Monday, September 30, 2019

Media, Culture, and Society Essay

â€Å"A witness is authorized to speak by having been present at an occurrence. A private experience enables a public statement. But the journey from experience (the seen) into words (the said) is precarious†¦ It always involves an epistemological gap whose bridge is fraught with difficulty. No transfusion of consciousness is possible. Words can be exchanged, experiences cannot.† In his essay out of Media, Culture, and Society, John Durham Peters brings forth provocative realities about the role of a witness. As the above quote demonstrates, it is impossible to truly communicate the act of experiencing an event to an ignorant second party. The â€Å"bridge† between witness and words that Peters describes is one that our society has formed in many different fashions. We of course relate verbally; but we also take photographs, write stories, paint pictures, and videotape those experiences in our life that may be of significance to others or ourselves. Visiting an actual holocaust survivor may be the best way to understand the ways of the Nazi regime. The ideal form of coverage the media can provide is â€Å"Eye Witness† News interviewing the clerk at a store that was robbed. The examples go on, but the obvious fact is that in order to understand an occurrence we must get as â€Å"close† to the actual moment as possible. In our study of history, a witness is a source possessing raw, authentic proximity to facts. Ideally, all history would be taught from these first-hand observers, but this of course is impossible. Naturally, we turn to the sources that go back lifetimes. War photography text taking us back the furthest. From ancient hieroglyphics to the bible, we see text as the most solid proof we can get about what happened years ago. divides chroniclers into travelers, pilgrims, creators, apologists, confessors and prisoners. Some write to keep track of their memories, Mallon suggests; others write for spiritual development; or to spark or explore their art. There are those diarists who wish to confess or celebrate sins committed in life or of the flesh; still others, trapped in jails imposed by others or by their own limitations, use diaries to create imaginary lives Today, as in the past, most diarists are not well-known. They may be students of history, literature, languages and the like; scientists and naturalists who note their discoveries and ideas; and a multitude of others who write for their own spiritual or intellectual growth. Even though technology has expanded our ability to record information — diaries can be found on paper, computer, video, film, or audio tape — the intrinsic value of diary writing remains the same. The records we leave behind will serve future historians as they attempt to understand the time we live in. What they will deduce about our lives and our society remains to be seen. Diaries and journals of early Americans are considered an honest, unembellished form — a key to our understanding of the past. The words, often written by ordinary men and women, provide valuable clues as to how people lived. Although the style and the form of diary writing has changed, the content continues to reflect the forces — economic, political, social and technological — that have affected the lives of Americans throughout our history. . In the 1700s, minister Jonathan Edwards kept detailed records of his duties and castigated himself for his spiritual failures Among male diarists, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark chronicled their adventures in mapping the Northwest Passage Now, according to modern historian Margo Culley, the diaries of women became more introspective, a record of an inner life. As more women were educated, they increasingly chronicled their thoughts. Rebecca Cox Jackson, a free African American woman who would become known as a religious visionary, described her spiritual transformation, in the 1830s.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Rhetorical Analysis on “An Elementary School in Slum Essay

The poem â€Å"An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum† by Stephen Spender, begins with a stanza depicting the worrying condition of the students in elementary school. As the poem extends further, Spender points out the corruptions in the Government and accuses it for paying little attention to children’s education and health conditions. He argues that the children should break through the confinement of slum, and embrace the beauty of nature. In the slum, Children do not have pleasant moments; they are far away from the â€Å"gusty waves†, and far away from the fields and playgrounds that supposed to accompany them along their childhood memories. They also do not have healthy bodies. A simile compares their hair to â€Å"rootles weed†, which shows that the children are severely malnourished, and are not taken care of. The boy is â€Å"paper-seeming†, and â€Å"of twisted bones†. The â€Å"tall girl with her weighed-down head† implies the fact that she might be looked down by others, and she is physiologically and psychologically fatigue. However, there is â€Å"one unnoted, sweet and young† kid, at the back of the classroom, whose â€Å"eyes live in a dream, of squirrel’s game. † We can see a glimmer of hope from this sweet kid, however, we are not sure if he is simply lost in the â€Å"squirrel’s game†. The school is poorly equipped with donations such as Shakespeare’s portrait that decorates on the â€Å"sour cream walls. † The picture of â€Å"cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities† is in sharp contrast to the dusty sky and shabby building of elementary school in reality. The kids’ future is painted with a fog under a â€Å"lead sky. † The depiction of turbid sky created an atmosphere of despair and hopelessness. Not only the children’s future is foggy and blurred, but also their lives are monotonous and insipid, â€Å"far far from rivers, capes, and the stars of words. The children are confined to the school in slum as well as their imagination. William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright and poet in English language, is â€Å"wicked† to them, because they cannot appreciate the splendidness of language. And â€Å"the map is a bad example, with ships and sun and love tempting them to steal. † The map gives chil dren the taste of charming nature; however, instead of igniting the light of hope, it falsely tempts the children to acquire their goals even at the cost of stealing. They live in â€Å"cramped holes†, a limited and narrow space, with â€Å"slag heap† all around them. Their study environment and living conditions are horrible, that they cannot maintain healthy body, let alone receiving appropriate education. Their future is like â€Å"mended glass,† foggy and blurred, full of despair. The school only operates when â€Å"governor, teacher, inspector, visitor† come to observe, so it does not provide serious teaching. Consequently, â€Å"this map becomes their window and these windows that shut upon their lives like catacombs. † The slum limits the students’ horizon, like catacombs, and the maps are the only way for them to see the world outside. They live in a dream that can never come true as long as they are still in the slum. At last, the poet envisions the students break through the confinement of slum, and finally they can embrace the beautiful nature, that was once on the map but far away from them. Spender harshly criticizes the government’s nonchalance towards the poverty-stricken children, and he appeals to all the people to pay more attention to the children and help ameliorate their education and health conditions. So that they can â€Å"show the children green fields and make their world run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues run naked into books. †

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Why is successful change management difficult to achieve What factors Essay

Why is successful change management difficult to achieve What factors would be most likely to lead to success - Essay Example Organizational personnel oppose the introduction of any sort of change for different reasons; change can alter the hierarchy of positions and induce fundamental shifts in the distribution of power, thus raising concerns among the already powerful workers. Change brings changes in the way work is done while the workers are accustomed to doing things in the traditional way. Changing the way they work seems odd because they are not used to it. Change can require the workers to display new set of skills that they might not already have. Every worker is educated, trained, and skilled to a certain extent and displaying skills beyond that requires further education and training. This becomes even more daunting for the workers when they have to afford the expenses of improving their skills themselves and the organization does not provide for them financially to upgrade their skills. Besides, motivating the workers is one of the most important challenges in front of the management. Within the context of an already existing system, it might be possible to keep the workers motivated. However, when change is implemented, workers come up with new concerns and develop different kinds of needs, thus making it difficult for the management to address those needs and keep a highly motivated workforce. Factors that play an important role in making change management successful in an organization include but are not limited to demonstration of the need for change to the workers, communication between management and workers, training of the workers, and the anticipated positive outcomes of change both for the workers and the organization as a whole. Management assumes the main role in making change management successful since most of these factors are under the control of management. The management should start the process of change management by briefing the workers about the need for change. This can be achieved by calling the workers upon a meeting and telling them what issues an d challenges that organization faces under the current circumstances, and what possible measures can be taken in order to help the organization deal with those challenges successfully. Many a times, management tends to assume that workers understand the organization’s challenges whereas in reality, that is not the case. Workers do need to be shown the true picture as the management sees it, so that they consent with the management that a change needs to be made. After demonstrating the need for change, management should tell the workers what changes in the hierarchy of the power distribution would be made, what technological components would be added to the present system, what skills would the workers need to display, and how they can get those skills. The management should arrange training sessions for the workers either in-house or by rendering the services of an internal trainer. It is imperative that the management upgrades the skills of the workers according to the need s of the changed system to motivate the workers to cooperate with the management in implementing the change. Finally, management needs to closely supervise the workers and resolve any interpersonal issues that are encountered because of the implementation of the change. A potential example of successful change management is British Airways. It all started with the recruitment of a new chairperson in 1981 who noticed the inefficiency of the company and the wastage of valuable resources. So he decided to restructure British Airways to make its business more profitable. The best way realized by him to achieve this was with the help of a change methodology management plan (Faucheux and Scheid,

Friday, September 27, 2019

Brochure on Islam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Brochure on Islam - Assignment Example The Five Pillars of Islam include fasting, hajj, zakat, prayer and ritual dedication of faith. Islam worship, study the Quran and pray at mosques with Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem regarded as sacred places (Berkey, 2009). The Holy Islamic book of Quran Major Festivals Islamic faithful celebrate quite a number of festivals. Such festivals include Eid ul Fitr  and Eid ul Adha among others. Eid ul Fitr marks the end of the month of fasting, coming as the last ceremony of the holy festive month. The early Muslims first staged this celebration in the year 624 CE (Berkey, 2009). On this day, usually a public holiday, Muslims give thanks to Allah for giving them strength to exercise self-control during the period of fasting. The festival kicks off upon an official sighting of the new moon in the sky. During this occasion, Muslims put on their finest clothes, decorate their homes and pay visits to friends and family members. Additionally, Muslims practice special acts of generosity and grat itude by feeding the poor, giving donations to the mosques and holding processions in the streets. Finally, the day ends by sharing a meal during daytime for the first time in the month of fasting. Forgiveness and repentance are encouraged during Eid ul Fitr. Eid ul Adha is termed as the Festival of sacrifice to mark Prophet Abraham’s sheer obedience to the will of Allah when he was asked to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Berkey, 2009). This festival is celebrated on the last days of hajj, which represents one of the pillars of Islam and the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims join those on the pilgrimage to celebrate the occasion to remind themselves of their commitment to offer any form of sacrifice He demands of them. According to the Quran, God sent Abraham to Mina to sacrifice Ishmael but later replaced him with a ram. During Eid ul Adha, Muslims sacrifice a lamb or another type of domestic animal with the family, friends and the poor getting a third of the total share. Meditation in Islam Muslims practice meditation, which according to the Quran is a method of reaching the Divine Presence of Allah. Meditation can be undertaken in any silent place including the mosque or at home. It is practiced by sitting in a preferably dark room, covering oneself and to cut any connection with the surrounding. During meditation, Muslims should not only feel, hear or think of nothing but also being in the presence of Allah. Meditation can last from five and more minutes but it is never a ride in the park (Perreira, 2010). An individual is believed to be successful in meditation when they are able to attain ultra-power which translate to some supernatural signs like flying away according to the Muslim teachings. During meditation, Divine Presence offers one an audience with Allah leaving everything behind so that no physical harm can be inflicted. The partaker of meditation enters their spiritual being. This can only be achieved by following strictly the special r ules of Islamic meditation. Meditation also offers relaxation and delivery from stress (Perreira, 2010). Islamic Rites of Passage Rites of passage in a Muslim’s life are marked to signify important transitions of life including birth, marriage and death. These practices together with the Five Pillars regulate the religious lives of every Muslim. Moreover, the Quran also prohibits practices such as smoking, usury, gambling, eating pork and drinking alcohol (Berkey, 2009).

Thursday, September 26, 2019

ARIMA modeling Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ARIMA modeling - Assignment Example In other words, the data for modeling the revenues of Costco Company may probably need differentiation through it is not certain that there is need for differentiation. In addition, the fact that the first six lags fall outside the confidence area shows that the data is non-stationary, that is, there is trend in the revenue function of Costco Company. Even though there is a trend (non-stationary data) it does not necessarily mean that the data should be transformed or differentiated. This decision can only be reached if specific lags such as 12, 24, and 36 are verified in respect to their expected values. That is when the decision to differentiate the data to remove seasonality and trend will be arrived at. In as much as the aspects of being non-stationary and having a trend have been removed through AR(1) as depicted in the ACF graph, the data looks much better though with two positive spikes at lag 1 and lag 3,. The lags 1 and 3 shows that the data is still non-stationary and there is trend in the data. There is need to remove the non-stationary and trend aspects of the data for efficient and effective modeling of the problem. The indication is that the data does not have a mean or constant variance. In order to do this, there is need to further differentiate the data by taking the 3rd different of y since this will remove the seasonality in the data. The above graph shows that there are specific lags that lie outside the confidence area. This means that the data is not stationary. It is important to find the ACF for the other differences such as 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th for the purposes of removing aspects of seasonality in the data. These lags exist outsides the confidence level as depicted by the ACF graph. The coefficients are SAR and SMA due to the seasonality present in the data. The p values of both coefficients are below .05. The MS is 466718 for the model.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Drawing on evidence from Japanese companies operating in the UK, Essay

Drawing on evidence from Japanese companies operating in the UK, critically evaluate the extent to which contextual factors (such as local labour markets, indus - Essay Example Management practices in UK and Japan are different because of differences in cultural, social and historical development of these countries. Wider social, political and economic conditions, incorporating enterprise unions, buyer-seller relationships, government support and economic structures cause the main differences between two models of management. In the era of globalization and internalization companies become dynamically evolving entities operating within a dynamically evolving environment, and some means of evaluation of the way in which the two interact has to be found to enable them to be better matched. Some contextual factors including local labour markets, industrial and HR relations mediate the transfer of "Japanese" management principles (Armstrong, 2003). The main techniques which was transferred include: Total Quality Control, Quality Circles, In-Process controls such as Statistical Process Control, Just-in-Time delivery and management systems and Continuous improvement. It should be noted that Japanese manufacturing techniques constitute the most tangible elements of the Japanese business system. They are essentially concerned with quality and efficiency and the improvement of competitiveness and thus it is unsurprising that it is these, more than any other aspects of Japanese management, which are now being adopted by UK firms. As increased global competition is placing more emphasis on local responsiveness, market segmentation, differentiation and product quality firms need to develop more flexible manufacturing systems and quality programmes to respond to the new demands. The manufacturing techniques were partially transferred taking into account cultural differences and strategy. Today, many companies tend to use a preventive TQM approach that overhauls procedures in every function from R&D to marketing and service to avoid errors, while cutting costs anywhere from 10% to 50%. The idea is to get products to a market faster, with fewer defects, and at a lower cost. According to Hill (1991) "top management determines quality priorities, establishes the systems of quality management and the procedures to be followed, provides resources and leads by example" (Hill, 1991). Manufacturing methods abound with references to teamwork and creative thinking. By focusing on the costs of poor quality, it saves money. It encompasses the notion of continuous improvement and, as such, it is essentially long-term. In Japan, TQM and Quality Circles are a core philosophy of a firm, but in UK they treats as management techniques. The industrial relations and manufacturing methods are not culturally based and serves as a useful methods of errors reduction and achieving customers satisfaction. Employee relations is another sphere of Japanese management principles. It should be noted that organisational structures are more ephemeral and difficult to replicate. They are reflective of family values and the country's national identity. It is often assumed that Japanese organisations are flat, with management being by consensus. Many Japanese organisations exhibit hierarchical characteristics, with decision-making coming from the top. Much resistance towards this principle has been displayed by UK employers in the adoption of employee involvement despite the apparent quality and productivity payouts.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Japan Foreign Direct Investment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Japan Foreign Direct Investment - Research Paper Example The behavior of exchange rates on the international capital market has a significant bearing on the quantity of capital resources that can be marshaled by multinational corporations to enable them carry out investments in the host countries. A country's currency is said to have undergone depreciation if there is a general fall in the value of the country's currency relative to the main value of another country's currency. Within the context of this essay, the Japanese Yen can undergo a depreciation against one of the leading currencies such as the US Dollar or the Euro if its value falls in relative terms to any of them. Suffice to cite a hypothetical illustration to buttress the foregoing point. Should the Japanese Yen fall against the United States Dollar by say 25 percentage points then the most likely impact is that cost of production by another hypothetical corporation will be significantly lower by 25%. The resulting low cost of the Yen can serve as an incentive for investment because a would be corporation will have to pay low cost for wages in addition to the prevailing low cost of production relative to what it will be in the United States. This phenomenon of attractiveness due to exchange rate differences amon g countries is known as the relative wage concept (Froot & Stein, 1991). However, this latter assertion ought... llel between the significant changes in the relative costs of production across both the United States and Japan and above all this should not in any way be altered by any overt or covert changes in either the cost of production or the wages in Japan where this investment will be taken place. In addition, the overall relevance of the relative wage factor will become negligible in the event of an advent of an anticipated movement in exchange rate. This has to do with either a direct or indirect rise in the cost of carrying out an investment in the host nation in this case which is Japan. The point that should be noted here is that in the most conventional form the factors that fulfill the interest rate parity are consistent with risk-adjusted rates of return in both the United States and Japan. Any shift in any of the above mentioned factors can change the entire course of a foreign direct investment stream. In a deeper sense the effects of changes on the foreign exchange market on investments are more profound on multinational corporations. Citing again the instance of a decline in the value of the currency of the host country relative to the investing source country, it is worth stating that should this situation of depreciation in the value of the host country's currency then the potential impact can be a significant rise in the wealth of the multinational corporation in relation to the host country. By this leverage the investing multinational corporation is better placed to engage in robust bidding for assets in the home country in view of the fact that it has relatively stronger capital base to engage in these activities. Of course saying this is an extension of illustrations presented in the preceding chapter with regards to wages and cost of production and how

Monday, September 23, 2019

Law and journalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Law and journalism - Essay Example These are through seeking and obtaining the full permission of the creator, referred to as the rights holder, and strictly adhering to the conditions under which permission is granted. The second and most widely used instance is fair use. The extent to which copyrighted material can be used is dependent on the various elements of fair use. Fair use however must be attributed to the original creator of the original material. Fair use is determined on four main grounds. First, fair use is determined by the purpose and manner of use of a copyrighted material. The reason that applies here is use non-profit or educational purposes. It is legally acceptable to use copyrighted for the reason of advancing knowledge or and advancement of the art by adding substantive new information in a way that completely distinguishes it from the original state and should generally be for the enrichment of the general public. There should be a sense of transformation to the new material and not merely a matter of derivation(Rolph, 45). Secondly, fair use applies when the item used is that which is in public domain, ideas among others. It should therefore be noted that copyright only protects the form, manner and style with which an idea is expressed and not the actual idea.Fair use is also justifiable on basis of the amount and substantiality. This basically encompasses the quantity and percentage of the copyrighted material has been adopted into the new work. A court of law would however determine the substance of the information needed to constitute infringement of copyright. Finally, fair use is determined on basis of the implications of the price of the original material in light development of the new one. As such, use of copyrighted material should be approached with care not to adversely affect the market situation of the original one, specifically the price. Most jurisdictions in the world generally treat copyright infringement as a civil crime, where all the aforementioned

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Pharmacology Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Pharmacology - Case Study Example This is a case study of the condition of VG and an explanation of the dosage that that would fit her condition. The VG patient seems to be experiencing common symptoms of high thyroid levels. These include excessive fatigue. Being a professional, I would ask if the patients were experiencing constipation and dryness. Several tests would also be important in establishing the how properly the thyroid gland is functioning in the body. One of these tests would be a serum (blood) T3 to keenly look into the properties in the blood and hormones of VG. There are also symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, appearance of hot flashes on her skin and muscle or joint pain that I would look out for (Razvi, Weaver, Butler, Pearce, 2012 811). Keenly looking into these factors and testing using serum would give a clear indication of the ailment that VG is suffering from. The test, would therefore, be helpful in enabling the identification of the exact problem as well as the administration of the correct drugs to treat the condition that VG is suffering from. The tests would enable the proper identification of the therapy that I would Institute for VG (Brandt, Green, Hegedà ¼s, Brix, 2011, 491). The previous THS level was 4.2 mIL/L, and it was from about a year ago. These results were already an indication of slight elevations in her TSH levels at the time. However, the abnormality went unchecked. The current TH level that is at 9.8 mIL/L and has a free of 0.72 ng/dl reflects a much higher increase of the THS levels from a year ago. This, therefore, shows that there could be a problem in the patient that would result in complications. It is also due to this elevation in the THS levels that the patient is experiencing these symptoms. These symptoms are an indication that the patient could be suffering from hypothyroidism. It is most likely due to the high levels of THS and the low levels in the thyroid in the patient. It explains the reason as to

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Cyborgs Unplugged Essay Example for Free

Cyborgs Unplugged Essay Firstly, it is necessary to note that the author provides rather interesting and extraordinary interpretations of human comparing them with cyborgs. In such a way, he wants to show that humans are similar to machines and their thinking is similar to that of the cyborg’s. The author assumes that nowadays people are more and more becoming electronic cyborgs as they are more exposed to electronic technologies. He explains that being a cyborg doesn’t me to have wires and chips; cyborgs are defined â€Å"in more profound sense of being human-technology symbionts†. Therefore, he state that humans are â€Å"thinking and reasoning systems whose minds and selves are spread across biological brain and non-biological circuitry†. Furthermore, the author admits that cyborg is a product of 21st century. The author tries to re-shape the image of a human, to explain the features of human intelligence as well as to discuss complex relationships. Nevertheless, the article isn’t devoted to new technology; it simply tries to explain human way of behaving and thinking on the base of using technological language and examples. The article, actually, discusses the nature of human brain, mind, culture and biology. One of the most interesting moments is author’s description of a human working day and drawing comparison wit that of an electronic cyborg. The author asserts that people are blinded by Western prejudice according to which human mind is â€Å"deeply special and distinct from the rest of the natural order†. The author defends the idea that it is cognitive machinery that should be paid more attention nowadays, because he thinks that machinery is housed with skin and skull of a human. Consequently, the brain is a complex and important part of cognitive machinery, though it is not considered a part of mental machinery. Therefore, the author tries to explain how the brain, technology and body are able to improve problem-solving machine. However, people are not thinking about themselves as natural-born cyborgs. Therefore, the question is: should people consider themselves electronic cyborgs? References Clark, Andy. (2003). Natural-Born Cyborgs: Mind, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence. New York: Oxford University Press.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Siemens AG Global Development Strategy

Siemens AG Global Development Strategy In order to understand Siemens International RD current situation and thoroughly come up with alternatives and recommendations to solve possible issues that may arise, it is first crucial to analyze the companys strategy and rationale for International RD. There are several factors and reasons that led Siemens to pursue and International RD strategy, opposed to a domestic one. The first one is the obvious labor shortages that would take place was Siemens to perform its research and development in its Munich headquarters. It is quite obvious that centralizing all RD activities in Munich would result in a critical shortage of the ICNs 1500 employees allocated to the headquarters. Secondly, customers in the telecommunications industry usually require extremely customized solutions for their businesses. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that product customization is performed with the quickest response to customer needs possible. Thus, the regional allocation of engineers, technicians, etc., into Regional Development Centers (RDCs) plays a crucial role in the fulfillment of this task. Finally, the global spread of RD units would theoretically provide the company the possibility of taking advantage of exploiting time zone differences, and thus perform an around-the-clock development strategy. However, this concept has proven to be utopian due the interdependence between overseas counterparts consequent of the extremely high coordination needed for the development of this type of leading edge technologies. 1.2. STRUCTURE OF RDCs At the date of the case, Siemens ICN had 6 major overseas RDCs in the following countries: Austria, India, USA, Belgium, Slovenia and Portugal. These centers are related to the Munich headquarters through a HUB-Model, in which RD activities are mostly concentrated in and controlled by the Headquarters, whereas product customization takes place in RDCs. Firstly, the number of person-years and capital invested are two strictly correlated variables in the companys development effort. This is trivial since the amount cash spent in a certain projects is an increasing function of the working years invested by the employees in the development of these projects (salary vs. work). Secondly, labor cost advantage is also a crucial matter in any business. Thus, as can be seen in the table above, the U.S. employees take the first place as most expensive wage earners, whereas the Indian take the place as the cheapest. In this specific case, India presents a great advantage for Siemens ICN or any other technology development company, since there is a good tradeoff between low cost and high expertise in this field. Thirdly, employee turnover is an issue the company sometimes has to deal with. The ambition (and sometimes greed combined with low company loyalty) of employees makes them often migrate to other companies where better salary conditions are offered. This results in a very high employee turnover and difficult allocation of workers to medium/long-term projects. Finally, coordination costs between the Headquarters and RDCs are also of the highest relevance. Since we are talking about countries many times geographically separated by dozens of thousands of kilometers, it becomes extremely hard to articulate and coordinate work between the counterparts. However, not only the geographic and time zone distance influence increase these costs, but also the cultural distance between them, since this implies more time and money spent in trying to reduce it through frequent trips, workshops, etc. 1.3. BOCA RATON RDC In Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., is located Siemens second largest overseas RDC. This facility is majorly centered in the development of the Electronic Switching System Digital (EWSD), and functions as many of the companys other RDCs: Munich Headquarters provide the project-base for each EWSD release to Boca Raton, which customizes it to the U.S. markets unique industry standards. Moreover, this RDC benefitted from the accumulation of enough knowledge to acquire the increasing independency from the Headquarters to manage more complex system projects the development of the U.S. customer-required Remote Switching Unit (RSU) is a good example of this. However, despite strong bonds and mutual admiration were developed amidst the counterparts during the development of the RSU, still some critical issues concerning working culture arose: the German culture of building road maps to guide the project development (think first, act later) was completely the opposite of what Americans used to do (act first, think later). Despite there is the rationale of keeping up to competitor technological developments and customer need adaptation for the Americans to perform their work in such a way which would denote a certain degree of home-base augmentation there is an obvious lack of home-base exploitation from the company, since the Germans are not effectively embedding their working culture in their American subsidiary. 1.4. INDIA RDC One of the major problems prevailing in Siemenss international RD process is the different working styles and culture clashes between its local and overseas developers. The contrast is most evident in Bangalore RD center where the Indians are working with their senior partners from Germany. While the Germans expect the Indians in Bangalore to show more interest in working with vast machines rather than to pursue entrepreneurial jobs during the process, the Indians hope the Germans could cancel some of their pre-arranged vacations and give them a hand in some critical points of time. Moreover, as with the Germans feeling uncomfortable about discussing wages issues in public, which is often the conversational topic of the Indian employees, the Indians regard it as being impolite to say No or speak up ones mind in a big meeting, which is required by the German seniors to necessitate the decision making process. This fact is dangerous in a sense that the Germans do not really know whether the Indians developers would be able to perform a specific task as they never say No to the Germans request. In the end, the Indians may end up wasting their time and resources as the tasks are beyond their capabilities. More adversely, miscommunication between Munich and Bangalore and between Germans and Indians, in a smaller scale, often occurs due to the Indian personnels avoidance of blunt request for further clarification in the first place. As a result, the Germans always find it necessary to have face-to-face interaction with Indian engineers in order to re-confirm everything is on the right track. Overall, most of the issues mentioned above stem from the difference in personalities of people from different nationalities. If no action is made to alleviate such discrepancy and to seek the most basic understanding ground among cross-cultural employees, Siemens would continue to incur unnecessary management costs. With this remaining cultural and communicational problems, headquarter in Munich played mainly an administration role. As the customers of Siemens ICN are most of the time Germans or least westerner, RDC in India had a position as an RDC for exporting, which means they follow the directions what is given from headquarter. RDC in India had limited chances to communicate with their customer directly. On Munich side, they had to explain, and had to give the specification to Bangalore. However, they couldnt have enough communication for subtle changes from customers or organization matters such as budget cuts, changes of managers in Germany. Should some changes from Germany, the managers in Munich correspond between India and Germany. It increased the possibilities of missing out on some specifications or misunderstanding between customer and RDC. RD center in India had to sometimes postpone their work due to those confusions. Although the actually RD site is in Bangalore, Munich took the role to integrate and test the entire system which is based on the subprojects developed by Indians. They soon faced difficulties to do that job because they didnt actually perform RD but the developers in Bangalore. Furthermore the subprojects are far more independent than they expected. It causes high inefficiency level that the RDC in India should work again and to find the problems for the system. As these RDC and headquarter are thousand kilometers far away to each other, they need additional care for cooperation and communication. As they should work together across Bangalore and Munich for After-service of their products, the remaining inefficiency of headquarter and RDC in India need sufficient attention. In addition to, gradual loss of cost advantages in international labor force was another problem and India was the standout country. Firstly, high turnover rate among Indian programmers caused high costs to Siemens. For instance, Bangalore programmers were even asking salary information of the German workers. Secondly, time to train a new recruit was long while the employment turnover rate was increasing. One reason was that Indian programmers were trained on inexpensive personal computers so that they relied heavily on German guidance for working on large systems. Thirdly, other competitors were emerging as first choice for local labor force in India. Siemens was considered as one of the best employers to work for in Bangalore in the past but other competitors such as Cisco and Lucent showed up and the competition to hire talented workers made Siemens to slipped from front-runner status to a middle-ranking. Lastly, wage increasing trend in Bangalore had undermined the cost advantage of this RD center to Siemens. The wage for developers in Bangalore increased roughly 25% every year. Siemens had lack of separate team to handle customers complicated technique request. Hard problems were often had to be referred to major RD centers, by which the personnel would be pulled from the RD team and away from their current projects just to solve the problem lead to delay in product release and inefficiency. In addition, there was a strong threat by internet industry. By the mid-1990s, voice transmission via Internet is faster and cheaper. If the internet companies can improve its reliability and quality for phone making, they would dominate the entire communication industry. Furthermore, Siemens had some difficulties in maintaining quality and workforce motivation at its American RDC as the company had experimented with the use of strongly defined project teams for each release of a product. We did a personal analysis for Siemens comparing with competitors and found out that Siemens was spending too little money for the RD during 1995 to 1999 compare to major competitors and industry average which is TELEPHONE TELEGRAPH APPARATUS. As you can refer to the figure3, Siemens RD intensity was 0.0078 that was not only lower than Nokia and Ericsson but also way below the industry average level which was 0.73. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. INCREASE OF AUTONOMY The lack of autonomy granted by Munich to overseas RD centers, in general, and Bangalore center, in particular, largely contributed to the inefficient coordination and worsened the existing culture clash in Siemens. To make corrective actions, Munich should give more empowerment to their international RD centers in regard to such downstream activities as interaction with customers. In specific, by directly talking to customers, the Indian team would have a better understanding of customers specification requirement and expectation as well as an increased sense of belonging to the job they are performing. It is prudent enough if small customers are first assigned to Bangalore center in order to test and evaluate its ability to simultaneously produce and handle with customers. This is also opportunities for Indian developers to accumulate their experience so that they can deal with bigger projects on their own in the future without much of Munichs scrutiny. For instance, Siemens could consider developing RDC in India as their Asian RD center, so that the Indian developers can read the Asian customers needs with their geographical advantages to Asia and at the same time, they can perform their requirements independently from headquarter in Germany. In addition, it is advisable for Munich to integrate and test the system in the place the subsystems are originally generated. For example, German supervisor from Munich should travel to Bangalore to conduct the integration and testing rather than send the sub-products back to and fly Indian developers to Munich. The reason is that in Bangalore, German managers can easily get their needed information from the Indian staffs, who directly participated in the task performance, in case there are any problems during the integration and test process. This practice helps eliminate the need for and cost of long-distance communication, let alone miscommunication which may arise due to language differences. More importantly, by conducting the product integration and testing in Bangalore, the Indian staff would have a feeling that their contribution is worthwhile as they can keep track of their spiritual product until it is completed and delivered to customers flawlessly. As a result, it would not hurt the Indians self-esteem while improving their sense of responsibility and belonging toward the company as they take control of what they produce. Moreover, adoption of Delphi approach in important board meetings among multicultural staffs would preclude their shyness and encourage all people to speak up their minds in an acceptable way to all the cultures. Even though the Delphi approach is time consuming and require everyone to meet face-to-face, it proves as the good solution in short term while Indian heads felt it wrong to reject other peoples ideas in a big meeting. In the long run, so as to bridge the cultural gap, Siemens should take on more approaches. In terms of communication matter, if the managers from Germany are qualified as international experts especially for Indian culture, they could deeply understand Indians communicational way. This can efficiently deliver customers need to Bangalore and also maximize the performance in India. Such an international cross over can also implemented other way around. For instance, Indians who have experience with Germans or least Westerner could understand their supervisors and customers need more exactly. These Indian international experts could bring also the ideas and project status in sense what their western-customers and co-worker need. This autonomy grant to Siemens Bangalore RD unit or, if necessary and proven to be a successful measure, to other units would possibly result, in the long-term, in a change of the companys structure from a HUB Model to a Network Model, in which the global control of RD activities would be split between the companys global competence centers, both at home and host countries, with a bi-directional technological knowledge flow. 2.2. IMPLEMENTATION TO REDUCE CULTURAL DISTANCE In order to improve their cross cultural understanding, here are some recommendations to get them having the idea of how their counterpart functions. Firstly, to have cultural workshops by international experts or even their co-workers from India, so that they can understand and know each others culture better, leads to lower possibility of occurrence of misunderstanding and miscommunication between Indian and German workers. Secondly, Siemens could provide Global sporting activities or family gathering in different countries. By having gathering events, employees can easily develop team spirits and become friends, reduce their cultural distance to each other after all. For instance, Hyundai Motor Company first had difficulties with managing and controlling the multicultural employees within the company because there was huge cultural distance between them. To deal with this problem, for instance, they started a global 33 basketball tournament across their local offices and it increases their profitability by having good relationship with each other (Korean and foreign counterparts) beyond the cultural backgrounds. During the matches, employees could feel that they share the same goal and they can well co-operate each other, regardless of their different nationality. 2.4. REDUCTION OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE Even though India had one of the worlds three largest engineering workforces, companies still engaged in a fight for talent. It was so, because the labor market is a global one, so a lot of companies would recruit software engineers to both work in their Indian units, but also to work elsewhere, as Indian talent was highly regarded in this field. Also, both national and international companies had substantial operations in Bangalore, Indias computational technology center, to benefit from the talent pool and the low cost labor, so companies often adopted aggressive strategies to attract the best and the brightest. Siemens had long established in India and was had a formidable reputation, being regarded as one the best employers to work for by young Indians. However, this was changing with the increasing competition for engineers by companies such as Lucent and Cisco, and as Siemens provide a great experience and learning curve, recruiters would often go after the companys engineers, and would pay a premium to have them switch companies, making the annual turnover rate in India, 35%, the highest in the company. Also, there was culture clash between the Germans and the Indians in Siemens, as Indians showed to be somewhat impatient and looking to move projects more often than what was planned by the German management. Also, Indians preferred leading-edge projects in the fields of mobile telecommunications and internet protocols, rather than what was being assigned to them, which was quality testing and integration tasks, which were more repetitive and less stimulating. The Germans also showed lac k of knowledge with regards to the Indian way of working, because the Indian output was not always reliable, as they kept changing approaches and they would rather fix problems right on the spot and not document them for future knowledge and improvement, and this was against the German mindset. All these issues helped keep the turnover rate high, and Siemens had to look for solutions to this problem. It seems that, to keep engineers happy, and as they were to open to discuss wages everywhere, Siemens would have to offer better wages, at least to their most talented employees. Perhaps the best way to do so, and to keep the incentive of increasing performance whenever possible, would be to keep the base salary where it is and offer performance based bonuses and also, stock options plans. There could be a 2 tier performance based bonus scheme, with both a short term component to it, and a longer term one that would only be awarded if the employee stayed in the company for a certain number of years and kept his/her performance level, to ensure that the motivation was always high and that the proper incentive mechanisms were in place. Regarding the stock options, this would also ensure the long term loyalty to the company and the incentive to adopt both a short and long term approach on a daily basis. These suggestions bring up the need to have measure of performance, as objective as possible. Working hours are not the best measure of productivity as anyone can stay longer and that could promote inefficiency, poor time management and a decrease in output. Criteria such as on time delivery of projects, inexistence of errors, reliability and integration of systems, after sales service and overall customer satisfaction (measured by both formal and informal feedback on all levels of interaction) could provide better ways to reward performance. Also, employees with out-of-the-box thinking, extraordinary contribution to projects, engineers that developed innovative systems and ways to overcome issues and provide a better and more efficient services to the customer, could be rewarded, both financially and non-financially. To boost motivation, and in lign with the previous recommendation, top performers could be given a certain amount of time on a daily or weekly basis to develop side projects for the company on their initiative, in order to feel more stimulated and rea lly adding value to the company and the clients. Also, besides the health, housing and vehicle benefits already in place, there could be an effort to transform the offices into more friendly working environments, in an attempt to adopt some of Googles employee motivation strategies, so that employees feel more motivation, loyalty and corporate citizenship that will ultimately lead to better output and satisfied clients. 3. FURTHER MANAGERIAL ISSUES Despite we hope and expect the recommendations given to have a positive impact in the Siemens International RD operations, there are some issues that may arise from these measures, though. If we think about the increase in autonomy granted to the Indian RDC, for instance, there is a dangerous threat in which the company may incur, is this measure to be taken. It is quite obvious that the more autonomous a person or an entity becomes from an upper body, the more tendency it has to deal with any different situation in its own way, either it is solving organizational problems, negotiating with suppliers or dealing with customers. Thus, due to the cultural differences that are felt between Indians and Germans, this is a situation very likely to happen. Consequently, and without wanting to state this is what would eventually happen for sure, this autonomy grant might result in a deviation from the companys way of operating from the Indians. The final outcome of such a deviation could be catastrophic for Siemens, since it could jeopardize a whole corporate culture and way of doing business, blurring the companys image to stakeholders eyes. Thus, as it was stated before, this process should be gradual and always under headquarters supervision. Finally, another issue that might arise from our recommendations is the loss of labor cost-advantage in India. Even though we are perfectly aware that, in one way or another, wage levels will necessarily increase in India in the next years especially in the technological field, due to the increasing demand for expertise in this area, as well as for the countrys overall economic development it is undeniable that this incentive program would increase Siemens expenditure in workforce and, consequently, mean the loss of the cost-advantage the company had by employing experts in the field at a lower price.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Truman Capotes In Cold Blood: Comparison of Book and Movie Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "In Cold Blood" is a tragic story of two men, Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward, who murder an entire family in search of money and then find themselves running from the law. While writing the book, Truman Capote used only facts to create a novel out of an actual event. He had thousands of notes on the subject, but his problem was making his book read like a novel. He accomplished this by adding dialogue and describing characters feelings. This technique is used in the film as well when flashbacks of characters childhoods are shown.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The different plots are handled very well in the movie. The main plot obviously is the murders and the run from the law. Other subplots that are shown are Smith's internal fight with his past in which his father deserted him, and at one point, had a gun pointed to his head. Also there appears to be tension between Smith and Hickock. They think differently at times, especially when it comes to the discussion of the crime. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards Smith, as it appears that he is forced into this by Hickock. All characters in the movie were played well by the actors in my opinion. They all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the setting and the time period.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that Hickock and Smith are not victims of forces beyond their control, they are victims of, at least in Smith's case, a bad upbringing. The two murderers have no direction in their lives. The only skills that Hickock seems to know is... Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Comparison of Book and Movie Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "In Cold Blood" is a tragic story of two men, Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward, who murder an entire family in search of money and then find themselves running from the law. While writing the book, Truman Capote used only facts to create a novel out of an actual event. He had thousands of notes on the subject, but his problem was making his book read like a novel. He accomplished this by adding dialogue and describing characters feelings. This technique is used in the film as well when flashbacks of characters childhoods are shown.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The different plots are handled very well in the movie. The main plot obviously is the murders and the run from the law. Other subplots that are shown are Smith's internal fight with his past in which his father deserted him, and at one point, had a gun pointed to his head. Also there appears to be tension between Smith and Hickock. They think differently at times, especially when it comes to the discussion of the crime. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards Smith, as it appears that he is forced into this by Hickock. All characters in the movie were played well by the actors in my opinion. They all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the setting and the time period.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that Hickock and Smith are not victims of forces beyond their control, they are victims of, at least in Smith's case, a bad upbringing. The two murderers have no direction in their lives. The only skills that Hickock seems to know is...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Mother Natures :: essays research papers fc

Mother Natures â€Å"Time Share†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lake Powell is a family resort for many. Every year at least two million people enjoy its splendor. But I would assume they do not know the trouble that lies beneath. Lake Powell was voted in by a small margin in March, 1956. It was part of the Colorado River Storage Project, also known as CRSP. Ever since it’s beginning, some of the people who helped build the dam have had regrets for what has been done to the canyon. Lake Powell has spurred controversy since its beginning on many issues: environmental problems, water rights, and the energy it generates. But the reservoir has its good points as well. There have been many jobs created and a thriving tourist market that have been the result of the dam. The concern now is the reservoir’s water level. At forty percent it is the lowest we have seen the lake since its establishment. We are not expecting more water due to the drought and researchers say it will not be ending soon. The question is should La ke Powell be refilled? History   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1922 the Colorado River Compact was organized. This organization allocated the resources of the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Upper Basin States (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming) realized that the Colorado River Compact had overestimated the river’s annual flow and wanted to guarantee their water rights. The only way the Upper Basin states saw fit to ensure their water was to literally hold onto their water in reservoirs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1956 brought the beginning of the Glen Canyon dam. But Glen Canyon was not the only site that was being considered as a possible site for the reservoir. Echo Park, in Dinosaur National Monument was another option that was being discussed by the Bureau of Reclamation. The Sierra Club was fighting to keep both dams from being built. In the end they had the choice and traded Glen Canyon for Echo Park (Ritchey).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  June of 1960 brought the beginning of the dam. Five million yards of concrete were poured into the canyon over the period of two years. The construction did not stop until the dam was complete in September of 1962. After Glen Canyon Dam was completed, and to this day, it stands 710 feet with an average water depth of 560 feet when the reservoir is full. The dam stops water for one 186 miles up stream, creating 2,200 miles of shore line (Booth).

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Child Abuse and Neglect Essay -- Violence Against Children

When thinking about statistics on child abuse, it’s very helpful to know that the idea of â€Å"child abuse† is very controversial. Recently, in particular homes and cultures, child abuse has come to be seen as a major social problem and a main cause of many people’s suffering and personal problems. Some believe that we are beginning to face the true prevalence and significance of child abuse. There is more to child abuse than just the physical scars; children are affected socially, mentally, and emotionally. According to the American National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, in 1997, neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse 22%, sexual abuse 8%, emotional maltreatment 4%, and other forms of maltreatment 12%. Physical abuse is defined as physical aggression directed at a child by an adult. It can involve kicking, striking, shoving, slapping, burning, bruising, pulling ears or hair, stabbing choking or shaking a child. Child neglect is when the responsible adult fails to provide adequately for various needs. These may include; physical, mental, educational, and medical. Out of all the possible forms of abuse, emotional abuse is the hardest to define. It could include; name-calling, ridicule and degradation, destruction of personal belongings, torture or destruction of a pet, excessive criticism, inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding information, and routine labeling and humiliation. Most abused and neglected children never come to the attention of government authorities. This is true for neglected and sexually abused children, who may have no signs of harm. In the case of sexual abuse, secrecy and intense feelings of shame may prevent children, and adults aware of the abuse the c hild undergoe... ...and destroyed newly-formed neurons. The areas of their brains responsible for the "management" of their emotions were 20% to 30% smaller than in other children of the same age. It would be logical to conclude that this damage can result in any child (not only Romanian) who suffers such abandonment and maltreatment (Dr. Alice Miller, 1998). Works Cited †¢ Dr. Alice Miller, Childhood Trauma, presented as a lecture to the YWHA, New York City, 1998 †¢ Jim Hopper, Ph.D. â€Å"Child Abuse: Statistics, Research, and Resources for Recovery." 1996 †¢ Lowenthal, 1996, p. 22 †¢ Nelson, D., G. Higginson, and J. Grant-Worley. "Physical Child Abuse Effects." Child Abuse: Effects, Statistics, Types and Stories of Abuse. Nov. 1995 †¢ "Scientists at University College Target Child Abuse." Pediatrics Week 5 Feb. 2011: 324. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Night World : Secret Vampire Chapter 7

Then you must have had a reason,† Poppy saidflatly. When he looked at her, she shrugged. â€Å"I know you.† She knew him in a way she'd never known anyone. James looked away. â€Å"I didn't have a reason, but there were some †¦extenuating circumstances. You could say I was set up. But I still have nightmares.† He sounded so tired-so sad.It's a lonely world, fullof secrets, poppythought. And he'd had to keep the biggest secret of all from everyone, including her. â€Å"It must have been awful for you,† she said, hardlyaware that she was speaking out loud. â€Å"I mean, all your life-holding this in. Not telling anybody. Pretending†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Poppy.† He gave a shiver of repressed emotion.†Don't.† â€Å"Don't sympathize with you?† He shook his head. â€Å"Nobody's's ever understood before.† After a pause he said, â€Å"How can you worry about me? With what you're facing?† â€Å"I guess because -I care about you.† â€Å"And I guess that's why I didn't treat you like Michaela or Jacklyn,† he said. Poppy looked at the sculpted planes of his face, atthe wave of brown hair falling over his forehead like silk †¦and held her breath. Say â€Å"I love you,† she ordered mentally.Say it, you thickheaded male. But they weren't connected, and James didn't givethe slightest sign of having heard. Instead he turned brisk and businesslike. â€Å"We'd better get started.† Hegot up and drew the window curtains shut. â€Å"Sunlight inhibits all vampire powers,† he said in a guest lecturer voice. . Poppy took advantage of the pause to go to the CDplayer. The music had changed to a Dutch club song,which was fine for doing the Netherlands skippydance to, but not very romantic. She punched a but ton and a velvety Portuguese lament began. Then she twitched the sheer hangings around the bed dosed. When she sat down again, she and James were in their own little world, dim and secluded, enclosed in misty eggshell white. â€Å"I'm ready,† she said softly, and James leaned inclose to her. Even in the semidarkness Poppy felt mesmerized by his eyes. They were like windows tosome other place, someplace distant and magical. The Night World, she thought, and tilted her chinback as James took her in his arms. This time the double sting at her neck hurt good. But best was when James's mind touched hers.The feeling of oneness, of suddenly being whole-it spread through her like starshine. Once again she had the sense that they were melting together, dissolving and merging everywhere they touched. She could feel her own pulse echoingthrough him. Closer, loser†¦ and then she felt a pulling-back. James? What's wrong? Nothing,he told her, but Poppy could sense that itwasn't quite true. He was trying to weaken the growing bond between them †¦ but why? Poppy, I just don't want to force you into anything.What we're feeling is-artificial†¦. Artificial? It was the realest thing that she'd everexperienced. Realer than real. In the midst of joy, Poppy felt a surge of hurt anger at James. I don't mean it like that,he said, and there was desperation in the thought.It's just that you can't resist the blood-bond. You couldn't resist it if you hated me. Itisn't fair†¦. Poppy didn't care about fair.Ifyou can't resist it,why are you trying?she asked him triumphantly. She heard something like mental laughter, andthen they were both clinging together as a wave of pure emotion swept them. The blood-bond, Poppy thought when James raisedhis head at last. It doesn't matter if he won't say he loves me-we're bonded now. Nothing can changethat. And in a moment or so she would seal that bondby taking his blood. Try and resistthat,she thought, and was startled when James laughed softly. â€Å"Reading my mind again?† â€Å"Not exactly. You're projecting-and you're verygood at it. You're going to be a strong telepath.† Interesting. . . but right now Poppy didn't feelstrong. She suddenly felt kitten-weak. Limp as a wilting flower. She needed †¦ â€Å"I know,† James whispered. Still supporting her, he started to lift one wrist to his mouth. Poppy stopped him with a restraining hand. â€Å"James? How many times do we have to do thisbefore I-change?† â€Å"Once more, I think,† James said quietly. â€Å"I tooka lot this time, and I want you to do the same. And the next time we do it †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I'll die, Poppy thought. Well, at least I know howlong I have left as a human. James's lips slid back to reveal long, delicate fangs,and he struck at his own wrist. There was something snake like in the motion. Blood welled up, the colorof syrup in a can of cherry preserves. Just as Poppy was leaning forward, lips parted,there was a knock at the door. Poppy and James froze guiltily. The knock came again. In her muddled and weakened state, Poppy couldn't seem to make herself move. The only thought that resounded in her brainwasOh,please. Please don't let it be†¦ The door opened. Phil. Phillip was already speaking as he poked his headin. â€Å"Poppy, are you awake? Mom says-â€Å" He broke off abruptly, then lunged forthelightswitch on the wall. Suddenly the room was illuminated. Oh,terrific,Poppy thought in frustration. Phil waspeering through the filmy draperies around the bed. Poppy peered back at him. â€Å"Whatis going-on?† he said in a voice that would have gotten him the lead role in The Ten Com mandments.And then, before Poppy could gather enough wits to answer, he leaned in and grabbed James by the arm. â€Å"Phil,don't,† Poppysaid. â€Å"Phil, you idiot†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We had a deal,† Phil snarled at James. â€Å"And you broke it.† James was gripping Phil's arms now, as ungentlyas Phil was grasping him. Poppy had the dismayed feeling that they were going to start head-buttingeach other. Oh, Lord, if she could onlythinkstraight. She feltso brainless. â€Å"You've got the wrong idea,† James said to Philthrough clenched teeth. â€Å"The wrongidea? Icome in here and find the two of you in bed, with all the curtains drawn, and you're telling me I've got the wrongidea?† â€Å"Onthe bed, Poppy interjected. Phil ignored her. James shook Phil. He did it quite easily and withan economy of movement, but Phil's head snapped back and forth. Poppy realized that James was not athis most rational right now. She remembered the metal chair leg and decided it was time to intervene. Letgo,†she said, reaching in between the two boys to grab for hands. Anybody's hands. â€Å"Come on,you guys!† And then, desperately, â€Å"Phil, I know youdon't understand, but James is trying tohelp me-â€Å" â€Å"Help you? I don't think so.† And then to James:†Look at her. Can't you see that this stupid pretending is making hersicker? Every time I find her with you, she's white as a sheet. You're just making things worse.† â€Å"You don't know anything about it,† Jamessnarled in Phil's face. But Poppy was still processing something several sentences back. â€Å"Stupid? Pretending?† she said. Her voice wasn't very loud but everything stopped. Both boys looked at her. Everyone made mistakes then. Later, Poppy wouldrealize that if any of them had kept their heads, what happened next could have been avoided. But noneof them did. â€Å"I'm sorry,†Philsaid to Poppy. â€Å"I didn't want totell you-â€Å" â€Å"Shut up,†James said savagely. â€Å"But I have to.This-jerk-isjust playing with you.He admitted it to me. He said he felt sorry for you,and he thinks that pretending he likes you makesyou feel better. He's got an ego that would fill Dodger Stadium.† â€Å"Pretending?† Poppy said again, sitting back. Therewas a buzzing in her head and an eruption gathering in her chest. â€Å"Poppy, he's crazy,† James said. â€Å"Listen-â€Å" But Poppy wasn't listening. The problem was thatshe couldfeelhow sorry Phil was. It was much more convincing than anger. And Phillip, honest, straightforward, trustworthy Phillip, almost never lied. He wasn't lying now. Which meant†¦ that James must be. Eruption time. â€Å"You. . .†she whispered to James.,†You . . .†She couldn't think of a swear word bad enough. Some how she felt more hurt, more betrayed than she hadever felt before. She had thought sheknewJames;she had trusted him absolutely. Which made the betrayal all the worse. â€Å"So it was all pretending? Isthat it?† Some inner voice was telling her to hold on andthink. That she was in no state to make crucial decisions. But she was also in no state to listen to innervoices. Her own anger kept her from deciding if shehad any good reason to be angry. â€Å"You just feltsorryfor me?† she whispered, and suddenly all the fury and grief that she'd been suppressing for the last day and a half flooded out. Shewas blind with pain, and nothing mattered exceptmaking James hurt as much as she hurt. Jameswas breathing hard,speaking rapidly.†Poppy-this is why I didn't want Phil to know-â€Å" â€Å"And nowonder,† Poppyraged. â€Å"And no wonderyou wouldn't say you loved me,† she went on, not even caring that Phillip was listening. â€Å"And no wonder you would do all that other stuff, but you never even kissed me. Well, I don't want yourpity-â€Å" â€Å"Whatotherstuff?.Allwhatotherstuff?†Philshouted.†I'mgonna kill you, Rasmussen!† He tore free of James and swung at him. Jamesducked so that the fist just grazed his hair. Philswung again and James twisted sideways andgrabbed him from behind in a headlock. Poppy heard running footsteps in the hall. â€Å"What's happening?† her mother gasped in dismay, regarding the scene in Poppy's bedroom. At almost the same instant Cliff appeared behindPoppy's mother. â€Å"What's all the shouting?† he asked, his jaw particularly square. â€Å"You'rethe one who's putting her in danger,†James was snarling in Phillip's ear. â€Å"Right now.† Helooked feral. Savage. Inhuman. â€Å"Let go of my brother!† Poppyyelled. All at onceher eyes were swimming with tears. â€Å"Oh, my God-darling,† her mother said. In two steps she was beside the bed and holding Poppy.† You boys getoutof here.† The savagery drained out of James's expression,and he loosened his hold on Phillip. â€Å"Look, I'm sorry. I have to stay. Poppy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Phillip slammed an elbow into his stomach. It might not have hurt James as much as it woulda human, but Poppy saw the fury sweep over his face as he straightened from doubling up. He lifted Phil off his feet and threw him headfirst in the general direction of Poppy's dresser. Poppy's mother let out a cry. Cliff jumped in between Phil and James. â€Å"That's enough!† he roared. Then, to Phil: â€Å"Are you all right?† And to James: â€Å"What's this allabout?† Phil was rubbing his head dazedly. James saidnothing. Poppy couldn't speak. â€Å"All right, it doesn't matter,† Cliff said. â€Å"I guesseverybody's a little jumpy right now. But you'd better go on home, James.† James looked at Poppy. Poppy, throbbing all over like an aching tooth,turned her back on him. She burrowed into her mother's embrace. â€Å"I'll be back,† James said quietly. It might have been meant as a promise, but it sounded like a threat. â€Å"Not for a while, you won't,† Cliff said in a military command voice. Gazing over her mother's arm, Poppy could see that there was blood on Phillip'sblond hair. â€Å"I think everybody needs a cooling-off period. Now, come on, move.† He led James out. Poppy sniffled and shivered, trying to ignore both the waves of giddiness that swept over her and the agitated murmuring of all the voices in her head. The stereo went on blasting out madcorestomping music from England. In the next two days James called eight times. Poppy actually picked up the phone the first time.It was after midnight when her private line rang, and she responded automatically, still half-asleep. â€Å"Poppy, don't hang up,† James said. Poppy hung up. A moment later the phone rangagain. â€Å"Poppy, if you don't want to die, you've got tolisten to me.† â€Å"That's blackmail. You'resick,†Poppy said, clutching the handset. Her tongue felt thick and her head ached. â€Å"It's just the truth. Poppy, listen. You didn't takeany blood today. I weakened you, and you didn't get anything in exchange. And that could kill you.† Poppy heard the words, but they didn't seem real.She found herself ignoring them, retreating into afoggy state where thought was impossible. â€Å"I don'tcare.† â€Å"You do-care, and if you could think, you'd knowthat. It's the change that's doing this. You're completely messed up mentally. You're too paranoid andillogical and crazy toknowyou're paranoid and illogical and crazy.† It was suspiciously like what Poppy hadrea!izedearlier. She was aware, dimly, that she was acting the way Marissa Schaffer had after drinking a sixpack of beer at Jan Nedjar's New Year's party. Making a ranting fool of herself. But she couldn't seemto stop. â€Å"I just want to know one thing,† she said. â€Å"Is ittrue that you said that stuff to Phillip?† She heard James let his breath out. â€Å"It's true thatI said it. But whatI said wasn't true. It was just toget him off my back.† By now Poppy was too upset to even want tocalm down. â€Å"Why should I believe somebody whose whole lifeis a lie?† she said, and hung up again as the first tears spilled. All the next day she stayed in her state of foggy denial. Nothing seemed real, not the fight withJames, not James's warning, and not her illness. Especially not her illness. Her mind found a way toaccept the special treatment she was getting from everyone without dwelling on the reason forthetreatment. She even managed to disregard her mother's whispered comments to Phil about how she was going downhill so fast. How poor Poppy was getting pale, getting weak, getting worse. And only Poppy knew that she could now hear conversations held in the hallway as clearly as if they were in her own room. All her senses were sharpened, even as her mindwas dulled. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she was startled by how white she was, her skintranslucent as candle wax. Her eyesso green and fierce that they burned. The other six times James called, Poppy's mothertold him Poppy was resting. Cliff fixed the broken trim on Poppy's dresser.†Who would have thought the kid was that strong?† he said. James flipped his cellular phone shut and banged a fist on the Integra's dashboard. It was Thursday afternoon. I low you.That's what he should have said toPoppy. And now it was too late-,she wouldn't even talk to him. Whyhadn'the said it? His reasons seemed stupid now. So he hadn't taken advantage of Poppy's innocence and gratitude †¦well, bravo. All he'd donewas tap her veins and break her heart. All he'd done was hasten her death. But there wasn't time to think about it now. Rightnow he had a masquerade to attend. He got out of the car and gave his windbreaker a twitch as he walked toward the sprawling ranch style house. He unlocked and opened the door without callingto announce his presence. He didn't need to announce it; his mother would sense him. Inside, it was all cathedral ceilings and fashionablybare walls. The one oddity was that every one of the many skylights was covered with elegant custom made drapes. This made the interior seem spacious but dim. Almost cavernous. â€Å"James,† his mother said, coming from the back wing. She had jet-black hair with a sheen like lacquerand a perfect figure that was emphasized rather thandisguised by her silver-and-gold embroidered wrap.Her eyes were cool gray and heavily lashed, like James's. She kissed the air beside his cheek. â€Å"I got your message,† James said. â€Å"What do youwant?† â€Å"I'd really rather wait until your father gets home†¦.† â€Å"Mom, I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry. I've got thingsto do-I haven't even fed today.† â€Å"It shows,† his mother said. She regarded him fora moment without blinking. Then she sighed, turning toward the living room. â€Å"At least, let's sit down†¦.You've been a little agitated, haven't you, these last few days?† James sat on the crimson-dyed suede couch. Nowwas the test of his acting ability. If he could get through the next minute without his mother sensingthe truth, he'd be home free. â€Å"I'm sure Dad told you why,† he said evenly. â€Å"Yes. Little Poppy. It's very sad, isn't it?† The shadeof the single treelike floor lamp was deep red, and ruby light fell across half his mother's face. â€Å"I was upset at first, but I'm pretty much over itnow,† James said. He kept his voice dull and concen trated on sending nothing-nothing-through hisaura. He could feel his mother lightly probing theedges of his mind. Like an insect gently caressing with an antenna, or a snake tasting the air with its black forked tongue. :†I'm surprised† his mother said. â€Å"1 thought youliked her.† â€Å"I did. But, after all, they're not reallypeople,are they?† He considered a moment, then said, â€Å"It's sort of like losing a pet. I guess I'll just have to find another one.† It was a bold move, quoting the party line. Jameswilled every muscle to stay relaxed as he felt the thought-tendrils tighten suddenly, coiling aroundhim, looking for a chink in his armor. He thought very hard-about Michaela Vasquez. Trying to project just the right amount of negligent fondness. It worked. The probing tendrils slipped away fromhis mind, and his mother settled back gracefully and smiled. â€Å"I'm glad you're taking it so well. But if you everfeel that you'd like to talk to someone †¦ your father knows some very good therapists.† Vampire therapists, she meant. To screw his headon straight about how humans were just for feeding on. â€Å"I know you want to avoid trouble as much as Ido,† she added. â€Å"It reflects on the family, you see.† â€Å"Sure,† James said, and shrugged. â€Å"I've got to gonow. Tell Dad I said hi, okay?† He kissed the air beside her cheek. â€Å"Oh, by the way,† she said as he turned towardthe door. â€Å"Your cousin Ashwillbe coming next week. I think he'd like to stay with you at the apartment-and I'm sure you'd like some companythere.† Over my unbreathing body, James thought. He'dforgotten all about Ash's threat to visit. But now wasn't the time to argue. He walked out feeling likea juggler with too many balls in the air. Back in his car he picked up the cellular phone,hesitated, then snapped it shut without turning it on. Calling wasn't any good. It was time to change hisstrategy. All right, then. No more half measures. A seriousoffensive-aimed where it would do the most good. He thought for a few minutes, then drove toMcDonnell Drive, parking just a few houses awayfrom where Poppy lived. And then he waited. He was prepared to sit there all night if necessary,but he didn't have to. Just around sunset the garage door opened and a white Volkswagen Jetta backedout. James saw a blond head in the driver's seat Hi, Phil. Nice to see you.When the Jetta pulled away, he followed it.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Long period of time Essay

What Techniques does Dickens use in Great Expectations to gain and sustain his readers attention and interest, and how effective do you find these techniques? Illustrate your answer using examples from the text?  Although Great Expectations was written some 150 years ago it is still being read even today. Dickens grabs the readers attention from the very start and manages to sustain it throughout the book by using a variety of techniques which I am going to explore in more depth. The chapter begins with the introduction of Pip and saying how his name came to be. ‘My Fathers family name being Pirrip and my Christian name being Philip’ this gives the reader an impression that Pip is you’re genuinely average person and the main character will most probably be Pip as he is introduced very sharply in the opening paragraph. Dickens characterises Pip and his tone of voice as learned and precise and uses formal vocabulary which may suggest he has had a good upbringing and his family are strong on manners and respect. Pip then begins to tell the reader that he never knew his parents and has never even seen them in photos let alone real life ‘I never saw my Father or my Mother, and never saw and likeness of either of them’ Although he had never seen his Mother or Father humour and pathos combine in Pips explanation of how he formed a mental image of his parents ‘The shape of the letters on my Fathers [tombstone] gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man with curly black hair’ Pip is shown as having a very powerful imagination and that he needed to create an image of his Father he never knew from whatever was left of him that he could find, even though it wasn’t very promising. In the third paragraph Pip begins to describe the scenery and whereabouts of his location ‘Ours was marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea’. Pip describes the area as if a camera was scanning the landscape and that we could see what he was describing which I think is very effective as it makes the reader more involved in the story as if they were there with him. Pips ‘smallness’, suffering and vulnerability is emphasised further on in the book ‘At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard ; and that Philip Pirrip, Georgiana were dead and buried and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias and Roger were also dead and buried’. This gives the reader a sense of sympathy towards Pip as most of his family are dead and that he hasn’t got much in his life. It also gives the reader an impression that Pips ‘days are few’ as his family hasn’t got a good track record of living long and this may worry Pip. The scenery ‘dark flat wilderness’ and ‘distant savage lair’ reflects Pips emotional state and feeling of no hope, which backs up the idea that Pips days are few and death may be around the corner. Dickens uses a mixture of emotions to fully gain and sustain the readers interest, and all of the characters have different personalities and physical features. Dickens also uses characternyms as a sharp way to introduce the individuality of the character and by one short phrase or even a word we can create a mental picture of what the character looks like. ‘My name is Jaggers’. The reader would feel by reading this that he is a hard, stern man with little emotion and that he has a jagged personality.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœMr Wopsle, the clerk at the church’ This is a very funny name and Dickens is trying to amuse the reader as the name isn’t very common.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœUncle Pumblechock’ This is also a very funny name and suggests he may be an arrogant person with a posh, pompous personality. Dickens mixes humour with seriousness consistently throughout the course of the book and balances this just right to keep the reader wanting to keep going on and read more. He does this throughout the description of Mrs. Joe and forces the reader into creating their own image of her by saying things which offer little help in knowing what she may look like ‘Not good looking’. This is brief but it is backed up by an in-depth description of her personality which may help the reader complete the ‘jigsaw’ in terms of Miss Joe’s appearance. He tells us. ‘She must have made Joe marry her’ and ‘had established a great reputation.. Because she had bought me up by hand’. This gives the reader a clear idea of Mrs Joes personality as from those two phrases the reader can gather that she is a very strict, temperamental and bossy woman. Dickens uses a wide variety of techniques to make his novel more enjoyable and for the reader not to want to put it down. He illustrates every scene very well by using repetition, similes and metaphors. He uses repetition as a technique to reinstate his thought and to make the reader almost feel as if he/she is there, as the point has been emphasized twice. ‘It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud deep in all the streets’ It also makes us feel as if it has been raining for a long period of time. Another example of Dickens using repetition as a technique to gain and sustain his readers attention is when Pip meets the convict who when talking to Pip uses the word and many times, this shows that he feels over-whelmed by the presence of Pip and a bit scared as he stutters to find words as he uses and a lot. ‘A fearful man all in coarse grey with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag ties round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smoothed by mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin’. Another technique that Dickens uses to devastating effect I feel is the pace as this keeps the reader interested at all times, he builds momentum up to a particular scene by keeping a consistent pace and then slows the pace down when using very descriptive language which creates suspense for the reader and keeps the readers imagination open as to what may happen next. ‘He looked about him with the strongest air†¦. Pulled off a rough outer coat†¦. and†¦. Hat†¦. I saw that his head was furrowed and bald†¦. Long iron grey hair growing on its sides†¦. He stopped in his looking at me, and slowly rubbed his right hand over his head†¦. He sat down on a chair that stood by the fire, and covered his forehead with his large brown veinous hands’. Towards the end of the book Dickens does the opposite and uses an acceleration of pace. ‘They had pulled one sudden stroke ahead, had got their oars in, had a run thwart us, and were holding on to out gunwale, before we knew what they were doing. This shows Pip as being excited as he is rushing what he is saying as he is not describing anything in detail and can’t to say what happened. Another very good technique that dickens uses in Great Expectations is Dickens’s larger than life characters that have been exaggerated to make the story come alive and more believable. A good example is Miss Havisham, as she is regularly described by Pip as â€Å"some ghastly waxwork from the fair† and having† dark eyes†. She is also described as a â€Å"skeleton†, and someone who had â€Å"shrunk to skin and bone† and having clothes that were faded and lost their brightness. This makes the reader perceive her as a very evil and dead person.  As I can see from his wide range of techniques that are used to great effect Dickens is able to gain and sustain the readers interest from the very start and keeping it going right through to the end of the book which makes Great Expectations so well renowned even today.

How to Develop an Organizational Training Plan Essay

Introduction To achieve its business objectives, an organisation needs people with the right skills and knowledge to be in place at the right time. The Training Plan describes how the organisation is going to achieve this. Creating an Organisational Training Plan: †¢ Is an opportunity for the management team to step back and identify the skills and knowledge gaps in the organisation †¢ Encourages the exploration of various options for training and development before deciding what to do †¢ Enables the budget and resources required for training to be planned and allocated during the business planning cycle †¢ Captures strategic training requirements in a single document as a point of reference for everyone. Definitions An Organisational Training Plan is a document created by the senior team that explains what strategic training the organisation needs to do and how it will do it. It does not address maintenance training, or personal development, both of which can be picked up at team level or through the appraisal system. Strategic training is any training and development of people that is required to enable the organisation to achieve its objectives. Maintenance training is the routine training that an organisation carries out to meet its legal requirements and operate smoothly. For example: first aid skills or basic IT. Personal development is developing individuals so that they fulfil their longer-term career potential in the organisation. Key steps in developing an Organisational Training Plan Consider the following questions as you develop your plan: 1. Have you developed a vision? 2. What are your organisational objectives? 3. Are the objectives SMART? 4. How do the various groups in the organisation help achieve these? 5. Have you involved people and representative groups in the development? 6. Does each group have the skills and knowledge it needs? 7. What training and development do you need to do? 8. How will you evaluate its effectiveness? 9. Do you know how the impact will be measured? 1. Organisational objectives An essential starting point is an understanding of the organisational objectives. This can be in the form of a Business Plan, or at its simplest, a set of SMART objectives. 2. How do the various groups in the organisation help achieve the organisation’s objectives? Start by identifying how each of the teams, departments or occupational areas in your organisation contributes to your organisational objectives. CBX is a medium sized software company that develops database management systems. It has 51 staff: Next year, CBX is planning two major business growth initiatives: †¢ It is planning to release a new on-line version of its flagship product ‘Lab Manager’. The market for the existing version of Lab Manager is approaching saturation, and CBX believes that the new version will kick start demand again. Development is currently behind schedule. Product Development will build the on-line version, the Sales and Marketing team are preparing sales and marketing plans that include global product launches. Operations are involved in creating the new packaging, and the Customer Services team needs to tool itself up to support the new product. †¢ It is extending its chain of sales agents to include the Middle East, Far East and Australia. The Sales and Marketing team are working with the newly appointed agents to create plans and sales literature. The Customer Services team will initially support the new agencies. 3. Does each group have the skills and knowledge that it needs? Now, think about the skills and knowledge that each group needs. What are their strengths and do they have any development needs? Here’s an analysis for some of the teams at CBX: Product Development (PD) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Good understanding of the target market and its requirement †¢ Experience of building similar applications †¢ Well established team that works well together. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ More effective project management †¢ Advanced development in Internet technologies. Sales and Marketing (SM) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Good understanding of UK/European market and their requirements †¢ Relationship building skills †¢ Good knowledge of existing products. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ Improved understanding of cultural diversity †¢ Briefing on new on-line product †¢ Project planning skills. Management Team (MT) Strengths in line with achieving the organisation’s goals †¢ Works well as a team †¢ Good understanding of market and its requirements †¢ Global vision. Development needs to achieve the organisation’s goals †¢ Briefing on new on-line product †¢ Improved understanding of cultural diversity. Tel: 08456 047 047 Web: www.traintogain.gov.uk Email: traintogain@businesslinksw.co.uk 4. What training and development do you need to do? Now, think about how what training activities you will put in place for each of the development areas in the matrix. Here are some options for you to consider: Team briefings Team training sessions run by the team leader. Useful for cascading information about new initiatives or for improving work standards in a group. Training sessions with an external training organisation to develop a new skill or knowledge. Can range from a one day workshop to a longer-term programme. 1:1 guidance and support for an individual who is developing a new skill or solving work problems. Individuals work though learning resources (e.g. interactive workbooks or on-line learning sessions) at their own pace. Useful for learning a new skill or gaining new knowledge. Run by people from within your organisation. Useful for delivering organisationspecific knowledge. The individual works with a more experienced staff member who shows them how to do the job or a particular task. The plan has to be achievable, and so you should allocate budget and resources to it at the planning stage. Many organisations believe that Investors in People assessors will be impressed with how much money the organisation spends on training and development. This isn’t true. The standard is about effective training and development in line with your organisation’s goals. 5. How will you evaluate its effectiveness? Think about how you will measure the success of the training activities in your plan. Try to develop success criteria that express the outputs or results that you expect in each development area. Your criteria should be measurable in terms of money, quality, productivity or time.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Historical Report on Race

They were sold into slavery where they were considered property, had o rights, past down to the next generation, and etc. (Schaefer p. 177). Slaves had to follow many different codes and it shows how badly African Americans have suffered over the years. Slaves were controlled by fear and intimidation. When slaves did not follow the codes they were punished in many different ways. For example: whipped, beaten, imprisoned, hung, or etc. On top of that women also had to deal with rape and there was nothing they could do about it.In 1865 slavery was dismissed throughout the United States (Schaefer p. 180). Since then African Americans have experienced many other hardships. For example: discrimination, segregation, hatred, racism, and etc. It has not by any means been an easy going ride for African Americans. There have been many different political, social, and cultural issues or concerns throughout America's history, because of the color of their skin. There has been discrimination towa rds African Americans and has hindered them from performing the best that they can.There was laws created to help support oppression of African Americans. As time went by laws were passed to help Stop discrimination with the help of African Americans standing up against the discrimination that they were dealing with. For example: â€Å"in 1 955, a black seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus† (History 2014). This brought around a citywide boycott that helped put a stop to segregation. There are many organizations that have come about to help voice ways of preventing discrimination.For example: in 1942, James Farmer organized an organization called Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Core was created and to help end discriminatory policies through direct-action projects (Congress of Racial Equality 2014). These organizations helped start the beginning of the end of coordination, segregation, slavery, De cure segregat ion, and etc. Legislation meant to constrain race with prejudicial boundaries that enacted. For example: Jim Crow Laws or De cure segregation. Jim Crow laws were created to separate the whites and blacks.They were set in place to supposedly treat blacks as separates but equal (Schaefer p. 180). It separated the whites and blacks in many different ways. Blacks were not allowed to eat in the same restaurant, use the same bathrooms, stay in the same hotels, or go to the same schools. While they were enslaved there were slave codes that they had to follow. For example: they were not allowed to gamble, they had curfews, they could not own property, they could not marry, they could not have a weapon, or etc. (Schaefer p. 177).The united States made it very difficult for African Americans to become who they are in today's society. African Americans fought legislation in many different ways. They boycotted, ran away, or etc. , just to get away from the laws or to try and end the rules. Alth ough African Americans were beaten or arrested they still continued to stand their grounds to get what they deserved. The government also put into place a restrictive covenant. Racially restrictive covenants played a major role in contributing to residential segregation† (Ramose 1995). This covenant helped keep blacks from living in white neighborhoods.African Americans fought the system to overturn the covenant and to be able to live where ever they wanted. In 1963 President Lincoln put Emancipation Proclamation into effect. â€Å"Emancipation Proclamation freed all people that were held as slaves, but only was meant for the states that were involved in the Confederacy† (Schaefer p. 180). The thirteenth amendment stopped slavery all together, in every state. There have been many laws created to help stop discrimination wrought the United Stated. Not only for African Americans but also for other minorities. Historical Report on Race Krista Hanna Eth/125 Mr. Lew 18 February 2013 Historical Report on Race *I am writing as a Native American, a letter to my friend of a different culture. Dear Molly, I am writing in response to the letter you sent me, to answer questions and expand your knowledge about the Native American culture. First off let me start by saying that life wasn’t always grand for me. As a Native American, we learned to adopt our own way of live. We lived off reservations, and lived a more traditional way of life.A life that we thought was best for us and our kids to grow up in. We produced our own food, shelter and weapons and provided for ourselves in the most natural way possible. It wasn’t always easy though, and others seen more value out of our land and resources than us. I was forced off my land and had to adapt to the new peoples way of life. That in which they called a white society; this society created many acts in my life time in order to weaken our society such as those of t he Allotment Act and the Reorganization Act (Schaefer, p. 47, 2012). People of my cultural lived on reservations, we had learned to separate ourselves and adopt our own way of life and government. Native Americans had created their own nation and it caused and has caused a lot of tension between us and the U. S. culture. As a Native American, we were all about live the traditional way of life. There was value to our land and the resources that we used and the white people wanted and did take it from us.It seemed as if we were constantly at war with the white people so that we could protect what we thought was rightfully ours. They had created an act known as the Indian Removal Act, which was passed in 1830 (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This opened more land for settlement and allowed people to come in and take over our reservations (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). In 1946, Congress had created the Indian Claims Commission (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This was a good thing for us, or so we thought . It meant that finally our voice was going to be heard.There were three members apart of the commission, and they were given a five year deadline, but there kept getting extension after extension, until; in 1978 the whole thing was abolished (Schaefer p. 155, 2012). At times, it seemed as if maybe the government was trying to help us, that or they were trying to use us. In 1952, the BIA began programs, so that they could relocate young Native Americans to Urban areas and by 1962 they had created what was called the Employment Assistance program; also known as the EAP (Schaefer, p 157, 2012).Basically there primary goal was to relocate us by offering us better jobs opportunities that, that of the reservation could not offer. But this plan had soon backfired on them. By 1965, one-fourth to one third of the people in the EAP had returned home to their reservations (Schaefer p. 157, 2012). Today, most of our land has been taken from us and no longer exist. Native Americans themselves a re not being treated as badly as we were back then, but it’s the culture and our name that continues to be insulted. Schools have such a thing as mascots, and they create names for them.They use those such as the â€Å"Braves† or â€Å"Redskins. † Those names have a meaning to the Native American culture, it tends to bring up the past for us, and though there intentions may not be that of insulting us, some of us don’t like it too much. It hasn’t always been easy for us, and at times I wanted to give up. But everything seems to turn out for the better. I’ve learned that every culture and person has their own way of living and when someone sees a greater value of that person’s living then they have to have it.Things don’t always have to be that way; people can come up with their own greater value of living. Remember, you don’t always have to have someone else’s greater value to have a greater value of your own. Mak e an even better living for yourself than trying to take someone else’s. I hope you learned well from this letter and I wish you the best. Your Friend! Resources: Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Racial and Ethnic Groups (13th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Historical Report on Race Krista Hanna Eth/125 Mr. Lew 18 February 2013 Historical Report on Race *I am writing as a Native American, a letter to my friend of a different culture. Dear Molly, I am writing in response to the letter you sent me, to answer questions and expand your knowledge about the Native American culture. First off let me start by saying that life wasn’t always grand for me. As a Native American, we learned to adopt our own way of live. We lived off reservations, and lived a more traditional way of life.A life that we thought was best for us and our kids to grow up in. We produced our own food, shelter and weapons and provided for ourselves in the most natural way possible. It wasn’t always easy though, and others seen more value out of our land and resources than us. I was forced off my land and had to adapt to the new peoples way of life. That in which they called a white society; this society created many acts in my life time in order to weaken our society such as those of t he Allotment Act and the Reorganization Act (Schaefer, p. 47, 2012). People of my cultural lived on reservations, we had learned to separate ourselves and adopt our own way of life and government. Native Americans had created their own nation and it caused and has caused a lot of tension between us and the U. S. culture. As a Native American, we were all about live the traditional way of life. There was value to our land and the resources that we used and the white people wanted and did take it from us.It seemed as if we were constantly at war with the white people so that we could protect what we thought was rightfully ours. They had created an act known as the Indian Removal Act, which was passed in 1830 (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This opened more land for settlement and allowed people to come in and take over our reservations (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). In 1946, Congress had created the Indian Claims Commission (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This was a good thing for us, or so we thought . It meant that finally our voice was going to be heard.There were three members apart of the commission, and they were given a five year deadline, but there kept getting extension after extension, until; in 1978 the whole thing was abolished (Schaefer p. 155, 2012). At times, it seemed as if maybe the government was trying to help us, that or they were trying to use us. In 1952, the BIA began programs, so that they could relocate young Native Americans to Urban areas and by 1962 they had created what was called the Employment Assistance program; also known as the EAP (Schaefer, p 157, 2012).Basically there primary goal was to relocate us by offering us better jobs opportunities that, that of the reservation could not offer. But this plan had soon backfired on them. By 1965, one-fourth to one third of the people in the EAP had returned home to their reservations (Schaefer p. 157, 2012). Today, most of our land has been taken from us and no longer exist. Native Americans themselves a re not being treated as badly as we were back then, but it’s the culture and our name that continues to be insulted. Schools have such a thing as mascots, and they create names for them.They use those such as the â€Å"Braves† or â€Å"Redskins. † Those names have a meaning to the Native American culture, it tends to bring up the past for us, and though there intentions may not be that of insulting us, some of us don’t like it too much. It hasn’t always been easy for us, and at times I wanted to give up. But everything seems to turn out for the better. I’ve learned that every culture and person has their own way of living and when someone sees a greater value of that person’s living then they have to have it.Things don’t always have to be that way; people can come up with their own greater value of living. Remember, you don’t always have to have someone else’s greater value to have a greater value of your own. Mak e an even better living for yourself than trying to take someone else’s. I hope you learned well from this letter and I wish you the best. Your Friend! Resources: Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Racial and Ethnic Groups (13th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Historical Report on Race Krista Hanna Eth/125 Mr. Lew 18 February 2013 Historical Report on Race *I am writing as a Native American, a letter to my friend of a different culture. Dear Molly, I am writing in response to the letter you sent me, to answer questions and expand your knowledge about the Native American culture. First off let me start by saying that life wasn’t always grand for me. As a Native American, we learned to adopt our own way of live. We lived off reservations, and lived a more traditional way of life.A life that we thought was best for us and our kids to grow up in. We produced our own food, shelter and weapons and provided for ourselves in the most natural way possible. It wasn’t always easy though, and others seen more value out of our land and resources than us. I was forced off my land and had to adapt to the new peoples way of life. That in which they called a white society; this society created many acts in my life time in order to weaken our society such as those of t he Allotment Act and the Reorganization Act (Schaefer, p. 47, 2012). People of my cultural lived on reservations, we had learned to separate ourselves and adopt our own way of life and government. Native Americans had created their own nation and it caused and has caused a lot of tension between us and the U. S. culture. As a Native American, we were all about live the traditional way of life. There was value to our land and the resources that we used and the white people wanted and did take it from us.It seemed as if we were constantly at war with the white people so that we could protect what we thought was rightfully ours. They had created an act known as the Indian Removal Act, which was passed in 1830 (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This opened more land for settlement and allowed people to come in and take over our reservations (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). In 1946, Congress had created the Indian Claims Commission (Schaefer, p. 150, 2012). This was a good thing for us, or so we thought . It meant that finally our voice was going to be heard.There were three members apart of the commission, and they were given a five year deadline, but there kept getting extension after extension, until; in 1978 the whole thing was abolished (Schaefer p. 155, 2012). At times, it seemed as if maybe the government was trying to help us, that or they were trying to use us. In 1952, the BIA began programs, so that they could relocate young Native Americans to Urban areas and by 1962 they had created what was called the Employment Assistance program; also known as the EAP (Schaefer, p 157, 2012).Basically there primary goal was to relocate us by offering us better jobs opportunities that, that of the reservation could not offer. But this plan had soon backfired on them. By 1965, one-fourth to one third of the people in the EAP had returned home to their reservations (Schaefer p. 157, 2012). Today, most of our land has been taken from us and no longer exist. Native Americans themselves a re not being treated as badly as we were back then, but it’s the culture and our name that continues to be insulted. Schools have such a thing as mascots, and they create names for them.They use those such as the â€Å"Braves† or â€Å"Redskins. † Those names have a meaning to the Native American culture, it tends to bring up the past for us, and though there intentions may not be that of insulting us, some of us don’t like it too much. It hasn’t always been easy for us, and at times I wanted to give up. But everything seems to turn out for the better. I’ve learned that every culture and person has their own way of living and when someone sees a greater value of that person’s living then they have to have it.Things don’t always have to be that way; people can come up with their own greater value of living. Remember, you don’t always have to have someone else’s greater value to have a greater value of your own. Mak e an even better living for yourself than trying to take someone else’s. I hope you learned well from this letter and I wish you the best. Your Friend! Resources: Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Racial and Ethnic Groups (13th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.