THE LAW OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

THE LAW OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK - Essay Example According to the provisions of the common law, employers are required to safeguard the physical and psychological health of their employees. They are also required to provide a safe system of work, safe means of access, plant and equipment, and fellow employees. Furthermore, employees have to be protected from unnecessary risk of injury (Mcilroy, 2000). This duty of care is an implied obligation in a contract of employment. It had been the extant practice to permit employees to claim compensation from their employers if they were injured at the workplace, due to the negligence of the latter. The courts have commenced to grant compensation for psychological injuries caused by employers. In order to succeed in a claim for psychiatric injury, the applicant has to establish genuine psychological damage; presence of a causal link between the psychiatric injury and his employment; and that the psychiatric injury had been foreseeable by the employer (Mcilroy, 2000). Moreover, the applicant must submit expert opinion to establish psychiatric illness, in order to claim compensation. Stress in employment, gradually erodes the health of employees, and reduces self-esteem, confidence, and other abilities. Such employees are less likely to claim compensation from their employers (Mcilroy, 2000). ... The Employment Protection Act 1975 (Employment Protection Act (c. 71), 1975) provides rights related to time off, and these have been included in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Employment Rights Act (c. 18), 1996). A few of these rights provide employees with paid time off and the other rights allow employees to avail themselves of unpaid time off. Specifically, section 50(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, requires the duration of time off and pertinent factors to be of a reasonable nature. This was clearly discernible in the Employment Appellate Tribunal’s decision in Borders Regional Council v Maule, wherein the former stressed that there was to be a balance between the needs of the employer and the rights of the employee (Borders Regional Council v Maule, 1993). Health and Safety at Work It is to be examined, whether the corporate law firm, is in breach of the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act of 1974. In instances involving work related stress an em ployee can initiate legal action against his employer in the County Court or High Court, or apply to an Employment Tribunal. The first ruling regarding negligence arose in Walker v Northumberland County Council. In this case, it was held that it was reasonable to foresee risk of psychiatric injury, if the concerned employee had already undergone a nervous breakdown. All the same, this was not to be construed to imply that an employer could continue to subject an employee to excessive stress, until the latter suffered a stress related injury. In Garratt v London Borough of Camden, the Court of Appeal opined that a significant proportion of the population underwent nervous breakdowns and depression, and that quite a few of these individuals were

African-American women Essay Example for Free

African-American women Essay Firstly however we must address the problems that occur when separating the effects of time and interference. Baddeley and Hitch (1977) conducted a survey whereby they asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against during the previous season. Due to illness and injury some of the players had been unable to play in all the fixtures. This meant for some of the players two games back meant two weeks ago whereas with others two games back meant four or five weeks ago. The findings showed that passage of time was not the main factor that determined how well the teams could be recalled, but it was the number of games that effected recall. In other words forgetting occurred more often where team members had other games interfere with previous fixtures rather than trace decay. If interference is the major cause of forgetting within L. T. M it should be true that people will remember material over a time period providing no interfering material intervenes. It is clearly difficult to set up a condition whereby no participant is immobilized after learning with any opportunity for the occurrence of any new learning. This has led researchers to look at the effect of different types of interfering material on recall. McGeoch and McDonald (1931) asked participants to learn and relearn lists of adjectives and then compared their performance on recall tests after interpolated tasks. Forgetting these adjectives was at its least when participants simply had to rest during the learning and recall and increased when participants were required to learn nonsense syllables in the interval. Rates were even higher when it was adjectives that were learned in the interval and were at there highest when the adjectives learned were similar in meaning to the original list. This shows that forgetting increases as a function of the similarity of the interfering material. Retroactive Interference Proactive Interference Retrieval Failure This is also known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon and comes about when we think we know something but cannot recall it at that precise moment in time. This is due to the fact that the correct retrieval cues are not available. Sometimes different words related to the original memory can prompt us to remember the memory and these are called interlopers. Brown (1991) has reviewed this phenomenon for the last 25 years and has concluded that people can correctly name the first letter of the target word between 50 and 70 per cent of the time along with being correctly accurate with the number of syllables in the word. The interloper theory (retrieval cue) was investigated by Perfect and Hanley (1992) who found that distinctiveness of the target word and its similarity in meaning play a factor in recall. Tulving was another researcher to investigate retrieval cues and it was his work with Osler (1968) that led to some interesting findings. They presented participants with lists of words, each paired off with a weakly associated cue word e. g. city-dirty. Participants where then tested for free recall (without the cue word) or were cued with the word e. g. dirty. They found that cued recall consistently produced higher levels of recall. To counteract the argument that any semantic association might aid the recall, they gave participants weak semantic associates which were different to that of the original cue words. These cues did not aid in recall and so led them to conclude that specific retrieval cues aid recall if and only if the information is stored at the same time as the information about the membership of the word in a given list. While Tulving stressed the importance of cues at the encoding stage he later admitted that cues not present at this stage could also be helpful under certain circumstances. Context Dependant and State Dependant Learning Research has shown that we remember more if we recall things in the same state as what we learned them in. In other words how we encode material at the time of learning is clearly important. Godden and Baddeley (1975) presented deep-sea divers with lists of words to learn. They learned these on the beach and under 15 feet of water. Recall was then tested in either the same or the opposite environment. Findings showed that recall was significantly better if tested in the same environment. These differences however are only small but it has been suggested that by even simply imagining the original environment can be helpful. Smith (1979) gave participants a list of 80 words to learn while sitting in a distinctive basement room. The following day he tested some of the participants on recall in the basement room and others in a fifth floor room with quite different surroundings. Average recall for the basement group was 18 but for those in the fifth floor room it was only 12. A third group was tested in the fifth floor room but were instructed to imagine themselves in the basement. The average recall for this was 17 words. There is also some evidence to suggest that not only external environment plays a role in recall but also our internal environment i. e. physiological state or mood may play a part. Godwin et al (1969) found that heavy drinkers who learn things in a drunken state are more likely to recall them in a similar state. Eich (1980) has found similar findings with a range of drugs including marijuana. Research into the Role of Emotional Factors in Forgetting Flashbulb Memories Psychologists have often ignored the role of emotion in human cognitive processes but it seems likely that the way we feel has an impact upon the way we remember things and one particular type of memory that seems to be influenced by emotion have been called flashbulb memories. This is a particularly vivid, detailed and long lasting memory of an event that is usually highly significant and emotional and is usually unexpected. It can be a personal event or something that provokes worldwide interest e. g. death of Princess Diana. Research carried out by Brown and Kulik has led them to conclude that the event must be surprising and have real consequences for the persons life. They believe that such an emotional event triggers a neural mechanism that causes details of the scene to be imprinted on the memory. They believe it is a special type of memory because the detail and accuracy with which the event is remembered and the fact that the structural form of the memory is always so similar. They believe six different types of information about the event are stored being i. Where they were ii. What they were doing iii. The person who gave them the news iv. What they felt about it v. What others felt about it vi. What happened in the immediate aftermath However not all psychologists believe that flashbulb memories are special. Neisser (1982) believes that the longitivity of such memories result from frequent rehearsal and reworking of the event rather from neural activity at that precise moment in time. He believed that we recall it clearly due to the fact that we resort to storytelling techniques when telling someone about the event. It is still unclear whether flashbulb memories represent a particular type of memory or whether they are substantially similar to most memories for big events. Repression Another view about the way in which we forget things was put forward by Freud (1915-18) who believed that some memories become inaccessible as a result of repression. He believed that we use an unconscious process that ensures that threatening or anxiety-provoking memories are kept from our conscious awareness. These memories may stay repressed for years and never come to mind or can do in the form of hysterical neurosis. Although it has proved difficult to recreate repression in laboratory circumstances a number of attempts have been made. Levinger and Clark (1961) asked participants to generate associated words with words presented by them. Some of these words were emotionally neutral e. g. tree, window and others were emotionally arousing e. g. angry, quarrel. When asked to recall these associated words results showed that people tended to recall the emotionally neutral ones as opposed to the emotionally provoking ones, which helps to support the idea of repression. However such tests are considered suspect and Holmes (1990) concluded that there is no experimental support for the concept of repression. Recently research has focused upon repressed memories associated with child sexual abuse and whether or not recovered memories are genuine. The main problem with assessing whether or not they are true is that they have no independent, objective corroborative evidence. Williams (1992) found that 38 percent of a group of African-American women who were known to have suffered abuse reported repressed memories about it although it was clear that some of these memories were false. Loftus (1997) conducted an extensive review of studies that led him to believe that even psychologically healthy individuals altered their memory of events based on false suggestions about them. Baddelley concluded that it is important to exercise great caution in interpreting such reports.

The Interrelationship among Self, Others, and Environment Essay

Why do human beings behave the way they do? How do individuals form relationships with others? What components of an individual’s physiological makeup and the surrounding atmosphere affect the formation of judgments about themselves, others’, and every day events? Does one’s membership within a particular group affect his or her thoughts, emotions, and actions towards others? Is aggression the product of biology or environment? Questions such as this form the foundation of social psychology, a field with the primary focus being the systematic study of human cognition, emotion, and actions. Social psychologists seek to understand the way human beings develop thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as, the effect our environment, mainly our interactions with others, has on the formation of these very things. We can divide social psychology into three main categories: self, others, and environment. Each category consists of several additional topics all relating to the broad category under which the subject matter falls. The first category is the self and the primary focus is the exploration of the way individuals form impressions of themselves. Topics relating to the concept of self include self-schemas, self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-awareness, and the acting self. The second category builds upon the foundation of the self and examines the methods individuals use to form impressions of others. Subjects relating to the way human beings think, perceive, and relate to others include attributions, attitudes, behavior, judgments, as well as, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. The third category relates to the environment, particularly the relationship to and influence of others on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and b... ...es with taking into account the role of culture. Culture typically reflects the social norms and customs of the geographic location in which an individual resides; consequently, one’s culture has a profound influence on our conception of self. Human beings conception of self evolves throughout our life and culture provides a high degree of influence on the way we perceive others and ourselves. Independent cultures view the individual as a unique entity whose qualities develop apart from the social environment, while interdependent cultures view individuals as the collective product of his or her social connections and environment. Works Cited Feenstra, J. (2011). Introduction to social psychology. San Diego, California , United State: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. . Retrieved April 19, 2012, from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUPSY301.11.1/sections/fm

Home Schooling And Educating Children At Home

One of the major advantages of homeschooling is that it allows parents to be profoundly involved in the instruction of their kid. Lyman ( 1998 ) and Mayberry ( 1988 ) suggest that parents are interested in homeschooling their kids because of the turning perceptual experience that the school system is unequal in developing kids into high winners and that many schools by and big deliver standardized instruction without respect to the person ‘s endowment and potency. Lyman ( 1998 ) and Mayberry ( 1988 ) write that by supplying their undivided attending to their kids, they are in a better place to acknowledge their kid ‘s possible and promote the kid. In a survey by Lines ( 1991 ) , it was found that about three fourths of the parents who home schooled their kids besides prepared their ain instruction stuffs. Furthermore, in a survey comparing the public presentation of homeschooled kids with the regularly schooled kids, it was found that the former outperformed the latter on many steps ( Ray & A ; Wartes, 1991 as cited in Abell, 2002 ) The 2nd advantage of place schooling is that parents can avoid the disadvantages of modern twenty-four hours public instruction ( Clark, 1994 ) . Clark ( 1994 ) suggests that parents are progressively concerned that many public schools have a batch of offense and other bad pupils can negatively act upon their kids. He suggests that parents feel that because drug usage and force is increasing in many public schools, they are better able to guarantee the safety of their kids by educating them at place. Therefore by homeschooling their kids, parents can guarantee the safety of their kids. Homeschooling is non without its disadvantages and one of the normally quoted disadvantages is that place schooling consumes a batch of clip and the parents do non hold any clip for other activities. For illustration, if a kid has to be homeschooled, one of the parents has to give up work and pass a big portion of the twenty-four hours in learning and tutoring the kid. This may put a major load on the parent and may take to feelings of depression, ennui etc. Furthermore, because the parent may or may non be qualified adequate to learn the kid, he or she may non be in a place to learn every bit good as the instructors in a school where there are different instructors for different topics and are hired by the school based on their makings. The 2nd disadvantage of place schooling is that parents feel that they are paying revenue enhancements and other responsibilities, which go into making public schools, and if they do n't direct their kids to these schools, it would be a waste of the money spent. A related ground is that many parents feel that schools have many installations like research labs and playgrounds that place schooled kids do non hold entree to and hence miss out on several chances to larn and socialise ( Abell, 2002 ) . Another disadvantage of homeschooling is that societal cost of place schooling. Diana Jenkins writes that kids feel the demand to socialise and a major portion of their development is in their ability to interact with other kids of their ain age group. She suggests that kids who are place schooled are non in a place to interact with other kids and frequently feel that they are losing out on a really of import experience. Furthermore, Jenkins besides suggests that a major portion of acquisition is the ability to larn while taking the positions of others into consideration. She suggests that homeschooled kids do non hold the luxury of taking into history other pupils ‘ thoughts and sentiments and hence stop up with cognition that is merely in one way. It appears from the above reappraisal that homeschooling has more disadvantages than advantages and that it may be better for the kids to go to schools than stay at place and survey. However, because many parents feel that public schools have many disadvantages, their concerns can be removed by making better place school partnerships. While traditionally parents have merely dropped their kids at school, and participated in some pupil parent meets, some bookmans have suggested that schools can affect the parents more by back uping them with better instruction resources which they can utilize at place to do place tutoring by them more interesting, and besides ask foring parents to school to take part in synergistic activities with instructors so that instructors can besides profit from some of the cognition that parents have. Another suggestion is that better communicating channels should be created between instructors and parents so that the instructors are cognizant if the kid is tra veling through a hard stage and is underachieving because of that ground, and likewise parents are cognizant if the kid is holding some interaction jobs at school because of some issues at place. This manner the environment at both the school and place can better ( Patrikakau, 2005 ) . Therefore, it is clear from the above the place schooling is popular among many parents because of the feeling among them that public schools have many jobs like offense and make non pay single attending to the pupils like the parents can. However it is besides clear that because parents can non supply many installations like research labs and resort areas and can non assist them with societal interactions with friends and schoolmates, homeschooling may non be a really good thought. It appears that both schools and parents can profit from better coaction between parents and instructors where parents experience safe about their kids and instructors can profit from cognizing more about the pupils from the parents.

The Truman Show Analysis

Everything in my reality—the activities I engage in, the friendships I acquire, the family I love, the beliefs I form (about art, politics, religion, morality, the afterlife)—are predicated upon the assumption that my life is truly and authentically mine to live, not something counterfeit or staged. I am the author that gives meaning to my reality. I am, so to speak, the star of the show. In Peter Weir’s film about the ultimate â€Å"reality† TV show The Truman Show (1998), the ever ominous â€Å"what is real† question begs the assumption that the lives we live are really ours. It is an important text to consider with respect to those other difficult questions we all seem to either explore or avoid: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s it all about? Am I living in a counterfeit world where my choices ultimately bear no significance? If so, is a meaningful life even possible? These are crucial questions that pertain to humanity, ones that The Truman Show seeks not necessarily to answer directly but rather explore through speculation, inquiry and character/plot subtext. They are also questions that lead us to consider how Truman’s awakening into â€Å"the real† is a type of our own awakening, and why opting for reality over appearance is something worth striving for. The great difficulty of the film regards the term â€Å"reality†Ã¢â‚¬â€1). What it means in context of Truman’s world, 2). Christof’s world, 3). The audience-within-the-film’s world, 4). The spectators who watch the film’s world, and 5). The overall statement Weir is making about reality in general. That is five different realities, each which carry delicate nuances about its semantically complex nature. Indeed, spectators are left to question like Truman does when he discovers the fabrication of his existence, â€Å"Was nothing real? † Well, what is real in The Truman Show? Who or what social forces construct his/our reality? Weir seems to intentionally leave open gaps in answers to these types of questions to involve spectators more in the process of constructing the film’s textual meaning. He also seems to posit a â€Å"real world† of some sort beyond Truman’s manufactured one, but is unclear as to what that â€Å"real† one is and why Truman/spectators should want it. The ambiguous challenge of the film therefore inevitably forces us to dive into the precarious realm of metaphysics—the realm where we ponder what reality is like. It is in this realm where Weir asks us to become metaphysicians in order to explore what this nebulous term â€Å"reality† even means. One film theoretician whose ideas can help dissect the subtle nuances of how reality is played with in The Truman Show is Nick Browne. To provide a brief caveat on Browne’s theories, it is pertinent to understand that he explores the ways in which film form (camera angle, mis-en-scene, dialogue, etc. ) relates to film content (theme, moral order, etc. . He views the director as a narrator who invites the spectator into the text to partake of a certain relationship not only between the characters and their beliefs, but also the director and his beliefs. According to Browne, certain narrators have been known to override the traditional meaning of filmic codes (e. g. IMR) by using formal methods to make a statement about the film’s moral order. In what he calls â€Å"the power of the gaze,† the narrator demonstrates that the person who holds the most powerful point-of-view—or gaze—over another character, according to the traditional codes is, in fact, wrong in his/her judgment. Browne therefore emphasizes the narrator’s role as using the conventional language of film â€Å"against itself† in order to make a provocative statement about the film’s content (13). Peter Weir plays the role of what Browne calls the â€Å"narrator-in-the-text,† one who has invited us to ascertain the â€Å"moral order† of the film. The moral order of The Truman Show pertains to the five aforementioned levels of reality and how spectators are to interpret them. Using Browne’s updated version of formalism, the essay will argue how â€Å"Weir† steps into the text using dialogue and camera angle to present the great moral order of the film—the issue of what it means to see reality truly. Aspects of Browne’s â€Å"power of the gaze† will be useful to bolster the fact that although spectators identify with Truman throughout the film, their identification with him cannot help but be predominantly filtered through Christof’s all-powerful, watch-tower gaze; a perspective that Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text is ultimately going to argue, using neo-formalism (e. g. specifically camera angle), as being wrong in judgment. In particular, the essay will provide concrete examples from the film of how Weir uses shifting camera perspectives of how spectators view Truman, whether through Christof’s autocratic gaze (what I will argue as the â€Å"despotic perspective†) or through the omniscient perspective that frees Truman from Christof’s â€Å"intricate network of hidden cameras† (TS). The shifting camera perspectives will create what Browne labels â€Å"the plural subject†Ã¢â‚¬â€the notion that forces/leads/or guides spectators not only to identify with certain characters, but also â€Å"to be at two places at once, where the camera is and ‘with’ the depicted person† (127). As applied and will be argued in this paper, the filmic spectator is the â€Å"plural subject† that is consistently sutured or locked between the â€Å"despotic† and â€Å"omniscient† perspective when viewing Truman, thereby creating a â€Å"double structure of viewer/viewed† (127). These structures inevitably challenge spectators to wrestle with how reality is portrayed in The Truman Show and how the varying lenses of representation regarding â€Å"reality† carry certain implications under the despotic perspective, and likewise under the omniscient one. Understanding how â€Å"Weir† uses these ambiguous camera perspectives (i. e. structures) will help us further see how reality operates according to the film’s five aforementioned realities. They will also help clarify what Browne means when he says â€Å"such structures, which in shaping and presenting the action prompt a manner and indeed a path of reading, convey and are closely allied to the guiding moral commentary of the film† (131-132). Certainly The Truman Show is complex and ambivalent, one that demands a sensitive read. We will therefore begin with a brief plot synopsis of the film, move towards the evidence that shows how Browne’s neo-formalist theories of the â€Å"power of the gaze† and â€Å"plural subject† relate to Weir’s use of â€Å"despotic† and â€Å"omniscient† camera perspectives, and overall tie-in how these ideas pertain to the five levels of reality in the film. The Truman Show depicts the life of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), the first child legally adopted by a corporation for the purposes of filming his entire life â€Å"recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras, and broadcast live and unedited twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to an audience around the globe† (TS). Christof (Ed Harris), the show’s creator, lives in a reality governed by â€Å"television ratings† and media hype. He convinces Truman that he inhabits a benign and ordinary world, but little oes he know that everything he does is monitored, controlled and manufactured under the totalitarian gaze of Christof. While the world he occupies is virtually counterfeit and full of actors—even his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) and best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich)—Truman is unaware that his life is being used to entertain humanity in a non-stop reality program. Audiences within the film glue themselves anxiously to the screen wondering â€Å"How will it end? †Ã¢â‚¬â€a slogan captured on buttons, T-shirts and posters purchased by fans of the show. Their reality revolves around watching Truman live out his happy cliched existence in the idyllic hometown of Seahaven until gradually certain events cause him to question the perception of his alleged reality: camera lights fall from the sky, actors fail to follow their cues, backstage set dressings are exposed, etc. These curious events begin to awaken Truman to the constructs that have sought to blind him his entire life. He realizes that something is wrong and goes to great lengths to break free from his contrived world that was invented by Christof and the scheming media. At the climactic end of the film, Truman reaches towards an open door that will lead him into another world, but is cautioned by his Creator not to leave for fear that he will â€Å"not like what [he] finds† (TS). In the end, Truman rejects his counterfeit heaven and chooses an authentic, although unknown and presumably difficult, life as substitute. Using certain aspects from Browne’s theories, let us now consider how Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text carefully crafts the meaning of Truman’s, Christof’s, the audience-within-the-film, and the audience outside the film’s reality. The film opens with Christof talking directly to the camera in Brechtian style to the spectators in the theater. He admits that while Truman’s world â€Å"is in some respects counterfeit,† he assures us that â€Å"there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards†¦It isn’t always Shakespeare but it’s genuine. It’s a life† (TS). Christof suggests here that while Truman has been duped to believe he is living a â€Å"real life† he has chosen for himself, the life he has given Truman is better than what he later calls the â€Å"sick real world†Ã¢â‚¬â€the one outside Truman’s studio. Paradoxically, he claims that there is â€Å"nothing fake about Truman himself† yet in the same breath admits that the reality he occupies is counterfeit. For the Marxist critic, Christof’s philosophy might beg the question of how a person can be â€Å"authentic† or â€Å"real† if human identity is nothing more than a product of the economic environment he/she lives in. In fact, Marx’s statement that â€Å"man’s social existence determines his consciousness† seems to expose the very flaw of Christof’s viewpoint that Truman is somehow a true-man despite living a social sham. Nevertheless, backstage interviews with Truman’s perky wife, Meryl, and best friend, Marlon, are then juxtaposed together that reinforce the paradoxical nature of Christof’s philosophy, â€Å"It’s all true, it’s all real. Nothing here is fake, nothing you see on this show is fake†¦it’s just merely controlled† (TS). Upon the closure of these lines, we immediately cut into Truman’s phony world where Christof’s pervasive surveillance equipment watches his every move. Using Browne’s â€Å"power of the gaze,† we can see how spectators are thus sutured into Christof’s powerful, Big Brother gaze over Truman. In fact, spectators cannot help but see Truman through Christof’s point-of-view throughout the majority of the film since the studio cameras record and reveal everything he does. However, even though we might be forced into Christof’s POV, it is debatable whether â€Å"Weir† is asking spectators to agree with his schemes as morally laudable. For instance, given Christof’s demeanor of totalitarian spectatorship over Truman, the spectator watching The Truman Show the film might feel unsure if whether to trust his perspective; whether he/she is seeing truly through his perspective. After all, Christof’s reality is centered on the fabrication of Truman’s entire reality: his childhood, his job, even his marriage. He even goes as far to manufacture his fears, like his fear of water, which is used to keep Truman from escaping the studio of Seahaven, escaping from his false self. As Kimberly A. Blessing observes, â€Å"Everyone, including his adoring television viewing audience, is complicit in the lie†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (5-6). One possible meaning that we can extract here is that â€Å"Weir† is crafting Christof’s reality in a way that challenges the public’s perception of how the media operates. The media, like Christof, would have us live inside a fictitious world governed by commercial glamour that fuels their sales, ratings, product placement, etc. Just as the creators of Truman’s world commercialize his life with product placement ads, like when Meryl showcases the wonders of a new kitchen utensil to Truman but is really advertising it to the millions of viewers watching, so too is â€Å"Weir† making a satirical commentary on how the creators of media attempt to commercialize our lives by getting us to buy their products. The question becomes, then, whether a person who lies even for an allegedly noble cause can be trusted. How noble are Christof’s intentions anyway if he is deceiving Truman in order to receive higher television ratings? There seems to be no escape from Christof’s questionable morality or autocratic gaze, but it is here that â€Å"Weir† carefully steps into the text and shows us through camera angle and plot progression that Truman and spectators alike can escape from Christof’s duplicitous schemes. No sooner when the camera light falls from the sky and Truman begins to sense something is wrong with his reality that â€Å"Weir† intermediately switches from Christof’s camera perspective (the â€Å"despotic perspective†) to the omniscient perspective when viewing Truman. The omniscient perspective is void of the studio camera’s edges that remind spectators they are sutured into Christof’s POV. Instead, the omniscient perspective is transcendent, clear and fledgling as it frees Truman and spectators from Christof’s gripping surveillance, but it also is transient. Just as it will take the entire film for Truman to realize the extent to which he is being deceived, it will also take the entire film for â€Å"Weir† to gradually overwhelm the despotic perspective with the omniscient one. As a result of these double-shifting, ambivalent camera POV’s, we can see by using what Browne calls the â€Å"plural subject† that â€Å"Weir† is asking us to be at two places at once: where the camera is and from whose perspective we’re seeing Truman from. The difficulty here is that although spectators are implicated into Truman’s life and naturally yearn to identify with him, it is imperative to remember that â€Å"the logic of the framing† and our identification with him has already been subjugated primarily through a liar’s eyes (Braudy & Cohen 127). Consequently, it becomes tricky to discern whether we’re ever actually identifying with the â€Å"real† Truman or just Christof’s deceitful version of him. But of course, this is what the film is about. It is about asking us what it means to see with eyes truly, whether we’re all being duped inside Christof’s matrix so to speak, and whether it is possible to awaken from counterfeit reality to something truly authentic. The presentational structure of the film argues that although we identify with Truman through a liar’s eyes, we do not have to accept that POV as morally commendable, but can reject and feel liberated from it when viewing Truman omnisciently. Because of these presentational structures that Browne argues â€Å"convey a point of view† and are â€Å"fundamental to the exposition to the moral idea† of the film, Truman, like spectators, must achieve awareness of their constructed or controlled-by-another’s kind of existence, and choose to embrace a â€Å"reality† that is not manufactured by another individual or economic system (131-132). In several instances of the film, Truman tries to gain this awareness by escaping from Seahaven. He drives his car to the edge of the forest and sails through a massive typhoon but gets blocked at every turn. Christof, like the media, has trapped Truman inside his false reality and does not want him to leave. Truman even receives help from certain cast-members of the show who try to reveal the truth to him, whether flying over head with signs reading, â€Å"Truman, you’re on television,† or jumping out of present boxes screaming the same. Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text is â€Å"telling us,† as Ken Sanes argues, â€Å"that we too have to take a journey—of mind—and distance ourselves from this media landscape, if we want to secure our freedom† (Sanes). The strategy of despotic/omniscient perspective in particular helps â€Å"Weir† establish these moral orders by focusing on the relationship between Truman and Christof, truth-seeker and pseudo-truth giver, for it seems as though he subverts the traditional IMR codes of who spectators are supposed to identify with. Again, despite seeing the majority of Truman’s life from the despotic perspective, the sparse use of the omniscient one is where â€Å"Weir† is actively engaged in the text and leading us to accept Truman’s final choice of rejecting his manufactured reality as indeed the correct choice. Weir uses the cinematographic apparatus to lead spectators to see the truth about Truman, to become more aware about their own susceptibility to â€Å"false ealities† and in doing so uses the conventional language of the film as Browne would argue â€Å"against itself† by reversing the traditional meaning of form to make a statement about content. He shows through the despotic perspective that although Christof’s version of pampered reality for Truman might hold noble intentions—indeed, Christof is convinced he is actually helping Truman by sheltering him from the â€Å"sick real world†Ã¢â‚¬â€he is in fact wrong in his judgment because reality, even if unknown or â€Å"sick,† must be preferred to some counterfeit version of it.

The Lion and the Lamb essays

The Lion and the Lamb essays Life is full of opposites. For every black there is a white, for every day there is a night. The poetry of Blake is no exception. His poem The Lamb is the opposite of The Tyger. That is, the tyger is the predator, and the lamb the prey of the tyger. The Tyger conjures an image of being powerful, dark, and dangerous while The Lamb brings an image of reassuring peace. Blake uses these opposites to convey his feelings about various world events. At the time The Tyger was written, the Industrial Revolution was under way and Blake was upset by all the social injustice in the world. This explains why there are so many allusions in The Tyger and The Lamb to the Industrial and French Revolutions. Blake used these allusions because he wanted something the readers of his time could relate to and to show how he himself felt about these Revolutions as well. Blakes dislike of the Revolution leaked out blatantly into his poems. What the hammer? What the chain...dare its deadly terrors clasp? This mention of tools and chains alludes to the Industrial Revolution. The factories were the masters, and the people were its slaves, chained and unable to enjoy life. The dark tone of the poem gives an image of the dull and depressing, less than satisfactory conditions of the factories and the harsh lives of those who worked in them. Aside from only the Industrial Revolution, The Tyger draws a link to French Revolution, as the revolutionaries where also known as Tygers. The lamb on the other hand portrays a happier illustration. By the stream er the mead. The image of a field with sheep and a stream appears in dreams and as a sign of hope; for in the days of the industrial revolution, fields and open space were disappearing. In its place, dull and lifeless factories were bein ...

My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essays

My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essays My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essay My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essay Nebraska prairie Is a vehicle for opportunity and opposition. Jim Burden and Antonio Chimeras lives are direct descendants of this dualism that Inhabits the parallel, and decisively creates the adolescently between the two friends. Although only a few miles separated Jim from Antonio, the landscape of the united States made the two strangers. The Nebraska prairie may have been the only medium in which Jim would have ever met Antonio. Jims character represents all that Notations lacks. Their similarity is that both are traveling through foreign lands to start a new life. The deference is that Jims ticket Is paid for. From the beginning of the novel Will Catcher sets up a clear adolescently between the statuses of Jim and Antonio. Antonio Is an Immigrant and speaks an inadequate amount of English. This isolates her and her family from the new life theyre trying to establish. Jim is a citizen and is moving out to a land that has been established by his grandparents. The Chimeras have been uprooted from their homeland to start a new existence from scratch. Jim came from a productive farm in Virginia, while the Shimmered came from an unyielding life In Bohemia. T. T. 2 The expansive plains of Nebraska was instrumental In bringing together these polar classes in that it deposited the two families side by side. Land in My Antonio, is associated with power. On the train to Black Hawk, the conductor makes reference to a family from over the water traveling to the same destination as Jim. His companion, Jake, said you were likely to get diseases from foreigners (10). This reference directly implies that the Shimmered are Indecent, and not of the same caste as Jim; an American citizen. The phrase, over the water Is another way of saying, not from our soil or not an American. This pillories natives from foreigners, and puts a stigma on immigrants as being irregular. The Burdens have been instituted in the united States for many generations. The fact that Jims grandparents speak perfect English represents their establishment in the United States. In turn, the Burdens had secured a life on the farm In Black Hawk for many years. For the Burdens, land has become a metaphor for wealth. They broke the untamed Nebraska prairie long before Jim came to live with them. Their partnership tit work and the land has yielded them a secure livelihood. This establishment has made the Burdens successful. The Nebraska prairie has afforded them a wooden home among a sod community. Their comforts include proper tools, a productive garden, and a variety of provisions. They are able to furnish hired hands which makes the farm more efficient and fruitful. The Burdens abundance Is T. T. 3 evidence of teller progress In refining the land. The Shimmered raw existence in the beginning of the novel is symbolic of the disadvantages a first generation family had to endure. Nebraska) was not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made (17). Mr.. Shimmered became part of this material as the wide open prairie swallowed his life savings and his very existence. Nebraska was a regression from the life the Shimmered held in Eastern Europe. Since teen move to Anoraks In ten late summer teen were delayed in breaking any ground or securing a decent dwelling. The family had been swindled as they had to put their faith into the hands of a stranger, who gave them shoddy real estate. This meant that they would have little sustenance over the long inter. The Chimeras entered a habitat in which they were entirely on their own. The barren landscape of Nebraska was not prejudice in dictating who would endure. By contrast, the land for Jim was a metaphor for opportunity. Since he had entered into a world of prosperity, Jim was able to cultivate his mind. Jim did not contribute to the operation of the farm. His role in life was very clear in that he was to be the further product of his grandparents labor. Jim was the produce of the Nebraska farmland that the Burdens had worked so hard to establish. His toil would e in the classroom to capitalize on what had been handed to him. The act of getting an education is also the method of enhancing ones T. T 4 social standing. Throughout history, manual labor has been in association with the lower class. Living in the country was symbolic of being a part of the lower class because it involved fieldwork and farming; the most toilsome professions. In this case, the Burdens act of moving into town was symbolic of advancing up the class ladder because they physically removed themselves from the field. In this regard, land was a means of establishing a hierarchy. With this shift from pastoral to urban the differences between Jim and Antonio become magnified. Even though, in the country Jims status was clearly distinguished amidst Notations; the move from the country to Black Hawk was the move from raw to refinement. Jims move to the city was an enhancement in his life. He would go too better school and begin preparing himself for a college education. Antonio would work long hours breaking sod and building a better farm, trying to improve the yield from last years harvest. Jim works indoors with a pencil while Antonio works outdoors with a plow. The Burdens retire and the Shimmered begin. Notations act of moving into town illustrates her awareness between the distinctions of living in the country and living in the city. Although, Antonio has begun to see a change in her life for the better; she goes to town to enjoy a laid back existence of working indoors, making friends, and having her fling at the dances (143). Antonio takes this time T. T. 5 seriously because she knows it will be a rare moment in her life that she wont have to struggle. In the same respect, Antonio doesnt take this time seriously because she knows it isnt authentic. It is only temporary because she hasnt paid her dues. Notations life is in strong contrast to Jims, but when Antonio moves to Black Hawk Jim begins to finally understand their differences. Jims role has been rather feminizes as he doesnt work a day of manual labor in his life. Jim has been sheltered by privileges and his families assets. Nations role is emasculated as her skin is tan and she has muscles. She takes on a stereotypical male personification because she has been a provider and bread winner for her family. While the two lived in the country, Jim was naive concerning the roles he and his neighbor Antonio ere developing. Antonio was to be a pioneer and he himself was to be an accomplished student. Antonio sees Jims Tie as moldable, out seen does not see Jim as worthy AT admiration. This is because Antonio romanticizes hard work. She is not ashamed of her robust role because she sees farming as wholesome and honest. Antonio has had an intimate relationship with working the land and, in turn, the land has given back to Antonio the foundation of a better life. Notations world revolves around work and she does not see Jims academic life as one with toil. This is the primary reason he does not find Jim as an eligible suitor. T. T. 6 In the end, Jims opportune life carried him far away from Antonio. Like the prairie converted into farmland, Jim was refined from country school to an alumni of Harvard Law School. Notations relationship with the land is symbolized by her large family as she embodies the fertile earth. Jims act of visiting Antonio at her farm outside of Black Hawk reinstates the power of the Nebraska prairie. It illustrates two distinctly different crops of the same land that have both flourished from the Nebraska soil.

The African Berbers

The African Berbers The Berbers, or Berber, has a number of meanings, including a language, a culture, a location, and a group of people: most prominently it is the collective term used for dozens of tribes of pastoralists, indigenous people who herd sheep and goats and live in northwest Africa today.  Despite this simple description, Berber ancient history is truly complex. Who Are the Berbers? In general, modern scholars believe that the Berber people are descendants of the original colonizers of North Africa. The Berber way of life was established at least 10,000 years ago as Neolithic Caspians. Continuities in material culture suggest that the people living along the coasts of the Maghreb 10,000 years ago simply added domestic sheep and goats in when they became available, so the odds are theyve been living in northwest Africa for much longer. Modern Berber social structure is tribal, with male leaders over groups practicing sedentary agriculture. They are also fiercely successful traders  and were the first to open the commercial routes between Western Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, at locations such as Essouk-Tadmakka in Mali. The ancient history of the Berbers is by no means as tidy. Ancient History of Berbers The earliest historical references to people known as Berbers are from Greek and Roman sources. The unnamed first century AD sailor/adventurer who wrote the Periplus of the Erythrian Sea describes a region called Barbaria, located south of the city of Berekike on the Red Sea coast of east Africa. The first century AD Roman geographer Ptolemy (90-168 AD) also knew of the Barbarians, located on the Barbarian bay, which led to the city of Rhapta, their main city. Arabic sources for the Berber include the sixth-century poet Imru al-Qays who mentions horse-riding Barbars in one of his poems, and Adi bin Zayd (d. 587) who mentions the Berber in the same line with the eastern African state of Axum (al-Yasum). The 9th-century Arabic historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871) mentions a Barbar market in al-Fustat. Berbers in Northwest Africa Today, of course, Berbers are associated with people indigenous to northwest Africa, not east Africa. One possible situation is that the northwestern Berbers were not the eastern Barbars at all, but instead were the people the Romans called Moors (Mauri or Maurus). Some historians call any group living in northwest Africa Berbers, to refer to the people who were conquered by Arabs, Byzantines, Vandals, Romans, and Phoenicians, in reverse chronological order. Rouighi (2011) has an interesting idea that the Arabs created the term Berber, borrowing it from the east African Barbars during the Arab Conquest, their expansion of the Islamic empire into North Africa and the Iberian peninsula. The imperialist Umayyad caliphate, says Rouighi, used the term Berber to group the people living nomadic pastoralist lifestyle in northwestern Africa, about the time they conscripted them into their colonizing army. The Arab Conquests Shortly after the establishment of the Islamic settlements at Mecca and Medina in the 7th century AD, the Muslims began expanding their empire. Damascus was captured from the Byzantine Empire in 635 and by, 651, Muslims controlled all of Persia. Alexandria in Egypt was captured in 641. The Arab conquest of North Africa began between 642-645  when general Amr ibn el-Aasi based in Egypt led his armies westward. The army quickly took Barqa, Tripoli, and Sabratha, establishing a military outpost for further successes in the Maghreb of coastal northwestern Africa. The first northwestern African capital was at al-Qayrawan. By the 8th century, the Arabs had kicked the Byzantines completely out of Ifriqiya (Tunisia) and more or less controlled the region. The Umayyad Arabs reached the shores of the Atlantic in the first decade of the 8th century and then captured Tangier. The Umayyads made Maghrib a single province including all of northwestern Africa. In 711, the Umayyad governor of Tangier, Musa Ibn Nusayr, crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Iberia with an army made up mostly of ethnic Berber people. Arabic raids pushed far into the northern regions and created the Arabic Al-Andalus (Andalusian Spain). The Great Berber Revolt By the 730s, the northwestern African army in Iberia challenged Umayyad rules, leading to the Great Berber Revolt of 740 AD against the governors of Cordoba. A Syrian general named Balj ib Bishr al-Qushayri ruled Andalusia in 742, and after the Umayyads fell to the Abbasid caliphate, the massive orientalization of the region began in 822 with the ascent of Abd ar-Rahman II to the role of Emir of Cordoba. Enclaves of Berber tribes from Northwest Africa in Iberia today include the Sanhaja tribe in the rural parts of the Algarve (southern Portugal), and the Masmuda tribe in the Tagus and Sado river estuaries with their capital at Santarem. If Rouighi is correct, then the history of the Arab Conquest includes the creation of a Berber ethnos from the allied but not previously related groups of northwestern Africa. Nonetheless, that cultural ethnicity is a reality today. Ksar: Berber Collective Residences House types used by modern Berbers include everything from movable tents to cliff and cave dwellings, but a truly distinctive form of building found in sub-Saharan Africa and attributed to Berbers is the ksar (plural ksour). Ksour are elegant, fortified villages made completely with mud brick. Ksour have high walls, orthogonal streets, a single gate and a profusion of towers. The communities are built next to oases, but to preserve as much tillable farmland as possible they soar upward. The surrounding walls are 6-15 meters (20-50 feet) high and buttressed along the length and at the corners by even taller towers of a distinctive tapering form. The narrow streets are canyon-like; the mosque, bathhouse, and a small public plaza are situated close to the single gate which often faces east. Inside the ksar there is very little ground-level space, but the structures still permit high densities in the high rise stories. They provide a defensible perimeter, and a cooler micro-climate produced by low surface to volume ratios. The individual roof terraces provide space, light, and a panoramic view of the neighborhood via a patchwork of raised platforms 9 m (30 ft) or more above the surrounding terrain. Sources Curtis WJR. 1983. Type and Variation: Berber Collective Dwellings of the Northwestern Sahara. Muqarnas 1:181-209.Detry C, Bicho N, Fernandes H, and Fernandes C. 2011. The Emirate of Cà ³rdoba (756–929 AD) and the introduction of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in Iberia: the remains from Muge, Portugal. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3518-3523.Frigi S, Cherni L, Fadhlaoui-Zid K, and Benammar-Elgaaied A. 2010. Ancient Local Evolution of African mtDNA Haplogroups in Tunisian Berber Populations. Human Biology 82(4):367-384.Goodchild RG. 1967. Byzantines, Berbers and Arabs in 7th-century Libya. Antiquity 41(162):115-124.Hilton-Simpson MW. 1927. Algerian Hill-forts of today. Antiquity 1(4):389-401.Keita SOY. 2010. Biocultural Emergence of the Amazigh (Berbers) in Africa: Comment on Frigi et al (2010). Human Biology 82(4):385-393.Nixon S, Murray M, and Fuller D. 2011. Plant use at an early Islamic merchant town in the West African Sahel: the archaeobotany of E ssouk-Tadmakka (Mali). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20(3):223-239. Rouighi R. 2011. The Berbers of the Arabs. Studia Islamica 106(1):49-76.

Emarketing Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emarketing Models - Essay Example There are several models available when we consider the area of e-marketing in a broader perspective. Each model can be more applicable to different business types and are designed to provide a company with the tools to support the essential elements of marketing, price, promotion, product and place.But only few of these models come into the picture when we consider a particular company or organization Two of the models which we are discussing here are Brokerage Model and Advertising Model. Before venturing out the idea of they supporting the 4Ps. Lets give a brief idea about each one of them. Brokerage model main idea revolves around Brokers who are also called as market makers. Their role is to bring buyers and sellers together and facilitate transactions. The major areas where they play a role are business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) markets. Usually a broker charges a fee or commission for each transaction it enables. Some of the areas which are part of brokerage model are Market Place exchange, Buy/Sell Fulfillment, Demand Collection System, Auction Broker, Transaction Broker, Distributor, Search Agent and Virtual Market Place.

Psychology (left-brain activity) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Psychology (left-brain activity) - Essay Example It is the seat of visual and spatial processing. The right brain controls driving in traffic. On the right, processing is rapid and non-linear. The right brain looks at the big picture and deals with complexity, ambiguity, and paradox. It is intuitive and the crucible of creativity (Pitek, 1998). For example, if you are right-brain dominant, it is your emotional right hemisphere that guides the decisions you make throughout the day. If you are left-brain dominant, it is your sequential, time-oriented left hemisphere which tells you how to think, what to believe, and what choices to make (Connell 2002). Nearly 80% of people have a more developed left brain because the left is better at handling language and logical thinking. In many life situations, the left brain takes over, assembling a logical train of thought (Lee, 1999). Other factors are also detrimental to right brain development. Education has a big prejudice against the right brain with its emphasis on mathematics, language, logic and analysis, and its tendency to ignore the arts, music and creativity. In traditional methods, teaching uses charts, logic, and mathematical formulae. Multiple choice, true/ false are much easier to grade and quantify (Pitek, 1998). There are parental pressures to become doctors and lawyers and scientists rather than poets and artists. And there is the world itself, which requires us to do more left-brain thinking than right. Under these circumstances, our left brains become more and more developed while our right brains shrink, metaphorically speaking, from under-use (Lee, 1999). In this age of education by test-taking, all our instructional efforts seem to help students master left-brain skills because that's what the tests measure. But to what extent should we also be helping kids develop a sense of design, storytelling abilities, feelings for others, humor, and the ability to detect the importance of the information they learnThe right brain thinks in wholes, so the student will understand math concepts but struggle with math facts or double-checking answers. Right brain children will use 'gut feeling' instead of pulling in multiple facts before arriving at a decision. They may prefer essay tests where they can present the whole picture (Craft, n.d.). Eighty percent of struggling learners are right brained. Schools and schoolwork are set up to teach in left brain style. Workbooks, worksheets, rote memorization, timed tests, lectures, learning facts from a test, learning vocabulary by looking up meanings words in a dictionary and writing them out, these are all left-brain activities. A right brain child will have difficulty with them (Craft, n.d.). Right-brain students might shuffle through papers and have trouble finding correct pages. They might daydream in class. Might dramatize a point instead of backing it with statistics. Homework and desktop might be messy. Some believe that the common syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may result from cross-brain problems. Affected children are usually right-brain

Summary of a Bibliobase document Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summary of a Bibliobase document - Essay Example He further describes that how cold and heartless the attendance as well as women/wives has become when it comes to a child. He proposed that abortion can only be induced when the termination of the gestation is necessary to relief the mother from fatality and nothing such as religion or professional courtesy should be taken into consideration to make the basis of abortion. Moreover, he goes about speaking that nowadays women have become so unemotional that they enter marriage bed on the condition that they will not reproduce as they don’t have any desire to be a ‘mom’ or have offspring, since it is inconvenient for them. Ill argues that laws and regulations should be established which would make termination of an unborn baby a crime, even if the consent of the parent is given, apart from the situation when the baby is constructing dangers for the mother. Likewise, he adds that an unborn baby should be regarded with as much concern and value as the mother and use o f new therapeutic, be it surgical or medical, should be promoted to keep both the child and parent healthy and alive. Now moving towards the analysis of the document, it is important to take help of couple of other sources and explicitly jot down the intentions, agenda, audience and reasons for this composition to analyze its standards as a foremost source. If one dig deep into the work of Edward J Ill he played his card in a way to portray abortion as an illegitimate and offensive crime, though most of gynecologist will agree with him but individuals have different criteria of dealing with every situation. He further aims to gather such legal steps that will ensure safety of the unborn child and increase his/her chances of getting out alive. However, taking such incentive needs time. For example, Alston in his article states that human right instrument are meant for the people living and it is bit

Is Online Privacy Dead Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Is Online Privacy Dead - Research Paper Example Despite being a digital world where every kind of transaction, application or interaction requires the disclosure of personal information, the privacy rules have become less relevant (Jose, 2013). No one seems to care about the advertising of personal, private and confidential information on the internet. No one seems to be bothered by the fact that personal information belonging to uninformed individuals are traded on the internet like mere business commodities.Purpose StatementThe question that begs, therefore, is who is to carry the blame for all this. Who should be held responsible? Should it be the individuals who fearlessly and un cautiously discloses all their personal information online or are we to blame those who are in custody of the same private information. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to delve deeper into this issue and find the root of the problem and suggest the possible cure to the same. The paper discusses whether online privacy is still in operation and how far it goes to secure personal information. Simply put, the paper discusses whether or not online privacy is dead. This has been a controversial issue that has left many in endless debates (House, 2014). While some argue that the current level of technology is not sufficient to safeguard private information online, some are of the opinion that those charged with the safeguarding duty have terribly failed at it. In addition, the paper discusses the real motive behind the revealing of such information.

From a Name to a Number - A Holocaust Survivor's Autobiography by Essay

From a Name to a Number - A Holocaust Survivor's Autobiography by Alter Wiener - Essay Example This is a unique piece of writing not easily commendable. In this autobiography, Alter Wiener talks about how his adolescent was captured by disturbing recalls of the concentration camps of the Polish. It is traumatic and distressing compared to any situation one can face in his or her life. It is a heart taking narration of once again a dark chapter in the history of the world we all came across. We think we do know history, but all our ideas about history are shattered once we read about the debt of immortality and fear these people suffered. It is a firsthand account of the brutal events of the history which we sometimes don’t even want to know about (Wiener, 2008). The book is an unpolished and rough read for the post-holocaust period. This book is a proof of those disturbing events that were part of WWII. The message explains that prejudice can lead to such devastating events. Also, tolerance is very important part of each person’s life. It not only divulges the story of Wiener but also discloses many replies to his story. It reveals, wanders sexual adventures I don’t really want to know about. Considering it is a journal which was written by a person who was sent to a concentration camp at an early age and destitute from anything more than a grade school education until the time of his release. Even though the author talks about him being uneducated and deprived, if I read the book thoroughly I think that he is a well educated and very intelligent person (Wiener, 2008). But that is just my opinions. Regardless of them, I believe the book is a true recount of the concentration camps describing every minute detail. I do feel pain for the author, and for all the people who died or survived these camps. The trauma of the camps continued centuries and even today’s generation is adversely affected by its aftermaths.

Is Online Privacy Dead Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Is Online Privacy Dead - Research Paper Example Despite being a digital world where every kind of transaction, application or interaction requires the disclosure of personal information, the privacy rules have become less relevant (Jose, 2013). No one seems to care about the advertising of personal, private and confidential information on the internet. No one seems to be bothered by the fact that personal information belonging to uninformed individuals are traded on the internet like mere business commodities.Purpose StatementThe question that begs, therefore, is who is to carry the blame for all this. Who should be held responsible? Should it be the individuals who fearlessly and un cautiously discloses all their personal information online or are we to blame those who are in custody of the same private information. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to delve deeper into this issue and find the root of the problem and suggest the possible cure to the same. The paper discusses whether online privacy is still in operation and how far it goes to secure personal information. Simply put, the paper discusses whether or not online privacy is dead. This has been a controversial issue that has left many in endless debates (House, 2014). While some argue that the current level of technology is not sufficient to safeguard private information online, some are of the opinion that those charged with the safeguarding duty have terribly failed at it. In addition, the paper discusses the real motive behind the revealing of such information.

IRB questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

IRB questions - Essay Example When these expectations become inflated and exaggerated, the health of the marriage will suffer because the couple had a misguided belief on how they would behave toward one another. As an example, if a woman believes that marriage will mean that her husband will come home from work every night and spend his time discussing the day and being attentive to her needs, she may be surprised to find out that all he wants is his own space. However, if she realizes that the effort he went to in making sure that her car is running at top performance was his way of conveying his concern for her safety, then she might find a greater satisfaction in his behavior. Learning to understand the flow of these examples of romance that are not based on materialism or grandiose action, but on everyday subtleties in communications within relationships, can provide a future couples that are overwhelmed and inundated with a complex set of rules that are media driven and unrealistic into tempering those expectations so that joy can be found in the little ways in which two people interact. From the perspective of a researcher, understanding this part of the human experience will allow for a better understanding of the culture of marriage. In designing this research, it is hoped that the way in which fulfillment can be achieved is identified in order to encourage future research into human interaction within the emotional connection of love. 19. Describe methods for selecting subjects and assuring that their participation is voluntary. Attach a copy of the consent form that will be used. If no consent form will be used, explain the procedures used to ensure that participation is voluntary. Note: This information is particularly important in determining that there is no actual or implied coercion to participate. (See attached information on consent forms) Subjects will be selected through recommendations and introductions made by religious leaders within the local community.

What were British objectives in the Paris Peace talks Essay Example for Free

What were British objectives in the Paris Peace talks Essay In January 1919, having recognised that the signed armistice of November 1918 marked only a temporary ceasefire with the Central Powers, the Allied leaders convened in Paris to negotiate the various peace treaties with their defeated counterparts. The conference which unfolded bore witness to an intense debate revolving around both a clash of interest and ideology and ultimately resulted in a compromise which satisfied none of its creators. Regardless of whether Britain acted either as a mediator between America and France or was the French’s main opponent, Britain certainly entered discussions with overarching concerns for the need for both a durable peace and to accommodate wartime treaty commitments as well as recognising the need to both reorder the world map and to construct a new diplomatic system. To its own ends, however, maintenance of the Empire’s unity, holdings and interests were the principal focus of British concern in the conference. Due to Britain’s position as one of the three leading Allied powers it was able to obtain, in circumstances of divergent national interests, much of what it set out to achieve. It must however be noted that in some quarters, in particular relating to the settlement of Eastern Europe and the Treaty of Versailles, Britain was not entirely satisfied. Throughout the conference, Britain had several objectives which tied into those of both America and France, however for all countries involved there was certainly a desperate need for durable peace and to deal with mattes such as the removal of the Royal Naval blockade of Germany and the issue of the presence of Allied troops in the Rhineland. By the end of the World War One, Britain had been able to maintain its relatively strong position and still stood with an unequalled empire and ranked as the world’s richest power. Yet Joseph Chamberlain’s coined phrase, lamenting Britain’s prospects to no more than a, ‘weary titan staggering under the orb of its own weight’, did bring as much reality with it as it did gloom. The war had resulted in an eleven fold increase in National Debt, a surge in taxation levels and a huge overall reduction in Britain’s GDP. It was therefore certainly apparent that Britain’s own strategic position would be at the forefront of British minds throughout the conference. Ultimately Britain, like the rest of the victorious Allied countries, desired a long-lasting peace which would result in preventing any major future European wars and as such required the outcome of neutering any lingering German threat. The agreement that therefore arose was no more than an imposed peace, or Diktat, and ensured both that Germany would be unable to mount a serious challenge in the coming years whilst at the same time satisfying British and French public opinion which had called for the total destruction of Germany. For Britain itself, it was imperative that Europe stabilised because the fortunes of Britain were essentially placed in the hands of the European economy. The restoration of Germany, Britain’s largest trading partner prior to the war, as an economic power would have had the chain effect of both stabilising Europe and the world’s economy, which was vital for a prosperous Britain. Furthermore, and especially for Lloyd George who was fighting an election battle, it was certainly Britain’s objective to satisfy the general public. With around one million casualties, Britain had practically lost and entire generation whilst at the same time Britain was also in the uncomfortable position of having most to lose from a future war. Indeed with the advent of new military technology, in particular from U-boats, Britain would have been likely to have suffered greatly from another war and as such the need for a lasting peace was colossal from a British perspective. In actuality Britain did achieve much of its desire for a durable peace. Peace settlements with Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary ensured that much of the sanctions that Britain wished to impose were realised whilst at the same time, to some extent at least, the level of stability that Britain desired in Eastern Europe was achieved. Moreover, British public opinion was also largely satisfied by the Treaty of Versailles. The extent to which it did make Germany suffer was widely accepted throughout Britain, with only minor criticism coming from those, such as Keynes, who believed it to be too harsh. Yet, and in particular from hindsight, there were some issues which would almost certainly oppose Britain’s ambition for a lasting peace. Most appreciable there was widespread discontent throughout Germany over the nature of the treaty. Derided as a ‘blank cheque’, the treaty imposed, under Article 231, that Germany accept full responsibility for the war and this lead to much outrage throughout Germany, with much of the population longing for the opportunity for revenge. Moreover throughout the rest of Europe there was also much resentment. Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary were all left feeling aggrieved by the outcome of their respective treaties whilst in particular the reduction of Austria’s population to eight million and the prevention of a future Anschluss resulted in much bitterness. It was clear that the defeated Central Powers had much to feel aggrieved about and this certainly reduced the prospect of a durable peace. Events boiled to a head in the Chanak crisis and the resulting outcome indicated both that the imposed treaties were neither as strong as intended and also negotiable, for Britain this meant that their ambition for a stable Europe would never be completely realised. Lloyd George certainly reflected this in his Fontainbleu memorandum, in which he stated that if Germany was ‘unjustly treated’ it would ‘find means of exacting retribution’. Moreover, Britain also recognised the need to accommodate wartime treaty commitments and to fulfil promises which had been made to countries, such as Italy, Greece and Romania, throughout the war. These issues extended back to the Treaty of London in 1915 where for example Italy has been persuaded to join the Allies, with the incentive of territorial gains of the Trentino and Tyrol as far as Brenner, Trieste and Istria along with full ownership of Albanian Valona and Britain was eager to ensure that all countries involved within the war would not be left aggrieved with the outcome of the conference. For Britain it was important to ensure that the European economy recovered quickly and as such it was a necessity that there was stability throughout Europe. Moreover for the status quo to be maintained it was vital that Britain sustained its wartime allies. As such Britain’s involvement in the League of Nations and the punitive nature of the Treaty of Versailles did much to maintain its relationship with America and France respectively. Whilst more generally, with the exception of the relationship with Japan which was forgone for the sake of relations with America, Britain maintained its relationship with Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Turkey and Italy and therefore was reasonably successful in its attempts to ensure the relative survival of the status quo and its wartime allies. Linked to Britain’s desire for a durable peace came its ambition to guarantee its security.

Effect of globalisation on fast food industry

Effect of globalisation on fast food industry As mentioned earlier in part 1.3, I will be using Porters Five Forces to analyse the external environment to obtain a comprehensive understanding of a given industry. My focus here will be the fast food industry. BK is my chosen company to evaluate the effect of globalisation has upon fast food industry. The analysis will be done in four areas as below and there may be some overlapping of points as they can be interrelated. Section 3.1 Threat of new entrants Section 3.2 Threat of substitutes Bargaining power of customers Section 3.3 Bargaining power of supplier Section 3.4 Rivalry among existing competitors To aid understanding in this analysis, charts and diagrams drawn using Microsoft Excel is provided. 3.1 Threat of new entrants There are six major sources identified as barriers to a market entry which include economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirement, switching cost, access to channels of distribution and government policy (Porter, 1980). All these have had impact on BK especially as from the point of view of globalisation. 3.1.1 Capital Requirement In my observation, it is very possible to open one or two outlets but to globally have a chain of outlets with the same branding requires tremendous capital requirements. Thus globalisation has directly impacted BK in the way it structured its business model through franchising. BK could afford to do so as with agreements such as US- Canada Free Trade Agreement and North American Free Trade Agreement (Reference for Business, 2010). BK took advantage of the relative free flow of resources under globalisation to expand globally. Franchising is a relative low cost and low risk business model. Most of the US franchisors often use this method to enter a new market with diverse economical, cultural and political environment (Alon, 2006). For instance, 88% of BKs restaurants worldwide are franchised in fiscal 2009, contributing to $412.5 millions of total revenue globally (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). Franchising enables the business to develop in an unfamiliar market relatively quickly on a larger scale, allows the use of local partners who are familiar with local environment and also to create a standardised, global brand image, generating marketing economies of scale (McDonald et al., 2002). Charts below will provide further information on BKs franchise restaurants. Chart 1: Percentage of BKs Franchise Restaurants and Company Restaurants Worldwide ( Burger King Holdings Inc.,2009; SEC Info, 2007) Chart 2: Revenue Breakdown From BKs Total Revenue Worldwide (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009) However with globalisation, competition is globalised and relentless. McDonalds is actually BKs largest competitor as it provides better menu variety with more valuable and affordable prices (CNN.com, 2009), biting into BKs revenue by securing a larger market share. McDonalds is also more a pioneer compared to BK because it opened its first restaurant in 1940 (Spiritus-temporis.com, 2005) compared to BK with its first restaurant in 1954 (WikiAnswers, 2010). Being a pioneer, McDonalds has many advantages which includes entrenchment of position in consumers minds, creating higher thresholds for later entrants in terms of quality, advertising and distribution support, enjoys long-term market share advantages and reputation benefits (Gass et al.,2003). It is the effect of globalisation where McDonalds has built around 32,000 outlets in more than 117 countries (McDonalds Corporation, 2010). With its expansion into international markets, the company is famous throughout the world and is the leader in this industry followed by BK only at second place. The difference in number of outlets worldwide which also translates into sales volume differences between these two fast food chain can be seen clearly in the diagrams below. Chart 3: The total number of restaurants worldwide for BK and McDonalds. ( Burger King Holdings Inc.,2009; McDonalds Corporation, 2009) Chart 4: Comparison of Sales Revenues Between BK and McDonalds (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009, McDonalds Corporation 2007; 2009, SEC Info, 2007) Based on the charts, McDonalds is approximately 3 times larger than BK in terms of outlet and 10 times larger in terms of sales revenues. Substantial capital is also needed in terms of advertising to build up BKs brand. The advertising cost of McDonalds is approximately 8 times higher than BK thus creating a higher barrier entry when BKs brand name is lacking compared to McDonalds. To compete with McDonalds, BK needs more capital to increase its advertising as it is very much needed in globalisation to introduce BK in new markets and building up its image that they may otherwise not known about (Coulter, 2001). To ease comparison of the advertising cost, it is illustrated in chart below. Chart 5: Advertising cost of BK compared to McDonalds (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009; SEC Info, 2007; McDonalds Corporation, 2007;2009) With these type of cost outlays, for other competitors to come into the same scale as these two companies is extremely daunting indeed, thus the threat of entrants is low, though for smaller players is possible to find niches that are under or not exploited as yet. Luckily the advertising costs have resulted in branding, which builds a better image globally and flows ultimately into higher sales and profitabililty. Table below provides Best Global Brand Ranking 2009 highlighting few of BKs major competitors and where BK succeeded in positioning its brand among top 100 in year 2009. 2009 rank 2008 rank brand country of origin sector 2009 brand value ($m) 6 8 united states restaurant 32275 61 64 united states restaurant 5722 79 81 united states restaurant 3876 90 85 united states restaurant 3263 93 new united states restaurant 3233 Table 1: Best Global Brand Ranking 2009 (Interbrand, 2009) It is clear that BK lags behind McDonalds though in many ways this is to be expected given its much lower advertising cost outlays, which besides outlet costs, form a significant barrier of entry as mentioned earlier. 3.1.2 Product Differentiation With globalisation, BK differentiates itself from other fast food giants by acknowledging culture and country specific needs. For instances, Pork-based Bulgogi Burgers are offered in korea and the ultra-spicy Rendang Double in Singapore (Wikipedia, 2010). Picture 1: Pork based Bulgogi Burger Picture 2: Rendang Double (flickr.com, 2008 ) (therealnurulle.blogspot.com, 2010) BK also keeps its promise of Have it your way with customers having 221184 possible ways of ordering a Whopper meal (Swabey, 2007). This will help to ease its penetration into new market with different local conditions. BKs response to globalisation is obviously to cater to local tastes, as the pictures above testify. Another response to globalisation has been the move towards becoming more healthy by offering healthier menu with less salt and also with its product innovation to provide food with higher nutrition contents. At all times, BK is trying to differentiate itself to meet customers demands. Further details regarding food offerings will be mentioned in later part. 3.2 Threat of Substitutes and Bargaining Power of Customers Various global fast food chains have successfully make inroads in diverse market settings around the world (Watson, 2006). These restaurants stand the most conspicuous symbol of globalisation and modernity in countries worldwide (Wilk, 2006). Hence, they are often viewed as the cutting edge of emerging global consumer culture which have caused societies worldwide to become increasingly homogeneous and deterritorialised (Friedman, 2000). Although the expansion of Western quick-service eateries outside America and Europe has done much to transform established notions of service, taste and lifestyle (Schlosser et al., 2001), their spread has also given rise to rival domestic chains whose extensive knowledge of local preferences offers real advantages in attracting and retaining customers (Matejowsky, 2008). It is the strong bargaining power of customers which intensify the competition among various food chains with more substitutes available. To deal with these forces on a global basis, BK resorted to differentiate itself through innovative marketing and menu items. 3.2.1 Innovative Marketing BK has adopted a strategy which helps to differentiate them from their competitors. The company appointed TMP Worldwide Advertising Communications to create an exclusive company-wide employer branding campaign based on the concept Fun with a Future which concentrates on brand recognition, employee engagement and delivering on brand promise. BK decided to differentiate itself through its product and people with its employee as brand ambassador where all employees at all levels are linked to the company brand featuring in BKs advertisements and posters (Business and Finance Week, 2008). This is in line with the concept of globalisation where people of different races, culture and family background will have a common global identification as BKs brand ambassador. Pictures below feature BK employees who are of different races and cultures. Picture 3: Employees of BK in Tokyo Picture 4: Employees of BK in U.S. (associatedcontent.com, 2010) (farsons.com, 2010) BK also uses a creative marketing strategy by building an edgy, hip image with young men, who are targeted consumers (Jargon, 2006). For instance, in November 2006, BK began offering BK Xbox and Xbox 360 games with their value meals. After one month, 20 million of BK Xbox games had been sold. The games could only be bought with a value meal which means that BK attracted a lot of customers with this promotion, earning a nice profit from it. Comparing with BK, McDonalds on the other hand only places Nintendo mascot toys in their Happy Meals (Mattie, 2007). A picture of both BK Xbox and McDonalds Nintendo toys can be seen below. Picture 5: Burger King Xbox Picture 6: McDonalds Nintendo Toy ( blogs.ft.com, 2006) (toadcastle.net, 2006) The successfulness of BKs innovative marketing was already proven in 1999 in a TV campaign where Whopper was proclaimed as Americas Favourite Burger. That claim was based on the result of a research where 700 consumers were asked to name their favourite burger. 33% of them picked Whopper and only 12% chose McDonalds Big Mac (Cebrzynski, 1999). Having innovative marketing is a response to the threat of substitutes and bargaining power of customers as BK tries to embed itself on consumer consciousness globally. 3.2.2 Menu Options and Changes BK tries to reach out more customers through its menu to reduce threat of substitutes, which of course with globalisation is a full time and relentless force. As mentioned in part 3.1, health consciousness was rising among people with the obesity crisis hitting globally. It was found that United States tops the hierarchy for obesity with 30.6%, followed by Mexico and United Kingdom with 24.2% and 23% (NationMaster.com, 2010). Even though BK tries to blunt customers bargaining power and the threat of substitutes through aggressive marketing as seen above, in truth they are obviously much stronger with no switching cost. New Products Thus a response from BK is to try to be almost all things to customers. For instance, provide healthier food options. The company in its social responsibility statement promises to work with its trained chefs and nutritionist to develop new menu options that meet customers nutritional needs globally (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2010a). BKs efforts could be seen when it unveiled a healthy eating adaptation of its Have It Your Way strategy where posters in restaurants tell customers how to order a low carbohydrate, low fat and low calorie meal (Walker, 2004). The famous Whopper can also be served without the bun, mayonnaise and ketchup (MacArthur, 2004). BK also launched a new salad line offering shrimp and sirloin steak with grilled peppers and onions on it (Walker, 2004). Besides, health drive was initiated by BK by reducing salt and fat content in burgers and fries. Even children are targeted where childrens menu also comes with a choice of apples or grapes, milk or fruit juice (Forte, 2006). In 2008, BKs kids meal underwent makeover with the introduction of apple fries as part of the meal (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2010b). A list of BKs healthier options with their calorie contents are provided in Appendix 3. Pictures below show two healthy options from BK. Picture 7: Kids meal with Apple Fries Picture 8: Bunless Whopper (fastfood.ocregister.com, 2009) (hungry-girl.com, 2010) In addition, BK also later launched its Joe Coffee. This made-to-order coffee processed from 100% Arabica coffee beans (The Franchise Mall, 2005). This is actually a response to global economic crisis where it was found that consumers were trading down from more expensive coffee such as starbucks into lower ranking choices, providing a perfect option for BK. Thus even though globally the economic situation was dire, for instance it was found that 2009s world economic growth rate was only half percent (International Monetary Fund, 2009). BK found a new market segment to exploit to further reduce the threat of substitutes and bargaining power of customers. Latest initiatives include where in February year 2010, BK decided to replace its own coffee brand BK Joe with Seattles Best Coffee, a brand owned by Starbucks to increase falling sales by improving its product offerings (Tice, 2010). Pictures below show BKs Joe Coffee and its replacement, Seattles Best Coffee. Picture 9: BK Joe Coffee (ebay.com, 2010) Picture 10: Seattles Best Coffee (myalohavibe.com, 2010) BK also imitated a McDonalds breakfast item. BKs Breakfast Muffin Sandwich was promoted through an advertisement where a cleverly disguised BK breaks into McDonalds Headquarters to steal the Top Secret Blueprints for the Sausage McMuffin With Egg (Dave, 2010). Picture below shows the contrast between the two breakfast offering from McDonalds and BK. Picture 11: McDonalds Sausage McMuffin with Egg Vs BKs breakfast Muffin (davescupboard.blogspot.com, 2010) New Pricing It is not just menu changes were offered but also menu pricing as well. To meet the changing economic conditions as an impact of global recession, BK also announced that it will offer $1 double cheeseburger in order to gain market share back from McDonalds (Johnson, 2007). This has cause BKs franchisees to file a law suit challenging BKs right to dictate maximum prices as the products costs is at least $1.10 per sandwich (Glover, 2009). Thus even though BK tries to satisfy customers other stakeholders may not be happy, showing the complexities in managing relationships in the era of globalisation. Further in many ways, as seen in breakfast, and even in pricing, since the RM $1 cheeseburger, BK is imitating McDonalds. 3.3 Bargaining power of suppliers With globalisation, BK is required to maintain the quality of services in its restaurants worldwide. As a measure of quality control, BK will evaluate before approving the existing or potential manufacturers and distributors of food, packaging and equipment products used in the restaurants. Evaluation is done based on their delivery, timeliness and financial conditions. To ensure consistency, franchises are required to purchase their products from approved suppliers. (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). 3.3.1 Purchasing Power of BK Restaurant Services Inc. (RSI), a not-for-profit independent purchasing cooperative leverages purchasing power of the BK system in United States by negotiating the purchase terms for most equipments, food, beverages, toys and paper products used in the restaurants (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). RSI currently involves in the negotiation of purchase with BK for more than $3 billion a year in goods and services, managing supply agreements with over 300 suppliers and 27 distributors (Sterlingcommerce, 2009). For company restaurants and franchise restaurants in Canada, a subsidiary of RSI is responsible to purchase the products. However, there is currently no appointed purchasing agent that represents franchisees in other international regions. BK will work closely with their franchisees to implement programs that leverage their global purchasing power and to obtain lower product costs outside the United States and Canada. (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). Globalisation has increased the purchasing power of BK and therefore reducing bargaining power of suppliers with the ease of selection of suppliers who meet the company criteria 3.3.2 Suppliers of BK Food As a global fast food chain, it is important for BK to maintain its brand name worldwide. The image of the global brand could be destroyed in a day due to globalisation where news travels billion times faster than it used to be in the past. BK was labelled Murder King by animal activists forcing the company to implement new policies that are more closely monitor its suppliers. Thus by 2001, there were guidelines that require the egg suppliers battery cages to contain two water bottles, allowing the birds to stand upright and be at least 75 square inches (Detweiler, 2001). BK further discourages its suppliers from trimming chickens beak and breaking their wings to save packing space when transporting (Detweiler, 2001). Reports in media of one or more cases of food-borne diseases in one of BKs restaurant also negatively affect its sales worldwide when being highly publicised (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). During an earlier case in year 1997, BK cut off its ties with one of its biggest beef supplier, Hudson Foods Inc. as its beef supplies were contaminated with E.coli..Hudson voluntarily recalled the beef after the severity of E.coli contamination was discovered at its plant in Columbus, leaving some BK restaurants without sufficient beef supply for 24 hours to 48 hours (Papernik et al., 1997). Soft Drinks In fiscal 2000, BK decided to enter into a long term contracts with The Coca-Cola Company and Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Inc to supply all restaurants of BK in United States with their product (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). BK prolonged its long term liaison with The Coca-Cola Company as an approved soft drink supplier for its international region covering Greater Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific (PRNewswire, 2003). With the effect of globalisation, consumers in around 200 countries enjoy Coca-Cola products of more than 1 billions servings per day (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010). BK International President believes that with this renewed alliances, Coca-Cola Company, recognised as the worlds best known brand (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010) will help to grow the BK brand rapidly by providing the best burger experience to their consumers in all restaurants globally (PRNewswire, 2003). Getting into alliances with suppliers is a good way to also set up higher barriers of entry. From my analysis, bargaining power of food suppliers are strong but over soft drinks especially in terms of dealing with companies with strong brand name is weaker. Obviously, the extent to which the other party uses branding and distribution network as leverage globally as well. Employees Other than external suppliers, internal supplier is also an important piece of puzzle which without, BKs supplier network would not be complete. Hence, the bargaining power of its employees should not be shoved aside. BK had approximately 41320 employees in its company restaurants, field management offices and global headquarters as at 30th June 2009 (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). As mentioned in part 3.2.1, there are diversity of employees with different backgrounds, race, religion and cultures. It is clear that like globalisation, the factors in Porters Five Forces are interlinked and do not stand alone. The success of BK is highly dependent on its ability to attract general managers with necessary competences to be part of the management team to motivate the employees to sustain high service levels and maintain sales growth. The competition for the right employee candidates causes higher payment of wages featuring the high bargaining power of employees (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009). However, where boundaries between countries became narrower and communication made easier with globalisation, the search for the right employee is more efficient and effective through online application, which could perhaps reduce their bargaining power. The selection of employees is important as a wrong choice would lead to negative publicity. In one of the cases, a BK employee in Jacksonville had tried to poison a customer as he was pissed due to his suspension for misconduct (Morbid, 2010). In another case, a Washington State Deputy, Edward Bylsma after discovering a spit on his Whopper ordered fr om a BK employee decided to sue BK seeking $75,000 of compensation (Ryan, 2010). No doubt with globalisation, these news would definitely spread fast and adversely impact the companys brand. Further, since a large portion of outlets are franchised as a result of BKs decision on this bus model to move globally, employees become even more important as front link assets to keep sales and profits up. With payroll expenses on the increase as seen in the chart below, it is clear that for employees, their bargaining power is, in my opinion, rated medium to high. Chart 6: Payroll and Employee Benefits for BK ( Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009) 3.4 Rivalry among Existing Competitors Globalisation has increased the competition among the fast food chain. With various quick service restaurants mushrooming worldwide, other than competing on a national or regional basis, they are competing with each other globally. As an effect of globalisation causing increases in degree of awareness among consumers, there has been intense competition among the competitors globally to gain market share. Increasing prices of raw material, agitation by social organisations, slow down of U.S economy and also increasing fuel prices has prompt many fast food chain to divert their attention to eastern part of the world especially China ( Naim, 2008). Although globalisation has ease the expansion of fast food chain worldwide with the ease of information transfer and seeking global suppliers, entry into China and other Asian countries still pose logistical and political challenges. As quoted from Martin (1994) in Nation Restaurants news Among the most frustrating obstacles are the scarcity and inordinately high cost of prime locations in most markets as well as the steep tariffs and patchwork of inconsistent regulations that impede imports of commodities and equipment. 3.4.1 New Geographical Regions and New Ventures Taking a closer look, even though globalisation has blurred boundaries, there are still differences in cultural issues between United States and other countries resulting in different eating habits of consumers ( Glazer, 2007). From consumer point of view, globalisation has resulted from development of sophisticated media contributing to the creation of a borderless market but it does not mean it is without internal differences or local tastes (Ziedman, 2003). When a company goes global, they are bound to satisfy the demands of local customers. For example in India, cows are sacred and worshipped by the Indians, beef could not be served and the muslims, they could not consume pork (Kulkarni et al., 2009). Hence, it is a must to substitute the beef and pork in the product offerings. To further compete globally, BK invested in Whopper Bars. BK opened their first Whopper Bar in Orlando during spring 2009, and the first in Asia in Singapore during September 2009 (International Wire, 2009). It offers a specialised burger menu with more than 20 toppings (Ruggles, 2010). On 8th February 2010, BK further announced that beer sales will be added at a new unit opening in South Miami. ( Ruggles, 2010). BK changes may not be rapid enough to obtain further market share from McDonalds but the company has been spending more effort in improving its sales in this global competition ( Anderlini et al., 2010). Competing on a global scale gives rise to global income streams. This would help BK to sustain the worldwide competition where the profit from a restaurant would balance the loss in another. The pie charts below show the distribution of revenue from different geographical region. Chart 6: BKs Geographical Sales from Year 2007-Year 2009 (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009) In a way, the company is more dependent on its home market, as showed in the pie chart above where most portion of global stream income is generated. In a recent case in 2009, BKs advertisement for Texican Whopper burger in Europe had angered the Mexicans where a small wrestler featured in the advertisement was dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. Mexicans have high respect for their flag and therefore could not tolerate such an insult from BK ( The Assiociated Press, 2009). This adverse publicity could have adversely impact its profits. Still, the company had not done unduly badly as seen in the charts below. Chart 7: Revenue, Gross Profit and Net Profit of BK from Year 2005 2009 (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009, SEC Info, 2007) It is clear that BK has done well as seen in increasing absolute figures of all sales, gross profit and net profit. A look at gross profit and net profit margin also shows that on a relative basis the company is handling itself well in the world of globalisation. Chart 8: Gross Profit Margin and Net Profit Margin of BK from Year 2005- 2009 (Burger King Holdings Inc., 2009, SEC Info, 2007) Even though Gross Profit Margin has been decreasing slightly, its net profit margin has been increasing with a drastic improvement from year 2006 to 2007. This is definitely a good sign. 3.5 Conclusion and Recommendation Globalisation can be a threat to the company and also it may help its expansion. Being a global brand, BK has a lot benefits which include cost-efficiencies, sharing of resources and ability to attract partners, employees and customers on entering new market. It all depends how the company took opportunities and work towards their goals. Management of globalisation is the key to success and most importantly, BK need to balance between global and local control (Samli, 2008). The company has retreated back to the US market, which is why the share prices have been sliding back down in recent times as seen below. Chart 9 : BKs Share Price Ups and Downs from 2001 till 2010 ( Yahoo Finance, 2010) Recommendations made to companys performance are as follows: Moving In Developing countries, Especially India and China Aggressively: India and China both has a steady high economic growth rates of 8.8% and 10% in 2010 (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2010) and will probably be the major players in the world economy. It is definitely a wise option to expand BKs growth in these two countries by using local partners, local employees and local ingredients. Furthermore, BK could also offer limited promotions during festive seasons or special events, for instance during Chinese New Year or Deepavali as this will help to attract more customers during that period. Broader Menu Selection: As mentioned earlier in the project, BK should continuously provide more choices of menu which allow customers to pick from wider choices. This step should be taken to also reduce threat of substitutes from new entries and existing competitors. Its product offerings must also be ensured to meet the local taste. As mentioned by the officials of market research firm of the NPD Group, quick service operators who are expanding their brands outside the United States must customise each unit to meet the specific needs of consumers in the country and region they seek to enter (Glazer, 2007). Promotions and Advertising: As observed so far, BKs advertising has been giving positive impact on its sales. Hence, BK should continuously invest in its promotions and advertisement to gain market share. BK could perhaps invite its employees to give their opinion as they are also the brand ambassadors. This would allow a fresher and a more creative in flow of idea and to boost the motivation of the employees as they are invited to participate in the companys program. However, BK should avoid price wars with its competitors ie. McDonalds as this would pull down the profits of all burger chains. BK should choose to differentiate from its competitors. There is only one winner in cost strategy but there may be more than one winner in differentiation strategy. Relationships with Franchisees: There has been cases where the franchisees are not happy with the decisions of BK Inc..The most obvious example is the sale of doublecheese burger at $1. BK should strengthen its ties with the franchisees by encouraging them to provide ideas and feedbacks on how to improve sales. When there is a disagreement between them, BK should understand the reason behind and to solve it on a win-win situation. If this could be practised, law suit against BK Inc. could be avoided. In conclusion, Porters Five Forces Analysis that was used to analyse BKs stand in the industry gives a birds eye view of the company and industry globally. Globalisation plays a major role in pushing and shaping the company. The survival of BK is dependent on its ability to adapt to constant changes in business environment due to globalisation. With BKs effort in improving its performance, it will definitely survive in this field and could perhaps be the number one fast food chain worldwide in the future.