Alignment of Academic standards with ELL Proficiency standards Essay

Alignment of Academic standards with ELL Proficiency standards - Essay Example The state and federal government have provided money to aid in the education of students with disabilities (Arizona Department of Education, 2008). President Bush in 2000 proposed what is famously known as â€Å"No Child is Left Behind,† which needed all students to meet or attain set strict standards. The federal policy stated in the no child is left behind that ELL students be included in State assessments and measure or assess the language proficiency of students with reliable, valid assessments in areas reading and writings skills and oral language. In addition, the educators were to consider comprehension, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of students. These assessments were to help students gain academic achievements as required by States. The main objectives of these assessments were to be designed to assess academic English. Under the no child is left behind act, it was stated that all students had the ability to reach their minimum competency level as long as the teachers were committed to their work. According to Arizona Department of Education (2008), in most cases standards are defined they are applied as a sieve and expectations are lined on the individual. In public education sector there is the notion that intelligence can be taught in that if the student fails to meet the requirements, the teacher or school is blamed for dismal performance of the student. The state and federal government want to attain standards at all cost but in real sense do not. Arizona department of education states that the main objective is to ensure that high school graduates in the country have rough knowledge and skills they require for a career or college. The converse of this objective should be that those students who do not have skills and knowledge for a career or college would not graduate high school. For instance, if there two tests for certain things and the two tests

Managing change in the British Airways

Managing change in the British Airways Contemporary business firms face unique opportunities and challenges in their search for survival and growth. British Airways, the UKs flag carrier airline, has constantly had to deal with numerous external and internal challenges, ever since its formation in 1974. BA has suffered harsh financial losses during 2009 and 2010; its cumulative net losses for the two years amount to around 800 million GBP. The organisational management recognises the need to bring in a significant strategic change in order to grow and improve its market share and competitive advantage. The companys change initiatives, however, face numerous obstacles. This report examines the need for strategic change at British Airways. This is followed by discussions on the requisites for successful organisational change, the barriers faced by the corporation in bringing about such change, and recommendations on the way forward. 1.1. Overview Modern day organisations face unprecedented opportunities and challenges in their quest for business success and competitive advantage. Environmental change of astonishing and global dimensions has changed the landscape of contemporary business (Hughes, 2006, p 14). Such environmental change, which commenced in earnest after the Second World War with the decolonisation of huge populations, accelerated in later years with the growth and subsequent collapse of the Soviet bloc, the reunification of Germany, the formation of the European Union, economic liberalisation across developing countries, the emergence of China and India as economic and political powers, astonishing developments in technology, and of course globalisation (Hughes, 2006, p 14). Whilst changes in global environmental conditions and advances in science and technology opened up numerous opportunities to business organisations, they also resulted in the creation of numerous challenges that threatened the operations and the very existence of established business firms (Hughes, 2006, p 14). Much of the modern day challenges to business organisations come from intensified competition, the emergence of numerous new products and substitutes, the development of equal quality but low-cost production and service centres in the emerging economies and from technological advances (Henry, 2008, p 44). The Japanese focus on fuel efficient small cars, pulled the rug from beneath the feet of huge automobile makers like General Motors and Ford, dethroning them from their positions of undisputed global leaders of the automobile sector (Henry, 2008, p 44). Low cost mining of Rare Earth Metals in China led to the closing of mines of such metals in the US and other countries and to concentration of 97% of global production of Rare Earth Metals in China (Areddy, 2010, p 11). Liberalisation of travel and free movement of people across the world for purposes of business and travel resulted in the emergence of low cost airlines like Ryan Air and Easy Jet in the UK and others in different par ts of the world, causing body blows to established airline giants like British Airways, Air France, and Swiss Air, some of which, (like Swiss Air), closed shop (Lynch, 2006, p 52). British Airways, the flag carrier airline of the UK has constantly faced external and internal challenges, ever since its inception in the early 1970s (British Airways, 2011, p 1). Formed by the coming together of BOAC, BEA, Cambrian Airways and North East Airlines in 1974, the organisation worked as a public sector corporation for 13 years until it was privatised by UKs Conservative government in 1987 (British Airways, 2011, History). British Airways (BA) has had to face numerous environmental challenges in its history, both as a public and as a private sector carrier. Such challenges have occurred on account of reasons like intense competition from other airlines in its domestic and global operations, erosion of market share on account of entry of low cost airlines, global terrorism, pandemics like SARS and Bird Flu, and natural calamities (British Airways, 2011, Annual Reports). The terrorist strikes of September 11, 2001, resulted in a huge downturn in local and international tra vel, resulting in the collapse of numerous airlines and in significant financial losses (approximately 200 million GBP in 2002) for British Airways, which lost (British Airways, 2011, Annual Report 2002). The volcanic explosion in Iceland, which resulted in ash filled skies and disruption of flights in early 2010, also resulted in significant revenue losses (Milmo, 2010, p 1). The last two years, 2009 (losses of 400 million GBP before taxes) and 2010 (losses of 530 million GBP before taxes) have been truly alarming for the organisation (Milmo, 2010, p 1). It also needs to be realised that whilst thousands of shareholders enthusiastically subscribed to the companys shares at the time of its privatisation, they have gained very little, by way of dividends or market value appreciation, in the last 24 years (Hosking, 2009, p 1). The management of British Airways recognises the need for the Airline to change significantly in response to various environmental challenges in order to grow and enhance market share and competitive advantage. A number of change initiatives have also been introduced by the company in various strategic and operational areas with varying degrees of success. 1.2. Objective This report examines the need for strategic change at British Airways. Such examination is followed by discussions on the requisites for successful organisational change and the barriers faced by the corporation in bringing about such change. The report closes with a section on recommendations and conclusions. 2. Strategic Change at British Airways Modern day organisations, as discussed in the preceding section, need to change on account of various internal and external environmental reasons, in order to achieve organisational growth, enhance productivity and profitability, and enhance competitive advantage (Cameron Green, 2004, p 31). Such strategic change could be needed to exploit new opportunities as well to obtain protection from threats. Such strategic change could also be necessary to break out from existing conditions of financial distress or operational or strategic deficiencies (Cameron Green, 2004, p 31). The importance of bringing about strategic change has been emphasised by numerous management academics and experts, who have repeatedly addressed its importance for modern day organisations (Cameron Green, 2004, p 31). Peter Drucker in fact drives the point home by stating that it is the responsibility of every responsible manager to constantly search for ways in which he or she can beneficially contribute to the process of strategic change (Stein, 2010, p 7). Whilst organisations clearly have to engage in strategic change, if not out of choice than out of necessity, their track record of success in its realisation is poor (Balogun, 2001, p 2). Many senior managements fail to understand that implementation of strategic change, i.e. the conversion of plans to reality, constitutes the most difficult part of the change process (Balogun, 2001, p 2). Such change can become possible only when individuals working in organisations change their behavioural ways and patterns and align them with new strategic objectives (Balogun, 2001, p 2). Strategic change is not new to BA. Numerous case studies detail BAs success in change management. The organisation engaged in strategic downsizing by practically 40% in 1981 and 1983 (Docshare, 2009, pp 27 to 30). Privatisation in 1987 called for the bringing about of significant cultural change. The adoption of the Putting People First programme in the 1980s aimed to align organisational working with new competitive realities and modify the behaviour of customers, who were deserting the airline in droves (Docshare, 2009, p 36). Recent years have also witnessed a number of change initiatives, primarily in response to intense competition by low cost carriers like Ryan Air and Easy Jet and altered customer expectations. The commissioning of Terminal 5 at Heathrow, which encountered significant negative publicity in account of opening day operational goof-ups, is one such example. The company is currently operating with a multi-pronged business strategy that includes (a) up gradation of customer experience, (b) modernisation of aircraft fleet, (c) offering new services, (d) managing its cost base and (e) increasing corporate social responsibility in areas of environment (British Airways, 2011, Annual Report 2008, Chairmans Speech).Whilst this report does not deal with an elaborate strategic analysis of the company, the most important factors about its internal and external environment, as well as its current performance are bulleted below. The organisation operates in an environment of intense regulation and heightened security because of terrorist threats. Its sales revenues and profitability are under threat because of the global economic crisis, slow projected global economic growth, the weakening of the pound, and oil prices, which have started soaring again. With the population of its home market ageing steadily, the organisation will be under stress to achieve the same amount of revenues from existing customers. With passengers becoming increasingly aware and vocal about their rights and expected service levels, BA continues to be under pressure on account of underperformance in areas of cancelled flights and poor baggage handling. The management and the cabin crew union are in direct confrontation with each other. The organisation has suffered severe financial losses during the last two years; with cumulative net losses for 2009 and 2010 near 800 million GBP. The organisations biggest threat, now and in the coming years is in the area of revenues, sales, costs and profits. With competition likely to intensify and global economic growth forecasted to be low, the company urgently needs to engage in activities for improving its financial viability (Milmo, 2010, p 1). Cost management and reduction is a critical element of organisational strategy. Whilst all airlines are equally affected by fluctuations in fuel costs, large economic and passenger movement trends, terrorism and global political instability, BAs labour and workforce costs are significantly higher than its competitors (Carley, 2009, p 1). It is relevant to note in this context that BA employees earn more than 2 times the remuneration earned by Virgin Air workers (Robertson, 2009, p 1). BA has adopted a strategy of cost management and reduction to overcome these financial challenges. Whilst the organisation is still financially strong, further periods of poor performance could well strain its financial resources (Carley, 2009, p 1). The major area of cost reduction relates to remuneration and employment terms of its employees, especially its cabin crew. 3. Change Management Strategies Whilst BAs immediate and imperative change strategy focuses on the critical area of financial viability, the route is extremely challenging because of its need for considerable employee sacrifice. It needs to be appreciated that the organisation has initiated a number of other strategic changes to improve customer satisfaction and satisfaction, including the commissioning of terminal 5 at Heathrow, (McGinn, 2009, p 2), and the need to achieve financial viability has now assumed important dimensions. Change management theories focus on three important dimensions, namely (a) the planning and implementation of the change process, (b) the involvement of the organisation in the proposed strategic change, and (c) the role of leadership in the change process for bringing about of successful strategic change (Hayes, 2006, p 71). Both Lewin and Kotter stress upon the need to implement change in a planned process that takes the organisation from its current stage to its desired state through clearly demarcated phases. Lewin states that change management can be best achieved through the planned application of three phases, namely unfreezing, implementing of change and refreezing the organisation in its new state through institutionalisation of implemented changes (Lewin, 2005, p 9). Kotter, whilst basically following Lewins theory, feels that the process can be better achieved through the implementation of change in 7 stages (Kotter, 1996, p 7). Change management experts secondly call for the committed involvement of organisational staff for the successful implementation of strategic change proposals (Bovey Hede, 2001, p 373). Many proposed strategic changes can result in resistance from organisational employees on account of causes like (a) incomplete knowledge of the proposed change, (b) ignorance about change objectives and benefits, (c) lack of belief in change benefits, and (d) change associated threats to the individual and collective wellbeing of organisational employees (Bovey Hede, 2001, p 373). Whilst ignorance about the nature and objectives of change can be set right through appropriately designed and powerful communication, tackling change related threat perceptions of employees is totally another matter (Bovey Hede, 2001, p 373). Such threat perceptions could arise because of apprehensions about (a) change in working condition, (b) change in terms of employment, (c) change in location, (d) requirement to tak e up new functions, (e) need to learn new skills, (f) loss of remuneration, and (g) loss of employment (Bovey Hede, 2001, p 373). The third critical factor in bringing about successful strategic change concerns the role of organisational leaderships (Hayes, 2006, p 78). Organisational leaders must clearly outline the proposed strategic changes, communicate the change objectives and the reasons for such change to organisational members, and bring about intense involvement of organisational employees in the change process (Hayes, 2006, p 78). Such involvement is essentially done by leading from the front and through visible commitment to the change process. Effective leaders identify and encourage change champions throughout the organisation to support the change process, engage in constant and transparent communication about the benefits of change and obtain he support of the overwhelming majority of organisational employees to the change process (Hayes, 2006, p 78). 4. Barriers to Change at British Airways BA has asked individual employees to accept temporary earning reductions and has engaged in negotiations with unions for pay cuts, alterations in employment terms, and reduction in its workforce. The companys management asked employees in June 2009 to work without basic pay for a maximum period of 4 weeks over six months, take a year of unpaid leave, and change from fulltime to part time employment for a period that could stretch up to a year. It is proving to be difficult to bring about strategic changes for effecting reduction in employee costs at the airline because of intense opposition by well organised and united cabin crew members to proposed changes (Carley, 2009, p 1). Whilst BAs pilots have agreed to some reduction in remuneration, the cabin crew has strongly opposed the changes and has constantly threatened to take industrial action if such changes are implemented (Carley, 2009, p 1). Effective strategic change, it is accepted, is difficult to implement without employee involvement and participation. Organisational leaderships try to bring about such involvement through communication, creation of awareness and training. The involvement and agreement of even a significant proportion of employees in the change process, along with constructive empathy for employees likely to be adversely affected by the change process, helps organisations to implement change processes that include termination, salary reduction and downsizing. It is necessary to understand that BAs cabin crew, whose agreement and involvement is important for effecting strategic change, are strongly united in their opposition to organisational plans and strategies (Neilcaff, 2011, p 1). The strength of their unity has been evidenced in the past when their strikes have resulted in significant stoppages and financial losses (Neilcaff, 2011, p 1). The last two years have been marked by intense confrontation between the management and the cabin crew on this issue, with no constructive result. The first half of the current year has been spent in the shadow of a proposed strike during the Easter holidays (Neilcaff, 2011, p 1). Some part of this problem can also be attributed to the current organisational leadership at British Airways. The leadership style of Willie Walsh, the existing CEO could also be a barrier to the change process. Walshs autocratic and uncompromising style is not encouraging employee stakeholders to acknowledge and embrace the required change. Other leaders, like Schultz at Starbucks, have been more successful at driving change programmes. 5. Recommendations and Conclusions The course of urgently required strategic change at British Airways is being thwarted by constant stand-offs between the management and employee unions, even as the organisation continues to be buffeted by a difficult competitive environment, soaring fuel prices and intense competition. It is relevant to note that the principal owners of the organisation, i.e. the shareholders, have received little benefits over the years, even as two sets of agents, the management and the employees, have obtained significant financial benefits and continue to wrangle over their individual interests and egos. It would appear to be opportune for shareholder organisations and even the government to step in, appoint neutral experts, obtain suggestions for strategic change, and push such measures through, even at the risk of industrial action and financial losses. The failure to take firm action and drive change forward could well have catastrophic repercussions for the company.

Essay on the Manipulation of Polonius and Ophelia in Hamlet

The Manipulation of Polonius and Ophelia in Hamlet  Ã‚        Ã‚   The main plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet centers around Prince Hamlet's desire to repay King Claudius for his evil deeds. Around this central action revolve the stories concerning the minor characters of Polonius and Ophelia. Though they do not motivate Hamlet's actions towards the King, these characters act as forces upon Hamlet himself, trying to spur him to do things he does not want to do. Both Polonius and Ophelia try, unsuccessfully, to manipulate Hamlet into a place of inferiority.    In the first scene of Act II, Polonius and Ophelia discuss the meaning of Hamlet's odd behavior. Though the two characters agree his actions arise out of the torment of spurned love, they arrive at that point through very different means. At the beginning of the dialogue, Ophelia says that she has been "affrighted" by Hamlet in her bed chamber. (II,i 75) Her encounter with the Prince left her scared about his real intentions. She says that he looks like he has been,"loosed out of hell/To speak of horrors". (II,i 83-4) The very fact that Hamlet does not speak one word to Ophelia makes him look even more intimidating. By not speaking anything, Hamlet at once strengthens his image as a madman, as well as shrouding his real intentions towards those around him. Just following this passage comes a place in the text where we can see how the character of Ophelia has been manipulated by Polonius. After his "hint" that he might be doing this out of frustrated love, Ophelia says that that is wh at she truly does fear. (87) Her feelings of pity and concern are shaped by her father in order to fit his case of madness against Hamlet.    To further strengthen this situation, Polonius'... ...f the situation before he enters it, while Polonius and Ophelia must try to understand events as, or after they happen.    Works Cited Bradley, A.C. "Shakespeare's Tragic Period--Hamlet." Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Toronto: MacMillan, 1967. 79-174. Campbell, Lily B. Collected Papers Of Lily Campbell. NY: Russell, 1968. Lidz, Theodore.   Hamlet's Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet.   Vision Press, 1975. MacKenzie, Agnes Mure.   The Women in Shakespeare's Plays.   London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1924. Northrop, Frye. "Hamlet." Northrop Frye on Shakespeare. Ed. Robert Sandler. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. 82-100. Oakes, Elizabeth. "Polonius, the Man behind the Arras: A Jungian Study." New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. NY: AMS Press, 1994. 103-112.      

Theatre-Director’s Role

The director is the most important person in the play because without his visions the actors would have no purpose and nothing would go on. Without the director all would be at loss in the theatre. The director is the one who tell everyone what to do and installs the fear into the cast and other to perform at their best at all times. The director is the person who all the actors and stage crew and everyone tries to impress and they will always be on their best behavior while the director. I would want to be the director because everything is dependent on you and you are the one who calls the shots and I will maintain order on the set. The director is the one who knows the whole play and has to get the performers to perform and to make the show run as smoothly as possible. If the actors or stage coach were to get out of line or not do their job then the director would heard about it and not be do happy about it. The preparation for the director is a major issue. Many hours of perfecting the acting according to the script takes a strain when you have to account for everything that is going on. A director must having coping skills and still be enough and authoritarian to have respect from all the members of the cast. For me personally, I would have to learn how to work with people instead of getting mad and not wanting to work through problems that might occur during rehearsal and the whole production in general. The work and preparation that needs take place is tremendous, but the director has to put so much pre meditated work in that is not seen by many people, but its truly eveudent in the final production.

William Manchester

William Manchester gained his notoriety in a series of biographies based upon the life of Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Through his writings in this work, Manchester made the colorful life of Churchill come alive as Manchester was able to capture an aspect and human aspect that had been missed by many of the other books on Churchill. The same is the case in this book: The World Lit Only by Fire. The book is divided up into three separate and distinct parts. The first part deals with the typical medieval European mind and all the impediments to free thought and learning that the Catholic Church had over the individual in his opinion. However, out of that time, according to Manchester, there was still able to emerge, some of the greatest minds, along with some of the greatest contributions, the world has ever known in the field of science, religion and philosophy. Manchester makes a list of twenty eight such individuals. Some of these would include Martin Luther, Copernicus, Machiavelli, Erasmus and his hero and the man to whom he will constitute the last third of the book about: Magellan and the great importance that Manchester feels, was the contributions that he gave to medieval Europe. The second aspect of the book deals with the Catholic Church and its role of importance and dominance in Europe during that time as well as the corruption of the Popes and the rise of humanism as a direct response to the Catholic Church. The Europe of the Middle Ages is a very large subject to tackle and Manchester does his best to encompass all of the major themes of that time as he sees it, into one comprehensive study. As the title suggests, Manchester attempts to show the relationship between the Medieval Mind and how it evolves into the Renaissance. This occurs through the evolution of religious thought into a more modern day aspect, a complete look at education and philosophy with major contributions to these fields occurring at this time along with the successes in exploration. However, this transformation would not occur overnight. At the beginning of the section entitled â€Å"The Medieval Mind† Manchester states that the age is plagued with the lasting effects of The Black Death, famine, illiteracy and common daily violence surrounding the courts of Europe. Manchester’s concept of the Medieval Mind also comes from the influence that the church has on almost every aspect of society, an influence that Manchester feels served as an impediment to learning. The example of Saint Bernard Clairvaux is given when he states that: â€Å"the pursuit of knowledge, unless sanctified by a holy mission†¦ Is a pagan act, and therefore vile.†[1] The medieval man or woman was left with nothing else than to contemplate God’s wrath and displeasure at their sin. Manchester stated that the only form of society that a typical man or woman felt was what was offered to them by the church. It is then that Manchester tackles The Reformation. In this, he credits both Erasmus, a moderate on issues of religion and which was ahead of his time in Christian thought and tolerance for other versions of Christian Faith, and Martin Luther, who took the Catholic Church head on and did all that he could to show the corruption of the church and dedicated his life to the education of the people. Due to the fact that the masses were not able and/or not allowed to learn how to read, the version of Christianity that was offered to the typical parishioner was typically void of Biblical truth in favor of Catholic Church doctrine which were sometimes in direct conflict with Biblical truths. Manchester goes into detail about the corruption of the church being allowed to flourish, due in part, to the masses inability to read and to know that what was being taught to them was not entirely true. In response to Pope Leo X who was in need of obtaining a large amount of revenue in order to finish the Basicilla at St. Peter’s, allowed Johan Tetzel to sell indulgences which offered eternal salvation to anyone willing to pay for it, Luther became outraged and sought to attack, possibly not the church as a whole, but this doctrine which was completely in conflict with Romans 1:17 which said that the righteous shall live by faith. The resistance that Luther offered to the Catholic Church eventually turned into the Protestant Reformation and as a result, there are more than 650 million Christians of a Protestant section. Another in the chief contributions that Luther gives to his German people, according to Manchester, is the completion of a German language Bible. In order to complete this, Luther had to be hidden away in a tower out of fear of retribution which would lead to death by agents of the Catholic Church, set on suppressing this which they saw the translation as well as the attacks that Luther made in response to the Catholic Church to be vile and wicked. Manchester, with regard to The Reformation, sees the entire process as being avoidable. Manchester sees the corrupt Popes during that time as well as the rigid rules that were put in place by the Catholic Church as being not only unnecessary, but also doing much to incite the masses against the church once an antagonist, such as Luther comes onto the world stage. However, since it did happen, Manchester sees The Reformation as not only a split between the church but also in history as much of Europe could now be split into one of two groups: persons belonging to the Medieval Mindset of superstition and absolute religious adherence, or a new consensus that allowed for the emergence of Copernicus and Galileo and above all in the mind of Manchester, the explorer Magellan. Manchester, in a continuation of his degradation of the Popes of this age, believes that their behaviors not only led to the religious reformation but also to the rise of the humanists. â€Å"Humanism†¦ led to the greatest threat the church had ever faced.†[2] The new inventions and ideas brought on my men like Da Vinci and Copernicus, according to Manchester, put into question â€Å" the certitude that knowledge had been forever fixed by God.†[3] The assertions by Copernicus as well as Galileo, brought into question the whole of idea of God’s omnipotence. Despite the fact that nowhere in The Bible does it claim that the sun revolves around the earth, since the Catholic Church asserted that this was the case and since the church had placed such a stronghold over the minds of the people, any blow to The Catholic Church and their faulty logic, also bought into question, the validity of Christianity as a whole. As a result, since some felt that God could not be trusted and that the inability to see him made the case for faith even harder, the only other logical source was to become a humanist and to believe in the capabilities of man since that is easier to see and to trust in the minds of the faithless. The corruption of the Catholic Church at that time, coupled with the inventions of Galileo and Copernicus, along with the huge popularity of Luther and Erasmus, a more secular and humanistic world view seemed to emerge and as a result, helped usher in the influence of The Renaissance. This brings us to the last section of the book which Manchester has entitled â€Å"One Man Alone.† A full 1/3 of the book is filled with the actions of the explorer Magellan and how Manchester gives a glowing review to the man and his accomplishments. According to Manchester, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe â€Å"was the crowning triumph of the age, the final decisive blow to the past.†[4]Manchester includes this accomplishment as not only the greatest of the Middle Ages but also as part of a bigger picture: the religious revolution brought on by Luther and to a lesser but still important degree, Erasmus, the increase of secular power that Copernicus brought on with his achievements towards science. The majority of this section is a glowing review of Magellan and it seems to be, as one critic said: â€Å" a hero worship of the man.†Ã‚   Of all the people of importance that   contributed to Medieval society, Manchester makes a list of the twenty eight most important people. Some of these include Luther, Copernicus and Erasmus. The man that is seated on the top of this list of notables is Magellan. Manchester regards Magellan as â€Å" the linchpin for the men of the Renaissance.† [5] Manchester does not go into detail concerning what he means by this but rather gives a general review of the age which included both high and low culture. Manchester praises Magellan’s handling of the mutiny aboard ship, overlooks his distance miscalculations and refers to Magellan as the era’s greatest hero. In this hero worship of Magellan, Manchester seems to overemphasize the importance of Magellan and ignored the explorations of others. However, for Manchester, Magellan is the quintessential definition of what a hero is. â€Å"The hero acts alone, without encouragement, relying solely on conviction and his own inner resources.†[6] For Manchester, Magellan has always come to define such ideals. Manchester’s ultimate argument is that Magellan’s voyage is directly connected to the shattering of what he had come to define throughout his book, as â€Å"The Medieval Mind.† That is to mean, in Manchester’s opinion, a world that is ruled by superstitions as well as not only the corrupt Catholic Church but seemingly, most or all organized religions combined. Many reviews of Manchester’s book, The World Lit Only by Fire, does not contain a scholarly opinion of the book as Manchester’s telling of the events and conclusions to those events do not seem to be objective. There is seen within the pages of The World Lit Only by Fire, a great deal of biases, anecdotes and humor that seems out of place in a scholarly work of history. Yet, the book, for fans of Manchester as well as those interested in a fascinating read, will find his book, advantageous to that endeavor. A World Lit Only By Fire is an informative read, yet as its purpose does not possess educational intentions, it tends to include humor, perspectives, biases, and anecdotes that readers may consider not to be objective. In what was supposed to be a forward on a friend’s book about Magellan, is turned into a separate work on the Middle Ages and all that is occurring at that time. Manchester gives a less than glowing opinion of the Catholic Church, from the Popes all the way down to the nuns and places full blame upon the corruption and the questioning of there ever being the need for a Reformation in the first place, if The Catholic Church had remained pure and free from corruption. However, The Middle Ages also saw the rise of the humanists which placed their faith in what they could see rather than in what they wanted to see or were told to see by a dominating force as in the form of the Catholic Church. The achievements of Copernicus, Da Vinci and Magellan helped to usher in the rise of scientific thought that was seen to a great degree in The Renaissance that was to follow the days and events that are portrayed in Manchester’s book. A newly educated class comes out of the Middle Ages which will turn into the humanists. And to an alarming extent, compared to their ancestors from the region, become disillusioned about religion to a degree that is seen still to this day in America and in much of The West. In this regard, Manchester points out, as he does in many of his books, the idea that History is not static. That its importance is not bottled up in a far away land and in a time that does not serve any purpose to contemporary society. Manchester works more like a novelist than a historian as he overlooks anything that could serve as evidence to the contrary of Manchester’s assertion that the average Medieval Mind was pathetic and weak. It seems that Manchester regards as much, anyone during that time that does not have the honor of being on his list of twenty eight notables who lived during the Middle Ages. For those who agree, A World Lit Only by Fire will serve to validate such opinions. For those who feel as though there always more occurring during that time than has the been the consensus among a small but consistent minority of historians, the book will have the reader responding out loud to some of the assertions that Manchester makes. But in the end, William Manchester is a entertaining and, for those that cannot forget his works on Churchill, a great writer. WORKS CITED Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance. [1] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance. 8 [2] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance p. 112 [3] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance p. 91 [4] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance p. 294 [5] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance p. 33 [6] Manchester, William.   The World Lit Only by Fire. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance p. 225

Informative Essay Sample on the British Airways

Informative Essay Sample on the British Airways British Airways (BA) faced diverse problems in 1980. Following World War II BA inherited numerous war veterans who brought their military mentality with them. BA initially formed through the merger of two government agencies. These two factors created an organization that provided the cut and dry service of taking off and landing on time. Nothing else mattered. In the early 1970’s BA turned profits. This caused neglect to foster amongst BA’s overseers. During the 1970’s, BA focused only on minimizing cost to the state. Like government agencies, BA had become extremely inefficient due to too many employees and too many managers. BA’s productivity level was about half the average of the other eight foreign airlines. BA management recognized that 58,000 employees were too many; however, unrealistic passenger growth forecasts allowed management to overlook their obesity year after year. Customer service was not of much importance at BA. The rigid culture at BA did not infuse its employees with a need to put the customer first. BA treated customers as though the customer did not have a choice in service and as though the customer had received a benefit in getting to ride the airplane. Numerous bad experiences tarnished BA’s public image. In 1980 external problems revealed the festering internal problems. In 1980, Britain soaked in its worst recession in 50 years, which reduced passenger numbers and sent fuel costs through the roof. Faced with a recession teamed with an archaic fleet and high staffing costs, BA was running out of funds at a rapid pace and teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. Due to its soiled image, the planned privatization of BA to the investing public would not save the airline. British Airways needed immediate radical change in order to survive. British Airways, one of the most prominent airlines in Europe, had a major crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was on the verge of bankruptcy. Management had to make drastic changes to get rid of their â€Å"bloody awful† image, to get the airline back to profitability. The change process implemented at BA reflected most of the features mentioned in John Kotter’s eight-step model for implementing a successful change. Following is a description of these steps. Establishing a Sense of Urgency: In 1981 BA’s management realized that it needed a drastic change in its business model and culture to avoid bankruptcy. The challenge was to change the operational culture of people who believed that their job was simply to get an aircraft into the air on time and to get it down on time. As Roy Watts (CEO of BA) stated in his special bulletin to the staff, there was a high possibility of BA going out of business unless they took decisive actions to cut their costs sharply and immediately. The problems at BA became worse when Britain’s worst recession in fifty years reduced passenger numbers and raised fuel costs. These situations created increased sense of urgency for BA management to bring about a transformation. The first step taken by BA management to address this problem was the hiring of Sir John King as the Chairman who believed that a change was necessary. King had a successful track record of starting businesses and restructuring companies in trouble. King was a respected individual in society with government connections. This fostered his ability to implement a change process. Thus by hiring King, BA successfully implemented the first step in Kotter’s eight-step change model which states that â€Å"Transformation often begin, and begin well, when an organization has a new head who is a good leader and who sees the need for a major change.† Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition: One of the first steps that King took was to surround himself with a group of people with enough power to help him start the change process. King hired Gordon Dunlop as the CFO. As CFO, Dunlop’s contribution to the recovery years was significant. The second step was to break the 36-year-old contract with Foote, Cone Belding and to hire a new advertising agency, Saatchi Saatchi. This was an important step to change the airlines image to â€Å"The World’s Favorite Airline†. King also recruited Colin Marshall, as CEO of the company, who proved to be the single most important person in the implementation of the change process. Marshall brought with him two tremendous advantages. First, he understood customer service, and second, he had worked with a set of customers similar to the airline segment. Thus based on eight-step model, King built a successful turn around team of individuals who were powerful in terms of title, informa tion and expertise, relationship and reputations. Creating a Vision: According to Kotter, a vision helps clarify the direction in which the organization needs to move. BA started the change process with a vision to be the â€Å"World’s Favorite Airline†. BA started developing strategies to achieve this vision. The first step King launched was to implement a Survival plan to cut cost and save airline from bankruptcy. BA accomplished its reductions through voluntary measures by offering generous severance pay. This offer was very well received and BA ended up with plenty of volunteers. The layoffs didn’t leave a bad feeling amongst employees. King then hired a new ad agency to change the image of airlines. BA launched the â€Å"Manhattan Landing† campaign sowing the seeds for achieving its vision of becoming the world’s favorite airline. Finally, he recruited a new CEO whose specialty and focus was on customer service. This was one of the important strategies in accomplishing the vision. Communicating the Vision: Kotter states that in order to achieve a vision the company needs commitment and belief from its employees. Credible communication to the employees increases their belief in the change process. BA management started communicating its vision by sending out personal invitations to gather employees so that they could tune in to the inaugural of its â€Å"Manhattan Landing† advertisement campaign. Some BA offices also held cocktail parties to celebrate the new campaign. BA management also introduced the PPF (Putting People First), which emphasizes customer service. This program had an extraordinary impact on its employees because of the strong support from management and the honesty of its message. Every program ended with a question and answer session conducted by a Senior Executive to address any employee concerns. This program increased the confidence of the employees in the change process. BA constantly reinforced its changing image to its employees a nd public by putting together celebrations such as the unveiling of its new fleet at Heathrow airport. Empowering Others to Act on the Vision: Once the vision is communicated it is important to encourage employees to act on the vision. In order to change its image, BA management got rid of its 36-year-old relationship with the ad agency. BA management also started empowering its managers by launching a program called Managing People First (MPF). This program stressed the importance of trust, leadership, feedback and vision. BA management also encouraged employees to go beyond their normal job responsibilities. As stated by a veteran engineer, â€Å"Now I can go and do a lot, whatever I need to do, I don’t call someone else to do the job. Now you just get on with it†. Another important step taken by BA was to separate itself from the design of the PPF and MBF training programs. Planning for and Creating Short Term Wins: To implement a vision takes time, it was necessary for BA’s management to renew employee motivation and efforts in the short-run. BA sent personal invitations, flew in thousands of global employees, and made strong efforts to treat all employees with respect. BA’s management celebrated its changes in more visible ways. They put together a big celebration when they unveiled a new fleet at Heathrow Airport. The celebrations went on for eight weeks and four times per day to ensure that all employees were included. These celebrations helped BA to keep the momentum going during the change process. Consolidating Improvements and Producing Still more Change: The BA management continued to maintain its momentum by introducing additional programs such as â€Å"A Day in Life† and â€Å"To Be the Best†. They implemented the â€Å"Brainwaves† program to encourage employee input and also introduced the â€Å"Awards for Excellence Program† to recognize outstanding contributions by employees. The success of change process was exhibited when the government passed legislation to make BA a public company. BA shares were 11 times oversubscribed which showed the confidence of the public in the new image of British Airways. After privatization, BA management made globalization a major priority. This was evident as they bought major stakes in other airlines and forged alliances with various airlines to increase their network. They also bought substantial stake in Galileo, an advanced computer reservation system servicing other major carriers. Institutionalizing New Approaches: Institutionalizing change involves showing how new approaches, behaviors, and attitudes help improve performance. Different scenarios within BA exemplified this point such as celebrating successes with celebrations and including employees of all levels within these celebrations. These celebrations promoted the value of the change process and increased its visibility to everyone in the organization. When BA faced a battle with British Caledonian over route transfers, King and his team were able to rally signatures of over 26,000 employees for submitting a petition. This overwhelming support to the management signified employee commitment and belief in the change process. BA management nurtured new behavior and shared values by introducing various programs like Putting People First (PPF) and Managing People First (MPF). These programs helped in promoting management vision to the entire organization. Thus BA’s management was able to make the cha nge process endure by gradually anchoring it in a supportive culture over a period of time. You can order a custom essay, term paper, research paper, thesis or dissertation on British Airways at our professional custom essay writing service which provides students with high-quality custom papers written by qualified Ph.D. and Masters academic writers. Any topics. Any deadline. 100% plagiarism free guarantee! 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U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximumâ€ADX Supermax

U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum- ADX Supermax US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum, also known as ADX Florence, the Alcatraz of the Rockies, and Supermax, is a modern super-maximum security federal prison located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Florence, Colorado. Opened in 1994, the ADX Supermax facility was designed to incarcerate and isolate criminals deemed as being  too dangerous for the average prison system. The all-male prison population at ADX Supermax includes inmates who experienced chronic disciplinary problems while at other prisons, those who have killed other prisoners and prison guards, gang leaders, high-profile criminals, and organized crime mobsters. It also houses criminals who could pose a threat to national security including Al-Qaeda and U.S. terrorist and spies. The harsh conditions at ADX Supermax have earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as being one of the most secure prisons in the world. From the prison design to the daily operations, ADX Supermax strives for complete control over all prisoners at all times. Modern, sophisticated security and monitoring systems are located inside and along the outside perimeter of the prison grounds. The monolithic design of the facility makes it difficult for those unfamiliar with the facility to navigate inside the structure. Massive guard towers, security cameras, attack dogs, laser technology, remote-controlled door systems, and pressure pads exist inside a 12-foot high razor fence that surrounds the prison grounds. Outside visitors to ADX Supermax are, for the most part, unwelcome. Prison Units When inmates arrive at ADX, they are placed in one of six units depending on their criminal history. Operations, privileges, and procedures vary depending on the unit. The inmate population is housed at ADX in nine different maximum-security housing units, which are divided into six security levels listed from the most secure and restrictive to the least restrictive. The Control UnitThe Special Housing Unit (SHU)Range 13, an ultra-secure and isolated four-cell wing of the SHU.Special Security Unit (H Unit) for terroristGeneral Population Units (Delta, Echo, Fox, and Golf Units)Intermediate Unit/Transitional Units (Joker Unit and Kilo Unit) which houses prisoners entered into the Step-Down Program which they can earn their way out of ADX. To be moved into the less restrictive units, inmates must maintain clear conduct for a specific time, participate in recommended programs and demonstrate a positive institutional adjustment. Inmate Cells Depending on which unit they are in, prisoners spend at least 20, and as many as 24-hours per day locked alone in their cells. The cells measure seven by 12 feet and have solid walls that prevent prisoners from viewing the interiors of adjacent cells or having direct contact with prisoners in adjacent cells. All ADX cells have solid steel doors with a small slot. Cells in all units (other than H, Joker, and Kilo units) also have an interior barred wall with a sliding door, which together with the exterior door forms a sally port in each cell. Each cell is furnished with a modular concrete bed, desk, and stool, and a stainless steel combination sink and toilet. Cells in all units include a shower with an automatic shut-off valve. The beds have a thin mattress and blankets over the concrete. Each cell contains a single window, approximately 42 inches tall and four inches wide, which allows in some natural light, but which is designed to ensure that prisoners cannot see anything outside of their cells other than the building and sky. Many cells, except those in the SHU, are equipped with a radio and television that offers religious and educational programming, along with some general interest and recreational programming. Inmates wishing to take advantage of the educational program at ADX Supermax do so by tuning into specific learning channels on the television in their cell. There are no group classes. Televisions often are withheld from prisoners as punishment. Meals are delivered three times a day by guards. With few exceptions, prisoners in most ADX Supermax units are allowed out of their cells only for limited social or legal visits, some forms of medical treatment, visits to the law library and a few hours a week of indoor or outdoor recreation. With the possible exception of Range 13, the Control Unit is the most secure and isolated unit currently in use at ADX. Prisoners in the Control Unit are isolated from the other prisoners at all times, even during recreation, for extended terms often lasting six years or more. Their only meaningful contact with other humans is with ADX staff members. The compliance of Control Unit prisoners with institutional rules is assessed monthly. A prisoner is given credit for serving a month of his Control Unit time only if he maintains clear conduct for the entire month. Inmate Life For at least the first three years, ADX inmates remain isolated inside their cells on an average of 23 hours a day, including during meals. Inmates in the more secure cells have remote-controlled doors that lead to walkways, called dog runs, which open into a private recreation pen. The pen referred to as the empty swimming pool, is a concrete area with skylights, which inmates go to alone. There they can take about 10 steps in either direction or walk around thirty feet in a circle. Because of the inability for prisoners to see prison grounds from inside their cells or the recreation pen, it is nearly impossible for them to know where their cell is located inside the facility. The prison was designed this way to deter prison breakouts. Special Administrative Measures Many of the inmates are under Special Administrative Measures (SAM) to prevent the dissemination either of classified information that could endanger the national security or of other information that could lead to acts of violence and terrorism. Prison officials monitor and censor all inmate activity including all mail that is received, books, magazines and newspapers, phone calls and face-to-face visits. Phone calls are limited to one monitored 15-minute phone call per month. If prisoners adapt to the rules of ADX, they are permitted to have more exercise time, additional phone privileges and more television programming. The opposite is true if prisoners fail to adapt. Inmate Disputes In 2006, Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Rudolph contacted the Gazette of Colorado Springs through a series of letters describing the conditions at ADX Supermax as one meant to, inflict misery and pain. It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis, he wrote in one letter. Hunger Strikes Throughout the prisons history, inmates have gone on hunger strikes to protest the harsh treatment that they receive. This is particularly true of foreign terrorists; by 2007, over 900 incidents of force-feeding of the striking prisoners had been documented. Suicide In May 2012, the family of Jose Martin Vega filed a lawsuit against the United States District Court for the District of Colorado alleging that Vega committed suicide while incarcerated at ADX Supermax because he was deprived of treatment for his mental illness. On June 18, 2012, a class-action lawsuit, Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, was filed alleging that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was mistreating mentally ill prisoners at ADX Supermax. Eleven prisoners filed the case on behalf of all mentally ill prisoners at the facility. In December 2012, Michael Bacote asked to withdraw from the case. As a result, the first-named plaintiff is now Harold Cunningham, and the case name is now Cunningham v. Federal Bureau of Prisons. The complaint alleges that despite the BOPs own written policies, excluding the mentally ill from ADX Supermax because of its severe conditions, the BOP frequently assigns prisoners with mental illness there because of a deficient evaluation and screening process. Then, according to the complaint, mentally ill prisoners housed at ADX Supermax are denied constitutionally adequate treatment and services. According to the complaint Some prisoners mutilate their bodies with razors, shards of glass, sharpened chicken bones, writing utensils and whatever other objects they can obtain. Others swallow razor blades, nail clippers, broken glass, and other dangerous objects. Many engage in fits of screaming and ranting for hours on end. Others carry on delusional conversations with the voices they hear in their heads, oblivious to reality and the danger that such behavior might pose to them and to anyone who interacts with them. Still, others spread feces and other waste throughout their cells, throw it at the correctional staff and otherwise create health hazards at ADX. Suicide attempts are common; many have been successful. Escape artist Richard Lee McNair wrote to a journalist from his cell in 2009 to say: Thank God for prisons [...] There are some very sick people in here... Animals you would never want living near your family or the public in general. I dont know how corrections staff deal with it. They get spit on, s*** on, abused and I have seen them risk their lives and save a prisoner many times. The BOP to Access of Its Solitary Confinement Practices In February 2013 the Federal Bureau of Prisons  (BOP) agreed to a comprehensive and independent assessment of its use of solitary confinement in the nation’s federal prisons. The first-ever review of federal segregation policies comes after a hearing in 2012 on the human rights, fiscal and public safety consequences of solitary confinement. The assessment will be conducted by the National Institute of Corrections.

Third-Person Singular Forms of Verbs in English

Third-Person Singular Forms of Verbs in English In English grammar, the third-person singular verb ending is the suffix -s or -es thats conventionally added to the base form of a verb in the present tense when it follows a singular subject in the third person (for example, She waits and watches). Third-Person Singular Verb Ending Most verbs in English form the third-person singular by adding -s to the base form (sings, gives, requires).Verbs ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z form the third-person singular by adding -es (watches, misses, rushes, mixes, buzzes).Verbs ending in a consonant y (such as try) form the third-person singular by changing the y to i and adding -es (tries). As their name suggests, certain irregular verbs have special forms. The third-person singular of be in the present tense is is, the third-person singular of have is has, the third-person singular of do is does, and the third-person singular of go is goes. Examples of Third-Person Endings Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. (attributed to Vernon Law, pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team)Hip Hop theology not only embraces the sacred; it dines, sleeps, laughs, cries, loves, hates and lives with the profane. (Daniel White Hodge, The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology. IVP Books, 2010)A bear, however hard he tries,Grows tubby without exercise.Our bear is short and fat,Which is not to be wondered at.(A.A. Milne, Teddy Bear. When We Were Very Young, 1924)Man hunts and searches on his whirling globe and whenever he unearths a miniature truth within his environ, he thinks himself close to the peak of science. (Dagobert D. Runes, A Book of Contemplation. Philosophical Library, 1957)The ball, rocketing off the crotch of the rim, leaps over the heads of the six and lands at the feet of the one. He catches it on the short bounce with a quickness that startles them. (John Updike, Rabbit, Run. Alfred A. Knopf, 1960) For mothering chicks, a stove has one real advantage over a hen: it stays in one place and you always know where it is. Right there its advantage ceases. In all other respects, a hen is ahead of any stove that was ever built. (E.B. White, Spring. One Mans Meat. Harper, 1942)Billy closes his door and carries coal or wood to his fire and closes his eyes, and theres simply no way of knowing how lonely and empty he is or whether hes as vacant and barren and loveless as the rest of us arehere in the heart of the country. (William H. Gass, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, 1968)If an apparatus is capable of determining which hole the electron goes through, it cannot be so delicate that it does not disturb the pattern in an essential way. (Richard P. Feynman, Six Easy Pieces. Perseus, 1994) Subject-Verb Agreement With the Third-Person Singular Most subject-verb agreement problems occur in the present tense, where third-person singular subjects require special verb forms: regular verbs form the third-person singular by adding -s or -es to the base . . .. (Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, Writing First With Readings: Practice in Context, 3rd ed. Bedford/St. Martins, 2006)A singular noun requires a singular verb; a plural noun requires a plural verb.In general, the first- and second-person singular forms of the verb and all plural forms of the verb are the plain form- for example, run. Variation appears in the third-person singular (as in runs)the verb form that matches the pronouns he, she, and it and other third-person subjects, such as the boy, the dog, and the car. . . .The verbs to be, to have, and to do are irregular. Unlike other verbs, the verb to be also varies in person and number in the past tense. (David Blakesley and Jeffrey L. Hoogeveen, The Brief Thomson Handbook. Thomson Wadsworth, 2008) The Evolution of English: From -eth to -(e)s The Renaissance brought several changes in English grammar and syntax. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the –eth third-person singular verb ending (e.g., followeth, thinketh) began to die out, though some common contractions of these forms (e.g., hath for haveth, doth for doeth) persisted into the late seventeenth century. (The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, 2nd ed., ed. by Joseph Black, et al. Broadview Press, 2011)[W]e know that the originally northern third-person singular verb ending -(e)s spread conclusively to the south during the early modern English period to give she walks, he writes. Nevertheless, there is an ostensibly odd, opposing development whereby some Scots writers at this time adopted the otherwise declining southern -(e)th (e.g. she helpeth), retaining it right into the seventeenth century. A closer examination of the corpus data shows that many of the verbs with -(e)th, in fact, have a stem ending in a sibilant sound, like ariseth, ca useth, increaseth, produceth. (April McMahon, Restructuring Renaissance English. The Oxford History of English, rev. ed., edited by Lynda Mugglestone. Oxford University Press, 2012) Frequency of Third-Person Singular Pronouns Third-person singular is the most frequent subject in the corpus; it accounts for 45% of all utterances. Sixty-seven percent of these clauses (626/931) are present tense, 26% (239/931) are past tense, and 7% of these predicates (66/931) contain modal auxiliaries. Third-person singular, however, is a much more complex member of the English category person than are first and second person singular subject pronouns (though the latter two are not without functional variation). (Joanne Schiebman, Local Patterns of Subjectivity in Person and Verb Type in American English Conversation. Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure, ed. by Joan L. Bybee and Paul Hopper. John Benjamins, 2001)

Lead like Jesus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lead like Jesus - Essay Example In fact, servant leadership involves the understanding of the various issues of selflessness and focus on the team and not the leader. However, self-focused and self-centeredness are issues present in humanity. In fact, individuals tend to focus on their success instead of the success of the team members or members of the community. Therefore, by nature, human beings tend to be focused on themselves and not others. In spite of the challenges of self-centeredness, when a person matures, he learns to understand that the world is not about how much one can get, but how much one can give to others. The concept of service to others is integral in the development of servant leadership, which is a concept developed by Jesus (Blanchard and Hodges 40). The concept revolves around caring for others and having love. Leaders motivated with self-interest tend to place their agendas, status, safety and gratification above those people they influence. In such cases, the leaders become self-serving and not serving leaders. Self-serving leaders view feedback as criticism and a threat to their leadership style (Blanchard and Hodges 41). They do not offer a chance for the members to contribute to the development of organization or team The heart of a servant leader involves being meek, humble and loving. The depiction of love in all issues undertaken including the disciplinary action will ensure harmony in the group. A servant leader must focus on the well-being of others and not him. Jesus in his servant leadership model employed the use of love in handling the diverse issues within the organization. In fact, in all his decisions, he considered the impact of the decisions on his members. For instance, he did not send Judas Iscariot away, but kept him close with other disciples (Blanchard and Hodges 38). The depiction of love to Judas was to help in developing his

Social net working in the uk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social net working in the uk - Essay Example This paper seeks to discuss social net working in the UK. Individual in United Kingdom use BBC Suffolk website to interact with other people where they use it alongside a traditional output known as BBC Radio. In most cases, communication among the youth is done through social networking which has made the means of communication cheaper compared with other means. Since the use of social networking websites is a valuable mode of communication globally, groups, feeds and other contents are being used by BBC Suffolk and its programmes. For one to view BBC Suffolk groups one must be a member of facebook and BBC Suffolk so that he or she can interact with others in different social networking. Facebook has more than 150 million users around the world. The use of social networking like facebook gives an individual a chance to communicate with friends from each corner of the world1. Additionally, peer counseling and sharing of related problems are posted in the site where peers can help one another to solve the problems facing them. Individuals who are members of facebook can as well join groups dedicated to musicians where one can view the recent released albums or campaigns which are being held or to be started. This is a social networking site that is mainly used by the UK young people since it is associated with music and especially the one that is current in the market. The musicians use the site to post their current album released and this help them to market them and advertise their music globally. BBC Suffolk is a site that is used by those who want to support the musicians around the United Kingdom where any kind of support is given. Update of what one is doing is posted in the Twitter where the numbers of characters are limited to 140 which are then linked to other sites which make it interesting. Videos can also be linked in the Twitter handle which can be posted and later friends will view them making it possible to communicate

Health appetite Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health appetite - Essay Example ishes to impress teamwork at the workplace must understand the important of teamwork from three varied viewpoints: (1) increased speed of work (2) workload distribution, and (3) faster learning. Team work promotes faster learning. Workers when working as a team tend to learn what they do at a faster rate. The knowledge and experiences of the older team members enables others to grasp new concepts faster. Teamwork also proves to be an added bonus for employees to avoid mistakes at work. It also promotes workload distribution. This way, team members will work effectively when work is distributed. This allows them to focus on one activity till the time that they are sure they have gained expertise in it. Therefore, they do not feel stressed out. Last yet important, teamwork increases speed of work. With many workers working on a single project and accomplishing the assigned task properly, the speed of work is largely increased. The team can therefore, complete a given project as require d and within the appropriate time. In the current globally competitive market, the success of an organization wholly lies in the speed of performance of its employees. A dull, and demotivated team but lacking coordination and speed results in the downfall of the organization. On the other hand, an organization with a well-organized workers often chart out their path to success. The Human resource policies of a company are as such directed. This is for the betterment of an employer and employees as it helps them maximize performance. The aforementioned benefits of teamwork are team specific. However, teamwork is beneficial even at an organizational level. It benefits the organization by increasing the organization’s productivity, which is an important factor in fulfilling commitment and meeting set targets. Also worth mentioning is that teamwork promotes effective utilization of manpower. This is one major reason that makes most organizations to promote teamwork at the

The Influence of Marketing through Culture and Tradition in Kuwait Research Paper

The Influence of Marketing through Culture and Tradition in Kuwait (Gulf) - Research Paper Example The origin of Kuwait culture comes from diverse backgrounds and is very rich. In addition, the influences of marketing on customs and traditions of Kuwait is widespread as observed in many firms (Ahmed 16). This calls for conscious marketing especially for the international marketer since what a certain culture accepts may be regarded as a taboo in another. This paper will focus on the influence of marketing on culture and traditions in Kuwait. The importance of culture in marketing cannot be underestimated, the traditions, values, attitudes and religious beliefs of a people can affect greatly the promotion of a product. Most of the marketing mix components can only achieve great outcomes if the culture and traditions of the people is well understood, respected, and tolerated especially that of the target market. For instance, promoting a product is expected to increase customers and consequently the profits, therefore to achieve greater profits through promotion it is imperative tha t a company puts into consideration a people’s culture and traditions in order to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and be able to produce and market the products that suit their needs. The language of a people is a vehicle of culture and affects the consumer behaviour considerably (Victor 142). One of the marketing strategies is promotion; consumer acceptance of a product requires a language to promote the product. Therefore, promotional methods such as personal selling, advertising, publicity and sales promotion can only be successful through the use of a language. In Kuwait, Islamic is the commonly used language which among the most influential cultural elements (Ahmed 67). Other elements include religious beliefs and ethnic values, all these cultural elements have an effect on the marketing mix, pricing, promotion, product, and price. This requires multinational firms to make their promotions and products adaptable to the environment they exist to ensure persuasi ve marketing. A cultural bound firm is the one that is consumer-oriented, this is evidenced by cultural groupings, and inclinations that tend to purchase certain products calling for marketers to be responsive on cultural influences on their marketing strategies. In Kuwait, culture is related to all dimensions of the society (Ahmed 23). Therefore, appropriate marketing strategy has gained more focus from marketers who wish to promote their products in an effort to increase their market share. Culture and tradition has become a key component of advertisements for most products and services to attract more customers and retain existing ones. Some of the business that have embraced marketing through culture and traditions include the National Bank of Kuwait, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, and Zain which is one of the best telecommunication companies in the country. The use of cultural strategies to market themselves has not only helped these companies increase their sales but also attract new consumers while at the same time achieving and increasing customer loyalty. Another important aspect on the influence of marketing through culture and traditions in Kuwait observed in organizing employees principles as a national culture in order for them to understand their work and what is expected out of it and the manner in which the expect to be treated. This means firms have to act in

America's Nuclear Meltdown towards Global Zero Essay

America's Nuclear Meltdown towards Global Zero - Essay Example †¢ Most important concepts, theories, or ideas needed to understand & solve problem? In order to understand the reluctance of countries towards achieving a unanimous agreement to abandon nuclear warfare, it is important to understand not only the reasons which led to the development and continued maintenance of their nuclear military sections (as given in the article) but also the reasons why a Global Zero is necessary and important for the security of the global population. Further, the warfare, political power plays and hidden motives and feelings of the countries should also be considered- what are they fearing or hoping? †¢ How author defines these? For the author, these reasons revolve against geographical conflicts, defensive strategy and political decisions keeping in mind the actions of the rival countries. It appears from the article that all countries truly want to achieve a nuclear weapon free world but actions of the others are preventing them from reaching that level of trust. †¢ Does the author take any assumptions regarding these as for granted or make any questionable assumptions? The only assumption made is that the intention of the countries involved is to eventually get rid of nuclear armaments, as evidenced from explicit political statements. Even if this isn’t true, the implicit intentions cannot be judged as it would have moved the tone of the article away from neutral and factual grounds and into an opinionated piece.

Was the great leap forward Chinas failure to comprehend stalinism Essay

Was the great leap forward Chinas failure to comprehend stalinism - Essay Example Only during the war years he turned his attention to the occupying Japanese imperial army. In all other cases his fight was against either internal opposition or other warlords. Thus he perhaps felt constrained in a peaceful environment. Thus Mao wrote â€Å" War   is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the emergence of private property and of classes†. "(Mao, 1936, Selected Works,   Vol. I, p. 180). Part of his psyche can be gauged from the fact that just after gaining power in 1949 he entered the Korean War and also talked of exporting world revolution. After Stalin’s death in 1953 he assumed that the leadership of the communist world would descend on him. When this did not happen he thought of ways to assert his authority so that the communist movement recognized him. He occupied Tibet and waged a border war with India in 1962 and supported Castro at about the same time during the Cuban missile crisis. At home Mao enforced Stalinist concepts in agriculture and industry and he talked of the great leap forward. ... (Jacques, Andrieu (2002) The psychology of Mao, Brussels, Editions Complexe) History records that both the campaigns of Mao the Cultural Revolution and the hundred flowers bloom brought untold hardship to the common man. The policy of a hundred flowers was abandoned forthwith after Mao gauged the mood of his opponents, of whom many were arrested and sent to labor camps for rehabilitation. By launching this campaign of a 100 flowers Mao was able to purge any challenges to his power and dissidents were all eliminated. Jung Chang opined in her book that the Hundred Flowers Campaign was merely a ruse to root out "dangerous" thinking.( Chang, Jung. 1991,Wild swans: three daughters of China. New York: Simon & Schuster.) The great leap forward which started in 1958 was Mao’s attempt to by pass the historical concept of industrialization and development by keeping society in ferment as well. This was different from Stalin who set up a state controlled economy and no mass upheaval in s ociety. Mao assumed that a perpetual revolution was a necessity in the development of China. In this his mind conditioned by decades of war and turmoil made him believe in quick solutions, irrespective of the hardship it could cause to the people Thus he started collective farms and abolished land ownership. The result was disastrous and famine stalked the land as Agriculture production fell to its lowest level. ( Ashton, Basil, Kenneth Hill, Alan Piazza, and Robin Zeitz. "Famine in China, 1958-61." Population and Development Review) He also decided that China needs more iron and thus enforced a scheme where he ordered all peasant houses to be converted to smelters for pig iron. But he erred grievously in

America's Nuclear Meltdown towards Global Zero Essay

America's Nuclear Meltdown towards Global Zero - Essay Example †¢ Most important concepts, theories, or ideas needed to understand & solve problem? In order to understand the reluctance of countries towards achieving a unanimous agreement to abandon nuclear warfare, it is important to understand not only the reasons which led to the development and continued maintenance of their nuclear military sections (as given in the article) but also the reasons why a Global Zero is necessary and important for the security of the global population. Further, the warfare, political power plays and hidden motives and feelings of the countries should also be considered- what are they fearing or hoping? †¢ How author defines these? For the author, these reasons revolve against geographical conflicts, defensive strategy and political decisions keeping in mind the actions of the rival countries. It appears from the article that all countries truly want to achieve a nuclear weapon free world but actions of the others are preventing them from reaching that level of trust. †¢ Does the author take any assumptions regarding these as for granted or make any questionable assumptions? The only assumption made is that the intention of the countries involved is to eventually get rid of nuclear armaments, as evidenced from explicit political statements. Even if this isn’t true, the implicit intentions cannot be judged as it would have moved the tone of the article away from neutral and factual grounds and into an opinionated piece.

Thomas becket Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Thomas becket - Research Paper Example Thomas was born December 21st, 1118 or 1120 in the family of a wealthy and prosperous merchant, a citizen of London – Gilbert Beket. The name Thomas was given to him because he was born on St. Thomas the Apostle’s day. Both Thomas’ parents were of Norman ancestry. Very little is known about Thomas’ childhood. What we do know is that his mother was a righteous and charitable woman, giving him some allowance to give to the poor. That had a great impact on him and played a key role in making him what he became in his adult life. Becket studied between the age of ten and twenty-one, most likely between 1130 and 1141. He studied in a few educational institutions, such as the Augustinian priory at Merton in Surrey, and then in one or more of the grammar schools in London. His student life was spent in Paris. He was not a particularly studious pupil. His mother was the one who encouraged him to study. In fact, when she died, he stopped his education at age of twe nty-one. Frank Barlow says about his education: Thomas’ rather sketchy education caused the biographers some difficulty. They know that, although he was extremely intelligent, he was never much of a scholar†¦ Presumably, because he became an archbishop and then a saint†¦ even if he had been an inattentive schoolboy, in ten years he must’ve gone through the whole curriculum at a modest level and acquired some knowledge of the seven liberal arts†¦ But clearly he had not mastered the subjects†¦ It is also clear that, in youth, he did not proceed beyond the basic curriculum. His legal and theological studies pertain to later periods of his life, to professions which required those special qualifications. (Barlow 21) Thomas’ father, Gilbert Beket suffered financial problems, so Thomas was forced to find a work. He first worked as a clerk for a relative, but later became the agent to Theobald, the then-current Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent on a few important missions to Rome. He was entrusted with much, and his efficiency paid off. Theobald recommended him to King Henry II for the position of Chancellor. Becket was appointed to this position in January 1155. On this post, Becket showed his political brilliance – he razed castles, repaired the Tower of London, raised, prepared and led troops to war, conducted various diplomatic missions etc. He was completely trusted by Henry II, who, besides a loyal and faithful subject, found Thomas to be a close friend and a great companion. He aided the King in his mission to subject all power into the hands of the monarch, even when his interests were contrary to those of the church. As a Chancellor, Becket lived and traveled in luxury. This strongly contradicted with his status as Archdeacon of Canterbury. Another very serious and contradicting occurrence was the fact that he flatly refused to leave this post, even though he neglected his duties. Theobald disapproved his a ctions greatly, Becket when he was called on, did not appear before the dying Archbishop. This is another fact historians widely criticize. During this time the Gregorian reform had begun to be implemented, spreading from the Holy Roman Empire, Italy and France and started to influence English clerics as well. According to the reform, the clerical posts were appointed by free elections, an issue of free appeal to Rome was implemented, and other such changes, that made the church more independent from secular rule. Henry II

Art Deco Concepts and Ideas | History of Art

Art Deco Concepts and Ideas | History of Art Throughout history, man has observed and experienced numerous movements and births in the world of art and architecture that influenced life and dwelling. Some movements were mere fads that lasted several seconds in the larger scale of time, others were strong influencers that lasted beyond their years, either physically or in the minds and hearts of many. Art Deco, a movement that started in the early 1920s in the arts that translated immediately into architecture is undeniably one of the strongest iconic movements that effected the lives of many and has its dominant mark on the physical world. The movement still remains alive in various forms of pop culture reappearances and in actual physical standing buildings and structures and not as a movement in action, but simply in examples to remind people of a certain times allure. What sets Art Deco apart from other movements is its collectivity of several other movements and attempts in the world of art and architecture. The purpose of this paper is to identify and elaborate on the myriad of art and architectural styles that contributed into making Art Deco what it was/is. Also, since Art Deco was a dominant force made up of many successful styles, what made it last a relatively short period as a movement, yet some of its characteristics are used and found in subsequent styles still. The Beginning of Art Deco (a history): The birth of Art Deco was interesting in the sense that the movement started before the birth of the name Art Deco in 1968 where it was first used by Bevis Hillier as the title for his book on the decorative arts of the 1920s and the 1930s that are the actual years the movement belonged to. The Term originated from the distinguished exhibition of decorative and industrial arts held in Paris, France in 1925 called Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. In terms of the concept and feel of the exhibition, The Paris exhibition is like a city in a dream, and the sort of dream that would give the psychoanalysts a run for their money (Vogue, London August 1925). The exhibition was a gathering pot where many artists and architects unveiled their works of art that later strengthened and inspired the concoction of the decorative motif style. The use of Art Deco as a label at that time was non-existent and the contemporary art was called Art Modernes in France a nd Modernistic art in the United States. Although numerous people think of the United States and American artists when it comes to Art Deco and the birth of Art Deco, the movement was actually birthed by European styles. The two chief countries that sparked the Art Deco motion were Germany and France. The movement was not a instant spark, it evolved quietly throughout the early 1920s and saw its climax at the Parisian exhibition, then it gradually saw its way across many countries especially the United States in a concentrated way which is why many people think of the Art Deco style as an American style. Defining Art Deco/Influences: Art Deco as a movement is almost impossible to define in a brief sentence or idea. The movement incorporated many elements, genres of design, and artistic/architectural movements that it becomes necessary to view and appreciate it as a large sum of minor components rather than a single entity. Some of the components that birthed Art Deco may even seem to clash or repel each other, yet, in reality they work harmoniously. For example, Germany and France in the immediate years post World War1 had different styles in art and architecture. The German approach was more towards Modernism, meaning having crisp and angular functionalism in design and an emphasis on clean geometry. Paris however had a style that was delightfully playful, a decorative style that is closest to the Art Nouveau Vernacular which was to be eradicated by its disciples. These two extremes are the two major movements that make up Art Deco as we know it, however, they are not the only movements or influences. At that ti me, the more lively style that is described as leisurely, comforting, and a representation of wealth arrived to the United States before the rigid German style thus helping the growth and spread of Art Decos decorative ways in the country. Along side the German modern style of design and the Art Nouveau movement, Art Deco barrowed influences and inspiration from many styles. Not only did Art Deco include many art or architectural styles, it was also influenced by historical aspects and futuristic ideologies. Deco was described as to contain elements from the ancient past to the distant future (Duncan, Alastair, 7). A past historical influence that is very evident in the style of Art Deco is the Ancient Pharaoh civilization and the Egyptian culture mania that overtook Paris after Tutankhamuns tomb discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. Combined with the mesmerizing Egyptian elements that were easily adopted as decorative motifs in Art Deco, more exotic inspirers played a role in influencing the style, such as Mayan temples, tribal African sculptures, the Ballets Russes, and Japanese lacquer-work. The decorative motifs of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Sumer cultures also influenced and stimulated some Art Deco architects as did the Medieval and Byzantine architecture. Further more, classical structures and sculptures of the Roman and Greek cultures also played a part in the forming of Art Deco, however, the Art Deco architects were against the Beaux-Arts Neoclassicism, thus they adorned their classically based buildings and structures with modernized elements and figures of classical mythology in a playful strictly aesthetically decorative manner. Since Art Deco is not an instant reaction to another styles action, it truly had lesser rules in style than most other movements, and it probably had the most relaxed and forgiving rules when it came to re-interpreting another styles elements, or completely borrowing an element. For example, if an architect was commissioned by a client who is fascinated by maritime activity, and wanted to have elements of that show in the building, an Art Deco architect would design an art piece of a boat or an anchor in the exact same forms and colors from a decorative material and adorn the building with it. What makes this action possible and feasible is Art Decos strong dependency on Industrial design. The strong streamlined forms of industrial design and techniques of art creating through industrial commercial ways truly helped the Art Deco movement and added another very powerful component to the previously mentioned elements that make up the fabric of the movement. As previously mentioned, it seems that the components of Art Deco are countless, all equally stimulating and important in their own right. The French Rationalism style of building and the Art Nouveau movement in the early 1900s before the 1920s for example were important precursors of Art Deco. Auguste Perrets Rue Franklin apartment building, c.1902, which was extensively glazed and revolutionized the building techniques with the use of reinforced concrete works as a foreshadow of Art Deco and what was to come. The heavy ornaments on Perrets building work as a bridge from the more stylized floral style decorations to the ordered and less organic famous floral motifs of Art Deco such as the lotus leaves. Along side Art Nouveau, another powerful movement that influences many Art Deco buildings is Expressionism in both its industrial German style and the brick building Dutch style. The style of the Expressionist architecture in its emotional and beautifying methods is clearly visible in the Art Deco designs. Although the movement was prior to the First World War, it had a strong comeback in the 1920s and famous expressionist buildings such as Peter Behrens monumental glass and steel turbine factory, c.1908, served as a model and inspiration for Art Deco designs. The Exhibition hall by Hans Poelzig in Poznan, Poland, c. 1911, also worked as a muse and model for following Art Deco artists. In terms of the brick building expressionism, three major Dutch influencers of Art Deco were Johan Melchior van der Mey, Michel de Klerk, and Piet Lodewijk whose work included brick, glass, and concrete in a stylized structural and decorative manner that can be linked directly to Art Deco. Italian Futurist architect Antonio SantElia was another major influencer on the Art Deco movement although a few rare projects of his were built and the majority remained sketches on paper. SantElias Monza cemetery, 1912, is an example of his work where decorative designs and heavy use of ornamentation in glass and concrete may be found and linked to Art Deco. In the United States, the Chicago School of Architectures massive vertical steel skeleton buildings made in the Moderne style from 1875-1910 count as influencers of Art Deco. From that group, Louis Sullivan and his student Frank Lloyd Wright specifically are the two architects whose works most hold links and bridges to Art Deco. Frank Lloyd Wrights work included many heavily ornamented buildings both in the exterior and interior with sharp geometry and studied repeated patterns and motifs in brick and concrete that are very much Art Deco-esque such as the Midway Gardens in Chicago built in 1914. (first half) *In Addition to the prior information, the following outline titles will be discussed in the second half, which is the more theoretical part structural wise. Elements of the Art Deco style: The characteristics that make a design original Art Deco, and specific elements that art deco must attain. Examples of famous art deco buildings: The buildings, and the theories and messages behind them. Writers opinion and analysis: My own personal opinion on the movement the and theories behind the movement, also, why I believe the movement failed to live longer even thought it seemed ultimately powerful ( the answer to my proposed question).

Classification Essay: The Types of Drinkers -- Classification Essay

â€Å"I drink to make other people more interesting.† ― Ernest Hemingway In the great world of tending bar there is a myriad selection of customers one would encounter; The Social Drinker, The Self Defined Outcast, The Fish Out of Water, and last but never the least, The Freshman. Each level of drinker has its advantages in social circles and also has equal negative repercussions. Most of these classes aren't built from years of drinking, rather are formed through the personality traits they already have developed through their childhood and young adulthood. Only when alcohol is introduced to the equation, we see these great classifications shine through and become polished for all to enjoy. In the wild, one would typically encounter the common Social Drinker before all others. This class is rampant through the wasteland's strip bar culture in most urban sprawls. They commonly drink with one or more others of their kind, mostly drinking colorful shots made with fruity vodkas. The sightings start as early as 3:00 pm on weekdays when most others are at work. These drinkers are the bartender's best customer most of the time due to there usual 1.00$ tip for each drink they order and rarely make unneeded work for the bar keep; Starting fights, keeping the bar top clean, and mostly, not too loud. However, this classification opens the door for more treacherous foe. The hardest to engage and even classify is The Self Defined Outcast. The minute they walk into the bar they usually eye up the bar and stay, but only if there is Social Drinkers. The reasoning I presume for this action is due to not wanting to drink alone in a bar, but still drink alone in a corner, or at the end of the bar. With their he... ...he air with gusto. Everyone in the bar saw it coming and yet the bartender still let it happen.. I would like to call it boredom on the bartender's behalf due to wanting something to stir up the crowd and get the Freshman out the door and make the scene balanced once again. The next time you walk into a bar and see that all the elements seem to be at balance and the bartender is smiling ear to ear, you'll know that this will be the bar you'll stay at. The Social Drinker came early and set the stage by drinking with the Outcast, making him socially acceptable. The Freshman has already been kicked out for dropping his third beer and The Fish Out Of Water is starting drinking games, all the while, Huey Lewis And The News is blaring from the speakers. A bartender dreams of this perfect balance of Bar goers on a nightly basis and here it is at-last.

Visual Arts and the Internet Essay -- Computers Media Technology Essay

Visual Arts and the Internet I have selected the area of visual arts to give examples of websites that I have found exploring the impact of new technologies. Artist’s influence from technology has allowed them the freedom to expand their mediums in which they work with, exhibit their work world wide, collaborate with other artists and discover new concepts with scientists. Artists’ are always looking for something new and different, the best possible way to communicate their ideas. Cynthia Beth Rubin is an artist who is interested in how in all of us there are embedded cultural traditions merging and colliding. She feels she has benefited from new technology, â€Å"New technology has expanded my visual vocabulary, and all of my work, both video and still imagery, is now produced through the computer†¦echoing the ambiguity of memory, the computer is the instrument for allowing some images to sing, some to come forward as clear images, others to fall back into barely representational dreams of textures and colours.† (http://www.cbrubin.net/statement.html) Artists are experimenting with using arising technology in an original way. Working with new media and collaborating with other artists. David Galbraith and Teresa Seemann â€Å"†¦have developed an interplay between their work in the visual arts, experimental music, and performance. Using the model of collaborations, links, and connections found in electronic and experimental music, the exhibition examines how increased accessibility to advanced technology is directly influencing the content and context of contemporary art and culture†¦ increased access to advanced technology has allowed artists to experience a "do-it-yourself" freedom and to embrace cultural production that is not... ...ve/issuethmbs/newsletters/MayJune97/article2.html Exhibition History, retrieved September 13th, 2004, from http://www.newmuseum.org/more_exh_waveform.php Extra Ear –  ¼ Scale, the Tissue Culture & Art in Collaboration with Stelarc, retrieved September 13th, 2004, from http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/extra/extra_ear.html Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephà ©mà ¨re, Women, Art, and Technology, Malloy, J. ed. London, England: The MIT Press (2003), pp. 322-337, illus, retrieved September 14th, 2004, from http://www.immersence.com/ Ten Dreams of Technology, Dietz, S. published in Leonardo, Vol. 35 Number 5 (2002) pp. 509-513, retrieved September 14th, 2004, from http://www.immersence.com/index.html  ¼ Scale ear, retrieved September 13th, 2004, from http://www.sterlarc.va.com.au/quarterear/index.html

Sex and Gender in Twelfth Night

Sex and Desire The nexus of gender, desire and sexuality have long been a source of considerable interest, but no more so than in the plays of William Shakespeare. Specifically, in their original production and for some time afterwards, common practice dictated certain roles for women and men. Analysis of these roles yields interesting insights regarding the value of women and how the relative devaluing of women shaped sexual desire and normal gender roles. In this paper, I will attempt to illuminate several features of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night that have bearing on human desire.Before identifying significant features of Shakespeare’s plays in general and Twelfth Night in particular that have bearing on the question of gender roles and the shaping of desire, it will important to remind ourselves about the cultural limitations for women of sixteenth century England. Callaghan reminds us that woman had no public life. Even in the home, they could rarely manifest charact eristics that are not consistent with the virtues: obedience, silence, sexual chastity, piety, humility, constancy, and patience. Those virtues taught women to not think for their selves, to not be agents in their world.In fact, educationalists in this time said that women were too cognitively limited to get a full education and too likely to be led by their own emotions than to think rationally. Tears were called â€Å"women’s weapons†, yet, in the right situation, it was perfectly acceptable for men to cry. However, it is interesting to note that in a lot of Shakespeare’s plays explore men’s insecurities about women. It shows that men fear losing control. In most of the heroines of his comedies, while they might have turned to their feminine roles in the end, they achieved a type of empowerment.In general it seems clear that women’s roles were severely limited inside and outside the home. How is this domestication of women revealed in Shakespeari an theatre? In the Twelfth Night? First, what is the significance of Shakespearian practice of allowing men to play the roles of women? In her criticism, Callaghan argues that Shakespeare is mocking women in Twelfth Night. She argues that Shakespeare specifically inserted a transvestite role to show that no matter what women do, they will eventually submit to a man. However, in my view, Shakespeare had none of this in mind when he placed that role in his play.He uses plot of gender confusion to cause chaos for his characters through love triangles, homosexuality, and â€Å"role switching. †   Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, how are we to understand Shakespeare’s plot twists that problematize gender roles? For examples, Viola washes up in Illyria after a ship wreck that she thinks took her brother’s life. She discovers Orsino is the authority in the land. After this discovery, she says to the captain: Conceal me what I am, and be my aid. For such disguise as haply shall becom e the form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke. Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him.It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing and speak to him in many sorts of music (1. 2, 51-56) She is saying that she wants the captain to help her pass as a man. However, she knows that she cannot fully pass as a man so she must at least pass as a eunuch. This sets off a series of events that throws the characters into multiple love triangles and gender switching. For a while Orsino has been wooing Olivia by sending her notes, tokens, and sonnets. His subjects see him as flighty, soft, and slightly feminine. However, it seems like Curio is trying to turn it into a manly game by referring to it as a â€Å"hunt† (1. , 16). This is relevant because usually the theatrics are reserved for the women and their â€Å"women weapons†. Some time after this, when Viola has been introduced as â€Å"Cesario,† Orsino sends him (her) to, yet again, try to woo Olivia. However, none of them saw Olivia falling in love with Viola’s masculine character. Olivia experiences a gender switch when she steps into the usually masculine role of wooer in attempt to win Cesario’s heart. Perhaps the biggest thing that would have upset a traditional structure is the fact that Olivia might actually be in love with a women.Of course, Shakespeare tries to make an excuse for this by having Olivia ignorant to Viola/Cesario’s real gender. However, in Olivia’s first encounter with Viola/Cesario she remarks upon the typical feminine qualities. In Act three, scene one Olivia says: O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his lip! A murderous guilt shows not itself more soon than love that would seem hid. Love’s night is noon-† These words allow the audience to suspect but not assume that she knows of Viola’s true gender but chooses to love her anyway.In fact, her talk of guilt has the audience questioning whet her or not she is feeling guilty of her homosexual feelings for another woman. Even though Shakespeare does not openly express the plot as a homosexual scenario, there is much evidence to back up that it is the case. For example, Olivia says â€Å"I woo† when addressing Viola as Cesario. The way she speaks to Cesario mimics the contemporary traditions perfectly. The audience may see a man dressed as a girl that is pretending to be a man as Shakespeare mocking woman; However, this is not so.The fact that Viola can successfully pull off the switch is tribute to that. It can’t be simple to pretend to be a man, even one that is a eunuch. It shows that she is a strong female character. All of these examples show that the play is full of strong female characters who are able to successfully switch roles. Even though Olivia’s â€Å"role† is switched back with the appearance of Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, she is still left with a feeling of empowermen t by the experience. Shakespeare never really solves any of these issues. Rather, he lets them open and ends the play with humor, rather than confusion. Mistal