A Study of the Cultural Imperialism Theory Essay

ABSTRACT This paper explores the validity of the Cultural Imperialism Theory which says the Western culture has dominated the cultures of developing Nations. It examines to what extent and how the Western world in the real sense has dominated the developing countries. The study further examined the means through which the developing countries are being dominated culturally by the Western culture. The paper further looked at both the negative and the positive effects of cultural imperialism. It concluded that though the western world is succeeding in eroding the culture of developing countries and Nigeria as a study, Nigeria as a Nation should put on some safety belt in safeguarding our heritage. INTRODUCTION Culture is the way of life of a set of people. It encompasses the knowledge, ideas, beliefs, values, standards, and sentiments prevalent in the group. According to Charles A. Ellwood, an American Sociologist, culture is the â€Å"collective name for all behavior patterns socially acquired and socially transmitted by means of symbols†. Dare A., defines Culture as the collectivity of human activities and general principles that tend to guide ideas of a group of people with shared traditions (general acceptability), which are passed on, instilled into generation (socialization) and reinvigorated by members of the group (sustainability) while Imperialism as defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography is the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination The Theorist of Cultural Imperialism theory, Herb Schiller postulated that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by means of imposing on them, western views thereby destroying their native cultures Western Civilization produces the majority of the media (film, news, comics, etc.) because they have the money to do so. The rest of the world purchases those productions because it is cheaper for them to do so rather than produce their own. Therefore, Third World countries are watching media filled with the Western world’s way of living, believing, and thinking. The third world cultures then start to want and do the same things in their countries and destroy their own culture. In cultural Imperialism theory, the key words are culture and imperialism. According to Anaeto G., Onabajo, O. and Osifeso, J. (2008), they wrote that â€Å"the western countries are technologically developed in television and motion programmes and developing countries that are not technologically developed depend on the programmes from the developed countries. This means that the programmes from the developed counties which portray their culture will be imbibed by the developing nations. This western culture now dominates our local culture simply because we are consuming their mass media messages†. The assumptions of the theory according to Schiller, H., are classified into three namely 1. Ontological Assumptions 2. Epistemological Assumptions 3. Axiological Assumptions 1. Ontological Assumptions This theory says that humans do not have the free will to chose how they feel, act, think, and live. They react to what they see on television because there is nothing else to compare it to besides their own lives, usually portrayed as less than what it should be. 2. Epistemological Assumptions This theory explains that there is one truth and no matter what that truth never going to change. As long as Third World countries continue to air Western Civilization’s programs then the third world countries will always believe they should act, feel, think, and live as Western Civilizations act, feel, think, and live. 3. Axiological Assumptions This theory is value-neutral and objective. It does not matter what beliefs the people of Third World may already hold, the television programs from the Western World will communicate the same message and affect them in the same way. CRITIQUES OF THEORY The critiques of the Cultural Imperialism theory came up with scientific theory which counter-argued the theory with the following responses: Explanatory Power: It explains what happens when one group of people with their own ideas sends messages through the media to a different group of people. Predictive Power: It predicts that Third World countries’ culture will be destroyed and the people will identify with Western views. Parsimony: We can see a direct linear path from sender to receiver through the media channels and then watch the effects. Falsifiability: The theory could be proved false should the Third World countries not be affected by Western media and they do not lose their culture. E.G â€Å"Under the intriguing title Seducing the French (1993), Richard F.Kuisel concedes that the French underwent a process of Americanization. But at the same time, they succeeded in defending their â€Å"Frenchness.† French consumers found some American products appealing but they also continued to cherish and idealize French national identity, notably the idea of a superior French high culture.† Internal Consistency: There is a logical flow of events and consequences within the theory. Heuristic Provocativeness: This theory could lead to new hypotheses such as which cultures are affected more than others (if any) or whether low context differ in the reception of messages compared top high context cultures? Organizing Power: This fits with what we already know about differences between Western civilization and Third World countries. Another example the critique stated is that â€Å"if an International Broadcast station shows a video depicting Nigerians as corrupt, dangerous and malnourished, should someone in Nigeria watch this the Western stereotype of Nigerians, and not affected by it, the theory have been proved false†. John, T., further argues that Cultural imperialism consists of the spread of modernity. It is a process of cultural loss and not of cultural expansion. There never were groups of conspirators who attempted to spread any particular culture. Instead, global technological and economic progress and integration reduced the importance of national culture. Therefore, it is misleading to put the blame for a global development on any one culture. The notion of imperialism that is, purposeful cultural conquest is irrelevant; instead, all countries, regardless of whether they are located in the northern or southern hemisphere, are victims of a worldwide cultural change MODES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Tracing world history all through the era of colonialism, there have been histories of cultural imperialism which will seem the only way to explain the popularity of the very-British game cricket in all countries that once served as British colonies. Invasion of a country most often doesn’t end with an invasion of the geographical territories within the political boundaries alone. Religious and cultural invasion are often inseparable parts of a political conquest. It’s much easier to rule if your subjects share the same religious and cultural platforms as the invaders? The cultural imperialism theory is founded upon the premises of imposing the influences and beliefs of the stronger culture (the invaders) upon the weaker or more submissive culture (the invaded). How does this cultural Imperialism take place? Dare A., states that Cultural imperialism takes place when one culture overtakes another in such a way that the latter ends up following a significant number of values, traditions, beliefs and influences of the former either completely or in a way merges the influences of the dominating culture with those of its own. Such a cultural invasion can either be active or passive. In its active form, the dominant culture forcefully imposes its cultural influences upon the dominated culture. This is a dynamic phenomenon where the subordinate culture is compelled to adopt the ways of the invaders. The passive form is when one culture (not necessarily subordinate) voluntarily embraces the influences and traditions of another culture. Here, the dominant culture makes little or no forceful efforts in imposing its cultural ideals upon another but the latter gets influenced as a consequence of its receptivity to the former’s cultural impacts. The passive form of cultural imperialism is what largely takes place today. Cultural imperialism can also occur due to the significant commercial relations between two countries. A country heavily importing products and services of another country may get significantly influenced by the exporting country’s lifestyle attributes and social values. We can see this phenomenon in the form of Westernization of a number of Eastern countries. This is a type of passive cultural imperialism as the receiving culture adopts the foreign values without perceiving the fact that they are, in fact, becoming slaves of a foreign culture. WORLD EXAMPLES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM English Cultural Imperialism English cultural imperialism has been rife in the history of cultural imperialism. Latin which has the Church’s official language to popularizing its national game all across its colonies was changed to English. The British Empire left no stone unturned to make sure that its subjects adhered to its cultural idiosyncrasies even decades after ceasing to be its subjects. The fact that Cricket is among the top ten most popular sports around the world with an estimated 3 billion fan following, especially in countries like Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, New Zealand and certain African and Caribbean countries proves the strength of the English cultural imperialism. It is also a known fact that English is the third most spoken language after Mandarin and Spanish. Decades of dominion and repressive policies towards Tibet, Taiwan and various other neighboring regions by China has had a significant influence upon the religion and culture of these regions. The aggressive promotion of a standardized Chinese language across Mainland China and Taiwan indicates towards an attempted cultural imperialism aimed at overtaking regional dialects in these areas. Also, the fact that most traditional aspects of the Chinese culture pertaining to religious beliefs, festivals and social norms significantly inundate the socio cultural edifices of various Oriental countries indicate towards strongly existing cultural imperialism. The most widespread and still continuing instance of cultural imperialism can be seen in the form of Americanization. This is mostly due to the multitudes of commercial relationships the United States holds with a large number of countries in all parts of the world. This is definitely passive cultural imperialism and the countries that are most affected are those that have voluntarily adopted the stereotyped American lifestyle values and specific cultural aspects CULTURAL IMPERIALISM IN NIGERIA The Issue of Sagging Sagging has become the latest phenomenon among the male youths today in Nigeria. It is what is in vogue; if you have not exposed the lower part of your private, you belong to the old school system. What is sagging and where did it come from? According to Greg, M., sagging was adopted from the United States prison system where belts are prohibited. Belts are sometimes prohibited to keep prisoners from using them as weapons or in committing suicide by hanging themselves. The style was later popularized by hip-hop artists in the 1990s. It has since become a symbol of freedom and cultural awareness among some youths or a symbol of their rejection of the values of mainstream society. Jails are typically state run institutions. What usually happens is the state will order a set number of inmate uniforms. These uniforms are usually in general sizes like small, medium and large; making them ill-fitting for most inmates. When a medium sized inmate comes in and there are no remaining medium uniforms this inmate will receive a large instead. Prisoners are not allowed to have shoe laces or belts for fear they’d use them to kill themselves (by way of strangulation or hanging), or as weapons to kill or injure other inmates. The combination of over sized clothing and lack of fastening devices created the perfect storm for falling pants. Many street hungry rappers latched on the dress of their incarcerated friends and family and brought the style to the masses. Thus a new trend was born and Nigerians have fallen into this trend Linguistic Imperialism Language is one of the principal elements in identifying a particular culture and the absence of it makes a culture unidentifiable. It is vital for cultural transmission and preservation. With the gradual loss of our indigenous languages in Nigeria, what culture are we then preserving? Ogwu, M., Agbanu, N. and Ofordile, J. describes Linguistic Imperialism as â€Å"People who can relate with each other only through the medium of communication foisted on them by a former colonist are victims of a peculiar kind of Schizophrenia†. The use of our language is declining in Africa especially Nigeria because we are compelled to embrace Western culture and civilization as Western language. Western language has created a division between an elite and mass of our people who still cannot do business with foreign language. It causes alienation for people who cannot speak English or French. Language is a vehicle of culture; we are in a very serious problem. e.g. â€Å"Professor Babafunwa project on local language as a basic tool of teaching in Nigeria was aborted because of the nature of our country.† Parents also do not encourage their children or wards to speak in their local language as they belief it causes setback in their education. Fashion imperialism You hardly find few of our men, women and the youths who still embrace our cultural mode of dressing. Our people are going ‘gaga’ with the western way of dressing thereby losing their root of African way of dressing. It’s quite unfortunate that when expatriates and tourist who come to Nigeria appreciate our native attire while the owners of the heritage has seen it as something of old school and fashion. Tattoos have also become a common phenomenon. Both the young and old are stamping themselves all over the body with symbolic ‘devilish’ tattoos. Religious Imperialism Most churches in Nigeria today have gone the western way. When you go to some churches today, you marvel at the way some our ladies apparel. The custom of covering of hair has been eroded by the western way; all kinds of dressing are acceptable. The men or young male adults put on all sort of jewels and dress ‘haggardly’. The sense of going to commune with God is lost. EFFECTS OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Moral Decadency Through the float of western culture into Nigeria through the advent of technology and globalization, there has been obvious moral decline in Africa and in Nigeria in particular. This moral decadence has permeated almost all spheres of our culture. Moral consciousness has been equated with awkward and odd life styles. According to Oshafu, H., in his article â€Å"Cultural Imperialism†, this resulted due to Africa’s carelessness and failure to hold their culture with high esteem. He added that the moral excellence of African society has over night transformed into moral decay. Elders are no longer respected, our rapid festivals and ceremonies are now seen as â€Å"old school† and we now have children of single parents, a phenomenon that is identifiable with America. People no longer communalize, nobody wants to be anybody’s brother’s keeper. Our mode of dressing has been totally distorted by western civilization through foreign films and media conten t. Today we seem not to have any cultural attire. Our people now prefer to go naked on the streets as against our culture, micro minis with handless tops has this to show. The acculturation of â€Å"blue jean and hamburger† has gradually found it way into young people in African society. The issue of dress code has led to controversies in our high institute in today. Cases of immoral dressing have also gave way to rapid sexual harassment among students and lecturers, bosses and their employees. Raping in our society today came as a result of reckless dressing code by ladies The traditional notion of chastity and virginity have been rendered absurd by pornographic and sleazy materials displayed on screens, distorting sexuality and condoning promiscuity, which has given rise to active homosexuality and lesbianism in our society today. These cases of reckless sex have led to the rapid spread of STD’s particularly, HIV/AIDs in our society today. Innocent children are dying of this disease. They paid dearly for the offence committed by their parents. This is immoral evil militating against the dignity of human person. Increase in Crime Rate With exposure to the western way of life, increase in crime rate is on high. Most of the films we watch on the television set are crime oriented thereby leading to increase in crime rate. In as much as there is positive impact of the television set, the negative aspect outweighs the good part, as the western world is teaching modern ways to crime though the kind of programmes being disseminated, which includes kidnapping, serial killing etc. Look for more points We have scholars who however belief that Cultural Imperialism theory regardless of its negative effect has its positive side. Cultural imperialism they say is not entirely bad as it increases the pace of development in Nigeria and other less developed countries. For example, in the giving away of media products free of charge or selling them at a very low price to these developing nations, the US actually accelerates the growth of the media industry and the advancement in technology, hence increasing the knowledge and skills of the people there. Their actions not only add on to actual growth; the subsequent increase in human capital further boosts potential growth, which is essential for the actual growth to be sustained in the long run. This investment in human capital goes a long way and benefits the country as it strengthens the competitive edge and increases productivity of the workforce. Economic growth is also achieved Even more so, being a developing nation, Nigeria would not have had the latest technology available to produce media products; it is only through the provision of the American companies that they are able to obtain state-of-the-art equipment. The advocacy of production of local-helmed programs would thus further enhance American influence on the nation. Despite government efforts to hinder cultural imperialism, they cannot completely eliminate the impacts of this influence as American media products have already found their way into the market and become a part of Nigeria’s media production efforts. They need such â€Å"interference† in order to keep their media industry alive WAY FORWARD Long Term Investment in the Development of our Mass Media One way cultural imperialism spreads is through the mass media. The local media imports foreign materials because it is cheaper than having to produce local indigenous content. An example of this issue is that indigenous journalists have to learn to transcribe and rewrite news by foreign news agencies rather than source for their own stories. Sometimes even rewriting local stories covered by the foreign news agencies. Our government and private investors should invest heavily in our local media and encourage the development of indigenous content that will reflect our culture, values, promote our languages etc. Media products like movies, news, music, advertising etc should be regulated to avoid the influx of foreign content. This is where organizations like the Nigerian Broadcasting Service come in. They should develop stronger laws and be strict in its enforcement of the laws such as the 60/40% rule (60% indigenous, 40% foreign). If the indigenous media products are of high quality, the citizens will be encouraged to consume them. This is so because a lot of people give the low quality of the products (movies, music, adverts, news etc) as reasons for not consuming them. If Nigerians consume indigenous media products, it will reflect in every area of our lives (culturally that is). An example is what is happening in the Nigerian music industry,. Because of the increase in local content in our music, it is now becoming acceptable and even encouraged to sing in our indigenous languages(Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo etc), dress in our native attires most especially Ankara and wear our national colors. There has been a rise in the popularity of Pidgin English as opposed to just speaking plain English. Also the teaching of our indigenous languages should be encouraged in our schools. All primary and secondary schools should be encouraged to teach at least one Nigerian language at all classes especially in the minority regions of the country where the minority languages are in danger of becoming extinct. Parents should further speak their native dialect with their wards or children to aid them to be conversant in their local dialect. Young adults today see it as a taboo or as inferiority complex speaking in their local dialect; â€Å"it does not sound ‘tush’ rather local† parents more importantly should be more watchful and observant in the kind of foreign stations their children tune to for their programmes as â€Å"media has become the primary means by which many of us experience or learn about many aspects of the world around us† Stanley and Dennis, 5th edition,p.200). With the presence of technology, access to International broadcast station is at the tip of the hand, we have cables surrounding us and with just a remote control, you can be anywhere in the world learning and assimilating what is been impressed on you. As such supervision is needed to regulate what is been watched. Parents should devout time for their children while they are still young as most of the western values tend to catch them while they are still young just as the â€Å"catch them young phrase†. Another solution is to try to export our own culture as this will help in boosting tourism in Nigeria. We should conscious try to sell and promote our media products to the rest of the world. This will improve our image globally and help foreigners understand our culture, values, cuisine better. I would like to say at this point that we should not consume wholly indiginous media products. A little foreign content is still advisable as there has been some good aspects of cultural imperialism such as technological and educational advancement, political structure (democracy), eradication of some harmful practices like the killing of twins etc. We should take a balanced approach, like an 80 (indigenous))/20% (foreign). CONLUSION As a result of globalization and technological advancement, the western world has succeeded in dominating the third world countries. This notwithstanding should not be an excuse for Nigerians and other third world countries to be subjugated by the western world. Nigerian as a nation should fight cultural imperialism and fight back for our lost culture. One way by which this could be done is through Long Term Investment in the Development of our Mass Media as it is the major means by which cultural imperialism spreads. The local media imports foreign materials because it is cheaper than having to produce local indigenous content. An example of this issue is that indigenous journalists have to learn to transcribe and rewrite news by foreign news agencies rather than source for their own stories. Sometimes even rewriting local stories covered by the foreign news agencies. Our government and private investors should invest heavily in our local media and encourage the development of indigenous content that will reflect our culture, values, promote our languages etc. REFERENCES Anaeto, S. G., Onabajo, O. S. and Osifeso, J. B. (2008). Models and Theories of Communication. African Renaissance Books Incorporated. Dare, A., (2010). The Effects of Western Civilization and Culture on Africa. Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences (1/1) Quarter IV Grifin, E. (2000). A first look at communication theory. (4th edition). Boston, MA: McGraw- Hill Littlejohn, S. W. (1999). Theories of human communication (6th edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Oshafu H. U. Cultural Imperialism. Accessed from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/culturalimperialism-examples.html on 12/11/2012. Ogwu, M., Agbanu, N., and Ofordile, J. (December, 2010). â€Å"Sustaining Cultural Values Through the Promotion of Indigenous Languages in Nigeria† Journal of Communication and Culture: International Perspective. (1/3), pp 76 Schiller, H. I. (1976). Communication and Cultural Domination. Armonk, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press. Accessed online on 29/10/2012. Critics of cultural imperialism theory. Encyclopedia of the New American Nation available Accessed at http://www.americanforeignrelations.com on 29/10/2012

African American Vernacular Essay

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the definition of vernacular is â€Å"of, relating to, or being a nonstandard language or dialect of a place, region, or country. † In terms of African American history, the evolution of vernacular is very important and a very unique part of the culture. The African American vernacular has aided the development of a distinct culture in terms of what African Americans were subjected to from the installation of slavery. The African American vernacular was used as a way to expose the atrocities that African Americans were imperiled to through songs and language. â€Å"Go down Moses ,† a spiritual and â€Å"Strange Fruit,† performed by Billie Holiday are two songs that represent the vernacular of African American culture. â€Å"Go down Moses,† was a song that had a Christian religious theme that spoke of the Israelites being enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt’s land. Spirituals had ambiguous meanings that included a reverence for Christianity and a desire to be free from the bondages of slavery. â€Å"Strange Fruit† was a song originally written as a poem that exposed racism against African American and called for a social change. Although they bear some similarities, the differences between â€Å"Go down Moses† and â€Å"Strange Fruit† include setting, meaning and cultural impact. According to The Norton Anthology of African American Literature by Henry Louis-Gates Jr, Spirituals were a very important part of African American culture during the time of slavery. And still are today, although they are widely known as gospels. Spirituals have a Christian religious theme and are usually performed a cappella with a single melody. (Gates Jr, 2003) African American Spirituals are the predecessor to the blues, gospels, jazz and rap/hip-hop. Spirituals are also referred to as Negro spirituals, Black spirituals, folk songs and jubilees. Spirituals were sung to provide comfort and ease the pain of the harsh daily tasks that slaves were submitted to. They were also seen as an expression of spiritual devotion and a yearning for freedom from the bondages of slavery. (Gates Jr, 2003) They were also a means of releasing pent up emotions and expressing sorrow. More importantly, they served a subversive purpose. Songs like â€Å"Steal away to Jesus,† â€Å"Swing low,† â€Å"Sweet Chariot,† â€Å"Didn’t my Lord Deliver Daniel? † and â€Å"Go down Moses†served a dual purpose during the times of slavery. Spirituals were used as a code between the slaves to aide with the task of attempting to escape slavery or the thought of escaping from bondage. â€Å"Go down Moses† first recorded by Paul Robeson, is a song riddled with ambiguous tones. On the surface, this song tells the story of the Israelites as slaves, which is found in the books of Genesis and Exodus. Moses was called by God to instruct Pharaoh to free the Israelites from the bondages of slavery. â€Å"Go down Moses, way down in Egypt’s land, tell old Pharaoh to let my people go† is one line from the song. African slaves forcefully bought to the Americas were converted to Christianity and although they weren’t taught to read or write, they were taught the teachings of the bible. White slave owners used the stories of the sufferings of the Israelites and the affirmation of â€Å"life after death† which is seen throughout the bible, to justify slavery. (Gates Jr. 2003) In the song, â€Å"Go down Moses,† Pharaoh represented the White Slave owners, Israel represented the African American Slaves and Egypt represented the Americas or the United States. â€Å"Strange Fruit† is a song most famously recorded and performed in 1939 by Billie Holiday. The song was written as a poem by Abel Meerpol, a teacher. According to The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, the poem exposed racism in the United States. It shed light on the lynching of African American men in the South. Lynching’s occurred in other regions of the United States, but mainly in the South. â€Å"Strange Fruit† is commonly known as a song of social change. As mentioned before, this poem helped to expose racism in the U. S. During this time, many people were fighting for the civil rights of African American that had been stymied by institutionalized racism. Jim Crow laws of the South are an example of institutionalized racism. Jim Crow laws limited the civil rights of African American and deemed them second class citizens. Even during the days of slavery, there were many efforts made that helped to expose the atrocities that occurred against African Americans. This included photographs and written works such as books and newspaper articles. During the early 20th century, racism against African Americans was exposed via songs that called for a change of societal practices and views. â€Å"Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root, black bodies swinging in the southern breeze†¦Ã¢â‚¬  are some of the lyrics of the song â€Å"Strange Fruit. † â€Å"Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain togather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, here is a strange and bitter crop† are more lyrics to the same song. Imagining a black body swinging from a tree, it can be viewed as a strange fruit or a bitter crop. Hearing the song performed, makes the lyrics and the meaning more ominous. As mentioned before, Billie Holiday recorded the song in 1939 but almost 25 years later, Nina Simone also recorded the song. Concerning the sub-genre social change music, there are many songs written and performed that exposes the way of life for African Americans. This includes â€Å"The Revolution will not be televised† recorded by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970 and â€Å"The Message† recorded by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1982. Both these songs are considered important to the evolution of African American vernacular because just like â€Å"Strange Fruit† it exposed the racism, prejudices and discrimination that African Americans were subjected to and how it affected their lives. Both the songs â€Å"Go down Moses† and â€Å"Strange Fruit† have an abundance of differences as was mentioned. However they differ in setting or time, meaning and cultural impact. Spirituals were originally sung during the times of slavery, during the 18th and 19th century. They were seen as a reverence to the Christian religion while at the same time, they were also seen as a yearning for freedom from the bondages of slavery. Spirituals developed into gospel songs which are a main staple of the black church in the United States. â€Å"Strange Fruit† was written, recorded and performed during the 19th century. And although slavery had been abolished for maybe 80 years, African Americans still dealt with prejudices, racism and discrimination. These social change songs were developed to expose those prejudices. The lyrics of â€Å"Strange Fruit† mention the â€Å"black bodies swinging†¦ from the poplar trees. † Unlike spirituals, social change had no ambiguous meaning. It meant to directly display the ugliness of what was going on at the time. One more similarity that should be mentioned which highlight the uniqueness concerning African American vernacular in the way in which both these songs were sung. The tone in which Paul Robeson performs â€Å"Go down Moses’ is similar to the way Billie Holiday and Nina Simone performed â€Å"Strange Fruit. † You can see, hear, and feel the soul, essence, pain, and significance of both songs when they were performed. That sense of soul is the one unique component of African American vernacular that sets us apart from all the others.

The British Has A Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The British Has A Constitution - Essay Example Constitutions, McEwen (2004) adds, establish the composition, powers and functions of the institutions of the state, regulate the relations between these institutions, and enshrine the legal rights and duties of the citizenry. The Unwritten UK Constitution Constitutions of all other states are codified. â€Å"Codified constitutions are largely written, centered around a single document incorporating key constitutional provisions that are binding on all political institutions.† (McEwen 2004) In contrast, the British constitution is not written or codified in a single document. Where codified constitutions are entrenched and enjoys the protecition of a Supreme Court, and can only be repealed or amended by special provisions, the uncodified constitutions are beyond the ordinary legislative process. Sources of the UK Constitution: The UK Constitution is found a number of sources, namely they following: 1. Statute Law: Many Acts of Parliament concern constitutional law. 2. Common / Case Law: The British constitution is â€Å"judge made†and derives some of its principles from jurisprudence. 3. Royal Prerogative: This refers to powers originally exercised by the monarch traditionally, among which powers. Most prerogatives are now directly exercised by ministers, such as the power to regulate the civil service, or the power to issue passports.

World War 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World War 1 - Essay Example However, there are outright reasons, which have been acknowledged across the board as the major contributing factors. These are for example the existence of alliances among like minded nations. Before the start of the war, it had emerged that nations across Europe were organizing them selves into formidable groupings, which were primarily for the purpose of protecting each other in case one of them was attacked by an enemy. Such defense agreements existed between countries such as Russia and Serbia, Britain and Japan, France and Russia, Germany and Austria Hungary as well as between Britain, France and Belgium (Gilbert 41). This means for example that if Germany attacked Russia, then this would have forced Serbia and France to come in and assist Russia, forcing Austria Hungary to join forces with Russia thereby triggering a major conflict. These countries had also joined hands with other countries to form the triple alliance and the triple entente. The triple alliance consisted of Ge rmany, Italy and Austria Hungary while the triple entente had Britain, France, and Russia who were the major participants though Japan, Spain and the US later joined the entente. However, these forces applied diplomacy in most of the conflicts arising before 1914 but in the real sense, there was the lack of trust and a lot of suspicion such that there only required a triggering force for a war to explode (Gilbert 63). This is to imply that if these defensive groups had not been established before 1914, probably the First World War would never have occurred. Nevertheless, it is important to note that apart from the alliances, these countries had been scrambling for territories in Africa and Asia, in search of raw materials for their industries as well as procurement of slaves to provide labor to these industries. As such, the diplomatic relation among the European countries had been soured owing to the fact that some, such as Britain and France, had already encroached vast territorie s in these areas and Germany and other European powers wanted a share of the economic advantages. On the other hand, Britain and France had to maintain their territories and if possible, expand them even if it meant invading the few territories that Germany had (Gilbert 101). However, these provocations did not warrant a world war but in the long run, they created a circumstance whereby each and every country was searching for a reason to go into war with each other. In addition, the arms race had been going on for a long time with the superpowers trying to outdo each other either on the land or at sea. This increased military activity in Europe and as a result, it enhanced the level of threat by facilitating motivation to build weapons and equipment capable of sustaining heavy fighting. In deed, the arms race helped much to deteriorate the level of trust between the would be super powers as each felt threatened by the existence of a rival with a much more military power and technol ogy capable of suppressing opposition and gaining uncontrollable influence in the region. Britain for example invested heavily on the navy as the country is well surrounded by water and as a result, Germany went ahead to spend a lot of money to procure the Dreadnought war ships for fear of being overpowered in case Britain decided to attack from the ocean (Hough 36). Despite these factors, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary by a Serbian nationalist i.e. Gavrilo Princip, acted as the major direct triggering factor towards the WW1. Apparently, it has been observed that the murder was supposed to act as a sign to show Germany and Austria Hungary that the Slavic people were willing to go to any extent

Marks and Spencer PLC financial performance- answer 3 questions Essay

Marks and Spencer PLC financial performance- answer 3 questions - Essay Example See Table A below in relation to Appendices A, B, C and A-1. It may be noted that return on equity uses the formula where net profit is divided by the total stockholders’ equity. When compared to an average rate of 0.50% if money was invested in a bank, its average ROE of 35% makes it to more than a seventy times and the rate is something very remarkable to find for investors. The 0.50% is the Bank of England base rate could represent the risk free rate investment in the UK (Housepricecrash, 2011). Aside from profitability, it is also appealing to know whether the company management is efficient. To measure the latter, this paper uses return on assets (ROA). The company’s average ROA of 9% for the last six years was higher than industry average of 1.6%. GAP appeared to have higher average ROA but ROE is more controlling from the point of view of investors (Van Horne, 1992). By comparing the two ratios, it appears that MKS is both profitable and efficient than industry. The understandable profitability and efficiency of the company is further proved by the company’s net operating margin and net profit margin. The resulting average operating margin and average net profit margins for the past six years are 11% and 7% respectively as against the industry averages of 2.02% and 1.13% respectively. Operating margin results after deducting cost of sales or services and operating expenses from gross margin (Helfert, 2001) MKS’s net margin for the latest twelve-month period was posted at 5.7% as against industry average of 0.23%. See Table A. If the rate is compared the operating profit margin, it could be found that net profit margin is lower. This means that MKS needed to spend other expenses to finance some of its borrowing. It further means that MKS is using other people’s money while improving profitability for

Business Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business - Statistics Project Example ategy refers to an operation that an organization conducts to converse information concerning services and products to potential customers in order to induce them to purchase such products (Tellis 1). In contemporary organizations, the main aim of advertising strategy is to increase awareness of organizations’ services and products, upsurge total customers and competitors and finally, to fosters the business image of an organization. For any business entity interested in succeeding, advertisement is very vital because through it, an organization is capable of getting new customers as it increases its total consumer base. Secondly, advertisement is important as it retains the organizations’ customers thus avoiding their diversion to other products. Thirdly, advertisement escalates the total company sales because when a company advertises definite commodity, it will explain to individuals why that commodity is better than its substitute hence enhancing many people to prefer their commodity. Finally, advertisement leads to fortunate change in a company’s’ products hence increasing its total sales (Tellis 3). The main objective of carrying out this business proposal is to determine the role that advertisement plays in an organization. Secondly, the proposal intends to investigate the effect of advertisement to consumers’ consumption of goods and services (Tellis 4). My business research will entail ten business organizations in U.S that advertise their goods and services together with other ten business organizations that do not advertise their products. I will conduct random sampling from a list of both organizations that advertise their products and those that do not. I will select ten organizations from each list and collect information concerning my research questions from these organizations before concluding on my hypothesis. In collecting my research data, I will apply dissimilar data collection methods, which include; use of questionnaire and

Debating Same-Sex Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Debating Same-Sex Marriage - Essay Example In this essay, the researcher shall portray the reasons as to why individuals would be for or against same-sex marriages before he gives a brief statement on what the society should opt for. Many arguments have been shot to support same-sex marriages that include homosexuals and lesbianism. Arguments have hit debates that since there is no evidence that same-sex parents are not poorer than heterosexual parents and that different individuals make more stable couples and that they do not have any impact on parenting abilities, they, therefore, are relatively better than heterosexual couples. Others have argued that same-sex marriages are unrelated to polygamous relationships which make it considerably a better way to escape cheating and unfaithful couples in marriage. Opponents to same-sex marriages have stated that marriage is traditionally meant to be a union of one man and one woman, homosexual and lesbianism unions can be classed with polygamy as it goes against the definition. Rel igious opponents have stipulated that God created the marriage institution for the purpose of procreation. Same-sex married couples cannot reproduce. This argument is based on the concept that God exists. However, giving this a second thought the ability of same-sex couples to reproduce is not entirely a problem because we have encountered heterosexual couples that are not able to reproduce and are comfortable with it. The society should, therefore, provide gay couples with similar legal and social identities allow them to access the advice of law and equal judgments upon it so as to avoid infringing upon rights of others. Gay marriages should be allowed to enjoy the same privileges’ enjoyed by the majority because only minorities differ from the rest due to the fact that these individuals are computed in terms of feelings and relationship.

Research proposal--- The effects of transnational media on Asian Proposal

--- The effects of transnational media on Asian countries - Research Proposal Example The advancement in technology led to the free flow of communication to all over the world despite the resistance from the non-Western countries. Rapid advancement in communication technology guaranteed the transnational media the uncontrolled exposure of audience all over the world to the western messages. Western movies, news, music, game shows and other entertainment items have become easily assessable to all. This uncontrolled penetration of westerm media to other cultures and traditions has become dominant feature of the advancement of transnational media. Satellite, cable and computer have empowered the audience to choose and receive the media messages without any control. Local governments have no freedom to censure and control the content of the transnational media programmes and the local audience have gained the total freedom of choice, based on their values and tastes, what to see and not to see. This often leads to the cultural ‘sensitization’ or ‘hybrid ization’ internationally. The international audiences are constantly exposed to the social and cultural situations which are completely contradictory to their original cultural and traditional beliefs. For example, in many (most of) Asian countries, behaviors like dating (or any premarital sex), gambling and alcohol drinking are antisocial and unacceptable. But as a result of cultural desensitization, the constant exposure to these activities through entertainment shows, the people in Asia become desensitized to be free from the social inhibition and finally become more accepted and indulged in the above said Western behaviours (Galander, 2008). 2. Background of the Study and Review of the Existing Literature Initially, globalization affected industry, trade, finance and even agriculture of the nations, but the culture and traditions are also influenced by the globalization process by extending the activities of electronic and borderless media. It has led to the ‘statel essness’ and oligopolistic market of few transnational media firms (Hamelink, 1993). With the advent of communication technologies, media firms penetrated into the foreign markets by utilizing the opportunities of the opening up of communication sectors in the developing nations and tried to create production and distribution efficiency and built their own transnational media empires (Gershon, 1993). Globalization of entertainment industries with the advent of transnational media has led to the homogenization and westernization of traditions and cultures. This post modern hybridization of culture has occurred within the larger context of economic, political and cultural process within the regions, nations, ethnic communities and this growth was influenced by not only the policy decisions of the governments but also by the strategic management decisions of media owners, cable operators, satellite providers and agencies. The popularization of transnational media and process of globalization of electronic media raise various socio-cultural and ethical issues in the newly emerging Asian countries (Thomas, 2005). Transnational cable channels apply domestication strategie

Legal and Ethical Issues in Management Paper Essay

Legal and Ethical Issues in Management Paper - Essay Example The doctrine stipulates that the manufacturers of drugs prescribed by doctors and other necessary medical devices will perform their duties of caring for their patients through the provision of warnings to the physicians charged with the duty of administering the drugs. The manufacturer is therefore responsible for issuing warnings to the physicians concerning the usage of their drugs by patients. This is mainly because the patients are not able to purchase the products directly from the manufacturers and must go through the physicians to obtain them (Strom, Kimmel & Hennessy, 2012). The majority of the people believe that the rule on learned intermediaries should not apply to adverts that make the patients to become more informed and healthier. They also perceive adverts that include brief summaries which stipulate the risks involved in consuming different types of drugs (Mullner, 2005). However, the inclusion of brief summaries on the risks involved in consuming the drugs has been difficult for the manufacturers since this action would require more time along with spaces in the media. The high costs of attaining the above two factors in the media has made it very expensive for them to comply with the stipulations laid out by the rule (Strom, Kimmel & Hennessy, 2012). For instance, in the case of Perez v. Wyeth Laboratories Inc., in New Jersey, the courts decided that the doctrine on the learned intermediaries since the Norplant implants in the case had been advertised directly to the women consumers instead of the doctors. Since the drugs had been directly mar keted to their customers, the defendants were absolved from any charges that had been brought against them (Mullner, 2005). The dissenters on the issue claim that physicians should convey the relevant information concerning the risks in the drugs to their consumers. They additionally state that physicians are normally at the best position

Chaucers Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Essay Example for Free

Chaucers Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Essay Dave Tagatac English III Dec. 1, 2000 Canterbury Tales Essay #1 In Geoffrey Chaucers Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, there was a Friar to accompany the party traveling to Canterbury. Hubert, as he was called, embodied the traits from which friars were expected to keep their distance. Chaucer is successful in using this white-necked beggar to bring to the readers mind corruption, wealth, greed, and lechery, all hypocritical and immoral characteristics for a man of the church to possess. Although he is a merry man, full of joy and wantonness, these are mere irrelevancies when assessing Huberts value of character as a friar. Throughout Chaucers description of the Friar in the Prologue, Huberts corruption is evident. Probably the Friars greatest evil is suggested early in his description and mentioned several times more. When Hubert would marry a couple, he would give each Of his young women what he could afford her. The sexual connotation of this statement is enforced by the fact that He kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls, / And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls. Other evidence of corruption, although not as reprehensible as the defiance of celibacy, includes Huberts failure to befriend the lepers, beggars, and that crew, to whom friars were intended to be nearest. The narrator explains that their lack of money makes their friendship simply a waste of the Friars time. A friar is supposed to be poor, only taking what they need to survive, and giving the rest to those impoverished souls who need it. Hubert, on the other hand, was quite wealthy. I have never known the imbibing of alcohol to be a necessity of life, and yet this friar knew the taverns very well in every town / And every innkeeper and barmaid too. The narrator even states outright that his income came / To more than he laid out. Yet another extraneous possession for a friar was the extravagant dress Hubert wore, as contrasted with the rags friars were expected to don. All of these things demonstrate how the Friar, even when obtaining more than he expected, gave very little to the poor, and kept much for himself. This feeling is continued even augmented upon examination of Huberts greed. Highly beloved and intimate was he / With Country folk within his boundary. As mentioned above, he associated not with the poor, But only with the rich and victual-sellers. Anyone from whom a profit was possible was inherently the Friars friend. This greed is indisputable in light of a final piece of evidence. That is that Hubert would actually pay other friars not to beg in his district. Again, these are actions to be frowned upon in any man, let alone a religiously affiliated one. Finally, Hubert can be shown to be a leach, hanging around those from whom he can get money, and depending on them to support his opulent lifestyle. Although he had no permission to hear confession, this was one way for him to make money, and he did not hesitate to utilize it. He even targeted those who werent so wealthy in a never-ending quest for monetary gain: though a widow mightnt have a shoe / Â ¦ / He got her farthing from her just the same. When people of his district had a dispute, the lecherous Friar was there. Hubert could be found taking advantage of any opportunity he could find to make money honestly, or dishonestly. The Friar was well liked, and had a wonderful singing voice, but his contributions to society ended here. He, through his actions, has shown evidence of corruption, immoral opulence, greed to increase this wealth, and a terrible habit of leaching off others. He was considered a man of the church, but he was far from the piety the title friar conveys.

Impacts Of The World Wide Web Media Essay

Impacts Of The World Wide Web Media Essay Commonly known as WWW, the World Wide Web, as the name suggests, is a massive wireless interlinked connection that is supported by a series of URL links, and which has made the world to become a global village as the common adage goes. This is because it has come with such a great and felt impact that has revolutionalized communication, business, travel, networking, not forgetting socializing. Introduction into the WWW technology began way back in centuries gone, but the impacts, advantages and disadvantages that came with it are now greatly felt in this day and age of the twenty first century. WWW is commonly referred to as online, wireless communication, or as a majority of people would say- the internet. However, it is important to note that there is a big difference between internet and WWW. While internet is a large system of interconnected computer networks linked by the Protocol Suite and is what supports the use of World Wide Web, the WWW is a dependent factor that relies on the availability of internet to transmit information (James and Cailliau 2000 p. 27). Some of the impacts that World Wide Web has had so far especially in communication include speeding up of instant messaging, facilitation of internet forums, social networking online, blogging, online shopping and e-business has also been boosted in terms of marketing and advertisements. Specifically, on the study of communications, the World Wide Web has played a significant role in creating a channel in which people can do online research, get reviews on what the technology users have to say about the innovation and establish any existing loopholes in online communication and how they can be bridged. The World Wide Web provides information that creators and innovators of communication channels can make use of in the quest to provide cheap, effective, reliable and state-of-the-art gadgets for communication purposes. One of the most world-wide felt impacts of WWW on communication is rapid instant communication that affects almost every other aspect of life be it social, economic, pol itical or educational. Rapid instant communication implies that communication is no longer one way. It is no longer necessary to wait for days on end for a reply on some issue from a receiver of your message, but on the other hand, communication between sender and receiver of the message has changed from being receiver oriented to both receiver and sender oriented. How is this possible? This question shall form the basis of the study and feedback projected in this paper (Wendy, 2010 p.46). Rapid instant communication According to Samuel in his book Clarifying McLuhan: an assessment of process and product, rapid instant communication implies a one-on-one setting in sending and receiving of messages. In other words, it refers to a situation whereby communicators no longer have to wait for a long period of time in order for their message to be replied to by the receiver of the message. This therefore means that a person in one continent can easily communicate with another in a totally different continent as though they were communicating face to face. This has been made possible by services like chat, face book and emailing. Such connections make it possible for people the world over to relate and form forums in which they can even hold discussions on diversified issues which are happening way far away from where they are located. With use of facilities like the web camera, it is even possible to see someone with whom you are communicating on your computer while they are on the other side of the wor ld (Arthur, 1995 p. 28). This kind of communication is what has rapidly converted the world into a small village whereas in years gone such was just a dream for many innovators. There is now improved rapid communication in various sectors and this is supported by an old theory proposed by one Marshall McLuhan. His theory, titled Technological determinism, put forth that the changes that occur in the ways in which human beings communicate go a long way in determining the course our existence takes. The proponent of the theory feels that culture is highly dependent on the way in which we are able to communicate as human beings. This in other words is to say that innovations in communication cause a cultural drift. Secondly, changes in communication methods and modes shape human life. Media, as the greatest channel of communication, is considered as anything that affects human ability to communicate (Samuel and McLuhan 1967 p. 37). Consequently, it goes without saying that innovations that affect media as a channel of communication also affect human culture and communication. He looks at the transformation of communication from mere word of mouth, to literate age that could read and write to print media and eventually to the electronic age where society is at now. Today, people tend to believe printed information or that which they can collect from the web pages, more than they believe in information passed through the word of mouth. The theory also proposes that for any information to be accepted or rejected, it must undergo a series of stages which are awareness creation, persuasion or evaluation, decision making on whether to accept the information and lastly confirmation. These processes take a shorter time depending on the means of communication that are being used, meaning that word of mouth communication would take a relatively longer period to pass through all these stages than information posted through the web pages. This goes on to explain what happens to ideas suggested to one community from another, and how their evaluation and final acceptance or rejection ends up shaping the culture, values and beliefs of the recipient community. According to McLuhan, individuality has been removed from culture and instead, what matters today to society is the method of communication that is deemed important for communication as that will be what society will flow with (Arthur, 1995 p.34). Impact of World Wide Web on Businesses As explained above, the greatest impact of WWW is the speeding up of communication. How then does this form of communication impart of businesses? The most important thing about WWW is that it has enabled businesses and organizations to establish a presence. Businesses that want to explore great heights and to establish themselves the world over can only ignore the importance of the World Wide Web at their own peril. Creation of websites in which firms can market themselves is dependent on the WWW linkage. With the creation of a website, a company can rest assured that its services and functions can easily be read about any time of day seven days a week. Another impact is that the World Wide Web has made it possible for organizations working in the same line of industry to network, form partnerships and learn from each other all through the web (Stanley and Dennis 2008 p.37). This is also true for netting of potential clients, suppliers, donors and other stakeholders. Use of the World Wide Web has become a very easy way of passing business cards and maintaining contacts with clients. Needless to say, a website can be used as an additional source of income. This is possible by making your website an online sales point in the sense that visitors to the website can order and purchase your services online and pay through their credit cards without necessarily visiting your stores physically ( Stevenson, 1995 p.54). One more result that can be associated with instant communication as a result of the World Wide Web is the fact that it I now possible to have employees placed outside the office area and still have business going on as usual. This is because through the firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s website, information can be passed to and from the employees consistently and from anywhere (Stanley and Dennis 2008 p. 89) Impact of World Wide Web on Social Networking It is not a new thing for many people that with social networking websites and electronic mail communication websites like twitter and yahoo mail respectively have played a great role in bring people together in terms of spontaneous and rapid communication. It is possible to chat with friends online and even date with the intentions of getting married, all by logging into some special websites that offer such services. On this social networking websites ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not only about making friends but also about keeping in touch with various other happenings around the world. One can get the latest news, download the latest music and movies and younger people and children can play online games or download them. In addition to socializing, it has now become very possible to get political views and stay informed on the most current news around the world, all by staying connected to the relevant websites. For example, a person in America is now very able to track letà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢ „ ¢s say for example the election results of a country in Asia as it happens, all of which ahs been made possible by the World Wide Web (Arthur, 1995 p. 43). Today, people cannot imagine themselves without logging into websites to check the latest mails, breaking news, weather reports and even to shop for holidays online, all because of the WWW technology. The Web cannot be traced, it cannot be pinpointed, all because it is growing by the day. Its growth and expansion is a gradual process that is ongoing, and which is not likely to stop any time soon (Ramesh, 2004 p. 78). Negative impacts of World Wide Web There is much that can be said about the impacts of World Wide Web, and especially about the positive impacts, but we cannot just afford to overlook the negative impacts associated with the same. One of the major negative impacts associated with World Wide Web is that some people are now creating websites that contain misleading, addictive and false information, which when it falls in the hands of unsuspecting information users, may end up damaging their outlook in life (Ahuja and Shakti 1978 p. 23). Just to give an example, an article published online and written by one Allen Alberson says that there are a number of websites that have been created with the intention of providing suicidal persons with information on how to go about killing themselves. This website as actually helped take away the lives of quite a number of youngsters who were feeling suicidal at the time they took away their lives after reading trough these websites. More information can be found here; http://www.helium.com/items/1223307-suicide-chat-rooms . Much more can be said about the negative impacts of WWW but just to mention a few is that the World Wide Web is addictive and many people find themselves spending much of their time on social websites instead of doing other more constructive things. One more thing that is happening is that more and more people now tend to make decisions based on technological advance. In other words, decisions are based on the outcome of a result given by a computer, more than common knowledge. For example, it is not uncommon to hear that an organization is not giving a certain service to clients at a given time, simply because the systems are down. One is left to wonder how clients used to be served before the innovation of websites and online services (Allen, 2010 p.1). Conclusion From the findings above, it is evident that the World Wide Web has played a great role in changing communication from analogue to digital and this has revolutionalized the world in so may aspects. The network society, as it has popularly come to be known as, now need to take control of the advancing technology so that it can be able to organize itself on the basis of what people of various diversities share in common in a non-hierarchal manner. The World Wide Web is an avenue through which the public and the private can be merged together for better cohesion. Just to site an example, the revelation of the affair between the former US President Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky came out in a big way to influence how he would perform in politics after that. Since technology has no ethical or moral restraints, it has in itself become all important for such happenings that would otherwise have remained unknown. It can thus be said with such finality that such new communication technologi es like the World Wide Web will continue to make people feel more connected and to help them mainstream aspects of life such as politics, socializing, commerce and well as entertainment (Stevenson, 1995 p. 38).

ROI in the Public Sector :: essays research papers

ROI in the Public Sector Interest in return on investment (ROI) by public sector organizations continues to grow. This interest is not isolated to large federal agencies. Myths regarding the use of ROI in government abound, prevents many agencies from developing a comprehensive approach to evaluating human resources, training, and performance improvement initiatives. The key is distinguishing what is myth versus what is reality. Efforts have been made toward more responsible performance management and measurement in the public sector. The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 was enacted to improve the management practices of the federal government and to ensure the production of reliable and timely financial information for use in managing and evaluating federal programs. The government Management Reform Act of 1994 added to the Chief Financial Officers Act by requiring all federal agencies to prepare and make public annual financial reports. It also authorized the Office of Management and Budget to implement a pilot program to streamline and consolidate certain statutory financial management and performance reports into a single, annual accountability report. One piece of legislation that has had influence in enhancing accountability in government agencies is The Government and Performance and Results Act of 1993. GPRA (or the "Results Act") is the primary legislative framework through which agenc ies are required to set strategic goals, measure performance, and report on the degree to which goals are met. Basically it requires government agencies to develop performance plans that outline the link between strategic goals and day-to-day operations. ROI is not the first private sector practice to be applied to public sector organizations. Total quality management (TQM), zero-based budgeting, and the balanced scorecard all had their initial beginning in the private sector and to some extent have been applied in government. While the fundamental use of ROI comes from accounting and finance (earnings divided by investment), the process of cost-benefit analysis is grounded in welfare economics and public finance. Both account for the financial benefits of a program, project, or initiative compared to the costs. The difference in the two equations is that cost-benefit analysis results in a ratio comparing monetary benefits to the program costs (BCR); ROI results in a percentage that presents the net monetary benefits (earnings) compared to the costs (investment). For many years there has been a great divide between traditional program evaluation and evaluation coming from business. Program evaluators have long been concerned with the correctness of use of methodologies, expending whatever time necessary to ensure purity of research.

Further Celebration at Heorot :: Essays Papers

Further Celebration at Heorot PASSAGE SUMMARY Beowulf returns to Heorot after the heroic fight with Grendel's mother; and the Danish warriors, who were unable to stop the monsters' attacks themselves, salute the greatest of Geats. Beowulf greets Hrothgar and tells him about the war under water, the failure of Hrunting, and the slaying of Grendel's mother with the sword he found in the cave: "The sword itself had already melted, its patterned blade burned away: the blood was too hot for it, the spirit that had died there too poisonous" ( Norton, p.48). He presents the golden hilt of the giant sword to Hrothgar, who is grateful to Beowulf for making the land of the Danes free of monsters. Beowulf also brings Grendel's head as the evidence of his glory. Hrothgar then reminds Beowulf about the sin of hubris and tells him the story of Heremod as an example of what happens when that sin overtakes a man. The king also advises the hero, "Have no care for pride, great warrior" (Norton, p.49). Then everyone at Heorot enjoys a great feast. The next day, Beowulf returns Hrunting to Unferth, but says nothing about the sword's failure. Important Names BEOWULF is the remarkable hero of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, "the greatest of the surviving epics composed by the Germanic peoples" (Norton, 22). He is famous for his strength ("he has in his handgrip the strength of thirty men") and for his courage in fighting monsters. In the epic, Beowulf fights Grendel, a hateful monster who terrorizes Heorot; Grendel's mother, who tries to avenge the death of her son; and the Dragon, who threatens Beowulf's tribe and burns his hall. HROTHGAR is the noble and wise king of Danes. He is referred to as "protector of warriors" and "ring-giver," the latter epithet used to tell readers he is generous. He builds a magnificent mead-hall, Heorot, which becomes threatened by Grendel. Unable to fight Grendel himself, Hrothgar and his people suffer from his attacks for years until Beowulf comes and offers his services. GRENDEL is a monster who is a descendant of Cain, the brother-slayer. For twelve years, Grendel attacks Heorot and kills Danish people: "he wanted no peace with any of the men of the Danish host" (Norton, 29). Hrothgar, the Danish king, doesn't have enough strength to fight Grendel. Only Beowulf can rescue the Danes from the monster's attacks.

Congugal Cacaphony in Anita Desai’s Novels

CONGUGAL CACAPHONY IN ANITA DESAI’S NOVELS Suneeta Upadhyay, Research Scholar M. M. H. college, Ghaziabad, C. C. S. University, Meerut Indian novelist and short story writer, Anita Desai is specially noted for her insightful depiction of the inner life of the female characters in her writings. In most of her novels Anita Desai dwells on the themes incongruity, incertitude and hazards of human relationship particularly the man-woman relationship. D. H. Lawrence points out: The great relationship for humanity will always be the relationship between man and woman.The relation between man and man, woman and woman, parent and child will always be subsidiary. Desai in her portrayal of man-women relationship mostly broods over the predicament of modern women particularly in male-chauvinistic society and her destruction at the alter of marriage. According to Anita Desai most marriages are proved to be unions of incompatibly. Though she does not negate the futility of institution of ma rriage but depict the psychic state of her protagonist at some critical juncture of life.She has presented conjugal cacophony in Indian male dominated traditional families. In India where women have resigned role, which does not allow any room for individualism, identity and assertion, Anita Desai talks of women who question the age old traditions and want to seek individual growth. They try to discover and rediscover meaningfulness in life through the known and establish. Thus, Desai dramatises the clash between two irreconcilable temperaments (man-woman) who does not find a proper channel of communication.She writes mostly about the miserable plight of women suffering under their insensitive and inconsiderate husbands, fathers and brothers. So man-woman relationship brings characters into alienation, withdrawal, loneliness, isolation and lack of communication that frequently occurs in her novels. Most of her novel’s protagonists are alienated from the world, from society, f rom families, from parents and even from their own selves because they are not average people but individuals. When these characters have to face alienation, they becomerebels.Anxiety,uncertainties, misery gloominess, disenchantment fretfulness and fright become their lot and they lose their sense of sanity and mental poise, for example Maya in Cry, the Peacock, Sita in where shall we go this summer? And Nanda Kaul in Fire on the Mountain. Some characters like Monisha and Nanda Kaul are unable to reconcile to alienation and meet with a tragic end. The novel Cry, the Peacock, is mainly concerned with the theme of marital discord between husband, Gautama, and wife, Maya.In this novel dreamy, sensitive and emotional, Maya cries for love and understanding in her loveless marriage with realistic, insensitive and rational Gautama. The matrimonial bonds that bind the two are very fragile and tenuous; the growing tension between them reaches its culmination when Maya in frenzy murders Gauta ma and then commitssuicide. In Voices in the City, Anita Desai also deals with the incompatible marriage of Monisha and Jiban. Like Maya she is also miserable misfit among her in-laws.Monisha’s husband is the prisoner of conservative customs and considers that a woman’s most important roles besides child bearing are of family household under the authority of a stern mother-in-law. Monisha feels that her privacy is denied to her. Monisha’s ill matched marriage, lack of intimacy with her husband, infertility and stress of living in a combined family push her to commit suicide. In Where Shall We Go This Summer? Anita Desai highlights how different attitudes, individual complexes and fears add to estrangement between the husband and the wife resulting in conjugal disharmony.Raman and Sita have irreconcilable temperaments and attitudes to life and confronted with the same problem of husband-wife discord. Sita affirms, â€Å"they are nothing-nothing but appetite and sex. Only food, sex and money matters. † Sita shudders the idea of giving birth to a fifth child in aworldnot fit to obtain it. Against all sane advices she goes to the magical world so that she could prevent the biological process of delivery. Nand kaul in Fire on the Mountain, a great grandmother, totally disillusioned with all marital bonds.Her husband was the Vice-Chancellor of Punjab University but treated her simply as some useful object in house. He carried on a life long affair with another woman. He is such a coward that he could not marry a Christian lady because he could not dare break social conventions. Nanda could not belong to the family and her position is no better than a house keeper. Outwardly, the Kaul’s are an ideal couple for university community but from inside their relationship is all-barren. After Maya, Monisha and Nanda Kaul there comes a change in the concept of matrimony for Desai’s heroine.Sarah, Bim, Sarla, Leila, Lotte, Aruna and U ma. They face their problem unflinchingly. They too have their poignant predicament, mental and spiritual incongruity, supremacy of male community, suffering at the hand of their in-laws, conjugal cacophony etc. still they struggle and compromise in their wedded life and survive. They believe there is no other way out and inspite of adverse conditions, life is worth to be lived. In Clear Light of Day rather we get a fresh addition in the treatment of man-woman relationship at the hand of novelist.Desai does not write about the strain and incoherence between husband and wife but brother and sister. The chief protagonist Bim is left alone after her parents’ death to take care of her aged, alcoholic aunt, younger brother Raja and her mentally retarded brother Baba. It is these burdens and responsibilities that shatter her marital bliss and destroy her conjugal identity. Utterly neglected and treacherously deserted, Bim muses painfully on how the passage of time has ravaged the o ld relationships of childhood and created a changed pattern of relationship in the family.Marriage to Bakul affords Tara a means of escape. For Raja Marriage is means to become rich and fat by marrying the one time landlord’s only daughter. In Custody, delineates the theme of marital friction and relationship problem. In this novel, Deven an improvished college lecturer lead an unhappy married life with a gloomy and tedious wife Sarla. has no interest in literature. She is ignorant about Devan’s interest and concludes her husband’s frequent visits to Delhi for meeting his girl friend. Both of them are frustrated in their own ways but they are unable to do anything for each other.Bye-Bye Blackbird mirrors marital confrontation of Adit and Sarah. Sarah’s inter-culture marriage fails to offer her anything striking and extraordinary. Sarah is peculiarly drifting apart within and try to find her ‘self’ that is lost after her marriage with an India n immigrant. Her life becomes perfunctory keeping an emotional aloofness from anyone and anything. Anita Desai’s Fasting Feasting represents that repression of woman in India directly or indirectly connected with worn out customs. For Anamika’s parents marriage is seen as the only career for women.How bride becomes a prisoner in joint family by arranging marriages too hastily which further proved disastrous. The beautiful and talented anamika is regularly beaten by inlaws and finally was slaughtered at the alter of marriage. To conclude, Anita Desai presents to reader her opinion about complexity of human relationships as a big contemporary problem and human condition. So, she analyses this problem due to shows changing human relationships in her novels. She is a contemporary writer because she considers new themes and knows how should to deal with them.Anita Desai takes up significant contemporary issues as the subject matter of her fiction while remaining rooted in t he tradition at the same time. She explores the anguish of individuals living in modern society. Desai deals with complexity of human relationships as one of her major theme, which is a universal issue, as it attracts worldwide readers to her novels. She strives to show this problem without any interferes. In other hand, she allows to her readers who have their judgment about her novel’s characters and their actions. ======== References

meditech surgical case Essay

Introduction Meditech is a leader in the endoscopic surgical instrument market. The company manufactures and market low cost endoscopy surgical equipment to hospitals and independent surgeons. The company’s distribution operation is arranged and managed from a central storage warehouse that ships its products to domestic and international affiliates. The organization have been experiencing a good customer service experience in the past, however, lately customers have expressed concerns with the time products are being delivered to them. Due to the nature of the industry, the delivery of surgical equipment on time is extremely important. The on time delivery of products to its customers has become the main problem for the firm. Currently, Meditech’s customers are waiting over six weeks for products to be delivered to them. This current practice is not acceptable and must be addressed by management immediately if Meditech wants to stay competitive and keep its current market share. Statement and Causes of the problem Meditech’s main problem is that a bullwhip effect was produced due to organizational and supply chain problems. The method used by Meditech to balance customer demands with planned production is not effectively serving  its purpose. The catalogue of products being offered by Meditech continues to grow and replacing current items, making obsolete old products that are in their catalogue and current customer orders. Poor customer demands forecasting, long assembly lead times, and changing products are the main reason why inventory levels are not enough to satisfy customer’s demands. While the assembly lines try to keep with demand and company’s resources are getting exhausted trying to launch a new product, the distributors then will increase their product demand, which causes a bottle neck effect as it moves up the supply chain process. As the initial demand slows down there are still backup of high demand of inventory being produced. This cycle would repeat again as new products are being released to the market. Due to these problems, Meditech supply chain and management has created a poor customer service. Another problem of Meditech is communication. There is not enough communication between main operations departments in the company; this is causing information to become distorted as it makes its way through the supply chain line. The lack of communication and information increases the firm’s lead to demand variation as orders or demand is being process through the supply chain systems and departments. In consequence, distributors are feeling the effect by long waiting periods of time, thus this also causes them to place larger orders in an effort to help them compensate the waiting time. Panic ordering by distributors is caused by lack of communication and in turn leads into the problem of the bullwhip effect. Meditech’s current distribution system is inefficient and obviously is causing an inflated demand of products. There is not enough information being shared among distributors and Meditech’s operations. Each distributor receives orders from different regional warehouse, which makes it hard to see the bullwhip effect. The organization’s forecasting system is also confronting serious problems. The current organization’s forecast system is determined by marketing and finance departments on an annual basis. The annual forecast is then broken down into monthly and weekly forecasts and is frequently adjusted by Central Planners according to market trends. Meditech has realized that leads to forecasting problems when they try to introduce new  products. The organization realizes that they are unable to effectively predict demand for new products, which causes large demand fluctuations and backorders. Decision Criteria & Alternative solutions + Recommended Solution, Implementation and Justification Meditech can try few alternatives process to reduce demand variation and the possibility of panic ordering. The company should improve how customer ordering is processed, they should more effectively share demand information, and increase lead times on new products. The forecast methods needs to be upgraded to reflect current needs, the company should also introduce vendor managed inventory and an e-commerce web site to share information with its customers. All of these functions should be centralized and shared among all of the supply chain channels that are involved. With improvements in forecasting it would be much cheaper and more efficient with the introduction of new products to stock finished goods inventory based on projected forecasts. By pushing is anticipating the fluctuations in demands that may be caused with the introduction of a new product. Meditech will now have products available exactly when the customer needs them, and will no longer be forced into back order. A push strategy will also allow Meditech to be more confident in their inventory policies and should allow them to lower their current inventory policy to a level that is more economical and feasible. Q1) Meditech’s problem in introducing new products. In manufacturing ALL products. Meditech introduces 1 new product per month on an average. Most of the new products are only upgrades of old products. This considerably reduces the life-cycle of the products. Majority of Meditech customers are Material Managers whose primary focus is on cost and delivery schedules but not on innovative product features. Though no major problems arise  products int  from assembly line perspective, signs of cognitive dissonance may arise in customers. No attempt is made by Meditech to understand the Demand Dynamics along the product lifecycle. Qualitative factors that have been identified as critical success drivers for a new product launch are time-to-market relative to competition or product diffusion. But Meditech does not launch new products relative to competition and by constantly pushing new innovations into the market it does not allow its products to diffuse effectively into the market. Every new product launch requires a lead time of around 5-19 weeks (excluding design phase lead time) which is very high. With every product launch, pushing the product into the market becomes the primary consideration of the sales force thereby neglecting customer service for older products. These constant launches have led to: †¢Ã‚  Supply side shortages †¢Ã‚  Delayed deliveries (6 weeks) †¢Ã‚  Low customer service †¢Ã‚  Low customer satisfaction †¢Ã‚  Inaccurate forecasts †¢Ã‚  High FG inventory levels The product portfolio of Meditech comprises about 200 separate end-products and the number is increasing. These wide ranges of products make Meditech rely heavily on suppliers wherein the lead time is 2-16 weeks. So practising JIT, which would be very effective for Meditech, becomes impossible in this case. Meditech organizational structure has a long scalar chain. Information dissemination becomes difficult here if there are too many products in the portfolio. Q2) Cause of the problems, systematically and organizationally ISHIKAWA FISH-BONE DIAGRAM WAS USED TO DISSECT THE CAUSE AND EFFECT Q3) Why is customer service manager the first person to recognize the major issues? The scalar chain from Customer Service Manager to the Customer Service Representative is only of two steps. The representatives work in direct contact with dealers and affiliates and are often in direct contact with hospital personnel i.e. their consumers. A general rule of thumb is â€Å"If you want the best feedback, ask your consumers†. This network would have proved effective for feedback-information flow. Mr. Dan Franklin himself held many meetings with hospital material managers. This brought forth the level of dissatisfaction amongst his customers, Meditech’s poor service levels and improper delivery schedules. Q4) How would you fix these problems? The foremost thing we would do is implement an ERP System costing around $100,000. This would help in better data storage & warehousing, analysis and forecasting. We would reduce the frequency of new product launches. We would prefer a leaner product portfolio. We would lay emphasis on better forecasts with a shorter horizon of 1-2 months. We would maintain a safety stock so as to provide a service level of 95%. We would work to reduce the assembly cycle time from the current level of 2 weeks. We would look for new and better supplier relations to reduce the supplier lead time from the current level of 2-16 weeks. References 1. (Bass 1969, Krishnan 2000) 2. (Porter 1985, Kailash and Lilien 1986)

Week 3 Homework Aib Problems

Problem 1 The following data were obtained from a project to create a new portable electronic. ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B6 Days— C8 Days— D4 DaysA, B E3 DaysC F5 DaysD G5 DaysE, F H9 DaysD I12 DaysG Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)What is the Scheduled Completion of the Project? (5 points) b)What is the Critical Path of the Project? (5 points) c)What is the ES for Activity D? (1 points) d)What is the LS for Activity G? (1 points) )What is the EF for Activity B? (1 points) f)What is the LF for Activity H? (1 points) g)What is the float for Activity I? (1 points) Problem 2 The following data were obtained from a project to build a pressure vessel: ActivityDurationPredecessors A6 weeks— B6 weeks— C5 weeksB D4 weeksA, C E5 weeksB F7 weeksD, E, G G4 weeksB H8 weeksF I5 weeksG J3 weekI Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the follow ing questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) )Identify the critical path (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f) What is the slack time (float) for activity G? (1 points) Problem 3 The following data were obtained from a project to design a new software package: ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B8 Days— C6 DaysA D4 DaysC, B E5 DaysA F4 DaysD, E, G G4 DaysB, C H3 DayG Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) b)Identify the critical path(s) (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity B? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f) What is the slack ti me (float) for activity G? (1 points) Problem 4 The following data were obtained from an in-house MIS project: ActivityDurationPredecessors A5 Days— B8 Days—C5 DaysA D4 DaysB E5 DaysB F3 DayC, D G7 DaysC, D H6 DaysE, F, G I9 DaysE, F Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project. Step 2: Answer the following questions: (15 points total) a)Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points) b)Identify the critical path (6 points) c)What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points) d)What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points) e)What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points) f)What is the slack time (float) for activity F? (1 points)

Health and fitness

Health and fitness, in general seem quite similar but they are not so. They are two different words symbolizing two different meanings. Health is the state of being free from illness or injury whereas fitness is considered a measure of the bodys ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to resist diseases, and to meet emergency situations. From a young age it is preached that being healthy and fit are critical to having a strong long life, however the amount of people that have the will power to take action in these parts of their lives are getting smaller and smaller, especially in this generation.It's important that everyone, but especially teenagers, be acquainted with the advantages of a healthy life, and also acknowledge the ramifications of ignoring this cardinal part of life. Being active offers benefits beyond an improved physique and a healthy body. Health and fitness are crucial aspects of someone's lifestyle and has the power to alter a person's life in substantial ways. Healthy eating, the benefits of being active, and consequences of a corrupting lifestyle are all things to keep in mind as one makes decisions and goes through life.Many people have the ability to eat whatever they want and not gain a pound, owever what these people may not grasp is that all the bad food they are ingesting will catch up with them in later years of life, and may be setting them up for many health problems down the road. It's important to have a variety of different foods so your body has a healthy balanced diet. There are over forty nutrients that are essential to our life, and we need these nutrients because our bodies cannot produce them in large enough amounts for optimal health. Benefits of healthy eating, healthandliving. com) Different foods contain different nutrients, which is why it is imperative that we have this combination, and avoid overconsumption. Maintaining a healthy diet not only offers your body the energy and n utrition it needs to function but also offers many health benefits that can help one live longer and have a better life. Healthy eating helps to maintain a healthy body weight, makes one feel better about themselves, creates a stronger immune system, helps to sleep and feel more rested and gives mental alertness. Benefits From eating healthy, livestrong. com) Eating fruits and vegetables may reduce risks for a stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases and protects the body against certain types of cancer such as mouth cancer, and stomach cancer. Eating grains help with weight management, and reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. Grains also have large amounts of dietary fiber which helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels, and lowers your risk of heart disease.Each vitamin benefits your body in some way, for example potassium helps retain a healthy blood pressure, vitamin A keeps the skin and eyes healthy and protects against infections, and vitamin C helps heal cuts and wound s, and keeps the teeth and gums healthy. (Benefits of Healthy Diet, healthyforms. com) Eating healthy is something people need to consciously think about, because it does not come aturally. Sustaining a healthy diet is an essential part of leading a longer more vibrant life. (The 5 Key Benefits of eating healthy, ezinearticles. om) Sustaining a healthy diet is not the only thing to keep in mind, being physically active is equally important. Being active may not always be fun, but the benefits will be worth it in the long run. Being active not only improves health and fitness but it also improves posture and balance, boosts the mood, helps one sleep, makes one stronger, reduces stress and controls the risk of heart disease, such as diabetes. It also protects people rom a stroke, some types of cancer, lowers blood pressure and reduces anxiety and depression. (Benefits of Being Active, health. a) Studies have shown that child obesity is rapidly growing and will continue to grow if our generation does not take action of their health, which is why being active along with being healthy are both critical roles in not only developing as a person, but growing up healthy and happy. As mentioned earlier, child obesity rates are rising at a rapid pace. This is due to the fact that unhealthy foods cost significantly less than healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables. Right now 29% of adolescents are overweight, and this percent is growing by the day.Obesity as young kids and the food eating habits that they get into, carry into their adult life, leading to adult obesity. Currently, 59% of adult Canadians are either overweight or obese, and New Brunswick is one of the cities significantly higher in the overweight/obese population. (Statistics, childhoodobesityfoundation. ca) Not only do people get into bad eating habits that lead to obesity, but they also do not make time for exercise in there busy schedules, which only enhances the unhealthy lifestyle.Being overweight c an lead to ardiovascular disease such as a higher blood pressure, more likely to develop diabetes, and are at a greater risk for bone and Joint problems because the body carrying more weight than it is equipped for. Sleep apnea, social and psychological problems, and a low self esteem are also causes of an unhealthy diet. Dental problems are another thing that comes with unhealthy eating. Eating too much candy, or foods with lots of sugar and not enough other nutrients can lead to tooth decay and cavities.Another thing that many people are not aware of is the mood swings that come from unhealthy eating. Diets that do not include enough vitamins nd minerals can lead to people suffering severe mood swings. The body may become overly energetic and easily excitable only to crash later. In addition, a lack of vitamin B can lead to the hormone levels in the brain to be unbalanced, which can induce depression. (What are the Consequences of not Eating Healthy, ehow. com) Not being active ca n have many negative effects on the body. For example muscle atrophy is a cause of a lack of exercise.Muscle atrophy is a medical term that describes the process of your muscles breaking down or wasting away because they are not being exercised to their full capacity. Not only do you lose muscle but you gain fatty tissue and slow down your metabolism, resulting in more weight gain. Lack of exercise can also lead to increased levels of visceral fat, which is a fat that gets trapped inside your abdomen and is toxic because it causes heart disease and gallbladder problems, it also secrets dangerous hormones that can lead to the development of breast cancer.Cardiac decline is when the heart does not get enough exercise, and the heart, which is a muscle, isn't being exercise and so it rapidly declines in its cardiovascular fitness. The heart will not waste away like an rm or leg, however fat will begin to attack it which can lead to the development of heart disease. In 2006, approximatel y 2. 4 million Americans died from heart disease. (The Effects of Lack of Exercise on the Body, livestrong. com) The effects that unhealthy eating and a lack of exercise has on your body can be life changing and detrimental.This is why it is so important to nave a balance between the two so you can avoid all the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle. It's very important to keep these things in mind as you grow older, and make time for healthy meals and exercise. Balance it key. To have a healthy life one must have a balance between eating healthy, and exercising, however treating oneself ever once in awhile is not a sin. Everything needs to be done in moderation.

I Am Sam

Mikaela McMorine October 21st, 2012 Analyzing an Interview Movie: I Am Sam (directed by Jessie Nelson) The individuals involved in the interview are a man diagnosed with Autism (subject S) and a female lawyer (subject R). They are connected through a professional-helping relationship. The incidents leading up to the interview are with regards to a custody battle concerning subject S and his seven year old daughter. His doctors have declared that the intellectual capacity of subject S does not exceed the age of seven.The issue arises when Child Protective Services deem subject S unfit and incapable of raising his daughter due to the fact that he is unable to hold down a steady job and that his daughter will eventually surpass his brain capacity in age. Subject S makes the conscious decision of hiring a lawyer to plead his case. The lawyer in question, or subject R, chooses to provide services to subject S free of charge. During the custody battle, subject S is granted the opportunity to have short, supervised visits with his daughter.Shortly before the occurring of the interview, subject S and his daughter meet, followed by his daughter proposing to go to the park. She lies and tells him that the social worker gave her permission to go with him due to the fact that she did not spend enough time with him and she was crying. Once on their way, she explains to her father that the only possible way for them to be together was to run away. Subject S, makes the concrete decision to find his way to the police station and return his daughter to the social worker.This scene is followed by a court hearing where they call upon subject S’s neighbor as a witness. Earlier on at the start of the movie we see that this neighbor aids subject S in taking proper care of his daughter. Subject S has been promoted in his job from cleaning the restaurant to making the drinks. On the first day of his new position, the restaurant is very busy and subject S begins working too fast , causing him to make a mess and send away some customers. He then attends his court hearing, covered in coffee and still dressed in his work clothes, where he is asked multiple uestions about his ability to care for his daughter. Nearing the end of the hearing, subject S is faced with questions that result in him crying and agreeing with the fact that he is unable to take care of his daughter. After this hearing, he gets to see his daughter for a matter of seconds before she is literally ripped from his very arms. Later, subject S is seen observing his daughter outside of her foster home from a distance with flowers and a card in hand. Then, the foster mom joins the daughter where she explains that her father is supposed to come visit for her birthday that day.Upon seeing the arrival of the foster mom, subject S decides to leave without getting a chance to see his daughter. The young girl waits for her father and hugs her teddy bear with tears in her eyes when he does not show up. After this, subject S is seen in his room banging his head on a miniature piano with the blinds closed. Subsequently, the subject begins making origami figures which he then stacks up to create a wall. Subject R comes to his house and begins to yell at him through the locked door. She explains that she left work early to meet him at his first evaluation only to find out that he did not show.After shouting for a few minutes, she threatens to leave but turns around and kicks down the door. This is the exact moment leading up to the interview. After discussing about the incident the occurred at subject S’s job, he states that he believes his daughter no longer needs him because she has a new family now. Subject R expresses that she disagrees with this notion and that he should never give up trying. The goal of the interview that follows is for subject R to encourage subject S to keep fighting for the custody of his daughter.Sam is the main character in the movie. He is approxima tely 30 years old and has a developmental disability. He has the mental capacity of a seven year old, the same age as his daughter. This has posed a great problem for Sam, as he must now fight for custody of his daughter, with the help of his lawyer, Rita. The problem for Sam is that in a year, his daughter will have developed more intellectually than he ever will, making him unsuitable to raise a child, let alone a young adult in the eyes of the defence. Sam's self-concept is quite complex.There is no doubt in his mind that he is capable of raising his daughter, and providing her with the tender, love and care that she needs. To him, no one understands Lucy as well as he does, nor do they know how to adequately take care of her. As shown in the interview scene, Sam seems to think no one truly understands what it's like to have a mental disability. As he says in the interview, â€Å"You don't know what it's like when you try and you try and you try and you don't ever get there beca use, because you were born perfect and I was born like this. † He also states that, â€Å"People like you (Rita) don't know what it’s like to get hurted†¦ eople like you don't feel anything. † These things were said in a moment of anger and distraught, and it told us a lot about how Sam feels deep down about his disability. Sam's self-concept is not distorted and he strongly believes that he is a stable adult, capable of raising his daughter. Constantly needing to defend his rights throughout the movie, Sam's self-concept becomes evident, and is clearly accurate. According to Sam, being a good parent is about â€Å"constancy and patience and listening and pretending to listen when you can't listen anymore.It's all about love. † Stemming from this, Sam has come to the conclusion that he is an adequate parent, and that Lucy has everything she needs when living with him, and being under his care. Sam knows he is far from being the perfect parent, and he is realistic about it. Being a competent father is a huge part of Sam's self-concept, and he is, which proves that it is accurate. In Sam's case, it is particularly hard to decipher his non-verbal communication from a bodily movement he can't control due to his disability.The first non-verbal cue I noticed was the sucking of his bottom lip, indicating that he felt uneasy and did not know how to react to Rita's tears. Secondly, when Rita raises her voice, we see that Sam instinctively pulled back, with a look of shock written across his face. Thirdly, as Rita starts to regain her calm but is still very sad, we see Sam's eyebrows raise and his mouth start to pout, making him look very sad and empathetic. Fourthly, as he approaches Rita to console her as she begins to cry, Sam uses his fingers to gently pat Rita, as if to say â€Å"I'm here for you, you're not alone. Lastly, Sam gives Rita a hug, which is a clear indicator that Sam sees and reacts to strong feelings, and knows how to act appropriately and comfort someone. Many verbal messages were exchanged during the interview. â€Å"Lucy doesn't need me anymore† is the first thing Sam says that seems to have triggered the exchange between him and Rita.Sam is conveying the fact that he believes Lucy doesn't need him anymore simply because she has a â€Å"new† family, he says this with a great amount of vulnerability in his voice, showing us the thought truly bothers him. The second verbal message that Sam conveys was said with a lot more anger and emotion. †¦ and you're perfect. People like you don't know, people like you don't know what it's like to get hurted, because you don't have feelings. People like you don't feel anything. † In that very moment, Sam is indicating to Rita that he is at his wit's end, and that he feels misunderstood and helpless. Lastly, when Sam says to Rita, â€Å"You're enough. You're much more than enough† we are seeing a completely different side of Sa m, one that is tender, and empathetic and that feels the same pain that Rita was feeling in that moment. His verbal communication is telling us that he knows how to comfort someone.Yes, Sam's non-verbal cues are congruent with his verbal messages. During the interview, Rita was clearly upset, and Sam's nonverbal cues indicated his empathy and uneasiness (i. e: sucking his bottom lip and pouting his mouth) which were congruent with his words aimed at consoling Rita, and making her feel better (i. e: â€Å"You're enough, you're more than enough. †). Sam's consistent use of verbal and non-verbal communication messages reveal a lot about Sam's character, self-concept and abilities. For example, Sam revealed to us that he feels terribly misunderstood by his peers and by Rita.He feels un-capable of getting his point across, resulting in Sam's voice raising and him getting angry. Another instance where we gained insight about Sam was when Rita broke down and started crying, his firs t reaction was to approach her, and gently caress her, showing us that he is very empathetic, understands emotions and knows how to react to them appropriately, which is an important ability. I believe that no emotional barriers were interfering with Sam's ability to communicate his feelings. His disability allows him to be extremely sensitive, empathetic and emotional.He â€Å"feels† more than the average person, and many things in his life affect him immensely. He is passionate, which gained him the ability to fight for his daughter as hard as he did. Actually, Sam believes people do not â€Å"feel† as much as he does, because they don't know how it feels to truly be hurt, like he has. That is why i believe emotional barriers are the least of Sam's problems. Referring to the communication process diagram, I believe there is nothing hindering the communication process. Messages are both being sent and received, and interpreted well and fully. Sam and Rita both share a good communication rocess. Rita walks into Sam’s apartment after breaking down the door unprofessionally. She comes up to Sam to talk about his evaluation that day with Child Protective Services. Sam breaks down in tears and begins to tell her that she doesn’t understand and that she will never know what he is going through. This is when Rita tells Sam that she isn’t perfect and that she does understand how he is feeling; the hurt, the pain and the incapability to fulfil their ambitions. Rita admits to Sam that she is not perfect, that she has a son that hates her and a husband that is cheating on her.At this moment, she is not establishing a professional relationship because she discloses her feelings and emotions to her client. Many factors demonstrate that the interviewer is unable to check her perception at this point in the movie. Due to the fact that she is breaking down in tears and mentally, she cannot take the time to sit down and analyze the situation rationally. At this point in the film she is consumed by the problems that she is having in her home-life and is incapable of putting forth techniques to check her perception of the client’s situation.Rita is very verbally expressive; she does not hide what she is feeling either mentally nor physically. She has built up so many walls lined with hurt, frustration and anger that she had finally hit her breaking point. She expressed everything she was feeling and how mad she has been for so long. At this point she says that realizes that she needs to change her life because she too has made mistakes in the past. Sam tells Rita that people like her have no feelings because people like her are born perfect when Sam was born as he was.This causes her to tear down Sam's origami wall and get close to him and say, â€Å"You think you have it pegged on human suffering? Let me tell you something about people like me. People like me feel lost, little, ugly, and dispensable, people like me have husbands cheating on them with people far more perfect then me. People like me have sons that hate them. † By saying this Rita is making Sam realize that he is not the only one with problems and that she is going through things that are equivalently terrible as losing his daughter.She is testing his ability to have an understanding and empathy for what is going on in her life. At this point in the film Sam’s perception of Rita has dramatically changed. This is caused by the abrupt moment when Rita begins countering her problems with Sam’s (ex: her husband cheating on her and her son hating her, then comparing it to Sam’s problem of losing Lucy). She is testing him to see if he will admit that she is, in fact, un-perfect like Sam himself and everyone else in the world. Rita uses assertiveness when she is communicating with Sam.Her language is direct and honest when explains to Sam that she is not perfect and that people like her feel, lost, little, ugly and dispensable. She uses a firm tone of voice to get her message across and try to make it clear to Sam that no human being is perfect, including herself. Rita uses emotive language when she talks to Sam. She expresses her feelings in a disruptive or controlling way. She isn’t simply telling Sam that she is having a bad day and that she needs to talk, but instead is expresses her anger in a disorderly way.For example, when she storms over to Sam and tears down his origami wall, because what he said had triggered something in her. Rita when communicating also uses a lot of â€Å"I† and â€Å"but† statements. It is obvious that the situation is revolving around her at this point and not the client. She explains to Sam that she knows the way she treats her son is not right, yet she feels she has no choice but to be this way, â€Å"He looks at me with such anger and I hate him then, I know I failed you, I know I’m disappointing you, I know you deserve better. But get in the F***king car†.Rita uses kinesics in an intentional fashion to show Sam that she was irritated and frustrated. She chooses to walk over to the origami wall, knocking it out of her way and intruding Sam's space to make him feel intimidated and uncomfortable. You can clearly see that she is tense and offended at what Sam has said to her. Rita demonstrates individual factors that reveal how she is feeling; the tone of her voice gets really low when she is being serious and reaches a topic that is sensitive to her. Throughout the scene her tone of her voice changes.When she is explaining to Sam that she is far less than perfect, she raises her tone of voice to put emphasis on what she is saying. Rita uses the external factors to her advantage. She intrudes Sam’s personal space to make herself heard. This also exhibits territorialism because by tearing down the origami wall that Sam had made she is clearly stating that she is in control at this moment. Rita also uses Chronemics frequently to regulate her communication. To allow the information to sink in she uses small pauses between statements such as, â€Å"You think you got the market cornered?†¦ on human suffering?†¦Let me tell you something about people like me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Rita’s verbal and non-verbal communication is very congruent. A perfect example would be when Sam says you don’t know Rita turns around and throws her hands in the air saying, â€Å"I don’t know what? † this proves that she is feeling frustrated (her hands thrown up as a sign of giving up due to frustration). Another example is after she knocks down the origami wall she points at Sam and says â€Å"You think you got the market cornered†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this shows that she is directly stating her comment towards him and the pointed finger provides that extra shove towards Sam.When Sam tells Rita that she doesn’t understand him because she was born perfect, her h ead is seen pulled back slightly. Sam begins saying things to her such as, â€Å"People like you don’t know† which results in Rita replying with, â€Å"People like me? † This demonstrates that Rita is effectively listening to what Sam has to say. She uses techniques such as prompting to demonstrate that she has understood what Sam has said. The way that Rita acts throughout the interview is very unprofessional.Examples of this are the way she stormed over to Sam and tore down his origami wall and the way that she speaks to him. She has forgotten that Sam has the mental capacity of a 7 year old and treats their relationship on a much more personal level. She does not keep a professional distance from her client because she opens her heart to him as though the two were friends. She shares with him information about her son and husband, when the focus is supposed to be on Sam and his battle for custody of his daughter. I Am Sam Mikaela McMorine October 21st, 2012 Analyzing an Interview Movie: I Am Sam (directed by Jessie Nelson) The individuals involved in the interview are a man diagnosed with Autism (subject S) and a female lawyer (subject R). They are connected through a professional-helping relationship. The incidents leading up to the interview are with regards to a custody battle concerning subject S and his seven year old daughter. His doctors have declared that the intellectual capacity of subject S does not exceed the age of seven.The issue arises when Child Protective Services deem subject S unfit and incapable of raising his daughter due to the fact that he is unable to hold down a steady job and that his daughter will eventually surpass his brain capacity in age. Subject S makes the conscious decision of hiring a lawyer to plead his case. The lawyer in question, or subject R, chooses to provide services to subject S free of charge. During the custody battle, subject S is granted the opportunity to have short, supervised visits with his daughter.Shortly before the occurring of the interview, subject S and his daughter meet, followed by his daughter proposing to go to the park. She lies and tells him that the social worker gave her permission to go with him due to the fact that she did not spend enough time with him and she was crying. Once on their way, she explains to her father that the only possible way for them to be together was to run away. Subject S, makes the concrete decision to find his way to the police station and return his daughter to the social worker.This scene is followed by a court hearing where they call upon subject S’s neighbor as a witness. Earlier on at the start of the movie we see that this neighbor aids subject S in taking proper care of his daughter. Subject S has been promoted in his job from cleaning the restaurant to making the drinks. On the first day of his new position, the restaurant is very busy and subject S begins working too fast , causing him to make a mess and send away some customers. He then attends his court hearing, covered in coffee and still dressed in his work clothes, where he is asked multiple uestions about his ability to care for his daughter. Nearing the end of the hearing, subject S is faced with questions that result in him crying and agreeing with the fact that he is unable to take care of his daughter. After this hearing, he gets to see his daughter for a matter of seconds before she is literally ripped from his very arms. Later, subject S is seen observing his daughter outside of her foster home from a distance with flowers and a card in hand. Then, the foster mom joins the daughter where she explains that her father is supposed to come visit for her birthday that day.Upon seeing the arrival of the foster mom, subject S decides to leave without getting a chance to see his daughter. The young girl waits for her father and hugs her teddy bear with tears in her eyes when he does not show up. After this, subject S is seen in his room banging his head on a miniature piano with the blinds closed. Subsequently, the subject begins making origami figures which he then stacks up to create a wall. Subject R comes to his house and begins to yell at him through the locked door. She explains that she left work early to meet him at his first evaluation only to find out that he did not show.After shouting for a few minutes, she threatens to leave but turns around and kicks down the door. This is the exact moment leading up to the interview. After discussing about the incident the occurred at subject S’s job, he states that he believes his daughter no longer needs him because she has a new family now. Subject R expresses that she disagrees with this notion and that he should never give up trying. The goal of the interview that follows is for subject R to encourage subject S to keep fighting for the custody of his daughter.Sam is the main character in the movie. He is approxima tely 30 years old and has a developmental disability. He has the mental capacity of a seven year old, the same age as his daughter. This has posed a great problem for Sam, as he must now fight for custody of his daughter, with the help of his lawyer, Rita. The problem for Sam is that in a year, his daughter will have developed more intellectually than he ever will, making him unsuitable to raise a child, let alone a young adult in the eyes of the defence. Sam's self-concept is quite complex.There is no doubt in his mind that he is capable of raising his daughter, and providing her with the tender, love and care that she needs. To him, no one understands Lucy as well as he does, nor do they know how to adequately take care of her. As shown in the interview scene, Sam seems to think no one truly understands what it's like to have a mental disability. As he says in the interview, â€Å"You don't know what it's like when you try and you try and you try and you don't ever get there beca use, because you were born perfect and I was born like this. † He also states that, â€Å"People like you (Rita) don't know what it’s like to get hurted†¦ eople like you don't feel anything. † These things were said in a moment of anger and distraught, and it told us a lot about how Sam feels deep down about his disability. Sam's self-concept is not distorted and he strongly believes that he is a stable adult, capable of raising his daughter. Constantly needing to defend his rights throughout the movie, Sam's self-concept becomes evident, and is clearly accurate. According to Sam, being a good parent is about â€Å"constancy and patience and listening and pretending to listen when you can't listen anymore.It's all about love. † Stemming from this, Sam has come to the conclusion that he is an adequate parent, and that Lucy has everything she needs when living with him, and being under his care. Sam knows he is far from being the perfect parent, and he is realistic about it. Being a competent father is a huge part of Sam's self-concept, and he is, which proves that it is accurate. In Sam's case, it is particularly hard to decipher his non-verbal communication from a bodily movement he can't control due to his disability.The first non-verbal cue I noticed was the sucking of his bottom lip, indicating that he felt uneasy and did not know how to react to Rita's tears. Secondly, when Rita raises her voice, we see that Sam instinctively pulled back, with a look of shock written across his face. Thirdly, as Rita starts to regain her calm but is still very sad, we see Sam's eyebrows raise and his mouth start to pout, making him look very sad and empathetic. Fourthly, as he approaches Rita to console her as she begins to cry, Sam uses his fingers to gently pat Rita, as if to say â€Å"I'm here for you, you're not alone. Lastly, Sam gives Rita a hug, which is a clear indicator that Sam sees and reacts to strong feelings, and knows how to act appropriately and comfort someone. Many verbal messages were exchanged during the interview. â€Å"Lucy doesn't need me anymore† is the first thing Sam says that seems to have triggered the exchange between him and Rita.Sam is conveying the fact that he believes Lucy doesn't need him anymore simply because she has a â€Å"new† family, he says this with a great amount of vulnerability in his voice, showing us the thought truly bothers him. The second verbal message that Sam conveys was said with a lot more anger and emotion. †¦ and you're perfect. People like you don't know, people like you don't know what it's like to get hurted, because you don't have feelings. People like you don't feel anything. † In that very moment, Sam is indicating to Rita that he is at his wit's end, and that he feels misunderstood and helpless. Lastly, when Sam says to Rita, â€Å"You're enough. You're much more than enough† we are seeing a completely different side of Sa m, one that is tender, and empathetic and that feels the same pain that Rita was feeling in that moment. His verbal communication is telling us that he knows how to comfort someone.Yes, Sam's non-verbal cues are congruent with his verbal messages. During the interview, Rita was clearly upset, and Sam's nonverbal cues indicated his empathy and uneasiness (i. e: sucking his bottom lip and pouting his mouth) which were congruent with his words aimed at consoling Rita, and making her feel better (i. e: â€Å"You're enough, you're more than enough. †). Sam's consistent use of verbal and non-verbal communication messages reveal a lot about Sam's character, self-concept and abilities. For example, Sam revealed to us that he feels terribly misunderstood by his peers and by Rita.He feels un-capable of getting his point across, resulting in Sam's voice raising and him getting angry. Another instance where we gained insight about Sam was when Rita broke down and started crying, his firs t reaction was to approach her, and gently caress her, showing us that he is very empathetic, understands emotions and knows how to react to them appropriately, which is an important ability. I believe that no emotional barriers were interfering with Sam's ability to communicate his feelings. His disability allows him to be extremely sensitive, empathetic and emotional.He â€Å"feels† more than the average person, and many things in his life affect him immensely. He is passionate, which gained him the ability to fight for his daughter as hard as he did. Actually, Sam believes people do not â€Å"feel† as much as he does, because they don't know how it feels to truly be hurt, like he has. That is why i believe emotional barriers are the least of Sam's problems. Referring to the communication process diagram, I believe there is nothing hindering the communication process. Messages are both being sent and received, and interpreted well and fully. Sam and Rita both share a good communication rocess. Rita walks into Sam’s apartment after breaking down the door unprofessionally. She comes up to Sam to talk about his evaluation that day with Child Protective Services. Sam breaks down in tears and begins to tell her that she doesn’t understand and that she will never know what he is going through. This is when Rita tells Sam that she isn’t perfect and that she does understand how he is feeling; the hurt, the pain and the incapability to fulfil their ambitions. Rita admits to Sam that she is not perfect, that she has a son that hates her and a husband that is cheating on her.At this moment, she is not establishing a professional relationship because she discloses her feelings and emotions to her client. Many factors demonstrate that the interviewer is unable to check her perception at this point in the movie. Due to the fact that she is breaking down in tears and mentally, she cannot take the time to sit down and analyze the situation rationally. At this point in the film she is consumed by the problems that she is having in her home-life and is incapable of putting forth techniques to check her perception of the client’s situation.Rita is very verbally expressive; she does not hide what she is feeling either mentally nor physically. She has built up so many walls lined with hurt, frustration and anger that she had finally hit her breaking point. She expressed everything she was feeling and how mad she has been for so long. At this point she says that realizes that she needs to change her life because she too has made mistakes in the past. Sam tells Rita that people like her have no feelings because people like her are born perfect when Sam was born as he was.This causes her to tear down Sam's origami wall and get close to him and say, â€Å"You think you have it pegged on human suffering? Let me tell you something about people like me. People like me feel lost, little, ugly, and dispensable, people like me have husbands cheating on them with people far more perfect then me. People like me have sons that hate them. † By saying this Rita is making Sam realize that he is not the only one with problems and that she is going through things that are equivalently terrible as losing his daughter.She is testing his ability to have an understanding and empathy for what is going on in her life. At this point in the film Sam’s perception of Rita has dramatically changed. This is caused by the abrupt moment when Rita begins countering her problems with Sam’s (ex: her husband cheating on her and her son hating her, then comparing it to Sam’s problem of losing Lucy). She is testing him to see if he will admit that she is, in fact, un-perfect like Sam himself and everyone else in the world. Rita uses assertiveness when she is communicating with Sam.Her language is direct and honest when explains to Sam that she is not perfect and that people like her feel, lost, little, ugly and dispensable. She uses a firm tone of voice to get her message across and try to make it clear to Sam that no human being is perfect, including herself. Rita uses emotive language when she talks to Sam. She expresses her feelings in a disruptive or controlling way. She isn’t simply telling Sam that she is having a bad day and that she needs to talk, but instead is expresses her anger in a disorderly way.For example, when she storms over to Sam and tears down his origami wall, because what he said had triggered something in her. Rita when communicating also uses a lot of â€Å"I† and â€Å"but† statements. It is obvious that the situation is revolving around her at this point and not the client. She explains to Sam that she knows the way she treats her son is not right, yet she feels she has no choice but to be this way, â€Å"He looks at me with such anger and I hate him then, I know I failed you, I know I’m disappointing you, I know you deserve better. But get in the F***king car†.Rita uses kinesics in an intentional fashion to show Sam that she was irritated and frustrated. She chooses to walk over to the origami wall, knocking it out of her way and intruding Sam's space to make him feel intimidated and uncomfortable. You can clearly see that she is tense and offended at what Sam has said to her. Rita demonstrates individual factors that reveal how she is feeling; the tone of her voice gets really low when she is being serious and reaches a topic that is sensitive to her. Throughout the scene her tone of her voice changes.When she is explaining to Sam that she is far less than perfect, she raises her tone of voice to put emphasis on what she is saying. Rita uses the external factors to her advantage. She intrudes Sam’s personal space to make herself heard. This also exhibits territorialism because by tearing down the origami wall that Sam had made she is clearly stating that she is in control at this moment. Rita also uses Chronemics frequently to regulate her communication. To allow the information to sink in she uses small pauses between statements such as, â€Å"You think you got the market cornered?†¦ on human suffering?†¦Let me tell you something about people like me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Rita’s verbal and non-verbal communication is very congruent. A perfect example would be when Sam says you don’t know Rita turns around and throws her hands in the air saying, â€Å"I don’t know what? † this proves that she is feeling frustrated (her hands thrown up as a sign of giving up due to frustration). Another example is after she knocks down the origami wall she points at Sam and says â€Å"You think you got the market cornered†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this shows that she is directly stating her comment towards him and the pointed finger provides that extra shove towards Sam.When Sam tells Rita that she doesn’t understand him because she was born perfect, her h ead is seen pulled back slightly. Sam begins saying things to her such as, â€Å"People like you don’t know† which results in Rita replying with, â€Å"People like me? † This demonstrates that Rita is effectively listening to what Sam has to say. She uses techniques such as prompting to demonstrate that she has understood what Sam has said. The way that Rita acts throughout the interview is very unprofessional.Examples of this are the way she stormed over to Sam and tore down his origami wall and the way that she speaks to him. She has forgotten that Sam has the mental capacity of a 7 year old and treats their relationship on a much more personal level. She does not keep a professional distance from her client because she opens her heart to him as though the two were friends. She shares with him information about her son and husband, when the focus is supposed to be on Sam and his battle for custody of his daughter.