Humbert’s Voice As An Artist Versus Lolita’s Essay

Nabokov brings out Humbert’s voice as a mixture of two extreme emotional impulses and an uncanny sense of highly complex intellectual. Humbert is persuasive and convincing in a way that is unsettling, a little upsetting, but sleek enough to rob your mind and completely occupy it with its vile verbal exhortations. For instance, in his own description, Humbert though in extreme exaggeration manages to draw the reader into believing that he is â€Å"†¦ an exceptionally handsome male; slow-moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor†¦. with†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ exceptional virility †¦that could obtain at the snap of fingers, any adult female†¦. † Humbert seems to be so much self absorbed and overconfident, a trait which can also be noted in his incessant desire for Lolita. This voice of self-aggrandizement (qtd. in. in Meyer 93) In the same text, Humbert’s voice takes a dramatic shift to of cold and fiery br imstone coupled with a lighthearted sadistic tone. Humbert combines his intelligence with slovenliness, alacrity and alienation. His description of Lolita’s naked body and the vivid account of how he has sex with her when she is sick and how he thinks of raping her again are soul cringing. In contrast his erotic description of Lolita’s â€Å"brown, naked†¦narrow white buttocks†¦.. sulky face†¦Ã¢â‚¬  image displays his soft sensual side. † It’s the voice that could be beautiful, if it were not for something rotten at its core† (Meyer 98) Humbert’s romantic tragedy with Lo begins with the letter from Charlotte and dramatically ends with one from Lo.  Humbert reveals himself as an obsessed lover who would do anything to be in control of the life of their objects of obsession. His obsession is evident in many words he uses in the text specifically his description of Lolita as â€Å"†¦ all rose and honey, dressed in her brightest gingham, with a pattern of little red apples†¦ with scratches like tiny dotted lines of coagulated rubies, and the rib bed cuffs of her white socks were turned down. This description, which is highly detailed, shows how Humbert’s mind and speech was greatly inclined towards every inch of perfection or imperfection of his object of obsession, Lolita. Humbert tries to portray his sexual obsession with Lo as a relationship between the Artist and his piece. While his description of Charlotte as â€Å"the poor lady in her middle thirties, she had a shiny forehead, plucked eyebrows and quite simple†¦ † explains his attempt to try and first identify with her, revealing her susceptibility and areas of weakness before taking control of her. His voice of periphrastic speech contrasts with Lolita’s simple everyday speech. His usage and coinage of words such as â€Å"nymphet†, â€Å"equanimity†, â€Å"cubistic†, â€Å"pacific†, â€Å"blood ripe† and so forth makes him â€Å"†¦sound like a book†¦Ã¢â‚¬  When Lolita’s speech is marked by normal everyday word usage full of slang such as â€Å"Sunset Motels, U-Beam Cottages, Hillcrest Courts†¦Ã¢â‚¬  while Humbert’s speech was full of periphrastic tendencies such as â€Å"You will dwell, my Lolita will dwell†¦Ã¢â‚¬  However, At times he tried to integrate his educative language with Lolita’s street language for instance â€Å"drop that moody nonsense. In former times, when I was still your dream male†¦you swooned to records of the number one throb-and-sob idol of your coevals†¦ Humbert would try to use Lo’s tongue at times as a way of showing disdain for what he did not consider as a proper way of communicating. Lo in contrast would use Humbert’s tongue such as â€Å"Was the corroboration satisfactory? † when she wanted to be devious and French when she wanted to play an innocent good girl â€Å"I choose? â€Å"C’est entendu? † Humbert’s use of his educated speech as a euphemistic tool reveals his modest but warped sense of sexuality. He describes fellatio as â€Å"the hard and nauseous way† or â€Å"the school theatrical program† in reference to the time when Lolita had to beg for his permission in order to take part in the school play. Humbert used blackmail by giving his permission in exchange of sex with Lolita. He used emotional blackmail again when they got into an argument on the eve of the opening night forcing Lolita to throw in the towel and demanded that they leave town. In other instances, he calls his penis â€Å"my life† and tries to coat the sexual encounters using Latin terms â€Å"Venus Febriculosa† while downplaying the fact that he had sex with Lolita while she was sick merely as†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦temperature†¦ † (qtd in Meyer 94) Through this, Humbert is able to transform himself into the â€Å"bewitched traveler â€Å"who has no complete control over what feelings that nymphets arouse in him and his reactions. Because Humbert is â€Å"yearning for something more than life† he tries to find it by transcending the mundane and launches the reader into a spat of imagination. His punishment can be seen as justice on one end but could really be because of his perverted act of presenting an account of his life as an artistic work. His voice assumes that there is no culpability in a work of art, which is true but his work is actually his life and not a general account of life. He tries to justify his actions as if they were â€Å"†¦only a game†, thereby not making him responsible for his actions Lolita’s voice Lolita, because she is so much used to the parlance on the streets compared to the educated periphrastic language that Humbert uses, for instance misunderstands him when he proposes that they run away together to another country forever â€Å" you mean you will give us all that only if I go with you to a motel† (qtd. n Meyer 95). This makes us see what a simple-minded girl Lolita is. Her speech which is filled with radio and TV language makes her seem naive and unknowledgeable. Lolita’s voice is that of desperation. Many a time in the text, she is forced to do Humbert’s bidding because she does not have anyone else to run to. An even when she finally runs away, her expectations are smothered when she lands herself in a far . worse place than before- shooting porn videos with Quilty. Her letter, the last one she ever writes carries her vindictive yet desperate voice. How’s everything? I am married. I am going to have a baby. I guess he is going to be a big one. I guess he will come right for Christmas. This is a hard letter to write. I am going nuts because we do not have enough to pay our debts and get out of here. Dick is promised a big job in Alaska in his very specialized corner of the mechanical field, that is all I know about it but it is really grand. Pardon me for withholding our home address but you may still be mad at me, and Dick must not know. This town is something. You cannot see the morons for the smog. Please do send us a check, dad. We could manage with three or four hundred or even less, anything is welcome, you might sell my old things, because once we get there the dough will just start rolling in. Write, please. I have gone through much sadness and hardship. † (Qtd. in Meyer 99) In this letter, she does not tell Humbert about Quilt (bitter) though she does so later when they meet. . The desperate note on the last sentence of the letter â€Å"†¦I have gone through so much sadness and hardship† perhaps is what leads to Quilts murder by Humbert, when he finds out the truth. Lolita’s voice in does not reciprocate the love in the affair she has with Humbert, rather, it borders more on duty and reciprocity than romantic love. While Humbert’s description of his relationship with Lolita may be taken to mean love by some, it may as well mean lust. His obsession with Lolita in itself shows us a dangerous side of him, which attempts to kill charlotte, and succeeds at killing Quilty, who was seen as obstacles to gaining control of Lolita. In trying to make us believe that he is truly in love with Lolita, he plays the part of a jilted lover in a crime of passion. His antics with the therapists show his calculating manipulative side â€Å"†¦discovered that there was an endless source of robust enjoyment in trifling with the psychiatrists: cunningly leading them on†¦inventing for them elaborate dreams, teasing them with fake ‘primal scenes’ â€Å". His need to feel he was in control drove him to imagine he was not to blame in the murder he commits by manipulative persuasion â€Å"Frigid gentlewomen of the jury†¦ I am going to tell you something very strange: it was she who seduced me† (qtd. n Meyer 97) Humbert’s usage of words in the text gives words that may have otherwise had a normal regular meaning, symbolism. In the letter he receives from charlotte (though we only get to learn of the contents through the â€Å"verbatim† recollection of the words from Humbert after he destroys the letter) there is sad genuine passion expressed by charlotte towards Humbert. † You see, there is no alternative. I have loved you from the minute I saw you. I am a passionate and lonely woman and you are the love of my life. . . .  Let me rave and ramble on for a teeny while more, my dearest, since I know this letter has been by now torn by you, and its pieces (illegible) in the vortex of the toilet. My dearest, mon tres, tres cher, what a world of love I have built up for you during this miraculous June! † In this letter, Humbert is able to deliberately leave out some parts which to him do not matter but lets us know what (for instance the death of Charlotte’s brother), those that he forgot genuinely and also questions some of the objects he thinks are his own importation, like the â€Å"vortex of the toilet† which he uses symbolically. He lets us wonder at the absurdity of such an importation and its significance. In other words, Humbert makes us trust him because of his immense ability to recall and even re-write his own pocket diary ( which was destroyed in a fire some 5 years before) and at the same time makes us doubt him for the same reasons; he is a man of huge intellect capable of manipulating the truth. He takes us back and forth in games, which makes us not only unsure of ourselves in whatever judgment we make about him but also his victims. He succeeds in presenting his attraction to Delores (also Lolita, Lo, and Lol) and other nymphets as an inevitable action precipitated by circumstances and not governed by morality. His explanation for choosing to be a pedophile though shamelessly perverted is also convincing in a way that it takes an artistic twist. Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers†¦. reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as â€Å"nymphets†. By banishing his subjects to the realm of the inhuman or supernatural, he therefore has transformed himself into a hero who is in combat with the nymphets. He goes on ahead to describe how a true nymphet is not easily noticeable. â€Å"†¦A normal man given a group photograph of school girls or Girl Scouts and asked to point out the comeliest one will not necessarily choose the nymphet among them†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and completely refuses to acknowledge that these are actually children and not â€Å"maidens† the way he likes to refer to them. (qtd. in Meyers 101). By designating men who have desires for such fantasies as â€Å"mad men† or artists, he denigrates from the social expectation, which considers such kind of behavior not only criminal but also immoral. Lolita’s voice is also stylistically as a symbol of money. Her constant condition was that money would be an end in itself the means did not matter. That she writes to Humbert asking for money is no surprise. Even while in Paris, Humbert’s effort to obtain a nymphet backfires as he gets â€Å"a monstrously plump, sallow, repulsively plain girl of at least fifteen . . . nursing a bald doll,† (qtd, in Meyers 112). His description of the girl is enough to get the reader on his side- no one likes to pay for something and a get a raw deal instead. Hoover whit is important is Humbert’s reaction which completely shows the complete objectization of women. There is a difference in the way Humbert uses his voice as a structurally effective tool compared to Lolita. His desire to express himself in his new country cannot escape the European influence in the way he even refers to the trees and buildings as â€Å"Chateaubriandesque trees† or â€Å"Claude Lorrain clouds† and â€Å"a stern El Greco horizon†. The use of language as a structural tool is also noticed in the juxtapositions of Humbert’s speech with Lolita’s speech. The use of elevated language that is highly intellectual against the television and radio language. The shift from Europe to American is also captured in Humbert’s speeches, which cannot get rid of the French cliches’. Lolita does well in her voice to present the practical utility of the ordinary everyday language compared to the elevated language, which dawdles the reader into a psychological roundabout. The two reveal the stylistic differences of the voice of the television informed by the laymen in the streets and the voice of the cultured and the educated, informed by the written language. Even though at some point in the novel, we feel very angry at Humbert, our anger is held back by his eloquent speech on his defense. It is this moving speech that makes us want to even forgive Humbert for his deeds because he seems not at fault. Humbert tries to convince us that his actions do not stem from a moral standpoint. We feel that his pursuit of Lolita was based on love that was intense but sadly turns tragic, something that was not under Humbert’s control. Humbert wants us to believe that his obsession stems from his failure to accomplish his affair with Lolita because she dies prematurely. His effort to keep Lolita on a leash using threats such as school reform, banishment from taking part in school activities or hanging around boys, appear frantic and desperate. However, he even convinces neighbors that he is simply being the overprotective father- old fashioned. This face does not last for long. He resorts to bribing her with money in return for sex despite the fact that Lolita makes it clear she does not share his feelings. Humbert wants us to believe that he was the victim in his narration. While we might see him as a corrupt and cunning adult corrupting a weak and innocent child, we are able to see that it is the exploitation of a weak adult by a corrupt child. He attempts to convince us that fate rules and wins in the end, no matter how choosy we want to be. In summary the voice of Humbert cannot only be seen as a stylistic device that brings out the themes but also brings out the attack the attack the narrator is launching on our sensibilities. By playing games with our minds, the narrator is able to make us explore our human side that is rotten and immoral, by showing how it cuts across society regardless of education or social status. The narrator is able to bring into focus the central themes of the text, which are psychological as well as grippingly real. Lolita’s voice in the novel serves to substantiate and vilify the immoral wrong doer. By giving his psychological account, Humbert allows us to enter his mind and consequently pleads with us to understand his remorse and shame that he feels of his affair with Lolita. He realizes he has robbed Lolita of her childhood at some point when listening to the blabber of you children outside. Humbert not only makes us aware of the foundation of society’s moral decadence but also explains why this is inevitable because young girls will always be there as sure as the pedophiles. The sad realization brought by the death of Humbert and Lolita is that both of them could just be a chip of a bigger iceberg in the grand scheme of things-the real face of human life which is often filled with shocking immoral degrading corrupt and rotten scheming which alienates and exploits not only the human as biological being but also as a spiritual being. His confession becomes our confession and it does not address our minds but undresses our minds pouring out in the open, the kind of life a good number of us would not mind living if at all we are not doing so already.

Agamemnon and Achilleus Essay

‘Describe the characters of Agamemnon and Achilleus as they are revealed in Book 1 of The Iliad. Who do you think was more to blame for their quarrel and its immediate outcome?’  In book 1 of the Iliad the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles establishes their characters. We see Agamemnon and proud and authoritative yet often uncaring and uncompromising. Achilles is by contrast practical, powerful, yet deeply and sometimes dangerously passionate. Agamemnon is repeatedly unreasonable. When Chryses comes for his daughter (an entirely normal and natural request in the ancient world), Agamemnon does not listen, even though â€Å"all the other Achaians shouted their agreement†. He is rude and arrogant towards the priest and â€Å"sent him†¦ on his way†, with threats and taunts about Chryseis, who will â€Å"serve my bed†.  When Kalchas, who has repeatedly stated that Agamemnon will not like what he says blames Agamemnon for the plague among the Greeks, Agamemnon reacts vehemently. â€Å"in deep anger†¦ he spoke†¦ ‘prophet of evil, you have never told me anything to your liking†. It is this unreasonable and uncompromising attitude that contributes to his quarrel with Achilles. He persists with his demand for compensation for the loss of Chryseis, even after he has seen how much this angers Achilles.  Achilles however often displays a practical and compromising approach to problems. When the plague is ravaging the Greeks, it is Achilles who calls the assembly and takes the lead. When Agamemnon first demands compensation, Achilles simply states that there isn’t anything to give Agamemnon. He goes on to promise that â€Å"we will recompense you three and four times over if†¦ ever†¦ we†¦ sack Troy†. And when Agamemnon decides to take Briseis, Achilles holds back from attacking Agamemnon. Nor does he bear any grudge against the servants of Agamemnon who come to take Briseis. â€Å"It is not you I blame,† he says. Another aspect of Agamemnon’s character is his arrogance. He sees women as mere objects, describing Chryseis as â€Å"to serve my bed† and â€Å"work at the loom†, a girl who he prefers to his wife Klytaimestra. He is arrogant towards Chryses, a respected priest, and even to his fellow kings, Ajax and Odysseus, whose prizes he threatens to take. He arrogantly demands compensation, and never once apologises for taking Briseis. He is repeatedly insensitive towards Achilles’ anger and sense of injustice and deliberately takes Briseis, so that Achilles can see â€Å"how much I am your superior†.  Undoubtedly these attitudes fuel the disagreement between Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon is a leader, and leaders are supposed to compromise and not abuse their power. The Greeks need Achilles, yet Agamemnon’s pride seems to overrule this. â€Å"Yes, run home, if that is what your heart urges† Achilles’ is extremely passionate and one of the more human of the Homeric heroes. He often expresses his emotion quite openly, â€Å"he threw the staff to the ground†, â€Å"broke into tears†. He launches savage verbal attacks of â€Å"stinging words† on Agamemnon, describing him as â€Å"dog-face† who â€Å"never has the courage† and â€Å"whose shamelessness is your very clothing†. Achilles anger is such that he stops fighting, leaving his fellow Greeks to the mercy of the Trojans, even though he is â€Å"yearning for battle†. Achilles is passionate about his rewards and has an almost egalitarian streak about him. â€Å"Your prize is by far the larger, when I have worn myself out in the fighting†, he says, â€Å"I have no mind to stay here reaping up treasures for you†. Achilles passion nearly leads him attacking Agamemnon, and his hand is only stayed by the intervention of a goddess. Nestor correctly identifies that Achilles feels that Briseis is his prize, not to be taken by anybody, and that Agamemnon feels that to back down would be to call his own authority into question. Yet the men respond quite differently to Nestor’s words. Agamemnon makes yet more savage accusations against Achilles claiming that he wants to â€Å"rule all, to dictate all† – when all he has wanted so far is to keep possession of what is his.  Achilles however responds quite reasonably. He backs down and decides â€Å"not to come to hand-fighting over the girl†, accepting that â€Å"you Achaians gave her, and you shall take her away† – which is exactly what wise Nestor had asked him to do – not to â€Å"seek open quarrel with the king†. Agamemnon must therefore be more to blame for the quarrel. He is leader of the Greeks. It is his duty to compromise and unify the Greeks. He never offers Achilles any form of compensation for the loss of Briseis. He ignores the wishes of his fellow Greeks and the wisdom of Nestor. Achilles may be impulsive sometimes, but it is the duty of a leader to control that impulsiveness.

Adversarial System vs. Civil Law Essay Example for Free

Adversarial System vs. Civil Law Essay ? The European civil law system is all about finding the truth, even if a lawyer has to lose the case for their client while doing so. The American adversarial system is about winning, even if it means avoiding and stretching the truth to do so. Civil law has the laws made by the government and the courts apply them, while common law has the judges making the majority of the laws through precedents. The adversarial system uses specific laws, precedents, and legal rules to determine who wins. It allows lawyers to take the truth and spin it into the picture that is the most beneficial to their client. They can use loopholes in the law to keep evidence from being allowed to cause their guilty clients to be punished for what they have done. Once all the talking is done, it is up to twelve people to decide whose lawyer did a better job of convincing them to believe them. The civil system uses general ideas and broad concepts to form the framework for taking the evidence at hand and attempting to determine what the truth is. When the truth is revealed, lawyers do not try to hide it or escape from it, even if they do not like the results. A major disadvantage of this system is that those twelve people from the common law system are only used in major criminal cases, so when the truth is unclear, only a couple people get to determine who is right, and three people can be wrong easier than twelve people in 100% agreement. In my opinion from what I have learned, I believe that the civil law system has an advantage in finding the ideal of the judicial system – justice. In the adversarial system, the truth can be avoided, and once it is, there can be no justice. As to the question of whether there are constitutional problems with applying civil laws in the US, the most obvious one is that a jury trial is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights to protect a defendant from being condemned by the voice of one person. Adversarial System vs. Civil Law. (2017, Jan 20).

Western Civilization. Second World War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Western Civilization. Second World War - Essay Example The basic causes of war are always found in international rivalries, thwarted desires of nations, and the ambitions of their leaders. Most historians agree that the seeds of the Second World War have been sown soon after the end of the First World War. During the months and years after the First World War, political and economic events like the treaty of Versailles, the great economic depression of 1929, the rise of Nazism, and Hitler’s ambitions for German expansion were some of the causes of the war to come. The treaty of Versailles signed in June 1919 by the allied powers who were the victors of the First World War was very harsh on Germany and held the country solely responsible for the war. The German people believed that Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points program would be the basis for the treaty, but the French president Georges Clemenceau and the British prime minister David Lloyd George bowed before the anger of their people who demanded that Germany should be se verely punished for the suffering and devastation caused. The sentiment of the allies was as follows, â€Å"If these things are hardships for Germany, they are hardships which Germany has brought upon herself† (â€Å"Allied Reply†). The humiliating terms of the treaty whipped up feelings of anger and frustration among the Germans. Territorial losses, the reduction of the army and navy, and, above all, the fact that Germany was forced to accept the responsibility for having caused the war, were particularly galling. According to the treaty, Germany was forced to pay reparation for the damages suffered in the war by the victors; the map of Europe was redrawn, and parts of Germany were transferred to countries like France, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia. The reparations that Germany was forced to pay was an added burden on the country’s already stretched finances. The German economy, in shambles after the war, was further eroded by the fact that the c ountry had lost some of its colonies that were rich sources of income and raw materials. Besides the economic burden, Germany had lost millions of her able bodied men who would have constituted a strong work force. The people thought the government had betrayed them, so they did not trust it. The monarchy was overthrown and a new democratic republic called the Weimar Republic was proclaimed; it fell in 1933 under the onslaught of the myriad problems Germany faced. Hitler used the treaty of Versailles as a battle cry to rally the people and promised that Germany would take her rightful place as a strong nation before long. This was a balm to the wounded pride of the nation, and people were ready to back Hitler by 1933. By 1929, the German economy was just beginning to recover from the effects of the First World War with the efforts of Gustav Stresemann, Germany’s untiring foreign minister, beginning to show results. The stock market crash of 1929 that reverberated across the g lobe and sent financial markets around the world into a tailspin also crushed German hopes of economic recovery. The German economy, propped up by loans from America, was â€Å"only flourishing on the surface. Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano. If the short-term credits are called in, a large section of our economy would collapse† (â€Å"Weimar Republic and the Great Depression†). Just before Stresemann’s death, his words have proved prophetic. The German economy, which depended on American loans for capital, was badly hit when America needed the funds to prop up her own faltering economy after the crash. Foreign trade dried up, and German industry ground to a halt. As a result, workers were laid off, which has increased unemployment and resulted in the misery of the people just beginning to look forward to a brighter

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Calture and landscape - Research Paper Example The country can be hot and dry in one region and at the same time cold and freezing in another (Dwyer and Alderman, 2008). However, the only universal connection between these different regions is the indigenous people. They all posses a enthusiasm for life and make any guest swiftly feel relieved. The estancias, tango, and gauchos are the country’s most well known attractions and once there, guests find life’s tempo exciting. The natives only stop for siesta. They play hard, enjoy life to its fullest, and work harder. Most guests go straight for the country’s headquarters; Buenos Aires, which is a thriving modern and cosmopolitan city. It is full of character and well known for its exhilarating nightlife, fantastic food and excellent shopping prospects (Palang et al., 2003). Hotels come in a range of standard and price, those offering more facilities and better service being in the upper price bracket. In the capital, Buenos Aires, sumptuous hotels are spread al l over the city while not expensive hotels are mostly located in Avenida de Mayo. Anywhere you choose to hang about in Argentina, service is usually excellent, and nearly all quarters have air conditioning. Anywhere you tour in Argentina, you will not be short of activities to take part in and things to see. It is a great family vacation as well as being a preferred haunt with tourists (Mayda, 2013). The food is outstanding and the shopping is healthier. The nation of Argentina is separated by its weather patterns. The south and north of the country experiences a very different weather patterns throughout the year. The northern Argentina experiences a subtropical climate with rainfall throughout the year. The heat can frequently be high and the air is often humid. One will need to pack frivolous linens and clothes if you are on vacation in this area. The central region of Argentina typically experiences lovely weather with humid and hot interlude during summer, from December to Febr uary, and cool and wet weather patterns during winter, from July and August. December all through to February is busy in central region, as lots of Europeans arrive to seek out the winter sun (Rubenstein, 1999). Tierra del Fuedo, in the southern region has a sub arctic temperature all year round. It is perfect for winter spots and it is not so perfect for those looking to getaway to the sun. Heavy and warm clothes are a necessary for those travelling to the south. For residents of the northern part, Argentina gives a possibility for traveler to enjoy at least two summers in a year. However, the country’s great variety and the extended geography shows that visiting is pleasant at any season of the year. The climate of Argentina ranges from subtropical in the north to steamy and humid in the center while it is cold in the southern part. The upper Ades region experiences erratic rainfall with much flash flood during summer, scorching heat, and snow at higher elevations (Duncan e t al., 2007). The lowlands receive enough rainfalls that support the swampy forests and the upland savanna. Rainfall decreases as you move to the west while shallow summer floods are commonly experienced in the east. After quite along period of the summer, winter period is pronounced. This gives chance for a dry season and takes off the brutal summer heat. On the

Gun laws In The Usa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gun laws In The Usa - Essay Example As such, guns assist in threatening burglars into submission of the law, where they surrender lest the weapon be fired on them. In addition legalizing firearms allows those that possess them to have an upper hand in cases of violence against them, where they buy time for the authorities to arrive and contain the situation by arresting the culprits. This means that legalizing guns is a positive thing to the entire society by curbing the occurrence of crime all over; thanks to the dangerous and life threatening nature of guns into coercing one to comply with demands for the right or moral thing to be done. In addition, the legalization of guns in the American society creates a suitable situation for all to stay away from violent activities that involve life-threatening situations. This is as seen through resolution of disputes through amicable means by persuading aggressors to steer off violence and embrace non-violent means of dispute resolutions. However, the above situation works if the person with the gun exercises his or her rationality in a life-threatening situation since he or she holds the upper hand. Having guns as legal items in America also serve to improve the security countrywide following the equality created in having them. This is through accountability and uniformity that is bound to be all over, considering that anyone with an interest in guns is bound to get and use it according to his or her discretion. This form of uniformity allows individuals to be accountable and responsible with their firearms such that they do not use them at will, but rather in situations that call for them. According to the above statement, cases of threats would be minimal, as would those of violent crime involving guns (Sabhalok). This is because; since everyone can easily get a legal firearm, disputes can and will be resolved more responsibly unlike in cases where only one of those involved owns a gun. As such, rationality will be conventional thing to do since fai lure to be rational would lead to loss of lives. In addition, it is conventional for misuse or abuse of items and substances to go low once the items are legalized for use by the public as is the case for alcohol consumption in relation to binge drinking (CBS News). According to this statement, once guns are legalized, crime rates are bound to go down as guns become prevalent among the public, and with laws governing their use. This is to say that the use of illegal firearms to commit crimes will be low allowing for members of the American society to live their lives in peace. Concerning self-defense, guns are crucial for protection of one’s wellbeing against evil elements in society. This is especially so for individuals with impairments or of a certain age, where their abilities are highly impaired or uncontrollable. As such, senior citizens find security in the guns since they cannot compete against young burglars and criminals (Codrea). As a result, having a gun allows th em to overpower the youth in crime and get their situations under control and save their lives, as well as protect that which belongs to them. Guns also lead to recognition of certain minority groups commonly discriminated against under the pretext of criminal activity. Guns put all the ethnic communities on the map, for the right reasons; thus

Biased Elementary Reading Programs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Biased Elementary Reading Programs - Essay Example Ganji argues for more inclusive diversity in the texts, illustrations, writers, and the role of mentors in the array of children's books that are recommended for elementary libraries and classrooms. Ganji illustrates the importance of viewing one's own culture in a book by telling the story of Bebot, a Philippine student that had read a copy of a book that reflected his own cultural heritage. Ganji noted that this was a "mirror book", a book that reflected his own self through the location of the setting, the characters, and the illustrations (30). While the author stated that mirror books were essential for young readers to be able to relate to the story, she stated that "Unfortunately, classroom collections too often provide more mirror books for White children than for children of color". The availability of mirror books commonly available simply does not reflect the diverse classrooms that exist today. The author pointed out two deficiencies in the system that are at the core of the problem; leveled reading lists and awards. Fountas and Pinnell rate and append lists of elementary readers by reading level. It is one of the most widely used lists used to create libraries for use by young readers. Yet, Ganji has found that "authors of color are represented about 1 percent", an insignificant number when compared to the population's color diversity. In addition to leveled reading lists, teachers and educators often take recommendations from books that have won awards. Here again, the author points to the deficiency of multicultural material available. Though there are multicultural awards given to books, most educators gravitate towards the more prestigious Caldecott and Newbery awards. The author noted that libraries ordered the winner of the Caldecott award twice as often as the winner of the Coretta Scott King award.

Ethnomusicology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethnomusicology - Research Paper Example Despite the social and cultural changes, art remains the most appropriate way of capturing the dynamic cultural features. People use art to depict their cultural features and development with music and dance being among the oldest surviving arts that help portray cultural developments. In the contemporary society, people use music and dance to represent their traditional cultures, which have changed and are thus unique in the modern society as the discussion below portrays. Held in Berlin in 2006, the thunder nations powwow was one such concerts that sought to display various traditional cultures. At the concert, people used music and to represent their traditional cultures a feature that provided an effective platform for evaluating the social and cultural changes throughout the history of the cultures. The discussion below therefore analyses the cultural development by comparing the art of music and dance in some of the traditional cultures displayed at the event. In doing this, the article investigates the dance and musical techniques used in some of the traditional cultures and the vocal variations among other features of music that have evolved alongside the changes in the cultures. The article investigates particular hypothetical features of the cultures portrayed in the music and dances thereby portraying the artistic features the traditionalists used in their music vis-Ã  -vis the features as employed in contemporary music. Among the musical groups that performed at the concert was the Bear claw singers, a traditional Indian musical group based in Dallas Texas. The group performs traditional music with the view of bringing the entire Indian community together. They uphold particular traditional Indian values including the belief that their musical and drum performances are gifts from God that they employ in uniting the Indian community from all over the world. Their songs are therefore spiritual and glorification to their God. The group’s performances

Discuss the work of an artist of your choice who engages critically Essay

Discuss the work of an artist of your choice who engages critically with the concept of fashion and consumer culture. Support yo - Essay Example And it is art through which archeologists calculate the age of a certain ‘lost’ civilization. It has been established so far that paintings are the most ancient and noble form of expression. Though art is unique to each artist but each of them fall in a certain epoch where certain trends were famous. It is important to note that these trends are largely influenced by the socio-cultural, economical and political situation of that particular place. Consider the movement of Renaissance, which took birth in Italy and later spread to the whole Europe and Britain as well. The political turmoil had given birth to a want of perfection, towards change and most importantly to a more meaningful approach of life. Towards the 16th century, the hold of the Church had also grown weak and so people started to interpret the holy book through their own intelligence. This attitude is redundant in the works of Michelangelo. Hence, art and especially fine arts gives a glimpse into the societ y as a whole and also represents the fashion of that age too. For it is impossible to ignore such impacts in the lives of human beings and since artists are sensitive beings, they are prone to changes even by the slightest notion. It may differ that whether the fine artist approves of the fashion and consumer culture or disregards it in his paintings or a sculpture, which thoroughly depends on the nature of that artist but these influences, will find their places in the nooks and crevices of the work of art. Being an artist means that they live a life of their own pattern and standard. It is universally accepted that the artists’ especially fine artists do not have a limit and that artists consider art as their religion. For this very reason, artists from various sects in the society are scorned for their waywardness which for the artist is the way of life. This being established, it can be said that most artists live a life of their own choice and that a 9-5 job cannot bound them. There are various universities in the US where 24 hour studio is available for their fine arts students. However this does not mean that the fine artist can just excel in painting and drawing but there are fields like digital and graphic painting and also art marketing where the fine art students do get white collar jobs. Hence, a clear resolution for their profession cannot be drawn with a mathematical formula. In this paper, Max Ernst’s work in regard to fashion and consumer culture shall be discussed. â€Å"Max Ernst was a German-born Surrealist who helped shape the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in America post-World War II. Armed with an academic understanding of Freud, Ernst often turned to his work-whether sculpture, painting, or collage-as a means of processing his experience in World War I and unpacking his feelings of dispossession in its wake.† (Fiedorek) He is best known for promoting collage and it is noted that before him no other fine artist had esteemed the position of a collage as a form of art. According to him, â€Å"Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them.† (Rogers) It is said that a childhood trauma made him see that this world is full of different realities existing at the same time. The trauma was of losing a beloved pet and interestingly his baby sister was born that very night. This left a deep mark on him which is obvious in his works of art as

NGOs and Domestic Violence against Women in Pakistan Essay Example for Free

NGOs and Domestic Violence against Women in Pakistan Essay To start with, non- governmental organizations assist in the collection and documentation of data regarding violence against women in Pakistan. Due to their passionate and active involvement in the whole issue of violence against women, these groups have been able to collect and document most of the information that is associated with this subject. Aspects such as the regional preference of violence against women are well documented. It is clearly indicated that women in rural areas of Pakistan are the most vulnerable group when it comes to violence against women. Due to reasons such as illiteracy and little exposure of the people in these regions, the males still respect the outdated behavior of male superiority and all that they do when the women are perceived to have made any mistake is to beat them up. Other practices that are still being carried out in the rural parts of Pakistan that are considered oppressive to women include the qasas, the hudood, karokari and early marriages of young girls to adult men (Kumar, 2005). Other crucial details that can be obtained from the records kept by these organizations are the type of violence that is common in Pakistan, the various bodies that are involved in the fight against violence against women, the success levels of the efforts and the effects of violence against women in Pakistan. Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation was registered in 1986 and it stores information on the welfare of women in Pakistan. There is also the Applied Social Research organization that was established and registered in 1983 and Simorgh- Womens Resource and Publication Centre that are rich sources of information on women’s affairs including violence against women in Pakistan. Apart from the above, non- governmental organizations in Pakistan play another vital role of direct provision of skills that assist the women in attaining economic independency. Their philosophy in this is that an economically empowered woman will not run to her male companion now and then for assistance thus reducing chances of being subjected to violence. Hawwa Associates as a non-governmental organization has offered support to women involved in making handicrafts in Pakistan for a very long period (Asian Development Bank, n. d). The Adult Basic Education Society has been in existence since nineteen seventy two and has undertaken the training of girls in non- formal education as a major project. It has also carried out a multi-grade teaching training for Pakistani women in the Rawalpindi Division. This project ran from 1998 to 2001. The Association for Creation of Employment trained women on how to secure training and get employment in the year 1997. They were also given training on how to handle businesses and access micro-credit facilities for their businesses (Association for the Development of Pakistan). Behbud Association is another non-governmental organization that is deeply involved in the tackling of violence against women in Pakistan through female empowerment. Established in nineteen seventy, Behbud Association has carried out major projects such as the skills training of 1971 and the education project of 1971. All these projects were carried out in Karachi, the capital city of Pakistan and the main aim was to empower women with skills that are supposed to give them an economic edge. The Bunyad Literacy Community Council has also carried out major empowerment projects such as the women development project of 1998 and the empowerment for poverty alleviation project of 1999. Caritas was established in 1965 and registered in 1980. It opened handicraft centers for women in 1998 and developed an education program for working girls in the same year. It‘s area of operation is around Punjab in Lahore. Also, there is the De Laas Gul Welfare Program that was established in 1976 but got formal registration in 1988. With vocational training as its thematic area; it has a running tailoring training project for women. This tailoring project commenced in 1997. TheAga Khan Development Network has also participated in women empowerment through micro-finance (Aga Khan Development Network, n. d). The economic empowerment of women in Pakistan has led to the reduction of gender based violence albeit not to the desired levels. The provision of counseling services to victims of domestic violence in Pakistan has always been the concern of non-governmental organizations. Bedari was established in the year nineteen ninety two and deals mainly with the psychological health of women. Those caught up in the confusion of domestic violence always access counseling services from Bedari. It is obvious that victims of violence always end up suffering from trauma as well as other psychological disturbances that can only be dealt with through the provision of psychotherapy. Theater services are offered in villages by this organization with its objective of psychological health as its major theme. Behbud Association also handles women’s health issues and was able to deal with distress management and rehabilitation of the victims of violence back in 1971 (Daiya, 2002). The role of educating the public and making it aware of the concerns of women in Pakistan is also taken up by non governmental organizations. Issues such as domestic violence that leads to grave injuries of women and sometimes even death are always brought out to the public by non governmental organizations working in Pakistan. For reasons such as that of being perceived as being weak and ineffective by its own people and a watching world, the Pakistani government does not come out to inform the general public the state of violence against women in the country. And this is where the non-governmental organizations come in handy. Ways of understanding and combating violence against women are taught to the public and the state of abuse of women is disclosed. The All Pakistan Women’s Association established in nineteen forty nine and registered in nineteen sixty five carries out the crucial role of educating the public on women’s issues. It handles the moral, social and economic concerns of Pakistani women and the one of the ways by which it does this is by educating the public and raising awareness on matters pertaining to violence against women. Violence against women takes many forms such as sexual violence, economic violence, verbal violence that comes in form of verbal abuses as well as the common physical violence that leads to bodily harm of the victim. The All Pakistan Women’s Association avails this information to the public (Persona Blog, 2007, All Pakistan Women’s Association). Besides the above, non-governmental organizations in Pakistani protect the rights of women as a role in the whole issue of violence against women. They ensure that there is no discrimination of women in the country as far as the sharing of resources is concerned. The Mothers’ Trust and the National Research and Development Foundation are at the forefront in pushing forward the rights of women. Vocational training aimed at giving women a leap so as to catch up with their male counterparts is done by the Mothers’ Trust while the National Research and Development Foundation has handled the rights of women through projects such as the Ulema and Women’s Rights project of 1998. These non governmental organizations that are involved in the push for the preservation of the rights of women also go a head to ensure that government and private enterprises that do not recognize the rights of women as human rights are exposed and pressurized to grant women equal rights like their male counterparts. Thus informing women about their rights is not the only way through which these organizations push for the recognition of the rights of women. Through coordination and networking with other organizations and government agencies, they are able to ensure that females are given full protection by the law through enforcement of penalties that are meant for those who overstep the line and subject women and girls to violence of whatever form. Far from the above, non-governmental organizations in Pakistan perform the important role of assisting women in developing action plans for their activities. Most of these organizations are international and therefore possess lots of skilled manpower. This skilled manpower always comes in handy when the women of Pakistan are supposed to come up with comprehensive ways of dealing with the issues that affect them. Therefore the design and development of work plans, action agenda and execution strategies is done by the trained members of these organizations who go a head to train the local women on how to do these things on their own (Women Empowerment Literacy and Development Organization). The Sustainable Development Policy Institute that was established and registered in 1992 has assisted Pakistani women in coming up with action plans for a long time. The Bunyad Literacy Community Council has also undertaken training programs for women focusing on how to shape their agenda as they fight for their place in society in Pakistan (Sustainable Development Policy institute). Non-governmental organizations also play the role of lobbyists in the area of legislation. The driving motivation or interest is to have laws favoring women passed by the country’s legislative body which is the Pakistani parliament. They also lobby so that laws that condemn women are dropped from the establishment. The reduction in the powers of the country’s backward traditions is as a result of the hard work done by non-governmental organizations through their lobbying. Their lobbying activities are normally done by writing to the legislators, buying spaces and airtime for advertisements in the country’s print and electronic media and holding demonstrations when there are signs of a possible negative legislation. Leaving the above aside, non- governmental organizations in Pakistan play the role a catalyst in the encouragement of local women to participate in social processes that are geared towards the betterment of their lives. There is common understanding that there can be no meaningful change of any kind if the rural women are not involved in the whole activism process. The role of making the grassroots women active in matters pertaining to opposition to violence meted out on women is therefore the work of non-governmental organizations and community based organizations in Pakistan. Through activities such as the theater programs as well as the training activities carried out by organizations such as the Mothers’ Trust, Pakistani women are mobilized and energized and this makes it easy for them to receive the targeted or intended information that is geared towards making them change their behavior so as to reduce chances of being caught up in the mess of gender based violence. This mobilization is also vital when it comes to areas where their numbers are needed to push for a particular agenda. For example if a certain piece of legislation is supposed to be passed and its impact on the lives of women will be devastating, the huge numbers of mobilized women will come out and effectively shut down the legislation by putting pressure on the legislators. If the law is beneficial to women and it is threatened with being shot down, the huge numbers of mobilized women can also come out and pressure the law makers into enacting the law. This mobilization works to the best advantage of the women (Farman). Another equally important role that is performed by non-governmental organizations in Pakistan as far as violence against women is concerned is that they act as safe havens for abused women. It is not surprising that some of the non governmental organizations operating in Pakistan run homes and centers where women and girls who are abused are given temporary hosing or accommodation till conditions that they are running away from are changed. In these homes or centers, the women and girls are provided with food, clothing, shelter as well as education. They are also provided with health facilities. It is not uncommon to find schools and hospitals within these centers or homes meant for the rescued victims (Behbud Association, n. d). Also, the world has come to understand the position of women in Pakistan not through the efforts of the government of Pakistan but through the loud cries of the non governmental organizations that are handling women’s issues in Pakistan (NGO NET portal on women and children’s human rights, 2008). Since the government is always ashamed of the poor state of women’s rights, they shut down any attempt to tell the world what is going on inside Pakistan as far as women’s issues are concerned. The non-governmental organizations, especially the international ones that are based in other countries such as Britain and the United States of America serve as informers to the rest of the world concerning the state of affairs of women in Pakistan. It is possible that without these non-governmental organizations within Pakistan, the world will be unable to know what the Pakistani woman is going through (Shaheen, 2002). In addition to the above, the non-governmental organizations serve as points of direct employment for victims of violence. Most of the women and girls who are rescued from abusive relationships within the Pakistani society undergo a period of treatment so as to clear trauma. After this treatment, they are given some duties within these organizations so that they are able to earn a wage which they use to meet their needs. In addition to teaching them some bit of responsibility and earning them a living, these people assist the organizations in doing some of the duties that they are supposed to do without spending so much (Association of business professional and agricultural women Pakistan). Moving away from the above, the non-governmental organizations in Pakistan also play the role of a vigorous campaigner as far as violence against women is concerned. Apart from the areas of education and creating awareness, the non-governmental organizations campaign with a lot of energy against this form of violence which reduces women to sub humans. They reach out to remote villages with clear messages on why men should treat their women and girls with dignity and respect as opposed to disrespect and abuse. The greater part of the campaign against violence that is directed towards women is carried out by these organizations with the Pakistani government only playing a facilitating role. The messages that are given out through the print and electronic media, the conferences, workshops, and seminars on the protection of the rights of women and girls are sponsored by non governmental organizations working within the boundaries of Pakistan (Khan, 2008). As a result of their duplicated roles and sometimes lack of transparency as well as political interference, the non-governmental organizations have also created confusion in Pakistan in the field of violence against women. This has led to the divergence from the key message and the failure to achieve the set goal of total freedom for the Pakistani woman. This is an unfortunate role that some of the non-governmental organizations working in Pakistan have found themselves playing (Raza Ghauri, 2005, Chetia, 2007). In conclusion, it is clear the non-governmental organizations in Pakistan play numerous roles as far violence against women is concerned. They act as sources of data on this crucial subject, equip abused women with skills as a way of empowering them, they offer counseling services for the victims of violence, they educate the public, and assist women in coming up with action plans. They also assist in legislation through lobbying; mobilize women at the grassroots, act as safe haven for victims of violence, act as the eyes of the world, offer direct employment to women and act as campaigners against this vice. They also play the negative role of creators of confusion in the fight against violence against women due to political intervention, corruption and role duplication. References: Aga Khan Development Network, (n. d), AKDN in Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. akdn. org/pakistan Asian Development Bank, (n. d): Gender and Development: Training Program for Women Artisans HAWWA Associates. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. adb. org/gender/working/pak003. asp Association for the Development of Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://forums. developpakistan. org/viewtopic. php? p=1370sid=3c1089e69fe80705b96ea4c05cd43ccc Association of business professional and agricultural women Pakistan: Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. abpaw. cjb. net/ Behbud Association, (n. d); Karachi Family Health Centers. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://xiber. com/behbud/health. htm Chetia, N. , (2007); Pakistani Women in Politics. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www.iknowpolitics. org/node/1900 Daiya, K. , (2002): Honourable Resolutions: Gendered Violence, Ethnicity, and the Nation. Alternatives Journal: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 27, 2002 Khan, A. N. , (2008); Peace, Justice, Democracy: Country Report: Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://groups. google. co. ke/group/peace-justice-democracy/browse_thread/thread/a33dc1bedb152c18? hl=enie=UTF-8q=roles+of+NGOs+in+pakistan+on+violence+against+women#e020275ebdbf7d8c Kumar, M. , (2005); The Hidden Conflict: False Optimism and Silent Strategy in Kashmir. Harvard International Review Journal, Vol. 26 NGO NET portal on women and children’s human rights, (2008). Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. netbaz. org/ Persona Blog, (2007): Role of women rights organizations in Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://spot. bz/blogs/fun2shhspotbz/2008/05/07/role-of-women-rights-organization-in-pakistan/ Raza, S. Ghauri, I. , (2005); Feudalism, tribalism engendering bias Musharraf lambastes NGOs for ‘demonizing’ Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://forum. atimes. com/topic.asp? TOPIC_ID=3609 Shaheen, (2002); Insufficient Protection of Women: Amnesty Report on Pakistan. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://groups. google. co. ke/group/soc. culture. pakistan/browse_thread/thread/afdb81b2097e893a? hl=enie=UTF-8q=women%27s+NGOs+in+pakistan#df815d5af7e911d1 Sustainable Development Policy institute: Know your rights. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. sdpi. org/know_your_rights/ngo. htm#allpak Women Empowerment Literacy and Development Organization. Retrieved on the 30th December, 2008 from: http://www. weldo. org/

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Linux Computer Science Essay

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Linux Computer Science Essay Easy to use,Virus free,With boot camp you can run XP or Vista on your machine, and with Parallels you can run windows programs in OS XP. Performance: While there is some debate about which operating system performs better, in our experience both perform comparably in low-stress conditions however UNIX servers under high load (which is what is important) are superior to Windows. Price: Servers hosting your web site require operating systems and licenses just like everyone else. Windows 2003 and other related applications like SQL Server each cost a significant amount of money; on the other hand, Linux is a free operating system to download, install and operate. Windows hosting results in being a more expensive platform. Less viruses: Windows currently has over a hundred thousand known viruses, while Linux has less than a hundred. Linux also uses smart authorisation management , so it requires you to authorise any action that may potentially harm your computer by entering your password. That means you are less likely to be tricked into installing malware and running virus programs, simply because it wont let you. No crashes: Windows users will be familiar with the infamous blue screen of death that greets them whenever the system crashes. In contrast, Linux users have reported uptimes exceeding over a year, which means that their computers have been continuously running over a year without a single crash or reboot. Free software: Linux users can download free software from huge repositories containing thousands of free programs and applications, from games to music players to office productivity tools. Most of them serve as free alternatives to commercial software, the most popular ones being OpenOffice and Mozilla Firefox, which replace Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer respectively. Disadvantage: Easily gets virus and or spyware.Does not come with many useful software alrdy installed.Easlity disrupted by other programs. Interface: The traditional interface for the Unix operating system is command line based, and this command line shell interface may be hostile to the casual user. Unix was developed for use by programmers and serious computer users rather than casual users. A graphical user interface (GUI) is also available, but the traditional Unix interface is command line only. Special Commands: Commands required by the command line interface often make use of cryptic naming schemes, and do not give much information to notify a user of what they are doing. Many commands in the Unix interface require the use of special characters. Small, normally insignificant typos can have much greater effects and unexpected results on Unix machines. *The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Microsoft Windows 2003 Advantage: Abundance of Features: Windows Server 2003 added an abundance of features over the previous Windows 2000 version, including a Volume Shadow copy service. If an administrator activates this feature on a drive, the system will periodically take snapshots of all the files on that drive. This enables deleted files to be recovered easier and can enable the option of recovering an older version of a file if some data got lost. In Setup mode, it also offers a Quick Format option where you can format a specific partition of a drive instead of having to do the entire drive at once, which saves a significant amount of time. Versions Designed to Fit Needs Windows Server 2003 added an abundance of features over the previous Windows 2000 version, including a Volume Shadow copy service. If an administrator activates this feature on a drive, the system will periodically take snapshots of all the files on that drive. This enables deleted files to be recovered easier and can enable the option of recovering an older version of a file if some data got lost. In Setup mode, it also offers a Quick Format option where you can format a specific partition of a drive instead of having to do the entire drive at once, which saves a significant amount of time. Disadvantage: Cost: Windows Server 2003 added an abundance of features over the previous Windows 2000 version, including a Volume Shadow copy service. If an administrator activates this feature on a drive, the system will periodically take snapshots of all the files on that drive. This enables deleted files to be recovered easier and can enable the option of recovering an older version of a file if some data got lost. In Setup mode, it also offers a Quick Format option where you can format a specific partition of a drive instead of having to do the entire drive at once, which saves a significant amount of time. Outdated: Another disadvantage to Windows Server 2003 is that is was already made obsolete by Windows Server 2008 and then Windows Server 2008 R2. Any upgrades to the Server systems will be made off of those versions and not the 2003 option. The 2008 version features enhanced security features that make it more attractive for many businesses in the wake of ever-evolving threats such as viruses and malware infestation. There are also a number of new features and programs included. *The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Mac OS Advantages: Security: Mac OS is a two-layered system: the attractive GUI sits atop a Unix core, and Unix is best-known for its security features. Its simply impossible to install a destructive trojan or virus unless the user explicity allows it root access via typing in the admin password. Mac OSs built-in firewall is set up to work unobtrusively out of the box as well as being highly configurable. Mac OS users should be vigilant about strange files and never allow an application they arent certain of admin access, but they dont need special anti-virus software. Reliability: Because OS X was designed from scratch from the ground up, Mac OS is incredibly stable. Apple controls production from start to finish, so every part of a Mac is designed and tested to work together. Ease of Use: Apples known for hiring the best industrial and interface designers around, and it shows in the intuitive nature of the GUI. I dont mean to sound like Im verging into fangirl territory here; its just true. Like the OSs reliability, the OSs functionality is designed to just work. The attractiveness of the interface cant be discounted. Some scoff that looks arent everything, but when youre spending 8 or more hours a day staring at a screen, its a relief to spend that time staring at a well-designed screen. Advanced users have easy command-line access with the Terminal app.. Mac OS Can Run Windows at the Same Time: Mac OS runs on Intel chips, which means you can run XP or Vista concurrently with Mac OS, with Boot Camp or Parallels software. Disadvantages: 1.os x only works on apple computers and not on other brands. 2.no games for os x as compared to windows. 3.all the best software and stuff comes for windows whereas with apple u have very little extra software and most programs will have to be from apple. 4.u cant customize os x exactly how u want it to be. 5.since u r os x on an apple computer then u r restricted to what they have to offer In my Opinion Microsoft windows is the best type which provides people with good features.

Wal Marts Global Expansion Plan Management Essay

Wal Marts Global Expansion Plan Management Essay EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate opportunities and threats for Wal-Mart for expanding globally. For global expansion plan, Wal-Mart must have to adapt to the rapid technological changes world-wide. These types of expansions also posses some challenges to the business which Wal-Mart have to find the solution for. This report also gives some recommendations to Wal-Mart for successfully expanding globally facing the challenges of the new markets. Wal-Mart is one of the leading retailers of United States and is based on the vision of Sam-Walton. The company has very successfully served its community during the period of its existence. In this report, we have identified three main threats which Wal-Mart will face if it goes for global expansion. One of the most important threats is the supply chain management of Wal-Mart. This supply chain management process is currently doing very well at home, i.e. in the home country. Secondly, the understanding of culture of the country in which the company is operating is very necessary because producing quality products is not enough in international markets. A company must have to consider the culture of that particular community in which it is providing products or services. Thirdly, the pricing strategy of Wal-Mart can also pose a threat to the company if it goes global because in home country might fail in case of host country. In order to become a total success, Wal-Mart will have to adopt differentiation strategy and this differentiation will not only be made in product preferences but also in the channels of distribution. In case of Wal-Mart, strategy of transition will help the company to focus on local responsiveness and world-wide efficiency. STRUCTURE OF THE ASSIGNMENT This assignment is segregated into four major parts. First part is the introduction, in which we have detailed the purpose of the assignment together with some highlights on the current situation of the company. Additionally, we have also shed light on the purpose of going global for Wal-Mart. In the second section, we have identified some key threats and opportunities for Wal-Mart in expanding globally. Third section consists of an analysis of the current strategy. Last, but not the least, section provides some recommendations for Wal-Mart to expand globally. INTRODUCTION Wal-Mart can be said as one of the founders of global expansion. It has set an example for local retailers to expand globally. It is Wal-Mart who is currently operating in many countries and has proved that borders are not boundaries for businesses. (Keegan 2007 102) The origin of Wal-Mart goes back to 1962 when Sam Walton began a retail shop operating on a premise that customer wants low-priced products with high quality. Initially, the quality of this business products was not that high, but low price led it to sell more. It was Sam Walton and his experience that Wal-Mart was able to find out how to differentiate the product. Wal-Mart was one of the highest sales retailers in year 2007 with sales going high above $300bn. This was a turning point for the than retailers for whom, Wal-Mart had set a benchmark. Sam Walton believed that it is the mission of the company which is making it fly-high. It is the vision of the founder that Wal-Mart has retail outlets, franchises, production facilities, etc. all over the world. (Jaffee 2005 2) In 1991, Sam Walton passed away. But since this business was created on the basis of mission and values, therefore, the business is still a success. Here, one can think that what was the need for Wal-Mart to expand globally. Expansion into global market requires a different set of strategies, tactics, planning and training. These all cannot be duplicated with the local ones. Most of the companies are directing their expansion towards third world countries especially China due to decreased labor costs, friendly tax structure and raw material costs, etc. Supply chain management was one of the cornerstones of the Wal-Mart success. Wal-Mart gained market share due to its strong supply chain management and well-trained employees. These employees are called Associates. Additionally, a mixture of strong branding and low-price with high quality products adds up to the success of Wal-Mart as a market leader. With all these strengths and plusses, Wal-Mart is still facing problems in global expansion due to very bad political and economic conditions added with instability all over the world, especially in markets where Wal-Mart is currently serving. Also, the company is facing intense competition from the local competitors as well. There was a strong dependence on ethno-centrism approach by Wal-Mart. But this perception of dependence on ethno-centrism approach was suddenly changed after the expansion experiences of the company in Korea, Japan, Germany, China, etc. Wal-Mart was producing standardized products all over the world where it operates. These experiences make it very clear that global strategy should be changes as standardized products are unable to satisfy the needs of consumers all around the globe. While identifying strategy for Wal-Mart expansion, we discovered that United States governments subsidies play a vital role in the success of retail businesses. These subsidies help the company to make foreign ventures overseas. This is generally true in case of stable financial markets. But in todays instable market, it is not necessary that Wal-Mart will become a success by following this strategy. But there is still a hope for Wal-Mart that with the increase in world population, the potential market of Wal-Mart will increase but this will require Wal-Mart to integrate latest technological advancements in its delivery process. In this report, we are arguing that Wal-Mart should adopt the strategy of making joint ventures with local players (leaders). This will definitely make Wal-Mart a success as it is one of the leading brand names and possess well-reputed supply chain management throughout the world. With the death of Sam Walton, the doors of opportunities for Wal-Mart were restricted in United States. This was not the main reason. The primary reason was that the market of US was saturated for Wal-Mart which forces Wal-Mart to expand its operations to global markets. (Das 2008 19-33) OPPORTUNITIES THREATS Threats Expanding globally is not an easy task. It seems that expansion to international market is not difficult for a retailer like Wal-Mart. But this not the true case. There are certain threats for markets for expanding to international market. There are discussed below: Supply Chain Management It is a fact that Wal-Mart is considered to be the pioneers of implementation of systems and processes. In fact, when it comes to information systems, Wal-Mart can be called as the founders. It is Wal-Mart, who possesses a very strong and reliable information system from production to delivery. The distribution network of Wal-Mart is said to be the most effective and efficient in the world. It was in 1997 when Wal-Mart realized that the existing supply chain management is not enough to fulfill the needs of Korean market. The existing supply chain was more than sufficient for the local market, but it proved to be a failure in the host market. One of the major reasons for this gap was that in Korea, there was no existence of any compatible supply chain infrastructure which can provide support to the supply chain integration technology of Wal-Mart. Additionally, the Koraen distribution channel was a mismatch to high-tech and system supported supply chain strategies of Wal-Mart. A soluti on to this problem was for Wal-Mart to create some relations with supply-chain partners, but this process was too slow due to lazy market attributes and non-technical mindsets. (Sandelands 2004 5-14) National Cultures and Sub-Cultures Another key issue for Wal-Mart in global expansion was the difference of cultures. Management of Wal-Mart believed that standardized products will meet their targets all over the world. They forget that different people belong to different cultures and have different cultural needs. An example of such attribute is that Wal-Mart insisted its sales representatives not to pass a smile during sales. Many of the shoppers complained that it seems that the sales representatives are flirting with customers by passing a smile. Similar case occurred in China. Chinese customers wanted fresh food which is harvested in front of the customers. Or at least the animal should be killed spontaneously. There was a high resistance for this demand by Wal-Mart but later the company recognized this as a cultural need and implemented the same in China. (Malnight 2005 119-141) Global Pricing and Discounting Strategy People want discounts. Different cultures have different pricing strategies. The global expansion in China, Germany and Britain posed a pricing threat to Wal-Mart. In these markets, the local retailers have very well established pricing strategies which creates a best match between the pricing patterns and the demands and habits of the respective local customers. Breaking the ice in these markets and setting competitive prices is one of the most challenging tasks for Wal-Mart. (Terptsra and Sarathy 2004 88) Opportunities Wal-Mart has an opportunity to create alliances with the local retailers or other entities in order to cater the global market more effectively and effectively. Global expansion will create an opportunity for Wal-Mart to introduce outlets at various global locations. This will help Wal-Mart to enlarge its market share by expanding to a number of consumer markets in Asia and all over the world. Expansion to global markets will provide an opportunity to Wal-Mart for reducing costs of production. The new markets will also give Wal-Mart an opportunity to benefits from various tax structures which are business-friendly. Also the company can benefit from low cost of labor and raw materials in different parts of the world. (Philip and Doole 2004 332) ANALYSIS The strategy currently followed by Wal-Mart is termed as everyday low prices strategy. This strategy is very profitable in United States. But if we talk about Korea and Japan, this strategy is totally a failure. The reason for this everyday low price strategy failure is that consumers in Korea and Japan are prestige conscious. They feel good buying expensive products but with highest quality. (Paliwoda 2008 192) The market saturation of United States and ethnocentric predisposition of Wal-Mart made a gateway for global expansion. In global strategy, companies generally standardize their products which results in ignorance of the needs of local customers. This really is a big flaw and Wal-Mart should address this by creating a separate local strategy for US. (Bradley 2007 69) The main problem in global expansion for Wal-Mart was integrating the cultural needs of the customers. This was faced by Wal-Mart in Japan and Korea. Wal-Mart was unable to create culturally acceptable stores in both locations. (Axtell 2009 45-49) Additionally, Wal-Mart faced some distribution channel problems in these locations as well. In case of Japan, customers want highest quality even if they are bound to pay maximum price. This trend of pricing made Wal-Mart a failure in Japan as Wal-Mart was focusing on low price strategy. (Dixie 2008 72) RECOMMENDATIONS Supply Chain Management Formation of Joint Ventures (JV) with Local Retailers Joint ventures are a major source of entering in a new market. Wal-Mart should create joint ventures in major locations where profitability has been forecasted. For joint ventures, foreign entities require brand name and repute which Wal-Mart already has. For example, if Wal-Mart choose to expand to Brazil, it would be mandatory for Wal-Mart to create local presence. This can be in the form of joint ventures or partnerships. This is a governmental requirement which has to be abide by. This will help Wal-Mart to share the risk of doing business in a new location as the partner or joint venture firm will be there to help Wal-Mart cater this. This is also very true for Asian and Arab countries. (Mkandawire 2006 129 -132) Divide Products into High-End and Low-End Categories Product division into high end and low end categories can prove to be a very significant strategy for Wal-Mart. As discussed earlier, Japanese want highest quality products and they are willing to pay higher prices. Categorizing products into high end and low end categories will definitely provide support for these types of markets. Additionally, the food products in local markets might vary which requires Wal-Mart to maintain a wide portfolio of food products. In order to meet these needs, Wal-Mart should have enough knowledge about local tastes and preferences.    (Cain 2005 58) Differentiation against Others that Offer Low-Price Store-Brand Products Wal-Mart should adopt the strategy of making some differentiation between the stores that are in urban areas with that of their counterparts in the suburbs. This should be done to cater the demands of the individual customers as the customers in urban areas are very different from those in suburbs; their demands, shopping habits, preferences, etc. Additionally, it is a fact that local retailers have a very strong grip over the market. So, in order to expand in an international market, Wal-Mart should focus on the needs of customers according to their respective areas. Wal-Mart should adopt local norms, strong distribution channels and information system integration in order to expand internationally. (Helmberger and Patson 2009 102) National Cultures and Sub-Cultures Cultural Awareness Cultures and behaviors play a very significant role in development of habits and preferences of the customers. Wal-Mart should consider the cultural preferences of individual markets internationally so as to have a grip on market instantly. For example, in Japanese culture, low price means that the quality is also low and it is very insulting for Japanese customers to opt for a low quality product. On the other hand, in third world countries, people are always looking for low price and high quality. So, Wal-Marts strategy of low prices can be a success in third world countries like Pakistan, India, etc. while the same strategy would be a failure in case of Japan or Korea. So, Wal-Mart should frame its strategy according to the local culture of individual markets. Introducing a standardized strategy all over the world will be a failure for Wal-Mart.         (Dixie 2008 72) Make Public Relations a Core Competency Core competencies are those strengths on which the company can rely in its hard times as well. In order to succeed internationally, Wal-Mart should work on making public relations its core competency. Also it is very important for Wal-Mart to contribute something to the society or community in which it is operating and expanding. This will definitely create a very positive image of Wal-Mart on the host community/country.   (Mkandawire 2006 129 -132) Global Pricing and Discounting Strategy One price fits all doesnt suits while the company is expanding internationally. Wal-Mart should find out different pricing and discount packages which match the demands, preferences and purchasing power of the individual customers in the host country. Different cultures have different pricing preferences. Wal-Mart should design its pricing and discount policy according to the preferences and acceptance of local customers. This will definitely help Wal-Mart to successfully expand in international markets. (Cain 2005 58) CONCLUSION In conclusion, we can say that Wal-Mart should adopt different strategies for different markets. It would not be wrong to say that One Strategy Doesnt Fits All. This requires Wal-Mart to identify and analyze different markets having opportunities for it. In case of Japan, Wal-Mart will have to change its strategy but in case of third world countries, the same strategy of Always Low Price can reap the fruits of success for Wal-Mart. These are some recommendations which Wal-Mart should adopt to remain one of the largest retailers of the world.

Good and Bad Aspects of the Atkins Diet Essay -- Health Nutrition Diet

Good and Bad Aspects of the Atkins Diet      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The notorious and renowned Atkins diet has Americans and the rest of the world believing that if they simply "eliminate carbs" from their everyday food regimen, they will find the "fountain of fit". This idea among many others has come to be just another one of today's "fad dieting" techniques. The population doesn't seem to know or to even care if the plan will keep them fit for life, or if it will just be a quick fix to a nagging weight problem. Due to the fact that people want such quick results they tend to attempt the diet without knowing all that it actually entails. In reality, the Atkins diet is a quite complex way of eating, including various stages and limitations on many foods. Starting with an "induction" period consisting of two weeks, the Atkins diet allows no more than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day. Within this period, dieters are not allowed any sort of milk, fruits, grains, breads or any "high glycemic" foods such a s potatoes and corn. Instead, dieters are encouraged to consume meats, seafood, eggs, cheeses...

Facts About China :: essays research papers

Facts About China 1.)21% of China's population live in urban areas and 79% live in rural areas. 2.)China's national anthem is the "The East is Red." 3.)The capital of China is Beiming or else Peking. 4.)The name of the currency in China is Yuan. 5.)The life expectancy in China for males is 65.5 and for females is 69.5. 6.)The literacy rate in China is 80% 7.)The main religions in China are Atheistic, Buddhism, and Daoism. 8.)In the 5fh century AD the Chinese had calculated the value of pi more than 10 decimal places. 9.)Gunpowder first blew up iun Alchemist's furnace around 800Ad and was quickly put to military use. 10.)China's official name is People's Replubic of China (PRC). 11.)China's total population is more than 1,000,000,000 which makes up more than 1/5 of the world's population. 12.)China cover's 3.7 million square miles. 13.)China's three largest cities are Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. They are not part of any province. 14.)The Chinese language has more than 50,000 different words. 15.)The Chinese have problem's making typewriters. 16.)The Chinese read their books from top to bottom, and from right to left. 17.)Pottery is one of China's most famous kinds of arts. 18.)The Forbidden City is inside Imperial City. Imperial City is inside the Inner City. The Inner City is inside Peking. 19.)China is the third largest country in area after Russia and Canada. 20.)In 1949 communists took power of China. 21.)Ther are 3400 off shore islands. 22.)The earlist recorded history of China is 3500 years ago. 23.)The great paddlefish, giant panda, Chinese water deer and the salamander are in China, but extinct elsewhere. 24.)It is estimated that there are more than 35 cities in China with a population of more than one million. 25.)Mount Everest is 29,028 feet high and is the highest point on Earth. 26.)About 3/4 of all people are farmers. 27.)China has the world's oldest civilization. 28.)The Chinese invented gunpowder, paper, porcelain, and silk cloth. 29.)About 94% of China's population belong to the Han nationality. 30.)China has the biggest army, but not the strongest. 31.)The Great Wall of China was built to keep enemies out of China. It is about 4,000 miles long. 32.)The Peking Man lived in China about 500,000

Essay on Eating Disorder - Anorexia Nervosa :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Anorexia Nervosa There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention. There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister's volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin. Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight and they are preoccupied with the way that their bodies look. Anorexia sometimes involves use of laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Anorexics may show symptoms such as extreme weight loss for no medical reason. Also, many deny their hunger, chew excessively, choosing low calorie foods and exercising excessively (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health). Anorexics do all of those things to become thin, when in reality, it makes your body better at storing fat rather than burning it. Starving yourself to lose weight is not beautiful in any way. Starved bodies ache all of the time. Essay on Eating Disorder - Anorexia Nervosa :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics Anorexia Nervosa There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention. There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister's volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin. Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight and they are preoccupied with the way that their bodies look. Anorexia sometimes involves use of laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Anorexics may show symptoms such as extreme weight loss for no medical reason. Also, many deny their hunger, chew excessively, choosing low calorie foods and exercising excessively (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health). Anorexics do all of those things to become thin, when in reality, it makes your body better at storing fat rather than burning it. Starving yourself to lose weight is not beautiful in any way. Starved bodies ache all of the time.

Best Ways to Analyze Data in Order to Improve Decision-Making Essay

Descriptive Analysis: Defined as quantitatively describing the main features of a collection of information. Descriptive analysis are distinguished from inferential analysis (or inductive analysis), in that descriptive analysis aim to summarize a sample, rather than use the data to learn about the population that the sample of data is thought to represent. Two types of descriptive measures are: 1. Measures of central tendency: used to report a single piece of information that describes the most typical response to a question. 2. Measures of variability: used to reveal the typical difference between the values in a set of values. Two types of descriptive analysis are: 1. Univariate analysis: Univariate analysis involves describing the distribution of a single variable, including its central tendency (including the mean, median, and mode) and dispersion (including the range and quantiles of the data-set, and measures of spread such as the variance and standard deviation). 2. Bivariate analysis: Used when a sample consists of more than one variable. Bivariate analysis is not only simple descriptive analysis, but also it describes the relationship between two different variables. Descriptive statistics provides simple summaries about the sample and about the observations that have been made. In the business world, descriptive statistics provides a useful summary of many types of data. For example, investors and brokers may use a historical account of return behavior by performing empirical and analytical analyses on their investments in order to make better investing decisions in the future. Inferential Analysis: Used to generate conclusions about the population’s characteristics based on the sample data. For example to estimate the population mean weight using the sample mean weight. They can use inferential statistics to make judgments of the probability that an observed difference between groups is a dependable one or one that might have happened by chance. They can help in  fact-based management to drive favorable decision making. Differential Analysis: Defined as a technique in which evaluation is confined to only those factors which are different or unique among possible alternatives. Also called incremental analysis or relevant cost analysis. It usually involves four steps: 1. Compute all costs associated with each alternative. 2. Ignore the sunk costs. 3. Ignore costs that remain largely constant among the alternatives. 4. Select the alternative offering the best cost-to-benefit ratio. It’s important to note that differential analysis is a process that may be stretched beyond mere numbers. There could be intangible benefits to a certain decision that might eventually affect the business’ profits or even go beyond monetary gain. Predictive Analysis: Encompasses a variety of techniques that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future, or otherwise unknown, events. The approaches and techniques used to conduct predictive analytics can broadly be grouped into regression techniques and machine learning techniques. 1. Regression techniques: Regression models are the mainstay of predictive analytics. The focus lies on establishing a mathematical equation as a model to represent the interactions between the different variables in consideration. Depending on the situation, there is a wide variety of models that can be applied while performing predictive analytics. 2. Machine learning techniques: Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, was originally employed to develop techniques to enable computers to learn. Today, since it includes a number of advanced statistical methods for regression and classification, it finds application in a wide variety of fields including medical diagnostics, credit card fraud detection, face and speech recognition and analysis of the stock market. In certain applications it is sufficient to directly predict the dependent variable without focusing on the underlying relationships between variables.  In other cases, the underlying relationships can be very complex and the mathematical form of the dependencies unknown. For such cases, machine learning techniques emulate human cognition and learn from training examples to predict future events. In business, predictive models exploit patterns found in historical and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities. Models capture relationships among many factors to allow assessment of risk or potential associated with a particular set of conditions, guiding decision making for candidate transactions. They also help uncover hidden patterns and associations thus improving business outcomes.