Han and Roman Attitudes Toward Technology Essay

Technology is an important aspect in all civilizations, and depending on the point of view looked at the opinions vary greatly. Especially when comparing opinions of lower class and upper class people, or gender. During the early first centuries of the Han Dynasty and Roman Empire there were a lot of mixed feelings toward technology. Depending on whose opinion you heard the answer would vary between negative and positive outlooks. Most opinions seemed to have been based off of the following categories, practicality, citizen’s use, and beauty. Opinions varied depending on the major concern of the point of view and the class they belonged to. When opinions were weighed on practicality their major concern was the efficiency of the technology and if it was easy to use. One Han government official wrote to local officials in the early second century (B. C. E) concerning flood prevention (doc. 1). His opinion was well educated because being of an upper class and being a government official meant he was well educated, and also his opinion was of a situation he witnessed and he had proof to support his thoughts. His opinion was unbiased and trustworthy because his concerns were not for himself but for all the people of the civilization. This is proven when he states more organization is needed in order to stay on top of issues that affect everyone of the dynasty. He felt technology was advanced enough to prevent flooding more efficiently but there needed to be a greater effort into establishing a greater number of water conservation offices in each district. Overall he did not believe that technology was lacking but the organization of the use of technology was. Huan Tan, an upper-class philosopher in about 20 C.  E also had an opinion weighing on practicality (doc. 3). Being a philosopher you can assume he was well educated and therefore his opinion is educated. Huan’s point of view was based on practicality because he had a positive opinion on technology due to the efficiency and usefulness of tools and the fast progression of it. He proves the technology is efficient by stating facts like that the pestle and the mortar were modified and were made capable of allowing the weight of the whole body to be used. Since Huan included these sorts of facts it shows he’s well educated in the area of technology. Overall Huan Tan had a very positive outlook on technology, feeling that it evolved at a steady pace. The source History of the Early Han Dynasty was a government sponsored source that comes from the period of about 200 C. E. (doc. 4). This opinion is clearly biased and untrustworthy because its government sponsored and therefore was written to support the government and make it look successful. This is proven when the governor of Nanyang, Tu Shui is made to look good by the statement that he improved technology because he loved his people so much he wanted to make life easy as possible for them. Although this point of view is untrustworthy it is still weighed on practicality due to the supposed concern of the efficiency and having technology be beneficial without having to do much work. The last opinion formed by practicality was one of a Seneca upper –classman philosopher and adviser to Emperor Nero (doc. 7). This point of view again is someone of a higher class with more money and therefore does not rely on technology as much as someone of a lower class. His opinion of technology was negative; he believed tools were invented by unintelligent men. His opinion was based off of practicality and was proven by his statement that recent inventions were not only inefficient but also were useless. He felt inventors no longer, no matter how intelligent, did not think outside the box and only tackled mild issues that were not of large concern. Overall he felt greater issues needed to be taken on by people of both intelligence and creativity. Other opinions seemed to have most concern with citizen’s use. When weighing on this, the point of view was most affected by the knowledge of who used the technology or the convenience of the access to the technology. A government official by the name if Huan Guan has a negative outlook on technology based off of citizen’s use (doc. 2). This perspective is from an educated upper class man who therefore does not do much manual labor. Foundry work and salt boiling were at one time allowed to be done by workers as long as they followed two conditions, they has to report they were doing so and they had to pay a tax. During the earlier time the tools that were used to do these jobs were made by families and were efficient and well-made. Later on the state forced citizens to only use the iron tools manufactured by them, which were nonfunctional. This is known as convict labor, and in doing so they also monopolized the salt and iron trades. This issue angered Huan Guan because this caused the salt and iron prices to rise and made it so lower class citizens could not afford to buy either. Huan felt technology was being weakened by the government and that making it more difficult for families to continue their businesses was not right. Another opinion based off of citizen’s use was one of a Cicero upper-class Roman political leader of the first century (B. C. E. ). This opinion comes from an upper class man who does not do any handy-work and therefore cannot state and accurate opinion on technology. He believed there was a fine line between the difference of a â€Å"gentleman† and a man. He felt certain jobs were degrading to men, such as manual labor or â€Å"handy work†. He states, â€Å"Vulgar and unbecoming to a gentleman are all the jobs hired workers take on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (doc. 5). He feels the work they do is paid by the labor they do and not the skill of their work. In conclusion he doesn’t see any importance in the area of technology, also he doesn’t necessarily have a negative nor positive opinion he just doesn’t value it, h cares more about his status. The last source weighed on citizen’s use is one from Frontinus, a Roman general, governor of Britain and water commissioner for the city of Rome (doc. 8). His opinion is biased because he is governor of Britain and therefore feels his civilization is the most advanced and has the greatest technology because he is in charge of it. This is shown when he says that Roman technology exceeds any other including both the Egyptian’s and the Greeks. Frontinus feels that the works of those two civilizations are useless, he states, â€Å"Compare such numerous and indispensible structures carrying so much water with the idle pyramids, or the useless but famous works of the Greeks. † He feels only Roman technology has both the beauty aspect while still being efficient. He feels his technology is so successful because the aqueducts were so successful they made it possible for people of any class to have an abundance of water, which proves his opinion was based on citizen’s use. Lastly, some opinions were made by the beauty of technology. Very simply this is when the point of view is confirmed by the appearance rather than the efficiency or usefulness of the technology. Plutarch, a Greek-born Roman citizen and high official of the second century describes Gaius Gracchus a Roman political leader of the first century’s opinion on technology (doc. 6). This source is unreliable because it is not a primary source and therefore is not as reliable because the opinion could have been slightly altered by misinterpretation or on purpose. The major concern according to this source, of Gaius Gracchus was the appearance of everything and not the usefulness of it; he wanted everything to be pleasing to the eye. All roads were straight; both sides of bridges had to be â€Å"equal and parallel height with the result that the road for its entire course had a level and beautiful appearance. † (doc. 6). Overall the appearance was the greatest factor when it came to Gaius Gracchus. Again just as all the other documents the point of view belonged to an upper-class male, we have no opinions from a woman or someone of a lower class. Out of all the documents the point of view missing in order to truly decipher the overall attitudes towards Han and Roman technology is the opinion of a lower class person such as a peasant. All the documents come from the perspective of an upper-class male. Therefore the ultimate attitude toward the technology of Han and Rome cannot be determined. Each documents perspective varied depending on how they made their opinion, whether it was weighted on practicality, citizen’s use, or beauty.

Discrimination in Healthcare Essay

The new test is whether or not certain treatment was unfavourable to the person claiming discrimination, focusing on the consequences of the treatment on the person claiming direct discrimination because of a protected attribute. Examples of direct discrimination An employer advises an employee that they will not be trained to work on new machinery because they are too old to learn new skills. The employer has discriminated against the employee by denying them training in their employment on the basis of their age. A real estate agent refuses an African man’s application for a lease. The real estate agent tells the man that the landlord would prefer an Australian tenant. The real estate agent has discriminated against the man by denying him accommodation on the basis of his race. Indirect The definition of indirect discrimination has been simplified by removing existing technicalities and providing further clarity around the factors to consider in determining whether a requirement, condition or practice is reasonable in the circumstances. Indirect discrimination will occur where a person imposes, or proposes to impose, a requirement, condition or practice that has, or is likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging people with a protected attribute, and that is not reasonable. The new test for indirect discrimination:– needs a person to show that the requirement, condition or practice causes, or is likely to cause disadvantage, rather than demonstrating that they cannot comply with a requirement, condition or practice – removes the requirement that the person claiming indirect discrimination must establish that a substantially higher proportion of people without the attribute that they have can comply with the requirement, condition or practice– places the onus of proof regarding the easonableness of the requirement, condition or practice on the person who imposed or proposes to impose it –extends the factors to be considered in determining whether a requirement, condition or practice is reasonable.

Meteorological Modeling In Klang Valley Region Malaysia Environmental Sciences Essay

It has been widely known that alterations of the land surface from flora country to urban country can well impact the environing meteoric status. Meteorologic theoretical account was used to measure meteoric status for air quality mold and prediction. One of the inputs for the meteoric and air quality theoretical account is land usage and land screen of the terrain. In this survey, we examined the sensitiveness of land usage and land screen on the predicted meteoric conditions. A meteoric simulation utilizing 5th coevals mesoscale theoretical account ( MM5 ) by Penn State/NCAR was used to compare the effects of land usage from two different old ages on meteoric status. The predicted meteoric conditions are so compared with the several monitoring station onsite. Consequences showed improved of surface wind velocity and temperature simulated utilizing improved land usage map. Findingss suggest land usage map should be taking into consideration in historical meteoric Fieldss to entree f uture air quality if the country of survey expects big alterations in land usage form. Keywords: Meteorologic mold ; Land usage ; MM5 ; Urban. Introduction It has been widely known that alterations of the land surface from flora country to urban country can well impact the environing meteoric status. Urbanization of an country could take to alterations of meteoric parametric quantities such as boundary bed deepness, perpendicular diffusivity, wind stableness category, etc. These meteoric parametric quantities played an of import function in most of the air quality theoretical accounts that predicts the concentration at each grid. Harmonizing to Jacobson ( 2002 ) , one of the factors that affect air pollution is the local air current which ensuing from uneven land warming, variable topography and others. In another word, different land usage type may take to uneven land warming, because land screen affects ground temperature, which affects pollutant concentration finally ( Jacobson, 2002 ) . Meteorologic and air quality theoretical accounts require land usage and surface feature that differ by their land usage and land screen forms ( Civ erolo et. at. , 2000 ) . Another survey carried out by Jazcilevich et Al. ( 2002 ) suggested that alterations of the land usage type could impact its environing meteoric status and scattering of air pollutant. Much of the current apprehension of the urban clime and meteoric status in Malaysia resulted from the research on Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya country begins from 1970s ( Sham, 1973a, 1973b, 1979a, 1979b and 1987 ) . These researches focused on the description of the climatology and meteoric facet such as air current and temperature parametric quantities associated with urban heat island. The meteoric facets of the Kuala Lumpur and the environing metropoliss may alter due to the change of land usage and land screen by urbanisation and development of the metropolis. However, no survey had been done to entree the meteoric status of Klang Valley part with current land usage and land screen. The meteoric theoretical account used in this survey was the Fifth Generation Mesoscale Model ( MM5 ) from PSU/NCAR ( Grell et al. , 1994 ) . In this theoretical account the land usage was simulated from the planetary flora dataset from USGS which available at 1 grade, 30 min, 10 min, 5 min, and 30 unsweet declaration. However, the informations were derived from satellite observations over a period 1992-3 and the flora classs were out of day of the month and non relevant to the country of survey. The aim of the survey is to find to the effects of the land usage and land screen alterations on the meteoric mold system. Land usage map of twelvemonth 2000 obtain from the Town and Country Planning Department ( JPBD ) will be used to better 1992-3 USGS land usage dataset. The Modeling System PSU/NCAR Fifth Generation Mesoscale Model ( MM5 ) was selected as the meteoric simulation patterning system in this survey. The MM5 theoretical account is non-hydrostatic with terrain following co-ordinates, multi-scale, capable of interface with existent conditions prognosis theoretical accounts ( Global Circulation Model ) , contains expressed cloud strategies and dirt parameterization. MM5 is widely used by the meteoric community and its end product could be coupled together with the Sparse Matrix Operation Kernel Emission ( SMOKE ) theoretical account and Community Multiscale Air Quality ( CMAQ ) theoretical account to imitate the scattering of the air pollutants that take in considerations of the meteoric Fieldss and emanation beginnings. MRF Planetary Boundary Layer ( PBL ) parameterization strategy was selected in this survey. The 4-dimensional informations assimilation ( FDDA ) option was non used was selected in this survey because the purpose of the survey is to analyze the effects of modified land usage on the theoretical account end product. For inputs of informations, land usage datasets from USGS will be used as the default land usage, and land usage map from Town and Country Planning Department as the improved land usage and NCEP FNL ( Final ) Operational Global Analysis information was used in this survey. Domain Setup Four spheres are used as shown in Figure 1 for this survey. The female parent sphere with the declaration 27km covers the most of the Peninsular Malaysia ; 2nd sphere with the 9km declaration screens Selangor province ; 3rd sphere with 3km declaration screens ; finest sphere with 1km declaration will covers the survey country which is Klang Valley. Figure 1: MM5 domain apparatus. Processing of Land Use and Land Cover In the MM5 mold system, each grid cell was assigned one land usage based on the dominant class in the grid cell. 24 classs of Vegetation type by USGS was used in categorization of land usage in MM5. Each land usage categories consists of six surface parameterization, which includes, reflective power, wet handiness, emissitivity at 9 A µm, raggedness length, thermic inactiveness, and surface heat capacity per unit volume giving together with the MM5 theoretical account. Since Malaysia is a tropical state, summertime values are used. Out of 24 land usage types in the MM5 theoretical account ( Guo and Chen, 1994 ) , 14 classs was used to to the full depict the full sphere ( Figure 2 ) , with 22 % classified as H2O organic structures, 0.4 % as urban country and the largest non water-based class is Irrigated Cropland and Pasture ( 39 % ) in sphere 3 and as for sphere 4, 10 % classified as H2O organic structures, 1 % as urban country and the largest non water-based class besides class is Irrigated Cropland and Pasture ( 37 % ) ( Table 1 ) . Figure 2: USGS land usage dataset sphere 3 and domain 4. Since the Land usage dataset from USGS was generated from the twelvemonth 1992/3 orbiter image, the development of the Klang Valley country for the past 15 old ages decidedly changed the land usage and land screen of the survey country. To better the land usage type, updated land usage map from the Town and Country Planning Department was referred in this survey. The updated land usage map was preprocessed from polygon to gridded land usage map based on the categorization of the 24 USGS land usage classs ( Figure 3 ) .The per centum differences of the land usage between the default land usage and the update land usage are shown in ( Table 1 ) . Table 1: Percentage of landuse class for USGS and JPBD land usage Domain 3 and Domain 4. Land usage codification Land usage class USGS Land usage Domain 3 ( % ) USGS Land usage Domain 4 ( % ) JPBD Land usage Domain 3 ( % ) JPBD Land usage Domain 4 ( % ) 1 Urban and Built -Up Area 0.4 1.0 25.1 40.6 2 Dryland Cropland and Pasture 12.1 17.0 0.0 0.0 3 Irrigated Cropland and Pasture 40.2 37.4 0.0 0.0 4 Mixed Dryland/Irrigated Cropland and Pasture 0.0 0.0 20.4 28.0 5 Cropland/Grassland Mosaic 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 6 Cropland/Woodland Mosaic 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 7 Grassland 0.7 1.7 0.0 0.0 8 Shrubland 3.7 7.6 0.0 0.0 10 Savanna 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 11 Deciduous Broadleaf Forest 13.4 16.5 0.0 0.0 13 Evergreen Broadleaf Forest 2.8 1.1 0.0 0.0 14 Evergreen Needleleaf Forest 0.3 0.5 0.0 0.0 15 Assorted Forest 2.7 5.3 34.4 25.0 16 Water Bodies 22.4 10.3 17.8 6.5 Figure 3: Gridded JPBD land usage in 3km and 1km declaration. An ASCII type of input file was generated based on the reclassified land usage map into specific format. This ASCII file contains column, row, land usage type, latitude, longitude, flora fraction, and H2O fraction ( Figure 4 ) . Figure 4: Example of ASCII format input. The FORTRAN codification named â€Å" replace_lulc.f † is used to replace the land usage type, flora fraction and H2O fraction in the TERRAIN_DOMAINx file based on the co-ordinates of the reclassified grid cells and the several land usage type, and other parametric quantities provided in the ASCII file. The FORTRAN codification is compiled utilizing run book â€Å" run.replace † which besides determines the input and end product files to treat, and parametric quantities to be updated ( Figure 5 ) . Figure 5: Example of run.replace book. MM5 Simulation Results MM5 simulation was performed from 1st July 2005 ( 18:00 ) to 3rd July 2005 ( 17:00 ) with entire simulation clip 48 hours utilizing USGS flora dataset for 27km, 9km, 3km and 1km spheres as base instance. The 3km and 1km sphere will be compared with the end product of MM5 simulation using JPBD land usage dataset during for same period. All the physical options used were indistinguishable for both simulations. Observation from the Continuous Air Quality Monitoring ( CAQM ) station from Alam Sekitar Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. ( ASMA ) and Malayan Meteorological Department ( MMD ) was used to formalize MM5 public presentation from the both USGS and improved land usage dataset. Three CAQM site was selected to formalize the MM5 public presentation, which are the monitoring station in Klang and Shah Alam that maintained by ASMA and supervising station in Subang that operated by MMD. The simulations that utilized USGS land usage dataset showed overestimate of the air current velocity and produces sudden extremum at certain hr in the simulation. The improved land usage dataset utilizing JPBD land usage informations reduces the air current velocity and frequence of the sudden extremum, yet still over estimated the overall air current velocity compared to the observation informations ( Figure 6 ) . However, the improved land usage dataset utilizing JPBD do increase the correlativity between the ascertained air current velocity and simulated air currents velocity from all CAQM site ( Table 2 ) . The lowered air current velocity due to the improved land usage informations set could take to increased stableness and decreased perpendicular commixture. This could increase the air pollution concentration in certain country. The temperature profile simulated by both utilizing USGS and JPBD land usage dataset able to imitate the afternoon temperature near surface when comparison with the onsite observation temperature informations. However, both USGS and JPBD land usage dataset tends to overrate the temperature near surface during the dark ( Figure 7 ) . The correlativity between ascertained temperature and fake temperature somewhat increases when use JPBD land usage dataset in the simulation for the all monitoring site ( Table 2 ) . The consequences suggest that improved land usage dataset utilizing JPBD land usage dataset could better the overall simulation consequence ( Table 2 ) . The alterations of the meteoric parametric quantities could impact scattering of air pollutant, energy demand that could impact anthropogenetic emanations. The alterations of the MM5 end product could besides impact the computation of the air pollution patterning package such as CMAQ. Figure 6: Time series comparing of windspeed at 1km sphere for Shah Alam. Figure 7: Time series comparing of 1.5m temperature at 1km sphere for Shah Alam. Figure 8: Correlation between observed and predicted informations at Shah Alam. Table 2: Summary of correlativity between observed and predicted informations for all the location. Parameter Sphere Monitoring Station Klang, ASMA Shah Alam, ASMA Subang, MMD Wind speed 10m Domain 3 USGS 0.034 0.082 0.176 Domain 3 JPBD 0.311 0.318 0.214 Domain 4 USGS 0.015 0.083 0.169 Domain 4 JPBD 0.277 0.273 0.254 Temperature 1.5m Domain 3 USGS 0.673 0.672 0.410 Domain 3 JPBD 0.774 0.788 0.537 Domain 4 USGS 0.666 0.657 0.411 Domain 4 JPBD 0.790 0.759 0.544 Discussion The land usage is merely one of many factors that take in consideration by the meteoric mold system. The consequences showed betterment of the fake air current velocity and temperature near surface. The public presentation of the MM5 on simulation could be improved by modifying the MM5 physical options and strategies depending on the declaration and location of the survey country. Since the land usage and land screen alterations affects the close surface meteorological, it should be included as one of the cardinal factors in the air pollution patterning particularly future air quality scenario. The alterations of the temperature that lead by land usage could increase downwind, and potentially affects the air quality simulation. The alterations of the air current velocity besides affect the dispersion of air pollutants and blending in the ambiance, alterations of the air pollutant concentration are expected. Changing in the land usage and land screen forms due to the urban conurbation, altering of agricultural forms, forestation and deforestation are expected to affects to landscape. The change of landscape will take to alterations in population, energy ingestion, anthropogenetic and biogenic emanations. The consequences suggested that land usage should be taken into consideration when utilizing air quality calculating theoretical account to predicts and measure the air quality. Recognition The writers thank the Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOSTI ) Malaysia for back uping this research, under undertaking no. 04-01-04-SF0674. We besides thank Department of Environment ( DOE ) Malaysia, Malaysian Meteorological Department ( MMD ) and Town and Planning Department ( JPBD ) Malaysia for informations providing. The Positions expressed by the authours do non neccesarily reflect those of the bureau.

Climatic Variability in the Old Testament Essay - 1

Climatic Variability in the Old Testament - Essay Example Moreover, people before accounted too much of climate changes more to the works of the gods rather than to scientific explanations. So what is climatic variability? Probably, the most efficient way for us to understand the topic is to look first of all to the definition of this episode. According to J. Murray Mitchell (482), climatic system is the combination of atmosphere, oceans, land surface, ice masses and the biosphere interacting with each other, causing the changes either physically or chemically. In the physical aspect of the change, rainfalls can cause landslides that could change hills to plains and could also bring much water to rivers and seas which could wash away land areas. On the contrary, mountains can be created through the meeting of tectonic plates, pushing each other and making a fold on each other’s surface (Grimm, Hahn, Hellenbrand, Kunkele, Laumanns & Leinburger 214). Chemically speaking, lands can become acidic through acid rains and other chemical changes brought about by the increase of carbon dioxide production. This then requires us, human beings to be interested to the study of such phenomenon because it does not just affect our environment but affects our lives directly as well. One of the greatest climatic variability that happened in the 1930’s is the so-called Dust Bowl in the United States that affected not only the farmers of affected areas but the people worldwide. This could have been the modern picture of the Joseph story mentioned earlier. Hopeful migrants settled in the states where there were vast plains which were very productive for the raising of wheat, making these states the primary sources of food during the First World War.

Health Promotion - Blood glucose monitoring Essay

Health Promotion - Blood glucose monitoring - Essay Example He frequently works during unsocial hours and has a very unhealthy life style as he relies on fast foods from cafes for his meals. He is overweight with Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and is finding it challenging to maintain a normal blood glucose level. He is also concerned that he may lose his job should he be commenced on insulin. John stated that his weight and little exercise might have been a contributing factor for his newly diagnosed diabetes. Diabetes is a condition that occurs when the body can’t use glucose, a type of sugar which isnormally the main source of energy for the body’s cells. The levels of glucose in the blood are controlled by a hormone called insulin which is made by the pancreas & which helps glucose to move from the blood into the body’s cells. Diabetes is caused when there is resistance to or deficient production of insulin.When the body does not produce or use enough insulin the cells cannot use the glucose for energy and the blood glucose level rises. This means that the body will instead start to break down its own fat and muscle for energy Aryangat, AV. Gerich, JE. (2010).There is two primary types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that create insulin. As a result the body makes very little or no insulin of its own, which means that people with type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not make enough insulin or the body cannot properly use the insulin it does create. Eventually the pancreas may stop producing insulin altogether. Type 2 diabetes can affect people at any age. In men and women, the more overweight an individual is the greater the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (Jarrett, RJ. et al. 1976). The purpose of this paper is to discuss health promotion in nursing practice, the evolving roles and responsibilities of the nurse in health promotion and the implementation of these roles. Health

Critical appraisal of a public health research article Assignment

Critical appraisal of a public health research article - Assignment Example 4). The lifestyle changes involve physical activity, balanced diets and loss of weight or the commonly called obesity. The research concluded that with 12 months follow ups the proposed lifestyle changes had significant positive effects towards control and prevention of type 2 diabetes. The research used the intervention design that was appropriate and served the purpose of addressing the aims of the research (Linda, et al, 2013, p.10). The research brought together a group of people that were assessed individually on the risk of type 2 diabetes. The New Leadership New York that is a competent group in the UK did the assessment. The selected population was required to be assessment weekly while those at high risks were assessment twice every week. The diet, weight and waist size of the population was recorded on each assessment. The NLNY involved the selected population with a half an hour practice session that was followed by a group reflection of the same period. The practice session involved a gym activities and cookery sessions and was very relevant since the research aimed at the two activities in relation to type 2 diabetes (Mokdad and Bowman, 2001, p.1196). The design was viewed as a ‘do and reflect’ model since the trainers demonstrated the act ivities and gave chance to the selected population to rehearse the activities (National Diabetes Data Group, 2013, p.1041). The design was flexible since it gave chance to the selected population to choose the physical activities of their choice The selected population went through a lot of education and on completion of the training, they were also allowed to access gyms for free. After the training, follow up plans by the NLNY were made through texts and emails to remind the trained individuals on the maintenance of lifestyle changes . Interviews were conducted after six months to evaluate on the level of success in terms of fighting diabetes to the trained

How Can Political Factors Affect Finance In Kuwait Research Paper

How Can Political Factors Affect Finance In Kuwait - Research Paper Example The wave of democracy in this country is based on the decision to control oil companies. This is because over 35 percent of the world’s energy consumption is based oil fuels. It is believed that the pivotal factor affecting democratization in Kuwait is the production of oil. This is because the entire economy of Kuwait revolves around oil and other hydrocarbons investments. In addition, the government provides security and employment of people because of acceptance in the recent political order. However, it is also clear that royal Al-Sabah family has ruled the country with an iron fist without detaching themselves from the society and its people due to their vast wealth. The factors of democratization engage in recreation, an essential responsibility in the society of Kuwait. This means that the stronger these institutional factors are entrenched into Kuwaiti’s society the more democracy is achieved. Due to these democratic elements, Kuwait is the chosen country of res earch on how political factors affect finance in Kuwait. The investigative factors in Kuwait go beyond state model. This is because oil factor in this country together with other extreme generous welfares gives the basic reasons why the current state of Kuwait is not developed into a democracy nation. In this research paper, I will investigate how the political system in Kuwait has affected its finance and economy. Democratization in Kuwait Over the years, Kuwait has achieved a transition from non-democratic to a democratic system. However, in order to achieve full democratization in this country, some degree of liberation must occur in the economy. In addition, political liberation must be achieved in order to have economic growth and development. This means the expansion of public space through recognizing and protecting civil and political liberties. In Kuwait, the line between democratization and liberalization is always vague to an extent of confusion (Thuroczy 2010). Although Kuwait has stable political system with citizens voting for their preferred candidate in free and fair elections, the country faces some limitations on how oil is managed. This is because the government collects no key taxes from other resources and thus relies on income achieved from oil and other foreign investments. The effect of oil in this country is therefore, considered the main cause of lack of economic and political reforms. Additionally, other aspects are overlooked and play a great role in the development of politics in Kuwait (Thuroczy 2010). According to UN’s development index, Kuwait is a highly developed country compared to other countries along the Persian Gulf. Although there is no doubt that oil in this country has increased education and income levels of people in this country, there are massive troubles in the welfare of the state (Thuroczy 2010). In addition, there is no maximum guarantee in the employment of the youths in this country. This indicates tha t oil in this country is the biggest hindrance to the progress of democracy and economic growth. Political Analysis It is worth noting that common stock refers to the stake that a person or a registered company owns in a given organization. Such stake gives such a person or organization the power to make important decisions such as voting in the organization. The difference between common stock and preferred stock is that every stakeholder in case of bankruptcy has to be paid first before the common stock holder receives anything. Politics play a critical role in the success of any given organization. This can be attributed to the fact that all actions of an organization have to adhere to the

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 6

Research Paper Example This created a wave of fear among the other airlines. South west airline continued to top the list of best airlines in America. The success story does not end with these factors. South west airline followed its own corporate culture that imposed certain policies and regulations. The case study aims at exploring the problems faced by the airline. It analyzes and provides a better option to improve the existing situation of the organization. The company that has been serving the people was voted the best airline of the year many a times. This was due to the dedicated service and continuous improvement in all the departments of the organization. (Dess, 2009) The company had the capability to manage any sort of problem and could resolve immediately with the help of highly qualified and trained professionals. Since airline industry involves a lot of risks, Kellinger made sure that none of the problems were left unattended. This added to the company’s status in the market and from then there was no looking back. The company improved at a very fast pace, and it was the most preferred airline among the Americans. This in turn motivated the employees to work in a better manner to serve the customers. A company’s success and reputation is not only decided by its situation in market place. It is based on the company’s management plans and strategies that decide the place of the company in the market. Though the company has gone through various bad patches, it manages to place itself in the list of best airlines. It remains as the most profitable airline in the world. South west airline has faced many problems during the last few years. The fluctuation in the price of the fuel drastically affected the airline industry. (Hill, 2008) South west airline followed unique set of principles and strategies that help them during crisis. One among them is the idea of purchasing fuel well in advance and storing it for future

EliteClean International Logistics Strategies Essay

EliteClean International Logistics Strategies - Essay Example These techniques are used to detect areas of non-value adding processes otherwise defined as waste so that the necessary steps can be taken to eliminate them. One of these techniques is value stream mapping. Value stream mapping According to Mangier (2003) value stream mapping is a technique of creating a â€Å"one-page picture† of all the processes that take place in a company. This is the process from the time a customer places an order for a product until the customer has received the product at their location. The aim of value stream mapping is to illustrate the flow of material and information across and throughout all the processes that add value from the stage of production to shipment to the customer. Value stream maps documents both value-adding and non-value-adding processes from production to shipment. In creating the value stream map business and manufacturing waste can be easily identified and thus becomes the basis on which improvements can be made to the company ’s operations. Mangier (2003) indicates that there are four steps involved in value stream mapping. They are i. Defining the product or product family; ii. Creating the â€Å"current state† value stream mapping (CSV); iii. ...   The dishwasher line is manufactured in South Korea; the laundry product line in China; and the range cookers in Thailand. The value stream map for EliteClean is shown below. Figure 1 – Current State Value Stream Map In Figure 1 above a number of activities leading to the production of items are duplicated. There are several persons carrying out procurement activities. Instead of the head office obtaining information on materials required for production, the factories are allowed to do their own procurement. This procurement is carried out by the factory manager in the case of laundry and the chief production engineer who may delegate it to a production manager at the other factories. There are several trucks of raw material going to the three different factories. Some of these trucks carry similar items which are purchased separately by the three different factories. Elite Clean has employed a push-based supply chain strategy. The factories which are located in South Korea , China and Thailand produce items without any knowledge of demand and ship them to the regional distribution centers (RDCs). These distribution centers are located in Birmingham in the UK, Jordan in the Middle East and Chicago in the USA. There is a capacity problem at the RDCs due to the fact that there are too many inventory items in stores. There is some concern that some of these items may become obsolete. There is a cost involved in holding inventory. Additionally, when the storage facilities are too packed there will be a problem moving out inventory on a first-in-first-out basis. Items are not transported to the distribution centers based on demand.

Cpk Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cpk - Term Paper Example By so doing, CPK will improve its margins since it will have streamlined the pizza menu alongside other critical issues. With the economy favoring the restaurant chains, CPK has options to weigh, which include selling itself. With such options at sight, the company’s directors have allowed the management to come up with strategic alternatives like changing the capital structure, merging, or acquiring other companies in the same industry. However, investors must be warned that such strategies are not a guarantee for good performance in future. Some few years ago, CPK suffered from low sales because most pizza consumers opted to cook at home. Having realized that, the company launched a call center where customers would call to make orders with free delivery. In addition, the company increased its wine varieties and the catering program. Since it owns most of the pizza restaurants in the US, CPK prefers to lease a huge proportion of its property in places where it is located. Su ch a strategy has assisted it avoid huge debts. As a premium pizza company in the US and around the world, CPK has to categorically select its best positions. Strategies, as discussed above, are an indicator that the company acknowledges the existing competition, changes in customer preferences, global issues, and environmental changes. Through such attributes, the company has adopted some strategies to accommodate customer preferences for instance launching a call centre, which makes it possible for customers to make orders instead of cooking at home. Some strategies are purely meant to help the company maximize profits. Managing a series of CPK restaurants can be a hectic task. For this reason, the management made a unique decision by leasing out some of the restaurants under its name to reduce costs attached to management and thus maximize on profits. Strategies are helpful to any organization. They

The Character of Curleys Wife Essay Example for Free

The Character of Curleys Wife Essay A reason for Steinbeck portraying to the colour red may be to foreshadowing the blood that was to be seen at the end. Curley’s wife attracts all the guys in the ranch. She uses the excuse that she is looking for Curley to talk to the guys. She does wear red lipstick; the colour red is again used as a symbol because it’s a primary colour therefore a lot of children are attracted to it because of the brightness in the colour. It attracts Lennie as he has a 4 year olds mind that can’t control his feeling but still stops and stares at Curley’s wife. He says that â€Å"she’s purty† very defensively (pg35). On the other hand George doesn’t like her at all. On page 35 there’s lots of negativity about Curley’s wife coming out of George’s mouth. He says â€Å"Jesus what a tramp, so that’s what Curley picks for a wife† Steinbeck has created a character that can’t stand Curley’s wife this is because he doesn’t want to lose his job by getting into trouble like their last place of work. I think when his talking to Lennie saying â€Å"Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says what she does I seen’ em poison before but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse that her. † (pg36) He has shown that his past is one of the reasons that he don’t like Curley’s wife, he also thinks she’s nothing but trouble and doesn’t trust her at all. Another character in the novella is one of the only one who is the nicest to Curley’s wife. He goes by the name Slim, in the novella everyone on the ranch looks up to him he’s a thoughtful tall man. Curley thinks that Slim and Curley’s wife have a relationship but Curley’s wife is just lonely and needs somebody to talk to because there isn’t any love between Curley and his wife. She says in the novella â€Å"think I’m gonna stay in that two-by-four house and listen how Curley’s gonna lead with his left twice and then bring in the ol’ right cross? † this means that she is very lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage. Curley wears a glove on his hand the ‘glove of Vaseline’ because he wants his hand to be soft when he is making love with his wife. He is very proud to show everyone this glove but this is a bad image on Curley’s wife because he is only using her because she is attractive and showing all the other guys on the ranch his sexual side with her. Curley’s wife only married Curley because of the great depression and life was hard so she thought because Curley is the bosses son she will have a good life but she didn’t! Curley’s wife came across as a trampy flirtatious character but this opinion changes when she is in the barn with Lennie opening up her feelings which showed us that she wasn’t just a tramp but a woman who had a dream, it also showed us that she was lonely like the other characters in the novella. Steinbeck made her into a character a sensitive hopeful and made herself into a normal human being and also a very weak female. Curley’s wife dreamt of being an actress and said Coulda been in the movies, and had nice clothes. This is showing that Curley’s wife is very upset about the way her is life is at the moment. In conclusion I think Curley’s wife is one of the strongest but loneliest characters in the book because after everything she has been through with her mother, Curley and being alone she didn’t open up to anyone except Lennie, but he kills her at the end because of his unknown strength. I also think Lennie did Curley’s wife a favor because she was moaning about her terrible life to him like she wanted it to end. Steinbeck portrayed Curley’s wife as an interesting and complex character to make the reader more curious on the way she is shown. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Steinbeck section.

Leadership Approach Paper Essay Example for Free

Leadership Approach Paper Essay Organizational behavior comes into play to aid management in enhancing their understanding of human behavior within organizations to better communicate, allocate resources, delegate tasks, plan, organize, direct, and control work activities. The main purpose of understanding organizational behavior is to increase leadership effectiveness, motivate workers, and inspire them to work toward a common objective. Although there are many leadership approaches, we will focus on the situational leadership approach. We will analyze the purpose, strengths and weaknesses of the situational leadership approach, and provide an example of how it can be applied to real situations. Situational Leadership Approach As it name suggests, the situational leadership approach states that leaders should use different approaches as situations change. In short, leaders should be flexible, embrace change as it comes, and be capable of adapting to it. The situational leadership approach is a model that was developed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey in 1972. The theory states that leaders should match their leadership style to the maturity of followers and to the specific tasks on hand (Lerstrom, 2008). As people within organizations acquire more experience and become more knowledgeable about their job, leaders will need to adapt new leadership styles to keep these people motivated. According to May (2013) the core concept of the situational leadership approach is that â€Å"one size does not fit all†. The best leaders are not only those who have a vision, but â€Å"the most successful leaders are the ones who are able to adapt their leadership styles across a broad range of varying maturity levels readily present within the average organization (May, 2013). † Moreover, using the situational leadership approach suggests that leaders use a mix of other leadership approaches to be effective. According to Phatak (2012), â€Å"The philosophy of a leader should be flexible enough to adapt to situations and changing times. We need a mixture of transactional and transformational leadership techniques to get the job done. The basic idea behind this theory is that one must adapt strategy with changing conditions. † Strengths As mentioned earlier, situational leadership allows for more flexibility. As the world evolves, organizations have to make adjustments to survive. Tomasco (2013) states that with the situational leadership approach, leaders get the opportunity to adapt their leadership style to their followers’ needs. Consequently, as leaders effectively match their leadership style to situations and followers’ needs, work activities will run smoothly, interactions will be more successful, relationships will be built up, and followers will achieve optimum performance. Weaknesses Although the situational leadership approach appears to be the best course of action due to its flexibility, it has weaknesses that one cannot ignore. Phatak (2012) explains that constantly changing strategies with time, a leader will find it difficult to implement new strategies on the go. A long term vision may elude him due to constant changes. † Further, Wile (2013) identifies four weaknesses of the situational leadership approach which are confusion, leadership or management, outside factors, and perception. Indeed, followers may become confused as leaders change a newly implemented leadership strategy as a result of changing conditions. The situational leadership approach is often misconstrued with a management strategy to lead employees to achieve better outcomes. One cannot downplay the impact external factors have on organizations and organizational behavior. Leaders should demonstrate their ability to understand the organization’s external environment and to assess followers’ behavior to implement a leadership approach that will work. Finally, people within organizations have different perceptions and react differently in similar situations. Hence, the situational leadership approach may not give accurate predictions of followers’ behavior. Situational Leadership Approach in Real Life Alan Lerstrom from Luther College did a case study using the situational leadership approach in which he demonstrated how academic advisors can alter their leadership style based on students’ maturity as they advance higher in their studies. Lerstrom applied the Hersey and Blanchard’s model of situational leadership in the case study. The model suggests that effective leaders will adjust their leadership styles in accordance with changing situations and followers’ maturity. According to Lerstrom (2008), Jay, the student in the case study began showing signs of maturity as he better understood the major he wanted to pursue and classes he needed to enroll in. Also, Jay became more confident about his abilities, understood the requirements associated with his major, and was more willing to communicate with the advisor. â€Å"Situational leadership provide theoretical and practical tools that help advisors in understanding changes in the readiness levels of their students, and it suggests patterns for relating to students (Lerstrom, 2008, p. 7). † Conclusion Situational leadership is the approach that states that leaders must be flexible enough to adapt their leadership styles to changing situations, to specific tasks, and to organizational behavior. This study showed that although the situational leadership approach yields positive outcomes it has weaknesses. Thus, it is important to leverage the strengths of the approach to alleviate its weaknesses. For increased effectiveness, leaders will need to use organizational behavior research methods to better understand the situations at hand, their followers’ perceptions, and the organization’s internal and external environments. This method will provide guidance in applying the appropriate leadership style. References Lerstrom, A. C. Advising Jay: A Case Study Using a Situational Leadership Approach. NACADA Journal; Fall2008, Vol. 28 Issue 2, p21-27, 7p May, R. (2013). Basics of the Situational Leadership Model. Retrieved from http://www. businessdictionary. com/article/724/basics-of-the-situational-leade rship-model/ Phatak, O. (June 20, 2012). Pros and Cons of Leadership Theories.

Why Social Exclusion Can Effect The Community Social Work Essay

Why Social Exclusion Can Effect The Community Social Work Essay is essay will discuss why social exclusion and anti-oppressive practice are so closely linked. It will discuss how social exclusion can affect an individual and community, taking away their right to choices afforded to others in society. It will demonstrate how through anti-oppressive practices, processes such as decisio n making and managing risk can be done in an ethical manner to help promote independence and empower a service user enabling them to work in partnership with the service provider. It will also discuss, how a managerial style of social work threatens to remove the decision making process from social workers in order to maximise efficiency, meet targets and minimise risk. With growing media coverage calling for social work decision to be more transparent, increasing pieces of legislation, policies and procedures are taking away the decision making skills and professional judgement from the role. From the very beginning, the role of a social worker has been to help those marginalised and discriminated against by main stream society. The Poor Laws of 1536 saw for the first time, money being collected from local people and redistributed to those deemed worthy of support (Horner, 2009). These humble beginnings are in stark contrast to the complex role of social work today. Banks (2006) discusses the role and the attitude towards social work as ever changing, one which is impacted by the opinions of main stream society and the political agenda, era and environment within which it works. The underpinning values of social work have remained largely unchanged throughout its history and can be identified in the modern role today; respect, confidentiality, acceptance of individualism, being non-judgemental and a belief in the ability to change, as described by Parrott (2011). These values have defined the role of a social worker as being one that promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. (International Federation of Social Work, 2011). Values and ethics are a strong theme which dominates all aspects of social work. Values are ideals or beliefs which are important to an individual or organisation and can be viewed as being either positive or negative. Ethics are ways in which a person or organisation behaves in relation to their values, again either positively or negatively. Values define what is right and wrong whereas ethics is the act of doing right or wrong. (Banks, 2006). The General Social Care Council (General Social Care Council, 2002) has developed a code of practice which social workers must adhere to, these include; promoting independence, to protect individuals from harm, respecting the rights of a service user to make their own choices and be accountable for their own actions. The aim of these codes of practice is to provide a unified value base which will allow social workers to act ethically within their role. The codes of practise as set out by the GSCC provide a tangible set of values for the social work profession and by following these values should result in ethical practice. Social Work is not only governed by its codes of practice and their values but also by government legislation. Dalrymple and Burke (2006) and Banks (2006) discuss how the vast amount of social care legislation can be seen to both help and hinder the role of a social worker. Targets and guidelines were introduced into the workplace with each new piece of legislation, turning the focus from how an individual is treated to the end result; how quickly they arrived at this point and what resource have been used to achieve it. The ethical question here is how the legislation is used; often as a means to justify an action rather than to assist it and the legislation should be used to confirm what powers a social worker holds not when they should enact them. When placing a child into local authority care, the decision of removing the child lies with the social worker, the legislation merely gives them the power to do so. To some extent, Banks (2006) argues that the process of ethical decision making has been removed from the role of social work in order for them to meet targets as can be seen in the role of assessments of service users needs. Assessments increasingly use the system of tick boxes forms to assess the need for services; those not meeting the threshold are denied the sought after service. Lack of resources and pressing targets may mean the course of action taken may not always be the most ethical. According to Parrott (2006), one reason for this shift towards a more business style approach to social work is down to the increasing media coverage when things go wrong, calling for the social work profession to be more accountable in the eyes of the general public. Banks (2006) supports this argument citing Franklins (1989, cited in Banks, 2006) view that social workers are often vilified for acting too hastily or not acting soon enough. High profile cases such as Baby P and Victoria Climbie (Parrott 2006) have called for the social work profession to be more accountable for their actions, introducing set policies and guidelines into the workplace, negating the need for individual social workers to make their own decisions. Dalrymple and Burke (2006) suggest another reason for the move towards a more managerialist style of social work in the decreasing financial resources available to the sector. Most of the financial resources are spent providing an adequate service across the board or on high risk areas such as child protection. Birmingham City Council faced High Court action in 2011 (BBC, 2011) when it attempted to cut its provision of social care for disabled adults. In the increasing difficult financial economy, there are 122 councils in the UK which now only provide care for those with substantial or critical care needs. (BBC, 2011). Wilson et al. (2008) describes this move towards a more managerial style of social work as not being all inherently bad, the intention being to standardise the decisions making process in the hopes of lessen risk for all across the board, however the decisions being made in some cases are not the best they could be; the best outcome in a few cases has been overlooked for a good outcome in the majority of cases. In 1997, the UK underwent a change in government; from the long reigning Conservative Party to New Labour (Labour Party, 2011) and with it the introduction of the term social exclusion. The circumstances of social exclusion have been recognisable since before the social work role existed, however this new phrase encompassed not only the issues people faced, but how it affected them. Betts and Gaynor (Department of International Development, 2005) describes social exclusion as a process which systematically disadvantages certain groups within society and by doing so does not permit them the same opportunities and rights given to their peers. This can be done on the basis of; age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, health, physical/mental and emotional ability or even the area in which they live. By not affording these groups of people the same opportunities as others, this impacts on education and employment prospects resulting in low education, poor employment opportunities and substandard housing. It is often found that people living in poorer housing estates, compared to those in better off areas, have basic levels of education resulting in high levels of unemployment, poorer employment prospects and more health issues due to poor housing. This often results in the resources available being of poorer quality. According to Oxaal (1997) school attendance is often lower in economically deprived areas as it is seen as having little or no value, believing that the individual will be faced with a life on benefits despite their academic achievements. Schools in these areas are more likely to be less well funded and able to provide the same opportunities as other schools, often focusing on the basics such as reading and writing and less on personal development. (Giddens, 2009). Giddens (2009) describes how social exclusion is not always imposed by society but sometimes by the individual themselves; turning down employment or not continuing in education are choices made by the individual and the consequences of which may lead to or maintain the state of social exclusion. One of the main impacts of social exclusion is poverty. Llewellyn, Agu and Mercer (2008) describes how social workers are more likely to work with people from an impoverished background than any other; citing that children living in poverty are 700 times more likely to be the subject of local authority care. Giddens (2009) agrees with this arguing that children of poorer families are far more likely to become poor adults, perpetuating the cycle and increasing the need for intervention at some point during their lives. Despite it being perceived as the biggest driving factor, Ward (2009) argues that social exclusion is about more than just a lack of income. Both Giddens (2009) and Ward (2009) agree that those facing poverty are often children, the elderly, women and ethnic minorities but Ward goes on to describe that it is the accumulation of factors such as these that keep people in social exclusion. A young unemployed white man is more likely to improve their circumstances than an e lderly Asian lady living on a pension. It is this multi-dimensional nature of social exclusion that makes it difficult to tackle. A social worker needs to understand whether the exclusion a person faces is imposed by society or the individual themselves as well as the nature of the exclusion and be able to identify the aspects which contribute to the exclusion faced by the individual. It is this understanding which will ultimately lead to an effective course of action to help empower people and enable them to improve their standard of life. One of the roles of social work is to fight social injustice. Social exclusion on the basis of such qualities as age, race and gender are often tackled on an organisational level by legislation, acts such as the Race Relations Act 2000 and the Disability and Equality Act 2010 (The National Archive, (2000) and Directgov (2010)) prohibit discrimination against certain groups of people. Other pieces of legislation, such as the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 encourage a change in behaviour to redistribute the power balance between a service provider and its user. This act made it a legislative duty for Local Authorities to consult service users when planning and delivering services (The National Archive, 2000). It is this change in delivery and implementation of service provision that has led to the introduction of anti-oppressive practice in social work. Parrott (2011) discusses two distinct aspects of anti-oppressive practice; firstly on the basis that it should work against oppression and secondly that social work practice should seek to empower service users, seek to work in partnership with them with a minimal level of intervention. Wilson et al. (2008) and Dalrymple and Burke (2006) agree with the view of Parrott (2011) on anti-oppressive practice seeing it as a view to achieve social justice for service users. Anti-oppressive practice as a behaviour should, as outlined above, seek to promote three things, empowerment, partnership and minimal intervention. Empowerment, as described by Parrott (2006), can only be done when the social worker understands the context of the viewpoint of the service user within their situation. Although the facts and information obtained during this process can be verified, they should be taken as a clarification of how the service user sees themselves and should not be changed or corrected. People from the travelling community do not place a high importance on children attending school once they have gained a basic education, understanding how and why they hold this viewpoint will enable a social work to gain a better understanding of the values and priorities of the traveling community on educational matters. Control should be given to the service user to allow them to define their own situation, allowing them to do so without judgement and correction can empower them to take ownership of their situation. This control can enable a service user to take power over their situation, providing them with the confidence and self-belief that they are able to learn new skills and develop existing ones to improve their circumstances. (Parrott (2006), Clifford and Burke (2009)) Working in partnership with service users is an important aspect of anti-oppressive practice. Any course of action taken by a social worker should be done with the consent of the service user. Parrott (2006) explains that this may not always be possible; some decisions such as removing children from the family home or admitting someone into hospital following a breakdown are choices outside the service user control; however some choices, like where the child is placed, may still be subject to discussion. The act of listening to and taking into consideration the wishes and thoughts of a service user in such situations can also be seen as working in partnership. The nature of the partnership should include qualities such as listening to others point of view, providing information to all parties and being honest. These qualities will enable the partnership to remain even in the event that a decision is made the service user does not agree with. An opportune time for partnership to be developed is during the assessment, planning, intervention and review (APIR) cycle. The assessment of the situation faced by the service user should always be done in collaboration with them, checking their requirements for assistance and understanding of the circumstances. During the assessment process, particular focus should be given to highlight the strengths of the service user, reinforcing the first stage of empowerment. Areas of development should also be identified and agreed upon. When deciding upon a plan, it is more likely to be effective if it is done with the consent of the service user and where possible, utilises their strengths. Planning can be a difficult step in the APIR process, balancing the needs of the service user with the resources available may not always be possible. It may also be that the wishes of the service user are in conflict with what they need, an elderly person may wish to remain in their own home but the level of care required may not make it financially feasible. The coalition government in power in the UK today has put forward the ideal of a Big Society (The Cabinet Office, 2010); the idea being that families and communities work together to meet their own needs, taking back the power and the responsibility for improving their own situations. It is hoped that if a community takes responsibility for improving the area for its local residence, its more likely that everyone will become involved and work for the benefit of all without reliance on central government. Any intervention should be reviewed on a regular basis and should take into account the feedback by all involved parties. The discussion should include what has been successful and what is still left to be achieved. If more action is required, the APIR cycle can start again to deal with the remaining issues. Not all remaining issues may be negative, it may be appropriate to continue with more positive aspects such as enrolling on course to aid self-improvement; this will give the service user more confidence and empower them further making it more likely that the positive outcome agreed upon is more likely to be successful. The third aspect of anti-oppressive practice is minimal intervention. Parrott (2006) has split this into three levels of intervention; firstly at a primary level. This level of intervention should provide minimal support and usually takes the form of education and support, preventing the need for further assistance. Schemes such as Sure Start run by the government supports pregnant mothers until the child reaches school age and is designed to provide help and support to those from poorer backgrounds with the aim of tackling issues before they arise, (Directgov, 2011). The second level of intervention is done thorough early intervention with the intention of involvement being brief. The third level of intervention is usually enacted when something has gone wrong. According to anti-oppressive practice, the purpose of the intervention should be to reduce the consequences of the event. Taking away the risk of the incident reoccurring without changing the situation would be the ultimate g oal, it is accepted that this may not always be possible. (Parrott 2006). Wilsons et al. (2008) view on anti-oppressive practice is largely the same as Parrott (2006) in that she sees the introduction of direct payments and individual budgets for service user a positive thing. Wilson et al. (2008) also describe the service user as having self-determination in that they are an entity able to make their own choices and decisions and should be encouraged to do so. Wilson et al. (2008) also discussed the over use of advocacy with social workers often assuming the service user requires someone to speak on their behalf. If a social worker is to truly empower the service user then they must acknowledge their right to make their own decisions. Under government legislation, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (The National Archives 2005) which came into force in 2007 gives every adult the capacity to make their own decisions unless it is proved they are unable to do so. The act also protects unwise decisions, where a professional may not make the same decision in a given situation; it does not mean the service user lacks capacity to make it, protecting their right to make their own choices. When a service user is deemed incapable of making their own choices, an advocate may be appointed to assist with the process. In instances where an unwise decision is made, a social worker should weight up the right of the service user to make the choice and the risk involved in doing so. If the risk involved in making the decision puts the individual or the community at risk, then further consultation should be taken to discuss the point further. Although a social worker should not force a service user to change their opinion on a matter, they should provide a balanced view of the situation and highlight the possible effects and consequences of the choices available in the hopes that a more positive decision will be made. Mental capacity to make a decision is not a blanket issue; someone may have the capacity to make some decisions and not others. Elderly people with illnesses such as dementia may lack the capacity to make decisions one day but able to do so the next. Advocacy is most often thought of as acting on behalf of someone who is unable to do so for themselves, however acting as an advocate can also mean empowering someone by giving them the information, ability and opportunity to make their own decisions, (Parrott 2006). The Big Society is an example of collective self-advocacy in which a group a people with similar interests are encouraged get together to form one unified voice. Encouraging the formation of such groups often lessens the feeling of isolation in people facing social exclusion. Collectively it also gives them a stronger voice and the ability to request change to services and resources which have historically been withheld or are inaccessible on an individual level. Decision making in social work comes with the element of risk management. As discussed previously, it is good practice to for service users to make their own informed decisions provided they understand the consequences of their choice as well as having the capacity to do so. Hothersall and Maas-Lowit (2010) describe how the term risk was historically used to describe the likelihood of something happening, with neither a positive or negative connotation. In modern society, risk is viewed as the likelihood of a negative outcome occurring, the term chance is used when something is deemed to have a more positive outcome, however both words mean the same thing; the likelihood of an event occurring. Much like Parrott (2006) and Banks (2006), Hothersall and Maas-Lowit (2010) have noticed a change in the way social workers perform in relation to risk, describing the profession as becoming risk adverse. The policies and procedures put in place for social worker to work within have minimised risk to such an extent that the option of choice has been greatly reduced. When carrying out assessments, Hothersall and Maas-Lowit (2010) highlight how reports and case notes focus on the risk of a situation rather than the needs of the service user, taking away the understanding of what has caused the situation to focusing instead on who is to blame and minimising the risk of it reoccurring. Cases with a higher level of risk to either the individual or the community are often afforded more resources than those with lower risk levels. Hothersall and Maas-Lowit (2010) also view risk positively in that the outcome could be beneficial to a service user. By understanding the risk, what other options are available and taking steps to minimise any negative effects, the outcome of the risk taking may be highly beneficial to the individual. This is often the case when people with mental illnesses return to live in the community from hospital care. Whilst taking medication, the service user may pose a very minimal risk to the community; however the perceived risk may be much larger. Provided steps have been taken to acknowledge and minimise the risk and plans have been agreed in the event of a crisis situation, then the right of the service user to reside in the community should outweigh the requirement to keep them in institutional care. Risk is a factor which can be minimised but not eradicated; the nature of social work is surrounded by risk on a daily basis. Even by following policies, codes of conducts and planning for all perceived eventualities, the outcome may still be an unwanted one. Hothersall and Maas-Lowith (2010) perceive this to be inevitable in the field of social work and it is learning from these cases that will improve professional judgement. My first placement as a social work student was with a homeless charity working with young adults. The impact of social exclusion was evident in every aspect of the job. Many of the young people who visited the centre had a poor level of education, often had a criminal record, had spent time in care, were unemployed and many had learning difficulties. Although I had academic understanding of social exclusion, the reality was far different from what I had expected. One of the service users I was asked to work with was a young woman who had spent a larger proportion of her childhood in care. She had recently suffered a mental breakdown and lost custody of her young child to its father. Living in poverty, being a single mother and suffering with mental illness are all forms of social exclusion. I was asked to assist the service user with organising medical appointments and attending meetings. Working together, we made good progress in a relatively short time. On reflection, the work carried out was not done in terms of anti-oppressive practice. More emphasis should have been placed on allowing and encouraging the service user to act for themselves rather than having things done for them. Although this can be effective in the short term, in the long run it could form a sense of dependency for the service user. The risk of the choices made by the service user should have been taken into consideration, and had it done so, it would have lessened the level of intervention. The child had been placed out of harm and the extent of the mental illness did not put the service user or the community at any immediate risk. Rather than daily support, it would have been more appropriate to invite the service user to discuss the situation they faced, the options available to them and the consequences of the choices available to them. Anti-oppressive practice is about empowering people, promoting their right to make choices and working in partnership to reach an agreed outcome with the aim of improving their situation. People who are subject to the constraints of social exclusion are often denied these rights. Social workers are required by their code of practice to help service users take control over their own lives, promote independence and recognise that service user have a right to take risks. The nature of social exclusion makes it more likely that these individuals will, at some point in their lives, require intervention in the form of social care. By working with anti-oppressive practices, the effects of social worker intervention should leave a positive effect upon the service user. In an ideal world their financial restraints would not affect the choices available to a service user, time and resources would be available to plan, consider and minimise risky situations making a wider range of services available. In the ever restricting financial climate, social worker are not afforded the luxury of such budgets and so must look at ways in which service user are still empowered and given as much choice as possible in how their situation is dealt with. As a profession, social workers should be moving more towards a risk-taking approach and away from risk aversion. Service users who live with social exclusion deserve to be given the tools and opportunity to improve their own situation; it is with tools such as anti-oppressive practice and a strong set of values and ethics that social workers can empower them to fight the social injustice they face.

Mary Crawford: The Satisfying Heroine Essay -- Literary Analysis, Jane

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen presents her readers with a dilemma: Fanny Price is the heroine of the story, but lacks the qualities Jane Austen usually presents in her protagonists, while Mary Crawford, the antihero, has these qualities. Mary is active, effective, and witty, much like Austen’s heroines Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennet. Contrasting this is Fanny, who is timid, complacent, and dull. Austen gives Mary passages of quick, sharp, even occasionally shocking, dialogue, while Fanny often does not speak for pages at a time. When she does, her speeches are typically banal and forgettable. In Mansfield Park, Austen largely rests Fanny’s standing as protagonist on the fact that Fanny adheres to the moral standards of Austen’s era. Mary Crawford makes a more satisfying and appealing heroine but due to her modern-era sensibility and uncertain moral fiber, she cannot fulfill this role. Part of what makes Mary Crawford an appealing candidate as a heroine of the story is her ability to take action. Throughout Mansfield Park, Mary is an energetic participant in the activities of Mansfield Park, such as taking part in many conversations, arguing her own point of view, riding horses, entertaining herself and others with her harp, and acting in Lover’s Vows. Fanny pales in comparison in terms of her level of activity. In regard to riding, Fanny is attended to when she rides, either by a groomsman or her cousins (Mansfield Park, 59). When Edmund decides to procure Fanny a horse, he does so in consideration of her health, not her happiness, as he means to â€Å"procure for Fanny the immediate means of exercise, which he could not bear she should be without† (Mansfield Park, 32). Edmund’s concern is that the horse is good for Fanny’... ...n presents her ambiguously between morally reprehensible and simply blunt and ahead of her time. Mary Crawford is not the heroine of Mansfield Park. Heroines in Jane Austen’s novels end up married to a man they love and this is not Mary’s fate. Mary did have the opportunity to become a heroic figure but did not take it. If Mary had changed her ways, put her feelings for Edmund above her desire for wealth, her character development and change of heart would have made her acceptable to the Regency Era audience. However, she is steadfast in her opinions and makes no concessions. Mary’s stubbornness, disregard for standards of the times, and wittiness makes her unfit as a heroine when the book was published. However, in contemporary times these characteristic appeal to audiences, as one is more likely to relate to Mary’s practical, although controversial, opinions.

Examining Teaching through a New Lens: Learning about English Language

As a future educator, I tend to find myself wondering about my students. I think about the challenges that may arise and the tasks that I will need to accomplish. I know that there will be many joys and rewarding times during teaching; I also recognize the potential struggles. I wanted to make my focus for this paper a learning experience. I wanted to dive into information on a topic that I was unsure of and learn more about how to handle it. I aimed to find information about ELL, English language learner, students and how I could assist them in the classroom. My Topic and What I Already Knew about My Topic I will explain in this section why I wanted to research within the topic of ELL students. I will also provide my past knowledge and experiences that include being with ELL students due to my observation in a public school for my F200 class. The few weeks I spent observing shed a new light on the subject for me. Topic Choice I decided to focus my research on the topic of ELL students. I knew that understanding ELL students would be important to my future. I knew that it would be critical to find out information on ELL students because I only speak English. I wanted to know what I could do as these students’ teacher to help them learn as much as possible. Past Knowledge and Experience If you would have asked me about ELL students any time prior to this year, I would have not been able to tell you one thing about them. I honestly never had the thought of having to teach a student who spoke a different language than me. I grew up in a small, rural town with all English speaking students. I never saw my teachers faced with the dilemma of having a different language spoken in the classroom. Not being exposed to ELL studen... ...eb.b.ebscohost.com English language learners. (2013). Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp Ernst-Slavit, G., Moore, M., & Maloney, C. (2002). Changing lives: teaching English and literature to ESL students. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 46(2), 116-128. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners. American Educator, 32(2), 8-44. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2008/goldenberg.pdf Heining-Boynton, A. L. (n.d.). Keys to success for English language learners. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/760 Vacca-Rizopoulos, L. A., & Nicoletti, A. (2009). Preservice teachers’ reflections on effective strategies for teaching Latino ESL students. Journal of Latinos and Education, 8(1), 67-76. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com

Frankensteins character :: Essays Papers

Frankensteins character In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein caused many complications that could have been easily prevented. These problems were the result of his secrecy regarding his creation. The result was the deaths of many loved ones. Victor brought this upon himself because of his character flaws. His goal was not to destroy human life, but to put his knowledge to use in eliminating death. â€Å"I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation...†. The purpose of his experiment was to eliminate death. His reason for doing this was the mounting sentiment from his mother’s death. One of Victor’s flaws was that he couldn’t accept something that wasn’t perfect. Because the physical appearance of the creature scared him, he rejected it. Before giving the creation a chance, Victor decided that it wasn’t normal. Victor can be held responsible not only for creating the monster, but for all of the results of the monster’s actions. If Victor had communicated his problem with the people he needed to tell, the tragedies that occurred my not have happened. Unfortunately he never told his family of the creature and a few weeks later he received a letter informing him that his brother William had been murdered. When Victor arrived home, he saw his creation in the woods and was confident that the monster was the cause of the murder. The only person suspect was a girl named Justine, whom had lived in the Frankenstein house for a long while. Because of Victor’s timid nature in relation to the creature, Justine was executed for William’s death. Victor’s main problem with telling his loved ones about the creature was that the story was so unbelievable that he thought he would be considered crazy. He was a coward and didn’t take responsibility for his actions, and because of that, all of his loved ones were casualties. Victor played the tragic role of God by altering human life and transforming it. His role as the creator makes him consider himself not only a God-like figure, but a mother-figure. He feels responsible for the creature’s actions as well he should. Frankensteins character :: Essays Papers Frankensteins character In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein caused many complications that could have been easily prevented. These problems were the result of his secrecy regarding his creation. The result was the deaths of many loved ones. Victor brought this upon himself because of his character flaws. His goal was not to destroy human life, but to put his knowledge to use in eliminating death. â€Å"I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation...†. The purpose of his experiment was to eliminate death. His reason for doing this was the mounting sentiment from his mother’s death. One of Victor’s flaws was that he couldn’t accept something that wasn’t perfect. Because the physical appearance of the creature scared him, he rejected it. Before giving the creation a chance, Victor decided that it wasn’t normal. Victor can be held responsible not only for creating the monster, but for all of the results of the monster’s actions. If Victor had communicated his problem with the people he needed to tell, the tragedies that occurred my not have happened. Unfortunately he never told his family of the creature and a few weeks later he received a letter informing him that his brother William had been murdered. When Victor arrived home, he saw his creation in the woods and was confident that the monster was the cause of the murder. The only person suspect was a girl named Justine, whom had lived in the Frankenstein house for a long while. Because of Victor’s timid nature in relation to the creature, Justine was executed for William’s death. Victor’s main problem with telling his loved ones about the creature was that the story was so unbelievable that he thought he would be considered crazy. He was a coward and didn’t take responsibility for his actions, and because of that, all of his loved ones were casualties. Victor played the tragic role of God by altering human life and transforming it. His role as the creator makes him consider himself not only a God-like figure, but a mother-figure. He feels responsible for the creature’s actions as well he should.

Cheating and Sportsmanship

Cheating and Sportsmanship HPE essay-BY Elliott Biggs Just like everything in life, sports too are governed by rules, customs and even competition. Sports are a way through which we are able to connect with our past and have good feelings about the future. Sports acts as a way of bonding people despite their age, gender and race differences. Sports today, instead of bonding people and teaching them discipline and teamwork is causing them to cheat. And athletes have a reason to cheat now with all the fame, drugs and endorsements available to gain from.Cheating in sports is certainly not something new; it has been taking place ever since sports and sporting competitions were first introduced. 2000 years before Mike Tyson bit a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear and due to it faced disqualification in the boxing match, a boxer from Thessaly, Eupolus’s had bribed 3 of his opponents to take dives in the Olympics of 388 BC (Los Angeles Times). Eupolus’s cheating is consi dered to have been the first cheating act to have been committed in sports. Everyone wants to win and wants an easy way to do it.The way people cheat in sports has become various and diversified over the years but I will discuss only three. Performance enhancing drugs, performance enhancing equipment and blood doping. First, Performance enhancing drugs. The use of enhancement â€Å"substances† for sporting events dates back to the ancient Greeks and ancient Maya. Performance potions where utilized by the Greeks to increase their abilities, and cocoa leaves where thought to be used by the ancient Maya to increase their abilities.Today, athletes will go to many lengths to increase athletic ability, including: steroids, HGH, Amphetamines, and even animal or human organs just as the Greeks did in their time. Most young athletes will tell you that the competitive drive to win can be very intense. Besides the satisfaction of personal gain, young athletes often pursue dreams of maki ng it to the Olympics or a place on a professional team. This competitive environment, created by our culture, has led to a more common use of steroids and other performance-enhancing agents in sports.For a growing number of athletes, winning at all costs includes taking anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Some may appear to achieve physical gains from such drugs, but at what cost? The truth is that long-term effects of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs haven't been painstakingly studied. And short-term benefits are flawed with many potential side-effects and consequences such as loss of medals, eligibility and even death. Billie Holiday said â€Å"Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better.All dope can do for you is kill you – and kill you the long, slow, hard way. † It isn’t worth it. People can die because of these things but they will do anything to win. The use of performance enhancing equipment has many limitations and boundaries. For example, i believe that if you have to use such equipment then it is alright. E. g. Oscar pistorius. Pistorius has below the knee amputations on both legs that have been fitted with Flex-Foot Cheetah carbon fiber transtibial prostheses. He has no choice; if he wants to achieve his goal as an athlete he must use this equipment.Some say that this puts him at an advantage, but i disagree. If they make them just long enough to give the same amount of spring as the human legs. But, if the competitors are to use equipment unnecessarily, it would be unfair. E. g. a corked bat is a specially modified baseball bat that has been filled with cork or other lighter, less dense substances to make the bat lighter without losing much power. A lighter bat gives a hitter a quicker swing and may improve the hitter's timing. One thing that might make this fair would be if every competitor used the same equipment.But that would not solve anything, would that not just put them back where they started. This is unfair on other competitors because it gives the athlete an unfair advantage by making them more aerodynamic, faster, leap further or maybe even swim faster by eliminating water resistance. What is the point of athletes using suits anyway, in the end it all still comes down to raw talent anyway. Say swimmer a’s time is 27. 6 secs and swimmer b’s time is 28. 4 secs. They wear the suit which takes of 0. 01 of a second. And swimmer a’s time becomes 27. 59 and swimmer b’s becomes 28. 39.Swimmer a still wins anyway. Blood doping. The process of blood doping, also called blood boosting or blood packing, involves illicitly increasing the number of red blood cells throughout one’s body. In terms of anatomy red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles. With more oxygen being carried to the muscles during rigorous activity, the longer the muscles will perform without building up lactic ac id. Once lactic acid builds up within the bloodstream it restricts the flow of oxygen to working muscles therefore producing fatigue. In essence with more red blood cells more oxygen can be arried to working muscles, therefore increasing endurance and reducing fatigue. For this very reason blood doping has become a favourite practice of some elite endurance athletes due to the fact that it gives them improved aerobic capacity. It allows them to perform rigorous activity, such as cross country skiing, cycling, as well as running at a higher level for a longer period of time. As you can imagine that would give an athlete a significant advantage. A new-Mexico study showed that EPO use can shave up to 69 seconds off of a world-class 10,000 meter time.In any world class event such as track and field, a 69 second deficit is the difference between being considered the worlds-finest to just another middle runner. This is what inspires athletes to dope. But is it fair? No it is not. I have d iscussed in this essay three types of cheating in sports and their advantages. I have successfully answered the question, is cheating in sports ethical. Cheating in sports has been around for many hundreds of years and no-one will ever change the fact that people will cheat and find a way to win any way possible.

The Globalization of the American Furniture Industry

American furniture manufacturers have struggled with making cost-competitive products over the past decade. Several have closed U. S. facilities and built plants overseas or hired companies to make the goods in foreign countries and ship them here. Many factors have influenced the decision to move production over seas including, labor costs, price of materials, freight costs, time in transit, overall time to make a product and get it to market, and the amount of training needed for employees. A decade ago, nearly 100 percent of the dinette sets, cabinets, dressers, armoires and other wooden pieces sold in the United States were produced here. Today, 75 percent to 80 percent is made in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and other Asian countries. † (Chavez)In addition to production, many companies are also outsourcing their human resource functions. â€Å"Many companies today view human resource outsourcing as one of the most viable options to save money and improve services while also mak ing a strategic contribution to the business. (Clinton) High Point, North Carolina is often regarded as the furniture capital of the world. Every six months High Point hosts The International Home Furnishing Market, which is the centerpiece to city’s economy. Thousands of sales representatives, buyers, and designers attend the event. The massive trade show is the largest, most well-known, and most important furnishings industry trade show in the world. But, a new study shows that North Carolina has lost nearly 80,000 jobs to China since 2001. Associated Press) Economist Michael Walden recently said, â€Å"There is no question that North Carolina has lost jobs – particularly in textiles and furniture manufacturing – due to international trade agreements signed during the last 15 years. Prior to the World Trade Agreement, North Carolina's textile and apparel jobs were protected from lower cost foreign producers. † (Associated Press) To compete some companie s are looking to sell their products overseas. A group of high-end custom furniture manufactures created an organization called American Furniture Exporters.Their goal is to find cost effective ways to export their goods overseas. The idea arose from the High Point market. â€Å"We saw some decent (international) traffic in our space with buyers from Venezuela, Greece, Israel, Quatar, Mexico and elsewhere† said Rick Moose the sales manager for Designmaster. (Gunin) La-Z-Boy Inc. , the nation's second-largest furniture manufacturer, faced sales declines with it’s wood furniture, so they terminated much of their U. S. production and moved the work to China.In an April press release, the company came out again to announce that they were moving much of their upholstered furniture manufacturing to Mexico. A Mexican-based facility is practical for La-Z-Boy because they rely heavily on custom orders in their upholstered segment and with it’s close proximity to the U. S . , orders will be shipped much faster on land, rather than if they had to travel by ship from China. Speed to market for custom orders is a tenet of our brand promise to the consumer and the strength of our U. S. facilities enables us to deliver on that promise.We made the decision to transition our domestic cutting and sewing operations while streamlining the assembly aspect of production in the United States. Our new Mexican facility will be able to rapidly supply our domestic plants with cut-and-sewn fabrics and leather for custom orders and will complement the existing cut-and-sew program from China, which supplies our U. S. manufacturing operations. (La-Z-Boy) The U. S. is not alone in the shipping of manufacturing of production overseas; furniture giant IKEA found it to be cheaper to manufacture furniture in Ohio rather than producing it in Sweden and shipping it to the U.S. Ironically, the company IKEA came to, Sauder Woodworking Company, had shipped part of its production o verseas to China to stay competitive. The company’s president, Kevin Sauder, said, â€Å"We are to IKEA what China is to a lot of furniture companies. † (Chavez) Many people are fed up with the federal government’s stance on international trade. James Copeland of Copland Industries/Copland Fabrics of Burlington, N. C. said, Deeply flawed U. S. trade policy toward domestic manufacturing is the single most important root cause of the illness.Every American deserves the right to provide for his family, to own a home and to educate his kids, but our flawed manufacturing and trade policies are taking this away. † (McCormack) Copeland is upset because he is competing against foreign companies who do not have to pay workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, overtime, benefits; nor do they have to deal with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Regulations (OSHA) regulations or abide by child labor laws. None of these things a lone drove jobs overseas. But each increased the cost of doing business and made a move overseas just that more necessary for some American companies. † (Hall) Because we live in a modern, civilized nation we realize that there is a need for laws and rules that protect employees, but we also need to realize that businesses exist for the sole purpose of making a profit. â€Å"Increasingly, well-intentioned government regulations also drive up costs—and drive out jobs. † (Hall) There may be relief in site for the American worker.During his campaign President-elect Barack Obama expressed support for tax benefits for companies that keep jobs on American soil. Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 in the Senate last year to reward companies that create jobs with benefits for American workers. (Maltby) Much like North Carolina, Mississippi has also been greatly affected by the outsourcing of American manufacturing. Jay Moon, president of the Mississippi Man ufacturers Association, hopes that lawmakers will do away with the inventory tax businesses pay on raw materials, works in progress, and finished goods.Because China using favored-nation status to flood the American market with cheaper goods, such moves would help American manufacturers better compete with overseas companies making the same types of products. (Ayers) There are many other issues affecting the furniture industry, high gas prices increase shipping costs, job layoffs, and most directly, the nationwide housing foreclosure crisis. When people are unable to keep a roof over their head, it is unlikely that they are worried about the furniture in their home.The logic is simple, â€Å"retail stores aren't selling any furniture because people aren't buying furniture,† (Ayers) Since I am in going into the field of Interior Design I have seen the results of shipping production overseas first hand. This past summer I did an internship in a furniture store and nearly everyd ay we received a fax from an upholstered furniture company with a list of fabrics that had been discontinued due to the closing of U. S. mills.This causes there to be much less selection and variety, which creates problems when one furniture store wants to stand out from another or when a customer wants something new and different than what everyone else has. No one wants to pay a thousand dollars for a sofa when their neighbor can buy a similar one at Big Lots. Our store worked very closely with La-Z-Boy until they began to reduce their warranties and increase delivery time due to much of the production being done in Mexico. It is very difficult for an independently owned business to stay competitive and also provide customers with quality goods.In our store, we carried both American made products and imports in order to stay competitive and satisfy a wide range of customers’ needs. Many people would ask if we carried American made products, but when they compared the prices they opted for the cheaper imported goods instead. I also noticed increases in shipping costs over the course of the summer, which translated into higher prices for our customers. To cope with the financial strain, we began to only make deliveries 2 days a week and encouraged customers to pick up their items when possible.An advantage a small business has over large companies or a foreign firm is customer service. I believe that that is what keeps many businesses going, because a locally owned store is more likely to work with you personally and understand your needs. I find myself torn over the issue of outsourcing. Part of me wants to stick with the belief that the best quality goods are American made, but as I grow older and are paying for things myself, I enjoy the benefits of lower costs due to outsourcing.I think that the United States should take certain steps to improve business here domestically, such as tax benefits for businesses, so that prices can be lowered and more p eople will buy locally. Because the future of industry and manufacturing jobs in America is unknown, I believe that we should focus more of our efforts on education and training employees in fields that cannot be outsourced, such as teachers and health professions.Works Cited Associated Press. â€Å"N. C. has lost nearly 80,000 jobs to China since 2001, report says. 30 July 2008. Local Tech Wire. 24 Nov. 2008 . Ayers, Jeff. â€Å"Manufacturing Takes Hit. † 19 Oct. 2008. Clarion Ledger. 24 Nov. 2008 . Caplan, Jeremy. â€Å"Ikea CEO Anders Dahlvig on Surviving a Bad Economy. † 18 Nov. 2008. TIME Magazine. 23 Nov. 2008 . Chavez, Jon. â€Å"Overseas competition challenges furniture industry. † 22 Mar. 2007. Toledo Blade. 17 Oct. 2008 . Clinton, David. â€Å"Study: 76% Of Major North American Companies Outsource One Or More HR Functions. † 15 Apr. 2006. Rent To Own. 23 Nov. 2008 . Gunin, Joan. â€Å"N. C. based American Furniture Exporters makes progress. â €  19 Nov. 2008. Furniture Today. 24 Nov. 2008 . Hall, Robert A. â€Å"Who sent American jobs overseas? † 11 Nov. 2008. American Chronicle. 24 Nov. 2008 . La-Z-Boy Furniture. â€Å"LA-Z-BOY ANNOUNCES MOVES TO STRENGTHEN ITS NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS. † Press release. 2 Apr. 2008. 24 Nov. 2008 . Maltey, Emily. â€Å"Overseas outsourcing heats up again. † CNN Money. 11 Nov. 2008. 11 Nov. 2008 . McCormack, Richard. â€Å"The Free-Trade Debacle: Domestic Manufacturers Vs. Multinationals. † Manufacturing and Technology News 15 (2008).