Shanghai Business Environment

Enterprises that want to invest in China can stumble over an array of regulations that do not give them free choice of where they wish to locate. This situation has been changing, and China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) should act as another catalyst to make the investment climate freer in several industries. Enterprises can look forward to making decisions on where to locate within China based on factors that they would use in the more-familiar open environment. To appeal to businesses, cities need a good IT infrastructure, strong leadership, incentives, and â€Å"livability† (see Figure A).Figure A The size of China's market and Western enterprises' desire to get close to it means that Chinese cities do not generally compete for foreign investment with cities in other Asia/Pacific countries. Outside the manufacturing sector, most enterprises locate in China because they want to sell to China. Of all China's cities, Shanghai has gone furthest toward the s uccess factors for a global â€Å"smart city. † Its ambition to become a major financial center and player on the international stage by 2015 has fueled this drive. History has also given Shanghai many advantages.It is probably the most outward-looking of any Chinese city and has a strong political voice in Beijing. The latter has allowed Shanghai to lead the way in many initiatives because China's political leaders often use the city to test out new ideas. As a result, many initiatives that started in Shanghai have now spread elsewhere in China. Shanghai's characteristics Livability To most Western expatriates, Shanghai is perhaps the most livable of Chinese cities. The city continues to make strides to improve (e. g. , announcing new rules to allow foreigners to buy property for the first time).Measured against other big cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, or Sydney in the Asia/Pacific region, Shanghai still scores low. From a global perspective, livability is one of Shang hai's weakest areas. However, livability has a large subjective component, and what appeals to Western tastes may not rank as important to the skilled Chinese workforce that an enterprise might what to attract. Incentives Shanghai has traditionally enjoyed a sizable chunk of foreign investment into China, in part because of its position as a testing ground for reform.In some cases, China has forced foreign investors to set up in the city first. This advantage will diminish, and Shanghai will need to learn to play on a more-level playing field. The city has committed to spending, by 2005, 150 billion yuan (one-third of its total industrial investment) on expanding its high-tech sector. This investment targets software and integrated circuit manufacturing, and the city will provide some tax breaks for new operations and help for self-employed software designers. Keeping costs low is key in attracting new business.Shanghai will have to balance the inevitable rise in labor costs with su itable business incentives. Leadership Shanghai's leaders know where they want to go during the next 10 or 15 years and what basic things they need to do to get there. However, they did not develop this vision in partnership with business or the community. Rather, as a command economy, decisions have been made by a select few behind closed doors. Thus, its leaders have greater ability to get things done quickly than leaders in democratic societies often have.Cities such as Shanghai can complete projects without long internal or public debate over infrastructure projects that might take years in the planning stages in other countries and involve a myriad of agencies. Shanghai has benefited tremendously (certainly compared to the rest of China) from the pedigree of its leaders. President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji are former leaders of Shanghai and have strongly supported the city. However, Shanghai knows that spending does not necessarily produce results.Ten years ago, it sta rted pouring money into redeveloping the riverside Pudong district into an area of towering skyscrapers, designed to be China's version of Manhattan. Within a city of 16 million people, Pudong ended up as a ghost town. Slowly, occupation levels have risen, but largely because the central government has â€Å"twisted the arm† of foreign enterprises rather than use real incentives. Infrastructure Many of the city's hopes revolve around an ambitious project to link all of Shanghai to a giant high-speed data network, known as the Shanghai Infoport.Scheduled for completion in 2010, the project stands out not just for its scale but also for its attempt to bring together many strands of existing infrastructure (telecommunications and cable television especially) into one cohesive network. If it succeeds, Shanghai will be among the few cities in the world to have achieved such a feat. Five main projects will rely on the Infoport's high-speed infrastructure: 1. Shanghai Information In terchange Network: A â€Å"giant intranet† for Shanghai with links to many kinds of information 2.Shanghai Society Security Network: Designed to offer e-payment and checking and to facilitate the use of smart cards 3. Social Electronic Data Interchange Network for Foreign Trade: An export/import data exchange for foreign trade 4. Social Community Service Network: Focused on the residential community 5. Gold Card and Commercial Value-Added Network: Linking banks' automated teller machines (ATMs) and payment systems With 3. 2 million users, Shanghai claims to have the largest cable TV network of any city in the world, and this local-access network has a central part in Infoport.Shanghai's connections in national government played an important role in keeping the project on track. Although cable TV networks in the rest of China were barred for a period from offering Internet or telecommunication services, Shanghai received a special dispensation to upgrade its cable TV networks to do just that. The municipal government claims that 1 million residents can now reach interactive services through their televisions. It wants the entire network to be interactive by 2004.In addition, Shanghai Telecom (part of China Telecom) is rolling out digital subscriber line services and installing the necessary in-building cabling to offer Ethernet broadband access. Mayor Xu Kuangdi talked recently of every home having broadband access by 2004. At the same time, Shanghai Telecom has worked on improving the quality of the core network to be ready for the deluge of new data traffic the Infoport will bring. By year-end 2000, it completed work on what it claims is the world's largest local ATM network. Shanghai now uses a total of 320,000 kilometers (198,848 miles) of fiber-optic cable, with more than 4,000 optical nodes.Shanghai Telecom says it has deployed optical fiber in more than 90 percent of the city's residential areas. Shanghai's challenges Building an infrastructure re presents only part of making the Infoport work. The real test is whether people will use it. Only in the last few months have the first real customers logged on, so it's a little early to tell what the response will be. Cost may prove one prohibiting factor, and the local government may have to consider deep subsidies to encourage more than just the wealthiest people to sign up. Content also remains a question.Experience from elsewhere in the world, especially Singapore, a world-class smart city where government has tried to link itself to all the people, shows that the bulk of a city's population generally does not have much interest in such projects. They may want video-on-demand, but filling out tax documents online doesn't really excite them. Bottom line Other Chinese cities, notably Beijing, have begun some of the initiatives under way in Shanghai and are rapidly improving their information infrastructure. Shanghai will likely continue to stand out as China's smartest city, acc ording to Gartner's success factors.Shanghai's early start and its ability to exploit openings created by the central government's policies will likely keep the city at the forefront of innovation for some time. Shanghai's advanced, if incomplete, IT infrastructure makes it a good place for Western enterprises to locate central operations in China. In addition, Shanghai is a good place in which to experiment with business-to-business and business-to-consumer projects requiring advanced IT infrastructure in hopes of rolling them out to the rest of the country when the infrastructure permits.

Paper on the Movie “Crash” Essay

The movie crash is a combination of many different things including labeling theory. Crash is not just a movie about car crashes, but also of cultures and values. There are several intertwined lives and personal relationships with a common point of prejudice involving ethnic issues. The narrative is circular, as the film’s message about racial discrimination develops as a snowball, the director Paul Haggis shows us how prejudice is the most central issue. The political crime that is shown on the film gives the audience an understanding of how betrayed a civilian can be by the law enforcers. Racist ideologies are perpetuated through discourse, actions and even of misunderstanding. It is possible to understand the interconnected nature of each core characters and how a certain attitude interferes with a subsequent event among others. The racial profiling is also seen extremely harshly. Being in the 21st century these things are overlooked, but there are still many people who classify people because of their race and what they look like. The characters in Crash are shown in their humanity attitudes sometimes negligible, sometimes admirable. The film is far from a Manichaeism to address the issue that no human being is totally good or totally bad by nature. The cop played by Matt Dillon takes contrasting positions – its portrayed both in times of abuse of his position of authority, to take advantage of Christine (Thandie Newton), as in heroics, saving the same girl in a traffic accident. People who condemn the prejudice facing black people can be absolutely phobic about the Arabs or Latinos. Behaviors are variable according to the circumstances and, therefore, can not judge a person independent of them. The different ethnicities also portray minority groups which are barely hanging on by a thread in society, we see this mainly in the Arab family. People with certain ethical values succumb before a higher offer, a personal benefit exactly like status inconsistency. Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is adamant in his ideals, but when given the opportunity to save his brother delinquent, he gives up his own principles and â€Å"sells itself† in favor of a family gain. That was a perfect example of people’s status changing consistently. Crash deals with ethnic prejudice analyzing multiple variables and deepening both motivations as consequences. The discrimination against any racial group, is present deep within every character in the movie. The nurse Shaniqua Johnson, black, shows anger on receiving the trespasses officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), but on another occasion directs all his hatred of a particular group of immigrants. Even those who at first appears to be incorruptible, as Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), being disgusted by the racist behavior explicit companion Ryan, in the end, ends up having a prejudice outlook. His values may not have changed but his vision of morality changes because of the people he has been surrounded with. Rationally, condemns discrimination of fellow, but when the situation is outside the limits of rationality and asks for a quick response, intuitive, Hansen suspects the black who gives a ride and, a movement that seems suspicious, you know that is under threat and shoots. Even those who fight and seems strongly supported by human values, can not escape an ingrained prejudice, supported by education in a racist society. How could it be, Crash also addresses the role of the media through the character of Cameron (Terrence Howard), director of television. Cameron is forced to redo a scene where a black actor spoke without slang characteristics and therefore fled to their stereotype. By repeating the scene, also repeated a pattern of behavior expected for a black. Cameron, who holds a certain power to work in a vehicle of communication is cut off the possibility of spreading a change in society or at least not condoning what he considers to be wrong. Even when a black occupies a prominent position and has the possibility to intervene, larger forces interfere with his freedom of action and he finds himself with his hands tied. Overall it was a great film to watch. I was completely surprised by how explicit it was and how it showed even in the first 8 minutes of the movie how race and ethnicity sort of control everything. People who don’t want to discriminate are in fact prejudice and surprised by the fact that they are. The characters in the movie change and evolve, which was good to see because it means that with time less and less people can be discriminating, it just all depends on how they are raised and their beliefs; nature vs nurture debate has all of this taken into consideration.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 21

An Acceptable Form of Coping In the cloud room, I pick the black recliner because I am feeling a little depressed. For a few minutes I don't say anything. I am worried that Cliff will send me back to the bad place if I tell him the truth, but I feel so guilty sitting there – and then I'm talking at Cliff, spilling everything in a wild slur of sentences: the big Giants fan, the little Giants fan, my fistfight, the Eagles' loss to the Giants, my father smashing the television screen, his bringing me the sports pages but refusing to speak with me, my dream about Nikki wearing a Giants jersey, Tiffany saying â€Å"Fuck Nikki† but still wanting to run with me every day; and then Nikki teaching Sylvia Plath to defenseless teenagers, my ripping The Bell Jar in half, and Sylvia Plath sticking her head in an oven. â€Å"An oven?† I say. â€Å"Why would anyone stick their head in an oven?† The release is powerful, and I realize now that somewhere in the middle of my rant I had begun crying. When I finish speaking, I cover my face, because Cliff is my therapist, yes, but he is also a man and an Eagles fan and maybe a friend too. I start sobbing behind my hands. All is quiet in the cloud room for a few minutes, and then Cliff finally speaks, saying, â€Å"I hate Giants fans. So arrogant, always wanting to talk about L.T., who was nothing but a dirty rotten cokehead. Two Super Bowls, yes, but XXV and XXI were some time ago – more than fifteen years have passed. And we were there just two years ago, right? Even if we did lose.† I am surprised. I was sure Cliff was going to yell at me for hitting the Giants fan, that he would again threaten to send me back to the bad place, and his bringing up Lawrence Taylor seems so random that I lower my hands and see that Cliff is standing, although he is so small his head is not much higher than mine, even though I am sitting down. Also, I sort of think he just implied that the Eagles were in the Super Bowl two years ago, which would make me very upset because I have absolutely no memory of this, so I try to forget what Cliff said about our team being in the big game. â€Å"Don't you hate Giants fans?† he says to me. â€Å"Don't you just hate 'em? Come on now, tell the truth.† â€Å"Yeah, I do,† I say. â€Å"A lot. So do my brother and father.† â€Å"Why would this man wear a Giants jersey to an Eagles game?† â€Å"I don't know.† â€Å"Did he not think he would be mocked?† I don't know what to say. â€Å"Every year I see these stupid Dallas and Giants and Redskins fans come into our house wearing their colors, and every year these same fans get manhandled by drunken Eagles fans. When will they learn?† I am too shocked to speak. Does this mean Cliff is a season-ticket holder? I wonder, but do not ask. â€Å"Not only were you defending your brother, but you were defending your team too! Right?† I realize that I am nodding. Cliff sits down. He pulls the lever, his footrest comes up, and I stare at the well-worn soles of his penny loafers. â€Å"When I am sitting in this chair, I am your therapist. When I am not in this chair, I am a fellow Eagles fan. Understand?† I nod. â€Å"Violence is not an acceptable solution. You did not have to hit that Giants fan.† I nod again. â€Å"I didn't want to hit him.† â€Å"But you did.† I look down at my hands. My fingers are all squirmy. â€Å"What alternatives did you have?† he says. â€Å"Alternatives?† â€Å"What else could you have done, besides hitting the Giants fan?† â€Å"I didn't have time to think. He was pushing me, and he threw my brother down – â€Å" â€Å"What if he had been Kenny G?† I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. â€Å"Yes, the humming. Why not try that when you feel as though you are going to hit someone? Where did you learn that technique?† I'm a little mad at Cliff for bringing up Kenny G, which seems like a dirty trick, especially since he knows Mr. G is my biggest nemesis, but I remember that Cliff did not yell at me when I told him the truth, and I am thankful for that, so I say, â€Å"Nikki used to hum a single note whenever I offended her. She said she learned it in yoga class. And whenever she hummed, it would catch me off guard. I would get really freaked out, because it is strange to sit next to someone who is humming a single note with her eyes closed – and Nikki would keep humming that single note for such a long time. When she finally stopped, I would be grateful, and I also would be more aware of her displeasure and more receptive to her feelings, which is something I did not appreciate until recently.† â€Å"So that's why you hum every time someone brings up Kenny – â€Å" I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. When I finish, Cliff says, â€Å"It allows you to express your displeasure in a unique way, disarming those around you. Very interesting tactic. Why not use this in other areas of your life? What if you had closed your eyes and hummed when the Giants fan pushed you?† I hadn't thought of that. â€Å"Do you think he would have continued to push you if you had closed your eyes and hummed?† Probably not, I think. The Giants fan would have thought I was crazy, which is exactly what I thought about Nikki when she first used the tactic on me. Cliff smiles and nods at me when he reads my face. We talk a little about Tiffany. He says it seems as though Tiffany has romantic feelings for me, and he claims she is most likely jealous of my love for Nikki, which I think is silly, especially since Tiffany never even talks to me and is always so aloof when we are together. Plus Tiffany is so beautiful, and I have not aged well at all. â€Å"She's just a weird woman,† I say in response. â€Å"Aren't they all?† Cliff replies, and we laugh some because women truly are hard to figure out sometimes. â€Å"What about my dream? Me seeing Nikki in a Giants jersey? What do you think that means?† â€Å"What do you think it means?† Cliff asks, and when I shrug, he changes the subject. Cliff says Sylvia Plath's work is very depressing to read, and that his own daughter had recently suffered through The Bell Jar because she is taking an American literature course at Eastern High School. â€Å"And you didn't complain to administration?† I asked. â€Å"About what?† â€Å"About your daughter being forced to read such depressing stories.† â€Å"No. Of course not. Why would I?† â€Å"Because the novel teaches kids to be pessimistic. No hope at the end, no silver lining. Teenagers should be taught that – â€Å" â€Å"Life is hard, Pat, and children have to be told how hard life can be.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one's mind.† I had not thought about this explanation, that reading books like The Bell Jar helped others understand what it was like to be Esther Greenwood. And I realize now that I have a lot of sympathy for Esther, and if she were a real person in my life, I would have tried to help her, only because I knew her thoughts well enough to understand she was not simply deranged, but suffering because her world had been so cruel to her and because she was depressed, due to the wild chemicals in her mind. â€Å"So you're not mad at me?† I ask when I see Cliff look at his watch, which signifies our session is almost over. â€Å"No. Not at all.† â€Å"Really?† I ask, because I know Cliff is probably going to write all my recent failures down in a file as soon as I leave. That he probably thinks he has failed as my therapist – at least for this week. Cliff stands, smiles at me, and then looks out the bay window at the sparrow washing in the stone birdbath. â€Å"Before you leave, Pat, I want to say something very important to you. This is a matter of life and death. Are you listening to me? Because I really want you to remember this. Okay?† I start to worry because Cliff sounds so serious, but I swallow, nod, and say, â€Å"Okay.† Cliff turns. Cliff faces me. His face looks grave, and for a second, I am very nervous. But then Cliff throws his hands up in the air and yells â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhh!† I laugh because Cliff has tricked me with his funny joke. I immediately stand, throw my hands up in the air, and yell â€Å"Ahhhhhhhhh!† â€Å"E!-A!-G!-L!-E!-S! EAGLES!† we chant in unison, throwing our arms and legs out in an effort to represent each letter with our bodies, and I have to say – as stupid as it may sound – chanting with Cliff makes me feel a whole lot better. And judging by the smile on his little brown face, he knows the value of what he is doing for me.

Learn-from Video reviews Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Learn-from Video reviews - Movie Review Example Europeans came and perceived Aborigines to be primitive and tried to suppress and drive them out, but even thought their rights were usurped, some of them remain. This shows that Australia has a rich cultural background. (youtube) Australia is located below the equator and above Antarctica on the world map and on the left of the Pacific Ocean and the right of the Indian Ocean. It has six states and two territories which are the Northern territory and Australian Capital Territory. It is a hot nation with a humid and arid climate and a most arid centre. The coast is where most people prefer to live. Perth is the largest and most populated state of Australia and the Northern territory which is the closest to the equator is the hottest and most humid. Therefore the location and climate of Australia make it dry and hot. (Ann) Australia is a multicultural society with the primary religion being Christianity, and other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism also being prevalent in the continent. Australia places great importance on education and the future. (youtube, YouTube) There are 39 world class universities, thousands of students from over 180 nations, and research that actually has had a global impact. They also focus on health, building a sustainable environment, new technology and also building a unique learning environment for students.

Portfolio management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Portfolio management - Research Paper Example This means that the investors incline towards investments which offer guaranteed returns at low risk. However, the ability to take higher calculated risk could produce higher returns for the investor. However, the returns are not guaranteed. For this reason, portfolio management attains significance (MAHAJAN, 2009). Portfolio management helps the investor to decide on the weight-age to be allocated to investments in a portfolio of stocks which would not only diversify the risk but at the same time would maximise the returns on investment. Considering the economy of Qatar, a portfolio management has been carried out taking two companies in the Qatar market into consideration. Qatar Economy and Financial sector: Growth of Qatari Market Qatar is the richest Muslim country in the world. Qatar is the leading producer of hydrocarbon and petroleum which makes the economy of Qatar largely dependent on oil and gas. The production of petroleum and hydrocarbon in Qatar contributes to more than 70% of the government’s revenue earnings. Also the amount of production of petroleum forms 60% of the country’s GDP. Nearly 85% of the income earned by Qatar from its exports is done by the country through the export of its petroleum. Qatar maintains a huge reserve of hydrocarbon and petroleum oil. ... Due to the rising global demand of oil in the nineties, the GDP of Qatar grew by a record figure of 94%. Qatar’s economy has been able to achieve an incredible growth rate of GDP to 19.9% in 2011. However, signs of slow down in Qatar’s economy were apparent as it was predicted to grow by 9.8% in 2012 and by 4.5% in 2013. The Qatari economy has seen its GDP grow triply to $173.3 billion from 2005 to 2011 which was reported by the (IMF) International Monetary Fund. Qatar is also looking to produce offshore petroleum and is aiming at diversification of its economy by looking at long term prospects of growth. In the coming years, Qatar’s economy would be slowing down due to the reduction in hydrocarbon reserves. The growth in economy in future would be supported by the non-hydrocarbon areas like petrochemical, construction and manufacturing sectors. Banking, insurance and financial services are prevalent in the financial industry of Qatar. The trading of stocks takes place at the Qatar Exchange and flow of information to the market is used by the investors which reflects the related public events of the past, the instantaneous updates of the present market and also contains a prediction of the related events of future. Comparison between two companies in Qatar stock market: QGMD and GWCS In order to choose between the investment options as a part of portfolio management involving two companies, a comparison between two stocks in the Qatar market has been given below. In order to maximize the return to the investor, the portfolio management provides a direction towards decision making in opting one investment over another or determining the weight-age which should be assigned to the investment options in order to

Health Benefits Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Health Benefits - Essay Example In addition, this paper outlines a design of an outcomes measurement strategy and a plan for my organization to use to assess the quality of care and reduce risk. According to Beattie (2014), one of the ways to evaluate quality of care offered to my employees by my health benefits contractor involves assessing health care processes. In essence, there are rules, guidelines, and standards that ought to be followed in provision of care. For instance, a physician or health care provided should treat a patients medical records with utmost confidentiality. Subsequently, a physician ought to consider the feelings of patient and as well respect his or her decision in regard to care (Kleinman and Dougherty, 2013). Therefore, I would ask my employees to appraise whether all these factors were considered in the care provided by the health care benefits contractor. Secondly, I would evaluate the quality of care by investigating whether the intended outcomes or results were achieved (Beattie, 2014). All health care services are intended to improve the overall health status of a patient. Achievement of predicted results in relation to care denotes the fact that the services provided were of high quality. Poor services are very unlikely to achieve the intended outcomes. For attainment of predicted or expected outcomes, it is of significance to design an outcomes measurement strategy or a plan to use to assess the quality of care. In elucidation, the design would include implementation of action plans to compare and contrast outcomes of medical processes within my organization with other analogous organizations (Nash and Goldfarb, 2006). Such comparison would help identify areas of weaknesses and ultimately lead to improvement of services. It is however worth noting that health outcomes are impacted by a number of factors. Patients can be divided into clusters, for instance, in terms of the diseases they are suffering from and age groups. This would

International Rsk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Rsk Management - Essay Example â€Å"All trading systems should be aligned with the big picture. People need strategies that take advantage of macro tendencies to make good profits† (Tharp 1996). Their ultimate purpose is to be free to produce, invest and distribute what they desire, where they need, exist as long as they prefer, can move capital, workers and goods at will. Subcategories of these important freedoms naturally contain massive privatisation of public services and publicly held companies. Nothing must be debarred a priori from the market, genetic material or human body parts; foods, water, seeds, forests or air, art, music or sport. TNCs can generally stay above the law, even when they cause grievous damage to people and the surroundings. TNCs compute their achievements by 'shareholder value' and profit rates, which means the market cost of the company's stock. Some companies even buy up their personal stock to reason the market cost to rise. Cost-cutting, particularly through huge layoffs, is an additional way to enlarge shareholder price and loyalty to workers or to the communities where they occur to is a bye gone idea. â€Å"The United Nations (UN) claims there are now about 60,000 TNCs with half a million affiliates, but the ones to watch are the top one, two or five hundred. Of the top 100 economic entities in the world, 51 are corporations, only 49 are state owned. General Motors or General Electric is much larger than Saudi Arabia or Poland, and so on† (George 2000). The TNCs are continually in search of better market shares which they can get more easily by buying up other companies than by making new ones. â€Å"The three major international economic organizations are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO emerged out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995; it is an arrangement across countries that serve as a forum for negotiations on trading rules as well as a mechani sm for dispute settlements in trade issues† (Krueger 2007). Equity market means the market in which shares are issued and traded, also during exchanges. Also recognized as the stock market, it is one of the largely vital regions of a market economy for the reason that it gives company’s access to investors and capital a slice of possession in a company with the probable to realize profits based on its future performance. Following are the important role, Development of the business and commerce: It affects the financial system of the country to a large extent. It is the secondary market: it provides the stock exchange where institutional investors and retail investors buy and sell the stocks. Brokers of the stock market: Brokers really perform the buy and sell instructions of the investors and resolve the deals to maintain the stock trading alive. Derivatives are agreements and can be utilized as a fundamental asset. There are even derivatives founded on weather data, f or instance the quantity of rain or the quantity of sunny days in a specific region. Derivatives are usually used as a tool to hedge risk, other than can also be utilized for speculative reasons. Derivatives play a helpful and significant role in risk management and hedging, other than they also pose

Primary models of international marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Primary models of international marketing - Essay Example This research is being carried out to evaluate and present the primary models of international marketing. These models include, polycentric, ethnocentric and geocentric. Ethnocentric is normally used to refer to refer to assumptions arising from national arrogance. They are conservative and hold the underlying factor that one method used in marketing and manufacturing is adequate and applicable to all other places. They uphold the view that products emanating from their country are superior by default and automatically get accepted in other regions. They do not consider aspects of modification and are not vigorous in their marketing campaigns. Contrary to ethnocentric approach or model, the polycentric approach dwells on the uniqueness of each region it is unveiling its products in. They put extra caution and consideration in regard to the people’s culture and give its products time to be assimilated into the people’s culture. If necessary, they would consider modifying their products to suit the perspective of their new targets. This approach invents new marketing strategies to capture the attention of new customers. On the negative aspect, modifications to fit into each setting may dilute the originality of the initial product and prove expensive for the company too. Considering the unique needs of individuals, cultures or religions in every region may be exhaustive too. Geocentrism embraces a more global approach to business. It levalises the business grounds to all parties as there is no special attention to the original company or the host.

The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom by Wilbur H. Siebert Essay

The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom by Wilbur H. Siebert - Essay Example Seibert’ book presents a number of interesting people and unsung heroes before it readers. Among all of them, one person that particular catches the interest is Calvin Fairbank. Fairbank lived in an affluent family that was 'assigned' with two slaves. As these slaves did all the housework, once he got the opportunity to listen to the slave-woman's tale of sorrow, which kindled anger in Fairbank. Once when he was in charge of a raft of lumber, he saw a woodsman who was going to be a slave very soon. Fairbank took him on the raft and helped him. Along with o an old slave woman with 7 children, he helped this man escape by taking them to a secure location on his raft. However, this met with a lot of issues because Fairbank was charged with helping the slaves help and was sent to the penitentiary. Before he was released, the Fugitive Slave law was passed, but this did not prove to be a deterrent to his ideas. According to him, 'I resisted its execution whenever and wherever possib le' (Siebert, 1898, p. 159). He continued to help the slaves escape. This landed him in the prison again and he spent more than 17 years of his life in the prison, where some phases were filled with physical and mental torture. Through his strategy of using disguises and helping people hide, he played pivotal part in making the life better for many slaves.   One of the very interesting events in the book is about how the disguise was used as a very effective technique to help the slaves escape quietly without the threat of being caught.

Creg Seager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Creg Seager - Essay Example As the discussion stresses  Creg Seager is brought about as a contemporary Christian as he has done great things with his skills as a nurse. He travels to different countries preaching the word to the needy and providing medical services. Creg Seager takes the responsibility of helping in bringing glory to God. It means that the Creg Seager takes the jurisdiction of conducting and giving instructions and acting as an example of the best ways of praising and worshipping God.This paper highlights that  Creg Seager demonstrates that time is important resource that cannot be reversed if put into bad use at any cost that makes it vital. In any organization time is the key factor determining what is to be done at what time and what achievements are to be in place before or after a specific time.   Time management helps achieve specific achievements within a given period. A manager should have good management skills to ensure that there is consistency within the organization. An effec t leader delegates staff into doing specific duties within a given time frame. It helps in identifying priorities, avoiding multitasking and reducing disruptions. To demonstrate this, when a leader has good time management skills, he/she can divide tasks among the employees, accomplish certain priorities first and gives ample time for every activity. Creg has proven to be an efficient time manager by performing different tasks at specific time. This is brought about by the location of adequate time to visits in different countries.

Macbeth - explain in an essay format how I would direct Act2, Scene1 Essay Example for Free

Macbeth explain in an essay format how I would direct Act2, Scene1 Essay I am now going to explain in an essay format how I would direct Act2, Scene1 and what I would change from how the play has been originally shown. If I was directing Act 2 Scene 1, I would want Macbeth to appear to the audience as if he is cracking under the pressure and for him to appear insane, unhappy and insecure. Macbeth acts different from when we first saw him with Banquo, as now he is about to commit a crime of treason and kill his beloved King. This is very different from when we first saw him as he loved his King and he would die for him but now it is in reverse. This is important that the audience understand he is very different and not the same person due to his greed for power. It is imperative that he is portrayed this way so the audience can see he is weaker and worse of especially as his wife, Lady Macbeth has been pressuring him in to completing his task of murdering King Duncan. If it was not for his wife then I do not think that Macbeth would have gone through with it. This change in Macbeths character will hopefully have an affect on the audience so they can see how the three witches and his wife have affected him and his state of mind. Macbeth is realizing that he is weaker than he thought and that he is making a mistake, he doesnt want to commit the murder but his wife pushes and pressures him into killing his King. This shows the audience that at this time Lady Macbeth is stronger than Macbeth and in a better state of mind. He starts to imagine things and this is a sign of him being insane, and mentally unstable. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me Clutch thee. p. 43 This speech is important in the understanding of Macbeths role in this scene. So I would want Macbeth to be sitting at the end of a table and to say this in such a way that the audience can see him turning mentally insane. I would want him saying the sentence slowly and negatively, emphasising toward as if he is surprised about it, also holding a dagger infront of him looking at it up and down with eyes that look blurred feeling the blade. Also I would want a low-angled shot showing him overcastting the camera to give that extra touch of madness during the first line. Then I would also have a close up of him holding the dagger to get his face and dagger in the same camera shot for the last two lines. To add to the tension of this speech there would be music playing in the background that would be farley heavy to give the impression of evil and what is about to happen. This will make the audience grasp his character and understand what he is going through at this time in the play. After this speech I would have had Macbeth walking up the stairs with the dagger looking bedazzled and insane and then I would have him raise it above his head as he reached the top of the stairs. After he comes out of the room I would have him looking down at his hands ready to brake down and crumble at his knees. Once he reaches his room I would have him collapse onto the bed and lay there feeling guilty. Also when he looks at his hands I would have him start to shed tears to show that he is a wimp and insecure.

Bullying speech Essay Example for Free

Bullying speech Essay What does it feel like to wake up in the morning and look forward to a day of teasing and name calling? What does it feel like to be engulfed in a world of negativity? Bullying Unwanted and aggressive behavior among school aged children involving real or perceived power imbalance. Bullying is no man’s best friend and it shouldn’t be. We see it all around us in our daily lives. All across the United States, this form of victimization has become an infamous trend among scholars. About 3 million out of America’s 21 million students are affected by bullying. That is about 1 student in every 7 students! Numerous people have different perspectives on what bullying is. Some think it means physical hurting while others think it is only emotional hurting. All of these are correct due to the fact that there are different ways one can be bullied. Bullying is unwanted and repeated behavior among students which includes Physical, Verbal, Indirect, social Alienation, Intimidation and Cyber Bullying. see more:speeches on bullying Physical bullying is a serious problem it is when one person or a group of people picks on or harasses another person in a face to face confrontational manner. Verbal bullying is the most common form but it is just as bad as the other types. It is when an individual uses verbal language (e.g., insults, teasing, etc.) to gain power over his or her peers. Social Alienation is one type of bullying whereby exclusion is occurring between students due to social differences. The devastating part about this form is that it is not easily recognized as a form of bullying. Intimidation is the acts of making someone feel fearful by using threats. Last but not least, Cyber bullying which happens when kids bully each other through electronic devices. Over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or the Internet. With the increase in our use of technology, this form of bullying is increasing to higher rates. How can you stop this from happening? How can we put an end to bullying? It’s simple. The best way is NOT ignoring it whenever you see it going on. STEP UP! And be an advocate for your fellow peers that are hurting. Bulling is BAD! And it is up to YOU if you would let it happen when  you see it going on or stop it. experience

Theories of myth

Theories of myth Mythology involves sociological or even philosophical the studying of myths. Myths involve characters such as supernatural heroes or gods. Within sacred stories, the characters involved are priests and rulers. Myths have been used extensively in explanation of the world formation and establishment process of taboos, customs and institutions (Csapo, 2005). Scholars have been trying to explain myths in the past decades using theories. Claims by Euhemerism theory have demonstrated myths to be fuzzy accounts of authentic or real historical events. According to Csapo (2005), explanations show that storytellers carry out repeated elaborations upon historical measures. Such repetitions made the myth figures to gain the position of gods. For example, a wind-god development emanating from a kingly historical account, teaching his followers on wind-interpretation and use of sails. Prodicus and Herodotus made such claims in the 5th century BC. The origin of this theorys name is from the 320 BC novelist called Euhemerus. This novelist made claims of the Greek gods evolving from legends humans. Explanations of allegory theory suggest that myths started as allegories. For example, in relation to one theory myths started as natural phenomena allegories. For instance, historically representation of Apollo was fire while Poseidon represented water, among others. Another theory explains that myths started as allegories of spiritual or philosophical concepts. For example, Athena represented wise judgment, while Aphrodite represented desire. Sanskritist Max Muller in 19th century believed that myths originated from nature, but came to be literally interpreted gradually. For example, poetry described a sea to be raging and literally this was taken to interpret the sea as a raging god. Personification theory as explained by some scholars, myths originated from personification of forces and objects which are inanimate. In their regard, these scholars observed people of ancient days worshipped natural phenomena such as air, fire. With time this described the natural phenomena as gods. For example, mythopoeic thought described ancients to observe things as persons but not as mere objects. Thereby, they described events of nature to be actions of natural gods, hence myths evolution. Cosmogonic or creation myths relates to supernatural stories giving explanations to humanity, life, earth or universe existence (Csapo, 2005). Generally, myths tend to broadly share the same themes. Myths commonly involve fractioning of worldly things from primordial chaos. Such aspects include father and mother separation gods or emergence of land from an infinite and from timeless ocean Among the Finnish, people believed that the world was made from a broken egg. Descriptions reveal that a bird was flying over the sea as it searched for a place set-up her nest and lay eggs. The birds search was futile everywhere. The only thing in existence was water. After that, the bird identified the 1st dry place to some it was a boat, others it was an island, and others a floating body such as a wizard. However, the dry place was unstable to set-up a nest hence a large wave broke those eggs, their parts being spread all around. Upper part of the egg formed the sky, yolk formed the sun and lower egg parts formed the earth. The first human being was vainamoinem born to air maiden Ilmatar impregnated by the sea. Vainamoinem gave orders for trees plantation and initiated the human culture. This myth relates to the allegory theory which explains representations of natural phenomena (Csapo, 2005). Upper part of the egg in this myth represents the sky yolk represents the sun while the lower part represents the earth. The allegories here are the sun, the sky and the earth. On the other hand, among the Hindu, universe existence is governed by Trimurti of brahma. Brahma is the creator Vishnu is the sustainer while shiva is the destroyer. The first Avatar generated from water. Hindus believe universe creation originated from the word Aum. The word stands for the sacred sound uttered by every person during birth. Their belief states that creation cycle has no beginning, neither preservation nor destruction. A Brahmas day takes 4.32billion years and the night too. Their belief is that nights and days follow in cycles. To them time is represented as Kala. This Hindu myth relates to the euhemerism theory where people try to explain the existence of natural phenomena (Csapo, 2005). The Hindus have applied the historic events, explaining each occurrence with natural phenomena. As this myth continues to be told repetitively, the myth figures have developed to take the positions of gods. In this reference, the Hindus god is Brahma emanating from Hindus accounts t o historical events, explaining where the universe originated from. In conclusion, as drawn the discussion, I believe that myths have been associated with several purposes. Myths are believed to shape or establish behavior models. Figures of myth are normally sacred hence positioning them playing the role models on humans. Similarly, myths uphold current social institutions and structures. Myths serve the purpose of justifying social customs in claims that sacred beings established them. Additionally, myths act as a good source of entertainment and also providing human beings with experiences which are religious in nature. Myths unraveling repetitions detaches people from modernity to mythical era presenting them nearer to the Devine. For example, a society can reenact healings done by gods in ancient days in order to heal an individual in the present. References Csapo, E. (2005). Theories of mythology. London, UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.

Catch 22 and a few good men :: essays papers

Catch 22 and a few good men Catch-22 is a novel about the Second World War. It is set on the island of Pianosa, which is off the coast of Italy. It is set in the end of the war while the Germans are on the run and being pushed out of Italy. The book focuses on a bomb group, more specifically a squadron in which a bombardier named Yossarian is assigned to. Yossarian is very upset because all these people he doesn’t even know (the Germans) are trying to kill him. The novel is very hard to understand because of the way it is written. It is helpful in books about the military to have a time-date group so you know what is going on. This book doesn’t have that and is so full of flash backs and flash-forwards that it made my head spin. It wasn’t poorly written but it was hard follow. It has many technical errors such as having helicopters for search and rescue while helicopters weren’t used in military service until the Korean War. The story is a good one but paints a picture of military life as a joke almost. Most of the servicemen in this book had no discipline and did pretty much as they pleased. Yossarian goes through the whole story trying to get out of his squadron and go home. His problem is the commander of the group keeps raising the number of missions required to fly before the rotate home. Every time he gets close the raise the number on him again. Through it all he tries all these schemes to get sent home he acts sick and tries to act crazy. When he tries to acts crazy he thinks that he has a perfect plan to get sent home since there was a rule that anyone who was crazy was unfit to serve in the rigors of combat, but the rule said they had to ask to be grounded. When he goes to get himself grounded he discovers there is a catch. Catch-22 says that anyone who asks to be grounded is not crazy because recognizing danger is the process of a rational mind and anyone with a rational mind is not crazy. That is the main story line of the book.

The Day My Life Changed Essay -- essays papers

The Day My Life Changed I stepped through the door to my grandmother and grandfather's home without even a knock. My grandpa looked up from the television he was watching, from his cozy comer chair. He had a head of snowy white hair gleaming in the room. Over his broad body, hung a navy blue dress shirt and a fuzzy cardigan sweater. He wore slacks, held up awkwardly by a belt, allowing his small potbelly to hang over it. His face showed the years of worry and stress, and his white bushy eyebrows and growing second chin showed his old age. His smile greeted me. As I drew close to him, his aging arms reached out and wrapped around my body and pulled me into a warm loving hug. As he released me from the hug, I said, "Grandpa, I have some news I want you to hear" as I plopped down in the chair beside him. "I wanted to let you know that I am getting married," I told him. The room was left in a dead silence, frozen for a brief period of time, as we recovered from the intensity of the news I had brought him. Reaching for the remote to turn off the television, my grandfather looked at me. Before he could say a word, the excitement of an unseen grandmother came from the kitchen. Both our eyes looked toward the cheerful light and the sounds of my grandmother's excitement As the excitement faded away, his eyes turned toward mine. Awaiting his comments, my eyes were open wide. Excitement had filled my body, because of the news I had just brought him. "Wonderful, go ahead...

Euro Disney - Analysis of the External and Internal Environment Essay

Euro Disney’ marketer’s before entering a market as in this case has been the European market should have scanned the environment. By scanning the environment they should analyze the mega-environment as well as the task environment for possible opportunities and threats. Yet, a close attention could have been paid to their strength and weaknesses inside the company. Indeed, the consideration about any trends should have been incorporated in their environment analysis. In this case there has been a recognition of a trend, which is the trend of people going to theme parks during the weekends for entertainment of them as well as their children. Also here is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of. However, their failure to pick up signals from the macro environment and microenvironment as well as to position their product accordingly, had negative effects on their operations. A further analysis of their macro and micro environment highlights their malfunction. MACRO ENVIRONMENT (P.E.S.T) The components of the macro environment are the political-legal environment, the economic environment, the socio-cultural environment, and the technological environment in which Euro Disney operates. Political-legal environment:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Euro Disney’s decision to open its Theme Park near Paris has caused a negative publicity in the sight of many French politicians. In fact, they have objected the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably choose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most convenient place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could travel quickly to Paris due to short distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris. However, the ignorance of the politicians’ unfriendliness and deterrence caused the dire publicity to be spread all over France and probably wider. Politicians are usually the most publicly articulated figures. Thus, their opposition view would probably be spread to many potential visitor... ...were the major reasons for the lower sales. They overlooked the opportunity to profit on the established costumers need for Theme Park entertainment because they did not realized who in fact were their customers. STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESES Euro Disney’s major strength is its well-known and established tradition and brand name. Further, Euro Disney is a conglomerate company comprised of many businesses. The existence of their own television programme is in fact a strength, thus transformed into opportunity to advertise its products and parks. Indeed, its strengths or distinctive competences may have been turned into opportunities to experience a competitive advantage over its competitors. Obviously, Euro Disney did not used effectively its strength in the European market, thus has overlooked to transform its strengths into opportunities. In addition, one weakness that can be concluded from the case study is Euro Disney’s ineffective marketing team when entering the European market. In fact, it is a failure of its marketing team to quickly react to the threatening environmental signals and especially predicting them before entering and positioning itself in the European market. Euro Disney - Analysis of the External and Internal Environment Essay Euro Disney’ marketer’s before entering a market as in this case has been the European market should have scanned the environment. By scanning the environment they should analyze the mega-environment as well as the task environment for possible opportunities and threats. Yet, a close attention could have been paid to their strength and weaknesses inside the company. Indeed, the consideration about any trends should have been incorporated in their environment analysis. In this case there has been a recognition of a trend, which is the trend of people going to theme parks during the weekends for entertainment of them as well as their children. Also here is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of. However, their failure to pick up signals from the macro environment and microenvironment as well as to position their product accordingly, had negative effects on their operations. A further analysis of their macro and micro environment highlights their malfunction. MACRO ENVIRONMENT (P.E.S.T) The components of the macro environment are the political-legal environment, the economic environment, the socio-cultural environment, and the technological environment in which Euro Disney operates. Political-legal environment:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Euro Disney’s decision to open its Theme Park near Paris has caused a negative publicity in the sight of many French politicians. In fact, they have objected the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably choose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most convenient place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could travel quickly to Paris due to short distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris. However, the ignorance of the politicians’ unfriendliness and deterrence caused the dire publicity to be spread all over France and probably wider. Politicians are usually the most publicly articulated figures. Thus, their opposition view would probably be spread to many potential visitor... ...were the major reasons for the lower sales. They overlooked the opportunity to profit on the established costumers need for Theme Park entertainment because they did not realized who in fact were their customers. STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESES Euro Disney’s major strength is its well-known and established tradition and brand name. Further, Euro Disney is a conglomerate company comprised of many businesses. The existence of their own television programme is in fact a strength, thus transformed into opportunity to advertise its products and parks. Indeed, its strengths or distinctive competences may have been turned into opportunities to experience a competitive advantage over its competitors. Obviously, Euro Disney did not used effectively its strength in the European market, thus has overlooked to transform its strengths into opportunities. In addition, one weakness that can be concluded from the case study is Euro Disney’s ineffective marketing team when entering the European market. In fact, it is a failure of its marketing team to quickly react to the threatening environmental signals and especially predicting them before entering and positioning itself in the European market.

Readers Response to John Updike’s A&P Essay

In the summer of 1961 we meet Sammy. Sammy is a 19-year-old clerk at the local A&P in a small town, and one day a few girls walk in, in their bikinis. Everyone in the store either stares at them lustfully or averts their eyes uncomfortably. When the manager gets back he scolds the girls and tells them that they cannot come back in there dressed that way again. So Sammy quits. I personally enjoy this story because of the dated wordplay and the character development. John Updike fleshes out Sammy quite well. We learn that he has been working that the store for some time, and in doing so has noted many peculiarities about the people who frequent it. Having little else to do on a Thursday afternoon, he just looks around and internally judges everyone that he sees. Of an elderly woman who he is assisting at the start of the story he says, â€Å"She’s one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I know it made her day to trip me up. She’d been watching cash registers for fifty years and probably never seen a mistake before. The story goes on about his observations with only a few bits of dialogue, in which one person is typically talking to someone else, with no real back and forth. I think that Updikes’ decision to keep the majority of the story in Sammy’s mind was interesting to me, and I feel as though it added a lot to the character. It was a very short story set in one place, over a period of about twenty minutes, so most of the success of the character development has to do with his inner monologue. We learn that Sammy is a bored 19 year old who is tired of his job and the predictability of the people in it. When something as unnatural as three scantily clad girls entering a supermarket in the early sixties occurs, the people in the market hardly pay attention. He believes that â€Å"you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists and muttering â€Å"Let me see, there was a third thing, began with A, asparagus, no , ah, yes, applesauce! † or whatever it is they do mutter. † Right there is a great summation for this character; dark, crude, pessimistic, and overly observant. Other than his witty wordplay, the story was lacking for me. I enjoyed reading it, but it was not the best thing that I have ever read. I feel like there could have been more, Sammy was so talkative in his own head, but then when the girls showed up he was quiet as a mouse. That makes sense for the character, but when he quit and the girls left I feel like there should have been more interaction between him and his manager, or maybe more of his inner thoughts. It is hard to pinpoint, and I would not even begin to know how to fix it, but this story falls short at the end in my opinion.

Critical Reflection on Three Questions Essay

For this paper we will be doing some critical reflection on three basic; yet much argued questions. The first is an argument of Marc Prensky’s. Are our youth the digital natives that he coined? Are the older generation digital immigrants? Second, we will be looking into making money online and the question being asked: Are there limits? Lastly, we will be looking at whether or not it is a crime or netiquette to copy and paste or, in general use another’s works as your own. Is this wrong? In this paper, I will bring to light a few arguments and explain in detail and try to offer a feasible counter-argument in return. The first question offered by Mr. Marc Prensky is: Are our youth the digital natives and is the older generation the digital immigrants? I can agree that this, as a statement is, in my mind to a degree, is true. The one statement that I do not believe was cited here by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of a book titled Born Digital: â€Å"Are you a digital native? If you were born after 1980 then you are† (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). This statement loses me in that when I was a freshman in high school, we all stared at the first iMac and Apple IIe with awe and wonder. No Facebook, no IM, just DOS and not even 3. . I doubt, very much, that a teenager from this day and age could even fathom on what to do with DOS. Prensky believes that I am the digital immigrant. I believe this statement. I was not born into the digital age, therefore I am not native. This would be much like my ancestors immigrating to the United States, we are not from here anymore then I am from this age. Also , Prensky goes on to add that: â€Å"Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to â€Å"serious† work. †Ã¢â‚¬  http://depd. wisc. edu/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives. htm I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. People from my generation are used to work. We will not hesitate to print something out instead of just reading it off the laptop. We grew up with words and almost no pictures (graphics) as is the opposite for the younger generation. Next, we will be discussing; making money online and the question being asked: Are there limits? When you talk about making money online, there are two main entities that come to mind. EBay and Amazon. These are two giants where the average Joe may open an account and sell what he has to anyone in the world. Making money online can be a very good thing. It can be very profitable, but are there limits? I believe there certainly are. Some people still do not realize that there are illegal ways that people are making money online right now. One way is by Nigerian Letter scams. In 2001, estimates by the Secret Service claimed that more than $100 million was lost to Nigerian letter scams each year (Mintz, 2002, p. 15). I believe that if done legitimately, there really should be no limit to how much one can make online. Ideas like Fraud, theft and other scams are not good practices to teach or follow and should be sought out and banned from the internet. This way we help to protect the innocent and naive from such false ventures. Lastly, we will be looking at whether or not it is a crime or just plain netiquette to copy and paste or, in general use another’s works as your own. Is this wrong? Is it really stealing to copy and paste from a website that you don’t even own? One would argue that a piece they spent time creating was indeed taken and used by someone else, perhaps on their Facebook page. I too have fallen victim to this a time or two. In the end, I wished them luck and hoped that what I did, in some way helped them. It made them happy to take what I had created and post it on their page; in some small way, it does honor to the original creator of said works. Someone took the time to not only read what was created, but they felt proud to use it. No, I do not think you can steal something like that. If you owned the website and had created a logo or an expression than that would be very different. However, on the likes of Facebook and Myspace I do not feel that such things exist. In conclusion, we have discussed an argument of Marc Prensky’s. Are our youth the digital natives that he coined? Are the older generation digital immigrants? Second, we looked into making money online and the question being asked: Are there limits? Lastly, we looked at whether or not it is a crime or netiquette to copy and paste or, in general use another’s works as your own. Is this wrong? We in turn discussed some relative arguments to all of the above questions, while adding a few counter-arguments and finished with our thoughts.

Wyatt Earp

MBA 660 Production and Quality Management IKEA Case Sonal Gadre 05/04/10 1. What are IKEA’s competitive priorities? IKEA’s competitive priorities are price and design. They want to develop products that are cheap in price, and yet good in quality. They apply logic from the way they develop their products, to the way it is presented to the customers. 2. Describe IKEA’s process for developing a new product. IKEA’s process for developing a new product is to produce cost effective products that are good in quality and the information about the way the Trofe mug was developed conveys that. A team consisting of designers, product developers and purchasers get together to discuss ways to manufacture the product at the lowest cost possible. 3. What are additional features of the IKEA concept (beyond their design process) that contribute to creating exceptional value for the customer? Additional features of the IKEA concept that contributes to adding value to the customer includes its relationship with suppliers, distribution and logistics, and customer service in their stores. IKEA keeps costs low and offers good quality products. IKEA tries to reduce their prices every year. Going green is the mantra adopted by the company along with ethics which believe in no child labor. The logistics and the way their products are packed to the way they are stored is remarkable. Providing an on-site day care and a cafe makes the shopping experience good for children and their parents, to the way they display their products. The products are packed in such a way that customers can load them in the cars or u-hauls and transport them to their homes or offices. A customer is satisfied after viewing the product they have assembled. 4. What would be important criteria for selecting a site for an IKEA store? The important criteria for selecting a site for an IKEA store would be easy access to the store not just for the customers, but also for suppliers and transporters. The close proximity to ports, roads and rail transport could also be important criteria.

The First Presidential Debate in 2000

For the first time face to face the first debate of the 2000 presidential election was held at the campus of the University of Massachusetts. For ninety minutes last night, Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore and Republican Candidate Governor of Texas George W. Bush battled one another over tax cuts, prescription drugs, Social Security, energy policy, abortion, and education. On issues such as tax cuts, the Vice President proposed a plan, which cut taxes for middle class families, balance budgets every year, and pay down the national debt. He accused the Governor of cutting taxes for only the wealthiest 1% of the population. Gore†s plan was for every $1 given to things like education and health, another $1 would be given for middle class tax cuts, and for every dollar spent there, $2 would be expended to bring down the national debt. Gore felt that it was important to resist squandering the budget surplus. He also felt the prosperity should be used to enrich families and help parents strengthen families, making sure the schools they attended were safe, and preventing exposure to â€Å"cultural pollution.† Governor Bush†s views on tax cuts differed. His proposal was to put one half towards Social Security, one fourth towards important projects and the remaining one fourth to the people who pay the bills. Also accusing Gore of â€Å"Medi Scare,† he said he would make sure all seniors have Medicare and a variety of options to choose from. He also proposed a plan, Immediate Helping Hand, in which seniors could get immediate healthcare if they needed it. Gore opposed his Medicare payment plan saying that it would fail to help seniors for the first four to five years and that Bush†s plan spends â€Å"more money on tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent, than all the spending he proposes for education, health care, prescription drugs and national defense combined.† He also had much to say about the energy crisis. He wants to explore local areas for gas and oil, thus reducing dependency upon foreign sources. Gore agreed that reliance overseas for oil should be reduced but had something else in mind to reduce it. He proposed the idea of new trucks, cars, and machinery that reduces pollution and uses less energy. Bush felt that we should, rather than import one million barrels of oil a day from Saddam Hussein, drill the oil here. He wants to also join Canada and Mexico in exploring the land for oil reserves. Out of all the comments that Bush made about Gore last night, the most prominent one probably was when he kept on asking why Gore†s priorities haven†t been accomplished by now. For example, on prescription drugs, he said, † It seems like they can†t get it done† And on energy policy to prevent future shortages he said,† He should have been tackling it for the past seven years.† Another would be when Gore did the math on Bush†s tax plan and demonstrated why it would not be a good decision, Bush replied that he was doing â€Å"fuzzy math.† and â€Å"phony numbers† They couldn†t even agree on the size of the tax cut. Bush said that he would return $1.3 trillion of the predicted ten-year budget surplus to taxpayers. Gore said it would be $600 billion more than that.

Baseball Essay Research Paper I chose the

Baseball Essay, Research Paper I chose the subject baseball, because it # 8217 ; s a game I have loved since I was a small child. I have played baseball since I was five, and followed professional baseball since I was approximately nine. That is when I started roll uping baseball cards and watching the games. Although I had neer truly cared about baseball # 8217 ; s origin and history, recently I have been seeking to happen out every bit much as I can about it. Baseball # 8217 ; s beginning is unknown. Peoples believe many theories. One is that baseball originated from the British game of cricket. Another theory people believe is that baseball started when a immature male child was being chased by a group of older childs and they were throwing stones at him. All the male child had with him was his school books and a walking stick. When one of the childs threw a stone at him he hit it right back at him. When the childs saw this they were amazed. That gave the childs an thought. They got out their walking sticks and started to throw stones at each other. The victor was the 1 who hit it the farthest. Another theory is that in 1831 a male child named Abner Doubleday had his mas make him a ball out of bit leather and pieces of old narration and yarn. Abner and his brother Tim would travel in the pace and drama # 8220 ; catch. # 8221 ; Abner got tired of merely throwing the ball, so he thought of hitting the ball excessively. He would hold a # 8220 ; pitcher # 8220 ; # 8221 ; lob # 8221 ; the ball to the hitter who had a # 8220 ; hittin # 8217 ; stick. # 8221 ; The hitter would hit the ball every bit far as he could. Most people believe this narrative to be true. Around the 1850s recreational baseball squads began to jump up all over in the United States. During the early 1840s the first baseball game was recorded. Harmonizing to the New England regulations, if a hitter was hit by a ball thrown at him he was called out. Today a hitter needs to be either tagged by the participant with the ball, or have the first, 2nd, or 3rd baseman measure on the base if they had the ball in their manus. Although baseball has changed a batch, many things have stayed the same. Baseball used to be considered a gentlemen # 8217 ; s game. Merely the upper category played baseball. Since Baseball was a gentlemen # 8217 ; s game, # 8220 ; cussin # 8217 ; # 8221 ; wasn # 8217 ; T allowed. If you were caught # 8220 ; cussin # 8217 ; # 8221 ; you would hold to pay a six cent mulct. By the late 1860s everyone was playing baseball # 8211 ; from food market packers to concern proprietors. The amateurs formed a conference called the National League Association. If a squad wanted to go a portion of the NLA, and was good plenty, it would be accepted. The conference would form games, and do certain the squads had a topographic point to play. In 1881 the first professional baseball squad was formed. The NLA would non let them in because they wouldn # 8217 ; t let squads to pay its participants. Because of this, the Red Stockings set up their ain conference. They called it the American League Association. The National Association finally had to let professional squads in the conference because the American Association had so many more squads in their conference. Because baseball # 8217 ; s popularity had grown so much, the presidents of the ALA, and the NLA started to bear down admittance to games. Soon gamblers got involved. The NLA allowed chancing but the ALA banned it because the participants thought baseball was for amusement intents merely. In the NLA gaming got out of manus. The participants got involved with the gaming, and would intentionally throw a game. That happened more than one time. When the NLA tried to censor chancing in 1892 the conference became really unstable. Directors were seeking to discontinue, and the participants wanted to play in a just game, non a game that was lost on intent. In the early yearss of baseball Charles Comiskey pioneered many basicss of the game. He had the participants back-up each other # 8217 ; s throws, and catch the ball with two custodies. In the early old ages, foremost basemen played in disgusting district. Comiskey changed that. He had the first baseman drama on the left side of the disgusting line so that if the ball was hit his manner he could acquire to the ball, and do the drama. Charles was a # 8220 ; playing director # 8221 ; for the Washington Blue Caps. He played hurler, and developed the pitching manner called, # 8220 ; The Stretch. # 8221 ; A pitch where the hurler does non weave up, he merely stairss and throws the ball. Another pioneering participant was Denton True Young. Most people know him as Cy Young. The Cy is short for cyclone. He got that moniker because of his alone pitching manner. Because of Cy # 8217 ; s great ability to flip there is a fliping award named after him. The award is called the # 8220 ; Cy Young Award. # 8221 ; The award is given to the hurler who leads the conference in work stoppage outs and earned run average. In 1900 the National Association eventually became stable. The gaming had for the most portion stopped, and squads were willing to play once more. In 1908 backstop # 8217 ; s face masks and shin guards were invented. A individual could purchase a face mask for six dollars, and shin guards for seven dollars. During a game in 1909, an outfielder bruised his thenar on a fly ball he caught. He left the game but returned two innings subsequently with a brace of soft leather baseball mitts. He played the remainder of his calling with those baseball mitts. Everyone thought he was a chicken, but shortly everyone had a brace of the baseball mitts. Although baseball has changed a batch, many things have stayed the same, such as simple basicss. I think most professional baseball participants don # 8217 ; t cognize much about baseball # 8217 ; s past. If they took the clip to read about it they # 8217 ; vitamin D likely truly bask it. I learned a batch about baseball # 8217 ; s history while researching this study. I thought baseball had ever been around, and that all the regulations had been the same. I thought the same squads had been about since the beginning, but they have non. Thingss have changed, from the unvarying manner, to the type of wood the chiropteran is made of, to the type of narration used in the balls. I chose to compose about baseball # 8217 ; s beginnings because baseball is my favourite athletics. I learned a batch about who did what, and when they did it. I am glad I chose baseball, because I learned a batch about baseball # 8217 ; s history in America. Shapiro, Milton J. , The Day They Made The Record Book, New York: Julian Messner,1968. Dunham, Montrew, Abner Doubleday, New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. , 1965. Rosenburg, John M. , The Story of Baseball, New York: Random House, 1973. Schenck, Earl M. , Baseball, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1969.

Object Choice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Object Choice - Term Paper Example Hence the difficulty of relating to other people is likely to lead to uncertainty. The relationship between the drive and objects results from the inside pressure of the organism and the corresponding nee. It is by this relationship that the aim is achieved. The valuable thing is the element of the drive and therefore not fundamentally connected to the drive but has to be constructed. An object does not need to be uncommon but should be anything that is vulnerable to human soul including his body through object human soul and narcissistic. Freud described a sequence of pre-genital stage, that is more understood as defined by the component drives than the genetically terms. Contentment of each part was connected to anal, oral, and phallic. The idea of part object exists in partial drive. The choice of the object therefore unifies the sexual yearning in genetic factors, and orients to others do not occur until puberty. The drive that specifically relates to the part or total object, a part of a person or a whole person, and to total object i.e. love or hatred are clearly differentiated. An object is renowned as a source of pleasure and love which are converted into an ego in the Narcissistic stage (Roussillon 42). In Freud’s, points out that hate and love should not be referred as drives for their objects but reversed for the relationship with the total ego of objects. Therefore, the choice of an object refers to the love object and not the drive object (Mitchell). In ego libido as opposed to object libido as referred by Freud, the object appearance is expressed in terms of limited sense of the external part of an object, which does not involve the ego. Moreover, it vividly emerge that he concentrates on psychological and intra-psychological theory. Roussillon analysis of Freud’s Anaclisis theory in chapter eight required more from self-preservation than is crucial from the object (Roussillon 232). The child was

This is for an intro to American lit class. My topic is-- How does Essay

This is for an intro to American lit class. My topic is-- How does Benjamin Franklin's autobiography begin to articulate a distinctively American conception of - Essay Example He is no other than Benjamin Franklin, the â€Å"First American†. He has been given this title since he was an early proponent of Colonial unity He owes his personal integrity, the respect of his fellowmen as well as foreigners, not to mention his financial success over the years to the thirteen virtues listed in his Autobiography and his strict adherence to them. They are as follows: When Franklin framed his 13 virtues, he meant them not for himself alone but also for others to follow, particularly his progeny. He is said to have stated: â€Å"Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity at which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world and having so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.† (Franklin, 1791) Benjamin Franklin living out the 13 virtues, embodied the American identity. This is how he envisioned his compatriots to live out their lives. Today, for most Americans, most, if not all of the aforementioned character traits are lived out in their daily lives – whether or not they have patterned their actions on the example of Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin who lived from January 17, 1706 to April 17, 1790, was possibly the most famous 18th century American, next only to George Washington. He authored Poor Richard’s Almanac under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, which writing contained advice on how to get ahead in the world. Apparently, he followed his own advice and by 1757 made a small fortune for himself. His reports on electrical experiments and theories brought him fame among European scientific circles. It was about this time that he was starting a lengthy career as a politician. He became chief spokesman for the British colonies in their debates with the king’s ministers. In 1776, he was a member of the Committee of Five that

What is beauty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

What is beauty - Essay Example fixed in the subconscious memory of the person at the gene level as a result of human evolution. This implies that beautiful form, line, shape and color combination are practical solutions worked out by millions of years of natural selection. Can something be beautiful to one person but not to another?  David Hume said that: â€Å"Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others†. (Hume. p.136) I consider that this thesis is the main concept of beauty. In my understanding of this question I relay on this thesis. So I can say â€Å"Yes†, one and the same thing can be beautiful to one person but not to another. Does a work of art have to be beautiful to be considered good art?  I consider that the art must be beautiful. Some pictures of modern artists can be called art but not all the people find them beautiful. Here be back to the main concept of beauty saying that one and the same thing can be interpreted in different ways by different people. The understanding of beautifulness of the art can vary depending on the persons’ perception. It also depends on a cultural belonging of a person that is what we call authentic art of different cultures. So, as an inference I can say that art is a very versatile concept which cannot be enclosed in one thing as a beauty-gauge. Is beauty just a physical thing? Who or what decides what the standers of beauty are? Scientists have found that from the microcosm to the cosmos, everything exists in harmony due to the law called the "divine proportion". If there is a subjective idea of ​​beauty, a masterpiece of music, painting or poetry, everything meets this criterion. It could be derived geometrically from a right triangle and his unit

Choose a contemporary issue and offer an equally outrageous solution Essay

Choose a contemporary issue and offer an equally outrageous solution to highlight its importance - Essay Example Induced abortions according to World Health Organization (19) include those that are performed in relation to legal sanctions and those done against the law. The term therapeutic abortion, strictly defined, according to World Health Organization (19) refers to medically indicated abortion for women whose life or health is in danger in the case of continuation of pregnancy or if the health of the unborn child is threatened by congenital or genetic factors. We are faced by this issue of abortion, and it affects ladies mostly. There are various reasons why ladies opt for an abortion. Kim argues that (7) each year throughout the world forty-six million women chose abortion; that means every two seconds three women choose abortion. Even in the U.S., where there are more than 1 million abortions a year. Many ladies say the following reasons as to why they have an abortion. (Kim, 8-10). they have abortions to save their lives, they might have an abortion because rape or incest caused her pr egnancy, she might have health problems, she might be concerned with the health of the fetus, she might be too young to mother a child Abortion has only an advantage when either of the fetus is in danger, or the mother is in danger. The danger may vary from the mother to fetus, but if the mother's condition is in danger, then abortion is advised. There are many benefits to remaining un-pregnant â€Å"advantages of abortion† (Hill) and he continues to write that, there is solid research proving that having an abortion improves a young woman’s educational outcome. Hill provides a report by Battle Creek which says, â€Å"young women frequent state the issue of unplanned pregnancy and its impact on their financial future and educational as some of the key reasons for seeking abortion. Study findings, legitimates concern, for young women who conceive before the age of 21 and opt for an abortion has better educational outcomes compared to those who conceive before age of 21 and do not go for abortion. â€Å"Abortions Among Young Women and Subsequent Life Outcomes,† by David M. Fergusson et al., published in the March 2007 issue of Perceptiveness on Sexual and Reproductive Health, uses longitudinal data from Christ church Health and Development Study in New Zealand to analyze the extent for the decision abort has advantages to a woman† In an article of â€Å"Pros and Cons about Abortion†, it is argued that, many a times’ abortion helps safeguard woman’s health. There are women who suffer from various hazardous medical conditions such as heart disease, kidney, severe hypertension, and sick-cell anemia. These diseases can be life threatening and an abortion can be used to help prevent these conditions from affecting the mother. It continues to give another reason that, in male chauvinist societies, women are considered nothing more than child bearing machines. Therefore, an abortion provides an individual identity to the woman where she can make a decision on the fate of her child. From my own personal view, trying to look at the stated advantages of abortion, I can say that, there is none. Why, because, one is denying another person a life, same to murder, a fetus, even if still in the womb, its living, its life maturing, it is growing, hence abortion cuts short its life. Arguing from the point of; taking away life of a living thing is so wrong according to

The impact of climate change on logistics management Essay

The impact of climate change on logistics management - Essay Example It basically refers to the management of the activities for the collections of raw materials to the production at the factories to the distribution of these goods. The manager must coordinate with all of these pieces in a cordial manner for the effective management of the supply chain (Mentzer, 2001). Logistics Management is widely known concept in the global world. All companies rely on the logistics for the efficient flow of the goods and services. For Example: Industrial manufactures rely heavily on these logistics for the transportation of the mass-produced items. At the same time, the consumer goods manufactures want their goods to be delivered to the outlets and warehouses before the customer calls for it. Therefore, Logistics management has now evolved into one of the most important links in the supply chain process (DHL, 2010). Logistics refers to the part of the supply chain management that plans, implements and processes the flow of the goods and services from the source to the end consumer. It includes both thee forward and reverse flow as well as the storage of the goods. The vital elements of this part include all modes of transportation, inventory control and storage, packing and flow of information. Figure 1 shows the costs and investment in different sectors’ logistics departments. Climatic Change takes place over millions to thousands of years. It is a statistical shift of weather and climate that takes place, changing the environment of the earth. When analyzed over hundreds of years, the climatic conditions have patches of climate having similar qualities and properties. The shift from one climate to another climate takes place slowly and gradually in order to maintain the ecological system. The biggest climatic change that is being anticipated these days and is mostly in the news is global warming. It is a shift towards a hotter climate due to the green house gases

Chose an ecosystem, analyze the impact of human activity on the Essay

Chose an ecosystem, analyze the impact of human activity on the ecosystem, and provides guidelines to help preserve your chosen - Essay Example Saving these rainforest ecosystems and rehabilitating forest lands is critical to ensure clean air and a healthy environment for all. Tropical Rainforest Ecosystems An ecosystem is a community of living organisms, as well as the non living components in their environment, on whom they depend for their needs. Nutrients and energy that are obtained from the environment are used so as to maintain an ecosystem. An ecosystem consists of various species and each of them has a relationship with other species that cohabit the ecosystem. Ecosystems are of various types and are determined by the prevailing climatic conditions which in turn define the vegetation and the variety of life forms found there. Examples of ecosystems are rainforests, grasslands, deserts, and water ecosystems like marine or freshwater ecosystems. Ecosystems can be divided into their biotic or living components like primary producers that are green plants, herbivores, carnivores etc; and the abiotic or non living compon ents like sunlight, temperature, moisture and so on. ... The Amazon rainforest, also known as Amazonia is the largest rainforest in the world. It is sometimes referred to as the lungs of the planet, due to its capacity to recycle large quantities of carbon dioxide into oxygen. Situated in South America, the Amazon rainforest covers more than half of Brazil and is the drainage basin for the Amazon river and its tributaries. Its proximity to the equator ensures plenty of heat and sunlight, which in turn generates rain that provides the moisture. High temperatures, and abundant rainfall throughout the year, results in a climate that is warm and humid. These are ideal conditions for the growth of all types of vegetation including a wide variety of trees, plants shrubs and other vegetation, which attracts innumerable birds, insects and animals. Hence rainforests are rich in their biological diversity and home to myriads of animal, bird and insect species. Biodiversity is important to the environment because it increases productivity in an ecosy stem, where every species, no matter how tiny, contributes to the health and well being of the ecosystem. As Ban Ki Moon (2010) rightly points out â€Å"Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend for food and fresh water, health and recreation, and protection from natural disasters.† (Ban Ki Moon, 2010) The Amazon rainforest consists of four layers, the emergent layer, the canopy, the shrub layer and the forest floor. The emergent layer consists of the tallest trees, some that are over 50 meters in height. The leaves of these trees are smooth and waxy and taper to what is known as a drip tip to allow water to drip off it to the layer below. The canopy is below the emergent layer and is a sea of leaves. Since the tallest trees and the canopy of

Epistemology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Epistemology - Essay Example Different idealists have a different perception regarding how the substance is dependent on the consciousness. Therefore there are many diverse types of idealism. Subjective idealism is mainly simple and it can be said that this type of idealism is the most popular type of idealism. These idealists believe that substance is formed from the rational elements of the mind which examine it. For example, the feeling spectators have when going through a number of sensations is all that there actually is to those sensations. Subjective idealism might look a bit odd although there is the existence of definite reasoning behind it. Absolute idealism is the belief that the reality of tangible things rely on one fundamental psychological reality and not on the psychological elements of each person as an observer. These idealists believe that there is only one fundamental mental or holy object or standard whose psychological action and element strengthens the continuation of the tangible world. P luralistic idealism is a belief that numerous individual minds exist and jointly they motivate the subsistence of the world. They believe that person mind is the main foundation of reality.The term idealism was first coined by Leibniz (1646-1716), he used this term to while talking about the philosophy of Plato. However, in the history, this term normally signifies a time period from the end of the 1700s till the initial years of the next century. In actuality, idealism has a much wider historical scale.

The Quest Of Life From Childhood To Death Essay Example for Free

The Quest Of Life From Childhood To Death Essay The quest for life has always been a medley of â€Å"the good, the bad and the ugly†. The occasional ups and downs of life and the frequent twists of fate here and there have left nobody untouched even the famous celebrities people see as role models. From Cradle to grave, everyone is faced with one challenge or the order of diverse degree. This was what Terry Kay’s plot captured in his classical, award winning novel titled To Dance With The White Dog. The plot of the novel revolves around Sam Peek, a complete family man, a local farmer and a celebrity, for featuring in many horticultural magazines in Hart County, Georgia, who devotedly planted pecan tress and even more devotedly loved his wife, Cora. For over 55 years, they were happily married, with kids until tragedy came knocking one night when Cora suddenly develops a heart attack which led to her death. Sam, already in his eighties was deeply saddened by his wife’s death. The children were not left out in sharing in the sorrow for they were one very happy family and devotedly loved each other. Sam’s health was naturally affected with by his grief and his daughter, Kate became too worried over his health, most especially when Sam claimed he keeps seeing a stray white dog that nobody else could see. Even Sam’s favorite son, James did not see the dog initially and everybody believes that the grief has affected his and simply going crazy, except his grandson, Bobby. However, after a series of events, everybody began seeing the white dog. Until the dog eventually disappears immediately after Sam’s death. It was concluded that the dog was Cora in another form. The theme of the novel is virtually about the quest or journey of life.The series of quest in Sam’s journey of life. His â€Å"saddest day† of loosing his wife, the lonesomeness that follows and the strength to live life without his wife. Sam’s story is about a true grief, aging, love and family life. Adding flavour to the quest is the mysterious White Dog that can only be seen by Sam Peek. It demonstrated a life-long love, natural process of aging and family relationship. One can taste bitterness and sweetness as one enters Sam’s life. You can feel the tears in his eyes, loneliness in his heart and joys on his face as the entire book enfolds vividly and dissolves in your mind. The book has been described as poetry portraying itself to be fiction. Despite his many children and friends, Sam felt lonely after his wife’s death. He had been invited for his 60 year college re-union, which he was looking forward to going along with Cora who promised to go with him. She died the very day the invitation came in the mail. Sam left home for the re-union, but lost his way along the road, he ended up in a medley of memories of his past struggles and achievements. He ended up going to where he proposed to Cora. He took a while reflecting on how he spent his life, the good old days with his wife, the younger days of the children. The life after his wife’s death and his companion, the mysterious white dog. He eventually discovers that he has cancer. As the cancer progresses in its stages, his oldest daughter moved back in to take care of him. Meanwhile, during his lonely days, his companion, the white dog would come around to keep him company. He was living alone in the farm. His children did not believe he could survive living alone in the farm without his wife. â€Å"How can this elderly man live alone on his farm? How can he keep on driving his dilapidated truck down to the fields to care for his few rows of pecan trees?†   Their fear was further aggravated when Sam keeps telling them about a white dog, â€Å"as white as the pure driven snow†, which seems to be   invisible to everyone but him, his children   be to think that grief and old age have gotten to his brain. Sam on the other hand begin to think his children crazy. Sam, knew he saw the dog. He, one of the smartest men in the South when it comes to trees could not be insane. He survived the pain of loss, grief, loneliness and old age yet maintaining the old farm alone. It is an emotional and intriguing story tracing Sam’s life through his life span, his memories, travails and the process of learning in life. Sam learns that the simple things of life are the most important after all. When he needed anyone, the white dog was always there, showing itself only when it felt was necessary. The story proves that love transcends death, for the love of Sam and Cora continued after Cora’s death through the white dog that Sam saw licking up grease on his back porch. Strangely enough, the white dog looked just like a dog that Sam and his wife had when they first were married. As Sam’s eldest daughter moved in to take care of him in his dying days, he opens the door for the white dog never to be seen again. After Sam’s death, the dog was not seen again either, only a faint print of the dog’s paws was noticed on his grave. The work was inspired by the experience of the writer and that of his parents. Kay was born in Hart County, Georgia, the setting of his novel. The eleventh of twelve children, which was the reason Sam had many children and friends. He grew up on a farm, he said that his parents had an undying love which he uses his novel to express, proving that true love disregards the concept of time and can possibly carry on lasting for eternity. It is actually a revised story of his experience about love, family and relationships.   A memorable experience of his childhood struggles, parental love and devotion, peer and family interaction etc. Summarily, the novel captures a true- life-like-story of humor, love, and friendship woven through the journey of Sam’s life. A quest for life from cradle to grave of an old man who must deal with the death of his wife death, as well as the trials of old age. A compelling story of the unusual struggle for survival despite the loss of a true companion and the other series of events time temper one life with. Sam Peek is a personification of strength, will and endurance, as he chose to continue to live on with all odds. Eventually his death culminates to creativity of the novel as the paws of his perpetual companion, the white dog, which was another form of Cora, was found on his grave. A true proof that their love will continue even after death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Reference: Terry Kay: To Dance With the White Dog: Washington Square Press 1st edition Trade.1991 Paperback. ISBN # 0671726730 http://www.terrykay.com/TerryBio.html www.mupress.org/webpages/books/blackmarrhouse.html www.amazon.com