Black Women Writers Essay

Early significant analyses of Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks’s only novel moreover release it as an ineffective fiction and/or viewed it as a mere expansion of Brooks’s poetic poetry. Those untimely reviewers, often in evaluations of less than a solitary page, lauded the novel’s â€Å"quiet charm and sparkling delicacy of tone† (Winslow 16) but didn’t comment the irritation and nervousness below the description surface. Latest criticism has centered on the undercurrents of fury and revolution of the character, Maud Martha Brown. This fury boils underneath the exterior of the novel’s 34 vignettes of the apparently ordinary, daily life occurrences of a black woman living in the south side of Chicago in the 1940s. The shift in serious viewpoint of the novel, then, is noticeably dissimilar across cohorts. As Mary Helen Washington declares in â€Å"‘Taming All that Anger Down’: Rage and Silence in Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha†: â€Å"In 1953 no one seemed prepared to call Maud Martha a novel about bitterness, rage, self-hatred and the silence that results from suppressed anger. No one recognized it as a novel dealing with the very sexism and racism that these reviews enshrined. What the reviewers saw as exquisite lyricism was actually the truncated stuttering of a woman whose rage makes her literally unable to speak† (453). Washington’s divided commentary is one of the first to recognize the protagonist’s irritation and inner rebellion as Brooks interlace them into the tapestry of the novel; Washington distinguish a regular outline of concealed fury and anger during the work. Further grinding the center on one meticulous description conflict in Maud Martha, Harry B. Shaw discovers the title character’s â€Å"War with Beauty,† as he subtitles a milestone essay, depicting the dark-skinned black woman character brawl against Eurocentric paradigms of substantial appearance. Shaw’s article describes the property of this partial, color-conscious scheme on Maud’s mind, and accentuates its role in spawning internal encounter with self-hatred and self-doubt (255-56). While I concur with Washington’s and Shaw’s arguments regarding the psychological battles faced by Brooks’s protagonist, I also find that the conflict and confusion that recapitulate Maud Martha’s life unite into a whole imitation of conjugal epic warfare. This conjugal epic warfare expands past Shaw’s â€Å"war on beauty† and integrates all areas of domestic and ancestral ties. Familial conflict exactly describes Maud Martha’s resistance to acquire and preserve her home and relations with family members as she struggles to keep a sense of individuality within this detain structure. Maud Martha detains the conservative literary epic’s spirit of clash by summarizing the figurative symbol of conjugal conflict as female ambitious with Maud Martha as the hero of her homeland. Like with customary epic, Maud Martha emblematizes the cultural paradigms of a decisive moment in history, enlightening the struggles of post-World War II America to reunite the roles of women, in particular African American women, in the public and private area. Through the course of the novel, Maud Martha fights a war against sexism, classism, and racism to create her identity. Winning this war is of supreme significance and of heroic dimensions at bet for Maud Martha, as delegate woman, is home and family, as well as independence, originality, and self-expression. Mainly during the early 1950s, the time in which Maud Martha was printed and set, the familial realm was one of worry and fluctuation as women toil to balance their roles as wives, mothers, and artists. With World Wars I and II only lately past, and the Korean and Vietnam clash on the horizon, (white) women workers found their roles in culture changing. They had pierced the US workforce during the wartime era, providing the nation with a much-needed font of labor. Yet after the war, the arrival of their male complement forced working (white) women’s return to the residence and to family duties. To battle and frustrate these writing of domesticity, in Maud Martha Brooks sum up a clearly female pattern of symbolic warfare that undermine patriarchal and communal structures, and declare the dominance of new visions of female enlargement and original appearance. To build her epic of family warfare, Brooks utilize such description strategies as prearranged meanings within names, change in narrative voice, and conflations of birth and death descriptions; thus, she threaten and redefines customary description of domesticity, of matrimony, and of maternity. For Brooks these organization twist to sites of group and responsibility for women. She confuse the empire of the domestic beyond a sphere of binary and competing gender functions to critique the roles of men and women in producing and preserve the social arrangement that bound female expansion and to assess how race, class, and gender notify the relation viewpoint of the heroine. Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience Jill Nelson offered the most piercing critique yet on racism at The Washington Post. Nelson, an African-American journalist who was employed at the paper for four years, pleasures the reader with a memoir that’s raw, sharp and amusing; she gladly picks at the scabs of race and sex and class that most writers favor to leave unhurt. For Nelson, repayment is hell, and she pays back – with retaliation, settling some malicious scores with the firm organ that seduced her from freelance writing in New York and then deserted her in the back-stabbing nation’s capital. Nelson gets her defeat in good. Ben Bradlee turns out to be â€Å"a small, gray, crumpled gnome. † Bradlee sheers such inspirational lines as â€Å"I want the fashions [section] to be exciting, new, to portray women who dress with style, like my wife. † Publisher Don Graham is â€Å"a rich kid waiting for his mother to let go of the reins. † Other Posties are uncharitably described as â€Å"weasel-like† and â€Å"mottled, plump, sour-lipped. † But ultimately, is a touching tale of being a black woman in a white and male corporate world – â€Å"voluntary slavery,† she calls it. â€Å"I envy the egotism,† she writes of the Post, â€Å"their intrinsic belief in the value of whatever they’re doing, the complacency that comes from years of simply being Caucasian and, for the really lucky, having a penis. † A core sister who revels in the racy, Nelson explains utilize like having sex with a mortician on his preserve table and the joys of male. Nelson’s attitude about the opposite sex is a simple one: â€Å"One thing I love about men and pussy is that is makes them so predictable. â€Å" Still, it’s race, not sex, which fuels all through it all. Nelson is evermore in search of her own â€Å"authentic Negro experience,† forever at war between her own arrogance in being black and her self-criticism for not being black enough. She writes touchingly of her own exacting family pathos – a brother on crack, a sister eternally immobilized by a drug overdose – and resist with her own guilt at being a part of the black bourgeoisie. But Nelson’s dispute falls short when it comes to clearing up the steamy issue of race at the Washington Post. But Nelson’s spotlight on Barry-bashing at the Post pleads the question: If the paper was so bigoted, why did it go trouble-free on Barry for so long? Nelson doesn’t actually try to answer this question; in its place, much of what she writes is an explanation for the coke-tooting mayor. Nelson declares Barry was only â€Å"supposedly† smoking crack on the well-known FBI videotape; that a female who bear witnessed that Barry enforced her to have sex had it coming; that the Post was â€Å"part of a de facto plot on the part of the U. S. Attorney †¦ to get’ Marion Barry. † But she does reluctantly recognize this: â€Å"Overweight, greasy, usually dripping with sweat, Barry speaks English like it’s his second language. † Bambara’s feisty girls: resistance narratives in Gorilla, My Love – Toni Cade Bambara When Thunder buns, the â€Å"huge and awful matron,† charges the passageway of the movie theater in Toni Cade Bambara’s story â€Å"Gorilla, My Love,† the kids finally â€Å"shut up and watch the simple ass picture† (Gorilla 15). She is the â€Å"decorated† matron, the one the organization lets out â€Å"in case of emergency,† when potato chip bags start igniting and the kids are turning the place out. Thunder buns are the shape of co-opted black power. As such, she set as the dead reverse of Bambara’s spirited, aggressive, no-nonsense young female conversationalist/protagonist of the story, who is variously named, depending on the occasion, â€Å"Scout,† â€Å"Badbird,† â€Å"Miss Muffin,† â€Å"Hazel† (her â€Å"real name†), â€Å"Precious,† and â€Å"Peaches. â€Å" Thunder buns, as her friends call her, emerges in the inset story Hazel tells in â€Å"Gorilla, My Love† to exemplify how adults deceive children. Thunder buns are not truly the agent of disloyalty here, but rather the enforcer of ethnically charged commercial treachery. Hazel and her brothers, Big Brood and Baby Jason, have rewarded their money to see a film called Gorilla, My Love, only to be shown a tattered old brown print of a Jesus movie: â€Å"And I am ready to kill, not because I got anything against Jesus. Just that when you fixed to watch a gorilla picture you don’t want to get messed around with Sunday School stuff† Hazel is briefly silenced by the weight of Thunderbuns’s consequential power, But not for long. With warrior like power her brothers rejecting the call–she rushes into the manager’s office and ask for her money back. She sees his pasty-complexioned condescension. And, in comic foray, she informs us, her reader/intimates, that he is wrong about her authority and ability. She has the full determine of her families ethnically conversant, equally forced, disobedient self-possession behind her. Even as her mother will threaten the teachers at P. S. 186 who dare to â€Å"start playing the dozens behind colored folks†, Hazel will carry on her threats. When the money is not reimbursed, she starts a fire below the candy counter that close up the theater down for a week: â€Å"I mean even gangsters in the movies say my word is my bond. So don’t anybody get away with nothing far as I’m concerned†. The story â€Å"Gorilla, My Love† first emerged in Redbook Magazine in November, 1971, a year after the periodical of Bambara’s path breaking, cherished, and inflammable black feminist anthology The Black Woman. The story itself has a descent, however, dating back to 1959, when Bambara’s first child-narrated short story, â€Å"Sweet Home,† appeared in Vendome magazine. When Bambara was interviewed by Beverly Guy-Sheftall in the mid-seventies, (1) she comment on the prospects for her changeable and authorize girl narrators, whose stories had been emerging all through the sixties and were lastly gathered up on the wings of the success of The Black Woman and published in a collection entitled Gorilla, My Love in 1972: There are certain kinds of feelings that people are very thankful of, people who are tough, but very sympathetic. You put me in any neighborhood, in any city, and I will tend to descend toward that type. The kid in â€Å"Gorilla† (the story as well as that collection) is a kind of person who will stay alive, and she’s successful in her survival. (233) All but four of the fifteen stories in Gorilla, My Love are enclosed by the realization of a child or teenage character; of those, ten are voiced in the first person (2)–with the singular â€Å"I† drawing its energy and power from an implied â€Å"we† of community. When Hazel storms into the manager’s office, then, she is traveling on the strength of more than a decade of such acts of defiant resistance by Bambara’s feisty girls. Bambara calls her â€Å"the kid†Ã¢â‚¬â€œof the story and the whole collection. But in fact there is no particular narrative â€Å"kid† in any dull sense unites the whole collection. Some of the â€Å"I† voices are youngsters; others quite young children, including Hazel herself from the title-story–who is proud to be the guide of her grandfather’s car on the way back from a pecan-gathering journey. But, as she admits, she actually likes the front seat because the pecans variables in the back are scary: There might be a rat prowling somewhere. And she admits to us that she still sleeps with the lights on and blames it on Baby Jason. Still, she is one of the most tough-talking and self-possessed young female voices in American literature. And she shares individuality with the other girl-children in Bambara’s stories of that decade for the laser-like intensity of her ethical cleverness and her ability to distinguish the convolutions of adult hypocrisy. Bambara wrote in a personal narrative entitled â€Å"Salvation Is the Issue† in 1984: What informs my work as I read it–and this is the answer to the regularly lift question about how come my â€Å"children† stories administer to escape being unbearably shy, delightful and sentimental–are the basic givens†¦. One, we are at war. Two, the normal reply to domination, lack of knowledge, wickedness and bewilderment is wide-awake confrontation. Three, the natural reply to pressure and disaster is not collapse and surrender, but alteration and regeneration†¦. BIBLIOGRAPHY †¢ Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks. Retrieved on December 25. From http://www. amazon. com/Maud-Martha-Gwendolyn-Brooks/dp/0883780615 †¢ Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience by Jill Nelson. Retrieved on December 25. From http://www. amazon. com/Volunteer-Slavery-Authentic-Negro-Experience/dp/014023716X †¢ Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara. Retrieved on December 25. From http://www. amazon. com/Gorilla-My-Love-Vintage/dp/0679738983 †¢ African American Literature. Retrieved on December 25. From

Ethical Theory Comparison

Ethics are a part of everyday life. Dependent on the individuals focus, ethics can be a core value or a term used when needed. This comparison will assist with understanding the morality of individual decisions or choices based on the ethical system inherited. Virtue based theories centers on good character behavior, a type of human growth that forms good decision making and control of bad habits. Virtue also creates a format that eliminates moral conflict over time. An individual with strong virtue ethics will make decisions naturally.Correct moral decisions require correct motives. Utilitarianism concentrates on the right and wrong of the end result. It includes the interest of others as well as personal interest. To understand what moral is under this theory simply judge the good and bad of a situation. Unlike deontological ethics, this eliminates the thought of others and creates the image of selfishness. This theory does not set well with common religious followers. (Voytinsky, 2011). Deontological ethics focus on the reason why we do or act. This practice would allow rules to be broken as long as the moral duty is protected.Pain and pleasure will not satisfy action under the theory. Obligations are written in stone. The moral principle is maintained regardless of consequential occurrence. Deontological ethics are common among religious practices. (Cline, 2013). I joined the military at twenty on with strong Christian ties. A recruiter convinced me that my job was non-combative. My worry, of course, was not to harm or kill another human being. Saudi Arabia told a different story.I was faced with; shooting to kill to protect myself and my comrades, or honoring commandments. My religious beliefs would have put me in military prison. I would have also become a target among my peers. I was forced to accept the utilitarianism approach in order to survive and return home to my family.The scope of all things ethical may become slightly misunderstood due to the mo rality of each individual. Strong beliefs or a sound knowledge of what’s right to you may create the conflict of a life time. Understanding these  differences describe in this writing will help to understand the complete picture. Each ethical theory has its value in life. Being aware will allow us to facilitate conflict, conversations, or debates with proper knowledge of which ethical value is used, discussed, or misunderstood.

The India of My Dreams

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action– Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.Goes a poem written by rabindranath tagore, renowned writer, author nd poet, and more importantly, an indian who dreamt of a better india in the future. Well, talking of dreams, a dream is a sub-conscious psychic vision of the ‘Ideal';coloured by personal affections and framed by the human yearning to reach what one wants. But for all the myriad personal fantasies and dreams,the only common dream born out of the heart of patriotic sensibility is that of the country of our d reams. And when the country at the heart of such a dream is as great as India,the dream is rather vivid,colourful and I daresay complex.The India of my dreams is nothing but an amalgamation of its ‘Indianess' manifested in its past glory and promised in its gleaming future. In other words, The India of my dreams is also the India of your dreams. India, being a country of social contrasts and enormous ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity should be in a state where there would be no racism and regionalism. First of all, I would want to curb communalism, whatever its shape or form may be. All such tendencies, which fan the forces of separatism and disruption, have to be eliminated.Secondly, I want India to be scientifically and technologically advanced. I would like India to be at the apex of scientific and technological progress, and give due importance to science and information technology because modern age is an age of science and information technology, which with much ease control the developemental status of any country. All of us want India to become a respectable super power in the world, don’t we? The India of my dreams, again, would be an India that is self-sufficient in food.All the barren lands should be cultivated for achieving self-sufficiency in food-grains. Agriculture should be given special attention because agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. It provides employment to over 60 percent of the country's work force and it accounts for over quarter of India's GDP. It also contributes substantially to export trade. Another Green Revolution should be brought about by launching intensive agricultural programmes and farmers should be asked to use better seeds fertilisers as well as modern tools and implements.Another thing, which I would like to see in India of my dreams, would be the abridgement of the gap between the rich and the poor. National income should be distributed rationally among the all sections of the society. Provision of food, housing and clothing to one and all should be given top priority in the India of my dreams. For achieving and accomplishing this, socialism should be the only remedy which, if practised sincerely, will really usher India into an era of economic equality. If these measures are taken with utmost sincerity, India will really be counted among the most powerful countries of the world .Then is the time that one can say that India has achieved the placed that Rabindra Nath Tagore describes in his lines that I told before I started talking regarding the subject. In this age of industrialization, the country is to be taken to the zenith of progress and prosperity. Industrial development plays a significant role in the growth process of developing countries. It helps in raising income levels and in absorbing rural surplus labour. It is believed that prior to 19th century India was a great manufacturing country. However at the time of independence the industry was in bad sh ape.India's literacy rate as per 1951 census was less than 20 percent. In over fifty seven years it has increased to about 65 percent. Despite all this commendable progress , a lot needs to be done to improve the living conditions of agricultural and industrial labor and the people working in unorganized sectors. Steps should be taken to stop crime and violence. Condition of women folk needs drastic improvement. Women empowerment is the demand of a civilized society. Equal opportunities need to be given to the girl child for education and career development. Dependence on other counties should be a thing of the past.India of my dreams is a country where nobody is illiterate and nobody sleeps hungry, where there is no distinction on the basis of gender, religion or caste, where justice to a common man is neither denied nor deleted, where corruption in public life does not exist, where merit counts in every sphere of life, where jobs cannot be purchased, where the Shabad Kirtan from G urudwaras, and Azan from Mosques, the Bhajans from Temples and chiming of the bells from churches merge and mingle and produce a harmonious, melodious, spiritual tune, loved by one and all.I dream of an India where every citizen feels safe and secure, where health facilities are provided to all . I dream of an educational system where every young dreamer is given his chance, and not chained by lack of seats or caste reservations. I dream that the lakhs of unemployed Indians are integrated into employement.I dream of a socially, scientifically, economically better India . I dream of an India which every Indian can be truly proud of. To capture the essence of the India of my dreams I would like to end with a few lines from John Lennon's ‘Imagine': â€Å"U may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one . †I hope someday u'll join us And India will be No. 1.

Portrayals within the media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Portrayals within the media - Essay Example Under the above mentioned, the presentation of issues or images related with drugs should be more limited both to its content and to its time and it should be focused to the methods of the problem's resolution and to the risk related with them trying to avoid to become a kind of advertisement on their usage (Kay, 2002). Mostly the last years, the behavior of media towards the issue of drugs can be characterized as having 'two-aspects'. The first aspect is characterized from the existence of emissions and advertisements that have as a target to show that drugs are the 'killers' of the body and the mind as well as of discussions transmitted through the radio in which the experiences of people that have passed from this condition are analyzed in order to prove the danger related with the specific problem as well as the possible methods to face it when occurs in terms of reality. In this context, the portrayals of the drugs and the drug users are characterized mainly by the detailed analysis of the negative aspects of the situation as well as of its direct and indirect results on peoples' lives. On the other hand, the so-called 'lifestyle' of modern society, which is presented continuously through the media, refers mostly to the 'easy life', the 'easy money' through the 'easy dreams' and - on purpose or no - creates the need for the acquisition of a series of products and of a certain style of life which is not achievable to the majority of people. Under these terms the people are influenced that this way of life (the easy one) is the perfect situation and the ideal acquaintance. Very often people that live in such a style of life are presented as ideally happy even if it is known that they have drug addiction. In the worst situations, this use is just mentioned as an aspect of a person's life as not a really bad or negative condition and the drug usage is indirectly presented as the normal consequence (even a requirement') of this way of life. Greene and Krcmar (2005, 71, 72) made a research on the influence of media to the human behavior. They found that 'argumentativeness is positively related to violent movie exposure, real crime television exposure and violent television exposure'. Moreover, they stated that 'argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness' have been found to be 'better predictors of violent media exposure than they are of violent media linking'. Furthermore, 'violent movie exposure was found to be positively related to risk taking, whereas horror movie viewing was negatively related to risk taking'. Their research did not refer specifically to the drugs and the drug users. However, their influence to the human behavior could be analogous if considering that in real terms the drug use is a 'violation of health' especially when considering the results and to that point the effects of images of such a content could have the same effect to the human behavior as the movies that contain violence. To the above direction Gutwill and Hollander (2002, 263) examined the issue of the interaction between the human behavio

Rhetorical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Rhetorical analysis - Essay Example The dealer has ample amount of knowledge and information regarding different cars that are being sold by the company. The context in which this article was created is to inform the people of Tucson about the dealer of Porsche in the region of Tucson and the aim of the dealer within the context is to increase their sales. The aim of informing as well as persuading consumers to purchase one of the cars being offered by the dealer has been quite effectively attained by exhibiting his/her creditability, by tapping into the customer’s emotions of desire to live a luxurious life and their desire to experience freedom and the author has even used logical reasoning such as reviews from the customers. The authors of the website of Porsche of Tucson have quite effectively utilized the persuasion technique of ethical appeal in order to attract and persuade the customers to buy one of the cars being sold on the website. The author of the website has tremendous amount of credibility as the author of the website is the dealer working for the company of Porsche. The dealer is well informed about different models of cars being sold on the website and the benefits and drawbacks associated with these cars. They obtain this information directly from the company and therefore are credible enough in the eyes of the audience for providing them with the information that is published on the website. Other than ethos, the author has quite effectively used the persuasion technique of emotional appeals or pathos to persuade customers into purchasing the offerings of Porsche of Tucson. The author of the website has appealed to various emotions of the consumers in order to persuade the audience. They have tapped into the emotional feeling of satisfaction and happiness in order to attract the audience and mote them to purchase one of the cars. For example: the author has stated that by purchasing one of the

Recommendation report in which you compare two potential river or sea Assignment

Recommendation report in which you compare two potential river or sea developments for one city with the intention of attracting - Assignment Example However, there are hundreds of rivers that cut across the Rio de Janeiro state, most of them having cities, towns and settlements developed along their banks. Therefore, natural resources, and most especially rivers, are vital components of the economy and the life of Rio de Janeiro (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2013 p12). Among the popular rivers that cut right across the city of Rio de Janeiro are the Acari River and River Paraiba do Sul, which constitute vital resources for the city (De Vries & Reilly, 2011 p21). However, the potential of these two rivers is yet to be completely tapped, and especially in regards to water-based tourism, which is evidently possible and attractive in these rivers. Thus, any development and rehabilitation of the two rivers that is targeted towards this objective is sure to deliver positive results, a major reason that informs the recommendation for the development of the two rivers for this purpose. The Acari River flows in the South eastern side of B razil, through the Rio de Janeiro state, forming one of the major water-courses that supply the city of Rio de Janeiro (Room, 1997 p311). The river cuts across the city of Rio de Janeiro from the western side, and it separates this city from the city of Duque de Caxias (Room, 1997 p303). The most significant aspect about the strategic positioning of this River is that; it separates the most populous City in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area, which is the City of Rio de Janeiro, from the third most populous city in the region, which is the city of Duque de Caxias (Ades, 2004 p322). This fact is especially significant, considering the number of people who can be able to access and subscribe to the tourist activities established in this river, should the river be rehabilitated and developed for water-based tourism, are high. The other fundamental characteristic of the Acari River, which makes it most suitable for development for the purposes of water-based tourism, is the fact that the Acari River is navigable (De Vries & Reilly, 2011 p32). The river traverses across regions that are well endowed for boat and canoe riding, thus making it a suitable river for developing towards these purposes. Additionally, the Acari River is not silted up; therefore it presents no danger of derailing the riding of canoes and boats used for water-based tourism explorations (Krystek, 2012 n.p.). The Acari River has a very large flow of water, meaning that it is a river that can be rehabilitated for the purpose of water-based tourism, since it can manage to sustain and supply the flow of water required for this purpose throughout all seasons. The vegetation along the regions of interface between the river and the land surface also suffices the need for soil conservation purposes, by ensuring that no soil from the land masses can directly cause the siltation of the river, while also preventing soil erosion, because it enhances the filtration process (Ades, 2004 p319). The river al so possess several species of fish, especially on the upper side that is before the section where the Acari River joins the cities, making it even more viable for

Strategic Management Resit Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Management Resit Report - Essay Example Since every organization wants to acquire competitive advantage therefore it was difficult to make strategies based on the external business environment due to homogeneity. However, resources such as reputation, credibility of employees, training and development methods etc. may vary from organization to organization and they are significantly hard to replicate (Gupta et. al., 2007). In the contemporary business environment resources based view of strategic management holds a remarkable position. Ever since it has emerged different critics have argued upon its importance in strategic management while some have defended its importance in attaining business superiority. Whatever the case may be one thing is obvious that resource based view in strategic management has actually strengthened the organization’s core values and integrity while improving the overall ethical conduct (Priem and Butler, 2001). This paper aims to investigate Resource Based View and its relevance with Stra tegic Management. Moreover its role in achieving competitive advantage particularly in an educational institution would be discussed with a case example. Discussion The theory of growth of a firm has actually laid down the foundation of resource based view in strategic management. An individual firm has a number of valuable internal resources which are mostly unique in terms of quality and quantity. For instance, the financial resources including all the monetary reserves, credits, accounts receivables etc., plant resources such as land and equipment, human resource which represents the nature of employees’ intellect, skills and credibility. Moreover the knowledge and expertise of an organization in industry and the overall management structure including planning and reporting are the important internal resources (Harrison, 2012). All of these are then combined with the strategic policies of an organization. The distinguishing nature of resources constitutes an organizationâ €™s core values which play a vital role in its overall success or failure. The accurate utilization of all these resources actually represents profitable long term strategic management which is a significant element of competitive advantage. The relevance of resource based view to strategic management can be substantiated on the basis of the fact that organizational strategies largely focus on increasing revenues while occupying unparalleled market share in the industry. On the other hand the sole purpose of resource based view is to achieve competitive advantage which makes it internally linked with the strategic management (Akio, 2005). Competitive Advantage Resource based view in strategic management plays a significant role in acquiring competitive advantage. For instance, if the Corporate Planning Department of a university requires maintaining distinctiveness in its management policies and customer services then it would need to implement resource based view in the followi ng pattern (Knott, 2009): Initially the organization would have to analyze its fundamental possessions including financial resources, plant resources and human resources. These are then divided on the basis of distinctiveness in the industry and overall participation in carrying out different business

Changing urban conditions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Changing urban conditions - Essay Example There are many forms of crimes, but before going deep into the type of crimes, the definition must be known as it will serve as the basic understanding of that concept. Basically, crime is associated with the term illegal which means contrary to the law. It does not adhere to the rules as the rules known as laws are set by a nation to protect its citizens and properties. Once violated, the people who committed the crime are punished (Bailey, 2010, p. 4). The existence of laws and crimes occurs together as laws are present to antagonize the crimes and crimes happen whether intentional or not to go against the laws. Crime can also be defined in a more formal way as it is considered as a legal concept. A crime is any punishable act that the society considers as detrimental to its interest. The punishments do not only protect people but also groups and institutions. The acts covered by the concept of crime ranges from traffic violation to homicide, and the violators of the law receive the penalty to protect the society and correct the offenders at the same time (Cassel and Bernstein, 2007, p. 2). Punishments have been used as a form of discipline to get the desired actions for the individuals in the society. Discipline may not seem to be easy to impose on other people as it involves both pleasant and unpleasant to make the people obedient to the laws and authority (Lipsky, 1977, p. 249). The discipline imposed on the offenders is negative or unpleasant as they are secluded from most people and receive different treatment. Some even receive corporal punishment for their crimes committed. Corporal punishment is said to be gruesome as physical pain is applied to the violators or prisoners which can be in the form of electrocuting, whipping and handcuffs. Some states in America forbid the use of such punishments (Palmer, 2010, p. 40). There are many forms of crimes, but the three broad categories are

Is it fair to isolate someone just came back from a country that has Essay

Is it fair to isolate someone just came back from a country that has insect borne diseases - Essay Example However, the situation should be viewed in two aspects; economic and financial aspects and social aspect. Isolation is one of the most irritating experiences that one can face after returning home from a long business trip. However, it is of the best interest to the country. Isolation should be done if it is proven that the subject was into zone where there is a high probability of acquiring an infection. The cost of managing the risk of infection is much lower than the risk of managing the actual disease. Thus, screening is necessary. This implies that the person should not be allowed to be in contact with any person until testing is complete. Some illnesses are highly communicable and not easily contained (CDC). Therefore, it is in the interest of the public health to detain the suspected person. Detaining an individual for three moths can only be justified is the person poses an active threat to the health satiation of the country. Most diseases have the capability of ‘hiding’ in the body such that they cannot be detected easily without regular testing for a period. This can justify detaining a person for 3 months. The economic and social costs of managing an individual can be so affordable than managing a viral infection. Moreover, it is worthwhile to note that immediate family members are the most vulnerable to infection, just in case one of them has it. In an extension, with other factors constant, isolation of a family member on suspicion of a disease protects the whole family. There are several contrary opinions which depict the unfairness of isolation. First, the subject is denied his or her social rights to see and interact with the family. It is expected that after being outside the country for 3 months, the family is very expectant to receive a family member. Isolation constricts the social welfare that the family members enjoy. It is not fair for children to have a parent detained or parents having a child

Critical Response to the film Remember the Titans Essay Example for Free

Critical Response to the film Remember the Titans Essay Remember The Titans is a film text, centered by the issue of the injustice of a persons race and how it is triumphantly overcome. It is an uplifting story how an American town, Alexandria, conquered overwhelming resentment, friction and disharmony brought on by racial discrimination and mistrust. The town is further thrown into chaos, as protests rage over the killing of an African-American youth and then the integration of the major local High school; T.C. Williams. The integration lead to the demotion of a much loved and highly successful head coach of the school state football team by the name of Bill Yoast, the jobs new occupancy went to an African-American by the name of Coach Boone, who ultimately suffers injustice because of his race and the fact he was replacing a white coach which brought chaos to the white community. The injustice displayed in the film Remember the Titians can be seen numerous amounts of times. Coach Boone sets a wonderful example of the town learning to trust each other and work together and shows the boys a funeral where people had died fighting the same fight people are still fighting today and the injustice of this situation to everyone. The film shows justice can be achieved on earth if people learn to respect each other. This barrier is overcome when one of the black teammates refuses to protect his white teammates because they wont block for the black teammates, they are made to spend time with each other and learn about each others culture which ultimately they learn to respect each other no matter what race or where they came from. This lead to friction in the community and the boys parents wanting Coach Boone fired because of the communities outrage that the highs school had been joined together and the injustice being showed to each other through murdering people becau se of there skin colour and the disrespect shown because of the persons race. As the team learns to show each other good morals, trust and respect during a time where the community were showing signs of discrimination, hate and mistrust and this is when Coach Boone showed the injustice of how his father died having to fight this same fight and the team ultimately responded and overcame the difficulties of having a multicultural team with the assistance of democratic and authoritarian coaching styles by both Coach Boone and  Coach Yoast. The coaching styles improved the players motivational skills there self fulfillment to work together and set an example to be treated equally, which made the coaches and players of different races share the same goals and perception of the injustice of the peoples mistreatment because of race. As the team became an top contender and where playing every game with such passion and serving a sense of justice to each other when people would use racial comments on the field no matter what the race every member would stand up for each other. As the team worked together and both coaches shared there perceptions the team really achieved greatly and this rubbed of into the community. As examples of the white policeman acknowledging and congratulating a black titans efforts goes to prove that justice was being achieved on our earth. The town started accepting everyone for who they are and the titans where treated very well by the community for giving them belief and a sense of pride where justice could be achieved for everyone. In one circumstance Coach Boone had been called a monkey but as the team was well disciplined and respectful of everyone this only inspired everyone in the titans to work harder for each other which resulted in a win not only for the game but for the team to change another persons perspective on racism and achieve the justice they deserved. When the injustice of Coach Yoasts hall of fame removal and the tragic accident of captain Garys car crash It showed in the final game they would win a come from behind victory and Coach Yoast would ultimately not resort to cheating and instead achieve his justice by helping his black partner Coach Boone achieve their goal togeather rather than resort to backstabbing and cheating to improve his own reputation and achieve justice on earth for himself and Coach Boon. This showed that even though Gary had his tragic accident he achieved hiss goal with his teammates of winning the final and teaching the community to respect everyone no matter what there race. This film was a great example of justice being achieved and giving everyone hopes through the Coach Boones leadership skills and charisma to inspire a team, community and a nation. The film showed how these people working together and being respectful of each other can truly inspire and set an example for everyone to achieve justice on earth. Treating everyone equally and teaching them the injustice of what had happened because of the war over race ultimately inspired the boys and the nation to achieve justice for everyone on earth.

Functionalism In Psychology History Principles And Contributions Philosophy Essay

Functionalism In Psychology History Principles And Contributions Philosophy Essay This essay shows a history of functionalism, its principles and contributions. It includes four stages of psychology in the United States, development of functionalism and notable functionalists focusing on Willam James. It shows the theory of free will, habits and instincts, Jamess early years, mind-body debate, consciousness, emotions and the self. The development of self-esteem by James Williams could probably help social workers, counselors and psychologists to tackle clients who are troubled, bullied, depressed, anaroxic or suicidal. Functionalism in Psychology: History, Principles Contributions The alternative model to structuralism was known as functionalism. Founded by William James,who agreed with Edward Titchner that the study of consciousness must be the central theme of psychology. But James disagreed with structuralists search for basic elements of mind, he rather emphasized that psychologists should study how the mind functions. James published a book titled Principles of Psychology in 1890, which promoted functionalism. He agreed that consciousness is an ongoing stream, a property of the mind that continually interacts with the environment. Through this interaction, human beings learn to adapt to their environment. For him, the functions of mind were more important than the structures of mind (Hergenhahn, 2005). This paper will represent the history, principles and current contributions of functionalism. According to Sahakian (1975), thereare four stages of early United States Psychology. The pre-revolution, first stage betweenthe year 1640 1776, the using of reasoning to differentiate between God, beliefs, religion and state.Second stage between the year 1776 1886, commonsense philosophers have agreed to take feelings and senses as equal to reason. Third stage between the year 1886 1896, psychology is separated from philosophy and religion. In the final fourth stage, the publication of John Deweys article The Reflex Arc in Psychology in the year 1896 and themixture of science, apprehension for practicality, importance on individual and evolutionary theorycombined together into the school of functionalism. Functionalism was rooted in Charles Darwins theory of evolution. Evolution is based on individual differences and the survival of adaptive features. Adaptation becomes a popular approach to measuring intelligence and Individual Differences become a valued part of mental research. Unlike most other psychologists who were interested in the structure of mental activity, functionalists were interested in functions, the mental aspects of adapting to an environment. Functionalist were equally interested in individual differences of all mental activity. Functionalism started with John Lockes political theory influenced the American and French Constitutions (Hergenhahn, 2005). His views on education have contributed to the thoughts of every subsequent theorizer in the field.The mind at birth possesses no innate ideas. The mind of man is a tabula rasa or blank slate at birth, upon which is impressed many sense impressions. All knowledge proceeds through sense experience. As the mind stores up a variety of sense impressions, associations occur which provide new knowledge. The mind is consequently passive. The senses provide the mind with the materials which represent reality. These materials are not identical with the extra mental object. The material is the idea within the mind which represents the object outside the mind being received by the senses. By combining, comparing and analyzing these materials or ideas arising through sensations, we derive thoughts. Knowledge is not sense perception but intellectual perception. Functionalists like American philosopher, John Dewey who criticized reductionistic approaches to psychology and argued that experience must be understood in a naturalistic context. He applied the assumptions of functionalism in developing the field of school psychology and educational practices. As the functionalists studied the functions of consciousness, gradually their attention shifted to the learning process itself. They paid less attention to the study of consciousness and more to the environmental conditions that facilitate mental functions. William James was the most influential functionalist.He presented much of the foundation functional psychology, but he did not develop his ideas to the point of an independent school of study. He endorsed some aspects of functionalism, and considered the father of American psychology. Consistent with materialism and evolution, James believed that science opposed the existence of free will. In turn, he proposed free will to be beyond the realm of science. The nature of free will is reflected in voluntary behaviour. To control our voluntary behaviour, we must control the ideas of behaviour. Ideas of action can lead to action, or can be held back consciously.According to James, both habits and instinct are within the brain (not in the mind) and outside of free will(Hergenhahn, 2005). Habits are learned and continuous repetition could stabilize mental functions in the brain. Instincts are unlearned and they are learned patterns of reacting. Instincts are not blind and invariable and can be moulded by habit. James was initially impressed with the scientific advancements tied to both materialism and evolution, but those sciences left him disappointed and even depressed.His depression ended while reading about free will. He doubted free will was an illusion if he could voluntarily believe in free will. Voluntary belief also influenced his approach to science. His major publication was Principles of Psychology which provided a solid foundation of modern psychology in America. James attempted to cover every aspect of psychology and took twelve years to write it, and it was 1,393 pages long (published as two volumes). Principles of Psychology generally support a dualist, interactionist approach to human nature. James presents separate mind phenomena and brain phenomena, and proposes ways in which they interact.Most experimental psychologists at that time were looking for elements of consciousness.James represented the concept of a stream of consciousness. According to James, consciousness is not made up of a bunch of little pieces put together. Consciousness is personal (no need for common elements), continuous (cannot be dismantled), always changing, always selective and choosing (free will) and dealt of objects other than itself (the purpose is functional and adaptive). According to James, the self is the sum of all things which a person can call mine. Including the body and all possessions (material self), the self as it is known by others (social self) and spiritual self(Hergenhahn, 2005). Self as knower (the I, pure ego) is an ultimate vantage point, self that does the knowing and a part of you that remains constant in a changing stream of consciousness. Self-esteem is a ratio of the actual self over the potential self. Esteem could come from achievements and from lowering expectations.The classic theory of emotion in functionalism is stimulus, emotion and response; perceive object, experience emotion and respond to it. Another theory of emotion is stimulus, response and emotion; the behaviour is a functional reaction to the stimulus and the emotion is the result of the response. As a functional result, behaviours associated with how you want to feel can give you that feeling. Functionalism was an overwhelming achievement, unfortunately, it was a bsorbed into the mainstream psychology and not on its own. However, the study of functionalism and the selfresultedthe development of the study of self-esteem which helps the world till today. James had a very simple definition of self-esteem: success divided by pretension. According to James the more success we have and the lower our expectations or pretensions then the higher our self-esteem. To raise self-esteem, therefore, we have two options: lower our expectations of ourselves or increase our achievements.This theorygives us and psychologists a better understanding on howpeople react to their thoughtsand perhaps to tackle depression and maintain self-esteem. Functionalism has taught us on how to get a better understanding of the functions of the mind and perhaps this theory could be useful for psychologists, counsellors and social workers who meet with suicidal or depressed clients.