Countee Cullen’s Poem Incident Essay

Probably the most underrated African American poet of his time, Countee Cullen is a very rebellious protester themed writer who is all about securing the rights and dignity of black people and uses that very passion to fuel his poetry. In the poem â€Å"Incident†, Cullen uses a mixture of rhetorical devices which he incorporates into his ironic rhythmic syntax to help emphasize to readers the effect of racism had on children living in the early -mid 1900’s, a big time of racism. Written in 1925, Cullen used this poem as a way for him to vent his feelings and frustration and inform the ignorant all at the same time. The poem talks about a young African American boy who is excited that he is visiting Baltimore and while there he comes across another young boy that is his same age and size but he is white and then the young boy is surprised by a powerful and crude racial slur. The poem is not as head as Cullen makes it seems, it is actually an ironic poem. The first hint o f irony is found early in the poem â€Å"Now I eight and very small/And he was no whit bigger† (5-6). A reader would think that the racist bullying would come from someone bigger than the kid in the poem when in all actuality it was from someone his own size, and that’s exactly what Cullen is trying to show, that racism came from all ages and happened between all spectrums of ages, a teen and an adult, an adult and a child, anyone. The Spencer 2 irony does not stop there, you see another glance of it in the last stanza, â€Å"And he was no whit bigger†(6). In the poem wit is spelled W.H.I.T but, the correct spelling of wit is W.I.T and this is no spelling error, this is actually a small pun Cullen uses to help emphasize his racial theme. It’s as if Cullen takes the â€Å"E† off of white and if it’s put back it’s â€Å"No white-bigger†. Cullen used this play on words to show the mental deception that was used by white people used to make themselves seem intellectually superior. Not only is the content of this poem unique, but so is the structure. In the first stanza the syllables of each line alternate 8 and 6, then for the rest of the poem alternates 8 and 7. This unique syllable structure gives the poem a rhythmic under tone of joy, which in turn when it mixed with the content and theme of racism brings out more of the poem’s irony which is one of the main style focuses of th is poem. Cullen’s inspirations of his life and passions are definitely evident in this poem. First off the location of the poem was set in Baltimore, MD and although much of Cullen’s early biographical information is shady and unclear, Baltimore has said to be one of Cullen’s possible birth places which is hinted in the poem, â€Å"Once riding in old Baltimore†(1). Another key connection is that Cullen lived in a time period where racism and segregation was a very popular idea so an incident such as the one in the poem occurring to Cullen is a very strong possibility. Cullen’s unique writing stlye and complex syntax that is shown in his poem Incident is what made him one of the best writers of his time, and although the topic of the poem is still a touchy subject for most Incident is a poem that has been and will be a poem worth reading for centuries. Works Cited Cullen, Countee. Magill’s Survey of American Literature: Pasadena: Salem Press, 2007, print, V.2

Quitting is not an option Essay

Quitting Is Not An Option As a little girl I always dreamt of becoming my own boss at a young age. The thought of following other people rules bothered me; I did know that in order to get where I wanted to be in life I had to start somewhere. So I told myself that after high school I had to go to college, and work and save. I decide to pursue my degree’s in Business Management and Accounting, because, I enjoy using money, working with others, helping people solve their money issues and helping them getting back on the right the track, as well as making people happy. I see it as if I have the knowledge and the education of what I’m doing, I don’t have to worry about anyone using me or stealing from me; I’ll be able to take care of my own finances. Having a B.A. in Business Management will impact my life in a positive way, by giving me a hands up in my dreams of becoming my own boss at an young age, as well as living my life comfortably. Due to my dreams in life, and where I want to be I chose not to give up even when things are stressful at times. Giving up on my educational goals is not an option because, I know that if I don’t have a degree, my life will not go anywhere, and I will just work at dead-end jobs. Not only do I want to want to go college and get a B.A. but I want to get excellent grades, and become an honor student. I’m committed to sticking with my degree and working with Monroe College to help me succeed and graduate. Having a lot of money, and time invested in my success, I can’t allow quitting to be an option. Looking forward to having a great experience and continue to grow in my career while attending Monroe College. Having great support from my professors, when struggling with an assignment, I feel I should be able to email or talk on the phone with them without feeling embarrassed. If i found out that my future self was trying to quit due to an stressful situation, I will let her know that life gets hard but giving up makes it even harder, and if you give up you will be stuck living life struggling, and living pay check to pay check with no relief to the stress. Living and learning is part of life, but quitting won’t allow you to learn or live the  life that you want for yourself and your future family.

Beauty May Only Be Skin Deep

While many postulate that beauty is not the most important thing in a person's life, reality sometimes dealt people with a hard blow. New parents are always anxious that their child would look good not only for their sake but mostly for the child's sake. Society may well deny that beauty is not a hindrance to success and popularity but even as people are growing up, the good-looking girls and boys get more attention and are forgiven their mischiefs with the proper contrite looks on angelic faces. Relatives and friends would always remark on how beautiful a child is.Even if grown ups know that beauty is just skin deep, it is deeply entrenched in society that it becomes automatic and a point of conversation. In the job market, applicants try their best to look good because it could only be their edge against many others. The Economist says in an article that if appearance is not important in a job, why would people take the trouble of dressing up? Particularly in jobs that involve deal ing with people, employers would require, without including it in the requirements, that the candidates should be pleasing to the eyes.For instance, a flight attendant need not finish college but she must have perfect skin and teeth. For no apparent reason other than having perfect skin is good to look at, airline companies would prefer a college drop-out with stunning good looks rather than a comparatively more intelligent person whose physical appearance is not as flawless. In interpersonal relationships, people tend to gravitate toward beautiful people because they are generally thought to be more fun to be with. People who possess natural beauty could turn out fun and outgoing if they are not blinded and spoilt by too much adoration in their formative years.Many gorgeous celebrities are often caught behaving disorderly in public because their adoring public make sometimes make them blind to their faults. References Women's Health/Gynecology. (2008, August 19). America's Beauty O bsession Poses Serious Consequences for Women and Girls, Report Reveals. Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www. medicalnewstoday. com/articles/118588. php The Economist. (2007, December 19). To Those That Have, Shall be Given. Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://results. myhpf. co. uk/framedresults. asp? Keyword=beauty+and+job+

Global Supply Chain Management of Distinctive Book Company Essay

Global Supply Chain Management of Distinctive Book Company - Essay Example However, their expertise in a small scale market is not yet tested in the international market. This means that they have to ensure that their strategies are properly planned and implemented to ensure the achievement of their objectives. This means that various points need to be considered at hand. One of the main issues that they need to focus among any other is their supply chain. This is to simply put it that they need to come up with a supply chain management that at least somewhere near excellent condition. This sounds much better for a start considering that the Distinctive Book Company is a new entrant in the international market. Part of the supply chain management of the company is to evaluate some supply chain strategies that can be of great help to the company’s business to improve efficiency, maintain or improve quality of service, manage supply chain risk and address supply chain issues that would come out from sourcing products through to sale and distribution of products to the company’s customers.  Without any question, the Distinctive Book Company is partly ready for global competition. Thus, they must first be ready to face the current trend in global competition. According to Jespersen and Larsen (2005), companies compete in an environment where there is global competition which makes them faster, better and cheaper. The following such as faster, better and cheaper are considerable marketing proposition concepts of every international company (2005).

Strategic Training Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic Training Paper - Essay Example Human resource management is also instrumental in determining and utilizing the strategic position of organizations in a competitive environment. Google Inc. is one such organization that uses human resource development as part of its competitive strategy. Its co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, put every effort to design Googleplex (headquarters complex of Google) as a lively and fun place to work. From a small web firm, Google Inc. has emerged as a dominant industry giant over the past 12 years. Google’s set of available resources and capabilities enables it to build a strategy focused on company’s internal environment rather than following the market trends. According to Robert Grant, â€Å"When the external environment is in a state of flux, the firm itself, in terms of its bundle of resources and capabilities, may be a much more stable basis on which to define its identity†. The firm values its employees with a number of benefits, performance rewards an d is also considering wide expansion to its current human resource. A highly qualified and unique workforce is one of the prime resources of Google Inc. Organizations often tend to systematically evaluate potential employees in terms of setting up future performance targets at the time of hiring. Human resource development plays an important role in achieving cost effective and performance based targets. Rastogi (2000) noted that human capital is an important input for organizations especially for employees’ continuous improvement mainly on knowledge, skills and abilities. Successful integration of business and workforce concerns is the strategic ability distinguishing the organizations from each other. Google as an organization has been able to acquire this ability to a greater extent and thus enjoys a firm competitive advantage. In order to utilize human resources to formulate effective competitive strategy, organizations should improve their ability to recruit, develop and retain employees. Reich (1998) has described human resource development as, "to attract and keep talented people, companies today are not just experimenting with how they approach the competitive marketplace of goods and services; they are also experimenting with how they approach the competitive marketplace of talent†. An organization requires its employees' competence in achieving the present as well as future performance goals. As a company, Google is fully aware of the fact that employees’ commitment and devotion are the keys in developing a long-term competitive strategy. So, Google has its own unique way to encourage and value employed workforce in order to motivate their commitment towards innovative pursuits. For instance, an engineer at Google, Peter Norvig says that few years back the average search took about 3 seconds. Now, it requires around 0.2 seconds, but still it's not fast enough compared to zero second. Despite facing growing criticism over its disti nctive human resource recruitment methodology, the company has managed to maintain its competitive edge. The company's success among other technology giants is undoubtedly due to loyalty and strong commitment of its employees. Google offers a highest remuneration package and other thoughtful set of factors in return to their valuable services. For an organization to implement strategy effectively, it must consider human resource development as key strategic partner. Human resource policies and practices determine the goals and

Describe and discuss the diverse ways in which the development of Essay

Describe and discuss the diverse ways in which the development of second generation sequencing technologies has extended the fie - Essay Example On the same note, the four components related to barcoding include specimens, laboratory analysis, database and data analysis (CBOL Plant Working Group 2009, p.12794). Since early 90s, DNA sequencing has involved the use of capillary-based and semi-automated techniques related to Sanger biochemistry. The process of DNA sequencing then involved two approaches that include shotgun sequencing and PCR amplification. Shotgun sequencing involves a process of cloning DNA that through a random fragmentation and transformed into high-copy-number plasmid that is used for changing Escherichia coli. PCR amplification, on the other hand involves a process of targeted resequencing where primers are used to flank the target. Following three decades of improvements, the Sanger biochemistry, is now applied to obtain read lengths that average 1000 bp and accuracies in regard to per base raw that average 99.999%(Hutchison 2007, pp.6227-6237). However, the introduction of second generation sequencing te chniques continues to expand the field of DNA barcoding beyond the Sanger sequencing technique. The second-generation technologies have contributed to alternative DNA barcoding strategies and can be grouped in a number of categories. This includes sequencing using hybridization, cyclic-array sequencing, microelectrophoretic techniques and observation of single molecules in real-time (Healy 2007; Shendure 2005; Soni & Meller 2007). Second generation technologies as used in the field of barcoding implies to the different types of sequencing that have been introduced recently, in a commercial product and includes 454 sequencing, Solexa technology, Heliscope technology of single molecule sequencer, the Polonator and the SoLiD platform. These products have improved the diversity of sequencing, and have helped in the application of alternative protocols for purposes of generating jumping libraries related to mate-paired tags that contain controlled distance distributions. Further, these n ew technologies through various approaches, permits the production of amplicons that are clonally clustered, and acts as sequencing features. A common feature among the second-generation technologies in DNA barcoding is that, PCR amplicons emanating from various single library molecules can be spatially clustered on a single site within a planar substrate or on micron-scale bead’s surface. The sequencing process has further improved because of the introduction of alternating cycles related to enzymes-based biochemistry and data acquisition that is based on imaging (Mitra et al. 2003, pp. 55-62). In essence, the benefits of the second-generation technologies in comparison to the Sanger technique in diversifying DNA barcoding includes, the introduction of in vitro construction related to sequencing library. This is followed by cloning amplifications that produce sequencing features and circumvent numerous bottlenecks considered affecting parallelism related to sequencing consid ered as conventional. Second generation technologies compared to Sanger sequencing, have an advantage in terms of introducing array-based sequencing. Because of the existence of an array-based sequencing, the process of DNA barcoding is able to realize a considerable degree of parallelism compared to capillary-based sequencing.

Design and Implementation a Web-based System for Manipulating Internal Dissertation

Design and Implementation a Web-based System for Manipulating Internal Administration Tasks - Dissertation Example With the upsurge in the application of IT in virtually all sectors today, it is essential that such management and administration practices are put in control to enhance efficiency. This is a report on a web application that enables workers to collaborate efficiently on various projects within the company. In this web application, all the personnel in the company handling various projects are entered as users. All the users have access to the entire team through advanced search techniques. The web application also caters for the payments database administered by the finance officer. There is an additional package that caters for plans related to the employees’ holidays.. There is an additional Voice over Internet server, created in Asterisk that will be used to manage calls within the company, and also manage conferences. The report includes a discussion of the research undertaken in developing this application, the design and design parameters of the system. A literature revi ew of the various existing and related systems has also been done. From a study of the various systems used to manage companies internally, the web application seeks to correct various flaws, and establish efficiency, as will be explained in this report. Contents Acknowledgements 1 I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Mohammed Saraee for his continued support, time and motivation throughout this project. I would also to thank my parents, family and friends for their constant support and inspiration throughout this project. 1 I would like to thank all the people who gave up their time and provided suggestions and constant feedbacks throughout the process. 1 Abstract 2 Contents 3 1.1 Project Motivation 6 1.1.1 Supervisor motivation 6 1.1.2 Personal motivation 7 1.2 Requirements Analysis 8 1.3 Aims & Objectives 8 1.3.1 Project Description 8 1.4 Approach Adopted in Undertaking Project 8 1.4.1 Research 8 1.4.2 Testing 9 1.5 Project Plan 10 1.6 Outline of Report 10 2.0 BACKGROUND AND L ITERATURE SURVEY 12 2.1 Benefits of the proposed system 12 2.2 Disadvantages of the current system 14 2.3 Requirements of the proposed system 15 2.3.1 Accuracy 16 2.3.1 Transparency and fairness 17 2.3.3 Integration with other systems 18 2.4 Phases in the system implementation 18 2.4.1 Assessment 18 2.4.2 Planning 19 2.4.3 System design 20 2.4.4 Implementation 21 2.4.5 Maintenance and updating 23 3.0 Specification and Design 25 3.1The requirements phase 25 3.1.1 Software requirements 25 3.1.2 Hardware requirements 25 3.1.3 Project requirements 25 3.2 Design of the internal administration website 27 3.2.1 Platform 27 3.2.2 Model View Controller 28 3.2.3 CodeIgniter 29 3.2.3Tools and Languages used in the system 29 3.2.4Systems architecture 30 3.3 Use case diagram 32 3.5 database Schema 33 3.6 codes used in the program (Those that stand out) 33 3.6.1 Model 33 3.6.2 Controller 34 3.6.3 View 35 3.6.4 Database insertion (Model) 36 3.6.5 Deleting from the database 38 3.6.6 Authentication 39 Chapter 4: Development and Implementation 39 4.1 Technologies applied 40 4.2 functional implementation 41 4.2.1 Application building in CodeIgniter 41 Chapter 5: Testing 45 5.1Beta testing 45 5.2 Security testing 46 5.2.1Password Cracking 46 5.2.2 SQL Injection 46 5.2.3 Cross site scripting 47 5.2.4 URL Manipulation; 47 Chapter 6: walk through the system 48 6.1Profile

MARKETING ASSINGMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MARKETING ASSINGMENT - Essay Example Generally, most of the people blindly rush after various fashion brands only because of their influential names and the profound elite type aura of the different products that is mostly only superficial. Apparently, consumers find out the reality of such products only after they personally experience them and learn that whatever shines is not always gold. According to Kyle (2010), classic and sophisticated, Dior products will never go out of fashion since it adapts to changing styles. In my opinion, the case with Dior is completely different when it comes to matching class and quality of work with the fame of the brand name. I have never been disappointed by any of its products, be it fragrances or clothes or beauty products. The way almost every single product is perfectly manufactured and then superiorly advertised in the market after completion, is way too remarkable and obvious to ignore. The hallmark of Dior is that one is simply captivated by the mesmerizing spell of the many perfumes and clothing lines one can easily find in the market. Summing up, I would like to say that appropriately and flawlessly matching class with fame can never be classified as a trifle job and this is what Dior is all

Enhanced whistle blower protections Research Paper

Enhanced whistle blower protections - Research Paper Example whistleblower is risky, the essay discusses various ways to protect them from elements that want to harm them to prevent them from sharing the information they possess. Whistleblowers fall into two categories. They include internal and external whistleblowers. Internal whistleblowers are the individuals who report discrepancies and misconducts of colleagues or their superiors to the management. Several reasons would motivate an employee to become a whistleblower. They include corruption, nepotism and sexual harassment. External whistleblowers are the individuals who disclose misconducts within the company to outside entities. They include lawyers, the media, police or watchdog agencies like anticorruption organizations. External whistleblowers are usually motivated by moral or selfish reasons. Opinions concerning whistleblowers differ from different people. To some, whistle blowing is as an act of selflessness while others accuse them of pursuing fame, fortune, greed and personal glory. This persecution of whistleblowers mostly comes from the affected or implicated individuals who want to discredit them to absolve themselves of the accusations. Individuals who want to prevent the disclosure of information often target whistleblowers. It becomes a dangerous situation with whistleblowers fearing for their lives as they get pursued. Countless whistleblowers have been killed while others have been forced into exile because they exposed the corruption in an organization. These actions led to the creation of witness protection agencies, which offer protection to whistleblowers when and until they finish presenting their proof of the misconducts to the relevant authorities. For example, the United States has several institutions that protect whistleblowers. They include the National Whistleblowers Center that protects whistleblowers from discrimination from the organization or their fellow employees. This act protects whistleblowers` identities from disclosure. It

Supply Chain Design Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Supply Chain Design Paper - Essay Example This can be seen as both advantageous and disadvantageous. Advantages of Riordan’s manufacturing strategy Increases quality There is one major advantage with regard to this manufacturing strategy is the ability to increase the precision of the manufacturing process. Highly customised goods processes make it easier to increase quality as the employees will master the functions and ensure they are able to produce perfect products. Meeting individual needs of individual customers Customisation means that each customer can get a product that directly and closely meets their needs (Fogliatto & Silveira, 2011). However, firms involved in mass manufacturing find it harder to be able to customise their products to individual customer needs. However, with competition increasing and making it harder for firms to compete for the customers, it is necessary to increase the rates of satisfaction in customers. Mass customisation is an attempt to make mass production as customer customised as possible. It is looking at the needs of the customer as closely as possible and making sure that customers will get a product which is as close to their needs as possible. Mass customisation therefore increases customer satisfaction and this makes the firm more competitive in the market. Disadvantages Increased costs Customisation makes it is easier to deliver to the customers products they want but at an increased cost. In manufacturing, the biggest issue is that defects costs the firm a lot. It is the dream of every manufacturer to reduce the defect rate to as low as it can be possible so as to help the firm will not have losses. Every defective product is a loss to the firm because defective products cannot be sold. Mass customisation has the disadvantage of increasing the defect rates and therefore increasing the losses associated with the defects. Apart from increased defects rates making costs to go higher, mass customisation increases the cost of producing a single product ( Chandra & Kamrani, 2011). In other words, even in the absence of the issue of defects rates, customized manufacturing is not as cost effective as the mass production. Increasing the costs will mean that the firm will have to increase the prices of the product, and this may deny the firm the competitive edge in the market. Cannot be achieved wholly Mass customisation is usually a compromise that the firm has to make, and there is never a time where the firm will be able to fully customize the products. In regard to this, firm has to understand that not all products can be customised. In fact, as Blecke (2005) says, not all products need to be customized. Mass customisation only works where the product end customer is a mass buy. In cases where the end buyer is the individual, it becomes much harder to mass customize, and it becomes very impossible to meet the individual needs of millions of customers. Mass customisation is therefore an idea that is simple in theory and difficult in p ractice. In this regard, it is important to be able to understand that mass customisation may only be a hype which needs to be looked at critically. Flowchart Metrics to evaluate performance Issue Concern Impact Meeting customer needs It meets the customer needs High Cost management The costs associated with is are not prohibitive High Applicability It is applicable High Relevance It is relevant for the product High Market outlook It improves the market outlook Medium In the above metric, the most important thing is to determine whether the costs incurred in

Shifting Genres Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Shifting Genres - Essay Example Peter answered the man by telling him they were going to Fargo in U.S.A. shockingly the man told them that they must be joking because they can not survive in that place since it is too cold. The man laughed, but Peter Dut did not know the reason beyond the laughter. Having lived at Kakuma refugee camp the boys had not experienced cold climate since Kakuma is 1000C. By that time, the temperature in Fargo had dropped below 150C. The boys had only experienced cold from a frozen bottle of water given to them by aid worker in the refuge camp. Peter and his brothers belong to a number of 10,000 boys in Kakuma refugee camp from Sudan, who went to seek refuge in 1992 during the civil war in the southern part. The lost boys were given names after Peter Pan’s orphan’s posse. A report from America showed that over 17,000 boys left Sudan and separated from their families in 1987 during the war. They fled to Ethiopia and then back to Sudan then finally to Kenya. They arrived in Kenya parentless, homeless and throng having walked over 1,000 miles. The boys were between the age 8 and 18 from the Dinka tribe. Many of the boys did not know their age and the aid workers gave them ages depending on their sizes. On the way to the camp, the number of boys reduced by half. Most of the boys died on the way because they were attacked by bandits, lions, swept away by river water and others attacked by crocodile. After living in a camp for 9 years without being governed the three brothers’ decided to move to America. The boys in the refugee camps were sponsored by the UN to study in America while others were to be released to start their own live because after five years they were 21 years. The time when the three brothers were to land in Fargo, snow was flowing in the streets and roads. Later, Peter with his brothers, Riak, 15 and Maduk 17, arrived at their home apartment which was fully furnished by the

Internal and external data Essay Example for Free

Internal and external data Essay The Bowmer and Kirkland human reasources department will collect and use external labour market information for planning in the business. Unemployment statistics : The current labour market figures show that in the east midlands current unemployment is only 4.1%, this means Bowmer and Kirkland may have difficulty finding people to employ as so many already have a job. As the higher the unemployment rate the more people there will be for Bowmer and Kirkland to employ.The unemployment rate of the east midlands is 1% lower than that of the whole UK. In Derbyshire alone the unemployment rates are paticually low and numbers are still falling. Although rates are low, GDP per head still lags behind the UK and European averages, skill levels and productivity in manufacturing are also below average. 31.6% of people working in east midlands have no qualifications compared with 28.9% of England, so when Bowmer and Kirkland need to emply someone it will alot of the time also include the costs of training them up. So in conclusion the unemployment rates in the east midlands could cause a problem when it comes to Bowmer and Kirkland recruiting staff. For a start there are only 4.1% people avaliable to work, and they have got appreciate that not all that 4.1% will have the knowlage and skills recuired to work at Bowmer and Kirkland. This will result in costing Bowmer and Kirkland alot of time and money, mainly on training. One way of getting round the low unemployment rates would be to take staff they already have and train them up for hiarachy positions. Although this will leave another problem of having to find someone to fill their origional position, so they cant win really. Employment and Unemployment in the construction industry : In the last few years turnover has gone up and the ammount of people employed has remained static. The avaliability of contructors in the labour market is a problem to Bowmer and Kirkland as there are not alot of qualified workers out there so most of there employees have the standard ammount of GCSEs and A-levels. However Bowmer and Kirkland can train people up. The business in the local area that Bowmer and Kirkland are compeating for for the same employees are, Thorntons, Denby pottery, Rolls royce, these are the major compaines in this area, but construction companies down to Birmingham also cause competition for workers. Internal information The Bowmer and Kirkland human reasources team will also collect and use Internal staffing information for planning in the business. Labour turnover : Bowmer and Kirkland measure Labour turnover because they believe it is important to know how many people they need in the business. This also allows them to be able to compare their figures to other industrys and see how they match up. From the figures they have 20% of people have left the company this year, the main few reasons people are leaving are to branch out and move on, some are only probation periods and dont have their contract renuied, and some could have been sacked or made redundant. Although saying that some of them sometimes come back to the company depending on why they left. If someone is wanting to leave they have to hand in a 4 week or week notice and have the exit interview. Bowmer and Kirkland do this so they can see if there is a trend in why people are leaving, then they may be able to do something about it. For example most of the leavers may be from one department, and it may narrow down to the fact they are all finding better paid jobs elsewhere, so then Bowmer and Kirkland can sort out that problem. Bowmer and Kirkland however see this as a good thing as this means they can bring in new people/staff and they will bring in new ideas to the company. Bowmer and Kirkland on average employ 20 25 new starters each month, the majority of them have minimum qualifications and 10% are usually apprentices, however Bowmer and Kirkland will train them up. Sickness and Accident rates : Bowmer and Kirkland dont compare their Sickness and Accident rates against the national average. However they compare it internally within the company. They have weekly reports to monitor staff absences and the health and safety department monitor all their staff accidents. Of course if someone is found to be having an unusual ammount of absences they will have to have words with them and see the reason behind this as it would not be good for the company. Age, Skills and Training : Bowmer and Kirkland look at their demographic trends. Within the company 92 % of their employees are male and only 8 % female, this is purly because of the concept of he industry, it is more appealing to the male population. Also new training scemes are being used more in Bowmer and Kirkland now so the older generation is being left behind slightly, for example Modern apprentaships.

The Transformational Leadership Style Business Essay

The Transformational Leadership Style Business Essay This assignment describes the development and transformation process of State Trading Organization Public limited (Here Onward STO). STO strived to provide to Maldivian market, products ranging from staples (like rice sugar and flour), medicine, quality merchandise, and improved construction material, oil and state-of-the-art consumer goods as well other general trading products. Due to newly established democracy and regulations, innovation imported by FDI and service level challenges STO to fundamentally rethink their business and reformulate their strategies. The nation was growing, and so were the nations demands. The organization is established in the year 1964. For four decades STO was known as the market leader. However, it lasted till the industry was opened for foreign and domestic competition in 2005 under economic and political reforms in 2001. Hence, STO foreseeing the competitive and political challenges, the organizing aimed a broader transformation towards becoming a market oriented company. This paper will cover mainly two sections. Firstly, the paper has studied the company background as the introduction of this assignment. Secondly, it has attempted to understand why change is important for organizations to adopt in todays business environment. Therefore, through highlighting on the external factors such as political, Economical, Social and Technological factors (PEST factors) that are as drivers of change, has been given importance as the literature of the subject. Consequently, the main part of the paper: finding the facts, assessing the findings, discussing and analyzing the situation which will help in understanding the strengths and weakness of the subject being studied in this assignment was thoroughly evaluated as the primary component of the paper. In addition, it has given insights into the importance of leadership in bringing changes effectively and explains the opposition and challenges faced by STO. Thus, causing STO to reconsider and reformulate in various business strategies like Leadership, people engagement and change management methods to become customer friendly and improve its image. This assignment will highlight various future challenges awaiting STO and recommendation for actions. INTRODUCTION Company Background The beginning of State Trading Organization Plc, (formerly known as (ATA) Athireege maafannu Trading Agency) is a registered organization. The roots of State Trading Organization PLC, dates back to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(website) 1964 when it was opened to finance the purchasing and importation of essential food items needed for the Maldivian community in bulk. Today STO has sustained this important responsibility to oversee the food security concerns of government and diversified into many other areas of importance such as energy needs of the country which has now become part and parcel of STOs mandate. Within the framework that includes these two areas, STO has diversified and is also competitively engaged in trading in other areas including Consumer Electronics, Home appliances, Medicals, Canned foods, Health foods and a range of other high quality products. This has been achieved by direct procurement and distribution as well as forming joint ventures to effectively trade in areas where STO might have been at disadvantage had STO not been able to do so, while still maintaining a strong hold with the Government as the primary trading partner of choice. State Trading Organization plc with its subsidiaries, a joint ventures and associates is a nationwide leader in the business sector. It has significant and focused interests in petroleum, construction materials, electronic items, cooking gas, cement, roofing sheets products, home appliances, super markets and insurance. The company is geographically diverse, with operations and developments in Maldives and Singapore. Diversification is the one of the most important strategies in STO. Therefore STO is entering different business sector like, Tourism, aviation, oil business, construction, agricultural produce and real estate business. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION Most of the information about the various strategies utilized by STO to face competitive challenges was acquired through numerous interviews with managers and employees of STO. Other pieces of information were also gathered through the companys website and local media. The websites and publications of the governments numerous ministries and departments are considered the main sources of information on topics related to the governments policies, regulations and laws. Information regarding trade regulations and policies are taken from the Ministry of Economic Developments annual reports, as well as from the statistical reports that they periodically publish online. In addition to these sources several pieces of information were also acquired through STOs annual report of 2011 and the Quarterly report of 2012 LITERATURE REVIEW The liberalization of Maldives economy and trade regulation has led to market widening , attraction of new foreign investments in well known companys and competition that has led to reduced prices, latest and innovative services, quality products and better customer care. As is suggested by Bortolotti, Bernanrdo, Juliet DSouza, Marcella Fantini, and DomenicoSiniscalco(2002 cited in SilivioContessi 2004 p.3)1the infrastructure investment fosters market interaction and competition through three channels direct market selection, restructuring and entry. As is the theme of this paper, how leadership and people engagement transformed and restructured STO to a market oriented firm to confront the competition from FDI. However, the liberalization was not fully effective due to the certain exclusivities provided to STO such as Government major share. Recent changes in political platform and FDI regulation STO need to be able to adapt different leadership style like, autocratic, democratic leadership Style and other shifting circumstances and cope with those changes (Moment, 2007)2.   Every organization needs leaders who can change as fast as market conditions do (Newcomb, 2005, p. 34)3.   Business needs can change rapidly and employees look to their leaders to guide them through change.   Uncertainty in leaders can lead to a lack of faith by employees. Good leadership is critical to a successful school. Success comes from aiming high with the clear vision, ethos and communication that good leadership brings. We will act to support high quality school leadership and inspired ambitious school communities. (Ambitious, Excellent Schools Our Agenda for Action, Scottish Executive, 2004, p5)4 Research into transformational leadership in organizations has found links to improved employee commitment (Barling,webberKelloway ,1996)5,heightened trust in leadership (Bass B.M.,1990),and stronger connection with the vision (Howell and Shamir,2005)5 and thus alignment of effort with the (change) goal (Shamir,House, Arthur,November 1993 ) cited in cited in Sherry Scully 2008)5. Based on the research results it could be concluded transformational leadership may be more appropriate for STO undergoing transformation where motivation of employees and commitment to change comes from their intrinsic motivation. Future leaders and employee engagement will need to be conversant in doing business internationally and conceiving strategies on a global basis. Globalization will intensify the requirement that senior leaders deal effectively with a complex set of constituencies external to the organization. (e.g., responsibility for managing the companys interface with trade, regulatory, political, and media groups on a wide range of issues). Leadership development is rapidly moving to include substantial components involving international markets, world economic trends, and focus on particular regions such as the Asia Pacific rim (Cacioppe, 1998)6. Kotler and Heskett (1992 Cited inRezaGharoieAhangar 2009)7 identify successful leaders as those who repeatedly communicate their vision, allow people to challenge these messages and stimulate middle managers to take up the cause and provide leadership themselves, characteristics similar to transformational leadership. Likewise leaders foster an environment for building intellectual, managerial and leadership capabilities. The whole concept of transformational leadership linked with HPW is a process by which leaders and followers raise one another to a higher moral and motivational level Burns (1978 Cited in Reza 2009)7.Through this process senior managers share organizations vision to intellectually inspire, stimulate and empower the subordinates. (Bass and Avolio, 1994 cited in Reza 2009)7. 4.0 FACTS, FINDINGS Political Environment In year 1964, Maldives was a very peaceful and stable country. After 2008, the market has become volatile characterized with higher degree of uncertainty and complexity due to our political environment and reform movement. On average new regulations and laws are passed and enacted every month. Along with the democratization process came various legal changes to the economy including the introduction and changes to several laws and regulations, notably, the business profitability tax, Good and service tax, Tourism Tax, Tourism Land Rent, Bank Profit Tax, Duty Free Royalty, Foreign Investment Royalty, Fuel Re-Export Royalty and re-export tax directly influencing the STO business. The fact was highlighted in the STO Annual Report (2011 p.3) as a risk. The newly elected president in 2008 resigned half way through his term and claimed he resigned duress. Many believe its a coup. Therefore, our political environment is at very high risk. This volatile and serious political environment is affecting each and every business of this country. The political situation influenced the business strategies of STO. Hence, most of the decisions were politically driven instead of the business motive. Economical: Global recession hit badly along with the rising fuel prices. It had adversely affected the company in two ways. Firstly, recession has led to fall in income, so consumers are spending less on Home improvement items (like Electronics, kitchen appliance) resulting in decrease sales and increasing storage cost and thus in the drop in company profitability. The unexpected plunge in exchange rate of Rufiyaa against US Dollar, coupled with the continuing problem of foreign exchange shortages caused major impact on the business performance. This was highlighted in the STO annual report (2011 p.7 MDs Message).The depreciation of the Maldivian Currency (Rufiyaa) following the introduction of the exchange rate band in April 2011. Shortage of foreign currency reserve (US Dollar) is affecting STOs business. Because STO is importing most of the items from Singapore, Japan, Dubai and chain. Due to the change in government in 2008, changes to the trade policy and the implementation of new tax laws and regulation brought many challenges to STO in terms of foreign currency transactions. Social: Image of the company: Over the past few decades STO has been one of most leading and reputed company in Maldives (price and Quality).Due to recent changes in political and economic environment, STO is facing many challenges to maintain its reputation. STO is participated and contributed to a number of social activities that are designed to positively contribute to our socio-economic development and towards protecting our natural environment. These activities are in line with the company policy of being an exemplary leader in corporate social responsibility.(annual report 2011p.07) Due to the extensive government intervention on STOs business decisions, STOs reputation and image are affected According to daily newspaper (Haveeru daily) STO is engaging in corruption and fraudulent trading in Singapore. This created bad publicity and tainted the image of the company. Technology: STO understands the importance of developing its technology infrastructure and considers continuous changes in business environment and advancement in technology. In line with this, STO management team decided and implemented the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to improve productivity, reducing operational cost and improving internal control and monitoring. This system provides day-to-day information to make decisions which will facilitate to transform the future of STO and employee engagement. STO has implemented the human resources module of the ERP system, which will facilitate more efficient management of payroll and other staff related matters(Annual Report 2011 p.07). EFFECTIVELY An organization cannot run without proper vision and guidance of a leader. In todays changing world the role of leadership is even more essential, to show direction towards change, convince employees and finally to set a strong foundation to successfully carrying out change. Faced with Political, Economical and Foreign competition, STO underwent recent changes where by its major strategies were rethought strengthening the whole strategic process through integration, bundling, Diversifying and focusing new industries like, Tourism and Real estate (Annual Report 2011, p.25) .STOs major shareholder the government as well as shareholders have to evolve and transform with the changes to the business environment to achieve a successful future for STO. Hence, the following part gives insight into the topic precisely. Transformational leadership style Developing vision After these major changes in business environment, STO is moving forward to achieve its vision. STO had a vision to become the most successful and the most efficient parent company (of a diversified group of subsidiaries) in the Maldives by the year 2014. Investing on tourism, real estate and aviation (Annual Report 2011, p.25) would allow STO to achieve its corporative goals. Therefore, it has to be noted that STOs vision is in accordance with one of the cores of transformational leadership. Finding the way deal with this dramatic changes STOs Board and Management team has charismatic personality which drives people to believe in leadership and that can influence people about change like how it is embedded into STOs slogan evolving with. Thus, a charismatic leader like the newly appointed Chairman and directors (appointed 2012) has used their personality leadership style to enhance the business by setting clear values and supportive culture for the employees as well as for the company. Due to major changes in political environment and the economy in Maldives, leaders must confront and take bold steps rather than being in the background even after changes in order to set an example for others and to ensure long term success of change plan as the external environment is very uncertain. HUMAN RESOURCE AS STRATEGIC ASSET STO promotes itself as employees are the most important asset in the organization with HR best practices. To promote HR strategy, implement the human resources module of the ERP system, which will facilitate more efficient management of payroll and other staff related matters. Among these STO has stated its HR strategy as follows: Selective hiring , retention and extensive development of employees STO promotes itself as an employees brand and this perception by the public has given STO distinctive benefits in terms of better attraction of necessary and new skills, employee retention and engagement making it easy for STO selective hiring and retention. STO strives to attract and retain a productive and an enthusiastic workforce. The Company ensures its remuneration packages are competitive. In order to motivate staff to attain higher levels of productivity, employees are given an incentive bonus of 3% of the net profit for the year if the company exceeds its annual profit targets(Annual Report 2011, p.27) Recognizing Employees commitment STO is able to create commitment among their employees. STO realizes that commitment is ultimately personal. To recognize employees hard work, shields of appreciation are given to those who serve more than 15 years and best employees (Annual Report 2011, p.27). Training and development of Employees Oakland, CA January 16, 2012 Bersin Associates, the premier research and consulting firm empowering Human Resource (HR) organizations to drive bottom-line impact, today announced new research that shows spending on employee development rose 9.5 percent to an average of $800 per learner in 2011, as organizations moved to combat the current skills gap in the labor market. During the year, STO conducted many short-term training programs, and provided career deployment opportunities to its employees in many different professional are as (Annual Report 2011, p.27). Employees engagement Most of the organizations are facing new challenges due to development of social media such as twitter and face book. Organizations need to have employees engagement strategy to overcome the challenges. Employee engagement plays a vital role in motivating the performance levels of the workforce. A motivated employee will seek out ways to accomplish a task. Employee engagement illustrates the commitment and energy that employees bring to work and is a key indicator of their involvement and dedication to the organization. Employees who are engaged are more productive, content and more likely to be loyal to an organization. When organizations put sound HR practices in place, they are more likely to discover that employees feel satisfied, safe and will work to their full potential .Therefore STO recognizing, values, support, feeling in different situation like, providing financial support through staff loan, discounts and awarding long service staff every year. Striving to attract and retain a productive and an enthusiastic workforce, STO recreation club (STORC) conducts many sport events to help foster camaraderie and team spirit among staffs.(Annual Report 2011, p.28). Performance management According to the University of California, Berkeley is committed to a performance management system that fosters and rewards excellent performance. Effective performance management aligns the efforts of supervisors and employees with departmental and campus goals, promotes consistency in performance assessment, motivates all employees to perform at their best, and is conducted with fairness and transparency. (Cited in http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/performance-management). STO has also been taking measures to evaluate and manage the performance of both individual employees and departments through performance auditing on HR and also through a performance evaluation at the end of every financial year. HPW and Employee Engagement STO is adopting high performance working practices through SAP ERP system. The system helps to align a complex set of organizational elements including Strategy, vision, Mission, and goal, management practice, organizational structure, work practices and process human resource and other systems such as technology. Continuous high performance work systems have been cited by STO and the company is now transitioning to a high performance working system. This will require the development of a strong communication system and organizational restructuring. CONCLUSION Transforming whole business environment in Maldives (PEST) factors are affecting STO business. Domestic and international competition STO has managed to retain its market position. As new challenges emerge the change process will be an ongoing process to maintain market position. As now STO has completely lost its remaining exclusivities it will face new challenges from Multinational chain like (ACE hardware) over retaining customers. Excellent HR practices and efforts retain existing employees as well as new. To tackle the future challenges STO is developing its human resource, redesigning organizational structure, using latest technology and innovative software to efficiency and effectiveness of its operation. To achieve organization mission and vision, STO is adopting high performance working practices, increasing employee engagement, review STO pay package and career development opportunities. Furthermore investing eco-friendly products and engaging CSR to transform the future challenges. Therefore STO come to a decision to diversify its business into different area like, aviation, real estate business and tourism industry to improve its financial performance. This will attract more investors and shareholders as well as all stakeholders. So this strategy will bring more opportunities to the business as well as public in future. RECOMMENDATION Dynamic and complex business and Political environment STO is facing many challenges as well as opportunities in future. Therefore STO needs to be more proactive to these changes, which can be perceived by the knowledgeable among the corporate: Even though STO is government owned company (Major Shareholders), too much of government influence and political motive decision may not be business and profit oriented. It should be balanced in terms of politics and profit or business. As STO faces new challenges due to implementing EPR system, lack of trained employees. Therefore STO need to Investing in training programs helps employees develop personally and professionally to adopt this incremental changes in its processes and operation especially the way HR works, good and services are delivered to the end customer for this transformational change alone will not do. STO need to implement more monitoring and control mechanism to employee recruitment, Conflict resolution at workplace. STO need to developed HR Policies and procedures and communicate the values of its organization and provide everyone fair and transparent promotion and rewarding system. 9.0BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Sung, Johhny and Ashton, David.High Performance Work Practices: linking strategy and skills to performance outcomes. s.l.  : Department of Trade and Industry, UK, 2005. 2. Schuler, A J. [Online] 2003. [Cited: 3 November 2011.] http://www.schulersolutions.com. 3. Recklies, Dagmar. [Online] 2001. [Cited: 4 November 2011.] http://www.themanager.org. 4. Canterucci, Jim. [Online] 2001. [Cited: 3 November 2011.] http://www.corpchange.com. 5. Nickols, Fred.Four Change Management Strategies. s.l.  : Distance Consulting LLC, 2010. Mike Millmore Philip Lewis Mark saunders, adrian Thornhill Trevor Morrow(2007) Strategic Human Resource Management contemporary issues Jon M. Werner and Randy L. Desimone (5th Edition) Human Resources Development Post :GauravAkrani Date : 12/27/2009 08:52:00 PM IST Comments (2) Lables : Management, Study Notes Craig W. Fontaine, Ph.D.(August 2007) NortheasternUniversity College of Business Administration A Critical Factor for Organizational Effectiveness and Employee Satisfaction Charlotte RaynerDerekadam-Smith, Managing Leading People (2nd Edition, chapter-9) Recruitment Selection Employee-engagementmaximizing-organizational-performance PERSONAL EXPERIENCE Throughout the work for this Assignment, I have learned how organizations operate and the challenges they face. I understood from this work that, regardless of how smooth and successful an organization is, changing and adopting leadership style are always needed. It may be in the target market, management, human resource or technology used by the organisation. For these reasons, if handled carefully with the right tools, change can be smooth and successful. I m confident, that I will be able to apply the techniques that I have learned from this work in all stages of my career.

Phobia :: essays research papers

Phobias: Irrational Fear Fear of heights, fear of the number â€Å"13,† fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. All of these fears are considered phobias. While there are many causes of phobias, one theory uses the notion of preparedness in Pavlovian conditioning. This is a way in which people learn to react to certain stimuli.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientist and abehaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning while experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when food was placed in the mouth through a reflex called the â€Å"salivary reflex† in digestion. Yet he soon realized that, after time, the salivary reflex occurred even before the food was offered. What Pavlov discovered was first order conditioning. In this process, a neutral stimulus that causes no natural response in an organism is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, an event that automatically or naturally causes a response. This usual association causes the response to the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, to transfer to the neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus no longer needs to be there for the response to occur in the presence of the formerly neutral stimulus. Given that his response is not natural and has to be learned, the response is now a conditioned response and the neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus. Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn some things easier than others are. This ability is known as preparedness. In Pavlov’s experiment the tone was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Considering the two phobias: fear of the number â€Å"13† and fear of heights, the latter is most likely to have been produced by Pavlovian conditioning. This is due to the fact that more people are likely to have obtained preparedness to be afraid of this. There are numerous stories and movies that contribute to this irrational fear. Hence, people are more willing to accept the conditioning and become afraid of high places. This would not be hard to condition into anyone, since it is so commonly feared. Also, the fear of the number â€Å"13† is much more irrational than a fear of heights. Falling from a high place is much more likely than being injured by a number. Thus, preparedness and Pavlovian conditioning most likely caused a fear of heights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, phobias can occur through different causes, but Pavlov discovered one theory. Phobia :: essays research papers Phobias: Irrational Fear Fear of heights, fear of the number â€Å"13,† fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. All of these fears are considered phobias. While there are many causes of phobias, one theory uses the notion of preparedness in Pavlovian conditioning. This is a way in which people learn to react to certain stimuli.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientist and abehaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning while experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when food was placed in the mouth through a reflex called the â€Å"salivary reflex† in digestion. Yet he soon realized that, after time, the salivary reflex occurred even before the food was offered. What Pavlov discovered was first order conditioning. In this process, a neutral stimulus that causes no natural response in an organism is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, an event that automatically or naturally causes a response. This usual association causes the response to the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, to transfer to the neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus no longer needs to be there for the response to occur in the presence of the formerly neutral stimulus. Given that his response is not natural and has to be learned, the response is now a conditioned response and the neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus. Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn some things easier than others are. This ability is known as preparedness. In Pavlov’s experiment the tone was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Considering the two phobias: fear of the number â€Å"13† and fear of heights, the latter is most likely to have been produced by Pavlovian conditioning. This is due to the fact that more people are likely to have obtained preparedness to be afraid of this. There are numerous stories and movies that contribute to this irrational fear. Hence, people are more willing to accept the conditioning and become afraid of high places. This would not be hard to condition into anyone, since it is so commonly feared. Also, the fear of the number â€Å"13† is much more irrational than a fear of heights. Falling from a high place is much more likely than being injured by a number. Thus, preparedness and Pavlovian conditioning most likely caused a fear of heights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, phobias can occur through different causes, but Pavlov discovered one theory.

What is Economics? :: Economic Systems Economy Scarcity Essays

Economics, in one aspect, is the study of how individuals, societies, and countries manage to deal with the problem of scarcity. Scarcity is a problem within economics because the wants of people are unlimited and the resources available to fulfil those wants are finite (Sloman, 2001). The answer to scarcity is efficiency which Gowland and Paterson (1993) described as the most benefit from a certain amount of scarce resources. Within the economic system, there are several types of economies, each generating a different level of efficiency. It is said that an economic system that has allocative efficiency, productive efficiency, and equity will be effective. Along with the latter mentioned, the division of labour and comparative advantage, when exploited also bring about the effectiveness of a system. Within an economic system there are two contrasting ideals: the market economy and the planned economy. A free-market or laissez-faire economy makes decisions on an individual level with minimal government intervention. On the other hand of the spectrum lies the planned economy where all economic decisions are made by the government (Sloman, 2001). Both economies have their advantages and disadvantages. In a free-market economy there is freedom of choice, high incentives, and the belief in consumer sovereignty, yet, there are problems such as inequality of income, macroeconomic instability, and the chance of market failure. Likewise, though a planned economy has advantages such as low levels of unemployment and equal distribution of income, there is a loss of personal freedom and lack of consumer choice. Many people feel that efficiency lies in the free-market economy where one can easily answer the questions what should be produced, how it should be produced, and for whom. However, the problem with this ‘capitalist’ economy is that poverty and boom and bust cycles reduce progress (Economic Systems: How Societies adapt to Problems, 2003). â€Å"If you care about economic efficiency, you should like free markets†¦But they would also believe the second one should be qualified, in addition to its stabilisation and distribution functions, governments will be needed to correct market imperfections†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Rhoads, 1999, p.66) Rhoads (1999) mentions how a market economy leans towards more efficiency but needs the government sporadically, a combination which makes the so-called mixed economy. A mixed economy which leans towards laissez-faire, as in the case with the U.S or the United Kingdom, is rather successful. On the contrary, countries, such as Burma or North Korea, which slant towards a planned economy, lack progress. Along with allocative efficiency, how resources should be allocated, productive efficiency, which production method should be utilised, and equity, â€Å"specialisation and exchange are both necessary to have an efficient economy† (Demmert, 1991 p.3). Specialisation comes in the

Against Animal Experimentation Essay -- social issues

Against Animal Experimentation Imagine having a headache and not having aspirin to take, or being diabetic and not being able to take certain types of insulin (Williams 3). It seems impossible that these drugs could be unavailable to humans, but they would not be attainable had scientists not tested these drugs on non-animal subjects. Contrary to what many people believe, testing drugs on animals often give defective results. â€Å"More than 205,000 new drugs are marketed worldwide every year, most undergo the most archaic and unreliable testing methods still in use: animal studies† (PETA 1). Although animals may seem the like ideal specimens for testing new drugs, the experiments are untrustworthy and can cause unknown side effects. Research on animals is deemed necessary to develop vaccines, treatments, and cures for diseases and to ensure that new products are safe for humans to use. â€Å"The development of immunization against such diseases as polio, diphtheria, mumps, measles, rubella, pertussis, and hepatitis all involved research on animals [†¦]† (AMPEF 1). Scientists have found many drugs by means of animal experimentation. To some people, animals are viewed as better test subjects than anything else. Scientists can control many aspects in an animal’s life such as their diet, the temperature, lighting, environment, and more. Animals are biologically similar, but not identical to humans and can form some of the same health problems. When these health problems are injected into an animal it can have the same physical reactions as a human could. Brettner -2- Experimenting on animals, to some, is important if humans want to continue with improving our medical advances (AMPEF 1). Although animals have helped form useful medicines for humans like anesthesia, they have also helped put dangerous drugs on the market (AMPEF 1). Practolol, a drug for heart disorders that passed animal test was pulled off the shelves when the drug caused blindness in people. Also, arsenic, which is toxic and causes cancer in humans, has not caused cancer in any animals that were tested (PETA 1). â€Å"According to the General Accounting Office, more than half of the prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1976 and 1985 caused serious side effects that later caused the drugs to be either relabeled or removed from the market. Drugs app... ... are many other ways to get the same results as humans receive from animal experiments. These methods are viewed as more moral, practical, effective, and less expensive, why wouldn’t we use these methods? By using these methods, scientists were able to invent aspirin and certain types of insulin (Williams 3). Although animals may seem like the ideal specimen for experimenting with, these experiments are untrustworthy and can cause unknown side effects. Works Cited AMPEF. â€Å"Point Counterpoint†. Americans For Medical Progress Education Foundation. 1998. 4 May 2002. Best, Lonnie Lee. â€Å"Are Humans Animals?† The Hardcore Truth. 1998. 1 May 2002. British Anti-Vivisection Association. â€Å"Animal Experimentation: No Lie Can Live Forever†. 2 May 2002. Cohen, Et. Al. â€Å"A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation†. 1998. 3 May 2002. People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. â€Å"Animal Experimentation†. PETA. 2001. 4 May 2002. Thacher, Wendy. â€Å"Chimpanzees: Test Results That Don’t Apply To Humans†. PCRM Animal Experimentation Issues. September 2, 1999. 5 May 2002. Williams, Joy. â€Å"Do Creatures Have The Same Rights That We Do?† Harper’s Magazine. 1997. 6 May 2002.

Kimberle Crenshaw’s “The Intersection of Race and Gender”

Kimberle Crenshaw’s arguments and research in â€Å"The Intersection of Race and Gender† offer an insightful and probing look into the state of women of color in the current racial and gender climate of our culture.   Her main point, that women of color experience both their race and their gender together in a way that is NOT mutually exclusive, as they are so often treated, and are informed one by the other and as they occur simultaneously, is one that almost sparks a flippant attitude of â€Å"No kidding.†When the argument is first introduced, it seems to simple and so self-evident as to be self-explanatory (and taken for granted); at first it almost seems like a waste of time to be delving into something so painfully obvious.   However, through her very thorough research and her carefully pieced argument which clearly shows how â€Å"X† relates to â€Å"Y† relates to â€Å"Z,† Crenshaw is able to take something that does indeed seem li ke it should be plainly obvious and more or less proves, as much as it can be â€Å"proven,† that even still today race and gender are not given the adequate attention the two together deserve.As Crenshaw is painstaking to point out, both issues—issues of race and gender, that is—receive quite a bit of popular attention in our current culture climate.   In fact, the issues have been made so big that they are difficult to contain in any one argument.Nowadays, so many things become either an issue of race or an issue of gender, it is difficult to discern which issues legitimately need to be addressed by these â€Å"isms† and which have simply been lumped into them by sheer popular appeal (i.e., race and gender issues are the new hot-button â€Å"It† topic—if any discussion is going to occur on the large-scale mainstream popular platform of the media, one of the two had better be involved).   However, through all of this seeming social desi re to focus so much on gender and race, the fact that the two can also intersect and create a whole new array of complicated issues for a person and a culture seems to have been totally missed.That last little bit is my own digression, and not part of Crenshaw’s argument; this is simply what struck me as so entirely shocking.   While we’ve been so caught up discussing race and gender, we’ve completely missed the discussion of race with gender.   Crenshaw has a plethora of information and examples to cite which show how race with gender has been entirely neglected by everyone, including the antiracists (who predominantly serve black men) and the feminists (who predominantly serve white women).Here, Crenshaw further contains the overall argument into speaking strictly in terms of violence against women, and how violence against women of color is treated and viewed as being the same as violence against women in general, completely ignoring the deeper-lying comp lications of layers of different of social structures which affect women of color that DO NOT affect white women (something that, if women of color are to be treated in a way that is beneficial and acknowledging of them and their plights, simply cannot be ignored).Again, Crenshaw brings so much â€Å"evidence† to the table that her point rings loud and clear: the separate and distinct plights of women of color are not recognized by any other vocal group as being anything noteworthy.   And this attitude further perpetuates this belief of their own negligible experiences in the minds of those very same women of color.   And so is the vicious cycle.I found Crenshaw’s essay to be extremely culturally important and incredibly relevant.   For as much as antiracist and feminist groups preach about â€Å"Otherness,† they too are guilty of â€Å"Othering† in order to further their own causes (or, worse than â€Å"Othering,† just flat-out ignoring).Any effective kind of identity politic must be informed by all aspects of a person’s identity; not just race, and not just gender (or, for that matter, class, religion, sexual orientation, age, profession, education, employment history, disability, proclivity to heart disease, or anything else), but a combination of all the various intricacies that creates a person’s identity.   To separate one out makes a person no less of the other, and the only way to truly address them is to do so in a way that accommodates how they all come together to form their own separate and unique experience.   Perhaps this is where the postmodernists really got it right: identity is fluid, after all.

Grief and Rosaldo’s Rage Essay

She had not suffered much. Her death came and went quickly. Michelle was dead, gone forever at the blink of an eye. As her husband looked over her body at the bottom of a 65 foot sheer precipice, many ideas and emotions fluttered in his mind. Renato Rosaldo describes his experience at the site of the fatal accident, overlooking the body of his lifeless wife, Michelle Rosaldo: â€Å"I felt like in a nightmare, the whole world around me expanding and contracting, visually and viscerally heaving (476).† Although at the time of the tragedy and many months after, Renato Rosaldo found himself in an almost delusional state of grief, the calamity helped Rosaldo reach a state of enlightenment with his study of the Ilongot tribe. Michelle and Renato Rosaldo had studied the Ilongot tribe in the northern part of the Philippines as anthropologists. Renato Rosaldo’s past attempts at understand the Ilongot’s reason for head hunting, â€Å"rage, born of grief,† had failed using his method of hermeneutics. The conclusions Rosaldo drew from this explanation were, at best, educated guesses. Trying to be objective to his study of the Ilongot tribe, Rosaldo could not understand the driving factor behind killing a fellow human as a way of dealing with the loss of someone close to you. What he later started to understand was that the ritual was something that could not easily and readily be described. It was not until the time of his wife’s death that he could comprehend the force of anger possible in bereavement. The force was so strong within him that drawing parallels with the ways Rosaldo’s own culture had molded him into dealing with bereavement started to overlap with the Ilongot way. This emotional force became the key in helping Rosaldo unlock the mystery of this rage via bereavement, and unfortunately, it could only come at the price of Michelle Rosaldo. Renato Rosaldo’s explanation of why the Ilongot used head hunting as a way of dealing with bereavement is compelling due to his understanding of emotional force through his own personal experience. After the loss of his brother, then four years later, the loss of his colleague, friend, and wife Michelle Rosaldo, Rosaldo experienced  bereavement and the emotional force that accompanies it first hand. Spending months grieving, Rosaldo’s insights on the topic of head hunting had changed dramatically. Shortly after his wife’s death, an excerpt from his journal concurs with the change of perception of the Ilongot people. My journal went on to reflect more broadly on death, rage, and headhunting by speaking of my ‘wish for the Ilongot solution; they are much more in touch with reality than Christians. So, I need a place to carry my anger – and can we say a solution of the imagination is better than theirs? And can we condemn them when we napalm villages? Is our rationale so much sounder than theirs (478)? Rosaldo’s experience with personal bereavement left him with a sense of what despair and rage could conjure up in the human being. Wishing for the Ilongot solution himself, Rosaldo finally realized that the Ilongot were not as different as he had originally thought. The emotional force Rosaldo had felt has the same core as the force that pushed the older tribesman into a headhunting raid. Rosaldo’s comparison of his solution of the imagination and the ritualistic headhunting had rage as the common seed. Rosaldo’s initial attempts to find what drives the older Ilongot men to headhunt using traditional ethnographic methods failed. Renato and Michelle Rosaldo played a tape of a headhunting celebration five years prior, evoking great emotion from the crowd of Ilongot because the celebrator on the tape had already been deceased and headhunting was now forbidden. â€Å"The song pulls at us, drags our hearts, it makes us think of our dead uncle†¦Leave off now, isn’t that enough? Even I, a woman, cannot stand the way it feels inside my heart†¦At the time I could only feel apprehensive and diffusely sense the force of the emotions experienced†¦(473-474).† Rosaldo’s emotional detachment from the man speaking on the tape recorder prevents him with identifying with the Ilongot tribesmen. This lack of emotional connection is understandable, as Rosaldo himself was obviously not as close to the man practicing the ceremony as his family. This understanding of the rage and sorrow that the Ilongot members had felt during the listening is a crucial element of how the dynamic between bereavement and sorrow function. Rosaldo understood that his analysis could easily be brought under fire due to the tying in of personal experiences during his ethnography of the Ilongot culture. Rosaldo concurs that there is potential for risk by saying, â€Å"Introducing myself into this account requires a certain hesitation both because of the discipline’s taboo and because of its increasingly frequent violation by essays laced with trendy amalgams of continental philosophy and autobiographical snippets (475).† The possibility for an anthropologist who brings personal experience into an analysis of a foreign culture to become too self absorbed is always possible. Rosaldo avoids this frequent ethnographic infringement by separating self righteousness from applying personal experiences for comparison in anthropology. Rosaldo claims that his and all interpretations are provisional, stating that â€Å"they are made by positioned subjects who are prepared to know certain things and not others (476),† which presents that he only began to fathom the force of what the Ilongot’s had been describing as the anger held because of bereavement. Although some would argue that the risks with mixing emotion during anthropological study are too great, total objectivity can not always provide a complete analysis. Although being objective and getting the factual aspects of rituals and cultural symbols provides great insight of a culture and its formal procedures, it does not necessarily give the ethnographer the true experience of the event; let it be bereavement or something else. The true meaning behind many events and cultural symbols that are looked at objectively are really quite open to interpretation. Who is to say that what the ethnographer interprets as being one thing, in turn, does not represent something totally different for the subject actually being studied? Although it is not true for all cases, bereavement and the emotional forces that are its byproduct can only be successfully analyzed and interpreted when the observer’s experience overlaps or parallels that of the subject’s. Rosaldo later found his own experience overlapping that of the Ilongot’s. After suffering through not only the loss of his young brother’s life, but the loss of his wife’s, Renato Rosaldo’s view of headhunting had drastically  changed. Although Rosaldo had spent fourteen years attempting to conclude the actual drive behind the Ilongot murderous ritual using current anthropological methodology, in one swift moment, he had felt the drive within himself. This emotional force had left him seeking for the Ilongot solution. Realizing that this rage within him had pieced together the ethnographic puzzle of the Ilongot headhunting, Rosaldo masterfully avoided becoming too self absorbed while giving his account of the Ilongot ritualistic beheading. Rosaldo posed the question, â€Å"Do people always in fact describe most thickly what matters most to them (470)?† After review of Rosaldo’s essay, one will most likely conclude that the answer is no. Works Cited Rosaldo, Renato. â€Å"Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage.† Literacies. Ed. Terence Brunk Suzanne Diamond Priscilla Perkins Ken Smith New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. 469-487

Organizational Strategy and Change Essay

John Kotter in his book explained the significance of change intervention in any organization or business. According to him, adopting change has been the trend in our society for two decades now though sometimes traumatic; the result would be improved quality of products and services, new opportunities for growth and increase productivity (Kotter, p. 3). He stressed the significance of change management because there are many benefits that a company can get from it. He emphasized that an organization finds help in adapting to shifting conditions and have improved competitive mechanics over other competitors (p. ). However, if an organization is passive to change may face the adverse effects which according to Kotter are described as being pessimistic and suspicious of others who are pushing for transformation (p. 17); hence, this company will end up incompetent. A good example of a company that endorsed change after being attacked with bad publicity was McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a food chain that is leading in the global market; it serves more than 100 countries having about 30,000 restaurants all over the world. This company has started as the first food service retailer that offers informal eating-out market, which eventually paved the way for this kind of business. According to Eric Schlosser, at the growth of fast food chains in America, American society has gone tremendous change specially in the lifestyle and values of the American people; considering the fact that much money has been spent in fast food than in education. In the same way, due to this trend, many women and mothers are working with the convenience of food preparation since a family spent their meal at restaurants and fast food chains (p. ). With this trend, McDonald is considered as the largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes; it is also the largest owner of retail property according to Schlosser (p. 4). After many years of existence, Ray Kroc had continued to reinvent the image of the restaurant image by placing the smiling Ronald McDonald at restaurant and by creating a friendly environment around the area. However, despite of having a good reputation and being a fast growing business, McDonald’s had suffered enormous bad publicity from different sources. The first one was the libel case filed by the Greenpeace employees in 1990 and the second one was a documentary film written, directed and performed by Morgan Spurlock entitled â€Å"Super Size Me† in 2004. The appearance of these controversies had moved the McDonald’s Company to reshape their culture and focus. The libel case filed against McDonald was considered the longest libel case in the history of English that lasted in 314 days in 1990. The two Greenpeace employees issued many articles saying that McDonald’s prepared food are environmentally hazardous and physically harmful to the consumers. The libel suit also presented issues relating to discrimination to its employees, the company was responsible for cruelty to some of its animals used as foods, and children are exploited for using them in television campaign. This publicity was proven true after the US Congress made an investigation about the hearsay. In their report as discussed by Schlosser in his book, explained that there was presence of E-Coli in some of their food due to unclean surroundings and contaminated and/or lethal meat which they sold to many children (p. ), since children are their number one patronage. The â€Å"Super Size Me† ads which was produced and experimented by Spurlock himself for one month was a concrete explanation why McDonald’s foods are not good for the body. According to Thom and Geiger, Spurlock had gained twenty-five pounds after one month of eating all McDonald’s food which caused him to â€Å"suffer from fatigue, headaches, and indigestion; his blood sugar skyrocketed, his liver filled with fat, his cholesterol went off the charts, and his blood pressure was unmanageable† (p. 98). This experiment has just proven that fast foods are not healthy according to Thom and Geiger (p. 199); this has alarmed the whole America and started blaming fast food for unhealthy body and began to fight a war against obesity. The next question is: â€Å"What is the response of McDonald’s to this issue? † Galloway and Kwanash-Aidoo had described clearly the response made by the company to this very intriguing issue. At first, McDonald’s through its spokespeople did not make any comment saying that they have not seen the film yet. However, later, they told the press that the movie is just a distortion of reality. Kapica and Coffing (spokepersons) have said that the issue of obesity is a personal responsibility not theirs, since it is the person’s choice what they want to eat (p. 70). Nevertheless, in March after twelve weeks since the appearance of the ads, McDonald’s had announced that they would phase the super-sizing option in their restaurants and they introduced the â€Å"Happy Meals† with salad and pedometers (Galloway and Kwanash-Aidoo, p. 71). Yet, the story did not end there until the issue became national. For this reason, McDonald’s made a lot of public relation campaign just to offset the issue. Macmillan and McGrath has stated in their book that after that issue, McDonald’s and other fast food chains has introduced couple of lower fat options, including a Salad Shaker (with nonfat dressing), a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait (p. 160). The documentary film has helped American people to become health conscious people and industry to consider social responsibility. Despite the company’s attempt to change the food offerings, the issue continued that required crisis management approach. McDonald’s in Australia as well as in America used a proactive approach which allowed McDonald’s a fair hearing in the court of public opinion. This approach made the company showcased their management and the new direction that McDonald had initiated in order to minimize the impact of the movie. The result of the approach was very effective because they were able to â€Å"weaken and shorten the life-cycle of the issue† according to Galloway and Kwanash-Aidoo (p. 5). To sustain its campaign, in February 7, 2007, the McDonalds Australia has joined the foundation and they had come up with nine products with approval of the Heart Foundation Tick. Heart Foundation Tick is a program aiming to encourage food producing companies all over the world to espouse healthy and nutritious food to eliminate heart problem caused by food intake. The Australian Sports Medicine Federation explained what the Heart Foundation Tick is. According to them, this is a program that challenges all food companies since 1989 to produce healthier products to provide consumers enough choices of healthier foods available on shelves of the supermarkets or restaurants. And every company that responds to the challenge must generate or produce foods that conform to the strict standards of the organization. Specifically, the foods are to be tested for some chemical contents that are harmful to the body before they are given endorsement; the foods should not contain the following ingredients: saturated fat, Trans fat, salt and kilojoules. Once passed the quality, the company will be given the Heart Foundation Tick with corresponding logo that appears on the label of the product. Currently, based on the report released in 2006, McDonald’s restaurants all over the world serve its customer with 100% pure USDA inspected beef with neither no fillers nor additives, whitefish from the Pacific Ocean and Baltic and North Seas, vegetables and fruits are farm-fresh delivered on regular basis (Fact Sheet about McDonald’s). Remarkably, McDonald Company had enforced strategic actions in order to counteract bad publicity and maintain their status quo. In the report made by William Greider in a newspaper published online in July 2003 said that the company had taken a strong political will to advise its meat suppliers to stop using growth-stimulating antibiotics that are dangerous to human health. By this warning, the company would not be willing to purchase the said products; in the statement made by McDonald’s director, he said, â€Å"we would be a catalyst for change industry wide. This very significant affirmation from the company was a response to the controversy that thrown on them and to the call of social responsibility. During this crucial situation, it is very important that a company is always ready to initiate change. McDonald’s action for change is very critical but very essential because it turned the company upside down, and it was successful; McDonald’s remained as the number one fast food chain in the world. To categorize the perspective, the change is institutional and contingency; institutional because it is a change that considers the external forces such as social, governmental, legal and cultural. It is a contingency perspective because the top management must initiate the change that focuses on the most directly affected by the circumstances. McCalman once said, â€Å"Change is an ongoing process† (p. 8).

Pestel Analysis Essay

1. Explain the following concepts 1. Extended enterprise 2. Terminal delays 3. Reorder level 4. VMI 5. Pipeline inventory 2. Read the case and answer the following questions Mumbai Flour mills provide high-quality bakery flours to commercial bakers as well as to the consumer market. The commercial buyers have consistent demand and brand-loyalty, whereas consumers have minimal brand-loyalty but also generally prefer known names over store brands. Demand is seasonal for the flours with the annual break occurring just before Diwali and slacking off dramatically during January and February. To offset these both, Mumbai Flour Mills and its major supermarket chain-accounts carry out special deals and sales promotions. The Production planning Dept. of the company located at Akola, Maharashtra, has the responsibility for controlling the inventory levels at the plant warehouse at Nagpur as well as three distribution centres located at Nasik in Maharashtra, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Planning has been routinely based on past experience and history. No formal forecasting is performed. Distribution centres get their requirements by rai l from Nagpur. The lead time of replenishment from Nagpur to distribution centres is 7 days. The replenishment rate is 48 to 54 pallets per wagon depending upon the type of wagon used. In case of any emergency demand, eighteen pallets can be made available by truck with a 3 days transit time. Recently the company has experienced two major stock out for its consumer-size 5 Kg. sacks of refined quality white flour. One of these was due to problems in milling operations, the other occurred when marketing initiated a â€Å"buy one, get one free† coupon promotion. Since these events, the planning has become overly cautious and errs on the side having excess inventories at the distribution centres. Additionally, two other events have affected Distribution Centre’s throughput: (1) implementation of direct factory supply for replenishing the  five largest super market chains, and (2) a price increase making Mumbai Flour more expensive than its national brand competitors such a Pillsbury or TATA Maida. Of 1500 pallets in the Hyderabad Distribution Centre the Mumbai Flour Mills shows only 396 pallets for open orders. This has led the company to use outside overflow storage, where there are another 480 pallets. Flour is easily damaged; hence, Mumbai Flour Mills prefers to minimise handling. Over stocking at Distribution centres alone cost Rs. 1.85/- per pallet for outside storage to which must be added Rs. 4.25 per pallet extra handling and Rs. 225 per truckload for transportation. Similar scenarios are being played out at the other DCs as well. Mr. Mohan, the distribution manager is contemplating various approaches to solving the inventory problem. It is clear that the product must be in place at the time a consumer is making a decision to buy the product, but the company cannot tolerate the overstocking situation and the stress that it is putting on facilities and cash flow. Mr. Mohan’s first thought is â€Å"a better information system† which will provide timely and accurate information throughout the organisation. On the basis of above case answer the following: (1) Evaluate the alternative solution that could be considered by Mr. Mohan. (2) What additional solution do you propose? (3) Examine the transportation system and its drawbacks. Section 2- answer any 3 questions 3a. Explain the difference between 3 PL and 4PL 3b. What should a logistics focused organization do for customer service? 4a. Explain the concept of containerization and explain its significance in transportation 4b. Explain some important factors that decide the location of a warehouse 5a. Explain the significance of ABC analysis of inventory management 5b. Explain the significance of inventory management 6. Short notes on any 2 1. Activity based costing 2. Internal measures of performance management 3. Modern logistical infrastructures

Development of America

President Barack Obama, in his inaugural address, told the American people about the challenges facing the country today are of crisis proportion. Guided by the founding principles with which America was built as a nation, he promised the citizens of America and the world that his government will overcome these problems. He took note that every administration is faced with problems of different gravity and complexity and his will be no different. He offers hope and unity when he saw fear and conflict in the face of Americans.For Obama, America may be great and powerful, but these alone are not what will give jobs with fair wages, accessible and affordable healthcare and decent retirement through sound social security. Honesty, caution and transparency are demanded of those who hold public office for them to gain the trust of the people in their government. Taking the economy into perspective, he said that the crisis is not because workers are producing less, creativity has stopped, a nd need for commodities have dropped. Market forces drive the economy, for the best and for the worst.A strong economy will definitely create wealth. Government must exercise prudent control and ensure that the gains will benefit all. Equitable sharing of wealth and equal opportunities for all is his â€Å"re-affirmation of the enduring spirit that all are equal. † Obama believes that America must change that way it had conducted itself and do away with political philosophies that are not doing the country any good. Instead, Obama thinks that America should work harder, aim higher, be both movers and doers like its forebears whom he said â€Å"toiled, endured the lash of the whip, plowed the hard earth.†He reminded the American people of those who died in defense of precious freedom from â€Å"Concord and Gettysburg to Normandy and Khe Sanh. † He attributes the greatness of America to its people. He said the greatness was something â€Å"earned and never givenà ¢â‚¬  to its selfless people and to a country that is â€Å"bigger than the sum of individual ambitions [and] greater than all the differences of birth, wealth or faction. † It is upon these qualities that Obama begins the work that is necessary to push the economy forward, once again.He is bound not only to create jobs but provide the basics to be able to accomplish the first, such as infrastructures, science and technology, health care, alternative fuel sources, education and skills training that all fit the needs of the times. Obama has faith great things can be done if everyone will unite and rally around a common goal. In the pursuit of economic prosperity, Obama’s government also seeks to protect the rights of individuals among which is a guarantee of his safety and security.Like the founding fathers of America who shed blood to guarantee the freedoms every American now enjoys, Obama makes a solemn vow to every citizen and every nation of the world that America will take the lead when their peace is threatened. He is of the conviction that arms are the last resort in conflicts, however, victory comes with strong alliances and lasting principles. The might and power of the America is not enough to protect it but Obama assures that neither will his country use it indiscriminately.He will dispense the power judiciously, coming from what the president says is the â€Å"justness of cause and force of example which is the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. † He is looking at Iraq and Afghanistan and the possibilities of peaceful pullout. America will cooperate in keeping the world safe and secured but all threats to peace will be dealt with force. Terrorism will be met with the fiercest resistance. Obama assures that America â€Å"will not waiver in defense† of peace and justice â€Å"with spirit [that] is stronger and [which] can not be broken† warns that the enemy that â€Å"they cannot outlast us and we will defeat you.†Obama spoke of his new policies of government that reflects the old values of the founding fathers. President Obama will not compromise the safety and ideals of America. It will not be a choice of one over the other or a middle ground of both. Both safety and ideals go together. America separated from Britain in bitter circumstances in the cause of freedom, in the words of the Declaration of Independence they will hold Britain as â€Å"they hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war and in peace friends. † Today Britain remains a loyal ally in its fight against tyranny and injustice.President Obama calls on â€Å"old friends and former foes† to work with America in mutual defense and act against the use of nuclear weapons and destruction of the environment. Obama pledges to once again lead the way in â€Å"ushering in a new era of peace. † He recognizes that America is not just for the Americans but for the whole world. His government will defend America and its interests, as well as those of the world that is parallel to America’s. Obama declares â€Å"we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but seize rather gladly.†Once before, the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence had similarly intended, to â€Å"mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor. â€Å" President Obama recognizes the strength of multi-racial America today. From its conflict-ridden history, American came to be a strong nation. The president says that â€Å"as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself. † America, therefore, postures itself ahead of the line with the rest of the world – desirous of a future of peace with honor.America will extend its helping hands not only in times of war and but also in times of peace. He asks both the poor and the wealthy nations to work together on issues like the proper u tilization and care for the world’s resources. He notes that it is about time that everyone should drop attitudes of apathy and instead be more conscious in preserving what could be handed down to the generations that will come after the present one. Times have indeed changed and in retrospect American has gone this far and this long. Its 44th president had been sworn in to the highest office of the land.Nothing can more significant than the fact that America is still free, a legacy of the fallen heroes. Their spirit lives on in the men and women who fight for democracy in distant shores, who help save lives in disaster-stricken communities, who risk lives and limbs to take strangers out of death’s clutches from the 9/11 attacks, and those willing to sacrifice so others may live. From the heroes in war to the heroes in peace, America has not let go of what Obama calls â€Å"the gift of freedom. † They worked hard and gave so much to preserve the gains of freedom and democracy.What the Constitution declares to â€Å"secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,† President Obama promises to â€Å"carry forth the gifts of freedom and deliver it safely to future generations. † America is faced with new challenges and responsibilities. These are the issues that President Obama places high importance on. These are the realities of the current times that Obama are finding solutions to. From uncertainty, the future will be shaped on how well America will use the time-tested inner resources and strength that have pushed the American on throughout their country’s history.The Obama government is confronted with economic difficulties, threats to peace and security, effects of environmental neglect, among many other problems. The American patience, honesty, hard work, sense of fairness, courage, inquisitive minds, love of country and unwavering faith in God and fellow Americans, should be made to prevail. These ar e the cost and rewards of a privileged American citizenship. How much the Americans have developed through the trying years, has made the words â€Å"liberty and justice for all† and that â€Å"all men are created equal† more meaningful and true.These truths were made self-evident when Obama who said his father â€Å"might not have been served at a local restaurant 60 years ago† became America’s first African-American president. On this same president’s shoulder lies the shaping of the future from uncertainty and hopelessness. President Obama is faced with problems that he has to deal with in order to move the nation forward. He was left with a country which is not completely done with a protracted war in the Middle East. He will decide on the future of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing role of America in the War on Terror.He hopes to end the decades of hatred and hopes to heal the wounds of conflict. As president of the most powerful nation on earth he has choices and he hopes to use the best of them in accordance with the enduring spirit of old such as courage with justice. The economy of America is in shambles. If this can happen to the great and powerful nation like America, what would keep it from happening to the others. Truly the economic crisis has hit a global scale. Unemployment rose when millions have lost their jobs, a consequence of the collapse of many businesses.Under such circumstances people would barely afford the rest – housing, education, health care, and social security. This would render the weak and feeble-hearted helpless, but not the American who was shaped in the tradition of hard work and honesty. Again, Obama has promised that America will take the lead. He has met with his economic team on Day One. America must likewise respond to the problems posed by environmental degradation and neglect, such as the greenhouse effect or global warming, extreme weather conditions and depletion of th e earth’s resources.He must end the indifference of industrialized nations or those he termed as the â€Å"nations that enjoy relative plenty. † He has recognized the â€Å"greed and irresponsibility of some† and this time he must be ready â€Å"to make hard choices to propel the nation† forward in the new age. He must employ the old values of â€Å"courage and fair play† to meet this challenge of the world in a time of peace. Equality has never been more felt than on the day Barack Obama took his oath of office.The multitude that showed up in his inauguration was happy that finally there were no more lines that divide. America now has a president who represents the best in the new American. The new American is able to transcend color and creed in a â€Å"patchwork heritage† which is the president’s own description of the new America. It is also a conglomeration of cultures from all points of the globe. Getting America to respond as o ne before it hopes to lead the rest of the world is vital to the agenda Obama has set to accomplish.Unity, equality and selflessness are the defining characters of the new generation of Americans. With these qualities the enormous task of ushering the new kind of peace and prosperity in America and elsewhere in the world can be achieved. President Obama guarantees that the government will do its duty and calls upon all Americans for their support. He believes that it is the collective â€Å"faith and determination† of its people in their government that will make America succeed in meeting all the challenges.From the time of the founding fathers to the inauguration of its 44th president, America has come a long way, not without sacrifices, not without hard work. President Obama has taken things in perspective and knew that without the guiding spirit of the old values, America would not survive the crisis his presidency was met with. The racial divide which was marked with the long struggle of his kind is no longer a painful issue to deal with, given his election to the highest post of the land.Peace and security, the economy, the environment, health care, and education are the more pressing problems that demand the government’s immediate attention, and attend to them the president has promised to do. The Obama story and discourse is a welcome development of the American. He had transcended barriers to become what he is today. In his watch, the whole world is still, perhaps in anticipation of new beginnings. For President Obama it is simply a choice of hope over fear, unity over discord.