Mormonism in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America Research Paper

Mormonism in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America - Research Paper Example The relationships between Louis and Joe are in focus while talking on the contradiction between Judaism referring to Louis and Mormonism relevant to Joe. There is something more interesting in the play which designates the place of Mormon religion. Tony Kushner was accurate in choosing these two religions reflected on the reactions by two characters in the play. The question is that the religion of Jews is among the oldest on earth whereas Mormonism was created and established by Joseph Smith at the early ages of the American sovereignty. This is why it is a so-called controversy between the tradition and an isolated devotion toward something new. That is to say, homosexuality is opposed to the mainstream ideas. It is well illustrated on how Louis reacts on Joe’s confession in that he is a Mormon: â€Å"I cannot believe I have spent a month in bed with a Mormon† (Kushner 201). This is where the conflict starts and where it has all chances to progress in the future. A gr eat contribution by Kushner is that he once had realized the potential of the contemporary social issues and concerns. Then he incorporated them into the realistic and unique talk on the problem through the art of drama, as the â€Å"lines between gay and straight become very blurred† as of today (Meyer 1249). Thus, the way in which the play signifies the lives of two couples and how they interact is all about the realistic picture of people’s anxiety in their search for real identity. It is well supported by the idea of being gay among cruel individuals around. Back to Mormonism, it is necessary to note that it has less popularity among the privileged Catholic and Protestant churches in America. This is why there is a straight-forward connection to how the society perceives the idea of close relationships between two men especially when one of them abandons his wife for a new male-partner who, in turn, abandons his boyfriend for the sake of such union. Thus, in its se paration from the larger society, Mormon religion is symbolically set by Tony Kushner so as to lay emphasis on its American decent notwithstanding less popularity. It is the same for homosexuals. Along with their sexual prerogatives, homosexuals are not void of the rights and freedoms once proclaimed by the Founding Fathers which follow the genuine standards of a democratic society. Furthermore, Kushner masterly embodies the â€Å"national themes† with the idea of status, race, gender, sexuality, and political affiliation of the characters. Once again, Mormon religion is set to demonstrate why people become closeted or latent in their likes and priorities in life. Joe tried to find out a good moment to confess before Louis, but it was in vain, as the national stereotypes seem bigger in minds of individuals, even though they are of minor sexuality. The liberated gay movement got through the tremendous change due to the advent of AIDS and them to be automatically listed in the risk group (Longolius 3). It is another motive to speculate on why gay relationships suffer. Louis would never abandon Prior, if everything went great. Judging from Louis’s impulsive state of mind, religious preferences of Joe, as a

Newspaper article about possible war with Iraq Essay Example for Free

Newspaper article about possible war with Iraq Essay The newspaper article I have written is about the possible war in Iraq which expressed my opinion. It is an article that is totally against war and is to inform the readers the main objections by persuading them that it is right not to have another war. Im sure I am not the only one opposed to war in Iraq! The newspaper was aimed at teenagers and students alike. I felt that it was much easier to aim at this age group because I am a student myself so its like talking to your friends instead of addressing for example an older generation. The main points I want to get across were the American push for war in Iraq is illegal without UN backing, the Iraqi people have suffered enough, and the last thing they would want is another war. In this article, I am sometimes asking the reader a rhetorical question. Questions like Why would the training be so intense if there wasnt a war? It seems a bit obvious answer of yes because there were around 150,000 soldiers in the region at the time. As you read throughout, it seems like I ask the readers some question. I ask these questions because I want them to think about certain topics like America. For this topic I asked Would you believe them? when I was referring to America is saying Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The article was aimed for teenagers and students so most of the articles language was easy to read and understand. The sentences were short and words were basic because if I put it too technical, they might not carry on reading it. I am a teenager myself so writing something aimed at them was easier than if I was writing for say a middle aged audience. You could say that it is more of a tabloid newspaper than a broad sheet one, this article is free and would be handed out to students who could pick them up from the college library maybe? The main theme for this article is against another war in Iraq so this is why I used in big and bold letter that reads out Dont attack Iraq! I did this so that it can catch the readers attention too. For example if they walked past and saw the title, they would be more likely to pick it up and see what it is about! In order not to confuse the reader, I have split the article in sections, the main article is about Iraq but some of the other sections include other threats, real reason etc. This layout makes it more easy to read and easier to understand than if I put everything under one subtitle. Plus I want people to know that behind the scenes America is trying something which they may not know so this layout would suit me getting that message across. When I did the first draft and got it handed back, I realised I made some mistakes with me going off the point. The main point was not to attack Iraq but I sometimes talked about other countries. This might have confused the readers and one more thing is that on the title it reads Making you be heard but this isnt true as I am expressing my own personal opinions so I changed that title to Getting the Point Across instead. The article improved much from the first draft I did, the sentences were longer and had around 1600 for the last one which was way over the limit so now I have nearly halved it. I also made it more newspaper like because the last design I had lacked an attractive heading. The structure of this article was made to set out more like a newspaper as possible. I gave the newspaper a big title along the top, the writing was all in columns, some relevant pictures were included and so were the dates and price. I gave the reasons not to attack in bullet points at the beginning and rounded it all up with a conclusion which was called Real Reasons. The pictures used were there to make the newspaper look more colourful instead of having just text in there. One of the pictures was some soldiers but you could only see their shadows with rifles in the arms which look un-welcoming, another is a picture of Osama Bin Laden. He is the most wanted man on Earth and a lot of people recognise him so the article would stand out more. Word count: 772 without header and footer

History of Fireworks :: Chine Fireworks Explosives Essays

History of Fireworks The birthplace of fireworks is generally recognized as China, with the first explosive mixture found being black powder, during the Sung dynasty ( 960-1279 ). It is said that a cook in ancient china found that a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal was very flammable and would explode if enclosed in a small space. The first application of this technology was for entertainment. The Chinese are still the leader in the production of fireworks. Once the recipe for black powder was perfected, they found that it was easily used as rocket fuel, and they made hand carved wooden rockets in the shape of a dragon, in the sixth century. These rockets shot rocket powered arrows from their mouth, and were used against the Mongol invaders of 1279. The principle behind these rockets is still used in rocket powered fireworks today. Through adventurous explorers, the knowledge of making fireworks spread west, through Arabia in the seventh century. The Arabs called the rockets Chinese arrows. The Mongols are credited with taking Chinese rockets and gunpowder to Europe around 1241. The first record of their use in Europe are around 1258. Until the 19th century, fireworks lacked a major aesthetically essential characteristic: color. Pyrotechnicians began to use a combination of potassium chlorate and various metallic salts to make brilliant colors. The salts of these metals produce the different colors: strontium burns red; copper makes blue; barium glows green; and sodium, yellow. Magnesium, aluminum, and titanium were found to give off white sparkles or a flash. Even though China invented the fireworks, Europe surpassed them in pyrotechnic development in the 14th century, which coincides with the time the gun was invented. Shot and gunpowder for military use was made by skilled tradesmen, later called firemakers, who also made fireworks for peace or victory celebrations. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged: one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens. In the mid-19th century fireworks became popular in the United States. Injuries associated with fireworks, particularly to children, eventually discouraged their unrestricted use. As a result, in many states of the U.

Death of a Salesman Essay

What techniques does Arthur Miller use to highlight the conflict between past and present in Death of a Salesman? How do these techniques also demonstrate his main themes? Death of a Salesman is set in a time when the capitalist system is changing. It is set in the late 1940s, not long after the Wall Street crash in 1929. Willy Loman is unable to adjust to these changes and therefore, there is conflict between the past, where his dreams were achievable, and the present, where he has fallen foul of the capitalist system and is no longer any use to the firm. These conflicts are personified in Willy, and Arthur Miller uses a number of techniques to highlight this. The techniques Miller uses represent Willy’s mind and they distinguish between past and present. These theatrical methods also help to demonstrate the main themes in Death of a Salesman. These theatrical methods include music, lighting, wall-lines, scenery, the use of leaves and also use of costumes. In my essay I plan to explain what each method conveys to the audience and show how Miller uses these methods effectively to highlight the conflicts. Music is used to highlight significant points and themes in the play. Also, the type of music sets the mood for a scene. It creates atmosphere and conveys to the audience the emotions of the characters. Also, silence can highlight a particular scene. The absence of music means that the audience focuses entirely on the conversation taking place. In Death of a Salesman, flute music is heard constantly throughout the duration of the play. It bridges the play, as it is heard both at the beginning and the end. The flute music evokes a faraway, idyllic world, representing the past. It also represents a contrast between Willy and his father. Willy’s father was a pioneer; he made flutes and sold his own products. Willy, on the other hand, has to sell other people’s goods to make a living. A good example of music being used to set the scene is at the beginning of the restaurant scene. The lights have blacked out signifying the end of the previous scene ‘Suddenly rollicking music is heard. ‘ This is setting the mood of the scene for the audience. It shows that the atmosphere is happy and lively. This is to show the mood of the present time. It is a contrast to the past. By having rollicking music, Miller is highlighting this contrast. This links to the theme of Happy and shows more of an insight into his character. Happy has chosen this restaurant and it shows the kind of life he lives, and this is a contrast to Willy.

How would you direct act 1 scene 3 of Macbeth? Essay

Through this essay, I aim to present my ideas as to how I would direct act 1 scene 7 of Macbeth. I will also analyse the text and explain what I think it means. In my play, the two characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would be like nothing before. Throughout the play, the characters would distinctly change; in fact Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would practically switch rolls. For example, to begin with, Macbeth is soft, weak of mind, and it is Lady Macbeth who leads him and pushes him forward. Through this scene, she should appear to be wicked, even evil, and this should especially stand out in this scene. The point in the scene were I would make this very apparent, are between the lines 54 – 59. Here, lady Macbeth states her loyalty for Macbeth, when she says ‘I have given suck and know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dash the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this.’ The way I would direct the actor through this is as follows. I would have her pause between the words ‘smiling’ and ‘in’ to show that the very thought of her child’s face really does have an effect on her, and that she is not all evil, although the insight into this side of LM would be so short the audience should wonder if they even saw it. Then, the phrase ‘dash the brains out’ she would mime a moment, as if she was performing the act. This is just one example of how I want LM co come across in the play; a wicked, scary and evil, but you should have the feeling that she isn’t all bad or perhaps, so wasn’t always this evil. Later though, when Macbeth kills the king he suddenly changes from weak one, to evil one, it should almost appear that LM and M switched characters as at that point LM breaks down, and becomes the weak one of the two. In 16th c, women had a very different role to the one they have today. My research shows this through several ways, but the major one is that if a man considered a woman to be a potentional trouble maker, he would accuse her of being a witch, there by having her killed. This meant that women couldn’t stand out in any way, leaving the responsibilities of gaining honour and power to the men. Through the play I want to show this clearly. I will do so by having LM aggressive while it is only she and M. but as soon as they are in other company, she is quiet and submissive only reminding M by shooting him glare after glare. The way people acted in the 16th c. should show through the play. For instance, honour in the 16th c. was a major part of society. This will show through M character in the play, especially at the beginning of act 1 scene 7, when M is making his soliloquy and telling LM of his decision (to not kill the king). I would direct the actor to strain his voice while making it appear as if he was trying to protect his honour when he says ‘he’s here, in double trust:’ and ‘I am his kin’s man and his subject’ then ‘as his host I should against his murder shut the door’. He should emphasize on the words ‘host’, ‘against’ and ‘kin’s man’. By doing this, the actor is showing that if he were to kill the king, then his honour would be tarnished. At the time the play was written, king James 1 was in power. For this reason I think the play, was written as it would greatly appeal to the king. – ‘The man who killed his fellow king, watch how his life is destroyed!’ I would want this to show through my play, as I want to keep the play as true to the original as possible in this respect, as it would give the play another layer of depth and therefore make it more interesting. My version of this scene would be set in a 16th c. city, during a large feast hosted by the Macbeth’s in the city centre. M is down a side ally when LM joins him part way through the scene. Throughout the scene M and LM are both tense as they are nervous about anyone walking in on them. The reason I would set it in the 16th c. is because honour was a major part of society which is one of my main themes of the play, along with King James being in power at the time. Also in the 16th c. community events involving the entire town/city were not uncommon, making my version of act 1 scene 7 perfectly viable. The reason I’ve chosen to set it in a city is to fit in with the story but to make it totally unique. It would allow for everyone to get drunk including Duncan’s guard, which intern allows the murder to take place in a unique way, with LM and M travailing out doors to reach the king’s quarters. The way this would work is as follows: the king would be down stairs in one of the houses bordering the city centre, with one other man (his guard). While everyone else is asleep, slumped over benches and of the like LM and M would silently make their way over the bodies to the city centre. I would create tension by the music which I would put in place and having some of the people stirring in and out of sleep as the Macbeth’s pass. Then when they finally reach the king’s quarters, a man is lying across the front door causing M to enter through the window. Then when M climbs through the window into the room where Duncan is asleep, the lights will dim leaving, a candle lit glow illuminating the room. When the murder takes place the dim orange glow would dramatically switch to a vibrant blood red. Simultaneously a white light will illuminate both of the Macbeth’s faces showing clearly their expressions. M has a faint grin on his face as he takes strength from the act, while LM shrivels and becomes by far the weaker of the two. This is the point in the play where their characters switch. I would want my play to stand out from the rest, and to do that I would update the language. I think this would help younger students, understand the play resulting in a far wider audience. However I wouldn’t want a very young audience, as it is not suitable. However to keep it in theme with the 16th c. ideas I would not be able to update all the language in the play. An example of this would be in act 1 scene 7 where LM states ‘he has almost supped, why have you left the chamber?’ this would translate into ‘the meal has almost finished, why have you left the feast?’ This still holds much of the original meaning but it is far easier to understand making it more enjoyable for some people. Apart from this, I wouldn’t change anything else in the play, as I think it would distract from the main story because I would be more focused on the alterations than the story line, thus distracting from the meaning of the play. Shakespeare uses this scene to explore several themes. The first of these is honour. I would display this strongly through M before he kills the king, and then after when he has no honour everything falls apart in his life. (What happens to him was written as a warning, to please the king). I would display the transition from honour to dishonour as described earlier. I would also have LM fearful when she realises that she and her husband have made a terrible mistake. This shows that honour is very important and without it you have nothing. The 2nd theme is the concept of people being two faced. This would radiate from LM in this scene. I have chosen this as one of my themes as I think I could get a lot across throughout the play based on this. It tallies well with LM’s character- evil (even though she reveals it to M alone). Through act 1 scene 7 I would have LM be very tense and conscience that someone could over hear their conversation. To emphasise the evil side of her I would not only have her speak slowly between the lines 48-59, but also between lines 35-44. I would have her layer her voice with malice and occasionally pausing for effect. This would create a contrast between the perfect LM and the ‘evil’ wife M. the final theme I will have is power and the need the Macbeth’s have for it. To make this theme stand out in act 1 scene 7, I would have LM labour on the words ‘wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,’ these words state, ‘do you not want the highest achievement?’ which is the highest achievement of power. This displays the greed of power and wealth that LM has and simultaneously appealing to her husbands greatest desire- power. In my version of act 1 scene 7, the two characters of M and LM will really show their ‘true colours’. At the beginning of the scene when LM hasn’t yet walked in, M starts off with his soliloquy. This soliloquy is the equivalent to what M is thinking. He states that he doesn’t really want to kill Duncan when he says ‘not bear the knife myself’ it is at this point that M fully decides he will not kill Duncan. After this, all he does is give reasons why it is a good thing he is not going through with murdering him. Through the soliloquy, M talks himself out of murdering his king and ‘kinsman’. He comes up with lots of reasons for instance the king is in ‘double trust’ and he is ‘his host’. This soliloquy should clearly declare the state M’s mind is in as he acts out his thoughts to the audience. The audience should clearly see that M is very unstable and is torn between power and the right thing. †˜But here upon this Blanc and shoal of time, we’d jump the life to come. But in these cares we still have judgement’. However simply reading the words out would not convey the depth of meaning I wish to convey. So I would have the actor show unrest in the first few lines. Then as the soliloquy goes on M should become slowly more confident, then when he reaches his decision not to kill the king, he finally has the courage to hold his head high. This represents the battle going on inside his mind. Once the battle is resolved however M is confident and clear minded as he knows what he thinks he’ll do. Throughout the soliloquy all that can be heard is M talking as the audience are effectively hearing what is inside M’s head. The way M works the issue though his mind is by coming up with lots of reasons why not to kill Duncan, while totally ignoring his greed for power, resulting in a temporary decision. For example he starts of by saying, ‘first as I am his kinsman and his subject strong both against the deed’, then ‘this Duncan have borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking off.’ Then he goes on to say, ‘and pity, like a naked newborn babe striding the blast, or heaven’s cherub s horsed upon the slightest couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, that tears shell drown the wind.’ Through these examples of M reckoning with himself, we can see an argument which first stacks his honour, ‘first as I am his kinsman and his subject’. And then how he would be effected. It says that the ‘cherubs would blow it in every eye’, and that ‘the wind would be filled with tears’. This shows that, if he does commit the deed, he will be discovered, as ‘angelic children’ watch over Duncan. Which basically means he is in Gods favour, ergo, with God against him, M cannot hope to win, and would surly be found out. When LM walks in at the end of the soliloquy, M tells her that ‘they will do no further in this business’. (That he won’t kill Duncan). When he tells LM this, h er immediate reaction is shock, (I would direct the actor to look taken aback when M says the line ‘He hath honoured me of late,’. It would be it that point because when M says ‘we will proceed no further in this business’ she isn’t quite sure what he means). This would be shortly followed by anger, ‘was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?’ LM then very quickly rallies on M and begins to brutally persuade him again to kill Duncan. First of all, she calls him a coward by saying ‘art thou afraid to be the same in thine own act and valour, as thou art in desire?’ She then goes on to say that he lacks ‘manliness’. However, the stroke that wins M back to her way of thinking is often interpreted as evil, (between lines 54 – 59). These lines show LM terrifying loyalty, and word wise, make her sound totally evil. These lines shock M (and the audience, especially at the time it was written) into going along with the plan. I would show this on stage, by having M shrink away from LM, and wincing at the key words. I think that Shakespeare wanted to have the effect of totally shocking the audience, and I would want to do the same. However, I think Shakespeare intended to shock his audience through the fact that the character is evil, I would, however, rely on modern society and the fact that most people would be horrified by the thought of ‘dashing the brains out’ of a ‘newborn babe’. I would also have the background noise of laughter and singing throughout these lines, to create an eerie silence. Lighting wise, I would have a harsh white light shining across the stage at them to wash out all colour and create a scene of death and evil. All this should have the effect of shock and almost disbelief on the audience as I would want these lines to be burned into their memories, because they are the most poignant lines in the play. They carry so many connotations that without them being remembered, the entire purpose of the scene would be lost. As soon as LM has finished this speech, M makes one final attempt to redirect LM by saying (feebly), ‘if we should fall?’ but LM sweeps the words away like the feeble attempt it was. From then on, the rest of the scene if dominated my LM as M is still in reprieve from what LM said; (As the audience should be). At the end of the scene, the characters of M and LM are finally in agreement. LM has convinced M to go through with murdering Duncan, his ‘kinsman’. So, at the end of the scene, LM is fully in command, but this will soon change. Throughout act 1 scene 7 are devices designed to make it stand out. The first one seen in this part of M is the soliloquy. Through this Shakespeare wanted to captivate the audience for the scene that would follow. I would make this device work by introducing lighting, sound, and directing the actors. Personally I would make the soliloquy work by firstly working on M. he would be wearing makeup, put on to make him look tired and drawn. M the scene on stage, with his head hanging low, He would begin speaking feverishly then as the soliloquy develops, he should become stronger and more confident, as described before. The turning point in the soliloquy is when M realises what he was planning was ‘wrong’ and that it was doomed to fail. Ergo, he decides not to kill Duncan. At this point M lifts his head and says triumphantly ‘he is here in double trust’. At this point the lighting would become lighter and warmer, both representing the revelation in his mind. This lighting will be effective, as it will be in total contrast to the previous lighting, which was a harsh white. If this were to be made into a film, I would place a heroic, but faint tune in the background, played by a brass band to add to the texture and connotations of the play. The second device used by Shakespeare is ‘violent imagery’. This device come through the play on several occasions, for instance, when LM displays her loyalty and depth of commitment while trying to bring her husband back on course. This device has major importance throughout the play. An example of how I would direct a section of this is between lines 54 – 59. I would have LM act out the phrases ‘pluck my nipple from his boneless gums’ and ‘dash the brains out’. This is designed to help the audience visualise what she is saying, therefore having a larger, and deeper impact. Unlike before, even if this was made into a film, I would have no music underneath, as this might distract form the lines. The same goes for in the theatre; I would not place any music underneath, as the words are powerful enough! Act 1 scene 7 is a very important scene in the play ‘Macbeth’. It is during this scene that the most important decision is made. it was also during this scene that the most dramatic and most memorable lines throughout the play are said by LM,(her son â€Å"dash his brains out†).It is also the first time that M attempts to stand up to LM. In short, had this scene of the play been lost or forgotten the entire play would also have been forgotten, as this scene, is by far the most memorable scene, and makes it a classic. In my version of this scene, I would strive to make the audience pity M for his weak mind and be shocked by LM with her brutal ways. I would want this response because it would indicate that the audience had understood the meaning, and that I had directed it well. Out of everything that is said in this scene, I think that what LM said between lines 54 and 59 are the most pivotal and provocative because is at that moment in the play, that it becomes cl ear this story will last for centuries. And this essay is living proof. The audience are meant to feel sorry for M at the beginning of the scene, as it should be clear, he is in a mess. However, they should shortly feel resentment towards him, when they watch how LM manipulates him, (i.e. calling him a ‘coward’ and attacking his manliness). I am fairly sure that Shakespeare wanted the same, and therefore I want to achieve the same. My views on this scene are very similar to want I have directed throughout this essay. I think that M is very unstable and up until he kills Duncan has very little confidence. He relies heavily on LM to make many of the decisions and to motivate him. I think, on the other hand that Lady Macbeth is not evil. I think that she is a strong minded woman who craved power and had t o motivate her weak husband to get it for her. (A sign of the times). Later in the play, when Duncan is killed I think that M gains confidence with his new status and the ease with which he got it. In contrast LM realised the enormous mistake they had made and began to break down. As a whole, I think the play is packed with morals and at the time was written to please the current king. (King James 1). Amazingly, I think it relates to today’s society very well with one of the main themes being ‘you cannot read people by their outward appearances’. As in these days the world seems to over value and focuses too much on image. Therefore this plays still bears a powerful and very meaningful message, even today, 500 years later.

5 steps to becoming more optimistic

5 steps to becoming more optimistic Unless you naturally always see the glass as half-full, focusing on the sunny side of things may not seem like the easiest task in the world. (And even those natural optimists have their moments of frustration and doubt.) Positivity is a trait you have to work on, but it’s one worth cultivating- being optimistic is an asset in all aspects of your life, especially in your career. If you’re not confident and open, opportunities may pass you by. Here are some tricks to use when you need to boost your optimism and confidence.1. Note any negativity.When you first respond to something, is your instinct to see what’s wrong? Take a mindful approach to your thoughts and statements throughout the day. You don’t need to feel ashamed of the negativity you feel, just make a note of it and think about why that might be your default response. Think about the assumptions you make. What’s behind them? Is it fear? Anxiety? It’s going to be very difficult to ch ange your thinking if you aren’t putting much introspection into why you’re thinking negatively in the first place.2. Fake it ‘til you make it.When you have a negative thought, consciously add a positive one. Even if you don’t really mean it, or you don’t think it’s totally true, that’s okay. It might feel like you’re forcing it at first, but after a while you’ll find yourself automatically adding the positive to the negative- or even seeing the positive part first.3. Pick a positivity mentor.You probably know someone who’s routinely positive, or able to take a lesson from the bad things that happen. Make that person the little voice in your head (and they never have to know). How would she approach this situation? What perspective would he take? This is part of the mindfulness that can help you change your thinking and your behavior.4. Be kind to yourself.We’re usually our own worst critics- especially when things aren’t going very well. Changing your outlook starts with cutting yourself some slack. It might feel cheesy to (mentally) pat yourself on the back or cheer on your own decisions, but who’s going to know you’re doing it? Start by giving yourself positive feedback in everyday life like, â€Å"I did this poorly, but I did this other thing right,† or â€Å"I got lost, but I stayed calm and eventually found my way back to the road.†5. Be ready to commit.Changing how you see things (and how you react to things) is not going to be an instant process. And it’s not something you can set aside, say, an hour to practice on a Saturday afternoon. If you try to add kind of an internal review to your thoughts as often as you can, you’ll find that you’re tweaking your levels of positivity over time. You will also likely find that you’re feeling less anxious and stressed and more open to opportunities and possibilities if youâ₠¬â„¢re not dwelling on all the reasons it just won’t work, or why you don’t deserve it. You deserve happiness, so go find it!

White collar crimes

White collar crimes Introduction White collar crimes are increasingly rampant today and are getting more and more sophisticated each day. These are crimes that are committed by people in respectable occupations in the course of their work. Examples of such crimes are bribery, fraud, forgery, embezzlement, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, computer crime, medical crime, identity theft, counterfeiting, extortion, currency schemes, among others (Green 5).Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on White collar crimes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This discussion will look at Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, whose revelation stunned many investors who had entrusted him with their savings. A Ponzi scheme is a white collar crime in which the perpetrator encourages people to invest in a business and promises high dividends within a short period of time. The perpetrator does not invest the money but pays dividends to the old investors with the n ew investors’ money. The perpetrator lies to the investors that the dividends are the profits generated from their investment. The scheme ends when there are no longer sufficient funds from the new investors to pay the old ones. The perpetrator may also end the investment and take off with the money when he feels that he has amassed enough funds. Discussion Bernie Madoff is an American white collar fraudster who swindled a lot of money from many investors through his Ponzi scheme. He owned the firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, which turned out to be a scam. He formerly worked as the NASDAQ stock market chairman and an investment advisor and stock broker. According to Sarna and Malik (147), Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was the â€Å"longest-running and most extensive† in history. Until his arrest, Madoff was the chairman of his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, which he founded in 1960. He was reported to the authorities by his sons when he confessed to them that the firm was a Ponzi scheme. The 2008 financial crisis had hit his firm hard and he had no more money to pay to the investors. The estimated amount that he fleeced his investors is sixty five billion dollars. His victims were from all walks of life including celebrities, ordinary investors, banks and charitable trusts. Madoff pleaded guilty to his scandalous crimes in March 2009. The crimes included lying under oath, wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, mail fraud, making false statements, making false filings and theft from an employee benefit plan. He was thereafter sentenced to imprisonment. Bernie Madoff easily deceived his victims for a number of reasons. Firstly, his role in helping to establish NASDAQ stock exchange and his tenure as its chairman elevated his repute. In addition, his victims trusted him because they were able to withdraw their dividends without any delay whenever they wanted to.Advertising Looking for term paper o n social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In 2000, Harry Markopolos made attempts to expose Madoff’s scheme when he suspected that it was a scam. He reported the matter to the Securities and Exchange Commission officials but no action was taken. He went back with the same claims in 2001, but no proper investigations were carried out. If investigations were done at this time, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have rooted out the Ponzi scheme before it defrauded more people of their hard earned savings (Kotz 61). Madoff confessed that he never invested his clients’ money but banked it in his personal account and he simply paid them out of the account when they wanted to withdraw. He also said he tried several times to go back to legitimate business but it was not possible to settle the investors’ accounts, and therefore exposure of the scheme was inevitable when he was finally unable to pay the investors. Madoff claimed that his investment had been legal since its inception, and that he started the Ponzi scheme in the 1990’s, a claim that the investigators doubted as all evidence showed that he started the illegitimate scheme in the 1970’s. Madoff was arrested on December 11, 2008 where he was charged of committing fraudulent crimes. He paid a bond worth $10 million and was consequently confined under house arrest in his apartment, under strict surveillance. On March 12, 2009, Judge Denny Chin annulled his bail and had him kept in remand at the Metropolitan Correctional Center because he feared that Madoff might evade justice owing to his immense influence, age, and affluence. Madoff’s attorney’s attempts to have his client released from jail until his sentencing, by filing a petition, did not succeed as the court rejected the appeal. The lawyer further sent a letter to the judge urging him to give Madoff a 12 years’ sentence sin ce his lifespan was envisaged to be 13 years, a request that the judge turned down. Madoff was ordered to surrender his assets amounting to $170 million. His wife’s assets, worth $85 million were also ordered to be seized. On June 29, 2009, Madoff got a prison sentence of 150 years, from Judge Denny Chin; although his lawyers were pushing for a shorter sentence citing his old age (he was seventy one years old at the time of the sentencing). This long sentence ensured that Madoff could not be confined in a minimum security prison. After the sentence, Madoff asked for forgiveness from his victims, though he said he knew that his apology would not help them. Madoff’s firm has been liquidated under the direction of Irving Picard and the victims of the scam have started getting their money back. The recovered money is divided among all the investors though it is not likely for them to get all their money back.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on W hite collar crimes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Barlow and Decker (198), white collar and street crimes are similar in that they both cause harm, be it emotional, physical or financial, to the victims. However, they differ in a number of ways. White collar crimes involve the selling of lawful products through unlawful practices like misappropriating funds, bribery, among others. On the other hand, street crime includes robbery, murder, assault, theft, among others. In addition to that, street crimes are of a violent nature while white collar crimes are not. The perpetrators of street crime are usually of a low socio-economic class while white collar crime perpetrators are employed professionals usually with a glowing career reputation. Although white collar crimes are more costly, they are not as strictly handled as the street crimes. Some of the reasons include the fact that white collar crime perpetrators are wealthy and c an therefore hire the finest lawyers for their cases. In addition, very few agencies are concerned with investigating white collar crime. The society views white collar crimes as causing less harm than street crimes because the former are not violent. Perpetrators of street crime however use violence and brutal force, and sometimes even murder their victims. Normally, street crime perpetrators are confined in maximum security prisons because they are considered a serious threat to the safety of the citizens, while their white collar counterparts end up in minimum security ones. In addition, the penalties differ, with those for white collar crimes being lighter than those of street crimes. White collar perpetrators get light penalties such as fines, community service or probation, while street crime offenders get very harsh sentences. (Gonzales par 5). However, recently, white collar criminals are getting very severe sentences, like imprisonment for long periods of time. For instance , white collar perpetrator Bernie Madoff got a prison sentence of 150 years. Many felt that this was a well-deserved punishment since he fleeced many people and organizations of their life time savings. Conclusion White collar crime is a trend that is increasingly taking root in our society. It is a fairly hard crime to detect and this calls for investors to be exceedingly careful when investing their money, lest they lose it to blatant fraudsters. Signs to look out for in a Ponzi scheme include promises of high returns on a low investment, minimizing withdrawals with promises of even higher returns, and problems in paying proceeds to the investors when the investment slows down, among others.Advertising Looking for term paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Investors should be wary of investment schemes, especially ones that seem too good to be true. The above discussion has looked at the concept of white collar crime, and particularly at the Bernie Madoff’s case. Comparison has also been made between white collar and street crimes to establish whether these two crimes should be classified together or whether they are disparate. Barlow, Hugh, and Decker Scott. Criminology and Public Policy: Putting Theory to Work. USA: Temple University Press, 2010. Print Gonzales, Joe. â€Å"White Collar Crime Guide to White Collar Crimes Law.† Hg.org, 1995. 12 Oct. 2011. https://www.hg.org/white-collar-crime.html Green, Stuart. The Concept of White Collar Crime in Law and Legal Theory. Buffalo Criminal Law Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (April 2004), pp. 1-34 Kotz, David. Investigation of Failure of the SEC to Uncover Bernard Madoffs Ponzi scheme: Public Version. USA: DIANE Publishing, 2010. Print Sarna, David, and Malik Andrew. History of Gre ed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff. USA: John Wiley Sons, 2010. Print

Opeation Compass during World War II

Opeation Compass during World War II Operation Compass - Conflict: Operation Compass took place during World War II (1939-1945). Operation Compass - Date: Fighting in the Western Desert began on December 8, 1940 and concluded on February 9, 1941. Armies Commanders: British General Richard OConnorGeneral Archibald Wavell31,000 men275 tanks, 60 armored cars, 120 artillery pieces Italians General Rodolfo GrazianiGeneral Annibale Bergonzoli150,000 men600 tanks, 1,200 artillery pieces Operation Compass - Battle Summary: Following Italys June 10, 1940, declaration of war on Great Britain and France, Italian forces in Libya began raiding across the border into British-held Egypt. These raids were encouraged by Benito Mussolini who wished the Governor-General of Libya, Marshal Italo Balbo, to launch a full scale offensive with the goal of capturing the Suez Canal. After Balbos accidental death on June 28, Mussolini replaced him with General Rodolfo Graziani and gave him similar instructions. At Grazianis disposal were the Tenth and Fifth Armies which consisted of around 150,000 men. Opposing the Italians were the 31,000 men of Major General Richard OConnors West Desert Force. Though badly outnumbered the British troops were highly mechanized and mobile, as well as possessed more advanced tanks than the Italians. Among these was the heavy Matilda infantry tank which possessed armor that no available Italian tank/anti-tank gun could breach. Only one Italian unit was largely mechanized, the Maletti Group, which possessed trucks and a variety of light armor. On September 13, 1940, Graziani gave into Mussolinis demand and attacked into Egypt with seven divisions as well as the Maletti Group. After recapturing Fort Capuzzo, the Italians pressed into Egypt, advancing 60 miles in three days. Halting at Sidi Barrani, the Italians dug in to await supplies and reinforcements. These were slow arriving as the Royal Navy had increased its presence in the Mediterranean and was intercepting Italian supply ships. To counter the Italian advance, OConnor planned Operation Compass which was designed to push the Italians out of Egypt and back into Libya as far as Benghazi. Attacking on December 8, 1940, British and Indian Army units struck at Sidi Barrani. Exploiting a gap in the Italian defenses discovered by Brigadier Eric Dorman-Smith, British forces attacked south of Sidi Barrani and achieved complete surprise. Supported by artillery, aircraft, and armor, the assault overran the Italian position within five hours and resulted in the destruction of the Maletti Group and the death of its commander, General Pietro Maletti. Over the next three days, OConnors men pushed west destroying 237 Italian artillery pieces, 73 tanks, and capturing 38,300 men. Moving through Halfaya Pass, they crossed the border and captured Fort Capuzzo. Wishing to exploit the situation, OConnor wanted to keep attacking however he was forced to halt as his superior, General Archibald Wavell, withdrew the 4th Indian Division from the battle for operations in East Africa. This was replaced on December 18 by the raw Australian 6th Division, marking the first time Australian troops saw combat in World War II. Resuming the advance, the British were able to keep the Italians off balance with the speed of their attacks which led to entire units being cut off and forced to surrender. Pushing into Libya, the Australians captured Bardia (January 5, 1941), Tobruk (January 22), and Derna (February 3). Due to their inability to stop OConnors offensive, Graziani made the decision to completely abandon the region of Cyrenaica and ordered the Tenth Army to fall back through Beda Fomm. Learning of this, OConnor devised a new plan with the goal of destroying the Tenth Army. With the Australians pushing the Italians back along the coast, he detached Major General Sir Michael Creaghs 7th Armoured Division with orders to turn inland, cross the desert, and take Beda Fomm before the Italians arrived. Traveling via Mechili, Msus and Antelat, Creaghs tanks found the rough terrain of the desert difficult to cross. Falling behind schedule, Creagh made the decision to send a flying column forward to take Beda Fomm. Christened Combe Force, for its commander Lieutenant Colonel John Combe, it was composed of around 2,000 men. As it was intended to move quickly, Creagh limited its armor support to light and Cruiser tanks. Rushing forward, Combe Force took Beda Fomm on February 4. After establishing defensive positions facing north up the coast, they came under heavy attack the next day. Desperately attacking Combe Forces position, the Italians repeatedly failed to break through. For two days, Combes 2,000 men held off 20,000 Italians supported by over 100 tanks. On February 7, 20 Italian tanks managed to break into the British lines but were defeated by Combes field guns. Later that day, with the rest of the 7th Armoured Division arriving and the Australians pressing from the north, the Tenth Army began surrendering en masse. Operation Compass - Aftermath The ten weeks of Operation Compass succeeded in pushing the Tenth Army out of Egypt and eliminating it as a fighting force. During the campaign the Italians lost around 3,000 killed and 130,000 captured, as well as approximately 400 tanks and 1,292 artillery pieces. West Desert Forces losses were limited to 494 dead and 1,225 wounded. A crushing defeat for the Italians, the British failed to exploit the success of Operation Compass as Churchill ordered the advance stopped at El Agheila and began pulling out troops to aid in the defense of Greece. Later that month, the German Afrika Korps began deploying to the area radically changing the course of the war in North Africa.   This would lead to fighting back and forth with Germans winning at places such as Gazala before being halted at First El Alamein and crushed at Second El Alamein.  Ã‚   Selected Sources History of War: Operation CompassWorld War II Database: Operation Compass

Cross-ultural Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Cross-ultural Management - Essay Example The opportunities presented by globalisation are immense. The access to a global marketplace has been a big boost to companies’ efforts to expand their business empires. However, aside from the consumption side with access to more buyers, companies are also benefitting on the production side with regards to their capabilities to produce at lower costs. This has been made possible by their access to cheaper labor in the developing economies. This, however, presents companies with more challenges since these are people who, although like machineries are inputs for production, are much more difficult to handle. Hence, Mendenhall, Oddou and Stahl (2007) emphasizes the need to be able to handle the challenges presented by having a global workforce for managers in firms that operate globally. Companies must be able to face up to the challenges presented by the different culture of the different people that will be working with them. More so, the concept of having global operations in different countries will present HR practitioners with an array of culture and people necessitating the capability to be able to handle the different issues that will arise from such workforce diversity. This, however, is easier said than done for Hofstede (2001) warns that there are more chances for conflict than synergy when different cultures are mixed. Cross-cultural management therefore is very important since this is a pressing reality that companies wanting or are operating globally must face and succeed if they are to survive and thrive in the global business environment. Cultural Challenge According to Hofstede (2004), there are five cultural dimensions that HR practitioners and managers faced with cross cultural challenges can use to somehow understand the differences that are characteristic of their global workforce. One of the possible sources of conflicts that must be understood properly is the way people may view how p ower is distributed. Hofstede calls this the Power Distribution Index (PDI) whereby there is a bottom to top view of the inequality of the distribution of power. Hence, usually easterners identify strongly with their ethnic groups meaning they find power in their groups or by being collectively identified with each other while westerners are more individualistic. Thus, this shows that these people must be treated differently. Also, there are the poles of masculinity and femininity which reflects to a person being assertive or modest. Looking at a countrywide perspective, there is a significant difference among men towards women. Thus, companies operating globally ought to be sensitive to the inclination of their employees towards power as well as with the actuations associated with the poles of masculinity and femininity. The myriad of personalities that they will be handling can spell the difference between the success and failure of their global endeavor since these employees are central to their business successes. It would be unwise to hire cheap labor if the company cannot get them to work harmoniously raising the risk of attaining poorer quality and even defects on their products. When conflicts abound in an organization, the results are seldom fruitful. Also, there is the tendency to be risk averse or to be cautious and avoid uncertain situations. Hence, for cultures that have these tendencies, there are usually stricter laws and regulations in order for them to mitigate such risks and uncertainties. On the other side, there are cultures that are more lenient who are generally more relaxed and displays a high level of tolerance. Finally, there is the long term orientation (LTO) vis-a-vis short term orientation displaying the various tendencies of

Global economic Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Global economic - Assignment Example Simon, an economist, and P. Ehrlich, a biologist (Economist 2011). In the book of Ehrlich under the title ‘Population bomb’ reference is made to five metals, the price of which was expected to increase in the following ten years because of the increase of population globally; a bet has been set between Ehrlich and Simon who opposed the above argument, noting that no such increase would take place, a view that was verified up to 1990s (Economist 2011). According to the article, if the above issue were reviewed now, a different result would be revealed. Indeed, if the views of these scientists were compared today, Ehrlich would have won the bet (Economist 2011). In other words, the article aims to highlight the different effects of growth of global population, as reported through the decades. It is noted that in the past, the effects of the increase of population globally would be less negative for the environment compared to today; this view is based mostly on the argumen t of the World Bank that the global food production would have to increase by about 70% by 2050, so that the food needs of global population, estimated to 9 million in 2050, to be covered (Economist 2011). However, it has been proved that areas with stable population, like Europe and USA (Economist 2011) tend to affect more the global climate, compared to countries where the level of population is unstable. Under these terms, it is suggested that the control on the rate of growth of population should be developed both at state and at family level. 2nd version The rate of increase of population globally has been often considered as related to the economy of countries worldwide. At the same time, the effects of increase of population on global climate seem to be important. However, these views have not been standardized through the decades. For example, according to the book ‘The Population Bomb’ of Ehrlich, the increase of global population between 1980 and 1990 could le ad to the increase of the price of five metals: ‘copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten’ (Economist 2011). By 1990, no such increase occurred, a fact that was already highlighted by Ehrlich opponent, Julian Simon (Economist 2011). In the years that followed, a different trend appeared: it was made clear that the increase of global population could lead to the increase of food required for covering people’s daily food needs, an issue highlighted by the World Bank (Economist 2011). In addition, it was proved that the increase of global population could negatively affect the environment. It seems though that the economic and environmental effects of the increase of global population are more intensive in rich countries, like USA and China. Introducing a birth-control policy, as in China, would minimize such risks. Still, the article notes that the control on global population should be rather based on appropriate family planning and less on the intervention of s tate, which can lead to severe demographic and economic turbulences, as in the case of China. In the above country, the one-child policy promoted by the government has helped to control the excessive increase of population, which would have adverse effects on the country’s economy and climate, but this policy is expected to lead to the radical decrease of the country’s working population in the near future (Economist 2011). B. Peck, Don. â€Å"Can The Middle Class Be Saved?† Atlantic Monthly September 2011 1st version Commonly,

Action Research Reflection Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Action Reflection - Research Paper Example It is important to do careful planning before starting with action research. This prevents the group to divulge from what needs to be done, saves time and prevents giving rise to any disappointments and dissatisfactions. While researching for a problem, it should be made sure that the problem is both to the point and meaningful (Donna Kalmbach Phillips, 2009). In the data collection phase, the data should be organized in such a way that it becomes easy to deduce trends from it. Based on the data interpretation, a plan for change should be developed. It is important to implement one action at a time. But several actions are implemented simultaneously, it will be difficult to assess which action was responsible for the outcome and hence, the reflection will become difficult.Action research process has two main goals: Stimulating Learning and Making a difference. Action research as a process is both collaborative as well as participative and hence it is often called â€Å"Collaborative Enquiry†. This process can be adopted across all levels of education. Because of the flexibility this process offers, it can also be adopted in work setting. This process helped me reflect on what I did and also improved team communication. This process leads to empowering of all the team members. With the help of action research process, I discovered that being participative; open to change, and being a good communicator as three essential skill sets which can help me grow not even personally but professionally as well.

Microeconomices Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Microeconomices - Research Proposal Example reover, the presence of the conventional firm places monopoly theory in the prime scene because of the comparable attributes of a colossal firm to a monopolistic corporate power. The concept of monopoly power was initially applied during the 1930s to the traditional theory of the firm by some well-known economists. This breakthrough in the discipline of the economy provided useful tools for economists examining the performance and behavior of firms and industries. However, as expected in every emerging idea, the concept has met strong oppositions and spiteful criticisms, in this case from scholars trained in the conventional assumption of perfect competition. Monopoly theory does not merely go against several of the principles of perfect competition but roused significant doubts on the good organization of laissez-faire capitalism itself (Cleaver 2004). While the new-fangled theory had attracted numerous disbelievers, it was also strongly protected from criticisms. Since the first monopoly framework was derived from perfect competition, the two theories are much in common in terms of their opinion about â€Å"profit maximization, marginal analysis, and mathematical rigor† (Karier 1994: 27). It was easier said than done for advocates of perfect competition to hit on the assumptions in the monopoly model without disparaging their own. Provided with little prospect of locating lapses in the new theory, critics were disposed to plainly disregard it or relegate monopoly as nothing more than a unusual occurrence in the actual economy (ibid). The introduction of monopoly theory into conventional economics was both a success and a disappointment. It was a success because it made available an alternative to the romanticized model of perfect competition. Yet, it was also a disappointment since the circumstances for the typical monopoly framework were ordinarily just as idealized and confusing as perfect competition. Where perfect competition necessitates an unlimited

Hypatia of Alexandria (350-415) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hypatia of Alexandria (350-415) - Essay Example She followed the school of thought that was derived by Plato and developed by Plotinus. She was multitalented and this made people envious until they condemned her as a witch, which led to her murder in 415. All her works were burnt in the Great Library. Hypatia lived during a time of great change, in the late fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries. She was born in around 350 A.D., though the time of her birth is not well known. During that time women were not allowed to contribute much in the society and were only treated as property. They had few options but Hypatia managed to freely move and maneuver in a tradition that was male dominated. Slavery was a dominant issue during that time, as it had sapped the vitality of classical civilization. In about 400 A.D. the philosophy of Neo-Platonism was taught. The philosophy was founded by Plotinus. Hypatia at that time taught philosophy and was the head of the school of Platonist at Alexandria. Religion was a major development at that time and most of the Christians were converted to paganism through the teachings of Hypatia. In the city, there used to be several riots between the Christians and non-Christians. The Christians felt that the works of Hypatia undermined and threatened the stability of their faith. These events became the turning point of the life of Hypatia. It was during the reign of the Roman governor, who had a good relationship with Hypatia. During this time, the people in the city of Alexandria were naà ¯ve and lacked formal education. Hypatia was a symbol of scholarship, especially due to the scientific knowledge she possessed. This made other people in the city, particularly the Christians to despise Hypatia and they decided to murder her. The works and remains of Hypatia’s body were burnt with an aim of the termination of her teachings. Although the Christians managed to undertake her murder, the teachings and works of Hypatia remain

Microeconomices Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Microeconomices - Research Proposal Example reover, the presence of the conventional firm places monopoly theory in the prime scene because of the comparable attributes of a colossal firm to a monopolistic corporate power. The concept of monopoly power was initially applied during the 1930s to the traditional theory of the firm by some well-known economists. This breakthrough in the discipline of the economy provided useful tools for economists examining the performance and behavior of firms and industries. However, as expected in every emerging idea, the concept has met strong oppositions and spiteful criticisms, in this case from scholars trained in the conventional assumption of perfect competition. Monopoly theory does not merely go against several of the principles of perfect competition but roused significant doubts on the good organization of laissez-faire capitalism itself (Cleaver 2004). While the new-fangled theory had attracted numerous disbelievers, it was also strongly protected from criticisms. Since the first monopoly framework was derived from perfect competition, the two theories are much in common in terms of their opinion about â€Å"profit maximization, marginal analysis, and mathematical rigor† (Karier 1994: 27). It was easier said than done for advocates of perfect competition to hit on the assumptions in the monopoly model without disparaging their own. Provided with little prospect of locating lapses in the new theory, critics were disposed to plainly disregard it or relegate monopoly as nothing more than a unusual occurrence in the actual economy (ibid). The introduction of monopoly theory into conventional economics was both a success and a disappointment. It was a success because it made available an alternative to the romanticized model of perfect competition. Yet, it was also a disappointment since the circumstances for the typical monopoly framework were ordinarily just as idealized and confusing as perfect competition. Where perfect competition necessitates an unlimited

Strategic Management (Marks & Spancer Case) Essay

Strategic Management (Marks & Spancer Case) - Essay Example It is able to source quality products from centralized buying office and later transfers the same to its stores. In each and every store, analogues procedures are being followed and hence, the independence of managers was constrained. In the past, various CEOs concentrated on quality of merchandise, supplier control and layout of stores. During the 11-year tenure of Sir Richard Greenbury as Chairman cum CEO, M&S enjoyed twice the market share as compared to any other retailers in the industry and witnessed the growth successively as they were no major changes to its style of operations or functioning. However, in 1998, M&S strategy met a great disaster as it performance was far below than normal for many successive years. Its lost its major chunk of customer’s base due to its competitors ability to source very competitive merchandises from low-cost nations and there had been cut-throat competition from retailers like Gap, Oasis, Next, Matalam and Asda. Due to poor performance, Sir Richard Greenbury was shown exit doors in 1999. In 2000, Luc Van de Velde appointed himself as Chairman cum CEO, and he earnestly attempted to turnaround the M&S Plc in his short span tenure that prolonged up to 2004. With aim of focusing on UK market, Velde appointed a head for UK retail and segmented the customers of the company employing the store within a store perception. He successfully entered into a joint venture with designer George Davies. In 2003, he introduced the Simply food notion and started to open stand alone food stores in 2003 in UK. Velde era made a turnaround of M&S Plc between 2000 and 2004 but also M&S encountered successive takeover attempts by the Arcadia Group. Another innovation that Luc Van de Velde brought was the introduction loyalty cards which gave the customers reward points that can be used during their future purchases at M&S stores. However, in the year 2004, M&S witnessed a deep decline in their sales, lost major of its market share to its c ompetitors, mainly due to over-emphasis on Per Una. Rose Stuart succeeded Luc Van de Velde in 2004, and he followed a strategy of under promising but excess delivering in terms of targets set. In 2008, Rose was re-designated as Chairman cum CEO when UK was facing utter economic crisis. Since then, the scenery did not improve in 2009 also, Rose and his marketing director were to forego ? 1 million package bonus of M&S shares and in 2010, Rose relinquished his position as chairman and functioned as CEO of the company. Introduce the theory or concept to be used in analysing the assignment This paper tries to explore about competitive strategy on which M&S might accomplish competitive advantage in the market. As per Michael Porter, an organisation could achieve the competitive advantage by adhering to three various generic strategies like focus, overall cost leadership and differentiation. As per Cliff Bowman and Richard D’ Aveni, market-facing generic strategies are having compe titive advantages, which is accomplished by offering customers with what they exactly need or want more efficiently and effectively than its competitors. (Cousins & Coskett 2007:275) In UK, M&S was the number-one retailer, but it failed to comprehend or to recognise the transforming social fashions and tastes in the

Core Values Essay Example for Free

Core Values Essay Inspired by the charism of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Notre Dame of Marbel University anchors its faith and life on the following core values as foundational qualities with which the Marist Brothers, Mission Partners, and students approach the entire educational process and academic atmosphere of the University: Family Spirit, Marian, Love of Work, Preference for the Least Favored, Quality Education, Integrity of Creation, and Culture-sensitivity. Family Spirit St. Marcellin Champagnat’s great desire and legacy was in the style of relationship he encouraged between teachers and students- a relationship premised on love and expressed in a style which Marcellin called â€Å"family spirit. † Akin to the characteristic of a good family are: a warmth of welcome, acceptance, belongingness and authentic concern which should prevail where everyone has a sense of being valued and believed in, regardless of their role or their social standing. Marian Mary is for us the perfect model of the Marist Educator, as she was for Marcellin. As a woman, a layperson and Jesus’ first follower, she is our inspiration in living out personal faith and virtue of simplicity. As an educator of Jesus at Nazareth, she inspires our pedagogical approach. The Marian aspect of our spirituality is expressed above all, in our identifying with her attitudes towards others and to God. She is in our midst, a symbol of unity and mission, a witness to God’s solidarity with people in their needs and sufferings. Love of Work Love of work implies a cheerful and careful preparation of all the things one does. It values the dignity of work as a powerful means of self-fulfillment, of giving purpose and meaning to life, and of contributing to the general economics, social and cultural well-being. It is manifested through a deep sense of personal planning and motivation that shows itself in the good use of time, talent and initiative. Preference for the Least Favored Preference for the least favored is to be with those who are excluded from the mainstream of society, and those whose material poverty leads to deprivation in relation to health, family life, schooling, and educational values. With the emergence of social and cultural challenges confronting the world, preference to the least favored means being concerned toward the youth who are affected by the social, political, and cultural problems of the society. Quality Education A Marist school is a center of learning, of life and of evangelizing. It leads students â€Å"to learn, to know, to be competent, to live together and most especially, to grow as persons.† Quality education is characterized as holistic where students are progressively initiated into their life-long challenge of harmonizing faith, culture and life. It provides educational programmes, curriculum contents, and teaching methods that meet the aspirations of students, parents and the community with regard to subject choices, career possibilities and educational needs of the community. It gives emphasis to educating students by teaching them through good examples and inculcating in them the importance of the craft of teaching and its support systems. Integrity of Creation â€Å"Respect for the value of life† and â€Å"care for the mother earth† are two major themes in valuing the integrity of creation. It upholds life-giving values and promotes stewardship of the earth. Culture Sensitivity Culture must be accepted as the gift of every people, the expression of their dignity, liberty and creativity, and the testimony of their unique place in the history of humanity. Culture sensitivity means openness and respect to the different culture of peoples. It promotes dialogue as a way of enhancing unity in diversity. On the individual level, it is a communication between two persons with different views, different values and traditions, to learn from each other in order for them to change and grow. Culture sensitivity as a value promotes respect for the tri-people of Mindanao, develops programs for inter-faith dialogue and upholds advocacy on issues as a result of the emerging culture of the global world.

Enhancing Online Privacy In Behavioral Targeting Advertisement Information Technology Essay

Enhancing Online Privacy In Behavioral Targeting Advertisement Information Technology Essay Advertisements are part of everyday life even if its not a choice. They are placed in every possible physically spot and in every kind of mass media. Advertising has become an important channel of modern marketing [19]. The purpose of advertisements can be brand awareness, brand promotion or brand sales and the method varies based on the media used. Internet media is an important communication channel and could not be an exception; therefore, display banner advertisement has become a big industry especially the latest years as advertisers struggle to approach ever-larger audiences with higher susceptibilities to consume. It is estimated that global online advertising market is valued $40 billion in 2009 and grown to $80 billion by 2010.[5] Yet, people actively avoid looking at online banners [1] and empirical and experimental studies show that advertising messages are noisy [2]. Meaning that people are anointed by the existence of advertisements on web and therefore the effectiveness of the advertisement campaign might be low for people that dislike this noise. A way to measure the effectiveness and success of online banner advertisements is CTR (Click Through Rate). A CTR is calculated by dividing the amount of users who clicked on an ad within a web page by the amount of times the ad was in total delivered (impressions). The average click-through rate of banner ads has been decreasing consistently, from 3% in the mid-1990s to 0.2% (eMarketer 2004). Studies showed that since we are faced with an ever expanding mass of information the  selection of the relevant bits of information seems to become more important than the retrieval of data [3]. The relevance of information is subjective and is related to the personal interest of each user. Hence, the idea of behavioural targeting within online advertisement was very quickly expanded in all countries and is today considered to be a mandatory service for the online advertisement industry. Online Behavioural targeting (OAB) is not a new practice within online advertisement industry; it was first released in late 1990s from DoubleClick to track users across sites and present banner advertisements based on their browsing preferences. [6] Interest based advertising is not a static area of technology. On the contrast, its continuously evolving and adapted to new techniques and methods, aiming to increase the revenues by succeeding on targeting the correct potential customers based on their personal interests. Its evolution combines web mining in data analysis of on-line users behaviour and machine learning in optimizing web on-line advertising [1] Companies in the industry use Interest based advertising as a solution for optimizing the selection of ads to display for a certain user. The selection of ads is based on an interest profile built up during visits to websites within a specific ad network. Problems with behavioural targeting The problem in todays solution within interest based advertisement is that since users have the ability to choose to surf in private mode, by selecting this choice from the browser, it is impossible to gather anonymous data about their interests. In advance, although online behavioral advertising promises to decrease the noise and increase the users interest, there is a great concern and protest, particularly among privacy and consumer advocacy groups [6] mainly because of the technology that is been used. In addition to the general disapproval of the fact that the majority of advertising companies store and use their customers information in a non-ethical way, an upcoming refinement of the methods which advertising companies use to inform their users about their online tracking is expected due to an EU directive issued on 2009 [15]. This directive is expected to redefine the implementation and operation of current methods used for retrieval of identification data, since every online advertising agency should explicitly ask for the users consent before accessing and processing his data. Current technology background As mentioned previously, apart from the fact that current behavioral advertising techniques fail to retrieve the appropriate information regarding their target groups, they also neglect the security concerns. Most of them seem to focus more on attracting users attention and persuade them to purchase without taking into consideration their privacy. As a result, security attacks are highly related with current advertising methods, thus making customers suspicious and face rather negatively the fact that their online behavior is monitored. In this section we will first provide a brief description of the available techniques that are widely used from the advertising industry, in order to familiarize the reader with some basic underlying concepts. Consequently, we will specify which of these technologies are used by some of the leading advertising companies aiming to track users online preferences, how they manage to deal with security attacks and why they still fail to convince people that they perform their privacy protection efficiently. One of the most common techniques used to track online behavior nowadays are Cookies. These are text files created by web sites and placed into users hard disk. When a user is visiting a site this file is placed automatically in a specific repository that each browser retains to store cookies. The next time the user choses to visit again this specific site, he will be uniquely identified based on the information that cookie has stored for him[7]. This information can be related to his browsing history, such as the sites he has visited, the usernames and passwords he provided to log into them etc., or information regarding his systems or networks details, such as browser type and version, operating system he uses or his IP address[8]. Another, relatively new introduced method is Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). It is mainly carried out within the users ISP consent and cooperation with advertising companies, since it uses specific software and hardware aiming to retrieve information regarding the online preferences of ISP customers [9]. This information may include details regarding sensitive private data, such as name, sex or location of the user as well as his browsing and purchasing history. On the other hand, web beacons are often used for behavioral tracking also. They are usually a chunk of code linked to a graphic image that is not visible to the user in the foreground of a Web page. It can be used to collect either anonymous data, and in this case are stored in the cache of web browser or personal information which can be retrieved for example from an email containing the web beacon [10]. The techniques mentioned in the previous paragraph are widely used by some of the most dominant companies in the advertising industry, which aim to construct the users profiles based on the tracking of their interests. In this section we will examine how companies like DoubleClick, Phorm and Yahoo exploit the available web techniques to gather information about their users and how they manage to protect the privacy of them. DoubleClick, which was founded in 90s and managed to evolve into one of the most well-known online advertising agencies was acquired by Google Inc.in 2007. They use web cookies that are stored on users browser each time he chooses to visit Google, DoubleClick or some of their partners (YouTube, Amazon etc.). Hence, they retrieve information based on both general browsing history of the user as well as his searching or purchasing history through specific advertising sites. The DoubleClick Cookie is stored in the web browser as a log file containing the time that the user interacted with the advertisement, the users IP address, a number specifying the advertisement, a unique identification number for the users browser and the url path of the site that hosts the advertisement [11]. As such, DoubleClick claims to use information that dont violate users privacy and dont use sensitive personal data to construct the users online profile. Phorm uses Deep Packet Inspection to acquire information from the users online preferences. It cooperates with ISPs to collect data regarding their customers and uses the existing ISP infrastructure to achieve this. The main procedure it follows is to mark each browser with a different random number and relate it with the 10 most often keywords that appear in the visited sites and as such construct a channel, which is a specific subset of users interests [13]. Yahoo makes use of web beacons and the so called Yahoo Cookies, in order to offer their users more focused to their interests advertisements [14]. They use both anonymous and personal data, but in the latter case they require partners to disclose the presence of web beacons in their privacy policies and state what choices are available to users regarding the collection and use of this information, as stated in their website[14]. As such, they rely on their partners privacy policies to efficiently protect the personal information of their users and also inform the user about the action of collecting his private data. Related privacy concerns Despite the fact that all the previously mentioned advertising agencies offer an opt-out choice to their users [15], which allow them to disable the tracking methods operation, there is a lot of discussion about the level in which they succeed in protecting their users privacy. The greater issue of controversy between privacy advocates and advertising agencies focuses on whether all these companies actually use the retrieved information in an ethical way, and if this information is indeed anonymous. Numerous reports depict that Abacus Alliances, which owns databases containing personal information and is one of the major cooperators of DoubleClick utilize sensitive data of DoubleClicks visitors [12]. Phorm has been constantly accused from UK tabloids and Privacy Protection Organizations to infringe Internet Users rights by acquiring and storing personal information, and has also intrigued EU s interest which has launched several legal proceedings against UK for not complying with the EU security rules [20]. Research Methodology In order to provide an accomplished approach to our research we consider that the most suitable inquiry method is Qualitative Methodology and more specifically the conceptual inductive research process since it this is used in almost every workplace and study environment [17] and covers our research structure and means. Within a qualitative study we can generate data in the form of participant descriptions of their experiences and use literary analytic procedures to produce higher-order descriptions and understandings of the investigated experience [18]. First, we will investigate the dominant tendencies of tracking users online behaviour and create the corresponding profiles for marketing purposes. By looking into the main web tools and techniques they deploy to retrieve information about the visitors of their sites, we will try to find out how they manage to build an overall picture of their preferences. We will particularly examine these techniques through a point of view of privacy concerns. In fact we will examine the ways they claim to successfully use towards protecting the privacy of their users, and in which degree they actually manage to achieve this. This part of our survey will be carried out through a data collection procedure based on three different sources of information: The official sites of these companies, in which they describe the basic techniques that use for online behavioral targeting and what policies they follow to protect the privacy of their users. Articles and papers which discuss and evaluate these techniques, by pointing out the basic points in which they fail to efficiently provide privacy security. Previous surveys and statistics which indicate that either users are not interested in the advertisements they are exposed to, or their distrust to the level of the protection they perceive that these companies offer to them. On the next step, our research will deal with a combination of technologies that aim to collect anonymous information regarding customers behaviour and use them for behavioural advertisement targeting. As such, its goal will be to succeed in providing efficient advertise targeting along with showing respect to the users need for privacy and freedom of choice. On the third part of our research, we will try to testify the acceptance of our proposed technique. We consider that the most suitable way to achieve this is within a questionnaire that will give us feedback for our proposal. Related Research The selection of the target group for this questionnaire was based on the following criteria: The target group should consist of people that have regular contact with various Web sites. This means that they have already experienced being exposed to online advertisements, and as such will be better able to express a well-argued opinion about online advertising issues. It would be also useful that they acquire basic knowledge regarding the common tools and methods basically used to track their online behavior. Of course this doesnt mean that they should have in deep knowledge of the technical aspects of these methods, but rather a general sense of how it is feasible for an advertising company to get information about their online behavior. The above consequently imply that the target group should consist of young-aged people, who are the main Internet users and usually have daily interaction with web applications. For practical purposes it would be more convenient that the target group is easily accessible from us and is also familiar with Research and Scientific concepts. As such, it will be of greater interest to them to take part in our survey. For the above reasons we regarded that the most suitable target audience for our questionnaire are KTH and DSV students. Our questions will deal with both examining their opinion about the effectiveness of our proposal in correctly identifying their interests and defining the level of their trust to the privacy protection that it guarantees. The final step will be to collect and evaluate the results coming out of our survey, in order to reach our final conclusions. Literature references [1] Drà ¨ze, X., and Hussherr, F.-X. (2004). Internet Advertising: Is Anybody Watching? Journal of Interactive Marketing , 8-23. [2] Bharat N. Anand  · Ron Shachar (2009) Targeted advertising as a signal Quant Mark Econ (2009) 7:237-266 [3]Hildebrandt, M. and Gutwirth, S. (eds.), Profiling the European Citizen, Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Springer, p.1 (2008) (Profiling the European Citizen) [4] J. Jaworska and M. Sydow (2008) Behavioural Targeting in On-Line Advertising: An Empirical Study [5] Policy Engagement Network The Information Systems and Innovation Group, ONLINE ADVERTISING:Confronting the Challenges. MAY 2009 [6] V.Toubiana, A.Narayanan, D.Boneh, (2009) Adnostic: Privacy Preserving Targeted Advertising [7]: JOON S. PARK AND RAVI SANDHU, Secure Cookies on the Web, IEEE INTERNET COMPUTING, July-August 2000 [8]: Daniel Lin, Michael C. Loui, Taking the Byte Out of Cookies: Privacy, Consent, and the Web, Ethics and Social Impact, ACM Policy 98 [9]: Gabriel Maci ´a-Fern ´andez, Yong Wang, Rafael Rodr ´Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ±guez-G ´omez, Aleksandar Kuzmanovic,ISP-Enabled Behavioral Ad Targeting without Deep Packet Inspection,IEEE INFOCOM 2010 proceedings [10]: JOSHUA GOMEZ, TRAVIS PINNICK, ASHKAN SOLTAN, KNOW PRIVACY, UC Berkeley, School of Information, : JUNE 1st 2009 p.8-9 [11]: http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ [12]: Ethan Preston Law Clerk, In the Matter of DoubleClick Inc.- Complaint and Request for Injunction, Request for Investigation and for Other Relief, submitted to Federal Trade Commission, February 10, 2000 [13]: http://www.phorm.com/ [14]: http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/webbeacons/ [15]: 2007/0248 (COD), Directive Of The European Parliament And Of Council, Electronic communications: universal service, users rights relating to networks and services, processing of personal data, protection of privacy, consumer protection cooperation [Telecoms Package  (amend.  Directives 2002/22/EC, 2002/58/EC and Regulation (EC)  No 2006/2004)], Brussels, 22 October 2009 [16]: http://www.networkadvertising.org/participating/ [17] : http://www.qsrinternational.com/what-is-qualitative-research.aspx [18]: D. E. Polkinghorne, Handbook of Clinical Psychology Competencies, 2009 [19]: Adams M (1995) Brands of gold. Mediaweek 13:30-32 [20]: OsborneClark.com, International Online Behavioral Advertising Survey, 2010 [21]: Anton, A.I., Earp, J.B., Young, J.D., How Internet Users Privacy Concerns Have Evolved since 2002,   Security Privacy, IEEE, Volume :  Ã‚  8 ,   Issue:1  , Jan.-Feb. 2010  p.24

ALI :: essays research papers

American boxer, one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. Colorful, talented, and sometimes controversial, Ali entertained fans and intimidated opponents. His boxing style involved graceful footwork and powerful jabs. He also became famous for bragging about himself. For example, he once described his skills by saying that he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," In 1978 Ali became the first boxer to win the world heavyweight championship title three different times. Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His original name was Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. He began boxing at the age of 12, after his bicycle was stolen and a police officer suggested that the young Clay should learn how to box. By age 18 Clay had amassed a record of 108 wins and 8 losses in amateur competition. This included six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, the 1959 International Golden Gloves heavyweight title, and a gold medal as the light heavyweight champion at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. After returning from the Olympics, Clay turned professional. He fought his first professional bout on October 29, 1960, and defeated Tunney Hunsaker. As Clay continued to win over the next few years, he became more vocal about his successes, and he was given the nicknames "Louisville Lip" and "Mighty Mouth." By 1964 Clay had recorded 19 professional wins and had earned a chance to challenge heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. At 22 years of age, he was considered a serious underdog. Nonetheless, he predicted that he would knock out Liston in the eighth round. Clay needed even less time to make good on his claim. His jab-and-dance technique tired Liston, who failed to come out of his corner at the start of the seventh round. Clay was crowned the new world heavyweight champion and proclaimed himself "The Greatest." In 1964 Clay converted to Islam, joined the Nation of Islam (see Black Muslims), and assumed the name Muhammad Ali. In 1965 he defended his title in a rematch against Liston. The bout lasted only 2 minutes 12 seconds. During the first round Ali caught Liston with a hard blow, so quick that it was dubbed the "phantom punch" because few fans saw it.

Irish Stereotyping In The Late 1800’s Essay

Published in Puck, America’s first successful comedic magazine containing several types of cartoons, on June 26, 1889 a cartoon entitled â€Å"The Mortar Of Assimilation And The One Element That Just Won’t Mix† clearly shows an Irishman rebelling against the rest of the American crowd with a knife in his hand, expressing violence, and possibly alcoholism. Through further research I found that how poorly the Irish were treated during this time period. The cartoon â€Å"The Mortar Of Assimilation And The One Element That Just Won’t Mix† expresses the idea Irishmen just do not belong in America, despite the several other races intertwined into our country. This cartoon brings me to the question; Why? Why were the Irish labeled as such outcasts? I have discovered three main reasons to answer this question: The Irish were labeled as violent, drunk, and having strange religious views. One clear reason the Irish were labeled as outcasts is because of the violence they were stereotyped to portray. The Irishman holding the knife in the cartoon is a perfect example of this. The Fenian brotherhood was a group with one main goal to obtain all freedom and become an independent republic of Ireland. For many played the role of motivation in emigrating to the United States, played a large role in this stereotype. One article in particular, entitled â€Å"The Fenians In Ireland† published in The New York Observer And Chronicle on November 23, 1895, articulates a perfect example of the violence portray by the Fenian brotherhood. It wrote: â€Å"The Derry Journal contains the following account of a sense of terror and alarm which occurred in a quiet village, but a few evenings since in consequence of a farmer of reliable veracity knocking up his sleepy neighbors to defend their homes and their firesides against a host of bloodthirsty, who were in march for their well-stocked farmyards. After some delay a great number of the male inhabitants were brought together in a truly warlike style†¦. The supposed Fenians had disappeared leaving the mangled remains of one of their companions behind them.† Another reason the Irish were labeled as outcasts is because of their religion. At this point in history America was made up of mostly Protestants, however the majority of the Irish emigrants were Catholic. Most Irish children were put into parochial schools and religion was placed as a big priority in their lives. The Irish held on tightly to their religious ways, a main reason being that was the one thing that still tied them to their homeland. Roman â€Å"Catholic priests denounce the common schools, and set up their protests in the form of un-American parochial schools.† (The Methodist Review, 5 January 1889) Americans refused to accept this religion due to the differences in their beliefs and practices. Today, Catholicism is one of the United States’ most common religions, with much thanks due to the Irish emigration. . Catholics also weren’t able to run for any political office, so that ruled out most of the Irish population for a great while, until the Know Nothing Act took place and the United States was able to look past religion. â€Å"The curse of the Irishman in America is strong drink.† (The Chautauquan, 8 October 1887) Drinking was a big part of Irish cultures. Even wakes were associated with alcohol due to the celebration of the deceased’s life. Americans feared their mostly Protestant nation would soon die out if the mostly Catholic Irish all emigrated to the United States, another reason why the Irish were not treated fairly. Not only were the Irish viewed as hot-headed violent, people with strange religious views, they were also known to be unskilled and drunk. Americans viewed Irish as alcoholics due to the drinking that is weaved into their culture and ways of living. Much like our culture does today, Irish drank in several difference social settings, although the y did drink alcohol at someone’s wake before the funeral, which may have been what disgusted Americans the most. Americans saw alcohol has ruling over the Irish and they were merely the slaves. One should also note, this was during the time of the ban of alcohol in the United States, so to see one consuming alcohol at such high rates was highly alarming and it would not be long for one to create a bad reputation because of something so simple. Due to this, Americans also stereotyped the Irish to be unskilled and lazy, at times signs were even put into windows stating things such as, â€Å"Irish need not apply.† At this point in history, Irish were viewed much similarly to African Americans when it came to respect. Over time, the Irish were able to keep their customs without encountering further confrontation, and the United States was able to run as one country under many different religions and customs as it does today. Catholics were able to run for office and Catholicism soon became one of the United States’ top most common religions. The Irish were looked down upon by Americans for three main reasons; they were stereotyped to be violent, drunk, and had different religious views which were frowned upon by the Americans. The Fenian brotherhood played a big role in the Irish being stereotyped as violent. At times, it is possible Irishmen were stereotyped to be violent because they were also known to be drunks. The Irish were known to be drunks because of the drinking that is associated with their culture. The Irish emigration to America had a lasting effect on everyone that was a part of the country, without the Irish emigration to the United States, America would not be what it is today, with a beautiful mix of races, religions, and beliefs.

The Globalization of Mcdonald’s

Leading the Global Enterprise System Abstract The organization chosen is McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a multibillion dollar corporation that has concurred the fast food industry around the globe. McDonald’s has grow by expanding into new competitive spaces, attaining a complex mixture of financial knowledge, custom understanding, developing material and knowledge assets, to expand the market possibilities and replicating and standardizing their practices to be duplicated in similar markets across the globe.McDonalds as a western corporation had to make adjustments in the way they think and react to situations and customs. This paper will demonstrate how McDonald’s developed an open-mindness on the part of their leadership. Outline and Annotated Bibliography Globalization A. Introduction 1. The globalization of a multi-billion dollar corporation. 2. This paper will provide a guide through a corporation that addresses its western effect on other nations through food. B. Points of discussion 1. Anti-globalization movement against the west. . There are several reasons why leadership fails to support the organization and its goals. 3. Increasing performance through deep change. 4. The Five stage approach competency model. C. Conclusions 1. Lack of leadership coupled with cultural sensitivity can provide success or failure. 2. Further research into developing leadership styles that would support and enhance the service provided in other non western nations. Introduction McDonald’s a multi-billion dollar corporation that utilizes local employees in each community.The mega giant has developed a tier of progression of success as it has an on going development of a component of the corporation’s strategic plan to educate their managers and line level employees. This occurs by developing a nurturing and ever developing environment for its staff. As such, McDonald’s has demonstrated its dedication throughout its globalization a cross the street and around the world through the development of a university designed to teach the managers how to lead. The Hamburger University is designed to teach basic management skills with an emphasis on consumer’s behavior and leadership skills.The university also focuses on restaurant specific skills to operate a specific restaurant in a particular geographic location. The utilization of the university has lead to the development of a global leadership program. In turn it has strengthened the management staff that supports its line workers in an achievement –oriented environment. The employees can meet with their managers to be challenged and empowered to find the solutions. This paper will address the techniques and measured outcomes of the globalization of the multi-billion Dollar Corporation and how it develops the staff through the leadership and training it provides.Culture (from the Latin cultural stemming from colere, meaning â€Å"to cultivate† )[1] generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be â€Å"understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another†[2] Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation.Culture has been called â€Å"the way of life for an entire society. â€Å"[3] As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art. (Wikipedia, 2008)) Cultural diversity is explaining the differences between people, such as language, the way they dress and traditions and the way societies organize themselves, their conception of morality and religion, and the way they interact with the environment. (Wikipedia, 2008) Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures.Cultural competence comprises four components: (a) Awareness of one's own cultural worldview, (b) Attitude towards cultural differences, (c) Knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and (d) cross-cultural Skills. Developing cultural competence results in an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures. Globalization Globalization is defined as the process of social, political, economic, cultural, and technological integration among countries around the world. (Hodgetts, Luthans, Doh) This process has occurred in almost every nation across the globe.Globalization has influenced international interaction of various cultures in order to exchange and educated other parts of the world. This process is designed to trade the culture’s services, ideas and products. Moreover, the enc ouragement of globalization has a significant impact on the political and economic involvement throughout the world. A major influence of globalization is food. Styles of foods are easily globalized throughout the world as each of us is made up of some sort of hybrid of a different culture. It is not uncommon for a grandmother to make a dish from the â€Å"old country† during a festive holiday.The consumption and preparation of the dish in its original ethnic form is what allows the globalization to continue throughout the generations. If changes occur to the originality of the food its cultural beliefs are somewhat diminished. McDonald’s a multi-billion dollar mega corporation decided to go global with the westernized fast food industry into foreign countries. This transformation bought one of the US most beloved foods to other geographical locations and impacted a generation. Most cultures infrequently accepted such a new concept of a food so its introduction was unf amiliar and extremely different.McDonald’s was the first corporation to introduce new eating habits and changes to other nations. As the introduction occurred throughout the world Catherine Schnaubelt wrote in her study that â€Å"McDonald’s has over 1. 5 million franchises in the United States and about half of the total franchises are outside the U. S. in over 120 countries. † As a result of the widespread introduction of McDonald’s the company has demonstrated its willingness to conform to the local culture by the pervasive enhances rather than contaminate its culture.As a result of these enhances McDonald’s has permitted most of the foreign franchises to be locally owned and operated however utilizing the core values of the corporation without creating undesirable affects on the culture. This is called franchising. A franchise is a business arrangement under which one party (the franchisor) allows another (the franchisee) to operate an enterpri se using its trademark, logo, product line, and methods of operation in return for a fee. (Hodgetts, Luthans, Doh) With that said, the individual culture and norms are integrated within the menu.This includes the religious and the culture’s diversity. However, in some nations McDonald’s is viewed as the west and its global movement away from long-established culturally based foods towards the consumption of fast food. This process Americanizes the culture it infiltrates by the restructuring of the local diet at some level. This infiltration is viewed in a negative manner by some and as hip by the younger generation that is exposed to more of American development through movies, music and the internet. Anti-GlobalizationIn 1999 a French farmer named Jose Bove of Brazil ransacked a McDonald’s only to become a hero to anti-globalization. His emergence at anti-globalization gatherings across the world and even in the US has given him overnight fame for his intrepid move in destroying a McDonald’s restaurant. Bove’s aspiration came from the desire to support the local farmers and to stop the destruction of the fields by extracting the goods and mixing them with unhealthy chemicals to enhance the flavor. Eric Schlosser (2002), states that â€Å"By eating like Americans people all over the world are beginning to look more like Americans, at least in one respect.The United States has one of the highest obesity rates of any industrialized nation in the world. † (p. 240). â€Å"As people eat more meals outside the home, they consume more calories, less fiber and more fat. † (p. 241). The introduction of unhealthy foods and eating habits of foreign foods into outside cultures radically affects the traditional culture found in the nation’s foods despite McDonald’s attempt to incorporate the nation’s culture and religious beliefs in the menu. Many Europeans worry about globalization's effects on their fo od from the west.However, the prominent anti-globalization movement is actually a small minority. In fact, a clear majority of Europeans, especially the young, accepts that increasing global economic, political, and cultural exchange can enrich their country and their lives. They believe that a strong European Union can help them take advantage of globalization's benefits while shielding them from its negative effects. Despite the views of others some Europeans believe globalization is what is right for Europe. Leadership Competency ModelThe types of leadership perspectives that McDonald’s incorporates in their management is the Leadership Competency Model. The Leadership Competency Model utilizes a leadership appraisal program. Each organization has its own process and culture to nurture its employees. Some processes often fail as they do not provide ownership to the participants and fail to account for the different cultures, climates, and nuances found in every organizatio n. For effective change to take place you must involve the individuals in the development and implementation of any process.This guide uses a five stage approach for building a competency model: * Stage One – Assemble Focus team and create a list of processes. * Stage Two – Build behavioral indicators for each process. * Stage Three – Categorize the data. * Stage Four – Order each category. * Stage Five – Validate your competency model. The first stage in building a Leadership Competency Model is to assemble a Focus Team composed of a cross-functional mix of first-line leaders, middle leaders, and senior leaders.McDonald’s provides the Leadership Competency Model in conjunction with Hamburger University to develop leadership. Graduates from the university and those who participates in the Leadership Competency Model development of processes are considered the experts practitioners in their field. That is, they should be the finest in their f ields. Using interviews, surveys, observations, including information on how individuals act, think, and feel while doing their jobs and other activities, create a list of the major processes and the requirements needed y leaders to disseminate in the workplace. In Stage Two, the members of the team identify the major behavioral indicators for each competency that must be performed to produce the desired outputs. Going through each competency, list the major behavioral indicators (Skills, Knowledge, attitudes) needed for superior performance (normally two to four). These behavioral indicators need to be: *Future-focused rather than need or problem-focused. * Part of a strategic planning or organizational change process model.In Stage Three, you categorize the data to include a leadership competency list divided into three categories, Core, Leadership, and Professional; with the behavioral indicator listed for each process. The core competencies is required of all individuals within the organization, the leadership competencies are specialty items for managers and supervisors, while the professional competencies are specific for each position. The competency list will insure that the chosen behavioral indicators are really the required skills, knowledge, or attitudes.The method used to organize the competencies is reduced to smaller, more manageable bundles of information that can easily be identified and used throughout the organization. Stage Four provides order to each category. Stage Four allows the identification of importance for each category. This allows the opportunity to discard unnecessary or excessive categories from the list. Stage Five allows validation of the instrument. This can be completed by utilizing duplication through replicating the original results: Replicate the original research results.This is done by obtaining another sample of superior performers, conducting interviews, and deriving a competency model. Creating departmental focus gr oups to allow more people to become involved, while at the same time, giving you less information to accumulate. Structured Interviews/Observation: Perform one-on-one interviews and observations with a random number of leaders throughout the organization to determine which competencies they perform and to get their opinions of which ones are the most important for the execution of their job.In order to develop a program to achieve this goal a strategic understanding and planning need to occur. Understanding motivation, the key to success, relates to the adhered interest and involvement in a goal-oriented task by a member of the team. There are a variety of ways to view what rewards affect learning and behavior in the workplace. Two such ways are intrinsic desires and external controls. Intrinsic desire is the desire of the learner to reach mastery of a skill, as well as situational factors, based on personal desires that drive or motivate the employee.External controls are those tha t are governed by the policies and procedures of the organization. These procedures prevent and/or protect the necessity and essence of the organization. Generally, lack of having available the sources of motivation which are the primary reason to retain an employee with a corporation is divided into two categories; each containing a number of components responding to related strategies. McDonald’s has developed a university to combat poor development within the company. In 1961, Fred turner, a former senior chairman and Ray Kroc’s first grillman founded Hamburger University.The university was developed to provide training that emphasized consistent restaurant operations to include procedures, services, quality and cleanliness. It is the company’s global center for training and leadership development. Currently there are more than 5,000 employees that attend the university each year. Since 1961 more than 80,000 managers, mid-managers and owner/operators have gra duated from the university. Hamburger University was developed to foster the company mission to be the best aptitude in each of its employees.For employees who attend the university the hope is to instill Quality, Services, Cleanliness and Value (QSC;amp;V). Increasing Performance| | | | To attain excellence, an individual, group or organization must care enough about an activity to insist that it fully meets and exceeds the demands of its audience (either internal or external), and this involves a fair amount of risk. (Leslie, J. Velsor, E 1996) McDonald’s utilizes the five stage approach for building a competency model as a means to devise a road map of development for the employees within the company.The utilization of Hamburger University, the five stage approach and grasping the view of the Quality, Services, cleanliness and Value (QSC;amp;V) gives the employees the opportunity to reach for a deep change for success. Leadership and Culture Sensitivity Despite notable pro gress in the overall acceptance of globalization there continues to be continuing disparities in effects of the west emerging into other cultures. The acceptance status among the east and others compared to the U. S. opulation as a whole shows a vast difference in how corporations such as McDonalds can grow globally. In addition, the global system is becoming more challenged as the population becomes more ethnically diverse. Therefore, the future of globalization in areas such as China will be directly impacted by the influence of McDonalds to the social economical environment to provide substantial improvements. Cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and economic differences impact how individuals and groups access and use globalized products.They can also present barriers to effective communication between the leader and the employee if there is a lack of understanding of the language, culture or norms. This is especially true when leader’s stereotypes, misinterpret, make faulty ass umptions, or otherwise mishandle their encounters with employees who are viewed as different in terms of their backgrounds and experiences. The demand for culturally competent leaders in the United States is a direct result of the need for leaders to handle operations that have gone global.The term cultural competence refers to the ability to work effectively with individuals from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, or in settings where several cultures coexist. It includes the ability to understand the language, culture, and behaviors of other individuals and groups, and to make appropriate recommendations. Cultural competence exists on a continuum from incompetence to proficiency. Cultural sensitivity, which is a necessary component of cultural competence, means that leaders make a significant effort to be aware of and understand the culture in which they work.Cultural competence cannot be achieved through short workshops or classes. A long-term commitment is required to le arn a second language and become familiar with other cultures to deliver an effective service for the ethnically diverse world and the potential and actual cultural factors that affect their interactions with a client. It also means that they are willing to design programs and materials and implement those programs to make recommendations that are culturally relevant and culturally specific. The terms cultural competence and culturally effective and are sometimes used synonymously.Culturally effective training is, indeed, related to cultural competence and cultural sensitivity. However, it goes beyond these concepts in describing the dynamic relationship between leader and employee. Effective communication between leaders and employees may be even more challenging when linguistic barriers exist. Cultural competence is a developmental process that requires a long-term commitment. It is not a specific end product that occurs after a two-hour workshop, but it is an active process of le arning and practicing over time. Becoming culturally competent is discuss than to implement.Individuals working with different ethnic and cultural groups can become more culturally competent by advancing through three main stages: developing awareness, acquiring knowledge, and developing and maintaining cross-cultural skills. Developing cultural awareness includes recognizing the value of the population and its cultural diversity. It also means an honest assessment of one's biases and stereotypes to include limits of their understanding. One can never learn enough about another culture. However, acquiring knowledge about other groups is the foundation of cultural competence.In addition to understanding other cultures, it is essential to understand how different cultural groups view themselves. Knowledge of another culture includes assessments of facts to include relevant norms, values, worldviews, and the practicality of everyday life and how that reflects in the business as a whole . Even though the United States is a pluralistic society, most employers have been trained in a mono-cultural tradition. In addition to this some leaders operate as if ethnic and cultural differences are insignificant.Cross-cultural skills are developed through formal training, informal interaction and experience. Organizational Responsibilities It is important for leaders to articulate a commitment to cultural competence and to initiate cultural-competence initiatives. Many companies receive social and legal pressures to do this from different segments of the cultures they impact. The development of professional preparation programs can play a significant role in providing the knowledge and skills for culturally competent leaders.These programs can provide on the job training and other formats developed with the sole purpose of addressing cultural competence and/or cultural sensitivity. They also can provide specific educational components on cultural competence and/or cultural sen sitivity within the program. Trainings and in house development of skills is one thing but leaders need to go beyond educating their employees and providing workshops on cultural sensitivity they must also change institutional policies and procedures.This can be done by constant review and ongoing development of the skills needed. Steps to Becoming Culturally Competent Developing Awareness * Admitting personal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices * Becoming aware of cultural norms, attitudes, and beliefs * Valuing diversity * Willingness to extend oneself psychologically and physically to others * Recognizing comfort level in different situations Acquiring Knowledge * Knowing how your culture is viewed by others * Attending classes, workshops, and seminars about other cultures * Reading about other cultures Watching movies and documentaries about other cultures * Attending cultural events and festivals * Sharing knowledge and experiences with others * Visiting other countries before placement. Developing and Maintaining Cross-Cultural Skills * Making friends with people of different cultures * Establishing professional and working relationships with people of different cultures * Learning another language * Learning verbal and nonverbal cues of other cultures * Becoming more comfortable in cross-cultural situations * Assessing what works and what does not Assessing how the beliefs and behaviors of the cultural group affect the client or family * Learning to negotiate between the person's beliefs and practices and the culture of your profession * Being more flexible * Attending continuing education seminars and workshops * Learning to develop culturally relevant and appropriate programs, materials, and interventions * Learning to evaluate culturally relevant and appropriate programs, materials, and interventions * Ongoing evaluation of personal feelings and reactions Overcoming fears, personal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices *Developing and implementing a st rategy to recruit, retain, and promote qualified, diverse, and culturally competent administrative, and support staff * Promoting and supporting the necessary attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills for staff to work respectfully and effectively with patients and each other in a culturally diverse work environment * Developing a comprehensive strategy to address culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including strategic goals, plans, policies, and procedures * Hiring and training interpreters and bilingual staff Providing a bilingual staff or free interpretation services to customers and employees with limited English skills * Translating and making available commonly used educational materials in different languages * Developing structures and procedures to address cross-cultural ethical and legal conflicts, complaints, or grievances. While cultural competence has increased significantly, there is still much to be done on the personal, organizational, and societal levels. Education and training to enhance the ability of a culturally effective leader must be integrated into lifelong learning.Through these activities, current and future leaders will be prepared to meet the needs of cultures from across the street and around the world. Conclusion In conclusion, globalization through the fast food industry has allowed the west to develop in other countries. McDonalds has been a dominating force in the immergence of western culture. The globalization within the food industry is not always received warmly by everyone in other nations. The fast food industry offers food items that change or may violate religious or cultural beliefs.However, McDonald’s has taken extreme efforts to develop a corporation that offers education and training to all of the employees. This training gives each restaurant the opportunity to develop within the five stage model utilized for leadership. By allowing restaurants to be locally owned by other nations through franchising allows for community owned companies. This thus allows them to drive changes in the menu to support the traditions and religious beliefs. With local owned restaurants it’s difficult to believe that there would be any resistance through anti-globalization.Anti-globalization only impedes global progress and can cause significant economic issues. McDonalds as a global leader has been successful in the development of its staff and support in the community.References | | Kaye, B and Jordon-Evans (1997) Love’em or Lose’em: Getting Good People to Stay O’Hagan, K. (2007) â€Å"Social Work Practice: â€Å"A Practical Guide for Professionals. † Jessica Kinglsey Publishers, 15 – 19 Northouse, P. (2007) Leadership Theory and Practice Sage Publications. Hodgetts, R. , Luthans, F. 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