The Evolving Finance Function

The finance department provided a wide range of financial services to them. * The forecasting & analytics department was merged with the finance department. * Recruitment in the finance department were higher than the other departments, which consisted of Mamba's from good B- schools in USA. * There was no rigidity ; the finance department was constantly re-structured. Pre-conditions that enabled Mercer's finance group to develop its capabilities: * The company was constantly rated amongst the best in the U. S. A. They had a vision to grow, which was evident from their financial figures.Exhibit 1} * To cater to the growth they formed several alliances, in the form of Joint Ventures, which led to an increase in their market capitalization. In order to maintain and increase their market capitalization in the future they felt the need to come up with a model which can help them to effectively analyses the returns on their investments in future. * They faced immense competition from the local players in generic drugs and to maintain an edge over them they came up with this model. * As they focused on Innovation, they had huge R&D expenditure which kept Increasing year after year.They did not have a suitable model to classify the expenditure as capital or revenue, nor could they ascertain the profitability from a given product or venture. * Owing to the currency fluctuations and to manage their foreign exchange hedging castles, they came up with a suitable long term revenue hedging model. * They came up a long way under the effective leadership of Ms. Judy Lent, who kept taking Annihilative In carrying out various tasks outside her domain. Her Job Included 25% assignments and 75% Initiative. * Her effective decision making also played an Important role In eloping Merck develop its capabilities.Can other companies develop similar capabilities? * Merck had a highly effective but complex model and improper execution of which could lead to a total chaos. * Their strengt h was Research and Development, which was ten earlier AT tenet pronto TTY. I en same need not De ten case wilt toner companies. * Therefore, if Merck did, other companies too can come up with a similar model. All it needs is being systematic and have efficient leadership. However, organizations can come up with their own models capitalizing on their own strengths and catering to their own needs.

Forward the Foundation Chapter 9

3 Yet, even so, Hari Seldon could not repress the surge of satisfaction that he felt as he entered his laboratory. How things had changed. It had begun twenty years earlier with his own doodlings on his second-rate Heliconian computer. It was then that the first hint of what was to become parachaotic math came to him in a cloudy fashion. Then there were the years at Streeling University, when he and Yugo Amaryl, working together, attempted to renormalize the equations, get rid of the inconvenient infinities, and find a way around the worst of the chaotic effects. They made very little progress, indeed. But now, after ten years as First Minister, he had a whole floor of the latest computers and a whole staff of people working on a large variety of problems. Of necessity, none of his staff-except for Yugo and himself, of course-could really know much more than the immediate problem they were dealing with. Each of them worked with only a small ravine or outcropping on the gigantic mountain range of psychohistory that only Seldon and Amaryl could see as a mountain range-and even they could see it only dimly, its peaks hidden in clouds, its slopes veiled by mist. Dors Venabili was right, of course. He would have to begin initiating his people into the entire mystery. The technique was getting well beyond what only two men could handle. And Seldon was aging. Even if he could look forward to some additional decades, the years of his most fruitful breakthroughs were surely behind him. Even Amaryl would be thirty-nine within a month and, though that was still young, it was perhaps not overly young for a mathematician-and he had been working on the problem almost as long as Seldon himself. His capacity for new and tangential thinking might be dwindling, too. Amaryl had seen him enter and was now approaching. Seldon watched him fondly. Amaryl was as much a Dahlite as Seldon's foster son, Raych, was, and yet Amaryl, despite his muscular physique and short stature, did not seem Dahlite at all. He lacked the mustache, he lacked the accent, he lacked, it would seem, Dahlite consciousness of any kind. He had even been impervious to the lure of Jo-Jo Joranum, who had appealed so thoroughly to the people of Dahl. It was as though Amaryl recognized no sectoral patriotism, no planetary patriotism, not even Imperial patriotism. He belonged-completely and entirely-to psychohistory. Seldon felt a twinge of insufficiency. He himself remained conscious of his first two decades on Helicon and there was no way he could keep from thinking of himself as a Heliconian. He wondered if that consciousness was not sure to betray him by causing him to skew his thinking about psychohistory. Ideally, to use psychohistory properly, one should be above worlds and sectors and deal only with humanity in the faceless abstract-and this was what Amaryl did. And Seldon didn't, he admitted to himself, sighing silently. Amaryl said, â€Å"We are making progress, Hari, I suppose.† â€Å"You suppose, Yugo? Merely suppose?† â€Å"I don't want to jump into outer space without a suit.† He said this quite seriously (he did not have much of a sense of humor, Seldon knew) and they moved into their private office. It was small, but it was also well shielded. Amaryl sat down and crossed his legs. He said, â€Å"Your latest scheme for getting around chaos may be working in part-at the cost of sharpness, of course.† â€Å"Of course. What we gain in the straightaway, we lose in the roundabouts. That's the way the Universe works. We've just got to fool it somehow.† â€Å"We've fooled it a little bit. It's like looking through frosted glass.† â€Å"Better than the years we spent trying to look through lead.† Amaryl muttered something to himself, then said, â€Å"We can catch glimmers of light and dark.† â€Å"Explain!† â€Å"I can't, but I have the Prime Radiant, which I've been working on like a-a-â€Å" â€Å"Try lamec. That's an animal-a beast of burden-we have on Helicon. It doesn't exist on Trantor.† â€Å"If the lamec works hard, then that is what my work on the Prime Radiant has been like.† He pressed the security keypad on his desk and a drawer unsealed and slid open noiselessly. He took out a dark opaque cube that Seldon scrutinized with interest. Seldon himself had worked out the Prime Radiant's circuitry, but Amaryl had put it together-a clever man with his hands was Amaryl. The room darkened and equations and relationships shimmered in the air. Numbers spread out beneath them, hovering just above the desk surface, as if suspended by invisible marionette strings. Seldon said, â€Å"Wonderful. Someday, if we live long enough, we'll have the Prime Radiant produce a river of mathematical symbolism that will chart past and future history. In it we can find currents and rivulets and work out ways of changing them in order to make them follow other currents and rivulets that we would prefer.† â€Å"Yes,† said Amaryl dryly, â€Å"if we can manage to live with the knowledge that the actions we take, which we will mean for the best, may turn out to be for the worst.† â€Å"Believe me, Yugo, I never go to bed at night without that particular thought gnawing at me. Still, we haven't come to it yet. All we have is this-which, as you say, is no more than seeing light and dark fuzzily through frosted glass.† â€Å"True enough.† â€Å"And what is it you think you see, Yugo?† Seldon watched Amaryl closely, a little grimly. He was gaining weight, getting just a bit pudgy. He spent too much time bent over the computers (and now over the Prime Radiant)-and not enough in physical activity. And, though he saw a woman now and then, Seldon knew, he had never married. A mistake! Even a workaholic is forced to take time off to satisfy a mate, to take care of the needs of children. Seldon thought of his own still-trim figure and of the manner in which Dors strove to make him keep it that way. Amaryl said, â€Å"What do I see? The Empire is in trouble.† â€Å"The Empire is always in trouble.† â€Å"Yes, but it's more specific. There's a possibility that we may have trouble at the center.† â€Å"At Trantor?† â€Å"I presume. Or at the Periphery. Either there will be a bad situation here-perhaps civil war-or the outlying Outer Worlds will begin to break away.† â€Å"Surely it doesn't take psychohistory to point out these possibilities.† â€Å"The interesting thing is that there seems a mutual exclusivity. One or the other. The likelihood of both together is very small. Here! Look! It's your own mathematics. Observe!† They bent over the Prime Radiant display for a long time. Seldon said finally, â€Å"I fail to see why the two should be mutually exclusive.† â€Å"So do I, Hari, but where's the value of psychohistory if it shows us only what we would see anyway? This is showing us something we wouldn't see. What it doesn't show us is, first, which alternative is better, and second, what to do to make the better come to pass and depress the possibility of the worse.† Seldon pursed his lips, then said slowly, â€Å"I can tell you which alternative is preferable. Let the Periphery go and keep Trantor.† â€Å"Really?† â€Å"No question. We must keep Trantor stable, if for no other reason than that we're here.† â€Å"Surely our own comfort isn't the decisive point.† â€Å"No, but psychohistory is. What good will it do us to keep the Periphery intact if conditions on Trantor force us to stop work on psychohistory? I don't say that we'll be killed, but we may be unable to work. The development of psychohistory is on what our fate will depend. As for the Empire, if the Periphery secedes it will only begin a disintegration that may take a long time to reach the core.† â€Å"Even if you're right, Hari, what do we do to keep Trantor stable?† â€Å"To begin with, we have to think about it.† A silence fell between them and then Seldon said, â€Å"Thinking doesn't make me happy. What if the Empire is altogether on the wrong track and has been for all its history? I think of that every time I talk to Gruber.† â€Å"Who's Gruber?† â€Å"Mandell Gruber. A gardener.† â€Å"Oh. The one who came running up with the rake to rescue you at the time of the assassination attempt?† â€Å"Yes. I've always been grateful to him for that. He had only a rake against possibly other conspirators with blasters. That's loyalty. Anyhow, talking to him is like a breath of fresh air. I can't spend all my time talking to court officials and to psychohistorians.† â€Å"Thank you.† â€Å"Come! You know what I mean. Gruber likes the open. He wants the wind and the rain and the biting cold and everything else that raw weather can bring to him. I miss it myself sometimes.† â€Å"I don't. I wouldn't care if I never go out there.† â€Å"You were brought up under the dome-but suppose the Empire consisted of simple unindustrialized worlds, living by herding and farming, with thin populations and empty spaces. Wouldn't we all be better off?† â€Å"It sounds horrible to me.† â€Å"I found some spare time to check it as best I could. It seems to me it's a case of unstable equilibrium. A thinly populated world of the type I describe either grows moribund and impoverished, falling off into an uncultured near-animal level-or it industrializes. It is standing on a narrow point and topples over in either direction and, as it just so happens, almost every world in the Galaxy has fallen over into industrialization.† â€Å"Because that's better.† â€Å"Maybe. But it can't continue forever. We're watching the results of the overtoppling now. The Empire cannot exist for much longer because it has-it has overheated. I can't think of any other expression. What will follow we don't know. If, through psychohistory, we manage to prevent the Fall or, more likely, force a recovery after the Fall, is that merely to ensure another period of overheating? Is that the only future humanity has, to push the boulder, like Sisyphus, up to the top of a hill, only to see it roll to the bottom again?† â€Å"Who's Sisyphus?† â€Å"A character in a primitive myth. Yugo, you must do more reading.† Amaryl shrugged. â€Å"So I can learn about Sisyphus? Not important. Perhaps psychohistory will show us a path to an entirely new society, one altogether different from anything we have seen, one that would be stable and desirable.† â€Å"I hope so,† sighed Seldon. â€Å"I hope so, but there's no sign of it yet. For the near future, we will just have to labor to let the Periphery go. That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.† 4 â€Å"And so I said,† said Hari Seldon. † ‘That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.' And so it will, Dors.† Dors listened, tight-lipped. She accepted Seldon's First Ministership as she accepted everything-calmly. Her only mission was to protect him and his psychohistory, but that task, she well knew, was made harder by his position. The best security was to go unnoticed and, as long as the Spaceship-and-Sun, the symbol of the Empire, shone down upon Seldon, all of the physical barriers in existence would be unsatisfactory. The luxury in which they now lived-the careful shielding from spy beams, as well as from physical interference; the advantages to her own historical research of being able to make use of nearly unlimited funds-did not satisfy her. She would gladly have exchanged it all for their old quarters at Streeling University. Or, better yet, for a nameless apartment in a nameless sector where no one knew them. â€Å"That's all very well, Hari dear,† she said, â€Å"but it's not enough.† â€Å"What's not enough?† â€Å"The information you're giving me. You say we might lose the Periphery. How? Why?† Seldon smiled briefly. â€Å"How nice it would be to know, Dors, but psychohistory is not yet at the stage where it could tell us.† â€Å"In your opinion, then. Is it the ambition of local faraway governors to declare themselves independent?† â€Å"That's a factor, certainly. It's happened in past history-as you know far better than I-but never for long. Maybe this time it will be permanent.† â€Å"Because the Empire is weaker?† â€Å"Yes, because trade flows less freely than it once did, because communications are stiffer than they once were, because the governors in the Periphery are, in actual fact, closer to independence than they have ever been. If one of them arises with particular ambitions-â€Å" â€Å"Can you tell which one it might be?† â€Å"Not in the least. All we can force out of psychohistory at this stage is the definite knowledge that if a governor of unusual ability and ambition arises, he would find conditions more suitable for his purposes than he would have in the past. It could be other things, too-some great natural disaster or some sudden civil war between two distant Outer World coalitions. None of that can be precisely predicted as of now, but we can tell that anything of the sort that happens will have more serious consequences than it would have had a century ago.† â€Å"But if you don't know a little more precisely what will happen in the Periphery, how can you so guide actions as to make sure the Periphery goes, rather than Trantor?† â€Å"By keeping a close eye on both and trying to stabilize Trantor and not trying to stabilize the Periphery. We can't expect psychohistory to order events automatically without much greater knowledge of its workings, so we have to make use of constant manual controls, so to speak. In days to come, the technique will be refined and the need for manual control will decrease.† â€Å"But that,† said Dors, â€Å"is in days to come. Right?† â€Å"Right. And even that is only a hope.† â€Å"And just what kind of instabilities threaten Trantor-if we hang on to the Periphery?† â€Å"The same possibilities-economic and social factors, natural disasters, ambitious rivalries among high officials. And something more. I have described the Empire to Yugo as being overheated-and Trantor is the most overheated portion of all. It seems to be breaking down. The infrastructure-water supply, heating, waste disposal, fuel lines, everything-seems to be having unusual problems and that's something I've been turning my attention to more and more lately.† â€Å"What about the death of the Emperor?† Seldon spread his hands. â€Å"That happens inevitably, but Cleon is in good health. He's only my age, which I wish was younger, but he isn't too old. His son is totally inadequate for the succession, but there will be enough claimants. More than enough to cause trouble and make his death distressing, but it might not prove a total catastrophe-in the historic sense.† â€Å"Let's say his assassination, then.† Seldon looked up nervously. â€Å"Don't say that. Even if we're shielded, don't use the word.† â€Å"Hari, don't be foolish. It's an eventuality that must be reckoned with. There was a time when the Joranumites might have taken power and, if they had, the Emperor, one way or another-â€Å" â€Å"Probably not. He would have been more useful as a figurehead. And in any case, forget it. Joranum died last year on Nishaya, a rather pathetic figure.† â€Å"He had followers.† â€Å"Of course. Everyone has followers. Did you ever come across the Globalist party on my native world of Helicon in your studies of the early history of the Kingdom of Trantor and of the Galactic Empire?† â€Å"No, I haven't. I don't want to hurt your feelings, Hari, but I don't recall coming across any piece of history in which Helicon played a role.† â€Å"I'm not hurt, Dors. Happy the world without a history, I always say. In any case, about twenty-four hundred years ago, there arose a group of people on Helicon who were quite convinced that Helicon was the only inhabited globe in the Universe. Helicon was the Universe and beyond it there was only a solid sphere of sky speckled with tiny stars.† â€Å"How could they believe that?† said Dors. â€Å"They were part of the Empire, I presume.† â€Å"Yes, but Globalists insisted that all evidence to the effect that the Empire existed was either illusion or deliberate deceit, that Imperial emissaries and officials were Heliconians playing a part for some reason. They were absolutely immune to reason.† â€Å"And what happened?† â€Å"I suppose it's always pleasant to think that your particular world is the world. At their peak, the Globalists may have persuaded 10 percent of the population of the planet to be part of the movement. Only 10 percent, but they were a vehement minority that drowned out the indifferent majority and threatened to take over.† â€Å"But they didn't, did they?† â€Å"No, they didn't. What happened was that Globalism caused a diminishing of Imperial trade and the Heliconian economy slid into the doldrums. When the belief began to affect the pocketbooks of the population, it lost popularity rapidly. The rise and fall puzzled many at the time, but psychohistory, I'm sure, would have shown it to be inevitable and would have made it unnecessary to give it any thought.† â€Å"I see. But, Hari, what is the point of this story? I presume there's some connection with what we were discussing.† â€Å"The connection is that such movements never completely die, no matter how ridiculous their tenets may seem to sane people. Right now, on Helicon, right now there are still Globalists. Not many, but every once in a while seventy or eighty of them get together in what they call a Global Congress and take enormous pleasure in talking to each other about Globalism. Well, it is only ten years since the Joranumite movement seemed such a terrible threat on this world and it would not be at all surprising if there weren't still some remnants left. There may still be some remnants a thousand years from now.† â€Å"Isn't it possible that a remnant may be dangerous?† â€Å"I doubt it. It was Jo-Jo's charisma that made the movement dangerous-and he's dead. He didn't even die a heroic death or one that was in any way remarkable; he just withered away and died in exile, a broken man.† Dors stood up and walked the length of the room quickly, swinging her arms at her sides and clenching her fists. She returned and stood before the seated Seldon. â€Å"Hari,† she said, â€Å"let me speak my mind. If psychohistory points to the possibility of serious disturbances on Trantor, then if there are Joranumites still left, they may still be plotting the Emperor's death.† Seldon laughed nervously. â€Å"You jump at shadows, Dors. Relax.† But he found that he could not dismiss what she had said quite that easily. 5 The Wye Sector had a tradition of opposition to the Entun Dynasty of Cleon I that had been ruling the Empire for over two centuries. The opposition dated back to a time when the line of Mayors of Wye had contributed members who had served as Emperor. The Wyan Dynasty had neither lasted long nor had it been conspicuously successful, but the people and rulers of Wye found it difficult to forget that they had once been-however imperfectly and temporarily-supreme. The brief period when Rashelle, as the self-appointed Mayor of Wye, had challenged the Empire, eighteen years earlier, had added both to Wye's pride and to its frustration. All this made it reasonable that the small band of leading conspirators should feel as safe in Wye as they would feel anywhere on Trantor. Five of them sat around a table in a room in a run-down portion of the sector. The room was poorly furnished but well shielded. In a chair which, by its marginal superiority in quality to the others, sat the man who might well be judged to be the leader. He had a thin face, a sallow complexion, and a wide mouth with lips so pale as to be nearly invisible. There was a touch of gray in his hair, but his eyes burned with an inextinguishable anger. He was staring at the man seated exactly opposite him-distinctly older and softer, his hair almost white, his plump cheeks tending to quiver when he spoke. The leader said sharply, â€Å"Well? It is quite apparent that you have done nothing. Explain that!† The older man said, â€Å"I am an old Joranumite, Namarti. Why do I have to explain my actions?† Gambol Deen Namarti, once the right-hand man of Laskin â€Å"Jo-Jo† Joranum, said, â€Å"There are many old Joranumites. Some are incompetent, some are soft, some have forgotten. Being an old Joranumite may mean no more than that one is an old fool.† The older man sat back in his chair. â€Å"Are you calling me an old fool? Me? Kaspal Kaspalov? I was with Jo-Jo when you had not yet joined the party, when you were a ragged nothing in search of a cause.† â€Å"I am not calling you a fool,† said Namarti sharply. â€Å"I say simply that some old Joranumites are fools. You have a chance now to show me that you are not one of them.† â€Å"My association with Jo-Jo-â€Å" â€Å"Forget that. He's dead!† â€Å"I should think his spirit lives on.† â€Å"If that thought will help us in our fight, then his spirit lives on. But to others-not to us. We know he made mistakes.† â€Å"I deny that.† â€Å"Don't insist on making a hero out of a mere man who made mistakes. He thought he could move the Empire by the strength of oratory alone, by words-â€Å" â€Å"History shows that words have moved mountains in the past.† â€Å"Not Joranum's words, obviously, because he made mistakes. He hid his Mycogenian origins far too clumsily. Worse, he let himself be tricked into accusing First Minister Eto Demerzel of being a robot. I warned him against that accusation, but he wouldn't listen-and it destroyed him. Now let's start fresh, shall we? Whatever use we make of Joranum's memory for outsiders, let us not ourselves be transfixed by it.† Kaspalov sat silent. The other three transferred their gaze from Namarti to Kaspalov and back, content to let Namarti carry the weight of the discussion. â€Å"With Joranum's exile to Nishaya, the Joranumite movement fell apart and seemed to vanish,† said Namarti harshly. â€Å"It would, indeed, have vanished-but for me. Bit by bit and rubble by rubble, I rebuilt it into a network that extends over all of Trantor. You know this, I take it.† â€Å"I know it, Chief,† mumbled Kaspalov. The use of the title made it plain that Kaspalov was seeking reconciliation. Namarti smiled tightly. He did not insist on the title, but he always enjoyed hearing it used. He said, â€Å"You're part of this network and you have your duties.† Kaspalov stirred. He was clearly debating with himself internally and finally he said slowly, â€Å"You tell me, Chief, that you warned Joranum against accusing the old First Minister of being a robot. You say he didn't listen, but at least you had your say. May I have the same privilege of pointing out what I think is a mistake and have you listen to me as Joranum listened to you, even if, like him, you don't take the advice given you?† â€Å"Of course you can speak your piece, Kaspalov. You are here in order that you might do so. What is your point?† â€Å"These new tactics of ours, Chief, are a mistake. They create disruption and do damage.† â€Å"Of course! They are designed to do that.† Namarti stirred in his seat, controlling his anger with an effort. â€Å"Joranum tried persuasion. It didn't work. We will bring Trantor down by action.† â€Å"For how long? And at what cost?† â€Å"For as long as it takes-and at very little cost, actually. A power stoppage here, a water break there, a sewage backup, an air-conditioning halt. Inconvenience and discomfort-that's all it means.† Kaspalov shook his head. â€Å"These things are cumulative.† â€Å"Of course, Kaspalov, and we want public dismay and resentment to be cumulative, too. Listen, Kaspalov. The Empire is decaying. Everyone knows that. Everyone capable of intelligent thought knows that. The technology will fail here and there, even if we do nothing. We're just helping it along a little.† â€Å"It's dangerous, Chief. Trantor's infrastructure is incredibly complicated. A careless push may bring it down in ruins. Pull the wrong string and Trantor may topple like a house of cards.† â€Å"It hasn't so far.† â€Å"It may in the future. And what if the people find out that we are behind it? They would tear us apart. There would be no need to call in the security establishment or the armed forces. Mobs would destroy us.† â€Å"How would they ever learn enough to blame us? The natural target for the people's resentment will be the government-the Emperor's advisers. They will never look beyond that.† â€Å"And how do we live with ourselves, knowing what we have done?† This last was asked in a whisper, the old man clearly moved by strong emotion. Kaspalov looked pleadingly across the table at his leader, the man to whom he had sworn allegiance. He had done so in the belief that Namarti would truly continue to bear the standard of freedom passed on by Jo-Jo Joranum; now Kaspalov wondered if this is how Jo-Jo would have wanted his dream to come to pass. Namarti clucked his tongue, much as a reproving parent does when confronting an errant child. â€Å"Kaspalov, you can't seriously be turning sentimental on us, are you? Once we are in power, we will pick up the pieces and rebuild. We will gather in the people with all of Joranum's old talk of popular participation in government, with greater representation, and when we are firmly in power we will establish a more efficient and forceful government. We will then have a better Trantor and a stronger Empire. We will set up some sort of discussion system whereby representatives of other worlds can talk themselves into a daze-but we will do the governing.† Kaspalov sat there, irresolute. Namarti smiled joylessly. â€Å"You are not certain? We can't lose. It's been working perfectly and it will continue working perfectly. The Emperor doesn't know what's going on. He hasn't the faintest notion. And his First Minister is a mathematician. He ruined Joranum, true, but since then he has done nothing.† â€Å"He has something called-called-â€Å" â€Å"Forget it. Joranum attached a great deal of importance to it, but it was a part of his being Mycogenian, like his robot mania. This mathematician has nothing-â€Å" â€Å"Historical psychoanalysis or something like that. I heard Joranum once say-â€Å" â€Å"Forget it. Just do your part. You handle the ventilation in the Anemoria Sector, don't you? Very well, then. Have it misfunction in a manner of your choosing. It either shuts down so that the humidity rises or it produces a peculiar odor or something else. None of this will kill anyone, so don't get yourself into a fever of virtuous guilt. You will simply make people uncomfortable and raise the general level of discomfort and annoyance. Can we depend on you?† â€Å"But what would only be discomfort and annoyance to the young and healthy may be more than that to infants, the aged, and the sick†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Are you going to insist that no one at all must be hurt?† Kaspalov mumbled something. Namarti said, â€Å"It's impossible to do anything with a guarantee that no one at all will be hurt. You just do your job. Do it in such a way that you hurt as few as possible-if your conscience insists upon it-but do it!† Kaspalov said, â€Å"Look! I have one thing more to say, Chief.† â€Å"Then say it,† said Namarti wearily. â€Å"We can spend years poking at the infrastructure. The time must come when you take advantage of gathering dissatisfaction to seize the government. How do you intend to do that?† â€Å"You want to know exactly how we'll do it?† â€Å"Yes. The faster we strike, the more limited the damage, the more efficiently the surgery is performed.† Namarti said slowly, â€Å"I have not yet decided on the nature of this ‘surgical strike.' But it will come. Until then, will you do your part?† Kaspalov nodded his head in resignation. â€Å"Yes, Chief.† â€Å"Well then, go,† said Namarti with a sharp gesture of dismissal. Kaspalov rose, turned, and left. Namarti watched him go. He said to the man at his right, â€Å"Kaspalov is not to be trusted. He has sold out and it's only so that he can betray us that he wants to know my plans for the future. Take care of him.† The other nodded and all three left, leaving Namarti alone in the room. He switched off the glowing wall panels, leaving only a lonely square in the ceiling to provide the light that would keep him from being entirely in the darkness. He thought: Every chain has weak links that must be eliminated. We have had to do this in the past and the result is that we have an organization that is untouchable. And in the dimness, he smiled, twisting his face into a kind of feral joy. After all, the network extended even into the Palace itself-not quite firmly, not quite reliably, but it was there. And it would be strengthened.

Psychology and Biology Essay

The essay will begin with an introduction to each approach, giving main assumptions and supporting evidence. Following this, the two theories will be compared and contrasted, looking at strengths and weaknesses. In conclusion there will be a short explanation of the main areas of similarity, and differences  Psychology and its many definitions has changed radically and frequently over time, as an independent area of study. There are many different theoretical views, some conflicting, regarding the most appropriate methods for investigating human nature. The approaches chosen to discuss in this essay are biology psychology and comparative psychology. Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behaviour.Some refer to this field as psychobiology,behavioural biology,behavioural neuroscience.It is an integrative discipline. The study of the biology of behaviour has a long history,but biopsychology did not coalesce into a major neuroscientific discipline until this century.Biopsychologists draw together knowledge from the other neuroscientific disciplines and apply it to the study of behaviour. Biopsychologists are neuroscientists who brings to their research a knowledge of behaviour and the methods of behavioural research. They uses animals because their methods of study can not be used with humans. Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behaviour. Modern research on animal behaviour began with the work of Charles Darwin and Georges Romanes and has continued to grow into a multidisciplinary subject. Today, biologists, psychologists, anthropologists, ecologists, geneticists and many others contribute to the study of animal behaviour.Comparative psychologists compare the behaviour of different species and focus on the genetics,evolution and adaptivness of behaviour.Historically,comparative psychologists have focused on the experimental investigation of animal behaviour in controlled laboratory environments.Modern comparative psychology also encompasses the study of animal behaviour in its natural environment. For Biopsychology,biological bases have been found for a range of psychological disorders. Schizophrenics, for example, have been found to have different brain structures to other people, with smaller brains and higher-than-normal levels of dopamine.Looking at the chemical make-up of the brain has lead to the successful production of a range of drug treatments in recent decades that have helped in the treatment of a variety of issues, including Prozac (for depression), schizophrenia. However,The biological approach in psychology is highly reductionist in its approach to the complexity of human behavior and emotion. Reducing our feelings and reactions to robot-like behavior is not only unethical, it also ignores the factors in our every day environment – our childhood experiences and the influence and behavior of friends and media – that have been found to affect us.Many drug treatments have unwanted side-effects. Claims, for example, that Prozac can cause violent behavior after taking it, are not uncommon, so the claim that the biological approach can produce effective treatment.Drugs only treat the biologically-visible effects, not the causes of problems. Childhood experiences that cause trauma and depression during adulthood may be better treated by confronting our past than by using anti-depressants. Different with biopsychology,Comparative psychology often utilizes the comparative method to study animal behavior. The comparative method involves comparing the similarities and differences among species to gain and understanding of evolutionary relationships. The comparative method can also be used to compare modern species of animals to ancient species.  The study of animal behavior can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology. Research on animal behavior has led to numerous discoveries about human behavior, such as Ivan Pavlov’s research on classical conditioning or Harry Harlow’s work with rhesus monkeys. Students of biological sciences and social sciences can benefit from studying comparative psychology. The strengths of the comparative psychology is that it is easy to find out and analyse the statistics of human psychology and the results are always believable.In addition,it is also clear to show the relationships between different variable quantities.However,there is a weakness that it is hard to find out the conclusion of the cause and effect and the experiments are always inflexible.Also,most of the experiments require a lot of manpower and material resources.  If the approaches are compared in terms of the nature – nurture debate, common ground is found, both believe an individual’s personality develops as they grow, therefore, they are on the nurture side of the argument as opposed to nature, which suggests people are born with genetic dispositions and only possess innate, inherited personality. (Carlson 1990) In conclusion both have fundamental differences and share many attributes, comparative psychologists believe the unconscious has no bearing on behaviour, opposed to biology psychologists’ belief that unconscious drives are the reason we behave as we do, one is scientific, the other isn’t and they both use very different therapies to treat patients. The similarities between the approaches begin as far back as evolution and Darwin’s theory, they share determinism and both fall into the nurture side of the great debate.  However, it is fair to say, that even with their many differences and similarities, these approaches have made the biggest contribution to this ‘science of the mind’ and made history with different therapeutic techniques. Reference lists Simmon Green(1994) Principles of Biopsychology. Lawrence erlbaum associates ltd.  John P.J Pinel(1999) Biopsychology . A Pearson Education Company.

History - The Palaeolithic Period, Barbarians, Stonehenge Assignment

History - The Palaeolithic Period, Barbarians, Stonehenge - Assignment Example The only art we can see from this period are the pieces that stood the test of time – to survive, according to the author, art has to have a) been made of metal or stone b) needs to have a climate that is not destructive to the works of art c) had to exist in a relatively complex society and d) had to have been produced bya society with a tendency to â€Å"cache their art† in places that are hard to access (352). The Palaeolithic cave paintings of France meet a few of these requirements – they are made on a stone surface, so will not degrade, are in caves, which provide protection from both the elements and people who may destroy the work. The Neolithic Stonehenge is made of stone, and had a complex enough society to create monumental architecture, both of which helped it survive. Works of every-day material such as wood are unlikely to survive, which eliminates our ability to understand the small scale art that every day people made in their spare time, and prob ably increases the quality of art that we know of. Question 2 Seeking to protect the empire from the ravishing of barbarian hordes, as well as allow for a change in focus and religion in the Roman Empire, the Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to the city of Constantinople, which was constructed purely for this purpose (378). This shift coincided with an edict allowing Christianity to be freely practiced in the Roman empire, which later would be followed by edicts making Christianity the sole religion of the Roman Empire. To better aid management of this massive empire, it was split into two different ones, the Western, based in Rome, and the Eastern, based in Constantinople, which would have immense affects on art and culture. The two empires grew culturally distinct, with the east speaking Greek instead of Latin, and religious divisions followed, creating the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox religious respectively. Art in the Western Half tended to foll ow traditionally Roman precedents, like St. Peter’s basilica which is styled after a Roman forum, whereas art in the East developed a novel Greek style. As the western half of the empire fell, the art in that region was predominated by the Northern Germanic animal style, which eventually combined with Christianity to inform Carolingian art, named after Charlemagne, one of the most famous Frankish kings (385). Following this style of art, Romanesque art developed, which was a conscious look back on and imitation of older Roman forms. This form was followed by Gothic, which featured a number of architectural advancements (such as thinner walls and flying buttresses) which allowed for the building of light, airy buildings without thick walls and substantial pillaring, as demonstrated by Notre Dame de Paris (389). Question Three Cultures use monumental art as a way of expressing their power, their religion and the will of their people. When comparing Stonehenge with the Colloseum , it becomes apparent that though these works differ significantly in artistic principles and primary purpose, they both fulfill the same roles as works of monumental architecture. Stonehenge was created in the Neolithic period by a pagan people who probably cared deeply about the passing of the stars. It works as a form of monumental calendar, and probably had significant religious intent (354). It consists of a series of state lines, arranged in concentric circles –

E-Commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

E-Commerce - Essay Example Because it revolutionizes the way businesses should prudently  systematize  their activities and go to market, the Internet affects all economic commotions. The business being conducted on the Internet which is now called ‘Electronic Commerce’ has a remarkable history. The continuous research and development has enables corporate organizations to reconstruct their business strategies. The integration of electronic commerce applications lays the foundation in the organization’s digital business process. This report will display the micromanagement and implementation of the current e commerce technologies in to current businesses. The purpose is to analyze the methodologies and processes required for integrating electronic commerce applications. The focus will be on the current practices involved for the enterprise system integration. The organization which is preferred in this report is Tesco PLC. The origin of Tesco was started in 1919 when Jack Cohen started selling groceries from the stall in London. Since then Tesco has claimed itself as one of the leading food and grocery retailers in the world and has over 2000 store worldwide. It was rewarded to adopt award winning online strategy (Award-winning online strategy for Tesco. 2009). Over the years, the organization has focused on maintaining a successful and sustainable business model. The elements consist of diversification of stores in new areas with new services and products. In 2000, Tesco was representing only 8% of the glo bal gross domestic product (GDP). As 65% operations of Tesco selling space are dispersed across the globe representing 53% of GDP. In 1997 the international business generated 1.8% profits. In 2010 the profit grew to 22% which is a remarkable achievement. The organizations recorded revenues till February 2010 were $ 5,494.1 million. The stores are dispersed in Europe, Asia and the Unites States. The geographically dispersed locations of Tesco stores are shown in

International Business Strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

International Business Strategy - Case Study Example To survive, it is vital that a firm can do something better than its competitors (Wonglimpiyarat 2004:1). Globalisation has not only altered the nature and the intensity of competition but has had to dictate and shape organisations in terms of what consumers wants, how and when they want it and what they are prepared to pay for it (Hagan 1996:1). Kanter (1995:71) on his work of "Mastering Change" argues that success in the present day business is not for those companies that re-engineer the way they do things, or for those fixing the past. According to Kanter (1995) such an action will not constitute an adequate response. This is so because success is based on an organisation's ability to create, rather than predict the future by developing those products that will literally transform the way the world thinks and view it self and the needs (Kanter 1995:71). Within the context of today's global competition, businesses and firms no-longer compete as individual companies but try to corporate with other businesses in their activities (Wu & Chien 2007:2). These researchers went further to argue that, this strategy has become quite common in many businesses including the electronic chain. The conventional vertical integrated company based business model is gradually being replaced by collaborative relationship between many fragmented, but complementary and specialized value stars and constellation (Wu & Chien:1). An alternative approach towards organisational success, one which is becoming increasing prominent and has attracted the sustained attention of both domestic and international business scholars are core competences, capabilities and resources (e.g. Madhok 1998, Prahalad & Hamel 1990, Hamel & Prahalad1994 ). In today's global business environment it is no longer sufficient simply to meet customers demand as time quality and cost have become increasingly important in the phase of increasing competition (Petts 1997:551). According to Higgins (1998:2), "customers don't always know what they need or even that there is a problem to be solved." Success awaits those companies that recognize the fact that, to be successful and satisfy customers, it is often necessary to lead customers into recognizing these needs (Higgins 1998:2-3). In the light of this, the aim of this paper is to examine how Philips lost its leadership position in the light of globalization and why the company's had difficulties in changing the strategy. 1.1.2 The Rise of Philip as the Leading Consumer's Electronics in the World Philips is an electronic company that began in Holland specializing in the production of light bulbs. The company was founded by Gerard Philips and the father

A critical evaluation of a the Carrier Bag Levy introduced in Northern Essay

A critical evaluation of a the Carrier Bag Levy introduced in Northern Ireland - Essay Example On the other hand, exceptions to the levy include for the purposes of containing food for takeout, non-packaged foodstsuffs, some medicines, goods that have been contaminated by soil, and sharp implements such as knives and razor blades, among others. The proceeds are intended to be funneled into environmental and public good uses. Plans include increasing the levy to as much as 10p per bag, owing to the success of the levy in drastically reducing the use of plastic bags on the retailer level, with estimates of up to 80 percent in bag use reduction (Invest Northern Ireland 2014; BBC 2013; BBC 2013b; BBC 2013c; Department of the Environment Northern Ireland 2014; Clark 2014; NIDirect Government Services 2013). Washington State in the United States is noteworthy for having imposed a plastic bag tax four years prior, to the tune of 5 US cents per plastic bag, and while government claims a 60 percent reduction in plastic bags used, contrary figures indicate that plastic bag use has swell ed, as evidenced by sustained increases in tax collections from plastic bag use (Williams 2014; Wilson 2013). Meanwhile, in countries like Rwanda, a total ban on plastic bags as opposed to a tax has led to the successful elimination of plastic bags in the country (Clavel 2014). Critiquing the carrier bag levy in the context of Adam Smiths taxation canons, one can see for instance that there is some debate with regard to whether it passes the muster on the canon on collection economy. As Smith expounded, this canon says that the tax should not be a discouragement to business and should be inexpensive to collect. From the point of view of the businesses, the carrier bag levy is not a discouragement to the conduct of business, because the retailers merely act as collection agents of the tax by the government. The retailers being the collection agents and the remitting agents

Risk and Return Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Risk and Return - Term Paper Example It not only takes into account the risk free rate of return but also includes market risk premium while at the same time taking beta of the stock into account too. (Valuebasedmanagement.net, 2011) This paper will discuss as to how to compute the cost of equity for Wal-Marts while at the same comparing it with other firms. Other models for caluclating cost of equity such as dividend discount model as well as arbitrage pricing theory. 1) Calculations Name of the Company Wal-Mart Nestle McDonald Beta Value 0.371 0.582 0.363 US Treasury (RF) 3% 3% 3% RM-RF 7% 7% 7% Cost of Equity 5.59% 7.06% 5.52% Cost of equity for Wal-Mart is computed in following manner: Rate = RF + Beta x (RM-RF) = 3% + 0.37 (7%) Cost of equity = 5.59% Is this cost of equity higher or lower than you expected? The above calculations suggest that the cost of equity for Wal-Mart is 5.59% which is below the average rate on S&P 500 for an average firm. This cost of equity however, may be considered as adequate or right co nsidering the overall fundamentals of Wal-Mart, its brand image, its global presence as well as the overall industry dynamics. Such low rate of cost of equity therefore indicates that investors are satisfied with the overall strong historical performance of Wal-Mart. Beta values of other companies For the purpose of comparison with Wal-Mart, Nestle as well as McDonalds have been considered as a case study. The tabular calculations are provided in following table: Name of the Company Wal-Mart Nestle McDonald Beta Value 0.374 0.585 0.366 US Treasury (RF) 3% 3% 3% RM-RF 7% 7% 7% Cost of Equity 5.59% 7.06% 5.52% Cost of equity for Nestle Rate = RF + Beta x (RM-RF) = 3% + 0.58(7%) = 7.06% Cost of equity for McDonalds Rate = RF + Beta x (RM-RF) = 3% + 0.36 (7%) = 5.52% The comparison made above shows that the cost of equity of three firms is approximately within a certain range. All three firms have cost of equities which are less than 10% suggesting that the low beta values may have an i mpact on their overall valuation. Beta values always suggest the correlation between the market returns as well as the individual security returns therefore low beta value suggest that the market and the security go hands in hand. The above comparison also shows that these firms are mature firms and are industry leaders with low risk profile therefore investors are relatively satisfied on their ability to operate as a going concern. Further, these firms are mature with stable patterns of earning therefore the overall cost of equity is low due to their low risk. 4) Capital asset pricing model is not the only model to compute the cost of equity as models such as dividend discount model as well as arbitrage pricing theory are other alternatives. Dividend Discount Model is based on the computation of the fair value of any security based on the dividends. (Investopedia.com ). According to this model, the future cash flows to be generated from any given security come in the form of future dividends therefore discounting such cash flows with an appropriate rate can provide a fair indication about the price of a security. The formula is : P0 = D1 / (R-G) D1 is the dividends in the future period 1 whereas R is the required rate of return whereas G suggests the historical growth rate of the dividends. Through manipulation of the above formula, the rate of return through dividend discount model can be computed in following manner: R = D1/P0 + G The required rate o

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Philosophy - Essay Example But in reality what is a person, it is one subject on which many theologians, philosopher and psychiatrist pondered over a long period of time. Since we are discussing about an intangible identity, one cannot establish the truth, even when one is definite about its true nature. We could say that person is an identity, with certain capabilities and abilities to perform sanely at a given situation or circumstances. Some people are reluctant to accept a mentally defective human being as a person due to their deficiencies in intellectual power. According to (Dennett,14)â€Å"For instance, infant human beings, mentally defective human beings, and human beings declared insane by licensed psychiatrists are denied personhood, or at any rate crucial elements of personhood† Now just because a human being have a defective mental system, he should not be losing his right to be called as a person. So are we a person just because we possess a well defined intellectual workability. It really seems absurd, for a human being with a soul and mind to be disregarded just because he cannot work rationally and logically .Then it would make also sense to call these mentally defective and immature people as animal. As we know animals does not have rational thinking, and same is the case with infants and mentally ill people. So why is it that we do not address these mentally immature and insane people as animals? Here we can explain that being a person is more about the genetic structure we possess. Otherwise the mentally ill person or animals are not guided by intellect a d they act abnormal in our view. We can understand here that the genetic make up or the body structure and his surviving pattern make him a person. People say that we are designated as a person because we have certain capabilities and abilities which we use in support with our intellect and logic. Being rational means, we act according to our reasoning or as per the guidance of our intelligence .A being can be a person and still cannot be rational, just because he is weak in his brain or working ability. But a rational being cannot exist as a non person, because to be rational he very much has to be a person. It is seen that a mentally insane person is not given the same accountability and responsibility as a normal person .He is not considered as a whole personality ,as he lacks the ability to sort out things with his intellect .So it could be understood that intelligence and rational behavior offers a human being a personhood. Another aspect to being a person is the awareness and consciousness which a person experience in his personhood. The awareness or the consciousness is what is lacking in mentally ill or infants which make them less of a person. The consciousness is the center to the self and a personality and a human being which is not connected to his consciousness can be regarded less of a person. Most of the people nowadays know that we have evolved from the species called hom osapiens. A person is a being with logic, morality and ethical behavior which is obviously lacking in a homosapiens .As per(Rosenberg, 11)â€Å" To regard some being as a person, in shorter, is to grant to that being the sort of respect and treatment due persons, to acknowledge it as having to certain ethical or having standard â€Å".We as persons are more evolved than homosapien species. For example, if we see a human raised in a forest from his childhood, we might hesitate call him a person but might address him as

Comment closely on the following poem Essay Example for Free

Comment closely on the following poem Essay The Self-Unseeing portrays Hardy reminiscing over his childhood life with his parents. In the first stanza, the setting their old house is described in a way that conveys a sense of age and weariness, through such words and phrases as ‘ancient’ (emphasizing the age), ‘footworn and hollowed and thin’ (alluding to the emptiness which has overtaken it through the passage of time after it has been abandoned), ‘former’ (revealing the extent of change in the house, eg. by the door no longer being there), and ‘dead feet’ (those of his parents). At this point in the poem Hardy speaks in the present tense from the outside of the house, in order to convey its emptiness to the reader. The second stanza ignores these aspects of the house, instead focusing on his memories of his parents, which contrast with the first stanza by filling the house with life and action. A happier mood is created here, through a sense of warmth created by the fire, and his mother’s smile, which, along with his father’s playing the violin (‘bowing it higher and higher’), shows the happiness he felt while living with his parents. The musical effect of the violin is also complemented by that of the smooth-flowing ‘abab‘ rhyme scheme. The present tense verbs ‘smiling’ and ‘bowing’ imply that these memories were vivid, as if by introducing the setting to the reader he is reliving them. Hardy’s reference to his parents using the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘he’ rather than their actual names transforms the personal tragedy of the death of his parents to a universal one to which the reader can more easily relate. However, this tragedy is buried beneath the warm, welcoming mood established by the aforementioned use of language in this stanza. Hardy illuminates these memories in the final stanza with light imagery ‘blessings’ (which tend to be associated with heaven and therefore light), ‘day’, ‘glowed’, ‘gleam’, which underscore the joyful feelings previously evoked. This use of light imagery serves as a metaphor to reveal how Hardy, ‘childlike’, ‘danced in a dream’, and overall, the diction shows that his memories had a dazzling and pensive quality. However, it can be seen from the concluding line, ‘Yet we were looking away! ’, that he feels remorseful for not fully appreciating what he had at the time. It is this line which gives meaning to the poem’s title he (the ‘self’) was ‘unseeing’ and could not see the true value of his life with his parents. This makes the light imagery all the more powerful, as Hardy uses it to show that he is now able to see what he was unable to in his childhood. His newfound appreciation for his memories is also evident in the first stanza, where ‘here is’ and ‘here was’ sorrowfully reveal the setting of which he is about to reminisce. Overall, Hardy’s memories are presented in this poem with both regret and happiness. The phrase ‘hollowed and thin’ in the first stanza, in light of this regret, describes the likely state of his soul following the loss of his parents. The regret is subtle at first, but becomes much more apparent after reading the last line; it is as if Hardy uses this line to allow the reader to look back (as he had looked back on his past) and be filled with regret through this reflection. The past-tense verbs ‘walked’, ‘sat’, and ‘stood’, which are simply describing what once was, become tinged with regret (as if mourning) upon a second glance. In contrast, the passive verbs ‘danced’, ‘emblazoned’, and ‘glowed’ preserve their cheerful connotations, which suggest that to Hardy, reminiscence is a bittersweet experience. This idea is supported by the structure of the poem: three quatrains with ‘abab’ rhyme schemes; although the rhyme scheme establishes a sense of reminiscence, there are emotions both positive and negative associated with it. The simple pattern of it also mirrors the simplicity and naivety of childhood. The structure, rhythm, and diction of the poem thus convey a powerful message that pleasant experiences will eventually become memories, carrying both the happiness of their past occurrence and the regret and sadness of knowing that their time is past.

English Literature Essays Orient Opium Drug

English Literature Essays Orient Opium Drug Orient Opium Drug Why do you think any two or more of De Quincey, Coleridge and Doyle were so interested in the Orient in their drug writing? Throughout the nineteenth century, persisting through much of the twentieth and even so far as today, the use of intoxicating substances, namely opium, is inextricably linked with visions of the Orient. Although there has been no significant proof of a universal chemical change in its users, opium undeniably evokes an obsession with the ‘other’. If one cannot attribute this to biological factors, then it is crucial to ascertain the historical, cultural or psychological implications that relate to its conception. Much of the association between opium and the Orient in nineteenth-century Britain was a consequence of British imperialism and the colonisation of the East. In expanding the Empire, Britain dominated the Eastern world, coming with the promise of providing a benevolent civilisation. Instead, they exploited states for many of their most valuable commodities, including opium, and destroyed an already established pride of individuality and national-identity whilst asserting their own sense of a hegemonic British nationality upon inhabitants. The works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge make a substantial contribution in our understanding of the relationship between opium use and Orientalism. Coleridge followed the German Higher Criticism that viewed the Bible as an extension of Oriental mythology, supplying what he believed as evidence of single God in the Eastern world. Coleridge’s writing at the turn of the nineteenth-century encapsulates not only the anxieties of Oriental differentiation, but more poignantly, the conspicuous differences from its impressions on the English opium user. His literary works aside, Coleridge presented perhaps his most vehement condemnation of British involvement in the Orient during a public lecture in 1795. He contrived that such ‘commercial intercourse’ was resulting in the death of millions of East Indians, saddling Britain with an inevitable sense of overwhelming guilt. Furthermore, he details the potentially catastrophic long term effects on Britons, that being, a dilution of national identity through the pollution of imports from the Eastern world. Through his damning of British colonisation, Coleridge provides a macrocosm of himself; his own opium intake was destabilising not only to his own body, but the world around him. He believed the mind state brought about through the ingestion of opium masked many of the distinctions to be made between not only English and Oriental, but between male and female, and even self and other. Much of the singularity of Coleridge’s work, in particular the visionary ‘Kubla Khan’, emanates from his ability to encompass polar opposite sensations towards opium in a single moment, often oscillating between both attraction and repulsion, or pleasure and pain. The phantasmagoric quality of ‘Kubla Khan’ was composed out of what Coleridge attributed to a ‘sleep of the eternal senses’. When describing his opium reveries, Coleridge explained: ‘Laudanum gave me repose, not sleep: but you, I believe, know how divine that repose is – what a spot of inchantment, a green spot of fountains, and flowers and trees, in the very heart of a waste sands’. It comes as no surprise then that Coleridge had the potential to produce such a work as ‘Kubla Khan’ whilst submerged in the alternative realm of consciousness that opium gave him. In the opening stanza of the poem there radiates an awe of harmony within paradise. The Oriental landscape, with ‘caverns measureless to man’ and ‘forests ancient as the hills’, suggest an unworldly, ineffable quality. Although the components of Xanadu may potentially appear threatening, they are harboured within the confines of ‘walls and towers†¦ girdled round’. Thus, Xanadu is rendered passive and benevolent, under the control of the poet. Throughout the next stanza, the Oriental landscape of Xanadu is feminised, with particular reference made to the ‘deep romantic chasm which slanted / Down a green hill athwart a cedarn cover’, a subtle indication of the presence of female genitalia. The ensuing description is one that is far removed from the serenity of an English landscape, detailing ‘A savage place†¦ a waning moon was haunted / By woman wailing for her demon-lover’. The wailing woman suggests a deep pain, perhaps even insanity. This ascends into a threatening, sexually explicit orgasmic crescendo: ‘From this chasm†¦ As if the earth in fast thick pants were breathing, / A mighty fountain momently was forced: / Amid whose swift, half-intermitted burst / Huge fragments†¦ beneath the thresher’s flail.’ The ‘swift, half-intermitted burst’ mentioned evokes notions of seminal emission. The nature of this portrayal belies the expected Romantic interpretations of lakes and seas which poets leisurely sip from for inspiration, instead presenting ‘a mighty fountain’, potentially a phallic symbol, which threatens to engulf all. The overriding image is one of the Oriental landscape breaking through the boundaries attempting to suppress it; occurring metaphorically through the phallic fountain, the fluids from the chasm, and the entrance into the caverns. However, what may initially seem as a jubilant liberation of sexual energy from the constraints of rigid gender roles eventually conspires to be anything but, paving way for a state of almost ‘Armageddon’ proportions; ‘And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean†¦ Ancestral voices prophesying war!’ Thus, provided is an ironic sense of warning against those who dare try and tame these powerful forces. The overall effect is that where the danger of the second stanza undercuts the perceived harmony of the first, suggesting an ambiguity within Xanadu; indicating perhaps the presence of a dark side to the heavenly paradise foretold. One of Coleridge’s primary concerns with regards to Orientalism lay in its power to usurp the author’s authority of and consciousness of writing, a threat to his own artistic control. When referring back to Coleridge’s own comments on British ‘commercial intercourse’ in the East, a definite causal link can be inferred between the Orient infiltrating Britain, by means of opium intake, and introducing a ‘conscious-usurping Orient into the British body and mind to convert them from British to Oriental’. Despite this, through the ingestion of opium, he actively seeks the empowerment this ‘other’ provides him. Analysis of the conclusion of ‘Kubla Khan’ perhaps gives some indication of a shift towards a positive outlook on the conjuring of the Orient; hoping that through the ‘milk of Paradise’ the speaker may be able to transcend to a state in which he may ‘build that dome in the air’. However, his ascension to God-like status, he believes, may make others treat him as unholy, perhaps with ‘holy dread’: ‘And all should cry, Beware! Beware! / His flashing eyes, his floating hair! / Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread’. The use of the oxymoronic phrase ‘holy dread’ reiterates Coleridge’s own pleasure against pain contradiction with opium ingestion and Orientalism. Furthermore, it perhaps subtly indicates the approach he believes the imperialistic order of Britain should adopt when attempting to contain those with ‘flashing eyes’. The ‘plot’ that unravels throughout ‘Kubla Khan’ is one where a powerful Eastern, feminine force penetrates and destroys the flimsy Western, male barriers that enclose it. The implication presented by Coleridge is that these same forces can not only impose themselves on a nation, but on an individual. D. A. Miller identifies the male terror at the prospect of being occupied by the female, arguing that it resembles and inverts a classic rape scenario. Thus, it strikes a common chord in Coleridge’s own Oriental possession, which is often feminised, invading his body but exerting its own control over it, by nature evoking paradoxical destruction and pleasure within him. Moreover, this ‘inverted rape scenario’ is itself a partial reversal of what Coleridge deemed Britain’s exploitation of the East, and an ironic act of retribution. It was Coleridge’s foremost concern that this invasion and alteration process went some way into eroding sense of national identity and British culture, a process that he deduced would ultimately blur any distinctions to be made between Britain and the Eastern world, until they eventually merged into one. Thomas De Quincey’s analyses of the relationship between opium and Orientalism yield conflicting opinions to those formulated by Coleridge. It was De Quincey’s underlying theory that opium acted as a means of excavating the Orient within the British self. He concludes, contrary to Coleridge, that divisions between the East and West never actually existed; the Oriental ‘other’ never facilitated a hostile invasion of body and nation, but was present at conception, and is indeed the origin of all things ‘British’. In a similar vein to Coleridge, De Quincey condemns the exposure of the ‘other’ within the self, but still paradoxically seeks it by means of opium intake. John Barrell comments that De Quincey identifies the internal manifestation of the Orient within as an infection, and adopts measures to protect him against this. One such method follows the process of inoculation, whereby in taking a piece of the Orient into himself, namely opium, De Quincey hopes to dismiss that which he does not attribute to himself, conceptualising an internal West against East division in terms of what is familiar and what is alien. However, as Barrell suggests, this measure is destined for failure because the subject reinforces the infection by the same means he hope will crush it. Integral to De Quincey’s musings on Orientalism is the visit of the Malay in ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’. The Malay is depicted in a demonic fashion, with ‘fiery eyes’ that ‘took hold of my fancy and my eye in a way that none of the statuesque attitudes exhibited in the ballets at the Opera House’. The ‘otherness’ of the Malay is overtly referred to in its comparison to the domesticity of the young servant; mention is made of an ‘impassable gulf’ that exists between their methods of communication. In addition, the figure with a ‘turban and loose trowsers of dingy white’ is harshly juxtaposed with the ‘native spirit of mountain intrepidity’ displayed by the young servant: ‘And a more striking picture there could not be imagined, than the beautiful English face of the girl, and its exquisite fairness†¦ contrasted with the sallow and bilious skin of the Malay, enamelled or veneered with mahogany†¦ his small, fierce, restless eyes, thin lips, slavish gestures and adorations.’ The impression given is one of a man, or, as his title may imply, a collective, who are dehumanised, depicted in terms of a polished piece of furniture; his only relief is that his ‘trowsers of dingy white’ are excused by the ‘dark panelling’ of the kitchen. Furthermore, De Quincey emulates Coleridge’s sense of ‘holy dread’ within ‘Kubla Khan’ in the manner in which he expresses the young servant’s reaction to the appearance of the Malay: ‘he had placed himself nearer to the girl than she seemed to relish; though her native spirit of mountain intrepidity contended with the feeling of simple awe which her countenance expressed as she gazed upon the tiger-cat before her.’ Provided here is not only a comment on the approach taken by the familiar West to the alien East, one that, although threatening, still proves intriguing, but perhaps further indicates De Quincey’s own personal struggle with his opium intake. Moreover, significance lies in De Quincey’s attempts to converse with the Malay in Classical Greek, in that it exemplifies Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism; De Quincey’s construction of a material conjoined East, in which differences between India and China, for instance, are ignored is why he believes speaking to the Malay in any ‘Oriental’ tongue will suffice. De Quincey’s oriental dreams in the later stages of ‘Confessions†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ provide a supplementary outlook on the Orientalism construct. He reveals that ‘the causes of my horror lie deep’, continuing: ‘As the cradle of the human race, it would alone have a dim and reverential feeling connected with it†¦ The mere antiquity of Asiatic things, of their institutions, histories, modes of faith, c. is so impressive, that to me the vast age of the race and name overpowers the sense of youth in the individual. A young Chinese seems to me an antediluvian man renewed.’ De Quincey is of the opinion that the sheer age and permanence of the Orient implies that it provides the origin for everything attributed to British culture and identity. This notion is enhanced by his further consolation that ‘the barrier of utter abhorrence, and want of sympathy placed between us by feelings deeper than I can analyse’; De Quincey ironically accepts that there is in fact, no barrier at all, and that what may indeed lie on the other side manifests itself within him during his opium reveries. Thus, De Quincey inverts his own previously conjured distinctions between West and East, self and other, through his opium ingestion. Paradoxically, that which reveals itself as most ‘other’ to him is still ironically the origin of his own self. De Quincey’s conceptualised Orient is thus rendered useless as he accepts that the West always was the East to begin with, and that any argument to the contrary is a futile one. Bibliography Allen, N. B., A Note on Coleridge’s â€Å"Kubla Khan†. Modern Language Notes, 57, 1942, pp. 108-113 Berridge, V., Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Drug Control Policy in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century England, 2nd edition (London: Free Association, 1999). Cooke, M. G., De Quincey, Coleridge, and the Formal Uses of Intoxication. Yale French Studies, 50, 1974, pp. 26-40 Hayter, A., Opium and the Romantic Imagination (London: Faber, 1968). Jay, M., Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century (Sawtry: Dedalus, 2000). Leask, N., British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire (Cambridge: University Press, 1992) Said, E. W., Orientalism (London: Penguin, 2003) Schneider, E., The â€Å"Dream† of Kubla Khan. PMLA, 60, 1945, pp. 784-801

Gauley Bridge Disaster and Bhopal Disaster

Gauley Bridge Disaster and Bhopal Disaster Accident Causation Gauley Bridge Disaster Industrial disasters were common during the great depression because of the disregard for safety guidelines by contracting companies. Accident causations during this period were mainly the inability by organization to uphold the safety regulations for employees working in hazardous conditions such as silicosis infection as in the case of the Gauley Bridge disaster. The Gauley Bridge disaster is one of the largest industrial disasters in the United States. The disaster occurred in 1930s during the great recession (Corn 132). The project that led to the occurrence of the disaster involved the construction of a hydroelectric generation power in West Virginia. This required the diversion of water of the two rivers in the area to enhance the power generation process (Magnuson 322). The Rinehart and Dennis Company and the New Kanahwa Power Company companies were involved in the construction the tunnel and power plant respectively. The Rinehart and Dennis Company contracted both African-Americans and Caucasians to work in the construction of the tunnel in 1930s. The construction of the tunnel involved drilling through a rock that had a high percentage of silicon. Research indicates that some of the rocks in the area, had approximately 99.3% silicon, which was very hazardous to humans. In addition, the workforce at the tunnel were not provided with the appropriate safety gears and the machinery used contributed to increase in dust from the site (Corn 133). The individuals working at the site were exposed to high levels of silicon from the rock and hence contracted silicosis. The exact number of individuals who died from the disaster was not established by the approximate number provided was 700 individuals; most of whom were African-Americans. The causes of the disaster involved the failure by the company to examine the conditions of the area in terms of silicon percentage in order to employ the appropriate safety mechanisms (Magnuson 324). In addition, the workers were not provided with dust masks which could have reduced the number of deaths as well as silicosis infections. Bhopal Disaster The Bhopal disaster occurred because of the leakage of the methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from various storage tanks of the Union Carbide factory in India.   The Union carbide factory is located in the region of Madhya Pradesh at Bhopal, India. The methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas is used as an intermediate in the production of pesticides and is produced by mixing phosgene gas with methyl amine. The total amount of gas that was released to the air from the factory is estimated to be 36 tones (Bowonder and Harold 184). The methyl isocyanate gas had various effects on the environment and residents of Bhopal such as chest tightness, burning sensation in the eyes and reduction of levels of oxygen from the environment. This gas accident caused approximately 2500 deaths and caused permanent physical body damage to approximately 17000 individuals. The pollution caused by this disaster continue to affect the residents of Bhopal due to the pollution of water and soils in the surrounding areas (Bowo nder and Harold 190). The causes of the Bhopal disaster were both technical and safety issues. The inappropriate storage of the gas in tanks for long duration violated the safety guidelines. In addition, the location of the factory in a populous neighborhood contributed to the high number of causalities. Other causes include the malfunctioning of the refrigeration units and safety devices at the factory. This accident could have be prevented through the implementation of various safety guidelines such as installation of adequate number of safety devices and the storage of the gas at the right containers based on the safety guidelines (Bowonder and Harold 200). The factory should be located in sparsely populous areas to minimize the number of casualties in case of an accident. Related Accidents or Disasters Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire: This industrial accident occurred in New York City in 1905. The disaster caused approximately 100 workers through burning and injuries while escaping fire. The disaster was caused by malfunctioning of the machines and failure by the company to uphold safety guidelines on fire. A legislation requiring improved safety guidelines in the industries was established to prevent future accidents. Chicago Crib Disaster: This disaster occurred in 1909 when fire broke out during the construction of a Chicago water intake tunnel. Data indicates that approximately 60 workers died from burns and by drowning in the lake. Various safety legislations have been enacted to ensure the safety of workers as well as installation of appropriate fire escape mechanisms in risky working sites.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Bowonder, B., and Harold A. Linstone. Notes on the Bhopal accident: Risk analysis and multiple perspectives. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 32.2 (1987): 183-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   202. Corn, Jacqueline K. Historical aspects of industrial hygiene-II. Silicosis. The American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 41.2 (1980): 125-133. Magnuson, Harold J. Health hazards in the construction industry. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 3.7 (1961): 321-325.

The Civil Rights Movement :: Equality Segregation Racism Essays

The fight for equality and against segregation has always been a noble fight. But is inflicting your rage onto those who have inflicted theirs upon you keep your nobility or just bring yours down to their level? Especially when there is a great deal of violence being used. This never-ending battle between the blacks and the whites has tormented the U.S. for years and still goes on in some areas. During the 1950’s –1960’s the civil rights movement was at its peek. This was when the African-Americans were growing impatient and could not wait a minute longer before they had their constitutional and God given rights. Many peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts were usually always greeted at the end with police, attack dogs, firemen, and ambulances. African- Americans started their own â€Å"police force† called The Black Panther Party so they can supposedly arm themselves against the white people. While others such as Malcolm X tried to convince black people that the whites were not going to help them and that they have to stand up for their own rights. Many riots were also taking place across the nation destroying many cities. After waiting for 300 years so they can have rights that every human being should naturally have they were angry and angry people are not very reasonable. As a result of getting rid of integration many people come up with peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts as a solution. This was when hundreds or maybe thousands of young and old black people gathered around as a group so they can be heard and seen by everyone. Their goals would always vary but they would never stop until they have reached them, even though it may include violence. A good example would be in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2, 1963. Their goals were to try to stop integration in public facilities and department stores. The leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. Early on April 12, 1963 they were arrested for marching when the governor told them not to. Directly on their release on April 20 they planned their second march. Their second march included a thousand people and when they barely started marching a block away the police commissioner was waiting for them and brutally arrested 900 people. The next day 25,000 people came out to march including many children. This time instead of arresting them they sprayed water and let loose attack dogs. The Civil Rights Movement :: Equality Segregation Racism Essays The fight for equality and against segregation has always been a noble fight. But is inflicting your rage onto those who have inflicted theirs upon you keep your nobility or just bring yours down to their level? Especially when there is a great deal of violence being used. This never-ending battle between the blacks and the whites has tormented the U.S. for years and still goes on in some areas. During the 1950’s –1960’s the civil rights movement was at its peek. This was when the African-Americans were growing impatient and could not wait a minute longer before they had their constitutional and God given rights. Many peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts were usually always greeted at the end with police, attack dogs, firemen, and ambulances. African- Americans started their own â€Å"police force† called The Black Panther Party so they can supposedly arm themselves against the white people. While others such as Malcolm X tried to convince black people that the whites were not going to help them and that they have to stand up for their own rights. Many riots were also taking place across the nation destroying many cities. After waiting for 300 years so they can have rights that every human being should naturally have they were angry and angry people are not very reasonable. As a result of getting rid of integration many people come up with peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts as a solution. This was when hundreds or maybe thousands of young and old black people gathered around as a group so they can be heard and seen by everyone. Their goals would always vary but they would never stop until they have reached them, even though it may include violence. A good example would be in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2, 1963. Their goals were to try to stop integration in public facilities and department stores. The leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. Early on April 12, 1963 they were arrested for marching when the governor told them not to. Directly on their release on April 20 they planned their second march. Their second march included a thousand people and when they barely started marching a block away the police commissioner was waiting for them and brutally arrested 900 people. The next day 25,000 people came out to march including many children. This time instead of arresting them they sprayed water and let loose attack dogs.

Henry VI of England :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Could you imagine yourself becoming the leader of a country at merely the age of nine months old? King Henry VI of England did it. Henry was the only son of King Henry V and Catherine of Valois (Wikipedia). By the time Henry V died, he had not only consolidated power as the King of England, but had also effectively accomplished what generations of his ancestors had failed to achieve through decades of war: unification of the crowns of England and France (Wikipedia). For that one single victory by Henry V, he became very popular for that effort. By the sounds of it, Henry was an outseanding King and loved by the people. His son, Henry VI, seemingly had to follow in his fathers footsteps and perhaps do something even greater than his now deceased father. There was only one problem: How can you run a country when you are only a child? England was okay after the death of Henry V because Henry VI had regents that ran the country for him. Under normal circumstances of this magnitude, the wife of a deceased King ran the country, but the English did not want Catherine of Valois to run the country for the simple fact that she was French; so therefore they gave the power to this infant in hopes of greatness. Because young Henry was too young to run the country and had regents to run the country for him until he became of age, Catherine made sure that her son was well-educated. While politics and foreign policies were being negotiated by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Bishop Henry Beaufort, and John, Duke of Bedford, young Henry VI was either learning or being told to go play (Crow). Henry was finally officially crowned King of England at Westminister Abbey on November 6, 1429 at the age of eight and King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on December 16, 1431. Henry did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437 (Wikipedia).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the simple fact that when Henry VI was younger and not allowed to take an active role in leading England, he did not really care about running the country. Henry was such a spiritually deep man that he lacked the worldly wisdom necessary to allow him to rule effectively (Wikipedia). Henry was more of an indecisive pushover.

America culture and society in the 1920s

Lynn Dumenil's account of the era commonly referred to as the â€Å"roaring twenties† in The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s there is an intentional emphasis placed on the effort to dispel the popular notion that the new, revolutionary transformations in culture and society that took place at this time in history were direct results of the First World War.In the stead of this less insightful means of analyzing the 1920's in America by assuming that the post war era was a direct creation and consequence from the war, the author offers the suggestion that the seeds of the twenties were planted much earlier during the industrial revolution and through the effects of a culture †¦ Showed first 120 words of 1136 Size (words) †¦ Continuing with another 115 out of 1136 Size (words) †¦ are aspects to this period that I feel this particular text does not give proper acknowledgement to.Dumenil does a good job of showing the prevailing winds of the time and analyzing the forces that pushed society forward into what it is today; however, little is said about the opposing forces that tried to collectively pull back the reigns of capitalism, secularism, and urbanization. These forces, which came in the form of the Industrial Workers of the World, William Jennings Bryan, and many others who attempted to retain the Victorian way of life also played an instrumental role in shaping society through their broad range of dissent from the path of urbanizationWhen most of us take a backward glance at the 1920s, we may think of prohibition and the jazz age, of movies stars and flappers, of Harold Lloyd and Mary Pick ford, of Lindbergh and Hoover–and of Black Friday, October 29, 1929, when the plunging stock market ushered in the great depression. But the 1920s were much more. Lynn Dumenil brings a fresh interpretation to a dramatic, important, and misunderstood decade.As her lively work makes clear, changing values brought an end to the repressive Victorian era; urban liberalism emerged; the federal bureaucracy was expanded; pluralism became increasingly important to America's heterogeneous society; and different religious, ethnic, and cultural groups encountered the homogenizing force of a powerful mass-consumer culture. The Modern Temper brings these many developments into sharp focus. Praise â€Å"The Modern Temper is an engaging, stimulating, and thoughtful re-creation of one of our most interesting and complex decades.†Lynn Dumenil's The Modern Temper provides an exciting and original synthesis of a crucial decade that few of us really understand. She makes the insights and confusions of the women and the men of the twenties come alive. This is an important book. â€Å"–Ellen Dubois, University of California at Los Angeles â€Å"Dumenil offers wealth of fresh insights on a fascinating decade. This illuminating study subtly recasts our understanding of an era whose tensions and stresses oft en uncannily parallel those of our own day. â€Å"–Paul Boyer, University of WisconsinSynopsis: when most of us take a backward glance at the 1920s, we may think of prohibition and the jazz age, of movies stars and flappers, of Harold Lloyd and Mary Pick ford, of Lindbergh and Hoover–and of Black Friday, October 29, 1929, when the plunging stock market ushered in the great depression. But the 1920s were much more. Lynn Dumenil brings a fresh interpretation to a dramatic, important, and misunderstood decade. As her lively work makes clear, changing values brought an end to the repressive Victorian era; urban liberalism emerged; the federal bureaucracy was expanded; pluralism became increasingly important to America'sheterogeneous society; and different religious, ethnic, and cultural groups encountered the homogenizing force of a powerful mass-consumer culture. The Modern Temper brings these many developments into sharp focus. Turning to the flip side of the '20s' flap per image, Dumenil looks at the darker side of the decade forming the â€Å"central motifs that have shaped the modern American temper. † Between the end of WWI and the stock market crash, the aura of get-rich-quick prosperity overshadowed tensions resulting from the highly skewed distribution of wealth.The unfettered capitalism of the time is reflected by Calvin Coolidge, who said, â€Å"the man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man, who works there, worships there. † In 1920, for the first time, half the U. S. population lived in cities. While life grew more organized, complex and sexually liberated, the reaction increased, too. Capitalists fanned a Red Scare following the 1919 Bolshevik Revolution, forcing American reformers to confront this inflated fear along with homegrown poverty and racism.Dumenil points to the mass consumer culture, corporate mentality, job structure that eroded individual autonomy, assembly lines, intense special-interest lobbying in Washington and the fusion of sexuality with consumption as among the decade's legacies to later American culture. Readers may wish that Dumenil spent more time on countervailing radical forces (Rand School of Social Science; Scott Nearing; Max Eastman's The Masses; Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW) that contributed to the ferment of this formative era.Even so, she has captured the fire of this volcanic time and weaves together scores of social and political threads into an insightful overview. American culture in the 1920,s and beyond has had a great significance up to date. The culture invented in those days is still in place and most people and groups still practice and keep the souvenirs so that they can pass from one generation to another. Religious influence is also to be seen in situations where new migrants have made residential decisions. polarizations of ethnic religious groups in the 1920’s to present day America the major division is that of protestants and Catholics.Social interaction within the city is often on the basis of these broad religious groupings which can over ride ethnic divisions. For example, the Dutch immigrant community is more likely to mix the Swedish immigrant community than with Italian because of religious affiliations. The third major religious group is that of the Jewish community and has a strong sense of territory and strong social processes internal to the community but with relative loose connection with other communities. Agricultural practices where practiced by farmers in rural areas.Most farmers began to drift from the highlands and into the lowland alluvial plains. They had been attracted by the greater agricultural fertility of the soil but what is certain is that the move led to profound changes in agrarian practice. Most farmers favored as an independent originator of agriculture, appears the most prolific. Among the crops which first emerged in the Americas where maize, potatoes, manioc, cacao, squ ash and tobacco, and among the animals where the llama, the turkey, and the guinea pig.Industrial revolution was latter invented which affected agriculture, transport, social organizations and urbanization. In fact there were few facet of life left untouched by them. in addition to this, it maybe argued that the changes which took place during the period conventionally recognized as that of industrial revolution had the origin sometimes many centuries earlier. In that sense the period was not one of revolution, but one in which there was a marked quickening of the processes already begun and underway. But few would deny that the industrial revolution marks one of the major transformations in history.it is important in this context because as well as its social and economic impact, it had profound geographical consequences. The social structure or political opinion of neighborhood influences the individual voting decisions. the neighborhood effect is similar to a diffusion process in that political attitudes spread within a district in several cities in U. S. A individuals of relatively low socio-economic class living in middle class neighborhoods are less likely to vote democratic (the traditional party of lower class voters ) than if they live in a lower class neighborhood.The individuals are affected in their voting behavior by the information and political environment of their area of residence. The degree of this influence is termed the neighborhood effect The process underlying the neighborhood effect depends on the probability of contacts of the voter with someone who will provide political information. This probability of contacts depends not only on social groupings in the neighborhood. Lynn dumenill’s account on all this issues is discussed in dept and formed the core values of the American culture.although a lot as borrowed from the past years and history the incorporation of it in the 1920’s made a strong cultural impact and the Americ ans also tend to keep their culture but due to intermarriages and new inhabitants heading to America. Most people doesn’t follow or know their past culture well unless they read from books References: Richard Marchand, 1985. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

The Market Coverage Strategies

INTRODUCTION While company has differentiated several market segmentation. Company need to select a suitable and profitable segment to enter it. But, how company identify which segment is most valuable to itself and compatible with its current resource and facilities. So, company may use market coverage strategies to solve this problem and choice the best segment to enter it. Market coverage strategic is a method that helps in evaluating the various segments of the marketplace and deciding which segment to cover in the marketing of a particular product.BODY There are 3 types of general market coverage strategies which will generally adopted by marketer. There are undifferentiated marketing, differentiated marketing, and concentrated marketing. For undifferentiated marketing, is a market coverage strategy whereby company using single product to attack whole market without concern differences within market. Undifferentiated marketing obtain to mass distribution and mass advertising, wh ich aiming to give the product a superior image in the minds of consumers.It helps in cost saving as single production line, inventoried, distributed, and advertised. So when it comes to market research and product management, costs usually to be lower as only focusing single product. For example, Nestle company produce MILO to attack to whole market without differentiate market segmentation. This is a milk beverage with chocolate and malt, it has successfully attract wide segment of market likes children, teenager, adult and even old folk. MILO has become part of daily necessary of consumer.For differentiated marketing, this is multi-segment marketing which market coverage strategy while a company attack to two or more market segment by selling product and unique marketing strategy which tailored to each different segment. It would help company to obtain revenue from different market segment whereby attacking every single market segment. However, it also increases the costs of prod uction, inventoried, distributed, advertise, market research and product management.For example, Mc-Donald, it sells various type of burger to target different type of market segment such as fish burger, chicken burger, and beef burger and happy meal (target children). So, customer will feel company able to serve what they need and other alternative choice even their taste change. Besides that, Mc Donald also sells fried chicken to satisfy those customers who has bored with burger. So, by targeting different type of market segments, it makes Mc Donald becomes successfully in the fast food industry.For concentrated marketing, it is one of the market segmentation which company produce product to market for a very well-defined, specific segment of the consumer population. This marketing strategy is highly focusing to the needs of that specific market segment. This strategy is particularly effective for certain company. As limited resources, it enables the company to achieve a strong ma rket position and becomes specialist in the specific market segment. Concentrated strategy helps in controlling cost effectively while avoiding mass production, mass distribution and mass advertising.So, company might use the fund from these aspects to invest R&D for its product development which will help company to sustain in the long run business within the specific industry. For example, ROLEX Company which produces luxury watches to specific market segment, it has created the branded and luxury image to customer and highly focusing on the technical part of watches function development. ROLEX only targeting to higher-income customer segment, it creates higher profit margin as well although the market share is small.When company has understood about 3 types of general market coverage strategies, company should only choose one strategy out of these 3 due to resource limited and risk concerns. So, what are the factors need to be considered between company status and strategy in ord er to ensure company will choose the best market coverage strategy. The factors need to be considered are company resources, product variability, product’s stage in the life cycle, market variability, and competitor’s marketing strategies. Firstly, company resource is crucial in choosing whether the company should go for undifferentiated, differentiate and concentrated.As these 3 strategies are requiring different level of resources to company, it needed to compatible with company current resource availability. For example, a new market entrant usually has limited resource and capital to invest its product to tailor with every different customer segment. So it might choose undifferentiated marketing in the early time of business to achieve economies of scale for cost saving and avoid risk and, as differentiated and concentrated strategies require more resource and capital to invest on it.Secondly, Product variability, company need to consider its product changeability while making decision to market coverage strategy. If the product changeability is low, it might be difficult to use differentiated marketing strategy for the company. So, it only goes for either undifferentiated marketing or concentrated marketing, as these two strategies focusing on single product producing to satisfy the market. For example, SUNKIST Company is using undifferentiated marketing strategy to target its market segment.The reason is because the product of SUNKIST is orange and it has limited the variability to target different market segmentation. So, differentiated marketing strategy is not appropriate in this case. Thirdly, Product stage in the life cycle, company might apply different market coverage strategy while different stages of life cycle. When the product under stage of â€Å"introduction† in the product life cycle, it should apply undifferentiated marketing or concentrated marketing instead of using differentiated marketing.It is because when product under this stage, there are lots of unforeseen risk along the time. Company should more focus the major customer and instead focus whole customer segment as it will be costly. For example, Old Chang Kee started its business with selling handmade curry puff to customer at the early stage of business. When its business has picked up, it started diversify its product to serve variety customer segment by introducing new product likes sotong ball, chicken wing and up to 28 types of products.Fourthly, Market variability, when the time of market changeability is high, it will affect the market coverage strategy to apply. These product usually famous and decline by customer in a very short of time due to the trend. So, differentiated marketing strategy might not be suitable for these product, company would not be benefit to target all segment of customer and product life cycle is too short. For example, toy likes YOYO and TRANSFORMER become famous and high demanded by customer as the fashi on and movie affection.So, company should not apply differentiated marketing and concentrated marketing as it is no worth to invest to the product which product life cycle is too short. Lastly, competitor’s marketing strategies, company should consider other competitors strategies moves before determine market coverage strategies. It is too risky to have same strategies with own competitors and market share also will be reduced. Company should look for the latent market and enjoy the higher profit margin. For example, HERMES bag is targeting luxury market by using concentrated marketing.It helps to make higher profit margin from this specific market instead targeting mass market segment as there are too many competitors within the industry. Conclusion Company should understand which market coverage strategies appropriate to apply. It related to company product and future targeting customer segment. At the same time, Company need to compare with own current resource, micro and macro environment. Because these factors will affect the determination of market coverage strategies and also will decides the profitability of the product in the business.