The Funeral free essay sample

It was a gloomy day; the car was silent as we drove to the funeral home. It seemed like time was moving extra fast and my stomach seemed to be in my throat. When we pulled up in front of the funeral home my heart beat faster and I was now gagging on my stomach. The rain beat down hard as I said ‘hello’ to my relatives and family friends. The cold empty air hit me as I strolled to say hi to my aunt who was talking. With my pictures in my hand I walked up to the casket that I knew I would not be able to stand. As I looked down I broke out with tears, as fought to hold them back my cries began to become louder and I could now feel people hovering over me whispering unrecognized words. I then gained enough strength to put my pictures above his head as I could not take it any longer I had to walk away. We will write a custom essay sample on The Funeral or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I sat in the back of the funeral home crying for what seemed like hours. I had a pair of sunglasses on so that they would cover my eyes, my tears, and my pain but most importantly me. With the glasses on I felt no one could see me and they would all leave me alone. All I wanted at that moment was someone to understand, but at that moment all that came to mind was my favorite cousin, Keyona. She was my first cousin on my dad’s side and my mother’s first cousins daughter, so I was related to her on both sides of the family. We both had an equal relationship with our grandfather plus she’s only a year younger than I am. Even though I had sisters, they were all too busy to understand my pain. I felt as if they didn’t understand, and that they didn’t know how much pain I was going through. As I flipped open my phone and dialed her number, a certain relief came over me when she answered in her sweet voice, but I felt certain guilt when all she could hea r was pain in mine. We led on into conversation about who was there and how far away she was from being there. I just couldn’t wait until she came. When I hung up with her I rested my head down until she was there, but I couldn’t sit there anymore. I got up and went out 2 feel the warm summer air that blew. My arms, legs, and nose were cold from just sitting there. As I sat next to the door I saw my cousin come inside and all I could do was smile. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and let her go inside to see our grandfather. When she came back I could plainly see that she was tearing up. I just gave her a hug, and I don’t know what it was about that hug, but we both broke down in each others arms. With no words exchanged I could feel that no matter how many friends I have my cousin will always be my best friend. There was nothing that any friend and I can encounter that my cousin and I hadn’t already gone through. When the service started the immediate fam ily (children, grandchildren, sisters, nieces, and nephews) all came in while the rest of the family and friends stood there. I felt as everyone put pity on the fact that my grandfather had just passed away and that they all were staring at me. Since my mother made me take off the sunglasses, my tear filled red eyes were piercing straight forward making little to no eye contact. I held my cousins hand and we proceeded to our seats. When we sat down, we sat right next to each other comforting one another. Half way through the sermon tears were still falling down my eyes and I felt as if I could not cry anymore. Then it all just stopped, the talking, the tears, the pain, all at once, but I knew that it would not last long. I just sat there staring at the red flower arrangements all I could feel was my cousin pushing me up to go the bathroom with her. When we got into the bathroom there was barely any talking until my little cousins came following. The words they spoke, sounded like t hey didn’t even care that we were feeling hurt at all. ‘Dag, Shareece I ain’t even know you and Keyona was that emotional.’ There was not one ‘Are you guy’s alright?’ nothing like it. I just looked at them and smiled. I couldn’t feel anger at the way they turned their noses up at us, all I felt was emptiness. I figure now that they’re too young to realize that when you lose someone a certain pain comes over you that you would have never thought would. When we sat back down, there was no more grief between us we just listened to the preacher preach and nodded our heads back. Then he asked if anyone had any stories to tell about him. All my strength I built up slowly broke down as I heard people talking about him. The jokes, laughter, and memories all made me sad once again. Then it was my turn to say the poem I had and as I read the poem everything was gone. After that I don’t remember anything else but leaving the funeral home. Poem: by Unknown If tears could build a stairway, And memories were a lane. I would walk right up to heaven, To bring you home again. No farewell words were spoken, No time to say good-bye. You were gone before I knew it, And only God knows why. My heart still aches in sadness, And secret tears still flow. What it meant to lose you, No one will ever know. You and angels around Gods happy throne. I would have held you closer if I had known The pain of losing a family member can always be hard, but when you lose someone so close to you after watching them suffer can always be a heartbreaker. Though it would have been a miracle if my grandfather survived his medical complications, I still had hope. I’m just grateful that I had family and friends there to support me through everything.

The Presidential Inaugural Address essays

The Presidential Inaugural Address essays Over the course of the next several months, both presidential nominees will make many speeches in their efforts to campaign for president. However, after the election is overand the last presidential election was not over in the year 2000 until long after Novemberthe president must make an inaugural address in January on the steps of the Capitol building to bring the nation together after a long and divisive campaign. Unlike the campaign speeches, this speech must not be partisan or divisive in the nature of its tone. It must be positive, rather than negative in its use of rhetoric. It must set the stage for the president's entire administration in terms of firmly establishing his vision for the country. It must speak to the world rather than to just the American voters. It must also speak to both houses of congress, republicans and Because of these factors, presidents tend to use poetic and rhetorical tropes when expressing themselves in their inaugural addresses. One of the classic rhetorical uses of antithesis, for example, or the pairing of two unlike ideas with similar phrases is John F. Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Note too how Kennedy addresses the young people of the nation, rather than taking any political jibes at his opposition. Even though he was advocating a policy change in terms of creating the Peace Core, he discusses service in positive terms, rather than in the tone of an advocate The president who speaks in January to the nation must speak to a divided nation, frustrated over a protracted Iraqi commitment, higher costs of living in the form of higher oil prices, and a still shaky economy. Whether this president's name is Kerry or Bush, he must inspire the people not simply to believe in him, but to help him heal the nation, the Iraqi ...

Journal assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Journal - Assignment Example From a personal experience, you are connected with other people whom you share the same profession when you join this organization. You learn and share experiences with people who understand you because you work in a similar environment. I have been a member of Nevada Nurses Association; hence, I have been able to enjoy this great opportunity. Becoming a full member of American Nurses Association is equally important and beneficial to me as a nurse. This is because I regularly receive journals every month on any emerging issue or trend in my profession. This information is very resourceful when it comes to making important decision and moves in my profession. I have also been able to network with other members in this organization. This has enabled me to form and maintain long lasting relationship with other nurses in this movement. Hence, joining this association has been of importance to my profession (McQuilkin, 2005). Every practicing nurse should be a member of a professional organization in order to enjoy the benefits as stated above. It will also help them protect and champion for their rights in the course of duty. Hence, through this association, I will ensure that all nurses are registered members in order to network and connect with each of them. Further, nurses have an obligation to be advocates politically. For example, Nevada has a good name because of its impact in championing for the rights of nurses in US. These political activities enable the association to establish powerful relationships, which can be used to prevent or change any issue that is affecting well being of nurses. As a political organization whom members are nurses, it has been able to protect the rights and welfare of nurses. I believe that nurses have an obligation to be political advocates. This is because they will be able to influence and act on issues that affect them in the line of their duty. For example, it could increase in

Stella Dallas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Stella Dallas - Essay Example This urgency is emphasized in educating individuals to speak in one’s own voice, without falling into narcissistic self-containment. It is a form of educating people to turn their voice of the â€Å"I† outward, towards a becoming-community that is hospitable to strangers, and allows space for the inaudible and marginal voice to be acknowledged. This advocacy is a form of educating individuals without narratives of self-serving recognition. In the making of â€Å"the great man,† that is to say, a figure able to sustain independence even when surrounded by many others, is the main thesis of Emerson’s â€Å"Self-Reliance.† While this is a heartening call to trust in ourselves, an immediate, popular reaction can be expected: Is this not too egocentric a notion of the self to be defensible today? In response to prevalent criticisms of the Emersonian self on the grounds of its excessive emphasis on the personal side of individualism, Buell argues that the personal in Emerson is underwritten by impersonality and depersonalization. An implication of Buell’s view is that the underlying drive in Emerson’s account of the self is negative, that is, it is an avoidance of the personal. However, is this the only way of responding to Emerson’s call for people to become self-reliant? In responding to this urgency, the negative approach of reading Emerson does not seem adequate. The task for the philosophy of education is to offer a critical framework for rethinking the structure of language and the self in order to bridge the personal and the public. The purpose of this essay is to explore an alternative possibility for reading this contested passage of Emerson, a reading that takes issue with the limited frames of both the prevailing criticism of the independent figure and the defense. This essay suggests one possibility of such a discourse for education through a reinterpretation of Emerson that centers on the theme of t he education of the self-reliant person, from the inmost to the outmost. A main figure through which we could view what is truly at stake here is Stanley Cavell’s idea of â€Å"Emersonian moral perfectionism.† In his anti-foundationalist approach to perfectionism, Cavell destabilizes the way we conventionally conceive of the self. He envisions a potential path from the private to the public, showing the aesthetic and the existential to be preconditions for our political becoming. In other words, Cavell’s picture of the Emersonian self destabilizes any notion of the â€Å"real me.† Herein, the self is construed not as something negative but rather, as affirmative. Particularly, the genre he identifies as the Hollywood melodrama of the unknown woman — exemplified by the film Stella Dallas — is examined as a â€Å"perfectionist narrative,† with â€Å"prophetic language† being highlighted as one of its key features. Given this mode of analysis, it helps destabilize perceptions of the self and of the self’s relation to language, and will show why the apparently paradoxical concept of anti-foundationalist perfectionism is necessary in the passage from the inmost to the outmost. In conclusion, I shall claim that Cavell’s ideas can serve as a critical corrective to the popular discourse in narrative education and political education: its alternative vision of education can awaken the individual to find his or her own voice. Cavell’

Online discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Online discussion - Essay Example Yes, this is true...as long as the compliments are taken as genuine. A false compliment or flattery for the sake of influence can cause suspicion and close off the person. Even sincere compliments have to be given with discretion because if the person thinks that you are saying nice things just to get them to do something, they will not be cooperative. Yes, I think the book does cite a study that says that compliments, even false ones, are helpful. What I am saying is that we should be truthful and I know that if I was in a negotiation and thought the other side was complimenting me just to try and get my defenses down, I would become very uncooperative. I hope that I am never in that position to have to flatter in order to accomplish my negotiation goals. I don't think you have to believe in something to be persuasive, but it helps. Professional actors are much better at making people believe them than most regular people. If I really believe in something, I can be must more persuasive about it than if I am just pretending.

RBG Colour Model Experiment

RBG Colour Model Experiment Introduction Color is a visual attribute of objects that results from the light they emit, transmit or reflect. [1] These colors give us the ability to appreciate things around us. With this, we can easily define or give meaning to the things we see almost every day. We can see these colors in paintings, surroundings, the food we eat, and almost everything, as almost everything has color. Electronic systems use different color models to represent data visually. [2] One of these color models is RGB color model. A color in RGB color model is expressed by how much of each red, green, blue is included [2], hence the acronym RGB. In this experiment, we lit the RGB LED with different colors in Arduino, with the use of RGB color model. Materials with Description DFRduino Uno R3 (1) The arduino circuit board. Jumper Cables M/M (4) Serves as the connector to different pins in the circuit. RGB LED (1) A diode that emits light and to be used as an output in the circuit. It provides different colors of light by setting its RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values. It consists of 3 anodes, one for each color in RGB, and one cathode. 220 ÃŽÂ © Resistor (3) An electric device that will control the flow of current through the circuit. Procedure (self-explained) Connect the components to the breadboard base on the tables below. Resistor Breadboard Start End A D9 G9 B D7 G7 C D6 G6 Table 1 Resistor Positions RGB LED Red Cathode(-) Green Blue Breadboard I9 I8 I7 I6 Table 2 RGB Led Position Jumper Wires Breadboard Arduino Start End 1 C6 DP 10 2 C7 DP 11 3 C9 DP 9 4 H8 GND Table 3 Jumper Wire Positions After plotting the components to the breadboard. Connect the USB cable to the computer and the circuit. Compile and upload the code. Circuit Diagram Code Code Analysis int redPin, greenPin, bluePin this code sets the pin numbers of each color from RGB LED to their respective pin slot in the Arduino. void setup(){à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦} a one-time initialization method. Set all redPin, greenPin, and bluePin as output by using pinMode(pin, pinType) built-in function. void loop(){à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦} a method that constantly iterates the statements inside the block. In this experiment, we created different colors, by generating random numbers from random(min, max) each color from red, green and blue. random(0, 255) a built-in function that generates random number from range 0 to 255. void colorRGB(int r, int g, int b){à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦} a user-defined method that accepts values of r, g, and b. This method is also responsible for assigning the values/colors for the pins of the RGB LED by using analogWrite(pin, value). When these colors are combined together, the RGB LED will create a different color based on the values of the RGB written by analogWrite(). constrain(value, min, max) a built-in function that checks whether value is in the range of min and max. If so, return the value. If value is greater than max, this function will return max. If value is less than min, this function will return min. This code is essential to check whether the value is less than 0 or greater than 255, as analogWrite can only accept values 0-255. Also, the color values for each color in RGB can only be 0 255. For example: R = 255,   G = 0, B = 255, this will create a violet color. delay(n); lets the circuit sleep or pause for n milliseconds. Comparison of Code vs. Hardware Output It is noticeable that the code controls and manages how will the hardware provide an output. It is also important that the pins used in the hardware should be the same in the code.   This experiment introduced a new kind of LED that can represent or display different colors. The RGB LED changes its color by using random number generation as part of the code, and setting those values to each color in RGB pins in the LED. Recommendation/Enhancement The experiment can be integrated in disco bars, to produce different colors of lights. This can be also used for medical purposes for people who may suffer color blindness. For example, an RGB LED, will produce colors, and the individual will describe the color he or she saw. A billboard composed of multiple RGB LEDs can be used to act like as pixels in a graphic image. [1] WordNet Search 3.1, [Online]. Available: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=colorsub=Search+WordNeto2=o0=1o8=1o1=1o7=o5=o9=o6=o3=o4=h=. [2] RGB Color Model Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model. [Accessed 9 January 2017].

The Power Struggles in Jury of Her Peers and Mama Come Home Essay

The Power Struggles in Jury of Her Peers and Mama Come Home The issue of dominance and subordinance is addressed in the short stories â€Å"A Jury of her Peers† by Susan Glaspell and â€Å"Mama Come Home† by James Tiptree, Jr. In the stories the subordinates are harmed by the dominants, but the subordinates overcome the suppression to triumph in the end. The groups with the power control the laws and the positions of the weaker group. To begin with, â€Å"A Jury of her Peers† is about the way women in 1917 were treated by men. The main women characters are Minnie Wright, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale. The women in the story are confined to their homes; rarely getting to go to town or visit with their friends. The women did not have many things with color and beauty. The men looked down on the women as inferior. The women in the story are the subordinates and the men are the dominants, because the men oppress the women and control them. â€Å"Mama Come Home† is a science fiction story about the way women treat men in the future. Giant alien women, called Capellans, come to Earth and abuse the smaller Earthmen. The women have no respect for the men. The men are helpless because the women are so large and powerful. The women in this story are the dominants and the men in the story are the subordinates, because the women control the men and everything the men do. The subordinates in the story â€Å"A Jury of her Peers† are emotionally abused by their husbands. The men treat the women like they are incapable of doing the same tasks as the men. An example is when the men are looking for clues to find a motive for the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband. They assign the women the task of finding Minnie Wright, who was being retaine... ... women determine what happened, Mrs. Peters becomes more compassionate and starts to feel Minnie’s pain. At the end of the story, Mrs. Peters helps Mrs. Hale hide the evidence that could convict Minnie. Tillie, one of the main characters in â€Å"Mama Come Home,† changes during the course of the story. Tillie is a human that looks like a Capellan, a giant alien woman. Tillie is friends with the Capellans until she sees the way the Capellans treat her male friend. Tillie becomes upset and decides to help the humans scare off the Capellans. Without Tillie’s help, the human’s plan would not have worked. In summary, the stories show how dominants can hurt subordinates and how subordinates can find ways to overcome the power of the dominant group. The characters learn that the dominants hurt people, and they must help out their friends by doing the right thing.

Hbr Article

www. hbr. org Even as companies are being told that the future lies in globalization, some are severely punished for their international moves. A simple test can help you decide what makes strategic sense for your organization. When You Shouldn’t Go Global by Marcus Alexander and Harry Korine Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 When You Shouldn’t Go Global 8 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applicationsReprint R0812E This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. When You Shouldn’t Go Global The Idea in Brief Globalization promises substantial advantages like new growth and scale. For some companies, itâ €™s paid off handsomely. But global mania has also blinded many firms to a hard truth: global strategies are devilishly tough to execute. The landscape has become littered with some of these unfortunates’ remains.DaimlerChrysler and ABN Amro— dismembered and bought up by activist shareowners—are particularly painful examples. To escape this fate, don’t assume you should go global, say Alexander and Korine. Instead, determine whether a global move makes sense for your firm. Ask: †¢ Could the move generate substantial benefits? †¢ Do we have the capabilities (for example, experience in postmerger integration) required to realize those benefits? †¢ Will the benefits outweigh the costs (such as the complexity that comes with coordinating far-flung international operations)? A yes to these questions suggests globalizing may be right for you.The Idea in Practice THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE GOING GLOBAL Could the strategy generate substantia l benefits for our firm? The global race can lead you to overestimate the size of the prize. Example: Redland, a UK manufacturer of concrete roof tiles, expanded around the world to leverage its technical know-how beyond its home market. But it often sought opportunities in countries (such as Japan) where local building practices provided little demand for concrete roof tiles. Thus, there was no value in transferring its technology to such markets. Do we have the capabilities needed to achieve those benefits?Companies often lack the skills needed to unlock the coffer holding the prize. Example: Taiwanese consumer electronics company BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens’s mobiledevices business failed because BenQ lacked integration skills. It couldn’t reconcile the two companies’ incompatible cultures or integrate R&D activities across the two entities. BenQ’s German unit filed for bankruptcy in 2006. Will the benefits outweigh the costs? The full costs o f going global can dwarf even a sizable prize. Example: TCL, a Chinese maker of TVs and mobile phones, has expanded rapidly into the United States and Europe through acquisitions and joint ventures.It now has numerous R&D headquarters, R&D centers, manufacturing bases, and sales organizations. The cost of managing this complex infrastructure has outweighed the benefits of increased scale—creating large losses for TCL and several of its joint-venture partners. THREE INDUSTRIES WITH PARTICULAR GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES †¢ Deregulated industries. Formerly stateowned industries (telecommunications, utilities) have globalized after deregulation to spur growth and escape stiffened competition at home.They assume they can use their existing competencies in new markets to achieve cross-border economies. But it’s been difficult, for example, for utilities to optimize electricity flows over uncoordinated grids. †¢ Service industries. Many service businesses (retailing, insurance) go global to generate growth beyond home markets threatened by foreign rivals. Their strategies hinge on coordination of people or processes—no easy feat. Wal-Mart, for instance, has struggled to get its partner firms and employees abroad to adopt its work methods. †¢ Manufacturing industries.For automobile and communications equipment makers, for example, global mergers and partnerships seem to offer the size needed to compete against consolidating rivals. But the complexities of integration can cause delays in achieving those gains. These companies thus have become vulnerable to economic slowdowns, which constrain their ability to pay for expansion and consolidation. COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. page 1 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine.Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. Even as companies a re being told that the future lies in globalization, some are severely punished for their international moves. A simple test can help you decide what makes strategic sense for your organization. When You Shouldn’t Go Global by Marcus Alexander and Harry Korine COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Economic globalization is viewed by some as the best hope for world stability, by others as the greatest threat.But almost everyone accepts that businesses of all types must embrace it. Even smaller enterprises—urged on by the ? nancial markets, by investment bankers and consultants, by the media, and by the moves they see rivals making—feel the strategic imperative to go global in one form or another. Although the current ? nancial crisis is putting a damper on such activity, the pressure on companies to globalize is likely to persist. With this sense of inevitability, it’s easy to forget the serious mistakes s ome companies have made because of their global strategies. Dutch ? ancial-services ? rm ABN Amro, for example, acquired banks in numerous countries but wasn’t able to achieve the integration needed to generate value with its international network. AES, a U. S. -based energy ? rm that operates 124 generation plants in 29 countries on ? ve continents, has in recent years struggled to show that it is worth more than the sum of its individual geographic units. Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler in 1998 in order to create a Welt AG—a world corporation—but never attained the power over markets and suppliers that this global position was supposed to deliver.And these days, companies can’t always chalk their mistakes up to experience and move on. Industry rivals and activist share owners are increasingly forcing ? rms to undo their international investments—despite, in many cases, early endorsement by analysts and the market—and even to ? re the sen ior management teams that made them. ABN Amro was dismembered last year by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis, and Banco Santander, largely along geographic lines. AES’s share price has tumbled since investors’ initial enthusiasm for its globalization strategy, and some investment advisers are calling for the ? m to be split into three or more parts. The architect of the DaimlerChrysler deal, CEO Jurgen Schrempp, ? nally yielded to share-owner pressure and resigned, freeing up his successor to sell harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 2 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Chrysler to the private-equity giant Cerberus in 2007.Indeed, we believe that businesses with illconsidered globalization strategies are poised to become the next targets for breakup or corporate overhaul by activist share owners, just as companies with poorly thought-out business diversi? cation strategies were targets in the past. Today’s activists include private-equity ? rms, hedge funds, and traditional pension funds, and they wield in? uence through a variety of means, from vocal use of the platform offered by a minority stake to all-out takeover and sell-off. All right, even the best executive teams are going to make mistakes in a business environment as complex as today’s.And no one would deny that the forces driving globalization are powerful and that the business bene? ts of becoming a global player can be tremendous. What concerns us is that so many companies seem to share unquestioned assumptions about the need to go global and are lulled by apparent safety in numbers as they move toward potential disaster. We highlight in this article several industries where this mind-set has been prevalent and a number of companies that have paid a high price for adopting it . Avoiding Ill-Fated StrategiesBusinesses have had international ambitions at least since the founding of the British East India and Hudson’s Bay companies in the seventeenth century. Truly global corporations began appearing early in the last century, and their number has grown—with both successes and failures along the way—ever since. But the accelerated removal of political and regulatory barriers to cross-border trading and investment over the past 15 years, along with the advent of technology that enables companies to conduct business around the world 24 hours a day, has made a global presence a generally accepted requisite in many industries.From the late 1990s onward, with a brief pause during the 2001–2003 bear market, we have witnessed a head-over-heels rush by companies to globalize: Foreign direct investments are at record levels, cross-border partnerships and acquisitions are burgeoning, worldwide sourcing continues to increase, and the pursui t of customers in emerging economies grows ever more heated. Marcus Alexander is an adjunct professor of strategic and international management at London Business School, a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre in London, and a coauthor, with Andrew Campbell, of â€Å"What’s Wrong with Strategy? (HBR November–December 1997). Harry Korine ([email  protected] edu) is a teaching fellow in strategic and international management at London Business School and a senior research fellow at IFGE in Lyon, France. He is a coauthor, with Pierre-Yves Gomez, of The Leap to Globalization (Jossey-Bass, 2002) and Entrepreneurs and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Both authors have worked with some of the companies mentioned in this article. Although such moves have bene? ted—or at least not irreparably damaged—many companies, we’re beginning to see fallout. Sometimes ? ms have failed because their global strategies were deeply misguide d, other times because execution was more dif? cult than anticipated. We think that many failures could have been prevented—and would be avoided in the future—if companies seriously addressed three seemingly simple questions. 1. Are there potential bene? ts for our company? Just because a move makes sense for a rival or for companies in other industries doesn’t mean it makes sense for your own company or industry. The race to globalize sometimes leads people to overestimate the size of the prize.UK-based roof tile maker Redland, for example, expanded aggressively around the world beginning in the 1970s with the aim of leveraging its technical know-how beyond its home market. The problem: It often sought opportunities in countries, such as the United States and Japan, where local building practices provided very little demand for concrete roof tiles. Although the company was fully able to transfer the relevant technology, there was no value in doing so in such ma rkets. 2. Do we have the necessary management skills? Even if potential bene? ts do exist for your company, you may not be in a position to realize them.The theoretical advantages of globalizing—economies of scale, for example— are devilishly dif? cult to achieve in practice, and companies often lack the management key needed to unlock the coffer holding the prize. By the late 1990s, industrial conglomerate BTR had developed a presence in many countries. However, each business unit was run as a largely autonomous entity, with stringent pro? t accountability and little encouragement to work with others. This approach made sense in a fragmented world, but as BTR’s customers globalized, they came to expect coordinated supply and support across borders.Although the opportunity was clear and BTR seemed well positioned to seize it, the company found it impossible to implement an approach so alien to its traditions. Even after a change of CEO and other senior staffers, the company culture blocked attempts at global integration, and the 1999 merger with Siebe was seen by many analysts as an admission that BTR simply could not make the changes needed. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement.To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 3 When You Shouldn’t Go Global 3. Will the costs outweigh the bene? ts? Even if you are able to realize the bene? ts of a global move, unanticipated collateral damage to your business may make the endeavor counterproductive. Too often, companies fail to see that the full costs of going global may dwarf even a sizable prize—for example, when an effort to harmonize the practices of national business units drives away customers or distracts national management teams from the needs of their markets.The increased complexity of managing international operations is a lso a threat. TCL, a Chinese maker of electronics and home appliances, has expanded rapidly into the United States and Europe through a series of acquisitions and joint ventures. As a result of deals in the past few years with Thomson and Alcatel, TCL has found itself with four R&D headquarters, 18 R&D centers, 20 manufacturing bases, and sales organizations in 45 countries. The cost of managing this infrastructure has outweighed the bene? ts of increased scale and resulted in large losses for both joint ventures.Globalization’s Siren Song Companies neglect to ask themselves these seemingly obvious questions because of their complacent assumptions about the virtues of going global—assumptions that are reinforced by seductive messages from, among other places, the stock market. Although the siren song of globalization has lured companies of all kinds into this risky strategic space, recently the call has been particularly insidious in certain industry contexts, three of which we describe here. (For a description of how a management imperative such as â€Å"Become more global† can rapidly spread, see the sidebar â€Å"TheSusceptibility to Managerial Fads. †) The Susceptibility to Managerial Fads The belief that companies must become more global is the latest in a long line of widely held and generally unquestioned assumptions that can undermine the rational behavior of companies or entire industries. The management trends—you might even call them fads—that grow out of these assumptions can be dangerous because they often lead to sloppy thinking. For example, the label used to describe a trend may get stretched far beyond its original meaning. â€Å"Reengineering† has come to mean nearly any corporate reorganization; â€Å"related diversi? ation† is used today to justify acquisitions within categories, such as â€Å"communications media† and â€Å"? nancial services,† that are so broad as to be almost meaningless. More troubling, the stampede by companies to join peers in mindlessly embracing such trends can cloud managers’ judgment about what is worthwhile and achievable in their particular case. The pathology of management fads has an underlying dynamic that is worth exploring: Company X, with talented people at the helm, pioneers a new management approach. The ? rm does well, and others take notice. Maybe one or two experiment with similar innovations.Then stock market analysts and journalists spot the new approach. They view it as part of a broader pattern, and someone comes up with a clever-sounding label. The word â€Å"paradigm† may even get tossed around. As the phenomenon gains visibility—often in publications like this one—academics develop â€Å"frameworks† to help companies understand it. Their codi? cation, intended simply to explain the phenomenon, further validates it. (Consultants also develop frameworks, though usually w ith the aim of selling the trend as a product. ) Over time, people use the now-familiar label more and more loosely.They group all manner of activities under the heading. Despite its ambiguity, there is a growing sense that activities under the rubric are worthwhile. Investment bankers cite the concept as a reason for companies to make acquisitions or other moves, and in the enthusiasm of deal making everyone glosses over the dif? culties of integration and implementation. Financial markets sometimes reward companies just for announcing that they have adopted the new approach. Sadly, the original insight, not to mention an appreciation of the context that gave rise to it, soon gets lost as ompanies scramble to become part of the trend. Before long, they are copying all sorts of elements and manifestations that are at best tangential and often irrelevant to the sought-after bene? t. By the time a few books have come out on the topic, managers are embarrassed if they can’t poin t to examples within their own organizations. As the herd piles in, smart managers are already scanning the horizon for a new idea that will give them a competitive advantage. But others continue to give little thought to whether the trend has played out—or was never likely to bene? a company in their situation. There is always a lag before misapplications of the concept start to affect companies’ numbers. Even when they do, many corporate managers, with stacks of statements and presentations extolling the virtues of the approach, are reluctant to abandon it. The stubborn ones carry on regardless of mounting costs— thereby setting the stage for activist share owners to step in and force a change. This discouraging scenario doesn’t unfold because the original concept was wrong. (Globalizing isn’t necessarily bad; not globalizing isn’t necessarily good. It plays out because embracing a trend often precludes careful examination of the pros and cons of the speci? c choices made by a single company in a particular context. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 4 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Deregulated industries. Many businesses in formerly state-owned industries, such as telecommunications, postal services, and utilities, have responded to deregulation with aggressive global moves.Faced with limited growth opportunities and often increasing competition in their home markets, companies have accepted that geographic expansion is the best way to exercise their new strategic freedom. These companies, the argument goes, can apply existing competencies—providing voice and data communication, delivering letters and parcels, distributing electricity and water, even dealing with the deregulation process itself—in new m arkets. They will enjoy signi? cant savings by sharing resources across their international operations while â€Å"sticking to their knitting. The latter point—the importance of focusing on what they know how to do—is a key part of the argument, since unrelated diversi? cation, itself once a widely touted strategy, has been largely discredited. This apparently sound logic has turned out in many cases to be oversold by investment bankers or to be just plain ? imsy. Companies frequently pay far too much to enter foreign markets. Furthermore, many of the deregulated industries are â€Å"glocal†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, customer expectations, operating environments, and management practices for what seem to be globally standard services can vary greatly depending on location.Water distribution, for instance, may not in fact be the same industry in the regulatory settings of two different countries. In addition, cross-border economies, if they exist at all, may be hard to ac hieve. It is dif? cult, for example, to optimize electricity ? ows over uncoordinated grids. Faced with such challenges, a number of companies have struggled with or reversed their global moves. Kelda, a UK water utility, sold its U. S. business six years after acquiring it because differences in pricing, environmental regulations, and distribution proved so great that the business could be run only on a stand-alone basis.Partly because of national differences in customer behavior, Deutsche Telekom has ended up running its U. S. unit, T-Mobile USA, as a completely independent business that could be sold off at any time. Rival telecom operator Vodafone has been forced by dissatis? ed share owners to unload its Japanese subsidiary, J-Phone. Deutsche Post, in assembling an international network of mail, express, and logistics services, overpaid signi? cantly for the U. S. express-delivery services DHL and Airborne. Germany’s former state-owned monopoly has also had great dif? ul ty integrating DHL’s entrepreneurial management culture with its own. Some analysts value the sum of Deutsche Post’s separate businesses as 25% greater than the market value of the company—an assessment that is likely to increase pressure to spin off some of those businesses. Service industries. Companies in traditionally national and fragmented service industries, such as retailing, consumer banking, and insurance, have viewed globalization as a way to realize scale economies and to generate growth beyond home markets themselves facing an incursion of foreign competition.In some cases, globalization seems to make sense because customers and suppliers are also becoming more global. As in deregulated industries, however, the â€Å"global† customer may be more national than anticipated. And obtaining scale economies across borders requires management skills and experience that many companies lack. For example, serving a customer that is truly global in a co nsistent way from multiple national of? ces is no easy task. Service businesses seeking to capture the bene? ts of a globalization strategy must, like ? rms in deregulated industries, pay attention to a mix of global and local factors.Purchasing can bene? t from careful coordination across borders, but marketing and sales may suffer from too much standardization. Certain services travel much better than others that seem remarkably similar. In shoe retailing, for instance, offerings targeted at the wealthy or the young are far more global than those aimed at the middle market, which remains doggedly local. In service businesses, many of the implementation challenges of a global strategy involve the coordination of people or processes. Wal-Mart, for instance, has struggled to get its partner ? ms and employees abroad to adopt its work routines. ABN Amro’s global empire was dismantled by predators because the international business was a collection of mostly unrelated operations in countries ranging from Brazil to Monaco. The company achieved few economies of scale: In marketing, harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 5 When You Shouldn’t Go Global for example, it didn’t enjoy the ef? iencies resulting from a single global brand, because local banks mostly kept their original names. Furthermore, its attempts at sharing information systems, management processes, and other bits of infrastructure were repeatedly delayed and then implemented haphazardly, creating few savings. The outcomes of some other service companies’ global strategies have not been so dire—but they have still fallen short of expectations. Starbucks has pursued international growth at a breakneck pace, even though margins abroad have been only about half those of the compa ny’s U. S. operations.Axa, the global French insurance group, has enjoyed satisfactory ? nancial performance from its many units around the world but has so far been unable to reduce its global cost base or convincingly roll out innovations, such as its U. S. variable-annuity program, internationally. Thus, although the globalization strategy hasn’t destroyed value, it also hasn’t added as much as originally envisioned. Manufacturing industries. Over the past decade, companies in manufacturing indus- tries, such as automobiles and communications equipment, have viewed rapid crossborder consolidation as necessary for survival.Global mergers and partnerships seem to be the only way for companies to obtain the size needed to compete against consolidating rivals, to reduce their reliance on home markets, and to gain manufacturing economies of scale. These bene? ts, though arguably easier to achieve than those sought by service companies (because local differences se em less problematic), are often outweighed by operational and organizational challenges. The complexities of integrating organizations and operations can cause costly delays or failures. And companies haven’t had the luxury of much time to realize the bene? s of integration. Counting on the bene? ts of size and scale to drop quickly to the bottom line, many manufacturers have become particularly vulnerable to economic slowdowns, which constrain their ability to pay for expansion and consolidation before an increasing debt-to-equity ratio forces their executive teams to cede control to ? nanciers or new management. Royal Ahold’s Downfall Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold is best known in recent years for an accounting scandal that led to the resignation of its CEO and its CFO in 2003. The ? nancial irregularities must be seen in light of the company’s mbitious, and ultimately unsuccessful, globalization strategy. Royal Ahold began its international expansion in the 1970s and accelerated it in the 1990s, eventually acquiring businesses throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States, to become the fourthlargest retailer in the world. But the bene? ts of owning this network of stores were hard to realize or didn’t exist in the ? rst place. Global economies of scale are one of the main rationales for international expansion. However, such economies, dif? cult to attain in many businesses, are particularly elusive in food retailing.Purchasing economies can be achieved only with items furnished by global suppliers to all markets—and these typically represent at most 20% of all supermarket items, because of cultural differences and the frequent need to source fresh food locally. Even apparently â€Å"international† products, such as hummus, must be adapted to different countries’ distinct tastes. Additionally, realizing synergies across a far-? ung network requires common information systems and mana gement processes, and Ahold made little effort to integrate its acquired businesses into the existing organization.Different information systems thus continued to coexist across the company, sometimes even within the same country. Ironically, the lack of integrated systems and processes needed to secure global bene? ts helped conceal the company’s ? nancial irregularities. And the failure to attain those bene? ts undoubtedly put pressure on top managers to produce favorable—if false— ? nancial results. When the new executive team ? nally introduced common management processes in the wake of the scandal, those processes did little to improve such activities as common purchasing across markets.As recently as last year, key suppliers were charging Ahold different prices in different countries. Ahold’s 2007 sale of most of its U. S. operations to private equity ? rms highlighted the nearly complete abandonment, under pressure from dissatis? ed minority share owners, of its once ambitious globalization strategy. The dissidents were concerned not about the usual over-diversi? cation of business types— after all, Royal Ahold remained focused on retailing—but about the over-diversi? cation of geographic locations. (Tests for suitable business diversi? ation are discussed in â€Å"Corporate Strategy: The Quest for Parenting Advantage,† by Andrew Campbell, Michael Goold, and Marcus Alexander, in the March– April 1995 issue of HBR. ) With the focus on governance at Ahold, the underlying story of failed globalization did not receive adequate attention until activist share owners jumped on it. harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 6When You Shouldn’t Go Global The merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler is a poster child fo r this problem: The German and U. S. automakers were different in almost every respect, from company cultures to purchasing practices, and they were never able to attain such bene? ts as the promised billions of dollars in savings from common supply management. Taiwanese consumer electronics company BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens’s mobile-device business followed a similar story line, including incompatibility of cultures and processes, as well as dif? culties in integrating R&D activities.In a haunting echo of the scramble by Daimler-Benz and Chrysler to merge, BenQ didn’t visit Siemens workshops and production lines before inking the deal, relying only on due diligence documents. Although BenQ continues to be active in mobile equipment, its German unit was declared bankrupt in 2007. In both of these cases—and in numerous others—the strategic logic for globalization was tenuous, and the skills needed to implement a globalization strategy effectivel y were in short supply. A Continuing Danger We aren’t saying that all globalization strategies are ? awed.Telefonica, Spain’s former telephone monopoly, has successfully expanded throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world. The past ? ve years have seen General Electric’s Commercial Finance business move rapidly and effectively into dozens of non-U. S. markets. Renault’s pathbreaking alliance with Nissan has to this point proved bene? cial for the French and Japanese automakers. But focusing on such success stories only reinforces the conventional wisdom that a globalization strategy is a blanket requirement for doing business—which in turn leads many companies to insuf? iently scrutinize their proposed global initiatives. (For a discussion of one of the gravest cases of failed globalization, see the sidebar â€Å"Royal Ahold’s Downfall. †) We expect this trend to continue, as ? rms in various industries recklessly pursue global str ategies. Take the emerging renewableenergy industry—companies developing technologies for biofuel, solar energy, and wind energy. We have talked with executives who, racing to establish a global position in this booming ? eld, are planning rapid expansion over the next few years in Africa, Asia, nd Latin America—and completely underestimating the management challenges involved. Many will, after initial applause from the ? nancial markets, ? nd their hastily conceived strategies challenged after the fact by activists. We also anticipate that problems will recur in industries that earlier rushed to adopt globalization strategies, with activist share owners ready to pounce on companies as evidence of poor management choices surfaces. Activist share owners have already taken signi? cant positions in some companies mentioned in this article.Other target companies, perhaps not quite ripe for direct intervention—and temporarily shielded from attack by the current credi t crisis and turbulent equity markets—are nonetheless being discussed in the boardrooms of rivals and by the investment committees of pension funds and private equity ? rms. Ironically, some predators, having spotted the weaknesses of other companies’ global strategies, may be poised to fall into the same trap. For example, the Royal Bank of Scotland is known for its highly successful 2000 acquisition of NatWest, a much larger UK rival, and for the subsequent overhaul of its target’s culture.But RBS may ? nd it dif? cult to achieve similar results with the disparate banking assets—spread across more than 50 countries— that it acquired from ABN Amro. And though the recent government bailouts of RBS and Fortis aren’t a direct result of the ? rms’ international strategies, the acquisition of ABN Amro assets stretched their balance sheets and made the companies more vulnerable to the ? nancial crisis. We also worry that activist share own ers and private equity ? rms may reproduce ? awed globalization strategies in their own portfolios. The largest of these players are now more diversi? ed, both in ype of business and in international footprint, than many of the giant conglomerates of 30 years ago that were subsequently broken up and sold off. Indeed, as you look out on a landscape littered with the remains of dismembered companies weakened by failed globalization strategies, you have to wonder: Could today’s predators be tomorrow’s prey? Reprint R0812E To order, see the next page or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. hbr. org harvard business review †¢ december 2008 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement.To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. page 7 When You Shouldn’t Go Global Further Reading ARTICLES Managing Differences: The Central Challenge of Global Strategy by Pankaj Gh emawat Harvard Business Review March 2007 Product no. R0703C The main goal of any international strategy should be to manage the large differences that arise at the borders of markets. Yet executives often fail to exploit market and production discrepancies, focusing instead on the tensions between standardization and localization. Ghemawat presents a new framework that encompasses all three effective responses to the challenges of globalization.He calls it the AAA Triangle, with the As standing for the three distinct types of international strategy. Through adaptation, companies seek to boost revenues and market share by maximizing their local relevance. Through aggregation, they attempt to deliver economies of scale by creating regional, or sometimes global, operations. And through arbitrage, they exploit disparities between national or regional markets, often by locating different parts of the supply chain in different places— for instance, call centers in India, factories in China, and retail shops in Western Europe.Ghemawat draws on several examples that illustrate how organizations use and balance these strategies and describes the trade-offs they make as they do so when trying to build competitive advantage. Emerging Giants: Building World-Class Companies in Developing Countries by Tarun Khanna and Krishna G. Palepu Harvard Business Review October 2006 Product no. R0610C As established multinational corporations stormed into emerging markets, many local companies lost market share or sold off businesses—but some fought back.India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, China’s Haier Group, and many other corporations in developing countries have held their own against the onslaught, restructured their businesses, exploited new opportunities, and built worldclass companies that are today giving their global rivals a run for their money. The authors describe three strategies these businesses used to become effective global competitors despite f acing financial and bureaucratic disadvantages in their home markets. Some capitalized on their knowledge of local product markets.Some have exploited their knowledge of local talent and capital markets, thereby serving customers both at home and abroad in a cost-effective manner. And some emerging giants have exploited institutional voids to create profitable businesses. Getting Offshoring Right by Ravi Aron and Jitendra V. Singh Harvard Business Review December 2005 Product no. R0512J Recently a rising number of companies in North America and Europe have experimented with offshoring and outsourcing business processes, hoping to reduce costs and gain strategic advantage—with mixed results.According to several studies, half the organizations that have shifted processes offshore have failed to generate the expected financial benefits. What’s more, many of them have faced employee resistance and consumer dissatisfaction. A three-part methodology can help companies reform ulate their offshoring strategies. First, prioritize company processes according to two criteria: the value these processes create for customers and the degree to which the company can capture some of that value. Then keep highest-priority processes in-house and consider outsourcing low-priority ones. Second, analyze the risks that accompany offshoring.Finally, determine possible locations for offshore efforts, as well as the organizational forms—such as joint ventures—that those efforts might take. page 8 This article is made available to you with compliments of Harry Korine. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www. hbr. org. To Order For Harvard Business Review reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbr. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mail [email  protected] harvard. edu

Classical music Essays

Classical music Essays Classical music Essay Classical music Essay In A Clockwork Orange’ the character of Alex is both the protagonist and the vessel used to impart the novels unusual views on morality. Burgess initially presents Alex as a psychopath who commits various acts of violence, ruthlessly raping and robbing, showing no remorse for his actions. Alex is the classic example of an Evil individual’ in such a way it is almost unrealistic. However, it is not until Part two, Chapter six that we truly begin to see Alex in another light, one which allows the reader to start forming an opinion on the message Burgess is trying to portray through Alex.Burgess questions the morality of both good and evil and whether a man ceases to be a man’ if he has no moral choice, something Alex begins to show us in this chapter. Emotionally and physically distressed, Alex is forced to further endure the Ludovico treatment. Helplessly, he screams out Stop it, stop it, stop it’ forcing the reader to feel sympathetic towards him and somewhat disturbed. Ironically, the very thing that is meant to be helping Alex to become a better’ person is the very thing that seems to be destroying him.This effect of tripling allows us to view Alex in a different light, one which we have previously forgotten; as a child. His desperate attempt for attention from adults who are meant to care for him really reveals the child within Alex and represents his wider life of how he has been ignored. Through this, Burgess allows the reader to realise that Alex is still a child who needs guidance and help from those older than him, but instead this power is abused and used to manipulate the future generation by a corrupt state. Ironically, Dr Brodsky says to Alex It will soon be all over.In less than a fortnight now you’ll be a free man’ which is exactly what the state wants Alex to think, that this is what freedom’ truly is. Alex shall be free physically to roam the earth but mentally he is trapped, something we know is Alex’s greatest fear, soon to be realised. Burgess allows us to question Dr Brodsky’s statement and wonder what is it that actually makes us human, is it our physical freedom or is it the freedom of our minds, allowing us to form opinions and thoughts on the physical acts we are allowed to do?He also suggest to us that even though Alex has been forced into this treatment to make him behave, are we as humans even without this treatment being forced to behave by our own government. We are taught that the government are here for our protection, just as they are said to be in Alex’s world. But when Alex is merely a child who needs protection and he is being harmed by the very people who are meant to protect him, we are shown that in this dystopian society security is something unavailable.During the screenings, Alex recognises his beloved Beethoven’s fifth symphony’ and in anguish cries out that it is a filthy unforgivable sin’. This Classical music motif has always played an important role throughout the novel, if not for the structural pattern based on musical forms, but for its use on a narrative and thematic level. It would seem that Alex’s love of Classical music within the confines on the novels repressive government invokes Plato’s argument. He argued that the enjoyment and love of music must be suppressed if any form of social order is to be preserved.He identified music with a revolutionary pleasure which can easily be applied to Alex. Alex rarely thinks of violence without music as his love for the two is entwined and for a state seeking platonic order, the two must be eradicated. Burgess refutes the argument that the ethical goodness has any relationship to a kind of aesthetic’ goodness, Alex has always had a refined taste in Classical music, especially when compared to his pop song listening counterparts, but as we know the sophisticated music has always coincided with sex and violence.But now through the Ludovico technique, music becomes associated with immorality, it is then we see how Burgess demonstrates the malleability of aesthetics and ethics. This ironic treatment intended to cure Alex of his violence does not cure him at all and changes him into nothing but a windup toy. But what is most shocking is how pleased the doctors appear to be with what they have done and the power they harness.The more Alex cries out for help and for the treatment to stop, the more the doctors seem to revel in his pain and rejoice that the treatment is working. Dr Brodsky says to Alex You’re doing really well’ and that the treatment was first class’. However we cannot help but once again see Alex as the child he is as typically a line such as You’re doing really well’ would be delivered to a child as encouragement that they are making progress and that whatever it is, is for the best.But this just shows Burgess’ wider message and how dystopian this society really is where those who are meant to guide others and help them are maliciously deceiving them for their own gain. What is even more saddening to the reader is when Alex realises this –as he says An act of treachery’ – and once again Alex living this dystopian world has been let down by everyone who is meant to have his best interests at heart. But then again, can we blame all of these clockwork windup toys, who ultimately have become the play toys of a powerful state?

Jesuss Works

Jesuss Works Jesus's Miracles Jesus, throughout the course of his life, performed many miracles. His miracles included raising the dead, changing water to wine, feeding thousands of people with very little food, demon exorcisms, and healing the sick and deformed. The most important miracle, by far, was his own resurrection (Saliba). Jesus's miracles were not for entertainment or self gain. They served the purpose of backing up his claim as the Son of God. They were also used to respond to real need (Jesus'). In Luke 23:8, 9 , during Jesus's trials, Herod was glad to see Jesus. "When Herod saw Jesus he was greatly pleased...he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions but Jesus gave him now answer."‚  (Holy Bible). Herod does not need anything, being that he is the King. Jesus's miracles were to back his claim as Son of God. A good place to start would be to define what a miracle is.Jesus is waiting for you.Microsoft Encart defines a miracle as "an even, appare ntly transcending human powers and the laws of nature, that is attributed to a special divine intervention or to supernatural forces."‚  Jesus's miracles were witnessed by to many people not to have happened. Science has attempted to explain almost all of Jesus's miracles. They have been able to explain parts of some of the miracles, but have never been able to totally explain the entire event. In Mark 8:22-25 Jesus heals a blind man. He touches the man's eyes the first time and the man states that he cannot tell a man from a tree.Jesus again touches the man's eyes and his sight is full restored. If the man had lost his sight due to a traumatic shock as a child, and supposing Jesus was a "therapy"‚  healer, his...

Interview Report 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interview Report 1 - Essay Example He had migrated to the USA with an intention to seek higher education and employment. Mr. X was encouraged by his parents to go abroad and make his life there as he would be able to find more opportunities of academic and professional development. Coming from a poor family, he had to earn to fund his studies. He joined the college but couldn’t continue as the job consumed most of his time. He eventually decided to leave the studies and continue with his job. However, he did do a diploma in hotel management and has completed about two short courses on hotel management as well which led him to becoming a hotel manager from a caterer that was how he was hired in his first job. Mr. X has been serving as a hotel manager for over ten years. He is between 35 and 44 years of age. The four words or phrases said by Mr. X that describe the word â€Å"freedom† for him are â€Å"decision making power†, â€Å"work-life balance†, â€Å"money† and â€Å"peace of m ind.† Of the four, Mr. X considers work-life balance and money the most important depicters of an individual’s freedom. Mr. X has been living away from his family ever since he moved to the USA. He does not think that he is free because for all these years, he has not been able to balance his work with his social life. At one point in the interview, Mr. X said, â€Å"My life is all about work. ... In fact, his desire to make money fundamentally came from the urge to break free of the kind of lifestyle his father had spent. When asked what made him think of decision making power as a measure of freedom, Mr. X narrated the following lines of a poem: â€Å"Freedom is about blank, white paper Writing what you want to write, where you want to write Saying the things you would never normally say out loud† (Quiterio, 2002). Analysis Freedom is very difficult to define. â€Å"Freedom cannot be defined, except through an analysis of the restrictions on human action† (Cooray, 2011). Two themes in the definition of freedom narrated by Mr. X that I find most interesting are â€Å"decision making power† and â€Å"work-life balance†. To me, freedom does not mean lack of slavery. If an individual is not enslaved, he/she is not necessarily free. To be free in the real sense means to be able to make the important decisions of life. When an individual is free, he is able to adjust his work according to his wish, rather than adjusting his wishes according to his work. There are two kinds of freedom; social freedom and professional freedom. Social freedom provides an individual with the opportunity to do whatever he wants. People who have a large degree of social freedom are generally very rich. They have more than enough money to satisfy their needs. They may do a job, but job is not really their need. Many people with a high degree of social freedom do job to kill time rather than to earn money. People who have professional freedom have high position and authority. They are leaders or managers. While they make others do very hard work, their own work life is quite balanced with their social life. Mr. X talked a lot about the lack of work-life balance in his life.

Privacy and Security Issues Online Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Privacy and Security Issues Online - Essay Example Conducting business via the internet has been referred to as e-commerce or electronic commerce (Kalakota and Whinston, 1997). According to Kalakota and Whinston, â€Å"it endeavors to improve the execution of business transactions over various networks† (1997, p. 4). Ecommerce has really made business easier and enjoyable. This has resulted to more performance, better quality, greater customer satisfaction, and better decision making among the consumers and sellers (Kalakota 1997). ...The UK government believes that if e-commerce was a sector by itself, it would be larger than the sectors of utilities and agriculture (UK Cabinet Office Staff, 2011). However, apart from bringing many profits to business owners, it has brought about breaches of privacy and security to consumers and businesses. 1. Various Privacy and Security Issues experienced by Consumers and Businesses Online The ever increasing use of the internet has resulted in many consumers giving too much information wit hout even realizing it and has been viewed as a tempting treasure, especially for marketers. For example, when a consumer visits a particular company’s website, he might unwillingly provide to the company with even confidential information. If the website utilizes cookies and other tracking devices, companies usually gather even more information, which if not properly handled, results in security and privacy issues. Computerized interactions between businesses and their clients have helped in building more sophisticated businesses. As more information is being shared with others, some clients’ personal information ends up in the wrong hands and might be used in wrong ways bringing up problems between consumers and businesses (Selis, Ramasastry, Kim and Smith, n.d.). The nature of online activities has been seen to threaten the privacy of consumer’s and the businesses taking place online. Every move the consumer or a business owner makes on the internet, whether on smartphones, tablets, or laptops, turn out to be information that trackers have been able to access, and used to their advantage.