Tale Of Two Cities And Justice Essays - Philosophy Of Law

Tale Of Two Cities And Justice Justice versus injustice, a battle fought since the time of man. Dickens' most valuable message in A Tale of Two Cities is that justice will always triumph over injustice. Justice and injustice play a big part in the book. In Darnay's many trials he has each time gotten away from his prosecutors because of help from friends and family. In his first trial his uncle, the Marquis, tries to imprison him for treason, but with the help of Carton he is let free. The second trial was a bit more complex, he is captured by the DeFarges, who don't plan on giving him a fair trial. They wanted to do him a great injustice by putting him to death for a law they had made up. The persuasive Dr. Menette reasoned with the jury, so that they would let him off. Of course it is not always this easy. It was very rare in those days that someone would be let off. The jury never usually took more than a few seconds to decide if the accused shall be put to death or not. Jail was no longer a matter after the revolution. The guillotine was saving them a great deal of time. People went to jail for only a little while, the trial was short and death even shorter. The third trial of Darnay not filled with much justice. He was released from jail and not long after, he got picked up again and back to jail he went, where this trial went quickly and he was sentenced to death. Even with this injustice that was given to Darnay, an even stronger justice was handed to him by a friend. Sydney Carton literally gave him life. The day before Charles was to be sent to the guillotine Sydney exchanged places with him, since they looked so much alike nobody could tell the difference. I don't think his messages apply much in today's world. In today's society things like that are not done. Cases could take years just to get to the court and the trial could even last years. People today get away with murder, robberies, and other federal offences. You can't always have justice, it won't always triumph over injustice. A person can't possibly think it is right when a young child gets murdered and the killer can't be convicted. But things like those happen in the world we live in today.

Challenges of Women of Color - Smart Custom Writing Samples

Challenges of Women of Color - Smart Custom Writing Investments in Canadian business in the business cycleIntroduction Over the recent past, many analysts have argued from the opportunity cost models of growth that recessions are the best times when firms should engage in productivity and improving activities due to the temporal substitution.  Ã‚   In this essay, we will look at the characterization of the business cycles; recession and expansion, and the best time to invest in the two cycles. We will closely analyze the implications of the financial cycles to the Canadian economy. Investing in productivity A recession is defined as a period of time when there’s an extended period of significant decline in economic activities of a country resulting to even a negative GDP growth. During this time, there is also falling of real incomes, weakening sales and production and faltering confidence by not only consumers but also businesses. On the part of investments, there is a heightened risk aversion by investors thus waiting to see. But again, recessions does lead to recoveries later follow a predictable pattern of behavior.   We will focus on the importance of investing in productivity in Canada’s economy during recession and expansionary periods focusing especially on some of the elements that have or will greatly contribute to the productivity growth in Canada. Productivity is crucial as it helps to measure each unit of input and the resultant output from that input. The reason why productivity is important is that its measures will tell how much output has been produced from using tangible and intangible inputs. The tangible inputs include skilled workers and capital equipments while intangible inputs include technological advances as well as entrepreneurial and managerial know-how. By finding new and more efficient ways to use these inputs, then productivity will increase over time (Claessens S., Kose A. and Torrones M. 2008). During the recent financial turmoil in the US, it led to decline in house prices which later turned into a credit crunch with big losses in the equity markets. This problem then spread to other countries and Canada was not spared. This then led to a crisis debate on the impact it had on the real economy. These developments led to questions on how the financial sector is linked to the real economy during recession times. And so, how do financial variables and macroeconomic behave during recessions and asset price busts.   Then what is the best time to invest in these two scenarios? We will answer the question by analyzing the between key macro-economical and financial variables in the business cycles in Canada. We will thus analyze implications during recession and during expansionary periods (Claessens S., Kose A. and Torrones M. 2008). A business cycle as viewed by Keynesian interprets recessions as those periods in which the utilization of productive resources is inefficiency is low. For expansions, they are viewed as time when the level of economic activities of a country approaches its social optimum. This will mean that business cycles will be associated with in a way with variations over time in order to evaluate the efficiency of the average resources allocated (Jenkins P. 2010).   Canada has experienced a total of three recessions since 1960-2007. We can have a great insight if we describe the macro-economic variables during recessions and compare them with those during expansion periods. The quarterly median decline in output during the recession periods is approximately -0.5% and during expansionary periods is 0.9%. Thus from the above declines, it means that during recession there is a 105% decline in output per quarter as compared to the expansion periods. Recession dynamics (Claessens S., Kose A. and Torrones M. p20) During recession, the government can run an expansionary fiscal policy which will help to restore output to normalcy. This will also help put the unemployed people back to work. Recessions more often than not results in decline of international trade. During this time, credit grows but by a small percentage with both house and equity prices contacting greatly during the recession. Due to the volatile nature of equity, their decline and in prices is more than twice that of house prices. For some macro-economic variables, they show signs of a slowdown before the real recession starts. An example in point is residential investments that typically decline before the start of recession. These types of investments often give a negative year changes in the first quarter of a recession. For the industrial production, they show weakness signs early and often register a big decline before the start of recession. As recession starts to hit, inflation continues to increase sharply and unemployment starts to hit and during the recession onset, inflation rate declines but unemployment rate increases. It is a business fact that during recession that investment is volatile than the output and usually investments decline in most recessions but for consumption it contracts. These global landscapes have a lot for the Canadian business to learn from. Thus the private sector ought to replace public support as the main driver for a sustained economic growth. Significant restructuring should be done in many of the sectors of the economy. The export sector of Canada has to adapt to a strong Canadian dollar. There is some evidence on the role of fiscal policy being a source of an increasing macro-economic stability. Explanations put forward account to some structural shifts in nature: that is shifting from manufacture of goods to services, better access to financial services and improving in inventory management.   From Keynesian emphasis of on public works, it is understood that once a cyclical boom is allowed to develop and investment opportunities have been exhausted, there is little that can be done to stimulate the private sector to spend thus compensation is sought by stimulating other sources of investments. In a federal state like Canada, proper planning and timely implementation of projects requires all levels of the government to be involved. During this time, public investment lies in the jurisdiction of municipalities and provinces. Although intergovernmental collaboration in Canada has never been such successful, public works implementation should be insisted as it will be used to reduce expansion. During a boom, demand becomes saturated and stimulants are usually not effective. Residential construction during these times should also be emphasized although not as effective as public works. This will compensate for the usually cyclical fluctuations of business investments. While addressing executives in Toronto earlier February 2009, the chairman of General Electric Co. said that during recessions, businesses should invest in technology and innovations as their competitive advantage grows. Due to globalization and regulations regulating international businesses, finding and using a technology that utilizes these complexes and market development that will put the Canadian business on a growth path. Research shows that continuing to invest in all sectors of the economy especially in transformational research and innovation will be central to the advancement of Canada’s place in the world markets. Thus clearly, the country’s business needs to do more on research and innovations during recessions to keeps pace with its peers when recession is over and entering the expansion cycle (Carlson D. 2009). Thus for a country like Canada to go forward, the private sector demand ought to replace public support as the one that drives the Canadian economy. The new international economic order also has many opportunities that these businesses should cash in during the bad times of recessions. There is a strong demand in the world market during recessions and the important issue that faces the Canadian businesses is how to deal with these deals and challenges that are posed during economic downturns. The opportunities are substantial like that of developing innovative products and services while optimizing the global and local mix of activities.  Ã‚   Much of the research has been devoted to measurements of business cycles and the different approaches that have been proposed by the government. This study is based on the classical definition of business cycle. Thus a cycle is defined as an expansion that occurs in many of the economic activities which is later followed by a recession. A recession starts when the economy reaches its peak and ends when the economy is at its lowest (Jenkins P. 2010).  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusion The above essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the linkages between the main macro-economic variables and the financial cycles touching especially to the Canadian businesses. Focusing on these behaviors of these variables around recessions and during expansions we can conclude on several issues. A typical recession lasts four quarters and usually is accompanied drop in output of about 2%. We have seen that recessions are associated with housing and credit crunches, whereby residential investments fall sharply during this time.   Therefore the government and businesses should take the right policy measures to mitigate recession.  Ã‚   Direct support should be offered in the housing sector while a mixture of accommodating monetary and fiscal policies should be offered by the government to local businesses to make them competitive in the global market. In conclusion therefore, we could encourage Canadian businesses to invest in productivity during recessions as the economy wil l most definitely rebound and start growing again.

Hong Kong Tradition and Modernization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hong Kong Tradition and Modernization - Essay Example While the ordinary mainland Chinese is traditional, the Hong Kong Chinese is modern, while the former speaks only Chinese, the latter is bilingual, speaking both Chinese and English, and while the Chinese is not exposed to Western culture, the citizen of Hong Kong is perfectly at ease in both the cultures. The citizen of Hong Kong represents the spirit of Hong Kong , with its resilience, its enterprise and its multi-lingual, multi-cultural strength. No city in China, be it the capital Beijing with its magnificent roadways or the bustling city of Shanghai with its skyscrapers compares to this beautiful island city of Hong Kong in aesthetics, modernity , safety and amenities for its citizens. As Wong says, Hong Kong is a model for the rest of China.(Wong 325) In the thesis "The Future of Hong Kong", published in the Geographic Journal I, Vol 150, Part 1, Dwyer talks about the history of Hong Kong, and its future as he sees it after its annexation by China. He dwells extensively on the part played by the British in acquiring the island from the Chinese , and the various ways in which the culture of Hong Kong and then of China were influenced by the western way of thought. The thesis was written mote than a decade before Hong Kong reverted back to China. After it became a part of China, it did not follow the dire predictions made by different authors. The Hong Kong of the early twenty first century has belied all e... Clyde Haulman, in his article, "An Asia-Pacific Economic Links and the Future of Hong Kong says that the best that Hong Kong can hope for is not to have any change. He writes about the economic change which is bound to happen in Hong Kong as a result of Chinese takeover. Although his article was written much before the Handing over of Hong Kong to China, his arguments are sound. This beautiful island on the south of China was the prize possession of the British Empire till it reverted back to China in 1997.It was named Hong Kong- the Sweet smelling Harbor - because of its magnificent harbor. The British with their expansionist ideas, seized the first opportunity after the first Opium war with China , to sign a treaty with China in which Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842. It was declared a British colony in 1843. Realizing the strategic importance of the magnificent harbor, the British wanted more territories for the purpose of its defense. So, in 1860, Britain secured a lease in perpetuity of the tip of the peninsula comprising of Kowloon. Since Britain was the greatest super power at the time, with a vast disparity of military strength between China and Britain, not surprisingly, the treaties entered into were blatantly favorable to Britain. The British colony still felt the need for expansion - to supply farm produce for the British and other inhabitants of Hong Kong, and to provide farming land and pastures to the farmers. This need for land resulted in The New Territories, a vast area, which were secured from China by means of a 99 year lease agreement in 1898.These expansions of the British territory were done by those that were in seats of

Imigration Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Imigration Policy - Essay Example Yet, their policies towards immigration are surprisingly similar. Both candidates have shifted their policies from the polarizing liberal and conservative stance to a middle of the road approach in hopes of gaining a national consensus. One of the initial problems that needs to be addressed in the immigration issue is how to secure the border. There are additional questions of costs and departmental responsibilities for stopping the flow of illegal entry. Both candidates voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which calls for the construction of 700 miles of fence along the Mexican border (Carter et al.). While both candidates profess securing the border as a priority, McCain is more detailed in his planning. McCain has said that securing the border is the "first and foremost priority" (qtd. in Carter et al.). He has called for the Governors of border states to be the responsible party for certifying that the border is secure (McCain). However, the republican candidate makes no mention of how this would be enforced or what federal legislation would enact this requirement. Both candidates call for increasing the viability of the existing infrastructure as a means to enforce border security. McCain states that he will divert funding to US Attorney's offices, implement Homeland Security software and infrastructure, and deploy unmanned aerial drones to patrol the border (McCain). Obama's policy would "support additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry" (Obama and Biden 2). Obama and Biden additionally believe that we require "additional Customs and Border Protection agents equipped with better technology and real-time intelligence" (Obama and Biden 2). Neither candidate tells the public the cost of their programs nor how they would be funded. Public policy debates often become polarized on either right wing or left wing interests. In fact, conservatives have been critical of the traditional liberal policy positions on immigration. Newt Gingrich has stated, "The elites on the left oppose border control, oppose English as the official government language, want to find a way to allow everyone here illegally to stay, all while prohibiting illegal immigration in the future". Yet, these remarks made in January 2008 may only be indicative of how far the right has moved towards the center on immigration during this election year. The very positions that Gingrich criticizes are very similar to both the Obama and the McCain stances on these issues. McCain "Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines" (qtd. in Carter et al.). Obama's policy states that he will "support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens" (Obama). Both candidates "Co-Sponsored the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2007, which would allow states to give illegal immigrants in-state tuition for higher education and let the homeland security secretary confer legal resident status on some illegal immigrant students" (Carter et al.).Both policies are nearly identical and are in some agreement and some opposition to what Gingrich criti

Medina highschool footbridge design Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6750 words

Medina highschool footbridge design - Coursework Example The design of the bridge has to consider various elements such as the weight of the materials, foundation as well as the hydrology of the area. In the design, safety of the student is given the highest priority, but the structural competency is a necessity. This report encompasses the decision of the design, the materials used as well as the specifications for the design. The design that is to be chosen has to be ergonomic, economically viable and purposeful to the users. The nature of the design has to incorporate the readily available skill, material as well as funds, while ensuring the safety of the users and constructors. The design process has to ensure that the final design shall support the weight of the users, consist of measures against failures in overturning and sliding and also have features that can be repaired when need be. This report shall analyze possible designs and the incorporation of designs to carter for the needs of the community it is to be designed. Introduct ion Bridges are structures that are constructed to ease connectivity over a given area, while providing safe passage for the community in that particular region. The bridge is a construct that is cheap and solves the problem of congestion, in some cases the bridges are an attraction site based on the engineering done on the bridge. A bridge is mostly defined as a structure built to connect two points, usually built overhead. The bridge may be built over land or water depending on the needs and established necessity for the bridge. A bridge in the Medina high school area provides the students with a communication channel that minimizes the risks they would face in travelling using the road and tram network in the area near the school. From the behaviour patterns of the school and traffic, the need for a bridge in the region is justified. The morning and evening hours in the Medina region is under a lot of traffic with people reporting to their working stations and coming back home in the evenings. The considerations in the overall design of the bridge should include the mode of transport commonly used by students. Students are prone to using scooters, bicycles and skateboards. These factors should be considered in designing the pedestrian bridge. The following were the suggestions made by the class on the problem of the footbridge in the Medina area: Rationale for the development: The problem 1. Developments in retailing Whereas 100 years ago, all the major towns on the Isle of Wight were effectively self-contained, with examples of all types of shops (for example, butchers, bakers, grocers, clothing, hardware etc), modern supermarkets have tended to concentrate in the Newport town area. Part of the result of this has been to kill off small retail shops in the smaller towns and villages; even the general village store is having a hard time. We see examples of this when we visit Ventnor and Shanklin on the Isle of Wight (Geotechnics) field course. Not only are t he prices in the larger supermarkets better than in small shops (due to turnover), parking in many of the small towns is difficult. It is therefore important that people have access to Newport for their basic shopping. However, room for car parking is exhausted, and for those without cars, the journey to and from Newport is inconvenient, irregular and slow. In bad

Popularity Towards TV Reality Shows

Popularity Towards TV Reality Shows This is my assignment of Academic English. That was included two question which is discuss about constant rise on the popularity of TV reality shows and give my views on the shows. I feel this assignment so challenging, especially question 2 is interested in me. Question 2 is want me to explain about success is due to ones hard work or inspiration. Definition of hard work is intention to do everything, as long as you are 100% mind into a good thing to do is the best. Definition of inspiration is a grabbing of methods or things of thought. I will choose success is due to ones hard work and I will relate it. This assignment answer resources from website and some answer I have discuss with my classmate. Reality Shows Reality television shows have been around for a long time. It has changed the media landscape drastically since the turn of the millennium. Owing to its interactive nature, reality television shows has become a highly marketable advertising vehicle. Real life, unscripted TV shows bring drama, comedy, or romance into peoples homes. In view of reality television shows rising popularity and potential in marketing, the influence of these programs is of public interest. When the television program shows debuted in the summer of 2000 in North America, the reality television became very popular. Subsequently, many new reality television shows have been launched everywhere. The rise in the popularity of reality television shows at the present time can be considered as phenomenal in the world media landscape. Many reality television shows have created the history in terms of peoples participation and revenue generation. A lot of reality television shows are popularity like American idol or Fear factor and others. I like to watch the reality television shows is Fear factor. Fear factor is a show of challenges limit and looking for stimulus. Many people or actors also will go take part the show and test their level of daring. After finish the game, the winner can win some money. This show also attracts me because it is so stimulus. I will watch this show every weekend. Reality television in form and content provides the user with programming that seems to be both engaging as well as entertaining. So what does reality television offer its viewers? Is it even content thats worth watching? While viewing reality television shows we do not see the real picture but rather see what the producers see as the real. Since the producers are the ones that set the story for the shows, the actors or rather participants have little or no say in the final outcome thats broadcast. This is controversial of the shows, sometimes they just want to order to capture a mass audience in hopes for major advertisement spo nsors. Most of this show is built around the idea of cheap production and high profits rather than entertainment. If a production companies creates a show with the explicit intention of trying to make money from the humiliation and suffering which they themselves create for unsuspecting people, then that seems to me to be immoral and unconscionable. Television shows such as Talk Shows, that are watched by me frequently have persuaded me in making many of my judgments. I come across at least six or seven Talk Shows within an hour. Talk Shows in the world of television, have undoubtedly taken up almost every inch of space on daytime television, and while doing so have caused much controversy. I am fond of watching reality television shows because I can get some knowledge from the show. We can get some news from the shows. So now, many young people prefer to watch and enjoy reality television shows. Different viewers have different reasons why they do so, and there lays the underlying effects of watching. Watching these reality shows has effects on the viewers and the society in general. It may be positive to some audiences, but it also has many negatively, depends on how one views. Unfortunately, this is also why reality shows have a negative impact on the audience because they think, act, and feel, like the shows stars, and in the process loses their own sense of thinking and real emotions towards certain situations. Reality television shows and their effects on society are also dependent on the viewers desires and motives, they see themselves in these stars and somehow these stars are living their lives through the show. Like power or influence, travel and living, survi val, beauty and satisfaction, revenge and honor, etc. More people are enjoy a certain sense of pleasure and satisfaction when they watch these reality television shows and their effects on society are continuously mirrored in the way they interact with others, deal various situations, and face certain challenges. The one must be keen in absorbs the messages of these shows and everyone must remember that each individual handle scenarios, problems, dilemmas, are differently. What makes it worse than the way it is affects people now is that people get entertained by the sadness, depression, frustration, and emptiness that reality stars feel and experience in the show. Reality television shows have become so ingrained that many people cant have enough reality television news. At the site, it is not only will we have all of the reality television news you want, but we will tell you about reality television casting calls and reality television auditions that are coming up. I simply cannot think of any excuse for such actions pointing out that others are willing to watch such event does not relieve them of the responsibility for having orchestrated the events and willed the reactions in the first place. The mere fact that they want others to experience humiliation, embarrassment, and or suffering is itself unethical; actually going forward with it is even worse. A major boost in self confidence is advantage of reality shows, like someone join the reality television shows, he can learn something from the shows and improve himself on the reality television shows. The overwhelming majority of critics, however, view reality TV as a poison so lethal to TV and the public that it is destroying TV. Austin Cline, an about.com guide, questions the ethics of reality TV and even goes so far as to say much reality television shows is achieve significant popularity but it also says that does not mean that they are good for society or that they should be aired. Is it really damaging to TV and the youth in general? On the contrary, reality TV serves many beneficial purposes to not only the public, but amazingly also the TV industry. It is hard to believe that shows that have paved the way for teens and something to deal with and overcome problems of emotional, physical and psychological natures are labeled as part of the genre that serves no value. Reality television shows are not documentaries. People are not put into situations simply to see how they are react the situations are heavily contrived, they are altered in order to make things of they are interesting and large amounts of footage are heavily edited into what the shows producers think will result in the best entertainment value for viewers. Entertainment, of course, often comes from conflict. Conflict will be created where none exists. If the reality television show cannot incite conflict during the filming, it can be created in how pieces of footage are stitched together. I like Fear factor this reality television shows because it is a stimulating shows. I like this kind of shows and watches someone is test their level of daring. I hope this kind of reality television shows can continue to play. Success is due to ones hard work I required to do the assignment question 2 and choose the one answer success is due to ones hard work or inspiration and relate the answer of I have choose. I will choose the answer of the success is due to ones hard work. Ive read a lot of prescriptions for success, but these days you dont hear much about hard work. Its certainly a factor, but is it really the preeminent qualification for success? I really believe it is. Innovation doesnt happen without hard work. Producing a great product or service doesnt happen without hard work. Real leadership happens in the trenches, not on the golf course. Software doesnt get produced without thousands of hours of hard work. Of course, you have to be smart, you have to have the right strategy, and you have to have a great culture. Every man wants success in life. He may be a farmer working in the fields. He may be a school teacher or an employee in an office and he may be a businessman or a politician. Hard work is an important factor in the success. Someone work to pay their mortgage, put gas in their car, to buy food, to pay for their tax, to pay for their utilities and once in a while for something special like a book or a trip. Someone also work to be able to afford luxuries like this computer and the Internet. Hardworking is more important than inspiration because you never know when the inspiration was coming. If you want to upgrade yourself, only one choice it is hard work. If someone hardworking then he is a half success. Every people hope for success but not every people can be hard work. However, as for thousands of years people in cognitive bias, hard-working gives a lot of psychological pressure. Many people are afraid of hard work, to avoid hard work, refused even to hard-working but some people also not afraid of hardship and fatigue and their endurance are strong. If someone are smart but never hardworking to work also cannot to be success. They are not voluntary, because they believe if can endure hardship then they can to be succeed in the future. People who hard work, often far away from wine, color, money, gas, greatly contribute to the physical and mental health. Hard work busy person, use their energy in learning and their work, there is no time to glance right and left, there is no time for sad and painful, there is no time to calculating others, far fewer troubles and suffering. Hard work not only for fitness, keep fit, it also to medical treatment, disease prevention. Hard work to study and can absorb all kinds of knowledge, so that we can do anything more with less. It has been proven that hard work leads you to success in your life but there are also other factors to be considered. We got many examples of people who are successful in this world. Obama was born in Africa and started his life as a lecturer and become the president of United States as we all know now, and this was possible because he work hard. In other words, if you want to be successful in life you should improve skills like good attitude and better organization skills. Good qualification can help us to be success. We should have a degree from a good university and that will give us a practical experience. Language is also very important. Someone is not good in language. Then also can learn English which will help us to get a better job and we can also learn other languages like Japanese that will give us more chances of getting a better job than others. Interpersonal skill is considered to be very important. We should be able to communicate with friends and family and also with our company workers. In general qualification gives us the basic knowledge we need in our life. It also depends on our hardworking. Then, we should have a good attitude. We should never lose hope and be positive, even if we have a position. You maybe not success now but later in life just like athletes who think he will succeed even after lose the match but succeed later in life. Be confident especially when you are starting a new work. If you have good attitude you have nothing to lose, because it give you a feeling of success. Of course, it also needs us to hard work. Organization skills also a very important point to be successful and without it that we will never be successful. Many employers are looking to hire people who are good at coordinating things like negotiating with others and efficiently managing meetings. Never start something without making a plan, especially when we are starting a new job or planning for our future studies or project. We have nothing to lose, even if we dont work we also can use our organization skills anywhere. Other people think that only hard work will lead to success in our life. However, the overwhelming evidence suggests the contrary, that hard work has nothing to do with success and is actually counterproductive. If hard work is supposed too produce success, then it would stand to reason that everyone who works hard would be successful. But that is far from the case. Most people who work hard never come close to being successful. In fact, most hard workers have a much higher incidence non-success than they have success. Like someone works all their lives cleaning buildings, moping floors, vacuuming carpet and sanitizing washrooms. They dont even get pay rise and have to work more hours. They success because maybe they are hardworking before. There are many reasons people should have these sets of skills like qualification, good attitude and better organization skills. Because we dont want to be left behind from others in our life and by having these sets of skills we have nothing to lose and we must hard work to rush our target. We will be more successful and will have more secure future. Conclusion I am enjoyed the process because two question is very attract for me just like question 2 because the question 2 is relate success is due to ones hard work or inspiration, explore this statement by agreeing the one of success factors stated. Then another question, question 1 is constant rise on the popularity of reality television shows. I already write some point to relate my views on such shows. I also use Fear Factor this reality television shows to be my example. This assignment let me benefited greatly, I very enjoy to do this assignment although I feel difficult before start the question but I can also settle the problem myself. I feel satisfaction to my assignment.

Phil Alden Robinsons Field of Dreams :: Film Movies Field Dreams Essays

Phil Alden Robinson's Field of Dreams Was Ray Kinsella a triumphant hero who dared to live his dreams, or merely an insane lunatic who blindly followed voices that could only be heard within the confines of his mind? Although either of these theories could be argued successfully, the idea that this intrepid man was indeed a hero is supported by a list of characteristics that generally indicate a classical hero. In the movie, Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella was introduced to the viewers as an ordinary man, living an ordinary life, in an ordinary town. Conversely, he was given the extraordinary supernatural ability to revive a number of celebrities from both the world of baseball and literature who had been dead for many years. Kinsella related to common people, but possessed powers that are not only uncommon, but ultimately inhuman. Although not a fool, Ray Kinsella was also not invincible. For example, he was forced to deal with defeat and hopelessness throughout his travels. Once, he misunderstood a message given to him and journeyed to a place that he was not called to go to. But, being the bright and resourceful person he was, he was not discouraged and continued to persevere. Ray Kinsella was called upon by forces left unknown to the viewers and himself to go on both a physical journey as well as a journey of the heart. After hearing voices proclaiming, "If you build it, they will come," Ray risked the economic and emotional stability of the family he loved dearly to build a baseball field. At first, Ray Kinsella was highly skeptical, but eventually he realized the significance of his obscure calling. Upon the completion of the baseball field, "Shoeless Joe Jackson", the baseball player who had been his father’s hero before he passed away, suddenly appeared in the field to talk with Ray and to play baseball. As the plot progressed, Ray continued to receive messages. After each new message, Ray was called upon to further his journey. This journey involved traveling to various cities around the United States, as well as facing issues within himself that he has successfully hidden from for years. The reason for his journey, and the path to follow were never clearly manifested to Ray Kinsella.

Essay for Toyota’Human Resource Management

List of abbreviation There are some common words which often appear in this report will use the abbreviation to reduce the repeating of words through the report. Toyota Motor CompanyTMC Human resource managementHRM Human Resource HR Total Quality Management TQM Toyota Management Principles TMP Financial Year FY Research and Development R&DThe United States U. S Abstract: Toyota Motor Company is the one of world's leading automotive companies and is a global benchmark for quality and continuous improvement. However, in recent years, they faced a recall crisis unlike any they had seen before. Mr. Akio Toyoda, Toyota's president and grandson of the founder, was called to testify before the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the company's response to the recall (Greto et al, 2010).Many researchers analysed Toyota’ problems and pointed out several causes for this situation such as Toyota production system’s problem, quality mana gement, and human resource management and so on. This report will focus on human resource management problems in this case, based on information from media and theories of human resource management such as human resource strategy, employee development and career management, performance development, and compensation and etc ; the report will then give not only a conclusion but also recommendations with regard to Toyota’s situation. I.Introduction: I. Toyota’s overview: Kiichiro Toyoda founded Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries. The Type A engine was created in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota Motor Corporation group companies are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several â€Å"non-automotive† companies. The numbers of employees worldwide including consolidated and non-consolidated are 386. 841 in 31 March 2011.The company produced more than 7. 000. 000 vehicles per year both inside and outside Japan from 2009. As of the end of March 2011, Toyota businesses worldwide consist of 50 overseas manufacturing companies in 26 countries and regions. Toyota's vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions (Toyota Annual Report, 2009) Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota, had famous words: We are doing the same thing we always did; we are consistent. There’s no genius in our company. We just do whatever we believe is right, trying every day to improve every little bit and piece.But when 70 years of very small improvements accumulate, they become a revolution There are some business results, production and sales results in consolidated basis market Table 1 : Business results (2009_2011) | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 (April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Sales*1| 20,529. 5| 18, 950. 9| 18,993. 6| Operating income*1| -461| 147. 5| 468. 2| Net income*1| -436. 9| 209. 4| 408. 1| Capital Expenditures*1*2| 1302. 5| 579. 0| 642. 3| R;D*1| 904. 0| 725. 3| 730. 3| Number of consolidated subsidiaries| 529| 522| 511| No. of Affil.Accounted for Under the Equity Method| 56| 56| 56| (unit = 1 billion yen or 1 company) *1 Monetary figures rounded down to the nearest 100 million yen *2 Figures for depreciation expenses and capital expenditures do not include vehicles in operating lease * Table 2 : Production results | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 (April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Vehicles| Japan| 4,255,000| 3,956,000| 3,721,000| | Overseas| 2,796,000| 2,853,000| 3,448,000| | Total| 7,051,000| 6,809,000| 7,169,000| * Table 3 : Sales results | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Vehicles| Japan| 1,945,000| 2,163,000| 1,913,000| | Overseas| 5,622,000| 5,074,00 0| 5,395,000| | Total| 7,567,000| 7,237,000| 7,308,000| Homes| 5,442| 5,281| 5,157| (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) II. Toyota’s problems in recent years: In late 2009, Toyota became the subject of media and U. S. government scrutiny after multiple deaths and injuries were attributed to accidents resulting from the unintended and uncontrolled acceleration of its cars. According to Smith (2012), despite Toyota's voluntary recall of 4. million vehicles for floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal and a later recall to increase the space between the gas pedal and the floor, the company insisted there was no underlying defect and defended itself against media reports and regulatory statements that said otherwise. As the crisis escalated, Toyota was further criticized for its unwillingness to share information from its data recorders about possible problems with electronic throttle controls and sticky accelerator pedals, as well as braking problems with the production system. Cole said that â€Å"†¦ y the time Toyota Motor Company president Akio Toyoda apologized in his testimony to the U. S. Congress, Toyota's stock price had declined, in just over a month, by 20 percent-a $35 billion loss of market value† (2011, p3) Furthermore, Toyota in Australia revealed that it was halving production at its Altona plant in Melbourne, citing components shortages resulting from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The company announced that for the next two months, its 3,000 Australian workers would receive only 75 percent of their wages, operating on half shifts, and that it would review its production schedules in June of 2011 (Marshall, 2011)II. Methodology: The methodology used to make this report is data collection and analysis from two sources including sources of Toyota’s issue from the Internet, Toyota Motor Corporation’s Website, magazines, journal articles and academic materials such as books , lectures and etc. After collecting, those data have analysing about Toyota’s issues. Besides, the data collects the commentary from authors and experts about issues of Toyota and its HRM in order to observe those issues in many sides of views, especially in human resource views.The sources of case study also comes from magazines and news from quality source such as the New York Times, Human Resource Management Magazine, Harvard Business Publishing, Human Capital Online Magazine, and other HR magazines in order to guarantees the quality of the data. Finally, both HR theories and practice were compared in order to give recommendations and conclusions in this issue. III. Analysis about Human Resource Management of Toyota 1. Toyota human resource management views and practice:Toyota is known for many world class products and quality initiatives that include the famous Toyota production system that later became popular as JIT (just-in-time inventory). Toyota maintains a high pro file in its HRM policies and practices too (Smith, 2008). The global vision in human resource management in Toyota Motor Company (TMC) is create working environments for various employees to work proudly and with loyalty and confidence in fulfilling their potential, which realize their self- growth (Akio, 2005).The company focus on relationship with their employees based on basic principles of human resource management including creating a workplace environment where employees can work with their trust in the company; creating a mechanism for promoting constant and voluntary initiatives in continuous improvements; fully committed and thorough human resources development; and promoting teamwork aimed at pursuit of individual roles and optimization of the entire team (Toyota ‘s sustainability report, 1998).According to Ian Winfied, Professor of university of Derby in UK, said that human resource practices of Toyota’s company can serve as a model, particularly in manufactu ring and production oriented organizations. Toyota’s HRM framework broadly comprises of four goals including four goal follow: a) The goal of organizational integration: The integration of employees at individual and collective level with organization is seen as the primary goal of Toyota HRM strategy. This goal has been achieved through extensive use of teams that are subordinate to organizational goals.Welfare of employees also received wide attention as a part of this goal (Toyota global overview, 1998) b) The goal of commitment. In order to achieve this goal, a two-pronged strategy was followed. Firstly, Toyota preferred a semi-rural workforce for induction in their plants. They believe that people who are not contaminated by industrial culture and influences tend to retain with them a kind of feudal value of loyalty, which can be converted into organizational commitment.Secondly, measures such as suggestion schemes, quality circles and employee involvement methods are us ed to gain commitment. (Toyota global overview, 1998) c) The goal of flexibility and adaptability. Team authority in place of single individual holding all the powers has paved the way for realizing flexibility in the organization. These teams are task-based and can be dismantled or restructured, depending upon the situation. The adaptability trait is institutionalized through the approach of multi-skilling and job rotations. Toyota global overview, 1998) d) The goal of quality. Self, peer and teams surveillance techniques are used to ensure quality of products. Further, a series of measures employed, such as time and motion study, benchmarking, continuous process improvement and employee involvement contributed in the achievement of this goal (Toyota global overview, 1998) In addition, Toyota has recomposed the aforementioned four HRM goals into 17 specific practices.These 17 practices are classified into production practices and employment practices. The production practices are: JIT, Kanban, Line stop, Level scheduling, Continuous flow and Processing. The employment practices are: Continuous improvement, Single status facilities, Performance appraisal, Daily team briefings, Temporary contracts, Performance related pay, Company council, Cross training and group decision-making (Toyota annual report, 1998) Moreover, Toyota seeks to develop human resources through the activity of making things.Honorary Advisor Eiji Toyoda said that â€Å"†¦. Because people make our automobiles, nothing gets started until we train and educate our people†. As seen in these words, which were expressed by president of the company, Toyota believes that the development of human resources requires the handing down of values and perspectives. In conjunction with the geographic expansion of business and the growth of business areas, undertaking global actions for the development of human resources has become a priority issue.Toyota is building both tangible (a new learning facility) and intangible (course content) structures relating to team member development that ensures a secure and steady flow of qualified human resources to conduct Toyota's global business in the 21st century (Toyota global overview, 2000) * Fully Committed and Thorough Human Resources Development: Toyota conducts systematic company-wide and divisional training and assignments for training purposes with an emphasis on on-the-job training (OJT) to ensure that associates can fully utilize their abilities.Toyota has defined the required qualifications of â€Å"professional staff†1 for office and engineering positions, and â€Å"T shaped human resources’ who are able to perform day-to-day activities and expand their skills in technical positions. Company-wide training is conducted based on employee qualifications, as well as specialized training for individual divisions, language training, and special knowledge and skill training (Toyota’s sustainability Report, 2005)The basis for human resource development is putting the Toyota Way into practice. Toyota is working to develop human resources by seizing times of adversity as opportunities to learn, planning greater enhancement and reinforcement of educational programs based on the five Toyota Way keywords, and on-the-job training (OJT) essential to the progress and succession of building excellent products. (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) Toyota Management Principles (TMP): Continuous Improvement * Challenge: The company form a long-term vision, meeting challenges with courage and creativity to realize our dreams * Kaizen: â€Å"Continuous Improvement†: They improve their business operations continuously, always driving for innovation and evolution. * Genchi Genbutsu: â€Å"Go and see for yourself† They go to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve their goals. * The Toyota Production System (TPS): + Jidoka: quality at the source + Kaizen: continuous improvement Heijunka: even flow + Kanban: pull system + Just-in-Time: minimal inventories + Work teams + Total Quality Management + Supplier Partnerships * Total Quality Management (TQM): Implementation of TQM has been promoted based on the philosophies of â€Å"Customer First,† â€Å"Continuous Kaizen† and â€Å"Total Participation. † In order to raise the awareness of TQM, several measures are taken to promote resolution, provide every employee working in Toyota's global organization with ideas for action to improve product and service quality, motivate people and revitalize the corporate structure. Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) * Employees Training Procedure: The purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situations they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check /act. Company-Wide Training to Key principles of the Toyota Way support Professional Staff (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) Outline of Training Programs (Source: http://www. oyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) * Rewards and recognition The purpose of any corporate reward process is to encourage and promote the right behaviours and to discourage the negative ones. It’s important for the reward process to involve the gathering of information about problems. It’s equally important to reward employees who are successful in getting executives to take immediate action on negative information (Toyota annual report, 2000) ( Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) 2.Toyota’s human resource management problems: In the late of 2009, by the first of a series of highly publicized recalls of Toyota vehicles in the United States, Cole (2011) cited Toyota announced that it was recalling 3. 8 million U. S. vehi cles as potential problem in which poorly placed or incorrect floor mats under the driver's seat could lead to uncontrolled acceleration in a range of models. For manufacturing executives who have strived for decades to emulate Toyota, the mere suggestion that it had not only quality issues but also was a serious matter.Furthermore, Toyota said that it will close its New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, California. NUMMI, opened in 1984 as a joint venture by Toyota and General Motors, currently employs about 5,400 workers all over the world (Kearney, 2009). Similarly, Byrne and O’Connor (2011) showed that Toyota Australia has threatened to end its manufacturing of cars in Australia, after workers went on strike against the company’s wage-cutting drive.Strikes were held on September 2, and September 15 and 16 in 2011, involving more than 3,000 workers at Toyota’s main plant at Altona, in Melbourne’s west, and hundreds more workers at its parts centres in Melbourne and Sydney. The Altona plant produces around 560 cars per day, with 70 percent of them exported, mainly to the Middle East. Toyota is demanding that workers accept a new enterprise agreement that entrenches real wage cuts over the next three years, with nominal wage increases of 1-2 percent now, 2. percent in April 2012, 3 percent in 2013 and 3. 5 percent in 2014. The official annual cost of living is currently 4. 5 percent (Petter, 2011) Moreover, Business Week  Magazine pointed out that employee errors were the root cause of Toyota issues and estimated that Toyota is losing $155 million per week as a result of their recent recall. Toyota had lost nearly $30 billion in stock valuation. The long-term impacts of the root causes that led to Toyota’s current situation could cost the company hundreds of billions of dollars.In addition, poor handling of the issue in the public eye has damaged the automaker’s brand reputation and c aused sales to decline to their lowest point in more than a decade (Hunter, 2010) Furthermore, According to Dr John Sullivan, who is a well-known thought leader in human resource a and professor of management at San Francisco State University, with case study â€Å"How Human resource caused Toyota crash† said that Toyota’s current predicament is a result of poorly designed practices and weak execution on the part of the human resource department (2010).This opinion was supported and confirmed by Hunter (2010) â€Å"†¦Toyota’s current predicament is a result of poorly designed practices and weak execution on the part of the human resource department†. IV. Discussions Although, Toyota is famous with the production system but when they apply this system in global, it is not mean that this system can work effectively in the same way (Sullivan, 2010).For instance, Toyota concentrates exclusively on the hard administration of a production system that produ ced vehicles to the customer’s order in Japan instead of the Western method of producing as many cars as possible as fast as possible, then trying to sell those cars to the customer (Smith et al, 2011).For instance, in response to the growth, Toyota had to delegate more design work to outside contract engineers with more than 1000 new engineers around the globe and take one new suppliers because the internal engineering resources and existing suppliers base could not keep up with the demands (Cole, 2011) It is obviously that the most important in Toyota problems is that the Toyota philosophy is so radical and requires such a change of management strategy that the change in the production process itself overshadows some even more fundamental differences between the drivers of performance in the Orient and in the West.For this reason when Toyota went into production in the West the emphasis was on the detail of the process, not on the people who carried out that process. Accord ing to Bob Nelson, the author of â€Å"Keeping Up In A Down Economy† told that: The average number of suggestions given by an American worker to improve the performance of Toyota company is 1. 1 per year. The same figure for a Japanese worker is 167 suggestions per year.This seems to indicate that there is a significant difference between the way that the Japanese worker feels about what he does and the way that the North American workers feel about what they do. In addition, when the new Toyota plants in the West or other countries were built they slavishly tried to copy the detail of the Toyota production system without understanding the difference between the ways that the workers in the East, compared to the West, felt about what they did.Today that difference is called engagement (Hunter, 2010). Employers in the West are becoming aware of the huge value that is realised when a workforce is engaged but, other than running surveys to find out how engaged, or not, their wor kforce is, very few understand that it is possible to create engagement in an otherwise unengaged workforce, and fewer know how to do it.The cars that Toyota recalled were all built in the West. Is it possible that the faults that caused the recalls did not occur in vehicles produced in the East because they were spotted and rectified by an â€Å"engaged† workforce, while in the West the â€Å"disengaged† workforce knew of the problems but never reported them to Toyota because Western managers do not know how to engage their workforces (Cole, 2011).According Sullivan (2010), in any situation where employees fail to perform as expected, investigators must determine if the human error could have been caused by factors beyond the employee’s control. Such external factors might include actions by senior management, lack of adequate information or job training, faulty inputs to the process, or rewards those intent actions not in line with documented goals.Therefore, if managers believe in accountability, they have to accept that human errors that lead to corporate catastrophes could be the result of faulty HR processes, most notably those related to acquiring, developing, motivating, and managing labour (Hunter, 2010) Furthermore, the mechanical failures were known to Toyota leaders long before corrective action was taken, and many close to the issue are indicating that the company took decisive action to hide the facts and distort the scope of the problem (Greto et el, 2010). When the organization disproportionately rewarded managers for ost-containment versus sustaining product quality, it created the incentive for everyone involved to ignore the facts and to deny that a problem existed. Employees who are well-trained and subject to balanced rewards and performance monitoring systems would not have allowed the situation to grow as it did. If the root cause of the problems Toyota is facing are failure by employees to make good decisions, confr ont negative news, and make a convincing business case for immediate action, then the HR processes that may have influenced those decisions must be examined.The HR processes that must at least be considered as suspect include rewards processes, training processes, performance management processes, and the hiring process (Sullivan, 2011) V. Recommendations: Toyota traditionally has ranked best in its relationship compared with other automakers. However, its ranking has fallen steadily from 2007 through 2010. The roof of Toyota’s recent quality problems, any thorough analysis would also need to acknowledge the role of the company’s centralized management structure (Cole, 2011).From previous parts of this report, there are some recommendations for this issue. The first recommendation is that Toyota should focus on training employees system because the purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situa tions they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check/act, but with Toyota plants clearly the training among managers now needs to focus more on new engineers and general staffs.In addition, in an environment where safety is paramount, everyone should have been trained on the symptoms of â€Å"groupthink† and how to avoid the excess discounting or ignoring of negative external safety information (Cole, 2011). The Toyota managers should encourage employees to detect errors and propose solutions. The second recommendation is recruiting process. According to Kramar et al (2011), the purpose of great hiring is to bring on board top-performing individuals with the high level of skills and capabilities that are required to handle the most complex problems.Poorly designed recruiting and  assessment  elements can result in the hiring of individuals who sweep problems under the rug and who are not willing to stand up to management. Therefore, To yota should do not for the purpose of rapid development that ignores the evaluation stage of the recruitment processes otherwise Toyota should maintain the hiring procedures which ensure quality for human resource management.The company can adopt external or internal recruitment in order to looking for high quality employees (Robin et al, 2011) Another recommendation is performance management process. According to Sullivan (2010), the purpose of a performance management process is to periodically monitor or appraise performance, in order to identify problem behaviours before they get out of hand. Hence, The Toyota should check and ensure that the performance measurement system included performance factors to measure responsiveness to negative information.Furthermore, the Toyota’s Human Resource Department also need check or audit the performance appraisal , Performance planning and evaluation (PPE) systems, performance feedback, and performance monitoring process effectively in order to help employees identify, report and alerts errors to warn senior managers before minor problems got out of control (Krmar et al , 2011, p 475). For example, the company should base on performance appraisal to make administrative decisions such as salary administration (pay rises or bonuses), promotion, retention and termination, retrenchment and recognition of an individual's performance.Finally yet importantly, the recommendation is psychological contract. According to Rousseau (1989), the psychological contract is defined as an individual's beliefs about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that person and another party. In other word, a psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future return has been made, a contribution has been given and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits.Many researchers illustrated that psychological contract has a huge impact to the performance of employees . As the results, Toyota should consider and ensure the conditions of wages, bonuses, compensation, and welfare as well as avoid violating the psychological contract with employees to create healthy environment workplace. Thus, the company can motivate their staffs make contributions to the success of the company. VI. Conclusion: Human resource management refer to the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behaviour, attitudes and performance.Krmar et al, 2011 said that Human resource impacting the bottom line and customer’s satisfaction, diversity management, and the health and well- being of employees. Therefore, human resource managements is not only about the achievement organization’s goals but also employees health and well –being. It is important for any budding manager to remember that a happy employee is often a productive employee. Furthermore, according to Sullivan (2010), Toyota’s problems are not the result of a sin gle individual making an isolated mistake, but rather due to a companywide series of mistakes that are all related to each other.So many corporate functions were involved, including human resource management, customer service, government relations, vendor management and public relationship, that one cannot help but attribute the crash of Toyota to systemic management failure. As discussed above, employee errors in recruitment, selection, performance management, compensation and benefits, international human resource management and so on were the root cause of several mechanical and financial failures in Toyota automobiles (Cole, 2011).Therefore, to restore credibility, quality and brand, Toyota should not only focus on overcoming the technical problems but also need to review, correct remedy all the processes related to the creation of products that the most important factors is human resources management. To sum up, the key lesson is that others should learn from Toyota’s mi stakes is that HRM system needs to periodically test or audit each of the processes with considering all factors and fix problems as soon as possible otherwise it could allow this type of billion-dollar error to occur.References lists: 1/ The sources of Toyota issues: Byrne, P & O’Connor, P 2011, Toyota Australia executives threaten shutdown after strike, Word Socialist Web Site, http://www. wsws. org/articles/2011/sep2011/toyo-s20. shtml. Cole, R E, 2011, What really happend to Toyota, 01 June, http://hbr. org/product/what-really-happened-to-toyota/an/SMR395-PDF-ENG. Hunter, P 2010, Root cause of Toyota failure: Emplyee Engagement, Human

The Colour Purple

The Colour Purple Free Online Research Papers Alice Walker’s book, The Color Purple, brings an often forgotten or ignored subject, that of slavery, gender hierarchy and racism, to the forefront of readers’ minds. The discrimination against individuals because of their colour, background or gender was, and continues to be, present in modern society and Walker draws attention to this with her writing. This essay will analyse this text in five main sections. It will start by elucidating parts of the text on which the cultural and historical context has a bearing. It will then consider the motives and interests of the author. After which, it will reflect on what effects are achieved by the use of non-standard English; it will go on to identify and describe the narrative viewpoint of the text and show understanding of its connotations. Finally this essay will show the reasons for the structure and layout of the text. In this novel a great deal of discrimination is aimed at some of the characters. The reader is shown throughout how race determines the lifestyle of individuals. Black people are seen as only fit for particular jobs and it is frowned upon when they become too successful. Although slavery was abolished in the U.S. in 1865, Walker shows how the impression of slavery was still present, especially in the American â€Å"Deep South†. One example of this is when Mr is deciding whether or not to take Celie as his wife. Celie has no say in the matter, when she is called outside to see Mr she is asked to turn around so that he can have a good look at her: â€Å"Celie, he say. Like it was nothing. Mr want another look at you.† (Walker 1983:12) He examines her, much as a master would examine slaves in previous years, while deciding if he wished to buy them. In the 1980s women, some of whom called themselves feminists, had begun to campaign for equal rights. Women even had the same voting rights as men. New laws were being written and old ones amended in order to aid the push for equality. Despite this, women were still seen to be of lesser value than males in society. Females appear almost to be treated as slaves to their masters, who would usually be their father or their husband. They were second or even third class citizens. Married men at this time, according to law, owned their wives and so marital rape was not a criminal offence. Once again, not dissimilar to the relationship between a slave and their owner. Walker’s character, Sofia, was a lady who stood up for herself and therefore, due to the society at the time, did not fit in and was subjected to a great deal of discrimination. This is shown when Harpo becomes annoyed at Sofia for not letting him boss her around and asks his father’s advice on what he should do. Harpo is advised to beat her: â€Å"You have to let ‘em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating† (Walker 1983:35). Violence towards women was seen as acceptable and as females were accustomed to it from an early age, it became the norm. Sofia is expected to conform to behavioural expectations but as she actively does not, she is punished. When she punches the mayor and is thrown in jail, the massive class divide, based on race and gender, is apparent. She retaliates to being hit and, because of the huge difference in social stature between a black woman and an upper class white man, she is sentenced to a grossly unjust jail term. Sofia is greatly affected by being put in jail to the point where, when she is let out, she has almost lost her identity. Ironically, she gratefully accepts the job as housemaid as an alternative to jail as her predicament begun when expressing the displeasure of being offered such a job. Because, not only is Sofia black but also a woman, she was placed in the bottom bracket of society, forever fighting a battle against discrimination. There were a number of factors that influenced Walker’s writing of this novel. Essentially, she wanted to bring awareness to the harsh reality of society and the great mistreatment of blacks and of women. Women’s push for equal rights was gathering momentum but, as previously discussed, women were still not seen as equals, especially in certain parts of the U.S. As well as raising awareness of gender discrimination Walker also sought to promote an end to racism. With her writing coming off the back of the Harlem Renaissance, it was clearly influenced by that of political activists like Garvey and Du Bois. How she encourages the reader to compare and juxtapose the cultures of colonial Africa and the American Deep South is typical, in a sense, to the writing of this era. A non standard form of the English language is used through the entire book. At the start, the dialect and use of â€Å"Black English† instantly identifies the setting a without the need for a description, which is clearly necessary as the narrator does not address the reader in the story. The use of this language is important in helping the reader to understand the characters too, especially Celie. As her spelling is so poor and often phonetic, it is apparent that she has been poorly educated and so is probably from a very deprived background. Colloquialisms and double negatives are used all the way through the story by Celie, such as â€Å"But he don’t pay her no mind† (Walker 2008:104). As Celie is not only the teller of the story but also a character in the book and so an innocent or unreliable narrator, it is difficult for the reader to know the exact turn of events. The reader has only descriptions of people and proceedings from Celie’s perspective but this helps to show Celie’s limited understanding of her environment. Right at the start it is apparent that Celie is raped by, as it turns out, her step-father. But she doesn’t actually know what has happened. From this Walker shows how women were victims of abuse and, because they knew no better, accepted this as part of their lives. Walker’s use of epistolary to convey the thoughts and feelings of Celie is an important part of how events are perceived. One advantage it has over direct narration and dialogue is how, when writing to God for instance, Celie’s writing is very personal, and writes things that she probably would not be comfortable saying to someone. Because this is such a personal form of prose, the reader develops a great attachment to the characters, especially Celie. When she writes about her friends, for example her sister Nettie, the reader can tell how much she loves her. Instead of just being described how she looks and what she says, the reader is told about the effect she has on Celie, from Celie’s own point of view. Celie describes events, often inaccurately, but more important than what actually happened, is how she reacts and feels about it. The reader would not discover this through standard narration and description. This essay has looked at how the Historical and Social contexts have influenced Walker’s writing and how they are shown by the treatment of the character Sofia in the book. It then went on to look at how Walker’s intentions were put across by her choice of language, form and structure. The abuse of women because of their gender and blacks because of their colour was still around, despite general views acknowledging the need for equality. One of the main characters in The Color Purple, Sofia, is subject to a great deal of abuse as a result of a situation she wouldn’t have been in if she wasn’t a black female. Walker clearly was trying to make people aware of the suffering of individuals as a result of sexist and racist society. The use of language in the book shows the lack of education, resulting in a lack of understanding of the character’s own rights. The book is written in a very personal form to help the reader relate to the characters and see the discrimination from their point of view. It’s only been twenty-five years since the writing of this novel and thanks to people like Alice Walker, whose outstanding dedication caused millions to take a more thoughtful look at society, the world we now live in is very different to the one depicted in this book. Research Papers on The Colour PurpleThe Equal Rights AmendmentLegalization of Same Sex MarriagesEmmett Till BiographyBooker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. 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Free Essays on Fall Of The Soviet Union

â€Å"If Vladimir Ilich Lenin was the father of the soviet state, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was its gravedigger† (McCauley 344). Between 1964 and 1985 many economic reforms were attempted in the Soviet Union. These attempts were efforts to improve a system that was failing to produce adequate economic results. Moreover, they failed to address the fundamental roots of the problem. The Soviet Union was a superpower in terms of its military capabilities but the criteria for a world superpower was moving away from defense capabilities towards economic power. When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 he instituted his plans of perestroika and glasnost. Gorbachev knew in order for the Soviet Union to survive it needed to abandon the strict socialist policies and attempt to integrate with the rest of the world. He envisioned a system, which was more open and thus allowed more personal freedom. The new personal freedom would spark new incentives and new ideas. Furthermore, perestroika and glasnost would attempt to restructure socialism to a new socialism capable of existing in the world economy. However, the two prog rams failed for perhaps two reasons. For one, Gorbachev’s glasnost policy led to an emergence of voices rejecting his plan. By instituting his policy of glasnost Gorbachev would free up many years of pent up political and personal emotions. The newfound voice of the people allowed them to stand up and criticize Gorbachev policies. Moreover, his reform revealed the problems and flaws with the Soviet system. Secondly, with regards to perestroika, Gorbachev failed to see the consequence of trying to mesh his new socialism with the rest of the world. According to the fundamentals of Socialism described by Marx, socialism was to oppose and challenge capitalism, not coexist with it. Therefore, the collapse of the Soviet Union can be attributed to glasnost and the economic inefficiencies that went along with Gorbachev’s attempt to ... Free Essays on Fall Of The Soviet Union Free Essays on Fall Of The Soviet Union â€Å"If Vladimir Ilich Lenin was the father of the soviet state, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was its gravedigger† (McCauley 344). Between 1964 and 1985 many economic reforms were attempted in the Soviet Union. These attempts were efforts to improve a system that was failing to produce adequate economic results. Moreover, they failed to address the fundamental roots of the problem. The Soviet Union was a superpower in terms of its military capabilities but the criteria for a world superpower was moving away from defense capabilities towards economic power. When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 he instituted his plans of perestroika and glasnost. Gorbachev knew in order for the Soviet Union to survive it needed to abandon the strict socialist policies and attempt to integrate with the rest of the world. He envisioned a system, which was more open and thus allowed more personal freedom. The new personal freedom would spark new incentives and new ideas. Furthermore, perestroika and glasnost would attempt to restructure socialism to a new socialism capable of existing in the world economy. However, the two prog rams failed for perhaps two reasons. For one, Gorbachev’s glasnost policy led to an emergence of voices rejecting his plan. By instituting his policy of glasnost Gorbachev would free up many years of pent up political and personal emotions. The newfound voice of the people allowed them to stand up and criticize Gorbachev policies. Moreover, his reform revealed the problems and flaws with the Soviet system. Secondly, with regards to perestroika, Gorbachev failed to see the consequence of trying to mesh his new socialism with the rest of the world. According to the fundamentals of Socialism described by Marx, socialism was to oppose and challenge capitalism, not coexist with it. Therefore, the collapse of the Soviet Union can be attributed to glasnost and the economic inefficiencies that went along with Gorbachev’s attempt to ...

Post Cold War Africa Inter State Conflict Research Paper

Post Cold War Africa Inter State Conflict - Research Paper Example The African continent has witnessed great disparities between the rich and the poor. Unemployment and social insecurities make it easy for any powerful individual to breed hatred and start intrastate wars. Despite this, there has been a progressive global decline in political violence since the end of the cold war probably due to the increased emphasis on peacekeeping and peace building activities3. Africa is a potentially volatile continent with a couple of unstable governments. The Berlin conference opened up the continent for division amongst major western powers who created artificial boundaries without considering the existent traditional modes of government. To consolidate their power, the colonialists destroyed the cultural and traditional symbols of power, but the large expanse of the African continent became ungovernable because of limited human and capital resources4. The divide and rule policy employed to control Africans sowed seeds of bitterness and discontent, which con tinue to cause major intrastate conflicts. Despite imposing the western culture and way of life on Africans, western colonialists did not empower Africans with the right quality of education, culture, and economic infrastructure for effective governance and stability5. After independence, most African countries lacked effective systems of governance, economic independence, and were left without direction. Africans lacked self-direction because they had been equipped with useless skills. They could not rebuild the traditional power structures nor institute economic and social development essential for stability. Artificial boundaries crammed diverse ethnic people with different traditional values, practices, and cultures together. The social strife experiences and lack of national economic opportunities deprived majority of Africans the bond of nationalism present in developed countries of the world6. A glaring example is countries colonized by the British who have failed to develop strong national identities, cultural integrity, and social cohesion essential for national stability and progress7. Majority of the African leaders who ascended to power after Africa got independence were unequipped and unsuitable for leadership. This has continued to date with majority of them being overly ambitious and corrupt. The absence of effective independent social and political institutions of governance has made political leaders too powerful, often exploiting their authority to amass assets for their own financial gain. Because of their past crimes, these leaders go to great lengths to remain in power at the expense of their people. In the past, they used single party leadership oppressing many citizens. Corrupt and inefficient regimes contributed to development of intrastate wars with many unnecessary deaths, pain, and suffering8. After independence, most African states created strong state police departments and military forces. Corrupt leaders and regimes illegally use these forces to consolidate their power through ruthless crackdown of any opposition9. Sustained oppression, lack of civil freedoms, and poor economic growth lead to instability due to gross violations of basic human rights10. Many African state police and military police do not uphold basic human rights for their people

Social Welfare Policy in the US Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Social Welfare Policy in the US - Assignment Example There was also an indication of the growth of private employment in a period of 54 months after the enactment of the Recovery Act by Obama and the Congress in February 2008. The second part looked into the effect of the recession on the economy, and it was notable that the GDP was far below what the economy was potentially able to produce. Job losses were never known before. With the recession ending in June 2009, the unemployment rate in August was still at 6.1% confirming high rates of unemployment. The distribution of jobs in the population fell to levels that had not been witnessed since the 1980s. The recession also caused a long-term unemployment rate rise to levels never witnessed in six decades with levels of 1.9% in August 2009. The labor market was considerably affected by the unemployment rate reaching 12.0 percent in August 2014. Job seekers exceeded job opportunities at times with seven people seeking employment for a single job opening. The last part considers evaluating the extent of damage of the recession if the financial stabilization and the fiscal policies adopted were not used. It has been recorded that the GDP would have decreased with the absence of the recovery act and at the same time, the rate of unemployment would have increased considerably an estimation of 0.1 to 0.4% higher in 2010 if the recovery plan was not adopted. The Strength of this policy is that it offers the employed with financial protection thereby making sure that they are not financially exploited. The policy helps maintain financial levels that can effectively better the lives of citizens through better incomes. The policy sets a minimum amount wage for other state governments and thereby universally protecting the citizens from poor pays. The Weaknesses of this policy is that employees may be compelled to raise their prices to customers in order to cover the high wages  making the policy less effective.