Midsummer Nights Dream Essays (582 words) - Hermia, Demetrius

Midsummer Nights Dream Throughout the book, A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare depicts the theme of lawless love through the actions and personalities of his characters. The way he portrays Hermia's relationship with Lysander and the results their eternal love, as well as the portrayal of Helena and her devotion to Demetrius are two prevalent examples of lawless love. Helena exemplifies lawless love with her lack of concern about consequences that she could have brought upon herself. She was deeply in love with the person that was engaged to her best friend. Helena talks with Hermia about her love for Demetrius in the quote below. : "Helena- ?O, teach me how you look and with what art you sway the motion of Demetrius' heart' Hermia- ?I frown upon him, yet he still loves me.' Helena- ?O, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!' Hermia- ?I give him curses, yet he gives me love.' Helena- ?O, that my prayers could such affection move!' Hermia- ?The more I hate, the more that he follows me.' Helena- ?The more I love, the more he hateth me.' " page 20-21 In the quote above, Hermia and Helena are having an in-depth conversation about Demetrius and his love interests. Helena would do anything to have the man she loved, Demetrius notice her. Helena's love knows no boundaries; she refuses to accept the fact that her one true love is to be married to her best friend Hermia. All this is soon changed by the infamous Puck and his potent flower. Puck's flower was created when Cupid was aiming his bow, and missed he struck a flower in the woods. When the dew is placed on the eyes of any living animal during their sleep, they will fall in love with the next animal that they see when they wake. Puck observes all of the problems that Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius have created and comes up with a plan to fix them by using cupids flower to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. Puck makes more of a problem when he puts dew on both of the men. They both awake and fall madly in love with Helena.Helena thinks that they are playing a joke on her and she is confused. The quote below shows an excerpt from the book in which Helena is confused and thinks that the men are teasing her. : "Helena- ?Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? Is ?t not enough, is ?t not enough, young man, That I did never, no, nor never can Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, But you must flout my insufficiency?' " Helena, left completely confused by Lysander and Demetrius, believes that they are playing a cruel joke her. She does not think that it is cupid's flower causing this situation. Hermia, who Lysander was head over heels in love with, cannot believe he had fallen out of love with her. Hermia is determined to win back her sweet Lysander no matter what. Puck sees how hurt and confused Hermia is and again alters Lysander's emotions by the use of cupid's flower. Hermia and Helena both loved someone so much that they were blinded by their love for that person. They did whatever they had to do to keep their true loves. This is what lawless love is Love that has no boundaries, love that is not defined by words. Emotions and actions run lawless love not rules. The characters of Helena and Hermia are what lawless love is all about which is blinded love and actions driven by emotions and devotion for their loved one.

Free Essays on Short Story

The motivation of short story characters, as well as the theme, is revealed by authors through dialogue, setting and symbolism. These three stories stress the need for this kind of writing. In a ‘Worn Path’ Eudora Welty introduces Phoenix through settings to show she’s goal oriented. On the other hand, Edgar Poe in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ stresses symbolism to show life and death. Meanwhile, ‘A&P’ by John Updike presents Sammy through dialogue for the need of individualism. The path in a ‘Worn Path’ reveals the goal setting for Phoenix’s natural setting. It shows her sense of determination and fearlessness. For example, The rugged path, dying trees, barbed wire fences, thorny bushes and wild animals that Phoenix had to encounter with, was the author’s way of showing these characteristics. For instance, when her dress got caught in the bush she admitted that, had she known it was thorns she would have avoided the contact. Phoenix knows the capability of a thorn and accepts her experience as a challenge. The story presents an obstacle in each section of the path that Phoenix has to surmount. Yet, she accepts the obstacles as a part of the process in achieving her goal. But the story also reveals the necessity for her goal in the man made setting. This is clearly seen when she reaches the clinic and is looking at the gold seal. She seems not to remember the purpose of her travel. The atmosphere at the clinic was cold and everything appears to be at a fast pace. It seems hard for her to adjust to the new environment since she is accustoming to being alone. On her departure she purchases a windmill so as to give her a new goal for the reverse journey. From her speech Phoenix does not seem to have much education and her impoverished condition makes me feel pity for her. Unlike Welty, Poe in the ‘Masque of the Red Death’ uses the castles and its contents as a symbol to reveal his... Free Essays on Short Story Free Essays on Short Story The motivation of short story characters, as well as the theme, is revealed by authors through dialogue, setting and symbolism. These three stories stress the need for this kind of writing. In a ‘Worn Path’ Eudora Welty introduces Phoenix through settings to show she’s goal oriented. On the other hand, Edgar Poe in ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ stresses symbolism to show life and death. Meanwhile, ‘A&P’ by John Updike presents Sammy through dialogue for the need of individualism. The path in a ‘Worn Path’ reveals the goal setting for Phoenix’s natural setting. It shows her sense of determination and fearlessness. For example, The rugged path, dying trees, barbed wire fences, thorny bushes and wild animals that Phoenix had to encounter with, was the author’s way of showing these characteristics. For instance, when her dress got caught in the bush she admitted that, had she known it was thorns she would have avoided the contact. Phoenix knows the capability of a thorn and accepts her experience as a challenge. The story presents an obstacle in each section of the path that Phoenix has to surmount. Yet, she accepts the obstacles as a part of the process in achieving her goal. But the story also reveals the necessity for her goal in the man made setting. This is clearly seen when she reaches the clinic and is looking at the gold seal. She seems not to remember the purpose of her travel. The atmosphere at the clinic was cold and everything appears to be at a fast pace. It seems hard for her to adjust to the new environment since she is accustoming to being alone. On her departure she purchases a windmill so as to give her a new goal for the reverse journey. From her speech Phoenix does not seem to have much education and her impoverished condition makes me feel pity for her. Unlike Welty, Poe in the ‘Masque of the Red Death’ uses the castles and its contents as a symbol to reveal his...

Separation of Classes on Gender Basis Research Paper

Separation of Classes on Gender Basis - Research Paper Example This essay "Separation of Classes on Gender Basis" aims to analyze the pros and cons of the separate classes for boys and girls. Supporters of the movement argue that the learning ability of boys and girls are different. The recent research has clearly indicated natural differences in how male and female understand and learn their lessons at class and society at large. It is very necessary to impart education to the pupil based on the gender, as their understanding ability differs with respect to their sex. When the necessity of single sex education is debated it includes the issues of socio-economic, political, civil rights and legal concerns which are very important in terms of practical perspective. Leonardo Sax (2005) states in his book that the behavior of girls and boys when they are together reflects the larger society to which they belong. His opinions that the girls are most expressive in a single sex school than in a co-ed school. Because of less or no pressure they tend to react instantly and actively in a single sex school. In a coed school the boys came forward with an attitude to put up and spoke on any given topic with ease, while the girls were forced to talk a very few words. He even noticed a considerable change in the courage of the single sex school and co-ed students. The teacher enthusiastically praised, corrected, helped, and criticized the boldly spoken boys who could speak voraciously on any topic given and with the girls who were soft spoken with less courage he nodded his head and would hardly help them overcome their mistakes. But the girls in the single sex school could easily dare to speak on any given topic without pressure, where the teacher could correct the students and also inculcate new teaching techniques based on the gender for better understanding. This in turn would help the students to enhance their learning capabilities. The doctrine of Single Sex Public Education (SSPE) is a good example of the above. SSPE informs teachers in male classrooms to move constantly in the classroom with a pitch of loud voice, even to the point of shouting. But the teachers in the female classes are asked to be still and use a soothing tone to talk to the pupil. This was introduced as the young males thrive on competition and confrontation, while the young females expect care and co-operation in a learning environment. This was the ideology of SSPE (Datnow and Lea, 2002). Few researches have pointed that the single sex schools can foster each gender to excel in

Nursing research community assessment paper Essay

Nursing research community assessment paper - Essay Example Community health nursing aims at ensuring that the individual, families and community can assess high standards of holistic health care services. This is viable through promoting health care lifestyles through education, public awareness and community activities (Clark, M.J.2003). This paper is inclined towards exposing a critical review of community nursing with a bias in Clearfield County. The community of study is Clearfield County the fourth largest county in the state of Pennsylvania .Clearfield covers an area of 1,143 square miles situated in the centre of Pennsylvania on the western slopes of Allegheny Mountains. According to 2000 population census it had a population of 83,382. Clearfield has a total population of 83,382 consisting of 41,741 male and 41,462 female. Majority who live in rural areas. The average household income is $30,176 and 12.5 percent of this population lives below the poverty line majority of who are between the ages of 18-64. Population distributed according to racial grounds but mainly speak English language. Largely the population consists of white that covers 97.4 percent, then other race like the Africa America covers 1.5%, American Indian 0.1%, Asian 0.3%, Latino 0.6%, and other races take up to 0.3%. The main economic activities consist of farming, lumbering, mining clay and coal, forestry, wildlife and railroading. There are a variet y of occupations in Clearfield. For instance many are involve in management sector covering 23.1%, sales and office 15.3%, forestry/ fishing0.9%, construction 11.7%, production 24.1% and service industry 15.3% (US. Census Bureau. 2004). Majority of the population live in the rural areas and practice lumbering and farming. In 1920 lumbering reduced and Clearfield residents engaged in mining of coal and clay. Unemployment and birth rate are very high for example, in 2000 alone it 9.9 and 9.6 respectively. Whereas the death rate was 11.3 in every 1000 people (Clark,

Law for social work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Law for social work - Essay Example unity care involves providing respite care, day services, accommodations, home help and carer and family support for persons with learning disabilities. The same kind of help is also available under community care for persons with physical disabilities and the elderly together with their carers. The latter groups are provided with additional means of support. For instances persons with physical disabilities are provided with direct payments, employment assistance, ‘self-management living schemes’ and equipment such as wheel chairs. The elderly are provided with ‘home care services, delivered meals, day care and lunch clubs.’ Similar services are provided for individuals with mental disabilities.2 Under children and family’s social work, social workers undertake a large variety of responsibilities. They provide childcare services and are involved in the education and social development of the child. Social workers are actively involved in the adoption process and make provision for protective services for children in danger.3 The social worker’s duties in respect of the Criminal Justice system are multifaceted and can be onerous. The social worker is involved in an exhaustive list of tasks from the sentencing and probation of offenders to ‘supervision and support for released prisoners.’4 The variety of roles required of the social worker and the importance of their relationship with the community at large requires the imposition of a professional duty of care. As such, the social worker is not only required to be familiar with the law, they are also required to uphold the law in an appropriate case. This paper looks at the legal obligations of the social worker and the importance of the law in the context of the various duties and obligations already mentioned. Social work is regulated in the United Kingdom by a professional organization known as the British Association of Social Workers. The Association is charged with the duty of

The Ultimate Goal Of JIT

The Ultimate Goal Of JIT JIT is a Japanese concept. Also called the Toyota production system, it aims at producing the necessary parts in quantities needed, at the time they are required. The ultimate goal of JIT is to eliminate inventory, to have minimal work in process inventory monitored by reduction in working capital. JIT considers 7 types of wastes. Overproduction producing more than the customer needs Transportation Anywhere where goods are moved within a process Waiting where waiting time occurs, traditionally where one process waits for another to finish before it can start. Inventory typified by stock or materials that are not being used in the process or current activity. Motion Poor planning and organizational layout often cause motion waste Over processing where steps occur in the production process that do not add value to the end customer this is termed overproduction Defects The process results in an error or requires rework JIT divides all works into value adding and non-value adding activities and then eliminates all non value adding activities. Kanban is one means through which JIT is achieved. It is a scheduling system that tells you what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means fail-safing or mistake-proofing. Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to affect the principle of jidoka. At Toyota this usually means that if an abnormal situation arises the machine stops and the worker will stop the production line. Kaizen refers to the philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management. Literature review Weiters (1984) in one of the first literatures on this topic states that Financial justification of JIT in service industries is less likely but in service industries JIT offers intangible benefits in terms of improved service quality and customer satisfaction.(cited by Inman and Mehra 1990) Benson (1986) was the first to point out Service operations are organised systems of production processes with the same potential of improvement through implementation of JIT precepts as manufacturing operations Cited by Duclos et. al. 1995 Berling and Geppi (1989) studied the supply chain of healthcare sector and offered JIT as an approach to hospitals in order to reduce inventory. They suggested closer relationships between hospitals and distributors. Billesbach and Schniederjans (1989) present a case study on JIT application in an administration setting. The case was on a big corporation and JIT programme was implemented in the headquarters of this corporation. Their approach was based on examining activities and the ones not contributing to result to be eliminated. Inman and Mehra (1990) had worked on FedEx. This package delivery company implements JIT to reduce their inventory of quasi-MRO goods (mainly packaging, labelling supplies).aimed at improving their service quality and competitiveness through implementation of JIT and anticipated that inventories would be reduced as a result. Lee (1990) presents a case study of a small bank. Study is focused on this banks loan approval process. Bank follows a two phase process and first evaluates the applications and makes the decision of lending in second phase. This process usually takes 12 days. Applying JIT approach whole process is redesigned and several tasks are unified. New approval process takes 4-5 days. Wasco et. al.( 1991) presents a case Kodaks quality assurance division. This division provides services to worldwide chain of Kodak. An MRP II system is implemented with JIT approach and conclusion of the study is JIT techniques enhance the potential of MRP application. One of the most radical case studies is presented by Barlow (2002). He investigates the applicability of JIT techniques to hotel industry. Weakness of this study is it concentrates on liquor stocks of these hotels and draws conclusions on if statements and these hotels actually do not adopt any JIT techniques. Ruiz (2003 pp.1) JIT focuses on the process, not product. Therefore it can be applied (in theory) to any group of processes, whether manufacturing or service. Ultimate goal of JIT is to produce a good and a service without waste Literature on the matter quite confidently states that JIT can be applied in services and through reported case studies evidence is provided. JIT applications in service industries are vague in some sense. There are no empirical studies and reported case usually resembles manufacturing setting. Service operations management evolution How to implement JIT in services? A philosophy of manufacturing excellence based on pursuit of the planned elimination of all waste and consistent improvement of productivity. It encompasses the successful execution of all manufacturing activities required to produce a final product from design engineering to delivery and including all stages from conversion of raw material onward (APICS, 1992). Total visibility of equipment, people, material and processes; Synchronization and balance of production to sales and supply to production; Respect for people Line operators is responsible for production, problem solving and improvement; Flexibility adapt production to customer needs; Continuous improvement never satisfied with the process; Responsibility for the operations environment those who design, manage and operate the processes are responsible for the outcome; Holistic approach companywide philosophy of elimination of waste; Each of these JIT themes may be applicable to service organizations; Synchronization and balance of information and work flow matching output with customer demand one of the important aspects of service operations often cannot inventory the output of their processes making balance even more vital Semantodontics, a direct marketing company selling nationwide by catalogue to dentists, also found JIT an appropriate approach for reducing the time to process paperwork (Conant, 1988) and, hence, the time required for a dentist to receive an order. The idea of making lot sizes as small as possible was implemented by decreasing the batch size in which telephone orders were aggregated. As a result, telephone orders were moved to the second stage of the process three times daily rather than once a day, as was the previous norm. Set-up time for entering new customer records was reduced by moving the process to the original telephone operation where the data were first gathered. The decrease in order batch size had a behavioural impact on employees as well. From the sense of satisfaction gained on completion of multiple small batches, employees tended to work faster and more efficiently. Atlantic Envelope Company uses kanban trays at its Atlanta facility to move documents within the order entry department. Order entry time fell to under a day from a previous uncertain number of days. Total visibility of all components of the process Northern Telecom Inc.s (NTI) Customer Service Centre borders the traditional manufacturing environment (Savage-Moore, 1988) and the implementation is a good example of providing visibility through the use of work cells. This unit of NTI has the labour-intensive responsibility of repairing printed circuit packs (PCPs). For an individual PCP, it is difficult to predefine the specific repair process required, not unlike a job shop environment. The work cell concept was applied to keep all work on a PCP performed within a single cell and by one team of employees. This provided all employees repairing a PCP with visibility as to the repair needs and processes used to repair the product. Additionally, employees were cross-trained to staff the cells and jobs were redefined to recognize employee training efforts. Over a two-year period, NTI saw customer service levels increase from 85 per cent to 100 per cent and quality levels significantly improved. Work-in-progress inventory was reduced b y 75 per cent and repair cycle times reduced from one week to less than 48 hours. Continuous improvement of the process The Manufacturing Quality Assurance Organization at Kodak in Rochester, New York provides specialized services in the form of sample testing of photographic film, chemical and environmental testing, equipment development and calibration control. JIT precepts were introduced to provide a framework for involving the entire organization in continuous improvement (Wasco et al., 1991). Fifty JIT cells were established to start the JIT delivery of products or services based on functional precepts. JIT activities were used to reduce work-handling steps and run times. Improvements through JIT techniques saved an average of $33,000 per month in 1990. Holistic approach to elimination of waste suppliers Few suppliers; Nearby suppliers; Repeat business with same suppliers; Active use of analysis to enable desirable suppliers to become/stay price-competitive; Clusters of remote suppliers, competitive bidding mostly limited to new part numbers; Buyer plant resists vertical integration and subsequent wipe-out of supplier business; Suppliers are encouraged to extend JIT buying to their suppliers; Quantities: Steady output rate (a desirable prerequisite); Frequent delivery in small quantities; Long-term contract agreements; Minimal release paperwork; Delivery quantities variable from release to release, but fixed for whole contract term; Little or no permissible overage or underage of receipts; Suppliers encouraged to package in exact quantities; Suppliers encouraged reducing their production lot sizes (or store unreleased material); Quality: Minimal product specifications imposed on supplier; Help suppliers to meet quality requirements; Close relationships between buyers and suppliers quality assurance people; Suppliers encouraged to use process control charts instead of lot sampling inspection; shipping: Scheduling of inbound freight; Gain control by use of company-owned or contract shipping, contract warehousing, and trailers for freight consolidation/storage where possible instead of using common carriers. Flexibility in the use of resources Bookbinder and Locke (1986) present a model to determine if JIT distribution methodology is a feasible alternative to traditional distribution methods. They investigated the behaviour of two different distribution models for JIT organizations. In the first, a factory-warehouse-retailer distribution system, the warehouse holds stock. In the second, stock moves from factory directly to retailers. The models were compared using statistical tests, and the second model was determined to be the superior distribution system because it furnished essentially the same service level to retailers while carrying one less echelon of stock. Another mathematical model is offered by Ramasesh (1990) for the implementation of JIT techniques in purchasing systems that have not yet advanced to the ultimate level of JIT purchasing (lot size of one). He treated the fixed costs associated with the adoption of JIT as investment, and justified it based on the savings generated using any of the techniques of investment analysis. He modified the traditional economic order quantity model to include explicitly the costs of small-lot shipments. He also provided guidelines and formulae for determining the order quantity and the optimal number of shipments. Case studies DHL- impact of JIT The founders began to personally ship papers by airline from San Francisco to Honolulu, beginning customs clearance of the ships cargo before the actual arrival of the ship and dramatically reducing waiting time in the harbour. With this concept, a new industry was born: international air express, the rapid delivery of documents and shipments by airplane. DHL network continued to grow at an incredible pace. The company expanded westward from Hawaii into the Far East and Pacific Rim, then the Middle East, Africa and Europe. By 1988, DHL was already present in 170 countries and had 16,000 employees. The different business units of the company are DHL Express DHL Freight DHL Global Forwarding DHL Exel Supply DHL Global Mail The process above mentioned was improved using JIT with following ways Inventory Management Concerning Services For instance, in the case of DHL, vehicles, bicycles and other assets that facilitate service delivery must be accounted for, serviced, ready and available to be used for work purpose. Quality Management Concerning Services Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Competence Courtesy Access Supplier Relations Concerning Services Human Resource Management Concerning Services JIT in retail The key principles of JIT in any system are: No wastage, Total visibility, and Flexibility in the use of human and material resources In any environment these principles translate into three simple rules: dont start any work unless the demand signal indicates a need for more material; if the demand signal indicates a need, work to fill that need; and, never exceed the queue-size limit Automatic Replenishment Systems (ARS) is also an example of application of JIT in retail. JIT in Indian service industry A survey was done on the Indian service industry. The data was collected from the selected service industries and analyzed. The results of degree of importance are given in the table The most important element recognized by the Service industries was waste reduction (mean=0.8929). The least important element was JIDOKA (mean=0.5625). The elements of the study are mentioned in appendix table 1 JIT in hospitals Most research in the health care industry has been directed toward process and information system improvements. Generally, service environments such as health care are likely candidates for JIT if their operations are repetitive, have reasonably high volume, and deal with tangible items such as mail, checks, bills or letters. In hospitals, there is a vital department named CSSD (Centre for Sterilization Service department), the functions of which include materials management, instruments reception, washing, packing and sterilization, sterile store, instruments distribution As an illustration a previous supplier model can be analysed And compared with an improved model, which centralises and streamlines the supply chain JIT in administrative setting JIT practices and their effect on quality can be analysed Human elements of JIT Steps in implementation of JIT in service industry Eliminate disruptions in work of the employees and make the service system flexible and train the workers to handle more variety. reduce set-up time and eliminate waste including errors and duplicate work and minimise work-in process e.g. Packages waiting to be delivered, calls waiting to be answered, pending orders to be processed, trucks waiting to be loaded/unloaded Generally, service environment may benefit from jit system if the operations are repetitive, have high volume, and deal with tangible items e.g. Sandwiches, mail or bills services must involve manufacturing like operation Consistently high quality service employees can be taught the value of providing defect free services uniform facility loading reservation systems and differential pricing are ways to level the load on the facilities standardised work methods high efficiencies achieved by analysing work methods and standardising Close supplier ties volume services such as fast-food joints and mass merchandisers require close supplier contacts to ensure frequent short lead time and high quality shipment of supplies Flexible work force greater the customisation in the service, greater is the need for a multi-skilled workforce e.g. Electronic repair shops needing wider experienced workforce to diagnose the problems and repair the defects Line flow strategy mangers can recognise their employees and equipment to provide uniform flows through the system, and eliminate wasted employee time e.g. Banks use this system in their cheque processing operations Process improvement and problem solving can contribute to streamlining a system, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, and higher productivity e.g. Self service system including retail operations, ATM, vending machines, service stations etc which is the ability to provide services when required simplify the process, especially when customers are part of the system jit services , if achieved , can be a major competitive advantage for companies A Framework Appendix Table 1:

Clyde Edgerton: Vietnam Vet, Jet Pilot, and . . . Small Town Housewife

Clyde Edgerton: Vietnam Vet, Jet Pilot, and . . . Small Town Housewife Few men have attempted to write using a woman's voice. Those who do choose to use the persona of a woman often fail in their effort, creating a character who does not quite sound authentic. Critics usually note the author's inadequacies and point out difficulties when an author tries to capture the voice of a person of the opposite gender. One exception is Clyde Edgerton in his first novel, Raney. The voice of Raney seems genuine and Edgerton received great acclaim for his novel. Public acceptance of Edgerton speaking as a young woman may be attributed to a number of factors involving the attitudes of the author, of the character, and of critics. Those who have interviewed Edgerton and reviewed his books are nearly all men. The one notable exception is author Barbara Kingsolver, who reviewed The Floatplane Notebooks in the New York Times Book Review. Not only does she neglect to take Edgerton to task for his use of a woman narrator in part of that novel, but she praises him generously and compares him to Jane Austen. Kingsolver obviously feels Edgerton can speak creditably as a woman, and she goes so far as to feel he is worthy to keep company with highly respected woman authors. Another consideration may be that most critics have not yet found Edgerton. Raney was his first novel and he has not written another entirely from a womanà ¾s point of view. His later works usually rotate among a large number of narrators, from a delinquent teenage boy to a wisteria vine in a family cemetery to a determined dog. If he had persisted in focusing upon women narrators as he became better known, he might have attracted more attention for that aspect of his work. .. ...ete with blind spots and inconsistencies, and so is her male counterpart, Charles, who just might flush a cabbage core down the toilet, causing expensive plumbing problems. No one individual or gender is portrayed as perfection; all the characters are feeling their way down life's corridors. That seems to make Raney a good example of the human race rather than a representative of a gender issue. Works Cited Edgerton, Clyde. Raney. New York: Ballantine, 1985. Kingsolver, Barbara. 'The Floatplane Notebooks." Rev. of The Floatplane Notebooks by Clyde Edgerton. New York Times Book Review. 9 Oct. 1988:10. Kozikowski, Thomas. "Clyde Edgerton." Contemporary Authors. Ed. Susan Trotsky. Vol. 134. Detroit: Dale Research, 1992. Robbins, Kenn. "A Conversation with Clyde Edgerton." The Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South. 30.1 (1991): 58-69.

NTUC Management Restructuring

NTUC Chief Lim Boon Heng has urged the management of companies undergoing restructuring to take union leaders into confidence, so that the legitimate concerns of workers can be addressed in good time. Citing the restructuring of the Public Utilities Board as an example, he said the exercise was carried out smoothly because of the close cooperation between the management and the union. Speaking at the first triennial delegates conference of the Union of Power and Gas Employees (UPAGE), Mr Lim said that companies responded to challenges in various ways – some through restructuring to meet new market demands, and others through mergers. For wokers, these changes can be unsettling, and restructuring sometimes leads to retrenchments. But in the case of Singapore Power's restructuring, the NTUC Chief noted that the PUB management had taken the company's union leaders into confidence even before the news was made public; it showed that openess between management and union was the better policy. â€Å"When management are open with the union leaders, the legitimate concerns of workers can be addressed, leading to a smooth transition,† Mr Lim said. Unfortunately for us, there are many management that adopt a different approach, informing the union only at the last moment, giving union leaders little time to respond and no time to address workers concerns. † Mr Lim also announced that the union's present general secretary, Nithinandhan, would now become its executive secretary, so that he could represent workers from all unions formed under Singapore Power or its subsidiary companies. We made some changes to our constitution handing the powers to the executive secretary to deal with all collective agreements, and to negotiate on behalf of major grievances with management and be the main person corresponding with all employers and external agencies and work out policies for all branches on industrial relations,† Mr Nithinandhan said. He said the union's relations with the management had been excellent and plans were underway for joint committees on training and workplace environment to better look into the needs of workers.

ICT Strategy Essay Example

ICT Strategy Essay Example ICT Strategy Essay ICT Strategy Essay Abstract Information technology has indeed established itself as a significant component of business over the past two decades which provided one of the most functional competitive advantages. This is due to the fact of the vast utilities it offers and thus becomes available anywhere around the world. However, Nicholas Carr suggested that as information technology has grown in power and ubiquity, its competitive advantages have lost and thus it doesnt matter anymore. In this paper, it is argued that IT does indeed matter due to its wide use and necessity in contrast to Cars view. Also, it is further urge that competitive advantage has always been temporal in technological innovations and this is explained with the view of IT as multiple technologies and as a single type of technology which points out obsolete technology like IT still exists with competitive advantage and matters. Lastly, the discussion reveals that the degree of innovativeness in the IT realm is so far greater than other classification of technologies that we could not make an assumption whether or not IT will be less of a competitive advantage in the years to come. The next discussions ill be focusing on the analysis of these ideas as expressed by Nicholas Carr, and will be applied to analyzing further certain projects in a given company scenario. Introduction IT is the latest series of broadly adopted technologies, after the railroad. Due to their usefulnesss, the commonalities between the two are primarily observed in the manner that people have invested in them. A deeper look at these types of commodities will reveal that the pattern by which the similarity is competitive advantages, making us able to argue that they have the same level of supply, demand ND necessity in the market. Gradually, many companies will try to possess the same technology and provision of the same service which will eventually lead to the decline of the prices that can be offered since everybody already has it. This way, the investment made for the possession of that technology becomes a question of whether or not in truly IT provides a significant return on investment since it is now hard to Justify that the revenue company earned was in fact due to IT function, or that it has rather only become a necessity due to its pervasive use. In other word, has IT got competitive advantage or does it matter? (Carr, 2003) Cars Article Cars articles centers on the fact that to some extent, certain technologies such as IT has become less of a competitive advantage, making it a not what it had seemed when it came out as a new product. The eventual wide spread of the technology soon led to the possession of it by everyone, making the perception of its competitive advantage an obsolete thing. There are many fundamental issues in this argument which we will be tackling in the following discussions. . The widespread of technology may entail necessity. Although it is true that trains and railroads have now ceased to become a competitive advantage as compared to when it was first utilized several decades ago, this can be attributed to many factors. The functionality that is derived from trains has been already established as a useful and necessary component of businesses, especially businesses may range from those that provide shipping services of different cargo materials that needed to be transported from one place to another or the remonstration of people as done in major subways around cities as it provides a cheaper cost of transportation compared to using automobile vehicles. Thereby, we can argue that train ceased to become a competitive advantage truly because it has become so common place and thus cheaper. However, what we point out here is that the widespread nature of any technologies does not say anything about whether it matters or not. It only tells us that it has become popular, thus increasing demand because of its proven usefulness, and that points towards the argument that it does ended matter, since people now see it as a necessity that cannot be ignored since it has become so integrated with the lifestyle of human being that to ignore the necessary functions it provides is Just going to bring even more disadvantage. What Carr has only argued is that competitive advantage has diminished, but this should not in any ways lead to the conclusion that one should cease to invest in IT because the issue is not that IT has become obsolete, and therefore has lost its competitive advantage, but because it has become too necessary, that it has lost its competitive advantage. 2. Competitive advantage has always been temporal in technological innovations It is important to point out that, technology especially at the rate that it progresses today, is always an issue of determining how long it will provide competitive advantage since there is always a chance that newer and better technologies that may render that technology obsolete . This is not a new thing, and as a result, certain technologies are set aside when they have become less useful. The IT field, however is a large classification of many technologies that within homeless compete against each other. Better systems are adopted against others for their efficiency, user friendliness, and lower cost. In theory, if we view IT as multiple technologies, there are always competitive advantages in which faster and newer systems are more competitive than obsolete technologies (Millard and Porter, 1985). However, if we view IT as a whole, competitive advantage is dwindling due to ubiquity. This should not always lead to the conclusion that IT no longer matters because it is not an obsolete technology, and the answer lies in our previous argument: IT as a whole has proven to be so useful that it has become so commonplace and necessary (Meant, 2007) 3. The innovativeness in the IT realm is massive Unlike the railroad, the possibilities in the IT industry are infinite. The areas of application for an IT staff may range from creating applications for word processing, designing performance management systems for companies to implement on their operations, accounting software may be useful for accounting departments, internet utilities such as Google Docs, Google Drive, file conversion tools, social media and any other thousands of other uses. What we argue here is that the degree of usability in IT field is so huge that it has not yet fully explored to assume that it will be less competitive in the future. While Carr has successfully showed data to support his argument, it is yet early to dismiss it Project analysis The initial observations of the proposals to close down the information service department are the following: outsourcing puts the company at higher risk of losing the current information service team rather than outsourcing. 1. Project management yester The purpose of a custom developed management system is to produce a system that is fitted to the perceived needs of a particular project based on the nature of the business. Adopting an outsourced project management system may include functionalities that are not required, and hence entails cost on the company for additional IT features. What should the company do here is to re-design the project management system to add features that the company prefers to have, such as due date and resource tracker. 2. Marketing analysis system It is similar to saying that electricity has ceased to matter Just because it is now widely used. Actually, electricity has been less of a competitive advantage because no corporation nowadays can function without it. And the same argument can be made for IT. IT is slowly becoming electricity, something that organizations will always need because of its proven necessity. IT may be decreasing in its capability to provide competitive advantage, but it is certainly something, like electricity, that inevitably matters. Broader, G. (2012, 1, 19).

Abortion the Pope and Peter Singer essays

Abortion the Pope and Peter Singer essays Abortion is one of the most controversial issues today. It has become a question of not only ethics, but morals. In the 1973 case of Roe v Wade the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy by abortion within the first six months of the pregnancy. However, conservative Presidents have changed the legislation enough to allow states to restrict abortion in various ways (Practical Ethics, Peter Singer). In the following paper, I will summarize the views on abortion of Pope John Paul II and philosopher, Peter Singer. These two men have very conflicting opinions This argument is very adamantly against abortion. It is also a religiously based argument. He uses exerts from the Bible and other religious documents and quotes many different clergymen and priests to help defend his position. He starts by explaining how you must follow the ten commandments to live a good life and have eternal life. Jesus replied, If you would enter life, keep the commandments (Mt 19:17). The first of these ten commandments is You shall not kill. On the contrary, you should love respect and promote life (The Gospel of Life, Paul II). In order to do this, one must carry out Gods plan of procreation with love and intentions to multiply. By having an abortion, one is doing the exact opposite. Not only are they killing an innocent human being, but they are killing a child of God. Also, man is not the final judge in matters such as life and death, he is only a minister of Gods plan (Humanae Vitae, Paul VI). Paul II goes on to explain how human life is sacred and inviolable. Life is sacred because it is a gift from God and man was created in the image of God. God overlooks our lives from birth to death, and no one else has the right to destroy an innocent human being, especially one as inno...

Islamic aesthetics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islamic aesthetics - Essay Example As art is meant to be within the limits set by traditional norms, there is very little room for being radical. As a result, artists rarely tried to produce something totally new and original. Instead, they continued relying heavily on their culture, and art mainly involved interpreting and commenting on each other’s work. Thus, until very recently, critical discourse on art in the Islamic world was not explicit as is the case with the Western art. Instead, the criticism lied within the art work. In other words, â€Å"one thinks or comments about an artwork through another art work† (Erzen 69). The reason, according to Erzen, is that in cultures where tradition is dominating, artists fail to introduce new and radical innovations. Instead, they continue interpreting the same norms and knowledge of tradition in different ways through their art. The underlying claim is that one can see the expression of Islamic culture and tradition in Islamic art and that they are not mere decorative pieces. In fact, as a result of this heavy dependence on tradition, the Islamic world failed to analyze its own arts and aesthetic approaches, and even when tried, the studies were descriptive, not analytical or conceptual. In order to support this claim, the scholar points out the fact that until early twentieth century, there was no effort to document Turkish architecture and its history. Though the Orientalists tried to understand the cultural meaning of Islamic aesthetics and art, the effort was in vain, as they tried to interpret the same using Western values and concepts. Most of the time, the efforts involved comparing Islamic art with Western art for similarities and dissimilarities and analyzing the narrative or figurative content. Thus, they failed to analyze or understand the cultural meaning of Islamic art and ended up focusing entirely on history, style and technique. The article is rather

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