The Butcher and His Fiend Like Queen in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

The Butcher and his Fiend like Queen in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth Introduction At the end of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Malcolm refers to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as: â€Å"This dead like butcher and his fiend like queen,† when he was crowned as new king of Scotland. In Malcolm’s eyes, the Macbeths are just that, cruel murderers who stole away the throne from him and his father. A butcher can be described as someone who kills, or have people killed unnecessarily or brutally. A fiend can be defined as a very cruel person, or one who causes trouble and annoyance. Macbeth is a butcher and Lady Macbeth his fiend-like queen, because of greed he had taken the lives of many people even close friends of him, and she manipulates him into doing the things he did with only her own ambitions at heart. Analysis Lady Macbeth is â€Å"fiend like† when she manages to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. She seems to be missing all human kindness, when she trying to persuade Macbeth to commit the assassination. Macbeth hesitates on the night that the murder will be done. He does not want to do it. Lady Macbeth persuades him, mocks his weakness, even suggesting that she having the cruelest of thoughts, the thoughts of killing their little baby. | â€Å"I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this† (1,7) | Lady Macbeth wants to make him feel guilty and carry out the murder. The fact that she is trying to convince Macbeth to commit this horrible crime when he hesitates is very evil indeed. Macbeth murders Duncan, the King, in order to gain the throne. Macbeth decides to kill Duncan himself, even though Lady Macbeth is supportive and persuades him. After the murder he says: | â€Å"I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? † (2,2)| He have murdered with greed in mind, showing his â€Å"butcher† side of himself. Duncan’s death is especially barbaric because Macbeth killed him in his sleep and the fact that Duncan was Macbeth’s guest and cousin and also was considered a great King. Macbeth soon realizes that he cannot stop at just killing Duncan. He understands that the one person who is most likely to threaten his position as King is Banquo. This is because he was present when the strange sisters gave Macbeth their prophecy, and can guess that Macbeth is guilty of murdering the King. Macbeth murdered his best friend, Banquo, for two different reasons. The witches’ predictions, that Banquo’s son is to become king, and the fear about Banquo’s knowledge of his dirty crime. Macbeth assigns the three murderers to kill both Banquo and his son Fleance. | â€Å"Fleance his son, that keeps him company, Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father's, must embrace the fate Of that dark hour. † (3, 1)| Banquo was Macbeth’s best friend and had done nothing wrong; therefore must this act be the most butcher-like from Macbeth’s side. Macbeth slaughtered Lady Macduff and her son, due to the predictions made by the witches. Another example of Macbeth being a butcher is when he hires the murderers to kill the family of Macduff, just in order to cause him pain. | â€Å"The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls† (4, 1)| To murder innocent children and their mother is an exceptionally brutal act. Conclusion â€Å"The butcher and his Fiend like queen† as Malcolm refers to Macbeths in the end of the play, is an accurate way to describe Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth can be described as a butcher when he is involved in the murders of the King, Banquo, his best friend, and the family of Macduff. He murders innocent people, people he like, just to gain power. Lady Macbeth can be given the title of a fiend-like queen when she intrigues to murder Duncan and can be seen just as a brutal murderer as Macbeth because she is the brain behind the crime. Macbeth may not have murdered King Duncan without the support of his â€Å"Fiend like queen†, but Macbeth maid that choice and therefore he also chooses to rule in Hell rather than to serve in Heaven. This all came down to Macbeth’s greed and Lady Macbeth’s ambitions to become the King and Queen. Bibliography Shakespeare, W. (1990) Macbeth, Arden

Management and Weber Essay

Drawing on Weber’s ideal type, critically consider the relevance of bureaucratic administration to the management of twenty-first century organizations. Max Weber was a German sociologist in the twentieth century; he was famous for his classical management theory. Weber classified three different types of authority, traditional, charismatic and legitimate authority. Traditional authority is based on traditions and customs that the leader has the legitimate right to use authority. Charismatic authority is the belief that the leader whose mission and visions will inspire others. Legitimate authority is based on formal, system of rules. In the 1930s, Weber introduced that the bureaucratic form as being the ideal way of organizing government agencies. This soon became popular in both the private and public sectors. Weber believes that the development of rational forms to be the most important characteristics in the development of Western society and capitalism. He considered the traditional and charismatic forms as irrational. Rationality is based on reasoning, calculation and logic. One of the many types of rationality includes the formal rationality. The notion of formal rationality is important to the emergence of industrial capitalism as capitalism values reason, calculation and precision, science and logic. Formal rationality is a form of rationality that characterizes bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucracy refers to the execution of tasks that are governed by official administrative and formal rules of an organization. Weber’s bureaucratic management theory focuses on dividing organizations into hierarchies with authorities and control. The ideal type is extreme, empirically based and yardstick for comparison. Weber has 6 major principles for his ideal type of management style. Firstly, the organization has a formal hierarchical structure, which refers to the ranking system within in the management. A hierarchical structure management style also suggests a centralized decision making process, where the vast majority of decisions are made by a small number of people, usually the senior management teams. Secondly, the organization follows a management by rules system; the organization is controlled by rules, which allows decisions to be made at high level then executed by the lower levels. Thirdly, the organization is organized by functional specialty, which means that there is specialization within the organization; employees are divided into separate departments based on their abilities and skills. Specialization allows the employee to be efficient and more skilled at a specific task, which increases productivity. Furthermore, all decisions and rules are recorded in writing to ensure continuity over time. In addition, in an ideal system, there is equality between all employees, applying to both managerial and non-managerial workers. Lastly, employment is wholly based on technical qualifications, which means employees are hired on a basis of their abilities and competence. Weber’s bureaucratic management focuses on the authorities in the top level of the hierarchy and causes an â€Å"iron cage† to restrict the lower lever workers which leads to demotivation and a feeling of insignificance. Many researchers argue that weber emphasizes on the positive consequences of bureaucracy and ignores the dysfunctions of it. These researchers include Gouldner, Merton and Thompson. In Gouldner opinions, he does not believe the bureaucracy authority is neither acceptable nor efficient. He proposed three types of bureaucracy, mock bureaucracy, punishment centered bureaucracy and representative bureaucracy. In mock bureaucracy, the rules are ignored because they come from an outside agency; employees feel that there is too much ‘red tape’. In punishment-centered bureaucracy, the rules are imposed on the workers from inside the organization. This type of authority discourages the workers from full commitment; workers would only perform a adequate amount of work. In representative bureaucracy, the rules are developed and supported by managers and the employees. As for Merton, he believes that rational rules and the close control leads to inflexibility. He introduced the idea of ‘goal displacement’; this is when organizational goals are replaced by personal goals. Bureaucracies’ rules become more important than what they were designed to serve, which results in inefficiencies. In bureaucratic systems, specialization consists of different departments with different goals. These goals could cause conflict and these goals may become more important than the organization’s original objectives. Victor Thompson also criticized Weber’s ‘ideal type’, he suggests the bureaupathic behavior, and this is when employees are more interested in the rules than the purposes and goals of the organization. Thompson also argued that in bureaucratic systems, the authorities generate a sense of insecurity that uses rules to protect them from making errors. There are many more dysfunctional consequences of bureaucracy. Firstly, bureaucracy is a rigid management system, it is designed for a stable and predictable business environment, hence it cannot adapt to rapid and unexpected changes. Also, in a bureaucratic system, there is a concentration of power in the higher levels of management, which would create distance between the employees at the lower levels of the hierarchy and leading to a sense of demotivation. There was not only Weber’s theories about management style, there were also Taylorism by Fredrick Winslow Taylor, Fordism by Henry Ford, and McDonaldism by George Ritzer. Taylor was regarded as the father of scientific management. Taylorism was aimed to a) minimize production time, b) achieve divison of labour, c) reduce the amount of work by following a machinelike routine d) separate work equally among the workers and the managers, e) gain control by supervision of work with managers planning, and workers performing the tasks. His ultimate goal was to succeed in gaining efficiency by increasing output from his workers. Taylor also introduced the Time and Motion Study, this was to establish productivity. He first separated the tasks into small steps, then performance was monitored to eliminate wasteful motion, with the exact time recorded, then the production and delivery time and prices can be calculated. However, this is only suitable for repetitive tasks. The idea of taylorism is usually argued that it exploits human beings, it also ignores personal creativity and there is a loss of autonomy to the employees. Fordism was the system of mass production that was introduced by Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company. His aim was to achieve higher productivity by standardizing the output by his company. He was also the first to introduce the use of assembly lines. In Taylorism, it focused on machine and worker efficiency, however, in Fordism, ford replaced labour with machinery and he minimizes costs instead of maximizing profits. Critics argued that Fordism destroys craftsmanship and de-skilled jobs as it focuses on machinery to perform the tasks, and with the small number of workers of the workplace, the repetitiveness of the job is believed to lead to stress and alienation of the workers. After Fordism, George Ritzer introduced the idea of McDonaldism, the term was to refer to the process of fast food restaurants dominating the world. This new structure of Ritzer’s replaced Weber’s bureaucratic structure. He proposed four principles of McDonaldization. 1) Efficiency: In McDonaldized structures, the ideal way for completing a task was the whole of the organization aims to minimize time of production. 2) Calculability: McDonaldism suggests that a large amount of product delivered in a short period of time is equivalent to a quality product. 3) Predictability: In McDonaldism, products and services are standardized, despite the location or time. 4) Control: According to McDonaldism, employees perform specific tasks with non-human technologies to replace them when needed. Bureaucracy belongs to the twentieth century when the business environment is stable and predictable, however, in the twenty-first century; the business environment is forever changing and is in need for a flexible structure. There are five key organizational trends in the twenty-first century. Firstly, globalization is the increase integration of national economies into global markets rather than national markets. Over the past years, there is an increased globalized labour market. The increased globalized markets are mainly due to improvements in transportation and communication such as the Internet. Secondly, the workforce is becoming more diversified due to changing demographics and the globalization of the labour market. Thirdly, in the twenty-first century, organizations are becoming more flexible; there are fewer detailed rules and procedures within the workplace. Employees are receiving greater autonomy with a more flexible organizational structure. Furthermore, businesses prefer to adapt to a flat organizational structure with less management levels, bringing the top management closer to the lower levels of employees hence improving the flow of information and speeding up communication within the organization. Lastly, organizations are mostly networked; there is direct communication between different departments, ignoring the chains of command. Business decision-making is decentralized in networked organizations, which improves the speed of decision-making, encourages input from the workforce and improves accountability of the employees. In conclusion, Weber’s theory of the ideal type of organization is inappropriate for the management of the twenty-first century organizations; the business environment in the current days is rapidly changing. Bureaucracy is a rigid system that does not allow easy changes which is required in the modern world. Hence, bureaucratic system is only suitable in the twentieth century where the business environment is static. Bibliography: Max Weber – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2011. Max Weber – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber. [Accessed 17 October 2011] Bureaucracy — Max Weber’s six characteristics of the bureaucratic form. 2011. Bureaucracy — Max Weber’s six characteristics of the bureaucratic form. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bustingbureaucracy.com/excerpts/weber.htm. [Accessed 17 October 2011]. WEBER ON BUREAUCRACY. 2011. WEBER ON BUREAUCRACY. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y64l09.html. [Accessed 19 October 2011]. Bureaucratic Management. 2011. Bureaucratic Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vectorstudy.com/management_schools/bureaucratic_management.htm. [Accessed 19 October 2011]. What is Wrong with Weberian Bureaucracy?. 2011. What is Wrong with Weberian Bureaucracy?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.change.freeuk.com/learning/business/ratlegal.html. [Accessed 24 October 2011]. Bureaucracy (Advantages and Dis-Advantages)  « Michael Wiriadinata. 2011. Bureaucracy (Advantages and Dis-Advantages)  « Michael Wiriadinata. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mamikikeyu.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/bureaucracy-advantages-and-dis-advantages/. [Accessed 24 October 2011]. Scientific Management (Taylorism). 2011. Scientific Management (Taylorism). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.12manage.com/methods_taylor_scientific_management.html. [Accessed 24 October 2011]. McDonaldization – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2011. McDonaldization – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization. [Accessed 27 October 2011].

Poetry and the Marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes Essay

In the introduction of her book Her Husband: Hughes and Plath – a Marriage (2003), Diane Wood Middlebrook wrote that â€Å"poetry had brought Hughes and Plath together, and poetry had kept them together† (Middlebrook, n. pag.). Indeed, the marriage of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is best described as a union of two talented but volatile personalities who both competed with and complemented one another through poetry. But this observation was often ignored due to the overly simplistic accounts of their marriage, especially those that focused on the period shortly before and after Plath’s death. Hughes is almost always depicted in these explanations as a philandering womanizer, while Plath is shown as a clingy and overly paranoid wife (St. Clair, n. pag.). The life of Sylvia Plath has often been presented as the struggle of a brilliant mind against madness. Plath was an excellent student, graduating summa cum laude from Smith College in 1955 and obtaining a Fulbright scholarship to Cambridge University shortly afterwards. A gifted writer, she published her poems in magazines and won literary awards since her teenage years. However, these accomplishments were overshadowed by her battle with mental illness (MSN Encarta, n. pag.). Plath began to experience episodes of depression, insomnia and suicidal thoughts during her youth, all of which were possibly triggered by her father’s demise when she was only eight years old. In her junior year in college in 1953, Plath tried to kill herself by hiding under her house and overdosing on sleeping pills. She was afterwards confined in a mental institution for six months, where she was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Plath’s later writings made a constant reference to her experiences with this treatment (MSN Encarta, n. pag.). Plath made a temporary recovery in January 1954, allowing her to graduate from college and pursue further studies in England. While in Cambridge, she met Ted Hughes. Despite warnings from friends about his fickleness in relationships, Hughes and Plath fell in love with each other and got married in 1956 (Neurotic Poets, n. pag.). Their first child, Frieda, was born in 1960, followed by Nicholas in 1962 (MSN Encarta, n. pag.). At first, Plath and Hughes enjoyed a happy marriage. Theirs was a relationship that was â€Å"fueled by their joint passion for poetry† (John-Steiner, 136). For Plath, Hughes was not just a husband – he was a father figure who can fill the void caused by the premature death of her real father. She revealed this sentiment in an undated letter to her mother, Aurelia: We read, we discuss poems we discover, talk, analyze – we continually fascinate each other. It is heaven to have someone like Ted who is so kind and honest and brilliant always stimulating me to think, draw and write. He is better than any teacher, he even fills somehow that huge, sad hole I felt in having no father. (137) As a result, Plath idolized her husband completely. She had so much faith in his ability as a poet that she worked very hard to have his poetry published in English and American magazines. But according to Vera John-Steiner’s book Creative Collaboration (2000), Hughes’ feelings towards his wife’s efforts was not established (John-Steiner, 137). Unfortunately, later accounts of their marriage implied that Hughes was suffocated with Plath’s excessive clinginess. His sister Olwyn recalled that â€Å"he could not go on the simplest of errands without her grabbing a coat and running after him† (John-Steiner, 137). Consequently, Plath and Hughes fought often and the latter had an extramarital affair with a married woman named Assia Wevill (Neurotic Poets, n. pag.). He eventually left her for Wevill in 1962 (MSN Encarta, n. pag.). Plath described the stormy condition of their marriage before their separation in her poems Words heard, by Accident over the Phone, Poppies in July and Burning the Letters (Neurotic Poets, n. pag.). Plath and her children moved to London in December 1962. She wrote poetry at a feverish pace during this period, with an output of more than 25 poems. What made these poems – which included A Secret, The Applicant and Daddy – noteworthy was that they contained Plath’s brutally honest opinions about her marriage and her father’s passing. In January 1963, her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas (Neurotic Poets, n. pag.). Despite these literary accomplishments, Plath’s depression worsened. She killed herself in the early morning of February 11, 1963 by putting her head inside a gas oven (MSN Encarta, n. pag.). It would be fair to say that Plath and Hughes used poetry to asses the effects of their tempestuous marriage on themselves. The Applicant, for instance, revealed Plath’s anger over what marriage does to a woman: But in twenty-five years she’ll be silver, In fifty, gold. A living doll, everywhere you look. It can sew, it can cook, It can talk, talk, talk. (n. pag.) For Plath, marriage and or domestic relationships condemned a woman to a â€Å"living death† (Dobbs, 11). When a woman marries, her â€Å"worth† will be based on how well she takes care of her family. In effect, she is almost similar to a dead person because her identity as an individual is replaced with that of a wife and a mother. The Applicant was probably based on Plath’s dilemma as to whether she should still pursue careers in the academe and in writing even if she was already married or just resign herself to being a full-time housewife. Letters to and the remembrances of friends and family members revealed this conflict. Although Plath was able to maintain a balance between work and family life, she resented her family for making demands that drained her creativity. But at the same time, she felt guilty for harboring such bitterness – her husband left her for another woman probably because she didn’t spend enough time on him. It must be noted that one constant source of their disagreements was that Hughes wanted Plath to stop working and take care of their children instead (Dobbs, 13). Words heard, by Accident over the Phone, meanwhile, is an account of Hughes’ affair with Wevill: Speak, speak! Who is it? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ O god, how shall I ever clean the phone table? They are pressing out of the many-holed earpiece, they are looking for a listener. Is he there? (n. pag.) According to some accounts, there was an instance when Plath heard the phone in their house ringing as she returned from a morning outing with her mother. When she answered it, it was Wevill, trying to disguise her voice. After Hughes finished talking to Wevill, Plath was so upset that she unplugged the phone wire from its socket. It was only during that incident that Plath realized that her husband was having an affair (NeuroticPoets, n. pag.). Burning the Letters showed Plath’s rage over the said discovery: I made a fire; being tired Of the white fists of old Letters and their death rattle When I came too close to the wastebasket What did they know that I didn’t? Love, love, and well, I was tired (n. pag.) Plath was said to be so upset over Hughes’ affair with Wevill that she tore up and threw into the fire the manuscript of the novel that she had been working on (the sequel to The Bell Jar). She also burned all the letters that received from her mother, as well as Hughes’ letters and drafts of poems (NeuroticPoets, n. pag.). Hughes has often been blamed for Plath’s death. This was fueled largely by the women’s movement of the 1970s, which strongly identified itself with her life and poetry. For decades, Hughes kept silent regarding his former wife’s passing. But in 1998, he published Birthday Letters, a collection of his poems that focused on his relationship with Plath and her sad fate. Hughes implied in most of his poems that one of the reasons for the failure of his marriage to Plath was their incompatibilities in terms of personal success. Being the daughter of educators, Plath grew up adhering to conventional standards of achievement. Accounts of her life gave the impression that she wanted nothing more but to establish herself both in writing and in teaching. Hughes, on the other hand, felt suffocated at the idea of a tenured academic job (Rees, n. pag.). Hughes echoed this sentiment in The Blue Flannel Suit. This poem mockingly described Plath’s nervousness during her first day as an English lecturer in her alma mater. In order to project the respectable image of an academic, she wore a badly-tailored suit that she made by herself. Looking back at this incident, he wrote: That blue suit, A mad, execution uniform, Survived your sentence. (n. pag.) But in A Picture of Otto, Hughes lamented that he and Plath separated primarily because he was not able to take the place of her father, Otto, in her life. For him, Otto was inseparable from my shadow As long as your daughter’s words can stir a candle. She could hardly tell us apart in the end. (458) In the end, Hughes finally accepted that Plath will always be her father’s daughter: you never could have released her. I was a whole myth too late to replace you. This underworld, my friend, is her heart’s home. Inseparable, here we must remain. (459) Human relationships are too complex for their failure to be attributed to just one person. While Hughes may have his faults, Plath was already a disturbed character even before their marriage. Their poetry was just a reflection of a couple, who, despite their fame, underwent the travails of any other failed marriage. Hence, the works of Hughes and Plath should not be used as additional fodder to continue a battle of the sexes that was blown out of proportion.

Macbeth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Macbeth - Essay Example The previous success on the battlefield and the fulfillment of the first prophecy make the once skeptical Macbeth attach seriousness to the witches’ words. Macbeth, through the assistance of Lady Macbeth, struggles to make the prophecy true in all ways possible. Throughout the play, Macbeth’s actions are motivated by the existence of supernatural elements, from the witches to Banquo’s ghost to the nightmares and the Apparitions among others. A critical analysis of supernaturalism in the tragedy in connection to Macbeth’s life reveals the influence of the elements of his actions. The trio of witches that Macbeth encounters at the onset of the play influences almost all his actions henceforth. After the defeat of two different armies (from Ireland and Norway) invading Scotland, Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches who give them the prophecy that shapes their life entirely. The witches’ prophecy seems of great influence on Macbeth as it triggers the quest for the attainment of power. To Macbeth, the First Witch, the Second Witch, and the Third Witch say, â€Å"All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!† and â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!† respectively (Shakespeare 8). Even though Macbeth holds their words with skepticism at first, they influence his life and actions to entirety. The fulfillment of the first prophecy made by the Second Witch, terming Macbeth as the Thane of Cawdor motivates most of his actions thereafter. This is a clear indication that supernaturalism plays an extensive role in the development of the character of Macbeth. Concerning his leadership as the Thane of Cawdor, the Second Witch says, â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!† (Shakespeare 8).Macbeth disdains the witches at first. The prophecy comes to pass after King Duncan expresses gratitude towards Macbeth and Banquo for the success on the battlefield. Macbeth is named

Control Mechanisms Team Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Control Mechanisms Team Paper - Essay Example The main types of control mechanisms used by AIG are administrative control and management control, budgeting an cost control, quality control and auditing. For AIG, control is a multidimensional activity. It is diagnostic and prognostic. It examines past activities and proposes future improvements. It monitors present activities to assess a company's health. It must foresee future barriers and prepare to overcome them. Though realistic and concrete, control must be concerned with hypothetical sales potentials and future goals. It deals with firm yardsticks and standards, yet requires flexibility (Dobson and Starkey 2004). Control helps AIG management to reach goals efficiently with a minimum of error. From knowledge gained through control mechanisms, management is better able to relate resources and programs to goals. Control mechanisms are intertwined with planning. Without a plan there is nothing to control, and without control, marketing plans probably cannot be realized. Inseparable components of management, both use many of the same tools, such as sales forecasts and budgets. The general purpose of control mechanisms is to help achieve internal and external balance.

Operations & Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Operations & Supply Chain Management - Essay Example equent governmental funds and approaches that were taken to effect this, the course in question has been beneficial and instrumental in helping to analyze the way in which a resource dependent economy can utilize the resources that it has, and is able to generate a substantial level of funding from, as a means of developing and diversifying other economic resources that can help the economy in the long run. With regards to the manner through which what has been learned within this course can benefit individuals, and indeed the entire society of the United Arab Emirates, in the future, it must be understood that the progress that has been affected, although impressive, should not be viewed as a victory entirely. The underlying reason for this can be traced back to Chapter 2; Strategy and Sustainability. Within this particular chapter, the class was engaged with the understanding that the United Arab Emirates face a situation in which continued action to leverage further economic development, further specialties, further education, the development of further infrastructure, and a litany of other aspects was a dependent reality of whether or not the nation’s economy would be able to continue its impressive growth rate into the immediate and long-term future (Khalid 3). Another understanding that can clearly be denoted is with respect to the fact that a large level of dependence and continues to exist within the economy of the United Arab Emirates with regards to profitability derived from the sale of natural resources. Ultimately, due to the fact that these resources are non-sustainable, the economy is faced with a situation in which the rapid level of growth that it has experienced over the past several decades is not guaranteed into the indefinite future. Eventually, the resources of natural gas and/or oil will be exhausted. Alternatively, changes in technology could create a situation in which the United Arab Emirates has remaining resources of natural gas

Social work-- Self Help Group Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social work-- Self Help Group Report - Essay Example After graduating from High School we went to different colleges as he wanted to be an architect while I wanted to study medicine. Though our friendship continued, I was dismayed to find that Angelo had suffered a bad setback due to his drinking habit which he had started after he broke up with his girlfriend. Ever since that time he had only gone deeper into the habit which he could not seem to get rid of. It was a Sunday afternoon on the 7th of September and the time was about 2 pm. When we shifted the listless Angelo to the Alcohol Anonymous Department which was located in the heart of the city of Austin about an hours drive from where we lived. Angelo had a light temperature, was restless and blabbered in his delirium. We had phoned the hospital and they were waiting for us to arrive. On arrival they quickly moved Angelo to a stretcher which they wheeled into an emergency room. I reassured Angelo’s mother that everything would be fine and while waiting there made an observation of everything around. The first thing that struck me was the sad and anxious faces of parents and loved ones who had accompanied their dear ones here and waited in anticipation for the advice of the doctors and nurses who did their work with such dedication. I was quite familiar with the surroundings because a few years back I had accompanied another friend of mine who had a problem with alcohol abuse but was now over it. The people at the center were by and large a mixed group of both men and women between the ages of about 16 to 60 years old. Some had accompanied their children while others accompanied their husbands or wives. Most of the crowd present seemed to come from an affluent background but there were also others who came from a much lower social class. A good majority of people came from an ethnic background such as African, Vietnamese and Chinese. Everyone was going out of their way to help one another because

Land law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Land law - Essay Example e disputes are likely to occur when the forms are incomplete or absent, as was the case in TSB Bank Plc v Botham.3 This aspect was also applied in the Taylor case, where it was held that the time for assessing whether an item is a fixture or chattel is at the time of contracting, otherwise it could amount to concealment. Therefore, a great deal will depend upon the contents of the mortgage contract Freddy has with Lords Bank and whether or not it has been specified that certain items will not be considered fixtures for purposes of the contract. When the question concerns the determination of whether or not an item belongs to a house, then it must be such that it becomes a part of the land itself. The case of Elitestone Ltd v Morris4 demonstrates this principle. In this case, the property in question was a house that had been prefabricated and stood on cement pillars so it was viewed as personal property (chattel) by the Court of Appeal. However, when the case went to the House of Lords, it was held that a removal of the building would have entailed its destruction, therefore the building was a part of the land itself and could not be removed. However, in the case of Chelsea Yacht and Boat Club v Pope5 , a house on a barge that was attached at the side through gas and electricity cables, was not deemed to be a part of the land, but was considered personal property that could be removed. Therefore, when the position on fixtures/fittings has not been clearly specified in the contract, the most important aspect in the determination of whether an item is removable or not will depend upon the extent to which it is considered to be a part of the property itself. Applying this distinction therefore, items which become a part of the house will be considered to be fixtures and will not be removable. However, items which do not become part of the house but are removable will be considered fittings and they can be removed. For example, in the case of Berkeley v Poulett6

The market for IntensCare product Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The market for IntensCare product - Case Study Example The company enjoys a large market power because of its innovativeness, formalized process of product development and heavy investments in product development (Donnellon and Margolis 2). Presently, MedSys Company has is the leading distributor of the IntensiveCare product in the market. The company has invested huge sums of money, amounting to $20.5 million in developing and launching the product (Donnellon and Margolis 1). Since the product is the most ambitious project in history, MediSys must have the largest market compared to its competitors. Nature of the market structure The nature of the market for IntensCare product is perfect competition. Perfect competition market is where there are many buyers and sellers so that the action of one trader has no significant impact on the market price. Perfect competition market is characterized by mobility of the factors of production such that producers can respond to price signals. Valerie Merz, for example, fears of losing the market share for to the forthcoming product, which are scheduled for release within the year (Donnellon and Margolis 1). Valerie is rational and seek to maximize utility and profits; this is the feature of a perfect competition market. The marketing function is interested in distributing and selling the product. Valerie Merz, the marketing manager was under pressure as she reviewed the agenda of the meeting intended for IntensCare product development team.

The influence of Avant Garde film movie in Pop Cinema Essay

The influence of Avant Garde film movie in Pop Cinema - Essay Example ilms where developers strive to capture the social and cultural features of the society, avant-garde film developers infuse their creativity and thoughts into the development of films thereby pushing the boundaries of possibilities in such creations (Kostelanetz & Brittain, 2000). Avant-garde film therefore increased the bounds of film development thereby providing developers with more possibilities, this has consequently revamped the industry thus perpetuating both competition and creativity in the industry as espoused in the discussion below. Mesh of the afternoon is one such film in which the developers experiment with different features and elements of film development. The short is film is a perfect example of avant-garde film. The film adopts a circular narrative structure with the developers repeating similar motifs and symbols. Among the motifs are flowers, a knife and a falling key among others. The simplistic structure easily portrays the ease of developing the film as the developer manipulates the camera angles, shots and lighting of different scenes in order to develop the sequential flow of concepts in the film. The film therefore provides a realistic manifestation of avant-garde film in the contemporary society. Andy Warhol is yet another contemporary developer of avant-garde films who has depicted understanding of the intricate features in film developments and the need to infuse creativity and experimental aspects of films in film developments in the contemporary society. Among his greatest works is Ann the girl who cried a tear. In his works, Andy Warhol portrays the role of arts in the society; he developed films and music that provided a perfect reflection of the society through his artistic and analytical eyes. This provides him with the relativity to experiment on different issues. He for example pioneered the use of computers in the generation of arts including films. Ann the girl who cried a tear is one of his famous works, which portray

Ecology Report of Brighami Rockii Essay Example for Free

Ecology Report of Brighami Rockii Essay Any region with significant level of biodiversity exposed to threat of destruction can have severe deforestation and other forms of agricultural clearing like logging, charcoal-making, etc. Due to this degradation of its ecological habitats, such region may become a home for critically endangered endemic species. Researchers have it that the less rainforest a given region has, the greater the proportion of endangered species it hosts. In Hawaii, two native plants were identified as the most critically endangered species. Brighamia rockii Brighamia insignis are endemic to the region. Both of these species are similar to each other except their respective colors. Both of them also have succulent stems that function as water storage allowing them to sustain amidst drought season. B. rockii though is different in color. It is a native plant with purple trunks that develops in its early stage, while B. insignis does not change its color at all. B. Rockii can grow spectacularly as a branched plant 1 to 5 meters tall along with its thick succulent stems that narrows from the base. It has elliptical leaves that forms and looks like the head of a cabbage. B. Rockii produces fragrant flowers that have corollas in white and anthers which are grouped in three to eight in its axils. Few of the associated species of B. rockii are Metrosideros polymorpha (ohia), Canthium odoratum (alahee), Diospyros sandwicensis (lama), Osteomeles anthyllidifolia (ulei), and Scaevola gaudichaudii (naupaka). B. Rockii is an endemic native plant that belongs to the family of bellflowers known as Campanulaceae. Its common names are alula, ‘olulu, pu aupaka and pua ‘ala. B. Rockii is also tagged with taxonomic synonyms namely, Brighamia remyi, Brighamia rockii fa. and Longiloba Known to have been extinct, this plant is only found on sea cliffs in the island of Moloka (Hannon 2002; Wagner 1999) i. Its natural habitats, however, are coastal dry forests, moist shrub lands above sea level up to 470 meters elevation. B. rockii is common to Molokai and extends to the northern part of the island – Kalaupapa to Halawa. However, just recently, it has been found out that it has become an almost died out specie in Lanai and Maui. Hand pollination for cultivated plants allows its seed production to increase because its native pollinator are also extinct. Similarly, for the Brighamia to be hand pollinated, the use of a small paint brush is needed to transfer the pollen grains. When the flowers of B. Rockii are yet a few days old, the pollen will begin to drop. The paint brush can then be used to pick up the pollens that fell onto the flower tube and place it over to another flower’s stigma. This stigma is good to receive the pollen when it appears sticky and glossy. Researchers found out that the seeds of Brighamia need the presence of light to produce and sprinkle the seeds onto the surface of a damp medium. These seeds can also be stored in a refrigerator from 2 to 3 years but its capability depreciates after 10 to 12 months. It was also found out from NTBG report ((Ragone 1993) that came out on 1993 that the seeds of Brighamia were no longer viable after it has been stored in an area with a temperature of 80 degrees F and humidity of 25 % for 1 year and 5 months (Hannon 2002; Koob 2000; NTBG 1992; Ragone 1993; Wagner 1999). The plant was believed to be extinct but was rediscovered in 1996. From its discovery, only few remained and became part of the current population estimated to run at most 5 in numbers. â€Å"No bird, butterfly, flower, tree or animal disappears alone. When they slip into extinction, they disappear with their unique genes – the building blocks of life (Dr. Norman Meyer of Oxford University). † These species, rare finds and threatened, may cease to exist even without being given a name. Yet again, Brighamia rockii is just one of the most critically endangered. There are more that are susceptible to extinction too. Still, some remained unnoticed. Perhaps, extinction is natural but if we, humans alike are hastening the process, then probably our race comes with the extinction as well. â€Å"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end by destroying earth (Schweitzer 2004). † References Hannon, Dylan P. and Steve Perlman. 2002. The Genus Brighamia. Cactus and Succulent Journal 74 (2):67-76. Johnson, Margaret. 1986. Brighamia citrina var. napaliensis. Kew Magazine 3 (2):68-72. Koob, Gregory A. 2000. Cabbage on a baseball bat. Hawaii Horticulture 3 (6):9-11. National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). 1992. Alula. In Native Hawaiian plant information sheets. Lawai, Kauai: Hawaii Plant Conservation Center. National Tropical Botanical Garden. Unpublished internal papers. Ragone, Diane, (Program Coordinator). 1993. Hawaii Plant Conservation Center Collection Propagation Project: Progress Report (USFWS Grant 14-48-0001-92581). Lawai, Hawaii: National Tropical Botanical Garden.

History Of The Spanish Inquisition Of The 15th Century Essay Example for Free

History Of The Spanish Inquisition Of The 15th Century Essay The Spanish Inquisition is usually synonymous with persecution, brutality and tyranny; and it is thought to be the forerunner of the covert regulatory bodies of contemporary autocracies. Yet how accurate is this picture of an establishment set up in the late 15th century to route out deviation and agnosticism in that land? This report aims to place the Spanish Inquisition in its correct historical context. BACKGROUND The conception of inquisitions to eliminate religious heretics was not new when, in 1478, Pope Sixtus IV sanctioned the formation of Spanish Inquisition. The monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, decided to establish a body (which began its work in 1480) chiefly to deal with the issue of the huge numbers of converted Jews (Conversos) who were alleged of continuing to carry out tenants of the Jewish religion after apparent conversion to Catholicism. Following the formal expulsion of all non-converted Jews from Spain in 1492, the problem of the Conversos increased. The roots of the Spanish Inquisition can therefore be traced quite clearly back to anti-Semitism. In 1518, the Inquisition became a permanently unified body under one head, the Inquisitor-General . Tomas de Torquemada was appointed by the Monarchs as Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition. The Catholic Church, under the rule of the pope in Rome was a powerful force in Europe during the Middle ages. The decrees of the church provided the basis of law and order. Christians who disagreed with catholic principles were regarded as heretics, and heresy was considered an crime against the church and the state. The â€Å"inquiries† into a person’s faith to determine whether or not one was a heretic, was branded as the inquisition, with the inquisitors being priests or bishops who subjected a suspect to long grilling followed by terrible tortures. Death by fire was often the punishment of those who did not repent. The heretic’s property was then claimed by the church. Between 1478 and 1502, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon took three complementary decisions. They persuaded the pope to create the Inquisition; they expelled the Jews; and they forced the Muslims of the kingdom of Castile to convert to Catholicism. All these measures were designed to achieve the same end: the establishment of a united faith. The Christian, Muslims and Jewish communities existed tolerantly throughout the first centuries of Muslim domination and continued to do so in the Christian Spain of the 12th and 13th century. Tolerance presupposed an absence of discrimination against minorities and respect for the point of view of others. This tolerance was nowhere to be found in the Iberia of the 8th century to the 15th. Spanish archdeacon named Ferran Martinez was busy delivering a sequence of sermons in the diocese of Seville. It was his remarkable eloquence rather than the novelty of his subject which attracted an audience: for he spoke only on a single theme, one that in every age has provided an easy stalking horse for demagogues religious and civil- the iniquities of the Jews. Their veins had venom that poisoned whatever contribution they made. The Jews, he argued, had been guilty, as a body, of the greatest crime in history. They adhered to a faith that had been rejected in no uncertain manner by the Deity. Their ceremonies were outmoded and impious, rendered those who performed them capable of the most heinous misdoings and doomed them to eternal punishment in the hereafter . ORIGIN AND AIMS Jews weren’t newcomers in Spain. They had been settled there since the 1st century. Documentary and archaeological evidence demonstrates their numbers at the beginning of the fourth century, long before the coming of the Arabs or the Visigoths. The latter had persecuted them, but under the moors they had flourished as nowhere else in Europe. They were an important and influential minority. Every Spanish city had its prosperous juderia, or Jewish quarter, comprised of craftsmen and weavers, goldsmiths and carpenters . The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 by Edward I En masse. His example had been followed in France sixteen later, by Philip the Fair. The Spanish Jews considered themselves secure from anything of the sort. The activities of Martinez disturbed them but didn’t alarm them. Month after month passed without any untoward occurrence. They fell into the error of imagining that nothing would happen. It came as a shock to them when at the close of 1390, just before Christmastide, Martinez succeeded in having some synagogues in the diocese partially destroyed and closed down, on the plea that they had been built without authorization. The community, alarmed, applied for protection to the council of regency then governing Castile in the name of the young king Henry III, which ordered steps to be taken for the protection of the petitioners. Martinez was defiant, however, and his sermons were as violent as ever. On Wednesday, March 15th, 1391 his harangue was particularly effective, and his audience was roused to a high pitch of frenzy. On its way from the church, a turbulent crowd, thirsting with zeal and greed, surged towards the Jewish quarter, which seemed to be in imminent danger of sack. The civil authorities were at last awakened to the necessity of stern measures. Seizing two of the most turbulent members of the mob, they had them flogged, turned them into martyrs overnight. After some further disturbances, order was outwardly restored: but the spirit of unrest still simmered and Martinez continued his unbridled invective from the pulpit. These seemingly unimportant disorders are to be traced some of the greatest tragedies in history – the darkest page in the dark record of the Jewish people, one of the saddest episodes in the history of human thought, and the ultimate decline of sprain from the high status to which her achievements and her genius entitled her – everything, in a word, which is associated with the term, â€Å"the Spanish Inquisition†. On June 6th, a storm broke out. An infuriated mob rushed upon the juderia of Seville and put it to sack. An orgy of carnage raged the city. The dead were numbered by the hundreds, if not by the thousand. Every ruffian in the city flaunted the finery sacked from Jewish houses, or boasted the ravishing of a Jewish maiden . Through some curious psychology of mass psychology, the infection spread from one city to the other, and throughout Spain onslaughts on the Jews became the order of the day. The fury raged that summer and autumn, and at several places the entire Jewish community was exterminated. At Cordova, the ancient Jewish quarter, where Moses Maimonides had first seen the light, was reduced to ashes. Toledo was witness to a similar horrifying carnage. 70 other towns in Castile were doomed to similar incidents of terror. In Aragon, in spite of measures put into force by the authorities to suppress the mayhem, the case was commonly adhered. In Valencia, within a few days, not a single professing Jew was left alive in the entire kingdom. In Barcelona, despite a half hearted protection given by the civic authorities, the whole community was wiped out. From Catalonia, the disorders spread to the Balearic Islands, where a massacre took place on August 2nd at Palma. Outbreaks were prevented only in the kingdom of Granada thanks to the efforts of the crown, in Portugal. Elsewhere in the peninsula, hardly a single community escaped. The total no of victims was estimated as many as 50,000 . The Inquisition did not begin in Spain, but did gather notoriety there. Shortly after commencement, the Spanish Inquisition was accused of numerous abuses. Accusations of heresy ran rampant, and innocent, faithful people were unjustly punished by public trials and condemnation. This usually took the form of strangulation or burning at the stake. The Inquisition, although vastly changed and more humane, remained a strong force in Spain until the early 19th century . By about 1750 the Inquisition had lost its power. It had been created to eradicate all traces of Semitism in Spain. The Jews had long been expelled and two and a half centuries of persecution had eventually eliminated the Judaisers. Yet the statues of blood purity still did not disappear; in fact, in the course of the eighteenth century, they tended to multiply. They no longer constituted a serious obstacle to a career in the Church, the official administration, or civic society. By the end of the eighteenth century, essentially the Inquisition was operating as a political policing force devoted to opposing the introduction of revolutionary and liberal ideas. By this time, it seemed to have softened its attitude. It no longer published edicts of faith encouraging the faithful spontaneously to denounce their neighbors and their relatives. Nor did it any longer torture its prisoners. CONCLUSION The Spanish Inquisition was one of the most powerful organizations used to eradicate heresy and safeguard the unanimity of Christendom. Begun in 1478, by 1512 the Inquisition was under review for a wide range of issues – from corruption, patronage and bribery. The Spanish Inquisition, first established under Queen Isabella was finally suppressed 356 years later under Queen Isabella II, leaving its mark in the annals of Western civilization. The onset of the Enlightenment slowed down the Inquisition. It, however, wasn’t until the Spanish invasion of Napoleon that the Inquisition finally came to an end in 1810, being completely abolished in 1836. It is estimated that more than 20,000 people were killed because of the Inquisition. Numerous more were subjected to torture and others had their possessions confiscated. John Paul II’s teachings are an ever present reminder of how to learn from history: â€Å" †¦we must take account of the complexity of the relationship between the subject who interprets and the object from the past which is interpreted†¦. Events or words of the past are, above all, â€Å"past. † As such they are not completely reducible to the framework of the present, but possess an objective density and complexity that prevent them from being ordered in a solely functional way for present interests. It is necessary, therefore, to approach them by means of an historical-critical investigation that aims at using all of the information available, with a view to a reconstruction of the environment, of the ways of thinking, of the conditions and the living dynamic in which those events and those words are placed, in order, in such a way, to ascertain the contents and the challenges that precisely in their diversity they propose to our present time . On 12 January 2000, to mark the Catholic Church’s Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued a document entitled Memory and Reconciliation in which he asked for forgiveness for the errors of the Church over its 2,000 year history. ? BIBLIOGRAPHY Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision. London, 1997. John Paul II, Memory and Reconciliation, 2000. Finkelstein, Louis. 1970. The Jews: their history. New York: Schocken Books. Kohen, Elizabeth, Elias, Marie Louise. 2004. Spain. New York: Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish. Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 vols. New York, 1906–1908. Lemieux, Simon. The Spanish Inquisition. History Review 7. 44 (2002): 44-49

Teamwork Is The Key Ingredient Of Organisations Success Management Essay

Teamwork Is The Key Ingredient Of Organisations Success Management Essay In contemporary society, there is no doubt that teams are a ubiquitous feature of modern organisations and teamwork becomes a key ingredient of organisations success. However, there has been a hot controversy over an issue over the question of whether people working in teams always achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively than people working alone. Majority of organisational scholars provide a body of research to empirically prove that teams work better than people working alone whereas only minority of scholars strongly support that people who choose to work individually have a great deal of strengths rather than shortcomings. As a matter of fact, there are no absolutely rights and wrongs in all cases. Different people with various backgrounds and cultures have their own points of views perceiving things in a different way. Some lend support on collectivism or some are in favor of individualism. People with strong collectivist or individualist culture are all dependent u pon their normative culture norm which is determinant of how team function and development are being undertaking. Introduction This essay discusses whether it is true that people working in teams always achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively than people working alone and examines what similarities and differences are existent between people working in teams and people who working individually. This report builds several themes. It first of all defines what is meant by between people working in teams and people working alone. Secondly, it analyses the main issues discussed in the existing literature regarding goal setting, goal generation and goal striving at both team and individual level. Thirdly, it brings some arguments to demonstrate that teams tend to perform better and effectively rather than individuals do in terms of shared collaborative thinking, knowledge and skills, better decisions making and higher level of motivation. Fourthly, several possible failures of being involved in teamwork are also delineated. Subsequently, particular theories of team development apply across different c ultures are addressed. In addition, practical successful examples relating to team development from University experience is given. Finally, several important points addressed in the foregoing discussion are overall reminded in the implication section. Key findings from the literature Define team and people working alone Generally, team is defined as a distinguishable people who interact, dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common purpose and a set of valued goals or objectives, who hold themselves mutually accountable, and who have a limited life-span of membership (Salas, Dickinson, Converse and Tannenbaum 1992). That definition explicitly stands on the discipline that teams must share to be effective and efficient. On the contrary, people who prefer to work individually exert individual efforts toward personal valued goals and outcomes. Individuals are merely willing to work hard on their own task to the degree that they expect their efforts to be instrumental in obtaining outcomes that they value personally. Goal setting, Goal generation and Goal striving There is a body of research on the theories of team and individual motivation, their goal generation and their goal striving processes as well as their interrelations (Locke and Latham 1990). At a team level, team members generate common goals through consensus agreement and then take collective and coordinated actions towards accomplishing their goals. Team goal generation and goal striving involves a series of processes of analysis of the teams mission, specifying and prioritizing goals, and formulating plans for accomplishing team goals (Chen and Kanfer 2006). Similarly, individuals also establish a bundle of goals and designate subordinate task and plans which are perceived to be necessary for goal accomplishment. Even though individuals go through individual level goal generation, striving, they work on all these processes by themselves without others assistance and support. Nevertheless, team and individual goal accomplishment could be far more different. All processes in team goal generation, striving and accomplishment are built on shared or common interactions among team members. Most scholars only support teamwork that goal generation and goal striving can be meaningful when team members come to consensus with shared belief and effective team dynamics and coordinate their collective effort towards accomplishing common goals. Teams are more effective than individuals acting alone in terms of shared collective thinking, knowledge and skills, shared responsibility, better decisions making, higher level of motivation and having a leader. Shared collective thinking, knowledge and skills An adequate pooling of collaborative thinking, knowledge and skills from a number of people are the key elements of building an effective teamwork. Effective collaborative thinking and knowledge with various skills in different specific fields are collectively collected transforming into effective team understanding and decision making. Teams are particularly good at combining talents and providing innovative solutions to possibly unfamiliar problems. Compared with people who prefer working alone, they have limited ideas, knowledge and skills to accomplish a task. Hence, the wider knowledge and skills set of the team has a distinct advantage over that of the individuals since the individual level of understanding, problem solving and decision making are of lower quality. Better decisions making Teams are always deemed that they can make better decisions than individuals and team decision making has long been lauded as a vehicle for increasing participation, perceptions of fairness, and acceptance of decision outcomes (Brodbeck et al. 2007). Keyton and Beck (2008) argue that effective teams tend to produce evaluation of decisions which is often favored over analysis of the interaction so they are ones that make the best, correct and right decision according to some objectified standard. However, there is a possibility of individuals having some biased minds or subjective perspective to make decisions without sharing ideas with others. Those people do not have clear mind to identify, explore, and modify their value use to set goals and that influences goal accomplishment. Higher level of motivation Effective teams have higher motivation and performance levels than individual acting alone because of the effect of social facilitation. That is people are more energized and active when they are around other people (Carlopio and Andrewarthur 2008). The team process leads to a spirit of coordination, cooperation and commonly shared belief and value. Team members hold the spirit to help each other to be efficient working together. Their desired performance and outcomes are enhanced by their mutual support. With respect of individual motivation, each individual needs to adequately manage his or her own emotional equilibrium and affective reactions so as to perform appropriately. Individual obstacles to the attainment of goals that cannot be overcome through greater allocations of effort may in turn affect affective emotions; instigate revision and abandonment of broad goals. Therefore, it is not easy for individuals to motivate themselves to continue endeavoring toward accomplishing th e same desired goal when faced with obstacles. In addition, the big difference between people working in team and people working alone is that there is always a team leader who is responsible for guiding, directing and supervising team members actual effort to work in team. Team goal striving are then reinforced by the team leader. Several possible failures of working in team Nevertheless, teams are not panaceas that do not have flaws and mistakes are common in team building and development. In Hackman studies of team, he finds that not providing team members in autonomy, taking advantages of team to make all decisions instead of neglecting individuals make decisions when appropriate, recognizing and rewarding individuals instead of team, not boosting independence among team members, failing to be familiar with members and allocate member roles, not providing needed resources for the team are all common mistakes. Interdependence and interaction are key elements in teams. More team members involved in a team may inevitably encounter irreconcilable conflicts which lead to poor team performance. Poor communication, lack of trust, team commitment and team alignment, lack of collaboration and cooperation are major factors that violate some basic principles of team development. They are likely to generate and create confusion and frustration for team members, a nd that make them difficulty to exert collaborative effort to reach the desired goals and outcomes. How different cultures influence team development One of the most important influences on group effectiveness is culture norms represented in the team. Different cultures have different orientations toward what is appropriate in terms of team function and development (Thomas et al 1996). Individuals with different cultures are likely to have very different standpoints of how the team should go about the task, how they should interact with other team members, how member should behave in such a way to achieve the team goals. Many literature reviews focus on the distinction between individualism and collectivism introduced into cultural studies by Hofstede (1980). Individualism is regarded as the tendency to treat the self as the most significant social unit in contrast to collectivism is deemed as the tendency to treat the group to which one belongs, such as the family or work team, as the most significant social unit (Boreham 2004). United Stated is a typical example of an individualistic culture embedded with the self and equality. This culture is characterized by team patterns of behaviors that emphasize equality in resource sharing according to contribution and distribution of resources equally among members (Fiske 1990). Japan is rooted by collectivistic culture and characterized by team patterns of relationships that emphasize communal resource sharing and sacrifice for the team feature prominently (Thomas 2008). Hence, cultures with individualism and collectivism differ in ways in which they designate how their team functions toward achieving their team goals by using their normative belief. Practical examples Through several years of University life, I have gained a great deal of experience of working in teams. It is convincing to make me believe that working in teams is much better than working individually since the level of effectiveness and efficiency of performance were higher and goal achievement is much possible. One of my experiences on working in team, I was extremely satisfied with the entire team development and the outcome we strived toward in the end. We did successfully go through all the basic stages of team development which were forming, storming, confronting and performance. In the forming stage, we oriented all team members, established a clear team purpose, and elected a team leader who had the talent of leadership skills. In the storming stage, we clarified each members role by examining members weaknesses and strengths, established groupthink, and managed conflict. In confrontation stage, we provided feedback, motivated each other and maintained team cohesion. Finall y, we fostered continuous improvement and innovation encouraged introspection. Another experience was working on a big project by myself. A sense of frustration and helplessness were gained at the very start and until the end. There were no others assistance and support, no incentives to achieve the goals that I set, no feedback given to see if the project has been undergone in an appropriate way. As a consequence, performance was affected by my sense of frustration and an average mark for the project was given. Implications For the foregoing discussion, the similarity and differences are existent between people working in teams and people working individually have been examined above. Basically teams usually have goal setting, goal generation and goal striving as well as individuals. The attainment of the goal requires collaboration among members whereas individuals need to set and plan to achieve them by themselves. However, collective and collaborative effort may not be congruent with individual effort. More possibly, the former one works better than the latter one in terms of its goal accomplishment. Additionally, having shared collaborative thinking, more pool of knowledge and skills, better decisions making and higher level of motivation in teams may have an advantage over individuals who prefer working alone. Furthermore, culture is also vital element in determining how teams develop from the start to the end. People with a culture high in collectivism tend to work in teams toward a common and con sensus goal whereas people with a culture high in individualism stand for working alone toward his or her own goals. Conclusion To sum up, this essay has discussed whether people working in teams always achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively than people working alone. A comparative analysis on goal setting, goal generation and goal striving at team level and individual level has been delineated. Subsequently, the essay has explored some factors of why teams performing better and effectively rather than individuals do by using some examples of shared collaborative thinking, knowledge and skills, decision making and level of motivation. However, it has also pointed out that common mistakes always take place in teams so as to prove teams have flaws at times. Moreover, the essay has also explained that different cultural normative beliefs influence team function and development significantly. People tend to prefer working in teams or working individually depends upon whether they are rooted in collectivistic or individualistic culture.

Influence of the Chinese Communist Party Over State-Controlled Media an

â€Å"It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it† (Luntz, cited in Scheufele and Tewksbury, 2007: 9). Introduction Agenda setting describes the ability of those in positions of power, such as the mass media and influential political leaders, to transfer salience to certain issues that they deem important, while pushing other issues that they deem less important to a lower priority and out of the public view. There is an abundance of literature on the agenda setting process, but it is mainly focused on agenda setting in the West. Therefore, this paper will look at agenda setting in China, which has a Communist government in power that likes to use the influence and control it has and likes to apply harsh censorship on the media and its content. â€Å"The Chinese mass media have served effectively in agenda setting to conduct positive propaganda for Party ideologies and policies (Li, Qin, & Kluver, 2003)† (Luo, 2012:1). It will look at whether the Chinese government is successful or not in using its control over the media to promote the issues it believes in. The purpose of this paper will b e to see the extent to which the Chinese government has control over the media. This will be done by using articles and blog posts from both government affiliated and independent sources that will help in providing unbiased results. The lack of literature looking at agenda setting outside the West makes this an interesting case to study as it can provide additional information about and the opportunity to explore agenda setting in a Chinese context. Agenda setting is an important topic in political communications and China is becoming a strong and powerful world player, therefore it is crucial to look at agenda setting in a Chinese context. Literat... ...6). [Accessed 18th November 2013]. Zhang, X., (2011), The Transformation of Political Communication in China - From Propoganda to Hegemony (World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd). Zhao, Y., (1998), Media, Market, and Democracy in China - Between the party line and the bottom line (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). Zhou, Y., & Moy, P., (2007) ‘Parsing Framing Processes: The Interplay Between Online Public Opinion and Media Coverage’ Journal of Communications 57: 79-98. Appendix â€Å"...we reiterate that the media must report the story in strict accordance with Xinhua News Agency wire copy; downplay the story; do not speculate on it; do not exaggerate it; do not put the story on the front page or website homepage; do not produce any other reports or commentary; do not use images...(October 30, 2013)† (Henochowicz, China Digital Times, 2013).

Creationism and Public Schools Essay -- essays research papers fc

Creationism and Public Schools   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The issue of whether creationism should be taught in public schools, rather than evolution, is a new one. It has only been in the past fifty years that it has even been in debate. Public school science classes, when discussing the origins of life on Earth, coincided with Sunday school classes. Students learned that the Earth, universe and everything else was created in seven days, by God, as stated in the Old Testament. It was not until recently with the rise of scientific reason and equal rights organizations did these teachings become questioned. The argument spurs from each person’s personal belief, and that is where things get complicated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To successfully teach creationism in public schools, you have to decided a definitive creationism story to base it on, and with Christianity, this is a problem. Protestant fundamentalists will interpret the Bible as literally as possible. While Catholics and Orthodox Jews will interpret it as they see fit. This is a basic element of religion. Each group has its own views and interpretations of the Bible, and these groups will never agree on one specific idea. Therefore, how could you base a lesson on an idea that varies depending on who you are talking too?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Evolution on the other hand, is based on evidence that in the scientific field is not debated. Tangible proof has been established for evolution. It is a widely accepted theory, that most with an understanding of it, accept it as fact. Unlike creationism, the ideas that found evolution are not subject to personal opinion, they are stated as factual information, and the ideas are not questioned by those who believe it. With creationism, you introduce debate between students and teachers on how the Bible should be read. The class then becomes a theology class, instead of a biology class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are some who try and teach creationism as a science, calling it â€Å"Creation Science.† They state that God created the Earth and that God also created evolution as a means of self preservation. They alter the original story in Genesis to fit Darwin’s theory on evolution. Linking creationism to evolution and acknowledging the existence of evolution makes this pseudoscience sound more plausible and scientific. This is referred t... ...ism has no place in a public science classroom. Students do not need to be sheltered from learning the origins of life on Earth. Science explains the origins of life with the theory of evolution, and what better place to learn about evolution than in a science class? Religion explains the origins of life with creationism, and what better place to learn about creationism than in a religious environment? Science should stay out of churches, and churches should stay out of classrooms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bibliography Abramsom, Paul Creationism.org Creationism FAQ 2004. Paul Ambramson. http://www.creationism.org/topbar/faq.htm Arthur, Joyce. Creationism: Bad Science or Immoral Pseudoscience?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1996. Joyce Arthur. http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/gish.html BibleGateway.com Deuteronomy 21:18-21 :: King James Version   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2003. Gospel Communications Network. http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Deuteronomy+21:18-21 Teaching Science, Not Dogma: The Creationism Controversy 2001. Anti-Defamation League http://www.adl.org/issue_religious_freedom/create/creationism3.asp

Do We Care? :: New Criticism Literature Essays

Do We Care? Many different forms of critical theory focus on the text, the circumstances surrounding the text, or the author, without acknowledging the subjective nature of literature. New Criticism proclaims that the â€Å"essential components of any work of literature, whether lyric, narrative, or dramatic, are conceived to be words, images, and symbols, rather than character, thought, and plot† (Abrams 246). New Historicism â€Å"is grounded on the concepts that history itself is not a set of fixed, objective facts, but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which needs to be interpreted† (249). Psychological criticism â€Å"deals with a work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of the state of mind and the structure of personality of the individual author† (263). In these forms of critical theory, the response of the reader is less important than the author, the text, and whatever symbolism might be found in the text. While igno ring the importance of reader-response may be justified in academia, it also holds true that without the reader, the need for literature would not exist. What specific properties lend value to literature? Though style and structure are important components and should not be completely disregarded, the meaning of the text is dependent upon the individual reader, and as such, is highly subjective. In her essay, Contingencies of Value, Barbara Herrnstein Smith states, â€Å"the value of a work – that is, its effectiveness in performing desired/able functions for some set of subjects – is not independent of authorial design, labor, and skill . . . that what may be spoken of as the ‘properties’ of the work – its ‘structure,’ ‘features,’ ‘qualities,’ and of course, its ‘meaning’ – are not fixed, given, or inherent in the work itself but are at every point the variable products of some subject’s interaction with it† (Richter 148). This brings up an interesting point: if the reader’s interaction with the text proves to be less tha n what the reader expected or wanted, does it negate the value of the text as literature? And does the educational and cultural background of the reader have any kind of effect on this process? Smith believes it does: . . . there are many people in the world who are not – or are not yet, or choose not to be – among the orthodoxly educated population of the West: people who do not encounter Western classics at all or who encounter them under cultural and institutional conditions very different from those of American and European college professors and their students.

The Sea and the Fury

The Sea and The Fury Piracy seems more suited to Johnny Depp and Robert Louis Stevenson books, not devastating violent acts that have had an ever-growing fear in the 21st century. Southeast Asia, or the `Arc of Instability' (a more appropriate name for this essay), has become a hot spot for modern day pirates within the last decade. Maritime Terrorism has also become more widespread due to several Southeast Asian terrorist groups who have the intention and capability of waging terror on the high seas. However, one cannot say that piracy is a more persistent and significant threat to regional security than international terrorist networks.In many cases, piracy and terrorism overlap, and can therefore be constituted as the same thing. Piracy is defined by the United Nations as â€Å"violence on the high seas, that is, beyond any state's territorial waters† (Young & Valencia, 269) and to the International Chamber of Commerce's International Maritime Bureau as â€Å"an act of boa rding or attempting to board any ship with the intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the intent or capability to use force in furtherance of that act†. (Young & Valencia, 269. Maritime Terrorism is defined as â€Å"political piracy† which is â€Å"any illegal act directed against ships, their passengers, cargo, crew or against sea ports with the intent of directly or indirectly influencing a government or group of individuals. † (Young & Valencia, 270. ) Because these acts are similar in nature and intent, one cannot be said to be more of a threat than the other. This paper will analyze separate cases of piracy and terrorism and cases where the acts overlap, with attention given to the Straits of Malacca, one of the world's busiest waterways and a veritable sitting duck for terrorism and piracy.Piracy has made a remarkable return to the new world with hundreds of cases being reported every year. With many of the surrounding countries in the South Pac ific being economically and politically unstable, and the fact that the seas are some of the most heavily trafficked in the world, piracy has become a viable means of thievery. â€Å"Reported incidents of piracy worldwide have dramatically increased over the last 5 years, peaking at 469 in 2000. A significant portion of these incidents occurred in Southeast Asian waters, increasing from 22 in 1997 to 164 in 2002.Indonesian waters alone accounted for 119 out of 469 reported worldwide incidents in 2000, 91 out of 335 incidents in 2001, and 103 incidents of a total 370 reported incidents in 2002. † (Young & Valencia, 270. ) Piracy is used for financial gain, with different levels of piracy set at common thievery, temporary seizures, long-term seizure and hijacking. The Straits of Malacca saw a cargo ship, the Alondra Rainbow, of aluminum ingots hijacked on its way to Japan. The crew was held hostage for a week before being set adrift; they were later found by a Thai fishing boat .The ship was found weeks later in Indian waters. Terrorism is usually not heard of at sea, but is just as serious as it is on land. â€Å"Terrorism, and its maritime manifestation, political piracy or maritime terrorism, is motivated by political goals beyond the immediate act of attacking or hijacking a maritime target. † (Young & Valencia, 271. ) The Abu Sayyaf Group, the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka and the Jemaah Islamiyah are three terrorist groups with roots in the South Pacific that have taken advantage of the high volume of shipping that passes through the waters by perpetrating acts of piracy and terrorism.Al-Qaeda is also thought to be an enemy that would terrorize ships traveling through the region. â€Å"Not only do pirates terrorize ships' crews, but terror groups like al-Qaeda could also use pirates' methods either to attack ships, or to seize ships to use in terror attacks at mega-ports, much like the Sept. 11 hijackers used planes. A more sinister scenario is that a small but lethal biological weapon could be smuggled into a harbor aboard ship and released.Terrorist groups regard seaports and international cruise lines as attractive targets because they lie in the intersection of terrorist intent, capability and opportunity. † (Banaloi, 67. ) This has affected Southeast Asia horribly, causing drops in tourism, trade and shipping revenues. Terrorist groups are more rampant in this region because of the great amount of political unrest and are usually able to procure the weapons needed for such activities relatively easily due to the political climate and amount of Black Market goods. This may be only the beginning of Maritime Terrorism.In 1982, the United Nations drew up the Laws of Sea, detailing how many miles offshore nations could call their own and where maritime boundaries were regarding international waters. However, the flaw here lies in the fact that the United Nations did nothing to provide for nations that have conflicting boun daries except add an addendum that stated that nations had to â€Å"peaceably† come to a compromise. Conflicts have arisen due to the fact common waterways are narrow, nations have competing claims for boundaries, and an abundance of rich resources have been found in the area. Piracy and terrorism overlap in several ways, particularly in the tactics of ship seizures and hijackings. And some of the conditions which allow it to thrive are also similar to the causes of terrorism, for example, poverty, political instability, permeable international boundaries, and ineffective enforcement. † (Young & Valencia, 271. ) Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore all border the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. Oil has been tapped and pumped off the coast of East Timor by Australia.Brunei is rich from oil deposits, as would the Philippines, Vietnam and China be – if someone drew up a proper boundary and split the territory. All of these claims hav e led to an amazing amount of unrest in the area, culminating with escalating violence. â€Å"Because piracy is frequent in Southeast Asia, terrorists have found it an attractive cover for maritime terrorism terrorists could adopt pirate tactics of stealing a ship, which they could then blow up or ram into another vessel or a port facility, to sow fear.Thus, security experts consider the line between piracy and terrorism to have blurred in Southeast Asia. † (Banalaoi, 64. ) A narrow waterway linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Straits of Malacca are bordered by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and sees thousands of shipping cargo pass through its ports every year. â€Å"The Malacca Strait alone carries more than a quarter of the world's maritime trade each year – more than fifty thousand large ships pass, including forty to fifty tankers.Because the strait is the maritime gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, it will remain a world center of maritime activity. It has been argued that it would be difficult for terrorists to disrupt shipping in the strait by sinking a ship in a precise spot. However, were terrorists to hijack one and turn it into a floating bomb to destroy ports or oil refineries, the effect would be catastrophic. Such an attack incident would not only cripple world trade and slow down international shipping but spread fear-more broadly than on 9/11. † (Banaloi, 65. The United States has expressed grave fear over the possibility of sinking a tanker in the Straits, and has, along with India, taken to patrolling the waters. Japan has also expressed concern over the safety of the Strait with good reason: Japanese ships were hijacked in 1998, 1999 and 2000, one of which was the infamous Alondra Rainbow. Needless to say, the problem is not going to go away. Piracy has become more rampant in the Straits during the last few years, and is expected to rise even more when China begins using more oil. â€Å"T he number of such attacks has tripled over the past decade.In the first week of June, for example, a tug and barge disappeared on their way to Port Klang in Malaysia, armed robbers looted a tanker in Indonesian waters and crews repelled two other attacks in the Strait itself. † (www. economist. com. ) Despite the apparent rise of piracy and the serious potential for terrorist acts, all hope should not be lost. â€Å"A total of 16 countries and one administrative region were represented at the Asian Maritime Security Summit: Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.After discussing measures to deal with piracy and maritime terrorism, the participants adopted an â€Å"Asia Maritime Security Initiative 2004† calling for cooperation among their countries in this area. It seems fair to see this development as an expression by Japan of its readiness to take the initiative in regional maritime security. † (Isami, 49. ) Recently, Japan, no doubt influenced by its hijackings, has spearheaded a campaign to end piracy and terrorism in the Straits and other sea-lanes in the South Pacific.One popular idea raised at the conference was building an Asian Coast Guard, wherein each nation would send people to be trained as officers and be able to patrol and safe guard the waters. The Copenhagen School in Denmark â€Å"introduced the concept of â€Å"securitization† to challenge the traditional conception of security. Emmers applies the â€Å"securitization theory† to have a deeper understanding of the â€Å"securitization† of drug trafficking, piracy/maritime terrorism, and people smuggling in Thailand, Singapore and Australia, respectively. (Banaloi, 388. ) â€Å"Securitization† has become a theory used to pinpoint the ways in which regions become â€Å"securitized† and â€Å"de-securitized. † The theory has been met with gr eat fanfare, especially in the South Pacific. Yet another theory to help scholars and government aides with the situation is the Grey Area Theory presented by Peter Chalk, where threats to the stability of nations are provided by non-nation processes, organizations and people.A review of his theory stated, â€Å"The piracy chapter touches on important weaknesses in international law, particularly in relation to the sensitive issue of â€Å"hot pursuit† and the problems of seas where there are disputed or no clear maritime boundaries, truly â€Å"grey-areas. † It also raises significant regional examples of active cooperation, such as the joint maritime patrols by the littoral states of the Malacca and Singapore Straits which have helped to reduce incidents of piracy. (Grundy-Warr, 111. ) The Royal Malaysian Navy has stepped up efforts to patrol the Straits, as has the Singaporean Navy. While the navies have reduced some acts of piracy and terrorism, the Straits under the Indonesian zone are largely unguarded due to lack of funds. The United States has offered assistance, but Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have declined, preferring advice and equipment rather than actual presence, which they fear might anger their country's inhabitants.Piracy and terrorism have been blended together to form a rather extreme form of diabolical action. Terrorism is the face of global disorder in the coming decade and will need to be prevented in order to ensure a safer world. The war over installing a democracy in Iraq may not be the way to staunch the flow of terrorism, but a â€Å"securitized† Straits of Malacca could ensure the safety of people, trade and economic cooperation for years to come.

Multiple causes downed the challenger

The United States has always been proud of its space exploration endeavors.   NASA’s programs have always led the world in technology and performance.   In 1970, NASA began its Shuttle program which was meant to create reusable space shuttles rather than one-use shuttles.   They were successful in producing four models:   Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis.   All was going well for NASA and its space shuttle program until January of 1986 when the Challenger exploded 73 seconds into the flight, killing all the crew. Since then, the shuttle program has been besieged by controversy, much of it stemming over the causes of the Challenger explosion.   Basically, reports and research now indicates that the explosion was caused by a deadly combination of mechanical failure and human miscalculation and poor decision-making. The Challenger liftoff was plagued with foreboding problems long before it actually was launched.   Initially, liftoff was scheduled for 3:43 pm on January 22, 1986.   However, delays in both scheduling and weather forecasts forced it back nearly a week.   During the last day of delays, a small closing fixture was malfunction, so it was replaced.   Additionally, a module which detects fire was found to be malfunctioning; the crew fixed it as well before the shuttle finally lifted off into space, and then exploded (Green 2007). Officially, the investigative report pointed to a faulty â€Å"O-ring† seal in the solid-fuel rocket.   This faulty seal combined with the very cold weather to allow hot gas to leak into the hole.   Rocket flames were then able to penetrate the fuel tank and catch fire causing the booster rocket to break off of the shuttle and pierce the fuel tank.   The liquid hydrogen and oxygen then ignited, causing the Challenger to explode (Green 2007). A nation stood in horror as media broadcasts replayed the chilling scene over and over again. However, this mechanical failure did not receive the weight of the blame.   As the Reagan-ordered investigation continued, several human factors were uncovered in this tragedy.   For years, NASA’s programs had, like many other agencies, been forced to cut manpower and money from its programs. One researcher, James Sigler of the U.S. Naval Institute, noted that at the height of the shuttles missions, â€Å"NASA's leaders were emphasizing the importance of safety, while their personnel cutbacks sent other signals† and cites NASA’s motto –   faster, better, cheaper – as meaning that â€Å"cost efficiency goals [became] elevated to the level of†¦ safety goals† (Sigler, 2007). Fewer men and less money meant more work for those that did remain with fewer resources.   In fact, â€Å"the accident investigations in the wake of the Challenger disaster decried the paucity of resources allocated to support NASA's objectives† (Sigler, 2007).   Clearly, there was too much work and not enough manpower, resources, parts, or money to meet all of the objectives. Yet, despite these conditions, some engineers did warn NASA officials about the fateful launch.   Many engineers voiced concerns about the extremely cold temperatures and the possibility that the equipment could fail.   Apparently, two NASA officials were told of these concerns well before the flight: Joseph Kilminster had overruled five of his own engineers when they argued on a telephone conference call the night before the launch that the conditions were unsafe. The subfreezing temperatures at Cape Canaveral, the engineers told Kilminster, could cause a failure in the O-rings that protect the joints of Thiokol's solid rocket motors, which could lead to an explosion. The concerns were also rejected by NASA manager Lawrence Mulloy, who was in charge of the solid rocket boosters and was listening in on the debate   (Vartabedian, 2003). Sadly, this is exactly what happened.   Both officials are now retired from NASA. Of course, this sad occurrence goes beyond the doubtful opinions of two men.   It seemed that the entire attitude of NASA had suffered a bit of egoism. According to investigators, NASA, at that time, seemed to be â€Å"blinded by its ‘Can-Do' attitude, a cultural artifact†¦ that was inappropriate in a †¦ program so strapped by schedule pressures and shortages that spare parts had to be cannibalized from one vehicle to launch another† (Sigler, 2003).   James Oberg, a former NASA engineer, agrees:   â€Å"NASA managers made a bad call for the launch decision, and engineers who had qualms about the O-rings were bullied or bamboozled into acquiescence† (2006).   The men who knew the truth were asked to remain silent to preserve NASA’s reputation. It is rare that one cause can be attributed to a disaster as horrible as the Challenger explosion.   Here, investigators did find a mechanical failure, but soon learned that this failure had been detected.   Instead, the decision-makers chose to ignore the advice of engineers in an effort to preserve the already late launch date.   As a result, the explosion set up a new level of safety for NASA. â€Å"The entire space shuttle program was grounded during the Space Shuttle Challenger Commission's investigation and did not resume flying until shuttle designers made several technical modifications and NASA management implemented stricter regulations regarding quality control and safety† (Green, 2007).   On September 28, 1988, the shuttle missions started again with the flight of the shuttle Discovery.   Sadly, the entire tragedy had to be revisited with the 2003 explosion of the shuttle Columbia.   Hopefully, the lessons learned can be applied to future decisions in the NASA shuttle program. REFERENCES Greene, N. (2007). Challenger Disaster – A NASA Tragedy.   About.com.   Retrieved 12 December 2007 from http://space.about.com/cs/challenger/a/challenger.htm   Oberg, J. (2006).   7 Myths about the Challenger shuttle disaster. MSNBC.   January 27. Retrieved 11 December 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11031097/ Sigler, J. (2007). Repeating NASA’s Deadly Mistakes. U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 133.9: 48-52 Vartabedian, R. (2003). The Nation; Forgotten Lessons of Challenger Seen as Haunting NASA; Retired space officials say today's managers must, as a first step, take blame for Columbia loss. Los Angeles Times. Jul 28, 2003: A.1      

Brief Encounters

â€Å"Brief Encounters† is actually an adaptation of Noel Coward’s 1936 one-act play, â€Å"Still Life. † It came out as a film in 1945. Set in the backdrop of World War II in 1945, the story tells of how Laura Jesson, a housewife and Alec Harvey, a married doctor, get to slowly build a forbidden romance. They met at a certain cafe in a railway station and set a rendezvous at the same place on several occasions. With that, a certain friendship based on companionship which eventually grew into love was formed. They arranged to meet at occasional opportune moments hence the title, Brief Encounters.The two kept on with the relationship, stealing brief moments to see each other. Then after, when Alec needed to leave the country for a job in South Africa, they said goodbye to each other and finally put an end to their especially-colored friendship. Alec and Laura met on the same cafe at the train station. (Chadderton 1) Plot When Laura needed to go to Milford town, sh e usually goes for shopping and sees a film at the cinema. It was when she got a grit in her eye on the way home when she met Alec Harvey, a general practitioner who goes to the hospital as a consultant.Both of them are married and have two children. The two arrange another set of rendezvous and suddenly found that their friendship develops into love. This somehow affected Laura’s relationship with her husband Fred. Secretly, they meet, wary of possible chance encounters with common acquaintances, probably with a certain longing to spend more time with each other in private. There was this one time, after a certain number of meetings that they went to Alec’s friend, Valentine Dyall’ apartment.It is upon chance also that this friend of the doctor’s suddenly arrives that our heroine needed to leave the scene through the fire exit. It seemed though that all situations surrounding the lovers did not permit them to achieve the happiness that they wanted to hav e together. Destiny wanted to tell them that they have to face the reality that they are tied to responsibilities in their respective families that the two decided to stop seeing each other. The last meeting that they had was when Alec heads to Johannesburg, South Africa. Laura went to see him off at the same train station in Milford where they first met.At the opportune time that they were seeing each other for the last time, a certain friend of Laura’s named Dolly Messiter appears and gets to sit with them, uninvited. Until the end, the relationship seemed to have stood among rocks and even the last meeting has been only a brief encounter. Meanwhile, in contrast to their love affair, the leads were surrounded by other younger couples who were freer to love, were victorious in their relationship and were able to have the opportunity to experience passion. Myrtle, the station manager and Albert, the guard, started an affair that was more open and passionate.The waitress, Bery l relished the gift of young and first love with cake-seller Stanley. Beryl’s dance scenes has far dimmed out and at the same time placed a brighter spotlight to an unconsummated love affair between Laura and Alec. The story, which is all about having secret love affairs, is quite a common occurrence already during the time when the play was originally released. It might not seem to be a new concept that everyone would die to see but due to the vividness of the emotions of the characters, especially the woman, it appealed to a great number of audiences.Its being told in the woman’s point of view really makes it much of a demonstration of repressed emotions and repressed sexuality, capturing real life human passion from every commoner’s life happenings. The original play has been adapted by various theaters in the United Kingdom such as the Oxford Stage and The Liverpool Playhouse among others. The latest and most talked about adaptation is that of the Kneehigh T heatre, a London-based international theater group, directed by their artistic director, Emma Rice, getting all praises from reviews and critics.Kneehigh Theatre started out small with a teacher giving workshops in Cornwall in 1980, after which they started giving out shows for the common people of Cornwall and up until now, they remained in that place by choice. It is where they believe that they can produce the most possible fruits of creativity. â€Å"†¦we always try to start the creative process at these barns, to be inspired by our environment and where we work. † (Sheperd 2) The theatre is 28 years old now and has gathered quite a number of patron, or more so, devotee audiences.Their creative work usually rested upon the spirit of the eccentricity, sometimes also urbanely surreal and crazy. I’ve known of usual scenes in the city with upbeat and loud music used to be their signature style with added hoisting-in-the-air fantasies that ought to be their normal. For this recent adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief encounters, there was quite a noted shift in this style – not actually a shift but a different attack. The characters stayed more on the ground and were more real and conventional. We saw characters full of emotions and humanity.This then proves the Kneehigh to be much more flexible and lived up to what they have been for the past 28 years. Upon the entrance to the Haymarket Theater, a foreboding message that this is â€Å"the 1940’s† plays as the blue curtains covers the stage. There was something about the lighting and music that reflect the 1940’s and has given the audience a feel of watching and being in a real 1940’s film. More treat comes way as actors themselves in 1940s costume usher in the audience. The idea of love in a repressed society in that specific time finds a good haven in this setting. The use of this technique has established the setting very well.It did not just show, bu t it would transport any onlooker to the time when the play was set. It was like watching the original film, although with more visual treats, and more elaborateness. It’s surprising though that the play has incorporated cinema in it. Some scenes were live on stage, some were onscreen and at most, they were a combination of both. This combination of theater and cinema provided an aura of a film that is coming to life. The black and white cinematic scenes makes the conveyance of the setting and dramatic situation more effective and made the adaptation of the play more accurate.In the cinema scene, the film used was the original Brief Encounters film with Laura and Alec sitting among the audience. An enigmatic and slightly comical effect was elicited from this manipulation. In the scene where Alec was trying to ask Laura if she feels the same for him, the sudden appearance of Fred (Laura’s husband) on the screen has given this dreamy effect to the play and comes to inten sify the much repressed emotions of Laura. The scene communicates much the idea of the characters waking up from a dream and having to face their responsibilities again.The incorporation of cinema in the show also solved what previous adaptations lacked in: sincerity and real emotions. In the cinema, character’s faces are focused and that would make the audience share the feelings of the characters. In this play, the use of proper stage acting caught what was there in the cinema. The acting of the characters was really effective and the cinematic effects helped a lot. Tristan Sturrock and Naomi Frederick shared a compatibility which made them seem inseparable as Laura and Alec. Since it was the 1930s, much modesty was observed in their relationship.Maybe the scene wherein they were undressing after plummeting down the river can be considered as one of the most erotic scenes. During that time though, it was necessary that simple handshakes and cups of coffee should be enough t o express love for each other. In the said scene scene, both were catching up with their modesty but failed as they ended up kissing. The recurring water waving into the screen intensified the idea of passion in the love affair and probably another attempt at depicting repression. Even so, an emotional connection between the two characters was very much established despite the limitation of romantic contac.The play has actually lived up to the original playwright. Not a lot of characters are needed to craft the play into something that is large, grandiose and festive. The presence of other couples has set love into three categories: a freer love affair for two people among the working class, young love that transcends all classes and a forbidden, unconsummated love. The impact of the fact that most of the audience already knew how it would end all the more made the movie heart-wrenching than ever. Those brief encounters between Alec and Laura made them seem as if they were stealing their chances on temporary happiness.Most wonderful is the use of the props vis-a-vis the use of the film clips and the maximization of the stage space. In Alec’s first departure from Laura, Alec hopped into a small toy train which made an ironic spectacle. Contrast it to how they made the ending: across the front of the stage, they pulled a vast amount of screen material in which a storey-high clip of the train where our Alec rode off shot across the entire stage with Laura attempting to jump with a highly dramatic death. The contrast was quite an impact. A trampoline was utilized for Stanley’s entrance to the cafe, Beryl used a red scooter and rode around it.She threw it away in an angered fit of tantrums. On the other hand, Laura’s children were played by two puppets. Some scenes used the screen as background. The use of the small objects gives a sort of a treat to the heaviness of the feelings of the audience. The use of the big train in contrast to the smal l props will make you cringe with the climax of the story. It magnified the dramatic sad ending of the story. Never could be an adaptation be more effective. It cannot be anymore clever and brilliant. It is a celebration of cinematography, theater and the totality of the elements of the performance.The incorporation of the film clips made it more effective in the sense. If one will refer to reviews of other adaptations of this play, it would seem that the Kneehigh Theatre’s production is the best of after the film. Liverpool Playhouse’s version back to back with another of Coward’s works received the ire of the Catalyst Reviews thus saying: â€Å"The plays could easily have been turned into radio plays – visually seeing them was largely unnecessary – the sound effects, notably of steam trains passing through the station could easily have been transferred to the radio.† (Serjent 12) Another rework shown at Burton Taylor which was directed by Christchurch student Georgie Paget got equally the same criticism although at notch milder. Alison Ireland of BBC made a rundown of the setting and the characters: A table in a station refreshment room is not so prominent on stage and the staff, who provide a comic, lower-class backdrop for the lofty tragic romance, are equals and fundamentally superiors in ‘Still Life' – their robust humour, sensible decision-making, clear view of priorities and no-nonsense view of the world shows the upper class ‘love' affair for the anaemic misery it really is.(2) As for Kneehigh Theatre’s reviews, nothing could be seen but all praises. In Rice's hands Brief Encounter is a clever, gimmicky production that has its fair share of [humor]. Yet there's passion, tenderness and sensitivity in abundance; if you start to think about Johnson and Howard, it probably doesn't last long because the two main characters are exceptional individually and as a couple. (Orme 4) Kneehigh the atre is sure known for its inventiveness and ingenuity. Any piece of playwright given to them is like being put in the hands of a very powerful magician.Even the â€Å"Royal Shakespeare Company entrusted them with Shakespeare's late â€Å"problem† play Cymbeline which Kneehigh took to Stratford as part of the Complete Works Festival. † (Orme2) Coward’s work fell into good hands with Kneehigh Theatre. It became a masterpiece that we only briefly encounter. References Chadderton, David. (2009) Reviews –Brief Encounter. The British Theatre Guide. Retrieved April 17, 2009 from http://www. britishtheatreguide. info/reviews/briefenkneehighDC-rev. htm. Orme, Steve.(2007) Reviews – Brief Encounter. The British Theatre Guide. Retrieved April 17, 2009 from http://www. britishtheatreguide. info/reviews/briefenckneehigh-rev. htm. Serjent, Colin. (n. d. ) Noel Coward's ‘The Astonished Heart’ and ‘Still Life. ’ The Catalyst Reviews. Ret rieved April 17, 2009 from http://www. catalystmedia. org. uk/issues/misc/reviews/Noel_coward. htm Shepherd, Mike. (2008). Introduction to the Kneehigh Theatre. Retrieved April 17, 2009 from http://www. kneehigh. co. uk/about-us/an-introduction. php.