Propaganda and War Document Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Propaganda and War Document Analysis - Essay Example At the end of the war, Russia withdrew its claims on the territories in the peninsular region and the Ottoman Empire maintained its sovereignty until the next war. However, there were severe casualties on either side: While over 220,000 died on the Russian side, total casualties of the French, English and Ottoman empires amounted to 375,000. It should be noted that the Allied forces began with more manpower than Russia – 1,000,000 as opposed to 720,000. The Crimean war has the distinction for being the first war that was covered exclusively by war correspondents. One among them was William Howard Russell; who wrote for the Times. The English public (the intended audience for the article in question) was kept informed of the day-to-day incidents at the war front. Towards the end of the war, there was widespread antagonism among the English public that culminated in several riots; the â€Å"Snowball riot† 1 the most famous among them. War correspondents like Russell, who travelled with the English forces and gave first hand accounts of their activities, were to a large extent responsible for the way the English public felt about the war – this2 was in part due to several tactical errors on the English, the ‘Charge of the light Brigade’ among them. ... ently in flowing praise for the English hence: â€Å"It was as much as our Heavy Cavalry Brigade could do to cover the retreat of the miserable remnants of that band of heroes as they returned to the place they had so lately quitted in all the pride of life. At thirty-five minutes past eleven not a British soldier, except the dead and dying, was left in front of these bloody Muscovite guns3†. Journalists by trade are expected to give as objective an account of the events as possible, but that this has not been possible since as long as the beginning of war correspondence is evident in these lines. It is however equally questionable whether the author portraits the enemy (the Russians) in any more monstrosity as a correspondent might do today. Further, the author has remained neutral in tone for the larger part of the article. However, it does seem that the author has the traditional English values of valour and courage in a battlefield. The English, being a people that have fo ught many wars have always been quick to praise and reward bravery in the face of death, particularly in the defence of the nation. At the beginning of the given article (itself a subtext of a more detailed account of the Battle of Balaclava) Russell point to the line of Turkish soldiers who run away at the sight of the enemy and remarks that he and the other soldiers observed this with â€Å"disgust†. He is profuse in praise for the generals who are willing to plunge into battle despite knowing that they are facing certain death. The narration is unlike the reports that we read today in newspapers, that tend to be objective and remain as factual as possible. The use of metaphoric language, poetic phrases, overly description of the geography of the land etc is unheard of in modern newspaper

The Cost Leadership Strategy

The Cost Leadership Strategy From his literature research, Porter found the complete framework of Porters Five Forces and Generic Strategies. The long development of Five Forces Analysis has brought to the fact that those forces become the determinants of the industrys competition. These five forces are treat of new entry, rivalry among existing firms, treat from substitute products, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers. Furthermore, five forces analysis is treated by the organization to measure the level of competition, besides that, it is used as a strong first step in understanding how one industry compares to another and also to determine industry profitability because they influence the prices, costs, and required investment of firm in an industry. In order to be competitive enough, a normal company that seeks profitability would have to understand how they work in its industry and how they affect the company in its particular situation. Therefore, Three Generic Strategies were implemented to establish a strategic agenda for dealing with these five forces. Porter (1980) proposes that if firms pursue any of his three recommended generic competitive strategies they will be able to outperform competitors who do not pursue such strategies. The recommended strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategy. Cost Leadership Strategy This type of strategy meant for organizations that has goal to achieve the overall lowest cost structure in an industry. This can be fulfilled through applying efficient business system in an organization. An efficient business system creates cost efficiencies and economic of scales to allow a firm to become the lowest-cost producer. Normally, economists believed that an increase in accumulated experience of a firm in producing or distributing a product or service could decrease the cost of producing or distributing a product or service. However, lowest-cost structure cannot be achieved by cutting the cost alone in one area of business; it demands a reduction in costs on all the departments. Cost leadership not only helps a firm to take down the competitors but also increase market share along with better profit margins. Furthermore, this strategy is believed to work best in the certain circumstances. Firstly, the cost leadership strategy can be applied when the price competition among rival sellers is especially strong. Secondly, the strategy is suitable for standardized product or readily available from other sellers in the industry. Thirdly, it works best when organization could have few ways to achieve product differentiation, so that buyers get very sensitive to price differences. Unfortunately, this strategy has weakness since it concerns cost reduction rather than quality of the product that leads to decline in the popularity. It is also supported by the fact that nowadays customers are really critical about the quality of the product that makes more customers choose quality rather than cost conscious. In addition, this strategy will become ineffective with an increase in overall cost of a firms production inputs. Automatically, an organization will find it hard to hold a cost advantage over a longer time in business environment that keeps changing rapidly. Differentiation Strategy Nowadays business environment is really competitive, marketers cannot achieve its goals unless they hold some differential advantage over their rivals. In recent years, much attention has been committed by the marketers to maintain specific competencies; uniqueness could be a strength that makes an organization looks better from its competitors in the eyes of customers. Therefore, uniqueness can be used in gaining a competitive advantage. Obviously, the distinctive competencies also bring incremental value to the market offering when compared to the other offerings to the customers. In consequence, an organization must use different sources of differentiation at different times to build an importance image to its customers. For examples, better features and quality, efficient distribution, research and development, better image of product or service, and also the most important improved customer services. Marketers have realized how customer services could create the business image a nd also build the strong relationships with customers. In the opinion of Thompson and Strickland (1999, cited et Sahaf, 2008) differentiation strategies work best in the some markets circumstances where there are many ways to differentiate the companys offerings from that of rivals and many buyers perceive these differences as having value. In addition, it is also match with the market where buyer needs and uses of the item or service are diverse, few rival firms are following a similar differentiation approach, and technological chance is fast-paced and competition revolves around evolving product features. Although differentiation strategy looks perfect but it also gives some challenges to the organization to complete it. Firstly, it is a difficult task to identify the sources of differentiation that are important for the customers and difficult for the competitors to copy. This task is time consuming and not suitable to the business environment that rapidly changes. Secondly, many of people still prefer to buy low-priced products or services over the products that have desirable features since people have mindset why they should purchase the more expensive one if that the products do not give any incremental value for the customers in a firms market offering. Focus Strategy Focus strategy as suggested by Porter (1985, cited et Sahaf, 2008 ) is based upon the choice of a narrow competitive scope within an industry. By attempting this strategy, it means the organization tries to focus on a particular market segment and to achieve its objective by becoming the market leader in a niche market. The segment may be a group of customers that differentiated by ages and sex. It is believed that an organization can be more efficient and effective by focusing its efforts to a narrow target rather than broad target. Accordingly, this strategy has objective to employ either cost leadership strategy or differentiation strategy to a part of market. A cost focus strategy aims to lowering the prices of the product or service by controlling costs in a narrow target market. For example, a firm is able to be the low cost producer in only one product line. Meanwhile, a differentiation focus strategy means striving to tailor made products to the specific needs of the market s egment. Thus such a strategy could utilize some element of differences of firms market offering to a narrow market segment. For example, a firm may employ its distinctive competencies to focus on one or a few target markets. Thompson and Strickland (1999 cited Sahaf, 2008 ) added that focus strategy will be useful enough to apply on the following circumstances. Firstly, it works best when it has no other rival is attempting to specialize in the same target segment, added with the fact that is quite hard for multi-segment competitors to meet the specialized needs of the target market niche. This strategy also fits when a firm does not have sufficient resources or capabilities to go after a bigger piece of the total market so focus strategy will work well on this situation when it concerns on one market segment. Although the focus strategy looks popular among the organization over past decade, there are some risks that need to be considered if a organization commits to this strategy. Firstly, by focusing only to narrow target, the organization doesnt entitle to enjoy the benefits of the economy of scale that generally occurs in the wide target. Other risks come from the fact that the success of focus strategy over last few years has been attracting many rivals who may think to join the industry that resulting in an increase in the strength of competition. It is believed that an organization not only needs to have entire knowledge about the events and happenings in the industry but also requires choosing among the above mentioned three generic strategies in order to ensure a better marketing performance. Different strategies suggested by Porters generic model call for different organizational systems and capabilities. For example, organizations with adequate resources and good controlling systems may prefer to engage cost leadership and a firm with strong Research and Development facilities may get better results through differentiation strategy. Whereas a small firm with poor resources and inadequate RD facilities may be better off by serving niche markets, therefore, will be more comfortable with focus strategy. three generic strategies.jpg Relationship between Porters Generic Strategies Analysis and Industry Forces The three generic strategies suggested by Porter can be effectively utilised to defend against competitive forces in the business environment. The industry forces take the form of competitive rivalry, barriers to entry, threat of substitutes, buyer power and supplier power. The relationship will be explained below. 1. Competitive Rivalry Competitive rivalry or also called the competition among existing competitors takes many familiar action such as price discounting, launching new product, advertising campaigns, and service improvements. The competitive rivalry signs that it will limit the profitability of an industry because the cost of competition will tend to increase. Highly competitive rivalry normally occurs when the industry is a mature, growth slowly and the players that take part into the competition also have the same strength or size. The only way that company can expand or increase the market share is by attracting the customers so that customers could be commit and loyal. In such situation, the benefits of a cost leadership strategy would be that competitiveness in price. For example, Southwest Airlines Company offers low cost air fare to the customers by eliminating some features or services such as no meals on the board, no assigned seats, interline baggage checking, or premium classes of service. Thus, price tells everything that normally people who want to save cost will go for the lower price. Besides that, Southwests frequent departures and low fares attract price-sensitive customers who used to travel by bus or car, and convenience-oriented travellers who would choose a full-service airline on other routes. This is a proof that cost leadership strategy can be implemented in this type of industry, and resulting in good benefits to the companies. However, as competitors pay high attention to price, cost leadership strategy may not be a favourable as all companies would apply the same strategy too and it ends up by reducing their price dramatically. As such situation, differentiation strategy may give better opportunity to the company because it would able to retain loyal customers and they may stay with the company. The reason why it could retain some loyal customers is the task may seems hard to accomplish for competitors to cope with specialised needs of customers who are part of a niche segment in the market. For the example at here is Starbucks, is a well know coffee company that is differentiated by top of the line image and reputation of twin-tailed mermaid. Starbucks spends a lot of time and energy differentiating itself from the competition such as its design of coffee shops, the music played there and the types of products it sells, such as tumbler, coffee-brewing equipment and jazz CDs. As for focus strategy, companies have the benefits of keeping the differentiation-customers needs so that their rivals are not able to bet them. It cant be denied that companies who applying such strategy have the possibility to charge a premium price for superior quality or may be offering low price product to a small and special group of buyers. Companies like Chanel, Gucci, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts make use of successful differentiation-based focused strategies targeted at wealthy buyers wanting high quality of products and services with world-class attributes. 2. Barriers to Entry Industries that have potential ability to be profitable could attract the outsiders ( companies that dont involve in the particular industry) because there is chance of entering the industry and taking a part in the profit making. New entrants may create the competition, since it has targeted for the same customers that will lead to higher levels of marketing, sales, and promotional expenses by all competitors as the requirements for differentiation continually increase. If a company employing any one of the three strategies would find it easy to create barriers for new entrants. The barriers that cost leadership strategy could offer is economies of scale. It may be considered as one of the barriers. In some industries a companys ability to compete will based on whether it can produce its product or service at a cost that is low enough to offer low competitive price. The experience that company gain for over the years cant be defeated easily for new entrants to compete on price. For example, economies of scales can be found in practically every activity in the value chain; which ones are most important varies by industry. In microprocessors, incumbents such as Intel are protected by scale economies in research, chip fabrication, and consumer marketing. Intel has been dominating the market for a long time and it really difficult for a new entrant to enter because it will require large capital. For differentiation strategy, it is an advantage to the company who adopt this strategy because normally those companies have huge amount of loyal customers toward the companys brand. Thus by knowing this fact, it could discourage the potential entrants to enter the industry. For the instance take the trend of smartphone industry all over the world. This smartphone industry involves three major players that are Blackberrys Research In Motion (RIM), Googles Android, and Apples Iphone. New entrants do not dare to enter the market because they worry whether they are able to compete with the existing players. In addition, also companies that employing the focus strategy over time often develop an understanding through research of their customers preferences, which is a very difficult task for a potential entrant. By doing this way, focus strategy can act as an entry barrier too. 3. Threat of Substitutes Substitutes could have two effects on industry competition and profitability. First, the substitutes products establish a maximum price for products and services in the industry; exceeding the maximum would prompt customers to move to the substitute products that are available. Second, substitutes can shape the competition in an industry to rise their marketing and promotional efforts to stem the outflow of customers. Automatically, it gives pressure to the competitors in the industry to keep the prices as low as possible and to spend more much fund to attract and retain customers, which can depress sales and profits in the industry. For the example, downloading mp3 music to the mp3 player compared to buying CDs in music stores. In order to survive or fight this force, company could apply the cost leadership strategy that aims lower price production against the substitutes. Selling price is one of factors that influence the customers decision whether to purchase the product or service or just switch to the substitutes. Take IKEA as an example, IKEA offers the furniture style at low cost to the customers who are happy to do self service rather than employing a salesman. Furthermore, customers are expected to do their own pickup and delivery so that it helps cutting the selling price of the products. By doing so, IKEA can compete with its substitituttes and retain the customer loyalty. Other than cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy may also be considered as the method to eliminate or minimize these threats of substitutes. If the companies offer products that are differentiated which have no substitute product, it will minimize the threat. For the example, pharmaceutical companies that offer patented drugs with distinctive medical benefits have more power over health maintenance organizations, hospitals, clinics, and other drug buyers such as drug companies. Also by applying differentiation-focused strategies, it does effectively reduce the threat of substitutes. Threat of substitutes is reduced in case of the differentiation-focused strategy due to customer loyalty to the unique aspects of a particular product or service. Again we can take IKEA as an example at this strategy; IKEA has differentiated its marketing strategy on how to attract the young customers. IKEAs marketing concept its unique and not offered in other furniture companies. IKEA displays every product it sells in room-like settings, so customers dont need a decorator to help them imagine how to put the pieces together. And every product has a tag that explains the product materials, size, and price. 4. Buyer Power In the business world, buyers play the main role in the existence of the organization. As we know, buyers action will affect the profitability of the industrys competitors with their purchase choices. The profitability levels in any industry come from the bargaining power that buyers have in purchasing services and products offered. Buyers may affect profitability by demanding that competitors spend money to deliver other valued dimensions such as improved product quality, extended payment terms, promotional support, and other services. Buyers can be said powerful if they have the ability to negotiate leverage relative to industry players, especially if they are price sensitive, using their influences primarily to pressure price reductions. Nevertheless, the buyers power is able to change because it depends with the three generic strategies. Company might attract the large and powerful buyer if the company adopting cost leaders because it has the distinctive capability to offer lower price options to that kind of buyers. It is a benefit to the company to be a cost leader in the industry, one of the benefits is to get customers trust and confidence to the company. Hence, the company can maintain its competitive advantage in the market as other rivals would not able to get strong and powerful buyers. On the contrary, companies employing the differentiation and focus strategies would have a different scenario. It means that buyers in case of these two strategies would have less power as there are few alternatives available to them. For the example, the buyers of Windows operating system for computer or laptop, produced by Microsoft have much less power due to the fact there are not many other alternatives available to them. Even, there is alternative, it is not common to use since people are comfortable using the Windows operating system. Thus, Microsoft not only maintains it competitive but also controlling the market of this industry that actually created the monopoly market. 5. Supplier Power Generally, suppliers that are called powerful will keep more of the value for themselves by charging higher prices, restricting quality or services, or shifting costs to industry participants. In addition, powerful suppliers can press profitability out of an industry that is unable to pass on cost increases in its own prices. At this case, again Microsoft could be a good example; it has contributed to the erosion of profitability among personal computer (PC) producers by increasing prices on operating systems. Definitely, the industry of PC is competing extremely for customers who can easily switch among the producers. As a result, PC producers at this situation have limited freedom to increase their prices. If the supplier has a significant impact on a companys profitability, then it hold substantial power. For example, there is no substitute for what the supplier group provides, the suppliers would have major power and control in the industry. Pilots unions, for example, exercise considerable supplier power over airlines partly because there is no good alternative to a well-trained pilot in the cockpit. Thus, it proves that such companies would have ability to pass the price increases of suppliers to their final customers, through the premium pricing strategy in the scenario of differentiation and focus/niche strategies. What makes differentiation and focus strategy different is the low volume that owned by employing focus strategy even though the firm that applying differentiation-focused strategy is able to pass on supplier price increases easily. Meanwhile in the case of cost leadership strategy, they are isolated from powerful supplier. It normally occurs in the industry that suppliers have essential customer. Hence, suppliers profitability will be closely tied to the industry, and they will want to protect the industry through reasonable pricing and assistance in activities like RD and lobbying (Porter, 1979). . Read more: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/housing/industry-forces-and-generic-strategies.php#ixzz2B36ZAXOp http://www.marketingteacher.com/image/content/five_forces.gif , http://www.managementstudyguide.com/porters-model-of-competetion.htm

Good Sites For King Arthur :: Web Internet Essays

Good Sites For King Arthur The key to finding useful information on the Web is to know which websites are the most useful and informative. The best services that offer information on the King Arthur legends are "King Arthur" at http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html, "Explorations in the History and Legends of Arthur" at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4186/Arthur/htmlpages/kingartur.html , and "The Camelot Project" at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm. These websites are among the best. They offer biographies on the Arthurian characters, full texts on some of the legends and information analyzing the characters of Arthur from historical and legendary points of view. The "King Arthur" page at http:// www.britannia.com/history/h12.html, is a good source to discover some truths about Arthur and his existence. The site asks: was Arthur a king, a general or just a myth? In addition to historical information about the fifth century, the site includes, in the Arthurian chronology, information about the legends of Arthur that has developed in literature that has been written through the years. It also includes biographies of characters in the Arthurian legends. In addition, this site offers links to outside sources about King Arthur and his legends. One such link is the "Explorations in the History and Legends of Arthur" at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4186/Arthur/htmlpages/kingarthur.html, which is one of the best sources on Arthur because it explores both the popular and scholarly conceptions of King Arthur and his legends. For example, it answers frequently asked questions in historical and legendary contexts. Some of the questions that is asks are: was Guinevere really an adulteress? Was Excalibur, a sword, really in the stone? Was Gawain a great knight or a royal pain? It is very informative about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight offering a full text and a character analysis of Gawain. Lastly, it offers biographies on every single character in the Arthurian history and legends under the links called â€Å"The People of the History† and â€Å"The People of the Legends.† Another source of exceptional information about Arthurian Legends is "The Camelot Project" at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm, which is a comprehensive reference site offering original texts, images, bibliographies and basic information. The Main Menu lists Arthurian characters, symbols, and sites. Students may move from any of the highlighted elements to a sub-menu of basic information, complete texts, images, and a bibliography about that subject. For example, choosing the highlighted word â€Å"Gawain† will lead the viewer to a list of texts written about Sir Gawain such as: "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and many more.

Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is unarguably one of the most controversial contemporary English novelist. His novelistic sensibility is individualistic and entrepreneurial, making him a literary risk-taker even at the age of 58. He hates all orthodoxies-religious as well as literary. His literary iconoclasm has won him a distinguished place in pantheons of worlds contemporary writers. Whereas his religious iconoclasm has made him an infamous figure amongst the Muslims worldwide. He stands for free speech in writings. His novels are often political statements. ‘The Satanic Verses’ brought this Indian born Muslim uthor violent ire from Muslim world. The novel was interpreted as blasphemous and an insult to prophet Muhammad. Overnight Rushdie became an iconoclast for his blasphemy. It was the first instant in modern times that a government had issued a death sentence ‘ fatwa, in Islamic fashion’ to a foreign national. And the censorship on this novel by the Islamic c ountries caused much international diplomatic crisis. The Western and the Muslim world was now culturally divided. The core value of ‘ freedom of expression ‘ was pitted against the ‘intolerance for insult to Prophet. Muhammad’ , the messiah of Muslims. The novels of Salman Rushdie evoked much controversy even before The Satanic Verses. Rushdie as a writer played the role of an ‘antagonist to the state. ’ Many have called Rushdie an intellectual who criticizes or ridicules nearly everything. It is this intellectual daring that offends and embitters people. His books attack and revile the Gandhis and modern India, the leadership in Pakistan,American foreign policy,fundamentalist Islam and Britain et al . He critisizes the West for their social, cultural and political colonialism. His ttacks come with his charecteristic non-chalance, typical of him. If Rushdies views are to be interpreted, ‘ insults’ are justified as a part of artistic freedom which should ensure liberty to ‘offend’ cherished beliefs. Rushdie is a self-confessed aposta te. This further provokes the ire of Muslim clerics. This essay begins by assuming that ‘intellectualism’ is not an end in itself and therefore should be sensitized to the needs of global audience. Reason in art should not evoke passions, else, it shall defeat it’s own purpose. An artists reason should be in harmony with his own passion for art. In ‘Kahlil Gibran’s’ words , a man’s reason and passion are the rudder and sails of the seafaring soul. If either of them is broken he can but toss and drift or be at standstill in mid-seas. There is even a school of thought advocating ‘Art for art’s sake’. Politicizing art has it’s own perils . A political statement made through a literary or artistic work in truth further divides the society. History is replete with examples of civil unrest caused when artist makes a political statement through his work of art. Hence, the people are ‘right to be offended’ by Rushdies novels. However, Rushdies novels have often offended people because of misinterpretation or rumors. He has been considered to be siding with the West instead of the Islamic Orientalists. The language of the book ‘ English’ was a matter controversy. His novels have been considered to be based upon flights of literary imagination, subjectivity and unscientific facts. Hence there have been numerous complaints about the novels inaccuracies; lack of critical appraisals and historical research. The Muslim world limits free speech as a part of it’s religious ethics and ethos. They are not yet prepared for he concept of free speech and blasphemy against religion. The gulf between the Christian West and Muslim Middle-East remains and has Historical roots mentioned in the holy books like Bible and Qur’an. Hence any artistic work by an individual iconoclast might be considered as a war propaganda of America and Britain against Islam. What adds fuel to this fire is that despit e the passionate protests by the Muslim world many Western governments didn’t ban The Satanic Verses. The Western media widened the gulf between the Muslim protesters and Rushdies supporters. Far from peace making efforts it spiced the affair. Rushdie earned $ 2 million USD in the first year of publication of ‘The Satanic Verses’. The ‘ Fatwa’ ,bans and international protests only gave Rushdie more publicity. The public got the much wanted spice. The West has become immune to taboo and sacrilege. Blasphemy is nothing new. Many controversial and dangerous works of art are freely available in the West. Blasphemy against Jesus doesn’t shock the West anymore. The Nazi holocaust portrayed in many films sells defying controversies. There is much cynicism in the West. Perhaps a consequence of too much progress with materialism. Consequentially, there is utter disregard to human sensitivities. The West just can not understand the cultural apparatus in which the Muslims are brought up. Islam is most sacred to them. Satanic Verses thus caused hurt and anger to the Muslims. The media too turned away from the Muslims during and after the Rushdie Affair. Muslims felt estranged and isolated. The West gauges other societies with their ability to assimilate into their own society. Muslims were portrayed as narrow- minded ‘fanatics’ and ‘fundamentalists’ because they were ‘anti-democratic’ and ‘anti- liberal’. After the Rushdie Affair the anti-Islamic sentiment was reborn in the West. The anti-Islamic tradition has been depicted in Western literature even in the Medieval period. Rushdie offended the Muslims with direct derogatory references to Prophet Mohammad and his companions. The texts in his novel ‘ The Satanic references ‘ cast aspersion on the chastity of the supremely revered prophet Muhammad. He rebukes the Muslim society to the extent of calling it Jahil ( Ignorant). Western critiques use their own yardsticks to measure Muslim reactions and literary attacks on them. Muslims have been ontinually offended by Rushdie. Adding insult to injury his publishing company, Random House, announced publishing a new paperback edition of The Satanic Verses on April the 7th 1998; the day Muslims celebrate Eid Ul-Adha, the holiest day of the Islamic calendar ( Abdul Adil's article ‘Rushdie Provokes Muslims', The Muslim News, 24th April 1998). Rushdies adventures with the pen don’t end up with ‘The Satanic Verses’. He paints a dismal and grotesque picture of Pakistan. Many orthodox patriotic Pakistani Muslims would protest it. He describes Pakistan as being caught between bscurity and march towards modernism. In the novel ‘Shame’ he makes a mockery of the political turmoil, military coups, corruption and censorship on art in Pakistan. In his characteristic style he chooses the characters of his novels based upon real life political figures. He writes political satires that insensitively ridicule these political figures and the political establishments themselves. In ‘The Moor’s Last Sigh’ Salman Rushdie lashes at Hindu fanaticism. Rushdies ‘Hindu fanatic character’ is convinced of eliminating Muslims from India. Bombay bursts into flames of communal riots. He comments Bombay is no more the city of his youth days – the bustling metropolis. He now describes it as a city of religious fanatics and mafia dons. The book is about the countries departing from harmless and innocent way of life. In the novel the downfall of a family portrays the downfall of a nation. The Rushdie compares Hindu fundamentalism with the Nazi racist ideology justifying minority genocide. Rise in Hindu fervor, popularly known as ‘the saffron surge’ can be considered as a representation of a Hindu political stance. His comparative analysis with Nazism in World War –2 Germany is taking things a little bit too far. This might offend many Hindu conservatives. In this way Rushdie exaggerates the spurt in Hindu activism to the extent of being destructive to India as a secular nation. In ‘Midnight’s Children’ he accuses Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India of assuring the Hindu majority vote by appropriating the images of Hindu Goddesses. He accuses right wing Hindu’s of distorting History and accuses them of taking revenge from History. He criticizes all political parties in India on some or the other ground and spares none. Conclusion : Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the people are right in being offended by Rushdies novels. He doesn’t censor his own flamboyant spirit as a writer. His personal dislikes bias his literary works. Iconoclasm should be ventured if it is tolerable. Rushdies daring intellectual attacks in his literary works reflect his insensitivity towards peoples core beliefs. What offends people even more is that he doesn’t regret the damage that people assume he causes. Perhaps he is too ahead of the people in time. A fact that he himself doesn’t realize. The gulf between the liberal West and the predominantly Oriental. East can’t be bridged overnight. Especially not with a few strokes of the pen. In an ideological conflict between these two rival parties other groups with vested interests make gains. For example : the Western media, the oil companies etc. 9/11 and it’s aftermath have heightened the tension and sensitivity in the relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this scenario his novels could be even more offensive. They could act as catalysts and trigger violent protests. The 9/11 terrorist attack has once again opened the wounds and the scars left by crusades in the course of History. Rushdie is anti-establishment. He has to take this stance as he is by nature against all orthodoxies. His works are political statements in themselves. The political satires he writes win him political ire. He makes rivals not only out of individuals and groups but also out of political establishments. Even the purpose of his intellectual activity, journey and destination are unknown. Sheer intellectual activity leads nowhere. Intellect is like a knife that cuts both ways. It hurts both the parties. The sea of life can be crossed only in an arc of faith.

Othello – Trust and Betrayal

English Assignment In this image, Othello and Desdemona are sharing a passionate moment of love after being re-united in Cyprus. Both are wearing white garments; a symbol of purity, and framed in a black background. Othello’s white uniform contrasts with the colour of his skin accentuating his smiling feature, strength and regal stature. In the darkness behind them is the watching figure of Iago who is smirking. Othello calls her â€Å"My soul’s joy† which describes the depth of his love that Desdemona is intrinsic to his whole being.He adds â€Å"If after every tempest comes such calms/ May the winds blow till they have wakened death†. This ironic comment foreshadows the horrific fate that awaits them both. Desdemona replies â€Å"The heavens forbid/ But that our loves and comforts should increase/ Even as our days do grow†. This highlights her religious convictions and the sanctity of their union. This image explores the idea that Othello feels in finite love for Desdemona which later transforms into infinite rage and hatred through the jealousy created by the scheming Iago.Even at this moment, Iago is formulating his plan to convince Roderigo that Desdemona will soon â€Å"Begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor† and therefore leave the way open for Desdemona to take another lover. This is how he maintains Roderigo’s hopes for being with Desdemona and thus, can continue to trick Roderigo into handing him all of his money and jewels. Image of Kenneth Brannargh and Lawrence Fishberne *The first image on the sheet but it would not copy across* This image explores the relationship between Othello and Iago.Iago is to the side of Othello whispering into his left ear (the sinnister side) and it looks as if Iago is the demon on Othello’s shoulder. The lighting used has created a shadow over half of Othello’s face. This shadow represents Othello’s dark side which is revealed when he m urders Desdemona in act 5. His aggressive expression foreshadows grim events as he is hearing the news of Desdemona’s infidelity. This image also represents Iago’s manipulative character and through this, shows Othello’s naivety.Iago has already stated his position as a destructive force for Othello’s life. He has used animalistic and racist imagery to deter Brabantio from allowing the relationship to continue. He calls out to Brabantio â€Å"An old black ram is tupping your white ewe†. This voices the patriarchy’s deep fear. Brabantio is a senator and thus represents hereditary class and power and the fact that his daughter has married a black man destroys his status and power in society. Iago is determined to utterly destroy Othello.He leaves Roderigo stating â€Å"Though I do hate him as I do hell pains/ Yet for necessity of present life I must show out a flag and sign of love†. Iago hates Othello and uses the promotion of Cassio a s a justification for his actions. Iago builds up the doubt in Othello’s mind firstly by playing on Othello’s status as an outsider in Venetian society. He plans also to destroy Cassio at the same time â€Å"In double knavery† by suggesting â€Å"That he (Cassio) is too familiar with his (Othello’s) wife†.Iago begins by giving Othello advice that he (Othello) is unfarmiliar with Venetian women and that it is common to have an affair. His next step is to plant the idea that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers. As Othello becomes weakened by Iago’s innuendos, Iago becomes more specific in his proofs, blantantly lying about Cassio’s behaviour. It would seem that success has been achieved when Othello no longer uses celestial imagery to describe his inner state and like Iago, uses profane animalistic images to express his thoughts.After Iago has confronted Othello with the handkercheif, Othello says â€Å"Now, by yond marble heaven, in due r everence of a sacred vow/ I here engage my words†. This changes after Iago puts the idea of killing Desdemona into Othello’s head by saying â€Å"But let her live† to which Othello replies â€Å"Damn her, lewd minx! †. The key idea of the play is the tragic undermining of the heroic and princely Othello by the manipulation and action of evil represented by Iago.

Performance Management Essay Example

Performance Management Essay Example Performance Management Essay Performance Management Essay Overall It was recognized that performance problems were not being addressed, and tough pressure from competitors was increasing the costs of managing human performance ineffectively. Finally, Network Solutions, Inc. Wanted to improve its ability to meet its organizational goals and realized that one way of doing this would be to ensure that they were linked to each employees goals. Given this situation, In 2001 Network solutions CEO announced that he wanted to Implement a forced distribution performance management system in which a set percentage of employees was classified in each of several categories: Rating 1 to top 20% of performers Rating 2 to middle 70% of performers Rating 3 to bottom 10% of performers A global cross divisional HER team was put In place to design and implement the new system The first task of design team was to build a business case of the new system by showing that if organizational strategy was carried down to team contributions and team contributions were translated into individual goals, then business goals would be met. Individual performance objectives were aligned with organizational goals by focusing on the development of all employees. Desired outcomes of new system Raising performance level of all employees Identifying and retaining top talent Identifying low performer and improving their performance Performance expectations for all employees to be clear Before implementing the program, the design team received the support of senior leadership by communicating that performance management system was the future of network solutions Next, the design team encouraged the senior leaders to stop the development and use of any other performance management system and explained the need for standardization of performance management across all divisions. Finally, the designed team asked senior leaders to promote the new program by Involving employees In training of talent management and by assessing any needs In their divisions that would not be addressed by the new system. Network solutions global performance management cycle consisted AT Toweling process: 1. Goal cascading and team building 2. Performance planning 3. Development planning 4. Ongoing discussions and updates between managers and employees 5. Annual performance summary Training resources were made available on network solutions intranet for managers and individual contributors, including access to all necessary forms. In addition to raining available on intranet, 1 to 2 hours conference calls took place before each phase of program was begun Today, part of training associated with the performance management system revolves around the idea that the development planning phase of the system is the Joint year-round responsibility of managers and employees. Managers are responsible for: Scheduling meetings Guiding employees on preparing for meetings Finalizing all development plans Individual contributors are responsible for: Documenting Development plans Both manager and employees are responsible for: Preparing for meetings Filling out development planning preparation forms Attending the meeting As noted, in the Network solutions system employees are given a rating of 1, 2 or 3. Individual ratings are determined by the execution of annual objectives and Job requirements as well as by a comparison rating of others at a similar level at Network Solutions. Rating 3 The lowest rating, have a specified time period to improve their performance. If their performance does improve, then they are released from the plan, but they are not eligible for stock options or salary increases. If performance does not improve, they an take a severance package and leave the company or they can start on a performance improvement plan, which has more rigorous expectations and time lines than did the original action plan. If performance does not improve after the second period, they are terminated without a severance package. Rating 2 Receive average to high salary increases, stock options and bonuses. Rating 1 Receive the highest salary increases, stock options and bonuses. These individuals are also treated as high potential employees and given extra development opportunities by their managers. The company also makes significant efforts to retain al individuals who receive a rating of 1. Looking to the future, HER Centers of Expertise of Network Solutions continue to educate employees about system to ensure that they understand that Network Solutions still rewards good performance; they are Just measuring it in a different way than in the past. There is also a plan to monitor for and correct any unproductive practices and implement correcting policies and practices. To do this, Network Solutions plans on continued checks with all stakeholders to ensure that the performance management system is serving its intended purpose. QUESTIONS IQ . Overall, what is overlap between Network Solutions system and an ideal system? Q. What are the features of the system implemented at Network Solutions that correspond to what was described as ideal characteristics? Which of the ideal characteristics are missing? Q. Based on the description of the system at Network Solutions, what do you anticipate will be some advantages and positive outcomes resulting from the implementation of the system? Q. Based on the description of the system at Network Solutions, what do you anticipate will be some disadvantages and negative outcomes resulting from the

The Anti Oppressive Theory In Social Work Social Work Essay Essay Example

The Anti Oppressive Theory In Social Work Social Work Essay Essay Example The Anti Oppressive Theory In Social Work Social Work Essay Paper The Anti Oppressive Theory In Social Work Social Work Essay Paper Anti-oppressive theory and pattern in societal work seeks foremost to recognize oppressionA in communities, societies, and civilizations, and thenceforth to extinguish the force per unit area and undo the sway of such subjugation. Anti-oppressive pattern is by and big understood to be an omnibus term that includes, but is non limited to, diverse pattern attacks like feminist, anti-racist, critical, extremist, and structural models. Anti-oppressive societal work bases as such for a assortment of theories and patterns that adopt the position of societal justness. It should therefore more suitably be considered to be a position or stance toward pattern instead than a pattern attack. Dominelli ( 1998 ) perceives anti-oppressive societal work to be a type of societal work pattern that searches for societal barriers and structural inequalities in activities that are conducted with service users or workers. Anti-oppressive pattern attempts to offer more suited, antiphonal and perceptive services by responding to the demands of persons without sing their societal position. Dominelli ( 1998 ) feels that it represents a individual oriented doctrine and an classless system of values that is concerned with decreasing the deadly consequences of structural inequalities upon the lives of people. It is a methodological analysis that focuses both on procedures and on results and is an attack of structuring relationships between individuals that strives to authorise users by decreasing the inauspicious consequences of hierarchy during their interaction with each other and the activities they do together. Social workers need to reenforce their abilities and attitudes for the behavior of anti-oppressive pattern in many ways. Dalrymple and Burke ( 1995 ) province that societal workers should obtain cognition and apprehension of their ain egos, the bulk societal systems, different groups and civilizations, and of cardinal human rights in order to efficaciously confront issues on personal and structural degrees and prosecute anti-oppressive patterns. This short survey takes up the demand of societal workers to go cognizant of and familiar with human rights and assorted cultural issues, particularly those relevant to their service users, in order to prosecute in effectual anti-oppressive pattern. Particular accent is given in the survey to domestic force against adult females of cultural and immigrant communities in Ireland, many of whom face physical and mental maltreatment in their families, even as they otherwise suffer from the prejudiced attitudes and behavior of people of mainstream and dominant communities. Cooking Social Workers for Anti-oppressive Practice Oppression is basically entrenched in society for the maintaining of its unequal position quo. Contemporary societal workers are sing the alone development of an anti-oppression attack that is bit by bit replacing long-established societal work theoretical accounts of single rehabilitation and self fulfillment. The verbalization and mounting edification of the anti- subjugation attack has been and continues to be well influenced by cultural, feminist, cheery and sapphic, disablement, and other societal motions. The demand to dispute inequality is an of import driver of anti-oppressive pattern, even as it is of import to recognize that all challenges may non be successful and moreover be distressing for the individual or group who are disputing and those who are being challenged. Anti-oppressive pattern obviously draws from a societal theoretical account of difference. It builds on societal constructionist theoretical accounts of differences, racial, cultural, gendered, and others, wh ich are created within the context of unequal societal power relationships. It therefore strongly argues for the development of pattern that confronts, challenges, and alters unequal constructions at all degrees. An of import dimension of disputing inequality concerns the edifice of self-awareness and apprehension of how the societal location of the societal worker influences the communicating between the worker and the persons or groups who are being challenged. The pattern of reflecting and thought is intrinsic to the anti-oppressive manner. Dominelli ( 2002, p 9 ) argues that cognition of oneself helps in fiting persons for set abouting anti-oppressive undertakings. Self-knowledge, for Dominelli, is cardinal to the scope of accomplishments required of a brooding practician. Social workers, to be successful in anti-oppressive pattern, should be able to critically reflect on their ain egos in pattern and on the ways in which their lifes influence their pattern relationships. The ability to critically measure the experiences of subjugation of service users requires them to analyze the ways in which personal, cultural and structural issues and processes manner the troubles that service users b ring up with service bureaus. An apprehension of human rights and assorted cultural issues, experts feel, can besides assist them significantly in cognizing their ain egos, gaining the impact every bit good as the grounds for continuation of subjugation in modern twenty-four hours society, and in turn toing such issues. Human Rights and Cultural Issues Anti-oppressive pattern, with its focal point on decrease of all signifiers of societal inequality, is closely associated with the conveying about of societal justness. Much of modern twenty-four hours oppressive activity goes against the dogmas of societal justness and concerns the undermining, denying or taking off of cardinal human rights of persons or groups of people. Human rights constitute the basicss on which modern twenty-four hours society has developed in the station Second World War epoch. Whilst human rights have increasingly developed over centuries, widespread consciousness about them grew merely after the 1940s in the wake of the holocaust atrociousnesss and the death of colonialism. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 by the United Nations was a measure taken by the planetary fraternity to guarantee that human rights would non be compromised in future by the actions of people, groups or provinces. Such rights include the right to life and belongings, the right of look, the right to security from favoritism and the right to protection from physical and mental injury. Oppression however continues to happen in societies across the universe, and frequently with the tacit of open support of assorted authoritiess that signed the UN declaration and thenceforth legislated to protect human rights in their ain states. Whilst subjugation and authorization in societal work pattern do associate to conveying about of societal justness, they do non stipulate minimum and cardinal demands for human being. This compels societal workers to see persons who have to set up for themselves when they are denied human rights by dominant powers. Social workers who are familiar with human rights can nevertheless readily and efficaciously use human rights positions to descry misdemeanors. They can see state of affairss of subjugation and favoritism as fortunes in which assorted infrastructural and legal resources can be applied for effectual riddance of subjugation or negation of its impact. The consciousness of human rights and acceptance of human rights positions can assist societal workers to border fortunes refering subjugation into those of misdemeanors of rights, thereby doing authoritiess and citizens accountable for turn toing and deciding such misdemeanors. Domestic force, favoritism and unequal instruction therefore become cases of misdemeanor instead than of unequal satisfaction of demands. Social workers with human rights positions can use greater force to the challenging of unjust resource distribution, inequality and subjugation. Awareness about the civilization of service users and the differences that exist between the civilizations of societal workers and different service users can besides assist societal workers on understanding different ways of subjugation, particularly so in groups like immigrants or cultural minorities, whose civilizations are immensely different from members of the dominant groups. Culture represents the integrated and distinguishable forms of behaviors, including ideas, values, beliefs, imposts and actions of racial, spiritual, cultural, or societal groups. It is considered to be the entirety of ways that is passed through coevalss and includes ways in which persons with disablements or individuals from different spiritual or cultural backgrounds experience their environments. With the chief mission of societal workers being the sweetening of wellbeing and assisting to fulfill cardinal human demands of individuals who are hapless, vulnerable, and oppressed, they can better their pattern effectiveness significantly by understanding and going sensitive to cultural diverseness and singularity. The acquisition of such cognition can assist societal workers in understanding the kernel of societal diverseness and subjugation with respect to race, cultural background, national beginning, age, sex, sexual orientation and physical or mental disablement. Such cognition and apprehension can assist in the accomplishment of cultural competency and enable them to incorporate and transform their cognition of individuals and groups of people into specific attitudes and patterns. Whilst the development of cultural competence is of import for societal workers, the diverse backgrounds of service users, particularly in urban locations, make this procedure hard and disputing. Oppression and Domestic Violence against Women Domestic force against adult females consequences straight from the inequalities between work forces and adult females. It denies adult females their really basic homo rights, i.e. the right to wellness and undermines the development of communities and societies. General factors like marginalization and poorness and specific facets like race or ethnicity, consequence in some adult females going more vulnerable to domestic force. Whilst work forces besides face domestic force, the lower societal position of adult females, particularly in certain communities and civilizations exposes them to greater hazard, even as the figure of incidences of domestic force against adult females appears to increase at an dismaying gait. Domestic Violence refers to the usage of physical or emotional force or menace of physical force, including sexual force ; in near grownup relationshipsaˆÂ ¦.The term domestic force goes beyond existent physical force. It can besides affect emotional maltreatment ; the devastation of belongings ; isolation from friends, household and other beginnings of support ; menaces to others including kids ; stalking ; and command over entree to money, personal points, nutrient, transit and the telephone. Such force causes extended physical, emotional and mental harm to adult females. It prevents them from take parting in society, limits their entree to resources and their ability to take portion in activities like work, travel and instruction. Apart from such inauspicious effects, domestic force against adult females amendss the physical, emotional and mental development of kids, hurts their public presentation in school and affects their life opportunities. Domestic force besides consequences in economic costs for the person and for society that arise from lost work, wellness attention costs and costs of societal work appraisal and intercession for adult females and other affected household members. Domestic force against adult females is a serious job in Ireland. A 2002 study on Sexual Abuse and Violence revealed that one adult female in four in Ireland had faced some kind of sexual maltreatment during her life-time and one in five had suffered sexual assault as an grownup. Ireland witnessed 109 slayings of adult females between 1996 and 2005, 72 of which occurred in their places. All the slayings were perpetrated work forces and 50 % of these by spouses or ex-partners. Ireland has been sing rapid inward migration since the 1990s, a phenomenon that has made one of the most homogeneous societies in the EU culturally and ethnically diverse. Whilst domestic force occurs across race, faith and category, migratory adult females sing force at place face extra structural barriers on history of in-migration position, deficiency of acquaintance with linguistic communication and racism, which significantly hamper their options for protection and support. A 2008 survey by Paula Fagan reveals that migratory adult females sing force at place face four of import barriers, viz. ( a ) in-migration statute law, ( B ) limitations on use of public financess, ( degree Celsius ) racism from larger society and banishment from ain communities on rhenium [ ort of maltreatment, and ( vitamin D ) cultural differences with, and deficiency of understanding from, mainstream society, which increase their hurt and exposure, cut down their options with respect to societal security, exacerbate their fright of isolation and create barriers their seeking of aid and protection. Fagan s study reveals that the discretional character of the state s in-migration system presents alone challenges both for adult females and societal workers in set uping rights, entitlements and protections for migratory adult females sing maltreatment. With no protections yet in topographic point for adult females whose position are dependent on their husbands/partners or for those restricted from societal public assistance payments, options for maintaining adult females safe are badly restricted. A key determination of this study is that, while there needs to be betterments in Ireland s domestic force legislative and policy model for all adult females, there are specific failures in this system for migratory adult females linked to in-migration statute law, policy and processs.