women going to get an education around that time was unlikely, but what she was saying Is even If you dont have support, you can soul make a difference In you own life. In conclusion , Brandys past ignorance has motivated her to speak out for women In similar situations. Brady starts filth classifying herself in a whole other species. She comes to the realization of her treatment over a conversation with a male friend who was recently divorced. He states how he is looking for another wife, but not another ND realizes how unfair and unequal her husband is. This is when she finally realizes that to men we are nothing more then Just a an object. After her revelation of her identity, she begins to dissect and define her life by all the chores she is expected to perform and all of a sudden, she realizes she was serving a life sentence. Although, prison might have been a vacation compared to her lifestyle. She now addresses the everyday issues of a common house wife to help prevent similar situations.

Visual basic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Visual basic - Essay Example This is an instant messaging software that runs on the console. It supports very many networks such as yahoo, icq2000, jabber, as well as IRC. Are applications designed to run on forms? They are developed in thedotNET framework. Examples of this application include Dinner Now application, as well as another one for stock trading known as Stock Trader. The links to the screen shots of these applications are as follows: The other type of application is Outlook 2003. This is a very good example of windows form application. The screen shot is available at http://castalian.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/outlookuserinterface3.png 2. The next example is the Climbing Game, which demonstrates how the keyboard and clicking interact with each other using JavaScript on adotNET page. http://www.vbtrain.net/samplewebprojects/Web%20Interaction%20Sample/WebForm1.aspx 3. The other application type is Display Server Date and Time – this is an application, which displays a simple web page for retrieving used to retrieve time and date from web servers. It uses a HTTP Post for this function.http://www.vbtrain.net/samplewebprojects/Web%20Interaction%20Sample/httpPostExample.aspx This is a collection of libraries as well as interfaces in dotNET framework.These templates, which have already been coded and only have to be used together with other language components to develop a better complete system. The Library of Congress is a library that contains materials that remind people of the History of the United States of America. There are a lot of collections in the library divided in the form of categories such as Presidents of America, African American History and so on and so forth. The university of New Orleans online database contains catalogs, e-journals, and many other databases of books. Students and subscribers of the library for research purposes use it. http://library.uno.edu/ The planning phase of this program involves finding

Commentary on a macro economics topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Commentary on a macro economics topic - Essay Example This manifests the government’s efforts towards maintaining economic stability in case of unemployment. However, the article reckons that the federal government’s temporary â€Å"extended† and â€Å"emergency† unemployment compensation programs accrue benefits only after the state exhausts its benefits in case of a recession (Mulligan 1). This demonstrates the federal government’s concern on unemployment and depicts the government’s efforts towards economic challenges like recession. Notably, the federal unemployment insurance and any other temporary federal programs have expiration dates to discourage people from leaving their jobs, which would lead to increased unemployment levels. In fact, the article notes that although the Unemployment benefits from any program have great importance to the unemployed, they equally depress the labor market by encouraging retrenchments and allowing people to remain unemployed (Mulligan 1). Nevertheless, wh ere the victims are yet to get other jobs before the expiry date of such programs, the Congress extends the expiry date as part of the fiscal cliff deal (Mulligan 1). Indeed, the Affordable Care Act may replace the Emergency Unemployment Compensation if it expires on December. The new program will be more beneficial since it will cover the unemployed and the premium subsidies for health insurance (Mulligan 1). This manifests the long-term concern by the federal government to address unemployment in the country. Moreover, the article presents the fact that the continued presence of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and the new health care assistance derives an incentive for workers and employers to create and retain jobs (Mulligan 1). This is a long-term strategy to eliminate unemployment in the country. The article advocates for employment since it leads to income that generates additional taxes and withheld benefits for the federal government (Mulligan 1). However, high tax r ate discourages people from working. (Mulligan 1) The broken line depicts the level of the marginal tax rate if the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expires on December 2013. The diagram shows that upon the expiry, the tax rates are bound to increase more at the beginning of next year. It also shows that the tax rates are bound to increase at a lower rate if the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program does not expire in December 2013. Ideally, the health assistance will compensate the benefits lost from the expiry of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The fiscal cliff as used in the article refers to a combination of expiring tax cuts and across-the-board government spending cuts effective Dec. 31, 2012 (â€Å"Investopedia† 1). Ideally, the fiscal cliff sought to avoid the adverse effects of expiring tax cuts and reducing the government spending at the same time. The fiscal cliff has an overall effect of reducing the federal budget deficit ( "Investopedia† 1). On the other hand, the marginal tax rate refers to the rate of tax paid to an additional dollar earned through employment (Reynolds 1). Notably, an increase in income leads to an increase in the marginal tax rate. As such, low-income earners accrue lower marginal tax rate that the higher income earners. Although, marginal tax rate seems like an equitable taxation strategy, many people