Macbeth And Justice Essays - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth And Justice Even though people in retributive justice feel satisfaction, the perpetrator can also suffer. William Shakespeare's powerful Macbeth shows the deterioration of an honourable and respectable general, Macbeth, who becomes a tragic hero after temptations from the witches and his wife to perform murders. Macbeth soliloquies enable the audience to experience the conflict within Macbeth and thus, gain an understanding of the reasons for his behavior and decisions. As a result, the tremendous reversal of Macbeth's fortunes in the end leaves the audience filled not with pity, but also awe, at the realization that people can suffer greatly. Macbeth's soliloquies before the murder of Duncan shows the vigorous internal struggle of himself, as his conscience is fighting against his evil minds. Also, they shows Macbeth has brought his own downfall upon himself. The audience will then feel pity about Macbeth's deterioration brought by himself when witnessing his choice of following the evil. Macbeth is a courageous and honourable general in Scotland. His success in the battle against the invaders of Scotland gains respect from the King Duncan and his fellow soldiers. However, the demonic forces, symbolized by three witches, temptates Macbeth. The witches hail Macbeth as the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor who will be king and hail Banquo, who is a nobleman of Scotland and Macbeth's friend, as one who will become the father of a line of kings. Macbeth ambition deep in his heart starts growing at that time. In Act I, scene iii, when Macbeth is thinking about the fulfillment of the two prophecies given by the witches before, "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes my single state of man"(I, iii, 139- 140) In this soliloquy, Macbeth reflects his idea about the "two truths" told by the witches. He is ambitious to become king, as he reacts nervously when the witches mention his fate. The very idea of murder "shakes his single state of man". However, at this! point, he is loyal to the king, and he rejects the idea of murder, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir."(I, iii, 143-144) The predictions by the witches may have strengthened the criminal intentions that he had probably never yet dared to express clearly, even to himself. He is not alliance with crime, he is neutral, but obviously temptation is working upon him. Yet, he might overcome the promptings of his evil ambition by an effort. After the battle, Macbeth is greeted with effusive thanks by Duncan. Duncan then announces that he will make Malcolm heir to the throne. In Act I, scene iv, Macbeth in his aside states that this announcement is a bar to his ambition and calls upon darkness to cover what he wishes to be done: That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see (I, iv, 49-54) As Duncan makes the announcement, Macbeth starts wondering if murder is the only way in which he can achieve the kingship. His ambition overcomes his finer nature. He calls upon the stars to hide their light, indicating that his "black" desires comes out, and he thinks it is too evil to be seen. Macbeth's image of the eyes' winking upon the work of the hand is expressive both of his intense aversion to the deed and of his intense desire to get what the deed will accomplish. At the same time his "let that be" marks the point at which his fascinated contemplation of the thought of murdering Duncan becomes a resolution, although he will waver from it. The opposition between eye and hand is indicative of the civil war within him. In Act I, scene iv, shortly after Duncan's arrival to Macbeth's castle, Macbeth gives voice to his feeling concerning the rashness and the awfulness of the projected murder: If it were done when ?tis done, then ?twere well it were done quickly. If th' assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow might be the be-ball and the end-all -- here. But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, we'd jump the life to come. But in these cases we still have judgment here. (I, vii, 1--8) At this point, Macbeth's character has fallen to the point where he

Landscape in Bessie Heads Collector of Treasures Essays

Landscape in Bessie Heads Collector of Treasures Essays Landscape in Bessie Heads Collector of Treasures Paper Landscape in Bessie Heads Collector of Treasures Paper Essay Topic: In Love and Trouble Stories of Black Women In this essay I will explore the construction of spatial discourses as they inform endured, racial and other ideologically policed senses of cultural identity. The prescribed statement; The questions of home, land, language and cultural expression are central to the constitution of identity, much as awareness of issues of gender, race, class and national identity are integral to the creative construction of liberating postcolonial subjects will be investigated through four stories from her short story collection, The Collector of Treasures (1992). The stories that will be looked at are The Deep River: A Story of Ancient Tribal Migration, Jacob: The Story of a Faith-Healing Priest, Life and The Wind and a Boy. Each story will be looked at in terms of societal changes; character displacement and exile themes; the clash between encroaching modernism and capitalism (brought about by colonialism and arguably neocolonialism) and tribal traditionalism; and dualities which reveal this clash of value as well as centers relating to control and gender. Because of the nature of her personal life and the themes with which she deals, each story will also be looked at in terms of borders: symbolic, topographic and temporal. Borders, by definition, keep things in as ell as keep things out, and so these raise the questions of space, place and belonging. For this reason, it becomes a postcolonial concern to envisage Heads fictional stories as textual landscapes by which she and the reader are allowed to navigate the potholes of gender, society, and the construction of identity. Bessie Head had a much-varied life while living in South Africa. She lived as a foster child until she was thirteen years old, studied at a mission school, trained as a teacher, and after a few years teaching, worked as a journalist for a DRIED publication, Golden City post. Head left South Africa and moved to Botswana, where she lived as a refugee for fifteen years (Head 1992:I). The Botswana government refused to grant her citizenship, fearing South African intervention should the exile community expand, and so she was forced to report weekly to the police (Nixon 1996:244). Ender Apartheid she had been the product of an illegal union between a black man and a white woman, and so her sense of cultural identity was pushed to the periphery. Her move to Botswana was not simply promoted by the search for freedom from racial oppression, but for a search of belonging. She had been rootless in South Africa, and unlike other African writers in exile, did not pursue the literary roots to the Northern Hemisphere, but moved to Botswana, one door away from South Africa (Head, cited in Nixon 1996: 243). And so, Heads move to neighboring Botswana reveals in her a belief which permeates her writing, that in being African there exists some essential connection across borders. It was a search as an African for a sense Of historical continuity, a sense of roots (Head cited in Sample 1991: 312). Head gained citizenship in 1 979, only two years after The Collector of Treasures was published. At the time of writing, Head was located firmly in an ambiguous space: not really a citizen of either country, and not really belonging to any particular (or at least recognized) racial grouping. Her concerns are visible in the readings of the short stories to be discussed hereafter. They tell the tales of movement, of a search for identity in the self and in the community. The characters in the stories take space and color for themselves an ideal place using the various modes through which a person knows and constructs a reality (Tuna cited in Sample 1991: 311). Her belief in the continuity of people is revealed, as she says: The least I can say for myself is that I forcefully created for myself under extremely hostile conditions, my ideal life. I took an obscure and almost unknown village in the Southern African bush and made it my own hallowed ground. Here, in the steadiness and peace of my own world, I could dream a little ahead of the somewhat vicious clamor of revolution and the horrible stench of social systems. My work was always tentative because it was always so completely new: it created a new world out of nothing; it brought all minds of people, both literate and semi-literate together, and it did not really qualify who was who everyone had a place in my world (Head cited in Sample 1991:312). Fittingly, the first short story I will deal with is also the first in the collection, and, interestingly, seems to offer some foreshadowing insights into some of the problems that would become a part of later society in post-Nine-/colonial rule and are dealt with in the stories later in the collection. The Deep River: A Story of Ancient Tribal Migration tells the story of a tribe, the people of Monoplane, whose kingdom was somewhere in the central part of Africa Head 1977:1 The ambiguous centrality of the tribe?s location lends itself to the idea that the problems faced by the tribe belonged to or would belong to, in this analysis all the people of Africa, and not simply those of a particular nation or region whose existence was delimited by external and constructed powers of control; borders which, in all reality, created different nations out of the same people. There are a number of themes at play in this story; the ideal community whose subjects really lived identity-less lives under the unquestionable rule of dictated authority, the corruptive power of authority, gender determinism, and finally, the search for home in new lands. Long ago, when the land was only cattle tracks and footpaths, the people lived together like a deep river (1). In the very first sentence, two motifs are introduced: movement and water. The footpaths might refer to a pre- industrial era, one of relative simplicity and free of capitalist influences, but it also might speak to the pattern of migrant and migrant labor forced upon the African people during the period of colonialism, a pattern which would remain one of the most central paradigms of socio-economic living even long after the continent was decolonize. But for now, it could make reference to the central theme of all the stories in this collection and Heads own state of traditionalism: the search for a home in which identity might manifest itself, individually and communally. Water is also an important motif in Heads stories. It comes to represent healing and well-being. In The Deep River the depth and nourishing power of the river is synonymous with the peace and calm of the people, who live together unruffled by conflict or movement forward (1 The tribe is, like the river, a wealth of tradition that returns a kind of stagnation. The river is deep, and not fast, and, like the people, unruffled by Movement forward. Immediately this allows the tribe to be imagined as stuck in its specific ways. This notion is confirmed when the manner in which they live is examined. The people lived without faces, except for their chief, whose face was the face of all the people (1). The people were community orientated, but also without individual identities. The people accepted this regimental leveling down of their individual souls (2) and followed the laws of the land, which were really Monoplanes laws. They could not plough, harvest, pound, boil or ferment the corn without permission, and so their own chief rigidly policed the peoples relationship with the land. This community was in actual fact, less than ideal, a top down power structure that quieted the popular democratic. This dynamic would be one that would become a corrosive and pervasive issue later in history, as colonial forces policed the people and their relationship with the land even more unjustly. The people of Monoplane are citizens who do not assert their democratic rights, are not allowed to assert their democratic rights. This is an important understanding to come to when read against Heads own experiences as a racial outlier in South Africa and a refugee in Botswana. This atmosphere of inertia in their own home is heightened when considering the topographic, symbolic and temporal borders as outlined by Johan Shamanism (2007). As a topographic element the river separates the tribe of Monoplane from other hostile tribes or great dangers, and so removes the possibility of harm. Because the location of the tribe is undisclosed (as this story is an entirely fictionally account of the Bootlace tribes history, as explained by Head (6)) it takes on a generalized quality of nation state borderlines. It becomes a symbolic border when considering the fact that without external contact there is no possibility of progression; the only things that could possibly be pictured outside of their own village is the great possibility of danger. Fear becomes an monopolizing factor and prevents any purport unity for development. The calm of the river and of the people is upset when Subleases right to chieftain comes into question. He admits to having conceived a son with Ranking, his late fathers wife, and takes her and the child as his own. His brothers, Animate and Moslems, are terrified that Subleases child would displace them in seniority and thus get to rule as chief before them, and they urge their brother to renounce both son and wife. When Seeable refuses to do so, they keep on him, and tacitly force him to leave the village. And so from this the corruptive power of authority can be read. Greedily, the brothers would rather force their own brother from his home than be outranked by a baby. Like its spatial positioning in this textual landscape, its temporarily becomes an intrinsic property. It outlines the passage from then into now, from the mime of unquestioning subjectivity under Monoplane to Subleases splinter groups experience later in the land of the Bandwagon people. It is important to note that the only time territory is reckon sized by name and location is here, when the splinter group have relocated and have come into contact with many other tribes like the Phalange, Bake and Boatswains (6). The reader is then allowed to attribute this very fable-like history to a particular people in a particular place and thus understand the power of landscape mapping; our eyes follow the footprints in the text until something s made familiar. The temporal borders in this story convey something about the erosive ability of time, as well as the static and discriminatory notions with regards to gender. The old men there keep on giving confused and contradictory accounts of their origins, but they say they lost their place of birth over a woman (6). The people cannot even remember their own history, and remain resentful that they lost their home, even though the splinter group who decided to leave did so voluntarily. The splinter group, before deciding to join Seeable had already decided that Animate and Moslems [were] at the OTTOMH of all this trouble (5), and yet to this day (6), the men maintain that it was a woman who had done it. This unequivocally shows that women remain the scapegoats of history; that the universal she had somehow poisoned the well from which the would-be mighty ruler had drunk. In a world where women were of no account (3), Seeable is admonished for taking his relationship with his new wife, Ranking, seriously. Ranking, the only female in the story to be mentioned by name, is compared to a child, and, if taken advice from, would negate the legitimacy of Seibel?s rule. Even Rawnesss father tries to convince her that her feelings are simply a passing fancy, that women never know their own minds (4). This is problematic for it implies that women operate on a lower consciousness level than men, if any at all. She responds by asserting other women may not know their minds (5), showing strength of character and will, but is interrupted by her fathers impersonal hand, pointing towards a new husband for her. Ranking, however, decides to leave her new partner and join Seeable on his journey to new lands. Head gives Ranking a voice where there women are denied it, and creates a metaphoric landscape in which women might be able to make themselves heard and exercise control over their own lives (Sample 1992: 311). In my opinion, Ranking becomes the predicate upon which the intrepid women figures later in the collection are drawn from. Much later in their history, the tribe has relocated to the land of the Bandwagon, and the name Teetotal was all they were to retain of their identity as the people of the kingdom of Monoplane (Head 1992: 6). In the language spoken by the tribe of Monoplane, Teetotal meant, all right, you an go (6). The language of their tribe became an integral part of their identity as a community in their new land. The new tribe literally referred to themselves as a dismissal, the notion of the journey a congenital layer in their new make-up. The people have become transnational themselves, with a historical sense of continuity. They are at once still the people of Monoplane, as well as the new people of the Teetotal. The next story in the collection is Jacob: The Story of a Faith-Healing Priest. In this story the reader becomes very aware of Heads preoccupation with the elites of human nature, of a split between good and bad. This duality manifests itself in the landscape and in the characters and is a representation of the clash of values between encroaching modernism and traditional life. As Head says in The Collector of Treasures there were really only two kinds of men in society (87). Believe this refers literally to her pattern of juxtaposing good and bad men where here, Jacob is set up against Lebanon. Also believe that it may refer to a more universal tendency to refer to society as mankind, where people contain within themselves a fundamental split. In Jacob, Jacob is beautiful and simple and deeply sincere (25) and engages in a life of meagerness. He lives in a simple hut, provides spiritual counsel to the people, takes no donations and places his trust and faith into his children followers, associating him with innocence and child-like goodness. In stark contrast to this, Lebanon is a selfish, greedy man who exploits his followers, lives in a mansion and is believed to indulge in witchcraft, or black magic. This juxtaposition is represented in the landscape where each man lives on a different side of Mangle, Jacob on the sunrise side, and Lebanon on the unset side. Clear images of good and bad, light and dark are set up, and so the split in the town illustrates the split between characters both external and internal. It is the topographic and symbolic border of the text. This binary also characterizes the temporal border of the text; Jacobs passage from a man as Prophet Lebanon (21) into his final and biblical form of goodness. Jacob had owned a beer brewing business, had a beautiful but materialistic wife and two attractive daughters. One night he is robbed and left with only a few hundred rand, when he hears the voice of God, bidding him to do his DOD work. Jacob had heard this voice before, on the night of his parents death. His father was a German man and had married a Montanan woman, and here it is clear that Head inserts some of her ova,JNI ambiguity into Jacob, rendering the split in him as intrinsic. Heads water motif comes into play here again, and its dualities are evident. She spends a page and a half describing the lush landscape of the village, and makes it clear that for Head, Botswana was a place of restorative powers and healing possibilities. The village of Mangle received its yearly quota of twenty-two inches of rain List the rest of the country was smitten by drought (19). A river also borders Mangle, marking the village as a fountain of good fortune and spiritual well-being it is home to two prophets. Drought in Heads stories comes to represent a spiritual barrenness, but this will be discussed later. However, water is also what killed Jacobs parents their car skidded into the river during a heavy downpour. It is als o believed that Lebanon could even make rain (36), tainting the spirituality of Mangles supposed good fortune with the evil of Lebanons black magic. Though it may notation both good and bad properties, it could be argued that if it were not for the death of Jacobs parents, he may never have heard the voice of God, and therefore would not have been pushed into the spiritual journey that resulted in him becoming the good and faithful man he did. This temporal border, Jacobs spiritual journey into selflessness, is also represented by his transition between two kinds of women. His first wife is selfish, greedy and materialistic and leaves him when he invites her to join in Gods work with him. Johanna, his second wife, is a single mother with children and presents the important conventions of traditional life. Just as Ranking is the only woman mentioned by name, so too is Johanna. She is strong willed, driven, and recognized as a real woman (30). And so, on a basic level, Jacobs first wife represents a capitalist society, whilst Johanna represents a traditional one. These values clash and cannot live together inside Jacob, just as Jacob and Lebanon cannot both live in the village. Lebanon becomes a victim of his own villainy and is caught performing a ritual murder. He is sentenced to death and [p]people say the OLL of Lebanon returned from the grave To tell the people whom he awoke at night his fellow ritual murderers to desist from taking the lives of people because of the agony he was suffering now (36). This may serve as a warning against the consequences of a lifestyle of capitalist greed and selfish indulgence. In her characterization and landscape, Head sets up dualities and borders across which people must travel. Though there is minimal physical movement in the story (Jacob travels into Mangle, as do his followers from other villages, including Johanna), the journeys undertaken by the characters come spiritual ones. They are the quests to find meaning and happiness in a traditional society ravaged by exploited capitalist economic infrastructures. This is the search for a cultural identity that is pursued by reconstructing reality through modes Of knowing; a search projected onto the landscape Of the text as characters attempt to cross external and personal borders and thus become actively involved in shaping their own worlds. In Life, an ironic title as the story culminates in the protagonists death, the clash of values between modern and traditional lifestyles are explored, as ell as the gender specific roles and expectations assigned to women. The story opens up with a socio-historical account of the relationship between South Africa and Botswana the borders were first set up between the two countries in 1963 and forced all Botswana citizens back to their country of birth. Head goes on to summarize a heavy flow of foot-traffic between the two countries, as migrant labor was a booming industry. From the first page, Head turns her personal traditionalism into a literary vision to convey a powerful sense of the endless border crossings, of continuation and linkages twine people (Nixon 1996: 244). In the story, Life is one of these people. Having left her village of birth at ten years old, she returns from Johannesburg seventeen years later (Head 1 992: 37). She is therefore a dislocated woman, having lived in the village but having been formed as an individual in the big city. Hers is the story and history of the continent; of forced displacement and the struggle to remained identity. The landscape of this story is not so much a physical one; descriptions of the physical terrain (as in the previous two) hold less symbolic importance than o the landscape of personal spheres of existence and clashing centers. Upon her return to the village, Life is shown to her family yard in the center of the village. With her vitality, extravagance and penchant for a luxurious and free lifestyle, people flock to Lifes center like moths to a flame; %She is going to bring us a little light, the women said among themselves (38). Life picked up her old profession of prostitution and soon the din and riot of a Johannesburg township was duplicated A transistor radio blared the day long. Men and women reeled around drunk (40). Life conceptualizes her new laity through the reconstructive modes of familiarity; by transporting the center of Johannesburg (that which she knows) into the heart of the village she creates in herself and her surrounds a sense of belonging. Lifes identity and life is intimately linked to the preservation of this center of vitality. SEG, the wealthy cattleman, occupies another center of village life, one that represents a new kind of male in the colonial era. He is simultaneously emblematic of the cultural mores and values of traditional village life as well a willing and opportunistic recipient of all things brought to African life by alongside, and enforced by neo-colonialism. As Life acknowledges in him (after he walks into the same bar that she conducts her business of selling herself) ; [h]e was the nearest thing she had seen for a long time to the Johannesburg gangsters she had associated with He same power and control (41). With a silent command he orders Life to his end of the bar, she adheres, and so their spheres come into contact. Sample (1991) suggests that Lifes downfall was due to the fact that Life moved her center into Lessees sphere. I don think that this rings completely true. Lifes center of existence had always revolved around power, money and extravagance, and just like the gangsters she had associated with in Johannesburg Lessee represented these values He was invited into her sphere so that they might control the center together. Life did not have to go home with Lessee that night, but she did so voluntarily. And had Lessee not in fact been at the same time, two kinds of men both traditional and modern Lifes fate may have been different. Lifes movement from her end of the bar to Lessees that night (41 ) delineates the temporal and symbolic borders of the landscape in this story. It suggests the moving of people into different spheres of life (symbolic), as well as Lifes passage into destruction (temporal). When Lessee arrived that night, death walked quietly into the bar (41 ). Lifes center thus becomes one of male control and dominance; He took control of all the money. She had to ask him for it and state what it was to be used for. Then he didnt like the transistor radio blaring the whole day long (41 In Life we see the emergence of a new kind of woman as well, equally influenced by the economic and power opportunities brought about by modernity. The beer-brewing women are a prime example of this. Surrounded but not ruled by the village ethos of simplicity and domestic obedience, they refuse to subscribe to these ideologies; Boyfriends, yes. Husbands, uh, uh, no. Do this! Do that! We want to rule ourselves (39). They are able to differentiate between romantic relationships and self- empowerment, stating that [l]eve is love and money is money (40). For this reason, Life becomes their queen. Michael Faculty writes about space being linked to power, and one can see this in these brave women, who flex the boundaries Of traditional life and create for themselves a world in which they re in control. Life, for a brief time, lives by her husbands rules, but becomes bored by the banality and repetition of daily life. Her vivacious spirit cannot be quieted, and in an act of final rebellion, she coordinates the event that will ultimately result in her death. [A] wild anger was driving her to break out of a way of life that was like death to her (44), and so she makes an appointment with a man at six oclock, even though she knows her husband is at home. She knows the consequences of her action as Lessee warned her at the beginning of their marriage that [I]f oh [Life] go with those men again Ill [Lessee] kill you (43). It seems as though Life wants to be caught, as though she would rather be killed physically than slowly die the spiritual death of a village wife. Alerted to Lifes actions in the yard Of a neighbor, and true to his word, Lessee kills Life with a large knife that he used for slaughtering cattle (45). In this sentence alone the value of women as a commodity to be consumed or destroyed is highlighted. She is no better than a cow, one that might earlier have been the prize of his herd, but now must be destroyed and swallowed whole without a thought. Speaking to Lessees position as a new colonial male and the unfair gender balance is Lessees sentence. The judge was a white man, and therefore not involved in Tsarina custom and its debates (46), and reacted sympathetically to Lessee who remained calm and diplomatic during his trial. Undoubtedly the judge was able to identify with these characteristics, which must have marked Lessee as a man of a new era. Lessee received only five years imprisonment. Heads comment on the gender imbalance is elucidated when compared to Diesels situation in The Collector of Treasures; she received a life sentence for committing the same crime. Once again Heads tacit monomania for dualities and the split self becomes clear. Contrasts are drawn between Life and the other village women. Even the beer-brewers, who admire her, remain somewhat removed, as they hadnt fallen that low yet (40). These clashes of values can be seen in a light similar to the clash between Jacob and Lebanon. Just as the two men could not both live in the village, neither could Life nor Lessee. He is a man split by down the middle by traditional village predicates and the greed of modern life, while she is a fire that eventually burns herself out rather than be tamed. The space Head creates in the textual landscape of this narrative is one of contested places of power, belonging and identity. Life and Lessee want to, at the same time, inhabit their individual spheres as well as share one together. Fee compromises while Lessee does not. Although physically they share the same space, they have each ascribed to it a different notion of life, happiness and identity. Their centers fight for control, and, as commented by Lessees friend at the end of the story, rivers never cross here (46). If we take into account Heads motif of water as life and healing, then both Life and Lessee re their own rivers, determining the health and direction of their own lives. They can never meet and remain individual rivers, because the current of one will always be stronger than the other. Heads experience as a transnational, attempting to create an ideal life in new spaces is illuminated in this tale of migration and of crossed borders.

Does Welfare Reform in New York City Work Essay

Does Welfare Reform in New York City Work - Essay Example It stretched from accommodating few natives to a large influx of immigrants from Latin America and other parts of the world. The city had not come up with a long term strategy to include all these new members. So the welfare system was overburdened and after some years (forty years), it started becoming inefficient. In the nineties, employees working for the welfare system in the City felt unsafe and started reinforcing their offices to protect themselves. Clients on welfare had to waste most of their day waiting for welfare workers who could not even deliver upon meeting the clients. Client files started getting lost; welfare workers did not complete cases and kept jumping from client to client so there was no case of continuity. This made most clients angry and they vented out their frustrations on social workers forcing security guards to intervene. This meant that people on welfare could not make time for other productive activities because they spent most of their time trying to chase for benefits and looking for child care. 'Mass confusion' are the perhaps the most appropriate words to use when describing the city's welfare prior to 1995. The New York welfare system underwent a rapid change between 1995 and 2001 or we could say that reforms were introduced. These reforms occurred during Rudolph Giuliani's term as New York mayor. Some of the changes that the welfare system saw were the decline in number of people on welfare; from one point one million to about six hundred. The welfare system's method of approach also changed. Instead of giving checks to clients, they were given jobs; it became employment based instead of issuing handouts. However, there is another side to this reform. Jobs were not just dished out from all directions. Welfare clients had to prove that they were compliant. This implied that the so called 'difficult clients' were not considered this included drug addicts and the like. Besides, this there were problems in system management and all these will be looked at in the subsequent sections in detail. Welfare reforms were not 'the knight on a white horse' for the residents of the City of New York. (Mead, 1992) 2.0 Literature review There are a number of changes that were observed during Giuliani's regime. There is no doubt that the general approach was work oriented. From the 1995 to 1999, most of the policies imposed sanctions and mainly dealt with work requirements. Clients were required to meet a certain criteria and if they were did not comply, then they were met by sanctions. During this time, New York saw the rejection of about a large number of adults. Cases of sanctioning increased from eight percent to fourteen percent. Besides these, the system was characterized by compulsory workfare jobs. This implied that there were a number of adults that were involved in work experience program jobs. These were more of assignments than actual jobs. However in the last years of Giuliani's regime (99-01) emphasis on workfare started diminishing and some emphasis was now being placed on training for jobs. This involved the three plus two model. Welfare adults were required to attend three days of workfare and they were also supposed to dedicate the remaining two days of the week to a training program such as education or job readiness service. There were also a number of programs that focused on special groups.

Tragedy of the Commons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Tragedy of the Commons - Essay Example ety should place several checks and balances owing to the changing social structure in order to regulate the depletion of the naturally existing resources. In most societies, utilization of such resources as rivers and lakes relies on the morality of the population. However, morality changes with time as the society expands. Such factors as population increase and increase in the commonly shared resources in the modern society are two fundamental factors that influence the institutionalization of checks and balances in order to regulate human activity and their utilization of the common resources. Furthermore, the society currently has a single source of authority, which can effectively govern the utilization of the common resources thus mitigating on the depletion of the resources. In the modern society, the commonly shared resources have increased to include public recreational parks, radio waves and electricity lines among others. While such may belong to state corporations, they serve the entire society thus equally commanding responsive utilization in order not to inconvenience others. Situations that portray tragedy of the commons in the modern society thus include congestion caused by both overpopulation and increase in personal cars in urban centers, the use of unlicensed radio waves in communication and vandalism or littering of public parks among other recreational centers. Owing to its relevance in the contemporary social problems, the argument is often relevant in explaining government actions and policies in regulating the activities of businesses in society. The sustenance of the natural resources is in modern societies the responsibility of the government. This implies that the governments must formulate and implement policies that safeguard the longevity of such resources as lakes, forests, rivers among others. Water pollution is a modern tragedy that threatens the aqua life and the entire ecosystem. Among the greatest polluters of such resources

Bio On Favorite Business Leader Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bio On Favorite Business Leader - Assignment Example He is the most notable individual in the organisation, being a symbol of leadership and courageous entrepreneurship. He is a passionate leader who works on making sure that all employees enjoy coming to work every morning (Dearlove 2007:85). He has been regarded as a supportive figure in all ventures the company has began, making it easier to attract investors due to his constant presence and charm. He is a risk-taker. All his diverse investments and initiatives have bordered on what many would have called risky ventures, but he has been able to manoeuvre and meet the demands. He is known to start companies and share out the risks with other investors to minimise risks for all other partners (DuBrin 2010:50). He is knowledgeable in all his ventures and recruits people based on their understanding of what is happening. His approach allows him to create a team that loves working and is intrinsically motivated to achieve both personal and organisational goals. He adapts the transformati onal style of leadership that inspires others to work towards the common organisational goals. He also prefers participative leadership strategies that make it easier to ensure that employees own any project being worked on. This motivates them a lot (Shavinina

The Effects Of Music Videos On Children Young People Essay

The Effects Of Music Videos On Children Young People Essay Music wakes up in our minds in the morning to the point of making us want to dance and probably soothing us when we have sand feelings. From our childhood through teenage to adulthood, music becomes our integral part in our whole life. At teenage, music helps define the characteristics of an individual. Pediatricians have tried to specialize in adolescent medicine and also consider the power of music and how it affects their identity. The impact on the individuals cultural and social boundaries is highly attributed to the long average hours of listening to music. Despite the fact that there is extensive variety of genres of music, adults and children differ on how they select the content to listen to. With the ability to discern what is right and what is wrong, adults may not be highly affected by the current behavior or social ills. Children on the other hand are much prone to the attractive violent category of music; the music contains plots that draw adolescents and other minority. During the development stages in adolescent, children try to discover their own Hero and role models. This means that the environment in which these children spend and grow will give them the character they want as own hero. At this time, the most inspiring issue to the child is to get what she or he wants. Assuming that the child has personal problems o challenges that he or she wants to defeat, it would be easier to prefer violent characters on TV and then adopt their way of doing things. Most of the hip hop music for instance contains violent engagements, use of drugs, sexual situations as well as sexual violence. The child would then develop with the notion that he or she must be violent or arrogant to survive in life. Heavy metal music has extreme alienating effects on developing children which includes psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, sex-role stereotyping and suicide risk. If a child displays violent acts against other children, the parent or the teacher has to pay close attention the music being listened to by children (Kathy John). Most music videos may show half naked women which affect the mental health of a child. Due to the societal behavioral classification, this mode of dressing is not acceptable in public. Therefore children experience severe mental strain in deciding what to accept as a norm or evil. Depending on the exposure the child experiences, the child can develop in favor of the environment. A child can grow in a calm environment which may promote the wellbeing of the child. Calm videos can help the child admire to have the future he or she sees on the TV or such media. These groups of children prefer to stay in peaceful environment and mostly tend to be obedient and accepted in the society. On the other hand violent videos tend to portray that the world is much violent than the way it is. This makes children believe that their home is the only exemption that is safe. Children get deceived that their families must align with the society. Children do not have great exposure to the outer society due to their parental care. This leaves the children to understand the community to be home and TV or digital media. This means that if the parents do not stay at home for long hours, the child may end up adopting the media culture other than the home culture. The child advances in being violent and aggressive through the adolescent to early adulthood. The cognitive scripts developed by children are developed through imitating media heroes. Most of these are adopted from violent music videos and shows. As teenagers and children watch these violent acts, they are able to internalize these scripts and become effective in influencing the life of the individual (Mhhe.com). Fashion is one of the areas that teenagers and children want to feel like they rule. They always want to outdo others, either among themselves or when alone. Celebrities adopt specific fashion for different tracks and videos; this leaves the child in a much vulnerable and delicate situation of selecting the style they want. These fashion problems may become an issue to the family since they may not be acceptable to the parents and the general public. The tense can lead to family problems where parents engage in physical confrontation with the child. Children on the other hand are not in a position to argue with the situation in which case they may be drawn away from their family. Areas in which fashion affects girl child includes scanty dressing, improper make up usage and use of drugs to change their body contour to look attractive. Boys may not experience extensive effects since the society does not set what is morally incorrect for the boy child. The problem however may be pronoun ced in a Christian family setting. This means that children can negatively be affected by such fashion (Media Awareness Network). The other problem area that music videos affect children during development is the misuse and use of alcohol in children. Video show explicit situations where young people are using alcohol and drugs. The child thinks that such use of drugs and alcohol would make the known and respected in the society. Since the video may not be only one that show such behaviors, the child tend to think that use of drugs or alcohol does not have any consequences after all. Although they may see warning signs on billboards highlighting the negative effects of using drugs and alcohol in young age, they do not get convinced as they get while watching a video. Such a child faces the wrath of using such drugs and alcohol to a point of addiction. The problem with such addiction is that they would require the individual to get medical attention and rehabilitation to recover and have a normal life again. Before the child or a parent discovers this problem, the child would have wasted a lot of precious time t hat could be used to develop talents and discover his or her mission in life. As earlier said, children may not be in a position to determine their role model with a conscious mind; the prominent environment chooses for them (Media Awareness Network). Language is the other aspect of a child that is affected by these videos. A child would always want to develop his or her commanding ability especially among peers or to use when asking something from the parent. The process of developing such that he or she can command respect naturally can get interfered with through audio and visual media. When the child sees someone on video eliciting vulgar words to others and gets what he needs done, and then the child will find it easier and efficient. The fact that such language is common in hard music which happens to be wide spread, the child assumes that such language is allowed in the society. The child ends up adopting the vulgar language for use in the community. Such children get discriminated in a society that values respectful individuals (Media Awareness Network). Fear is the other effect the music videos can have on the children. Children always want to feel safe and secure; it may not be the case when they discover that the world is not as they take it. Guns and deaths seem exaggerated on videos such that the child feels that anyone can be killed anytime and the criminal goes scot-free. The child may develop fear that this may happen to him or her or even to one of the family members. This can result to negative development of such children. With advancement in video production technology, video animation has become much easier. Some videos contain pictures showing situations where human being are being traumatized by unknown creatures, such video can be a fear factor to a child who has not developed enough to understand that such images are human creations and fiction. Such videos that scare children can trigger suicidal or homicidal feelings in a child. Music videos show explicit motion pictures that promote sex in the society. It is clear that such pictures would be of much interest to children who have not yet tried to indulge in sex itself. They act as the base upon which they learn how sex takes place. The sexual consciousness of a child may be aroused through such videos. Children can then try among themselves what they observed happen. In the process of trying, careless adults may become attracted to such minors. This opens to the child many challenges in life including sexually transmitted infections or even AIDS. Such sexual experiences are hard for children to contain and control, making them much vulnerable to rapists and child sex (Aubrey Jennifer). In conclusion, music videos have highly affected the structure of our society due to the effectiveness audio visual media. The power of such media has numerous advantages that have benefited the society, but this does not happen without a variety of back draws. Through the same visual technology, our society has degraded to a point of snatching childrens mind; children cannot live any more without videos. Media has become much accessible to children and teens through internet. It is however the responsibility of the guardian to create conducive environment for the child to grow. This can be achieved through use of internet filter tools to lockout inappropriate media from streaming. The parent can also subscribe for family programs that have their content checked for general audience. It might be hard or the parent to control what the child watches when alone therefore, it is also the responsibility of the parent to advise his or her children on what is appropriate and what is not. Work cited Aubrey Jennifer. The impact of sexually objectifying media exposure on negative body motions and sexual self perceptions investigating the mediating role of body self consciousness 2007. May 3, 2010 Kathy Dix John Harris. Violence in Music May 3, 2010 Media Awareness Network. Inappropriate content in music negative effects May 3, 2010 Mhhe.com Does media violence promote violent behavior in young people? July 2001. May 3, 2010 http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/allwrite3/seyler/ssite/seyler/ se04/promote.pdf> Murray Jeannette. The Negative Effect of Music Videos, July 29, 2006. May 3, 2010

Should the Quest for Knowledge be Boundless? Essay -- Exploratory Essa

  Ã‚   Victor Frankenstein suffered from a lack of foresight. He only planned to reanimate a human being; he did not consider the consequences of such an action, and he did not build protections for unexpected, detrimental effects. Real-life scientists suffer from the same problem. Today we are reminded with every issue of "Time" that scientists in one modern field, nuclear technology, and emerging field genome mapping/genetic engineering wield considerable power. Shelley raises the question whether the quest for scientific knowledge should be bound. The quest for knowledge should never be bound because injunctions against originality would lead to the oppression of mankind's most important resource, our thinkers. But scientists themselves should be bound by foresight. At the inception of a new idea or process, bodies of scientists should review the question before the new methods have been applied. They should try to foresee possible ill effects and seek to minimize these beforeha nd, and contain them afterwards. This would have come in handy for Victor Frankenstein.    The emergence of agriculture at the dawn of civilization was also the emergence of genetic engineering. Everyday varieties of horses and wheat that we know today were crossbred into current, recognizable states from earlier, wild plants and animals well before history began to be recorded. "Crossbreeding is a relatively slow and clumsy method of 'improving' animal and plant species" *1* compared to modern times, when gene manipulation means tests tubes and petri dishes, not dirt or husbandry. While prohibitively expensive (for the time being) DNA manipulation and fertility techniques will become simpler, cheaper, and more accurate. Soon, any hack scientist with... ... 1991. Andrea A Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz, The Presence of Others: Voices and Images that Call for Response Mary Shelly, Frankenstein. Bedford/St.Martins, Boston MA, 2000. 1 Van Doren p.398 2 Van Doren p.293 3 quoted in McGowan p.82 4 quoted in McGowan p.82 5 Van Doren p.398 6 McGowan Ch.12 7 http://www.doug-long.com/einstein.html 8 http://www.wakeamerica.com/past/books/manhattan/manhattan/manhattanmanhattan11.html 9 http://www.prop1.org/prop1/histnuke.html 10 http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,158208-412,00.shtml 11 http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/adrastea.html 12 http://www.cadu.org.uk/ 13 McGowan p.191 14 http://www.chernobyl.co.uk/ 15 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/ 16 http://www.sierraclub.org/nuclearwaste/ 17 http://www.un.org 18 Shelley p.232 19 Shelley p.232

Nefertiti

The existence of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti could be dated back to fourteenth century BCE, 18th Dynasty. Nefertiti is the chief wife of the pharaoh, Amenhotep IV and she is most well-known for her emergence in Egyptian art, particularly the prominent bust which was located in 1912 at Amarna, aside from that she is also well-known for the role she most likely played in the religious rebellion focusing on monotheistic worship of Aten. Aten, on the other hand is also a well-known Egyptian sun disk. Amenhotep IV made use of the name Akhenaten when he took charge of the religious rebellion which situated Aten as the main focus of their worship. Art during that period illustrates a closely knitted family relationship with the royal family. These arts are illustrated in a naturalistic, individualistic, and informal manner, and it comprises of Nefertiti, her husband and their six children. Most representations of the Egyptian queen, Nefertiti also showed her as taking an active part in the Aten cult. Approximately, fourteen years later, Nefertiti suddenly vanished from the public’s eye and Amenhotep IV was succeeded to the throne by Smenkhkhare, often depicted as his son-in-law. One speculation regarding the sudden disappearance of queen Nefertiti is that she took on a male identity and governed under the name Smenkhkhare, another hypothesis is that she was killed as a piece of the come back to the customary Egyptian religious traditions, there are however, also some speculations that she died a natural death (Akhet Egyptology, 2007). Nefertiti’s origin is very debatable in that no one knows exactly where she came from, and up to now, it is still argued over by archaeologists and historians alike. There is a probability that she is a foreign princess or the child of a former pharaoh, Amenhotep III which all opened the possibility that Amenhotep IV may not actually be the son of the pharaoh, Amenhotep III, or even that they are married in spite of the fact that Nefertiti may have been Akhentaten’s half-sister (since it is only natural and customary in Egypt to marry half-brothers and sisters). However, there are also possibilities that she is not of a noble or royal blood and that she is the child of Ay (brother of Amenhotep III’s wife). Ay, in turn, is at times referred to as â€Å"the God’s father†, therefore implying the possibility that Ay is Akhenaten’s father-in-law, although there had not been, up to this point in time, no precise references which could be used to back up this particular declaration. Mutnojme, Nefertiti’s sister, on the other hand is presented outstandingly in the adornments in Ay’s tomb, yet, one could not just deduct that Mutnojme and Nefertiti is already Ay’s daughters, since Mutnojme’s presence on Ay’s tomb alone could not be sufficient evidence of their relationship to one another. There are also some speculations of Nefertiti being an heiress, and it opens the possibility that she may be a progeny of ahmose-Nefertari, although she was never really depicted as God’s wife Amun, on the other hand, Nefertiti never claimed to be the offspring of a pharaoh, and from that one could be certain that Nefertiti is not on the direct line of descent even if it so happened that she is indeed a child of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Also, there are speculations that even if Nefertiti is truly an offspring of ay, it is highly probable that she is not the daughter of Ay’s chief wife, and that her mother met an early death which left her to the care of Tey. On the other hand, there are still a great deal of claims in regard to her origin which only proves how debatable her exact origin really is (Lewis, 2007). Nefertiti is most celebrated in the ancient times because of her exceptional beauty, and she is ranked, up to this point in time, among the most famous Egyptian queens. The renowned sculpture of Queen Nefertiti, which had been found in a sculptor’s workshop in Akhenaten, is considered as one of the most instantly identifiable images from Nefertiti’s time. It has diverted the excesses which could be found on the Armana artistic style, and it also endured the extensive obliteration wrought by Akhenaten’s memorials after his demise (Drake, 2007). It appears that Queen Nefertiti have taken up till now unparalleled height of magnitude in the Amarna age art. As could be seen from one of her statues in Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Nifertiti is usually depicted making some kinds of presents or offerings to the sun god, Aten, and it is even assumed that she equaled her husband’s fame. Fact is, there are even speculations that Queen Nefertiti’s fame far surpasses that of her husband. It is even speculated that even in the ancient time, her exceptional beauty was widely renowned, and her celebrated statue (the one mentioned earlier which was found in an artists’ workshop), is not simply a renowned and most identifiable icon in all Egypt, rather, it is also a subject of a great deal of debate. In response to those who think that the only thing which made Nefertiti famous is her exceptional beauty, they ought to know that there is more to this Egyptian queen than meets the eye especially since it appears that up to this point in time, she have an unmatched rank of importance in the Amarna era in the eighteenth dynasty. In numerous work of arts, Nefertiti’s rank is obvious and it denotes that her influence may have equaled, if not surpassed, that of Amenhotep IV. For an instance, Nefertiti is represented almost twice as often as Amenhotep IV, at any rate, during the 1st five years of her husband’s period in office. Definitely, Nefertiti is once even portrayed in the traditional stance of a pharaoh cutting his adversary. As was the case with her husband, there is also no suggestion or traces of her mummy, some jewels which bears her symbols were located at the royal tomb at Akhenaten. However, there is no real proof or confirmation that Nifertiti was even buried in Akhenaten. According to some existing accounts, it is probable that she fell from favor from her husband or she met her end during her husband’s time in power. In any case, it is probable that her burial had been held anywhere but Akhenaten’s. As was already mentioned earlier, Nefertiti is the chief royal wife of Amenhotep IV and they have had six offsprings (all of which are females). However, there are claims that it was in all probability, with Amnhotep’s another wife, Kiya, that he was able to father his would successors to his throne. His successors had been Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun. Aside from Kiya, Amenhotep IV have two other wives namely, Mekytaten and Ankhesenpaaten, there are even conjectures that Merytaten (possibly one of Nefertiti’s daughters) was also a wife of Amenhotep IV. Indisputably, Amenhotep IV really loved his chief wife, Nefertiti in that Nefertiti and Amenhotep IV had been always together on the first reliefs, most of which depicted the royal family in a affectionate, loving and about an almost perfect masterpieces. From time to time, the pharaoh could be seen riding with Nefertiti in a chariot or the pharaoh kissing his chief wife in public, or with Nefertiti sitting on his husband’s lap. One of the eulogies even declared Nefertiti as: â€Å"the Heiress, Great in the Palace, Fair of Face, Adorned with the Double Plumes, Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favors, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May she live for Ever and Always† (Dunn, 2005). Remarkably significant to Amenhotep IV was Femininity which was not simply essential in his personal life, but to his thoughts, philosophies, and convictions as well, as a matter of fact, it is definitely hard to find another founder of a religion on which females have had a similar functions as that of the male of the species. Amenhotep IV had a great number of women which surrounds him (this is evident by the sheer number of his wives), and they are all portrayed in nearly every appearances of a cult ritual performed by the pharaoh at his new capital as a tribute to Aten which proves that Amenhotep IV treated all of his wives in a respectful manner. Each and every one of Amenhotep IV’s wives was given their very own refuge, which were usually referred to as the sunshade temple. They were often positioned in parkland surroundings of plants as well as water pools, all of which gave emphasis to the significance of these women in the every day restitution of creation impinged on by Aten. Nevertheless it was the image of Queen Nefertiti that Amenhotep IV had fashioned on the four corners of his granite tomb and it was also Nefertiti who presented the fortification to Amenhotep IV’s mummy, a position customarily played by the Egyptian goddesses Isis, Selket, an Neith. One thing which may have greatly influenced the royal couple’s relationship was the presence of the pharaoh’s mother Tiye. It is surmised that Tiye holds an important and very exclusive role in Amenhotep IV’s court, and one could only deduce that this may have had affected the relationship of the royal couple. Tiye, as the â€Å"wise woman† of El Amarna was often portrayed in such a way which indicate her old age as well as her life experiences and wisdom which generates awe, reverence, great regard from every one (Yakutchik, 2007). One could then surmise that the wrinkles or the carvings which indicates old age in Tiye’s face also indicates her position as a â€Å"wise woman† whose wisdom she derived through her so many experiences in life. It was basically this reason why when Nefertiti’s face was also depicted in such a way which also signals old age, one could only conclude that by that time, the queen Nefertiti also attained the wisdom Tiye had through her many experiences on Earth. Most of this depictions occurred after Tiye’s death which made some conclude that Nefertiti is the successor of the â€Å"wise woman†. This in turn, brought Nefertiti’s position in court a higher status. Queen Nefertiti is probably best known for the painted limestone bust which portrays her, a large number of people regard it as one of the greatest masterpiece there is in the pre-contemporary world. This bust is at times called the Berlin bust and it had been recently subjected into a great deal of controversy. For so many years, this particular bust had been the most renowned display in Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, drawing an immense number of foreigners because of its sheer beauty and history and defying every endeavor at repatriation (Tyldesley, 1999). However, a conceptual work of art which involves the Berlin bust and the body of an inadequately dressed female incited a great deal of indignation and anger in Nefertiti’s motherland, along with the allegation that Nefertiti is no longer protected in Berlin, this particular depiction of Nefertiti in an insufficient outfit was made by Little Warsaw. This caused so much outrage, particularly in the part of the Egyptian officials for numerous reasons. One ought to take note of the fact that Egypt is a very conservative country and the putting of the queen’s head to a scantily clad figure is nothing short of an insult to the Egyptians not to mention the fact that such exhibit may cause considerable damage to the bust (Dunn, 2005). Another controversy and the more recent of the two was the probability that Nefertiti’s mummy had at last been located. Joanne Fletcher, a well-known mummification expert from the University of York, declared the likelihood that Nefertiti’s mummy may at last been discovered. Fletcher pointed out some clues in support of her claim such as the shaven head on which, according to her is needed in order for the crown to fit. However, in spite of this all there are still some debates on whether the mummy was indeed Queen Nefertiti’s or not. As could be seen, the life of the beautiful and interesting queen Nefertiti is indeed full of controversies and there is a huge probability that things would forever remain as such. One could only hope that there would come a time that a light would be shed to some interesting issues which surrounds the queen and that we would at last be able to ascertain the things which had been linked to her life as well as the issues which surrounds her decades later after her death. Works Cited Akhet Egyptology. â€Å"Nefertiti†. (2007). Drake, Nick. Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead. Harper Collins, 2007. Dunn, Jimmy. â€Å"Feature Story Queen Nefertiti.† (2005). . Lewis, Jone Johnson. â€Å"Nefertiti†. (2007). . Tyldesley, Joyce A. Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen. Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition, 1999. Yakutchik, Maryalice. â€Å"Who Was Nefertiti?† (2007).         

Why self-publishing kickstarted my childrens lit career

Why self-publishing kickstarted my childrens lit career Why Self-Publishing Kickstarted My Children's Lit Career Native Finn,  Tuire Siiriainen  is an illustrator and the founder of Blueberry Pie, a self-publishing company. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign, she published her first book through her company in August 2016 - a personalized children’s adventure called "Message in a Bottle." Read on to hear how the campaign was fully funded in just two weeks.I was born in Finland, and have always seen stories around me. A lot of my inspiration came from my surroundings - forests, lakes, countryside cottages, and animals - but especially from children’s books. Rather than Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss, my favorite authors growing up were Astrid Lindgren (author of the Pippi Longstocking series), or Mauri Kunnas. Books about strong, Nordic children doing stubborn and seemingly foolish things have inspired me up to present day.During university in Belgium, I studied marketing - which is a form of storytelling itself. While in school, I rediscovered the magic of drawing and returned to the picture books of my childhood. When I reached the end of my studies at the age of 23, I knew that I wanted to create my own picture book.From a book idea to self-publishingI was never fascinated by the idea of traditional publishing. To me, it seemed slow and stiff, and even though I’m the first one to acknowledge the value of a printed book, the ways of publishing them felt out-of-date.Then I discovered the world of personalized children’s book and heard about print-on-demand (POD). It hit me instantly - this is how I want to create my book! I saw the unexplored possibilities of POD technology that would allow highly creative and inventive story concepts to come to life. "I saw the potential of POD  for  bringing creative and inventive story concepts to life." @MIABBook The StoryIn the summer of 2015, my partner Wojtek and I came up with the idea for our first children’s book, Message In A Bottle, during one of our forest walks: A lone bottle with a message inside is found on a beach by an animal. On the bottle label, there is a name and an address. The animal decides to deliver the bottle to its rightful owner, and with the help of many other animals around the world, the message in the bottle finally reaches its intended destination - and the mysterious message is revealed.The message in the bottle is created by the giver of the book, whether it’s a family member or friend. And the name and address on the bottle belong to the real child - the reader of the book. This is where the personalization aspect of the book come into play.Gathering a teamWe hesitated regarding whether or not I should illustrate the book because I had no professional experience - but, we knew I could draw. In the end, my drawing passion, paired with the need for constant marketing artwork, led us to picking our illustrator: me.Our digital agency had been working on the â€Å"Message In A Bottle† website since May 2016. They had the big challenge of creating an online platform where it would be easy to personalize and order the book. This meant submitting the child’s name, address, country and a personal message for the bottle, personalizing the world map page to show the route Kiki took to deliver the bottle, previewing the personalized book and creating a print-ready file to be sent to the print house.In July, all of the illustrations for â€Å"Message In A Bottle† were completed. And after countless website tests and print proofs, our website went live end of August.Since the launch, we have delivered over 100 personalized books to children all over Europe: the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany to name few. It’s the reaction of children that has completely touched our hearts. Hearing how much they lo ve their own personal book and how Kiki has become a beloved character in the whole family has been the most amazing reward.One year ago I had no idea where to start in terms of publishing a children’s book. Now I can’t wait to begin my second one!Fore more resources on writing and publishing a children's book, don't forget to check out these posts:How to Publish a Children's BookHow to Write a Children's BookHow to Find the REAL Target Market for Your Children’s BookVisit the Message In A Bottle website to personalize and purchase your own copy!If you've run your own campaign, what have been your positive or negative experiences? Did you have any learnings or takeaways from the experience?  Leave your thoughts, experiences, or any questions for Tuire in the comments below.

Business Management in Armenia

Business Management in Armenia Free Online Research Papers Abstract: The workforce of the 21st century is increasingly diverse and multicultural. Every society generates its own cultural values. It creates its own vision of the world to explain man’s destiny, and organizations and management systems compatible with that vision. To effectively manage and lead in this environment, business managers must be knowledgeable about cross-cultural factors-on both the domestic and global fronts especially in human resource management. This paper shows the importance of adapting training seminars and management methods of the Armenian cultural context. This means not only taking into account a different economic regime but also accounting for Armenian cultural values. 1 Introduction As a concept and as a reality, culture is broad and multifaceted. On a daily basis, culture influences who we are as individuals, families, communities, professions, industries, organizations and nationsand how we interact with each other within and across regional and national borders. Defined as a set of values and beliefs with learned behaviors shared within a particular society, culture provides a sense of identity and belonging. From language, communication styles, history and religion to norms, values, symbolism and ways of being, culture is everywhere. Companies are not managed in the same way in all countries. In order to predict what management style would emerge from the post-Communist era in Armenia, we had to gain some very practical knowledge about the concrete problems faced by Soviet company directors on one hand, and begin to examine the basic values which make up Armenian culture on the other. In domestic and global workplace settings, people in organizations reflect their respective cultures. As shifting demographics bring together people of many cultural backgrounds, human resource management (HRM) must be thoughtfully examined and sometimes altered to support organizational goals. SHRM Special Expertise Panel members point out that for sustainability, organizational leaders must expand their perspectives from a local to a worldly view. SHRMs 2008 Workplace Forecast highlights several trends in culture that will likely have a major impact on the workplace: 1) heightened awareness of cultural differences in domestic and global workplaces; 2) greater need for cross-cultural understanding/savvy in business settings; 3) managing talent globally; 4) greater emphasis on global leadership competencies; and 5) increased use of virtual global teams. Thus, HR professionals experienced in workplace diversity and cross-cultural communication are well-positioned to develop and implement culturally appropriate HRM strategies, policies and practices. While not exhaustive, this Research Quarterly focuses on selected cross-cultural factors in HRM in todays workplace and provides insights for HR to better serve the needs of the organization. With the advent of globalization, research on cross-cultural organizational behavior has become a pathway to understand the dynamics of multicultural domestic and international workplaces. In fact, successful organizations of the 21st century require leaders who understand culturally diverse work environments and can work effectively with different cultures that have varying work ethics, norms and business protocols. Yet, diverse cultures create HRM challenges. As Lisbeth Claus, Ph.D., SPHR, GPHR, associate professor of global HR at Willamette University, points out, that the HRM challenges lie between the various types of culturesthe cultures of emerging and developed countries and the growing heterogeneity of the workforce in terms of multiculturalism. Gaining cross-cultural competence takes time, education, experience, openness and sensitivity. When people lack intercultural skills, miscommunications can damage business relationships, deadlines can be missed, projects may fail and talented people will go to the competition. Key HR responsibilities are to understand how cross-cultural factors interact with HRM, be the conduit for organizational learning for cross-cultural intelligence and foster cross-cultural communication throughout the organization. Cultural Value Dimensions: Cross-cultural intelligence is the ability to switch ethnic and/or national contexts and quickly learn new patterns of social interaction with appropriate behavioral responses. This competence is essential to work effectively in multicultural environments. Thus, linking future career paths and global business success with cultural competence is important for HR to emphasize, with the goal that managers are motivated to acquire new behaviors and skills and understand the benefits of learning from different cultures. To become culturally competent, the first step is to have a solid understanding of ones own values and how they shape cultural identity. Within this process, it is also important to realize that different cultures often exhibit different values. There are 5 cultural value dimensions (according to Hofsted’s theory): 1. Power distance 2. Individualism/Collectivism 3. Masculinity/Femininity 4. Uncertainty Avoidance 5. Long/Short Term Orientation 1) High power distance indicates that hierarchy is important 2) Uncertainty avoidance is achieved by behavior that results in fewer unforeseen consequences 3) High-context cultures rely upon an internalized social context and/or physical environment (such as body language) and face-to-face communication for all or a large part of the message (e.g., indirect, subtle, ambiguous), whereas low-context cultures rely on direct messages (e.g., clear, stated in words, with emphasis on time management, punctuality and deadlines). 4) Collectivism refers to societies in which the group is valued over the individual and the individuals responsibility to the group overrides the individuals rights; individualism refers to societies that emphasize individual achievements and rights. 5) Long-term orientation indicates that cultural values are future-looking, including thrift, perseverance, humility/shame, and observe hierarchical relationships, whereas short term orientation values look to the past, such as respecting tradition. The culture of an organizations headquarters may highly influence the overall organizational culture. Specific factors determine the shape of corporate culture: 1) the relationship between employees and the company; 2) the hierarchical system of authority; and 3) the overall view of employees about the companys future, including its mission and goals, and their respective roles in the organization. (12) According to cross-cultural researchers and management consultants Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, there is a link between corporate and national cultures. Organizations can be classified into four different ideal-types of corporate culture, based on their focus on tasks/relationship and the extent of hierarchy: 1) the family; 2) the Eiffel Tower; 3) the guided missile; and 4) the incubator. These models of corporate culture provide insights as to why HRM policies and programs differ. Building Business Relationships: Building optimal business relationships requires global fluency. Global fluency defined as facility with cultural behaviors that help an organization thrive in an ever-changing global business environment is a competitive advantage to establish and maintain good business relationships. To promote people working effectively with those of other cultures, cross-cultural training assists employees in becoming knowledgeable about cross-cultural communication in terms of their own cultural values, behaviors and assumptions, and those of other cultures. Cross-cultural communication also includes global business etiquette from greeting behaviors, exchanging business cards and toasting at business dinners to work attitudes, appropriate work attire and nonverbal communication. To not cause offense, it is helpful to be aware of differences in greetings, such as the handshake. Another differing communication style is the use of silence, a form of nonverbal commun ication. In high-context cultures, such as in Asian countries, silence indicates thoughtfulness in decision-making. In contrast, people in low-context cultures, such as the dominant culture in the United States, are uncomfortable with silence and tend to fill the void with small talk, such as comments about the weather. People establish rapport in accordance with their cultural values. Based on social capital theory and the importance of social networks, a recent study explored intercultural communication strategies for business relationship building through interviews with business executives in Armenia. The findings indicate that building a business relationship is defined within the socio-cultural and economic contexts of the respective cultures and that depending on the culture, different strategies are used to build and maintain business relationships. The following mini-case study demonstrates a success story from the viewpoint of the Armenian culture. 2 Case Study: The Armenian Story A senior manager works at an Armenian company that sells a broad array of products (groceries, liquor, durable goods) and describes his philosophy about relationship building with an example from his company: As he says to successfully achieve our business goals, establishing and maintaining relationships with distributors is an essential strategy. Some of our customers are large firms, managed by graduates from the elite university I attended. This link creates strong networking opportunities. Once this connection is made, it is critical to invest time in this relationship, and I always counsel my subordinates on the importance of relationship building. One employee in particular is very good at maintaining relationships. He works hard to do so, even going to the airport or train station without prior arrangement to meet clients upon their arrival, once at 5 a.m. This effort shows that he is sincere and demonstrates how far he will go to maintain this valuable relationship. This personalized service adds to our commitment to nurture a long-term business relationship. Effective cross-cultural communication is necessary to build and maintain business relationships. To support their organizations, HR professionals can develop HRM practices and policies that promote cross-cultural training and reward managers for their part in educating employees on effective cross-cultural communication. 3 Methodology Analysis and identification of basic values prevailing in Armenian society was made by international consultant. After having gained some insight into the country’s mentality was determined what type of business management would evolve. This article deals with the findings of the second of these investigations. They are the result of a small study carried out in Armenia among 55 executives and directors in training at the HCYS in Yerevan. The questionnaire used in this research was based on Hofstede’s studies examining company executives’ and directors’ cultural values, which included 116,000 questionnaires in 20 languages, administered in 72 countries across five continents. The methodology used and detailed results for all the countries surveyed may be found in the book Culture’s Consequences. 4 Results 4.1 Position of Armenian culture in four main cultural values 4.1.1 Power distance: This perception varies a great deal from country to country, and so the concept of power distance is an important key to identifying differences between them. Armenia rated 76, placing it among the countries with high power distance. This score is as high as, India, Sub-Saharan Africa and a little higher than France (68). By way of comparison, the US scored 40 and Scandinavian countries have an even lower rating (e.g. 30 for Finland). This value constitutes a permanent part of Armenian mentality. One of the findings of investigation is that 42 per cent of our interviewees’ direct superiors are described as autocratic and 22 per cent as paternalistic. 4.1.2 Uncertainty Avoidance: The measure of uncertainty avoidance is in direct proportion to the degree of freedom in the country. Anxiety leads to accepting ways of limiting uncertainty, which in turn leads to accepting restrictions on individual liberty. Numerous observers have recorded the Armenian need to control uncertainty. According to the survey, Armenian executives display a high level of anxiety about the future which manifests itself in a tendency to be nervous, emotional and aggressive. Armenia has a similar rating to France (86) on uncertainty avoidance. It is therefore not surprising to find that 78 per cent of Armenian executives questioned say that they feel â€Å"constantly† or â€Å"often† tense or strained at work. Job stability is uppermost in everyone’s mind: 66 per cent hope that they will continue to work in their present company for more than five years or up until retirement. 4.1.3 Individualism: Today, there are both collective societies who value time spent within the group and individualist societies who value time spent by individuals in their personal lives. With a factor of 26, Armenia falls into the groups of countries with a collective mentality. How things are done in business is related to this dimension. For example, in a country with a collective mentality, employees expect their firm to take care of them like a family does. In countries with a more individualist mentality, the company does not get involved in the personal lives of its employees. In the Soviet system, the main role of a factory director consists of looking after the workers’ situation: building housing, managing shops where workers can find products unavailable elsewhere, organizing children’s playgrounds, looking after the medical centre and sending workers on holidays in company owned apartments. Managing a business is based on loyalty and a sense of duty, and decisions are made on the basis of personal relationships with managers. 4.1.4 Masculinity: Armenia (although this certainly varies greatly from one region to another) is in the same group as Scandinavian countries on this dimension, it scores 28. 4.2 The implicit consequences for management systems in Armenian organizations While management style overall is implicitly influenced by a country’s culture, there are three important areas where it is explicitly at work: (1) Appropriate management style. (2) Motivation. (3) Implicit organizational structure. 1. Appropriate Management Style: Appropriate management style is dictated by subordinate expectations. A typology of management styles is established by crossing countries’ power distance ratings and individualism ratings. The Armenian research showed high power distance and strong collective mentality. In this type of culture, employees expect an autocratic management style, offset by the support given to the subordinate’s family. Therefore, a system of management by objectives, which presupposes the confidence and independence to negotiate with one’s boss, a shared desire among bosses and subordinates to take risks and a desire to achieve, is incompatible with Armenian culture. 2. Motivation: We obtain a typology of motivations by crossing the masculinity value with uncertainty avoidance. In this respect, Armenia is similar to France. For this group of countries, security and a sense of belonging are the strongest motivators. Group solidarity is even more important than individual wellbeing. Today’s Armenia is fundamentally reactionary, in the sense that the priority is to protect achievements, rather than take risks in an uncertain future. 3. Implicit Organizational Structure: The organizational structure of companies differs from one country to another. Once again, two cultural values can help explain the differences: The power distance rating explains the degree to which decision-making is centralized in a country: the more pronounced the power distance is, the more likely it is that power will be centralized. The uncertainty avoidance rating is an indication of how companies perceive and control their environments. Controlling uncertainty can explain the extent to which roles are formalized in a firm. 5 Conclusion In practice, the implicit organizational model found in Armenia is the same as that found in Japan or in France. High power distance combined with high uncertainty avoidance gives rise to a pyramid-shaped bureaucratic structure, which is both formal and centralized. Work procedures and the relationships between individuals are formally established, either through strict regulations and laws, or through custom and tradition. All of the above basic information should be taken into account when defining the structure of new Armenian firms and developing internal processes. References (1) Bodley, J. H. Cultural anthropology: Tribes, states, and the global system (3rd edition). United Kingdom: Mayfield Publishing Company. 1999, 154 189 (2) Society for Human Resource Management. Glossary of human resources terms. Retrieved, 2008 (3) Gelfand, M. J., Erez, M., Aycan, Z. Cross-cultural organizational behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 2007, 479-514. (4) Hofstede, G. Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values. Newbury Park, 1980, 89 134 (5) Alon, I., Higgins, J. M. (2005, November/December). Global leadership success through emotional and cultural intelligence, Business Horizons. 2005, 501 542. Research Papers on Business Management in ArmeniaAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfDefinition of Export QuotasOpen Architechture a white paperThe Project Managment Office SystemPETSTEL analysis of India

Environmental Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Environmental Issues - Essay Example Handling temperatures and pressures of subsea oil can easily be monitored through the use of sensors and other instruments even during drilling (p. 135). But Rose argues that even though modern technology, research and monitoring systems have reduced the frequency of ecological catastrophes, still, there are factors that can cause oil-well blowout from high-pressure and high-temperature which can result to emission of buoyant plume of oil, producing water and methane (p. 141). Baird stated that â€Å"hurricanes have become manageable, with oil lines now being capped at or beneath the ocean floor† (p. 135). But aside from oil lines on and beneath the ocean floor, Rose said Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 115 platforms, spilling roughly 17,700 barrels of petroleum and 25,110 barrels of mixed crude oil from above-ground storage tanks in Louisiana (p. 141-142). Petroleum leaks, Baird said, can now be restrained by industrial seals (p. 135). Although this is the case, the pro blem does not stop at petroleum leaks. Rose argues that another disturbing impact of offshore oil is the volume and type of wastes, such as produced water, drilling fluids, cuttings, diesel emissions, and chemicals associated with operating mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical equipment (p. 142). Even with modern technology, we cannot guarantee that offshore drilling can withstand the force of God, which include hurricanes and other natural disasters, and human errors. Modern technology cannot reverse the destructive environmental impacts of offshore drilling gone wrong. It is better for us to find alternative sources which are safer for the environment and for the people’s health. Protecting the environment does not mean we are less concerned about protecting the country from economic problems, but other alternative sources can lower oil imports and thus save our country from further spending. Issue 8 - The release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributes to global w arming and is thus a danger to the well-being of human beings. To ease global warming, either people refrain from using fossil fuel as an energy source or capture carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere (Easton, 2011, p. 148). In carbon capture technology, the debate is not about the existence of the said technology but on their sustainability, safety and viability in being stored underground indefinitely (p. 149). In a nutshell, there are three issues surrounding the debate between David Hawkins and Charles Schmidt – the availability of technology, safety concerns and the political will to end the use of coal (Easton, 2011, p. 149-150). Hawkins maintains that the technology to capture carbon emissions are already existing and can already be utilized while Schmidt contends that the available technology is not yet technically and financially viable to be utilized in a major scale (p. 149). Anent to this issue is the question on safety, while Hawkins maintain that the t echnology on safety concerns are already feasible, Schmidt contends that there is still no assurance that carbon dioxide can be stored and can remain in containment underground indef

Economic and Political Motives for European Expansion into Africa Essay

Economic and Political Motives for European Expansion into Africa - Essay Example Missionaries persuaded their respective European governments to colonize Africa and thereby provide a supportive environment for the expansion of commerce. European powers used mineral exploitation, large-scale agricultural production, mixed economies as well as the supply of labor as modes of economic activity to generate revenue in colonial Africa. The major political reason that led to European expansion in Africa was political rivalries between the countries. England and France loathed one another for a considerable length of time due to the infamous hundred year’s war, and they both wanted to outdo each other in Africa. Nonetheless, the race for power was not limited to France and Britain. Other European nations wanted to benefit as well. Nationalism was popular among most western European nations as each nation wanted to be strongest. Nationalism is a strong identification with and pride in one's nation.This resulted in competition between European powers leading to wars . This competition made most nations to acquire more territories to uphold the spirit of nationalism in order to be seen superior than other nations. The strategy was another political reason for colonization of Africa. Most European countries were keen to maintain control of specific territories for strategic reasons. The British considered that South Africa offered a useful stop for ships on their way to India. Besides, the Suez Canal in Egypt significantly created a much shorter route between the UK and her colonies further east.