If language structures thought, would the language of the aliens allow Research Paper

If language structures thought, would the language of the aliens allow for the development of sophisticated technology - Research Paper Example In his work, â€Å"Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought,† Walter Ong says that literacy is not an innate human understanding; but a learned process which has developed along with technology as humanity progressed. He argues that many people do not make the distinction between having an idea, and putting it down on paper; a thought is only legitimate if it is written down. In this this essay I relate his argument on language to â€Å"Darmok†, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and argue whether or not the alien species as depicted would have been able to achieve advanced technological capabilities. It is quite evident in the episode that the factor that act as an obstacle between the two parties is the language barrier In the Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Federation meetings with the Tamarians have all the time been challenging because the universal translator could not translate the languages. The Tamarian captain and Picard, Dathon, try to converse from their corresponding ships, but the translator can only give ambiguous expressions like "Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra," which does not make sense to the crew. As Picard attempts to clarify that Starfleet wishes peaceful relations, Dathon lifts his hands clutching two daggers, then he and Picard are beamed from their ships to the surface of the planet below. Meanwhile Riker and the crew realize that the Tamarians have put up a field in the planets ionosphere to avert a beam out, Dathon offers Picard a dagger, of which Picard declines because he thinks the Tamarian, wants to fight him. At night, Dathon lites a fire, and then flings Picard a flaming log so that he cannot sleep cold. Dathon keeps repeating the phrase, â€Å"Shaka, when the walls fell " and Darmok and â€Å"Jalad at Tenagra," which does not make sense to Picard. In the morning, Picard and Dathon are pursued by a large alien while the Enterprise sends a shuttlecraft on a saving

Managing Change in Organisations - Improved HR onboarding process Essay Example for Free

Managing Change in Organisations Improved HR onboarding process Essay The main goal of this change initiative is to improve the financial results of the company by improving the engagement and performance of the new HR employees at Mars, Inc. It’s aimed to be achieved by introducing a new, globally aligned, best-in-class 1-year-long induction process with supporting tools and learning events. The target group of new HR associates1 includes those who joined HR at Mars less than 12 month ago, either from externally (from other company) or internally (from other department). As Mars,Inc. is a large family-owned business with over 100 years of history and globally well known brands. It has unique and mature company culture which is driven by its 5 principles: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Effectiveness and Freedom. These principles drive the behaviour of the employees at all level of the hierarchy and have been shaping the characteristics of the organisation. Mars, Inc. fits well to ‘elaboration of structure phase’ (Granier 1972) of the organisational life-cycle: the company is led by a team of professional managers and is very much decentralised with a small headquarter. The business units of the countries therefore enjoy a lot of freedom and responsibility to drive the local business effectively. This approach reflects also in the way they shape the processes within the company: the global process standards are mainly just broadly defined with limited (if any) written documentation about them, which lets the local teams shape it and use it as best fits to their needs. As it has the advantage to allow tailor-made solutions to best assist local business objectives, it also has disadvantages. It is not uncommon that extra local resources are needed to shape the process, and when the process has changed too much, it becomes difficult to compare the practices and results of different units. It also often happens that local units come up with very similar best practices after investing significant resources locally in process development, which resources could have been reduced if globally – or at least regionally – someone would have co-ordinated these development initiatives. As part of the company culture, Mars, Inc. refers to employees as associates, therefore in my paper I will use both terms to reflect the same concept. Realising the potential of this kind of centralisation led the business leaders to setting up global functional centres of expertise, like the Mars University (Mars U) is for learning and development within Mars, Inc. The Mars U is responsible for designing and deploying world-class learning programs, which enable the competency building of employees, so they can achieve their full potential in contributing to the business to achieve its goals. It has matrix structure and its smaller teams are set up by functions (named â€Å"Colleges† of HR, finance, supply, etc.), regions (they coordinate the deployment of functional development programs in a region) and special learning and development related areas (like learning technology). Mars U therefore faces the challenge of balancing between centralisation and decentralisation by providing centrally defined and globally aligned learning solutions in a matrix organisation with decentralised leadership. That is the same challenge in case of the new induction process initiative. In the near past an introductory training program existed for new HR employees, which was similar in all the regions, but inconsistent in content, so it gave a lot of space for local solutions to flower. Moving from this decentralised approach to a more centralised one may cause push backs from the associates in these local units, thus careful change management is essential. Nature of change By assessing the nature of change based on the description above, this change can be categorised with the terms of Ackerman (1997) as ‘transitional’ as the intention is to â€Å"achieve () a desired state† by setting up a globally aligned world-class induction process for new HR associates, which is a significant difference from the current decentralised approach. One can argue whether it is not defined as ‘transformational change’ as it can result a difference in an organisational process and change in the culture, but as it won’t change fundamentally neither areas, the definition of ‘transitional change’ fits better in this case. To give a full picture about the nature of change, it need to be emphasised that after finishing this particular change project, the change itself will not stop, it will continue as ‘developmental change’ by continuously improving the set up induction process. From another perspective, using the categories of Mintzberg and Waters (1985) this change initiative can be identified as ‘determined’ or planned change as the goal, that need to be achieved, is clearly set, as well as the process how to get there. It does not mean though, that ‘emergent’ changes will not come up during the project, as it may happen that a locally designed induction process which works well will have an improving effect on the globally designed process and tools to ensure the implementation of the best possible practices. Drivers of the change This change initiative has mainly internal triggers. First and foremost, improve the productivity of every new HR associates by providing them all the essential knowledge, competencies and network they need in their new role. Improving their engagement level is also an important trigger, as engaged associates have usually better performance and they less likely to leave the business (Buckingham and Coffman, 2005). In case of HR department, better performance of associates, among other things, could lead to better internal and external customer satisfaction or decrease of costs by effective ways of working, while improved retention cut the costs and time invested in recruitment and training of a new employee. Although the internal triggers are more relevant in this case, the external drivers also need to be mentioned. Mars, Inc. had several acquisitions in the last few years which led to an incoherent culture in the different business segments. To enable exchangeability of human resources and best practices, setting up centrally aligned processes is a key. Also, considering that Mars, Inc. operates in a quickly changing market (FMCG), being innovative and best-in-class in its processes could ensure competitive advantage and retention of employees. Nonetheless, the change needs to be done in a global environment fitting to the expectations of different cultures in different regions. Key Stakeholders As in case of most major changes in an organisation, winning the support of top level management is essential. In this case the management means the Global HR Leadership Team of Mars, Inc. who also plays the role of sponsor of the project and expected to play a key role by being role model in using the new induction process. Their influence is very high as they could stop or change this initiative any time. Their attitude toward the change to be expected very positive, still, contracting with them is critical as many priority projects are currently going on in the business so need to ensure proper focus. Driving the change process requires change agents to ensure smooth implementation: the Mars U associates in the regions and other (local) learning or talent development specialists. As the project aligns well with their general purpose of their roles – to improve associates capabilities, – their attitude is expected to be positive. As they will play the role of connecting the project leaders with associates in their regions or units, their influence is also very high, but mainly only in their area of responsibility. The communication and deployment of the change will focus mainly on the HR managers as they will be the most affected by the change, as they need to change their ways of working the most. Thus, 5 their attitude can be either positive or negative depending how valuable the new process seems to them. Their influence can be high in the area of their responsibility – so the more senior the manager is the higher is the influence. Also important stakeholders, but less influential, are the new HR associates. The new process is all about them, but from change management perspective they play a smaller role, as their attitude to be expected very positive. In any case, careful communication toward them needs to be planned to ensure their full involvement in the process and gain feedback from them to identify potential areas for improvements. There are also some other key stakeholders, like the trainers of the courses, whose contribution to the success can be very important, but as they are interchangeable in the roles, their influence on the process can be categorised as moderate. Furthermore, there are some other subject matter experts (e.g. learning technology or global communication specialists), who will be involved during the design and communication phases, but their influence is rather small and their attitude is expected to be supportive. Management objectives To summarise the main objective, the goal is to implement in all business segments and units of Mars, Inc. a newly designed, globally aligned, efficient and engaging functional induction process with its supporting tools (guides and learning modules) for every new HR employees, which supports their development in the first 12 months after joining in their new role and covers the essential Mars specific knowledge and provides network needed for achieving high performance. The new process and tools should be used by mid of 2013 in all business units. Task 2 For a successful change project it’s not only important to see where we would like to go, but to be able to define how we will get there, we need a careful and detailed analysis on where we are at the moment. Besides a general process overview in the organisation (e.g. by the support of models like ‘McKinsey 7S’ (Waterman et al. 1980) or ‘Burke-Litwin Causal model’ (Burke Litwin, 1992)), we also need to understand why do we have the problem in our organisation. For this we may use problem analysis models, like the ‘Fishbone diagram’ or the ‘5 Whys?’ (Taiichi 1988) model. Input-Transformation-Output model To better understand the functional induction process, by the ‘Input-Transformation-Output model’ (RDI, 2012a) the main elements can be summarised visually: This model can support the planning process in several ways. It is easier for the change leaders to identify the key stakeholders (see the detailed stakeholder analysis above), to keep objectives always in mind and focus on the processes which need to be changed in order to be able to achieve the desired output. Furthermore, it gives a great overview about who shall be involved in reviewing and developing the process by providing feedback before, during and after the change. Nonetheless, it is essential to be clear on both the transformed and transforming resources required for the whole process to avoid disturbance due to the lack of them. Cause-and-Effect Analysis After having a broader overview of the issue, before taking any actions, a thorough problem analysis is a must. Even though having an initial idea about what can improve the current situation, in a complex organisation with a huge overall impact of the topic, the change leader need to ensure addressing the right issues and providing the right solutions based on that. In defining all the relevant causes of a problem can help the Cause-and-Effect Analysis (Ishikawa, 1968) or Fishbone diagram. In case of our described example, the model looks like this: After defining the list of important causes, the major ones to be selected by the analysing team then the potential actions can be planned. When it’s presented to the management team, their duty is then to decide on which topics to focus on the actions. In this example case, a globally aligned process with supporting tools and metrics are very much missing. When it’s designed and ready to be deployed, then these should be available to all HR managers to be able to drive the induction processes locally and measure their own efficiency. Plan the change After the green light of the management team concerning the project initiative, can start the proper, detailed planning: the development of the change strategy, in which the desired outcome, key actions, milestones, action owners and resources needs are defined. Winning the commitment of the key stakeholders also need to be carefully planned with a supporting communication plan. As unexpected situations are likely to disturb the planned flow of actions, to minimise the potential disturbance, a risk analysis in advance of doing actions can help the project management team to prepare for these scenarios or totally avoid them. Also, a continuous review of the change project is highly recommended to ensure the project execution is on track to achieve the project goal (see the 8 potential feedback sources in the Input-Output model) – this also can be part of the change strategy plan. The next step is then to execute the plan. When unexpected situations happen, continuous adjustments of the plan may be required to ensure proper improvement and keep the progress to achieve the final goal. After all planned actions are executed, the project leader should control that the project goal has been achieved as defined. If no, the project still continues. If yes, the project shall be formally closed with the involvement of the project sponsors and the success should be feed back to the key stakeholders. Task 3 Business Process Transformation Although Mars, Inc. in this situation chose to go on with a change project concentrating on only one function (HR) to improve its induction process, using the Business Process Transformation (BPT), i.e. Business Process Re-engineering model could have led to better results. By talking generally about the BPT model, one can say that improving the customer engagement and cutting the operational costs by improving and simplifying processes (cross-functional) within the company, is in the heart of this approach (Hammer 1990). Let use the definition of re-engineering by Hammer and Champy (1993) to show the key characteristics of this model: the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary modern measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. This approach is one of the favourites currently in change management, as it promises â€Å"dramatic improvements† in business performance and customer satisfaction, even though it has its own challenges. The most important is that it requires a holistic view from the business leaders to face the issues within an organisation. It needs broad perspective to be able to come out of functional silos and to view the process as a whole, from the very beginning till the very end. If the change project happens only within a single function, there is high probability of missing some important opportunities of improvement. By using the example of Mars, a cross-functional approach could lead to a different, although very thorough solution – like implementing a standardised, world-class induction experience in every part of the company, during which the new employees can learn the most important functional and business knowledge to best support the customer focused processes. Based on its holistic view, the BPT approach requires more complexity from change management perspective as well as total alignment and drive from the top management team. The process improvement strategy should be aligned with the vision, mission and business strategy of the company, while the desired behaviours and key performance indicators should be also clearly defined and communicated to support the process and the measure of success (RDI 2012b). The process improvement initiative should start with a company-wide analysis of the current situation, keeping in mind not only how the processes can be simplified, but also what could be the benefits for the customers by the change initiative. The analysis then will be followed by the definition of the detailed plan: to where and how the company would like to get. To achieve great improvement in company results, increasing the amount of invested efforts and resources and high risk taking is unavoidable – although most probably in mid- and long-term the investment of these extra resources will pay. All these mentioned characteristics of the model lead to the fact that this model can’t be used without a heavy top down and centralised approach due to its holistic nature and complexity. Starting a process improvement initiative from any other level of the organisation without the full support and involvement of the company top leaders can lead to only a temporary and restricted (to a region or function) solution. Managing the implementation of the change at Mars, Inc. Although the change project defined by Mars also intends to improve the measures mentioned in the re-engineering definition, the main difference lies in the adjectives used by the authors: dramatic, fundamental and radical. So in this case we can’t really talk about BPT approach, as it would rather mean taking the whole on-boarding and induction process in all functions of the company and use that to work on, even though it could be very beneficial for the company. Also, without winning the top management support for a holistic change approach, the project leader of this initiative better use a general Change management (RDI 2012c), or preferably, the Total Quality Management (TQM) 2 methodology with using some holistic OD models – like the ‘Burke-Litwin model’ (Burke Litwin 1992) or the ‘McKinsey 7S model’ (Waterman et al. 1980) – for analysing the potential areas of change interventions. Definition of TQM by Kanji (1990): â€Å"TQM is the way of life of an organization committed to customer satisfaction through continuous improvement. This way of life varies from organisation to organisation and from one country to another but has certain principles which can be implemented to secure market share, increase profits and reduce costs.† The principles of the TQM approach fits well to the culture of Mars, Inc. by focusing on continuous improvement opportunities, on customer needs and motivating employees at all level of the organisation to take part of this and drive innovations. It also reflects in all of the 5 principles of the company3. The management style also resonates well with the principles of TQM, as it engages the collaborative company culture with empowering and motivating the employees to drive continuous improvement for achieving better quality in everything within the business. Although a lot of things fit well to use this model for the change case at Mars, to fully benefit of the TQM methodology, the project leader and the participants shall be skilled to use all its principles to achieve the best possible result, which is currently not yet the case. Task 4 Measure of Success – Processes There are certain elements of the change process, which we can check and measure during and after the project to evaluate the success. Firstly, it is inevitable to set with involvement and communicate to the key stakeholders a clear vision, a well defined ‘S.M.A.R.T. objective’ (Doran, 1981) and some key performance indicators regarding the desired end result of the change initiative. Additionally, it is also important element of the second success factor, which is the level of commitment to the change of the key stakeholders. During the implementation phase, the success of the process can be measured at the key milestones: whether they were achieved on time by providing good quality results within the allocated resource limits. In this phase, the ability of flexible to any disturbance and opportunities through the process is also essential, to keep or even improve the result quality of the change, or to use less resources to achieve the original goal. It may be measured by reaction the quickness of the response or the amount of extra resources needed to keep the good progress. In connection to this, reviewing the key challenges and capturing the lessons learnt for the future also shows the efficiency of the process. Last, but not least, a clear project closure can also indicate how well the project went. Measure of Success – Outcomes If we have a closer look on the change initiative of Mars, Inc., the desired outcome which we wish to measure lies in the main objective4. The company’s main goal is to improve the efficiency and Quality, Mutuality, Responsibility, Effectiveness and Freedom For details see the Management Objective paragraph performance of the new HR employees. As HR is a support department with less direct impact on financial results and the quality of end products than other areas in the business, measuring these goals may be difficult, especially if we need to focus on only the new employee. So it’s advised to define other measures, like the individual performance or future career potential of the new employee, which can be measured by the company globally standardized performance evaluation system. Although the improved employee performance is difficult to be described with exact figures, we can also use historical data to compare the past and the present, and measure factors which can influence performance (e.g. the Line Manager’s evaluation of the performance or the engagement level of the new associate). Besides the employee performance, the efficiency of the new process shall be measured as well (e.g. could we involve everybody we intended to use the new process). Furthermore, as in case of all change projects, defining the return on investment can show the level of success. For example the cost of resource investment of the change project may be compared with the amount of money were saved by better retention of the new associates. By measuring the outcome of a new process we also need to investigate the resource needs of sustaining the process efficiently on long term. 1References: Ackerman, L., 1997, Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organisations. In: Van Eynde, D., Hoy, J and Van Eynde, D (eds) Organisation Development Classics. San Francisco, Jossey Bass. Buckingham, M. and Coffman, C., 2005. First, Break All The Rules: What the Worlds Great Managers Do Differently. Simon Schuster. Burke, W. W. and Litwin, G. H., 1992. A causal model of organizational performance and change. Journal of Management, 18 (3), 523-545. Doran, G. T., 1981. Theres a S.M.A.R.T. way to write managements goals and objectives. Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.

Don’t Get Burned Out Essay -- essays research papers

Don’t Get Burned   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Burnout. It happens to everyone, everywhere, everyday. Athletes -young, old, professional, amateur, male and female- all experience burnout in different forms and degrees. Burnout is defined as the physical, emotional, and psychological reaction to intense pressure to fulfill obligations, whether they be sports or otherwise. Simply put, people get tired and worn out because they often take on the responsibility of doing too much. Burnout is most common among professional and Olympic athletes that train hard and work hard for long periods of time. However, others can also experience burnout in athletics. Burnout leads to reduced interest in the sport, quality of performance, and then withdrawal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Burnout is often associated with overtraining, overreaching, and staleness. Overtraining is the point where training is no longer beneficial but harmful. Overreaching is similar to overtraining however the length of time makes the difference. Overreaching for long periods of time leads to overtraining. Staleness is the effect of reaching a performance plateau. Together with overtraining, staleness eventually leads to athlete burnout. In sports psychology, several models exist to help explain, prevent, and treat burnout in athletes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stress models of burnout point to stress as the key factor in burnout. Silva’s training stress model is based on the notion that some training s...

Economics Aeropostale Essay

In March 2007, Aà ©ropostale was accused of infringing a patent owned by Card Activation Technologies, Inc. in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois. However, in a separate lawsuit on the same patent, Card Activation received a ruling on claim construction which it interpreted as â€Å"extremely favorable† to its interpretation of the patent and its â€Å"pursuit of infringers† of the patent. In June 2007, Aà ©ropostale was accused of infringing a patent owned by Picture Patents, LLC in a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York. In July 2009, Aà ©ropostale was accused of infringing a patent owned by Furnace Brook, LLC in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer Christopher Finazzo was terminated in November 2006 after an investigation by the Board of Directors revealed that he had concealed and failed to disclose personal and business interests with South Bay Apparel, a maj or vendor. The SEC issued an investigation on the Finazzo matter in January 2008. Aeropostale, also under the name Aero, is an American clothing retailer that was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in New York. There are a number of reasons Aeropostale started their own business. When you start a business it’s a good idea to have a business plan that outlines your goals and objectives for the short term and long term. A business plan serves as a blueprint designed to help you grow and develop your business, and ultimately helps shield it from failure. Kara, Postale started the company then Sara(aera) (Kara’s sister came along) that’s how the company got started. So they put there last name and first name together and it turned out to be Sarah postale but they didn’t like that name in 1985 then they changed it to aeropostale because it sounded better and that started in 1987.

Alcohol Abuse Essay

†¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Alcohol is a drink containing ethanol It is a lipid that is highly water soluble A psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect. Distribution: Ethanol is distributed equally in all body tissue according to water content. †¢ Metabolism: A healthy body can metabolize 15ml of alcohol/hour †¢ Alcohol is metabolized by the liver but 10% is excreted unchanged in the breath, sweat and the urine Metabolism of alcohol Alcohol Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Acetaldehyde (Toxic) Alcohol Dehydrogenase H2 and Acetic Acid (Nontoxic) Alcohol Abuse †¢ A psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite its negative consequences. †¢ Also termed as â€Å"Alcoholism† †¢ Pattern of drinking that results in harm to one’s health, interpersonal relationships, or ability to work. Cause of Alcohol Abuse †¢ There is no known cause for alcohol abuse. †¢ The reason for alcohol abuse is complex. †¢ A. Psychodynamic Theory †¢ Attitudes and behaviors of the client †¢ Problems †¢ Stress, anxiety, depression †¢ Peer pressure. †¢ B. Biologic Theory †¢ G.enetic predisposition of the client MANIFESTATIONS OF alcohol abuse †¢ Continue to drink, even when health, work, or family are being harmed †¢ Are not able to control drinking — being unable to stop or reduce alcohol intake †¢ Miss work or school, or have a decrease in performance because of drinking †¢ Need to use alcohol on most days to get through the day. Manifestations of alcohol abuse †¢ Do not care about or ignore how they dress or whether they are clean †¢ Try to hide alcohol use †¢ Shake in the morning or after periods when they have not a drink †¢ Poor judgment †¢ Irritable. Complications of alcohol abuse †¢ Elevated liver function test †¢ Alcoholic Hallucinosis †¢ Withdrawal symptoms such as: x Tremors x Sweating x Palpitations x Agitation †¢ Delirium tremens †¢ Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome †¢ Peripheral Neuritis †¢ Gastric ulcers Treatment for ALCOHOL ABUSE †¢ Abstinence from alcohol †¢ Medication treatment such as: †¢ Long-acting Benzodiazepams: tx of alcohol withdrawal †¢ Chlorhexidine (Librium) †¢ Diazepam (Valium) †¢ Lorazepam (Ativan) †¢ Disulfiram (Antabuse) †¢ Naltrexone (ReVia) †¢ Subject to a rehabilitation facility. Nursing Management †¢ Teach the patient the effects of chemical abuse on the body. †¢ In communicating with the patient be in a matter-of-fact and respectful manner. †¢ Maintain a positive, supportive environment. †¢ Build a therapeutic rapport with the patient by providing relief from his or her symptoms and meeting physiologic and safety needs. †¢ Present reality without challenging or escalating the patient’s anxiety and thought disturbances. †¢ Remain objective to the patient and the family. †¢ Closely monitor your patient during your shift to identify subtle changes and intervene appropriately. †¢ Assess mental status and sleep pattern, and provide emotional support to reduce anxiety.

Grave danger essays

Grave danger essays "The gravest danger facing America and the World today is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons." This line from Presidents Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address underlines what is in store for our nation. The risk to our country is increasing more and more due to the availability of cheap weapons and military technology. There are a couple of factors that contribute to the rise in our national security risk. The first and most obvious threat comes in the form of terrorism from armed minorities, for example militant Islamic groups. Defending a nation from terrorist attacks is tricky, because of the fluidity of the group. It's not like dealing with a country, these terrorists live within civilization that may not know of their existence. Another security risk are unstable regimes or aggressive states that are rising to power. These countries are potentially dangerous because of irrational rulers, or strong senses of nationalism. These nation states can hurt us in a couple of ways. One way, is by supporting terrorists and other militant groups with guns and money. Another way a country could be a danger to the US is through a cold war style face off Whatever the case, these problems won't go away and must be dealt with. Terrorism, by definition is "a form of political violence conducted by individuals, groups, or clandestine government agents that attempts to manipulate politics by attacking noncombatants and nonmilitary targets in order to create a climate of fear." (Rourke 597) Prior to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Americans thought terrorism was largely a problem for just the Middle East. A 1999 survey found that only twelve percent of Americans surveyed even mentioned terrorism. (Rourke 348) The train bombings in Madrid last month is a great example of how effective terrorism can be. The result of the bombing was the president losing an election that he had tied up before ...

10 Facts About Chongqing, China

10 Facts About Chongqing, China Chongqing is one of Chinas four direct-controlled municipalities (the others are Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin). It is the largest of the municipalities by area and it is the only one that is located far away from the coast. Chongqing is located in southwestern China within Sichuan Province and shares borders with Shaanxi, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces. The city is known as being an important economic center along the Yangtze River as well as a historical and cultural center for the country of China. Population: 31,442,300 (2007 estimate)Land area: 31,766 square miles (82,300 sq km)Average elevation: 1,312 feet (400 m)Date of creation: March 14, 1997 10 Must-Know Facts Chongqing has a long history and historical evidence shows that the region was originally a state belonging to the Ba People and that it was established in the 11th century B.C.E. In 316 B.C.E., the area was taken over by the Qin and at that time a city called Jiang was built there and the region the city was in was known as the Chu Prefecture. The area was then renamed two more times in 581 and 1102 C.E.In 1189 C.E. Chongqing got its current name. In 1362 during Chinas Yuan Dynasty, a peasant rebel named Ming Yuzhen formed the Daxia Kingdom in the region. In 1621 Chongqing became the capital of the kingdom of Daliang (during Chinas Ming Dynasty). From 1627 to 1645, much of China was unstable as the Ming Dynasty began to lose its power and during that time, Chongqing and Sichuan Province were taken over by the rebels overthrowing the dynasty. Shortly thereafter the Qing Dynasty took control of China and immigration to the Chongqing area increased.In 1891 Chongqing became an important economic center in China as it became the first inland open to trade from outside China. In 1929 it became a municipality of the Republic of China and during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, it was attacked heavily by the Japanese Air Force. However much of the city was protected from damage because of its rugged, mountainous terrain. As a result of this natural protection, many of Chinas factories were moved to Chongqing and it quickly grew into an important industrial city. In 1954 the city became a sub-provincial city within Sichuan Province under the Peoples Republic of China. On March 14, 1997, however, the city was merged with the neighboring districts of Fuling, Wanxian, and Qianjiang and it was separated from Sichuan to form Chongqing Municipality, one of Chinas four direct-controlled municipalities.Today Chongqing is one of the most important economic centers in western China. It also has a diversified economy with major industries in processed food, automobile manufacturing, chemicals, textiles, machinery, and electronics. The city is also the largest area for the manufacture of motorcycles in China.As of 2007, Chongqing had a total population of 31,442,300 people. 3.9 million of these people live and work in the urban areas of the city while the majority of the people are farmers working in areas outside the urban core. In addition, there is a large number of people who are registered as residents of Chongqing with Chinas National Bureau of Sta tistics of China, but they have not yet officially moved into the city. Chongqing is located in western China at the end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The region of Chongqing also includes several mountain ranges. These are the Daba Mountains in the north, the Wu Mountains in the east, the Wuling Mountains in the southeast and the Dalou Mountains in the south. Because of all of these mountain ranges, Chongqing has a hilly, varied topography and the average elevation of the city is 1,312 feet (400 m).Part of Chongqings early development as an economic center of China is due to its geographic location on large rivers. The city is intersected by the Jialing River as well as the Yangtze River. This location allowed the city to develop into an easily accessible manufacturing and trading center.The municipality of Chongqing is divided into several different subdivisions for local administrations. There are for example 19 districts, 17 counties and four autonomous counties within Chongqing. The total area of the city is 31,766 square miles (82,300 sq km) and m ost of it consists of rural farmland outside of the urban core. The climate of Chongqing is considered humid subtropical and it has four distinct seasons. Summers are very hot and humid while winters are short and mild. The average August high temperature for Chongqing is 92.5ËšF (33.6ËšC) and the average January low temperature is 43ËšF (6ËšC). Most of the citys precipitation falls during the summer and since it is located Sichuan Basin along the Yangtze River cloudy or foggy conditions are not uncommon. The city is nicknamed the Fog Capital of China. Reference Wikipedia.org. (23 May 2011). Chongqing - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

Click and Drag a Delphi Form Without the Caption Bar

Click and Drag a Delphi Form Without the Caption Bar The most common way to move a window is to drag it by its title bar. Read on to find out how you can provide dragging capabilities for Delphi forms without a title bar, so the user can move a form by clicking anywhere on the client area. For example, consider the case of a Windows application that doesnt have a title bar, how can we move such a window?  In fact, its possible to create windows with a nonstandard title bar and even non-rectangular forms. In this case, how could Windows know where the borders and the corners of the window are? The WM_NCHitTest Windows Message The Windows operating system is heavily based on handling messages. For example, when you click on a window or a control, Windows sends it a wm_LButtonDown message, with additional information about where the mouse cursor is and which control keys are currently pressed. Sounds familiar? Yes, this is nothing more than an OnMouseDown event in Delphi. Similarly, Windows sends a wm_NCHitTest message whenever a mouse event occurs, that is, when the cursor moves, or when a mouse button is pressed or released. Code to Input If we can make Windows think that the user is dragging (has clicked on) the title bar rather than the client area, then the user could drag the window by clicking in the client area. The easiest way to do this is to fool Windows into thinking that youre actually clicking on the title bar of a form. Heres what you have to do: 1. Insert the following line into your forms Private declarations section (message handling procedure declaration): procedure WMNCHitTest(var Msg: TWMNCHitTest) ; message WM_NCHitTest; 2. Add the following code into the implementation section of your forms unit (where Form1 is the  assumed form name): procedure TForm1.WMNCHitTest(var Msg: TWMNCHitTest) ;begin   Ã‚   inherited;  Ã‚   if Msg.Result htClient then Msg.Result : htCaption;end; The first line of code in the message handler calls the inherited method to obtain the default handling for the wm_NCHitTest message. The If part in the procedure intercepts and changes your windows behavior. This is what actually happens: when the operating system sends a wm_NCHitTest message to the window, together with the mouse coordinates, the window returns a code that states which portion of itself has been hit. The important piece of information, for our task, is in the value of the Msg.Result field. At this point, we have an opportunity to modify the message result. This is what we do: if the user has clicked in the forms client area we make Windows to think the user clicked on the title bar. In Object Pascal words: if the message return value is HTCLIENT, we simply change it to HTCAPTION. No More Mouse Events By changing the default behavior of our forms we remove the ability of Windows to notify you when the mouse is over the client area. One side effect of this trick is that your form will no longer generate events for mouse messages. Captionless-Borderless Window If you want a captionless borderless window similar to a floating toolbar, set the Forms Caption to an empty string, disable all of the BorderIcons, and set the BorderStyle to bsNone. A form can be changed in various ways by applying custom code in the CreateParams method. More WM_NCHitTest Tricks If you look more carefully at the wm_NCHitTest message youll see that return value of the function indicates the position of the cursor hot spot. This enables us to play some more with the message to create strange results. The following code fragment will prevent users to close your forms by clicking on the Close button. if Msg.Result htClose then Msg.Result : htNowhere; If the user is trying to move the form by clicking on the caption bar and dragging, the code replaces the result of the message with a result which indicates the user clicked on the client area. This prevents the user from moving the window with the mouse (opposite to what we were doing in the begging of the article). if Msg.Result htCaption then Msg.Result : htClient; Having Components On a Form In most cases, well have some components on a form. Lets say, for example, that one Panel object is on a form. If Align property of a panel is set to alClient, the Panel fills the entire client area so that it is impossible to select the parent form by clicking on it. The code above will not work - why? Its because the mouse is always moving over the Panel component, not the form. To move our form by dragging a panel on the form we have to add few lines of code in the OnMouseDown event procedure for the Panel component: procedure TForm1.Panel1MouseDown  Ã‚   (Sender: TObject; Button: TMouseButton;  Ã‚   Shift: TShiftState; X, Y: Integer) ;begin   Ã‚   ReleaseCapture;   Ã‚   SendMessage(Form1.Handle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, 61458, 0) ; end; Note: This code will not work with non-window controls such as TLabel components.

Managing organisation and people Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing organisation and people - Case Study Example This study seeks to investigate the impact of various elements like ROI,knowledge management and competitive advantage in the design and the implementation of HR policies to curb attrition at Lloyds TSB.At the end of the study,a proposed process cenetered design,tools and implementation procedure will be recommended which can be used for the bank.The Lloyds TSB Bank was founded in 1735 and has since taken over a large share of the retail banking sector in UK. (Lloyds TSB Official Website). In recent times, it attrition levels have risen in the first year of an employee's tenure. This needs to be looked into for the bank to increase its customer service effectiveness and to fill its vacancy of 150 people for its Glasgow call center. This research draws its inspiration from the consideration of the research that the organization's people are the most valued asset of the firm and thus, knowledge being the primary commodity of the workforce would be the most important area to be enhanced .The research design has been based on gathering, interpretation and appropriate presentation of the facts. The definition of the research areas is supported by the fact that the data needs to be customized in order to suit and have context to the specific area of operation and improving efficiency. Owing to the various set parameters, it is imperative to use a research design that will help garner various perspectives.In order to gain a deeper understanding and assure the benefits of this research, we decided to rely on both interviews (qualitative research) and questionnaires (quantitative research). Around a total of 63 employees were taken as samples. They can be classified into 3 categories The questionnaire designed for the quantitative research was based on the feedback received from the exploratory research and the literature review conducted earlier. This was to determine the core problems of the current systems, future expectations from the system, risk involved in the implementation, potential benefits and key evaluation factors for selection. The questionnaire also contained some open ended questions as well to get the general feedback and comments. The line managers were also acquainted with the fact that the results of the questionnaire would be kept confidential and no where there names would be used. Data Analysis In this chapter we will be discussing the results for the qualitative and the quantitative research conducted with the different stakeholders of the bank to get their opinion on the strategic position of the bank and its future expansion plans. We will also be discussing the initiatives that have been taken by the management to streamline the IT operations with the bank's expansion strategy

Managing Research and Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing Research and Information - Essay Example In order to improve the return of investment of the business and become more competitive the company should be shifted from the technology to managing information. At present the company's database has 100 treatments and 10,000 customers. It is also the objective of this project to triple the numbers of customers by adding or improving the services and products. Is the service of the company thru its customer good enough What other additional services will the manager add in order to attract customer Who and how many staff will be involve How the improvement will generate profit to the company What will be the equipments and other apparatus needed Is it cost effective or practical to add How long the project will last Who will conduct the research These are some of questions that can be considered during the research. The increase in revenue as well as an increase in number of the customers is the main objective of the research. How to make this possible will depend on the proper adaptation of the research and methodology. Proper methodology is important in making the research and planning a success. Since the customer is the main concern of the organization, the change or improvement will be base on the research that will be carrying out by the staff with the help of the customers. The best way to know the sentiments of the customer of the spa over the company is by conducting research and surveys with questionnaire to be able to assess the improvement needed. Since the company are not quite sure as to what will be improve, the best research approach would be a combination of Quantitative and Qualitative approach. Qualitative studies are generally exploring the companies' weaknesses and it involves small sample size. This approach is recommended for our study since we want to help our clients understand the reasoning behind why they should patronize the spa. The study will explore the new ideas for our products and services. By using the qualitative study the company will be able to probe questions t o both distinguish the driving purchase behaviour and to understand why the factors are important. Quantitative will be use to interpret the numeric result of the survey done by the company to a group of customer. The statistical result will show the needed improvement to be carried out by the company. The advantages of using the quantitative approach is that the data we obtain from quantitative research has the advantage of being amenable to highly sophisticated statistical analyses and modelling procedures that can uncover interesting and important relationships that are not visible to the naked eye.However quantitative approach maybe more prone to biases and limitations in the knowledge base of the researchers. By restricting not only the questions we ask but also the alternative responses (such as using numbers in responses) we are less likely to gain new insights from the research participants that we work with. The sample to be used in the study would be relatively small to represent a large population. The method of research can be conducted using the telephone, internet or in one on one interview. The most reliable method would be the one on one interv

The Future of Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Future of Leadership - Essay Example Reexamining the status of leadership over the past two decades, it is surprising to learn that HRP first released an editorial with the term ‘leadership’ in its heading after more than a decade (Storey 2004). The last twenty years have seen a proliferation of interest in the development of leadership in organizations. Several of the most notable trends and subject matters in the arena of leadership development in the recent two decades are classified either (1) the explosion of strategies in leadership development, or (2) the essence of the emotional quality of a leader with and influence on others (Nahavandi 2003).  One evident pattern over the recent two decades has been the escalating use and understanding of the strength of various developmental skills . Classroom-type leadership exercise is currently matched, or reinforced, with very diverse activities. Action learning is a group of exercises in organization development where in major actual organizational issues are addressed (Rost 1993). Three forms of goals are pursued, according to Palus and Horth: (1) providing assessable organizational outcomes; (2) share knowledge particular to a specific setting, and (3) expanding broader leadership abilities and competencies. Successful action training could range from unsupervised, implicit learning at work to facilitated and planned learning programs to transformations of organizations and individuals.As stated by Ohlott (2004 as cited in Hernez-Broome & Hughes 2004), difficult job assignments are very effective type.... As stated by Ohlott (2004 as cited in Hernez-Broome & Hughes 2004), difficult job assignments are very effective type of leadership development and offer numerous of the developmental prospects in current organizations. The extent of organizational participation in establishing job assignments a component of the process of their leadership development ranges from merely informing people about developmental prospects in their present occupation to a methodical scheme of job rotation (Nahavandi 2003). Making use of job assignments for the objectives of development offers advantages that transcend the mere fact of accomplishing the job and could even provide competitive advantages for the organization (Howell & Costley 2001). Meanwhile, two decades ago, our knowledge of organizational leadership was governed by the traditional two-factor model emphasizing relationship and task patterns (Hernez-Broome & Hughes, 2004). That common model can be typified as inherently transactional, as diff erentiated from a qualitatively distinct model usually characterized as transformational (ibid, p. 24). Transactional leadership is typified by equally advantageous transactions between parties to maximize shared gains including the completion of required organizational duties. The ‘exchange-model nature’ (Hernez-Broome & Hughes, 2004, 24) of transactional leadership has a tendency to generate expected and quite brief results. Transformational leadership stirred the entrenched values and self-worth of subordinates, and resulted in greater degrees of for lower effort and dedication and more permanent change (Nahavandi 2003). Transformational leaders offer interesting images of a better future and encourage trust through

Aquaculture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aquaculture - Essay Example In recent years, cultivated aqua plants have shown significant increase in production too. The gross production of aqua plants in 2004 was worth 6.8 billion US$. Oysters hold the second position when it comes to aquatic culture. The aquatic species variegation is another factor that demands attention. More than 240 cultivated aquatic flora and animal species were recorded in 2004. The fact that needs exposure here is that heterogeneity of aquatic species has been undermined and collection of annual facts and data suggest that species variegation is shooting up. Species introduction is one of the legitimate means of increasing production. Species Introduction has played a significant role in aquaculture and they provide a noticeable share of total aquaculture production. Consider the fact that nearly 17% of the global finfish production is because of alien/introduced species. However they have negative impacts too. Introduced species can impact aquatic ecosystem in terms of predation, habitat modification etc. Proper assessment of effects of introduced species on aquatic life and their negative and positive consequences should be done and suitable plans should be formulated. Fishery products comprises of water, proteins, lipids, minerals, vitamins and other nitrogen compounds. The vital micro-nutrients and minerals in fatty fish are Vitamins A and D, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus whereas iodine, in marine fish. Fish lipids have up to 40% extremely unsaturated long chain fatty acids. Fish proteins hold all vital amino acids. The carbohydrate content in fish muscle is very less, generally lesser than 0.5 percent. There are numerous uses of marine resources; the most prominent use is as a source of food. Fisheries resources are rendering human species with record amounts of food. Fish has proved to be a diet full of proteins and nutrients. World fish production used for direct human intake shot up during 1990s. Other use of fish include 'extracting oil' and as 'feed'. However, excessive use of fisheries resources is endangering the ecosystem of our planet. Continuously increasing demand and exhausting marine life has led to an increment in the gap between demand and supply. As Taras Grescoe states in Bottomfeeder: How the fish on our Plates is Killing our Planet that Good fish like sardine, pilchard is diminishing and that we in our madness are hoovering up the good fish by converting it into fishmeal for salmon in farms. He concludes that it requires 3.9 Kg of wild fish to yield 1 Kg of flabby, artificially colored farmed salmon. Commercial wild salmon fishery has nearly vanished in North At lantic. The North Sea store of herring, valuable fatty pelagic fish, tumbled in 1970s because of the requirement of the pig feed industry. It can be concluded that overfishing is a compelling marine issue demanding immediate attention. According to EUCC news, China is a country where live reef fish requirement is quite high and is expected to increase in the coming years. Hong-Kong being the capital of world's live reef fish industry exports a lot of reef fish to China. China's increasing demands for coral fish has already endangered species like hump head wrasse. As marine stock has already depleted in

Gender Roles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Gender Roles - Essay Example It will further highlight, with reasons, on whether or not the writer would change gender. According to Crooks and Baur (2011), human sexuality defines the manner in which we understand and articulate ourselves as sexual beings. The aspect of being male or female determines how one develops socially, with or without consciousness. It gives a fundamental source of motivation. For example, males are perceived as being more able to hold leadership positions than females, be it in political or business roles. Therefore, they can easily win elective posts. They are also considered to be able to physically defend themselves than females. This suggests that men’s masculinity accords them more physical strength than women. Financially, men are believed to earn more than women, although contemporary trends may prove otherwise among the younger generations. Depending on the generation, any gender can be financially independent. However, all these perceptions may only be stereotypical. Research has shown that women are better at handling emotional turmoil than men (Crooks & B aur, 2011). Women are less represented in emotional diagnostic categories, or impulse control disorders. In men, such difficulties lead to drug and alcohol abuse delinquency, violent outbursts and sexual misconduct than they do in women. Women are also confronted by less self-destructive and irrational sexual desires. Rather than wish to belong to the other gender, it is more prudent to accept oneself and work towards getting the best out of what one was destined to be. For instance, men can have female friends because women are prone to discuss relationships and offer more social support instead of indulging in activities aimed at disguising social ill. On the other hand, women can find comfort among themselves because they do not always reciprocate the platonic interests of friendship with men. Clearly, one would rather stay as they are and

Aquaculture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aquaculture - Essay Example In recent years, cultivated aqua plants have shown significant increase in production too. The gross production of aqua plants in 2004 was worth 6.8 billion US$. Oysters hold the second position when it comes to aquatic culture. The aquatic species variegation is another factor that demands attention. More than 240 cultivated aquatic flora and animal species were recorded in 2004. The fact that needs exposure here is that heterogeneity of aquatic species has been undermined and collection of annual facts and data suggest that species variegation is shooting up. Species introduction is one of the legitimate means of increasing production. Species Introduction has played a significant role in aquaculture and they provide a noticeable share of total aquaculture production. Consider the fact that nearly 17% of the global finfish production is because of alien/introduced species. However they have negative impacts too. Introduced species can impact aquatic ecosystem in terms of predation, habitat modification etc. Proper assessment of effects of introduced species on aquatic life and their negative and positive consequences should be done and suitable plans should be formulated. Fishery products comprises of water, proteins, lipids, minerals, vitamins and other nitrogen compounds. The vital micro-nutrients and minerals in fatty fish are Vitamins A and D, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus whereas iodine, in marine fish. Fish lipids have up to 40% extremely unsaturated long chain fatty acids. Fish proteins hold all vital amino acids. The carbohydrate content in fish muscle is very less, generally lesser than 0.5 percent. There are numerous uses of marine resources; the most prominent use is as a source of food. Fisheries resources are rendering human species with record amounts of food. Fish has proved to be a diet full of proteins and nutrients. World fish production used for direct human intake shot up during 1990s. Other use of fish include 'extracting oil' and as 'feed'. However, excessive use of fisheries resources is endangering the ecosystem of our planet. Continuously increasing demand and exhausting marine life has led to an increment in the gap between demand and supply. As Taras Grescoe states in Bottomfeeder: How the fish on our Plates is Killing our Planet that Good fish like sardine, pilchard is diminishing and that we in our madness are hoovering up the good fish by converting it into fishmeal for salmon in farms. He concludes that it requires 3.9 Kg of wild fish to yield 1 Kg of flabby, artificially colored farmed salmon. Commercial wild salmon fishery has nearly vanished in North At lantic. The North Sea store of herring, valuable fatty pelagic fish, tumbled in 1970s because of the requirement of the pig feed industry. It can be concluded that overfishing is a compelling marine issue demanding immediate attention. According to EUCC news, China is a country where live reef fish requirement is quite high and is expected to increase in the coming years. Hong-Kong being the capital of world's live reef fish industry exports a lot of reef fish to China. China's increasing demands for coral fish has already endangered species like hump head wrasse. As marine stock has already depleted in

Main Rules and Features of Informative Speech Essay

Main Rules and Features of Informative Speech - Essay Example Before developing a good informative speech, it is vital to first pick a topic and thoroughly research on it in a specified time integrating ones experiences, understand its purpose, learn the time allocation for good time management and learn whom the audience is to be able to relate with them and guide their attention. A speech should also have a good arrangement of the information that one needs to include in a logical order. It is only after careful consideration of all these aspects and understanding of the audience that one can begin to write down his/her speech. Writing a Good Informative Speech Before writing the introduction of a speech, it is important to ensure that one has a good opening statement that would grab the attention of the audience. For my speech, I decided to start with a funny statement that related to current affairs with a strong predisposition to my audience. In the introduction of the speech, one should inform the audience what the speech is about and wha t the main points are going to be, for example, I informed my audience that I was going to talk about my hobbies, how they had influenced me positively and the importance of having such hobbies. The topic chosen might be very general so that one is able to narrow it down to a specific aspect that is relevant to the audience instead of a broad topic, which is partly covered leaving one's audience lost in the speech. Furthermore, the speech should also demonstrate a high degree of competence and self-confidence in the subject one is speaking about to his audience. This can be achieved by possessing facts and good background knowledge about the topic one has chosen, and the information one intends to relay to the audience should be clearly defined. One of the objectives I had in mind while choosing to talk about blood donation as a hobby was to inform the audience of the importance of donating blood by attempting to change or reinforce their behavior and attitude towards caring for one another. In addition, while addressing cooking as a hobby I explained that it had influenced my personal skills on invention and solving problems from different approaches.

Femicide in Guatemala Essay Example for Free

Femicide in Guatemala Essay Femicide in Guatemala â€Å"Six women and girls were killed in Guatemala last week in one day alone. Two of the girls, about 6 and 12 years old, were found strangled to death in a street in the capital Guatemala City wearing their pajamas† (Moloney 1). Guatemala has the third highest rate of Femicide in the world. Femicide is defined as the killing of a woman by a man because she is a female. In Guatemala, a significantly high number of femicide cases have been reported and I strongly believe that this is a very troublesome and unhealthy issue for the population. More than 3800 females have been murdered in Guatemala since the year 2000 and this is just the official number. This clearly suggests that numerous innocent women are tortured and killed by men each day throughout the region. Another report suggests that 512 women were killed between January 1 and October 16 in the year 2012 alone and this is after a 10 percent decline from the previous year. (PCUSA, 1) Most of these cases were reported in the province of Guatemala, which includes the country’s largest city and capital. The fact that this number is still so high despite the drop suggests what an urgent issue this is. There are various reasons for this violent victimization of women throughout Guatemala and is becoming an increasingly pressing issue which needs serious attention. It has been reported that this region is one of the unsafe areas in the world for women. Each day countless women are raped, mutated, forced into sexual slavery and abortions, sterilized and murdered. This creates a sense of fear among the entire population and makes them more submissive to this brutality. Men and women throughout the country live their lives in immense anxiety and stress of losing the women that they love. One of the main concerns regarding femicide is impunity, meaning that most of these cases are not brought to trial. Reports suggest that only 1%-2% of femicide cases are prosecuted whereas criminals have a 98% to 99% chance of completely escaping any punishment or prosecution. This poses a huge problem because women don’t get the justice that they deserve and criminals easily escape. This is very unfair for the innocent women who are victims of such crimes because their offenders don’t receive the punishment that they deserve. Another main reason for this exigent issue is the inability of the Guatemalan authorities to ensure the safety of women. This is to say that the Guatemalan government is so corrupt that they are unable to provide security for women and with the extremely high rate of impunity it is almost impossible for women to find justice. Now, it is very important to understand why these gender specific crimes exist in the region. One of the main reasons for this violent targeting of women goes back to the â€Å"Guatemalan government and military’s 36 year old genocidal counterinsurgency campaign against the country’s Mayan population† (Mychalejko 1). This is to say that the reason behind this problem of femicide exists to destroy the intricate social bonds of Mayan communities. Additionally, â€Å"Gender violence not only terrorizes women in the community, but it also disrupts traditional patriarchal gender relations by sending the message to men that they are not capable of protecting women† (Mychalejko 1). I find this medium of using gender violence to target an indigenous population very disappointing. It is not ethical for a population to kill thousands of women in order to get even with a community. Further, it is believed that this harsh behavior against women is really effecting the male population because such incidents happen so frequently that they are becoming insensitive to such incidents. Men in the Guatemalan society have become normalized to such reports and this can be seen because the crimes are continuing to become more inhumane and frequent. As mentioned above, one of the primary reasons for this ongoing violence against women is the Guatemalan Civil war, which left behind harsh memories of violence and impunity. The increased militarization cause by the ongoing war on drugs also continues to contribute to these high femicide rates. Guatemala is one of the regions strongly involved in the drug trade and thus women are used as collateral damage in the battle between gangs. Additionally, the economic and political climate in the region is not very stable and thus the land a resource conflict also contributes to these innocent deaths. Lastly, it has also been found that the increased involvement of foreign governments, especially US and Canada play an important role in this violence targeted to women. Basically, the Guatemalan government uses the targeting of women as a â€Å"tactical and deliberate tool of political repression (Mychalejko 2). In my personal opinion, not only is this very disturbing but it is also very unfair. Women play an important role in building a society and this unnecessary violence against them is very alarming. Using women as a bait to target the bigger economic and political issues is unethical and should not be practiced by any government. It is impossible for women to find hope and justice in a society where such high impunity exists. This continues to be a never-ending cycle for thousands of innocent women who lose their lives, while the people responsible are let free. Overall this is an absolute shame and mockery of the system. The Guatemalan civil war really contributes to these high rates of gender violence in the country. The aftermath of the war left more than 200,000 Guatemalans murdered, most of who were indigenous. Also, thousands were raped, tortured, disappeared and displaced. The most disappointing part however, is that over 98 percent of the people who engaged in these war crimes were left free. It is this lack of justice that left criminals in the country in power and innocent victims hurt. Therefore, these high rates of femicide are to inform the local population about this harsh past and to remind them that justice has not yet come. In conclusion, I think that we must all focus our attention to this increasing issue of femicide in Guatemala. In the recent times, as the political repression against women in increasing, they are becoming more active in order to prevent femicide. For example, â€Å"In Guatemala it has been proven that as more women participate politically and socially, it brings out more repression. An example is the recent attempt on the life of [the aforementioned anti-mining activist] Yolanda Oqueli† (Mychalejko 3). Yolanda is a leader of FRENAM, a movement that aims to defend land from expansion activities. She was returning home from a peaceful protest when she was shot. I believe that this issue of femicide is one that needs immediate attention. It is absolutely wrong and immoral to use a country’s women as a way of gaining political control. Additionally, the Guatemalan government is extremely corrupted and has a very high rate of impunity, which in turn, allows criminals to go free and possibly even commit the crime again. I suggest that the citizens of the world acknowledge this and do an intervention throughout the region. It is high time that women not be used as a bait to target men or to settle past scores. Women are an integral part of any society and deserve respect and security.

Role of Institutions in Social Policy

Role of Institutions in Social Policy Explore with examples the role of institutions in influencing policy outcomes. The following will discuss the role that institutions can or may have in influencing public policy outcomes, and where relevant examples of such influences will be provided. The role of various institutions will be explored, and any differences in the amount or the importance of those organisations in influencing policy outcomes will be analysed. Included in this study of the influence upon policy outcomes that institutions have, will be an evaluation of whether that influence changes with the type of organisation that is being examined, and upon the circumstances in which the policy outcomes are reached and implemented within. How much influence the roles of institutions allow them in the determination of policy outcomes, or policy decision-making can depend on the functions and objectives of the institutions involved in the decision-making process. The influence any institutions have upon policy outcomes or policy decision-making processes varies with the expertise, knowledge, tech nical know how that the institutions have available, as well as the level of access these institutions have to the decision-makers that are mainly responsible for determining policy outcomes. As will be explored the decision-makers that are responsible for the framing and carrying out of policy outcomes will be more likely to be influenced by the institutions that have the most experience and expertise in the policy areas that the decision-makers are tasked with controlling and administering. An area of policy outcomes in which institutions have played roles in influencing the final policy decisions made and actually carried out has been in issues relating to the environment. Institutions that have been involved in studying the environment in general and environmental changes like the greenhouse effect in particular have been able to influence the policy outcomes in relation to taking measures to limit or reduce environmental damage. Academic and scientific institutions alongside environmentalist groups such as Friends of the Earth have played a significant role influencing policy outcomes. There are a few examples of policy outcomes that could be used in support of this statement, arguably strong supporting evidence as well (Jones et al, 2004 p. 600). These groups and institutions believe they can influence policy outcomes by setting the public agenda (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 5). Prior to the 1960s academic and scientific institutions had a minor role in influencing po licy outcomes with regard to issues concerning the environment. Policy decision-makers would contact institutions that had expertise or knowledge about environmental issues upon an ad hoc basis, for example in the 1950s when the British government wished to solve the problem of smog in the London area. On that occasion institutions gave advice as to the best way of cleaning up the air pollution that had been the cause of the smog (Jones et al, 2004 p. 600). From the 1960s academic and scientific institutions began to suspect that human economic and industrial activities were having a profoundly detrimental affect upon the physical environment. Increased concerns over the environment led to the emergence of pressure groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, these groups have tended to attempt to influence policy outcomes by generating publicity to raise public awareness of environment issues (Jones et al, 2004 p. 695). Arguably, the combined efforts of the academic and scientific institutions and the pressure groups have raised international as well as national awareness of environmental issues. Without the publicity achieved by the environmentalist pressure groups, the academic and scientific institutions would have found it much harder to have had any kind of meaningful influence over policy outcomes relating to the environment. In turn the publicity campaigns of the environmentalist pressure groups would have a had minimal i nfluence over policy outcomes without the strong and convincing scientific evidence of human induced climate change and environmental damage presented by the by the academic and scientific institutions. These were research findings that policy decision-makers believed they have had to react to (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 401). The universal nature and the global scope of environmental issues has meant that institutions and pressure groups have attempted to influence policy outcomes upon a regional or even a global basis as well as at the national level (Jones et al, 2004 p. 599). Now attention needs to be turned to explore when the approach of academic and scientific institutions and environmentalist pressure groups has been able to influence policy outcomes. A good example of this happening was the problem of acid rain, which had its worst affects upon the forests of Scandinavia. Coal fired power stations in Britain were regarded as being the main culprits behind acid rain. Strong scientific evidence produced by research institutions and environmentalist pressure groups proved that this was in fact the case. Pressure from the Scandinavian governments and the European Union coupled with the evidence from academic institutions combined to persuade the British government to take action to solve the problem by cleaning up the emissions from the coal fired power stations (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 406). Perhaps the first significant example of academic and scientific institutions having a global impact as opposed to a national impact over policy outcomes with regard to the environment was over the issue of damage to the ozone layer. During the early 1980s there was increasing scientific evidence of expanding holes in the ozone layer, which is an important barrier against the more harmful effects and forms of radiation emitted by the sun. The depletion of the ozone layer would not be harmful to peoples’ health, and it would increase the environmental damage caused by the greenhouse effect and speed up the process of global warming. Scientific research proved that the hole in the ozone layer was caused by the chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) used as coolants in fridges and freezers, as the propellants in aerosol cans, and in fast food packaging. Media coverage of the problems that the shrinking of the ozone layer was causing increased the ability of institutions to influence policy ou tcomes. International agreement was eventually reached that the use of CFCs would be phased out with less harmful alternatives being used instead (Jones et al, 2004 p. 600). As the scientific evidence of the greenhouse effect grew the role of academic and scientific institutions in influencing policy outcomes has increased as well. Countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and eventually Britain have made efforts to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (Judt, 2007 p. 494). The efforts of institutions concerned with protecting the environment has also strongly affected and influenced the European Union, which has introduced legislation, regulations, and directives for its member states to take policy measures to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and achieve sustainable development. Attempts to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases culminated in the Rio Earth Summit, and the later Kyoto Protocol (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 407). Currently there are ongoing talks to renew the Kyoto Protocol. Over all policy decision-makers have to take into account the environmental affects of the policy outcomes they make decisions on (Coxall , Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 406). An area in which institutions can play a major or significant role in influencing policy outcomes is in relation to medical and public health issue. Hospitals, medical centres, universities, doctors, and nursing unions are all institutions or organisations that influence or attempt to influence policy outcomes. Governments believe that they have a responsibility to ensure that their policy outcomes if possible protect and enhance public health and safety standards. Doctors, nurses, universities, and hospitals also have good reasons to promote public health issues, mainly as that is important part of their objectives as institutions and skilled professionals. When it comes down to these institutions or groups influencing policy outcomes, those that have firmly focused public health and safety objectives are more effective if they have a strong or well developed expertise in their area of specialisation. In Britain the medical institutions that are linked with, or are actually part of the National Health Service (NHS) potentially have a strong influence on health policy outcomes. For instance, doctors and the medical departments of universities have played in developing new medical treatments, diagnosing new diseases, and researching for cures to illnesses. These institutions have helped to progressively improve the quality and quantity of healthcare services and medical treatments available, allowing for increased life expectancy. For instance organ transplants, better cancer treatments, and drugs that delay the onset of the HIV / AIDS virus have all been developed since the 1960s. These medical achievements were primarily developed to prolong both life expectancy and quality, which after all is the purpose of all medical professions (Hobsbawm, 1994 p. 556). However, universities, medical research laboratories, and pharmaceutical companies also motivated by the opportunities to raise their reputations for expertise, as well as hoping to gain substantial financial rewards (Hobsbawm, 1994 p. 556). Decision-makers that are part of publicly funded health services such as the NHS in Britain can have another major influence over policy outcomes, aside from the influence of medical institutions. That other influence is often decisive in the final determination of policy outcomes, and that is the issue of funding. The majority of the British population has high expectations of the NHS, and they expect or hope that all new medical treatments will be available to patients as soon as those treatments are required. Despite public expenditure on the NHS increasing every year, medical treatments have to be rationed out or provided on the basis of which patients need treatment the most urgently (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 296). The splitting up of the N HS budget into individual budgets for each health trust unit also means that medical institutions now have to attempt to influence policy outcomes at the health unit trust level as well as at the national level. Although the introduction of health trust units was intended to improve efficiency within the NHS, it has also meant that the medical treatments that patients may or may not receive depends on which area of Britain they live in (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 297). Of course those people that chose to have private healthcare there is no worry about their medical treatments being rationed or not available in some areas, all they have to do is have enough money or insurance to pay for their treatment in the first place (Moran, 2005, p. 54). Medical institutions can have an influence over policy outcomes when they diagnose or discover new illnesses, or when they wish to change people’s behaviour to prevent illnesses. When medical institutions diagnose or discover new illnesses it can have drastic consequences, and therefore have a significant influence upon policy outcomes. A prime example of a new illness having such a significant effect on policy outcomes was over the issue of mad cow disease in Britain. The issue of mad cow disease cut across agricultural, trade, and medical areas of government policy. The origin of the crisis began with the farming practice of feeding cattle food that inadvertently used the brains of sheep infected with scrapie, and subsequently led to the emergence of mad cow disease or Bovine Sponigform Encephalopathy (BSE). Medical and scientific evidence proved that BSE could be passed on to humans through the food chain. People infected in such a way went on to develop variant CJD, for wh ich there is currently no cure, and it invariably kills those infected. The initial reaction of the British government to the BSE crisis was slow, and seemed to ignore advice and evidence provided by agricultural and medical institutions in a vain attempt to protect the British beef industry (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003 p. 123). Indeed the slowness of the government’s reaction meant that the problem got better rather than worse. The government’s efforts to maintain public confidence in the safety of British beef proved unconvincing. The testing of cattle herds for BSE infection was too slow, leaving the culling of entire herds as the only means of tackling the problem. The government was also slow in issuing safety guidelines in the NHS which meant that blood and organs unknowingly donated by variant CJD victims was used in blood transfusions and organ transplants which therefore infected more people (Moran, 2005 p. 433). The whole handling of the BSE issue clearly demonstrates that if politicians or policy decision-makers within the government fail to heed the advice of suitably qualified or experienced institutions that it can have disastrous consequences in terms of policy outcomes. Tackling an issue before it becomes an intractable problem can be the difference between damage limitation, and unmitigated policy failure (Moran, 2005 p. 433). The delays in tackling the BSE issue meant that peoples lives were put at risk unnecessarily, whilst the European Union ban on British beef and any of its by-products was highly damaging to the British beef industry (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003 p. 123). The measures taken to restrict and eventually got rid of BSE cases in British cattle. However the gestation period of variant CJD means that it will be some time before there are no cases at all. The BSE free status of British cattle did eventually lead to the lifting of the ban on British beef exports (Moran, 2005 p. 433). Institutions have been able to influence policy outcomes when it comes to taking preventative health measures. For instance, reducing the number of smokers, heavy drinkers, and the number of people that have heart disease. Medical institutions have been aware for quite some time that many health problems are preventable, especially if people change their behaviour. An example of medical institutions having a strong influence on policy outcomes has been in reducing the number of smokers. Smoking has been proven to be a major cause of various types of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes. Anti-smoking groups and medical institutions have sought to influence policy outcomes to reduce the numbers of people killed by smoking related illnesses. Policy outcomes have included a ban on cigarette advertising, government health warnings on packets, and hard -hitting NHS adverts showing the consequences of smoking upon people’s health. Governments have also raised duty levels on cigarettes to persuade people to give up smoking, although this has only had limited success (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 297). The Scottish Parliament took evidence about the harmful effects of smoking from medical institutions, and voted to ban smoking in public places. That decision proved to be the catalyst for the Westminster Parliament to do like likewise in 2006 (Whitaker’s, 2007 p. 1067). Data shows that increasing numbers of British smokers wish to stop, 598,600 attempting to do so in 2006 alone (Schott, 2006 p. 109). Attempts by medical institutions and the Police to reduce heavy drinking have not been so successful. Whilst the government has tried to reduce the amount of binge drinking, most steps have been done voluntarily by the drinks industry to avoid tougher measures been taken. Medical institutions are opposed to heavy drinking due to the medical damage it does, whilst the Police can prove the link between alcohol consumption and crime. The government also decided to extend licensing so pubs could stay open for 24 hours a day, a policy outcome that seems to contradict the objective of reducing alcohol consumption levels (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 330). Britain according to research is the country with the third largest frequency of binge drinkers in the European Union, after Finland and Ireland (Schott, 2006 p. 109). In terms of reducing the risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes, medical institutions seem to have had more influence with food and drinks producers t han with the decision-makers that decide policy outcomes. Once again the government prefers that companies make their products healthier on a voluntarily basis. Governments also prefer not to alienate too many businesses by affecting their ability to make profits (Jones et al, 2004 p.599). Another way in which institutions can have an influence upon policy outcomes is by being involved with organisations or committees that can determine policy decisions. Such organisations are referred to quangos or quasi-autonomous non-government organisation, and they control many areas of public decision-making and expenditure (Comfort, 1993 p. 493). The definition of quangos is now national rather than non-governmental, as they are part of the governmental structure even they are not part of departments or the civil service. Quangos have various functions and therefore levels of power and budgets. Quangos such as regional development bodies have large budgets, and community institutions could have stronger influences on policy outcomes than national institutions. Other Quangos such as regulatory bodies like Ofgem are meant to regulate private businesses rather then being influenced by institutions (Coxall, Robbins, Leach, 2003 p. 332). Quangos therefore have a great deal of inform al power, so to influence with any of them can allow institutions to gain influence over policy outcomes (Jones et al, 2004 p. 663). Potentially institutions could gain influence over policy outcomes by having some of their representatives joining any quangos that operate within their areas of interest or expertise. Alternatively quangos often have the power to award lucrative contracts, or grant funding for research or community projects, that provides further incentives for institutions to gain access to those quangos that can decide policy outcomes. There are quangos that are linked to the relevant government departments, some of which could provide institutions with the ability to communicate with ministers. Some would argue that quangos are undemocratic, and increase the chances of corruption, although ministers can make them accountable to the government if not to Parliament (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003 p.371). Both the Conservatives and New Labour have made widespread use o f quangos when in government as they argued that quangos make governance more efficient (Jones et al p.664). Another way in which institutions are able to influence policy outcomes is through publicity campaigns, and lobbying the government to make decisions that favour their objectives. Such a mode of operation can mean that the behaviour and strategy of institutions is very similar to pressure groups (Fisher, Denver, Benyon, 2003 p. 171). Publicity campaigns can be either positive or negative in their tone, depending on whether institutions want to encourage or discourage certain decisions (Judt, 2007 p. 544). Examples of positive campaigning include universities encouraging the introduction of tuition fees to fund increasing numbers of students, or campaigns to fund new hospitals or new medical treatments (Seldon Kavanagh, 2005 p. 272). More negative campaigns have included medical institutions resisting any reforms of the NHS that they do not like. These campaigns have proved highly effective, as even the Thatcher government could not attempt to dismantle the NHS (Judt, 2007 p. 544). Therefore it could be concluded that institutions could play a significant role in influencing policy outcomes. However, no institution is guaranteed to play a significant role in influencing policy outcomes just because it exists. The roles that institutions play in influencing policy outcomes varies with circumstances, whether the government of the day has strong ideological beliefs, the expertise, campaigning skills, and the objectives of each individual institution. Governments will naturally tend to favour the institutions whose views and objectives are similar to their own, although governments also like to pursue policies that improve their chances of re-election. However, that does not mean that governments are unwilling to hear the opinions of institutions if those institutions lobby the government to influence policy outcomes. Institutions are more likely to succeed in influencing policy outcomes if they can provide strong evidence to back up their arguments or policy sugge stions. Governments prefer to adopt policies that they can convince the electorate is necessary to improve public services, could improve the standard of living, or prevent things going wrong. Examples of governments being influenced by institutions that have altered government policy include taking the environment seriously, measures to reduce smoking, and steps taken to deal with the BSE crisis. The failings that the initially inept handling of the BSE crisis demonstrated that institutions cannot always have had an influence on policy outcomes, and may only be consulted after things have gone wrong. Bibliography Coxall B, Robins L Leach R (2003) Contemporary British Politics 4th edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke Fisher J, Denver D, Benyon J, (2003) Central Debates in British Politics, Longman, London Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London Judt T, (2007) Post-war – A History of Europe since 1945, Pimlico, London Moran M, (2005) Politic and Governance in the UK, Palgrave, Basingstoke Schott B, (2006) Schott’s Almanac 2007, Bloomsbury, London Seldon A Kavanagh D, (2005) The Blair Effect 2001 – 5, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Whitaker’s, (2007) Whitaker’s Almanack 2007 – today’s world in one volume, A C Black, London

An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

An Inspector Calls Productions seen: Â · BBC Television Production (1981) Â · Film Production (1954) Part I J.B.Priestly's play is set in the spring of 1912 in the household of an upper-middle class family in the north of England. The plot of this dramatic play is based around the Birling family's involvement in a young girl's suicide. The Birling family consists of the two parents, Arthur and Sybil Birling and their two children Eric and Sheila. Gerald Croft is soon to become a member of the family as he has recently announced his engagement to Sheila. As the story unfolds we find that each of the family members is partly to blame. Which member however carries the most blame? It is important to realise that J.B.Priestly has made it deliberately difficult to place the blame solely on one person. Having read the play and seen two productions of it, I have come to the conclusion that Mrs Birling is the most to blame. This conclusion was founded for many reasons. One such reason was due to the process of elimination. Each Character, although guilty, has different responsibilities and different degrees of blame due to their involvement with the girl, their reaction to the news of her death, how they compare to the other characters and how the audience would or should perceive them. If we first take Mr Birling, who is questioned by the Inspector first. Mr Birling is described by Priestly as 'heavy looking, rather portentous...in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners....rather provincial in his speech." Birling is fairly successful in his line of work and is always striving to become better. He is self-important and slightly pompous. He could even be described as old fashioned. However he is a warm character and the audience should perceive him as such. Examples of this self importance can be found a lot in the text. For example, on page seven of the text, Mr Birling rambles on about such nonsense like " The unsinkable Titanic", "very little chance of a World War" and of "Russia being technically and socially behind" Mr Birling first became acquainted with Eva Smith when she came to work in his factory two years previously. Mr Birling started off the chain of events which lead to Eva's death by firing her from her job for asking for a pay-rise and ( when the rise was refused) for organising a strike. Although Mr Birling shows relatively little guilt or remorse for Eva's death, I do not feel that he is entirely responsible as at the end of the play he does in fact feel very guilty when the Inspector delivers

Enriques Journey Essay

Just as Enrique arrives, there is tension between his mother and him. They begin to argue about how Enrique had developed bad habits such as drinking and staying out late as well as sniffing glue. These problems do not surprise me because he had been through alot on his intense journey all the way from Honduras. It hurt Lourdes to see her son do nothing but hurt himself and her family because the money he was spending on alcohol should have been sent back home to help pay for school. Enrique also put his mother down by constantly making her feel guilty for leaving and that she did not deserve to call herself his mother. Looking back at the relationship between them before she left, I thought that their relationship would have been stronger than ever after not seeing each other for years and that he would appreciate the fact that he found her unlike many of the other immigrants that search for years and are still unable to find their family members. Enriques motivation to stay in the United States is work and buy a house back in Honduras not to mention the amount of money he is making allows him to afford a lot more than he could back in Honduras. He wishes to continue working so he can support his girlfriend and his daughter back home in Honduras as well as buy a house so that he can move in with his girlfriend and daughter and finally be a family. He thinks that his girlfriend is cheating on him and he realizes that he wants to be there for his daughter and raise her before she calls someone else her father. Rather than Enrique moving back home he decides that he wants his girlfriend and the baby to move to the United States with him. I believe that there is so much conflict between Enrique and Lourdes is because Lourdes is trying to mother and discipline Enrique when she was not there raise him so he feels as if she is not his mother anymore. If she had not left and raised her family as her own they would not have any problems with their relationship and most likely Enrique would have not got himself into trouble by abusing drugs and drinking too much. I believe once Enrique begins to pick up his act and stops abusing drugs and drinking and coming home late his relationship with his mother would become better as well as eing able to function the next day and able to perform well at work so he can earn enough to visit his family back home in Honduras. I believe that Enrique made the correct decision coming to the United States, although he put his life in danger he reached his goal and finally got to see his mother after many years. Despite making the same mistake as his mother and leaving his girlfriend and daughter for a job to help pay for their needs, I believe it is necessary because if Enrique was back home there was a chance he could not have even had a job and then he would have had no way to support his family. He gained many things by coming to the United States. He had an opportunity to provide a decent living for his family as well as reuniting with his mother even though it was not easy for them at first. Enrique, on his journey, lost his sense of pride. After being harassed by so many times by the local police, he had nothing left to the point where it would have made no difference if he had died. He is in jeopardy of losing his family being many thousands of miles away from them, his girlfriend could leave him for someone who is making a better living in Honduras and would be able to be there to help raise their kids.