Thursday, October 31, 2019

Bicycles in Miami Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bicycles in Miami - Essay Example ate in the manufacture and sale of high quality bicycles in the city and the growth of the industry portrays the both the potential and the future of the place of bicycles in Miami, Florida. Miami is among the leading tourist destinations in the United States famed for its wide beaches. As such, the city experiences an influx of visitors especially during summer a feature that piles pressure on the city’s transport system. In order to overcome such challenges, the state government encouraged the use of bicycles thereby giving rise to the number of bicycles in the city. The history of the city therefore includes the high number of bicycles (Mathur, 2014). Progressively, bicycles remained a fundamental feature of transport in the city as the industry expanded owing to the concerted government effort to promote clean and safe environment. As a preferred tourist destination, the use of bicycles in Miami offered a cheaper means of transport especially for the locals who had to compete for public transport with the rising number of tourists visiting the city annually. This explains the historical position of bicycles in the city, the position has not changed since to d ate both locals and tourists alike prefer the use of bicycles as the preferred means of transport in Miami. The use of bicycles remains commonplace in Miami as the government continues to expand projects that foster the growth of the industry through systematic policies. The wealthy and the rich in Miami continue to show preference for bicycle as a means of transport owing to the government’s endeavors to improve the appreciation of the means of transport. The trend spread throughout the city owing to the health benefits associated with cycling to work. Besides sustaining the cleanliness of the environment, cycling to work promises a lean healthy body since it provides the body with intense physical activity thereby burning used calories in the body (Frantz, 2009). Different arms of the government

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Answer the Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Answer the Questions - Essay Example 5) Another advantage is that inter-departmental communication is improved that leads to greater group collaboration and mutual agreement. Organisational harmony and unity is also enhanced because of excellent relationship building. 6) The structure is very much beneficial in problem-solving and decision making because problems related to different operations are resolved by the concerned department personnel. For example, marketing personnel will resolve the issue of declining sales whereas production department will focus on issues about product designing and prototyping. 2) Secondly, the organisation becomes rigid and less adaptable to changes in external environment. Indeed, it may not be possible to make immediate innovations because of delayed approvals from strategic planners. 3) Next, the key decisions by top managers are delayed because information about specific operations flows from down-to-up and up-to-down that wastes sufficient business hours. Staggering losses are incurred in some instances. 6) Employees are not provided general administrative training and thus they can not adjust themselves other than their specific area of interest. For example, a marketer may not be able to perform administrative / management duties even for temporary periods because he is not trained by employers. 1) The internal efficiency within an organization increases in a rapidly changing business environment that demands immediate adjustments. The human resources are used more effectively. As a result, a business organisation becomes highly flexible and adaptable. Customers do not have any inclination to purchase a substandard product because they demand value and satisfaction for money they spend on various goods and services. In fact, every potential buyer is interested in purchasing high quality products to meet its needs / desires and to attain satisfaction. Quality, therefore, can be defined as the ability of a product that meets or exceeds

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Methods Of Montage In Battleship Potemkin Film Studies Essay

Methods Of Montage In Battleship Potemkin Film Studies Essay I am a huge movie buff. I anticipate big blockbuster hits and save up the money for the admission at the movie theater. Film strips are made up of still frames that when projected at an average of twenty-four frames a second gives the illusion of movement and continuity. Many films use different elements in their frames whether it is between shots or within them. This is an example of Montage. In this paper I will attempt to discuss montage, the film Battleship Potemkin, analyze Eisensteins methods of montage he used for the film, and come up with an idea as to how to transform this historical piece on to theater stage. Montage is the joining together of different elements of film in a variety of ways, between shots, within them, between sequences, within these. During the 1920s Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, who is considered the father of montage, created five methods to montage. These methods are metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, and intellectual montage. With these methods Eisenstein was able to change the way a scene was brought to life in film. Metric montage is when pieces are joined together according to their lengths, in a formula-scheme corresponding to a measure of music. Realization is in repetition of these measures. Tension is obtained by the effect of mechanical acceleration by shortening the pieces while preserving the original proportions of the formula (Eisenstein Leyda pg73). When cutting to the next shot, no matter what was happening to the next image, it was used to bring out the most basal and emotional reactions from the audience. With rhythmic montage the length of the pieces, the content with in the frame is a factor possessing equal rights to consideration. Abstract determination of the piece-lengths gives away to a flexible relationship of the actual lengths (Eisenstein Leyda pg74). With this type of montage, it is based on timing of the visual composition of the shots to induce a more complex meaning than with metric montage. In tonal montage the movement is perceived in a wider sense. The concept embraces all effects of the montage piece. Here montage is based on the characteristics of emotional sound of the piece-of its dominant (Eisenstein Leyda pg75). Just like metric montage the shot is used to make a reaction to the audience. Only difference is that tonal montage uses shots that have emotion. Overtonal montage is an accumulation of the previous three montages. And give the audience an even more abstract and complicated reaction. Overtonal montage steps up the impression from a melodically emotional coloring to a directly psychological perception (Eisenstein Leyda pg78). The last is intellectual montage. This method of montage is sounds and overtones of an intellectual sort: i.e., conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual affects (Eisenstein Leyda pg82). With these shots combined you get an intellectual image. It starts out in act I, named Men and Maggots, it is June of 1905, and the armored battle ship Potemkin is near Odessa on the Black Sea returning after Russias defeat in the Russo-Japanese war. There are many sailors that are sleeping in their hammocks. A petty officer walks in checking on therm. One of the sailors that are sleeping with a shoulder and arm hanging outside his hammock is in the way of the officer who is trying to get through. When the officer cannot get through he reacts by whipping the young man. Some of the other sailors wake up this act. In the morning, the ships cook has displayed large pieces of meat outside the ships kitchen. The sailors saw this meat hanging and began talking and pointing to the meat and calling others to look. An officer on a railing higher up notices the sailors around the meat and the sailors start to complain to him that the meat is rotten. The officer calls the ships doctor, who goes down to check out the meat. The ships doctor after looki ng carefully at the meat says that the meat is not rotten it has no worms, only maggots that can be washed out with brine. The cooks prepare to serve a meal on table tops that hang from ropes in the ceiling. Large steel bowls are placed on the tables and soup is the only food that is being served. Some sailors do not eat the soup. Later it is shown a sailor is in the kitchen washing dishes after the meal. One dish had an inscription that read Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. The sailor washing the dish hold it for a moment, read it again, and then smashes it. The sailors who were on wash duty walks off from their work stations. In the next scene of we see a lot of sailors at the ships commissary buying many cans of food. One of the higher ranking officers notices this and continues walking by. One point talking on one of the decks below, sailor Vakulinshuk says the treatment on the boat was worse than being a POW in a Japanese camp. Other sailor talked about the overall treatment. In Act II named Drama at the Harbour, it is all hands on deck as Captain Golikov comes up from a trap entrance to discipline the men that did not eat the soup. He says that there will be no disobedience or strike or that he will hang everyone in the ship if it is. Then the captain asks who ever at the soup with the rotten meat to step under the cannons to show their loyalty. All but a group of fifteen shows their loyalty. The captain decides that he wants to kill the fifteen for not eating the soup. The group tries to escape but the other officers step in their way. The captain throws a tarpaulin over them, making it easier for the other sailors to shoot the fifteen sailors. When the Captain gives the order to shoot, seaman Vakulinchuk stops the firing squad from executing the other sailors. Vakulinchuck gives a speech encouraging the shipmates to stand up and rebel against those who oppress them which would be the officers of the ship. While this is going on the captain is repeating the firing order but it is not carried out. Vakulinchuk and the other shipmates get together and turn on the officers. There is a chase after the officers and when caught they are thrown overboard, the doctor as well. The ships priest appears and plays possum when he gets pushed down the stairs pretending to be dead. Before being thrown overboard, one of the officers is able to grab a gun and shoots Vakulinchuk. Vakulinchuk falls from a high point of a ship on to a tackle and then tumbles into the water. The shipmates shout that Vakulinchuk has gone overboard and a couple of sailors jump in to save but it is too late as his body is brought back on the ship. Vakulinchuks death bonds the shipmates together. In Act III, A Dead Man Calls for Justice, The Potemkin is under the control of the sailor s and they dock at the port of Odessa. Vakulinchuks body is taken to the shore and laid under a tent that is set up on the pier. Vakulinchuk is holding a candle with a sign on his chest reading KILLED FOR A BOWL OF SOUP. There is talk amongst the people in the local area in small groups about Vakulinchuk. An obnoxious member of the bourgeoisie heckles a woman protester. During another heated discussion someone in the crowd says kill the Jews! But the majority of the citizens of Odessa get riled up and decided to destroy the oppressors and help the sailors who rebelled on the Potemkin. Large numbers of the citizens bring food to the battleship to support the crew. In Act IV, The Odessa Staircase, after they given the sailors quality food, many of the townspeople have gathered along the long and wide flight of stairs overlooking the harbor leading down towards the piers. In good moral, shouting encouragements towards the ship. All ages of men, women, and children of all ages have come to see what is going on. Then out of nowhere, troops in white tunics show up at the top of the stairs slowly marching down the steps. People start to scramble as the soldiers began their assault on the innocent men, women, the elderly, and children. Countless people scramble down the steps to get to the side. Some elderly people hide behind walls as the soldiers continue to slaughter the people fleeing. A woman who carried her dead sons body in her arms walks up to the soldier s telling them that her son is very ill expecting to let her pass. A second later people look in fear as she is gunned downed. People step over others who have fallen, dead or alive. We even see the soldiers stepping on a small child. One woman had a bullet shot through one lens in her glasses. Another victim included in this massacre was a mother who was pushing a baby in a carriage. As she falls dead, she hits the carriage on the way down to the ground. The carriage starts to make its way down the steps as onlooker watch the carriage travel untouched. Then soldiers on horseback arrive at the bottom of the steps to finish the innocent off. In the final act, ACT V:The Rendezvous with a Squadron, The sailors who have taken over the Potemkin mend their battle stations and turn their guns on the buildings that might have held Tsarist soldiers but by then the massacre on the stairs is over leaving only the soldiers standing. The sailors of Potemkin then sail out to sea to avoid an attack from the shore when suddenly a squadron of warships has a course headed straight toward the Potemkin to take it back. The crew of the Potemkin expected this and some mend sentry duty. Other sailors of the Potemkin try to sleep. They are soon woken up and mend battle stations as multiple ships are sighted far away on the horizon. As the ships get close, the Potemkin send a sort of morse code to the other ships crews to treat them as brothers. Potemkins cannons, despite being outnumbered, are aimed at the other ships as in an attempt at one last hurrah. But when the ships get into range, the ships allowed the Potemkin to pass through. The cre w of the Potemkin celebrates and they come on deck waving at the others ships, as they do the same, when the ships cross in opposite direction. As I was watching Battleship Potemkin, I thought about how I could transfer this film on to the stage and the first thing that came to mind was how you (as in you Joseph) and Lucius set up Vertigo. From a technical stand point, I would use only a limited amount of technology if space was limited to me. If I was to put this play in swain, I would use the projectors to display and identify what scene the actors were in on the back curtain.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Comparing Melvilles Moby Dick as a Mans Story and Naslunds Novel, Ah

Comparing Melville's Moby Dick as a Man's Story and Naslund's Novel, Ahab's Wife as a Woman's Story Throughout my reading of Moby Dick and Ahab's Wife, I was disturbed by the fact that the most tempting way to situate the two novels in a relationship was to categorize them as "male" and "female." Moby Dick was, of course, the man's story and Ahab's Wife was its womanly counterpart. This comparison makes sense when you consider the gender of the authors, Melville and Naslund, the gender of their respective narrators, Ishmael and Una, and the experiences portrayed throughout the texts. Many readers argue, "There are no female characters in Moby Dick- how could it be anything but a man's story?" In that context, it is easy to position Ahab's Wife at the opposite end of the literary spectrum because the novel is told solely from a feminine perspective. Viewing the texts in this way indicates that our conceptions of gender have not changed much since the days of Adam and Eve. In that story the man, Adam, came first and provided the foundation for humankind. Eve was an afterthought, born e from a single rib. The rib that became Una can be found in Moby Dick- a single reference to Ahab's spouse back in Nantucket. Adam and Eve represent a clear division between male and female that established the gender binary we now impose on these two texts. I find this dichotomy troubling and ultimately inadequate for several reasons. First of all, I don't agree with the spectrum concept that places maleness on one side and femaleness on the other, then locates Moby Dick and Ahab's Wife at these opposite poles. However, this formula exists in almost every field of study. The scientific term for the differences between males and females of a s... ...the finishing to posterity." (663) Just as Melville left room for Naslund, she has opened the door for more stories to emerge from Moby Dick and more towers to be constructed. Sources Cited Chase, Cheryl. "Hermaphrodites With Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Action." from "Questions of Gender/Engendering Questions", 130-141 Garber, Marjorie. "Spare Parts: The Surgical Construction of Gender" from "Questions of Gender/Engendering Questions", 361-368 Hemmeter, Gail. "Ambiguous Sexes" from "Questions of Gender/Engendering Questions", 96-118 Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2002. Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab's Wife. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1999. Slaughenhoupt, Bruce L. "Diagnostic Evaluation and Management of the Child With Ambiguous Genitalia." KMA Journal 95 (1997): 135-141.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Gandhi’s Contribution to World War I Essay

Why? 1)He had begun to approve of the idea of home rule, but he had no interest in exchanging government by British elite for rule by an Anglicized Indian elite. If swaraj was to come to India, he argued, it must come as part of a wholesale social transformation that stripped away the old burdens of caste and crippling poverty. 2)Gandhi had said – â€Å"I felt then that it was more the fault of individual officials than of the British system, and that we could convert them by love. If we would improve our status through the help and cooperation of the British, it was our duty to win their help by standing by them in their hour of need.† 3)He had been almost alone among Indian leaders who had argued for unconditional support to Britain in her hour of need in the hope of a worthy gesture at the end of the war. 4)The issue in Champaran involved European traders forcing illegal dues and payments upon the peasants; Ahmedabad’s problem was centred on the unfair treatment of industrial workers; and the predicament in Kheda was caused by the government ignoring the farmers’ appeals for the remission of land revenue. Gandhi solved each dilemma using unique, yet effective methods which gained him the respect and commitment of many political workers. These events depict the growing unrest in India very clearly. India was itching to fight for independence, which would be a very bloody battle indeed. Gandhi, therefore, decided to support the British Empire in the war, hoping that in return, India would gain independence. What? 1)In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi. Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[43] In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled â€Å"Appeal for Enlistment†, Gandhi wrote â€Å"To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them†¦If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible dispatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army.† 2)Early in 1918, the war seemed to be going badly for the Allies; a German thrust was expected on the western front, and the Viceroy summoned prominent leaders of Indian opinion to a War Conference in Delhi. Gandhi supported the resolution on recruitment with a single sentence in Hindi: â€Å"With a full sense of my responsibility, I beg to support the resolution.† 3)When World War I broke out, Gandhi was on the high seas, he was homeward bound, though he hoped to spend a few weeks in England. On August 6, 1914, he landed on English soil and lost no time in calling a meeting of his Indian friends to raise an ambulance unit Public opinion 1)Gandhi did not favour a bargain with the government by offering cooperation at a price and said: â€Å"That we have been loyal at a time of stress is no test of fitness for swaraj (self-government). Loyalty is no merit. It is a necessity of citizenship all the world over.† 2)During the years 1916-18, Gandhi did not take active part in politics. The Moderates did not like his extra-constitutional methods of Satyagraha, the Extremists did not like his studied tenderness to the British Government during the war Consequence And having fought a war whose supposed purpose was to protect the rights of small states and independent peoples from tyranny, the rhetoric of British rule in India had begun to ring hollow 1)In this atmosphere, the harried British government made a frightful mistake. They elected to follow the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee, which advocated the retention of wartime restrictions in India–including curfews and the suppression of free speech. Gandhi, reading the soon-to-be-passed Rowlatt Act in his sickbed, was too weak to mount a protest, but his loyalty to the Empire, which he had long viewed as the guarantor of Indian liberties, suffered a major blow. 2)Gandhi learned through the Sedition Committee Report that the government of India was going to introduce legislation to curb civil liberties. All of the Indian soldiers lost their lives in vain because the British Empire had absolutely no plans to give India its freedom. 3)Heartbroken, India grew more and more restless. When General Dryer heartlessly slaughtered 379 people at Jallianwala Bagh, the country could take no more. Awhile later, Gandhi launched a nation-wide struggle. And finally, on August 15th, 1947, India finally won its independence. 1)Charlie Andrews confirms, â€Å"Personally I have never been able to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where I have found myself in painful disagreement.†[46] Gandhi’s private secretary also had acknowledged that â€Å"The question of the consistency between his creed of ‘Ahimsa’` (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since. 2)They wondered, could the apostle of peace ask them to take up arms in defense of the Raj? About 1.3 million Indian soldiers fought in the war. 47, 746 soldiers died and 65, 126 were wounded from the Indian army. This doesn’t seem like something Gandhi would want, right? Many people wonder why Gandhi wanted Indians to fight, since he always strictly adhered to non-violence. His support for India’s involvement in World War One causes us to question his consistency and perhaps even his belief in ahimsa. 3)He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy’s private secretary that he â€Å"personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary Essay

Madame Bovary consists of a Realist critique of Romanticism with Emma Bovary portrayed as the emotionally overwrought romantic who destroys herself and others in her attempts to fulfill her unrealistic dreams. For writing about such a horrible woman Gustave Flaubert, the author, was charged with corrupting the morals of French society. He was acquitted of the charge at a public trial. The major characters of the novel include Emma Bovary, the title character and the villain who brings ruin to herself and others in her efforts to realize her romantic illusions; Charles Bovary, a mediocre country doctor who is lackluster at best but deeply in love with his wife Emma; Leon, a law clerk who is a fellow romantic to Emma with whom he eventually has an affair; Rodolphe, a â€Å"gentleman† landowner and womanizer with whom Emma has an affair; and Lheureux, a merchant and money-lender. Lheureux† in French means â€Å"the happy,† and this character becomes happy by preying upon Emma as she attempts to buy the reality of her dreams. Selections, Summaries, and Commentary We meet Charles Bovary who struggled in school to become a doctor. He assumed a practice at Tostes, France, and married. But his wife died. One evening, Charles was summoned to a farm to set a broken leg. Here Charles made the acquaintance of Emma Rouault, the daughter of the patient. Char les, at the invitation of Mr. Rouault, ate breakfast with Emma; and, among other things, they talked of Emma’s dislike for the country. They had closer contact when both of them reached for Charles’ riding crop after it had fallen to the floor. â€Å"Instead of returning to [the farm] in three days as he had promised, he [Charles] went back the very next day, then regularly twice a week†¦. † Though Charles never had the nerve to ask Mr. Roualt for the hand of his daughter, Roualt figured things out, and the marriage was contracted. â€Å"Emma anted a midnight wedding with torches, but old Rouault could not understand such an idea. † It was a country wedding. They walked a mile and a half to and from the church, Emma’s dress trailing on the ground and gathering grass and thistles. After the ceremony, the guests ate until night. â€Å"Charles, who was anything but quick-witted, did not shine at the wedding. † Two days after the wedding, Charles and Emma left for Tostes. Charles now â€Å"had for life this beautiful woman whom he adored. For him the universe did not extend beyond the silky circumference of her petticoat. For Emma, on the other hand, things were different, â€Å"Before [her marriage to Charles] she thought herself in love; but since the happiness that should have followed failed to come, she must, she thought, have been mistaken. And Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in life by the words bliss, passion, ecstasy, that had seemed to her so beautiful in books. † Emma, we learn, had been fed a steady diet of romanticism at the convent where she was placed at age thirteen. â€Å"Accustomed to the quieter aspects of life [in the country], she turned instead to its tumultuous parts. She loved the sea only for the sake of its storms, and the green only when it was scattered among ruins. † She found herself attracted to the mystical aspects of the religious life. An old maid at the convent kept the girls dreaming. She [the old maid] knew by heart the love-songs of the last century, and sang them in a low voice as she stitched away. She told stories, gave them news, ran their errands in the town, and on the sly lent the big girls some of the novels, that she always carried in the pockets of her apron, and of which the lady herself swallowed long chapters in the intervals of her work. They were all about love, lovers, sweethearts, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely pavilions, postilions killed at every relay, horses ridden to death on every page, somber forests, heart-aches, vows, sobs, tears and kisses, little boatrides by moonlight, nightingales in shady groves, gentlemen brave as lions, gentle as lambs, virtuous as no one ever was, always well dressed, and weeping like fountains. Girls at the convent hid keepsakes with engravings. Here [on the engravings] behind the balustrade of a balcony was a young man in a short cloak, holding in his arms a young girl in a white dress who was wearing an alms-bag at her belt; or there were nameless portraits of English ladies with fair curls, who looked at you from under their round straw hats with their large clear eyes. † After Emma returned home to the farm, she became disgusted with the country. When Charles came to call on her father, she saw Charles as her knight in shinning armor, come to rescue the damsel in distress. Something â€Å"sufficed to make her believe that she at last felt that wondrous passion which, till then, like a great bird with rose-coloured wings, hung in the splendor of poetic skies, — and now she could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness of her dreams. † Emma is a victim of the mass media, dying because she read the escapist, romantic fantasies and mistook them for reality. She wondered, â€Å"Why could not she lean over balconies in Swiss chalets, or enshrine her melancholy in a Scotch cottage, with a husband dressed in a black velvet coat with long tails, and thin shoes a pointed hat and frills? Charles’ talk, in contrast, was dull. He provoked no emotions in her but disgust; he had no desire to do or see anything. Charles’s conversation was commonplace as a street pavement, and every one’s ideas trooped through it in their everyday garb, without exciting emotion, laughter, or thought. He had never had the curiosit y, he said, while he lived at Rouen, to go to the theatre to see the actors from Paris. He could neither swim, nor fence, nor shoot, and one day he could not explain some term of horsemanship to her that she had come across in a novel. A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries? But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, this serene heaviness, the happiness she gave him. Flaubert writes that â€Å"ennui, the silent spider, was weaving its web in the darkness, in every corner of her heart. † But after a few months, Emma and Charles were invited to the Vaubyessard estate by the Marquis d’Andervilliers (â€Å"Another Village†). Charles had cured the Marquis from an abscess in the mouth, and the Marquis had requested some offshoots of the cherry trees that were in the Bovary’s little garden. When the Marquis came to thank Charles personally, he saw Emma. He thought her pretty and sophisticated enough to invite to the chateau. Charles and Emma arrived at nightfall along with many others. An elaborate dinner was served, and they prepared for the ball. When Charles intimated that he would dance, Emma replied, â€Å"Why, you must be mad! They would make fun of you; stay in your place, as it becomes a doctor. And when he kissed her on her shoulder, â€Å"’Don’t touch me! ’ she cried; ‘I’ll be all rumpled. ’† The dancing began, and when the atmosphere grew warm and heavy, a servant broke out the window panes. Through the windows Emma â€Å"saw in the garden the faces of peasants pressed against the window looking in at them. † She was reminded of her own heritage, the days of the farm, but â€Å"the splendor of the present hour† made her almost doubt she had ever been there. Supper was served, and at three o’clock the cotillion (more dancing) began. Emma danced with a Viscount, and proved to be a highly courted partner. Charles, in the meantime, had spent five consecutive hours watching people at the card tables â€Å"without understanding anything about it. † Lunch was served the following day, and then Charles and Emma left for Tostes. Emma believed the life of Vaubyessard to be the kind of life she wanted and deserved, and her immediate surroundings grew even more dreary. â€Å"She longed to travel or to go back to her convent. She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris. † She became increasingly irritated with Charles and her surroundings to the point of becoming ill. She suffered from heart palpitations, and she exhibited altered states of hyperactivity and torpor. She constantly complained about Tostes, and Charles thought that perhaps her illness was due to the town itself. From that thought on, â€Å"Emma drank vinegar to lose weight, contracted a sharp little cough, and lost all appetite. † The Bovarys moved to a new town, Yonville (â€Å"yonder village†), a small market town some twenty miles from Rouen. Here the Bovarys had a daughter, whom Emma names Berthe, after a young lady she had encountered at Vaubyessard, and the Bovarys sent Berthe to be nursed by a carpenter’s wife. Emma was not a very good mother. She really wanted a son who would be free to â€Å"explore all passions and all countries, overcome obstacles, taste of the most distant pleasures. † She did not care for the realities of motherhood. On one occasion, after returning home, Berthe approached Emma. â€Å"‘Leave me alone,’ repeated the young woman quite angrily. Her expression frightened the child, who began to scream. ‘Will you leave me alone? ’ she said, forcing her away with her elbow. Berthe fell at the foot of the chest of drawers against the brass handle; she cut her cheek, blood appeared. Emma then felt sorry for her treatment of the child. The Bovarys met Leon Dupuis, a clerk for the town notary. Leon and Emma were fellow romantics. They spoke of their desire for change as opposed to routine. They talked about their desire for walking in the country, witnessing sunsets, visiting seashores, mountains, lakes, waterfalls. They related their love for music and reading by the fire. The two of them fell in love with one another, but did not yet allow themselves to express their love. â€Å"Weary of loving without success,† Leon eventually left for Paris to pursue a law degree. Emma became unhappy and ill again. A â€Å"gentleman† named Rodolphe Boulanger brought one of his workers, who wanted to be bled, to see Dr. Bovary. Rodolphe had just acquired an estate that consisted of a chateau and two farms that Rodolphe cultivated himself, â€Å"without, however, taking too many pains. † Rodolphe â€Å"lived as a bachelor, and was supposed to have† a sizeable income. When Emma was called to assist in the bleeding, Rodolphe became infatuated with her beauty. But he only desired her as a mistress. Flaubert described Rodolphe as â€Å"having had much experience with women and being something of a connoisseur. † Rodolphe thought to himself, â€Å"Three gallant words and she’d adore me, I’m sure of it. She’d be tender, charming. Yes; but how to get rid of her afterwards. † His present mistress, an actress in Rouen, was beginning to bore him. During an Agricultural Fair, Emma and Rodolphe strolled around, arm in arm, eventually ascending to â€Å"the council room† on the first floor of the townhall. The room was empty, and Rodolphe suggested they could enjoy the show there more comfortably. Flaubert showed his appreciation of irony when, in the background, he awarded the first prize for manure at the same time Rodolphe told Emma, â€Å"A hundred times I tried to leave; yet I followed you and stayed†¦. As I would stay to-night, to-morrow, all other days, all my life! † Also, as Emma and Rodolphe gazed at each other, â€Å"as their desire increased, their dry lips trembled and languidly, effortlessly, their fingers intertwined,† a prize was awarded to an old peasant woman for fifty-four years of faithful service at one farm. Emma was susceptible to Rodolphe’s charms. After some six weeks, a time chosen by Rodolphe for the purpose of not appearing too eager, he visited Emma. He knew just how to play her. When Charles returned home, Rodolphe suggested that riding might be good for Madame Bovary’s health. Charles thought it a good idea. At first, Emma objected, but Charles talked her into it. She and Rodolphe rode and walked. Sometime into their first outing, Emma â€Å"abandoned herself to him. † Charles bought her a horse. Emma and Rodolphe rode regularly, and they began exchanging letters, placing them in the cracks of a wall located near the river at the end of the garden attached to the Bovary home. If Charles left early enough, she would sneak off, on foot, to see Rodolphe at his estate and return to Yonville before anyone awoke. She would cry when she had to leave Rodolphe, and her farewells would go on forever. Rodolphe suggested her visits were too dangerous; she was compromising herself. So, Rodolphe began coming to the garden at night, throwing sand against the shutters, and Emma would sneak out after Charles had retired. Six months passed. Rodolphe became increasingly indifferent, and Emma became uncertain herself. One day, news of a new surgical procedure for curing clubfoot reached the apothecary at Rouen. Emma, who wanted more fame and excitement for her husband, and the apothecary, who wanted fame for himself, urged an unwilling Charles to carry out the new operation on a crippled servant at the inn. The servant was pressured and finally consented after the operation was offered to him at no charge. At first, the operation appeared successful, and Emma was delighted with Charles and his prospects. But the device in which they strapped the servant’s foot caused swelling. In response, the device was tightened even further, and gangrene set in. A surgeon was called in for consultation. He laughed and scolded Charles. The surgeon had to amputate the servant’s leg to the thigh. Emma was no longer delighted. â€Å"Everything in him [Charles] irritated her now; his face, his dress, all the things he did not say, his whole person, in short, his existence. † The disastrous operation was further proof of Charles’ stupidity and incompetence, and Emma turned to Rodolphe to fulfill her dreams. She sent Rodolphe love notes, and the two of them made plans to leave for Italy. Emma was apparently willing to leave without Berthe. When she firsts suggested the idea of leaving, Rodolphe asked about the fate of Berthe. Then, Emma, who had obviously not thought of Berthe before, said they would take Berthe with them. But no further mention of Berthe was made in their succeeding plans, and Emma rarely gave Berthe any attention. Rodolphe, who had no real intentions of running off with Emma, postponed the departure on several occasions, and then they set a specific date. On the day of their departure, however, Rodophe sent a letter to Emma through a servant. In the letter he ended the affair and announced that he was leaving without her. He had his servant echo his plans to depart, but he was not actually planning to go anywhere. Though, later in the day, he did decide to go to Rouen. Emma saw him leaving as he passed by the Bovary home. She was devastated and became ill. Charles stayed by her side for forty-three days, neglecting his own affairs. Charles thought the theatre may be good medicine, and so he and Emma went to Rouen to see an opera. The whole experience began to reawaken Emma’s romantic being. After the second act, Charles went to get Emma something to drink and ran into Leon. As the third act began, the three of them left to talk elsewhere. Leon, as it turns out, after his schooling in Paris, had come to Rouen to work as a clerk. Because the three old acquaintances talked through the opera, Emma did not get to see the third act; and since Emma now seemed energized, Charles suggested that she stay the night and see the third act the next day. Charles, however, must return home. Emma stayed, and she and Leon began an affair. As Flaubert wrote it, Emma and Leon apparently consummate their feelings for one another during a long carriage ride through Rouen. When she returned to Yonville, she was informed that Charles’ father has died. Emma was by this time substantially indebted to a shopkeeper and moneylender by the name of Lheureux (â€Å"the happy,† as in the seller of happiness), and he suggested that Emma obtain the power of attorney over Charles’ father’s estate. She manipulated Charles into giving her this power of attorney, and she even earned his gratitude for going to Rouen to have Leon look over the legal papers. Emma’s stay in Rouen lasted three days, after which Leon came to Yonville at times and sent Emma secret letters. Emma then began to make weekly trips to Rouen under the pretense of taking piano lessons. She manipulated Charles into asking her to refresh her skills in this area. She and Leon would stay in a hotel, and she was running up all kinds of debts with Lheureux, spending freely on her trips to Rouen and satisfying all of her whims. Lheureux lent her money on the value of Charles’ father’s estate. Charles was unaware of her spending and her adultery. Leon and she began seeing each other more frequently. She began billing Charles’ patients herself, without his knowledge, and selling things in order to pay on her bills. She gave Berthe no attention. Finally, someone wrote Leon’s mother, telling her that Leon was ruining himself with a married woman. Leon’s mother wrote her son’s employer who then indicated to Leon how important it was to break off the affair. Leon wanted to end it, but he was in love. Eventually Emma’s unpaid bills ran long overdue, and her creditors obtained a judgment against her. On her return from a visit to Rouen, the maid showed her a judgment that commanded her â€Å"by power of the king† to pay the sum of eight thousand francs. She went to Lheureux, who by this time had sold the debt at a discount to a banker at Rouen. Emma tried to talk Lheureux out of the judgment. She â€Å"even pressed her pretty white and slender hand against the shopkeeper’s knee,† but Lheureux would have none of that. She owed a vast sum of money, and the sheriff’s officers arrived to confiscate the family property. Emma tried frantically to raise the money. She went to Leon at Rouen and urged him to borrow the money for her, and she even suggested that he steal the money from his office. Leon tried to borrow the money from lenders, but to no avail. On the next morning, people gathering in the market read a notice indicating that the Bovarys’ furniture was for sale. Madame Bovary went to see the town notary. The notary was in business with Lheureux and, so, knew all about Emma’s plight. But he listened as she told him all about it. He then made it clear, in a not so subtle manner, that he would expect a sexual relationship if he were to lend her the money she needed. Emma appeared insulted by his forwardness, shouted that she was not for sale, and left in a fury. She was surely not opposed to exchanging herself for money, but the notary was too crass and straightforward about it. Had he concealed it in more romantic language, she probably would have consented. Later, as Flaubert wrote, â€Å"perhaps she began to repent now that she had not yielded to the notary. † At last, when she heard the sound of Charles coming home, she went to the town’s tax collector and offered herself to him in return for the money. He was offended by Emma’s advances. While Emma was running around, thinking about how to get the money, Charles learned of his family’s financial ruin. Emma, at least, turned to Rodolphe. But even though it seemed the two of them could once again become lovers, Rodolphe was either unwilling or unable to help. Out of shame and despair, Emma poisoned herself with arsenic she obtained from the pharmacy through an unwitting assistant. She hoped to make her death short and sweet. She said, â€Å"Ah! It is but a little thing, death! â€Å"I shall fall asleep and all will be over. † But she suffered long and horribly with vomiting, sweating, pain, moaning, and convulsions. Charles, unable and in no shape to help his wife, called in another doctor, but to no avail. â€Å"A final spasm threw her back upon the mattress,† and she died. Charles appears to be the true hero of the novel. He genuinely loved Emma, would have done anything for her, offered her a decent li fe, was a good husband, a good provider and a good father. But, he was a real human being with real human characteristics and flaws. At the end of the novel, however, Charles becomes a genuine romantic, engulfed by authentic and understandable emotions. Charles decided in favor of a mausoleum for Emma’s tomb, and he wrote the following instructions: â€Å"I wish her to be buried in her wedding dress, with white shoes, and a wreath. Her hair is to be spread out over her shoulders. Three coffins, one oak, one mahogany, one of lead. Let no one try to overrule me; I shall have the strength to resist him. She is to be covered with a large piece of green velvet. This is my wish; see that it is done. The pharmacist and the priest, we are told, â€Å"were much taken aback by Bovary’s romantic ideas. † Charles’ mother shared their view. But Charles now had become a romantic just like Emma, emotionally overwrought with the death of this woman he so dearly loved, refusing to sell any of her possessions to satisfy her debts. Flaubert writes of Charles, â€Å"He was a changed man. † â€Å"To please her, as if she were still living, he adopted her taste, her ideas; he bought patent leather boots and took to wearing white cravats. He waxed his moustache and, just like her, signed promissory notes. She corrupted him from beyond the grave. † Soon, though, Charles discovered the love letters from Leon and Rodolphe hidden in a secret drawer of Emma’s desk; and, shortly thereafter, Charles died of love sickness. A surgeon â€Å"performed an autopsy, but found nothing. † All of Charles’ belongings were sold to satisfy debts, and there remains just enough to send Berthe off to her grandmother. But the grandmother died the same year, and Berthe fell under the care of a poor aunt who sent her â€Å"to a cottom-mill to earn a living. †

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Harry Potter

Harry Potter Harry Potter And the Philosopher's Stone (Short summary) Harry had lived with his uncle Vernon and his aunt Petunia since he was a baby and they always told him that his parents were killed in a car accident. He didn't have a very comfortable life because he had to sleep in a cupboard under the staircase and wasn't very well treated either. Dudley, his spoiled cousin, hit him whenever he wanted to and the Dudleys didn't care about him at all. Harry had a strange scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning and he never knew were it came from.One morning in July Harry got a letter and before he could read it his uncle took it away. The next morning a whole bunch of letters arrived and his uncle took them. For the next seven days an increasing flood of letters were sent to Harry and the family even had to pack their things and go on a trip to get away from the letters.The Weasley family as shown in Harry Potter and th...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Memories and Death essays

Memories and Death essays It was the month of June 1996. My dad was very sick in the hospital so my mother sent my younger brother and I to my cousins house for the week. It was a Saturday and I was more than ready to go home for the weekend. I missed my parents and I was anxious to see how my father was doing. My cousins drove us home later that afternoon. My mom had just brought my dad home from the hospital but she had to leave right away to go to work. My dad seemed to be doing great. He was in a very lively mood and was really happy to see us. There was a nurse staying with my dad to help him out with anything he needed. It was hard for him to walk because he was so weak. It hurt to see my father like this. I could remember a time not too long ago when we all used to go camping or fishing together. My dad could do everything a healthy person could do. The nurse was very friendly. She talked to us about how my father was doing and she was very interested in the way we felt about things. She had a very warm heart. Later that evening when my mom came home from work she didnt seem very happy. My father had been in and out of the hospital for a year. Usually when he came home it was a very happy time for us. This time was different. My mom sat down with my brother and I and told us that the doctors couldnt do anything else for him. He only had 6 months to live. I didnt want to believe what she was saying. It just didnt seem real to me. I could feel myself begin to cry, but I tried to hold it back. I didnt want mom to see me cry. She was already going through enough pain. I decided to make the best of things and spend as much time with my dad as I could. Since it was summer time I didnt have school. I didnt go out with friends or go anywhere in fear of losing my father while I was gone. I wouldnt be able to forgive myself if I wasnt there with him. ...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Book Summary The Goal Processes and Operations

The Goal Processes and Operations Key Idea The main message of the book is that the proper way to manage any operation, whether it’s a manufacturing plant or a web design shop or a clothing store, is to: 1) Identify what needs to be changed. 2) Identify what it should be changed to. 3) Identify how to execute the change. Summary This story is based around the life of Alex Rogo, Plant Manager for Uniware, which is a division of Unico. After some very upsetting customer approaches Alex’s boss, Bill Peach, is given a challenge to turn the plant around in three months. Due to the limited amount of time available, there are not many outside tools available such as consultants, surveys, and so on. With very few hopes, Alex foresees the inevitable until he remembers his conversation with Jonah, a physicist who Alex knew from a previous job. It is not until Alex’s job is in at risk that he decides to devour into his conversation with Jonah. During the conversation, Jonah asks him several questions to analyze his company’s situation. The conversation leads ultimately to the question, What is the goal of any business? After rethinking his conversation, Alex realizes that the goal of any business is to make money. Furthermore, if the goal is to make money any action toward this goal is considered productive and any action not moving towards the goal is nonproductive. Alex was unsure of such a simple answer and decided to contact Jonah to continue the search for more answers. Once Alex contacts Jonah they define the following measurements to define the success of any plant’s production: 1) Throughout = rate that the system is used to generate money through sales. This measurement would consist of what a product would be worth when sold at market value after deducting operational expense and inventory. 2) Inventory = all the money invested in purchasing items that will be sold. This could include the remains of their machines after being used toward the investment. 3) Operational expense = all the money used to turn inventory into output. This would include such items as depreciation of a machine, lubricating oil, scraps, etc. Jonah explains to Alex that a plant that is continuously productive is considered inefficient. He further explains that continuous production will result in high absenteeism, poor quality and employee turnover. Based on this, he would need to reduce operational expense and inventory to improve throughput to demonstrate a balanced line of production. Jonah leaves him to think about the understanding of two things: what are the dependent events and statistical fluctuations in his plant. During a hiking trip with Alex’s son, he produces a game for a few of the kids to demonstrate an ideal balance line of production. He does this by setting up dependents and uses a die to measure the statistical fluctuations. At the end of the game, he concluded that the bottleneck’s speed of production is what determines the speed of the other dependents. Therefore, inventory moves very slowly because of statistical fluctuations. In the end, this is where Alex began his search inside the plant. After arriving back at work, he and the crew began their search for the bottlenecks. They identify one of the robots, NCX-10, and the heat treatment area as the source of the bottlenecks. Once identified, they began their search for solving them. After following some simple steps they significantly increased production by 12% during the first two months and 20% in the third month. Based on these increases, Alex saves the plant and his got promoted to Bill Peach’s position. Besides the ongoing theme of saving the plant, there is an underlying story about Alex’s personal life. In the beginning Alex’s wife, Julie, and him are constantly arguing about Alex working late in attempts of saving the plant which flows over into not spending any time with his family. Within the first 100 pages of the book, his wife leaves him, after being exhausted of all attempts to save their marriage. However, during his search for reclaiming the plant he does the same with his marriage. I think that the author is telling the audience that there must be a balance between these two lives. It is important for both to be in harmony because eventually they will flow in and out of each environment. Lessons Learned What I enjoyed the most about this book was the layout. It consisted of telling a story about Alex in a novel form, which included dialog, plot, etc. By making the book in this way it broke the specifics down for a layperson, Alex. After all, Alex represents the average person job going down the tube and marriage shortly following it. The source of the problem the whole time was following the rules that were and are continuously engraved into us each day. What I learned about this book is that you should not let your business and processes control you and lead you. Instead, you should be constantly criticizing and reviewing your processes and not settling for any bottlenecks or sticking points. Another major theme in the novel is that the point of a business is to make money, and more specifically, to make a profit. The way to do this is not to create as much as possible, but instead to run as efficiently as possible. That might require making drastic changes to common practices, things that on paper seem like they will hurt the bottom line. For example, in the book, they discover they’re running their manufacturing plant at 80% capacity. That means 20% of the time, they have machines and people just sitting there doing nothing. So they tell their sales manager to get them 20% more work. He says that they can only get it from a client who wants it at below cost, so they would lose money. But Alex convinces him that they only have materials as costs, as they have people doing nothing currently who are getting paid, so their time is not an additional expense. I thought this was very interesting. Application This book would be ideal for anyone interested in simplifying ways to improving any process whether it is manufacturing or service oriented. These back to basics principles, help break down what has become common practice.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Social Network - Facebook Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Network - Facebook - Research Paper Example The end users of Facebook site always have a wide variety of information but despite this fact, the privacy implications of accessing and using this information has emerged and immensely affected them (Trepte and Leonard, 2011, pp101). On examining how Facebook has affected privacy, researchers have found massive flaws in the system. The privacy in this social media has usually been undermined by at least three key factors. These three factors, which highly affect the privacy of this social media, include: users disclose too much information, Facebook management does not take crucial steps towards protecting the users privacy, and lastly, third parties are very busy seeking end users information using Facebook (Trepte and Leonard, 2011, pp102). These three factors have made the use of Facebook as a channel of communication and interaction vulnerable, as third parties can easily access the information which was not intended for them. Though Facebook privacy policy settings specify which data will be collected about an individual user, mostly, some part of this policy is vague and confusing to the end users. Some privacy policy standards adopted by Facebook appear confusing and mostly contradict the stipulated privacy rights of the end users, for example, Facebook collects information about its end users from other external sources like newspapers, regardless of the individual use of the website (Trepte and Leonard, 2011, pp103). The gathered information from these external sources is used to supplement the end users profiles unless the individual users specify in their settings that they don’t want that to be done. To this extent, Facebook usually compromises the privacy of many end users who are mainly unaware of such settings. Despite the fact that Facebook clearly indicates what type of information they will be including in their whole process of updating individual user profiles with information they s eek from the external sources, their privacy policy and adherence thereto fall short in various areas. First, they fail to explain to the individuals the use for the extracted data (Trepte and Leonard, 2011, pp104). This means that they can avail of any individual data for various purposes like for Facebook’s marketing partners. Facebook has developed a close relationship with various corporations, thus they take advantage of the individual users and share their information to these associates without their approval. This clearly implies that there is virtually no control of what data Facebook can expose to the advertisers (Trepte and Leonard, 2011, pp105). The law regulating the disclosure allows Facebook to disclose any individual user personal data to the advertisers. This allows the advertisers to create cookies that are not governed by any privacy policy regulating the use of social media. Though there is a stipulated procedure for an individual Facebook user to request Facebook not to share his or her information with third parties, definitely there is no transparency in such procedures as individual users have no evidence of whether their request will be honored or not. In line with privacy of online information, security of information is assured through use of passwords. This allows for a restriction of access of information to those who have only been granted legitimacy to access such information. Facebook, though has vague guidelines about the use of its user’s information, has given users control over their existing information about themselves in the Facebook databases. Their terms of engagement with users clearly state that a user can remove his or her content in the Facebook d

Physical Activity Basketball Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Physical Activity Basketball - Essay Example Basketball has benefited me a lot, in terms of both physical and mental health. The physical activity I recommend is basketball. It is essential for basketball players to build strong mental health in addition to physical health. In order to make great achievements, personal skills alone are not the main contributors to success. Passion, team spirit and willingness to introspect are also essential qualities. I have been playing basketball for at least seven years now and I find it to be a really good sport. Basketball is a unique sport. Through my experiences over the years, I have found that my mind has become more mature and so have my skills. By participating in basketball matches since I was eleven, I have found that practice is not the only key to winning a game. Accurately identifying the opponents’ strengths and weaknesses can help a team gain a higher score. Therefore, I agree with Gladwell and Crawfords argument that physical activities require imagination, creativity as well as flexibility rather than blindly following textbook knowledge. While physical abilities are important for playing basketball, the importance of mental abilities also needs to be acknowledged. The height of a basketball player is one of the most important factors. If the height of an individual is not very low when compared to average height, he has a chance of becoming a good player. However, the main difference between a superstar and a normal player is not just their physical abilities, but their humbleness to improve on their weaknesses and sustain their strengths. In The Physical Genius, Malcolm Gladwell shares the secret of how Michael Jordan, the lord of basketball became the legend of this sport by spending a large part of his time wisely on reflection rather than exercise. He explains that though Michael Jordan and Karl Malone have unique skills that

The difficulties that Indian learners might have in American's Essay

The difficulties that Indian learners might have in American's classroom to learn English - Essay Example Similarly, most of the languages in India have no difference between writing and pronunciation and this can result in confusion among the Indian learners in American classrooms. Thesis statement: The Indian learners in American classrooms face a number of difficulties because Indian languages (first language) alter the learner’s accent, there are differences in word order, sentence structures, sound systems, pronunciation, and these can affect the process of learning English. One can see that first language deeply influences a learner because the process of acquisition of the same is natural. Within this scenario, the first language determines a learner’s accent, and the same is related to dialectical differences within any language. For instance, if an Indian learner’s mother tongue is Hindi, his/her accent will be different from those who use English as their first language. If the Indian learner migrates to America and start learning English, the influence of first language (say, Hindi or other regional languages in India) may hinder him/her from following the native speaker’s accent in English. Shilpa S. Dave stated that, â€Å"For Asian Americans, accent is another way of pointing out that difference is a socially nuanced and a socially constructed reality† (5). If the Indian learner is totally exposed to English, he/she can easily escape from the influence of first language and can improve his/her accent related to the t arget language (English). To be specific, there are hundreds of different languages and variations of the same in India. Besides, the word order within the sentences in these languages is entirely different from English. An Indian learner is totally exposed to this word order and regularly applies it in writing and conversation. Tej K Bhatia stated that, â€Å"The order of words in a Hindi sentence is not as rigidly fixed as it is thought to be by

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Aggregate demand and aggregate supply Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aggregate demand and aggregate supply - Essay Example Boyes, Melvin & Boyes (2008) stated that the value of real GDP is determined at the point where aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves intersect each others. From the above example of aggregate demand and supply curves of Evergreen Land, both aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves intersect at the price level of 100, and this equilibrium point determines the value of real GDP. Since equilibrium is the point where the value of real GDP is determined, a shift in either the aggregate demand or aggregate supply curves leads to a change in the real GDP values. Answer: Aggregate supply curve shows the level of real domestic outputs that firms produce at various price levels. Aggregate supply curve is short run is upward sloping, but is downward sloping in the long run. Long run aggregate curve, as depicted above, will be a vertical line at the full employment output because the wages and other input prices in the long-run increase and decrease to match changes in the price levels. Answer: A decrease in the price level is very likely to cause an increase in aggregate demands in the short run. According to Keynesian multiplier effect, this should in turn impact the aggregate demand to cause a further increase. An increase in the aggregate demand for goods or services due to various factors such as government policy or wealth factors or international factors can as a result shift the aggregate demand curve horizontally to the right (Kennedy, 2000). When there is an increase in the aggregate demand, it causes the price level and real GDP to move in the same direction because of increased spending or higher investments of governments. It also means that more and more quantities of national output will be demanded at any given price levels. The increase in aggregate demand thus shifts the aggregate demand curve to the right side. The short-run equilibrium level of real output and the price levels are determined by the point where both

Religions of the Caribbean and Latin America Essay

Religions of the Caribbean and Latin America - Essay Example This religion is seen not only in Haiti, where its origins lie, but also in Mexico and South America, and most famously in New Orleans, where its practitioners have included Dr John, the shaman Drummer, and Marie Laveau, the New Orleans healer. It is from the academic studies of this religion that we have received some of the most powerful images of modern mystery faiths. It is also known as Vodou, Vodun, and many other variations, depending upon the writer concerned. As at attempt at compromise, Voodoo will be used to discuss the Haitian religion as a cultural signifier, while Vodun (which means spirit or sacred) will be used to discuss the actual religion of the area. Vodun, moreover, is not the only religion in the area based upon the entwined influence of African Gods, Christian imagery, and native American shaman faiths. Other interesting religions of the area include Santeria, the faith of the Yoruba in Cuba and the Diaspora, Candomble, and Umbanda. These three religions are referred to under the umbrella term of ‘Macumba’.'Macumba'. While this essay will study the differences and similarities between the Vodun and Santeria, the other religions of this region are also worthy of mention, as they have produced transculturation in differing ways, especially Umbanda, which is unusual even for the area: Umbanda in perhaps the youngest of these forms only emerging in 1904 and strangely enough being a fusion not of Christian and African beliefs, but Hindu, Buddhist and African beliefs. (Patrice, 2003, page 7) Even such a well-known religion such as Jamaican Rastafarianism, which is fundamentally a Christian religion, combines elements of a pan-African religious perspective, including There would be a mystic return to the African homelandlinked to notions of cultural recovery through a spiritual connection to the African homeland. The belief in the soul's return to Africa after death was widespread in the Caribbean. (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert. 2003, page 156-7) Rastafarianism is a connection between the deeply religious Christian community, and the equally religious Pan-African faiths of the Caribbean. Furthermore, the idea of a spiritual movement back to Africa after death ties it in strongly to the Vodun, Candomble, and even Espiritismo, which is the Creole interpretation of spiritualism in areas such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Southern states of the United States. In all the religions of the Caribbean so far discussed, the importance of spiritual connection with the dead, with ancestors in Africa, and direct contact with the gods, or Lwa, who will be discussed later. Voodoo is seen by outsiders as a very 'dark' faith, one in which the priests and priestesses kill their enemies through magic, the famous 'voodoo' dolls, and rites which involve animal sacrifice (and human sacrifice too, it is alleged). Other myths of voodoo imagine the creation of many Zombies as workers, have become the staple of horror movies, and TV shows such as 'Hex'. Santeria, while associated with Vodun, concentrates much more upon the worship of Gods in the guises of Catholic Saints. The very name means 'Worship (or way) of the Saints", and so provides a perfect example of the mixing of Christian and African religions in this melting pot of faiths known as the Caribbean. This essay seeks to analyze the true religions of Vodun and Santeria, approaching the faiths through a history of the people, from a consideration of the cultural influences of both religions, to the nature of the worship before Slavery was abolished. The role of Voodoo in Haiti and New Orleans will be considered,

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

The difficulties that Indian learners might have in American's Essay

The difficulties that Indian learners might have in American's classroom to learn English - Essay Example Similarly, most of the languages in India have no difference between writing and pronunciation and this can result in confusion among the Indian learners in American classrooms. Thesis statement: The Indian learners in American classrooms face a number of difficulties because Indian languages (first language) alter the learner’s accent, there are differences in word order, sentence structures, sound systems, pronunciation, and these can affect the process of learning English. One can see that first language deeply influences a learner because the process of acquisition of the same is natural. Within this scenario, the first language determines a learner’s accent, and the same is related to dialectical differences within any language. For instance, if an Indian learner’s mother tongue is Hindi, his/her accent will be different from those who use English as their first language. If the Indian learner migrates to America and start learning English, the influence of first language (say, Hindi or other regional languages in India) may hinder him/her from following the native speaker’s accent in English. Shilpa S. Dave stated that, â€Å"For Asian Americans, accent is another way of pointing out that difference is a socially nuanced and a socially constructed reality† (5). If the Indian learner is totally exposed to English, he/she can easily escape from the influence of first language and can improve his/her accent related to the t arget language (English). To be specific, there are hundreds of different languages and variations of the same in India. Besides, the word order within the sentences in these languages is entirely different from English. An Indian learner is totally exposed to this word order and regularly applies it in writing and conversation. Tej K Bhatia stated that, â€Å"The order of words in a Hindi sentence is not as rigidly fixed as it is thought to be by

Religions of the Caribbean and Latin America Essay

Religions of the Caribbean and Latin America - Essay Example This religion is seen not only in Haiti, where its origins lie, but also in Mexico and South America, and most famously in New Orleans, where its practitioners have included Dr John, the shaman Drummer, and Marie Laveau, the New Orleans healer. It is from the academic studies of this religion that we have received some of the most powerful images of modern mystery faiths. It is also known as Vodou, Vodun, and many other variations, depending upon the writer concerned. As at attempt at compromise, Voodoo will be used to discuss the Haitian religion as a cultural signifier, while Vodun (which means spirit or sacred) will be used to discuss the actual religion of the area. Vodun, moreover, is not the only religion in the area based upon the entwined influence of African Gods, Christian imagery, and native American shaman faiths. Other interesting religions of the area include Santeria, the faith of the Yoruba in Cuba and the Diaspora, Candomble, and Umbanda. These three religions are referred to under the umbrella term of ‘Macumba’.'Macumba'. While this essay will study the differences and similarities between the Vodun and Santeria, the other religions of this region are also worthy of mention, as they have produced transculturation in differing ways, especially Umbanda, which is unusual even for the area: Umbanda in perhaps the youngest of these forms only emerging in 1904 and strangely enough being a fusion not of Christian and African beliefs, but Hindu, Buddhist and African beliefs. (Patrice, 2003, page 7) Even such a well-known religion such as Jamaican Rastafarianism, which is fundamentally a Christian religion, combines elements of a pan-African religious perspective, including There would be a mystic return to the African homelandlinked to notions of cultural recovery through a spiritual connection to the African homeland. The belief in the soul's return to Africa after death was widespread in the Caribbean. (Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert. 2003, page 156-7) Rastafarianism is a connection between the deeply religious Christian community, and the equally religious Pan-African faiths of the Caribbean. Furthermore, the idea of a spiritual movement back to Africa after death ties it in strongly to the Vodun, Candomble, and even Espiritismo, which is the Creole interpretation of spiritualism in areas such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Southern states of the United States. In all the religions of the Caribbean so far discussed, the importance of spiritual connection with the dead, with ancestors in Africa, and direct contact with the gods, or Lwa, who will be discussed later. Voodoo is seen by outsiders as a very 'dark' faith, one in which the priests and priestesses kill their enemies through magic, the famous 'voodoo' dolls, and rites which involve animal sacrifice (and human sacrifice too, it is alleged). Other myths of voodoo imagine the creation of many Zombies as workers, have become the staple of horror movies, and TV shows such as 'Hex'. Santeria, while associated with Vodun, concentrates much more upon the worship of Gods in the guises of Catholic Saints. The very name means 'Worship (or way) of the Saints", and so provides a perfect example of the mixing of Christian and African religions in this melting pot of faiths known as the Caribbean. This essay seeks to analyze the true religions of Vodun and Santeria, approaching the faiths through a history of the people, from a consideration of the cultural influences of both religions, to the nature of the worship before Slavery was abolished. The role of Voodoo in Haiti and New Orleans will be considered,

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Bellinger and Transsexuals Essay Example for Free

Bellinger and Transsexuals Essay As we said earlier, there will be no virtual difference for the registrator whether Mrs. Bellinger would have been through surgical treatment at the moment of marriage or not. In the same manner, she will look equally feminine to people on the street before and after operation. The problem lays in her self perception. Acute desire to get rid of the abhorrant organs which (desire) borders with risc of self-mutilation or suicide was invoked by Harry Benjamine as reasons for surgical treatment of a patient. ‘Benjamine patient’ thus requires separate taxonomical niche and might also require medical and in extremal cases surgical treatment which , thus, looks akin to emergency surgical measures applicable to unstable patient. Surgical vocabulary has penetrated the terrain once inhabited by psychopathological terminology. Treatment of such hard cases involving Marginal drive towards unification with other sex by arsenal of intense psychoterapy was rendered futile and changed for more radical, surgical and hormonal technologies. Although, it is within approach of psychoterapy that demand of sex change, which was crucial in disclosure of syndrome itself, was recognized to â€Å"cover over another form of subjectivity that are fundamentally destabilizing. † It follows that emergency approach within which syndrome of expressed gender dysphoria taken at its extremity is only capable of rectification through surgical treatment intended at partial or full removal of secondary sexual attributes posseses not its past persuasiveness. Rather, its thesis about demand for sex change which serves as signifier of the syndrome invites critics on the ground of its Although, â€Å"Benjaminian patient† as a product of doctors and patients dialectical development of â€Å"cohesiveness for a subjectivity [which] constantly [is] under threat of destruction† is very appealing to the law. The law may find its subject in the â€Å"Benjamine patient†. Thus created taxonomical niche entail various legal situations. Earlier, we considered the possibility of Mrs. Bellinger’s actual marriage (in terms of social recognition of their civil union) in case if she would not undergo sex re-assignment procedure and concluded that marriage will be not less socially valid under that conditions. What if in her place was another person who only occasionally cross dress and does not wish to play that social role of woman forever? It is very possible that she would pass the social test and misled the public with its look but the degree to which she really needs that social and legal recognition is, presumably, incommensurable to that of Mrs. Bellinger. In this case, the fact that individual has undergone surgical procedure may testify her commitment to the purpose of ultimate unification with opposite gender (along the lines of ‘Benjamine patient’ approach) as well as underscore the intricasy of her psychosomatic neurosis ( psychopathology approach). In any case, surgical treatment dialigns the group of Marginal transvestites from other, Nuclear ones . And similary to medicine which aids that marginal patients by delivering them from their detestable organs , law is called to facilitate their further socialization into society by resolving the internal pressure they feel as regards inability to lawfully participate in civil unions. That law is called upon to faciliate in internal self development and self apprehension is no new: it has incorporated norms securing the right of disabled and retarded which contribute to their self esteem and facilitate their internal development or prevents them from [the threat] of destruction of personality. But is not it that law pre-maturely intervene into the relations which are to be at first clearified and agreed upon by the medical specialists and only then passed into the sight of law? Whether it us true or not that if there are presently two groups each of which has its explanation on what marginal transvestism is and how it should be treated then law is bound to side with one of those schools since no mutual agreement was developed? ‘Benjamine patient’ is very appealing taxonomical category which directly and logically connect Marginal transvestism (springing from expressedly antipathic reaction to individual original sex) and gender re-assignment treatment (which is deemed to be the only plausible resolution to thus posed problem). But in the eyes of law transvestite which undergone sex re-assignment posseses no single distinct advantage as compared to that (transvestite) which did not been through that treatment. It is gender identity of individual that matters when considering the issue of legislative changes to Matrimonial Causes Act. In this respect, gender re-assignment procedure is not a conclusive step which defines those who are eligible for the right to marriage; it is only one of those steps which are directed by human identity and, through acquiring further visual and material semblance, incrementally lead to unification with desired sex. This road may prove to be infinite. The position of gender re-assignment surgical procedure within the continuum of surgical procedures transexuals resort to allows for observation that transexuals, in fact, are continuously disturbed by abyss between them and ideal feminity (in case of men transexuals) and may never acquire bodily semblance enough to put their mind or gender identity at ease, that is to say that they are insecure in their feminity and their self apprehension is constantly impaired. Thus, it is impossible to render a transsexual somehow belonging to feminine gender solely on the ground of him/her being surgicaly treated. Rather, it is the expressed self apprehension as belonging to feminine gender that could make them what they want to be. This conclusion entails further ones. The most prominent of them is that pronounced desire to be a femine is what transsexual has and ever would have and the aim of the law is to state whether it is sufficient for granting them all rights pertaining to female sex. In context of right to marriage this pronounced desire has to somehow fit into the definition of marriage (marriage is void unless the parties are respectively male and female (Bellinger para 1) or that definition has to be changed because of certain cases which hardly fall within that definition but nevertheless seem to have direct bearing on the marriage. Clearly, transsexual which articulate her gender to be feminine in the marriage tends to have a wife role which will organically consort with other characteristic of feminity she tends to. In Re Kevin (validity of marriage of transsexual) [2001] Fam CA 1074 it was stated that there is no formulaic solution to determining the sex of an individual for the purpose of the law of marriage and â€Å"difference is essentially that we can readily observe or identify the genitals, chromosomes and gonads, but at present we are unable to detect or precisely identify the equally biological characteristics of the brain that are present in transsexuals† But to put right to marriage in direct dependance upon [determining] sex of person seems to be a dead end. The array of cases strating from Corbett v Corbett [1971] P 83 and ending with present case testifies that this approach is hardly efficient. The desicion in Goodwin v UK (2002) 35 EHRR 18 laid ground for re-apprisal of that approach. It reads that the Court found found no justification for barring the transsexual from enjoying the right to marry under any circumstances. Obviously, there are no such impedements springing from the law itself which would prospectively prevent Marginal transvestites from acquiring right to marriage provided that there be a legislative will of Parlament. That the perplexities of that problem partially and briefly stated earlier do prevent House of Commons from passing the bill also seems clear. At the same time, incentives coming out of European court are expressedly painted in colors of progressive and liberative legislative approach. Presently, I belive that formula which will satisfy ‘Europeans’ will involve legislation tending to antecede the resolution of academic debates as regards specific domains of meidine and, in fact, contribute to the progressive and enlighted resolution of those debates. In our case, present state of the law includes some deceptive provisions. It clearly states that parties to marriage are respectively male and female which seems to be consonant with the desire of Marginal transvestites as they tend to artificially acquire ‘maleness’ or ‘femaleness’. At the same time, law and the court do not seem to bother about priciseness of their rendering of that provision. So far, as it occures from the great majority of the cases, the court only have approached notions of ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’, construed them to signify biological sex and made efforts to elaborate measures of ascertaining that [original] sex. It is now clear that societal perception of gender does not co-incide with legal one. The court insures the degree of preciseness of that legal perception but apparently, the split between society which eyes Marginal trasvestite and sees a girl, Marginal transvestite which lives and strives to be a girl actually ever-approaching to it, and the Court which eyes Marginal transvestite through microscope and employes all kind of hromosomal tests and technical appliances to disclose that individual’s original and abhorrent side is enormous. Doctors almost at once sided with their patient and developed certain categories (at the beggining ‘Benjamine patient’ and then ‘gender identity disorder’) actually saling transvestites to state as transexuals – taxon compulsory and contigent in itself – which would underscore their unstability at the original gender and destabilizing subjectivity. Another school of medicine tries to buy that category back from the state pointing at the internal incommensurability and incohesiveness of it. It (school) actually speak out that state and society bought the thing which is not what it seems. And it is the time when gender and sex opposition is to reveal fully. As it might be construed from Bellinger case despite her successful effort to approach ‘feminity’ Mrs. Bellinger did not managed to approach ‘femaleness’ which under the present provisions of the law warrant her a right to marriage. Doctors appealed to progressiveness and humanity of legislator so that the latter might confer ‘femaleness’ upon transexuals even if only to save their subjectivity. Unattainable status of, say, ‘femaleness’ is mainly in charge of legal deadend with marriage rights of marginal transvestites. If sex-related approach was changed for gender-related one (first signifies biological sex, second – gender role) within the provisions of the law it will greatly reduce that paintfull dialectics between transsexuals and doctors and transsexuals and law. Though, that changes ought to go with recognition of homosexual marriage. Transsexuals will never agree to register as homosexual family but this will reduce the degree to which marriage right depend on gender re-assignment procedure, which is immaterial to marginal trabnssexuals right to marriage. Number of words: 3558. References: Books: Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology, and the Idea of Gender by Bernice L. Hausman; Duke University Press, 1995 The Psychology of Sexual Orientation, Behavior, and Identity: A Handbook by Louis Diamant, Richard D. McAnulty; Greenwood Press, 1995 DNA and Destiny: Nature and Nurture in Human Behavior by R. Grant Steen; Plenum Press, 1996 Journal articles: Transvestism: A Survey of 1032 Cross-Dressers. by Richard F. Docter, Virginia Prince. Journal Title: Archives of Sexual Behavior. Volume: 26. Issue: 6. Publication Year: 1997. Page Number: 589+. Moving gaily forward? Lesbian, gay and transgender human rights in Europe. by Kristen Walker. Melbourne Journal of International Law, June 2001 v2 i1 p122 Paper articles.

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Dairy Industry Of Pakistan Marketing Essay

The Dairy Industry Of Pakistan Marketing Essay The dairy industry of Pakistan is a very competitive industry and has huge potential. Unfortunately, dairy processors in Pakistan still have miles to cover before they can exploit full benefits of this industry. The milk production of the country has not been up to the mark and as a result the demand for dairy products outweighs the supply. Traditionally, people living in urban areas preferred to consume fresh milk delivered to their homes by Gawallas. However with the passage of time, as people became more and more health conscious there was a shift towards the consumption of UHT milk and its demand has been increasing ever since. In the UHT milk segment, firms like Nestle Pakistan Limited and Engro Foods Limited have emerged as leading market players. These firms with their bundle of financial resources have made huge investments in getting state of the art technology, manpower and strengthening their promotion efforts. Despite the fact that local dairy processing industries have b een able to match the quality standards of Nestle and Engro to a greater extent, these firms lack in their marketing efforts. Noon Pakistan Limited is one such firm which is being effected due to poor marketing efforts and has not been able to reap the benefits of the industry in which it operates. Noon Pakistan Limited is a venture of the Noon Family and has been marketing its products under the brand name of Nurpur. The firm enjoys market leadership in the category of butter. Initially when the firm launched its UHT milk the market response was good. However with the passage of time, the brand performance of Nurpur UHT milk has deteriorated due to mismanagement of marketing efforts. While management claims that they are able to sell whatever they produce, the market survey results prove that the prevailing performance of the brand has not been up to the mark. The firm relies on the selling concept which is a short term approach and little emphasis is being given to the concept of brand building. It is the need of the hour that Noon Pakistan Limited adopts a long term strategic approach if it wants to secure its position in the market for years to come. To study the issue being faced by Noon Pakistan Limited, a rigorous Literature review was conducted followed by interviews with employees of the firm, retailers and consumer surveys. Financial analysis and comparison with Nestle and Engro was done. Even though Noon Pakistan Limited does not match the financial strength of its competitors, there are many ways in which the firm can improve its position in the market. The first step in building strong brands is to ensure that the brand has a high salience. The brand should have top of the mind recall and recognition. Unfortunately the survey results analyzed using SPSS software proved that Nurpur milk is not the first brand which comes to the mind when a consumer wants to purchase UHT milk. Majority of the respondents could not even recall any advertisements of Nurpur milk. A major proportion of the respondents also highlighted the fact that Nurpur milk was occasionally short in the market. The results of the retailer interviews also prove that Noon Pakistan Limited has to improve its trade promotion schemes as majority of the retailers were not satisfied with current distribution practices of the company. The retailers highlighted the fact that the company should improve its promotion activities so that consumers start demanding Nurpur milk. Companies such as Noon Pak Limited, those fail to expand, eventually move to the phase out or withdrawal stage. This is because expansion ensures the continuity of profitability, brands, innovation and progress. It also creates employment opportunities and contributes to the growth of economy by improving the GDP. Noon Pakistan Limited however is not expanding and considering the intense competitive environment that prevails in the dairy industry, if they fail to expand in future; the company might have to face a stark fortune of a complete phase out and therefore should start redesigning their marketing and management strategies accordingly. Due to weak financial resources, Noon Pakistan Limited should utilize alternative strategies to maintain its position in the market. The firm needs to invest in consumer promotion activities like in store sampling and taste trials. The firm also needs to focus on its BTL activities in order to strengthen the perceptual positioning of the brand in consumer mind. The firm needs to revise its payment policies with retailers and start providing goods on a credit basis to those retailers who have a good reputation in the market. In short, Noon Pakistan Limited should revise its current practices and operations. The firm should let go its old concept of selling and instead focus on building the equity of its brands if it wants to strengthen its position in the market for the future. 2.0 Introduction 2.1 The Noon Group The Noon Group of Companies is being managed by the Noon family. The group has qualified and experienced professionals. The Noon Group of Pakistan strives to improve its profitability and safeguard its stakeholders interest while maintaining highest quality standards and serving the community1 The Noon Group of Companies has various business ventures and Noon Pakistan Limited is one such profitable venture of the Group. Apart from Noon Pakistan Limited a brief description of the other business ventures are as follows:- 1. Noon Sugar Mills Limited This venture was incorporated in 1964 and manufactures white sugar. Initial crushing capacity was 1500 MT of sugarcane which has been increased to 4000 MT over the passage of time.2 2. Pioneer Cement Limited Pioneer Cement Limited was incorporated in 1985 with a total investment of Rs.2660 million and production capacity of 630000 tons per annum. The plant is situated in Chenki, Khushab.3 3. Noon International Private Limited Noon International Private Limited is a trading company which was established in 1972. The company employs 43 people including a team of 15 professional sales engineers. This firm represents various international companies of repute in Pakistan and markets their equipment in the fields of textile, power generation, sugar, fertilizer, chemical, steel, cement, food and milling4 4. Textile Technics Private Limited Incorporated in 2004 with a total investment of Rs 100 million, Textile Technics is a joint venture between M/S Blue Reed of Spain and Noon International Private Limited. The project has a production capacity of 22000 meters of reed per annum5 5. Textile Services Textile Services was established in 1994 and provides services to over 200 customers of Sulzer Textile Projectile Weaving Machines. The company employs 32 people and provides training, technical service and spare parts for clients6 2.2 Noon Pakistan Limited Incorporated in 1966 with a total investment of 553 million, Noon Pakistan Limited produces various products namely Butter, Cheese, UHT milk, HCLF, Pasteurized milk, Flavored milk, Juices, Water, Desi ghee, Honey and Jam. Installed capacity of the plant is 72000 Liters/2 shifts and there are 700 employees. Noon Pakistan Limited has been marketing its products under the brand name of Nurpur. The plant is located in Bhalwal, Sargodha while the head office is situated in Lahore7 The year 2011 was a challenging year for Noon Pakistan Limited. Energy Crisis, security situation coupled with devastating floods had exerted significant pressure on the economy and cost of living. Higher inflationary trends continued impacting their key products particularly related to fresh milk when shortages led to a cost increase of 16% compared to last year. Additionally, higher growth of their products led to severe filling capacity constraints and the market demand could not be met fully. Due to reduced buying power, trend in the market is changing fast as consumers are looking for cheaper products in small packages. Therefore the management at Noon Pakistan Limited has made plans to reassess the market requirements and also further improve their production efficiency8 2.3 Vision The vision statement of Noon Pakistan Limited is as follows:- Our vision at Nurpur is to be a transformative force in our community and world at large and to serve as a model of a sustainable business alternative that nurtures social and economic well being in an environmentally sensitive manner9 2.4 Mission The mission statement of Noon Pakistan Limited is as follows:- Nurpur is committed to supplying the consumer and customer with the finest, high quality products and to be a leading industry in healthy and nutritious products. Nurpur supports these goals with a corporate philosophy of adhering to the highest ethical conduct in all its business dealings, treatment of its employees, and social and environmental policies10 2.5 Core Values At Noon Pakistan Limited, consumers are at the forefront of everything they do. The core values of the company include the generation of Ideas that can be constantly challenged to develop next generation solutions, to conduct business openly and fairly while competing fiercely at the same time, to encourage teamwork with individual flairs, to set tough goals that can be challenged and beaten, to value preservation of the environment and ensure sustainability of organic agriculture, to value mutually supportive relationships among members of local and global communities11 2.6 Awards and Certifications Noon Pakistan Limited has won many prestigious awards and certifications which are First dairy company in Pakistan to be certified under ISO 22000:2005, Brand of the year award (2006-07) in the category of Butter, Brand of the year award (2007-08) in category of Butter, Cheese and flavored milk and Brand of the year award (2008-09) in the category of Butter12 2.7 The Purchase Department To study the operations of the Purchase Department, two interviews were conducted with the Purchase Manager. The findings of the interviews have been utilized to describe the function of the Purchase Department. The purchase department is responsible for purchasing all materials required by the head office and plant other then milk which is purchased at the milk collection centre in Bhalwal. Materials which are purchased by the department range from ordinary items like office and plant stationary to complex materials like Flavors, Spare parts for plant equipment and transportation vehicles, Chemicals, Fuel and everything related to the manufacturing process, Logistics and day to day operations. Demand for requisition comes from the factory and approval has to be given by the Managing Director. The purchase department currently has 4-5 employees. The department uses a manual system of keeping records and storing files. The purchase department always keeps 3 copies of requisitions and delivery challans. One copy is sent to the plant, one copy is maintained with the purchase department and one copy is kept by the Purchase Manager. The major suppliers of Noon Pakistan Limited are SMC, Sitara Che micals , Jason Foods and Danisco. Payments to suppliers are made either on cash or credit through the head office. Credit terms depend on contacts and relations with suppliers and can range from 15 days up to a month. According to the Purchase Manager, Noon Pakistan Limited believes in maintaining healthy relations with Suppliers and this is one of the key strengths of the department The Purchase Manager also stated that in case of materials needed from local suppliers, the purchase department is given no time and purchase has to be made immediately. However when imported materials are required from foreign suppliers, the Purchase department is informed in advance as shipping takes time. There is no fixed pattern of purchases made throughout the year and it all depends on plant and market requirements. The quality of materials purchased is checked at the plant and if there are defects the merchandise is returned to the supplier.13 2.9 The Marketing Department To study the operations of the Marketing Department of the firm, two interviews were conducted with the Marketing Manager. Marketing research activities are outsourced. The Marketing Department purchases monthly reports from different marketing research agencies like AC Nielson and Tetra Pak. In this way the marketing department stays in touch with the latest trends and competitor activities. Some of the agencies with which the marketing department works are SABB Marketing, Time and Space, Orient, HRK Communications, Aura Communications, TOPAZ Communications and ADZ Communications. These agencies prepare designs of print ads and commercials. The brand manager discusses the various designs with the Marketing Manager and after making necessary amendments and recommendations approval is given to Marketing agencies. The Marketing Strategy of Noon Pakistan Limited is Differentiation strategy. However the strategy to be adopted for each brand depends on the market performance and competitor activities. Since UHT milk is difficult to differentiate, the current strategy being adopted is to position it as a milk which is enriched with vitamins needed for healthy growth and development. The target market of UHT milk is Housewives and working females as well as males. Different SKUs are being used to target different Socio Economic Classes like the 1000ml pack is targeted for SEC-A while the 200ml and 250ml packs are targeted towards low income households. The main competitor brands of Nurpur Milk are Olpers, Milk Pak, Good Milk and Haleeb. The marketing department does not go for an offensive strategy because Nestle and Engro are huge giants with bundle of resources. Noon Pakistan Limited can be classified as an Analyzer because it is operating both in a stable and dynamic market. Another reason for not adopting an offensive strategy is that volumes are low. The main weakness of the Marketing Department is that very little attention is being paid towards building brand equity. The department is focusing on increasing sales which is a short term approach rather than focusing on building their brands 14 2.10 Organizational Chart of the Marketing Department Figure 3 Organizational Chart(Marketing Department) Source: Internal Company Documents The Brand Manager is responsible for dealing with various Marketing Agencies and reports to the Marketing Manager. The Marketing Manager reports to the General Manager of Sales and Marketing15 2.11 The Sales Department Two interviews were conducted with the Sales Analyst of the firm to get insights regarding the operations of the Sales Department. The organizational structure of the Sales Department comprises of the General Manager of Sales and Marketing, National Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Area Sales Manager, Field Managers and Sales Officers. Territories have been assigned according to location and comprises of Central Zone, Southern Punjab zone and Northern zone which includes RWL/AJK, Hazara belt and Pakhtoon.K belt. The process of forecasting yearly sales is that last years closing sales are doubled and the amount is set as the Sales Target for the next year. There are more than 280 distributors all over the country and each Sales Officer has to monitor and look after three to four distributors. If targets set in the year 2012 are met, the entire Sales Team will go on a vacation to Dubai on the companys expenses. Noon Pakistan Limited has also started exporting its products to countries like England, Kenya and Afghanistan.16 2.12 Marketing Mix of Nurpur UHT milk Nurpur UHT milk has been positioned as a milk which is enriched with vitamins needed for healthy growth and development.17 The milk is packed in Tetra Aseptic Packaging which allows long lasting storage and shelf space. Currently three SKUs are available in the market which are 200ml, 250ml and 1000ml. Initially the pricing policy adopted for Nurpur milk was market penetration pricing, which means prices were low compared to competing brands. Recently the pricing policy has been changed and now the pricing policy is competitive pricing policy as shown :- Product Packing Unit/Ctn Retailer Margin Trade Price Consumer Price 1.UHT MILK Ctns Units Ctns Units 1000ml 12 6.09% 1018 84.83 1080 90 200ml 24 4.35% 391 16.29 408 17 250ml 27 5.97% 586 21.7 621 23 Table 3 Price List of Nurpur UHT milk Source: Company Internal Documents Due to low volumes produced the company has adopted the policy of selective distribution. The company offers various discounts to retailers to push their products into the market18 . The indirect distribution channel being used is shown below:- Figure 5 Distribution Channel Source: Company Internal Documents 2.13 SWOT Analysis Strengths Market leadership in selected product categories Strong and Experienced Sales Team Strong Supplier relationship Brand Loyal Customers Strict adherence to Quality Standards First dairy company in Pakistan to be certified under ISO 22000:2005 Weaknesses Weak coordination among departments No emphasis on building brand equity No formal HR Department Centralized Decision Making No policy of recruiting fresh blood Selective Distribution Opportunities Exporting products to foreign countries Increased demand for dairy products due to urbanization and increasing population Ensuring availability in untapped markets Launching innovative products for health conscious consumers Going for backward integration Threats Reliance on few suppliers Rising prices of sugar Rising prices of oil increasing transportation expenses Energy and Power Crises Procurement of Quality Milk as milk production fluctuates Rising Inflation decreasing purchasing power of consumers 3.0 Literature Review Pakistan has been classified as the third largest milk producing and consuming country in the world. There is a huge potential for liquid dairy products because 94% of the total population still consumes unpackaged milk. Dairy Processors in Pakistan are coming up with innovative products. An example is Tea Creamer which has been quite successful because drinking milk with tea accounts for 32% of total milk consumption in Pakistan. Consumption by low income consumers in developing markets is forecast to increase by from about 70 billion liters in 2011 to 80 billion liters in 2014 and many of these consumers are expected to switch in coming years from drinking loose milk to packaged milk19 According to Tetra Pak, global consumption of liquid dairy products is set to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% in 2011-2014, accelerating from 2.5% growth in 2008-2011, led by buoyant demand in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Asia, Latin America and Africa are all expected to record higher growth rates in consumption in 2011-2014 than in 2008-2011. Asia is forecast to consolidate its position as the worlds biggest market for liquid dairy and dairy alternatives, while Latin America is forecast to overtake Western Europe as the worlds second biggest market by 2014, the research shows. Demand in Asia-Pacific is forecast to rise by 4.6% (CAGR) in 2011-2014 to some 165.3 billion liters20 The research shows that there is a huge potential for dairy processors and demand for dairy products especially UHT milk is likely to go up in future years to come. This demand for dairy products will not only exist in Pakistan but also in developing countries abroad. The demand for milk in neighboring countries also provides huge opportunities for dairy processors and they can expand their operations in those countries by either exporting their products or setting up plants. This research by Tetra Pak provides sound evidence that the future for dairy processors is bright if they can overcome certain issues of availability, quality of milk and reduce operating expenses. Pakistans milk and dairy products industry has already reached $26 billion as of March 2012. Engro is the market leader in the UHT milk segment with a share of over 44%21 A major issue being faced by the dairy industry of Pakistan is that the total production of milk in the country is not fulfilling domestic needs. While human population and consumption per capita has been increasing at the rate of 3% annually, milk production in the country is not increasing at the same pace22 In Pakistan, Buffalos are the main source of milk production with a contribution of 66%, followed by Cows with a contribution of 32% and Goats and Sheep which contribute 2% of the total milk produced. The major Buffalo breeds are Nilli-Ravi and Kundhi, while Sahiwal and Red Sindhi are dominant cow breeds. A majority of small holding farmers, who fulfill 90% of the total milk requirements of the country are not linked to the formal dairy market. The reasons which have been attributed to low productivity of animals are low genetic life of cattle, delay in puberty, scarcity of feed resources, high disease incidence, disorganized marketing system and traditional farming practices. The low production of milk in the country places a huge burden on dairy processors and in the year 2008-09, dry milk products worth Rs. 1.1 Billion had to be imported due to shortfall of milk production23 This article provides information regarding the major sources of milk in the country. It also clearly indicates a major issue being faced by dairy processors in the supply chain, which is procuring quality milk for further processing. Milk is the major raw material for dairy processors and insufficient milk production means that dairy processors have to operate with constrained capacity and cannot expand into new markets to meet future demands of milk. As the article highlights that not only is the productivity of animals low but majority of farmers do not have access to the formal dairy market. In Pakistan, 97% of milk produced is consumed by producers in far flung areas and only 3% is being processed and marketed through formal channels. Demand for milk is present not only in Pakistan but neighboring countries like Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Philippines which can be harnessed to advantage. Apart from bacteria of tuberculosis and hepatitis that naturally occur in milk, the Gawala adds many more impurities specially contaminated water for milk dilution. Other impurities like ice slab, soda bicarbonate, and formalin are added to prevent the milk from intense weather. Improper marketing channel is one of the major constraints being faced by the dairy sector. The informal private sector comprises of various agents in the supply chain each performing specialized roles. These comprise of producers, collectors, middlemen, processors, traders and consumers. Seasonal fluctuation hampers milk production and consumption in Pakistan. Milk production is maximum in the months from January to April due to availability of green fodder and reaches minimum in months of May to August. Alternatively milk consumption is high during summers and low in winters. Cold storage facilities are limited in Pakistan due to high cost of operations and shortage of electricity. Dairy processors like Nestle are looking at options to reduce or eliminate their reliance on small farmers due to milk adulteration and delays in getting the quantity of milk which hampers production. Dairy processors should vertically integrate their activities by Corporate Farming and offer additional services and support to medium and large farmers in order to get bulk quantities of milk from them24 This article highlights that opportunities exist for dairy processors to export their products in neighboring countries. It also explains how milk is collected and various contaminations which are added to raw milk. Procuring bulk quantities of milk is a big issue for dairy processors and their viable options are to reduce their dependence on small farmers. The constraint of seasonal fluctuation and ensuring quality standards is also a prime concern for dairy processors since all these factors hamper production and ultimately sales. The milk marketing chain in Pakistan can be classified into an informal marketing chain and a formal marketing chain. The informal milk marketing chain is highly unorganized and milk is delivered under unhygienic conditions. The formal marketing chain on the other hand is more organized and utilizes Cold Storage Tanks to deliver milk from collection centers to processing units25 The informal marketing chain provides the end consumer with low price dairy products at the cost of poor quality standards and unhygienic conditions. The formal marketing chain on the other hand is more conscious towards meeting health standards. However consumers also have to pay more for purchasing their products26 The demand drivers of the dairy industry include increased spending on healthy dairy, increasing nuclear families and working women, increase in demand for functional dairy, organized retail and private label penetration, changing demographics and rise in disposable incomes and increasing urbanization. The challenges being faced by the dairy industry are that milk productivity is still too low, R D is low, human resource challenges have to be addressed, supply chain hindrances have to be minimized and quality standards need to be improved27 The processing of UHT milk involves six steps. In the 1st step fresh milk from cows enters into the UHT process at 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit and contains 50 kinds of bacteria most of which are harmful to health. In the 2nd step the milk flows through pipes in which the temperature gets hotter and hotter until it reaches a holding tank and bacteria gets killed as the milk flows through the pipes. In the 3rd step the milk is heated to 278 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 seconds which kills 99.9 % of the bacteria. In the 4th step the milk is quickly cooled down to 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit which preserves essential nutrients and vitamins. In the 5th step the UHT milk is packed in Tetra packing within seconds to prevent bacteria from entering again in closed pipes and tanks. Finally in the last and 6th step the packed UHT milk is ready to be transported28 Tetra Pak is the pioneer in aseptic packaging. In this type of packaging the product and the package are sterilized separately and then combined and sealed in a sterile atmosphere29 The reason why dairy processors like Noon Pakistan Limited use Tetra Packages is because it allows products to be stored for up to a year without refrigeration which increases shelf life of milk. Branding is one of those marketing concepts which has immense importance since times immemorial. This is because it is the distinguishing feature between various goods and services. Customers perceive a concept of brand as something with which they can easily associate attributes of a product and to build a strong trust over time. This in turn results in brand equity which is long lasting and is a result of effective marketing efforts on the part of management of the company. With the advent of technology and trends of packaged products, branding is no more a source of identification of a product but way more than that. It is now used for building emotional attachments to both the companies and the products. Apart from the mere identification of the product there are other attributes of branding such as customers involvement, stress on higher quality and standards and other intangible attributes which are related to the brand name and in particular its symbol. Branding helps in creat ing images in the minds of consumers so that they can be ensured that their product is unique and different from the rest. Therefore, it can be said that a brand can only be recognized as a strong entity if it continues to provide attributes that it has been promising and are provided consistently. This shows the importance, growth and need for branding a product and service in recent times. This is because initially, consumers associated the brand with something that can be used for identification purposes only. However, now we can see that branding is way beyond that and is concerned with perceptual positioning of a product more than a distinguishing feature alone. Also a brand can emerge as a strong and well established brand only if the consumers are able to experience consistent delivery of attributes that have been promised by the company. Therefore, no brand can survive in the market if it is unable to fulfill its brand promise and this is a new phenomenon towards which we are seeing a paradigm shift in the market30 The concept of brand awareness is all related to the mind of the consumer. If a brand has a strong presence in the mind of the consumer he is said to be aware of it31 . It is also defined as a measure of the percentage of the target market that is aware of the brand name32 In order to create brand awareness in the mind of consumers33 ,companies can take use of advertising by marketing their product again and again which will create a few competitive advantages to them. For example: Brand familiarity Name familiarity will prove commitment to the brand If a brand isnt recalled during the point of purchase it is of no use and brand salience ensures that Brand awareness will be the most durable intangible asset According to Aaker, companies can generate brand awareness through two steps by firstly broadening the sales base and then by improving their skills beyond the regular mediums of advertisement34 . There are several ways to measure the brand awareness of a company and these attributes are described below: Brand Recognition: Brand recognition in simplest terms refers to the brand identification when consumers are provided with merely a cue about the brand prior to the actual exposure. This means, that this brand can be easily differentiated from others based on previous knowledge about the brand35 Brand Recall: Brand recall basically refers to the aptitude of the consumer for remembering the brand from the minds memory when provided with category of a product or any other cue36 Top of mind Brand: The brand which is named by the consumer first when provided with the product category or classification is known as top of mind brand37 Dominant Brand: When asked from the consumers, if a brand name is recalled by the majority of the respondents then that brand is said to be the dominant brand38 Therefore from the above research it can be analyzed quite easily the significance of the brand awareness. A brand which is able to achieve maximum brand equity and becomes a dominant brand can undoubtedly become the largest market share holder amongst the competitors. Building brand awareness however, is a challenge that is faced by the companies and they need to make their marketing efforts strong in order to ensure that among a huge pool of consumers, the brand awareness of their brand is most dominant as it will provide both economical and perceptual benefits to the compa