Is it possible to overcome the Holocaust Discuss with reference to the Essay

Is it possible to overcome the Holocaust Discuss with reference to the respective responses of both Jean Amery and Primo Levi - Essay Example It assesses how holocaust literature was formed and many famous writers of that time involved in spending their time on writing over the event. The essay represents the work of Jean Amery and Primo Levi who were survivors of the holocaust. Their work held much significant value and had some similarities and differences. All in all the literature and historical reviews showed how the Jews got over the trauma and overcame the holocaust with reference to responses made by known writers of that time. Some books are also referred in this regard. The understanding to the holocaust is an important factor. It was recognized as a systematic and state-sponsored murder of six million Jews by the Nazi Germany and their collaborations. Holocaust may have several meanings in different contexts. From one of its origins it means sacrifice by fire and from the other, destruction. The Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, and they believed that the Germans were superior to the Jews, who were inferior and a threat to the racial community of the Germans. The era of holocaust did not only target the Jews, but in fact the Germans also targeted many other groups due to their belief that they are racially inferior. The groups were targeted on political, behavioral, ideological and social grounds (Kremer, 2003, p. 12). The Jewish population of Europe in 1933 stood at over nine million. Most of these European Jews lived in Nazi Germany and tended to occupy and influence the World War II and its proceedings. Eventually by 1945, the German collaborators had killed two out of every three Jews. This was a part of the Final Solution which was a policy of the Nazi Germany to kill the European Jews. These Jews were deemed as a danger to Germany, and even then they were victims of the Nazi racism. Other victims of the killing were Roma (Gypsies), and also included some physically and mentally disabled patients who were Germans but they

Holistic Profile of 3 and a Half Years Old Girl Essay

Holistic Profile of 3 and a Half Years Old Girl - Essay Example Physical development After a long interview with Mrs. Davies and her three and a half years old daughter I learnt the following about this child. My interview included questions about the child right from infancy so that I could have a clear picture of the child’s development right from birth. The mother informed me that the daughter started demonstrating intelligence at the age of six months; this she did by motor activity but could not use symbols. My interview revealed that the child had gone through the sensorimotor stage without any complexity. The child was now in her pre-operational stage, this is a period which comprises two sub-stages where a child demonstrates intelligence through using symbols development of imaginations is achieved, skills in language use are fully acquired and lastly the child lacks memory such that it is very hard for him to remember something. Thinking is thus done in a manner that is not logical. (Piaget,1972). By both observing the three and half year’s old Dan and gathering information from her mother I arrived at the following physical observations. According to the mother her mother informed me that her daughter sleeps for about twelve hours at night. This has been consistent but in case the child is not in good health then he might sleep for fewer hours. The child is learning on how to use the toilet but with the assistance of the care giver and at times with the mother’s assistance. She also knows how to put on shoes by herself though she cannot tie the shoe races on her own. I provided the young girl with a big ball which she repeatedly threw overhead and kicking it up and down in a jovial mood. On several instances the child was making efforts in trying to catch the large ball. The child was hopping and down on one foot a thing that she appeared to enjoy most. She also demonstrated developed balancing skills while standing and walking on a straight line. At times Dan would stop whatever she was doing and would start watching whatever we were doing. In several occasions she tried to imitate us after carefully observing our activities. The child had already developed the full set of babies teeth with her appearance resembling that of an adult though thinner (adult-like appearance) After weighing the three and a half years old I noted that Dan weighed thirty eight pounds. This was a good weight considering her age and the current stage of development. According to the mother her daughter remained asleep in most nights while recording minimal cases of wetting the bed. (Piaget, 1972) Her child knows how to dress herself and the only assistance that she requires is on how to use the buttons and also zippers. She gets the required assistance from the caregiver and has been improving on matters concerning dressing herself. The child also knows how to feed on her own. This she does with lots of spilling but this is reducing as time goes. She also climbs up and down a small slide by herself and at the same time she can ride a small bicycle without experiencing many problems in using the pedals Through the interview with the mother I learnt that her daughter is much interested in the handling of food and also in learning the cooking procedures.she repeatedly peters the house help claiming tat she want to do some cooking. She has the ability of washing her hands, getting a drink on her own and can also brush her teeth without any difficulty. She knows how to butter bread using a knife and can also

Effects of a Student Lifestyle on Health

Effects of a Student Lifestyle on Health An investigation into the effects of a student lifestyle on health Results and discussion The questionnaires were sent out to the student population in the manner described. A total of 240 were distributed and we received back 120 of these – a 50% return rate. Of these 120 (n), 68 (56%) were from male respondents and 52 (44%) were from females this approximately reflects the male / female ratio of students at the University. We shall consider each question in turn. Questionnaire I Age. As could easily be predicted, the vast majority of respondents were from the 18-21 yr. age range 100 (83%) in total, with the remainder scattered over the range 22-32 yrs., again this roughly equates with the student age profile of the University campus. 108 (90%) were full time students with only 12 (10%) being part time We decided to make a preliminary breakdown into sports and non-sports related courses. We felt that this was better for our purposes than specifying each individual course studied, as it lent itself to clearer analysis. 24 (20%) were on sports related courses and 96 (80%) were not. It would be a useful breakdown of male / female in these two groups if you have the information. In terms of hours studied, the results were rather surprising as 29 (24%) admitted to studying less than 6 hrs a week, the biggest cohort of 50 (41%) admitted to 6-10 hours a week and only one (a female) felt that she was studying more than 21 hours a week. The relevance of this is that, in the context of exercise and health, it would be difficult for any of these students to present a convincing argument that they did not exercise because they were committing too much time to their studies. They clearly had plenty of uncommitted non-study time on their hands. Perhaps a bar chart would be appropriate here. Smoking. Given the data presented earlier our results were not totally in line with the national averages. Our cohort had 64 smokers (53%) of which 60% were men. If our cohort had followed the national patterns then we would have expected 42% of men and 39% of women in this age range to be smokers. The reasons for this are not clear from our survey One possible explanation may be the unexpectedly high response to our question about stress levels (see on) With regard to the number of cigarettes smoked the range was surprisingly narrow with over 75% of smokers admitting to smoking 15 or less per day and only 2 admitted to smoking over 30 a day The length of time that each had smoked was less than four years in 75% of smokers. Although we do not have the data, we should perhaps not be surprised at that as we have already mentioned, the majority (83%) of our group were under the age of 22yrs. You might like to break down the ages of the smokers further to see if you can demonstrate that the majority started smoking when they got to university – the figures should bear this out. This figure is quite significant when we compare it against the number who profess to be concerned about their fitness (see on) as we have highlighted above that smoking is one of the greatest impediments to general good health. Drinking. 112 (93%) of our respondents said that they did drink alcohol with only 8 (6%) stating that they were teetotal. Of much greater interest was the amount that was drunk. Given that the current recommended weekly intake is 21 units for men and 14 units for women, 75 of our respondents admitted to drinking more than that (66% of drinkers) with the biggest groups 38 in total, drinking in the range of 26-35 units on a weekly basis. It has to be said that it was rather worrying that 15 of our respondents (13% of drinkers) admitted to regularly drinking over 41 units a week and 3 of those were women. 7 a+b) When contrasted against the figures for drinking before coming to University, it can be seen that there is a marked increase in the quantity of alcohol consumed since the transition to the â€Å"student lifestyle†. There may of course be many factors at work here. Sudden relaxation of parental control, the availability of more money, and being older may all play a part. It is also possible that the influence of peer pressure is a significant factor here. It is probably also significant that only two of the group actually admitted to drinking more than 30 units a week before coming to university which certainly is in marked contrast to our findings. the enquiry into illicit drugs brought out an interesting response. We had considered the possibility that students may not be willing to openly discuss their use of illicit substances and mainly it was for this reason that we elected to make the questionnaire anonymous. We received a definitive answer in every case and 42 of out cohort (35%) currently use drugs of some sort while at university. This compares to a much lower figure of 20 (16%) who used drugs before arriving at university and the student lifestyle. From this evidence it would appear that the fact that someone comes to university is associated with a doubling of the incidence of recreational drug use. Again we can only postulate about the reasons for this. In much the same way that there was a marked increase in the use of alcohol after the transition to university life, it is possible that the factors which we suggested may have been responsible for this increase may also be the same factors that are relevant in the i ncrease in drug use. 8b) The breakdown of admitted drug use is interesting not only for its description of the actual drugs used but also for the pattern of sex distribution that it reveals. There is clearly multi-drug usage as 42 respondents admitted to using drugs and there are 85 different admissions of type. We do not have the figures to tell us if the majority of drug use is single use with a comparatively few users accounting for the polypharmacy or whether most drug users are using multiple types of drugs. The majority of use is in the category of so-called recreational drugs 71 reports (88% of total drug use) and only 14 reports of cocaine use (12% of total drug use). It certainly is a clear trend that the drug use amongst men is greater than that amongst women. Of the admitted drug users (by type) 53 (62% of use) was by men and 27 (38%) was by women, this compares with the prevalence of men in our sample (56%) and women (44%). When these results are compared with the responses of drug use prior to arrival at university, it can be seen that the pattern of drug use is different. Cannabis and Ecstasy form the preponderance of drug use in this age group and the incidence of cocaine use is clearly much less. It would therefore appear that cocaine tends to be used by an older age group and this may or may not be an influence of life at university. It is not the function of this survey to pontificate on the apparent rights and wrongs of drug use. We are trying to define and delineate the effects of a student lifestyle on health and there is considerable evidence (see above) that drug use is certainly not conducive to health. Perhaps we should confine ourselves to the comment that there is certainly a public health issue here. 10) The psychological aspects of â€Å"the student life style† also produced some unexpected surprises. With specific regard to anxiety there is an immediate problem seen in the results. In 10a) the students were asked if they felt stressed while at university. 72 (60%) responded â€Å"yes† but when asked to grade the severity of their stress 109 (90%) indicated that they had experienced a degree of stress. This may represent a difficulty in perception. Some people may be able to relate to the experience of minor degrees of stress and regard it as â€Å"normal† rather than â€Å"feeling stressed† which is a term that they may reserve for higher levels of actual perceived stress. We would have to regard this as a criticism of the actual wording of the question, in which 10a) might have been better phrased as â€Å"have you ever felt any degree of stress while at university?† when, presumably, the two figures would then have matched. It is certainly significant that the majority of the â€Å"yes† respondents were women. The majority of the studies done on the subject of stress (see above) show that women will report feeling stressed more frequently than their male counterparts. Many reasons and hypotheses have been advanced for this observation. It may well be that men are physiologically better equipped to deal with stress than women. There does not, however, appear to be any evidence to back up this point. It has been shown that men are less likely to seek help for psychological (and indeed physical) symptoms than women – quite often to their own detriment. Any sociologist will tell you that in our current social climate the gender roles of the two sexes are programmed differently during rearing. Boys are expected and encouraged to be stoical and brave, hiding their emotions whereas it is generally considered far more acceptable for girls to exhibit emotional liability. It is therefore not unexpected to find that at the highest end of the reported stress range. The proportion of women is greater than men. Equally the converse is also true that men are over represented at the lower-stress and no-stress levels. The pre-university results are not as diverse as they appear to be in other areas of enquiry. This should not altogether surprise us as we have to bear in mind the fact that all of the students who have made the transition from school to university will, almost without exception, have been through the A-level system, which is an inherently stressful experience. It is interesting to note that the sex differences are almost identical in this group when compared to the university group. Again this reflects the findings of other, more general, studies on the subject. 12) With regard to the comments made about the discrepancy of the figures in the questions about anxiety (11a and 11b) we can see that there is exactly the same disagreement in the questions about depression (12a) and 12b). When asked the direct question about whether they had felt depressed while at university 98 (81%) said â€Å"no†, but when asked to grade their degree of depression only 34 (28%) indicated that they had not felt depressed to any degree. This apparent discrepancy can presumably be analysed along the same lines as our suggestions with regard to anxiety. This is given further credence by the observation that in the group who admitted to experiencing depression, women were represented at nearly double the relative frequency of the men. When we look at the group admitting to severe depression the proportion rises to over three times the relative frequency. When compared to the responses that were reported before coming to university we can see however, that this time (compared to the anxiety situation) there is a marked difference as very many fewer respondents admitted to feelings of depression in their pre-university life. We do know that levels of depression reach a peak in the early twenties ( most markedly in men) and therefore we would expect to find lower levels in younger age groups. We also have other environmental factors in play as the majority of pre-university or school age pupils, will normally be living in the comparative security of a family lifestyle with all its attendant support networks hopefully in place. At university however, the situation is generally quite different with young people thrust into a different, and possibly alien environment, with no pre-existing support networks to fall back on for advice. This is clearly a fertile breeding ground for reactive depression and also endogenous depression if there is a predisposition for it. 14) This section is even more subjective than the preceding two as it deals with the question of self confidence ( you might like to see if your results show a correlation between the people doing sports related courses and high self-confidence rating because the chances are that there will be – see on) the self-assessed results in this section show a fairly predictable Gaussian distribution curve with the highest concentration in the middle ranges of self confidence and a slight preponderance towards the above average assessment. One always has to approach self-assessments with a fair degree of scepticism but one could reasonably expect a higher than average number of self-confident people at university as they clearly would have to have a fair degree of self-confidence to take the necessary exams and to put themselves forward in the first place. One interesting point in the analysis is shown by the fact that there is an increased correlation in a high self confidence rating and the participation in a sports-related course. We can only conjecture why this might be but, in order to excel in sports it is usually totally counter-productive to be shy and retiring, so perhaps we could postulate a preponderance of certain personality types in a sports-related field. 15) there is very little difference in the ratings of self-confidence before and after coming to university. If anything, there is a slight increase in the perceived ratings. This may well correlate with the feelings of independence and the necessity to be responsible for one’s own actions at university. The increase in the ratings may simply reflect the confidence that comes with experience of the independence of the â€Å"student lifestyle† which most of our respondents clearly have had. 16) When designing the questionnaire we considered the problems that may arise with questions of a personal or sexual nature. We are therefore very heartened by the fact that the vast majority of respondents found that they could give us answers in this section with 115 (95%) responding positively. Sadly, the results do tend to bolster the tabloid editors portrayal of promiscuity which we referred to in the section on sexually transmitted diseases of our respondents, only 4 (3%) admitted to being a virgin (or celibate). The biggest group – 25 (21%) had only one partner since being at university, but it was something of a surprise to see that the next biggest group of 20 (17%) had five partners since arriving at university. 10 of our sample (12%) admitted to having 10 or more partners while being at university. We do not presume to make any moral judgements on this set of results but it would be fair to say that to have 10 or more different sexual partners within a three year spell at university (and some may have had ten partners in less than that time) does put the respondents in a high risk group for sexual health problems (see conclusions) With the single exception of the lowest degrees of promiscuity (Groups admitting to one or no partners at all), men outnumbered women in all the groups. It is hard to fully explain this anomaly. A logical evaluation would suggest that there are three possibilities, either it is an unexpected statistical quirk, it reflects the fact that normal sexual activity is carried out by most men but a few very promiscuous women or that there is an unexpectedly high amount of male homosexual activity going on within the university. The author could not possibly comment on which eventuality is the most likely. 17) When compared to the figures obtained for sexual activity before coming to university we can see that there is a marked difference. The degree of promiscuity is much lower pre-university. This may well be a reflection of the age and circumstance of the pre-university respondents, quite apart from the independence factor that becomes more apparent after arriving at university. We can also see that the number of celibates pre-university is also much higher. This again, is probably a reflection of the perception of independence found at university. 18) In continuation of the issues discussed in section 16, the issues of sexual health are tackled here. The question is purposely blunt – â€Å"Have you ever had a sexually transmitted disease?† In our sample 6 (5% of sexually active respondents) had admitted to having one. This may very well not be accurate, as any experienced health professional will tell you that there are a lot a sexually transmitted diseases that are asymptomatic or may clear up spontaneously. Male monillia is often both trivial and self-curing and may only show as a transient blotchy rash of 24-36 hours duration. Male and female chlamydia may be completely asymptomatic in both sexes and the sufferers may truthfully respond that they do not think that they have a sexually transmitted disease. The fact of the matter is that both monilliasis in the female and Chlamydia in both sexes, can have serious repercussions with regard to fertility in the future. As we have flagged up in our earlier discussions, high levels of promiscuity are a potential problem for the overall sexual health of the student body. Questionnaire II BMI was worked out from the statistics of height and weight supplied by each respondent. The first inference of note is that there is a predictable Gaussian curve for both male and female distributions of BMI with the mean for males (predictably) coming to the right of the female peak ( a graph showing the two distributions would be helpful here) although the male curve actually has two maxima, this is almost certainly a statistical quirk due to the relatively small number of the sample. There are only three respondents that fall into the clinically obese range (25 and over) and only two – both female – who would be considered clinically underweight with a BMI of 15 (WHO definitions). This distribution is approximately the distribution that one would expect from the population as a whole in this age range. The first question asks respondents to rate their degree of physical activity. This set of answers should be analysed in conjunction with the responses to questions 3a-6 and the knowledge that 24 (20%) are on sports related courses and we would therefore expect them to be physically active in the pursuance of their course in any event. As we can see 32 (26%) take less exercise than the Government recommended target of 30 mins. five times a week and a further 49 (40%) just straddling the target level. If we arbitrarily equate â€Å"very physically active† with doing in excess of 80 minutes of exercise a day, â€Å"fairly physically active† with doing more than 40 mins a day, together with â€Å"not very physically active† doing more than 20 minutes a day then we can see a marked discrepancy straight away. Those who professed to be very physically active were 22 (18%) but this compares with 13 (10%) who actually do more than 80 mins. exercise a day. In the fairly physically active group there were 58 respondents (48%) but this corresponds to 39 (32%) who actually take more than 40 minutes of exercise a day. For those 25 (20%) who profess to be not very physically active they correlate with 49 (40%) who straddle the Government guidelines by taking between 21-40 minutes exercise a day. The group with the lowest professed activity – 15 (12%) correlate with the 32 (26%) who do virtually no physical activity at all. Immediately one can see that there is a discrepancy here. Those who feel that they take a lot of activity tend to overestimate the amount of exercise that they actually do, equally there are a second group who, say that they are not very active when the figures suggest that the actually-inactive group is much bigger than the professed-inactive group. Professed Actual Activity (n) Activity (n) Very active 22 13 Fairly active 58 39 Not very active 25 49 Inactive 15 32 All in all it would appear that the respondents have an ability to feel that they are actually doing more exercise than they actually are doing. Equally you could argue that we are making the criteria too strict and that we are being over-ambitious in our expectations of what amount of exercise people of this age should be doing. Perhaps the best independent arbiter should be the Government’s own documents and consultation papers quoted elsewhere in this piece (Game Plan and At least five a week). It can be seen that approximately 50% of our respondents do not meet these criteria. 3b 4a 4b You have given me no information here and I have no real idea of what the results might actually show. I would suggest that you base your analysis along the lines of my previous answer (which may have to be modified in the light of whatever your figures show) 2a+b) The weight of our respondents seems to have remained remarkably steady with 103 (85%) remaining effectively unchanged. We note that in the case of the 17 (14%) where the weight has changed we did not ask them to specify whether this was up or down. If this is analysed in conjunction with 2b) where 2 respondents indicated that this was an intentional change and 15 said that it was unintentional, the normal inference would be that people who have elected to change their weight intentionally might normally have been expected to loose weight however, in this particular cohort with a strong sporting interest, it is possible that this group may have been trying to put weight on. And equally the converse may also be true, we do not have enough information to make this judgement. 5) when asked if they thought that they got enough exercise to keep them healthy 62 (51%) of our respondents thought that they did. Interestingly 10 (12%) didn’t know. This is presumably a reflection of public education issues although you could take the opposing view that the message has got through to the other 88% who felt that they did know. 88 (73%) of our respondents felt that they wanted to increase the amount of exercise that they did. We are not in a position to say whether these are the ones who felt that they did not do enough exercise to start with or whether they are the ones who already exercise and feel that they need to do more. Presumably, for those on a sports related course there is always the incentive to try to make yourself even fitter. 44(36%) of our sample visited the gym on a regular basis. We can reasonably assume that at least 24 of these will be on the sports related courses as one can assume that they would be visiting the gym regularly as part of their course so at least another 20 were actively trying to get fitter. We can see that there is a preponderance of males in this group (33m to 12f). With regard to this question you might like to see if the 32 negative respondents correlate highly with the active or non active groups. You could then draw appropriate conclusions here. For example if they were the predominantly the active group then you might conclude that they didn’t feel the need for sedentary activities or conversely, if they were the inactive group it may be that their sedentary activities precluded them from activity. 11-14 The diet related questions are perhaps better considered as one entity. The most interesting comparisons come from the pre-university and at university comparisons as one can see that there is a marked change in the eating activity of our respondents It is something of a surprise that 81 (67%) of our respondents used a fast-food outlet less than twice a week. The general perception of the student lifestyle is frequent use of such facilities. This clearly is not borne out by our survey. A worryingly large number of students eat less than the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables with 83 (69%) and 86 (71%) respectively taking less than the WHO recommended minimum. This contrasts dramatically with the results in the pre-university question where it can be seen that the amount of fruit and vegetables eaten (presumably primarily under parental influence) is much higher. In terms of health, this is an important finding as fruit and vegetables are a major source of roughage, vitamins and anti-oxidants (and of course many other essential nutrients) that are essential for health in general. A reduction in intake therefore jeopardises the overall healthy diet. 13. It is an interesting comment that 36 (30%) of our respondents said that they were concerned about their diet. One would have thought that with the independence of student life, if they were concerned that they now actually had the means to do something about it. Clearly this is a sweeping statement that does not take into account a mass of other obvious factors such as the finances involved in buying comparatively expensive items such as fruit. Conclusions There are many conclusions that one can draw from the figures presented above. Top of our list should be a consideration of the shortcomings of the survey which obviously will have a bearing on the conclusions that we feel able to draw from our figures. It is acknowledged that the survey is comparatively small. Although we can hope that it may be representative of the student body, it small size precludes rigorous statistical analysis. It is certainly possible to detect trends within our survey and many of these have been commented upon as we have looked at the figures. The mechanism of using the same sample of students as their own controls by asking their activity before coming to university, is a useful tool to gain a degree of statistical validity, and certainly has helped us to answer the original question of the effects of a student lifestyle on health. To specifically answer that question, we can point to a number of areas where there appears to have been marked changes in behaviour patterns pre- and post-university. Smoking, drinking, diet and sexual behaviour have all changed dramatically and to a lesser extent, drug taking patterns and depression levels have also changed. To some extent, a cynic might observe that this equates with the worst aspects of the typical tabloid editor’s portrayal of the â€Å"typical student†. The reality is, of course, far more complex than that We have already alluded to the major sociological changes that occur when the typical student leaves school and arrives at university. The release from the comparatively structured and dependent world of home life and school into the comparatively independent and less structured world of the university allows a sudden explosion of freedom in many cases where new experiences and activities can be tried, exploited and (perhaps) enjoyed. Can we draw any conclusions as to whether the typical university student is more or less healthy than their pre-university counterpart? Clearly we have delineated some important pointers to this question. In terms of diet (perhaps one of the most important long-term factors in deciding the criteria of health) there is little doubt that our typical student has a worse diet at university than they did before coming to university. We can clearly see the reduction in fruit and vegetable intake although it is gratifying to see that the expected transition to fast-food existence is not a major factor in most cases. The amount of exercise appears to have increased, although we have to accept that a disproportionate number in our sample have a sporting interest, so clearly that will skew the figures to a degree. As we have discussed earlier, there is a basic amount of exercise that has been shown to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction and stroke, obesity and Type II diabetes. Our typical student just qualifies for the basic minimum target set by the Government, but the range is great. As we have seen, exercise varies from virtually minimal to enormous amounts on a regular basis. We can probably just about conclude that university has a positive effect on health as far as exercise levels are concerned. Drug taking is another area where the student lifestyle has a bearing on health. Less than a third of our respondents have used illicit drugs, so they clearly are not the majority, but this group nonetheless represents a significant group within the whole. It is a matter of intense current debate as to the effect that drugs have on the actual health of a person and therefore we cannot presume to take a firm view when there is still such controversy raging. We can say that there is probably a general consensus that there is evidence that some illicit drugs do appear to have long term implications for health and on that basis, we can point to a negative effect of the student lifestyle on health. An area that we can point to that has far more clear-cut implications for health is the explosion of sexual activity that appears to equate with the student lifestyle. We have already passed comment on the degree of promiscuity that our survey has revealed. Celibacy or monogamy is clearly the best way of avoiding the risks of sexually transmitted diseases. We have commented on the number of respondents who have already known that they have had a sexually transmitted disease, but perhaps our concern should be for those who have contracted asymptomatic disease and are therefore, unknowingly passing it on to other contacts. Again, this is an apparent negative effect of the student lifestyle on health. Recommendations It is difficult to know how to structure this section as, on the one hand, we have clearly identified areas where the student lifestyle could be changed to improve the overall health of the individual, but a much deeper and possibly more significant question remains – â€Å"should we seek to change it?† There are many significant arguments here. One is the basic freedom of choice argument. Some may say that it is appropriate to give people information on matters such as health but it is ultimately up to them as to whether they actually take or implement that advice. Equally there is the converse argument that points to the drain on the public purse of avoidable ill-health. Do people have a duty to society to keep themselves as healthy as they practically can? Should they avoid obvious factors that will cause ill-health in later life? If we follow this argument through to its logical conclusion then we would insist that everybody had a uniform healthy diet, did not smoke or drink to excess, took daily exercise and remained monogamous for their lifetime. A more balanced approach may be to conclude that, in general terms, people learn by their mistakes. Is has been said that the student lifestyle is not only about getting and education it is about getting an Education. Most students will utilise their time at university to explore and perhaps formulate their ideas and personal guidelines for their future life. Perhaps we should take a pragmatic view and observe that, although we have been able to point out some short term negative aspects of the student life style on health, perhaps it is a necessary phase of experimentation which is part of the evolution to a healthier lifestyle as an adult. PDG 25.3.05 Word count 5,572

Iron Jawed Angels Essay -- essays research papers Iron Jawed Essays

Iron Jawed Angels Iron Jawed Angels is a film which portrays the women's suffrage movement during the 1920's. The film is a documentary and a drama which uses live action and music to deliver the sympathetic and distressful mood the film creates. An example of the distressful mood is when the suffragists refuse to eat when they go to prison. This shows how passionate and distressed the suffragists are to get the 19th amendment passed, which would give women the right to vote. The films message, which is the hardships and adversity women had to withstand to get the 19th amendment passed, is effectively portrayed because the struggle the suffragists faced is accurately and beautifully depicted. As a tool of communication, the strengths of the film Iron Jawed Angels are its accurate portrayal of the 1920s women's suffrage movement and excellent depiction of the main suffragists, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. There are no real weaknesses in the communication of the 1920s women's suffrage movement in the fil m Iron Jawed Angels except for the music used, which is too modern to possibly be from the 1920s era.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since the film Iron Jawed Angels shows the grief and struggle women suffragists endured, I believe the film maker wanted the audience to respond with sympathy and a greater understanding of the 1920s women?s suffragist movement. The film Iron Jawed Angels appeals to the emotions of the viewer because throughout the movie dark lighting and music create an atmosphere w...

A Teacher Essay Essay

Being a public school teacher is certainly one of the most challenging careers, but it is absolutely the most important profession there is. After all, without teachers, there wouldn’t be any other professions! As a teacher, you create the foundation for your students upon which they will build the rest of their lives. You are not only influencing the future of your own students, but you are affecting the collective future of all of humanity for generations to come. You may not be able to see the long-term affect that you have on your students, but you are writing on the pages of who they believe they are, what they believe they are capable of, and who they will choose to be and become. This will determine what they choose to contribute to the world, which will have an impact on shaping the world of tomorrow for all of us. We each touch and affect countless others throughout the course of a lifetime. Everything we say, feel and do has a ripple effect that influences the present and the future of the collective consciousness on Earth. As a teacher, you have the ability to have a profound impact on your students’ lives in the present and far into the future. Think back on the teachers you had in your youth, and think of the ones that had the greatest impact on your life, both positively and negatively. How did they help shape your ideas about yourself and about the world? Did they contribute to your self-esteem, or to your self-doubts? Being a teacher takes great patience, strength, courage, stamina, compassion, intelligence, humor, kindness, caring, heart, generosity, etc. It often involves a great deal of self-sacrifice as well, because unfortunately, our present society greatly undervalues this most noble of professions. Those who choose a career of being a teacher do so knowing that they will face great challenges with little financial reward. You must therefore find the rewards of this career in other ways, by knowing that you are giving your students the tools with which they can succeed at life. Our present educational system in North America, and in other parts of the world, is antiquated and stale, leaving most students and teachers feeling  uninspired. Memorizing facts for tests is not learning. Knowledge is a living, growing thing, and in order to truly learn, the mind must be engaged with passion and interest. The ideal teaching environment is one in which the students are able to think, ask questions, and explore the relevance that the information has in real life, and the impact it may have on their own lives. Young people must know why it is important for them to know what is being taught to them, otherwise it will simply feel like a waste of time, and they will be bored and disinterested. In North America, we have developed a terrible apathy toward education, and many students feel that school is not â€Å"cool†. In Africa, children are begging to have an opportunity to go to school, because they know that education is the key to the future. Oprah Winfrey recognizes how important education is: she honors teachers everywhere as unsung heroes, and has been funding the building of schools in Africa because she believes that education and knowledge empower people to create a more successful life. In our present North American school system, being in a classroom can be very tiring and draining for both the teachers and the students. As a teacher, you keep giving energy continually to your students, but if nothing is coming back to you, it can feel demoralizing and even depressing, which can lead to burnout. It is important for you as a teacher to find ways to keep you and your students motivated and inspired. Most people do not realize the full impact that teachers have on students. Teachers have the ability to support a person’s self-esteem, or to destroy it. Many young people may be experiencing devastating pain at home, either physically, emotionally, mentally or even spiritually, so school may be the only place where they can receive support and encouragement. This is particularly true of â€Å"bad† kids, who are often suffering greatly at home, and as a result, they begin to live down to other people’s expectations of them. If they are labeled as â€Å"bad†, then they will feel â€Å"bad† and will do â€Å"bad† things because that is who they have come to believe they are. As a teacher, you can foster and encourage your students (and yourself) to  have a strong desire to succeed in school, and in life. The ideal classroom environment is one that inspires co-operation, rather than competition. In life, as each one wins, we all win, because the joy of one raises the vibration of the collective consciousness for us all. We have a situation in schools today, particularly in public schools, where everyone wants to be the same, and no one wants to stand out. Therefore, we must try to encourage them all to be outstanding! One of the ways you can do this is to encourage your students to be stars. This can be challenging with older students because they will act like everything is stupid and they don’t care, but they really do care. You can create a board with the name of everyone in your class, including yours, and have gold stars that you can stick on the board next to each person’s name as they accomplish any positive achievement, including teamwork and positive effort. Although you may have to pay for this out of your own pocket, it is very inexpensive and will repay great rewards for all concerned. Perhaps the students can even give stars to each other, to you, and to themselves for any positive accomplishment. You can give stars out for grades, but also for class participation, for effort, for improvement, for attitude, for citizenship, for extra credit, etc. You could even further motivate the students by having a â€Å"play day† or â€Å"pizza day† when the class collectively gets a certain number of stars. You don’t have to pay for this yourself, you can have a collection jar where the students can contribute their own money to such a reward celebration. Ideally, you want to make teaching fun and rewarding for you, and have learning be fun and rewarding for your students, so be as creative as possible. Rewards don’t have to require money, but feeling like a star can create infinite rewards for life. You can encourage your students to make a star chart for themselves at home, or better yet (with their parents’ permission), to put gold stars on their mirror whenever they have a sense of accomplishment or overcoming challenges – that way they can start to see themselves as a star on a daily basis. I would recommend this for you as  well, and for everyone. A positive, inspiring and encouraging environment has infinite positive ripple effects. You can make your classroom into an oasis where I and my students can all feel good about yourselves. This will create positive energy that keeps growing, which will energize you instead of draining you. If you inspire your students, you will feel inspired, and vice versa. Likewise, if you motivate them, you will feel motivated, and vice versa. Encourage your students to work together and to be self-motivated, so that all the energy is not just coming from you. Foster group work and group discussion, where each person has a sense of making an important contribution to the whole. The more fun and interesting you can make it for you and your students, the more you will all put into it, so you will all get more out of it and want to be there. As a teacher, you are the cornerstone of our society, and you make the greatest contribution there is to changing and affecting our world. I applaud you, and everyone in your profession. May you be inspired to inspire, motivated to motivate, and encouraged to encourage.

Global Soy Commodity Chain

Brazil is the second largest producer ot soy in the world Brazil's soy production mirrors the US and ADM's agribusiness production model. Genetically modified plants are used and pesticide protected. The soy industry has been profitable helping to strengthen Brazil's economy. However, soy production in Brazil has been the source of contention from groups like Greenpeace due to the destruction of Amazon Rainforest lands to grow soy as a commodity crop. Numerous active protests by Greenpeace to draw attention to forestation losses have led to laws in Brazil directed at this problem. PPA†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœs or Permanent Preserve areas have been instituted as Sustainability Law requirements for soy farms in Brazil. Europe was Brazil's top soy buyer until protests and attention came to the fact that the Amazon was affected by this industry. Ships carrying soy to Europe from Brazil were blockaded by Greenpeace. The European market for Brazil's soy also hinges on the use of Monsanto's geneticall y modified product. European soy consumers have banded against these products outlining their case against genetically modified soy. Their purpose is to keep Brazil's soy products GMO free.Increasingly, Brazilians do produce Monsanto GMO soy products and can sell this product easily to China. European response to this is to partner with farmers in Brazil, who do not produce GM products, much like fair trade organizations. Soy and Agribusiness have come under a great deal of criticism. Much of this is environmental, political, economic, and social. ADM's founders formed the industry with seemingly good intentions. â€Å"Solving the world's hunger† and â€Å"Supermarket to the World† are motto's that demonstrate the intention of the corporation.They have enjoyed a great deal of success and profitability churning out products that do, in fact, feed the world. However utilizing genetically modified plants and pesticides reduce the gamble a farmer makes; degrading the envir onment and employing less people to care for plants. Due to agro-industrialization â€Å"soybean production is almost entirely mechanized†. People are not employed in the task of farming but rather the science of genetic modification in the US and Brazil. ADM manages almost every part of the soy commodity chain their corporation constitutes over 70% of US soybean production.They work with US soy farmers and are involved with Latin American soy production. They have more than two hundred sixty five processing plants for raw materials like soy. Soy is sold and shipped by ADM, but it is also processed into many component products. Novasoy, a trademarked product of ADM, is a non GM derivative. Clarisoy is a protein product also marketed to manufactures like General Mills etc†¦ In their cosmetic marketing of soy ADM describes: â€Å"Nature provides some of the world's best personal care ingredients.ADM taps that potential, offering vegetable-based lipids, natural antioxidant s and soy ingredients that can give your products enhanced erformance†. Scientific advancements with agricultural products like soy are American staples of industry. Genetic modification for better or worse was an early advance and became successful economically. Now the science for agricultural products is geared to sustainability issues. Industry support for education and scientific advancement led to the development of the soy crayon that is better for the environment. Soy is a more sustainable resource than petroleum.The same can be said of soy derived fuels. This lessens the use of petroleum. Ford has a history of interest in plant derived resources for industrial products in the forties Ford built what is sometimes reterred to as a â€Å"soy car†. Soy ?ber was part ot a polymer ne developed for the body of this vehicle. It was not popular at the time, due to taxpayer dollars being invested in this type of research, and WWII insured that his agricultural industrial plans were put aside, however the modern day company picked up on this cue and developed foam for car seats that are used in new models.They have also egun using soy in place of petroleum on tires and expect to have a more sustainable car tire. The social trend and movement in soy agriculture is opposition to genetic modification and agribusiness. ADM has responded with organic and non GM products, they are a business and their success is contingent upon consumer demand. For those who consume soy products packaging and advertising like that of Silk soymilk products announce that they are free of GMO. The market for this type of product is growing as the issue of agriculture and agricultural products becomes more prominent.The historical context of the development of the soy commodity chain is interesting because the plant is Chinese in its origin and had little place in the Western world until this century. Currently, it is almost entirely produced in the Americas and exported in l arge quantities to its place of origin. As a Northern American, I am familiar with agribusiness. I saw ADM's â€Å"Supermarket to the World† commercials every Sunday in my childhood. I accepted that that this was a wholesome company, after researching this I understand the criticisms and consequences although I do elieve the founders of this system had good intentions.

The Strategic Management of IKEA for Furniture Company in UAE or Gulf Corporate Countries

The Strategic Management of IKEA for Furniture Company in UAE or Gulf Corporate Countries Executive Summary IKEA aspires to provide quality products and services to its global clients. To realize this vision, IKEA offers various properly designed and serviceable house-furnishings at very low prices in Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and other global markets.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Strategic Management of IKEA for Furniture Company in UAE or Gulf Corporate Countries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thus, since its inauguration in the fiscal 1943, IKEA has globalized its operations and businesses. However, globalization presents various threats and opportunities to IKEA while exposing its strengths and weaknesses to market competitors. The weaknesses and strengths have been analyzed through Value Chain Analysis, VRIN, PESTL, and Porters Five Forces frameworks. In fact, the internal and external environment where IKEA operates have been analyzed using these analytical tools and recommend ations have been provided. Introduction IKEA International is a global corporation that offers home accessories to all global clients. Being headquartered in Sweden, IKEA provides quality furnishings in the Europe, Africa, and Middle East markets. The company has recently set its presence in Gulf Corporate Countries such as Omar, Qatar, and Kuwait. In fact, in the United Arabs Emirates and GCC, IKEA is acknowledged for the provision of quality furnishings that cannot be assembled easily, but can be transported without problems. In fact, IKEA furnishings are evident in the City Festivals and residential places. Despite being globally recognized, Dubai constructed its first IKEA store in the fiscal 1995. However, the largest IKEA store was opened in the year 2005 in the Dubai Festival City. In the year 2011, Abu Dhabi launched the largest IKEA International store in the Island of Yas. Besides, IKEA has one store in Kuwait as well as two other stores in Saudi Arabia (Daft Vershinina, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current business and operations of IKEA, external and internal analysis, the competitiveness of IKEA, as well as the strategies and challenges faced by IKEA. Analytical tools such as Value Chain Analysis, VRIN, PEST, and Porters Five Forces are used in the analysis of IKEA’s business and market operations.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Current Operations and Businesses of IKEA IKEA was first inaugurated in the fiscal 1943 in Sweden. In the 1980s, IKEA began to expand its business operations to the United States, UAE, GCC, and other parts of the European markets. These markets attracted the company due to several reasons: (1) the regions had very large customer base, (2) the local residents who had travelled considered themselves risk-takers, (3) the market was fragmented and (4) the potential customers could be identified with regions. The success of IKEA business relied on the sensitivity of the people to the product attributes regardless of the origin. If people regarded local products more than foreign products, then IKEA business would probably have been in danger (OBG, 2012). IKEA entry into the United States, UAE, and GCC markets was focused on the consumers the company perceived to be the potential customers. The firm opened its first US store along the coastline while the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stores were opened in the Dubai Festival City and Marina Mall. While going global, IKEA believed that people living along the coast and Islands were exposed to foreign products (Gillespie, Jeannet Hennessey, 2010). The reason to focus on the travelling consumers was that the company was determined to sell products with European standards. The success of such products would be uncertain in areas where consumers have no foreign experience. The success of this entry mode in the UAE, GCC , and Europe was to form the basis for establishment before expanding the business operations elsewhere. The entry mode adopted by IKEA when expanding to the European, UAE, and GCC markets occurred in form of a market-seeking investment undertaken to exploit new markets. The Swedish, GCC, and UAE markets are saturated and the markets can only offer limited growth opportunities.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Strategic Management of IKEA for Furniture Company in UAE or Gulf Corporate Countries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company was motivated to this investment by the constant market growth and large market sizes of Europe, UAE, GCC, and IKEA aimed to serve the larger markets. According to Uppsala theory, after understanding the local market the company could move to the nearest market (Switzerland), then to Germany, UAE, GCC, and so on. In the Dubai and European markets, IKEA was met with great success after focusing on providing the cheapest solutions to gain competitive advantage (Walker Butler, 2010). However, the success in the European and UAE markets was not a straightforward endeavor given that established firms that had huge capitals pursued foreign investments. Although IKEA had made a good fortune in the Sweden market, moving capital from the country was a challenge. The capital controls in Sweden prohibited investing abroad with home gained capital. The UAE nevertheless, offered a favorable environment for the company to invest its capital. IKEA had to make quick profits and get a positive cash flow by adopting the foreign investments strategies. The European business was reorganized, and tighter controls were introduced. The company changed from offering European styled products to the American styled ones in the UAE, and GCC markets (OBG, 2010). IKEA Value Chain Analysis Primary Activities Inbound logistics In the UAE and GCC, IKEA has established a wide base of pro ducers and supplies responsible for manufacturing and supply of furniture parts. The extensive array of Middle East regional warehouses is integrated with an efficient management of inventory driven by the need to ensure that the right parts go to the right customer at the right time.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Storing the furniture components as a single package is a cost saving approach, as the stores need not to be as big as they might be expected for a furniture company (Gillespie, Jeannet Hennessey, 2010). Operations IKEA has continued to expand and increase its customers across all market segments including the UAE and GCC. Isaksson and Suljanovic (2006) observe that IKEA is the only firm in the UAE and GCC furniture industries that has managed to attract customers across the world without changing the original concept of management. This has been achieved through the development of unique product designs based on sacred dedication. Other operations include market and product research, which add to the competitive strength of the business. Outbound Logistics In an industry that is considered local by many people, IKEA has become global because of its comprehensive distribution network. The firm now delivers low cost, but quality furniture to major markets such as Europe, Africa, UAE , America, GCC, and Australia. Indeed, it is the only distributor in the industry to have established on a global scale. It has stores spread in Europe, North America, Asia, and recently established operation in the UAE and GCC. The low cost of distribution in the UAE and GCC is enabled through the innovative way of dealing with the logistic sourcing and retailing whereby the products are knocked down and shipped in flat boxes (Gillespie, Jeannet Hennessey, 2010), involving consumers in value addition by transporting, and assembling the furniture by themselves. Marketing and Sales IKEA marketing in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi is accomplished through the renowned IKEA catalogue, which has existed for years. This marketing tool is the cornerstone in the firm’s concept and is distributed free of charge to the households within the stores’ principal market areas. The sales returns generated by IKEA increase because of the numerous customers who visit Marina Mall and Dubai Festival City stores. Every year, the company experiences an increase in the number of visitors due to the new products advertised though the catalogues. No other forces drive sales in IKEA much like the catalogue, which is reinforced by the homely environment of the stores. Services The great success of IKEA has been enabled through the homely services offered in the Dubai, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi stores. The stores have been likened to IKEA homes where a customer can get any household services including dining, children playing zones and instructions on how to assemble products on their own. This kind of high-level service maintains the attractiveness to and competitive advantage of the firm. IKEA External Analysis Using PESTEL Political The UAE and GCC environment where IKEA operates is politically polarized. Minimum wage policies are strictly observed to avoid infringing labor rights. However, in most nations including UK, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and U S, the political parties ensure the business environment is stable. Foreign business policies are accommodative to all multinational corporations. For instance, the taxation policies allow foreign corporations such as IKEA to join the UAE, European, and GCC markets (SandÄ ±kcÄ ± Rice, 2011) Economical The prices charged by IKEA on its products and services are reasonable to the consumers in the UAE and GCC markets even during the economic slump. Given that most IKEA products are locally produced in Asian countries, it is advantageous for IKEA to operate in regions like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and GCC. IKEA has the advantage to capture and grow in various Asian, Middle East, and European markets because the national incomes are high while the rates of inflation are low. Consumers are encouraged to purchase products since interest rates are low and the currencies are strong (OBG, 2008). Social In its global business operations, IKEA has upheld a just societal status. IKEA has improved it s stores in all countries such as Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi to suit the citizens’ lifestyles. For instance, customers can do shopping anytime because IKEA offers flexible and odd working hours (OBG, 2008). There are playing grounds for kids and restaurants for parents accompanying the kids. Technological In the UAE and GCC countries, IKEA has been able to endorse or market its services and products easily via the internet. The products dimension and detailed info are available online, and this allows clients from these regions to make purchases. IKEA also derives its strength through the online catalogue services. IKEA initially wanted clients to go to the Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi stores to pick up their products, but technology has now enabled the company to use computer operated lifts to deliver products to the clients (SandÄ ±kcÄ ± Rice, 2011). Analysis of the Competitive Position of IKEA Using Porter’s Five Forces The IKEA’s Co mpetitors There is extreme competition amongst the existing corporations in the international markets like the UAE and Abu Dhabi. For instance, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the company functions in a very competitive business environment typified by other economical furniture manufacturers. B esides, these producers are kin-run dealings that generate low overheads well known by focusing on expensive designs. Conversely, these expensive and focused designs translate to small-scale fabrication to suit the local UAE and GCC souks (OBG, 2012). The established experiences offer dissimilar opinions on product location and contributions according to inside accounts. To compete successfully, some large vendors like Furniture mall, Courts, and Nova generate inexpensive products to benefit from the economies of scale. Thus, IKEA appears to face stiff rivalry along with opponents from countries like Dubai, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi. Furthermore, IKEA currently faces little pressure from fresh market en trants while the emergence of novel market competitors is also negligible (OBG, 2010). The Bargaining Power of Suppliers and Buyers As the local and universal furniture dealer, IKEA presents substitutable and broad choices of products and services to the UAE and GCC consumers owing to the level of competition. Thus, corporation offers strong bargaining power for the customers. The consumers pose a plausible threat of backward incorporation to the traders. However, retailers look for diverse means of improving performance in order to participate efficiently and generate profits. This can be realized through implementing deliberate work and business schemes based on the creation of market associations. The motivation aspires to construct enduring consumer affiliation and dealers devotion. Hence, this informs IKEA’s assimilation practice strategy amid consumers, retailers, and suppliers (OBG, 2010). IKEA seeks to enhance the reliability of the UAE and GCC customers in relation t o the purchasers’ power in the business. It focuses on improving the existing consumer association by scheming on how to win and secure the new-fangled customers to an enduring rapport with the corporation (OBG, 2008). The provision of excellent customer services with optimistic shopping knowledge is important. IKEA’s Threat of Substitutes The problem of searching for additional replaceable products that can do the same function requires an alternate product. However, there are hardly any replacements of furnishings for the other products in the UAE and GCC. With technical advancements, a significant part of the people, the account of organization supplying merchandise, and the mode of supplying services and products are extremely substitutable. It is realistic for the shopping judgment placed against the garments since Dubai, Kuwait, Oman, and Abu Dhabi customers would make an effort to appraise if the furniture is fit (OBG, 2012). To evaluate the aptness of purchasin g manufactured goods, it is important for the computer imaging to forget the establishment of rooms. Nonetheless, such substitutes stay put, as components of the company’s competitive advantage and online business remains underutilized. The Corporation Prospective Entrants In the provision of departmental stores, there are numerous furniture traders such as Courts and Nova as well as high-end vendor like Lorenzo in the GCC and UAE markets. In fact, a higher degree of opposition results from the diminishing levels of customers’ trustworthiness. This industry is experiencing threats from the innovative competitor entering into the big business. There is an obligation for renting store space since capital investment necessary for furnishings could be high. Hence, the competitors must source the designs and build the factories. In addition, before the market entrants could produce low cost products to rival the entrenched firms, they must capture a dominant market share (O BG, 2008). IKEA Internal VRIN Framework Analysis Valuable The strength of IKEA at present originates from unique sourcing, tightly controlled logistics, and unique design capabilities. Therefore, the firm offers products that are unique enough to give market recognition, reduce inventory, and secure sourcing for long runs. This strength has ensured that the firm leads in the industry and steadily increases the market share countries such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and Europe. Rare Throughout history, IKEA has been able to produce new designs and offer products next door from the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stores. IKEA is the only industry player that has been able to offer a variety of designs to the wide customer base found in the UAE and GCC nations (Isaksson Suljanovic, 2006). Inimitable As the activities of the value chain suggest, IKEA has a strong relationship with their UAE and GCC customers starting from the products offered to the services given. Many of the competitors found in the UAE and GCC markets lag behind in terms of customer loyalty and the locals only know a few that surface. IKEA enjoys global recognition in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi due to its ability to offer the typical Swedish furniture taste, yet with a sense of the differing consumer needs (Walker Butler, 2010). Non-Substitutable The iconic aspect of self-assembly emphasized in IKEA is more of an imagination. The developments that have led to this achievement have taken years and whole commitment of the firm leaders. Even if, other competitors found in the UAE and GCC markets tried to imitate such an approach, they will not only invest costly in building trust with producers, but must do better than IKEA to dissolve the recognition the company has gained (Daft Vershinina, 2010). Major Strategic Issues and Challenges IKEA Should Address IKEA has various options to make sure it improves its performances in the depressing economic setting founded on environmental dynamism an d the state of the industry. The company can focus on the business operations to boost its UAE and GCC market dominance. To accommodate average regulars with minimal wages and discretionary expenditure powers, it may manufacture low priced designs. The company could invest in the research and development to fund its expenses and improve on the status of its product designs. Through employing products promotion strategies, IKEA could widen its sales and become the market leader in the UAE and GCC nations (OBG, 2008). Its present promotional campaigns are based on cultural awareness and exclusive marketing situations for every nation and globally differ across marketplaces (OBG, 2008). To convey the alternative and innovative television spots across the world, IKEA has worked with diverse advertising bureaus for more than a year. Hence, IKEA gives the UAE, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi marketing agencies the liberty to discover some of the uncharted and fascinating ideas that generate additional attraction. Furthermore, the corporation has a stockpile that attracts additional clientele to the Dubai and Abu Dhabi IKEA stores. In Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi, the IKEA stores appear positioned and arranged in a way that one cannot leave without seeing all the available products or furniture. This strategy lures the Middle East customers to buy IKEA products. IKEA takes advantage of this in getting new personnel to help customers walk through the shop and see the commodities they need (SandÄ ±kcÄ ± Rice, 2011). The system enables the clientele to buy more furniture than what they planned to purchase. Further, the company profits from the healthy firm-supplier association and its economies of scale. The company might surpass the long-term agreements for the low cost supplies from the clientele by providing leased technological support and equipment. It should uphold brand positioning by offering low priced and quality products while pres erving the value image in the UAE, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia markets (OBG, 2008). The existence of differentiated merchandises in the value added phase permits IKEA to offer options for preference, transfer, and transportation of furniture. This should be the strategy in the Middle East operation, and should IKEA fail to obtain the goodwill, it may incorporate the service costs into the price of manufactured supplies. Recommendations IKEA is cautious about the societal and cultural aspects of the UAE and GCC where it operates. IKEA should provide a commission on its products and services and allow every department to make its own management decisions. In the Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets where IKEA currently functions, such preparations will ensure that assorted units can respond promptly to any state of crisis. Conversely, by focusing on the superiority and low manufactured goods overheads, IKEA should pursue the principle of reaching out to the costs conscious customers. T his can be realized via putting extra energy on its business operations and sourcing the supply chain resources to minimize the operation costs. Hence, IKEA International in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman should reduce the resource leasing to lower the operating fixed costs. This can be realized through choosing a shopping quarter in the suburban areas in the UAE and GCC while evaluating the existing guidelines. While operating in the UAE and GCC markets, IKEA should provide excellence services during sales periods and over the weekends when the clients overwhelm personnel in service. For the UAE and GCC to sanction the employees to supply more than one category of manufactured goods, they must cross-train their workforces in diverse fields. IKEA should let the deployment of workforce from other sections when a given sector faces many enquiries from the clientele. To fill up the vacant positions over the weekends, the corporation must hire more part time workers from the GCC and UAE pop ulace and train them appropriately. Thus, the usage customers’ discontent over quality services and the surge in customer enquiries over the weekend would be dealt with through this implementation. IKEA found in the UAE and GCC must also influence the clients to shop online so that it can take advantage of the accessible information technology. In fact, this can reduce the weekend tension on the available human resources. Above all, the corporation must dispose the delivery free of charge strategy to attract more clients on online shopping since its catalogue is wide-ranging and the customers should access it effortlessly. Conclusion IKEA has grown-up into a multi-million corporation from the fully-fledged family business since the year 1943. The corporation will breed new business sections and sustain the present marketplace strategy of low priced quality merchandise as it progresses into the next years. To nurture its UAE and GCC businesses, it will make sure that there is recurrent upgrading of consumer services to make them remain its business contents whilst using technical internet shopping. It has a strong prospective of increasing its business operations in UAE and other GCC markets through limiting its expenses and improving the market share. This is enhanced through its established background and the influence it has in the industry. References Daft, K Vershinina, N 2010, Management-international edition, Cengage Learning EMEA, Andover, Hampshire. Gillespie, K, Jeannet, J Hennessey, D 2010, Global marketing, Cengage Learning, Florence, KY. Isaksson, R Suljanovic, M 2006, The IKEA experience. Web. OBG 2008, The report: Kuwait 2008, Oxford Business Group, Gabon. OBG 2010, The report: Oman 2010, Oxford Business Group, Gabon. OBG 2012, The report: Qatar 2010, Oxford Business Group, Gabon. SandÄ ±kcÄ ±, O Rice, G 2011, Handbook of Islamic marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham United Kingdom. Walker, J Butler, S 2010, Oman, UAE Arab ian peninsula 3, Lonely Planet Publishers, Gurgaon, India. Zentes, J, Morschett, D, Schramm-Klein, H 2011, Strategic retail management: text and international cases, Springer Publishers, New York City.

Tori Amos and Her Archetypes essays

Tori Amos and Her Archetypes essays body: Tori Amos And Her Archetypes The lyrics of Tori Amos are some of the most complicated in music today. They remain the primary focus of her dedicated fans, as well as her detractors, despite the media's fixation on her past history of rape and abuse. They are complicated on many levels, and Tori Amos' lyrics demand a mythological approach to scratch the surface of her artistic vision. In several interviews, she has admitted to being much influenced by numerous books of symbology and others of Jungian psychology and their archetypal insights. "I don't fall in love much. I mean, I fall in love every five seconds with something but I don't go from boy to boy. I go from archetype to archetype" (Rogers 33). Most dominantly, her lyrics rely on concept of the archetypal woman in all of her aspects. Motifs of creation and destruction are also represented in her work. Her ideals of balance for herself and femininity in general have propelled her into stardom; her uses of archetyp es have led the way. The allusions to Christian mythology and obscure references in "Father Lucifer" delve deeper than the casual listener may recognize. Even Toriphiles, her avid fans like to affectionately refer to themselves in this way, are pushed to the edge of their comprehension in attempting to come up with a meaning for every image. Applying a critical mythological approach works best with "Father Lucifer's" imagery because the archetypes lurk just below the surface. The title of this song aids the audience in being able to place the situation -as does the song's tranquil melody; the speaker treats the Lucifer character with compassion and appreciation. Lucifer represents more than just the idea of the Christian Devil; he is the Jungian shadow. "The shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him" (Guerin 180). He is not unlike other symbolic representations of this archetype in literature, namely Milton's Satan. "Fathe...

A View Inside The Westboro Baptist Church Essay Example for Free

A View Inside The Westboro Baptist Church Essay ? Unlike most modern religious groups, the Westboro Baptist Church is unique in the fact that the organization doesn’t meet in a modern church setting. Instead, the Westboro Baptist Church meets on Sundays to picket and protest the funerals of people whom they feel have created blasphemous acts against God. This recently included the funeral of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. In an October 7th cbsnews. com article journalist Edecio Martinez quoted Margie Phelps as posting on twitter, â€Å"He had huge platform†¦gave God no glory and taught sin. This in return yielded a great a greatly deal of responses by media, family, and some other government officials as well. This is the story behind the Westboro Baptist Church and its opposing counterparts. It is first important to understand the dynamics of the Westboro Baptist Church. Known for its fight against the alternative lifestyles of the homosexual community, the members of the Westboro Baptist Church have often times been referred to as the serial protesters and also have been characterized as a hate group. This church is an independent church founded by Fred Phelps in 1955. The group contains 71 members most of which are of Phelps family. Their congregations include picketing and the desecration of the American flag. Theologically speaking they refer to themselves as Calvinist. The church’s view is that most religious groups are Satan worshipers, frauds, and teach lies. They believe that â€Å"God Hates fags† and that it should be a crime. The two most notable groups that Westboro Baptist Church has chosen to picket are homosexuals and celebrities. This organization is without a question unique in its own rights. Since the Westboro Baptist Church popped up on the scene in Nov. 27, 1955, the public has had something to say about them. In efforts to expires the disapproval of the Westboro Baptist Church other groups have met in areas where the church was picketing and turned away from churches protesters. Perhaps one of the most famous counter protests happened after the September 11 attacks. One young man Jared Dailey , stood across from the group and held a sign that displayed, â€Å"NOT today Fred. † Two days later the number shifted from 1 to 86 people standing across from the group. In future protest against the group the slogan that began Dailey used has been popular in use. As a means to counter the Westboro Baptist church organizations such as, The Boston Center for the Arts and an ad-hoc group in Richmond countered the protest by doing pledges and then donating the money to LGBT (Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans-gender) organizational projects. Others have arranged protest and hackers have been known to hack the Westboro batiste Church websites and disable them from the internet. There have been violent actions also against the group. There have been recorded incidents of angry mob attempting to attack the group, a fire near their meeting lace estimated at $10,000 in damage, and also Army Veteran Ryan Newell was arrested with ammo and an attempt on an attack of the group. For the most part the general public objects to the Westboro Baptist Church and their beliefs. Arguments on both sides of the debacle have both taking time out to use the First Amendment in their defense. The Westboro Baptist Church found themselves in hot water when the father of the Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder sued them for defamation of character, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress on June 5,2006. Although the court threw out the defamation and privacy suits due to the First Amendment the trial still went on for other charges. The family argued that even though the first amendment gives an American citizen the right to free speech it still is limited. On the judges mark the first amendment was recited and let it be known that if vulgar, offensive, or shocking statements were made, then that would be grounds of a guilty plea. The Plea was guilty on behalf of Fred and the other members of the Phelps family. The Westboro Baptist Church also took action as well, on July 21,2006; the ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) of eastern Missouri filed a suit for Shirley L. Phelps-Roper. This suit stated that the Missouri law saying that no one was allowed to picket in front of a church or a funeral an hour before or an hour after was preventing her from utilizing her right to religious liberty and free speech. Although the argument was relevant the courts still shot down the suit stating that â€Å"in individual states and cities the law is interpreted as they see fit because the amendment is vague as to the terms and conditions. The Phelps family continued on still to federal court in hopes of a win. On both sides of the argument each have had valid point that the first amendment protects both sides. As the situation continued, it called for the Supreme Court to step in. The Supreme Court stated that even though they do not agree with the Westboro’s acts they still have to aside with them due to the First Amendment of freedom of speech. The Supreme Court quoted â€Å"that freedom of speech is so central to the nation that it protects cruel and unpopular protests – even, in this case, at the moment of a family’s most profound grief. The Westboro Baptist Church is an organization of people with their own beliefs and opinions. Their religion no matter how extreme it may be is still what they believe to be a religion. Time has shown the world many interpretations of God worshipers, and many interpretations of religion, and the Bible. This is not the first group to have these views and probably won’t be the last. The world is a big place with many different people and it is important to look past the ignorance and see the importance of accepting everyone for who they are like it or not. A View Inside The Westboro Baptist Church. (2017, Jan 23).

Film analysis with historical theme Research Paper

Film analysis with historical theme - Research Paper Example ty in the United States in comparison to the poverty of South America and the resulting desperation, the film does open up the discussion and provide a beginning toward the hope of a solution to the problems of labor abuses and poverty. Maria’s journey is an example of the hard choices that must be made when economic pressure leaves one vulnerable to exploitation. The story of Maria Full of Grace follows the journey of a young, teenage woman who is pregnant and chooses to act as a mule for drug runners after losing her job due to unfair treatment by her boss, in order to provide an income for herself, her coming child, and the rest of her family in Columbia. After a brush with authorities at the airport, she and the other mules who came with her are taken to a motel room where one of the women experiences a rupture of one of the drug balloons and dies. The drug runners cut open her body to retrieve the drugs, and in fear Maria and another mule escape from the room, taking with them the drugs. Ultimately, Maria decides to stay within the United States in order to give her child and herself a chance through the opportunities that she perceives that do not exist in her own country. The film portrays the economic climate of Columbia where drug cartels rule the nation. The drug trade is the core of the nature of economic stability in Columbia and once in the United States, the characters find themselves facing the hope of opportunity that they did not have in their home country. According to Boyd, the director was attempting to â€Å"perceive as the link between history and biography and the relationship between the two in society, our personal troubles, and the social structures† (140). A criticism that Boyd discusses, however, is that no connection between the complicity of the United States to the drug trade in Columbia, as well as fully explore the state of exploited women within the dynamic of that atmosphere. Boyd states that â€Å"Poor and racialized women are

Answer the questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer the questions - Essay Example Chapter 4 (bearing the name, â€Å"Holocaust: the Genocide of the Jews†), Chapter 5 (named â€Å"Holocaust: the Gypsies†) and Chapter 6 (with the name, â€Å"Holocaust: The Genocide of Disabled Peoples†) focuses on the recent pattern of genocides across the globe and examines the trend of transformation regarding the nature of the practice from the twentieth to twenty-first century. Here, the author is found to establish initially the meaning of genocide as it appeared before the world through the extermination of almost 5 to 6 millions of Jews by the Nazis. The next chapter focuses on the historical perspectives and parameters on which it flourished. The undermining of the brutal murder of one-quarter and one-half million of Sinti and Roma in the recent histographic representation of the Nazi genocide is found in the next chapter. The last chapter focuses on more gruesome and horrifying killing of the chronically mentally ill patients or patients severely injure d or disabled after World War II by the medical establishment of Germany who were acting both with and without the knowledge of the government by the Nazis. These patients were termed by their doctors as â€Å"useless eaters† and were brutally slaughtered. The points put forwarded by Totten and his historical analysis for the reason of these genocides and compelling suggestion to stop the brutal act as well are not only convincing but are accepted by any reader easily as they are all culminated systematically and backed by

Australian Election and Voting Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Australian Election and Voting Behaviour - Essay Example This paper uses data from the 2001 Australian Election Study (AES), to investigate the level of party identification, political attitudes and voting behaviour in the election in Australia.This paper finds that whereas a weakening in the strength of party identification is associated with the potential significance of the development of the major1 and minor parties2. Partisan de-alignment is also changing the dynamics of the determinants of turnout. Since non-identifiers are more strongly influenced by the political context than strong identifiers, and there are now more non-identifiers than previously, the political context is becoming a more important factor in determining whether people vote or not. A question of potential importance is whether to study vote in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, or even possibly party identification. In part, this is because the voting system in the Senate is more 'minor party-friendly' because of its more proportional outcomes, but a f urther reason for examining Senate vote is the greater consistency in choice offered to voters (Charnock, 2004). In the House, voters in each of the electoral divisions (of which there are usually just fewer than 150) face differing choices, with (apart from the possible importance of electorate-specific issues and personalities) not all parties offering candidates in every contest. In particular, it becomes impossible to separately analyse voters for the National and Liberal parties: in view of the way in which One Nation apparently obtained much of its support in National areas, this is an important deficiency for 1998 in particular.3 In the last two decades, Australian major political parties, like those in other western democracies, have faced serious problems. These include challenges to the relevance of their traditional ideologies and institutional support bases, slipping memberships and rank and file participation, declining party identification, an erosion of confidence in majoritarian party government and the rise of new parties and social movements (Marsh 1995; Smith 1998). Party Identification Party identification is a political term to describe a voter's underlying allegiance to a political party. The term was first used in the world politics in the 1950s, but use of the term has decreased in usage as the process of party dealignment has accelerated. Party identification is a pychological attachment toward a political party that tends to influence a person's decisions on social, economic and political issues. Some researchers view party identification as " a form of social identity" (Hershey, 101), in the same way that a person identifies with a religious or ethnic group. This identity develops early in a person's life mainly through family and social influences. This description would make party identification a stable perspective, which develops as a consequence of personal, family, social and environmental factors. Other researchers consider party identification to be more flexible and more of a conscious choice. They see it as a position and a choice based on the cont inued assessment of the political, economic and social environment. A person who identifies with a particular political party is called a partisan. The partisan accepts the standard beliefs

Measles and the two vaccination shots given to ensure the child will Essay

Measles and the two vaccination shots given to ensure the child will never catch Measles - Essay Example Another unique feature of AAI is that it improves upon repeated exposure (Levinson and Jawetz 353). Vaccines are preventive agents that contain viral molecules to activate the AAI, so that when the virus is encountered in the environment, large amounts of specific antibodies are already present to act against it. Both humoral and cell-mediated immunity play a role in developing AAI (Levinson and Jawetz 353). This writing tries to explain the reasons behind the timing and the number of dosages of vaccines, particularly measles and diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccines. In particular, basics on immune response and immunization are provided, before a detailed discussion on vaccines is given. Although their mechanisms are different, innate immunity and AAI interact with each other for optimal response against a potential infection. The non-specific innate immunity is responsible for the engulfment of foreign molecules by macrophages or other antigen-presenting cells (APC) like dendritic cells and B cells (Levinson and Jawetz 357-359). Upon phagocytosis of foreign bodies, AAI then ensues when these APCs expose the engulfed antigens to their surfaces through class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) membrane proteins. The antigen-MHC complex then binds with an antigen-specific receptor on the surface of a helper T lymphocyte, initiating the release of interleukins (IL) that stimulates the maturation of many immune cells (Levinson and Jawetz 359). In turn, the activated helper T cells initiate the release of interleukins (IL), particularly IL-2, which initiates antigen-specific T-cell growth and activates cytotoxic T cells, IL-4, which promotes growth of B cells, and IL-5, which allows activation of B-cells. IL-4 and IL-5 also induce the transformation of IgM to IgG, IgA and IgE. In effect, it stimulates clonal expansion of both T and B cells after exposure with specific antigens. Cytotoxic T cells, in particular,

Essay of media analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Of media analysis - Essay Example The book ‘carved in bone’ by Jefferson Bass conveniently covers the subject under study by virtue of an interesting plot where Dr Bill Brockton who is a Forensic Anthropologist studied the case of a deal mummified woman discovered in a cave. Brockton this makes use of quite intriguing techniques like analyzing the graphical decomposition of the corpse and using various experiments to put together pieces of the puzzle to unveil who the woman really was. He owns a research laboratory where he experiments with the techniques which may have been used during homicides. To de-flesh the bones, he boils them and bleaches them and later tries to determine patterns from fragments on bones and also from the kind of impact he finds on the bones to gather enough evidence to challenge the strong lobbies in the county (Bass 2006). This book, written by a forensic anthropologist himself proves to be an insightful account on how far can the subject matter go in solving mysteries of the c rime world . In the article ‘When Forensic Anthropology meets DNA’, another interesting aspect of the subject is unveiled. The forensics department was able to draw DNA samples from a corpse decomposed to such an extent that extracting any evidence of identity was nearly impossible. However, Laura Fulgitini, who`s a forensic anthropologist uses her impeccable skills to jot together the pieces of skull together by adding cement to the missing sections to conveniently unveil the identity of the corpse, who turns out to be one of the people missing from San Diego, Joy Risker. Under normal circumstances, drawing DNA from the sample would have been of no use since there would have been no one to compare the sample to, however, by re-creating the shape of the skull, the forensics was able to get a fine idea of what the person would have looked like. On comparing the image of the corpse with the person missing, they were able to get a breakthrough, which was only possible due to

Management Issue Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Management Issue Paper - Essay Example bably consent on is that there are several outstanding issues facing business managers today, irrespective of whether they are running on a multinational organization or a one man plus company (Christiansen 172). Companies today place multiple demands on leaders, requiring them to make difficult decisions, impart vision and initiate change. Managers should be adaptable and flexible to handle these demands. Several business companies have one challenge seen to be the main one in business, for example, leadership. Strongest teams comprise of a variety of workplace personality types from leaders, doers, thinkers and nurtures. Whilst no one category is enhanced than the other, a team works best when mutual respect and genuine, balance for different working styles are present, and it takes a spontaneous and a strong leader to make all these personalities work acceptably together (Christiansen 174). There is no doubt that leadership methods too vary extremely, and some of the successful business leaders of the world’s niceness, go unnoted, for example, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs and Henry Ford. The good news during a recession, however, is that, according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, those managers most likely to triumph during difficult times are those with empathy, tough social skills, and those with the ability to inspire skyscraping performance in others. Goleman’s conclusions to three main qualities to success came after his studies of understanding leaders (Christiansen 182). The three qualities are social awareness, emotional self-control and empathy. A survey among FTS350 organizations by the CBI issued in November 2011 discovered that of the 122 corporate managers who took part, 70 percent said that their confidence level in the economic viewpoint had fallen in the recent 3 months; however, only 30 percent of them believe that their company’s projects have deteriorated. Fifty-seven percent thought their prospects had remained the same and 11

Essay of media analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Of media analysis - Essay Example The book ‘carved in bone’ by Jefferson Bass conveniently covers the subject under study by virtue of an interesting plot where Dr Bill Brockton who is a Forensic Anthropologist studied the case of a deal mummified woman discovered in a cave. Brockton this makes use of quite intriguing techniques like analyzing the graphical decomposition of the corpse and using various experiments to put together pieces of the puzzle to unveil who the woman really was. He owns a research laboratory where he experiments with the techniques which may have been used during homicides. To de-flesh the bones, he boils them and bleaches them and later tries to determine patterns from fragments on bones and also from the kind of impact he finds on the bones to gather enough evidence to challenge the strong lobbies in the county (Bass 2006). This book, written by a forensic anthropologist himself proves to be an insightful account on how far can the subject matter go in solving mysteries of the c rime world . In the article ‘When Forensic Anthropology meets DNA’, another interesting aspect of the subject is unveiled. The forensics department was able to draw DNA samples from a corpse decomposed to such an extent that extracting any evidence of identity was nearly impossible. However, Laura Fulgitini, who`s a forensic anthropologist uses her impeccable skills to jot together the pieces of skull together by adding cement to the missing sections to conveniently unveil the identity of the corpse, who turns out to be one of the people missing from San Diego, Joy Risker. Under normal circumstances, drawing DNA from the sample would have been of no use since there would have been no one to compare the sample to, however, by re-creating the shape of the skull, the forensics was able to get a fine idea of what the person would have looked like. On comparing the image of the corpse with the person missing, they were able to get a breakthrough, which was only possible due to

Failing to Love Essay Example for Free

Failing to Love Essay In her story â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican† Sandra Cisneros introduces the reader to the complex issues surrounding the racial and sexual identity of a Mexican-American woman living in the United States. The story is about a Chicana woman and how she seeks revenge on a white lover who has rejected her by becoming the sexual tutor of his teenage son. Cisneros give life to the protagonist Clemencia and paints her as a character in a modern day to demonstrate the pervasive negative impact on Mexican-American women, especially on Chicanas residing within the United States. Clemencia, the protagonist of the story, thinks â€Å"Drew, remember when you used to call me your Malinalli? It was a joke, a private game between us, because you looked like a Cortes with that beard of yours. My dark skin against yours†¦My Malinalli, Malinche, my courtesan, you said, and yanked my head back by the braid† (192). Clemencia is a painter, but she must support herself in other ways too. She sometimes acts as a translator; however for Clemencia Spanish is now the â€Å"native† language. In this discussion of her occupation, Clemencia pronounces â€Å"any way you look at it, what I do to make a living is a form of prostitution† (181). She feels as though when she is not painting she merely sells herself to make a living, much like La Malinche had to do in her relationship with Cortes. Clemencia constantly allows herself to fall in love with unavailable men who are always married and always white. This pattern results from her mother’s constant advice, â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican†. Clemencia’s mother, a lower-class Chicana woman from the United States who married an upper-class Mexican man, felt inescapable discrimination by both her husband’s upper-class family and mainstream U.S. society for her dark skin color. Her answer to this was to marry out, and supposedly up, by divorcing Clemencia’s father and marrying a white man. It is because of this example that Clemencia never sees Mexican men as potential lovers. She explains: â€Å"Mexican men, forget it. For a long time the men clearing off the tables or chopping meat behind the butcher counter or driving the buss I rode to school every day, those weren’t men. Not men I considered as potential lovers. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Chilean, Columbian, Panamanian, Salvadorean, Bolivian, Honduran, Argentine, Dominican, Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Ecuadorean, Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Costa Rican, Paraguayan, Uruguayan, I don’t care. I never saw them. My mother did this to me†(179). Here Clemencia is adopting the racist Anglo discourse by lumping all Latinos into one, unified group. Her discussion of â€Å"Mexican† does not distinguish between class and race; to her â€Å"Mexican† means busboys, butchers, and bus drivers. Mexican is no longer the nationality of the people of Mexico, but rather a class of servers who happen to be brown. Here Cisneros demonstrates how the racism of dominant society in America is often internalized and serves to separate the people of disempowered groups. Cisneros makes a strong statement against internalized racism by showing how Clemencia’s rejection of men of her own race and obsession with white men ultimately leaves her lonely. Clemencia comes to the frustrating, yet enlightening realization that the white men in her life have, like her, adopted the mantra â€Å"never marry a Mexican† when she remembers the conversation Drew and she had the last night they spent together. Clemencia recalls in an inner dialogue, how â€Å"we had agreed. All for the best. Surely I could see that, couldn’t I? My own good. A good sport. A young girl like me. Hadn’t I understood†¦responsibilities. You didn’t think? Never marry a Mexican. Never marry a Mexican. No of course. I see. I see† (186). Now Clemencia is now lost without a proper choice of lovers. Mexicans are out of bounds because she could never marry a Mexican, but she now realizes that white men are also out of bounds because they too could never marry a Mexican; they could never marry her. Cisneros is therefore demonstrating how internalized racism does not serve to differentiate certain ethnic Mexicans from others in the eyes of white society, and instead only serves to isolate such Mexican-Americans from the culture to which they are supposed to feel connected. By having Clemencia reject the roles of wife and mother and instead embrace the socially deviant mistress role, Cisneros demonstrates how women who refuse socially acceptable roles often must do so at the expense of other women. In an attempt to claim agency that she would otherwise be denied as a married Chicana in dominant, patriarchal society, Clemencia embraces the role of the mistress. The mistress, because of her strictly sexual nature, is traditionally regarded as a role that reinforces male dominance in heterosexual relationships. Through her role as mistress and her rejection of the role of wife or mother, she attempts to combat the patriarchal system of oppression and makes allowances for flexibility of gender-role expectations. However because the role of the mistress also depends upon there being another woman, the wife, who is betrayed by both her husband and the mistress, the mistress role does not combat the patriarchal system for all women. It does, in fact, reinforce patriarchal oppression of the wife/mother role. Clemencia seems to have little problem acknowledging her betrayal of other women. She candidly tells the reader â€Å"I’ve been accomplice, having caused deliberate pain to other women. I’m vindictive and cruel, and I’m capable of anything† (179). Therefore, in order to escape subscribed gender roles and claim agency in her sexual relationships, Clemencia hurts other women. Cisneros seems to be saying that â€Å"mujeres andariegas†, or daring women who reject the roles society expects of them, do not help to institutionally change society for all women but rather must betray other women in their search for personal freedom. Clemencia attempts to further com bat patriarchal gender roles in her sexual relationships the role of el chingà ³n. When describing sex with Drew, she says â€Å"I leapt inside you and split you like an apple. Opened for the other to look and not give back† (185). Here Clemencia not only takes on the man’s part by â€Å"leaping† inside, she also executes the violent actions attached to the verb chingar. Clemencia imagines that this sexual aggressiveness empowers her over Drew. She says â€Å"You were ashamed to be so naked†¦But I saw you for what you are, when you opened yourself for me† (185). To Clemencia, sexual relations are based on power dynamics, and in order to escape the passive feminine chingada role she must embrace the possessive, dominant, masculine chingà ³n role. Clemencia extends her embodiment of the chingà ³n role into her dealings with the wives, and even a son, of her lovers. More than once she had sex with a lover while his wife was in labor with his child. She confesses â€Å"it has given me a bit of crazy joy to be able to kill those women like that†¦To know I’ve had their husbands when they were anchored in blue hospital rooms, their guts yanked inside out†(184). Clemencia’s relationship with Drew’s son is another example of her fulfilling a sort of â€Å"vindictive sexual satisfaction†. She says of him â€Å"I sleep with this boy, their son. To make the boy love me the way I love his father. To make him want me the way I love his father†¦I can tell from the way he looks at me, I have him in my power†¦I let him nibble†¦Before I snap by teeth† (187). Therefore she seduces him not to satisfy the yearning of her body or hear, but rather to achieve sexual power of the son, which she perceives as giving her indirect power of his parents. Clemencia is ultimately left lonely without a lover, a connection to her culture, or meaningful female friendships. The reason for this lies in the world view Clemencia has inherited from her society. She perceives the world in black and white, in terms of inescapable binaries between which she must choose. She fails to become an acceptable marriage partner to Drew, she fails to escape being hurt by her lovers even as a mistress. Works Cited Never Marry a Mexican. Random House, Inc. and Vintage Books1991