Homeland Security HLSS311 Forum 5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homeland Security HLSS311 Forum 5 - Assignment Example Sometimes, immigrants are not those good people you expected to be. In the case whereby the immigrants have some unfinished business with the host nation, they might come and cause insecurity in the host nation. They come expecting to kill and perform acts of terrorism. In such cases, illegal immigration should be made a priority in dealing with a countrys security. Sometimes, when the illegal immigrants are running away from their country because of certain contagious and infectious diseases, they will pose the host country at a risk of spreading the diseases. This will not auger well with the welfare of this country (Peter, 2000). The enemy is that person who comes illegally into another country with the intention of doing some arm there. The enemy might come to conduct illegal business, cause insecurity or cause war. We are, therefore, supposed to protect our borders from such illegal immigrants who come in the form of an enemy. Through protecting our borders, we will be able to control spread of diseases, prevent illegal trade, prevent human trafficking and other illegal activities that immigrants might want to perform in the new country. A terrorist is one of the enemies that were protecting our boarders from. Therefore, being an enemy cannot be categorized as being more than terrorism since all cause us harm as a country. Terrorism, therefore, causes destruction just the same way enemies can cause destruction (David, 2008). Border enforcement enhances health concerns. This is to say, when we take good care of our boarders, we can prevent transmission and spread of some transnational diseases, hence making a country remain safe from such kind of diseases. Therefore, it is important to improve border enforcement in order to improve public health and safety concerns (Marc, Jerome, & Kristin,

Organisation of the Retail Sector

Organisation of the Retail Sector For the purpose of this assignment, I shall start off the assignment by defining the term retailing. I shall then describe how the retail industry is organised include many ways and places in which retail is conducted and finally I shall describe the changes that are taking place in the industry structure. Retailing is to provide services and products and at a profit. Retailing consists of the sale of goods for personal or household consumption operating from an appropriate location offering wide range of access to its target audience. For example, Retail Park in (Lakeside) ensuring adequate stock is available to meet customer demand as well as offering attractive and distinctive products. Ways and places in which retail is conducted There are immense ways and places in which retail may be conducting in current environment, however the aim of all types of retails is to engage with customer effectively and achieve the organisation aims and objectives through the various strategies that may suit them. Some of the ways and places are mentioned in detail as following. Classification of types of store There are several classifications of types of retail store as shown in the table below. Type of retailer Example Independent Corner shop such as Multiple chains Pharmacy, Department stores John Lewis, Selfridge, Tesco Metro Supermarkets Iceland, Morrison, Mark Spencer, Tesco Catalogue stores Argos, Empire direct, kays Discount stores Pc World, Maplin, Currys, Comet, Superdrug Emerging store types There are number of new store formats have appeared recently as mentioned below Shopping village Outlet Stores, Factory Shops, Factory Outlets, there are many names but only one concept, and that is to bring you designer products at discount prices. For example, shopping village in Oxford provides designer cloths at discount prices through website. Factory shops The factory shop is attached to a factory. A factory shop normally sell imperfect produced in the adjacent factory. In other words goods that may not be satisfactory produced in nearby factory. For example, The original factory shop offering a wide range of merchandise Ladieswear, Menswear, Kidswear, Sportswear, Football, Electricals, Housewares, Toys and Gifts, Beauty and Fragrance all discounted. Much of what they sell is either branded or is originally made for other high street stores and supermarkets. Television sales channels In recent years cable or satellite channels companies have dedicated shopping channels such as QVC and Express Shop to allow the consumer to order online instantly through remote control. E -Retailing The internet has tremendous change on the shopping habit of consumers and selling and buying products over the internet continues to gain popularity. This is because the internet has tree main advantages such as Convince shopping over internet allows consumer to shop online without having to leave their house Choices this is seen as the biggest advantages as the internet allows access to wide range of products from across the world for example EBay, this gives advantage to internet over shopping centre. Cost in general, goods sold online are much cheaper than those sold in shops and the expenses to run the website is relatively less than running physical shops. Online and physical stores The combination of technology and physical appearance of store is combined together, for example an electric store Pc World attempts to combine both an online web store and a physical store as it allows customer to surfer to order online and pick up from the store as well as delivering at their doorsteps. Service versus product retailing Organisation providing high proportion of services emphasis on providing effective marketing mix, such organisation includes banks, estate agents, cafes e.t.c. however product retailer emphasis not as much as service providing organisation. It is because service can exists within customer and organisation for long time such as Tenants and agents and therefore the agents has to provide effective service to convey customer and not loss it, on the other hand retailer selling cable electrical products, if once sold to customer then it will be used as long as the fault becomes. Therefore the service can exist for a long time where as providing products can be flexible and quick. Classification of retailers Retailers can be classified from variety of viewpoints, for example higher number of employees and sales turnover is indication of a tall structured organisation. There are other factors as well such as the size and product strategy, for example very large stores such as ASDA and Morisons selling a full range of food and non food products. In the UK 11% of all enterprises are retailers operating from around 280,000 retail outlets. Location The places of shopping have become more diverse, todays there are local, city centre and out of town retail parks, plus regional shopping developments. Local Local shops are located and serve suburban areas or smaller towns. They generally consisted of significant number of stores. The aim of such stores is to provide flexible shopping for consumers in a given locality enabling them to shop close by where they live rather than having to travel far away. In town stores and shopping centres It is commonly known as typical high street which is consisted of Department stores (such as Mark Spencer) Multiples (such as new Look) Service retailer (such as building societies and banks) The aim of such town stores and shipping centres is to provide large coverage and access to all possible products and services that is commonly used by consumers such as cloths, food and non food products, banking e.t.c. it is to maximising the efficiency of providing everything at located places. Out of town retail parks and regional centres There are huge regional shopping complexes located in several out of town sites in the UK. They have more attraction than shopping mall on large scale, these provides wide range of facilities such as restaurants, cinema, cash points as well as train stations and motorway access. Other out of town includes stores such as Comet, Dixons, Pc World, MF and BQ. The reason for such stores is that it is easy to park, prices are competitive and the size of these stores is huge means a great variety of goods is on sale. Ownership The ownership of retail stores reflects the diverse nature of the industry. Independent retailers are organisation with fewer then ten branches. Independent retailers tend to offer specialist range of products for example medicines, they also sell a range of products including groceries household goods, wine and spirits. Multiple retailers are organisation with more than ten branches. Some multiples are classified as specialist such as Burtons for clothing. Multiple variety stores like Boot s and Mark Spencer offer wide range of food. These stores tend to be in busy shopping areas and the prices tend to be relatively low. Voluntary chain retailers choose to buy most of the stock from the certain wholesalers whose price tends to be relatively low due to their buying power such as SPAR. Franchised retailers are granted the rights in a geographical area. In simple words, it is legal right given to a person who wishes to run the branch of established business or organisation an example would be Mc Donald or KFC. The franchisee pays a fee based sales or even agrees to buy supplies from the franchisor. Structured of the retail industry The structured of the retail industry has become more diverse due to expansions of brands in different type of location. The structure of retail can be noticed from number of perspectives such as the size and profitability, Trends in sale and other aspects. Size The size of UK retail industry continues to grow but not as rapid as it was from year 2000 to 2007. This is due to competitive market and economic turmoil in the current environment which is forcing industry size to be limited or even reduce it as the sales begin to slump. Trends in sales Form the past two year the retail sales have fallen dramatically due to the affect of recession on their sales, some retailers have reported of 10% sales being fallen. This has reduced the growth rates of the UK retailers. UK retail sales values fell 0.1% on a like-for-like basis from August 2008, however Retail sales in central London in November were 13.3% higher on a like-for-like basis than a year ago, when sales had fallen 0.4%, as financial turmoil hit consumer confidence especially in the City. This shows the glowing picture of sales. Profitability The formula for better profit is high sales and similarly low sale contributes to low profit. The retailers from across the country have reported improved sales from the last three years this means presumably healthy profit. however it cant be neglected that the uncertainty still remain in the British economy. But for the mean time the retailer are enjoying the volume of profit. Store size and location Some of the retailers such as Tesco have expanded in terms of the size and location. The management have made changes into physical structure enlarging it even further in some of the stores. Tesco have also begun to deploy stores in community such as Tesco Express in local community where the local shops are also operating. In general, it is noticed that retailer are committed expand the physical size as well as location such as retail park to provide maximum access to consumers. Not-for-profit and public place retailers There has been a growth in not for profit retailers such as Oxfam, Cancer research. They sell goods brought in by donors and use voluntary staff. The growth can be as people are becoming aware of their aims and objectives and thus feel compassionate towards their cause. Public retailers also have common variety of diverse venues, for example there has been noticeable rise in the products available from vending machines as it provide more services such as hot drinks. Similarly, there has been increased in retailers in main rail station for example, WHSmith is a common sight at many UK rail stations. Employment characteristic The retail industry employee approximately 3 million people, over the last five years employment in retailing has grown by 141,000. However, from the last year there has been decline in retail employment due to economic turmoil and the demand of employment has reduced significantly. Conclusion In this assignment, I have defined the term retailing described how the retail industry is organised through many ways and places in which retail is conducted and I have described the changes that are taking place in the industry structure

Is artificial intelligence possible? Essay -- Computer Science

Is artificial intelligence possible? IS A.I. POSSIBLE? In the science fiction film, The Terminator directed by James Cameron, the computers in the movie "get smart" and rise up against their human masters. In other words, the computers in the movie were able to become independent of their programmers and developed a kind of artificial intelligence (A.I.). This essay will prove that in real life, computers will never realize artificial intelligence, and also even though functionalism is based on an analogy between humans and computers, it is an effective way to describe the interaction between the mind and body. Two essays will be evaluated in this essay. The first essay was called; "Can Computers Think?" by John Searle which rejects the theory of A.I. The second essay was called; "Escaping from the Chinese Room" by Margret Boden, which supports A.I. A functionalist view of the mind is one that draws an analogy between the functioning of the human brain and the functioning of the digital computer. The strongest view says that the mind and the brain are just digital computers. This is called strong A.I., which is a term coined by John Searle. American Hilary Putnam was one of the first to make the analogy between the brain and the computer Putnam said it made no more sense to compare the mind and the brain then to compare the software with the hardware of a computer. He also made the point that psychologists were like programmers and electrical engineers were like physicians. Putnam also made the point not to take the analogy too far. There are important differences between computers and humans. One of the differences Putnam felt was that "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦all humans were able to learn from their experience and so change their own program but few computers could do that unaided" Hilary Putnam also argued against identifying psychological events with neurophysiologic events, and even against the attempt to do so. He felt mapping the brain to the mind was a waste of time. Jerry Fodor was another well known functionalist. Fodor, like Putnam felt that functionalism alleviated many of the problems associated with other mind body theories. These other mind body theories included Cartesian Dualism, materialism, behaviorism and the identity theory. Cartesian Dualism is the theory that that the mind and the brain are two separate things... ... as these are products of people not brains." She tries to demonstrate that the robot and the human brain are the same, in that they are both made up of small very stupid parts which build into a collective brain that is capable of understanding; "The fact that a certain light sensitive cell can respond to intensity gradients and that one neuron can inhibit the firing of another" Problem with this explanation is that now instead of input from a keyboard, the robot now receives its information from its sensors. The input will still be processed programming in the CPU of the robot. Boden did not disprove Searle's point that the syntax of a program is not sufficient for understanding of a digital computer system. Boden could not show that non-biological entity did have understanding, but she did show that Searle's argument on this point was a little weak because it relied on in tuition. The functionalism theory was shown to be an attractive theory a long as it was not taken too literally. Consequently it was shown in this essay that due to syntactical nature of computer programs and the computers lack of causal powers needed for a machine to have mental states.

Flash Fiction and Prose Essay

Surprise endings are tricky. They either work or they don’t; people are either captivated or dubiously disappointed. I must confess that â€Å"The School† and â€Å"Dinner Time† were both extremely strange and vaguely unenjoyable for me. â€Å"School† was quite depressing and raised quite a bit of questions: when does bad luck become just bad? How were the deaths uniform and consistent in plants, animals, and even people? Was there indeed something wrong with the school itself? Or was their a saboteur? I believe the root of the problem was too many questions and not enough answered. On top of that the ending was a walking gerbil which is just odd. The language, depth and vocabulary of the students change all of a sudden and the principal displays public affection with another teacher. As a result the story conveys an unsettling and even worrying atmosphere where children go to learn; the reader gets the sense that the children may not be entirely safe, but from what is still entirely unknown. Similarly, â€Å"Dinner Time† could conceivably be a Mad TV skit or a scene behind a schizophrenic’s eyes. I’m not sure if this bizarre husband and wife team was masochistic, psychopathic, or just plain insane. There is a great deal of anger, frustration and unnecessary pain that I quite simply did not understand. I could not comprehend how this dinner could have presented itself in Edson’s head. Truly, it is nothing but puzzling, and the ending is rather a relief – the reader can finally stop being confused. Conversely, â€Å"A Story About the Body† and â€Å"Sleeping† engages the reader by presenting a picture everyone has been in: babysitter (or babysat) and desire, or in it’s basest form, human connection. â€Å"Body† was the shortest piece we had to read and also managed to convey nearly the most information of all of them. A man desires a woman because of her expression through art, her dancer’s grace and her captivating eyes. But upon hearing of her loss, he at least is able to keep eye contact when he tells her the truth. The reader immediately experiences two different sets of emotions: pity for the woman with graceful hands of art, and a reluctant empathy with the man who changed his mind. It would’ve been an undeniably unnerving experience for him and any man, making love to a woman without what some consider is part of the essence of a woman, no matter how much in love with her he thought himself to be. But then he and the reader are presented with an ending in the form of a gift: a small blue bowl filled with water, rose petals and dead bees. I was completely ignorant of what this might mean and so did brief research on the symbolism of bees and found that the bee has most often been used to represent the soul. I do not know if that is what Hass implied or even intended but it seems to fit best here. Perhaps it is a metaphor for her own body: pretty on the outside (with clothes), damaged on the inside, but still whole – still a woman (naked). Not only was this woman sending him a message, but she was also giving him part of what attracted him to her in the first place: her art. The reader is likewise quickly intrigued in â€Å"Sleeping,† even downright curious as to why Mrs. Winter prevents the hired babysitter from ever confirming the existence of the baby. Is the baby alright? Is it breathing? Does this alleged baby even exist? Whereas â€Å"School† raised disturbing questions about the safety of mass amounts of children, â€Å"Sleeping† raises thoughts of intrigue, deception, and old fashioned mystery. And the ending is not surprising so much as it merely drives the reader to a hunger to know what exactly Mrs. Winters keeps in the â€Å"baby† room. And no Mr. Winter, we do not understand.

Negative Economic Impacts of Tourism Essay

There are many hidden costs to tourism, which can have unfavorable economic effects on the host community. Often rich countries are better able to profit from tourism than poor ones. Whereas the least developed countries have the most urgent need for income, employment and general rise of the standard of living by means of tourism, they are least able to realize these benefits. Among the reasons for this are large-scale transfer of tourism revenues out of the host country and exclusion of local businesses and products. Leakage The direct income for an area is the amount of tourist expenditure that remains locally after taxes, profits, and wages are paid outside the area and after imports are purchased; these subtracted amounts are called leakage. In most all-inclusive package tours, about 80% of travelers’ expenditures go to the airlines, hotels and other international companies (who often have their headquarters in the travelers’ home countries), and not to local businesses or workers. In addition, significant amounts of income actually retained at destination level can leave again through leakage. A study of tourism ‘leakage’ in Thailand estimated that 70% of all money spent by tourists ended up leaving Thailand (via foreign-owned tour operators, airlines, hotels, imported drinks and food, etc.). Estimates for other Third World countries range from 80% in the Caribbean to 40% in India. Of each US$ 100 spent on a vacation tour by a tourist from a developed country, only around US$ 5 actually stays in a developing-country destination’s economy. The figure below shows how the leakage happens. There are two main ways that leakage occurs: Import leakage This commonly occurs when tourists demand standards of equipment, food, and other products that the host country cannot supply. Especially in less-developed countries, food and drinks must often be imported, since local products are not up to the hotel’s (i.e. tourist’s) standards or the country simply doesn’t have a supplying industry. Much of the income from tourism expenditures leaves the country again to pay for these imports. The  average import-related leakage for most developing countries today is between 40% and 50% of gross tourism earnings for small economies and between 10% and 20% for most advanced and diversified economies, according to UNCTAD. Export leakage Multinational corporations and large foreign businesses have a substantial share in the import leakage. Often, especially in poor developing destinations, they are the only ones that possess the necessary capital to invest in the construction of tourism infrastructure and facilities. As a consequence of this, an export leakage arises when overseas investors who finance the resorts and hotels take their profits back to their country of origin. A 1996 UN report evaluating the contribution of tourism to national income, gross levels of incomes or gross foreign exchange, found that net earnings of tourism, after deductions were made for all necessary foreign exchange expenditures, were much more significant for the industry. This report found significant leakage associated with: (a) imports of materials and equipment for construction; (b) imports of consumer goods, particularly food and drinks; (c) repatriation of profits earned by foreign investors; (d) overseas promotional expenditures and (e) amortization of external debt incurred in the development of hotels and resorts. The impact of the leakage varied greatly across countries, depending on the structure of the economy and the tourism industry. From the data presented in this study on the Caribbean, St. Lucia had a foreign exchange leakage rate of 56% from its gross tourism receipts, Aruba had 41%, Antigua and Barbuda 25% and Jamaica 40%. Source: Caribbean Voice Enclave tourism Local businesses often see their chances to earn income from tourists severely reduced by the creation of â€Å"all-inclusive† vacation packages. When tourists remain for their entire stay at the same cruise ship or resort, which provides everything they need and where they will make all their expenditures, not much opportunity is left for local people to profit from tourism. The Organization of American States (OAS) carried out a survey of Jamaica’s tourist industry that looked at the role of the all-inclusives  compared to other types of accommodation. It found that ‘All-inclusive hotels generate the largest amount of revenue but their impact on the economy is smaller per dollar of revenue than other accommodation subsectors.’ It also concluded that all-inclusives imported more, and employed fewer people per dollar of revenue than other hotels. This information confirms the concern of those who have argued that all-inclusives have a smaller trickle-down effect on local economies The cruise ship industry provides another example of economic enclave tourism. Non-river cruises carried some 8.7 million international passengers in 1999. On many ships, especially in the Caribbean (the world’s most popular cruise destination with 44.5% of cruise passengers), guests are encouraged to spend most of their time and money on board, and opportunities to spend in some ports are closely managed and restricted. Other negative impacts Infrastructure cost Tourism development can cost the local government and local taxpayers a great deal of money. Developers may want the government to improve the airport, roads and other infrastructure, and possibly to provide tax breaks and other financial advantages, which are costly activities for the government. Public resources spent on subsidized infrastructure or tax breaks may reduce government investment in other critical areas such as education and health. Increase in prices Increasing demand for basic services and goods from tourists will often cause price hikes that negatively affect local residents whose income does not increase proportionately. A San Francisco State University study of Belize found that, as a consequence of tourism development, the prices for locals increased by 8%. Tourism development and the related rise in real estate demand may dramatically increase building costs and land values. Not only does this make it more difficult for local people, especially in developing countries, to meet their basic daily needs, it can also result in a dominance by outsiders in land markets and in-migration that erodes economic opportunities for the locals, eventually disempowering residents. In Costa Rica, close to 65% of the hotels belong to foreigners. Long-term tourists living in second homes, and the so-called amenity migrants (wealthy  or retired people and liberal professionals moving to attractive destinations in order to enjoy the atmospher e and peaceful rhythms of life) cause price hikes in their new homes if their numbers attain a certain critical mass. Economic dependence of the local community on tourism Diversification in an economy is a sign of health, however if a country or region becomes dependent for its economic survival upon one industry, it can put major stress upon this industry as well as the people involved to perform well. Many countries, especially developing countries with little ability to explore other resources, have embraced tourism as a way to boost the economy. In The Gambia, for instance, 30% of the workforce depends directly or indirectly on tourism. In small island developing states, percentages can range from 83% in the Maldives to 21% in the Seychelles and 34% in Jamaica, according to the WTO. Over-reliance on tourism, especially mass tourism, carries significant risks to tourism-dependent economies. Economic recession and the impacts of natural disasters such as tropical storms and cyclones as well as changing tourism patterns can have a devastating effect on the local tourism sector. Seasonal character of jobs The seasonal character of the tourism industry creates economic problems for destinations that are heavily dependent on it. Problems that seasonal workers face include job (and therefore income) insecurity, usually with no guarantee of employment from one season to the next, difficulties in getting training, employment-related medical benefits, and recognition of their experience, and unsatisfactory housing and working conditions. Other industry impacts affecting tourism Economic crises, like the Asian crisis that hit Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia a few years ago, can be devastating to inbound tourism flows. The financial turmoil triggered a sharp fall in tourism flows to affected countries during 1997 and 1998. In the Philippines, the crisis and the temporary closure of Philippine Airlines affected inbound arrivals significantly as there was a decline of almost 3.3% in 1998. Economic Effects — Positive Tourism creates jobs, both through direct employment within the tourism industry and indirectly in sectors such as retail and transportation. When these people spend their wages on goods and services, it leads to what is known as the â€Å"multiplier effect,† creating more jobs. The tourism industry also provides opportunities for small-scale business enterprises, which is especially important in rural communities, and generates extra tax revenues, such as airport and hotel taxes, which can be used for schools, housing and hospitals. Economic Effects — Negative Successful tourism relies on establishing a basic infrastructure, such as roads, visitor centers and hotels. The cost of this usually falls on the government, so it has to come out of tax revenues. Jobs created by tourism are often seasonal and poorly paid, yet tourism can push up local property prices and the cost of goods and services. Money generated by tourism does not always benefit the local community, as some of it leaks out to huge international companies, such as hotel chains. Destinations dependent on tourism can be adversely affected by events such as terrorism, natural disasters and economic recession. Social Effects — Positive The improvements to infrastructure and new leisure amenities that result from tourism also benefit the local community. Tourism encourages the preservation of traditional customs, handicrafts and festivals that might otherwise have been allowed to wane, and it creates civic pride. Interchanges between hosts and guests create a better cultural understanding and can also help raise global awareness of issues such as poverty and human rights abuses. Social Effects — Negative Visitor behavior can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of the host community. For example, crowding and congestion, drugs and alcohol problems, prostitution and increased crime levels can occur. Tourism can even infringe on human rights, with locals being displaced from their land to make way for new hotels or barred from beaches. Interaction with tourists can also lead to an erosion of traditional cultures and values. Environmental Effects — Positive Tourism — particularly nature and ecotourism — helps promote conservation of wildlife and natural resources such as rain forests, as these are now regarded as tourism assets. It also helps generate funding for maintaining animal preserves and marine parks through entrance charges and guide fees. By creating alternative sources of employment, tourism reduces problems such as over-fishing and deforestation in developing nations. Environmental Effects — Negative Tourism poses a threat to a region’s natural and cultural resources, such as water supply, beaches, coral reefs and heritage sites, through overuse. It also causes increased pollution through traffic emissions, littering, increased sewage production and noise. Tourism and Travel 1. Define the following terms: Hospitality Tourism Leisure Travel Attractions (20mks) 2. In your own opinion, what will make you choose to travel to Country A than to Country B during your holiday? (20mks) 3. What are the positive economic impacts of Tourism in Kenya? (20mks) 4. People do travel for a particular purpose; therefore what are the different types of tourism? (20mks) 5. The no. of tourist in a destination varies over time, what are the different reasons for that to happen? (20mks)

A Southern Tradition †Creative Writing Essay

A Southern Tradition – Creative Writing Essay Free Online Research Papers A Southern Tradition Creative Writing Essay It’s the third week in July. I stand at my mothers’ side with hair moist, clothes damp in this hot, humid Texas heat. Beer is in the hands of various grampas, uncles and friends all bragging about who bagged the biggest deer, stories of camping out during hunting season. I learn that camping while hunting is more for the campers than for the deer. It seems grampa doesn’t shoot many deer while rosy cheeked and intoxicated. But he sure can exaggerate stories of the one that was standing so close he could see the whites of its eyes. â€Å"So, why’d ya miss?† my uncle Harry asks Grampa. With his eyebrow cocked up and that half smile he answers in a slow southern drawl: â€Å"Well, just as I was taking my shot, your brother Ray stumbled out of the camp trailer yelling about the ice chest being open – seems all the ice melted.† Standing at my grampas elbow I am hot, humid and fanning myself with my hands. Heat is searing from the open-sided barbeque pit. Beer is sizzling as my grampa pours it over the meat; the spicy, sweet smelling steam rising to fill the air. That delicious, salivating aroma of beef and chicken quarters and beer marinade with lots of pepper crackling on the pit. The tangy smell wafting in the breeze, I can all but taste the outer edges of the fat frying in the flame. I look around and can see mouths watering in unison and anticipation. Sitting under ancient pecan trees rustling in the gentle wind, I watch a lonely leaf lazily drift down and rest at my feet. I hear everyone talking, laughing at once. Little kids running wild playing with the water hose. Adults yelling at the kids to play with the hose somewhere else. â€Å"You’re making mud!† And then there’s that one kid, that obnoxious kid that defies the authority of the adult. That kid’s crying in the corner, face hanging, crocodile tears in his eyes begging – every two minutes or so: â€Å"Can I come out now? Please! I promise I’ll be good!† His pleas are answered with a quiet and threatening â€Å"Do you want some Peach Tree Tea?!† Just hearing that phrase makes my bottom sore! I remember my Granny asking me that same question when I was acting up. I would answer with a foolish and unknowing â€Å"Yeah!†, and despondently drag my feet to the old peach tree to grudgingly pick a switch. Looks like this kid’s smarter than I was, he’s suddenly fascinated by the cobwebs in the top of the corner. Peaking in the kitchen, I see the women are readying various potato salads, macaroni salads, deviled eggs making iced tea. I catch my grampa’s wife, Sandy, pouring a little J.D. in her 44 oz mug of ice and coke. I hear them talking about the men, their love of their trucks, week-long hunting trips (you know the kind that don’t yield much in the way of deer), and cowboy hats. My Uncle Harry is sneaking around the kitchen trying to snatch a deviled egg. I announce to Sandy what he’s doing and, while she is distracted shooing him out, I steal a deviled egg or two for myself. Walking through the family room, MTV is blaring for the teenagers who are too full of angst and apathy to join in the festivities. Caring for nothing, my older cousins are bored. Sitting in their black clothes and greasy hair, I can nearly see the dirty grey/brown aura they give off. Thinking their indifference is cool, rolling their eyes and huffing their disdain for the cheerful goings on around them. They want to join, but I suspect that would ruin their image. Everywhere I look people are hugging. The oldest people are marveling at the youngest children, how they’ve grown, how cute they are, and when the parents aren’t in earshot, what â€Å"little brats† they are. â€Å"I wouldn’t let my child act that way in public.† â€Å"Someone needs to tell that child to go pick a switch!† Momo and Popo are giving out kisses and hugs to anyone that ventures by. My Momo sits with perfect rigid posture for a woman of 86. Her hair in the same bob she’s worn since the early nineteen thirties, one pinwheel curl in the front, her lips vibrant with Coty red lipstick. My poor Popo is being bossed around by Momo. He shuffles off to do her bidding with a sigh and a shake of his head. This is nothing new; it’s been this way as long as I can remember. In the back bedroom window rock music is blaring loud and distorted -something old – Lynard Skynnard or AC/DC. My uncle Ray, already half toasted, is nodding his head to the beat. Wearing an old trucker hat, a faded red tank top you know the kind with the big arm holes, an old pair of Wrangler shorts the kind that rest an inch ABOVE the knee and high top sneakers. His eyes are in slits. He smiles his good ‘ol boy smile with his redneck version Fu Man Chu mustache. Suddenly, my grampa declares the food to be done. â€Å"Soups on!† he hollers. In a flurry of movement the oldest people line up to get their plates, the mothers’ fix plates for youngest children and everyone settles to eat. As suddenly as it begun, it’s over. A quite calm is in the air. I can hear my lips smacking, everyone’s fingers being licked and the occasional grunting of approval. The music is turned down. The TV is off. Dusk is falling and with it all the excitement of the afternoon. Here we sit unified by family and food, hearts and stomachs full. Feeling content in mind, body, belly and soul. Looking around, I am overwhelmed by the generations that span nearly a hundred years. I’m awestruck with way that good food and good company can bring a whole family together. I am proud to be here, to be where I belong. Where love is the feeling, summer is the time and the family reunion is the place. Research Papers on A Southern Tradition - Creative Writing EssayThe Spring and AutumnThe Hockey GameHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayMind TravelWhere Wild and West MeetThe Fifth Horseman19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationHip-Hop is ArtHonest Iagos Truth through Deception

Parental Delinquency Essays - Childhood, Criminology, Free Essays

Parental Delinquency Essays - Childhood, Criminology, Free Essays Parental Delinquency Parental Delinquency? Gone are the good old days when mom and dad were around to teach their children about morality and the basics of growing up. Instead, we see parents who have replaced caring and personal involvement with the purchase of material goods. We see parents who are afraid to discipline their children and who are afraid to set boundaries. We see parents who are afraid to hug their children and be involved in their lives. A child's behavior shows the kind of home he or she comes from. Parents are suppose to be role models, but what do we find. Parents are neglecting their responsibility. Parents, who ought to teach by precept and example, have fallen prey to the do as I say, but not as I do syndrome. We as a society, often times fail to look at the root cause of many of the adolescent problems being witnessed today. I watched a PBS documentary entitled The Lost Children of Rockdale County. I found this documentary to be very disturbing look into the lives of middle to upper class youth. Though the focus of the program was sexual promiscuity, drugs, pornography, and alcohol, but what I found far more troubling was the tremendous breakdown that exists between the children of Rockdale County and their parents. This entire documentary was full of houses that were empty and void of supervision and adult presence. Some recent research on adolescent behavior has provided an insight into factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency. The relationships between parents and children play a significant role in the social well being of the children. Children who do the best, have parents who use both a great deal of warmth and caring with their children and also exercise a high level of control over their children's actions. High levels of warmth and control characterize the form of parenting referred to as authoritative. (Teenagers in Trouble, Gallagher, p.2) Authoritative parents are both firm and fair. Rarely did I see this type of parent in the program. I thought that if I disciplined you, you would run away was one comment made by a mother whose daughter had gone on a drinking bing at age twelve, blacked out, and realized she had been raped when she came to. Many of the parents documented were not able to connect with their children and even when they did, they thought that just showing concern was enough. A Father commented that he felt that he should allow his children to sow their wild oats when they were young so that they wouldn't do it when they were older. Just showing concern is not enough. Adolescents need guidance as well as encouragement and they need to know that their parents, their relatives, and the adult network in the neighborhood are all watching them, are all concerned, and see their upbringing as a priority. (Teenagers in Trouble, Gallagher, p 3). I could go on about the gross negligence of the parents of Rockdale County. This documentary was an eye opening view not only of blatant unconcern by the parents of this county but also the underlying breakdown of the American family. I believe that the solution to juvenile delinquency is not more laws or greater restrictions, for rarely do these interventions work. We need to have adults who are continuously, visibly and actively present in the lives of children. Bibliography Adolescence and Puberty. Bancroft, J, Reinisch, JM. (Eds.) (1990) New York: Oxford University. A Parent's Handbook: Teaching Your Kids about Developing Healthy Relationships. Gallagher, R. & Liz Claiborne, Women's Work Foundation (1998) aboutourkids.org The Children of Rockdale, (PBS, 1999)

What the sub-editor saw - Emphasis

What the sub-editor saw What the sub-editor saw Hello, Im Cathy, and Im a sub-editor (scourge of the newsroom, pedant and dictionary botherer). As such, my job is to spot inaccuracies, correct typos, clean up grammar and write headlines. I spend most of my time working at the broadsheets, where the copy is of very high quality. Even so, there are still plenty of opportunities for words to go crazy and cause mayhem, as they have a way of doing. Ill be keeping an eye out while Im on my rounds, and reporting in to Emphasis from time to time on the mistakes I find. After all, what better way to learn than from the mistakes of others? (Far less painful than ones own!) This week From triplets to tautology, the wrong Teresa to the wrong Labour politician, heres a round-up of a few corkers I spotted this week. Youve probably heard the nursery rhyme As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives; each wife held seven sacks, each sack had seven cats Well, I was reminded of that when I spotted this sentence, which features a common tautology (tautology: using multiple words to describe the same thing). Farhana Shaukat, a mother of three triplets, gave a clue as to why the pupils were queuing up outside. They get bored with the holidays, she said. Three triplets? So how many were going to St Ives three or nine? Triplets only has one meaning: three children born at the same time. The addition of three is unnecessary, but surprisingly common (along with the other favourite two twins). Its not a big mistake, by any means. But its worth avoiding even if only for the reason that some stickler will always pick you up on it otherwise (erm, yes, thats me). Health risk Moving on swiftly, we go from an extraneous word to a missing word and this time, an important one. This is a good example of how one word can completely change the meaning of a sentence. And its so easy to do, especially when youre in full flow and thinking faster than you can write. The following was very nearly published as the headline to a piece on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Spot the missing word. World Trade Centre attacks left rescuers and bystanders with raised risk of physical and mental health, Lancet reveals Its not only missing words that can cause mischief letters can be equally troublesome. The following sentence has a letter missing. Can you spot it? The inquiry, ordered by Teresa May, is being carried out by Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary. Its an h. The home secretary is a Theresa, not a Teresa. Pah! you say. Thats just a typo, nothing to sweat over. And yes, thats fair. But a Teresa May does exist, and she has a profession that our Theresa probably wouldnt appreciate being associated with. Ahem. (Shes a porn star.) Lets play spot the letter again, in a similarly scandalous vein. This time, though, youre looking for an extra one, not a missing one. Ready? This month a 51-year-old officer will answer police bail after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public officer over alleged unauthorised leaks from the Operation Weeting phone-hacking inquiry. Misconduct in a whaaat? Madre mia! That should, needless to say, read misconduct in a public office. Brown, in the farmhouse, with the Okay, thats more than enough smut. Back to serious things. This final example is one of those mistakes that is terrifyingly easy to make when youve been working on something at length and suddenly your brain turns bad and attacks you. This came at the end of a very long and detailed story on Alistair Darlings new book, in which the words Brown and Darling occurred many times over, and always in the right place until That weekend, Brown reveals that he held a secret meeting with Miliband at a farmhouse in Essex. Grammatically, its fine. No typos, no dodgy apostrophes. So whats the problem? Simply that its wrong. It was Darling, not Brown, who revealed and attended the secret meeting and the scary truth is that no spellcheck can pick up that kind of (potentially libellous) mistake. The moral of the story? Proofread, proofread and proofread. Ideally, ask someone else to proofread for you and dont feel bad if they pick up errors. None of the mistakes Ive mentioned above were made through ignorance or stupidity simply through human error. We all make em. The best protection is knowing it. This is a guest blog post by Cathy Relf, a freelance sub-editor.

Associates and Joint Ventures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Associates and Joint Ventures - Essay Example Therefore it is pertinent to analyze this practice in detail and the information to be disclosed. It also is relevant to note the underlying legal and financial guidelines that ought to be followed in all such mergers. This paper analyses the impact of the acquisition in the light of accounting parameters and will try by logical similes and examples to arrive at the proper perspective in relation to the type of dealings. We can define a merger where two individual companies become a single company and unify their entity. Strong companies seek out the less fortunate ones and then unify them into the company. Some times very strong and prospective companies also merge to create a bigger market or capture a foreign market. A company can also purchase another company and this is a purchase or consolidation. The stocks of the acquired company are sold for an agreed amount. Some tax benefits accrue. For example the buying company can write off the assets they acquire to the actual value paid for the company, and the difference between the book value and that purchase value for the assets can be charged off as depreciation over several years. An Acquisition of one company by another is a little different from a merger but not much. All of the above reasons for combining two companies apply, but instead of swapping stock or consolidating under a new corporate entity, one company simply buys another. In an acquisition, a company can buy another company with cash, with stock, or a combination of the two. The difference between the merger purchase and an acquisition depends on whether the purchase is friendly and announced as a merger or announced as an acquisition or the purchase is unfriendly. When it's unfriendly, it's always an acquisition. We are more concerned with a Holding company. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a holding company as: "Corporation that owns enough voting stock in one or more other companies to exercise control over them. A holding company provides a means of concentrating control of several companies with a minimum of investment; other means of gaining control, such as mergers or consolidations, are more complicated legally and more expensive. A holding company can reap the benefits of a subsidiary's goodwill and reputation while limiting its liability to the proportion of the subsidiary's stock that it owns. The parent company in a conglomerate corporation is usually a holding company."i Why Have A Holding There are many business needs like expansion, new markets, new niche, and effective marketing and price control to name a few reasons other than more profits. The accounting reasons to create such a holding may be on account of tax saving, complimenting capability and resources, and share capital, technology, and risk. Important Factors to be considered The screening of prospective partners: This is done at all levels of management, not only the analysis of the company's financial history or capital. Analyzing factors like human resources, technical competency and

Marketing Consultancy, this is a group work not full paper work see Essay

Marketing Consultancy, this is a group work not full paper work see details bellow - Essay Example Basically, the rationale behind the need to build ties with the local schools, youth clubs, and sports clubs is to make it easier on the part of the Dunamaise Arts Centre to locate and encourage the parents of children between 5 to 15 years old to take advantage of the art work exhibits, educational shows, workshops, and classes that are purposely designed to enhance the artistic side of each child (Marconi, 2005, p32). 7. Offer courses or workshops related to arts and crafts such as puppetry, holiday card making, drawing, sketching, paintings, and textile design making; book arts; animal sculpture making using playdough; film making and animation; digital photography; music like singing songs and sounscapes; acting; storytelling; and dancing (Dibb, 1996, p6). This is a business terminology referring to the the process of classifying customer with common needs. This classification or aggregation is made to customers with similar needs in relation to the marketing action (Wong, 1993, p22). To make it easier for Dunamaise Arts Centre to identify its target market, it is important to divide its target customers into subgroups. By conducting market segmentation, Dunamaise will be able to learn more about its target customers’ demographic, psychographic, and geographic profile (Kotler, 2000, pp. 263 – 266). To locate the target market, it is necessary to contact the managers of Leighlinbridge Gaelic Foodball Club, Co Carlow Football Club, Castledermot GAA Club, Athy GFC, Castlemtchell GFC, Kildangan GAA, Redhills Airsoft, Cill Dara Rugby Club, and Naas Hockey Club among others. KOHL, S. (2000). Getting attention leading-edge lessons for publicity and marketing. Boston, Mass, Butterworth Heinemann. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=34020. Mcdonald, M. (2008). Malcolm McDonald on marketing planning

The friendship of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Essay

The friendship of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin - Essay Example The essay "The friendship of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin" discovers the relationships between Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh. The other anticipation that Gauguin had was that he could establish a more intimate painting connection with Van Gogh, and out of it they could bring their painting talent together to create other a successful painting empire, like the two sunflowers painting that Van Gogh had created. In this respect, Gauguin anticipated that he could tap on his friend’s talent and make some impressive paintings during this vacation. The last of his anticipation was that he would continue building on his friendship with Van Gogh and his brother Theo, owing to the fact that Van Gogh had invited and waited for Gauguin for long, while Theo was the one who encouraged him to visit the Yellow House. The expectations that Paul Gauguin had while visiting Van Gogh was that out of their friendship and combined efforts, success for the two relatively new yet older artist s would spark a more beautiful life for the two of them, owing the fact that both had shared a similarity in living a depressed life previously. When he arrived at Van Gogh’s house, things turned out to be different, since the anticipated happiness and the cordial relationship they sought to create did not come about. The friendly connections lasted a little while, and then arguments between them started drawing them apart, as they could neither agree on the locations where they should paint, nor the mode of painting to adapt.

Difference between Liberalism and Socialism Essay

Difference between Liberalism and Socialism - Essay Example Socialism advocates for total control of resources that contribute to political and economic development. Only through such control, can the state achieve true success and economic prosperity of its people (Hinnfors, 2006). Introduction History and Political Science What is the difference between liberalism and socialism? Through socialism, most of the individuals in a nation are highly likely to be provided for in terms of basic resources. The government in a socialist system is also highly likely to ensure that the people of the nation have all needed social amenities. Socialism is likely to ensure that all the available wealth in a nation has been equally distributed regardless of economic state held by the country’s nationals. However, some of the socialist systems that have been observed in most countries have not been as efficient as they were originally meant to be. If the individuals in the government happen to be corrupt, it is the innocent nationals of a country that suffer since the wealth in the nation does not get distributed as it should be (Mcdonald, 2008). There are different forms of liberalism that are used in the learning fields. This paper will focus on the classical form of liberalism and its views. Liberalism dictates that the governing power should only be in charge of institutions in the country if there is no recorded progress. Individuals that support liberalism feel that the people of a nation are likely to have more freedom if the government is only involved in the control of some institutions (Tamanaha, 2004). What are the basic components and goals of a liberalist government? (Based on the ideas of J.S. Mill, Adam Smith and John Locke) Liberalist governments view the needs and wants of their people as being the most important. The government encourages a system whereby individuals are made to feel free in their environment. There is freedom of speech and other constitutional rights to encourage harmony in the society (Tamana ha, 2004). Liberalist governments are based on the ideals of liberty and equality. The main components of liberalist governments include the freedoms of speech, free elections and right to life and own property. According to John Locke, each individual should have the right to life, own property and liberty. Another component is the rejection of absolute monarchies, state religion and the divine right of kings. J.S Mill asserts that an individual should have the right to do harm on himself or herself as long as he is not harming other people. ((Mcdonald, 2008). Adam Smith, in his work on wealth of nations, he asserted that governments should ensure economic liberalism by not interfering with the markets. He opposed restrictive trade practices, subsidies to government monopolies and trade unions. According to liberalist goals, the selfish interests of individuals will make the economic markets self-regulate. However, Adam Smith argued that the government had limited role in the provi sion of public goods like schools and roads that cannot be provided adequately by the private sector. Adam Smith maintained such costs should be charged to citizens proportionately according to their consumption through tolls ((Mcdonald, 2008). Individuals such as John Locke were on the front in encouraging the adoption of liberalism in governing systems. Liberalism supports the giving of power to the people in communities. Individuals are ideally free to communicate their satisfaction/ dissatisfaction with a government and demand for a democratic way of governing. According to Locke, individuals are entitled to ownership of any form of rights, rights or freedom. A

Imagine that you are the owner of a small manufacturing company Research Paper

Imagine that you are the owner of a small manufacturing company - Research Paper Example The minimum wage workers, mostly in the assembly section, would be at the level where the basic needs have to be satisfied. The basic needs or the lowest levels needs are the physiological needs and unless these are satisfied, other needs will not even surface. This is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that explains what motivates people and the type of needs that cause action. Based on this theory, it is thus necessary that minimum wage workers are given wages that meet their basic needs. This is their primary concern and can motivate them to work. Moreover, it takes lot more than money to make people happy. People seek job security, recognition and status. Job security is particularly important for people that seek to satisfy lower order needs (Latham & Ernst, 2006). However, even though their basic needs are met, they also expect distributive justice. If an employee feels he is underpaid, it could adversely affect performance. This may also lead to feelings of hostility towards the management. Adams’ equity theory focuses on the motivational effects of distributive justice where the workers would compare the inputs and outputs of their own self versus those of others (Locke & Latham, 2004). To ensure low turnover, management should try to increase the link between efforts and performance evaluation, and performance and outcomes. Providing the right job role and training to fulfill the job role would motivate the minimum wage worker because they would feel recognized. This is the based on the Hawthorne Studies, which found that supervision, incentives and working conditions impact performance. Self-determination theory (SDT) is another theory of human motivation and development. One of the theories it focuses on is controlled motivation. Controlled motivation consists of external regulation as well as introjected regulation (Deci and Ryan, 2008). Once the basic needs of the minimum wage workers are provided, to achieve the desire productivity , they need some amount of control. Through control behaviour should be regulated by means of external contingencies such as rewards and punishment. Under control people are pressurized to think, feel or behave in particular ways. They may also try to give their best as this could bring them rewards and failure to do so could result in punishment. As far as employees from other sections (sales, technology and administration) are concerned, different set of motivation strategy can be adopted. Goal-setting theory by Locke and Latham focuses on the effects of conscious goals as motivators of task performance. Goal setting is a powerful motivation technique as it creates a â€Å"strong situation† (Latham & Ernst, 2006). The strong situation minimizes the effect of personality difference among workers. In sales and technology people with differing skills and personality are likely to be in the same team. Goal-setting theory states that setting high goals can lead to high performan ce, the higher the goals the higher will be one’s performance and variable such as participation in decision making and feedback enhance performance (Locke, 1968 cited in Locke & Latham, 2004). When people attain goals they feel satisfied. This will also ensure high quality work. To minimize the impact of individual differences, goal-setting should be based on individual talent and capabilities. At the same time, high but attainable goals could enhance productivity and performance. Organizational

Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality Essay

Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality - Essay Example A CT scan may also reveal how much of the colon is inflamed. 2) The second differential diagnosis is Crohn’s Disease. The data that supports this diagnosis includes bloody diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue, insidious onset, arthritis (painful knee joints), rash (erythema nodosum), fever, and abdominal pain or tenderness. Also, the onset age is between 15 and 25; males are more likely to develop the disease than females, and people are put more at risk if there is family history of the disease. The lab/diagnostic tests I will need to rule in or out Crohn’s Disease are CT scan, to look for thickening of the colon; CBC, for anemia; pANCA, as ASCA in Crohn’s may differentiate from UC; biopsy; and an IBD serology 7 panel. 3) The third differential diagnosis is infectious colitis/diarrhea/gastroenteritis. The data that supports this diagnosis includes bloody diarrhea, weight loss, anorexia, dehydration, pale skin, abdominal pain or cramps, fever, elevated WBC in stool, an emia, and hyperactive bowel sounds. This disorder is common in all ages, but especially in individuals who have a long history of stomach problems or have tender arthritis. The lab/diagnostic tests I will need to rule in or out infectious colitis/diarrhea/gastroenteritis are testing stools for WBC/leukocytosis; Ova + parasite to exclude amebiasis; toxin assay to rule out c diff; cultures to rule out salmonella, shigella, e.coli and campylobacter; and urinalysis, BUN, specific gravity, and electrolytes. 4) The fourth differential diagnosis is Ischemic colitis. The data that supports this diagnosis includes bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain LLQ tenderness, elevated WBC, and anemia. Ischemic... Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality Patients often expect slow delivery of service. They have a lack of confidence that providers will really help, especially if the patient is poor. For this reason, patients may feel less confident about U.S. providers who are Latino. Physicians in Mexico are revered: â€Å"What is said is done, no questions asked.† Questions are not asked for fear of insulting the provider. This includes questions about the patient’s prognosis. Patients from Mexico and many underdeveloped countries are accustomed to providers who wear white coats. American providers who dress casually may have to prove themselves more. There are exceptions to this. Uninsured and underinsured Latino patients are in survival mode. Maintaining the most basic needs, such as affording food and paying for housing, take over their everyday lives. Most of these people are close to becoming homeless and some are already homeless. As such, preventive care is viewed as a luxury, something that only the rich can afford. This attitude is only strengthened by previous experiences in Latin American countries, where treatment was almost nonexistent due to a major lack of financial resources. For most individuals, healthcare in Latin America was unaffordable and unattainable, and most experience the same problem in the U.S. Latinos in the United States are without health insurance. Even though there are a large amount of preventive services available at free or reduced costs, patients and providers do not always know about these services.

Imagine that you are the owner of a small manufacturing company Research Paper

Imagine that you are the owner of a small manufacturing company - Research Paper Example The minimum wage workers, mostly in the assembly section, would be at the level where the basic needs have to be satisfied. The basic needs or the lowest levels needs are the physiological needs and unless these are satisfied, other needs will not even surface. This is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that explains what motivates people and the type of needs that cause action. Based on this theory, it is thus necessary that minimum wage workers are given wages that meet their basic needs. This is their primary concern and can motivate them to work. Moreover, it takes lot more than money to make people happy. People seek job security, recognition and status. Job security is particularly important for people that seek to satisfy lower order needs (Latham & Ernst, 2006). However, even though their basic needs are met, they also expect distributive justice. If an employee feels he is underpaid, it could adversely affect performance. This may also lead to feelings of hostility towards the management. Adams’ equity theory focuses on the motivational effects of distributive justice where the workers would compare the inputs and outputs of their own self versus those of others (Locke & Latham, 2004). To ensure low turnover, management should try to increase the link between efforts and performance evaluation, and performance and outcomes. Providing the right job role and training to fulfill the job role would motivate the minimum wage worker because they would feel recognized. This is the based on the Hawthorne Studies, which found that supervision, incentives and working conditions impact performance. Self-determination theory (SDT) is another theory of human motivation and development. One of the theories it focuses on is controlled motivation. Controlled motivation consists of external regulation as well as introjected regulation (Deci and Ryan, 2008). Once the basic needs of the minimum wage workers are provided, to achieve the desire productivity , they need some amount of control. Through control behaviour should be regulated by means of external contingencies such as rewards and punishment. Under control people are pressurized to think, feel or behave in particular ways. They may also try to give their best as this could bring them rewards and failure to do so could result in punishment. As far as employees from other sections (sales, technology and administration) are concerned, different set of motivation strategy can be adopted. Goal-setting theory by Locke and Latham focuses on the effects of conscious goals as motivators of task performance. Goal setting is a powerful motivation technique as it creates a â€Å"strong situation† (Latham & Ernst, 2006). The strong situation minimizes the effect of personality difference among workers. In sales and technology people with differing skills and personality are likely to be in the same team. Goal-setting theory states that setting high goals can lead to high performan ce, the higher the goals the higher will be one’s performance and variable such as participation in decision making and feedback enhance performance (Locke, 1968 cited in Locke & Latham, 2004). When people attain goals they feel satisfied. This will also ensure high quality work. To minimize the impact of individual differences, goal-setting should be based on individual talent and capabilities. At the same time, high but attainable goals could enhance productivity and performance. Organizational

Analisys of demand and supply affecting Shell Oil Coursework

Analisys of demand and supply affecting Shell Oil - Coursework Example The effects of changes in the price and availability of gods and services, which serve as complements to oil have had a great impact on the demand for Shell’s products. A good is as a complement when a rise in its price results to a negative shift in the demand curve for the good of interest. The rise in the maintenance costs has placed tremendous pressure on the demand for oil and affecting the price for the company’s products. The price fall in shares for other industries that heavily rely on oil has had a great impact on demand for oil. The reduced profitability and price wars among companies such as Tesco, J Sainsbury, and Marks Spenser reduces the demand for Shell’s products. Increase in price of engineering tools used in processing and extraction of oil have had a negative impact on the demand for oil (Mason, 2011). Shell can increase the price for its products and services to cover higher overhead costs. A substitute good or service is as a substitute when an increase in its price results into a positive shift in the demand for good or service of interest (Cherunilam, 2007). The increase in the availability of alternative fuel sources such as solar energy has a negative impact on the demand for oil. ... The demand for Shell’s products is price sensitive (elastic) since a reduction in the price for Shell petrol will automatically result into an increase in demand. In the case of Shell’s products and services, the percentage change in demand is greater than the change in price. The effects of 2008 economic crisis have had negative impacts on the available income to most people in the UK and the rest of the world. This results into decreased availability of disposable income thereby lowering the demand for products and services (Kotler, 2006). An increase in the level of income can result in increased demand for Shell’s products as people start spending more on luxuries such as travelling longer distances using private cars. This will result into increased demand for fuel. Changes in the company’s operations can have remarkable impacts on the supply curve. The increase in cost of oil extraction due to the effects of economic recession is likely to lead to a shift in Shell’s supply curve. The cost of the refinery is a vital factor that causes a shift in the supply curve. The high cost of production has resulted into less supply and consequently fewer profits (Tanne & Raymond, 2010). The increase in the number of the company’s own retail outlets is playing a major role in increasing the company’s global presence. This results into positive shift in the supply curve. Market failures and imperfections An externality is an impact resulting because of an economic activity that affects unrelated third parties (Maidment, 2002). An example of an externality is the recent Shell’s oil spill in Niger Delta, which affected the surrounding environment and affected the health and economic life of the nearby residents. An externality can

Self-Reflection and Self SWOT Analysis

Self-Reflection and Self SWOT Analysis Self analysis is nothing but calculation of ones opinions and activities. That is costing of ones emotions, personality and behavior. From this people can easily recognize their individual strength and weakness. Moreover self analysis is a process or it is a test to judge the abilities, talents and expertise. Self awareness is one of the way to yourself in which to discover our separable personalities, rate structures, politics, usual feelings and tendencies. Because for some stuffs, manufacture facts and learns we are all dissimilar to react. And this is very useful to sometimes pass time in self reflection to increase a superior vision into ourselves. SELF AWARENESS: Self awareness is a main thing for us, because when we know the healthier thoughtful of ourselves then we are the authorized to create a ups and downs and also to figure our parts of strengths. Moreover in our level of recognize areas we would like to make developments over and over again. That is so self awareness is the stage of aim setting. Self awareness is a skill for education. Education here is nothing but knowing ourselves. If a person know about ourselves, then only the person modify the stuffs they want to adjustment himself. Each person have a aim to their life like to became leadership man, playful life, relaxation life and so on. And the person will try and makes works relevant to his aim. But this everything is possible only by the investigating his emotions, reactions, trusts and qualities. Thus it is the self awareness performance. That is, a person will know about their own personalities like skills, thoughts, beliefs, inspiration and sensations. This kind person will only able to say the word i am self aware . That is, if i want to say i am self aware then i had a strong observation about myself and i had studied myself. Determining the exact path that ranges the aim can be probable simply by self-analysis. Self-awareness is one thing chooses whether you are the correct one to become a head or not. I must recognize the powers and weaknesses to become familiar for every circumstance. In the progression of these gatherings i am not forceful a person what to accept as true, how they should consider or what they should to do. I am mainly focused with persons tests in levitation their self awareness. When you grow into more self aware you automatically bring in to being to see phases of your behavior and the character that you did not warning earlier. Some authors give quotes about self-awareness they are, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships. John Gottman. Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you arent. Thanks to Maria Marquis Thoreau There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve. -Margaret Thatcher. We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are someone with a wizards power to melt stone to sunlight, which can bring us happiness in spite of trials, which can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical someone is the face we see in the mirror: Its us and our homemade masks. -Richard Bach. Self-Analysis: Self-analysis involves understanding ones own  preconscious and insensible materials like ideas, Para praxes, memories, fleeting thoughts, and powerful emotions. By self analysis a person can simply find the weakness and by rectifying their weakness that person can capable to see the places and positions they have to adjust. Best of all, all persons has incorrect opinions and personal faults committed by them, But by the self analysis the person can simply able to avoid the problems and reach the requirements with no chunks. Self-analysis creates several profits that is it produces a extraordinary level of control that is to improve the person such as helpful talents, capacities and powers can leading easily and they can have a capacity to the true tracks. Self analysis process is very helpful and act as great end in idea making process which is suits for business surroundings. Career choice is almost whether they happy by gettings, assignment, place of work, organizational core, situation, challenges, superior for improvement, connection and the support from the age group. The chief dissimilarity between the self analysis and self awareness is that identifying a persons actions by approaches and talents. WELFARE IN SELF ANALYSIS AND SELF AWARENESS: By performing the self analysis a person can absorb their weakness. By this identification a person can know the real requirements to face the carrier. And they can easily increase the skills and talents by their positive skills. Moreover about decision-making and clear vision, self awareness shows positive and negative ways. CONCLUSION: Thus the method of learning own personality said to be a self analysis and ability of perform the process is called self awareness. We have to increase the strength and weakness by improving the skills. Thus the self analysis and self awareness is much important for career development. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS BASED ON ONLINE TEST: INTRODUCTION: For self analysis there are many number of tests are available and here I am going to discuss about some analysis test report. CAREER PATH TEST: The career path test is like a quiz type, which have two things they are, the activities which makes interests and gives joy and the another thing is about what kind of behaviour i have for my goal. This career path test shows result as yellow for interest and green for style and as I to accepted with this result. As in the result I am very much interested in supervision and administration management. Yes that is the reason iam doing administration course now. And also about my relaxations is like home duties and roaming is very much true. I am spending more time on managing and at all times deliberate the whole thing before starting it. So that the result of career planner quiz said as gathering report and evaluating are also suitable. Always I think of complexity in doing any jobs. I continuously use to say hard work is not the big one, only doing and finishing the thing is great. Various people can do the difficult job by hard work, but some people can do the same job by finding the easiest way. I need to be one of them always. My career planner quiz also said that I am creating the sophisticated processes for doing complex work. My results are ever reasonable because nothing I choose carelessly and without any reason. Before making decision I use to study the points for accepting and rejecting. Then only I will choose to decide if the qualities and income are high otherwise not. Next in the social equality point of view, I never took the others chances and I use give the chances for others when I am in group. This concept is very much believed by me. This concept is very much believed by me. So I agree with the points about my style such as reasonable decision maker and independent. Thus in the career test I can understand my interest and styles and I can agree with this results about my behaviour. So I accepted this self analysis test about me is true. JOHARI WINDOW: Consider the adjective list of me and my friends to map the character awareness by means of overlap and difference between them. It is called the johari window. The johari windows results accepted by me about 100%. In this window the test results grouped into four categories. First one is arena which means the characters known to both self and others? It gives me the result bold, energetic and friendly. It is accepted because I am so friendly to the people with me. Second thing is facade which means the traits known to self but not to others. It says I am happy and nervous. I accepted I am happiest person; I can make any time happy and also make nervous situation on mingle with people without mind the country, language. I am confident about what I am doing. Before start anything I use to search merits and demerits. After decide to do, I dont want to confuse myself. I am always friendly thats why I can make happy all. This is the thing I feel my strength. Ever I responsive because eve ry action there is a reaction. Pre-planning is possible only when I am sensible. Third thing in the johari test is blind spot. It is about the characteristic which is known to others but not to self. By this my friend can expose me and I can understand him that how much he understands me. I can realize my blind spots including knowledgeable and mature. About my culture surroundings i am mature. Thus this result says 100% to my mature. I am little bit nervous and little bit relaxed. Most of the time I am relaxed, nervous comes while lack of confidence in doing complex things. But I always show the relaxed face to others. In debate, I felt nervous sometimes and this results to degrade my performance. The johari windows results accepted by me about 100%.. Final category is about new who is new to both self and others. I need to concentrate these characters and analyse those characters about me. The unknown characters such as my braveness, intelligence, calmness, brave, giving, modest, able, accepting and others are under research. I need to analyse myself to become self aware. PSYCHOMETRIC TEST: In order to change my activities and a number of development tips based on my personal results for suggestions, The psychometric test is use full. There are two parts in the psychometric test that is shapes and views. That is the aim of the report is to give u ideas for your professional and personal development. Based on our personal reports of shapes we will find a few suggestions in this report in order to change our behaviour by trying certain activities. As a result of psychometric shapes test says as, I am a happy to snatch the leadership in team and make every effort to clearly regulate the individual roles and responsibilities. I am normally succeed in effective coordinating the work every day jobs and that everyone concentrates on the upcoming tasks and objectives. And my work manner like highly target motivated and for my mind think i keep in the mind the relationship between cost and benefits. I like to question usual approaches and prefer to creatively and flexibly tackle problems and tasks. I am open to new things, and occasionally contribute innovative ideas and suggestions yourself. yes i agree with this result in organizational behaviour. And this test shows that i need to aware of significance of useful contacts and relationships, and need to develop contacts quickly on the informal level and sometimes incorporate these relationship for your own purpose. And i need to recognize the core of a problem and take hold of the f undamental effects of actions. In these report i not accept with the last sentence that is i need to recognize the core of problem and take necessary effects. I know my decision is correct for current situation . Thus i agree with the aware need for me. And the test shows to try something like make list of all teams and groups in which you work together with others it helps how we describes our own role in these groups. yes so that going to try these types and even i am happy with this results i am limited with organizational development and this results reports i want to aware of here, yes it is true. Thus the progress tip given to me is great idea that can easily workout and result giving tip. The second part of the psychometric test is about view. This results summarizes the results of questionnaire views which i have completed. It indicates my personal values, professional intrests and motives. Is described under which circumstances and in which professional context i can use and develop my maximum potential. The result from the views shows that, When selecting a workplace, i should pay attention to environment of helpfulness. i want to offer my help freely and real generously and expect in return that i will also be offered the same level of support when i need it. In comparison to other professional aspects it is absolutely importance to me that i can become enthusiastic about my work and that i have the feeling that my work has a real meaning to it. And one more thing i need to feel particularly good when i often driven to perform at my intellectual peak. In comparison to my other aspects it is noticeable that it is very important for as, that company in which i was work conveys a feeling of safety and security to me. In comparison to others my attitude in this connection is absolutely typical. Thus i accepted this views results about me and try to pay attention for the above. HUMAN METRICS: The next test result is human metrics has given me result as Extravert(33%),  Ã‚  Sensing(12%),  Ã‚  Feeling(112%),  Ã‚  Judging(22%). Already I discuss my adjustment in many situations and I accept the point extraversion because I can mix together with people. This said I am important. I agreed with this. Always I take care of needs and assigning jobs to fellows. I use to give more importance to projects than life. This is 50% true. Because I use to find simple way to solve the big project not the difficult and excessive demand. And also i have moderate preference of extraversion over introversion as 33% and then i have slight preference of sensing over intuition as 12% and also i have slight preference of feeling over thinking as 12% and to i have slight preference of judging over perceiving as 22% Sensing which means physically touch. I actually aware of sensing. I always use to equip Thinking with a new, full of life sense of how the things work.. I think this I really accept I am sensing I always forecast the things in future. So I am innovative, that I always think of future. Many times before I do any activity, which really helps me that I am pre planned. Then judging result shows that I judge based on the people behaviour and attitude, which is helpful in taking right decisions. So that the result of Human metrics help me to provide for my part in doing best development. CONCLUSION: Thus the four types of test is very useful to identify our behavior and performance in organizations. The Johari windows said the behaviour I have and those behaviour are grouped four based on who knows it. The human metrics said the results by percentage and psychometric said by two parts as shapes and views. One having strength and weakness other having the things to be take care of when choosing work place. Career planning question said my interest and way. Thus the self-analysis tests results having in the region of 80% true. Hence I am accepted the test results. SWOT ANALYSIS: INTRODUCTION: The analysis is about identifying self concept that is strength, weakness, opportunities and threats is called SWOT analysis. Identifying the self concept provides development in own life. So that the analysis is to be take out and grouped as follows. (S)TRENGTHS: The positive behaviour I have is said to be strength of mine is that Problem Solving, Teamwork, Decision Making. I am very much superior to have other main strengths even as being with my team is decision-making, free and innovative idea. My friends are for all time prizing me for those things. Before me deciding anything I statistically study the qualities and demerits of doing such thing and decides if it is acceptable. In team, I ever representation only my points and I give chance to others for expose them also. This are the capability of management. I can manage any kind of people and any kind of situation. And also My strength is my adjustment. I am very much adjustable with the people without considering the country and language. I can combine with the different kind of people. The people, who yet know me, identify me as friend finder. My means of administrating fellows and making friends are my great strengths I feel. This is the thing motivate my friends to prize my brains equality. I am always welcome the changes and challenges. Then I give the imaginative and new idea to replace usual things and making the simple way for doing multifaceted thing because I prefer the stylish information. (W)EAKNESSES: Nervous Dependency Inflexible These are my weakness. Nervous even as speaking in some get-together is my very poor weakness. Still I can combine with any kind of people, I have this problem in proper and specialized meetings. one more great weakness I felt is still I cannot analyse this trouble. I am trying to beat this thing now. Dependency make me another one weakness and I feel it be able to make difficulty in my way but till it is not so. Inflexible to others stress so that I am trying to avoid this kind of weakness from me. (O)PPORTUNITIES Taking advantage from current market analyzing the current marketing strategy .For me the greater opportunity for hearing from other people who are in parallel role or same path to me. One more great thing is that attractive my open skill by means of finding the skills I have and shape the open skills in the correct way. And also to take on others in providing feedback about their experience of me. (T)HREATS The work needs excessive demand, a person being hidden by too much stress. That is the reason I wish easily reachable work. That is the large number of daily stress, which conspires against self-reflection CONCLUSION Thus from the SWOT analysis, i know my strengths, weakness, opportunities and treats. Based on my strengths and weakness i am going to improve my active skills and simultaneously beat my problems. And from opportunities and threats i going get feedbacks from experienced persons and at the same time to impose my attractive skill in correct way of manner

Raisin in the Sun Essay: A Dream Deferred -- Raisin Sun essays

Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun  Ã‚     Ã‚   "What happens to a dream deferred?" (l. 1) Langston Hughes asks in his 1959 poem "Dream Deferred." He suggests that it might "dry up like a raisin in the sun" (ll. 2-3) or "stink like rotten meat" (l. 6); however, at the end of the poem, Hughes offers another alternative by asking, "Or does it explode?" (l. 11). This is the view Lorraine Hansberry supports in her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. The drama opens with Walter reading, "Set off another bomb yesterday" (1831), from the front page of the morning newspaper; however, he is unaware that bombs will soon detonate inside his own house. These bombs are explosions of emotion caused by frustration among members of Walter's family who are unable to realize their dreams. Although they all have a common dream of having a better life, they must compete with each other for the insurance money from the untimely death of Walter's father. Walter wants to get rich quickly by investing the money in a liquor store, but his sister, Bene atha, would rather use it to finish medical school. Mama and Walter's wife, Ruth, both want to leave their worn house in the ghetto for a nicer one where Walter's son, Travis, can have his own bedroom and a yard in which to play. The dreams of these characters, however, are deferred for so long that frustration grows inside them and eventually bursts out. Each day Walter has to continue working as a servant, his internal frustration and anger build, and he eventually releases his anger against Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama. "Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?" (1838) he demands of Beneatha. "If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people&emdash;then go be a nurse like other women&emdash;or just ... ... all-white neighborhood. The opposition of Mr. Lindner (who offers a substantial amount of money to buy the house from them) unites the family in their mutual goal, and Walter finally comes "into his manhood" (1896): he declines Lindner's money and declares, "we have decided to move into our house because my father&emdash;my father&emdash;he earned it for us brick by brick" (1894). When cooperation replaces competition, the family can finally realize its dreams. Works Cited Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 1829-96. Hughes, Langston. "Dream Deferred." Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 1138.      

Workplace for Disabled Employees Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

Workplace for Disabled Employees      Ã‚  Ã‚   A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.    In some ways, most every individual is disabled to some degree. People who wear corrective lenses are visually disabled. People without a college degree are often considered educationally disabled. Any physical or mental trait that prevents a person from performing to the same level as an unimpaired person could be considered a handicap. However, wearing glasses and not having a college degree are not usually considered to be traits that get in the way of every day life. Most disabilities that affect a person by societal standards are mild to extreme physical limitations and/or mental retardation.    Often the focus of comedic routines, people with speech impairment face ridicule and embarrassment with he simple act of trying to communicate with others. Stuttering, foreign accents, and difficulty with vowel pronunciation all affect the meaning behind the spoken language. For example, a statement made quickly with a harsh tone could be perceived as anger. The same statement made with a slower and softer voice could be considered as sadness. Considered these inflections w... ...fectively allow these individuals to become part of the nation's labor force (Vocational 1).    Works Cited    "Employment Opportunities for People With Disabilities". http://www.opportunities.org.uk/aboutthecharity/. com. December 4, 2001. Garcia, Linda J.; Barrette Jacques; Laroche, Chantal. "Perceptions of the Obstacles to Work Reintegration for Persons with Aphasia". Aphasiology Mar2000, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p269, 22p. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/vii.htmlz. December 10, 2001 Inge, Katherine J.; Strobel, Wendy; Wehman, Paul; Todd, Jennifer; and Pam Targett. "Vocational Outcomes for Persons With Severe Physical Disabilities: Design and Implementation of Workplace Supports". NeuroRehabilitation, 2000, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p175, 13p Stark, Pete. "Stark Introduces Disabled Workers Opportunity Act". FDCH Press Releases, 02/06/2001.       Workplace for Disabled Employees Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Workplace for Disabled Employees      Ã‚  Ã‚   A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.    In some ways, most every individual is disabled to some degree. People who wear corrective lenses are visually disabled. People without a college degree are often considered educationally disabled. Any physical or mental trait that prevents a person from performing to the same level as an unimpaired person could be considered a handicap. However, wearing glasses and not having a college degree are not usually considered to be traits that get in the way of every day life. Most disabilities that affect a person by societal standards are mild to extreme physical limitations and/or mental retardation.    Often the focus of comedic routines, people with speech impairment face ridicule and embarrassment with he simple act of trying to communicate with others. Stuttering, foreign accents, and difficulty with vowel pronunciation all affect the meaning behind the spoken language. For example, a statement made quickly with a harsh tone could be perceived as anger. The same statement made with a slower and softer voice could be considered as sadness. Considered these inflections w... ...fectively allow these individuals to become part of the nation's labor force (Vocational 1).    Works Cited    "Employment Opportunities for People With Disabilities". http://www.opportunities.org.uk/aboutthecharity/. com. December 4, 2001. Garcia, Linda J.; Barrette Jacques; Laroche, Chantal. "Perceptions of the Obstacles to Work Reintegration for Persons with Aphasia". Aphasiology Mar2000, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p269, 22p. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/vii.htmlz. December 10, 2001 Inge, Katherine J.; Strobel, Wendy; Wehman, Paul; Todd, Jennifer; and Pam Targett. "Vocational Outcomes for Persons With Severe Physical Disabilities: Design and Implementation of Workplace Supports". NeuroRehabilitation, 2000, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p175, 13p Stark, Pete. "Stark Introduces Disabled Workers Opportunity Act". FDCH Press Releases, 02/06/2001.      

Moment of Truth Essay

The crowd was deafening. A few drunken chants, a boo here and there was all I could make out over my asthma-like pants. I didn’t blame them though. For two rounds I’ve been dodging, shifting, and shoving myself around the ring. I didn’t stand still, I couldn’t stand still. I wasn’t going to win this one. He was too big, too bulky, too mean looking. â€Å"There’s no way he’s 76 kg, there must have been some sort of mistake† I kept telling myself. I was a half expecting the referee to stop us saying â€Å"Sorry gentlemen, there was a mistake in the matching, and I’m gonna call a ‘No Contest’†. But I knew that wasn’t the case, just a bit of wishful thinking to ease the pain. He came at me again, this time more aggressively. It was probably the frustration, or maybe he wanted the knockout. Either way, I was losing and I knew it. For a second, I thought of taking the fall just to give the crowd something to talk about. He tried his best to trap me, but I kept backing up and prolonging this dance of ours. â€Å"Two minutes! Do something† I thought I heard my corner shout. I dashed back one more time, that’s when I saw the slight buckle in his knees. He was tired, exhausted, spent, almost expired. His mass advantage worked against him when it came to endurance. Now is my shot, it was either hit or miss. But I wasn’t going to waste it on an offensive strike. It had to be a counter, or he would expect it. I planted myself, and like a fish to the bait he came for the trap and swung. I flung out my jab to deflect his and countered with a right straight while my eyes were closed. I felt the contact, opened my eyes, he wasn’t there. The referee pushed me to the opposite corner as he continued the count. Everytime he yelled a number, the crowd would repeat it more frantically. Yal Wahsh! † I heard my roommate call from the corner. By the seven count, the referee realized all hope for the staggering beast were lost and declared me the winner. I was overwhelmed, I had one my first prize-fighting match and it felt like it should. â€Å"I hate these things! They’re ridiculous† I complained to myself as I unwrapped my knuckle wrappings. The locker room was smaller than i was used to and it had this wet dog stench about it but my face still wore a smile. â€Å"Hey! How are you? ok? † I was startled by a deep voice echoing behind me. I turned to see a small figure of a man. An old man. He wore an unbuttoned shirt with a wife-beater underneath. An earring on the left ear, and a mountainous gut. â€Å"Yeah I’m good, thanks. † I answered resuming what I was doing. â€Å"That’s a good win out there, you know I used to be a boxer? † He questioned rhetorically. â€Å"Oh really? , What happened? † I replied with a smug smirk on my face knowing the sarcasm went unnoticed. â€Å"You’re funny kid? eh? † he replied with after a light chuckle. â€Å"Everyone will grow old one day, this will never change. † †True† I nodded, extracting his ideas from his broken English. This is for you,† he said while extending a hand lighting clutching a bulky envelope. â€Å"Oh, aren’t I supposed to stop by the manager’s office to pick up my check? † I asked bluntly. It was received with a laugh, â€Å"This isn’t part of your prize, it’s just something extra from me. You made good money. Thirteen to one against you, I liked that and I won. So here, a tip eh? † I blindly grabbed the envelope from him and thanked him, not knowing what I had started. A card slid out of the envelope and onto the ground. â€Å"Anothony G. DeBatista – White Arrow Bar† was what I realized it said after picking it up. I recognized the place, I walked by it on my way to university every day, I just never really noticed it. Day after day, I found myself more drawn to the shady local bar. Everyday I didn’t go, I felt more inclined to do so the next day. It was as if I owed him something and I was putting it off. â€Å"The least I could do is drop by, right? † I convinced myself one time after class. I walked in, startled by the simultaneous bell but quickly realized what it was. There weren’t many people occupying the seats, I could see a group, much younger than I, sipping away at their ill-gotten delights and rambling on about how tough life was. In almost every sense of the word, it was shady, if not just plain out creepy. â€Å"Come around, to the back† I heard a familiar deep voice bark at me from behind the bar. So I squeezed under the counter and entered the make-shift kitchen Tony was sitting in. We started a conversation of senseless formalities, almost as if he was checking up on me. I was curious about what he really wanted to talk about. I was also intrigued by the question of why a simple bar owner carried a business card. But all these speculations were put to rest when I eventually realized all he wanted to do was talk. Nearly every day after class, I would stop by at Tony’s just for a casual chat. We would talk about sports, politics, anything that caught our mutual interest; we would find a way to discuss it, constantly reinforcing the age gap with our conflicting views on the same matters. Sometimes we’d play chess, sometimes he would send me out on errands he couldn’t find the time to do himself. I had to admit, I enjoyed that old man’s company. I felt that I could learn a lot from such wisdom. It wasn’t until I was approached by a fellow classmate that I disrupted this pattern. He had seen me constantly wandering off into the bar, and asked me who it belonged to. So i replied, â€Å"It’s Tony’s Bar† thinking it to be an inquisitive question. My classmate filled me in on everything I didn’t want to know about Tony. I didn’t want to know about how he owned 32 apartment complexes around Malta, had a significant amount of shares in the casino business, and was known to be a contact to the Sicilian crime family. I dismissed it all at first, thinking it too ridiculous to be true. â€Å"Believe it or not man, it is what it is. † he added when he saw my disbelief. Most people would cut ties after hearing something like that, â€Å"nip it in the bud† as they say. Not me though, I was still in a state of awe. To be honest, it was more of a state of intrigue than disbelief. There was something about that scenario that appealed to me. I had always loved mobster movies, everything from â€Å"The Godfather† to â€Å"The Departed†. I kept going to Tony’s bar, despite knowing who or what he was. Every time I walked through that door, I walked out a little more confident, a little more powerful, a little more corrupted. I was protected, and I acted like it. I really wish you luck, Omar, I’ve got quite a number on you. † Tony exclaimed before i entered the locker room. â€Å"Money in the bank. † I replied with a smug smile. I spoke too confidently, I couldn’t lose this. I bumped fists with my opponent and with the bell began my downfall. Punch after punch, I couldn’t see them coming anymore. He was faster than I thought. Every time that bell rang, I sat in the corner preaching myself new strategies, although I knew I’ve already lost. I had to win this though, Tony was counting on me. What if he loses a fortune on this? What if I fall from grace? Would it upset him? Would he do something about it? My mind went into a spiral of pessimism and panic. It had just dawned on me how dire my situation had become. â€Å"No worries,† I told myself, â€Å"I still have a round left, it’s not too late. I just have to take him down. † The bell rang and I dashed for the offensive. I had gone in too fast, and extended my jab too early. Mere target practice for him, I was caught with a straight and a left hook to follow. Its a funny feeling, being knocked out. Your mind makes you believe you’re still awake while your body completely fails you. You end up staggering fully conscious in mind, telling the referee you’re still alright to fight while your knees are giving in. The referee called the match, I knew I had lost. â€Å"God damn these wraps! † I found myself saying again. The locker room was once again abandoned except for my sad self. The door was knocked and my heart along with it. I knew it was Tony. I just didn’t know what to expect. â€Å"Come in† I answered hesitantly. â€Å"Hey kid, quite a fight eh? † he said not really expecting an answer. â€Å"I’m sorry, Tony, I don’t know what happened† I shot back almost instantly. Sorry? I didn’t get hit, you’re the one who got hit† he replied jokingly, †Why are you sorry? †. â€Å"Aren’t you pissed about the money? † I asked half-heatedly. He burst out in a chuckle â€Å"Malla, money is always coming and going my friend, you’ll do better next time, just train alright? † With that, he walked out, leaving me to my own devices. I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been. Stupid enough to assume that fantasy role I had taken, a gangster, in all sense of the word. I was no gangster, and I certainly didn’t have the heart for it. I was a nine-teen year old kid with his whole life ahead of him, but that was a role I never wanted to be. It’s almost poetic, when reality sets in and your eyes open up for the first time since birth. That’s when I became fully aware of my surroundings, truly appreciative of the things I was, and the things I wasn’t, and couldn’t be. I proclaimed this my rebirth, and it didn’t take a spiritual awakening or holy revelation to acquire it. All it took was one situation, one experience, and one hell of a scare to bring me back to reality. I never really saw Tony that much after that. Every time I passed that bar, I’d just leave it to sulk in its own gloomy haze. I’d remember how I sold out the memories, the laughter, the debates, the chess games, and the friendship to prejudge on reputation. Tony was a bad man, probably. In a way, though, Tony was a good man, at least to me. A friend when I needed him to be, a mentor at other times. No matter what the man had done in his past, I couldn’t deny him his wisdom. Eventually, I read in the paper that Tony was apprehended after a drug smuggling sting and sentenced to six years. He was out in three months. Like I was told, he’s connected.