Principle of Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principle of Marketing - Case Study Example Coca Cola offers more than 400 hundred brands in over 200 countries.2.The five brands of Coca Cola are as follows- Product life cycle can be explained as the different stages starting from the introduction stage to the decline stage that a specific product goes through. Product life cycle assessment is conducted to find out the current life cycle stage of the product. Life-cycle assessment aims to find out the environmental burdens throughout the whole life-cycle of a product starting from raw material procurement, production, use and finally to disposal.3 Consider the extension of product life cycle and the Jenkins customer growth matrix. Identify and discuss how Coca Cola might have applied these models to help ensure the continued success of Coca Cola products in the market place. Extension of product life cycle and Jenkins customer growth matrix might have been applied by Coca Cola for ensuring the continued success of the Coca Cola products in the market. It is being explained below. Existing customers-existing products: only a very few companies have a 100% share of customers share. Customers buy a product marketed by a variety of marketers. Only true-blue customers always buy the same product marketed by a specific company. ... It is being explained below. Existing customers-existing products: only a very few companies have a 100% share of customers share. Customers buy a product marketed by a variety of marketers. Only true-blue customers always buy the same product marketed by a specific company. Coca Cola could have trued to increase its share of customers' expenditure by increasing its sale among the potential consumers. As Coca Cola has already a wide distribution channel and global presence, by implementing this growth strategy Coca Cola could have expanded its client base. Existing customers-new products: This growth strategy calls for introduction of new products targeted at the existing consumers. A company has to be able to crate value through introduction of new products. Coca Cola could have introduced new products targeted at the existing consumers. A Coca Cola has a vast number of loyal consumers across the globe; Coca Cola could be taken advantage of its position in the existing consumers mind. Considering the image of Coca Cola and its current loyal customer base across the globe, implementation of this strategy could have brought positive results for Coca Cola by strengthening its bottom line. Existing products-new customers: This growth strategy requires expanding the current customer base through increasing market share. Coca Cola could have used this strategy considering its global presence as well as splendid brand equity. Attracting new customers to its wide array of brands could be easier for Coca Cola as its products are viewed as superior than its competitors' products. Furthermore, the existing heavy users could also have been utilized for marketing campaign in the form of WOM (word of moth).

Introduction Applied Performance Practices Business Essay

Introduction Applied Performance Practices Business Essay Financial Rewards is the most fundamental applied performance practice in organizational settings. Pay has multiple meanings, such as symbol of success, reinforcer and motivator, reflection of performance, reduce anxiety and so on. The meaning of money also varied. There are four types of rewards in the workplace: Membership and Seniority Based Rewards -Represent the largest part of most pay checks and fixed wages, seniority increases. Job Status-Based Rewards -Include job evaluation and status perks. Competency-Based Rewards -Pay increases with competencies acquired and demonstrated. Performance-Based Rewards -An overview of some of the most popular individual, team, and organizational performance based rewards. Besides that, company will have their own way to increase the job effectiveness and improving the company performances. Below are the type of way: Job Design- The process of assigning tasks to a job, including the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs. Job Specialization The result of division of labor in which work is subdivided into separate jobs assigned to different people. Job Rotation- The practice of moving employees from one job to another. Background of the Coca-Cola Company Soft drinks are getting popular nowadays. There are so many soft drinks company around the world. One of the most popular beverage company is Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company, produces a variety of soft drinks and consumer products. Coca-Cola was founded in May 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia, a pharmacist. There was a time when Pemberton actually trying to concoct a headache remedy, but once he mixed his special syrup with carbonated water, a brand new taste drink is created. He let some of his customers tasted the result, and they praised for the awesomeness of the drink. He realized that he has successfully created something new and it is the popular soda fountain beverage. The name of Coca-Cola was coined by his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. Later on, a businessman, Asa Griggs Candler has purchased it and introduced it as a carbonated soft drink in the market. Then Coca-Cola dominated the market of carbonated soft drinks throughout the 20 century. Coca-Cola has also became one of the global market leaders in the beverage industry. The branch of Coca-Cola has spread all over the world, such as North America, Eurasia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Pacific. There are approximate more than 500 non-alcoholic beverage brands owned or licensed by the Coca-Cola company, mainly sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages, such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. Being the worlds largest beverage distribution system, there are more than 200 consumers enjoy their beverages at a rate of more than 1.8 billion servings a day. Coca-Cola also rank among the worlds top 10 private employees with more than 700,000 system employees. The Company competes with PepsiCo, Inc., Nestle, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., Groupe Danone, Kraft Foods Inc. and Unilever. Mission Vision There are many challenges faced by the company. Competitors are making brand new strategies to defeat the company. Therefore, the company need to clear and understand the direction of the business in the market and predict the future. Their vision for next ten years is about to create a long term destination program for their business which will also provide them a Roadmap for winning from their bottling competitors. Mission Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions. To refresh the world To inspire moments of optimism and happiness To create value and make a difference. Vision Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable,  quality growth. People:  Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be. Portfolio:  Bring to the world a portfolio of  quality  beverage  brands  that anticipate and satisfy peoples desires and needs. Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value. Planet:  Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities. Profit:  Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities. Productivity:  Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization. Content Part Theory and Concept Coca-Cola Company relies on prudent systems, offers employee jobs with high motivation potential, expects staff to manage themselves, and delegates power to branches, resulting in high levels of employee empowerment and performance. The most common elements of reward using by Coca-Cola Company are based on long term incentives reward, annual incentives reward and base salary reward. All the rewards given to the employees based on membership and seniority -based rewards, competency-based rewards and Job status based-rewards. All middle and senior management, excluding our executive team, participate in the CocaCola Hellenic Long- Term Incentive Plan. Starting from the 2011-2013 Long-Term Incentive Plan, they operate under a new format aimed at linking employee performance to short- and long-business priorities and rewarding employees accordingly. Incentive payouts are based on business performance against three-year objectives which are set on an annual basis. Exceptional business performance may result in awards in excess of individual target payouts. The performance of the plan will be measured against selected KPI performance over a three-year period; that KPI s includes volume market share, net sales revenue per unit case and Group ROIC. The target payout for the plan is determined for each individual based on their performance, potential and level of responsibility and the plan payout takes places at the third anniversary of the plan. Coca-Cola Company awards the employees by using performance-based rewards. The employees will receive their reward based on their performance. Besides, Coca-Cola Company also using types of reward like annual incentive reward. The reward will be given to the employees based on the Job-status-based reward. While their goal is long-term sustainable growth, the Compensation Committee chooses annual incentives to pay to reward Named Executive Officers for individual performance and operational results for an operating group and/or overall Company performance on an annual basis. The annual objectives are carefully chosen to ensure integration and alignment with our overall long-term objectives. At the start of the incentive period, Compensation Committee designs the target amount, based on a percentage of base salary. Total benefits package is highly regarded and is designed to meet employees basic and life-changing  benefits  needs. As market dynamics evolve, the Company regularly assesses our benefits programs to ensure employees receive those benefits they value and are provided with diverse options that address the issues of individuals and families and promote healthy lifestyles. As  to fetch information on the part of employees problems, Cola-Cola Company makes  close collaborative  or communication  system  with them to satisfy them all to increases their efficiency and effectiveness. Because need and wants of employees are changing day by day to satisfy meaningful needs and wants are very important in the behalf of organization so as to use best potential of both physical and mental competencies is very important. Thats why defining criteria of rewarding them have a significant importance for the mutual  benefits  of  both  employees  and  organization.  Rewards  have  greater  importance  and effectiveness in Pakistani cultures, because people have more demand of them. What do you think is the most important emerging issue in the design of work? Diversity and limitlessness are the factors that stand out in the case study about the Coca-Cola Company.    With Coca-Cola being a worldwide company that offers such an array of products, they must hire flexible and diverse employees to support the needs of the still-growing company.    The employees reviews reaffirmed that by hiring a diverse group of employees and task them with different challenges in different countries; their choice to staff the company in this way has been successful.    By working with other unique individuals, they are enlightened by new methods of thinking and working.   The work specialization of Coca-Cola Company is high, as each Manager is made responsible for only a particular function, which is his expertise. There is no boredom or monotony as each salesman is meeting the different sort of person and the work is challenging and promotions are based on performance there is no monotony and boredom. Real Life Example The Coca-Cola Company rewards programs are regularly benchmarked against a select peer group of the major competitors and key players in the local market. The rewards management teams are based on the rewards programs that set by the company to give rewards. There are many ways to rewards the employees and one of the rewards ways that the company rewards the employees is based on the performance-based rewards. First the Coca Colas management team prefers grade for defining pay. Before there prepare the performance reward level there will do the research by conducting survey for the top five companies. There will conduct minimum three year rewards ranges of those top five companies and take average of them. Then there will decide their performance rewards system according to their management grades. The each year inflation rate has to be included no matter the employees individual performance increase or not. The Coca Cola human resource management also looking forward to performance ratings has mentioned. It will help the team to define a system in an organization systematic from to remove biases and ambiguity. Besides that the examples of the company use the competency-based rewards. The Coca Cola Company is a beverage industry which is focus more on the product with high quality, sell more and also get more customer satisfaction. So the management team creates more opportunities for the sales people to sell more and get more. By generating high work performance and make more profits, the company are able to utilize full potential of sales people. Because of that rewards system, the sales people have more opportunities to get rewards of both intrinsic and extrinsic ones. The table below is the example of the competency based rewards. Ares under consideration Sales% H.R% Account% Analysis Performance to organization goals 60-70 65-75 50-60 Average Performance of workers A achieve 40-55 50-60 40-50 Unsatisfied Performance of workers B achieve 75-85 60-70 60-70 Good Acceptance Thus, the Coca Cola Company also have use the job status based rewards. There are many country Coca Cola Company is providing such rewards likes Great Britain, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium. Those countrys company are depending on the job and grade the employees could be offered a company car, mobile phone, laptop, private health insurance, financial planning or free internet at home. Besides those countries, Norway and Sweden are offering the company car with free fuel. Furthermore, different job status of employees can choose different type of rewards, perks or benefits. Beside the reward, The Coca Cola Company also has a different way of conducting business than most companies. There has used the job design for the work or job management. There start with looking for secret ingredients that potential employees may have that will help grow the recipe for success for the individual and the company. At the each level and location, The Coca Cola Company will use the best combination of diverse individuals to fill the different positions in a way that benefits the team at the location. The main objective there focus which is on diversity of their employees as well as their products and markets can continues being successful. By using the diversity, it has great success as one of the main criteria for employee searches. Besides that, there also dont limit their employees position in the company in order to allow them to grow within the organization as well as personally, which allows them to take the job as far as they want it to go. The Coca Cola Company also will think about or consider the idea and suggestions from all level, again can using their diversity to improve the company and also the individual. The mutual respect and appreciation within the workplace nurtures the individuals so that there grow within the company and that in turn reduces turnover, boosted employee morale, productivity, teams work and company loyalty. Lastly, because of that, the Coca Cola Company is still growing more every year. Disadvantages of Coca-Cola Company rewards system We all know the concept of nothing is perfect and same goes to Coca-Cola Company. It sounds so sweet on what rewards Coca-Cola Company has given to the employees, but there is a lot of weaknesses hidden and left unseen. First and for most, Coca-Cola Company rewards the employees based on their performance. However, using the performance based reward may only reward those who apparently contributed to company and neglected the others employees that contributed silently. This may pop-up the feeling of jealousy among the employees. The discrimination or dissatisfaction among employees may affects their morale and companys reputation. Besides, performance based reward system may bring out the problem that the employees will have focusing on individual rewards and abandoned the teamwork. Competition can be good but if its too aggressive it can be detrimental. The employees may lose sight of their customers needs and allow service or satisfaction to suffer in lieu of achieving good performance. Unity is strength, there are works that couldnt be done individually. Therefore, performance based reward should paying attention on team reward but not individual reward. Due to the reason of humans judgment might be bias, a system is necessary to evaluate the employees job performance. The KPI is one of the system generally used by the company. However, there are some disadvantages when measure the employees performance based on KPI. KPI couldnt measure long term performance of the employees. As if the appraisal is only measure the recent performance, hence it is not conducted fairly. It may cause animosity in the office. In addition, KPI only focus on the outcome and it lose the creativity from the employees. This may discourage employees from experimenting with innovative solutions that might produce a better result. Moreover, the employees loyalty couldnt be measured. Employees loyalty represented how much can he scarified for the company which is also a main point to lead company to success. Aside from that, the annual or monthly incentives given by the company shouldnt be equal to everyone, because it might demotivated the employees from working hard. They might have a thought that nor matter they did anything right or wrong they will still rewarded the same by the company. Giving different base rewards may motivate the employees from working harder. Coca-Cola Company rewarding their customers based on monthly too. A company giving rewards too often might leads to huge expectation of employees. The employees may expect to receive same value of rewards in future, then any potential motivation of reward will be lost. The gift will act as a regular compensation but not an additional bonus for motivation. When a bigger pay-out doesnt happen, employees can become disgruntled, which can hinder work performance or, in a worst-case scenario, leave the company. Therefore, there must be a good balance of incentives for these admin/support staff or else they will not feel appreciated. Last but not least, Coca-Cola Company should have paying greater reward to those who hardworking and overtime always. Some of the employees are dissatisfied on the pay of overtime since the half hour of working is not counted. It shows that Coca-Cola Company is not treating fair to their employees. While talking about job specialization, one of the key disadvantages of specialization is that jobs often become monotonous. Employees do not like to focus on one specific job because it may increase employees boredom and they will become tedious, empty and unsatisfying. With specialization, people rarely meet the final product and  are merely selling their labor for a price as if it were a commodity. Their job satisfaction decreases and the quality of job performance will fall. At the same time, it may cause unemployment. This happen when there is no similar job offered if you are fired. Also it limit the freedom of the choice of work. Lesser flexibility; in the absence of a worker, it is hard to shift workload to any of the available workers because they do not have variety of skills. Greater chances of workers getting local muscular fatigue because the same muscles are used in doing the task. As job rotation promote employees to perform different task, if they discover it as a weakness, the task would not be performed well as those is specialize is stronger at it. Another disadvantage is that staff could be rotated away from a task that they enjoy, or perform very well to a high standard which could lead to other staff members not performing the same tasks as well. Furthermore, a huge amount of money is needed to train the employees, to make sure the employees able to handle the task given through job rotation strategy. When the employees are moving around into multiple positions, you must invest time and money into training the workers in all those positions. Not only cost, but also the time of the managers  and others who must train the employees in each area. Recommendation For the performance-based reward use by the Coca-Cola company, our team share the same thoughts that performance-based reward does not fully motivate employees to enhance their best performance practices, which doesnt flexible enough to cover all kind of peoples motivation. Peoples have different values, beliefs or motivation. Some doesnt seek for monetary rewards only, but they also looking for higher job satisfaction, the relationship with the people together and participation in value creation. Besides that, different cultures can influence the meaning and value of money. After go through the disadvantages of current reward system, we suggest Coca-Cola to evaluate their own reward system effectiveness rather than giving more reward to ensure performance and rewards can reach the balance level. First of all Coca-Cola company must ensure their rewards given are valued by the employees. Delivered rewards have to drive the specific employee behaviors to achieve business strategies. Every rewards given will be appreciate by employees and push themselves to achieve higher productivity and performance. Make sure the company and staffs alike understand the value of each reward to ensure transparency. Therefore it is better to have combination of reward system to provide the workforce from different races and cultures can gain their values. Secondly, Coca-Cola must ensure rewards are relevant to attract and retain the staff who can contribute well to the company either way in intrinsic rewards or extrinsic rewards. Last but not least, watch out for unintended consequences too. Some employees may take rewards for granted and company have to make confirmation on rewards given must be make good use by them. For multinational company like Coca-Cola, although they had decentralized the management decision making, job analysis and designing follows the same international structure. Although some deviations may be found on some regions, the company adapts a similar job description and analysis structure. Therefore, Coca-Cola should encourage employees to have self-leadership to perform better in every task. It helps to apply self-motivation and self-direction to accomplish task and cope with company business strategies. The elements of self-leadership included with setting personal direction, construct thoughts pattern, design natural rewards, self-monitoring and self-reinforcement. It trains employee to have higher levels of conscientiousness and extroversion, and positive self-evaluation too. In organizational factor, it turns to more job autonomy, employees tend to have participative leadership and able to build measurement-oriented culture. When employees capable of doing their jobs wel l, organization will require less man power and save more cost on human resources. Well-trained employees will be more productive when theyre more directly involved in decision making process, rather than closely supervised by many layers of management. Empowerment also recommended in Coca-Cola. Empowerment is based on the idea that giving employees  skills,  resources,  authority,  opportunity,  motivation, as well  holding  them responsible and  accountable  for outcomes of their  actions that will  contribute  to their  competence  and  satisfaction. When employees believe they have the authority to make decision, it can improve task significance and task identity. They feel that they have more freedom and discretion and their action influence the companys success. They dont have much excuse to escape from their responsibilities. They know more options, limits, or have experience that helps them make good decisions for the company and the customer.  Ã‚  They have been trained.  Ã‚  That same training can easily be delivered to the frontline employees so they can make better decisions, quickly, and accurately. In a nut shell, if Cola-cola wants to be more competitive in the market, they need to keep up with the changes in management. They need to concern about the organization directions and business strategies. Employees run the company and Coca-Cola must know how to reward his employees and restructure their organization structure whenever the time has come.

Succot: The Jewish Holiday :: essays research papers

Succot: The Jewish Holiday After the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, the wandering Jews lived in tents or booths, called Succots. They were pitched wherever they happened to stop for the night. Today it is called the Succot the festival of booths remembering both the ancient agricultural booths and those of the Exodus. The harvest festival of thanksgiving, Succot, begins five days after Yom Kippur, and lasts for eight days. The first two days are the most holy, during which most Jews do not work. The families construct the booths and decorate it with branches, and leaves, fruits, and other designs. The roof is covered lightly, so the stars and the sky can still be seen. Most Jewish families eat all their meals in the Succot, while some even sleep in them. During the Succot festival, thanks are given for all growing plants by using four plants which are symbolic of all the rest. These four plants also represent the Jewish people. The Etrog, or the citrus fruit, stands for the people who are educated in the Torah and who do good deeds. The Lulav, or branch of the date palm, stands for the Jewish people who have knowledge but no good deeds. The Hadas,or myrtle, symbolizes the people who do good deeds, but are not educated. The Aravah, or willow, stands for the people who have no good deeds and no education. These plants are carried around the synagogue in a procession while prayers are recited for blessings on the land and fruit of Israel. In biblical times, the willow, the palm, and the Etrog were used in decorating the Succot. At the end of the Autum harvest, on the fifteenth day of Tishri (September-October) Succot is celebrated. It is believed that the festival originated with the ancient Canaanite celebration after the grape harvest at the end of the annual dry season. During this time rites were performed to incourage the rains. Boughs of fruit trees and evergreens were made into little booths which the early Jewish farmers lived during the festival. The last day of Succot is called Simhat Torah. It means the "rejoicing of the Torah." On this day, the reading of the Torah is completed, and is then Succot: The Jewish Holiday :: essays research papers Succot: The Jewish Holiday After the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, the wandering Jews lived in tents or booths, called Succots. They were pitched wherever they happened to stop for the night. Today it is called the Succot the festival of booths remembering both the ancient agricultural booths and those of the Exodus. The harvest festival of thanksgiving, Succot, begins five days after Yom Kippur, and lasts for eight days. The first two days are the most holy, during which most Jews do not work. The families construct the booths and decorate it with branches, and leaves, fruits, and other designs. The roof is covered lightly, so the stars and the sky can still be seen. Most Jewish families eat all their meals in the Succot, while some even sleep in them. During the Succot festival, thanks are given for all growing plants by using four plants which are symbolic of all the rest. These four plants also represent the Jewish people. The Etrog, or the citrus fruit, stands for the people who are educated in the Torah and who do good deeds. The Lulav, or branch of the date palm, stands for the Jewish people who have knowledge but no good deeds. The Hadas,or myrtle, symbolizes the people who do good deeds, but are not educated. The Aravah, or willow, stands for the people who have no good deeds and no education. These plants are carried around the synagogue in a procession while prayers are recited for blessings on the land and fruit of Israel. In biblical times, the willow, the palm, and the Etrog were used in decorating the Succot. At the end of the Autum harvest, on the fifteenth day of Tishri (September-October) Succot is celebrated. It is believed that the festival originated with the ancient Canaanite celebration after the grape harvest at the end of the annual dry season. During this time rites were performed to incourage the rains. Boughs of fruit trees and evergreens were made into little booths which the early Jewish farmers lived during the festival. The last day of Succot is called Simhat Torah. It means the "rejoicing of the Torah." On this day, the reading of the Torah is completed, and is then

Problems in American Education

The American system of education has often been criticized in many circles. By objective measures, such as standardized test scores, the United States lags behind other industrialized nations in scores on subjects such as math and science. The most recent comparisons have the United States ranked sixteenth in a field of the thirty wealthiest nations in science. (Glod, A07) They ranked twenty-third in the same field with respect to math scores. (Glod, A07) The regions with which these students were compared were, for the most part in Western Europe and East Asia.(Glod, A07) The popular American culture makes light of how uneducated the general population is. Shows like the Late Show with Jay Leno take to the streets and ask people relatively simple questions, which they cannot answer. Game shows such as â€Å"Are you Smarter than A Fifth Grader† make light of adult ignorance, and news organizations emphasize the problems in America’s schools. A close examination of the m otives, methods and goals of public education in the United States along with a review of public attitudes toward learning shed light upon some of the reasons for the substandard reputation of America’s schools.It can be argued that in terms of economic benefits, our schools are adequately successful, but in terms of a social and cultural tool, American schools fall well short of their foreign counterparts, as well as their own stated goals. (Rebell, 37)The reasons for this are lack of proper funding, the treatment of teachers, and the localized control of schools attempting to achieve unrealistic Federal mandates. Schools in America across the board are under-funded. Many studies have demonstrated that the quality of education is greatly enhanced by low teacher-to-student ratios.The National Education Agency recommends a ratio of no more than 15 students per teacher in Elementary schools. (Roza, Miller & Hill) Across the nation, the average class size for elementary school i s 22-25 students per teacher. (Roza, Miller & Hill) Given numerous studies that prove that the smaller ratio yields real, tangible improvements in math and science scores, it is clear that more qualified teachers and more facilities wherein they might teach are needed. (Roza, Miller & Hill) These assets, however, cost money.(Roza, Miller & Hill) The states and localities are expected to find money for schools, and the method of choice for funding schools has been the property tax. (Roza, Miller & Hill) Coupled with the fact that schools generally serve the neighborhoods in which they are located, and the endemic problem becomes clear: Schools from poorer neighborhoods will have less money because property values are lower. (Roza, Miller & Hill) Both the States and the Federal government have attempted, with limited success to solve these inadequacies.(Roza, Miller & Hill) The federal government, through the Title I program, has allocated $18 billion to â€Å"fill the economic holes † in funding for impoverished districts, but these programs have failed, as the money is often either diverted, or never moved owing to loopholes in the existing laws. (Roza, Miller & Hill) Federal studies have shown that school districts generally favor financially those schools who have the fewest challenges, and that Title I money is frequently funneled to schools with little or no financial need.(Roza, Miller & Hill) Teacher pay is another area in which the lack of funds has hurt educational outcomes in America. Thirty-six states have a funding gap, with a nationwide dispar ¬ity between high-poverty and low-poverty districts of $1,348 per student. Funding gaps and the lack of progress in eliminating them continue to contribute to the overall lack of relative success in America’s public Schools. (Carey, K. ) In twenty-five of a forty-nine state study, the highest-poverty school districts get fewer re ¬sources than the lowest-poverty districts. (Carey, K. ) Even m ore states have a gap for high-minority districts, thirty-one in all.Those thirty-one states educate six out of every ten poor and minority children in America. The shortfalls, some exceeding $1,000 or even $2,000 per student, are greatly at odds with national goals for closing the achieve ¬ment gap. (Carey, K. ) They fly in the face of any reasonable, rational notion of how to support our public schools. (Carey, K. ) Until state policymakers get serious about fixing these problems, they can ¬not in good conscience pretend to have fulfilled their basic obligations to those students who are most in need of a high-quality public education. (Carey, K.) Moreover, these numbers ac ¬tually understate the true extent of the problem because they don’t reflect the added cost of educating children in poverty. (Carey, K. ) School funding experts gener ¬ally agree that high-poverty schools need more resources to meet the same standards. (Carey, K. ) School funding comparisons tha t reflect this fact have been a mainstay of academic research and various technical analyses of school finance for a number of years. (Carey, K. ) Recent examples of such analyses include publi ¬cations from both the U. S. Department of Education and the U. S. Government Ac ¬countability Office.(Carey, K. ) The average teacher salary in the United States is between $39 and $43 thousand dollars a year, depending on location. (Average Salaries)It typically takes a four-year degree and additional study of content to qualify to be a teacher. (Porter, C) In contrast, other professionals with four-year degrees earn over twice that amount, particularly if their area of study is math or science –related. (Cowan, K. ) It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that qualified math and science teachers are in high demand. The money necessary to lure these types of people into education simply does not exist in the current budgets.Critics of this analysis argue that substantial raises in teacher pay would be â€Å"throwing money† at the problem, and over-compensating a population of underperforming teachers. (Porter, C) This argument is precious. The current population of teachers do not represent the best available, largely because of low salary; as better quality educators become available, the job market will become competitive, and with a very short time, the overall quality of those teachers would rise to the level appropriate to the pay. Related to the low salaries of the teachers are the cultural attitudes that America has toward schools, teachers and education.It is these attitudes that contribute to the problems that Educators in this country face when trying to compete with other nations. (Porter, C) Americans have long been used to the notion that a â€Å"free and appropriate† education for their children was a fundamental right. (Porter, C) As a result, many schools have devolved into nothing more than quasi-educational daycares for all American children. (Porter, C) The fact that American parents express more satisfaction with the schools than do their European and Asian counterparts illustrates the US cultural complacency with respect to education.(Porter, C) Students in these foreign schools work harder for a number of reasons. First, they are under more parental scrutiny, second, their cultures do not denigrate learning and academic achievement, and third, admission to favorable careers and higher education is based on close assessment of learning achievement in high school. (Bishop, J. ) In contrast, students in US schools do not recognize the benefits of education for a number of reasons. (Bishop, J. ) First, the U. S. labor market does not reward high school achievement. (Bishop, J.) Statistics indicate that for the first eight years after high school, achievement does not correlate to increase in wages for the high school educated. (Bishop, J. ) Most employers do not look deeply at grades of high school gra duates, and many schools do not send transcripts to prospective employers, even when requested to do so. (Bishop, J. ) Another key contributing factor to the lower expectations of benefit for American students in high school is the fact that college admissions are not based on high school performance as much as on aptitude tests. (Bishop, J.) The result is that neither students nor parents are motivated to push for higher academic standards, since they would jeopardize GPA, SAT scores and class rank, the three key statistics examined for university admission (Bishop, J. ). The fact that parents and students to not regard the field of education as important in its own right is caused by several factors. The first is the sense of entitlement that parents have about education. (Bishop, J. ) They feel that students have a â€Å"right† not to learn, but to get a Diploma, go to college, and achieve the financial success associated with college education.(Porter, C. ) Parents and st udents across the board assume that this is an entitlement, rather than something to be earned through effort and ability. (Porter, C. ) The basic notion is that education is something â€Å"done to† a child, rather than something the child â€Å"does†. (Porter, C. ) This attitude, shared by parents, students and even some administrators dovetails into the lack of respect for educators that is reflected by poor pay. In no other profession, are professionals questioned, criticized and scrutinized by their clients than in education. (Porter, C.) Despite teachers having obtained a four-year degree, additional training for teaching, and how ever many years of experience they might have, their clients (parents) are still convinced that they know more than the professionals as to how their student might learn. (Porter, C. ) The notion that â€Å"those who can’t do, teach† and the underlying notion that teachers have that job because they cannot do anything else contributes to this lack of professional respect. (Porter, C. ) Low salary validates this viewpoint. The underlying assumption is that if a teacher were competent, they would be doing something else that yields better pay.Often, this attitude is displayed by school administrators, who often treat teachers as fungible units of work, with little or no consideration for their abilities, expertise, experience or suggestions. (Porter, C. ) The fact that administrators are often acting according to governmental or budgetary guidelines does not detract from the perception created by their conduct. (Porter, C. ) In European cultures, as well as many Asian ones, the opposite assumption is held. Parents expect very high output from not only teachers, but students as well. (Bishop, J.) The question is not â€Å"can you teach my child,† but rather, â€Å"can my child learn from you what he or she needs†. (Bishop, J. ) While salaries for European or Asian teachers may not be as hi gh comparatively, the level of respect afforded to the profession is much higher. (Bishop, J. ) This begins with students believing and understanding that education is their responsibility, not that of their teachers. (Bishop, J. ) This causes the students to put in maximum effort to learn, which in turn solves a vast majority of the problems experienced in the American system. (Bishop, J.) A teacher who is unable to perform in an environment of students who are highly motivated to learn is not competent, and would need to be retrained or replaced. (Bishop, J. ) The recognition of the real value of education by the public makes the raising of funds to pay for quality teachers and facilities much easier as well. Since all of the community and the government recognize the economic need for quality education, it is given budgetary priority. (Bishop, J. ) Despite these deficiencies, the political will to spend the money needed to improve schools is not present.When a study is done which ranks US education as below international standards, there is often an outcry, and much talk about improvement, but very little actually happens. The Federal government has issued edicts such as â€Å"No Child Left Behind† which articulates goals without a roadmap or funding to achieve them. (Neill, M. ) This mandate has contributed significantly to the inability of schools to meet their educational goals. It is taken as a given, even by proponents of the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† program that it is under funded, but that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of this issue.(Neill, M. ) The federal government has, in this law, issued what is known as an â€Å"unfunded mandate† by insisting the States meet certain standards without providing the means to do so(Neill, M. ). This is merely one of numerous problems with the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† concept. (Neill, M. ) Modeling the concept after an initiative in Houston, the â€Å"No Child Left Behin d† program has been unable to reproduce that success in other places. (Neill, M. ) Studies of the Houston plan show that the success illustrated there was never really present to begin with (Neill, M. ).Results were manipulated by excluding non-performing students from counts, and even with that provision, the race-gap was not addressed in Houston. (Neill, M. ) By dividing student groups up by race and other demographics, studies have also shown that the more diverse the culture of a school district, the less likely they are to meet the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† standards of achievement. (Neill, M. ) In fact, some studies have shown that given current demographic shifts, virtually all schools will eventually fall short of the improvement standards set by the initiative. (Neill, M.) Since the sole measure in the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† initiative is standardized tests, the entire focus of education has become test preparation. (Neill, M. ) This narrows curri culum, and puts undue pressure on students, teachers and administrators. (Neill, M. ) It also forces curriculum away from higher level thinking skills which are far more useful assets for future academic, financial and social success. (Neill, M. ) â€Å"No Child Left Behind† demands that English-language-impaired and special-needs students meet proficiency standards without any means of making this happen.(Neill, M. ) The theory is that the mere institution of the requirement, coupled with the threat of punishment for failure, will force the schools to improve in this area. (Neill, M. ) By privatizing tutoring and support funding, â€Å"No Child Left Behind† not only takes money away from public schools, but also promotes the perception that failures of student performance are based on incompetent or lazy teaching, rather than anything associated with student efforts, or any other factor. (Neill, M.) â€Å"No Child Left Behind† labels certain schools as failures , which causes the quality teachers within such schools to transfer out, and creates a difficult climate for the schools to recruit quality teachers. (Neill, M. ) The initiative in no way addresses socio-economic causes of academic struggles, making no effort to feed, clothe or house underachieving students in order to make them able to focus on academics. (Neill, M. ) Finally, the remedies offered by â€Å"No Child Left Behind† have failed to â€Å"fix† schools which prove to be â€Å"in need of improvement† according to their own standards.(Neill, M. ) In fact, the initiative actively prevents measures which have proven to offer improvement for schools with poor performance records. (Neill, M. ) Portfolio assessment, teacher training, proactive parent involvement, and other proven methods of improvement are shoved aside in favor of artificial standards based on tests that fail to address the actual goals of education, and whose contents are ridiculously unrepr esentative of competent content. (Neill, M. )Lack of proper funding, the treatment of teachers, and the localized control of schools attempting to achieve unrealistic Federal mandates have caused United States Schools to under perform in comparison to their European and Asian counterparts. The culture of contempt for education professionals and disengaged parents have created a system which is deeply flawed. Resolution of these problems would involve wholesale restructuring, massive rebuilding and huge amounts of money.Given the continued economic strength of the United States despite perennial failures in education, it is likely that the government will allow the â€Å"top ten percent† to gain benefits from public education, while everyone else, including parents, teachers, administrators and most students are left mired in a tangle of misguided regulation, spurious funding, unrealistic expectations and public contempt for their efforts. Bibliography â€Å"Average Salaries of Public School Teachers† The National Education Agency Website 2004-5 The National Education Agency 2002. http://www. nea. org/edstats/RankFull06b.htm Bishop, J. â€Å"Incentives for Learning: Why American High School Students Compare so Poorly to Their Counterparts Overseas† Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) CAHRS Working Paper Series 1989. Accessed November 14, 2008. http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article=1399&context=cahrswp Carey, C. â€Å"The Funding Gap 2004: Many States Still Shortchange Low-Income and Minority Students† The Education Trust Website 2004. The Education Trust. 2007. http://www2. edtrust. org/NR/rdonlyres/30B3C1B3-3DA6-4809-AFB9-2DAACF11CF88/0/funding2004. pdf Cowan, K.â€Å"List of Best Degrees by Salary† PayScale Website 2008 PayScale, Inc. 2000. http://blogs. payscale. com/salary_report_kris_cowan/2008/07/list-of-best-co. html Glod, M. â€Å"U. S. Teens Trail Peers Around World on Math-Science Test† The Washington Post Wednesday, December 5, 2007; Page A07 http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120400730. html Neill, M. â€Å"No Child Left Behind†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ After Two Years: A Track Record Of Failure† Time Out from Testing Website. 2008 Performance Assessment 2001 http://www. timeoutfromtesting. org/pr/PR_Neil_NoChildLeftBehind.pdf Porter, C. Interview (personal) 12 November, 2008. Rebell, M. â€Å"Professional Rigor, Public Engagement and Judicial Review: A Proposal for Enhancing the Validity of Education Adequacy Studies. † Teacher College Record Volume 109, Number 6, 2007 Pg. 1-73. http://www. schoolfunding. info/resource_center/research/professional_rigor. pdf Roza, M, Miller L. & Hill, P. â€Å"Strengthening Title 1 to Help High-Poverty Schools† The University of Washington website 2005 The university of Washington,2008 http://uwnews. org/relatedcontent/2005/August/rc_parentID11695_thisID11712 . pdf

Globalisation Drivers

Explain what is meant by the term globalisation. Identify and analyse the key drivers of the process of globalisation over the last twenty years. During the mid 1990’s the International Monetary Fund has defined globalisation as: ‘The growing interdependence of countries world-wide through the increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows, and also through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology’ (Turner, 2006).Over the years, this interdependence of countries worldwide has increased dramatically. An indication of this has been the increase in the number of domestic and foreign strategic alliances by six times during the period 1989-1999 (Nam-Hoon Kang, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2001). This change clearly indicates how companies from all over the world interact with each other and form partnerships in response to the phenomenon of globalization.The mai n drivers that have helped globalization to expand and deepen over the past years have been technological revolutions such as the widespread use of Internet and the ease of trans-boundary travelling, the creation of international institutions that encourage free trade by removing trade barriers, the establishment of multinational corporations which seek to increase their profits by taking advantage of what globalisation has to offer (Economics for business 5th edition John Sloman p. 498) and last but not least the change of governments’ policies towards deregulation and privatisation (Development in Practice Taylor & Francis p. 24). This study aims to outline and examine these key drivers that made it possible for globalisation to evolve. The study will also focus on the magnitude of the drivers with relation to globalisation. â€Å"Globalisation is both a result and a force of modernisation and capitalist expansion, entailing the integration of all economic activity (local, national, and regional) into a ‘global' market place: that is, a market place that transcends geopolitical borders and is not subject to regulation by nation states. (Development in Practice Taylor & Francis p. 524) Technological revolutions are viewed by many as one of the key drivers of globalisation. (Bradley 1993, Dicken 1992). Firstly, the reduction in transportation costs and the ability to communicate freely and easily due to the advances in technology have caused tourism to rapidly grow over the years (Tourism in the age of globalisation Salah Wahab, Chris Cooper p. 320). Most importantly, not only individual people as passengers were benefited by the lower transportation costs.In the last half of the twentieth century, the price of transporting products worldwide has fallen dramatically due drops in the cost of air travel, the containerization and increasing ship size (Chrystal, 2007, p. 11). Containers have the ability to move non-fragile goods at the cost of 1% of retail value to any place. In the past years, when the transportation of goods was done through shipping before containers were invented, the cost involved used to be around 10%-20% of retail value. by BCRA) The striking difference in cost indicates the new potential for transfer of goods at increased quantities at a faster and cheaper rate from one place to another. In addition to this, the rapid grow of communications, especially through Internet has added significant strengths to globalization (Economics of globalisation By Partha Gangopadhyay, Manas Chatterji). The Internet has provided a powerful and cheap tool for sharing of information on goods and services through the form of advertising. This helped firms to boost their sales since they can target a bigger range of potential customers at a very low cost.The trends clearly show a constant increase of Europeans e-commerce sales from 2006 to 2011, reflecting a similar increase in the corporations that are investing in the e-bu siness (ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND THE GLOBALISATION ERA). Furthermore, internet enables free, fast and easy communication of ordinary people from all around the world which also serves as a factor that promotes globalisation and exchange of views and ideas on new products and services (Economics of globalisation By Partha Gangopadhyay, Manas Chatterji).In the recent years, technology is undoubtedly an enabling driver of globalisation but the latter is also influenced by economic motives. This actually means that globalisation is also driven by the economic motives of people. These motives have to do with shifting patterns of production and consumption from one place in the world to another (Tourism in the age of globalisation p. 321). More specifically, businesses seek new opportunities to lower their costs, to achieve savings of scale and to establish a competitive global position by gaining a greater global market share (Economics for business 5th edition).As a result of these motiv es, the foreign direct investment over the years has increased substantially and inevitably the number of cross-borders mergers and acquisitions has also increased. Corporations are trying to lower production costs by shifting the production to countries with cheap labour as well as to countries with abundant resources such as raw materials. China, India and Eastern Europe have been in the recent years the targets of FDI since they possess a production comparative advantage because of abundant and low wage labour force (By Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee).Furthermore, the reduction in trade barriers, the lower transportation costs and the development of stock markets, increased the corporations’ ability to trade and invest at a global scale. For example, stock markets have served as mechanisms for important inflow of capital for corporations since they can go public and raise significant capital that can be used for FDI (http://www. globaldesig nandbusiness. org). Someone can easily distinguish that while benefiting from what globalisation is offering the corporations are themselves driving the phenomenon through their innovations on technology and their overseas activities.The corporations’ economic activities, which are mentioned in the previous paragraph, are also related to the trade institutions that are world widely formed. The world trade institutions are associations that aim to the liberalisation of trade and encouragement of transnational economic actions. Such institutions are namely the WTO, NAFTAA and EFTA. These institutions have similar goals ie to increase competition and economic efficiency through the reduction of trade barriers and the governments’ regulations over trade within the members of their organisations.These organisations are having their members agreeing in reduction of tariffs and other policies (such as antidumping and subsidies) in order to make the governments transparent. Th e organisations are also setting special committees with the task of making sure that the pre-agreed policies are followed and that no member gets out of line. Because of the establishment of such institutions and the clear increase in their membership with ascending time the world trade has increased dramatically (http://www. wto. org, http://www. nafta-sec-alena. org).A good indication of that is the fact that the United Kingdom’s imports and exports contribution to its GDP has increased from 45% to 57% over the period of 1950 to 2005 ( Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee). Consequently, as the world institutions become stronger more active and more influential, globalisation is strengthened due to the improved and amplified interactions of corporations and countries as a whole. The governments as the years pass are trying to create a more competitive environment so that they can become attractive for foreign inflows of capital and investment.Fur thermore, they want to minimize the outflows to less regulated countries (Global public policy: governing without government: Wolfgang H. Reinicke p. 15). In order to achieve these goals, they have been converting their policies towards a more economically favourable manner. Inevitably they have been trying to reduce their trade barriers and accelerate economic growth by joining the world trade institutions (e. g. WTO) as well as the free trade blocks such as the E. U and ASEAN. The trading blocs have a large number of objectives that bring the country-members closer to each other.Some of these objectives demand that the members cannot practise anticompetitive behaviour such as high tariffs, quotas and anti-competitive taxation whereas additionally peace, mutual respect and cultural acknowledgement are also promoted (http://www. aseansec. org, http://europa. eu). Looking at another aspect in the chapter of the governments’ policies that is driving globalisation, someone could identify the remarkable example of the transition countries. The transition countries are suggested to be China, the former Soviet Union, ex-communist Europe countries and third world countries such as India (http://en. ikipedia. org). Over the past 20 years these countries have undergone various economic and political changes that have substantially shifted the countries from the previously central planned economies towards free market economies. As a result liberalisation and privatisation have been encouraged (Privatization in transition countries: By Oleh Havrylyshyn, Donal McGettigan p. 7 and 8). Because of those changes, globalisation has been favoured through its inherent characteristics to become stronger and deeper with modernisation and capitalist expansion. (Taylor &Francis). Looking back to the key drivers of globalisation we have presented in this study, they have all been relatively important since they are all favouring globalisation correspondingly. It is clear that the technological advances and the governments’ policies and behaviours separately and distinctly are really adding to the increasing pace of globalisation. However, the interesting thing that someone could safely say, it is that these drivers are interrelated which suggests that one driver is driving the other and both of them are driving globalisation. References: 1.European Business 2nd Edition Debra Johnson Colin Turner p. 59 2. Nam-Hoon Kang, Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development, 2001 3. Economics For Business 5th Edition John Sloman p. 498, Development In Practice Taylor & Francis p. 524 4. Tourism In The Age Of Globalisation by Salah Wahab, Chris Cooper (Bradley 1993, Dicken 1992) p. 320-323 5. Economics By Richard G. Lipsey, K. Alec Chrystal p. 11 6. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND THE GLOBALISATION ERA by STUPARU, DRAGOS, VASILE, TOMITA (article) 7. Economics of globalisation By Partha Gangopadhyay, Manas Chatterji p. 191-193 8.Globalisation: prospects and policy responses, fourteenth report of session †¦ By Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee p. 7-12 9. http://www. globaldesignandbusiness. org 10. http://www. wto. org 11. http://www. nafta-sec-alena. org 12. Global public policy: governing without government: Wolfgang H. Reinicke p. 15 13. Privatization in transition countries: By Oleh Havrylyshyn, Donal McGettigan p. 7-8 14. Monetary Policy under Uncertainty Proceedings of the 2007 Money and Banking Seminar – BCRA p. 86 (report) 15. http://www. aseansec. org 16. http://europa. eu 17. http://en. wikipedia. org

Protoyping Example

Protoyping Example Protoyping – Article Example Prototyping A of the article and where it was found Identification of The article in this case talks of the five major pitfalls that may be experienced when prototyping. This article may be found in the User Interface engineering website whose link is . It can be scrutinized that a prototyping is also known as Heuristic development. This process involves developing a system via controlled process of trial and error. The Prototype uses high speed development language such as fourth generation language 4GLS. There are two basic methods of prototyping namely; gradually build of the actual system and building the model to create the design (Jared, 2003). The five major pitfalls of prototype described in this article include; it focuses on drawbacks rather than learning. Secondly, It tends to make too much coverage without making sufficient divergence, some prototype such Axure take time to master. It may make one to work on the wrong fidelity especially if there is a lot of jumping and finally there are a lot of evaluation since prototyping tends to be broken down into several stages (Jared, 2003). The one thing about prototyping that surprised you the most The one thing that surprises me about prototyping is that a well design prototype can sell and idea better compared to any other form design. Further, a prototype may come in different shapes and size (Jared, 2003).Purpose of prototyping within the example in the chosen article Based on the article chosen above prototyping serve the following purposes namely; it helps the users to understand the idea better by getting deeper into that idea as well as help to sell the idea to other people. Further prototype reduces time required in exploring an idea (Jared, 2003). ReferenceJared.M.S. (2003).Five Prevalent Pitfalls when Prototyping

Essay about Postpartum Depression

Essay about Postpartum Depression Essay about Postpartum Depression Ch. 4 Postpartum depression is a form of depression that occurs after childbirth and affects approximately 10% of women of childbearing age. Postpartum depression can be caused by the extreme drop in a woman’s hormone levels that occur after the delivery of a child. There are different degrees of postpartum depression from baby blues to postpartum psychosis. If left untreated, the disorder can have serious adverse effects on the mother and her relationship with significant others, and on the child's emotional and psychologic development. (Epperson 1999). A woman may not always understand that she is suffering from postpartum depression or may resist seeking treatment for a number of reasons. For example a first time mother may not realize that what they are feeling is not normal. Some women are afraid that they will be viewed as a bad mother or that they are going crazy (Epperson 1999). The different types of depression after childbirth vary with Baby Blues being the most common and lasting only a few day to a week or two, Symptoms of Baby Blues include; trouble sleeping, crying, anxiety and sadness (Mayo Clinic Staff 2012). Postpartum Depression is more severe than baby blues and usually last longer. The symptoms of Postpartum Depression are; severe mood swings, insomnia, difficulty bonding with the baby and withdrawal (Mayo Clinic Staff 2012). The most severe and rarest form of postpartum depression is Postpartum Psychosis which usually surfaces within the first

Strategies for How to Improve English Listening Skills

Strategies for How to Improve English Listening Skills As a new English speaker, your language skills are progressing well grammar is now familiar, your  reading comprehension is no problem, and you are communicating quite fluently   but listening is still posing a problem. First of all, remember that you are not alone. Listening comprehension is probably the most difficult task for almost all learners of English as a foreign language. The most important thing is to listen, and that means as often as possible. The next step is to find listening resources. This is where the Internet really comes in handy (idiom to be useful) as a tool for English students. A few  suggestions for interesting listening selections are  CBC Podcasts,  Ã‚  All Things Considered (on NPR), and  the BBC. Listening Strategies Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated  by your limited understanding. Here are a few courses of action you can take: Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything.Stay relaxed when you do not understand even if you continue to have trouble understanding for a while.Do not translate into your native language.Listen for the gist (or general idea) of the conversation. Dont concentrate on detail until you have understood the main idea(s). First, translating creates a barrier between the listener and the speaker. Second, most people repeat themselves constantly. By remaining calm, you can usually understand what the speaker had said. Translating Creates a Barrier Between Yourself and the Person Who Is Speaking While you are listening to another person speaking a foreign language (English in this case), the temptation is to immediately translate into your native language. This temptation becomes much stronger when you hear a word you dont understand. This is only natural as we want to understand everything that is said. However, when you translate into your native language, you are taking the focus  of your attention away from the speaker and concentrating on the translation process taking place in your brain. This would be fine if you could put the speaker on hold. In real life, however, the person continues talking while you translate. This situation obviously leads to less not more understanding. Translation leads to a mental block in your brain, which sometimes doesnt allow you to understand anything at all. Most People Repeat Themselves Think for a moment about your friends, family, and colleagues. When they speak in your native tongue, do they repeat themselves? If they are like most people, they probably do. That means that whenever you listen to someone speaking, it is very likely that they will repeat the information, giving you a second, third or even fourth chance to understand what has been said. By remaining calm, allowing yourself to not understand, and not translating while listening, your brain is free to concentrate on the most important thing: understanding English in English. Probably the greatest advantage of using the Internet to improve your listening skills is that you can choose what you would like to listen to and how many and times you would like to listen to it. By listening to something you enjoy, you are also likely to know a lot more of the vocabulary required. Use Key Words Use keywords or key phrases to help you understand the general ideas. If you understand New York, business trip, last year you can assume that the person is speaking about a business trip to New York last year. This may seem obvious to you, but remember that understanding the main idea will help you to understand the detail as the person continues to speak. Listen for Context Lets imagine that your English speaking friend says, I bought this great tuner  at JRs. It was really cheap and now I can finally listen to National Public Radio broadcasts. You dont understand what a tuner  is, and if you focus on the word tuner  you might become frustrated. If you think in context, you probably will begin to understand. For example; bought is the past of buy, listen is no problem and radio is obvious. Now you understand: He bought something the  tuner to listen to the radio. A tuner must be a kind of radio. This is a simple example but it demonstrates what you need to focus on: Not the word that you dont understand, but the words you do understand. Listening often is the most important way to improve your listening skills. Enjoy the listening possibilities offered by the Internet and remember to relax.

Do Chagalls Depictions of David Reflect His Intense Religiosity Essay

Do Chagalls Depictions of David Reflect His Intense Religiosity - Essay Example Interestingly, David is one of the Biblical characters who are often depicted in Chagall's paintings. Throughout his works, Chagall was able to incorporate David's stories, as stated in the Jewish Bible, with his own interpretation of David. Chagall's understanding of David, which is influenced by his intense religiosity according to Friedman (1984, p.376), is shown by comparing the implications of his paintings to the Hebrew scripts. Hence, Chagall's depictions of David in his paintings, which is a juxtaposition of his own interpretation and David's stories in the Bible, reflect his own intense religiosity. Marc Chagall is an artist famous for his etchings which reflect interpretations of Biblical stories. He admitted the his viewing of the Bible was less as a religious text and more as an interpretation of the nature of humans and the divinity inherent in them as well as their flaws (Amishai-Meisels, 1996, p. 72). Also, he confessed that his artworks represent his effort in transmitting to canvas the echo of nature portrayed by the Bible. Hence, he chose to focus on the love the Bible tries to foster, rather than on the punitive aspect of it. The aim is to strive for that perfect love, forgiveness and mercy, without letting the retribution to be the focus of the stories. This view of Chagall... This is evident in his approach to his artworks, where he uses abstractive figures supporting a central subject. This type of painting originated from Jews (Saltman, 1981, p.44). However, the way he views the Bible is influenced by his Christian background. This can be seen in the implications of his paintings depicting stories of David, among other Biblical stories, which focuses on the themes of love and forgiveness while ignoring the themes of punishment and discipline. In this regard, the Christian influence is clear. Although the Jewish Bible is the same as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, the emphasis on the Christian Bible represented by the New Testament is on love and forgiveness, which is amply demonstrated through Chagall's work. Chagall's painting "David and Bathsheba" depicts the affair which was shared by David and Bathsheba. The painting itself covers David's lust for a married woman named Bathsheba and this woman's conception of their child. In the Bible, the affair started when David sends for her and " she came to him, and he lay with her The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, 'I am pregnant'" (Holy Bible, 2 Samuel 11:4-5). Knowing that his act of adultery was sinful, he initially tries to cover it up by sending for her husband Uriah on the excuse of wanting news of the battle and then sending him home so that he may sleep with his wife and, therefore, claim the child as his own. When that fails, he engineers Uriah's death in order to marry Bathsheba. In doing so, he has fallen short of every standard set by God, and later God punishes him by refusing to cure the child conceived by Bathsheba, allowing it to die. The central subject of the painting "David and Bathsheba"

The Patriot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Patriot - Essay Example Benjamin is made the leader of the Colonial Militia to fight a course for both his country and family. Story being told The director of the movie is basically trying to tell the story of commitment for one’s nation. The effectiveness of this lesson that the director was trying to put across could however be said to have been plagued by the fact that the commitment or otherwise theme of patriotism that the director was presenting was not based on personal or self conviction of the character who was made to play the role (Warhurst, 2007). This is because the sense of the character’s patriotism was called to task only because he had a personal family mission of vengeance to undertake. Watching the movie, it could be seen that the director chose the American Revolution of 1776 as the historical piece with which to tell the story because that is a piece of history that has a very strong bearing of the ordinary American to his or her origins of freedom and independence that h e or she enjoys today (Gauja, 2010). This means that the historic piece was selected as one that could appeal to the sense of American patriotism in a more touching way. Most important Moments depicting Director’s Story There is a common saying in local parlance that it is only a fool who doe not change his or her mind. This adage is used a very momentous scene by the director to depict the director’s story. This is because in the judgment of Benjamin Martin, nothing would have made him fight for his nation if he had not lost his son through events of the war. This was an important moment depicted in the film because the call for patriotism is most often not heeded by most American unless they have a sense of urgency to respond to it (Rubin, 2010). The director therefore used that moment to drum home to all countrymen and women that the need to stand and fight for one’s nation should be something that is innate and inspired by personal convection rather than cir cumstantial events and happenings. Present Research and Point of View presented in Movie Research on the actual American Revolution, shows that the director of the film did not depict the exact events of the revolution in the film. This is because there were critical aspects of the wars and acts of violence that are more aligned to the Nazis in the 1940 than to the American Revolution in the 1770s (Jaensch, 2008). The role that was played by the Nazis was therefore made to be played by the British in the film. This somewhat contradicts the point of view presented in the film. However, further research show that the theme of the director that depicts the fact that the patriotism of most Americans are provoked by circumstantial factors such as the need to retaliate in terrorism; rather than an innate call of commitment is true about present day America (Gauja, 2010). This could have been fixed if the director told the American Revolution story just as it was without having to create t he story from a fictional point of view. Personal Lessons and Further Recommendation Before watching the movie, I had no idea of how sophisticated the British rule over the American was. Indeed, to the extent that the British would fight till the drop of last blood to ensure that their colonization of the Americans remained intact means that the British saw America as a real treasure that

Family Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family - Essay Example Pi is a Hindu child. Nevertheless, his curiosity and passion to know God more drives him to pursue three different religions at a go, i.e. his native Hindu, Islam, and Christian religions (Castelli, 2012). The Life of Pi exhibits several examples of the Feminist Family Theory as well as the Structural Functionalism Theory. Feminist Family Theory refers to the search of rights, identities, opportunities and privileges that women think and believe they deserve. This theory tackles issues that make women be second-class in the society, such as being inferior to men. On the other hand, the theory of Structural Functionalism proposes that division of family roles should take a natural course, generally basing on gender affiliations of family members. In this regard, Structural Functionalism proposes that men work in order to provide basic needs for their families such as earning money to buy food, clothes and pay rent. On the other hand, the tasks of women are expressively taking care of family members, especially household chores (Hamon, Ingoldsby, Miller & Smith, 2009). Feminist Family Theory is very evident in the movie the Life of Pi. One of the major incidences occurs when Pi’s mother supports her son to pursue multiple religions even though this was against the family and religious values of Hinduism. The family belongs to the Hindu religion. As such, they have to adhere to only one religion, and this is what Pi’s father, a strict follower of traditions, ensures by forbidding his son from pursuing any interests in any other religion apart from Hinduism, i.e. Islam and Christianity. Pi’s mother argues that God is the same in all religions. Therefore, her son is not wrong in following his interests in exploring other religions. She therefore allows her son to follow his religious interests only for the father, as the head of the family, to overrule the decision and forbid Pi from doing so (Hamon, Ingoldsby, Miller & Smith, 2009). This is a p erfect example of a case proving that the society considers women as the second-gender behind the men. As such, they were not to make any decisions that would go against the decisions made by the first gender, i.e. the men in their lives, and in this case the father of the boy. Consequently, the decisions made by Pi’s mother do not have any authority because she is a woman. However, the directive given by the father of Pi overrules the permission given to him by his mother to pursue different religions because he is the man. Most societies consider men as the head of the family. This is contrary to the feminists’ movements that advocated for equality in gender and appreciation of the roles women play in the society, i.e. as supporters to the men and not as their subordinates. Women have every right to make decisions that they consider fit to benefit their household, just as advocated for in the Feminist Family Theory (Castelli, 2012). This case is very important to wom en because it clearly indicates the way the society disregards decisions or opinions voiced by women. This is clear evidence of oppression against women, far against the movements championed by women to fight for equal rights and privileges as their male counterparts. There have been several movements to fight for the emancipation and empowerment of women as equal partners in the society. Some of the modern feminist movements witnessed in the 1960s to the 1970s include liberal, Marxist,

Violence against women in horror films Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Violence against women in horror films - Essay Example The story of the group of young men who go to the picnic and accidentally find the abandoned place, called Wolf Creek, and trying to escape the place in their broken car, ask a driver, whom they meet, to take them to the place where they can fix their car and come back home. The man does not take them to the necessary place, and waking up in the morning, one of the girls finds herself tied with the rope, while the other one is tortured by the unknown man. The scenes of cruelty towards the girl are terrible, but yet it appears that they attract people's attention - the statement that the movie is based on the real events becomes the additional diver for those who unconsciously like to watch the scenes of violence; but the question here is not simply violence, but violence against women, and Wolf Creek becomes one of the numerous movies, in which a woman is subjected to various sophisticated tortures, finally bringing pleasure to those who watch it. The plot is simple, and watching it the thought occurs, that in order to show violence against women on the screen, there is no real need in plot, - violence scenes are enough to make the movie popular and financially profitable. The film describes the group of friends which goes out to the picnic (haven't you noticed anything similar with the film described above), next to the abandoned farm house. The house is inhabited by a Leatherface maniac, who cuts people with his chainsaw into pieces as soon as they enter the house. Sally, the main character, manages to escape, but the second half of the movie she is constantly followed and threatened by the Leatherface - despite her successful escape she appears in the hands of the Leatherface family members, who torture her in different ways. Simultaneously, her girl-friend Pam, with whom they had been on picnic, dies through a terrible death, being cackled into her head to death by a hen. Violence against women It is interesting to note, that most violence in the horror movies appears to be against women. We often don't notice this fact, but the violence against men is often concealed, while the facts of violence against women are intentionally shown, being depicted in details and very brightly. Thus, in Chainsaw Massacre the deaths of Sally's male friends are not really bright, and are mostly displayed in darkness, without any bright details, and movements which might pay special attention to the screen, while the death of Pam (terrible, I should say) and the tortures, through which Sally has to go, take the bigger portion of the movie. In Wolf Creek, we don't really witness the male going through any kind of tortures, while the girls are depicted in their wildest cries and sufferings. What is the core motives and essential drivers of such high popularity for these movies I might assume, and this will probably be right, that of course, sexual inequality is the most significant hidden moti ve of such movies. From the psychological point of view, and as Clover (1992) puts it, a man was always striving for protecting a woman from other men. This is the move and motive, which often allows a man to sexually possess a woman; simultaneously, the violence which a man displays against a woman, becomes another proof of his power and makes a woman not superior, but inferior (the equality in positions is rejected as well). The violence, which the man in

THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE Term Paper

THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE - Term Paper Example This memoire describes how the issue of male youth suicide can be studied using Beeghley’s (1999) methodology. A large part of the memoire has gone into introducing the concept of suicide and the varying definitions of suicide, followed by setting the context for further discussion of the subject. An analysis of press articles is done to study how the press problematised the issue. Male youth suicide rates more than doubled between 1970-1998, and became a major concern for the society. In such a situation, the media’s role in acting as the moral entrepreneur, as per Cohen’s theory of moral panic, is worth noting. The main aim of the memoire is to investigate how the private issue of suicide was made a social problem by the press. Beeghley’s methodology was used for this purpose because unlike the methodologies by Rubington and Weinberg (2002), Best (2007) and Mooney (2011), his methodology assumes a more empirical approach through hypothesis testing. The memoire begins with the varying definitions of a social problem and the methodologies that are used to studying social problems. It goes on to state the justification for using Beeghley’s methodology in detail. This section is followed by a detailed description of Beeghley’s methodology and how it can be applied to studying social problems. The three aspects of the methodology include studying the â€Å"extent of harm† of a social problem, â€Å"identification and political recognition† of a social problem, and â€Å"need for improvement† of a social condition. These three components correspond to the correspond to the objective, subjective and optimistic components of social problems.

Fashion and Utopia-Ann-Sofie Back Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fashion and Utopia-Ann-Sofie Back - Essay Example The essay "Fashion and Utopia-Ann-Sofie Back" analyzes the concept of the fashion by Ann-Sofie Back. The concept of fashion in Paris is no longer popular and this has essentially given rise to a genre of anti-fashion, which refers to the beginning of something new. The relationship between the â€Å"fashion-creator and imitator† is undergoing change and instead of the common people on the street following the designs of haute couture, the pattern is almost the reverse, fashion flows from the street to the â€Å"salons of haute couture† where the adoption and imitation take place. The public follows the fashion trend, which flows, from the characteristics defined by their sub-cultures. The avant-garde essence of fashion comes form the notion of â€Å"fashion beyond fashion† which creates fashion out of non-fashionable components. From 1980s onwards the period of fashion creators are coming to an end and the designers favor something, which lie outside the traditio nal fashion trends. This also implies that fashion no more creates or enhance the divide between economic classes or age groups and genders. In fact, â€Å"nothing could be more out of date than to clothe oneself as â€Å"woman†, as â€Å"man† or as â€Å"lady† . This avant-garde fashion is innovative and anti-idealistic in nature, which looks forward to give new shape to beauty and perfection. The modern avant-garde derives the basics from the old one especially in terms of going against the classical definition of fashion, popularized as haute couture.

THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE Term Paper

THE CASE OF THE BRITISH PRESS ON MALE YOUTH SUICIDE - Term Paper Example This memoire describes how the issue of male youth suicide can be studied using Beeghley’s (1999) methodology. A large part of the memoire has gone into introducing the concept of suicide and the varying definitions of suicide, followed by setting the context for further discussion of the subject. An analysis of press articles is done to study how the press problematised the issue. Male youth suicide rates more than doubled between 1970-1998, and became a major concern for the society. In such a situation, the media’s role in acting as the moral entrepreneur, as per Cohen’s theory of moral panic, is worth noting. The main aim of the memoire is to investigate how the private issue of suicide was made a social problem by the press. Beeghley’s methodology was used for this purpose because unlike the methodologies by Rubington and Weinberg (2002), Best (2007) and Mooney (2011), his methodology assumes a more empirical approach through hypothesis testing. The memoire begins with the varying definitions of a social problem and the methodologies that are used to studying social problems. It goes on to state the justification for using Beeghley’s methodology in detail. This section is followed by a detailed description of Beeghley’s methodology and how it can be applied to studying social problems. The three aspects of the methodology include studying the â€Å"extent of harm† of a social problem, â€Å"identification and political recognition† of a social problem, and â€Å"need for improvement† of a social condition. These three components correspond to the correspond to the objective, subjective and optimistic components of social problems.

Solution of trhee question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Solution of trhee question - Essay Example Separating the roles of chairman and CEO mainly helps in distributing the balance of power and responsibilities. Board is the primary internal control mechanism for aligning the different interests of shareholders and top management. When an individual serves simultaneously as chairman and CEO, the Board’s control over him will be weakened. This does not happen when the roles are separated. The role of Chairman includes managing the business of the Board and monitoring its progress. Non-segregation of duties of Chairman and CEO would reduce the monitoring effectiveness over the management of the company. Opportunistic executives may take advantage of their combined role as Chairman and CEO in order to personally benefit at the expense of the shareholders. The chances of such injustice would reduce to an extent if the roles are separated. Having a single leader instead of two helps promote effective action by the CEO speeding up response to external events faced by the company. Separation of roles could lead to delays in such response. (iv) The main reason for any company to issue its rights shares at a discount is to make the offer relatively attractive to shareholders and encourage them either to take up their rights or sell them so the share issue is â€Å"fully subscribed†. The price discount also acts as a safeguard should the market price of the companys shares fall before the issue is completed. The existing shareholders or purchaser of rights would still be interested in subscribing for the shares so far as the subscription price remains lower than the market price of the shares. A company would prefer to use rights issue as a source of finance because the chances of the shares being fully subscribed under rights issue is higher when compared to shares being freshly issued in the market. A firm can grow in two ways: either by merging with or

Rachel Carsons Silent Spring

Rachel Carsons Silent Spring Rachel Carsons Silent Spring and the Environmental Movement Thesis: In Silent Spring Rachel Carson starts an environmental movement by informing the public of the dangers of pesticides, which causes a shift in views towards pesticides and the harm they do to the environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DDT is WW II insecticide designed to rid the troops of disease carrying insects such as lice and mosquitoes (Graham 56). Paul Hermann Muller, the chemist who invented DDT, was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology Medicine. However no research was done on the environmental impact of the chemicals. DDT soon became the miracle pesticide used everywhere until concerns began to surface as animals began dying off.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The problem with DDT is that it does not break down into harmless chemicals, so the dangerous compounds are passed through the food chain (Graham 15). Because DDT is fat soluble, it is ingested by an animal and then stored in its fat. As DDT passes through the food chain, the amount in the animal increases. When DDT is sprayed on a crop field, insects feeding on the crops will ingest the DDT. These insects are eaten by larger insects, which are eaten by song birds, which are eaten by birds of prey.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An example of the accumulation of DDT can be seen in Californias Clear Lake during 1957. Although the water only contained .02 parts-per-million of DDT, small fish could have 2,000 parts-per-million and birds could have even more (Graham 15). On a wider scale the population of birds of prey was decreasing. DDT was again the culprit. The effect that DDT had on raptors was that it would not kill the adult birds but would weaken the egg shells and cause them to break; this causes the adults to be unable to reproduce and a decrease in population. This effect was what first seized Rachel Carsons attention and brought her to write Silent Spring (Kidd, Kidd 102). â€Å"The more I learned about the use of pesticides, the more appalled I became. I realized that here was the material for a book. What I discovered was that everything which meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and that nothing I could do would be more important† (Carson).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rachel Carsons Silent Spring was published in 1962 and was immediately meet with criticism from farmers and pesticide companies; this was known as the â€Å"Noisy Summer† (Henricksson 71). â€Å"Many farmers and others in the business of agriculture were convinced that a ban of DDT would harm their prosperity† (Kid, Kid 104). Upon Reading Silent Spring, John F. Kennedy had the Science Advisory Committee look into the pesticide issue. The results the committee discovered were a turning point in the battle against pesticides: â€Å"It acknowledged the benefits of chemical pesticides, but it condemned the overuse and careless application of pesticides. It also acknowledged the accuracy of Rachel Carsons scientific research and endorsed her position† (Henricksson 80). When the report was published in May 1963, Rachel Carson now had the support she needed from the Government. This galvanized a major environmental movement. This resulted in a paradi gm shift to occur between the years of 1962 to 1980. Laws were passed to protect the environment. In 1967 the Environmental Defense Fund, EDF, was determined to ban DDT in the U.S after noticing to the decline in birds of prey and the research in Silent Spring.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By 1972 DDT was banned in the United States only ten years after the publication of Silent Spring. Sadly Rachel Carson, who died in 1964, never witnessed her triumph. But in her wake was an environmental movement that had only just begun. In 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, was formed by President Nixon, but â€Å"it was Rachel Carsons call for an ‘independent board in the government that brought the EPA into existence† (Henricksson 80). The EPAs role was to monitor the environmental policy of the United States by enforcing laws passed by Congress. The EPA picked up where Rachel Carson left off, â€Å"An article in the EPA Journal referred to the organization as ‘the extended shadow of Rachel Carson† (Henricksson 80).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The EPA was not the only program brought about by the influence of Silent Spring. The National Environmental Policy Act was enacted in 1969 focused on assessing the environmental impact of any governmental project. Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the first Earth Day which occurred on April 22, 1970. The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act were all passed by 1976, all with the intention of protecting the environment (Harlan 118). Rachel Carsons call to protect the environment is still being heard today by our politicians. In 1996 President Clinton enacted The Food Quality Act which requires the EPA to again review the effects of pesticides (Milestones). Vice President AL Gore cites Rachel Carson as an inspiration in his book An inconvenient Truth. When Gore was a child his mother read Silent Spring to him and his sister Gore 10). Gore writes, â€Å"The books lessons made a huge impression on us. The way we thought about nature and the earth was never the same (10).† Now AL Gore is one of the main spokespersons of a new environmental war, global warming.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Initially DDT was considered a miracle pesticide because it was cheap and efficient. At this point the environmental effects were unknown. Rachel Carson brought these effects to the attention of the public in Silent Spring. Originally met with controversy she soon won over the publics opinion, with the government backing up her research. The government followed suit with agencies and acts that protected the environment, like the EPA. Rachel Carsons message affected legislation then and now. Environmentalists like AL Gore cite Rachel Carson as an influence to their work. When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring she was the catalyst that started the Environmental Movement, and her ideas are still being used in todays Environmental Movement.

Female Circumcision Essay -- Female Genital Mutilation

It's the year 423 BCE, and the orders have just been sent out -- Every female is to be circumcised. Rumor has it that the newest Pharaoh is not very well-endowed and wants the females in his land to be circumcised to enhance his sexual pleasure (qtd. in Gruenbaum 43). Although such an account seems amusing, female circumcision and its effects are real. It is thought that female circumcision has been around for at least twenty centuries (Gruenbaum 193). Despite its age, female circumcision is only recently being discussed and debated in the United States. In fact, the matter itself had not really been looked at nationally until 1975, "when the Australian delegation at the first U.N. conference on woman in Mexico City proposed a motion condemning it" (Greer 64). Since that time, opposition to female circumcision has been included as a part of American Human Rights Policy (Mackie 999). The U.S. agency for International Development is also assisting the "African organizations working to eradicate it" (qtd. in Mackie 999). Now the world knows about female circumcision and wants to do something about it, but change will not come suddenly due to its long tradition. Female Circumcision is the cutting or removing of female genitalia. According to msn.com, female circumcision is "the practice of circumcision of adolescent women in some cultures that generally involves the surgical removal of the clitoris or the sewing up of the vaginal opening." There are many different names for this practice. Some refer to it as "female genital mutilation," and others call it "female genital cutting." Often times, the women who practice female circumcision are extremely offended by such terms; therefore the simplest, least offensive way to refer t... ...on: Caring for patients and child protection." BMA. 2001. 3 Nov 2003. Greer, Germaine. "Why Genital Cutting Goes On." Newsweek International. (1999): 64. Gruenbaum, Ellen. The Female Circumcision Controversy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Mackie, Gerry. "Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account." American Sociological Review. 61 (1996): 999-1017. Nour, Nawal. "Female Circumcision and Genital Mutilation: A Practical and Sensitive Approach." Contemporary OB/GYN. 45 (2001): 50-55. Pulsipher, Abigail. Interview. Personal Interview. 1 Nov 2001. Walker, Alice, Pratibha Parmar. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Woman. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993. Female Circumcision Essay -- Female Genital Mutilation It's the year 423 BCE, and the orders have just been sent out -- Every female is to be circumcised. Rumor has it that the newest Pharaoh is not very well-endowed and wants the females in his land to be circumcised to enhance his sexual pleasure (qtd. in Gruenbaum 43). Although such an account seems amusing, female circumcision and its effects are real. It is thought that female circumcision has been around for at least twenty centuries (Gruenbaum 193). Despite its age, female circumcision is only recently being discussed and debated in the United States. In fact, the matter itself had not really been looked at nationally until 1975, "when the Australian delegation at the first U.N. conference on woman in Mexico City proposed a motion condemning it" (Greer 64). Since that time, opposition to female circumcision has been included as a part of American Human Rights Policy (Mackie 999). The U.S. agency for International Development is also assisting the "African organizations working to eradicate it" (qtd. in Mackie 999). Now the world knows about female circumcision and wants to do something about it, but change will not come suddenly due to its long tradition. Female Circumcision is the cutting or removing of female genitalia. According to msn.com, female circumcision is "the practice of circumcision of adolescent women in some cultures that generally involves the surgical removal of the clitoris or the sewing up of the vaginal opening." There are many different names for this practice. Some refer to it as "female genital mutilation," and others call it "female genital cutting." Often times, the women who practice female circumcision are extremely offended by such terms; therefore the simplest, least offensive way to refer t... ...on: Caring for patients and child protection." BMA. 2001. 3 Nov 2003. Greer, Germaine. "Why Genital Cutting Goes On." Newsweek International. (1999): 64. Gruenbaum, Ellen. The Female Circumcision Controversy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Mackie, Gerry. "Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account." American Sociological Review. 61 (1996): 999-1017. Nour, Nawal. "Female Circumcision and Genital Mutilation: A Practical and Sensitive Approach." Contemporary OB/GYN. 45 (2001): 50-55. Pulsipher, Abigail. Interview. Personal Interview. 1 Nov 2001. Walker, Alice, Pratibha Parmar. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Woman. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993.