Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Essay on Cultural Globalization - 2084 Words

Globalisation and global flows of culture have redefined the processes in which we share and connect to ourselves, others, and the world. From its onset, globalisation had both proponents’ and critics; some believed that it leads to a rich, hybrid global culture. Others saw it as the west versus the rest, an imprint of Western values and ideologies upon the world’s rich and diverse cultures. In exploring global flows of culture, we can observe these major assumptions about globalisation as well as its changing nature. New, ‘reverse’ cultural flows have begun to emerge and question these traditional assumptions. The case study of Japan’s ‘pink globalisation’ is one such reverse flow. Globalisation can take on many different shapes and†¦show more content†¦Appadurai terms these global flows as ‘scapes’, in which media, technology and ideology circulate broadly around the globe. The forces behind this new global imagination and its scapes are no longer nation states but global media corporations. Accelerated by the dawn of the internet and an opening up of transnational borders for economic trade in the 1990’s, global media corporations have rapidly penetrated overseas markets with products aimed at consumers in what could be seen as a cultural ideology of consumerism. Cultural globalisation is no longer a case of Americanisation, but rather multiple, competing globalisations of global media corporations. Henry Jenkins observed the impact of these global media corporations which he described as ‘corporate convergence.’ In addition, we also see a ‘grassroots convergence,’ in which fans armed with new technologie s capable of crossing borders (such as the internet) prescribe to new forms of popular culture. Jenkins observed this convergence coupling as ‘pop cosmopolitanism.’ This notion of pop cosmopolitanism explains the rise in popularity of a new, reverse flow, in which Japanese popular culture products are being disseminated across the globe. To demonstrate the active way in which media is appropriated by peopleShow MoreRelatedGlobalization And Cultural Change : Globalization930 Words   |  4 PagesGlobalization Cultural Change Globalization refers the movement toward globally similar social attitudes, linguistic, global trades, through increased connectedness among countries and individuals worldwide. This globalization allows citizens to discover and explore other cultures. As globalization occurs, local cultures need to take an active role. With actively engaged local cultures, globalization can be a win-win situation in both world and local cultures and can lead citizens throughout theRead MoreGlobalization : The Vision Of Cultural Globalization Essay1947 Words   |  8 Pagesagree that the essence of globalization is the interaction between people is expanding at the global level and the consequences arising from that. Globalization is increasingly being confirmed objective trend, inevitably, be expanded from economic to other aspects of social life, such as politics, culture, security, defense, ... If economic globalization has become familiar cultural globalization poses many concerns need to explai n. The vision of cultural globalization In the late twentieth centuryRead MoreCultural Globalization and Westernization698 Words   |  3 PagesGlobalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of worldviews, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Cultural globalization is dealt with in our everyday lives. It deals with different ideas, meanings, and values throughout the world, globally. International travel, television, music, the Internet and many different popular cultures influence it. Globalization has been questioned whether or not it actually leans towards the Western culture, or if itRead MoreCultural and Economic Globalization1072 Words   |  5 Pagesfilm Lost in translation, Eat Pray love written by Elizabeth Gilbert and in the 2011 Television series Off The Map directed by Jenna Bans. The values explored in these texts are fundamentally linked to the religious, philosophical, scientific and cultural paradigms of the twenty and twenty first century , are a reflect ion of society and literature in that time period. These texts have formed new ideologies and different ways of thinking in society and have detailed the relationships interlinking theRead MoreGlobalization and Cultural Homogenization Essay1497 Words   |  6 PagesThe rapid development of economic globalization and cultural globalization enhances cultural transaction between different countries. Even though in this process culture between different countries still has its own characteristic on the whole, the cultural homogenization has been presented in social life, especially in the media industry. This essay will discuss the definition of globalization and cultural homogenization, and the popularity of Hollywood movies in China, the phenomenon of convergenceRead MoreThe Globalization of Culture: Cultural Homogenization1707 Words   |  7 PagesCultural individuality and distinctiveness is the pride of every nation. All communities rejoice in the richness and exoticness of their own cultural symbols, be it dressing, architecture, language or way-of-life. With the dawn of globalization, however, cultural variety and distinguishing characteristics are vanishing; giving rise to a monoculture common to all. While this may be a harbinger of unity and relatedness among all people of the world, it also damages the unique cultural identities theyRead MoreEssay The Phenomenon of Cultural Globalization747 Words   |  3 Pages The term globalization is commonly used to describe the increased mobility of goods, services, labor, and technology throughout the world. Globalization is a social change; it is really an increase in connections among societies and their elements. Globalization has become identified with a number of trends, most of which developed in the period after World War II. The developments of technology, organizations, legal systems, and infrastructures helped enable this movement to occur, thus leadingRead MoreGlobalization And The Threat Of Cult ural Imperialism1133 Words   |  5 PagesGlobalization has produced a new level of interconnectedness among us, for it is an interconnectedness that not only compels diversification, but also provides a shared experience into the worldview of the accompanying culture. While the power of globalization would be advantageous in stimulating sustainable economic growth; that same power produces an evolving set of consequences – some good and some bad. In order to understand the effects of globalization and the threat of cultural imperialismRead MoreThe Myths of Cultural Globalization Essay3502 Words   |  15 Pages Globalization, both as an ideology and process, has become the dominant political, economical and cultural force in the 21st century. Quote from Globalism: The New Market Ideology by Manfred D.Steger Read MoreThe Dichotomy Of Globalization And Cultural Diversity1964 Words   |  8 Pagesinteract and integrate with one another is defined as globalization. This process is driven by both international trade and investment, aided by technology. The effects go beyond business and finance, in fact, all aspects of culture, politics, the environment and the health of human beings is affected by globalization. (The Levin Institute, 2015) The paradoxical dichotomy of globalization and cultural diversity are, on one hand, globalization provides third world cultures, and nations in conflict

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Burger King Financial Overview 06-08 Free Essays

From the balance sheet point of view, we can see that total current assets initially decreased and then remained constant. This decrease was due to a reduction in cash and cash equivalents while simultaneously net receivables increased. This essentially tells us that Burger King’s short term liquidity position took a turn for the worse. We will write a custom essay sample on Burger King Financial Overview 06-08 or any similar topic only for you Order Now On the other hand, considering the fact that long term assets such as ‘property, plant and equipment’ and ‘goodwill’ increased, therefore total assets increased during 06-08. This tells us that growth took place during the above mentioned period. Total liabilities decreased sharply in 07 but then rose again slightly in 08. This decrease was mainly due to a reduction in long term debt. However, growth was still taking place because total liabilities rose again in 08. The income statement for the fiscal year 06-08 shows an extremely healthy increase in the net income, especially from 06-07 (increase from $27 million to $148 million). This also corroborates with our initial analysis of growth taking place in the company. Referring back to the balance sheet, as mentioned before, there was a sharp decrease in cash and cash equivalents while on one hand we can see that net income has been steadily increasing. What we can gauge from these figures is that burger king has essentially been expanding its business by reinvesting cash. Total assets have increased during this period as well mainly due to an increase in fixed assets. Due to the growth in the net income, stockholder’s equity has also been increasing steadily during this period. Retained earnings as well as capital surplus have also risen considerably during this period. All of these figures point towards a profitable and growing company. From the cash flow statement, figures show that cash from operating activities has been positive and rising. Cash from investing activities, on the other hand, has been negative and we can see that most of the cash has been used in capital expenditures, yet another sign of a growing and expanding company. Dividend payments have also decreased. The sale of stock has also decreased over this period and in 08 burger king repurchased its stock which is an indicator that they were trying to improve their liquidity position. From the cash flow statement, we can see that accounts receivables as well as current liabilities have increased. The augmentation of current assets therefore was mainly due to a rise in the value of the account receivables. However, both current liabilities and assets have increased during 07-08 which has resulted in the value of the current ratio remaining just below 1. Therefore, the liquidity position has remained stable although not as good as it should be. Referring back to the balance sheet, we can also that long term debt rose during 07-08. This might have essentially led to an increase in the interest expense of that year. From an overall point of view, we can see that burger king is a profitable and growing company. Every financial statement essentially hints towards a moderate expansion policy. The fact that net income has been steadily increasing tells us that burger king has been extremely profitable. If it continues to operate in the same manner, it will be able to sustain this growth, keep its investors happy and finance future expansion in an efficient manner. Sources: http://finance. yahoo. com/q? s=BKC William Haka Bettner, . Financial and Managerial Accounting. : McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2003. How to cite Burger King Financial Overview 06-08, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Aspects of Revenue and Expenditure

Questions: 1. Discuss the various aspects of expenditure and revenue in the Australian budget in May 2014?2. Comment on various stakeholders reaction to this budget like businesses, consumer and industry etc.? Answers: Aspects of Revenue and Expenditure Revenue A temporary budget repair levy was introduced to enable the high earning segment to contribute to the increasing Australian income. This was applicable from 1st July 2014 to 30th June 2017. Any individual whose taxable income is more than $180000 will have to pay 2%. This would apply to approximately 400000 Australians. The Australian government has exempted announced but unlegislated tax measures. It also points out it determination to repeal minerals resource rent tax and carbon tax. All these fiscal decisions have reduced the revenue by $5.7 bn in accrual terms. Federal fuel excise indexation was brought back into action. This action is expected to generate $ 3.7 bn in the next four years and adjustments would be made bi-annually. Expenditure Spend on Family Tax Benefit Part B has been squeezed. Single parents having income in lower strata will be now eligible for $750 per year only when the youngest child would be between 6 to 12 years. Paid parental leave scheme brought will be brought into action which will be capped at $100000 per annum. Restart, new wage subsidy for old Australians aged above 50 years and on six months of income support is introduced. This is to encourage businesses to employ them. Subsidy for employers on hiring people was introduced. Government would pay $10000 over 12 months for full-time employment and pro-rated subsidy for part-time employment. A freeze on funding foreign aid was implemented leading to savings of $7.6 bn over 5 years. A significant amount was allocated for infrastructure development in the country, especially road transport. Similarly, funding for climate change initiatives and renewable energy was slashed. A slash of $ 4.7 bn from higher education for four years was introduced. Stakeholders reaction to the budget Reaction of consumers/citizens There was a critical response amongst Australia citizen regarding this budget. There major losers among this were senior citizens, people with disabilities and people facing health issues. The most significant impact was of the slashing of $653 million across four years which will reduce the capacity to provide state-of- the art care for ageing patients. Other decisions like abolishment of seniors supplement and harder qualifying norms for seniors health card were criticized. Communities working for disabled severely criticized the rule of tightening norms of receiving disability pension. Rolling back of hospital funding and health cuts in various areas including preventive health drew wide criticism from the medical community and general public. Patients, as a whole would be losers in this budget as they has expected a $7 visit to the GP but now would have to actually shell out more for the their entire treatment process. Criticism was also drawn for the higher education costs likely to be faced by students due to uncapping of university fees. Reduction of minimum threshold of income to begin repayment of education loan was lowered by 10% which drew severe criticism from the student community. Dropping of the Gonski School funding also drew wide criticism across the student community. A drop in the standard of public service was also evident in this budget. Australian Government announced scrapping of 16500 Commonwealth public servants which will severely impact the standards of public service. Many federal agencies were also set to be scrapped. Overall, this budget drew a negative reaction from citizens of Australia who believes that this would impact them negatively in many areas. Reaction of industry/businesses Industry reaction to this budget was more or less positive. The budget allocated significant amount of funds for areas like infrastructure development, mining and defense capability building. The allocation of $11.6 bn for new projects was appreciated by the industry who said that this would help in long term growth and would assist several industries together. There was a huge outlay for roads and airports in this budget which the industry expects to boost connectivity improve transport facilities and give a thrust to sectors like logistics, tourism and travel. The establishment of Entrepreneurs Establishment Program which would cost the government $484.2 million was appreciated and was called upon as a futuristic decision. The private sector expected a 1.5% rate cut in the budget to fund parental leave scheme but this was not mentioned in the budget. This drew criticism from several quarters. Automobile industry criticized the governments move to cancel programs which would lead firms to back out from Australian manufacturing. Thus, it was a mixed reaction for industry and business with some positives and some negatives in the budget. References Russell, Dr Lesley. (2014). Analysis of 2014-15 Health Budget. Philips. Jacquline (2014). A Budget that divides the Nation. The Australian Governments 2014-15 Science, Research and Innovation Budget Tables.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Freedom of Religion in the United States of America free essay sample

The freedom of religion in the United States of America A. Powell Davies once said: â€Å"True religion, like our founding principles, requires that the rights of the disbeliever be equally acknowledged with those of the believer† (2012). Even though it was difficult at first to leave his home country to come to the United States, freedom of religion was the main reason to move to the U. S. ecause life was different in the Ukraine; it was hard to relate to a totally new environment, with a strange language and even stranger cultures and customs here in the United States. In this interview the writer wants to talk with a coworker from the Ukraine, about his childhood memories from his home country. His name is Oleg Kypytko and he is a parishioner of the Orthodox Church in Portland/ Oregon. He immigrated about twenty years ago to the United States and now lives in Washington State. We will write a custom essay sample on The Freedom of Religion in the United States of America or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The reasons he and his family moved to the United States was for religious reasons. It was difficult to learn a new language and make enough money to provide for his family. It was a total different life in the Ukraine, there was no freedom of religion and not many other freedoms. There always was a sense of being watched, because of his faith. Mr. Kypytko is from a different culture, than this writer. Most German citizens are stereotyping the people from the Ukraine as Russians. The questions for Mr. Kypytko are how far back he can remember maybe as far back as childhood even. Did he can remember the experience of a subgroup member back in the Soviet- union and the treatment of the people? How did it feel at first in the United States of America, and living in freedom to pursue his own religion? How hard was it to learn a different language and a total different culture? There are many differences between his former life in the Soviet-union, and his life now in the United States. The country he grew up in was a total opposite of the United States and it took some time to get used to it. Those are the main questions of this paper and they will help to find out why Mr. Kypytko moved to the United States to start a new life for him and his family. It was interesting to find out he can remember this far back. The first time he felt out of place in his home country of Ukraine. The Ukraine was a part of the Soviet-union, which was created after World War II. He can remember his grandfather was prosecuted, because he was a member of a church and believed in something different than the communist party. The courts send his grandfather to Siberia in a prison camp for believing there is a greater power than man. The prison camp changed his grandfather. His parents did not go to church so often after that ordeal they started reading the bible in their house. Only at the major holidays they would visit a church, always afraid to get prosecuted. At this time the KGB was tracking the growing influences of the Orthodox Church† (Zhuk, S. I, 2008). The family was changing the way they were handling their religious life. Mr. Oleg Kypytko always felt out of place, because in his life outside the house he had to demonize their religion. The Soviet-union did not like religious people while the Russian government was going back with their relationship with the church till 1750 (Anonymous, 2007). The polite bureau thought those people are a treat to their way of live. At first church goers were tolerated, than seen as a treat. The KGB arrested young people for trading crosses and icons at local farmer markets† (Zhuk, S. I. , 2008). As they were considered a treat, the treatment against the religious people changed. Most parishioners of the Orthodox Church in his home town were treated as outcasts. He got drafted for the Soviet Army and had to denounce his religion in order to fulfill his duty to the country. Mr. Kypytko always said I have no religion in order to avoid punishment in the Military. He remembers this as one of the longest time in his life, always being quite about his faith. He had to join the Army or stand to his faith and go to jail. The area he grew up in was a small town, everyone knew their next door neighbors. † It was not always this way long time ago the Orthodox Church was always present while the tsar was ruling the Russian government. The Orthodox church wanted to convert all non-Orthodox† (Romaniello, M. P. , 2007). † The consumption of religious cultural products among the youth of Dnepropetrovsk was particularly worrisome for Soviet ideologists and the KGB because the city had special strategic importance for the entire Soviet regime, because it was the site of the biggest missile factory in the Soviet Union† (Zhuk, S.I. , 2008). Most of his neighbors belong to the communist party and he always had a feeling someone is watching. After his military service he moved back to his hometown. Things did not change for him, he tries everything to fit in, but he felt like he lived on a different planet. † It is well known that democracies do not take an approach to matter of religion and education and reject the communist approach of one comprehensive secular ideology and outlawing religious visions† (Glanzer, P. L. , amp; Petrenko, K. , 2007). He was reaching out to an Orthodox church in the United States of America, because it got so bad for him to live under those conditions. The Orthodox Church in Portland Oregon United States was sponsoring him and his young family. Mr. Kypytko found this church, because some of his relatives were immigrate to the United States and parishioner of this church. It took years for him to finally move to the States. While he and his family waited to move to the United States of America he had the feeling of being watched. He moved to the U. S. and everything his family owned would fit in a suit case. The first months in the United States were so different than back in his home Country of the Ukraine. Mr. Kypytko was at first so home sick and he wanted to move his family back to the Ukraine, but then his wife talked to him about the bad feeling against religious people in their home country. They decide to try and live and worship in the United States of America. He only spoke broken English, and most of the time he related on the other members of his new church to help him out. Here he could practice his faith without being in fear of prosecuting. He made it to the United States of America, but now he had to provide for his family. At first he needed to learn the English language, which was not easy for him. He grew up in a communist system and now he had to change so he could put food on the table. The communist government was totally different than the government in the United States of America. The Orthodox Church in Portland gave him his start, but he did not have it easy to fulfill his American dream. The first employment he had was making just minimum wages, and not having much worldly procession. Most of their possession was donated from the parishioner of the church in Portland Oregon. It took him many years to learn the language and buy a house for him and his family. He was working in different jobs and always tries to make ends meet. He sometimes had to hold two jobs to provide for his family, his youngest daughter was born in this Country. In the Ukraine the people are now aloud to worship in the church. † In the history of religion in Orthodox countries share similarities to other democracies by Catholicism, but later diverged at important points â€Å"(Glanzer, P. L. , amp; Petrenko, K. , 2007). It would not be wise for Mr. Kypytko going back to his home country, because his children do not speak his native language. His children are used to their lifestyle in the United States of America. It would be hard for them to adjust to the life in the Ukraine, his oldest daughter was a baby the time they immigrated the U. S. A. † In the 1990 the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the government of the Russian Federation a stable relationship was beginning to arise† (Basil, J. D. , 2007). The people of the Ukraine are now can practice their faith without being afraid of the government. Mr. Kypytko still has contact with his family in his home country, he was thinking about moving back home. The main reason Mr. Kypytko moved his family to the United States was to practice his faith. He never thought it would so hard to succeed, and the problems this brought onto him. He felt as an outcast in his home country, but for the first few years he felt the same way in the United States of America. The only bright spot in his new life was he could go to church and practice his religion. According to Jandt, F. the United States of America among the world’s industrialized nations is the most religious (2010). This is a reason so many people are coming to the United States to pursue their freedom of religion. Even now he will not talk about religion at work, because he still believes it is not good to speak to other people about religion. At first he did not wanted to talk about his life, this writer believes he thought this would bring to much attention to him. At his place of work there is more former citizen from the Ukraine and some are members of his church. He will have a conversation with Russian speaking people so if there is any talk about the religion non- Russian will not know. The immigrants from Russian and the Ukraine are able to peruse their freedom to practice their religion, but in the process they give up their former life. The main question for Oleg Kypytko is it worth all he and his family were enduring all this time. He has a satellite dish so he can watch television from his home country. Mr. Kypytko is changed, he and his family are used to the life in the United States of America, he can say what he thinks and the government will not punish him. Some of the Church members are going back to visit the home country and will buy movies there, and those movies will go from one parishioner to another till every member of the church watch them. They are what he called too much Americanism, and would not fit in his home country. His children never went back to their country of origin. His daughters are not fluently speaking his language so they would be not able to find good employment. The children of the family grew up in the United States, his oldest daughter was born in the Ukraine, but she will tell you she feels like an American girl. She has no desire to live in the Ukraine. The younger daughter not even wants to visit his home country, she tells her father they did not wanted us why do I want to go there. He is always thinking about his home country and the way life changed for its citizen. They now have religion involving into the education system and they are having now the freedom of religion in his home country. †The 1990 Soviet law granted religious toleration to all faiths, the opposite from the decade-long oppressive practice of the Communist regime. This was brought on by the collapse of the USSR† (Basil, J. D. , 2007). If he would know this would happen in his home country he maybe not immigrated to the United States of America. There is nobody in this world that can predict the future. Mr. Kypytko does not know what the future holds for him and his family, but he will tell you his faith will help him through everything. In moments like this he says he knows why he came to the United States of America, he does not to be in fear of the government change the policy again. He is happy to live in a country free of fear and he still remembers back the problems he had as a child, because his family want to pursue their religion.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

An Analysis of Macbeths Ambition

An Analysis of Macbeths Ambition In  William Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth, ambition is presented as a dangerous quality. Because it is unchecked by any concept of morality, It causes the downfall of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and triggers a series of deaths, making ambition the driving force of the play. Macbeth: Ambition Macbeth’s ambition is driven by a number of factors, including: Prophecy: The Macbeth witches prophesy that Macbeth will become King. Macbeth believes them and the various prophecies are realized throughout the play. However, it is unclear whether these prophecies are preordained or self fulfilling.Lady Macbeth: his wife is the driving force that encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action on the prophecies. Macbeth’s ambition soon spirals out of control and forces him to murder again and again to cover up his previous wrongdoings. Macbeth’s first victims are the Chamberlains who are blamed and killed by Macbeth for the murder of King Duncan. Banquo’s murder soon follows once Macbeth fears that the truth could be exposed. Consequences Ambition has series consequences in the play: Macbeth is slain as a tyrant and Lady Macbeth commits suicide. Shakespeare does not give either character the opportunity to enjoy what they have achieved – perhaps suggesting that it is more satisfying to achieve your goals fairly than to achieve them through corruption. Ambition and Morality In testing Macduff’s loyalty, Malcolm outlines the difference between ambition and morality by pretending to be greedy and power hungry. He wants to see if Macduff believes these are good qualities for a King to posses. Macduff does not and therefore demonstrates that a moral code is more important in positions of power than blind ambition. At the end of the play, Malcolm is the victorious King and Macbeth’s burning ambition has been extinguished. But is this really the end to over-reaching ambition in the kingdom? The audience is left to wonder if Banquo’s heir will eventually become king as prophesied by the Macbeth witches. Will he act on his own ambition or will fate play a part in realizing the prophecy? Or were the witches’ predictions wrong?

Friday, November 22, 2019

Assignment #2 - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

#2 - Case Study - Assignment Example army to caused skin burns and still births. Yes that is right; it was Dow that was actually responsible for â€Å"the Silent Spring†. Further, the company also owns the manufacturing unit that resulted in greatest industrial failure in the history, which lead to the death toll of over three thousand Indians in Bhopal; and it also left several unwanted problems for the next generations. One of the recent events that involved Dow Chemicals was discharge of industrial effluents into the air and water supplies in the vicinity of the company’s Midland complex in Michigan. Dow was held liable for violating Clean Air Act rules, and for disobeying the Clean Water Act. Further, the government also held the company for releasing harmful chemicals into the environment without a permit. The issue was brought to the considerations during 2006-07; however, after several delays and trials, the company agreed to pay $ 2.5 million in 2011, for the sake of compensation. In 2010 the annu al release of toxic compounds by Dow’s Midland facility was 275,912 pounds. According to an environmentalist based at the Michigan State University, the company earned a profit of $ 6.2 billion during the time while the production facility was discharging contaminants without permission (Weiss, 2008). The stakeholders include the people living in the vicinity of the production houses, the state that has allowed the company to operate, general public, media, the employees at Dow, and the Dow Chemical Company. People living close to these production houses are directly exposed to the harmful chemicals that released by these industrial units into the environment. These contaminants can have lethal effects on the population residing in the suburbs. In case of the recent activities, the major subjects under the exposure of contaminants were the residents of Midland, Michigan (Weiss, 2008). The side effects of these contaminants can be direct or indirect. The second stakeholder in

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Case of Vasiliy Gorshkov and Alexey Ivano Essay

Case of Vasiliy Gorshkov and Alexey Ivano - Essay Example There are readily available hacker tools that can be used by unskilled people to wreak havoc for financial gain or just for fun. The disturbing reality is that many people are not aware they are actually committing a crime until it is too late. This has been a serious problem for teachers, parents, governments and businesses trying to work hard to protect children and the general public from online threats. The best way to protect people from computer crime is by letting them understand what computer crime is all about. Computer crime can be viewed in three ways. The first one is attacking computers of other people by spreading malicious viruses. The second one is using a computer as a weapon to commit crime like illegal gambling or fraud. The third one is storing information in a computer illegally. Introduction In this case study of Vasiliy Gorshkov and Alexey Ivanov we are going to examine whether the FBI investigative techniques went too far in apprehending the two Russian cyber criminals. In addition to this, we will also investigate how the FBI used the law to apprehend the cyber criminals and whether their actions should stand scrutiny under the current U.S. cyber law. Furthermore, more case studies will be examined and the impact of cybercrime investigations of non-U.S. citizens will be discussed and analyzed. The overview has looked at what computer crime is all about and the definition can summarize computer crime as attacking computers of other people by spreading malicious viruses, using a computer to commit crime, and storing illegal information on a computer. Case study Ivanov a 20 year old computer programmer from Russia flew to Seattle in November 2000 to apply for a job in a company called Invita Security. He was promised a dream job and took with him Vasiliy Gorshkov, a fellow programmer. After their arrival in Seattle airport they were given interviews of hacking other networks which they proved to be very successful. They were later arrested by the FBI. In Washington on October 10, 2001, a jury found Vasiliy of Russia guilty on 20 counts of conspiracy on fraud and computer crimes. The targets of the computer crime include Nara Bank, Speakeasy Network, PayPal, National Bank of Waco, and many other companies. He faced a maximum prison term of five years on each count, and a possible prison sentence of 100 years and a fine of $250,000 on each count, although he was sentenced to three years in prison. Ivanov was also charged with conspiracy, hacking, extortion and computer fraud and was given a prison term of eight months and owes in excess of $800,000. Analysis of case study The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the case study did not follow any International Law in their pursuit of the two cyber criminals however the deceit to get them into America is commendable because it allowed the FBI to exercise the right legal justice system in apprehending them. This was done by using a fictional company called Invita that lured the two Russians and their success in hacking into Invita proved they were guilty of cyber crime. According to the United States law the right way in obtaining evidence is not by deceiving computer criminals into committing a crime rather it should be to catch criminals in the act of committing a crime

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Macro Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Macro Economics - Assignment Example It also provides individuals to act based on their self-interest regarding the decisions in the economy. This thought ensures that the economic resources are allocated based on the desires of businesses and individuals. The classical economists uses the value of money in determining the prices in the market. On the other hand, the Keynesian school of thought depends on the aggregate demand and spending in defining the economic marketplace. The Keynesian economists believe that the private and public decisions influences the aggregate demand. Public decisions entails the municipalities and government agencies. Private decisions entails the businesses and the individuals found in the economic marketplace. Government spending is not one of the major forces in classical economic literature. Business investments and consumer spending represent the most important section of the country. Too much government expenses takes away the resources needed by businesses and individuals. On the contrary, the Keynesian economics relies on the government spending to jumpstart the nation (Nikaido, 546). The classical school of thought focuses to create long term mitigation for economic problems. The issues on inflation, government taxes, and government regulations are the main agenda for the classical school of thought. The Keynesian school of thought focuses on the immediate outcome in the economic theories. The policies set by the Keynesians were short term and required instant corrections to the nation. This is the reason why government spending is the main cog in this school of thought. From the classical model graph, the aggregate supply curve is illustrated by the vertical line. From the Keynesian model, the aggregate supply curve slopes upwards based on the Keynesian school of thought. The two school of thought represents the aggregate supply and aggregate demand and they

Saturday, November 16, 2019

How did Wolsey rise in status from Essay Example for Free

How did Wolsey rise in status from Essay 1500-1516 During 1500 and 1516 Wolsey rose from simple butchers son to Cardinal of the church. He was the boss of Englands administration, meaning he had to keep control foreign policies and Englands domestic matters. He was a man of great stamina and a man of great intelligence and organisational skills. He was an intellectual child and went to Oxford University. After coming out of university, Wolsey works for Nanfan in Calais he is asked to work for Henry VII but refuses. When Nanfan dies Wolsey goes to London to work for Henry VII, Wolsey is liked due to being hard working and amazing at organising. When Henry VII dies Henry VIII succeeds the throne, the new king wants to go to war with France. Although his fathers advisers; Fox, Warham and Surrey disagree he goes ahead with the plan. Henry VII needs money, Wolsey comes up with the idea of bringing back subsidies, this raises the huge amount of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½100,000. By doing this Wolsey gets close to the king and Henry realises how hardworking Wolsey is, and therefore gives Wolsey control of logistics. Henry wins the war and sees just how useful Wolsey is, during the war Henrys adviser Surrey had stepped aside (he didnt go to France) letting Wolsey take glory from the war. While England is in France Scotland attack, they loose their king and Surrey wins the battle, he is made Duke of Norfolk. After Fox retires, Warham is removed as an advisor, and Wolsey is appointed Cardinal. Wolseys rise is quick and almost impossible. The argument that Elton presents is that Wolsey makes his way to Cardinal by force, i.e.; pushing people out of the way to make way for himself. That Wolsey is just a bully who manipulates people to get what he wants. Whereas Gwyn says that Wolsey was just a very hard worker who was admired by people very much and deserved his promotions and positions he was given. We see Wolseys manipulating and evil side when he takes over the war and pushes Surrey out of the way. Here we see how Wolsey uses his intellect to manipulate Henry VIIs way of thinking, after this Henry thinks of Surrey as not as influential and useful as Wolsey. By taking over the logistics in the war Wolsey shows his passion for war and that he has a cruel side too. Luckily Surrey fends of Scotland, and impresses the king and rather than being forgotten like Wolsey wants he is made Duke of Norfolk. To put an end to the new-formed alliance between Spain, France and the Holy Roman Empire he was sent to a conference and decided that he would trade Mary Roses hand in marriage to Louie for peace and agreement. This shows he is willing to give the kings relatives away to get a result and ultimately stay in power, or even get promoted. When Wolsey gets back to England he starts talking about how Fox is not doing his job and how he wasnt even in France at the time of the negotiations. This is most likely due to the fact that Fox was also Bishop of Exeter and was concentrating on that rather than his negotiating duties. Wolsey uses this as an excuse to say that Fox is lazy and isnt doing his job properly. Fox finally leaves his post in government due to Wolsey, thus meaning Wolsey gains more authority and power. Wolsey then proceeds to get Warham removed, this is because the king does not like Warham and getting rid of him will mean the king likes Wolsey more. Warham is still Arch Bishop of Canterbury, and therefore still has some authority over Wolsey. To counteract this Wolsey gets the king to make him Cardinal. This makes Warham almost useless and his position irrelevant. Wolseys manipulating and bully-like ways got him into very high power, but to do so he got rid of his opposition with force. Gwyn takes a very different approach to Elton and says how Wolsey was an honest and very hardworking man, who had the interests of the country at heart. Wolsey starts his career by devising an ingenious scheme that would get the king what he wanted without having to raise taxes on the everyday man. After impressing the king Wolsey was rewarded by being given the job of logistics in the war. This was likely done to trial him as government representative. Wolsey works ridiculously hard during the war so that all the calculations and logistics are correct. As a result he wins the war against France. When Wolsey comes back to England he finds Fox to be old and encourages him to retire, so he can relax after such a long time serving the king. Fox agreed that he was old and should stop work. For such good work the king makes Wolsey, Cardinal. Warham is bitter about this, as he does not like the way in which Wolsey operates. Wolsey then proceeds to stop the illegal happenings of Warham and gets revenue from Warhams property. We can see that both views can make sense, but I feel that Wolsey made it to the top by a mix of the two. I think that he was genuinely hard working and clever, but also encouraged people to leave the government. This way of thinking is more believable than someone who was totally evil or perfect. It was likely that if you did something good for the king every so often he would promote you, and this is exactly what happened. Therefore if you bring Eltons and Gwyns ideas together then you are more likely to get a true representation of what Wolsey was really like and how he got his high status.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Amazon.com :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Amazon.com In 1994, Jeffery Bezos noticed an important statistic about the Internet -- the fact that its usage was growing at 2300 percent a year. He was quick to become a part of such rapid growth; he began selling books on-line. He chose books over the vast number of products that could be sold on-line because of their volume. There were 1.5 million English-language books in print and 3 million books in all languages worldwide, while the largest physical bookstore in the world only carried 175,000 of the 1.5 million titles. Bezos made several decisions while starting his company; all of them seeming to be wise ones. For example, although it would seem unimportant for a virtual business, he was very selective in choosing a good location to start his business. He decided on Seattle: a place with lots of technical talent, near a large number of books; a nice place to live, and most importantly, it was in a small state -- to avoid customers having to pay sales tax due to the business’s presence in that state. Amazon.com was launched in July 1995. Sales picked up rapidly. By the end of 1996, its revenues reached $15.6 million, which was three times larger than the revenues of a large Barnes & Nobles superstore. The firm continued to expand and revenues continued to increase to a whopping $147 million in 1997. Despite the growth and huge revenues that Amazon.com made, the company still had net losses for 1996 and 1997. Bezos seems to have a good feel of the market. He has several services and functions that â€Å"cater† to the needs of the customers. His number one focus is customer service. Every decision, change, or acquisition that he makes is based, he claims, on making things better for the customer. After learning about Bezos technological and operational advances and efficiency, as well as his number one concern to satisfy the customer, one would wonder why his company is still experiencing loss year after year.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Conditional Love †How to Love Essay

Do you feel the sting of being rejected? Do your closest friends and even family push you away or mistreat you? I think that every emotionally healthy person wants to love and to be loved. We want people to love us as we are. We want to feel accepted no matter what we may say or do. When we make a mistake, we want to be forgiven and we don’t want to experience rejection. We want to be loved unconditionally. A problem comes though when we do not reciprocate unconditional love. For example, there will never be real love expressed between two people if both individuals are seeking to have their needs met. How can two people make a relationship work if both define love as, â€Å"if you love me then you will do what I want†? There is only one person who can truly love unconditionally. His name is Jesus. See, God is perfect and demands perfection from us. But, we all have fallen short of living a perfect life and that is called sin. The penalty for sin is death. But, this penalty is too great for us to pay! The Bible says that God demonstrated themeaning of love to us in this that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus laid down His life for us as the ultimate act of unconditional love. He accepts us for who we are, for what we have done, and even for what we have neglected to do. But, now He is asking us to accept Him unconditionally as well. He wants us to accept His love by giving to Him our heart, mind, soul, and strength. He wants all of us. When we give ourselves over completely to Jesus then we are â€Å"fully known, fully accepted, fully loved, fully valued, and fully celebrated.† Jesus will never leave you, quit on you, belittle you, or even condemn you. Did you know that the Bible says that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world? He came to show you what love is. Once we experience His love, we must step forward quickly to embrace it. The Bible provides an excellent description of unconditional love and gives us a pattern to follow. What is real love? Here is an example, â€Å"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, †¦ Love rejoices with the truth. Love believes and endures all things. Love never fails.† The longing of your heart to be loved unconditionally can be fulfilled only through Jesus Christ. You must admit your sin, believe in Jesus, and follow His ways. If you do, you will experience unconditional love. Once you have experienced love unconditionally, you are then able to know how to love as well.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Challenges in International Business

GunungRapatHiongPiahSdn. Bhd. (579801-M) PHYSICAL CHALLENGES Since the Gunung Rapat Hiong Piah Sdn. Bhd. is responsible for the food manufacturing, wholesale distribution, and export of Yee Hup products, it is facing physical challenges in international business on products, workforce and even physical distribution challenges. For the products challenge, it may face the problem on warranty since there are no warranty available for this products. Everyone is know about the Yee Hup is a local business in Malaysia and it needs to spend certain of time to export such products to oversea such as Southeast Asia, Oceania, Middle East, Eastern Asia and Western Europe. When the products are on the way shipping to the particular country, it may has the probability to encounter damage such as crushes because of the unpredictable cases and it is unrealized since the biscuits are packaging in a package, but even in a carton size. The Yee Hup biscuits are selling to the customers without realized that the products are crushes and the customers are not available to get the warranty or compensation after they bought the products. It considered a challenge of this company because on the customers’perception, no warranty offered is bring the meaning that the company has no confident on their own products. Since the ‘customers are always right’, Yee Hup may lose the sales because of the products deficiency. For the workforce challenge, although the company is almost full automated in the production process, skilled staffs are still needed. For example, retail assistants as Yee Hup required such retail assistant with previous retail experience because the full trainingis not necessary will be provided. In this case, Yee Hup is facing the shortage of workforce although the labor market is enough large. Moreover, the number of R&D staff is merely less than five people. It becomes the stones in designing products since people are more pay attention in packaging nowadays. And lastly is about the physical distribution challenge. It is talking about what transportation is using by the company to move a large volume of products to other countries. It simple means that handling, movement, and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption or use, via various channels of distribution. Since one of the responsibility of GunungRapatHiongPiahSdn. Bhd. is wholesaledistribution and export of Yee Hup products, if the products failure to reach the destination within a fixed time, the company have to blamed for it. SOCIAL CHALLENGES How Yee Hup going to expand its target market consider as a social challenge. For example, age and gender. Since ‘HiongPiah’ is a famous products of Yee Hup with a long established reputation, majority of youth in local still do not know on this famous products,even thoughin global market. Yee Hup has to solve the problem on difference age group. How Yee Hup is going to change the youth customers’ perception since they feel that‘HiongPiah’ is traditional Chinese snacks, no tasty and the outlooks are not attractive? For the old generation, how Yee Hup is going to attract them to buy such sticky products? COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES Khong Guan and Mr. Christie are the main competitors to Yee Hup. Khong Guan is one of the most well known Malaysian cookie brand in Canada. The Khong Guan organization spans South East Asia and exports its cookies around the world. Khong Guan manufactures a wide range of cookies and as a result its products have become a popular demand in supermarkets. Khong Guan would pose a risk to Yee Hup’s product lines because Khong Guan is a well established brand which means they have established a mass market clientele. Mr. Christie is a well known Western brand in Canada which poses a risk to Yee Hup’s product lines. Many customers might consider eating a Western cookie rather than an Asian cookie since some consumers are not familiar with this type of product and might be hesitant to try something new. This could lead to less sales of the product.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Research Paper on Intangible Assets including Goodwill

Research Paper on Intangible Assets including Goodwill IFRS versus GAAP: Assessing the Issue Major sources of investment capital have long favored greater harmony and transparency in global accounting standards (Ohlgart Ernst, 2011). While world accounting standards in the modern sense originated in the US, a divergence has occurred between GAAP criteria and the prevailing international accounting standards, currently represented by IFRS criteria. The latter are now in official use in 120 nations (Tyson, 2011, p. 27). In October 2002, FASB and IASB formalized the Norwalk Agreement, to converge in their accounting rules over time (Charron Moores, 2011; Tyson, 2011). Since then, both the major accounting associations and government regulators have moved toward convergence in accounting practices. In light of this development, this paper will look at whether to recommend that the SEC maintain GAAP criteria for firms that report in the US or move to IFRS criteria, especially concerning the issue of intangible assets. The Call for Convergence After the Enron and WorldCom accounting fiascos, which â€Å"culminated in huge financial losses and decimated capital markets worldwide,† there has been vociferous pressure, especially from European firms and auditing agencies, for the US to join the growing world community of accounting practice by moving away from GAAP and toward IFRS criteria (Tyson, 2011, p. 25). This assumes that globally standardized criteria would have improved transparency in financial reporting at Enron and WorldCom, raising awareness of irregularities earlier. Thus, some have argued that IFRS standards, which rely on principles more than rules, foment more professional judgment, which creates transparency (Tyson, 2011, p. 30). Admittedly, GAAP criteria are better at industry-specific detail, but there have also been arguments that they may encourage â€Å"financial engineering† (Tyson, 2011, p. 27). Nevertheless, credible academic sources find no evidence that IFRS standards are superior to G AAP criteria (Tyson, 2011, p. 30). Effect on Intangible Assets Henry, Lin, and Yang (2007) reported that intangible assets, including both goodwill and development costs (e.g., in research and development) play a central role in determining critical measures of value for â€Å"reconciling items for both net income and shareholders’ equity† (p. 710). Because the difference between GAAP and IFRS concern intangible assets more than any other area, especially in cases of mergers and acquisitions, this concern lies at the crux of the question of whether the US should move toward the IFRS model. Goodwill refers to the intangible benefit that comes from a company’s acquiring another firm at a cost that is less than its current fair-market price (Charron Moores, 2011). The key difference between GAAP and IFRS in measuring goodwill concerns how acquirers allocate this intangible value by unit in their own accounting structures. Under GAAP criteria, â€Å"the acquirer assigns goodwill to the various reporting units of the combined entity,† but under IFRS criteria, â€Å"goodwill is assigned to the various cash-generating units† (Charron Moores, 2011, p. 50). In fact, Henry, Lin, and Yang (2007) found that the largest differences between IFRS and GAAP in calculating shareholder equity related to goodwill. Moreover, between 2004 and 2006, pensions and goodwill have dominated disparities between GAAP and IFRS accounting, despite evidence of convergence over time (Henry, Lin, Yang, 2009).Shareholders’ equity under IFRS is lower than that reported under GAAP criteria, in most cases. Because the definition of control differs between GAAP and IFRS, some events qualify as mergers and acquisitions in one system but fall short of that definition in the other (Charron Moores, 2011). GAAP looks for a mathematical majority of shares to define having a controlling financial interest. In contrast, the IFRS looks at effective control, defining control as the â€Å"power to govern the financial and operating policies of an entity to obtain benefits from its activities† (Charron Moores, 2011, p. 48). This requires judgment. To discern this, analysts must judge whether interested shareholders can appoint executives, dissolve a business unit, appoints board members, exercise special voting rights, or alter bylaws (Charron Moores, 2011). Benefits of Convergence The principle of convergence, as one of multiple paths to US adoption of IFRS criteria, involves first cooperatively adjusting GAAP and IFRS criteria, and then permitting US firms to adopt IFRS practices at a point at which the latter â€Å"would be adopting IFRS almost automatically or be very close† (Ohlgart Ernst, 2011, p. 41). The advantages of convergence include making US-based sources of capital funding more competitive in capital global markets, lower expected costs of capital overall, greater financial-reporting efficiency for US-based multinational sources of capital and auditing firms, and more transparency for investors (Tyson, 2011). Henry, Lin, and Yang (2007) noted that â€Å"the greater confidence in financial reporting† from harmonizing global accounting reporting standards â€Å"translates into a lower cost of capital† (p. 710). The pursuit of convergence between GAAP and IFRS criteria is also likely to encourage more repatriation of foreign ea rnings by US corporations (Epstein Macy, 2011). Recommendations Ohlgart and Ernst (2011) predicted that the SEC would permit a minimum of five years for US corporations to make the transition to IFRS criteria, assuming that it ultimately adopts the convergence plan. For some companies, however, the main disadvantages of convergence have to do with the time necessary to make the transition, rather than any permanent loss of financial advantage. Nevertheless, many firms will also have to adapt to new reporting systems after years of developing internal ERPs that will be vexing to rework. As Ohlgart and Ernst (2011) noted, many firms’ accounting ERPs â€Å"are a conglomeration of disparate systems pieced together over the years that will either not support a massive change,† even if such a change promises to afford substantial efficiencies at some point in the future (p. 43). Nevertheless, two-thirds of Fortune 1000 firms already favor eventually full convergence (Tyson, 2011, p. 30). While international organizations and major audit firms support proceeding with the transition to IFRS in the United States, industrial interests are far more reticent (Tyson, 2011). Most cautious are the aerospace, financial-services, and public-utilities sectors (Tyson, 2011), which have come out strongly in favor of convergence as the optimal path to adoption, with sufficient time for GAAP criteria to align with IFRS standards. Major multinational firms headquartered in the US have voiced similar concerns to those of the foregoing industry sectors. Lastly, US-based trade associations and large investment firms have come out in agreement with US-based industrial interests. In consideration of the effect on the cost of capital and more generally the benefits of having a more transparent international-accounting system, the only reasonable recommendation is to follow the advice of the foregoing US-based industrial interests. However, given that the IFRS criteria are actually the eventual offspring of accounting standards first formed in the US, a better solution is a policy of condorsement (Ohlgart Ernst, 2011, p. 42). This is a combination of convergence and the additional qualification that the FASB exercise oversight over residual changes that need to occur in both GAAP and IFRS criteria. In this way, the product may be an optimal combination of rules-based criteria and principles-based criteria, which may thus permit greater objectivity and lesser subjectivity in the accounting rules that currently prevail in IFRS criteria alone. This way, there may be an opportunity to resolve the ambiguities associated with some IFRS criteria, while otherwise purs uing a semblance of convergence in the end.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Seven pounds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Seven pounds - Essay Example Tim Thomas, the main character of the film performed by Will Smith, suffers from a crash accident and kills seven people. Tim wants to save the lives of seven people. He donates his organs to other people. This is unusual type of films challenges the contemporaries with an interesting way of plot’s interpretation. The essence of the film In the last episode Tim wants to help Connie Tepos (Elpidia Carrillo) and saves her life and the lives of her two children. The last two people, saved by Tim, are Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson) and a blind meat salesman playing the piano. The last donation is made for Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), when Tim wants to donate a heart for her. Finally, he starts falling in love with this girl. A story of their feelings is impressive and the audience has a perfect opportunity to think about the essential and basic feelings of every individual–love and intimacy. There is no doubt that these guys would have perfect relations, but Tim’s sins do not let him go and his conscience and mind gain power over his emotions and feelings. Therefore, this film is not only about physical pain, but also about emotional and psychological sufferings. There is much darkness and depression in this film, but there is no doubt that there are much spiritual issues in this film. ... Moral values are substituted by monetary and financial concerns. The main character of Will Smith is described in the following way: â€Å"His breeziness becomes a shallow act, and his smile becomes downright eerie, a strained mask that hides pain, wards off hostility and expresses aggression all at the same time. It's a smile with dead  eyes† (LaSalle, 2008). Nevertheless, a feeling of love reincarnate his dead eyes and he is able to be inspired by one of the greatest feelings of the world. There is much romanticism in this film, as well as there is much drama. This film is for different tastes and the audience thankfully follows the development of the events in the film. Will Smith persuades the viewers that the most precious thing in the world is life. He made people lose their lives, but in the result of this horrible accident he did not suffer from having lost his own life. He compensated his debt in the face of God and he is strong enough and a rather responsible perso n to show that he is emotionally stable and spiritually strong person. The actions of Tim are reviewed in the following way: â€Å"But all the narrative trickery and emotional manipulation only serves to put Ben further out of the audience's reach, as he moves through the plot like a single-minded Terminator without motivations we can grasp† (Critical Analysis of Seven Pounds). On the one hand, the main character of the film is self-concentrated and a reserved person, but on the other hand, he is a connecting link between different aspects of the film’s world. Sentimental performance of Will Smith is both dramatic and philosophic. The audience is puzzled by the ability to wonder about the real essence and the central plot of the film (Film review – Seven Pounds 2008). A perfect

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Employment Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Employment Law - Essay Example Any resolution will be complex and contested; hence from the view point of Karl Marx, Marx believed that no completely satisfactory resolution is possible without a total revolution in social-economic system. Marx could have been right but the employment law in the 21st century attempts to balance the logic of the market system with the liberal aspiration of ensuring that individuals are treated with respect and impartially, as well as, have the opportunity to construct meaningful lives. In most cases, contract laws are applied in workplaces because they are vital and are legal aspects that tend to formalize an agreement in more than two parties. Question One: Many issues arise in the workplaces especially where many employees have varied issues such as health problems and many others. Some employees have complicated health issues that may hinder effective performance of the company and Michael’s case is among the common cases arising in the contemporary workplaces. Addressing these issues in a pragmatic manner requires clear and effective understanding of contract laws. Contracts are agreements which have lawful objects entered into voluntarily by two or more parties; thus they intend to create legal obligations among the parties (Twomey, 2013, p. 87). The contract should be acceptable, have an offer, mutual consideration and it should have a legal capacity vital for creating mutuality of obligation (Collins, 2010, p. 91). The contract laws take into considerations varied range of matters such as employment terms, real property sale issues, independent contractor relationship, intellectual property issues and settlement of disputes in the workplace. The contract law demands that all workers with a contract of employment or an employment relationship should receive basic working employment conditions vital for enabling them to work effectively in the working environment. Therefore, the case of Michael should be addressed by focusing on the contract law e specially the employment conditions in the work place. Each industry has its own policies that demand employees to meet them but the labor employment law should also be taken into considerations. The contract law offer mutual recognition rules vital for assisting free movement of workers. Although these mutual recognition rules exist, more subtle impediments found in the informal practices and conventions in recruitment continue to produce much less internal movement within the workplace (Collins, 2010, 139). These principles can be challenging but only under the general principle of free movement of employees. However, in the case of Michael, there is need to focus on the contract laws and adhere to them, but the employer should not also deprive him the mandatory employment rights applicable in the state where the work is being performed. It is vital for Michael to come up with a clear agreement with the human resources about his work because health is also important for any worker working in any organization. The labor laws focus on the rights of employees including health and safety in the working places and rights; hence, the human resource manager should provide

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Communications Surveillance, Privacy and Its Ethical Implications Research Paper

Communications Surveillance, Privacy and Its Ethical Implications - Research Paper Example So in order to deal with serious issues communications surveillance becomes essential but it is not ethical. This paper also discusses the ethical validity of communications surveillance in light of Kant’s ethical theory. Introduction It is an admitted fact that in the past few years, surveillance and observation of individuals' communications have been turning out to be more common, more unsystematic and more enveloping, same as our dependence on electronic communications grown. Additionally, almost all the major global laws and regulations on human rights ensure protection of the right of individuals to be free from unnecessary surveillance. On the other hand, this assurance has trickled down into nationwide legal or official requirements ensuring the privacy of communications. In the majority of democratic countries, surveillance of verbal, telephone and digital communications are applied through law enforcement or intelligence agencies simply after approved by a judge, as well as simply in the inquiry of serious crimes (Privacy International, 2012). Up till now government agencies carry on to lobby for improved surveillance facilities and capabilities, mainly as technologies transform. In addition, communications surveillance has gone beyond the digital and Internet communications. In fact, in the majority of countries, security agencies have forced internet service providers as well as telecommunications firms to keep an eye on users’ communications. Also, the many of these actions are performed under the uncertain authorized base as well as remain unidentified to the public (Privacy International, 2012). This paper presents an overview of Surveillance of communications. The basic aim of this research is to analyze the legal, privacy and ethical implications of communications surveillance. Communications Surveillance: An overview In the past few years, telecommunications and computing technologies have seen radical changes. In fact, the typic al acceptance of modern communication platforms such as e-mail, mobile telephones and the Web as well as the ever-increasing adoption and implementation of peer-to-peer Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony have considerably changed and improved the way people communicate in the 21st century. In addition, huge increases in computing and data storage facilities and capabilities have provided governments with a wide variety of innovative tools and techniques for eavesdropping on these communications (Brown, 2009). A lot of organizations make effective use of technology to basically transform the way business tasks are carried out, by making use of technology in ways that break the traditional rules of carrying out business activities. For instance, Kmart and Wal-mart are making use of teleconferencing to facilitate headquarters-based merchandisers to provide store managers in the field with direction and recommendation, facilitating them to unite local programs with business objectives (Hers chel & Andrews, 1997) Surveillance is defined as an operation or an event during which the actions of a particular individual are monitored and documented. In this scenario, communications s

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

RNA-Seq and Microarray Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

RNA-Seq and Microarray Analysis - Research Paper Example Therefore, dogs become the best models for indentifying the genetic underpinnings that are associated with cancer in humans (Mooney, et al., 2013). The fact that dogs and humans depict similarities in cancer treatment and responses also allow for the opportunity to apply advanced cancer diagnostic tools. This is meant to enhance the understanding of the possible treatment of cancerous diseases for the benefit of both dogs and man (Mooney, et al., 2013). The typified canine lymphoma in dogs presents some analogous characteristics with the human Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) in form of biological and other clinical features. This makes it possible to understand this type of cancer in humans (Mooney, et al., 2013). The canine lymphoma is the most common canine cancerous disease in dogs accounting for 24% occurrence. On the other hand, the NHL is the most common cancer in the USA, while it has almost doubled throughout the world in the last 35 years (Mooney, et al., 2013). Canine cancer is a multi-centric lymphadenopathy cancer that has no other organs involvement, requiring the same type of treatment that apply the multi-agent protocol, which is the standard of care for the NHL cancer in humans (Mooney, et al., 2013). Therefore, the understanding of the canine lymphoma is acceptable for enabling the understanding of the diagnostic process and therapeutic treatment of the NHL patients (Mooney, et al., 2013). The methodology applied in this study first sought to attain the consent of the dog owners that were participating in the study. This was followed by seeking for the approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee since it the body responsible ensuring the welfare of animals subjected under studies. The sample applied in the study was 30 dogs, from which Fine needle aspirates (FNAs) were collected for analysis (Mooney, et al., 2013). The dogs qualifying for the study required to have a lymph

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Toni Morison Analysis | Feminist Postcolonial Approach

Toni Morison Analysis | Feminist Postcolonial Approach Although Toni Morrison is known for her epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed characters but this essay focuses on her approach towards feminist post colonialism. At first I will give a brief overview of the term feminist post colonialism and demonstrate how feminist discourses and post colonialism shared many similarities. Further this essay examines the construction of radicalized and gendered identities in Morrisons fictional work. I will also explore how these identities are constructed and created in fiction by using a feminist postcolonial approach. Morrisons text by addressing historical issues critically and in so doing attempting to heal historical wounds; it may also seek to change it. She focuses on the damage that the black women characters suffer through the construction of femininity in a radicalized society. I will extensively focus on Morrisons novel Jazz, Beloved, and The Bluest Eyes and elaborate how by using different narrative techniques such as characte rs, plot, setting and imagery to mirror the atrocities done to the Afro American women. Key words: Post colonialism, feminism, slavery, African American women, Harlem renaissance, Beloved. Nobel Prize laureate, Toni Morrison is considered to be one of the most popular and most important authors of the 20th Century. Much of her literary work has actively challenged the stereotypes that have been imposed on African American women throughout history. The characters in her novels are beautifully portrayed in order to allow the reader to explore their journeys and the way in which they are presented. The expression of the black female voice is characteristic of Toni Morrisons novels. Morrison, through her black female characters portrays the collective experience of black women in America which are shaped by the past experience of slavery and by the patriarchal capitalist American society. Patriarchy in America dates back to the colonial period when male authority and female submission was essential to the subsistence economy and to the social set-up. This society marginalized woman and gave them meager and indirect access to power in the community. Before going into the de ep analysis of Morison works from the feminist postcolonial perspective we must consider how both feminism and postcolonial interlinked. Feminist discourse and post-colonial theory shares many similarities. Firstly, both discourses are political and concern themselves with the struggle against oppression and injustice. Moreover, both reject the established patriarchal system, which is dominated by the hegemonic white male, and also deny the supposed supremacy of masculine power and authority. There are a significant number of literary texts that are written from both a feminist and post-colonial standpoint. Feminism, in its various forms, is a popular and powerful vantage point for postcolonial thought, and each of these texts presents a number of ways that colonization-and the consequences which last well into postcolonial eras. These texts often share views on the individuality and disparity of the subject, as well as agreeing on shared strategies of resistance against dictatorial external forces. These texts deal with the double colonization of women by both their male counterparts and the dominant colonial powers .Specially, it becomes clear that the female body becomes a thing of commodity, an item to be owned, controlled, or abused for sexual gratification by those in power. Ultimately, as one move both with and through feminist perspectives, it reveals that colonization works by creating a system of interlocking oppressions such as race, gender, sexuality, class, etc. The writings of Toni Morrison are identified with formerly colonized peoples and shaped this web of interlocking oppression in her own way. She wrote with postcolonial perspective and we find the traces such as magical realism, oppression of women, search for home and self-identity, homelessness, rootlessness, language, gender stereotype, classism, racial differences etc. throughout her writing. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality this statement by the Swedish academy is an appropriate description of Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison. Her novel Jazz which was first published in 1992 is set in Harlem of the 1920. It reestablishes an essential aspect of African American history_ the Harlem renaissance. Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual movement that was significant to the emancipation of African American at the beginning of 20th century. Setting her novel at the backdrop of this movement, she regenerates a black historical past and has given life to it. Morrisons Jazz looks back upon the Harlem Renaissance from a late 20th century perspective and revolves around the stories of African American characters Violet, Joe and Dorcas. In Jazz, Toni Morrison wants to create a novel that explores the essence of jazz. In her introduction to Jazz, Morrison writes, I wanted the work to be a manifestation of the musics intellect, sensuality, anarchy; its history, its range and its modernity. Due to this Morrisons novel not only reflects the evolution of Jazz music but also captures the soul of the jazz movement. Morrison molds the settings, plot lines, characters, and structure of her novel to recreate the rich history, revolutionary spirit, and progressive style of jazz. Morrison uses the settings in Jazz to reflect the history of the jazz movement. It also addresses its influence on the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, Morrison uses flashbacks to addresses significance settings associated with the Great Migration. Moreover, she uses the settings in the novel to reflect the connection between jazz and African American culture and history. Morrison addresses the spirit of anarchy that was embodied in both the jazz movement and Harlem life. Morrison structures the plot lines, narratives, and characters of Jazz to reflect the elements of musical anarchy, as well as to reflect the violent and anarchical spirit of the jazz moment and life in Harlem during the Renaissance. The chaotic and violent aspect of the lives of African American woman living in Harlem during the Renaissance is reflected in the actions of Violet. The lawlessness in Jazz is shown when we are confronted with the horrible action of Violet attacking the corpse of her husbands lover. Further we find out that Joe Trace is the girls murderer and are drawn deeper into the chaotic, violent world of Harlem. The actions of both Joe and Violet Trace result from their inability to accept the changing views regarding gender. Likewise, Joe Trace illustrates the possessiveness of African American males and the refusal to accept the new views to gender power. Joe kills Dorcas because she attempts to leave him. Joe is actually tied to old views of sexuality. He links sex with possession. When Dorcas rejects him and seeks sexual fulfillment in another, Joe Trace speaks out against her use of gender power. The domestic violence that spread through Harlem during this period resulted from the violent rejection of changing sexual and gender norms. In addition, it reflected the chaotic and anarchical spirit of the jazz age time when both violence a nd sensuality were at the forefront of the musical, intellectual, and cultural lives of African American life. The importance of sexual expression cannot be denied when discussing the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age. Sexual expression became a landmark of jazz music, dance, and culture. Morrison points out the sensuality of jazz music through the sensual relationship between Joe Trace and Dorcas. The relationship between Joe and Dorcas is passionate kind of love. Their relationship revolves around secret sexual encounters and passionate emotions. When Morrison writes playful fingers examine and caress, we picture lovers caressing each other and jazz musicians playing their instruments. Morrison uses sensual characters, plot lines, and language to mirror the sensuality of jazz and the boldness of sexual expression associated with the Jazz Age. In Jazz, Morrison reflects the structure of jazz through her modernist composition. Morrison mimics jazz composition in her creation of the novel. She uses numerous voices, structured plot lines, disconnected sections, bold and poetical language, and sensual plot lines and imagery to elaborate her ideas about that age and the situation prevailing in Harlem at that time. Through her use of various elements of modern fiction styles and structures, Morrison brings to life the boldness, sensuality, tension, and history of jazz. In Jazz, Morrison addresses the importance of African American culture and musical forms on the ideas of the Jazz Age through her characters, settings, plot lines, and modernist structure, in order to mirror the jazz history, spirit, and structure of African America art and thought. Toni Morrisons Beloved, offers significant insight into power relations through her female protagonists. The most critical type of colonial oppression experienced by the women of Beloved is physical that is concerned with controlling and taking benefit of the bodies it subjects. Sethe and her family have the direct experience of being owned by white slave holders. Women in this novel often suffer violent and controlling sexual abuse that is either not present or in much less drastic forms for the colonized men. In Beloved, a particularly disturbing form of this oppression happens when Schoolteacher and his boys restrain and violate Sethe. Morrisons novel, however, not only shows the female body oppressed, but also struggle for individuality and self-ownership. Denver, when thinking about her family considers the situation a slaves body is in both materially and under colonial ideology: Grandma Baby said people look down on her because she had eight children with different men. Colored people and white people both look down on her for that. Slaves not supposed to have pleasurable feelings of their own; their bodies not supposed to be like that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever owned them (Morrison 246-7). Even in the cruel reality of sexual slavery, women like Baby Suggs are able to reclaim their humanity by simply enjoying sex. One of the glaring ironies, or hypocrisies, of colonialism is that it condemns the colonized for the very things it forces them to do. It condemns the enslaved woman for being sexually assorted, yet at the same time forcers her to have as many children as pos sible. In Beloved, colonial power over the sexual life of the female body is a horrific reality, but freedom is as close as ones own physical selfhood. Slaverys destruction of identity is another postcolonial theme from feministic point of view in the novel under discussion. Beloved explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual devastation done by slavery. The most dangerous effects of slavery are its negative impact on the former slaves senses of self, and the novel contains multiple examples of self-alienation. Paul D, for example, is so alienated from himself that at one point he cannot tell whether the screaming he hears is his own or someone elses. Slaves were traded as subhuman or as commodities whose worth could be expressed in dollars. Sethe was also treated as a subhuman. She once walked in on schoolteacher giving his pupils a lesson on her animal characteristics. She seems to be isolated from herself and filled with self-loathing. Yet her children also have volatile and unstable identities. Denver conflates her identity with Beloveds, and Beloved feels herself actually beginning to physically disintegrate. There is a sense of complete loss of self and existence among most of the characters in the novel. Due to the inability to believe in their own existences, both Baby Suggs and Paul D become depressed and tired. Baby Suggss fatigue is spiritual, while Paul Ds is emotional. Other slaves-Jackson Till, Aunt Phyllis, and Halle went insane and thus suffered a complete loss of self. Yet Sethes act of infanticide illuminates the perverse forces of the institution of slavery. Under slavery, a mother best expresses her love for her children by murdering them and thus protecting them from the more gradual destruction wrought by slavery. Where slavery exists, everyone suffers a loss of humanity and compassion. For this reason, Morrison suggests that our nations identity, like the novels characters, must be healed. Crucially, in Beloved, we learn about the history and legacy of slavery not from schoolteachers point of view but rather from Sethes, Paul Ds, Stamp Paids, and Baby Suggss. Morrison writes history with the voices of a people historically denied the power of language, and Beloved recaptures a history that had been lost-either due to willed forgetfulness or to forced silence. Magical realism as a dominant literary mode in Toni Morrisons Beloved can be considered as a decolonizing agent in a postcolonial context. Morrisons narrative in Beloved, takes the advantage of both realism and magic to challenge the authoritative colonialist attitude and so can be alleged as a powerful and efficient method to project the postcolonial experience of African-American ex-slaves in the Unites States. It also provides an alternate point of view to Eurocentric accounts of reality and history to attack the solidity of Eurocentric definitions. It is also a consequence to mirror the hidden and silenced voices of numerous enslaved generations of African-Americans in the history of United States. Beloved is written from the marginal point of view of African-Americans who do not have social and political power. It is the story of Sethe, an ex-slave, who grieves the fact that she murdered her baby girl in order to save her from a life of slavery. She mourns so much that her grief becomes manifest into a body of a young woman named Beloved, a ghost in the beginning, the same age that Sethes dead baby would have been had she lived. The presence of two opposing discursive systems of magic and real in Beloved can reflect the tensions between the colonized and colonizer discourses in a postcolonial context. Applying postcolonial terminology, realism represents the hegemonic discourse of the colonizer while magic refers to the strategy of opposition and resistance used by the colonized. Magical realism can also provide a way to fill in the gaps of cultural representation in a postcolonial context by recovering the fragments and voices of forgotten histories from the colonized point o f view. In other words, magical realism may serve as the transformative decolonizing project of imaging alternative histories. The magical realism of Morrisons text by addressing historical issues critically and in so doing attempting to heal historical wounds, not only can reflect history, it may also seek to change it. Thus, Beloved can be read as a postcolonial historiographic intervention, a strategic re-centering of American history in the lives of the African- Americans who are historically dispossessed. Toni Morrisons novel, The Bluest Eye examines the construction of radicalized and gendered identities in fictional texts, specifically in Afro-American writings. In the novel, Morrison challenges Western standards of beauty and elaborate that the concept of beauty is socially constructed. Morrison also recognizes that if whiteness is used as a standard of beauty or anything else, then the value of blackness is diminished and this novel works to subvert that tendency. In demonstrating pride in being black, this writer does not simply portray positive images of blackness. Instead, she focuses on the damage that the black women characters suffer through the construction of femininity in a racialised society. As Paul C. Taylor argues, a white dominated culture has racialised beauty, [in] that it has defined beauty per se in terms of white beauty, in terms of the physical features that the people we consider white [people] are more likely to have (Taylor, 1999, 17, emphasis in original). Therefore, in the process of trying to achieve beauty, as Taylor further argues, the experience of a black woman à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ differs from the experiences of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Jewish and Irish women (Taylor, 1999, 20). This can clearly be seen in the ways that the black women characters in Morrisons novel suffer in trying to conform to Western standards of beauty. The Bluest Eye tells the story of an eleven year old black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who wants to have blue eyes, because she sees herself, and is regarded by most of the characters in the novel, as ugly. The standard of beauty that her peers subscribe to is represented by the white child actress, Shirley Temple, who has the desired blue eyes. The novel starts with the description of an ideal white family but in the near-parodic style of a school reading primer, where we meet Dick and Jane and their lovely parents living in a nice and comfortable house with a lovely dog and a cat. The Dick and Jane text functions as the hegemonizing force of an ideology ([focused by] the supremacy of the bluest eye) by which a dominant culture reproduces its hierarchical power structure (Grewal, 1998, 24). As Donald B. Gibson also demonstrates, the Dick and Jane text implies one of the primary and most insidious ways that the dominant culture exercises its hegemony, through the educational system. It reveals the role of education in both oppressing the victim and more to the point teaching the victim how to oppress her own black self by internalising the values that dictate standards of beauty (Gibson, 1989, 20). In contrast to this hegemonic identity, the main black characters are depicted as various and very different characters located in three hierarchical families: first Geraldines, then the MacTeers and at the bottom, the Breedloves. The novel shows how these black characters respond to the dominant culture differently and this refutes easy binary social distinctions. Pauline Breedlove, Geraldine, Maureen Peal, and Pecola are black characters who try to conform to an imposed ideal of femininity. They are absorbed and marginalized by the cultural icons portraying physical beauty: movies, billboards, magazines, books, newspapers, window signs, dolls, and drinking cups (Gibson, 1989, 20). Pauline Breedlove, for example, learns about physical beauty from the movies. In Morrisons words, along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 95). Consequently, in trying to conform to the ideal of white femininity, the black women characters despise their blackness which in turn leads to self-hatred. They see themselves through the eyes of white people and their worship of white beauty also has disastrous effects on their own community. Geraldine, for example, represses her black characteristics which are not fitted to white femininity as she strives to get rid of the funkiness (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 64). Being well educated and having adopted Western ways of life, Geraldine draws the line between coloured and black. She deliberately teaches her son the differences between coloured and black: Coloured people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 67). However, not all the black characters admire or are in awe of Western standards of beauty. The novel also shows black people who are aware of the danger of adopting Western standards of beauty. Claudia, the young girl narrator, at the very beginning of the novel, describes herself as indifferent to both white dolls and Shirley Temple. She also realizes that she does not really hate light-skinned Maureen but hates the thing that makes Maureen beautiful. As children, Claudia and her sister Frieda are happy with their difference, their blackness: We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness (Morrison, 1970, 1999, 57). This may suggest that Claudia resists the pressure to conform to a white vision of beauty. Therefore, Claudias consciousness can also be read as decolonising her mind from colonial oppression as she frees herself from white standards imposed on black people. As Grewal argues, individuals collude in their own oppression by internalizing [the] dominant cultures values in the face of great material contradictions (Grewal, 1998, 21). Quoting Terry Eagleton she also argues that the most difficult thing in emancipation is to free ourselves from ourselves (Grewal, 1998, 21). Through Claudia, however, the novel suggests that some are capable of challenging this, but for the victims of such oppression this awareness may come too late. Conclusion: There are many literary texts and writers who have written from feminist postcolonial view but Toni Morison stand head and shoulder above due to her fictional writing about Afro American community in general and for black women in specific. There are many works of Morrison which make her distinguish among others. We find several post-colonial themes in her novels like slavery, homeliness, rootlessness, cultural clash, mimcry, question of identity, language, magic realism, marginlizatin etc. but these all themes has been presented through a female point of view that how these things add suffering in the woman life. The postcolonial vision of black identity and specifically black woman identity is that Morrison attempted to shape in her novels. These novels have primarily focused on how black people have been spiritually and physically victimized throughout the oppressive black history in the United States. She presented the question of identity of black community, that how they were n eglected even as a human being. In her novels we see complexity of colonial relations between blacks and whites. When we analyse these fictions it reminds us the work of postcolonial theorists like Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha, which particularly integrates the concepts of mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridity. Morrisons fiction in the frame of postcolonial theory very aptly presents postcolonial black identity.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Comparison Of Job And Odysseus Essays -- essays research papers

The agency of Job and Odysseus is controlled by God and the gods. Neither Job nor Odysseus have agency when the gods are against them. The relationship between the divine and human agency is a well-established one in both the ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek cultures. Many acts that could be attributed to human agency are often credited to gods, especially human errors or misdeeds. Humans try to forfeit a good deal of their agency to the gods willingly. Nevertheless the gods have no reservations about revoking agency from humans. Neither Job nor Odysseus had agency when a god was against them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Job has no agency, no participation in God’s decision to make him the object of a wager. God does not give him the option to decline and he is presented with no opportunity in which he might refuse God outright. He has no control over the duration or intensity of his suffering. He is completely at the mercy of God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is nothing to give an indication of how much agency Job had before the wager. However the arguments Job makes in chapter three through thirty-seven suggest some agency, especially in his questioning of God: “Does it seem good to thee to oppress, to despise the work of thy hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Are thy days as the days of man, or thy years as man’s years, that thou dost seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although thou knowest that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand?'; (Job, chapter 10, verses 3, 5-7). We will assume Job has as much agency as one could who was “blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil'; (Job, chapter 1, verse 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The events that destroy Job’s property and children seem to be agency limiting by their very nature. To Job, the entire chain of incidents must have appeared as a string of unfortunate coincidences. There was no element of predictability, no chance for Job to prepare for or thwart Satan’s plan. Job was blindsided. His agency was restricted by his limited knowledge of what was happening around him. The events Satan chose as a means to obliterate Job’s possessions and his children, were random and uncontrollable for Job. There was no room for any expression of agency on his part. Job&am... ...erience a loss of agency because of a god. There is one significant difference that stands out between Job and Odysseus. That is the reason for their loss of agency and suffering. The reason in for Odysseus’ torment is obvious: he blinded Poseidon’s son. How anyone could not expect some form of vengeance, and sometimes I get the feeling Odysseus is caught unaware by Poseidon, is a mystery to me. The rationale behind Job’s reduction in agency is much less clear and is never addressed by God, who was an accessory to the whole affair by knowingly allowing it to take place. The comforters suggest possible explanations, unhidden sin or a lesson from God, but neither suggestions are confirmed or denied. The reason God accepted Satan’s wager remains a playground for speculation. When the plans of the gods, or God, are against them, neither Odysseus nor Job have control over the direction their lives take. They can only contemplate why it is happening and wait for it to end. Of course, once peace is made with the gods, agency is restored and Job and Odysseus return to the lives waiting and watching, for it is the divine that controls their agency.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

A Rose for Emily: Pressures of Society

Pressures of Society Most people desire to fit in with the social norm. People do not want to be outcasts or different. Everyone in a society tries to fit into their cookie cutter forms to make themselves just like everyone else. Society does not like those who don't fit in and meet their standards. In the short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner, the main character Emily lives in a society full of high morals and monetary status. The setting plays a huge role on the actions of Emily and forces her to seclude herself from the rest of society. A Rose for Emily† takes place in post- civil war Jefferson, a small town in the deep south of the United States. The setting of the story helps illuminate the values of society during that time. Emily's society was built on the beliefs that the white, upper-class citizens were far more superior to everyone else. Being that they were more superior, everyone was held to a higher standard. The people of Jefferson were ex pected to have prim and proper houses and yards, high morals, and to obey all of the town's laws. While Emily was part of the upper-class, she did not quite fit in to society's cookie cutter mold. Emily's house was an eyesore to the rest of the town, she was said to be dating a gay man who was of the working class, and she did not pay her taxes. The people of the town began to question Emily's sanity because she was not just like everyone else. â€Å"Some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people†¦. but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister†¦. o call upon her. † (94-95) These actions show how much society truly wanted to change Emily's way of life so she would fit in with them and stop ruining their image. The southern country setting with these harsh conditions led Emily to lock herself in her home in order to seclude herself from society. Emily did not feel welcome in her society. She knew that the others judged her and looked down upon her for her actions. The pressures of society took a huge t oll on Emily. The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them. † (95). Emily felt as though she was a total outcast in her society and she became insane because of it. After her death, the town finds out that Emily had murdered her future husband. She had truly gone insane due to the pressure that society had placed on her. All in all, Emily's harsh society that she lived in caused her to feel unwelcome and go insane. Emily felt forced into locking herself away in her home to seclude herself from society. The high moral standards that the rich white southerners place on society greatly affected the life of Miss Emily. Emily did not fit into society's cookie cutter mold, and as a result she was ridiculed and cast away from the rest of society. The pressures of society can have a very damaging effect on those who do not fit into the social norms.