Research paper on Sweden Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

On Sweden - Research Paper Example They face some distress and mistrust of people from different cultures. They are often afraid that other cultures will not understand them (Devito, pg 150). The geographical orientation of Sweden is another roadblock to successful communication. The country is separated by many rivers and forests. This makes it hard for people of different cultures to meet and mingle. Ethnocentrism is another noticeable barrier among the Swedish. They often feel that they culture is the richest as compared with other cultures. They therefore believe that other cultures should study their culture and not vice versa (Guirdham, pg 316). Americans are continuously trying to ease thriving communication with the Swedish. However several strategies are needed for this to actualize. The Americans should be Americans more open -minded to the Swedish culture. They should develop a positive attitude towards the culture. Americans should also be more flexible in accepting the Swedish culture. They should strive to be altruistic this will ensure that the Swedish group opens up to new ideas. The most effectual way for Americans to enhance communication with the Swedish group is by understanding and learning their culture (Verderber et al pg 117). This will ensure that the Americans learn the Swedish culture. In so doing the Swedish group will be compelled to learn and open up to more

Ongkas Big Moka Essay Example for Free

Ongkas Big Moka Essay Ongka is a prominent leader of the tribe Kawelka in Highland Papua, New Guinea. This video is about his experiences giving a Moka (or gift) to someone for fame and stature. This video took place in a small tribe that uses pigs as currency for everything. You need pigs to get a wife, to have children, and also for investments. Ongka became a prominent leader there due to his huge ability to give away his pigs to other people. He did it not for monetary currency, but the ability of giving away things there are a sign of fame and is look at with great respect. This tribe does not use wealth or fashion (as we do in the U.S) to become famous and well known, whoever gives away the most is the celebrity of this tribe. Ongka had given away plenty in the past, but he wanted to give the biggest moka of all time. Ongka has five wives and nine children that help him take care of the pigs and birds before he gives them away during the big moka give away. The tribe holds special ceremonies to give away mokas to their neighboring tribes. The dress is formal though, feathers on their heads and leaves on their bodies as well as face paint on their faces. Also, females in this tribe are topless and it is actually common to not wear clothing. Ongka wore clothes throughout this whole video except during the ceremonies, I am guessing due to his stature in the tribe it was okay. Ongka manage to receive help from a few others in his tribe, by convincing them that when he gives the moka they would get some prestige as well. The plot arose when someone died in an enemy tribe, and they believe when someone dies in a certain weight range then he must have been murdered by sorcery. Ongka had to step in as the mediator and representative for his tribe, and give the tribe a pig and a special branch use for oath taking to convey his honesty that his tribe had nothing to do with the sorcery. While giving away his mokas, Ongka’s rival Rhyma announced that it was his group that killed the man from their enemy tribe. Rhyma did not really kill the man he just wanted to stir up drama on Ongka’s big day. The announcement cancelled the ceremony, and the enemy tribe tried to kill Rhyma, but could not find him. Ongka had to become the peacemaker and try to convince the enemy tribe not to go to war with their tribe. Two weeks later everything cool down, and Ongka was able to carry on with his ceremony. Ongka Big Moka is a great video describing the traditions and scenarios that an individual go through on a daily basis to obtain power. This really opened my mind to how similar our country is to theirs. My ethnocentric thoughts at the beginning of the movie when I saw how the way they dress completely changed at the end of the video. I realized that I should not judge any culture by my own social cultural standards. The people of this tribe seem like they are happy with their lifestyles. Our countries are very similar they might not use their wealth and celebrity to obtain power, but they use giving gifts to others to achieved power. Overall I would recommend this video to anyone who are really intrigue with other cultures and want to see Ongka humorous shirt.

Cassandra System in Facebook

Cassandra System in Facebook Cassandra was designed to accomplish scalability and availability for the Inbox Storage problem. It was a system developed for Facebook. It would need to handle more than a billion write operations. It would also need to scale with the number of users. The data centers which serve the users are distributed across earths geography. Figure 1 Cassandra Symbol In order to keep the search latencies down, it would be necessary for the users to replicate the data over the data centers. Facebook has installed Cassandra as its back end storage system. This is done for multiple services available at Facebook. Distributed file systems have hierarchal name spaces. The existing systems allow operations which are disconnected. They are also strong against general issues like outages and network partitions. Conflicts resolution is different in different systems in Coda and Ficus there is level conflict resolution. Application level resolution is allowed by Bayou. Traditional relational databases seek at providing guarantee of consistent replicated data. Amazon uses the Dynamo storage system for storing and retrieving user details. It uses the Gossip member protocol to maintain node data. Vector clock scheme is used to detect conflict. It has more preference for client side conflict resolution mechanism. In systems which need to handle a high write through put, Dynamo can be disadvantages as read would be needed to manage the vector stamps. Casandra is a non-relational database. It has a distributed multi-dimensional map. This map is indexed by a key. The value which the key points to is highly structured. The size of the row key is a string which has no restrictions. It has size corresponding to 16 to 36 bytes. Like the Big table system, the columns are grouped together into sets. These sets are called as column families. The column families are divided into two type: 1) Simple column families These are the normal column families 2) Super column families The super family has a column family inside a column family. Sorted order of the column can be specified. The inbox display usually displays the messages in time sorted fashion. This can be used by Cassandra as it allows the sorting over the columns by time or by name. The results are displayed in easily for the inbox searches in a time sorted manner. The syntax used to access column family is column_family:column. For a super column family it is column_family: super_column: column. Cassandra cluster is used a part of an application. They are then managed as a part of a service. All the deployments have jsut one table in their schema. But it does support the notion of multiple tables. The API of Cassandra has the below three basic commands: insert (table, key, rowMutation) get (table, key, columnName) delete (table, key, columnName) column name stands for a super column family or simple column family, a specific column in the column family. Consider the architecture of storage system involves plenty of complicated scenarios. Many factors need to be handled such as configuration management, robustness, scalability, For this document we consider primary features of Cassandra that includes membership, partitioning, failure handling, scalability, replication For the various read write requests, the module works in synchrony. In order to confirm the completion of writes, the system routes requests to replica. Reads are handled differently. System reroutes the requests to the nearest replica / route and awaits a quorum of responses. Partitioning Ability to increase scaling is a critical feature provided by Cassandra. This is provided in dynamic way. In the cluster, the partition takes place over the storage hosts. Consistent hashing and also preserving has functions are performed to take care of partitioning. Consider the consistent hashing approach. Here the largest hash value covers the smallest hash value. All nodes are then provided another adhoc value represented by the position of ring. Application provides the key with Cassandra leverages that to move requests. Responsibility is established at a node level around the ring region. Main benefit of this approach is that transition of node impacts only the neighboring node, whereas other nodes are not impacted. There does exist some difficulties for this approach. There is lack of uniform data and load distributions due to the adhoc positions of nodes around the ring. The approach ignores the differences in performances of nodes. Replication In order to increase the durability and availability, Cassandra provides replication. For this purpose, all data item is copied over at N hosts. Each node is conscious aware of other nodes in network, thus high durability is established. Each row is replicated across various data centers that are further synced with very high speed network links. Bootstrapping A configuration is maintained for a node joining the cluster. Configuration file provides the necessary contact points to join the cluster. These are known as seeds. A service can also provide such configuration. Zookeeper is one of them. Scaling the Cluster Consider the case of adding a new node to system. For this purpose, a token is assigned to it. Goal is to reduce load on heavily loaded node. New node is split on a range wherein previous node was assigned for. Web dashboards are provided that can perform above tasks. These can also be achieved through command line utility. Local Persistence Local file system helps provide the necessary local persistence for Cassandra. For recovering data efficiently, disks are used to represent data. There are standard write operations. These include ability to commit and update into a data structure. After successful commit log, then write to in-memory data structure is performed. Implementation Details The Cassandra process on a single machine is primarily consists The process involves clustering, fault identification and storage modules. These apply for a specific machine. There exists event driven items. These split the message across the process pipeline and also task pipeline. These are performed across various steps as part of architecture. JAVA is primary source and all modules are built from scratch using Java. For the clustering and fault detection module, input output that is of type non-blocking is built upon. There are few lessons that were learnt over maintaining Cassandra. New features should be added after understanding its implications over the system. Few scenarios are stated below: 7TB of the data needed to be indexed for 00M users. It was extracted, transformed an loaded into the Cassandra database using Map reduce jobs. The Cassandra instance juts becomes a load over the network bandwidth as some of the data was sent over serialized data over the Cassandra network. Application requirement is to have an atomic operation per key per replica. Storage system features, architecture and implementation is described including partitioning, replication, bootstrapping, scaling, persistence and durability. These are explained through Cassandras perspective which provides those benefits. [1] Avinash Lakshman, Facebook Prashant Malik, Facebook, Cassandra A Decentralized Structured Storage System

Alfred Stieglitz Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Alfred Stieglitz Works Cited Missing Alfred Stieglitz was an influential photographer who spent his life fighting for the recognition of photography as a valid art form. He was a pioneering photographer, editor and gallery owner who played pivotal role in defining and shaping modernism in the United States. (Lowe 23). He took pictures in a time when photography was considered as only a scientific curiosity and not an art. As the controversy over the art value of photography became widespread, Stieglitz began to fight for the recognition of his chosen medium. This battle would last his whole life. Edward Stieglitz, father of Alfred, was born in Germany in 1833. He grew up on a farm, loved nature, and was an artist at heart. Legend has it that, independent and strong willed, Edward Stieglitz ran away from home at the age of sixteen because his mother insisted on upon starching his shirt after he had begged her not to (Lowe 23). Edward would later meet Hedwig Warner and they would have their first son, Alfred. Alfred was the first of six born to his dad Edward and mom Hedwig. As a child Alfred was remembered as a boy with thick black hair, large dark eyes, pale fine skin, a delicately modeled mouth with a strong chin (Peterson 34). In 1871 the Stieglitz family lived at 14 East 60th street in Manhattan. No buildings stood between Central Park and the Stieglitz family home. As Stieglitz got older he started to show interest in photography, posting every photo he could find on his bedroom wall. It wasn't until he got older that his photography curiosity begin to take charge of his life. Stieglitz formally started photography at the age of nineteen, during his first years at the Berlin Polytechnic School. At this time photography was in its infancy as an art form. Alfred learned the fine arts of photography by watching a local photographer in Berlin working in the store's dark room. After making a few pictures of his room and himself, he enrolled in a photochemistry course. This is where his photography career would begin. His earliest public recognition came from England and Germany. It began in 1887 when Stieglitz won the first of his many first prizes in a competition. The judge who gave him the award was Dr. P.H. Emerson, then the most widely known English advocate of photography as an art (Doty 23). Dr. Emerson later wrot... ...raphers. At the turn of the century, a new class of creative individuals, called painter- photographer emerged. This group fulfilled Stieglitz' s dream for pictorial photography. Its presence provided the movement with individuals who were trained in the established arts and who legitimized the artistic claims of pictorial photography by the fact that they were willing to use the photographic medium. The very term painter photographer was made up in reference to Frank Eugene who worked simultaneously with Stieglitz in media for a decade. Eugene attended a German fine arts academy, and painted theatrical portraits of the United States. In 1889 he mounted a solo exhibition of pictorial photographs at the Camera Club of New York, which, pointedly, was reviewed in Camera Notes as painting photography (Norman 23). In conclusion Stieglitz's fight for photography developed into new ideas for future generations. He continued to make his own experiments and to defend the work of others also breaking new ground. The magazines he edited, like the galleries he founded, swiftly became dynamic points of contact between artist and public and a battleground for new ideas.

Serving as One

There are five different options to choose from when deciding to serve the United States of America and the decision can be quite challenging when signing the dotted line. Most people will base their decision off family or friend affiliation with a particular branch, thorough research, or simply because a branch would get them into basic training sooner. Due to a personal experience deploying with the Army as an Air Force member and seeing first-hand how each branch operates was an eye opening experience. There are a variety of options and all five branches are ultimately serving as one; the United States Air Force and the United States Army are two very different branches, but also have key similarities. One obvious contrasting factor between the Air Force and the Army is that the two branches wear different uniforms. In the Army, members will wear a uniform known as the Army Combat Uniform, but in the Air Force members will wear a uniform called the Airman Battle Uniform. Although these branches wear different uniforms individuals are required to meet the same dress and appearance standards. For example, members from both branches are required to keep a sharp appearance such as the men having a high and tight hair cut not to exceed one and a half inches in bulk; females are required to wear their hair in a neat bun, not to exceed three inches in bulk, and their hair should not touch their collar. These branches wear different uniforms, but it is guaranteed that the local community will still ask airmen when they joined the Army. The Air Force is more commonly known as the United States' air power while the Army is known for its ground power when at war. These are based on factual statements, but the Army does in fact have a fleet of helicopters which assists them more closely to the ground; people are familiar with the Black Hawk or Apache. In the same instance, the Air Force is known for its' fighter jets and bombers, but also have tactical ground fighting units known as TACP and Security Forces. The Air Force's primary mission is to fly, fight, and win†¦ n air, space, and cyberspace. On the other hand, the Army’s mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across the full range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of combatant commanders. Clearly these two branches have different mission statements, but in the end, they are equally attempting to accomplish the same mission, which is to win at war. The Army and Air Forc e both deploy to locations overseas to mainly support Operation Enduring Freedom based in Afghanistan. Depending on the tempo of the mission, a normal deployment for the Army would be nine months, but the Air Force will deploy for six months. When transitioning to an overseas location Army personnel will deploy as a battalion, sometimes even as much as a brigade, which is equivalent to the Air Force's squadron. The difference is that Air Force personnel will deploy as individuals rather than a squadron which is a much easier process. On the other hand, members from each branch can be tasked as one which is known as a joint tasking. Air Force personnel can be tasked to deploy with the Army; medics from the Air Force can be tasked to the Army and become combat medics after completing the necessary training. When tasked for a joint deployment, the member is required to follow the same standards as that particular branch. Individuals may of truly desired to join a specific branch, but do not be shocked seeing branches tasked to deploy as one! Citizens should understand the variances and resemblances amongst branches of the military, and also have a solid understanding that personnel from each branch have made a sacrifice to serve in the military. Altogether branches of the United States are unique; no branch is superior over the other which seems to be a popular argument when members are in the same room together. There are countless topics that could have been discussed about the particular subject, but the articles mentioned seem to stick out to society. It truly is one military serving the beautiful United States of America. In the end, both branches have their own way of getting the job done, but as discussed they share obvious similarities.

Bla

Bla In this modern world, nearly everyone has a computer. They use them for personal, job, and study purposes. People who use computers laptops and other electronics use computers for so much that if they were to be taken away, those who depend on electronics would be useless from lack of technology. Computers are so widely used the are one of the common house utensils. People use computers and know how to manipulate through the software, but do they know what makes a computer a computer? The Earth Science discovery of silicon and semiconductors helped in the creation of personal computer (PC's). Silicon is a semiconductor or metalloid, which conducts electricity better than things like wood or glass, but not as well as things like copper and silver. These properties make silicon and other semiconductors the target for computer manufactures. Why do these properties make silicon so great for computers? Unlike conductors that will send and conduct any electrical current uncontrollably what soever, electric current moving through silicon is easily manipulated so it can be shut off, turned on, and transfer computer code.This image was selected as a picture of the week o...

Apability as a Source of the Heterogeneit Essay Example

Apability as a Source of the Heterogeneit Essay Example Apability as a Source of the Heterogeneit Paper Apability as a Source of the Heterogeneit Paper The objective of this paper is to incorporate the entrepreneurial view point into the framework of the resource-based view of strategic management. We firstly attempt to make a brief survey of the conceptual framework of the RBV, and formulize it in a static sense by contrasting it with the competitive forces approach.Secondly, we conduct a critical assessment of the RBV from a dynamic point of view. The concept of entrepreneur’s ability is distilled by this assessment, and the objective of corporate strategy is clarified as well. Finally, we suggest a new perspective of the RBV by amending it from an entrepreneurial viewpoint. Keywords: resource-based view, entrepreneurship, disequilibrium, capability, strategic management RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3, pp. 125-150 (2005). * Associate Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Ritsumeikan University 126 RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRSVol. 3 INTRODUCTION The pivot on which everything turns. (J. A. Schumpeter) Although the resource-based view (RBV) has emerged as one of the substantial theories of strategic management, it is said that it has overlooked the role of entrepreneurial strategies and entrepreneurial abilities as one of the crucial sources of the competitive advantage of a firm. Even today, when entrepreneurship research is in demand, most economic research, and consequently much of strategic management research, views entrepreneurship as the specter which haunts economic model. Baumol, 1997: 17) The main objective of this paper is to amend the RBV of strategic management from a dynamic point of view, in order to make up its insufficiency. Many scholars have attempted to investigate into the mechanism of sustainable competitive advantage of a firm through the RBV with original concepts such as core competence’ (e. g. , Hamel Praharad, 1994), dynamic capability’ (e. g. , Teece, Pisano Shuen, 1997) VRIO framework’ (Barney, 2002), capability lifecycle’ (Helfat Peteraf, 2003), and routine and skills’ (e. g. Nelson Winter, 1982), however, little work in RBV has been made to grasp the role of entrepreneurship as the crucial source of competitive advantage, despite the abilities of the entrepreneur are undoubtedly the principal human resource possessed by a firm (see Alvarez Barney, 2000 for an exception). This paper attempts to incorporate the theory of entrepreneurship into the RBV of strategic management, while critically dealing with the RBV from an entrepreneurial viewpoint. The paper is divided into three parts. First, a brief survey is given of the conceptual framework of the RBV.It is helpful for us to grasp the characteristics of its framework by contrasting it with the competitive forces approach (CFA) presented by Porter (1980) because it is said that the CFA explores the source of sustainable competitive advantage in the external environment of the firm (i. e. , attractiveness of industry where they are located), while the RBV pays attention to the internal resources of the firm (i. e. , the heterogeneous resources that a firm possesses). Second, we clarify the objectives of corporate strategy through a critical 2005The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 127 assessment of the RBV from both a static and a dynamic point of view. Barney’s fundamental concept of the RBV is examined. Third, we suggest a new perspective of the RBV by amending it from an entrepreneurial viewpoint. . STRATEGY AND EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT OF A FIRM Traditional research on strategic management suggests that firms need to seek a strategic fit between the external environment, for example opportunities and threats, and internal resources, for example strengths and weaknesses (e. . , Andrews, 1967; Itami, 1987). However, considerable emphasis has usually been given to a firm’s competitive environment and its competitive position (Das Teng, 2000). Considering the source of sustainable competitive advantage of a firm, it is widely accepted that the dominant viewpoint in the strategic management theory throughout the 1980s was the CFA presented by Porter (1980). His conceptual framework was mainly based on the structure-conduct-performance paradigm of the theory of industrial organization (Bain, 1959; Mason, 1949).It is no exaggeration to say that Porter (1980) specifically brings a concept of competition’ for the first time in strategic management theory. 1) The most innovative part of his work in this field is that he constructs a consistent framework for thought so as to examine concrete questions like how will a firm able to get a competitive advantage over its competitors? In the CFA, the industrial structure strongly influences the rules of competition, as well as the stra tegies potentially available to the firms belonging to that industry.Therefore the strategic issue for a firm seems to concern their competitive positioning in the industry. They seek a favor1) Broadly speaking, the strategic management theory before 1980s (pre-Porter period), which used to be called business policy’, had not been a body of theory with a consistent viewpoint yet. Its object was mainly to argue the management of the diversified firm. Hence, it was generally dealing with such an argument like, to which business should we give the priority to allocate our resources? or from which business should we withdraw our resources? In this stage, the strategy was no more than the citing list of procedures’ because the object of strategy went no further than merely arguing the analytical technique: growth matrix, effect of experience curve, product portfolio management, policy decision tree and so on, and the flowchart of its application which is needed when the st rategy has been drawing up. For instance, Hoffer and Schendel (1978), gave a comprehensive survey of past studies on the subject.They compile variety of analytical techniques and the flowchart of its application is indicated in their work. It is not thoroughly explained, however, why the process ought to be followed by such a flowchart. 128 RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3 able position in order to gain a monopoly rent (Teece, 1984), while avoiding involvement in competition or moderating competitive pressures by influencing industry structure and their competitors’ behavior.To help the firm find such a positioning in the industry, Porter (1980) advanced a fiveforce model’. This consists of five industry-level forces: i. e. , entry barriers, threat of substitution, bargaining power of supplier, bargaining power of buyer and rivalry among industry incumbents, which determine the inherent profit potential of an industry or sub-segment of it. However, a series of empirical surveys have failed to support the link between industrial structure and the performance of a firm.Some studies show the variance in firm performance between industries is substantially less than that within industries (e. g. , Jacobson, 1988; Hansen Wernerfelt, 1989; Rumelt, 1991). Others also identify systematic and significant performance differences among firms which belong to the same strategic group within an industry (Cool Schendel, 1988). Research has suggested that the internal resources of a firm rather than the external environment around the firm are possibly the primary source of performance differences among firms.This result is bringing a growing number of researchers to the RBV of strategic management to explain the differences by focusing their attention on resource heterogeneity in an industry and the source of sustainable competitive advantage of the firms. 2) . STRATEGY AND INTERNAL RESOURCES OF A FIRM Since the mid 1980s, the RBV has emerged as one o f the substantial theories of strategic management (Barney, 1986a; Rumelt, 1984; 2) According to Teece, et al. 1997: 514), an entry decision process of the CFA looks roughly as follows: (1) pick an industry (based on its structural attractiveness’); (2) choose an entry strategy based on conjectures about competitors’ rational strategies; (3) if not already possessed, acquire or otherwise obtain the requisite assets to compete in the market. From this perspective the process of identifying and developing the requisite assets is not particularly problematic. The process involves nothing more than choosing rationally among a well-defined set of investment alternatives.If assets are not already owned, they can be bought. On the contrary, the RBV assumes resource endorsement of a firm cannot equibrate through factor input markets. The entry decision process of the RBV is as follows: (1) identify your firm’s unique resources; (2) decide in which markets those resourc es can earn the highest rents; and (3) decide whether the rents from those assets and most effectively utilized by (a) integrating into related market(s), (b) selling the relevant intermediate output to related firms, or (c) selling the assets themselves to a firm in related businesses. 005 The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 129 Wernerfelt, 1984), even though it is said that the RBV does not presently appear to meet the empirical content criterion required of a theoretical system (Bacharach, 1989; Hunt, 1991; McKelvey, 1997; Priem Butler, 2001a,b). The increased attention to firms’ resources by researchers has seemed to be beneficial in helping to clarify the potential contributions of resources to competitive advantage, as well as to introduce strategy scholars to a number of useful descriptive theories from industrial rganization economics (e. g. , Alchian Demsetz, 1972, on teamwork’ production, or DeVany Saving, 198 3, on price as a signal of quality), and furthermore to alleviate a previous analytical overemphasis on the opportunities and threats that arise from the product side (Priem Butler, 2001a). The RBV suggests that the resources possessed by a firm are the primary determinants of its performance, and these may contribute to a sustainable competitive advantage of the firm (e. g. Hoffer Schendel, 1978; Wenerfelt, 1984). According to Barney (1991), the concept of resources includes all assets, capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge, etc. controlled by a firm that enable the firm to conceive of and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness (Barney, 1991; Daft, 1983). In the early stage of the RBV, the main concern was to identify the characteristics of resources that are not subject to imitation by competitors.If the resources possessed by a firm can easily be replicated by competitors, even though the resources are the so urce of competitive advantage of the firm, then the advantage will not last long. Dierickx Cool (1989a) describe how the sustainability of a firm’s asset position hinges on how easily its resources can be substituted or imitated, and imitability is linked to the characteristics of the asset accumulation process: i. e. time compression diseconomies, asset mass efficiencies, inter-connectedness, asset erosion and casual ambiguity. In the same way, several other characteristics have been explored such as unique historical conditions, causal ambiguity (Reed DeFillippi, 1990), social complexity, isolating mechanism and so on (Barney, 1991; Lippman Rumelt, 1982; Rumelt, 1984). . CAPABILITY AS A SOURCE OF THE HETEROGENEITY Let us develop the concept of resources a little further.For instance, Grant (1991) notes the distinction between resources and capability as follows: 130 RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3 Resources are inputs into the production process†¦[they] inc lude items of capital equipment, skills of individual employees, patents, brand names, finance, and so on. But, on their own, few resources are productive. Productive activity requires the cooperation and coordination of teams of resources. A capability is the capacity for a team of resources to perform some task or activity. Grant, 1991: 118-19) In the same manner, Amit Schoemaker (1993) define resources as stocks of available factors that are owned or controlled by the firm, which are converted into final products or services. Capabilities, in contrast, refer to a firm’s capacity to deploy resources, usually in combination, using organizational processes, to produce a desired effect. 3) Hence, the presence of capability enables resources to begin to be utilized, and the potential for the creation of output arises.While resources are the source of a firm’s capabilities, capabilities are the main source of its competitive advantage (Grant, 1991). The important point o f this approach compared to the early stage of RBV is that, for the sake of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage, capability is regarded as more important than resources per se, and this implies that the firm-specific way of cooperation and coordination of resources causes the heterogeneity among firms in an industry. ) This thought can be theoretically traced back to Penrose’s (1959) work. According to her work, firm development is an evolutionary and cumulative process of resource learning, in which increased knowledge of the firm resources both helps create options for further expansion and increase absorptive capacity. Therefore, a major focus of her work lies in the application of resources. She regards a firm as more than an administrative unit, it is also a collection of productive resources which including both physical and 3) Stalk, et al. 1992) draw a distinction between a capability and a competence as follows: competencies and capabilities represent two dif ferent but complementary dimensions of an emerging paradigm for corporate strategy. Both concepts emphasize behavioral’ aspects of strategy in contrast to the traditional structural model. But whereas core competence emphasizes technological and production expertises at specific points along the value chain, capabilities are more broadly based, encompassing the entire value chain. Inthis respect, capabilities are visible to the customer in a way that core competencies rarely are (Stalk, et. al. , 1992: 66). ) To deepen the concept of capability, Grant (1991) invokes the concept of organizational routine’ from evolutionary theory (e. g. , Nelson, 1991). He views capability as a routine or a number of interacting routines, and organization as a huge network of routines. 2005 The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 131 human resources. According to Penrose, it is never resources’ per se that are the inputs’ in the pr oduction process, but only the services’ that the resource can render, that is: The services yielded by resources are a function of the way in which they are used? xactly the same resources when used for different purposes or in different ways and in combination with different types of or amounts of other resources provide a different service or set of services. The important distinction between resources and services is not their relative durability; rather it lies in the fact that resources consists of a bundle of potential services and can, for the most part, be define independently of their use, while services cannot be so defined, the very word service’ implying a function, an activity†¦it is largely in this distinction that we find the source of the uniqueness of each individual firm (1959: 25). ) The result of this is that the concept of capability’ is the capacity of a firm to convert resources they possess into the service’. The good service s might be produced by either good resources’ or average capability’/ average resources’ or good capability’, if capability were a type of score’ of capability, particular to each firm (e. g. , good firms have a high capability score’). The difference, or possibly the uniqueness, of a firm largely comes from these capabilities. . VULNERABILITY OF THE RBV After having made a brief survey of the conceptual framework of the RBV by ontrasting it with the CFA, we now attempt to clarify the objective of corporate strategy through a critical assessment of the RBV. Barney’s (1991) conceptual framework of the RBV has been used6), because 5) Foss (2005) notes that while the RBV is Penrosian in its emphasis on firm-level heterogeneity, most of Penrose’s basic themes ? flexibility in an uncertain world, organizational learning as an evolutionary discovery process, path-dependency, the vision of the management team, entrepreneurship, firm d ifferences being traceable to the efficiency with which resources are applied rather than to resources themselves, etc. seem to lie outside the orbit of the RBV, at least as its conceptual framework is clearly related to Demsetz’s (1973) competitive equilibrium model. 6) Referring to the SWOT framework, Barney defines resources as being valuable when they help seizing an opportunity in the firm’s environment or when they help neutralizing some threat in that environment, or at least shielding the firm against the threat. By resources 132 RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3 as Priem Butler (2001a) remark, many RBV proponents either paraphrase his statements or simply cite his articles (i. . , Barney, 1991), without an augmented definition (e. g. , Bates Flynn, 1995; Brush Artz, 1999; Lits, 1996; Powel, 1992a, b; Rindova Fombrun, 1999; Yeoh Roth, 1999), and operate under his framework in their conceptual and empirical work. 7) Barney’s (1991) remarks on the conditions that a firm produces competitive advantage8) may be paraphrased as follows: (a) resources must be valuable. (b) resources must be rare. Two points should be noted here regarding to the attributes of the competitive advantage of a firm.Firstly, Barney’s concept of valuable’ is an ambiguous criterion to measure the competitive advantage of a firm. Whether the resource is valuable or not should be measured by its profitability, and thus it ought to take the form of an economic asset regardless of how tangible or intangible it is. The value of any resource should be measured by the discounted value of the expected future income stream that can be attributed to it. 9) In the RBV the valuable attribute of a firm is taken as given. The being rare, Barney seems to have a simple counting sense (as distinct from an economic sense) in mind.Firms that control valuable and rare resources possess a competitive advantage and will be able to obtain a competitive advabta ge. If furthermore the relevant resources are non-imitable and non-substitutable a sustainable competitive advantage may be obtained. The non-imitability (or more correctly: costly-to-imitate) condition directs attention to whether (or, at which cost) competitor firms can acquire or accumulate resources with attributes and levels of attributes similar to some desired resource which produces a competitive advantage.The non-substitutability (or, costly-to-substitute) condition directs attention to whether (or, at which cost) competitor firms can access (different) resources that will allow them to implement the same strategies as some successful firm. According to Foss (2005), it is also these two criteria that allows Barney to define sustainable competitive advantage in terms of situations in which all attempts by competitor firms at imitating or substituting a successful firm have ceased. Thus, he notes that sustainable competitive advantage is a property of an equilibrium. ) Priem and Butler investigate whether the RBV arguments regarding competitive advantage meet the generally accepted criteria for classifying a set of statements as a theory, See Priem Butler (2001a, b) and also Barney’s counter-argument (Barney, 2001). 8) With regard to the sustainability, he notes the resource must be imperfectly imitable, and cannot be strategically equivalent substitutes for this resource. 9) This kind of argument has been well discussed in the theory of multinational corporations (i. e. an argumentation between OLI paradigm theorists and Internalization theorists regarding the handling of ownership advantage of a firm). See, e. g. , Casson (1987). 2005 The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 133 planning and investment necessary to build up such resources are exogenous in this framework. 10) This means there is the fear that the RBV will overstate the profitability of firms exploiting these resources, because they ignor e the cost of acquisition and accumulation.Therefore it is impossible for the RBV to explain why firms invest in such a valuable resource rather than in other type of resources (i. e. , Barney is conducting a cross sectional analysis of what the firms currently has, he is not discussing what they would need to do to obtain more or different resources in the future. Barney focuses here on content while other RBV authors have focused on process. He is not trying to explain why firms invest, he is trying to explain what firms have accumulated as of a specific point in time.However, other RBV researchers have considered why and how). In addition, if the firms want to realize their competitive advantage or maximize their profit from the resources they possess, they have to take into account of the demand-side characteristics that influence on the final price of their output. The values of resources are determined by demandside characteristics, and those are also exogenous to the RBV mode l (Priem Butler, 2001a, b).We never have a priori information on the competitive advantage among firms that will result in super-normal profit, on the contrary, we know a posteriori the existence of the competitive advantage by virtue of the existence of super-normal profit. After all, the emphasis is on how to sustain such a valuable resource over the long term without adequate appreciation of its economic value. Therefore it is open to criticism that the RBV contains a theory of sustainability but not a theory of competitive advantage (Priem Butler, 2001b).Secondly, the concept of a rare’ resource does not necessarily ensure the competitive advantage of the firm, even if that resource generates a large rent’ due to its relative scarcity. Rents are the prices of services yielded by resources (Lewin Phelan, 2002). In this phase rent is noth10) According to Petaraf (1993: 180), Firms with superior resources will earn rents†¦ It may be understood most clearly by assuming that firms with superior firms with superior resources have low average costs than other firms. We understand that superior resources may earn Ricardian type of rents, however in order to analyze the source of firm ustainable competitive advantage over rivalry, we should put not a rent’ but a profitability’ in question. And we cannot understand her ground why superior resources’ go to a low cost position’ (1993: 180). Superior resources must have accompanied a lot of investment until then due to its superiority, even though which is such an intangible assets as organizational culture (i. e. , Barney, 1986b), thus we cannot necessarily to say firms with superior firms with superior resources have low average costs than other firms’. 134RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3 ing more than the rental price of the service of the resource whether it is rare or not. After remunerating all the factors of production, no profit has been left to t he firm (Demsetz, 1973; Barney, 1986a; Rumelt, 1987). If there is a firm gaining profit from the resource, it is simply that the firm squeezes some part of the rent from the owner of the resources. Many RBV researchers identify the concept of rent’ (e. g. , Mahoney Pandian, 1992; Petaraf, 1993; Rumelt, 1987), that is expressed in various forms, i. e. Ricardian rent, Marshallian rent, Paretian rent, and quasirent, as those, which accrue from the relative differentiation of resources a firm control (We have to bear in mind the fact that rent will be paid even though all of land is homogeneous or even if the land is not fertile. Rent is not paid due to the relative difference of the land’s fertility but by the fact that land is merely scarce (Lewin Phelan, 2002). The difference in fertility reflects in the difference in rental rates, however, the rental rate is nothing to do with the profitability of a firm.The owner of any resources just asks for the rents: i. e. , wag e, rent, and interest, according to its rate). They consider the concept of competition’ as the states that firms compete in factors of production markets over the relative advantage of the resources they acquire or accumulate, rather than compete in final-product markets over the price of their products and services. However, from the static point of view, all of the relative advantages of these resources ought to be compensated for their owner. And the source of competitive advantage of the firm remains only by their monopoly rent.In this case alone, a firm would be able to gain super-normal profit at the cost of social welfare. It follows from what has been said, that the RBV contains the conditions of sustainability, but it does not fulfill the conditions for acquiring and realizing a competitive advantage. 11) 11) According to Foss (2005), Barney (1991) singles out two necessary primitives that must obtain for SCA to exist, namely heterogeneity and immobility, however, t he relation between these two primitives and the four other conditions of sustainable competitive advantage (i. e. resources being rare, valuable, costly to imitate and costly to substitute) is not made clear. The implication of Barney’s discussion is that the four latter are collectively sufficient for SCA, and if they (all) obtain, heterogeneity and immobility also obtain. However, the four conditions are not all necessary, whereas immobility and heterogeneity are. In other words, possessing resources that are rare, valuable, costly to imitate and costly to substitute is not the only way to gain and sustain competitive advantages, as long as the relevant ways conform to the criteria of resources being immobile and heterogeneous.This, however, is not clarified in Barney’s paper. 2005 The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 135 . THE RBV’S FORTE Given that the RBV is nothing more than an indication of the condition for c ompetitive firms to sustain their advantage, how can we investigate the academic value in the RBV in terms of explaining the source of the competitive advantage of a firm? By examining Barney’s (1986a, 2001) esearch, we see that he might recognize the existence of super-normal profit and the source of competitive advantage besides valuable and rare resources. The strategic factor market imperfection’ is the key concept for finding the academic value in the RBV. The strategic factor markets are developed when a firm requires the acquisition of resources in order to implement its strategy (Barney, 1986a). These markets are where firms buy and sell the resources necessary to implement their strategies (Barney, 1986a; Hirshleifer, 1980).Hence the economic performance of the firms depends not only on the returns from their strategies but also on the cost of buying the resources from these markets to implement those strategies. And the costs of those resources are determined by the characteristics of the factor markets. It is leading us that valuable and rare resources are not the source of competitive advantage or above normal return if the cost of acquiring or developing these resources equals the value they create when used to conceive of and implement a strategy.However, there is an implied possibility that the competitive advantage may come from the imperfections in strategic factor markets. Different firms in these markets will have different expectations about the future value of a strategy, which creates this imperfection (Barney, 1986a), and the owners of the firm also have different expectations about the future return of their resources (Barney, 2001). Therefore, different expectations toward the resources produce the possibility of a competitive advantage for a firm.This kind of competitive advantage, named economic rents’ by Barney, reflect the creative and entrepreneurial ability of firms to discover how to generate value with thei r resources in ways that other firms and outside owners cannot anticipate (Barney, 1986a, 2001). Firms which intend to obtain a competitive advantage must be consistently better informed concerning the future value of these resources than other firms. 12) 12) Peteraf (1993) argues that ex ante limits to competition is a condition for the existence and endurance of competitive advantage. Because of ex ante uncertainty about the future 36 RITSUMEIKAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Vol. 3 Examining the Barney’s concept of strategic factor market imperfection’, we are able to interpret that the characteristics of competition’ are not in the world of static states (equilibrium), but in the world of dynamic processes of change (disequilibrium). As mentioned above, no rents emerge in the world of static states. If the price of any resource reflects the discounted value of its expected future earnings, and if everyone shares the same correct expectations, then that price include s all correctly anticipated value components.It is nothing to say that ex ante values will turn out to be equal to ex post values. There will be no room for super-normal profit. Unless there is a difference between the ex post value of a venture and the ex ante cost of acquiring the necessary resources, the entrepreneurial rents are zero (Rumelt, 1987; Peteraf, 1993). In a dynamic sense, such a situation cannot exist because a price of any resource does not reflect the discounted value of its expected future earnings, so everyone does not share the same correct expectations towards it and the price includes all correctly anticipated value components.The possibility of profit comes from ex ante uncertainty of the resource’s certain (real) value, the probability of profit comes from ex post realization of its certain value. In this sense, the size of super-normal profit, thus the competitive advantage of a firm, depends on the difference between the ex ante cost of resources an d the ex post value of them. This suggests that to acquire a competitive advantage is no more and no less than to obtain the entrepreneurial rents. The CA depends on how to exploit the factor markets disequilibrium, i. e. the firm’s skill (accuracy) at perceiving the future value of resources. We may say that the academic values can be found in the RBV when we view it in a dynamic context. value of the resources to be bought or developed today, only firms with entrepreneurial insight or luck make the right investment decisions and are rewarded by entrepreneurial rents (Barney, 1986; Wernerfelt Montgomery, 1986). Also, ex post limits to competition (i. e. , isolating mechanisms) protects the strategic assets and capabilities from being imitated. Isolating mechanisms allow a firm to sustain its competitive dvantage. Isolating mechanisms Rumelt (1984: 568) such as casual ambiguity, specialized assets, switching and search costs, team-bodied skills, reputation and image and lega l restrictions on entry are the reasons why markets fail. In the absence of isolating mechanisms and market imperfections, resources would be mobile, and no firm could achieve competitive advantage and positive returns (like in perfect competition). By pointing these mechanisms out, Rumelt (1984) highlights why firms exist’ and then concentrates on why firms are heterogeneous’. 2005The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management TOKUDA 137 . ABILITY OF ENTREPRENEUR AS A SOURCE OF THE HETEROGENEITY In the dynamic world, the heterogeneous perceptions are more important than the heterogeneous resources per se (Lewin, 2005; Lewin Phelan, 2002). As a matter of course, such perception originates in the asymmetric information among firms. This drives us, logically, to the situation that the entrepreneurship’ and also the ability to perceive market imperfection of information have to be incorporated into the RBV.How to best evade the market i mperfection or how to make good use of that imperfection is very strategic decision made by a firm to gain a super-normal profit. 13) And of course, the one who will be in charge of this strategic task is an entrepreneur. 14) As an aside, even if it is logical to represent the entrepreneurship in t

Learn Ten Facts About Washington, D.C.

Learn Ten Facts About Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., officially called the District of Columbia, is the capital of the United States. It was founded on July 16, 1790, and today has a city population of 599,657 (2009 estimate) and an area of 68 square miles (177 sq km). It should be noted, however, that during the week, Washington, D.C.s population rises to well over one million people due to suburban commuters. The population of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area was 5.4 million people as of 2009. Washington, D.C. is home to all three branches of the U.S. government as well as many international organizations and the embassies of 174 foreign nations. In addition to being the center of U.S. government, Washington, D.C. is known for its history, many historic national monuments and famous museums like the Smithsonian Institution. The following is a list of ten important things to know about Washington, D.C. Inhabited by the Nacotchtank Tribe of Native Americans When Europeans first arrived in what is present-day Washington, D.C. in the 17th century the area was inhabited by the Nacotchtank tribe of Native Americans. By the 18th century though, Europeans had relocated the tribe and the region was becoming developed. In 1749, Alexandria, Virginia was founded and in 1751, the Province of Maryland chartered Georgetown along the Potomac River. Eventually, both were included in the original Washington, D.C. District. The Residence Act In 1788, James Madison stated that the new U.S. nation would need a capital that was distinct from the states. Shortly thereafter, Article I of the U.S Constitution stated that a district, separate from the states, would become the seat of government. On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act established that this capital district would be located along the Potomac River and President George Washington would decide exactly where. The Organic Act Officially Organized the District of Columbia Initially, Washington, D.C. was a square and measured ten miles (16 km) on each side. First, a federal city was constructed near Georgetown and on September 9, 1791, the city was named Washington and the newly established federal district was named Columbia. In 1801, the Organic Act officially organized the District of Columbia and it was expanded to include Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria. The War of 1812 In August 1814, Washington, D.C. was attacked by British forces during the War of 1812 and the Capitol, Treasury and White House were all burned. They were quickly repaired however and governmental operations resumed. In 1846, Washington, D.C. lost some of its area when Congress returned all District territory south of the Potomac back to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Organic Act of 1871 then combined the City of Washington, Georgetown and Washington County into a single entity known as the District of Columbia. This is the region that became known as todays Washington, D.C. Washington D.C. Is Still Considered Separate Today, Washington, D.C. is still considered separate from its neighboring states (Virginia and Maryland) and it is governed by a mayor and a city council. The U.S. Congress, however, has the highest authority over the area and it can overturn local laws if necessary. In addition, residents of Washington, D.C. were not allowed to vote in presidential elections until 1961. Washington, D.C. also has a non-voting Congressional delegate but it does not have any senators. Economy Focused on Service and Government Jobs Washington, D.C. currently has a large growing economy that is mainly focused on the service sector and government jobs. According to Wikipedia, in 2008, federal government jobs made up 27% of the jobs in Washington, D.C. In addition to government jobs, Washington, D.C. also has industries related to education, finance, and research. D.C. Is 68 Square Miles The total area of Washington, D.C. today is 68 square miles (177 sq km) - all of which formerly belonged to Maryland. The area is surrounded by Maryland on three sides and Virginia to the south. The highest point in Washington, D.C. is Point Reno at 409 feet (125 m) and it is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood. Much of Washington, D.C. is parkland and the district was highly planned during its initial construction. Washington, D.C. is divided into four quadrants: the Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. Each quadrant radiates out from the Capitol building. The Climate Is Humid Subtropical The climate of Washington, D.C. is considered humid subtropical. It has cold winters with average snowfall at about 14.7 inches (37 cm) and hot, humid summers. The average January low temperature is 27.3ËšF (-3ËšC) while the average July high is 88ËšF (31ËšC). The Population Distribution As of 2007, Washington, D.C. had a population distribution of 56% African American, 36% White, 3% Asian and 5% other. The district has had a significant population of African Americans since its founding largely because of the freeing of slaves in the southern states following the American Revolution. Recently, however, the percentage of African Americans has been declining in Washington, D.C. as more of the population moves to the suburbs. Cultural Center of the U.S. Washington, D.C. is considered a cultural center of the U.S. because of its many National Historic Landmarks, museums and historic places such as the Capitol and White House. Washington, D.C. is home to the National Mall which is a large park within the city and it contains museums like the Smithsonian and the National Museum of Natural History. The Washington Monument is located on the west end of the National Mall. Sources: Wikipedia.org. (5 October 2010). Washington Monument - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_MonumentWikipedia.org. (30 September 2010). Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.

What are the psychological and developmental differences between Essay

What are the psychological and developmental differences between learning a first and second language - Essay Example Learning a second language is a similar method to learning a first language in that one undergoes developmental phases and depend on native speakers to give good comprehensible models of the language. This extraordinarily fast progress appears to ‘fly in the face’ of several acknowledged facts regarding the nature of language - so much so that it has turn out to be commonly recognized within the scientific society to consider language as well as learning as one of various totally unexplainable ambiguities that overwhelmed people in their lives on a daily basis. Even the cleverest of scientists in the present day do not know where to start with attempting to unravel the variety of intricacies that all of language carries. Nevertheless, the child moves forward, apparently with little regard to this alleged anonymity and continues with little effort to break the ‘revered system’. To begin with, parents give very little in the way of language training to the chi ld; opposite to what some might accept as true, parents do not instruct their children to talk. The majority of parents would not even have the means in which to explain language clearly to a child even if they would like to do so. Actually, parents use the majority of time correcting falsehoods instead of correcting incorrect grammars. If someone is a casual observer, he would believe children grow-up being little lawyers trying to find out facts instead of little linguists trying to find out proper assumptions to their language. ... By the time a child is 5 years old he has developed an intricate verbal language structure and can communicate his requirements, wants, feelings and emotions. However, there is still a long way to go. From the ages of 6 to 12 years, children carry on to make their verbal language more refined and become skilled at reading and writing for a range of contexts. Even as grown-ups, people carry on to develop the first language - including fresh expressions, developing more intricate reading, and writing expertise. Learning a second language is as well a continuing procedure. One can never actually declare that he is completely familiar with a language. Learning a second language is a similar method to learning a first language in that one undergoes developmental phases and depend on native speakers to give good comprehensible models of the language. However, several other factors have an effect on it, including what the first language is, how educated the individual is in his first langua ge and the child’s approach to the new language and culture (O’Malley & Chamot, p. 129, 1990). Proficiency in the first language is very critical in developing proficiency in a second language. If the child can shift abilities from the first to the second language learning, the new language will be a lot simpler. These not just incorporate literacy abilities but also educational proficiencies, thinking skills, subject understanding and learning approach (Bhatia & Ritchie, p. 236, 2009). A lot of individuals believe that young children are the most excellent language learners. One of the huge benefits of younger language learners is that they develop outstanding accent skills; however, younger language learners run the threat of learning a

Government Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Government Crime - Essay Example I intend to discuss the topic of government crimes and some examples in this reaction essay. The civil war, the world wars I and II, the genocides, terrorism, corruption like kleptocracy in Nigeria, and violence seen in the twenty first century, all is the result of decisions taken by the political leaders who are responsible for the mass killings of thousands of people. The power games have affected not only the internal skeleton of the countries but have also inflicted bad effects on the lives of common men. The current century has seen great man slaughters in the name of government decisions. Countries, whether poor or rich, are suffering from never ending terrorism resulting in genocides. The 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon have been a negative reinforcement for political decisions of US for invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan. The search for Al-Qaeda and the aim to destroy Taliban-ization has been heavy enough for many countries. If we take a look at the history, w e come to know that many political leaders have been running their countries as if these were criminal organizations. Best examples include Adolf Hitler in Germany; Joseph Stalin in Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China; Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte in Chile; and, Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. I believe that the government crime is based on only one intention, and that is to increase the political and economic power of the leaders and the government on the cost of the common men. This is called a kleptocratic government. Kleptocracy means that, according to Mesquita et al. (2005, p.164), â€Å"the more that is available for a corrupt leader to take, the greater the private-goods focus and the less the total expenditure by the government relative to revenue.† In simpler words, kleptocracy involves such government crimes that are committed by the leaders to enhance the personal welfare rather than the welfare of the country. We can also call it government corruption. Weil (20 09, p.385) states in his work that there are many forms of government crimes, starting â€Å"from a tax inspector who accepts a bribe to overlook income on which he is supposed to collect taxes, to a mayor who trades city contracts for cash payments, all the way up to a president who grants a lucrative monopoly to his son† (Weil, 2005), nearly everybody in the governmental infrastructure is involved in crime and if not, then his survival chances in the political setup are fewer. Hence, Weil calls kleptocracy as â€Å"rule by thieves† (p. 385) which results when the corruption strengthens its roots in the government giving rise to government crimes. I have studied that economists regard government crime as a great hindrance to a country’s economic growth. However, some economists also argue that there are still a few positive effects of government crime. They argue that since a corrupt leader would want to steal for his personal interests, for this reason he will want his country to progress so that there is more enough to steal from. So, he will make sure that there is less corruption at lower levels so that more is left for him at the upper level. Also, there are some policies in the governmental setup that are harmful for the general population and thus corruption in the implementation of these policies will be beneficial. Nevertheless, these arguments are not very sound. The truth is that government crime has always been detrimental

Cognitive Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Cognitive Psychology - Essay Example The crux of this interpretation of science, particularly the development of hypotheses about and models of hypothetical generative mechanisms of cognition is that, although unobserved by investigators, such mechanisms are necessary for the production of the observed phenomena (Fodor & Pylyshyn, 1988, 3-71). To find out the logical basis of these hypotheses about unobserved generative mechanisms, scientists have taken the help of the physical sciences. In physical sciences, the hypotheses are not the result of blind guesswork or the unfettered imagination. They are created by the invention of models or hypothetical representations of what such mechanisms may plausibly be in reality. The invention of adequate and plausible models is constrained by the requirement that the nature of what is proposed should conform to the basic type hierarchy that expresses the beliefs people have about the nature of the world. Hypotheses about cognition can be evaluated only by testing their predictions regarding the effects of various environmental manipulations on behaviour (McCloskey, 1991, 387-395). These theoretical entities are said to provide a functional characterization of the central nervous system. This is built on the assumption that the same cognitive process could be implemented or instantiat ed in a variety of different neuroanatomical structures or neurophysiological processes. In other words, this characterization of cognition is materialist, but it does not assume a simple one-to-one mapping between cognitive and neural states and processes. Thus the definition of the cognitive processes can further be modified into a process... There is a startling similarity with present day computational models where this has been a natural mode of computation for widely interconnected computer networks of active elements. The generalization of these ideas to the connectionist view of the brain and behavior is that all important encodings in the brain are represented in terms of relative strengths in the synaptic connections. Connectionism can explain this by assuming that individual neurons do not transmit a large amount of symbolic or representative information, instead, they compete by being appropriately connected to a large number of similar units, and the prevalent and conventional computer model fails to incorporate this in the present understanding of cognitive psychology. Conclusion: However, this realization is important in that connectionist theories of cognitive psychology may with adequate research come out with a newer, modified, and more sophisticated model that explains all or the computer scientist may cr eate a developed computer that can have a cognitive psychology of its own. There are, however, certain troubling questions that need to be answered before one venture into this area. Human cognition involves the management of meaningful signs according to standards of correctness. In developing a computer model according to connectionist theory, there is the probability that one might lose the two main features of human cognition, intentionality, the meaningfulness of signs, and normativity, conformity to standards.

Presence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Presence - Essay Example Website is a collection of pages or files that is present in the ‘cyberspace’, containing information and other details on a particular subject or subjects. These websites have virtual presence and their physical presence is the web servers. As the files and pages, which are visible on the website, have to be stored in some physical location, web servers play that part. â€Å"A server in this context is a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. On one hand, a very large Web site may reside on a number of servers that may in different geographic locations.† (whatis.com). Websites are developed and put online by several organizations, entities, individuals, etc to fulfil various purposes. Firms, which do business on the web has to be more concerned about presence particularly website presence, because many customers and other stakeholders of a web business will tend to know the company only through its website. (Schneider, 2008). Only if the firmâ€℠¢s online presence is optimally visible and accessible to prospective customers, it can succeed. To fortify their online presence, firms have to develop website, which is user-friendly, loaded with apt details, have a distinct and interesting look, etc.

Business Ethics - Friends of Angelo Research Paper

Business Ethics - Friends of Angelo - Research Paper Example In this case, the judge needed funds to finance an expansion project he was undertaking for his house at Sherwood Country Club in Westlake Village. He got the loan from Countrywide Financial, but the terms raised eyebrows for any keen eye. The terms were too good as compared to that offered to other borrowers. This favour was extended to the judge so that the same favour may be shown to the company. This was because the firm was being charged in the appellate court by borrowers who felt dissatisfied by what the firm had paid as settlement fees. Aldrich was part of a three-man bench that sure enough rejected the appeal of the borrowers. The fact that the judge failed to mention his previous contact with the defendant company was unethical and against the codes of conduct of a judge. As a judge, he ought not to have received any favours or loan in the terms he did knowing that the company had a case pending in his court (Ferrell et al., 2013). This was replicated with all the leaders Angelo deemed fit to orchestrate the company’s progress. These leaders are called and appointed the servants of the people to have the interest of the ordinary populace at heart, but instead they have misused their powers to pursue personal gain. Leaders in this case acted in corrupt manners by conducting underhand deals that would otherwise not be permissible. They ignored and neglected their oaths of office by using the office powers not in service to their country or its people as intended by the law, but in service to themselves (Ferrell et al., 2013). The implications on society of such conduct are, for example, mistrust of those in power. For if a judge, a person who is given the power to condemn, cannot check himself to know when he is going wrong then how can he judge others? It is then the biblical case of the blind leading the blind into a ditch. Greed has obviously blinded many leaders to such an extent that the boundary of what is ethical and unethical

NAS Airlines Proposed Marketing Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NAS Airlines Proposed Marketing Strategy - Essay Example The company has the capacity to evolve to a hybrid operation model with business class seating. The airline company serves 13 domestic destinations and 11 international destinations. Some of the international destinations include the Sana’a route to Yemen in 2009, direct route to Kochi and Kozhikode, India in 2010, Sharm el Sheikh and Assiut in Egypt, in Turkey the airline started services in 2011 in Istanbul, Antakya, and Adana. The company started its services in Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan in 2011,and in 2013 started operations in Dammam and Yanbu in Khartoum, Sudan (Saudi Arabia Tourism Report 33). The company has recently introduced Global Flights program to offer low cost rates between flights in Jeddah and other regions in Asia, Europe or Africa. The launch of Jeddah-London Gatwick services enabled the firm to become the first low-cost carrier to provide service in United Kingdom market. Flynas is the leader of lost cost carrier in Saudi airline since it sets a new s tandard of efficiency in the region. This year the company has had some key developments that include the launch of global flights route program from Jeddah to London and a daily service between Jeddah and Abha to support the increasing capacity of the domestic routes that will drive economic growth in major cities in the kingdom. The expansion program has been possible since the firm has added 3 airbus aircrafts fitted with business economy cabins that amount to a major leap for the firm in the airline industry. Saudi Arabia Tourism Report Q4 2012 (3) says that Saudi Arabia’s FlyNas ends the domestic monopoly market strategy and currently aims to break in the international circles like other airlines. The low cost operator has managed to launch flights between Riyadh-Gatwick and has plans to build long haul operation from the kingdom. In 2014, the company has been successful in the establishment of flights to Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Surabaya, Casablanca, and Jakarta

Presence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Presence - Essay Example Website is a collection of pages or files that is present in the ‘cyberspace’, containing information and other details on a particular subject or subjects. These websites have virtual presence and their physical presence is the web servers. As the files and pages, which are visible on the website, have to be stored in some physical location, web servers play that part. â€Å"A server in this context is a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. On one hand, a very large Web site may reside on a number of servers that may in different geographic locations.† (whatis.com). Websites are developed and put online by several organizations, entities, individuals, etc to fulfil various purposes. Firms, which do business on the web has to be more concerned about presence particularly website presence, because many customers and other stakeholders of a web business will tend to know the company only through its website. (Schneider, 2008). Only if the firmâ€℠¢s online presence is optimally visible and accessible to prospective customers, it can succeed. To fortify their online presence, firms have to develop website, which is user-friendly, loaded with apt details, have a distinct and interesting look, etc.

NAS Airlines Proposed Marketing Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NAS Airlines Proposed Marketing Strategy - Essay Example The company has the capacity to evolve to a hybrid operation model with business class seating. The airline company serves 13 domestic destinations and 11 international destinations. Some of the international destinations include the Sana’a route to Yemen in 2009, direct route to Kochi and Kozhikode, India in 2010, Sharm el Sheikh and Assiut in Egypt, in Turkey the airline started services in 2011 in Istanbul, Antakya, and Adana. The company started its services in Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan in 2011,and in 2013 started operations in Dammam and Yanbu in Khartoum, Sudan (Saudi Arabia Tourism Report 33). The company has recently introduced Global Flights program to offer low cost rates between flights in Jeddah and other regions in Asia, Europe or Africa. The launch of Jeddah-London Gatwick services enabled the firm to become the first low-cost carrier to provide service in United Kingdom market. Flynas is the leader of lost cost carrier in Saudi airline since it sets a new s tandard of efficiency in the region. This year the company has had some key developments that include the launch of global flights route program from Jeddah to London and a daily service between Jeddah and Abha to support the increasing capacity of the domestic routes that will drive economic growth in major cities in the kingdom. The expansion program has been possible since the firm has added 3 airbus aircrafts fitted with business economy cabins that amount to a major leap for the firm in the airline industry. Saudi Arabia Tourism Report Q4 2012 (3) says that Saudi Arabia’s FlyNas ends the domestic monopoly market strategy and currently aims to break in the international circles like other airlines. The low cost operator has managed to launch flights between Riyadh-Gatwick and has plans to build long haul operation from the kingdom. In 2014, the company has been successful in the establishment of flights to Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Surabaya, Casablanca, and Jakarta

Management and Negotiating Conflict Style Essay Example for Free

Management and Negotiating Conflict Style Essay 1. Hastings had a reputation of being hard headed, and not being able to take criticism. He used the autocratic style to push for his ways of doing things. They said he would sometimes embarrass employees, and roll his eyes at them. And when they had an idea he might call their ideas â€Å"dumb ideas†. He was so bad at this he actually established the nickname â€Å"Animal†. Hastings was young when he developed Pure Software, after establishing it he realized he didn’t like the man he had become or the business he had created. He sold Pure for $750 million and changed his ways when he moved on to his new company Netflix. At Netflix Hastings was a new man; he changed his use of communications in sending and receiving messages in many ways. At Netflix, Hastings was much more kind and open to new ideas. He changed his way of talking to employees and you can tell by the rise in stock and Hastings being named Businessperson of the year in 2010. 2. He changed his use of feedback by listening to his employees and thier ideas, and when he didn’t understand he would say, â€Å" help me understand your idea, tell me why this will work.† Instead of just rolling his eyes and acting high and mighty like he did and his previous company Pure. 3. Hastings coaching style at Pure was poor; he wanted to change that when he created Netflix. He defiantly improved his coaching guidelines in the following ways; He started giving praise and recognition, not criticizing, and giving specific and descriptive feedback. 4. I feel Hastings used two different styles one at Pure and one at Netflix. I feel the style he used at Pure was more of a Forcing Conflict style. When I read the case I got the impression that Hastings didn’t care what his Pure employees thought about him it was more of a I win you Lose attitude which is what the Forcing Conflict Style is all about. With Netflix on the other hand I feel like he went for more of the Negotiating Conflict Style the more I win some, you win some. He cared more about his employees and how they felt. That is just my opinion but I guess if I had to pick just one style he used in both of them I would pick the Forcing Conflict Style because Hastings still ran a tight ship and at the end of the day he was always going to end up a winner. 5. The Conflict  management style used by Netflix was Collaborating Conflict Style. It is the best solution agreeable to all parties. Joining forces with Epix was a good deal for both of them. That’s why I feel the Collaborating Approach was the style used. 6. I am currently a Netflix user; I have been for many years. They are getting better and better every year. I really have no complaints, they have every show that I like to watch, and it is always very quick for me. I think the price is fair, and they let you watch it on every device you own. I as a customer have absolutely no complaints. 7. I think the Group Level of Analysis was used. This level focuses on the relationship between the leaders and the collective group of followers. They focus on how a leader contributes to group effectiveness. Hastings used the Management paradigm by being concerned with stability, and finding out the best way to get the job done. He was able to lead through others, and create favorable conditions for success. He was a very successful leader too; there is no good manager that is not a good leader as well.

Cultural treatment of promiscuous women and illegitimate children

Cultural treatment of promiscuous women and illegitimate children The headline read, One out of 12 in America Held to be Illegitimate; Issuance of Partial Birth Certificates Proposed to Avoid Embarrassments (Staff, 1944, p. 4). The assertion conjures a mental image of hundreds of decadent, low socioeconomic status, immoral women and her filius nullius (Latin term meaning, son of nobody). Parents of the single, gravid woman were shamed, mortified or disgusted by the sexual promiscuity of their daughter; how they could face their friends after learning of the daughters transgression? Is this the first era of social stigma related to a child borne by an unmarried woman? The samplings of historical data below indicate no. The Bible speaks often to a debauched woman and her bastard offspring. For example, Galatians 5:19-21 (English Standard Version): 19 Now, the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Figure Lillian Gish (1926)In 1850, Nathanial Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter. Set in a Puritan colony, his central character Hester Prynne, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter because of an adulterous affair. Hester was publicly shamed and forced to wear a red letter A on her chest, identifying her as an adulterer. She experienced cruelty, humiliation, and ostracism from the people of the community. She eventually realized the fortitude of her spirit. The novel is 160 years old, yet the moral dilemmas of personal responsibility, and consuming emotions of guilt, anger, loyalty and revenge are enduring. Unfair treatment and the stigma really permeate all aspects of society. Its still expected that people will marry and that theres something weird about you if you dont. Thomas Coleman In the year 1944, when the above article appeared in The Pittsburgh Press, the institution of marriage before parenthood was the virtuous and accepted way of life. Women were expected to love and obey their husbands. bas ·tard (basà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²tÉâ„ ¢rd) noun a person born of parents not married to each other; illegitimate child anything spurious, inferior, or varying from standard Slang a person regarded with contempt, hatred, pity, resentment, etc. or, sometimes, with playful affection: a vulgar usage Etymology: ME Vocabulary to describe the child borne of an unmarried woman varies throughout literature. Bastard is the most prolific term used in the earliest writings. A bastard is a person born out of wedlock whose father is not listed on the birth certificate and legal status is illegitimacy. Bastards had no right to inherit property from his or her parents except through a will. In the mid-20th century, discrimination against children born out of wedlock became subject to constitutional limitation under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment (Columbia, 2009, p. 1). Illegitimate, love child, whoreson, spurious; terminology referring to the child borne of an unmarried mother may be perceived as vilifying the child. The mother, whos referenced by the terms unwed, unmarried, or single, was a pariah. Often, the pregnant single woman was scuttled off to a residential home for unwed mothers. The occurrence of out-of-wedlock births has been rising over the past 70 years. In the 1940s, fewer than five percent of the total births were out of wedlock (Ventura, 2009). In the 1940s and 1950s, unwed mothers were strongly encouraged to give their children up for adoption. Commonly, an illegitimate child raised by grandparents or married relatives believed the unwed mother was his sister or he was her nephew. Between 1940 and 1960, the escalation of out-of-wedlock births was subtle. Since the 1970s, increases in the number, rate, and ratio of out-of-wedlock births have been dramatic. In addition, the size of the unmarried population has increased as a result of the high birth rates during late 1940s through the early 1960s, along with the unprecedented deferment of marriage by the baby-boomers (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [DHHS], 1995, p. 4). Little in the literature discusses the biosocial and psychosocial influences upon the child or the mother. However, researchers have gathered a multitude of statistics demonstrating the delayed cognitive development of the child of a single parent. Unwed teenage mothers and their children are more likely living in lower socioeconomic conditions. The mothers face multiple risks of dropping out of school and becoming part of the economic underclass (Drummond Hansford, 1992, p. 529). The unwed mothers were perceived by society as deadbeats ripping off the American taxpayer. Additionally, the societal concern of Americans over teenage mothers was that babies are having babies; that 16 year old girls were too young and unprepared for the responsibilities of single parenthood (Whitehead, 2007, p. 6). The negativity surrounding unmarried mothers and their children was rampant during the years prior to 1970. That is not to say the mind-set completely disappeared at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1969. The public opinion of unmarried mothers remains. How that opinion is manifested has undergone changes. The transformation of the single-parent family from uncommonness to an established family style was one of the most dramatic social changes of the 20th century. Only 1 in 10 children lived in a single-parent family prior to 1960. More than 1in 4 did so by the centurys end. Although the consequences of single parent family formation have received abundant scrutiny, less is known about the evolution of attitudes toward these families (Usdansky, 2009, p. 209). Is the increase of non-martial births due to eroding morals? Or, is there more ambivalence and apathy towards the single parent lifestyle? The cognitive development of morals and culture in emerging adult (ages 18-25) continues through middle age (Berger, 2008, p. 483). During this phase of human development, the emerging adult thinking is more practical, more flexible, and more dialectical (Berger, 2008, p. 472). The cultural background likely affects the cognitive process (Berger, 2008, p. 481). Cultural influences have an effect on religious belief development. The religious and spiritual growth of a genome progresses with stages of human development. Take the quotation below, for example. Marriage exerts less influence over how adults organize their lives and how children are born and raised than at any time in the nations history, the survey says. Between 1960 and 2005, the rate of unwed childbearing increased sevenfold, from 5.3 percent of all births to 36.8 percent. The survey finds that the average unwed mother is more likely to be white than black, and more likely to be an adult than a teenager. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The survey attributes this sharp increase in non-marital births to an ever greater percentage of women in the 20s, 30s, and older à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ delaying or forgoing marriage but having children. But more Americans than ever naively think they alone can make single-parenting work. Day-to-day realities slowly undermine this optimism. Single parents who have been at it awhile know better than anyone how less than ideal their situation is. Thats one reason we can expect to see more and more single parents looking for outside support. Single mothers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦often long for a strong, caring male to enter their childrens lives. So it nearly goes without saying: The church has a unique opportunity at this cultural moment. For years, we have been preaching the supremacy of the two-parent family, offering classes and seminars for young couples and familiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ A dramatic example, but boys without father figures and girls without mother figures have a strike against them. The latest national study shows that more children than ever are entering the world with such strikes. Its an unprecedented cultural moment for Christians, to see if we can act less like individual consumers of spirituality and more like the family of God (The fatherless child, 2007, p. 5). On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Public Law 104-193, better known as the Welfare Reform Bill. This law changes how governmental financial assistance is administered. On September 15, 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala awarded five states $100 million ($20 million each) in for reducing the number of out-of-wedlock births. Among the priorities of the 1996 welfare reform law were promoting parental responsibility and encouraging two-parent families, said Secretary Shalala. Im very pleased to award these bonuses as an incentive to advance these important family goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000). Is the child borne of an unwed mother destined to poverty, illiteracy, and a life of crime? Is the single mother doomed to never-ending disgrace and the topic for scandalous gossip? In the next chapter, evidence throughout the years reveals the picture is not all black. The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. Rajneesh The year 1992 marked a pioneering event on network television. The highly-rated CBS show Murphy Brown started the new season with Murphy Brown, a divorced news anchorwoman, become pregnant and choosing to have the baby and raise it alone. Americas pro-lifers jeered, while the pro-choices cheered. Even the presidential candidates had something to say. Vice President Dan Quayle declared that the Los Angeles riots were caused in part by a poverty of values. He went on to denounce the acceptance of unwed motherhood. It doesnt help matters, Quayle complained, when Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes todays intelligent, highly paid professional woman is portrayed as mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another life-style choice (Murphy Brown, 1992). In 2006, Rosanna Hertz published her non-fiction book, Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice. She noted the Single By Choice (SBC) woman belongs to a distinct subgroup of single parents, who, out of a strong desire for a child, have made the active choice to go it alone. Moreover, she asserts the SBC route to parenthood does not necessarily seem to have an adverse effect on mothers parenting ability or the psychological adjustment of the child (Murray Golombok, 2005, p. 1655). From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, the percentage of women having a non-marital child increased by 50% among whites and by 24% among blacks (Currie, 2009, p. 37). One research study hypothesized a preventive group intervention with SBC mothers can identify potential psychological risk factors and help mothers with sensitive aspects of parenting (Ben-Daniel, Rokach, Filtzer, Feldman, 2007, p. 249). There is research indicating that women in the typical age group of SBC mothers (35 to 44) tend to experience more stress than younger mothers. Their lifestyle is well established; pregnancy and parenting are perceived by some as interfering with their chosen way of life, especially in her career. SBC women are often the oldest daughter in their family (Ben-Daniel et al., 2007, p. 263). In the few studies that exist on children of single mothers, no significant difference has been found in the childs emotional and social development. Likewise, the development of gender identity of children of single mothers, as compared with children raised in heterosexual families, was unaffected. The results of the study revealed therapeutic gain: Reduction of stress, tension and guilt; helped mothers prepared for parenting by encouraging a positive self-image and perceptions of the child. Improving the SBC mothers acceptance of her chosen family model therefore promoted her willingness to tell children their birth story (Ben-Daniel et al., 2007, p. 264). The child must be aware that it is okay to come from a family background different from a friends or neighbors. Some children live with two parents, others with only their mother or a father. Recently, grandparents have become the newest faction of caregivers for their grandchildren. Other relatives, step-parents, friends, or guardians are examples for the child to ponder. As one SBC mother revealed to her son, Walt Disneys famous mother and son elephant family never made reference to a father; and the mother and son seemed perfectly content. The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasnt been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. Pablo Casals The non-marital child and his mother faced prejudice, humiliation, taunts and sneers over the centuries. The hurtful monikers of bastard or illegitimate child are slowly giving way to kinder terms. The prevalence of single by choice, mother by choice women is increasing at the end of the first decade in the 21st century. The commonality of alternative family models and the quiet acceptance of them allay the self-consciousness of the mother and child. No longer does the solo parent with her child have to endure the social stigma of a virtual scarlet letter. When two are a family, the biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development of the non-marital child is determined by nature and nurture, the environment of unconditional love and acceptance by his society, and the eternal affection of his mother.

Abortion is Bad :: essays research papers

Do you consider something with a beating heart a living creature? A babies heart forms and starts beating in the fifth week of pregnancy, therefor, that would make abortion murder. The baby that is growing inside of you is depending on you, so when you make the choice to end that life, you are making the choice to murder another person. Someone that believes in the pro-choice theory would say that the decision is up to the woman, but the person with the pro-life theory would say that it is murder no matter what the situation. Would you consider it murder to kill a baby the day after it is born? Then why would it not be murder to kill it before it is born? â€Å"If it is impossible to abort a baby in the ninth month, then what makes it ok to do in the fifth or sixth month.† (Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan). Many abortions are perormed each year in the United States. 75% of all abortions in the U.S. are performed on women over 20 years of age, but the lawmakers try to concentrate on the 186,000 teens that have an abortion each year. In 1990, there were nearly 400 abortion bills were introduced to 41 legislatures. So far, as many as 20 states have passed laws that requires a teenager to have a parents consent before having an abortion. This may help reduce the number of abortions each year, the people that passed these bills feel that maybe the parents will feel differently about the situation and be able to talk their child out of it. 20% of teens that are sexually active do not use any form of birth control, these are the teens that end up getting pregnant and getting an abortion. If these girls would use some kind of contraceptive it could stop a lot of the abortions performed each year. If you think about it, it is so much easier to take a pill then it is to be pregnant and have to de cide on the life of another person. When you feel that you are responsible enough to participate in sexual activity, you should also feel that you a resonsible enough to deal with the consequences that follow. Abortions are considered â€Å"the easy was out.† I feel that abortions are just selfish. There is no easy way out. I could not imagine living with the guilt of taking anothers life, especially the life of something that I created, and that is dependant of me.

Comparing the Families in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Az

Comparing the Families in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child Creating â€Å"worlds of their own, with particular kinds of boundaries separating them from the larger world†, families ideally provide encouragement and protection for each of their members (Handel, xxiv). In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, however, the Dursleys and Aunt Marge fail to fulfill their roles as Harry’s primary caregivers. In Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child, the father mouse is unable to give his child all that he needs and longs for. In these two children’s stories, the expectation that families will provide physical support, emotional support, and encouragement for their children is not met. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the orphaned Harry is physically neglected by his only living relatives, the Dursleys. Harry’s Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley think that by endorsing Harry’s non-existence in their lives, their fear of non-Muggles would disappear. Treating Harry like a wild animal, the frightened Dursleys physically confine Harry to their home and do not allowing their nephew any contact with the outside world. When Harry finally runs away from the Dursleys, he panics because his family never gives him Muggle money. While forcing Harry to stay indoors, the Dursleys also encourage Harry â€Å"to stay out of their way, which Harry [is] only too happy to do† (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 24). Shunning communication and distancing themselves physically from Harry, the Dursleys fail at being the loving family that Harry needs and craves. By giving Harry little to eat and old clothes to wear, the Dursleys contin ue to treat Harry as n... ...ting and abusing him. In The Mouse and His Child, the father mouse is fond of his little son, but he is inept at keeping his family of two stable. Being a passive and pessimistic parent, the father mouse, like Harry’s aunt and uncle, fail at providing the mouse child with physical support, emotional support, and moral encouragement. Although they are family, the Dursleys and the mouse father provide a dysfunctional setting for Harry and for the mouse child, forcing their children to grow up painfully faster. Works Cited Handel, G. Introduction to the first edition, 1967. In The Psychosocial Interior of the Family. Ed. G. Handel and G.G. Whitchurch. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1994. xxiii-xxx. Hoban, Russell. The Mouse and His Child. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2000.