William Shakespeare s Macbeth - The Five Tragedies

One of the most astounding themes William Shakespeare incorporates in his widely prominent story of, Macbeth, is the utterly sheer shift in Macbeth s personality throughout the piece. It is commonly debated that the rapidly altering deposition of Macbeth had since served as the underlying facets and influences behind his ultimate collapse. However, Arthur Kirsch, Writer of â€Å"Macbeth’s Suicide,† insists that perhaps Macbeth did not develop a sense of insanity, but he was murdering out of confidence in his future. On the other hand, In Miguel Bernad Article, â€Å"The Five Tragedies in Macbeth†, Bernard describes that Macbeth s ever changing deposition and lust for bloodshed was linked to this downfall. A variety of factors influenced Macbeth to†¦show more content†¦Revealing that he is aware that there is no significant reason to kill Duncan other than for personal gain, this quote can be utilized to pinpoint a significant divulgence in the beginning of Macbeth s developing insanity while also displaying his overbearing ambitious nature. While in Bernad s article â€Å"The Five Tragedies in Macbeth,† the author asserts that Macbeth was â€Å"prompted by inner ambitions and external urgings he murders the king and assumes the crown†¦ Since â€Å"to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus†, he plunges into an orgy of crime which eventually loses him his queen, his crown and his life.† (Bernad 1) This quote best supports the common ideology that Macbeth s overbearing ambition ultimately resulted in his emerging insanity. This inadequate everlasting sense of eagerness bestowed Macbeth with additional complications. For example, because of Macbeth’s driving impulse to successfully become king, he developed the urge to achieve his goals by any means possible. Bernad believes that â€Å"In desperation, Macbeth seeks solace in blood. But it brings him no peace.† (Bernad 51). This quote can be uti lized to exploit the general idea that Macbeth persistently attempts to achieve indisputable serenity throughout the devious, innocent murders. Thus, providing context as one primaryShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare Is A Well-Known And Recognized English1542 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Shakespeare is a well-known and recognized English poet. Born in the year of 1564 and 1616 marked the end of his time. In his twenties, Shakespeare decided to move to London and took up the role of being an actor and a playwright. It wasn’t until 1594 that he began his career with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the leading theater company at the time. Shakespeare spent his time pumping out 37 written plays and over 150 poems, which only provoked him into becoming a prominent playwright, figureRead MoreMental Insanity In Macbeth And Hamlet By William Shakespeare952 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Shakespeare uses insanity to contrast characters in his tragedies. Shakespeare often uses stre ss as a trigger to spiral his characters into this state of mind. Shakespeare’s tragedies Macbeth and Hamlet both contain characters that experience a great deal of stress and fall into mental unrest. This mental unrest or insanity is a device used by Shakespeare for contrasting imagery of characterization. The contrast of mental illness with mental wellness within these tragedies is shown in multipleRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Life And The Elizabethan Age Essay1474 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Shakespeare was the great poet, actor, and playwright from the Elizabethan age. 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King Duncan was the current king of CawdorRead MoreGender Roles In Macbeth1477 Words   |  6 Pagesnot write or act in plays. The roles were strictly played by men. This was true, however, in Macbeth written by William Shakespeare he portrays that both the men and the women in the play craved powerful roles, and desire ambition. Additionally, he shows how the roles of gender are flipped between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and displays that Lady Macbeth wants control over Macbeth. In the play Lady Macbeth stands in for Macbeth’s manliness throughout the text, and she is the brain of all his decisionsRead MoreAmbition s Influence Of William Shakespeare s Macbeth 1640 Words   |  7 PagesAmbition’s Influence in Macbeth Ambition is a desire for an achievement or distinction of sorts, for it could be a drive to obtain power, honor, fame, or wealth. William Shakespeare features ambition as a leading theme in several of his works of Renaissance Drama. Renaissance theater was known for scarce scenery but elaborate costuming, with Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in the spotlight. The Globe, the most popular public theater in its time, served as the first stage for many Shakespeare plays (Beers 428-31)Read MoreAnalysis Of Shakespeare s King Lear, Hamlet, Othello And Macbeth1206 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish 3.7: Achievement Standard 91478 Introduction Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Through analysing four tragedy texts by Shakespeare, I have noticed he uses the fall of the main character as the primary focus in his tragedies as this creates good suspense and climax as an added attraction for the audience. A Shakespearean tragedy, is a five-act play and they usually revolve around a similar idea of conflict. This is the Internal and external Conflict within the characterRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s English Literature Essay1667 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Shakespeare has been best known for his poems, plays and masterful piece of writings in the English language. He has been referred to as the England s national poet and the Bard of Avon. He produced over thirty eight plays, hundred fifty four sonnets, five poems, and more verses. Shakespeare s plays consist of mainly tragedies, comedies and histories which are regarded as one of the best in those genres. The plays, the poems, and the sonnets have had a significance influence in EnglishRead MoreThe Tragedy Of Macbeth By Raphael Holinshed1242 Words   |  5 PagesDo we really know all of the facts about Macbeth solely based on Shakespeare s play? Shakespeare took great liberties with the material in Raphael Holinshed’s series called, Holinshed’s Chronicles, altering it to suit his dramatic purposes (McGraw, 306). 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Phillips Free Essays

string(121) " was removed from official maps and lands were divided into five provinces to weaken the Hazaras’ political authority\." Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Why Hazaras flee: An historical perspective of their persecution1 Submission for the Government’s Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Denise Phillips BA (Hons), PhD Candidate, University of New England, 19 July 2012 Quetta are also discussed. The past ethnic and religious animosity against minority Shiite Hazaras continues to drive the bloodshed today. When we shift our esponsibilities offshore, vilify refugees and pursue a punitive style of deterrence as a solution, we ignore these past and present atrocities. We will write a custom essay sample on Phillips or any similar topic only for you Order Now Executive summary This paper provides historical information about the source country, Afghanistan. As minority Shiites, Hazaras’ current persecution is borne out of an unresolved, century-old religious and ethnic hatred of them. This has resulted in massacres, dispossession of their lands and decades of institutionalised discrimination. Their persecution was fiercely reignited during the civil war and by the Taliban in the 1990s. Understanding that history is critical to policy-making. Not only are Hazaras dying on boats, but also in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Australia must respond to this over-all crisis with humanity rather than punitive measures. I support the recommendations made in the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s submission and the Open Letter. As Afghanistan moves towards a possible Taliban alliance or faces growing lawlessness, and as Hazaras continue to be slain or attacked in Hazara-populated regions and in neighbouring Quetta, Hazaras are likely to continue to flee and have grounds under the 1951 Refugee Convention to fear persecution. Introduction In addressing the problem of asylum seekers risking their lives on boat journeys to Australia, the reasons for their flight should remain at the forefront of policy-making and political debate. I offer an historical overview of a key source country, Afghanistan, and of the origins of Hazaras’ persecution. Current crises in both Afghanistan and Abdur Rahman’s subjugation of Hazaras in the nineteenth century After the traditionally dominant Pashtuns and the Tajiks, Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, although a minority. The Hazaras traditionally live in the Hazarajat, a loosely defined region within the central highlands. While about 85 percent of Afghanistan’s population follow Sunni Islam, most Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, causing them to be condemned as ‘infidels’ at different points throughout history. 2 Their suffering began in earnest in the late 1800s. The Hazaras were a semi- autonomous society living in Afghanistan’s central highlands, the Hazarajat. The entire Hazara population possibly numbered over half a million, with about 340,000 families in the Hazarajat. Although not a cohesive group, most were Shiites and spoke the Hazaragi language, a derivative of Dari. In contrast, their surrounding ethnic groups were mostly Sunni Muslims and spoke Pashto or Dari. 3 Against a backdrop of imperial tensions between Britain and Czarist Russia, Britain helped install an anti-Russian Pashtun, Amir Abdur Rahman (1880-1901), on the throne in Kabul in 1880. In between British India and Russia. 4 exchange for a British annual subsidy, Afghanistan was to provide a buffer zone In the previous century, the Pashtun tribal ruler, Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747-1773), had already established a pattern of subjugating sub-groups and other ethnic groups within he region. To bring Afghanistan’s many different tribes under a centralised authority, Abdur Rahman proclaimed the Durrani Pashtuns as supreme and mobilised Sunni Islam with a patriotic xenophobia. Condemning Shiite Hazaras as ‘infidels’, Rahid Rahman 1 Over-all notes drawn from Denise Phillips, From Afghanistan to Australia: An oral history of loss and ho pe among Hazara refugees, PhD thesis, University of New England, Armidale (forthcoming); Denise Phillips, ‘Wounded memory of Hazara refugees from Afghanistan: Remembering and forgetting persecution’, History Australia, vol. , no. 2, August 2011, pp. 177-198; and Denise Phillips, ‘Hazaras’ persecution worsens: Will the new government show leadership by lifting the suspension on Afghani asylum claims? ’, Australian Policy and History, August 2010, http://www. aph. org. au/files/articles/hazarasPersecution. htm. 2 William Maley, Security, People Smuggling and Australia’s New Afghan Refugees, Working Paper no. 63, p. 8; M. Hassan Kakar, ‘The pacification of the Hazaras’, in M. Hassan Kakar, A Political and Diplomatic History of Afghanistan, 1863-1901, Leiden, 2006, p. 26. 3 Sayed Askar Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study, Richmond, 1998, p. 114; Kakar, ‘The pacification of t he Hazaras’, pp. 120-122, 126. Amin Saikal, with assistance from Ravan Farhadi Kirill Nourzhanov, Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival, London, 2004, pp. 6, 7, 12. 4 1 2 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 rallied soldiers and tribal levies to quash Hazara rebellions in the Afghan-Hazara wars of 1891-1893. Hazaras were slain, raped and sold into slavery. Soldiers piled Hazaras’ heads into towers to warn others against dissent, and some were skinned to death or had their tongues cut out. Although slavery was banned in 1895, many remained enslaved until King Amanullah’s emancipation laws were passed in the 1920s. Much of the Hazarajat was decimated, and their agricultural economy destroyed. Starving, some ate grass and sold their children for wheat to survive. The Hazaras were fined for rebelling and taxed indiscriminately. All facets of Afghani government, society and law conspired against Hazaras, seeking to destroy their property, tribal systems, religion and culture. Rahid Rahman attempted to impose Sunni Islam and demanded that qazis (judges) and muftis (Islamic leaders) in various districts use only Hanafi, a Sunni Islamic legal system, for dealing with Hazaras. To depopulate the Hazarajat, the government issued ‘firmans’, royal decrees, authorising Pasht un nomads, Kuchis, to access Hazaras’ lands for grazing their livestock. Possibly several tens of thousands fled to Central Asia, and Balochistan in what is now Pakistan. Victorious, Rahid Rahman demeaned the Hazaras and claimed that Afghanis saw them as ‘enemies of their country and religion’,7 laying the foundation for a century of persecution to the present. Marginalisation in the twentieth century Successive governments have since marginalised Hazaras. Under the banner of nationalism in the early 1900s, ruling Pashtuns tried to assert their identity, culture and history over all other ethnic groups. The Hazarajat was removed from official maps and lands were divided into five provinces to weaken the Hazaras’ political authority. You read "Phillips" in category "Essay examples" King Nadir Shah (1929-1933) outlawed the promotion of Hazara history and culture, 5 Peter Marsden, Afghanistan: Minorities, Conflict and the Search for Peace, London, 2001, p. 6; Saikal, Modern Afghanistan, pp. 5, 12, 17, 35-39; Kakar, ‘The pacification of the Hazaras’, pp. 120122, 132-137; Burchard Brentjes Helga Brentjes, Taliban: A Shadow over Afghanistan, Varanasi, 2000, p. 75; Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 101, 120-129, 131-136. 6 Kakar, ‘The pacification of the Hazaras’, pp. 137, 138; Lenard Milich, ‘The Behsud conflicts in Afghanistan: A blueprint to avoid further clashes in 2009 and beyond’, Eurasia Critic, June 2009, pp. , 3, http://www. eurasiacritic. com/articles, accessed 10 June 2010; Alessandro Monsutti, trans. Patrick Camiller, War and Migration: Social Networks and Economic Strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan, New York, 2005, p. 105. 7 Mir Munshi Sultan Mahomed Khan (ed. ), The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afgha nistan, with a new introduction by M. E. Yapp, vol. 1, Karachi, 1980 (1900), pp. 276-279, 282-284. imprisoning or executing intellectuals who wrote on the subject. Official policies tried to strip names associated with the Hazaras from historical archives. Between the 1930s nd 1970s, the Anjom-e Tarikh (Historical Society), aided by the Pashto Tolana (Pashto Academy), rewrote much of Afghanistan’s official histories. Significant texts were also reportedly burnt. Until 1978, the Hazaras were marginalised, taxed indiscriminately, and denied equal rights and vital infrastructure in their villages. 8 Former president of Afghanistan Dr Najibullah (1986-1992) acknowledged their suffering, saying that ‘the most difficult and lowliest paid jobs, poverty, illiteracy, social and nationalist committed, and bloodshed continues to this day. discrimination were the lot of the Hazara people’. No justice was gained for atrocities Massacres during the civil war and Taliban regime Hazaras became politically mobilised in the 1980s and have since gained greater political representation. However, their persecution was brutally re-ignited during the civil war by rival ethnic groups and by the Taliban. In 1993, soldiers under command of the Rabbani government (1992-1996) targeted the stronghold of the Hazaras’ political party, the Hizb-e Wahdat, in Afshar, a district in West Kabul with a large Hazara population. Soldiers, however, turned against civilians. After a frenzy of looting, rape killed or remain missing. 10 nd summary executions driven by ethnic hatred, approximately 700-750 Hazaras were Persecution intensified under the Taliban regime (1996-2001) as its soldiers advanced into Afghanistan’s north and the Hazarajat. Not only do Hazaras shun the Islamist beliefs of the Taliban, the Taliban are recruited mostly from the Pashtun group, the Hazaras’ traditional enemy. (In reverse, being Pashtun does not automatically equal Taliban support and millions of Pashtuns have also suffered within Afghanistan’s 8 Hafizullah Emadi, ‘The Hazaras and their role in the process of political transformation in Afghanistan’, Central Asian Survey, vol. 6, no. 3, 1997, pp. 363-371; Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 5-8, 155-174, 218; Saikal, Modern Afghanistan, pp. 111-113, 283. Hazaras cite Puta Khazana (The Hidden Treasure), published in 1960, as an example of a controversial or fictitious history funded by the government which promoted Pashtun superiority. 9 Quoted in Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, p. 162 10 Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 198, 199; Human Rights Watch, Blood-Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan’s Legacy of Impunity, New York, 2005, pp. 70-100. Numbers have never been accurately ascertained. One Hazara website estimates that approximately 1,000 were killed or remain missing. See ‘Afshar and Kateh Sahe massacre’, Hazara. net, 2009 http://www. hazara. net/taliban/genocide/afshar/afshar. html, accessed 19 June 2010. 3 4 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 conflicts. ) In 1998, in retaliation for war crimes committed by the United Front (of which Hazaras were a part) against Taliban soldiers, the Taliban slaughtered approximately 2,000 or more Hazaras in Mazar-e Sharif. Civilians were killed in residential areas and market places, some dying with their throats slit. Highlighting the accompanying religious hatred, Taliban governor Mullah Manon Niazi had publicly incited the attack, preaching that, ‘Hazaras are not Muslim. You can kill them. It is not a sin’. Hazaras were reportedly warned to take lessons from their own history, and to either convert, flee or be killed. Hundreds fled the terror of Mazar-e Sharif. Massacres continued, with Taliban soldiers rounding up civilians in the Yakaolang district in 2001, publicly executing at least 170, many of whom were Hazaras. Near Robatak Pass, the Taliban also executed at least 31 civilians, with 26 confirmed to be Hazaras. 1 A resurgent Taliban After more than a decade, American and NATO forces have failed to bring peace and a withdrawal is imminent. Regrouping since 2001, the Taliban is now made up of an alliance of three Islamist groups; the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin, an insurgency described by the US Department of Defence as ‘resilient and evolving’. 12 With safe havens for terrorism in western Pakistan, the insurgency maintains strongholds in southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan, and has been expanding to the west and north. 3 The Taliban’s clear presence in Shinwari district of Parwan province, less than a few hours from Kabul, was demonstrated with news last week of the Taliban’s execution of a young woman on ‘adultery’ charges. 14 Terror in the Hazarajat Analysts recently deemed Ghazni to be ‘among the most volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan’. 15 In 2006, a former governor was assassinated, and in 2007, the Taliban held 23 South Koreans hostage. Located in Ghazni province is Jaghori, an Hazara- populated district and former home of many Hazara refugees now in Australia. Jaghori nd Hazara-populated Malistan are surrounded by Pashtun areas under Taliban control. In June 2010, the Taliban reportedly distributed ‘nightletters’, a method of intimidation, to districts within Ghazni province, warning that the main road out of Jaghori to Kabul is now closed. Residents need to travel beyond Jaghori for medical, commercial, study and work reasons, but travel is now perilous. Taliban routinely search travellers on the Qarabagh-Jaghori road. Travellers have been tortured, detained and some have gone missing. Their vehicles have been stolen and the road is periodically closed. Many fear a repeat of the Taliban’s 1997 road blockade of essential supplies. Additionally, Jaghori strongly supports education, with numerous high schools and primary and middle schools. The Taliban, however, have targeted schools. For example, in July 2010, the Taliban attacked and burnt schools in Tamki, Jaghori district, and in Qarabagh district. The Taliban also killed Syed Sekander Muhammadi, the head teacher of a school in Shaki Nuka, in Qarabagh district, as he travelled to Ghazni. 16 In nearby Oruzgan province, the decapitated corpses of 11 Hazara males were iscovered in the Khas Oruzgan district on 25 June 2010. Police official Mohammed Gulab Wardak reported that the Taliban killed them ‘because they were ethnic Hazaras and Shiite Muslims’. 17 This occurred in the very province where Australia’s Defence Personnel have been deployed in a security and reconstruction role, showing the dire 11 Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar-I S harif, vol, 10, no. 7(C), November 1998, http://www. unhcr. org/refworld/docid/45c9a4b52. html, accessed 18 June 2010; Human Rights Watch, Massacres of Hazaras in Afghanistan, vol. 13, no. (C), February 2001, http://www. hrw. org/legacy/reports/2001/afghanistan/, accessed 18 June 2010; Peter Marsden, Afghanistan: Minorities, Conflict and the Search for Peace, London, 2001, p. 22; Mullah Manon Niazi quoted in ‘On genocide of Hazaras’, Hazara. net, January 2011, http://www. hazara. net/taliban/taliban. html, accessed 18 July 2012. 12 Department of Defense, Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan: Report to Congress in Accordance with 2008 National Defense Authorisation Act (Section 1230, Public Law 110-181), USA, January 2009, p. 7, http://www. efense/gov/pubs/OCTOBER_1230_FINAL_pdf, accessed 12 August 2010. 13 Maria Golovnina, ‘Factbox: Insurgency in Afghanistan: Who are they? ’, 25 September 2009, Reuters, http://www. reuters. com/article/idUS TRE58O2F620090925, accessed 12 August 2010. Dylan Welch Ben Doherty, ‘‘God tells us to finish her’: Taliban remind world they are no spent force’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2012, p. 1. 14 threat to Hazaras, even alongside a broader military presence. 15 William Maley, ‘On the position of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan’, 28 June 2010, posted on Welcome to Ataullah’s Page, http://ataullahnaseri. ordpress. com/2010/06/28/on-the-position-of-the-hazara-minority, accessed 5 August 2010. 16 Thomas Ruttig, ‘A new, new Taliban front’, Foreign Policy, 21 June 2010, http://afpak. foreignpolicy. com/posts/2010/06/21/a_new_new_taliban_front_0, accessed 5 August 2012; Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, New Haven, 2000, p. 67; Abdul Karim Hekmat, ‘Unsafe haven: Hazaras in Afghanistan and Pakistan’, Special report, University of Technology Sydney, October 2011, pp. 18, 1 9. 17 Tahereh Ghanaati, ‘The Hazara carnage in Afghanistan’, Press TV, 27 June 2010, http://www. resstv. ir/pop/Print/? id=132225, accessed 28 June 2010; Ismail Sameem Jonathon Burch, ‘Police find 11 beheaded bodies in Afghan South’, 25 June 2010, Reuters, http://www. reuters. com/article/idUSTRE65O2ML20100625, accessed 28 June 2010. 5 6 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Hazaras. Although the Taliban denied involvement, Afghani analyst Ahmad Shuja fears In Maidan Wardak province, land disputes between Hazaras and Kuchis often erupt each summer but have worsened in recent years. Kuchis have been arriving in the Behsud and Daimirdad districts heavily armed for conflict. Kuchis believe the aforementioned decrees issued under Abdur Rahman entitle them to access, while many Hazaras have never accepted the loss of full rights over their land. Consequently, Hazaras have been killed and their homes burnt. In 2008, approximately 60,000 people were displaced, and in May 2010, a report estimated that 1,800 families had been displaced, 68 homes burnt, and 28 schools closed, leaving10,000 students without school facilities. As nomads, the Kuchi are also a minority group, but belong to the traditionally dominant Pashtun group. It is feared that the Taliban may be exploiting the past to incite attacks by their fellow Pashtuns, the Kuchi, against Hazaras. The Karzai government has either largely ignored repeated Hazara pleas for assistance or has been impotent in stopping the violence, sparking worldwide protests by Hazaras. 18 These crises cannot be dismissed as internal land disputes; rather, they stem from the nineteenth century acts of conquest, dispossession and persecution – and another government’s marginalisation of Hazaras. Terror in Kabul Brutal assaults also have occurred recently in Kabul. On 6 December 2011, a suicide bomber killed at least 56 Shiites pilgrims worshipping at the Abdul Fazal Abbas Shrine in the Murad Khani district in Kabul during commemorations for Ashura, the holiest day of Muharram. On the same day, a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded, killing Shiite pilgrims in Mazar-e Sharif and bringing the death toll to 60. A spokesperson for Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility via Radio Free Europe. LeJ, formed in 1996, is a militant Sunni Deobandi Islamist group based in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Among links with numerous terror groups, it has a close relationship with Afghani Taliban and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Most killed and injured were 18 Lenard Milich, ‘The Behsud conflicts in Afghanistan: A blueprint to avoid further clashes in 2009 and beyond’, Eurasia Critic, June 2009, pp. 1-3, http://www. eurasiacritic. com/articles, accessed 10 June 2010; Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, ‘AIHRC grave concern about armed onflict between Kochies and native inhabitants of Behsood district of Maidan Wardak’, Kabul Press, 22 May 2010, http://kabulpress. org/my/spip. php? article11725, accessed 9 August 2010; ‘UNAMA silent on Kuchi attack in Behsud’, Hazaristan Times, 21 May 2010, http://hazaristantimes. wordpress. com/2010/05/21/unama-silent-on-Kuchi-attack-in-behsud, accessed 6 August 2010. the attacks will inflame rel igious tensions, echoing a recent past in which the Taliban massacred thousands of Hazaras. 19 Increasing bloodshed in Quetta, Pakistan Since the nineteenth century, Hazaras have traditionally fled or migrated to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, in what is now Pakistan. Quetta has long been a ‘second home’ for Hazaras; some live there as permanent Pakistani citizens, others as refugees. Possibly 30,000-50,000 Hazara refugees now live in Pakistan after fleeing the Taliban in 1996. Over the last decade, however, Shiite Hazaras in Balochistan have been dying in an escalating spate of sectarian attacks, often occurring daily. LeJ have distributed leaflets condemning Shiites as ‘infidels’. Proclaiming their right under Islam to kill them, LeJ publicly state that they will continue acting against Shiites. One of its leaders, Milak Ishaque, had 40 murder charges pending against him: after serving 15 years imprisonment he was released on 14 July 2011. Hazaras and the Asian Human Rights Commission report that the Pakistani government, army and law enforcement impunity. 20 authorities are failing to act, openly allowing the banned terror organisation to kill with These are but a few examples in a litany of bloody attacks. Eight Hazaras were slain in Poodgali Chowk in 2001, and 12 Hazara policeman killed in Sariab, in 2003. On 20 September 2011, armed men intercepted a bus in the Ganjidori area of Mastung, southeast of Quetta. It carried 45, mostly Shiite, pilgrims travelling to Taftan, Iran. Ordering them off the bus, gunmen shot those identifying themselves as Shiites in the ‘head, chest and abdomen’. Twenty-nine Shiites were killed and five escaped. An hour 19 Ernesto Londono, ‘Dozens dead in rare attack on Shiite mosque in Kabul’, The Washington Post, 6 December 2011, http://www. washingtonpost. om/world/rare-attack-in-kabul-targets-shiitemosque/2011/12/06/gIQAVnEkYO_print, accessed 7 December 2011; ‘Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ)’, Australian National Security, Australian Government, updated 15 March 2012, http://www. ema. gov. au/agd/WWW/nationalsecurity. nsf/Page/What_Governments_are_doing_Listing _of_Terrorism_Organisations_Lashkar_I_Jhangvi, accessed 18 July 2012. 20 Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ )’, Australian National Security; Syed Shoaib Hasan, ‘A year of suffering for Pakistan’s Shias’, BBC News, Balochistan, 6 December 2011, http://www. bbc. co. k/news/worldasia-15928538, accessed 21 January 2012; Hekmat, ‘Unsafe haven’, pp. 20-23; ‘The state of human rights in Pakistan in 2011’, Asian Human Rights Commission, 2011, p. 42, http://www. AHRC-SPR008-2011-HRRptPakistan. pdf, accessed 18 July 2012. 7 8 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 later, gunmen killed 3 Shiites, believed to be victims’ relatives on their way to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones. LeJ claimed responsibility. 21 On 28 June 2012, a bomb blast killed Shiite pilgrims travelling by bus near a fruit market in the Hazarganji area of Quetta. Thirteen were killed and 30 injured, with most of the victims Hazaras. LeJ again claimed responsibility. Prominent leaders, professionals, intellectuals and policemen have been assassinated, along with a sportsman and artist. For example, Chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party, Hussain Ali Yousofi, was slain on 26 January 2011. The general Hazara population, including women and children, are now also being indiscriminately targeted. Australian Hazaras visiting relatives in Quetta speak of witnessing attacks on Hazara civilians in the streets and of a climate of terror. Abdul Karim Hekmat reports that ‘over 500 Hazaras have been killed and over 1,500 injured as a result of targeted’ attacks in Pakistan since 2003. 22 Other sources cite even higher numbers. Failures of protection and continuing fear Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution includes exemplary protection for human rights and Hazaras have gained prominent government positions. However, with critical failures to implement the rule of law beyond Kabul – or even maintain it in Kabul – reform has not translated to improved safety for Hazaras in remote villages. Insurgents do not recognise government law. Moreover, Afghani culture is bound up with traditions of governing and maintaining security through tribal and religious consensus, gained at district and community levels rather than through a centralised authority. In December 2009, the Karzai government also gazetted a law giving amnesty to all who committed war crimes in the past two decades of conflict, allowing alleged war criminals from various ethnicities to hold parliamentary positions with impunity. Professor William Maley cautions against ‘tokenism’, arguing that the inclusion of Hazaras within overnment has not brought about real changes. 23 History shows that the 1980s’ reforms which delivered greater equity for Hazaras did not stop the bloodshed which followed in the 1990s and beyond. That this is the sixth constitution since 1923 also exemplifies the fragility of Afghani reforms. Safety for minority groups requires broad social changes to address deeply-rooted tribal, religious and ethnic prejudices – this is something that will take years. The possibility of a Taliban alliance with international support, set against the draw-down of troops, causes terror among many Hazaras. 24 In summarising why Hazaras risk their lives on boats, an Hazara refugee says: When the government and law enforcement agencies can’t provide protection, when your house [in Quetta or Afghanistan] is on fire, when your home country becomes hell for you, when you can’t go anywhere without the fear of being killed, when your religion and your facial features make you the easy target. When death is hovering over your head every day, then you don’t have options but to flee, seek refuge, knock at other people’s door for help, sit on a leaky boat, choose a dangerous journey that possibly leads to death. Today the Hazara Shias (boat people, the asylum seekers) are in a state of desperation and struggling for their survival as it is a basic human instinct. 25 Recommendations flee. I therefore make the following comments: Based on the continuing and unresolved history of bloodshed, Hazaras will continue to 1) Given the need for negotiation within a democratic process, I have reflected deeply on the current options being debated. However, we cannot participate in the ‘trade’ of 21 Shehzad Baloch, ‘Sectarian atrocity: 29 killed in Mastung, Quetta ambushes’, The Express Tribune, 21 September 2011, http://tribune. om. pk/story/256419/gunmen-attack-bus-in-balochistan-20killed/? print=true, accessed 22 September 2011. 22 ‘Shia pilgrims bus attacked by a rocket near Quetta, 13 martyred over 30 injured’, Jafria News, 29 June 2012, http://jafrianews. com/2012/06/29/shia-pilgrims-bus-attacked-by-a-rocket-near-quetta-13martyred-over-30-injured/, accessed 16 July 2012; ‘Hazara Shia community on strike over Quetta attacks’, BBC News, Asia, 29 June 2012, http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-asia-18640945, accessed 16 July 2012; ‘Blast kills 13, including Shia pilgrims, in Quetta’, Dawn. om, 28 June 2012, http://dawn. com/2012/06/28/eight-including-policeman-killed-in-quetta-blast/, accessed 16 July 2012; Hekmat, ‘Unsafe haven’, p. 22; Informal discussions with Australian Hazaras. 23 William Maley, Radio interview conducted by Geraldine Doogue, ‘Afghan Hazara’, Breakfast, ABC Radio National, 13 April 2010, http://www. abc. net. au/radionational/programs/breakfast/afghanhazara/3039616, accessed 16 June 2010; Una Moore, ‘UN human rights rep in Kabul calls for repeal of war crimes amnesty’, UN Dispatch, 30 March 2010, http://www. undispatch. om/un-human-rightsrep-in-kabul-calls-for-repeal-of-war-crimes-amnesty, accessed 11 June 2010; Department of Defense, Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, p. 11; Shahmahmood Miakhel, ‘Understanding Afghanistan: The importance of tribal culture and structure in security and governance’, US Institute of Peace, November 2009, p. 1. 24 Sonya Hepinstall, ‘Holbrooke: Reformed Taliban in Afghan government not wrong’, Thomson Reuters, 6 June 2010, http://in. reuters. com/article/2010/06/07/idINIndia-49088220100607, accessed 18 June 2010. 25 Anonymous Hazara refugee, 29 June 2012. 9 0 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 human lives with the Malaysian option. I support the principle suggestions made in the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s submission and the Open Letter, so will not reiterate their points here. 2) Help educate parliamentarians and the public as to why refugees flee their homelands. Exercise clear leadership in depoliticising the debate. 3) Hazaras tell me they want peace and human rights in their homeland – only then will they stop fleeing. Hazaras have witn essed the brutal deaths of their family members, including fathers, mothers, siblings and children. Flight is accompanied by intense grief, trauma and longing. Waiting years for family reunions will drive loved ones to get on boats. Those left behind in Afghanistan not only face destitution, but are also often brutally targeted by warlords who learn that their husband, son or brother has fled to a Western country. In a recent case, the intimidation of a young Hazara refugee’s family members left in Jaghori resulted in an attack on the family home, killing an eight-monthold baby. I have witnessed refugees’ debilitating distress as they wait years How to cite Phillips, Essay examples

Managing the Global Value Chain

Question: Discuss about the Managing the Global Value Chain. Answer: Description of Competitive Advantage for Coffee Retails: This part of the report has given a detailed account on the competitive advantages of three different coffee retail chains. Here, the discussion has been made on the Starbucks, Gloria Jeans's and Nespresso. Competitive Advantage of Starbuck: In terms of competitive advantage, Starbuck maintains the level of its competencies by being one of the leading organization for product innovation. This statement can be supported by the evidence that indicates that the companys recent launch Pumpkin spice latte has followed near about 150,000 incremental visits on the initial two days (forbes.com 2017). Another potential competitive advantage of Starbuck is its capability for being flexible to satisfy the changing preferences of consumers. In this context it can be said that, it is this particular core competency of Starbuck that has supported the organization to get success in the beverage market of China. On the other hand, it should be contemplated here that it is Starbucks continuous social consciousness that has led the company to open numerous stores in several regions, which are economically backwards (forbes.com 2017). Furthermore, in terms of mighty competitive advantages, Starbucks flexible expansion strategy and its cont inuous preference for not franchising should also be considered with high priority. Competitive Advantage of Gloria jeans Coffee: Gloria Jean's coffee has the competitive edge over other coffeehouse retailers in the context of franchising. It looks for the franchises those are capable and skilled of expanding the business further. Another important fact in this regard is that Gloria Jeans has focused on a particular target market such as the group belongs to the age group of 18-25 years old (Barney 2012). Such small target market has helped the organization to give an intense focus on the requirements and demands of that target market. Competitive Advantage of Nespresso: The main competitive advantage of Nespresso is that it can produce a large quantity of coffee in minimum time, reducing the labor cost and serving the maximum customers (Alon and Eugene 2012). Another important advantage is Nespresso offers premium price coffee and with the continuous growing market, it tends to capture the 20 to 40 percent of the share of European coffee market (Matzler et al. 2013). Competitive Advantages in Terms of Enterprise Value: The companys tatal value is measured by Enterprise Value. In the more specific perspective, the measurement of the theoretical takeover price is beingrepresented by the enterorise value that an investor would have to pay for the purpose of acquiring a particular firm. Thus it is an important financial aspect to judge the companys competitive advantages. As per the value ascertained (referred to excel), EV value of the Nespresso is the largest (7990 million) compare to other two organisations. Thus, it can be concluded that Nespresso has more competitive advantages over Gloria jeans and Starbucks Corps Limited in the recent times. Enterprise value: Market value of common stock + market value of preferred equity+ market value of debt + monority interest - cash and investment Starbucks Corps Limited EV 1474.9 million Gloria jeans EV= 513.438 million Nespresso EV= 7990 million Table 1: Valuation of Enterprise of the selected companies Supply Chain Analysis of the Coffee Retail Chains: Starbucks: Inbound Logistics refers to the collection of the resources. Starbucks has its dealers those buy coffee from direct coffee producers of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Coffee beans are then transported to the storage centers where they are roasted and then packaged. After that, the packed beans go to the distribution center. Starbucks has its distribution center; it does not rely on the outsourcing to secure the quality of their products and takes control of the entire process right after the selection of the coffee beans. Starbucks operates its business in 65 countries either directly or through providing the license. The company has more than 21000 stores across the globe (Geereddy 2012); hence, Starbucks exports the resources to all its stores operated by itself as well as the licensed stores also (Hazen and Byrd 2012). Starbucks does not allow any intermediaries in for the selling of their products. Starbucks has always focused on retaining the quality of their products and standard of the service; thus, there is enormous scope for this organization for market expansion. However improved marketing strategy is required. Starbucks is required to focus on the trend of the Australian coffee culture and act accordingly for the better response from the customers. Gloria Jeans: Gloria jeans is recognized for its franchise system; the organization has adopted a program called Master Franchise Partner (MFP). The interested candidates must focus on the mission and vision of the Gloria Jeans Coffee. If the candidate is suitable, then it will be responsible solely for the service. When an interested candidate is applying for the franchise, the fact should be kept in mind that the resources can be easily sourced or supplied. Gloria Jean's Coffee has expanded its business with the help of 185 stores and 100 franchises within the years (Jacobs and Chase 2013). The organization is looking forward to expanding its market it North America and South Asian countries like China and India. Hence, the company is required to export its products to these countries. There is a huge opportunity for Gloria Jeans for the market expansion. Proper promotion and strategic management are required for the better result. Gloria jean's coffee is one of the favorite coffee shops in Melbourne. Quality of the products and standard of the service has helped this organization to yield this reputation. Nespresso: Nespresso selects the farmers from rainforest alliance for the supplying of their resources. Moreover, it provides feedbacks on the quality of the products to the farmers. As per the report published by the organization, it reveals that the organization has bought almost 1.3 million coffee bags in the year of 2011. Suppliers of the resources can easily sustain the market demand. Partners of Nespresso ventures fund adequately for the activities; thus, the suppliers can sustain the market easily. The number of the coffee suppliers for the Nespresso has almost doubled in three years (Matzler et al. 2013). It is clear from the information that the number of suppliers has been increasing with market demand. Nespresso can easily expand its business. With the changing behavior of the new generation regarding the drinking habit of coffee the scope for the market, expansion is getting higher day by day. Nespresso has become successful to take the position of a popular coffee retail chain; however, it needs to revise its marketing strategy due to the tough competition from other coffeehouse retailers. Reference List: Agha, S., Alrubaiee, L. and Jamhour, M., 2012. Effect of core competence on competitive advantage and organizational performance.International Journal of Business and management,7(1), p.192. Alon, I. and Eugene, J., 2012.Global marketing. Mcgraw Hill Higher Educat. Barney, J.B. and Hesterly, W., 2015.Strategic management and competitive advantage concepts and cases. Pearson. Barney, J.B., 2012. Purchasing, supply chain management and sustained competitive advantage: The relevance of resource?based theory.Journal of Supply Chain Management,48(2), pp.3-6. Forbes.com. (2017).Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/10/13/how-is-starbucks-maintaining-its-competitive-edge/#661dbae95a7f [Accessed 13 Jan. 2017]. Geereddy, N., 2012. Strategic Analysis Of Starbucks Corporation. Hazen, B.T. and Byrd, T.A., 2012. Toward creating competitive advantage with logistics information technology.International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management,42(1), pp.8-35. Jacobs, R. and Chase, R., 2013.Operations and supply chain management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Matzler, K., Bailom, F., Friedrich von den Eichen, S. and Kohler, T., 2013. Business model innovation: coffee triumphs for Nespresso.Journal of Business Strategy,34(2), pp.30-37.

s Use In Smoking Cessation

Pharmacodynamics of the Nicotine Patch and It’s Use in Smoking Cessations Quitting smoking is one of the hardest habits for people to quit. Thankfully today there are many helpful aids for those who are trying to quit smoking one of which is the Nicotine Patch. NRT’s or nicotine replacement therapy’s have become increasingly popular in the last decade, partly because of increased health promotion programs aimed at informing the public on the harmful effects of smoking and some possible ways to quit. Another large reason NRT’s have become increasingly popular is their availability as an OTC (Over the Counter) drug, instead of having to see a doctor for a prescription. Nevertheless before one attempts to quit smoking they should be aware of the pharmacodynamics of a nicotine addiction (the effects of the nicotine of the body), how the patch works to aid in smoking cessation, possible side effects of the patch and reasons why the patch should not be used by some individuals. Nicotine is one of the most highly addictive substances sold legally. Its Chemical composition is very close to that of heroin, and smoking is related to many serious health problems. Nicotine is so addicting because it increases the levels of certain chemicals such as dopamine ( ) and norepinepherine in the brain (BC Health Guide). Once smoke is inhaled into the lungs the nicotine almost immediately moves across the lung tissues into the bloodstream. Although nicotine is addictive, the harmful effects from smoking are caused by the tars, carbon monoxide and many other toxic chemicals in the tobacco. Quitting is so hard to do because the body becomes dependant on the nicotine. Once the individual refrains from smoking, the level of the dopamine and norepinepherine in the brain drop and the bodies react by having a nicotine withdrawal. (BC Health Guide). Although the withdrawals seem very intense at first, over time the levels of dopamine ... 's Use In Smoking Cessation Free Essays on Pharmacodynamics Of The Nicotine Patch And IT\'s Use In Smoking Cessation Pharmacodynamics of the Nicotine Patch and It’s Use in Smoking Cessations Quitting smoking is one of the hardest habits for people to quit. Thankfully today there are many helpful aids for those who are trying to quit smoking one of which is the Nicotine Patch. NRT’s or nicotine replacement therapy’s have become increasingly popular in the last decade, partly because of increased health promotion programs aimed at informing the public on the harmful effects of smoking and some possible ways to quit. Another large reason NRT’s have become increasingly popular is their availability as an OTC (Over the Counter) drug, instead of having to see a doctor for a prescription. Nevertheless before one attempts to quit smoking they should be aware of the pharmacodynamics of a nicotine addiction (the effects of the nicotine of the body), how the patch works to aid in smoking cessation, possible side effects of the patch and reasons why the patch should not be used by some individuals. Nicotine is one of the most highly addictive substances sold legally. Its Chemical composition is very close to that of heroin, and smoking is related to many serious health problems. Nicotine is so addicting because it increases the levels of certain chemicals such as dopamine ( ) and norepinepherine in the brain (BC Health Guide). Once smoke is inhaled into the lungs the nicotine almost immediately moves across the lung tissues into the bloodstream. Although nicotine is addictive, the harmful effects from smoking are caused by the tars, carbon monoxide and many other toxic chemicals in the tobacco. Quitting is so hard to do because the body becomes dependant on the nicotine. Once the individual refrains from smoking, the level of the dopamine and norepinepherine in the brain drop and the bodies react by having a nicotine withdrawal. (BC Health Guide). Although the withdrawals seem very intense at first, over time the levels of dopamine ...

The Market for Online Education The WritePass Journal

The Market for Online Education Introduction The Market for Online Education ). In addition to this, most universities are run by non-profit trusts or governments, where there is little pressure to innovate and fully utilize the physical and intellectual resources of the institution. With this backdrop, online courses are offering low-cost learning alternatives, which are customized for needs of customers, and are available without regard to space and time for different groups of customers worldwide. Over time, attitudes of students and employers towards online education are also improving. Finally, new private companies are coming up to offer customized solutions often backed by cloud computing platforms, though they still lack the brand recognition of traditional universities. This paper will examine the limitations of traditional educational methods and explore sources of demand and supply of online education with a view towards how innovative business models such as crowdsourcing and technology infrastructures such as cloud computing are creating change in online education (Weld et al., 2012). Evolution of Online Education Traditional education delivery in thousands of universities globally is designed around transfer of knowledge from teachers to students via face-to-face, lecture based interaction in physical classrooms. At the outset, this imposes the limit of physical capacity of the classroom on the number of individuals who can enrol in the class. In comparison, recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled alternative online education delivery mechanisms, which can optimize educational delivery in a cost-efficient manner for a large number of users. Online education can be defined as a new social process which utilizes digital technology to partially or fully substitute traditional classroom learning methods, optimized for learners without the barriers of a traditional educational setup (Hiltz Turoff, 2006). Allen and Seaman (2013) define online education to include courses where at least 80% of the course content is delivered online. These courses are delivered ove r the Internet and include significant use of digital media, data storage and communication technologies such as computer-assisted instruction, group communications, use of immersive simulations, gaming and asynchronous learning networks, collaborative knowledge systems and use of wireless and handheld devices. Online education offers different sets of opportunities to different organisations and individuals. For existing educational institutions, it offers a way to increase enrolment or reach a different type of audience such as corporate training. For start-ups looking to shake up the education ‘industry’, it offers the opportunity to compete with traditional universities on different bases of competition, such as price, program duration or class timing. For others, it offers the opportunity for lifelong learning or the opportunity to learn from professors of top universities. Surveys show that the number of students taking online learning courses is on the rise. Allen and Seaman (2013) report that the total number of students in the U.S. taking at least 1 online course during 2012 has increased to 6.7 million, representing 32% of the total student population of 21 million students. In an endorsement of the online learning platform, 77% of academic leaders believe that online learning leads to better learning outcomes than face-to-face instruction. On the major obstacles that are holding back the growth of online education, the authors believe that most faculty members still do not have a positive view about online learning. 40% believe employers have reservations about online degrees. Product Offerings Online education is influencing different tiers of the market in different ways. Firstly, in traditional universities, more and more fully online classes are being developed, and technology is finding its way into more traditional classes as well. Many universities now offer online only classes for their students. In addition, universities such as Georgia Tech are creating tailor made degrees for corporations such as ATT. This setup benefits the university which gets an extra revenue stream and also ATT which gets high-end skills training for its employees on the job (Kitroeff, 2014).   In addition, some new, non-traditional universities have also been set up. These online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, replicate the existing university model but without a physical campus, utilizing online content delivery. A different model has also been developed by some traditional universities such as MIT and Stanford. In partnership with private start-up companies such as Coursera and EdX, these institutions are putting together free classes open to global masses known as massive open online courses (MOOC). These courses are available to all the students in the world who have Internet access and some of these classes boast registrations in hundreds of thousands. Currently, nearly 3% of institutions of higher education in the US are offering MOOCs while another 10% are in the planning process of offering MOOCs (Allen Seaman, 2013). Coursera is also expanding into China with its more than 1 million online learners (Larson, 2014). However, it is not clear how MOOC offerings will be financed (Anderson, 2012). The author points out that giving away content for free usually never turns out to be good business model. Suggestions for revenue generation include subscription and charging employers who want to hire successful students. Another issue is how to ascertain the identity and actual completion of work by a given individual. Udacity, another start-up has devised a solution by offering physical testing facilities in different countries where students can take certification exams in a supervised environment. While they are becoming increasingly popular, MOOCs offer limited customization. In comparison, some start-up education companies are exploring the idea of customized learning enabled by ‘crowdsourcing’. Crowdsourcing is a term which defines the development of an online community whose physically dispersed members may be called upon to provide results online to a given problem. One limitation of MOOCs is that grading assignments of hundreds of thousands of students requires using automated software, which can only grade multiple choice problems. This solution does not work very well in the humanities and social sciences. A crowdsourcing-based solution is to use peer evaluation for this purpose. These learning environments also deploy other technology enabled learning techniques such as using software to analyse common mistakes made by large groups with the highest frequency. Significant insights can be gained into human learning from observing such errors and analyzing their causes. Other automated software agents can crawl the web for useful resources pertaining to the course and collect it on a new website. Additional functionalities that can be offered by machine learning systems include services that link students with particular needs with tutors with skills suitable for teaching those subjects. Role of technology in the online education ecosystem Central to this paradigm shift in education is the Internet and technology revolution. A key enabling innovation in this regard is the development of a low-cost services model known as cloud computing. Cloud computing is an umbrella terms which describes how computers, servers, and applications and processes on those servers can be networked together in a distributed computing platform to create scalable infrastructure which enables users to connect from anywhere and using any device. Cloud computing may be considered an extension of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a software design which makes it easy for computers on a network to cooperate. An institution or group of institutions that gets together to develop a cloud computing based platform needs to develop content and services that can reside inside the cloud since not all applications are cloud enabled (Mircea Andreescu, 2011). Cloud computing is a way of designing a network in blocks, not all of which need to be owned or operated by one university. Instead some components of infrastructure, or the platform or the software or even the computing power itself may be owned and managed by service providers who allow the university to pay for them on an ongoing, pay-per-use basis (Matthew, 2012). Cloud enabled service delivery enables access to educational content by anyone, anywhere on a pay-per-use basis, thus enabling deployment of scalable educational services. If a substantial number of users exist, the cost per user and thus the fee charged to the user can be lowered substantially compared to traditional educational institutions (Moore, 2011). This can have several other advantages for institutions as well. For example, institutions can combine resources with others to share a cloud, and then focus on content creation to focus on their strength and outsourcing the IT services to a large degree. The new business models will begin with market need identification, and then deploying a solution to meet that need, offering a high return on investment (ROI). A major university offering a global MOOC would need a very different platform than a commercial service offering English as Second Language in China and cloud computing would allow each to have the right cost and infrastructure for the size of the opportunity. A lot of effort is going into the development of each of the elements of online education. These include digital books, grading software, intelligent software agents, cloud computing infrastructure and tablets. Amazon is also selling more digital books than paper books and it is now even possible for students taking online classes to rent their textbooks for limited time (Schuetze, 2011). Through its success, online education seems to be substituting traditional education (Mehaffy, 2012). This phenomenon has been labelled by Christensen Eyring (2011) as the process of ‘disruption’. ‘Disruptive technologies’ are championed by new companies which do not compete with the incumbents along the existing bases of competition, but offer new and often low-cost product to a previously underserved group of consumers. Once successful in their niches, they increase volume, improve product quality and unseat incumbents in the high end of the market. Alternatively, disruption forces incumbents to change their business models. One of the reasons the education market seems ripe for disruption is the high cost of university education which makes the high-end of the market out of reach for many students. Some of the new business models in online education offer lower cost alternatives for those average students. In response, several mainstream universities are already considering lowering the residency requirement of their degrees to lower the total cost of earning them, while considering how to improve their online courses. While it may be too early to predict how successful they will be, for now the online education market seems set to grow globally. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that online education is a powerful business model because it can service large underserved segments of the education market at low average cost (Gaytan, 2007). It is a solution for those who could previously not afford the high cost of education or may only need to develop certain job related skills or they may be lifelong learners. Deployment of digital content and software over a cloud enabled distributed computing network is the first step towards infrastructure development required for online learning platforms. More high-quality content is required together with ingenious business models to take online education to the next level of success. Recommendations While they do not face any immediate threats, existing educational institutions will need to adapt their business models in order to not become obsolete. At a minimum, they should consider ways of reducing their cost without diluting the experience. Traditional universities have a strong competitive advantage – they offer a period of residence in an academic community. This is difficult to replicate for online institutions. Online universities should consider partnerships for revenue and content sharing with traditional institutions in order to build their brands quicker. Without brand acceptance, they will never be able to compete with traditional universities. Start-ups should focus on helping develop those innovations that increase the return on investment in new business models for educational service providers to encourage innovation and investment in technology supporting online education. Bibliography Allen, I. E., Seaman, J. 2013.  Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950. Anderson, N. 2012. Elite education for the masses.  The Washington Post,  4. Christensen, C. M., Eyring, H. J. 2011.  The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. John Wiley Sons. Conn, S. S., Reichgelt, H. 2012. Cloud Computing in Support of Applied Learning: A Baseline Study of Infrastructure Design at Southern Polytechnic State University. In  Proceedings of the Information Systems Educators Conference ISSN  (Vol. 2167, p. 1435). Gaytan, J. 2007. Visions shaping the future of online education: Understanding its historical evolution, implications, and assumptions.  Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration,  10(2). Hiltz, S. R., Turoff, M. 2005. Education goes digital: The evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education.  Communications of the ACM,48(10), 59-64. Larson, C. 2014. Coursera’s plan for online education: Expansion in China. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-27/coursera-ceo-richard-levin-plans-to-expand-the-company-in-china. Kitroeff, N. 2014. Why ATT is investing in virtual school. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-24/at-and-t-and-former-google-vp-back-georgia-tech-online-degree-program. Mathew, S. 2012. Implementation of Cloud Computing in Education A Revolution. International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 4(3), 473 – 475. Mehaffy, G. L. 2012. Challenge and change.  Educause Review,  47(5), 25-42. Mircea, M., Andreescu, A. I. 2011. Using cloud computing in higher education: A strategy to improve agility in the current financial crisis. Communications of the IBIMA,  2011, 1-15. Moore, J. C. 2012. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, December 2011.  Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks,  16(1), 91-115. Schuetze, C. F. 2011. Textbooks finally take a big leap to digital.  The New York Times. Vella, M. (2012). Is higher education doomed? Fortune. Retrieved on October 28, 2014 from http://fortune.com/2012/07/18/is-higher-education-doomed/. Yuan, L., Powell, S., CETIS, J. 2013. MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education.  Cetis White Paper. Weld, D. S., Adar, E., Chilton, L., Hoffmann, R., Horvitz, E., Koch, M., Mausam, M. 2012. Personalized online education- a crowdsourcing challenge. In  Workshops at the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

How to Get the Job You Want by Being the Perfect Fit

How to Get the Job You Want by Being the Perfect Fit Recruiters are careful about the applicants they choose to interview because the faster they do their job, the faster they can go on to the next task. One thing recruiters don’t like is wasting time, so job applicants who  are a great fit are more likely to be called in for an interview. You’ve searched the job classifieds for weeks and finally nailed an interview. Here are a few tips to  help you present yourself as the best person for the position so you get the job.Offer the best reasons why you should have the jobInterviews don’t tend to last long, so making the most of your time is important. Prepare a list in advance of your selling points. You may want to include your experience, technical and soft skills, education, training, and accomplishments that benefited your previous company.Ask a family member or friend to help you practiceA  successful interview can depend on practicing  your body language and what you are going to say. Appearing anxious during your interview may be a problem; however, by practicing your responses in advance, you will appear confident and sure of yourself. Ask a friend or family member to practice with you. If no one is available, practice in front of a mirror until you think you have it down pat.Combine your skillsYou may have good qualifications for your desired job, but others may have those same qualifications. See if you can combine several skills that appear on the job application to set yourself apart from other applicants. For example, if you have great computer skills and have also led project teams, point that out to the recruiter.Find out about the interview formatRecruiters use various formats while interviewing candidates for a job. Knowing whether the recruiter will use standard questions, or, for example offer problems you have to solve can help you prepare in advance. What the recruiter is looking for is a creative person who is up to any challenge. There is no problem with asking th e recruiter what type of questions will be presented during your interview, so go ahead and do it.Keep your answers shortDroning on and on is a good way to lose the recruiter’s interest. By practicing, you can hone down your answers to one or two minutes. However, be cautious because memorized responses can sound stiff and robotic during an interview. Work at maintaining your natural voice so your answers sound unrehearsed.Dress for the jobOf course you would like to go to your interview in your comfy jeans and sneakers, but that may not be appropriate. Look over the company to see how its employees dress, and copy that style for your interview. For example, if the employees wear suits, wear one. If they wear khakis and Hawaiian shirts, wear that. One important point is that whatever you wear, you should feel comfortable. While it might be tempting to go out and buy new clothing, if you aren’t comfortable, it will show during your interview.Being prepared for an interv iew is just as important as finding a great position. You can improve how you do both by using successful tactics. Instead of searching for work through classified job ads, you can upscale your search by letting TheJobNetwork do your search for you. All you do is fill out your qualifications and job interests, and TheJobNetwork will send you email alerts for jobs. When you sign up with TheJobNetwork, you won’t miss out on any opportunities.

Polygraphs Roles in Detection Physically and Mentally on Suspects Research Paper

Polygraphs Roles in Detection Physically and Mentally on Suspects - Research Paper Example Victims of sexual assault may not be able to justify the events that led to the assault thus calling for the use of the polygraph on the perpetrators in order, to tell the truth regarding such events. In criminal investigations, the perpetrators are bound to display various post-traumatic stress disorders such as anxiety and other emotional attributes that help the polygraph to detect the truth on a certain matter with ease (Rathus, 2010). The use of polygraphs has been employed by many prosecutors in the court of law to justify the truth on the case in the litigation, which helps to the criminal investigation. The polygraph is used in the military interrogations whereby the examiner of the polygraph detects the truth concerning the military information from a suspect. The polygraph may extend its purpose to the military personnel in order to assist them in to detect a post-traumatic stress disorder that may affect their emotions and behaviors especially after a combat in battles. A suspect holding military information is treated as a threat especially when such an individual is not in the discipline forces, which, therefore, requires the use of the polygraph in order to unravel the truth of such information. Military personnel is subjected to post-traumatic stress disorders after a series of combat, which, therefore, calls for the use of the polygraph in order to assist such a person in dealing with emotional and behavioral changes that follow major combats. The polygraphs enable an examiner to identify the emotional and behavioral changes that befall a military personnel thus helping the examiner to address the challenging issues, which subsequently enables the military personnel to cope with any post-traumatic stress disorders.

Social Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Relations - Essay Example Many people tend to be aggressive for one reason or another. The result of one's character is highly characterized by roles one plays, and mutual interactions of motivation and the motion which lies at the heart of autonomy adaptation and social interaction in both biological and artificial agents (Kenny D, 1994). They also have a powerful and wide range in influence on many aspects of cognition and action even though one's role is often considered complimentary. This is concerned by external and internal factors involved in the establishment of one's behaviour where emotion is the core determiner of behaviour among the critical factors (Kenny D, 1994). Within societies, an individual learns not only on his own but also through interaction with other people surrounding him/her. This brings about the issue of social intelligence an essential tool in communication through conservations (Brown J, 1991). Social aggregation has a strong genetic basis where it is mainly as a result of environmental influences (Brown J, 1991). Specifically, teachers and peers indicate an extent to which a participating child exhibits social aggressive behaviors, such as trying to make others hate one another or the degree of influence to make others like one another, or saying bad things and spreading nasty rumours (Brown J, 1991). Empirical evidence for an effect of workplace psychological control on an individual is sometimes not visible but studies have shown that negative parenting behaviours such as lack of responsiveness and coercion are linked to one's ego (Perloff R, 2003). People who have socially aggressive friends tend to be aggressive themselves (Perloff R, 2003). This contributes to much social stratification where people tend to group themselves in terms of character and behaviour. This makes them share a habit in common. For workers today, the stress associated with trying to blend the responsibilities of paid work with responsibilities of family and personal life has become an increasingly visible issue (Perloff R, 2003). This is because more and more workers continue reporting on how their lives have become frenzy as they struggle with the unrelenting demands of work and personality (Perloff R, 2003). The significance of being free of bias brings about independence freedom of thought and democracy, where one is not intimidated (Kenny D, 1994). It creates integrative minds, where a person acts without being told, and thinks that he is right (Kenny D, 1994). There is an increasing demand for those who practice initiative because the reward is two fold, one it helps one improve his financial status and also develops strength in his/her personal attributes. In conclusion, social psychology principles plays a critical component in enabling individuals interact, as well as personal relationship. It creates the spirit of mutual interrelationship between people whereby, the participants share information, therefore enhancing clear understanding of our surroundings. Reference Brown, J. David. (1991). "Preprofessional Socialization and Identity Transformation: The Case of the Professional Experience". Journal of Contemporary Ethnography Perloff, R. M. (2003).

Physician Assisted Suicide Essay Example for Free

Physician Assisted Suicide Essay The controversy surrounding physician assisted suicide has dominated the public court for long drawing and evoking varying emotions whenever it arises. Not to be confused with euthanasia, physician assisted suicide refers to the act by doctors to provide a lethal injection to a patient at his or her request with an intention of terminating the patients life. It is closely related to euthanasia only that euthanasia can be carried out by doctors with or without the request of the patient. The debate on legalization of physician assisted suicide and its ethical appropriateness has at one time cropped up in most countries. It is always a sensitive topic to the policy makers and politicians thanks to the arguments and the counterarguments it attracts, pitting religious groups and the liberalists. Religious groups like the Catholic Church feel it is unethical and against God’s teachings and will. Liberalists believe it should be a personal choice and not to be left to the dictates of the politicians and religious fundamentalists. There are those too in the medical profession who see it as a grave violation of the professional requirements as vowed in the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic oath refers to the oath made by medical practitioners vowing not to carry out any prescription that would jeopardize the life of a patient whether or not it is at the patients requestor not. Doctors are supposed to abide by this oath. This is an oath that owes its history to the pre-medieval period and may not have foreseen the sort of challenges facing patients, doctors and other stakeholders in the health provision sector. This is a debate that has reigned much in the 20th century and it is the high time it is put to rest. The position of this paper is that physician assisted death is an exercise of ones fundamental freedoms and allows a patient to die with dignity (Colesanto, 62). The activism towards legalizing physician assisted deaths dates back to the start of the 20th century. It is this period that would witness the rise and the formation of societies and organization whose intention was to agitate either for its legalization or for its complete legal prohibition. In spite of this decades’ long activism, in the United States for example, only the state of Oregon has legalized it. Other countries in the world with a clear law on its legalization are Netherlands and Belgium, which passed the law in 2002. In Switzerland, physician assisted deaths are legal but there is a strict demand for certification and a clear establishment of such a need. These countries have provided inspiration to the rest of the world and soon there is likely to be increased activism towards the enactment of such laws. This will give patients faced with extreme choices to make one last important choice regarding their life, choosing to terminate their sufferings or to continue wallowing in a miasma of immense pain in the face of a sure death. The much hullabaloo about the ethical acceptability of physician assisted suicide misses a very important point; it is neither moral nor immoral. It is a personal choice that should be given to every patient who certifies the minimum required conditions. What should be noted is that death under normal circumstances is never pleasurable, a decision to end life is made after hard considerations and in the knowledge that it is the only easy way out. Patients who make such hard choices are driven by the immense pain they are facing and with no respite in sight. That is the key reason why it is the patient that makes the call rather than the doctor. Wear notes that in assisted suicide, â€Å"the patient acts the part. † He further says that the choice to either take death or life in physically assisted suicide â€Å"rests fully with the patient in the sense that neither will take place without the patient’s desire† (87) This brings in an important point into the debate; choice. This is the key argument behind physician assisted deaths. They should be permitted in the respect of one fundamental freedom of making own choices regarding the direction of our lives especially faced with such insurmountable odds. It is the final freedom of choice to be exercised. A look at terminally ill patients leaves one with pity and grief at the pain some of them go through. Although there has been tremendous efforts brought forth by technology seeking to improving the conditions and the lifespan of these patients, it is apparent that they go through a lot of suffering. There is no known medication that can ease such pain. One noted complication id the feeling of breathlessness and suffocation experienced by a lot of terminally ill patients in their death bed. This is a complication that can not be alleviated through drugs and always leaves a patient with a feeling of helplessness. The bouts of pain that attacks such patients cannot be eased effectively through the use of medication. Patients have to brave through such suffering in the daunting knowledge that death is on the way. To such patients, it is without any doubt that death would be a welcome respite, and to know that they can have control of the hour that such a death would take place would be a great solace thanks to physician assisted death. Most hospices offering palliative care are filled with people living their last moments on earth. They are people who have failed to receive any improvements from the normal process of medication and some of them are meant to receive comfort in their last days on earth. It is important to note that many are in a vegetative state and no amount of medication, care and therapy can bring them back to their active life. They hence become a burden to their loved ones and to the society in general. Most of these, especially the aged are more than willing to die, they do not expect to hang on to life forever as John Hardwig notes, â€Å"to have reached the age of, say, seventy-five or eighty years without being ready to die is itself a moral failing, the sign of a life out of touch with lifes basic realities† (14) It goes without saying that anyone has reached such a point in time and is in a vegetative state requires a lot of attention from the spouse, family members and friends. He has to receive constant visitations and comfort to re assure him or her during the last moments. This inability to fend for oneself and the feeling that one is a burden to family members is degrading in itself and given a choice, majority would prefer death to such loss of dignity. This is where the concept of dying with dignity comes in. Though those who take an economic approach to this debate are accused of being mundane and hedonistic, it is an important issue that has to be tackled. Palliative care for terminally ill patients for example can be both financially and emotionally draining both to the patients and to the families’ savings. It is only a matter of time before the spouse or the family begins complaining of the huge bills and time that they commit to medication and care. Economics aside, this is usually an emotionally draining period, as Ackerman notes, â€Å"when this kind of care giving goes on for years, it leaves the care- giver exhausted, with no time for herself or life of her own†. 5) The amount of money spent during this period can eat up into the family’s savings and jeopardize the lives of those that are healthy. It has to be understood that the rest of the members have other obligations and plans such as bills and college fees. It is not prudent hence to continue paying for the care of a person who is willing to die rather than commit such funds to a more fulfilling venture with long term implications. In such a case, phy sician assisted suicide is the only way out. There is however lots of people who are opposed to physician assisted deaths. They cite various reasons such as ethics and the importance of human life over money and that it is against their religious teachings. One major argument is that legalization of physician assisted death will result into a devaluation of life (Low 37). It is true that there has to be effective laws in place to regulate the useless taking of people’s lives, to ensure that people do not end other people’s lives just because they feel like. However, when it comes to terminally ill and suffering patients beyond any medical salvage, the issue of devaluation of life does not come into play. They are suffering and death is fast coming, why not let them make that one important decision that will put a stop to their suffering? It is apparent that this debate has ranged on for long. Each time it is mentioned though, its benefits are more glaring than its disadvantages. It is an important way of easing the suffering of terminally ill patients by given them a chance to exercise their one final choice regarding their lives. This is a practice that eases both the patients’ and the family members’ economic and emotional strain.

The Stereotypical Old-West Hero :: American Culture Essays

The Stereotypical Old-West Hero Gunsmoke is a 1950's western series played on CBS radio station during the Vietnam war. It is about a U.S. Marshall named Matt Dillon who is in charge of keeping the law and respect in a town called Dodge City. Each episode has Matt Dillon dealing with problems such as murders, brawls, and gunfights that occur in the Wild West. Matt Dillon is personified as being inquisitive, independent, and not very emotional as a U.S. Marshall. He gives a view of the stereotypical old-west hero. In the series Gunsmoke, Matt Dillon had a very inquisitive nature. Everything that was talked about or anyone that he talked with always was confronted with questions to find out exactly what was going on. He questioned a lot concerning people he did not like. It seemed like when ever a problem or situation came to his attention, or if someone seemed suspicious he would start inquiring more. For example, in the first episode, Matt Dillon is confronted with a person he does not like called Web. He asks his sidekick, Chester, to gather more information about him concerning his past history. As the episode progresses listeners find out that another man wanted to kill Web. On the next story Dillon has to look for an ex-killer in another town. Before he goes on the mission he asks a lot of question such as, "What does this man look like", "When is the last time he was seen", etc. Questioning seems very typical of lawmen back than, and even today. Weather the questions were to start a figh t, or solve a dilemma questioning was a lawmen's best friend. Another point that was noticeable in Gunsmoke was the independence of Dillon. As the listeners hear the stories they cannot help but notice how Mat Dillon only has one partner named Chester. It also seems like Chester is more like Dillon's conscience, bringing up points or making suggestion depending on the circumstances. Near the end of the first story Matt Dillon suggest that Web leave town for a few days. As Chester and Dillon enter the saloon called Long Horn, Dillon turns and tells Chester to wait at the door as he goes after Web. Near the end of the second story Dillon leaves Chester to go tell a woman about her dead husband. In the third story Dillon leaves Chester, and goes after a man called, Pat, to arrest him.

What Is Software Defined Radio?

What is Software Defined Radio? With the exponential growth in the ways and means by which people need to communicate – data communications, voice communications, video communications, broadcast messaging, command and control communications, emergency response communications, etc. – modifying radio devices easily and cost-effectively has become business critical. Software defined radio (SDR) technology brings the flexibility, cost efficiency and power to drive communications forward, with wide-reaching benefits realized by service providers and product developers through to end users.Defination of SDR Simply put Software Defined Radio is defined as : â€Å"Radio in which some or all of the physical layer functions are software defined† A radio is any kind of device that wirelessly transmits or receives signals in the radio frequency (RF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum to facilitate the transfer of information. In today's world, radios exist in a multitude o f items such as cell phones, computers, car door openers, vehicles, and televisions.SDR defines a collection of hardware and software technologies where some or all of the radio’s operating functions (also referred to as physical layer processing) are implemented through modifiable software or firmware operating on programmable processing technologies. Benefits of SDR For Radio Equipment Manufacturers and System Integrators, SDR Enables: 1. A family of radio â€Å"products† to be implemented using a common platform architecture, allowing new products to be more quickly introduced into the market. 2. Software to be reused across radio â€Å"products†, reducing development costs dramatically. . Over-the-air or other remote reprogramming, allowing â€Å"bug fixes† to occur while a radio is in service, thus reducing the time and costs associated with operation and maintenance. For End Users – from business travelers to soldiers on the battlefield, SDR technology aims to: 1. Reduce costs in providing end-users with access to ubiquitous wireless communications – enabling them to communicate with whomever they need, whenever they need to and in whatever manner is appropriate. National Defence University Of Malaysia SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO Name : Hasseler anak Tumas Matriks no : 2120339

Chinese Qing official vs. Japanese Meiji

Much have been told about the historical background of China and Japan, particularly on the part of their history that the Western powers intruded their land.Also, versions have been aired countless times on who really had the best policy or the best response towards the invasion of the Western powers. China claimed they are. Japan claimed they are.The debate below is hypothetically set after the Opium War when China was again subjected to Western subjugation while claiming that they had the best response towards Western invasion. Japan, on the other hand, claims the same thing.Opium WarDuring about 1830s, the Chinese government exerted much effort in halting the illegal smuggling of opium products by the Western, particularly the British. Apart from the unhealthy effects of opium smoking among the Chinese, there was a considerably economic damage that happened mainly caused by the â€Å"drainage of cash silver† from China to be paid for the illegal imports[1].The trades striv ed for a long time as millions and millions among the Chinese (simultaneous with the corruption among custom officials) got addicted to the illegal imported product. In 1838, the Chinese emperor finally did something for the illegal trade to stop—or to try to stop, at least.Given the situation, the emperor had no choice but to resort in to some sort of repression and suppression among the people of China. The emperor ordered summary executions of Chinese drug traffickers.But then, the British government still allowed the importation of the â€Å"addictive† and illegal products. The situation made the ire the Chinese government and resorted to the evil atâ€Å"CHINESE QING OFFICIAL VS. JAPANESE MEIJI† PAGE#2its roots. It was during the time of Lin Tse-hsu, the special Imperial Commissionerwhen the rage heated up.   The Opium War was just an introduction into more complicated events that came.Below are the hypothetical claims of both China and Japan of which of them employed or implemented the best response or policy towards the Western invasion after the Opium War while their country faced the threat of further invasion.Letter to Japanese Meiji (from a Chinese Qing Official)ATTENTION: MEIJI EMPEROR OF JAPANThis letter is intended to be read by any Japanese Meiji official. This is to manifest that it was China, particularly us, the Qing dynasty who did the best response towards the Western invasion after the Opium War.I am writing this letter not just to boast but to put everything in place.China has been described by some historical accounts as a country which has been found to have a string of â€Å"humiliating defeats.† This speaks very well on the part of the history timeline when Japan and the Western powers claimed victory over the domination of some parts of China.And I think it is about time to correct what has been said against China although some people do not consider history as an important matter.In terms of internation al strategy and ideal response, I can proudly claim that the Qing emperor’s response or policy was the best way against the Western invasion.The Qing emperor was determined to maintain the autonomy of China and to protect China from further invasions especially of the Western powers. Also in the nineteenth century, China experiences setbacks in it economy. In the same time period, China tradingâ€Å"CHINESE QING OFFICIAL VS. JAPANESE MEIJI† PAGE#3system was monopolized by the Portuguese and then Spanish, French, and British traders followed the trend. [2]China stood firm against further invasion, so in the trading system, the West was pushed to follow certain trading guidelines which were centuries-old guidelines imposed by the Chinese.[1] Ha, Zhang. â€Å"Understand and Treat with Historical Issues Correctly†.   2005. April 14 2007. .[2] Chinese Repository. Vol. 8, February 1840.   

Hotel and Motel Beginner English Language Practice

Hotel and Motel Beginner English Language Practice Make sure to understand the use of the verb like when checking-in to a hotel, as well as how to ask polite questions with the modal verbs can and may. Understanding vocabulary related to travel will help you communicate when you are in a motel or a hotel. Getting a Room for the Night Desk clerk: Good evening. Can I help you?Guest: Yes, please. Id like a room for the night.Desk clerk:  Would you like a single room, or a double room?Guest:  A single room, please. How much is the room?Desk clerk:  Its $55 per night.Guest:  Can I pay by credit card?Desk clerk:  Certainly. We take Visa, Master Card and American Express. Could you fill in this form, please?Guest:  Do you need my passport number?Desk clerk:  No, just an address and your signature.Guest:  Ã‚  (fills out the form) Here you are.Desk clerk:  Heres your key. Your room number is 212.Guest:  Thank you.Desk clerk:  Thank you. If you need anything, dial 0 for the reception area. Have a good stay! Key Vocabulary Can I help you?Id like a roomSingle, double roomCan I pay by credit card?Fill in this formPassport numberRoom numberReceptionWhere is the...ElevatorLobbyIs breakfast included?Do you offer room service?

60-Second Game of Fairy Tale Improv

60-Second Game of Fairy Tale Improv For a good exercise in impromptu storytelling, try performing a well-known fairy tale in one minute flat. Drama classes and acting troupes alike can use the â€Å"60 Second Fairy Tale† to sharpen improvisational skills. Its also a great game for families and kids. How to Play Your cast size should be at least three people. (Four or five would be ideal.) One person serves as the Moderator, a person who interacts with the audience and plays the narrator, if necessary. The rest of the cast are the fairy tale performers. The Moderator asks the audience for fairy tale suggestions. Hopefully, the audience will shout out some great choices: Snow WhiteRapunzelThe Little MermaidHansel and GretelSleeping BeautyLittle Red Riding Hood Then, the Moderator selects a story everyone in the cast knows quite well. Remember, narratives such as â€Å"Cinderella† and â€Å"The Ugly Duckling† are more preferable- and more performable- than obscure fairy tales from ancient Babylonia. The Performance Begins Once the story has been chosen, the 60 second show can start. To keep the storyline fresh in the mind of the performers, the Moderator should quickly recap the key events of the story. Here’s an example: MODERATOR: â€Å"Okay, great, I heard someone suggest â€Å"The Three Little Pigs.† This is the one where three brother pigs each go about building their new homes, one with straw, the other with sticks, and the third with brick. A big bad wolf proceeds to demolish the first two houses, but can’t destroy the third. Now, let’s see this famous fairy tale performed for us in 60 seconds! Action!† Then the performers begin to act out the story. Even though they are trying to complete the entire tale in a very short amount of time, they should still create funny, interesting characters. They should also establish setting and conflict. Whenever the cast members slow things down, the Moderator can prompt them by narrating a new event, or simply by reading from a stopwatch. Nothing moves a scene along like calling out, â€Å"Twenty seconds left!† Variations Although the fast-paced nature of this game is very entertaining, there’s no harm in trying a â€Å"slower† five minute version. That way, actors can take their time and develop more character interactions and hilarious moments. Also, if the well of popular fairy tales runs dry, feel free to try out some of these Aesop fables: Tortoise and the HareThe Mouse and the LionThe Fox and the CrowThe Boy who Cried Wolf Or, if the talented acting troupe has a taste for pop-culture, try performing a movie in a minute. See what you can do with films such as: CasablancaStar WarsThe Wizard of OzGreaseGone with the Wind As with any improvisation activity, the goals are simple: have fun, develop characters, and think fast!

Business Intelligence (SLP) Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Intelligence (SLP) - Coursework Example Business Intelligence systems use tools to gather, store, analyze and present data which is then used to create business strategies. Business intelligence systems use enterprise wide data which minimizes the need for technical and clerical staff. One of the top players in the field of business intelligence is SAP which has developed tools primarily in three categories to aid decision making; the categories include performance optimization applications, business intelligence platform packages and packages for small and medium sized businesses. The data gathered through business intelligence is spread across a variety of locations in a business context such as the marketing department, finance department, operations etc. In order to take informed, strategic decisions there is a need for this data to be structured in a user friendly manner. Traditionally, the IT department in any organization would allow the use of structured reports from various departments which although would present the information but the integration of the information would be a cumbersome process. This is where the SAP Crystal Interactive Analysis Desktop Edition (formerly known as SAP Business Objectsâ„ ¢ Interactive Analysis, Desktop edition) comes in. The Desktop edition provides self-service data access, multiple source data analysis and trusted insight. This tool allows business managers to develop ad-hoc, interactive reports which can help answer the ever evolving business questions. SAP Crystal Interactive Analysis does not only allow the b usiness managers to view information based on the needs of the specific problem at hand but allows them to conduct an analysis of the information presented. The Interactive Analysis tool gives its users the ability to conduct contingency based analysis of business critical information. It allows the decision makers to combine many types of data from different sources. For example, a production manager can access