The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis - 567 Words

In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis provides an allegorical description of a dreamers journey from hell to heaven. The Narrator of the book takes a journey on a bus from the grey town, hell, to just outside of heaven. While he is making this trip from the grey town to heaven, he converses with some of his fellow travelers. These travelers are all different, yet all have the mindset of not being able to leave the darkness of the grey town and go to the joy that is heaven. Through his talent in story-telling and writing, C.S. Lewis provides many thoughts and questions to be discussed and pondered upon. He leaves ideas open for interpretation through allegorical writing, providing room for the reader to be brought into the story through thought. He gives the reader a thought of what Heaven and hell are like, and how they relate to each other; along with images of how God works in the world and afterlife, and what is waiting for us after we die through the images of the afterlife. The openi ng of the book brings the reader into the story through the eyes of the narrator. It is as if the reader is the narrator and is going through the grey town himself. We see the book and the images of heaven and hell by the way that the narrator experiences and describes it. This is a great way to go about writing this story, because it has a more intimate connection between the reader and the story. The narrator goes around the grey town and into the bus talking to all the characters he sees.Show MoreRelated The Manifestation of Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis1271 Words   |  6 Pagesof Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis suggests that choices made on earth have a consequential effect towards our acceptance into heaven or our plummet into hell. In this book pride manifests itself in a hundred subtle ways as souls whine about perceived injustices or irrational motives. Thankfully, a few tourists do humble themselves, become transformed into marvelously real beings, and remain in heaven. But most dont, about which the great Scottish authorRead MoreHeave in Hell in C.S. Lewis ´ The Great Divorce Essay1010 Words   |  5 PagesIn his novel The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis depicts two settings: one of a grey town where whatever you want is provided for you and another of grand pasture. These settings, in the book, represent Heaven in Hell in a way, depending on which characters perspective the places are viewed from. However, the places that the main character visits and the journey that he takes is one that can be used to model the journey of our spiritual walk. Similar to how the protagonist starts in a bleak town thenRead MoreThe Great Divorce And The Screwtape Letters1891 Words   |  8 PagesC.S. Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. Lewis went to Oxford University and focused on literature and classic philosophy. His most popular work is the children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia. This book series has been loved by many readers for decades and movies have also been made. (C.S. Lewis Biography.) One of the great things that Lewis was able to do with his novels are that he could hide a deeper meaning in different characters and even make the entire novel aRead MoreJohn Lewis s Writing Shines New Light On What Happiness714 Words   |  3 Pagesthe human spirit. In â€Å"We Have No ‘Right to Happiness’†, C.S. Lewis challenges the superficial view of happiness that we can do whatever it takes to be happy, regardless of others. Lewis observes how we reach happiness in relationships, pointing out t hat too many people only want happiness for themselves, which in turn deprives others of the same joy. He bases his augment on society’s view points, using his neighbor as a relatable example. Lewis provides educated insight to what some people are willingRead MoreThe Great Divorce and The Divine Comedy3095 Words   |  13 PagesComedy has impacted is C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. Lewis’s book is greatly indebted to Dante’s work, as both try to teach the reader how to achieve salvation. Furthermore, Lewis and Dante’s protagonists discover the path to salvation through choices, and learning what causes one’s refusal of God. Both authors explore the path to righteousness and enquire about life’s most difficult questions. Therefore, the dialogue between Dante’s Divine Comedy and C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce is witnessed throughRead More Love and what is needed for it exist as seen in two works Essay1331 Words   |   6 Pageslove, is a life missing great meaning. Many people may think that Varinka’s proclamation to love Byelinkov a sign that she does not know real love, instead I see it as an acknowledgment that love is faithful, and she knows that over time, her care for him will grow and her desire to do all the things that signify love will flourish as well. She hopes that as she is treating Byelinkov in a loving way and he will in turn reciprocate and display love for her also. C.S Lewis’ We Have No â€Å"Right to Happiness†Read MoreC.S.Lewis1821 Words   |  8 PagesC.S. Lewis: Christian Apologist Included in the 10 most influential Christians of the 20th century alongside Karl Barth, Pope John XXIII, Martin Luther King Jr, and Billy Graham, the Christian History magazine named him the atheist scholar who became an Anglican, an apologist, and a ‘patron saint’ of Christians everywhere. He was also dubbed as an â€Å"apostle to the skeptics† because he resolutely answered frequent objections individuals had when it came to accepting Christ as their Savior (christianodysseyRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Lady With The Dog 1566 Words   |  7 Pagesillustrates a similar situation where Dmitri Gurov believed that he has found his happiness when he met Anna, the lady with the dog. On the other hand, the essay â€Å"We Have No Right To Happiness† by C.S. Lewis, states, as the title suggest, that people have no right to attain happiness. Although the essay by C.S. Lewis makes reasonable deductions that happiness is not something that can be achieved in a n individual s relationship, the short story by Chekhov suggests otherwise, where the main character ofRead MoreEulogy Essay About Thankful814 Words   |  4 Pagessuffering. Cindy I am so thankful for you, I mourn for the loss your life will have for those closest to you but I m rejoicing for the relief and rest and more joy and the fullest life and most fulfilled self you will soon be fully part of. I m not a great writer but I ll leave you with one of my favorite portions from a book by someone who is, First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, cameRead MoreExplanation Of The Intj Personality Type895 Words   |  4 Pagesinsightful and usually are very quick to understand new material. However, our main interest is not understanding a concept, but rather using that concept in a useful way.Becsuse of INTJs need for organization and there insightful thinking would make them great sciencetist.An INTJ scientist gives their ideas into a useful form for others to proceed from.It is not easy for a INTJ to express their mental images and thoughts. The internal form of the INTJ s thoughts and concepts is organized,but is not openly

Ap World History Compare and Contrast Free Essays

During the post-classical time period, both the Umayyad and Mongol empires rose to the height of their power through many similarities and differences. For example, both dynasties expanded by militaristic advances, but a single man was responsible for the rise of the Mongols and they also supported all faiths unlike the Umayyad. The Mongol founder, Genghis Khan, conquered surrounding nomadic tribes and brought them under his rule through extensive military conquest. We will write a custom essay sample on Ap World History Compare and Contrast or any similar topic only for you Order Now Over the entire rise of the Mongols, they gained Asia, Russia, the Middle East and parts of Europe all as territories. In fact, the land Genghis had obtained was so vast that it had to be broken up into to four kingdoms upon his death. To conquer new lands, the Mongols were experts on horseback and were known for their cruel and barbaric torturing rituals, such as â€Å"drawn and quartered. † Similarly, the Umayyad prevailed against people groups from Saudi Arabia all the way West to Morocco in Northern Africa. Unlike later Islamic dynasties, the Umayyad were mostly concentrated on power and the conquering of land by their brutal military tactics. With their capital at the central location of Damascus, in Syria, they were able to govern and expand their large Islamic kingdom effectively. Overall, both the Mongol and Umayyad empires expanded through military conquest during their rise to power. The Umayyad dynasty was formed from a clan of prominent Meccan merchants in Arabia. From their established reputations and connections throughout the region, they were able to rise to power and stabilize the Islamic community. Unlike the Umayyad, the Mongols rose to power from one man, Temujin, who is better known as Genghis Khan. At the age of twelve he was orphaned and began to form alliances with other boys his age. Then, over time he had his own army that began to conquer nomadic tribes. Little by little, he began to capture what would soon be his entire Mongolian empire. Not only were the Mongols created by a single man, but they were also accepting of all faiths. Ap World History Units 1-3 Study Guide iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/ap-world-history-units-1-3-study-guide/embed/#?secret=nktN2yPGNe" data-secret="nktN2yPGNe" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Ap World History Units 1-3 Study Guide#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe They did not persecute any specific religion; in fact they often adopted the native religions of the land because the Mongols had no strong religious influence. This allowed an easier rode to power because the conquered people felt less pressure to revolt on the Mongols. The Umayyad did the exact opposite in their empire since they were the rulers of the dar-al-Islam, or the house of Islam. They had substantial religious ties and favored Islamic people. Many times Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Buddhists were taxed heavily; this was called jizya. Also, people of different religions could not access wealth and positions of authority in the empire, which created an overall resentment of the Umayyads and a resistance to their rule. The Mongol and the Umayyad empires both had influential effects during the years of 500 to 1000 A. D and rose to power through many similarities and differences in their strategies. Overall both empires depended heavily on their military to expand territory, but they differed in the way they treated the conquered people. Both of these played a role in how each came to power, and also the total effect they left on the world. How to cite Ap World History Compare and Contrast, Papers

HBO Clinic for Confidentiality Agreements- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the HBO Clinic for Confidentiality Agreements. Answer: Purpose This provides information to patients on how their health information is collected and used within the practice, and the circumstances in which the information may be disclosed to third parties. privacy and confidentiality/Confidentiality agreements A privacy and confidentiality policy ensures that no information of the patients gets into the wrong hands (Ahia, 2003). This policy gives the patient the rights to determine how, when and to what extent their medical information can be shared with other people(Hermann, Remley and Huey, 2010). patients access to their own health information/Request Patients should fill out request for personal health information at the reception if they want to access their own information. Request of PHI by other medical facilities Request should be made by the patient to transfer their information to another medical practice by completing a request for medical request transfer form. security The practice maintains the security of personal health information of the patients(Remley and Herlihy, n.d.). Disclosure to third parties At HBO, we do not allow third parties to get a patients personal health information. However, the patient should fill thid party disclosure form if he is willing to share information to third parties. Informing new patients This should be made on the companys website and notice boards. Patients should be encouraged to read this notices when they visit the health facility. Patients access to the personal health information (PHI) A patient has the right to access his or her medical information as long as he is above 18 years old and can make sound decisions. However, their information should be accessed from their personal doctors or the administrative office on request (Weber, 2001). Alteration of Patients Medical records At HBO, we are aware that alteration of patients medical records can hurt a physician in medical practice. Therefore disciplinary actions will be taken on any one who alters the medical records of a patient(Bonhoeffer et al., n.d.). Patient consent Practice staff will only apply the consent of a patient for he primary purpose for which it was provided. Staff must also seek additional consent from the patient if the information needed is to be used for any other purpose(Bonhoeffer et al., n.d.). Scenarios Legal and ethical issue Confidentiality and right to private information Right to privacy: privacy and confidentiality is enshrined in the constitution. It is also an ethical issue in medical world where a doctor is supposed to take the hypocritical oath to protect private information of a patient. In this case, a receptionist is giving private information in form of a phone number from one patient to another. This is absolutely wrong as it hinders the right to private information and confidentiality (McDaniel, 2004). When hiring, the management of the hospital should make it clear that it is a persons right to privacy and confidential information. In this case the receptionist behaved unethically by giving a private number of patient X to patient supposing patient B contacts patient x, then patient X asks where the patient got the number, X has all the legal right to take the issue to the courts and sue the institution(Dewey, 2016). The management of these ethical issues will be addressed after the receptionist is taken action on. She can be terminated or given a warning in order for her to learn how unethical it is to give private and confidential information. In hiring, all issues legal should be laid bare for them to learn what should be done and what not to be done. You saw a staff member getting agitated and verbally abusing a young client from diverse culture. Legal issue This can be classified as slander or just verbal abuse and use of insultive language. When a client is verbally abused by a staff member and especially when the client is from a diverse culture, it sends a wrong message and may be described as discrimination or prejudice towards a particular culture (Garwood-Gowers, Tingle and Wheat, 2005). This will set a bad precedent especially when the facility is graced by many people from diverse cultural background. The issue can be addressed by firing the staff who is verbally abusing a client from a culturally diverse background. The legal remedy of this is to say no to prejudice by addressing this issue through warnings and cautions. It is also ethical to set rules and guidelines in addressing abusive languages and insults. Two staff members are gossiping about the behaviour of a client. They are laughing about their behaviour and medical problems. One of the staff members involved has no responsibility of the treatment of the client. Legal issues Privacy, confidentiality and prejudice When hiring, the management of the hospital should make it clear that it is a persons right to privacy and confidential information. She can be terminated or given a warning in order for her to learn how unethical it is to give private and confidential information (Steinbock, Arras and London, 2009). In hiring, all issues legal should be laid bare for them to learn what should be done and what not to be done. The legal remedy of this is to say no to prejudice by addressing this issue through warnings and cautions. It is also ethical to set rules and guidelines in addressing abusive languages and insults(HANVEY, 2016). Ethics In The Audit In a report you are required to address the following issues/points List all the key legal and ethical obligations that apply to the organisation and its staff members and briefly describe each which applies. The legal and ethical issues in an organization include; Professionalism Integrity Honesty 2.To meet with the requirements of applied legal and ethical obligations, what specific job roles should be created in compliance department and how the people in those roles can update their knowledge in relating to compliance issues or changing legislations? Internal auditor position- to check internal auditing functions Compliance officer- to ensure that the organization follows all the compliance issues in the organization.Assurance is also a role to be created in the department(Spencer, n.d.). 3.When and why legal advice is needed? Legal advice is needed when an institution is at loggerheads with clients or when it wants consultancy services in regards to law. 4.Should organisation have policies and procedural guidelines on managing ethical issues? if so, what kind of issues should be addressed in that policy An organization should always have policies and procedural guidelines in managing ethical issues. This is because ethical issues are procedural and require to be organized. Ethical issues include things like integrity, professionalism , honesty and privacy. 5.What records is the organisation required to keep? Financial records such as balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statements. 6.What steps can be taken to ensure that staff members are complying to their legal and ethical obligations? Orientation, teaching and training. 7.What are possible breaches related to legal or ethical conduct that organisation can face? Lawsuit against the mandate to buy health insurance. Breaches of electronic data. Recovery of audit contractors. Labour and employment issues. Medical malpractice. 8.What would be the consequences of non- compliance be? The consequences of non-compliance include huge fines for the healthcare facility as well as legal suits for ethical breaches. 9What should the organization do if breaches occur? If breach occurs, the organization should first inform the lawyer representing them for advice and also try to rectify the situation. 10.How staff member can report the issue relating to breach or unethical act? A staff member can report issues related to unethical act or breach by informing the administrators or supervisors of the health facility, and this should be done in accordance to the policy of the organization and the right procedures followed(Moliterno and Paton, n.d.). 11.How organisation can get accreditation, name the bodies through this can be achieved. Accreditation is done by a body known as the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. If the following key elements have been fulfilled by the healthcare, then it gets accredited; A standard setting process Stewardship or governance function Continuous quality improvement 12.How organisation can maintain the knowledge of compliance requirements? Organizations can maintain the knowledge of compliance requirements by constantly checking the accrediting bodies website for any new information. 13.How the process of continuous improvement can help the organization in keeping up with their compliance requirements? Continuous improvement enables the organization to improve its everyday practice, it also enables the organization to maintain quality care that the patient needs and to seek opportunities to improve the care and its results (Moliterno and Paton, n.d.). References Hermann, M., Remley, T. and Huey, W. (2010). Ethical legal issues in school counseling. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. Ahia, C. (2003).Legal and ethical dictionary for mental health professionals. Lanham, Mar.: University Press of America. Dewey, J. (2016). Ethics. Read Books Ltd. Garwood-Gowers, A., Tingle, J. and Wheat, K. (2005).Contemporary issues in healthcare law and ethics. Edinburgh: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. HANVEY, C. (2016). Practitioner's guide to legal issues in organizations. [Place of publication not identified]: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU. McDaniel, C. (2004).Organizational ethics. Aldershot (England): Ashgate. Steinbock, B., Arras, J. and London, A. (2009).Ethical issues in modern medicine. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Weber, L. (2001).Business ethics in healthcare. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Project Team Acquisition free essay sample

Keeping together is progress, Working together is success. Henry Ford This is one of the eight executing processes in Project Management which falls under the Human Resource knowledge area. The objective of this process is to confirm the availability of human resources and obtain the required team members needed for the execution of a project. The roles, responsibilities and duration the team members are required for are outlined and regularly updated in the Human Resource Plan which is a part of the Project Management Plan. A team can be defined as a collection of interdependent individuals who work together, are committed to a common goal and share responsibility for specific outcomes for which they are mutually accountable. Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success† – Unknown. Teams are a great way to make the most of employee talents and because they can be assembled, organized and dispersed, they are more flexible and reactive to changing events than the conventional departments or other forms of permanent groupings. We will write a custom essay sample on Project Team Acquisition or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This document contains all the necessary actions for defining, preparing, integrating, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing the project. [4] An important section of this document is the Human Resource plan which contains the staffing management plan. The staffing management plan provides details of how the project team members will be acquired and dispersed based on the conditions of the project. [4] For example, a project may require an instrumentation engineer in the fourth phase of the project. The project manager may be required to present a job description of what the instrumentation engineer will be responsible for, the duration and work schedule, after which the human resource department or other functional managers would have to approve the request. Based on the staffing management plan which is regularly updated during and beyond the project duration, the human resource requirements, timing and process for staffing can be determined. Thus, making it a vital input for the â€Å"Acquire Project Team† execution process. This plan also affects several aspects such as the budget, schedule, quality, risks of the project. . Enterprise environmental factors: these are related to the internal or external environment of the performing organization and are very important factors which can alter the project management options which in turn, impact the success of the project positively or negatively. These Enterprise Environment Factors include all policies, cultural practices, procedures, communication channels, infrastructure, staffing guidelines, quality standards, risk tolerances of the project stakeholders, market standards and conditions relevant to the project, government tandards, codes of conduct, legislation, skills and expertise of currently available human resources, work authorization systems, political climate within and outside of the organization. [6] 3. Organizational process assets: these assets include all past documents, historical data and information, formal or informal plans, guidelines, work breakdown structure templates, contracts, registers, assessment tools, organizational standard policies, processes and procedures, lessons learnt, earned values, estimations, risks, proposal evaluation criteria, etc. Having records of all these contribute to the success of subsequent projects. For example, if an organization wants to embark on a project, by simply modifying the template of a project management plan for the same or similar kind of project that has been done in the past, time, cost and errors are minimized, thus, a more successful project. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the project manager or project management team to search through the records of the organization for such historical information and collect all the necessary and relevant documentations before executing a project. It also is their responsibility to update the organizational process assets throughout the life cycle of the project. â€Å"Today’s project would be tomorrow’s history†. [6] In the case of an entirely new project of which the organization has no record, information regarding similar projects has to be gotten from other external sources. The lessons learned from the previous projects executed by an organization and the corresponding historical information usually constitute the organization’s knowledge base. [6] These enable more efficient planning and execution of future project. 1. 2. Acquire Project Team: Tools and Techniques 1. Pre-assignment: Assigning individuals to a project before it has commenced is called â€Å"Pre-assignment†. Some reasons why some project team members are often pre-assigned to projects include: the availability of the individual for the project duration the individual being promised to be part of a competitive contract because he/she possesses specialized skills or knowledge related to the project [3] it is entailed as a part of the project charter of an internal project[3] an opportunity for the individual to complete on-the-job training. Negotiation: This is used to obtain the best individuals for a project. Teams can be put together in various ways. In many organizations, they are formed at the discretion of a senior member of staff or the human resource department of the organization. [5] As the personnel in charge of, and understanding the requirements of a project, the project manager or project management team have to negotiate with the human resource department, functional managers or whoever is in the position to select members of the team, specifying the type of team required and the characteristics of the individuals that would be needed to create such a team. An unguided choice and mix of team members could reduce the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team which would in turn, adversely affect the project. It is not uncommon for Project managers to negotiate with other project managers to share the required human resources among projects, but in such agreements, the schedules of the concerned individuals have to be properly structured to ensure that the on-going projects are completed successfully and within the allocated time. 3] 3. Acquisition: This is used to obtain individuals from outside the organization [3]. The policies and procedures of the performing organization must be taken into consideration. â€Å"It is a fact that in the right formation, the lifting power of many wings can achieve twice the distance of any bird flying alone† – Milton Olson It is very important for project teams to have the right blend of skills, expertise, abilities and personality types. 5] Based on the human resource plan, available funds and other factors, the sources of the individuals can be determined, whether to be hired from external sources, transferred in from other departments within the organization, hired as subcontractors on a contract basis, on a part-time or full-time basis or on a virtual platform. Unfortunately, the politics of an organization usually come into play with staff acquisitions. For example, in exchange for the most valuable personnel, functional managers may request for various â€Å"favors† from project managers. The following reasons may give the project manager no other option but to procure the project team or individuals to complete the project work: -The internal human resources of the organization lack the required skills or expertise to complete the project work. Training costs and duration are also not feasible. It is more cost effective to procure the project. -The required/proposed project team members within the organization would not be available for the project or have various on-going assignments and projects. 3] Team composition The following should be taken into consideration when obtaining individuals to make up a team: -Skills and experience: knowledge, proficiency, technical expertise, problem-solving, interpersonal and decision-making skills amongst several skills. The right mix of skills is crucial. One or more members could learn complementary skills in which the team is deficient. [3] -Personality: preferences and personalities e. g. open individuals communicate better thus, a more creative and innovative team. 1] -Roles: Selection so as to fill the various roles broadly categorized as: the task-oriented roles and the maintenance roles. The task-oriented as the name suggests, ensures that the tasks of group members are accomplished, while the maintenance roles ensure the group members maintain good relations. A balance of this two is important for team effectiveness. Some members of the team can play multiple roles. Thus, the importance to select members who value flexibility, who can then be cross-trained so as to do one another’s jobs. [1] -Diversity: A heterogeneous mix of individuals. Different functional, demographic or cultural characteristics (jobs, positions, work experiences, age, race, sex, citizenship). [1] -Size: the required number of individuals needed per team or per project. Interest level: the potential team members’ interest in working on the project. [3] Availability: certainty of the availability of the potential team member for the duration of the project. [3] 4. Virtual teams: used where the team is to spend little or no time face-to-face with each other. This team is unrestricted by geographical location, disabilities, mobility constraints nd expenses, thus, also saves cost and time. Members of such a team telecommunicate in order to achieve a common goal. The geographical locations could be as far apart as across continents, or within the same state and in some cases, within the same building. Online communication links such as wide-area networks, video/audio conferencing and emails are used. [4] An example of a virtual team is a softw are development team consisting of a project manager, business analyst, software architect, designer, software developers and software testers. The software architect, designer and developers may come up with different models or designs, exchange them via electronic mail, and upon completion of different phases send to the software testers who in turn go through them, test, troubleshoot or debug, then send them back to the developers with appraisals, suggestions or recommendations. The final product could also be electronically delivered to the client while they also receive payment electronically. Thus, in some cases, the company might not require a physical office yet still get many contracts and have them perfectly executed. Though virtual teams have many advantages, a few of its disadvantages include: †¢Possibility of a lack of teamwork spirit. †¢Possibility of less productivity as compared to physical teams. Thus, members of this team require a high level of self-discipline. 1. 2. 3Acquire Project Team: Outputs 1. Project Staff Assignments: The roles and responsibilities are assigned to each of the team members. Following the staffing of the required human resources and team formation, the directory, roles and responsibilities of each team member are updated into the project management plan. Resource Calendars: taking into consideration, the time schedule (availability and conflict) of each team member, a master schedule/ documentation of the available time periods each member of the team can put into the project can be created. 3. Project Management Plan Updates: the process of project team acquisition eventually leads to an updating of the project management plan, as the new development and information gathered requires documentation.

Ert- Physics Essays

Ert- Physics Essays Ert- Physics Essay Ert- Physics Essay Preface Information and knowledge have emerged as major sources of wealth in the recent past. There is a digital revolution and it has impact and influences on the consumers, producers, investors, exporters, importers, public policy makers, academics, students, consultants, administrators, lawmakers and all others directly or indirectly involved in various processes of the new economy. It has also huge challenges for all of the above and the shape of things to come will be determined by their response to the fast moving changes, additions and modifications in the Information, Communication, Technologies (ICTs) and their applications. The pace of the revolutionary changes in the ICTs and their applications and their impacts, influences and challenges are more pronounced in the developed countries. The rest of the world is also catching up with them fast in the digital stakes. Public policy makers in both the developed countries and the rest of the world and administrators, who have even bigger challenges than policy makers, will have serious problems to tackle. Censorship and freedom will be in conflict with each other in relation to the use of and access to the ICTs. ICTs have ushered in a new era of global communication, production, trade and investment. It has implications for all of the players in the economy and society irrespective of whether they reside and work in the developed countries or in the developing countries. The digital economy is transforming the lives of people beyond recognition. There is a revolution in the way that things are produced and traded before they reach the final consumer. Also there is a revolution of rising expectations as the world is getting transformed to a global village and the access to the good things in life will no more be in the domain of the rich and influential, whether in developed or developing countries. The buzzword is e-commerce. The term e-commerce goes beyond doing business electronically. Doing business electronically means that the conventional processes are computerized and are done on the Internet, however now it seems that the Internet is not merely an alternative to make a channel for marketing or selling product online. Instead the electronic marketplace enables the seller to innovate the whole business process from the producer to consumer to service by integrating them in the seamless whole, where product choices and prices are updated according to the customer information in real-time on web stores. viii About the Book This book is not about how to use the web or how to set up your web page for a successful business. This book provides information from socio-economic angle. As a number of books are already available about e-commerce or digital commerce, most of them provide information mainly from a technical angle and the socio-economic aspect had been neglected. Contrary to that, we would like to present the picture of digital information economy from the socio-economic perspective. This book covers various aspects of global production, trade and investment and the effects of the Internet from a socio-economic angle. While paying attention to the current status of intertwined issues of electronic commerce in technology, standards, policy and legal issues, the focus is on many economic issues and aspects of electronic commerce that other books do not cover. This book aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in this area. The change in the flow of information, computing and communication in the recent past has greatly influenced the world economy. In the emerging â€Å"digital economy,† the players as well as the rules of the game are changing fast. Along with it has come a lot of confusion and uncertainty. The digital economy may bring potential invasions of privacy, more sophisticated and far-reaching criminal activities and host of other unknown problems. The audience of this book is diverse. In addition to the academics, students and other knowledge workers, this book is intended for the business people who are using the Internet to seek a new customer, suppliers and partners around the world. If a business person is already directly involved in international trade and business and business trade, either as a manufacturer, distributor, exporter and importer, custom broker and freight forwarder, trade financer, diplomat, then this book is for him/her. If he/she is involved in the international trade, perhaps as a lawyer, management consultant, trade show organizer, site developer, business school professor, executive educator or someone who advises international companies, then this book is also for him or her. The assembling of the chapters and editing of this volume was a very onerous task but has proved to be highly worthwhile and rewarding in the end. The response to the call for chapters was overwhelming. We received proposals from top scholars, professionals and practitioners from various parts of the world. We have received chapters from the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, India and many other countries. Authors with background from various cultural groups and with firsthand knowledge of the socio-economic impacts, influences and challenges of the digital economy has contributed to this volume. Choice of the chapters for this volume was a highly challenging task, as we received an overwhelming response. Which chapter to include and which to exclude was very difficult. Chapters included in this volume have gone through a very rigorous review process. The ultimate choice of the chapters for inclusion in this volume were guided by the quality, relevance and coverage of the vital issues and proper analysis and depiction of the impacts, influences and challenges of the digital economy. The brief ix summaries of the various chapters included in the book in the words of the contributors are provided below for the readers to make their own judgement: The first chapter of this book is Socio-Economic Impacts and Influences of E-Commerce in a Digital Economy written by Sushil K. Sharma. Electronic commerce or e-commerce is the exchange and processing of business transaction information using computers connected through a network. E-commerce does have unique advantages for businesses. It allows a shop, a show room or an office to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also means that time zones are not a problem. A Web site can bring a prospect from the point of advertising and information directly to the point of sale, seamlessly, without involving any other medium. Adoption of new information technologies, particularly e-commerce, is expected to result in improvements in firm performance, such as reducing transaction costs and closer coordination of economic activity among business partners. E-commerce also is expected to facilitate entry into new markets or extension of existing markets and greater integration of systems with suppliers and customers. E-commerce is changing business economics and as a result many firms are re-engineering their core business processes. Suppliers and retailers are able to collaborate on product forecasts, product flow and inventory management decisions using the collaborative Internet-based networks between suppliers and retailers. In addition to reducing costs, e-commerce solutions permit customers to custom order products based on individual needs and preferences. Retailers are able to allow customers to mass customize orders based on virtually thousands of choices. The Internet’s growth and e-commerce has begun to create fundamental change in government, societies, and economies with social, economic and political implications. These advances present many significant opportunities but also are having wide-ranging effects across numerous domains of society and policy makers. As e-commerce continues to grow rapidly, it could have significant effects on the social and economic structures of economy. The impacts of these changes are diverse and may even widen the digital divide among nations, alter the composition of trade, disrupt labor markets and change taxation, may have ramifications for intellectual property rights, privacy protection, and data filtering, etc. Some of these effects of e-commerce are unintentional and create adverse business and personal conditions that could have societal consequences. Social and economic aspects of ICTs have been studied by a wide variety of researchers and practitioners for over 50 years. However, the influences of e-commerce are far bigger than imagined before. This chapter describes the various socio-economic impacts and influences that have been created by e-commerce in a digital economy. The second chapter is Re-Intermediation and Deferment through E-Commerce: NeoAustrian Interpretation of Capital and Time written by Parthasarathi Banerjee. It is commonly believed that electronic commerce reduces intermediation and the time in a business circuit. This is an efficiency view. This borrows from the Chicago view. Alternatively, transactions cost economics (TCE) theorists argue that electronic commerce decreases transactions cost by way of reducing the distance between the producers and the customers. TCE too argues that dis-intermediation in electronic commerce reduces transactions cost and hence increases economic efficiency. In contrast x to this efficiency theory of dis-intermediation and of quickened money, this chapter argues from Neo-Austrian perspective that efficiency can refer to technological changes alone. Efficiency, it is argued, fails to increase rate of profit or innovation. Electronic commerce is an innovation in trade. Electronic commerce brings in several layers of possible intermediaries. In this chapter authors argue that electronic commerce keeps transactions incomplete and extends the completion of transactions indefinitely and thereby; electronic commerce instead of shortening the business circuit would extend such a circuit indefinitely. Indefinite extension of business circuits- that is the lengthening of business transactions- increases effectively the period of production. Austrian theory argues that capital is time. This theory argues that a longer period of production implies a higher rate of profit and an increase in capital. Based on this theoretical stance, the authors argue that electronic commerce enhances capital and increases the rate of profit by lengthening the circuit of transaction through re-intermediation and through an increased period of production. Velocity of money or goods in an economy, as the efficiency theorist suggests, refers to technical efficiency. This efficiency refers to particular states of affairs of technology. As a result this perspective fails to explain why such technological states change or why certain particular economic agents reap great profits. Moreover, efficiency theorists’ â€Å"profit† is actually a rent earned. Interpreters of TCE have assumed that electronic commerce brings about a frictionless or transactions-cost-free market. They have wrongly committed TCE to such an explanation. Moreover, reduction of transactions cost would increase efficiency and would not increase rate of profit or the capital and even would not hasten innovation. It follows contrarily that electronic commerce would increase transactions cost. Internet pricing has shown personalized effects based on quality differentiation and on personalized offerings. Electronic commerce has opened up the possibility of offering extremely variegated personalized pricing. This forum can also offer equivalents of typical market place bargains. Production organization of a vertically integrated corporation stood upon standardization. Production of apiece products with variegated quality, chosen often by the buyer himself, demands that the entire chain of logistics and the supply chains get linked to the electronic commerce platform and that the stages in production are increased immensely and at each step of production each apiece product contains unique information. Such a picture of an electronic-commerce-led economy shows that stages of production must increase, that different economic agents must undertake value addition at each stage, that variability must increase and that mass production of personalized wares must hasten. In short, electronic commerce demands that an economy increase both its division of labor and the long period of production. A long period of production refers to the entire input-output table of an economy. A short period of production refers to a specific transaction chain of a business or a sector. Electronic commerce increases the length of both these periods. Shackle discussed profit and its rate from the perspective of lengthened periods of production and an increase in the division of labor amongst economic agents who are speculators. Electronic commerce has opened up this opportunity. In these commerce intermediations, in particular, cyber mediations have increased and will continue to increase. NeoAustrian framework offers a cogent explanation as how electronic commerce increases the rate of profit and the capital in an economy based on electronic commerce. The third chapter is Risk and Investment in the Global Telecommunications Industry written by Irene Henriques and Perry Sadorsky. Access to affordable technology to improve the flow of information is essential to the development of an economy. Closing the Digital Divide could bring many benefits to developing countries. In many ways, developing countries have the most to gain from improvements in telecommunications and information technology. Bringing the benefits of IT to developing countries is possible, but the governments of these countries need to be aware that the process is going to cost money and require institutional changes. International investors will frequently calculate the cost of equity for their existing investments and their proposed investments. Development planners must be able to make their own cost-of-equity calculations so that they can see first hand how their investment projects compare with other investment projects around the globe. Consequently, it is necessary to have good measures of equity risk for managers, planners, policy makers and investors. The cost of equity is important in valuing new investment opportunities and in evaluating the ongoing performance of established business projects. This is especially true in the new economy IT industry where an understanding of equity risk aids in the examination of the relationship between the IT sector and economic development. In this chapter, quantitative modeling and simulation techniques are used to estimate various risk measures and the associated cost of equity for the global telecommunications industry. The approach is to calculate several different cost-of-equity values and then use simulation techniques to build up a probability distribution for each company’s cost of equity. In this way, a clearer picture of where a company’s cost of equity lies is developed. Estimates of the cost of equity for a particular company vary widely and depend upon the methodology used. For a particular company, cost-of-equity values based on systematic risk tend to be lower than cost-of-equity values calculated from downside risk measures. For some companies, downside cost-of-equity values are twice as large as cost-of-equity measures based on systematic risk. This is true, even though all of the cost-of-equity values use the same risk-free rate and same risk premium. One of the insights that emerges from this study is the fact that the average cost of equity for telecommunications companies in developing countries is not always greater than the average cost of equity for telecommunications companies in developed countries. This is borne out by the high cost-of-equity calculations for companies like Cable Wireless, France Telecom and Nextel. In general, it is difficult to find evidence of regional differences in the average cost of equity of telecommunications companies. This is useful to a development planner who can then use a portfolio approach in which high-risk investments are combined with low-risk investments to promote an investment in a developing country’s telecommunications industry. Closing the Digital Divide could bring many benefits to developing countries but international investors and development planners must be able to make their own cost-of-equity calculations so that they can see first hand how their investment projects compare with other investment projects around the globe. xii The fourth chapter is Reduction of Transaction Costs by Using Electronic Commerce in Financial Services: An Institutional and Empirical Approach by Thomas Pfahler and Kai M. Grebe. The authors face the subject of analyzing the impact of the increasing utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) and electronic commerce on the coordination of specific transactions in financial services. Bank transfers and stock purchases, as two relevant business processes commonly occurring in the contractual relationship between a financial institution and its customers, will be considered in detail. For that purpose, the conceptual framework for the target analysis has to be developed at first. This requires the definition of the most important terms and the explication of major ideas. The basic principals of the New Institutional Economics and the instruments developed in the context of the Transaction Cost Approach specifically serve as a theoretical background for the study and all further argumentation. Subsequently, the chapter develops and implements a proposal how to exemplify and to compare the above-mentioned processes under the varying influence of certain technologies. This new approach will be specified and the proceeding will be elucidated in detail. The authors refrain from attempting to quantify transaction costs in an absolute way and concentrate deliberately on comparative considerations. Transactions will be decomposed and classified into different phases according to their devolution over the period under observation. The intention is to reveal the basic phenomenon and to document the reasons of the current utilization of ICT in this sector by emphasizing relative reductions of transaction costs through the use of electronic commerce. After the development of the approach to quantify reductions of transaction costs, the model will be applied exemplarily on the two selected transactions. In detail, the model takes into account seven different phases of a transaction and seven different modes of coordination. The empirical section of the chapter concentrates on existing technological infrastructures, growth rates, and diffusions rates of certain information and communication technologies. Available data will be analyzed, particularly for Germany. Moreover, certain indicators are introduced to qualify in detail present developments and impacts of ICT. In the final stage the attained results and consequences of the outlined developments are eventually systematized and summarized. The authors criticize and comment on crucial points concerning the elaborated approach, its significance and limitations as well as its explanatory power. Last, but not least, an attempt is be made to relate the diffusion rates of the investigated technologies in the empirical section to the insights on reductions of transaction costs derived from the theoretical cost model. This will lead to a four-quadrant scheme to illustrate and classify present and future impacts of electronic commerce on financial services. On the basis of this visualization the chapter concludes with deducing a couple of final predictions and with giving a future perspective. The fifth chapter is The Spreading Use of Digital Cash and Its Problems, which is written by Yutaka Kurihara. xiii It has been several years since the words â€Å"digital cash† and other related terms were introduced into the modern lexicon. Needless to say, the progress made in communication and information technology (IT) has been rapid, and change in the area of digital cash is no exception. The volume of such transactions is rising, yet analysis of this revolution in payment is limited, particularly in the academic fields. Although e-commerce has been growing rapidly and attracting much attention, digital cash has not been a focus of such attention. Digital cash has some problems associated with it that need to be solved before its use can continue to grow, and the rate of growth is slowing at present. The logic behind replacing cash, checks and magnetic credit cards with digital cash is bound to prevail in the end, but there are many barriers that need to be overcome. The author proposes that material cost reduction and service price are cutting resultant factors of the demand for electronic wallet transactions and the means by which digital cash can spread, the technology of IC (integrated circuit) card reformation can be developed, and price cutting on the supply side can occur. The popularity of the personal computer and the Internet has also skyrocketed in recent years. A general price decline for computer and communication tools has been ongoing as well, helping to promote online-type transactions at the supply side. Moreover, it seems that the spread of mobile telecommunications has contributed to the development of digital cash. In the near future, interactive television will be used to make transactions. IT (information technology) has undergone a global revolution in many fields. Ubiquitous instruments in IT fields have appeared recently allowing for digital cash to develop much further. There are two points that will be emphasized in this chapter. The first point is that given the essential characteristics of electronic money, its advantages and disadvantages should be carefully examined. It is quite certain that digital cash will be promoted. It also seems that IT progress is unstoppable, and fortunately IT can make our world a more convenient and efficient place in which to live. Nevertheless, there are a number of concurrent challenges with this change. None of these challenges are apt to be resolved swiftly or painlessly. The second point is this: since financial institutions cannot stop this trend, it would be prudent for them to view it as a business opportunity. If they do not find ways to adapt, they will become obsolete and completely fade away from the market. By promoting efinance, a company can gain market share and negotiating power over suppliers, as well as earn a profit. Monetary authorities worldwide should pay careful heed to the trend as well, guiding the â€Å"sound† market to maturity, taking care not to confuse exercising leverage with excessive intervention. The sixth chapter is Electronic Signature: The Core Legislation Category in Digital Economy authored by Fjodor Ruzic. E-business, as well as all of the active participants in the digital economy environment, raises a host of new legal issues that must cope with the fact that the technical expectations imposed by participation in the digital economy will increase. Three basic segments of the digital economy are converging, and each of them consists of one core category: xiv Infrastructure: telecommunications infrastructure (the members of the society must communicate) Services: the content (the goal of communications is to transfer the content) Legislation: electronic signature (the goal is to compile rules of intercommunication processes in which the electronic content is interchanged) Businesses that offer services and have taken to the Internet seriously have a responsibility to their customers to offer services in a secure manner. Security is a fundamental requirement for e-business applications using signature-based forms. Lack of trust is a significant problem for any e-business - the parties evolved in the e-business processes must feel trust in the people and companies that are doing business. In many traditional business relationships, trust is based on a combination of judgement or opinion based on face-to-face meetings, or recommendations of colleagues, friends and business partners. However, the e-business environment generally does not involve human interaction and, therefore, this new context requires a new understanding of trust. Several techniques help in establishing online e-trust: Electronic authentication Electronic signature Escrow payment services (online) Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) With the advent of electronic signatures, e-business is changing the way we sign and store documents. Thus, any business that wants to succeed in the digital economy must deal with electronic signatures. It is considered an everyday activity whenever a law or other arrangement requires a signature of person. Signature is needed as a medium for authentication in order to identify the person (the signer), to indicate the person’s approval of the information communicated and, to be legally applicable. Most of the national laws currently in force provide that a signature, contract, or other record relating to such transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form. Like a handwritten signature, an electronic signature can be used to identify and authenticate the originator of the information and, it can also be used to verify that information has not been altered after it is signed. Electronic signatures play a key role in enabling electronic business by helping ensure that electronic documents are unaltered and have not been forged. Considering the functionality and applicability of such issues, this chapter finds one key category that links all of the separate e-business legal issues in one regulated scene - the answer is done by introducing electronic signature as equivalence with handwritten signature no matter what type of information technology is in use. There are more legal environments, solutions and applications of an electronic signature from which several examples are described accompanied with the e-business view on electronic signature utilization. xv The seventh chapter is Impacts of the Digital Economy: The Shift to Consumer-Driven Competition and Life-Span Products authored by Simon Mowatt. This chapter examines changes in innovation and competition made possible in two traditional industries by the adoption of integrated information and communication technologies. The two industry cases used are drawn from the consumer magazine segment of the printing industry and the grocery multiple (supermarket) segment of the retail industry. Both of these industries have benefited from changes in communication within the industry value system made possible by the adoption of digital information management and communication systems. The primary research in these industries was undertaken by an empirical program of qualitative, interview-based research focused on innovation networks. The informants were involved in production, distribution and retail, and identified by prior secondary research. The research also employed a census questionnaire survey of consumer magazine publishing firms. The survey response was checked for representiveness against a random sample of the industry population and found to be robust. The chapter highlights the importance of consumer-drive innovation in consumer-facing markets. The industries examined had previously been conditioned by the economics of manufacturing. The development of complex innovation networks to supply consumer needs is examined and the innovation process is explored in detail. For the process of consumer-driven innovation, the importance of linkages to end-consumer and market experts is acknowledged- something is enhanced by the use of digital technologies. The chapter acknowledges that the development of the innovation systems described was the result of firms reacting to consumer needs. But in addition to this, the chapter offers the concept of â€Å"life-span† goods as those developed from the outset as having a short life dependent on changing consumer tastes and fashions. Life-span goods are emerging as firms continue to explore the possibilities of proactively using innovation systems to forge links with consumers. Within this environment firms have been recently acting more as project orchestrators: using their skills in developing innovation teams based on the deep knowledge of consumer activities to identify and supply new market segments. Production in the innovation systems identified is undertaken across firms and coordinated by shifting and temporary alliances. This presents a challenge to economic analysis and to the theories of the firm grounded in a transaction-cost framework. Networkbased and sociologically grounded theories of the firm have previously attempted to resolve the inadequacies of contemporary economic theory by emphasizing the importance of social ties and long-term embedded relationships. However, the examples explored in this chapter highlight the role of new technology in short-term non-embedded relationships as well. The project-based firm is identified as having features that are problematic for economic analysis. Despite this the chapter suggests that changes in competitive pressures towards consumer-facing competition may increase the prevalence of project-based firms with industrial economies. Finally, the chapter concludes by exploring some avenues for future research that offer new pathways for future theoretical understanding of project-based and network organizations. The eighth chapter is Digital Products on the Web: Pricing Issues and Revenue Models written by well read Gary P. Schneider. xvi Products that exist in digital form can be bought, sold, and in some cases delivered, online. Some products exist only in digital form, such as software and certain types of information databases. Many more types of products exist in physical form, but can be digitized. These products include many forms of intellectual property such as text, pictures, photographs, architectural drawings, choreography notes, sound recordings, and video recordings. In some cases, digital products arise from the transmission of other digital products, as in the case of telephone and fax transmissions. The pricing issues that arise in the sale of these products are different from those that sellers face when pricing physical goods. These pricing issues lead to interesting opportunities for devising revenue models. These pricing and distribution issues affect the nature, quantity, and quality of competition in markets for these products. Some digital products are made available at no charge. Thus, an alternative revenue stream that is somehow related to the product must be devised. Some digital products are bundled with other products (digital or physical) to avoid some of the problems inherent in the pricing of digital products alone. Another pricing strategy is to create an artificial distinction within a subset of digital products and use differential pricing to extract the highest revenue possible from each set of customers for the product. Perhaps the most common pricing method is to use a licensing approach of one kind or another. Many digital products are, in their essence, things that are experienced by customers. They often have no meaningful physical existence separate from their experience. Providers of digital products must maintain a current knowledge of underlying technologies that are used or could be used in the future for delivery of their products. The ability of customers to adapt and reformat digital products is also an essential characteristic of digital products, a characteristic that can be affected by changes in technologies as well. The success of revenue models for companies that sell digital products depend on the nature of the product, the characteristics of the buyers, and the traditional practices in the industry. For most digital products, the effect of pricing and distribution strategy does not derive so much from the introduction of the Internet into the marketing channel as from the products’ very nature as digital products. This chapter examines the nature of digital products, their pricing issues, and the efficacy of various revenue models that have been implemented by companies that deal in digital products. The ninth chapter is On Software Piracy by Sougata Poddar.

Ann Richards Quotes

Ann Richards Quotes Ann Richards was governor of Texas from 1991-1995. When Ann Richards was elected State Treasurer in 1982, she was the first woman elected to statewide office in Texas since Ma Ferguson. Richards was reelected in 1986, unopposed, and then ran for governor in 1990. She came to national prominence with a keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. In her 1994 reelection campaign, she lost to George W. Bush, the son of the presidential candidate shed skewered in 1988. Selected Ann Richards Quotations Im not afraid to shake up the system, and the government needs more shaking up than any other system I know. I have very strong feelings about how you lead your life. You always look ahead, you never look back. The here and now is all we have, and if we play it right its all well need. I have always had the feeling I could do anything and my dad told me I could. I was in college before I found out he might be wrong. They blame the low income women for ruining the country because they are staying home with their children and not going out to work. They blame the middle income women for ruining the country because they go out to work and do not stay home to take care of their children. I feel very strongly that change is good because it stirs up the system. I did not want my tombstone to read, She kept a really clean house. I think Id like them to remember me by saying, She opened government to everyone. Ive always said that in politics, your enemies cant hurt you, but your friends will kill you. Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date. Let me tell you, sisters, seeing dried egg on a plate in the morning is a lot dirtier than anything Ive had to deal with in politics. Power is what calls the shots, and power is a white male game. If you think taking care of yourself is selfish, change your mind. If you dont, youre simply ducking your responsibilities. Im really glad that our young people missed the Depression, and missed the great big war. But I do regret that they missed the leaders that I knew. Leaders who told us when things were tough, and that we would have to sacrifice, and these difficulties might last awhile. They didnt tell us things were hard for us because we were different, or isolated, or special interests. They brought us together and they gave us a sense of national purpose. [1988 keynote address, Democratic National Convention] I have a real soft spot in my heart for librarians and people who care about books. You can put lipstick and earrings on a hog and call it Monique, but its still a pig. Women elected Bill Clinton this time. He acknowledges it, the country acknowledges it, and the columnists acknowledge it, and when you have that kind of political clout, you can effect change and do it well. And Im real proud to have been a part of that. I get a lot of cracks about my hair, mostly from men who dont have any. Let me tell you that I am the only child of a very rough-talking father. So dont be embarrassed about your language. Ive either heard it or I can top it. The public does not like you to mislead or represent yourself to be something youre not. And the other thing that the public really does like is the self-examination to say, you know, Im not perfect. Im just like you. They dont ask their public officials to be perfect. They just ask them to be smart, truthful, honest, and show a modicum of good sense. I believe in recovery, and I believe that as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it. There is a lot more to life than just struggling to make money. I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no notion of its size until I campaigned it. Women, it was painfully clear, werent going to be allowed to use their brains and I certainly wanted to use mine. [Ive] been tested by fire and the fire lost. I hope all the WASP present and past will fly high on wings of our pride in their service ... you have my profound gratitude for the legacy you have given to us and the legacy you pass on to young women today. [about the Women Airforce Service Pilots] I believe Mama would have liked to have had more children, but times were hard and I was the only one. Daddy had the fear maybe that fear is indigenous to the Depression generation that he wouldnt be able to afford all the things he wanted to give me, and he wanted to give me everything hed never had. So they never had another child. Poor George, he cant help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth. [1988 keynote address, Democratic National Convention] I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like. [1988 keynote address, Democratic National Convention] On How to Be a Good Republican: [excerpts] You have to believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.You have to be against all government programs, but expect Social Security checks on time.You have to believe...everything Rush Limbaugh says.You have to believe society is color-blind and growing up black in America doesnt diminish your opportunities, but you still wont vote for Alan Keyes.You have to be against government interference in business until your oil company, corporation or Savings and Loan is about to go broke and you beg for a government bailout.You have to believe a poor, minority student with a disciplinary history and failing grades will be admitted into an elite private school with a $1,000 voucher. Most of all, I remember those children in the classrooms and those kids who grabbed me around the knees, and I think of the old people who really need a voice when theyre trapped in wheelchairs in dirty nursing homes. The person in this office really must have a conscience to know that how they direct this government dramatically affects the lives of those people. Jill Buckley on Ann Richards: Shes sort of the female good old boy. You paid the price to some degree. You lost the governorship of Texas because this country still is a little bit schizoid, isn’t it, about the role of women in American politics? [1996 question of newsman Tom Brokaw to Ann Richards] More Womens Quotes: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z Explore Womens Voices and Womens History Womens Voices - About Womens QuotesBiographies of WomenToday in Womens HistoryWomens History Home About These Quotes Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection  © Jone Johnson Lewis. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote. Citation information:Jone Johnson Lewis. Ann Richards Quotes. About Womens History. URL: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/ann_richards.htm . Date accessed: (today). (More on how to cite online sources including this page)

Iphone 5 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Iphone 5 - Term Paper Example Sales Presentation Preparation 11 A. Presentation Objectives 11 B. Business Contact Worksheet 11 C. Need Discovery Worksheet 11 D. Demonstration Worksheet 12 E. Negotiation Worksheet 12 F. Closing Worksheet 12 G. Follow Through, Follow Up and Expansion Services- List 13 VI. Appendices 13 References 14 I. Proposal Summary A. Buyer Problem or Need There is an identified need on the part of the buying organization to upgrade to a mobile infrastructure to address internal productivity needs, as well as to address the needs of customers wanting to interact with the firm using the platforms that the customers use on a daily basis (Google, 2012; Verizon Wireless, 2012; Apple, 2012; Canada, 2012; Beavis, 2012). B. User Problem’s Business Impact Productivity impacts the firm’s ability to sustain itself in the long term, and to be profitable. Customer interactions likewise drive business top lines and profits. The decision on the right mobile platform can affect the future of the business in a fundamental way (Google, 2012; Verizon Wireless, 2012; Apple, 2012; Canada, 2012; Beavis, 2012). C. Value Proposition We are selling a platform as well as an ecosystem that has global traction, unparalleled popularity and quality, and is proven to improve productivity for both firms and individuals (Google, 2012; Verizon Wireless, 2012; Apple, 2012; Canada, 2012; Beavis, 2012). II. Proposed Solution A. ... The new iPhone is also able to leverage the unparalleled ecosystem of applications, application developers, companies that cater to components and services tied to the iPhone, the app store and its providers of apps, the music store and the millions of copyrights belonging to the music industry and content creators, and even business productivity solutions all tied to the iPhone franchise (Canada, 2012; Apple Inc., 2012; Beavis, 2012). The product under consideration here, therefore, is not just the phone, but the whole ecosystem that goes with purchasing the new iPhone 5. This is not to say that the new iPhone is interchangeable with the older iPhone models, because as it is the new iPhone has features that make it stand out from the crowd, and represents the best in terms of the evolution of the device. A sampling of the outstanding new features of the phone, that sit on top of the great features of the ecosystem as described above, includes a 4-inch Retina screen, speedy wireless connectivity, new and powerful processor in the A6 processor chip. An 8 megapixel camera, a new OS in iOS 6, and the latest iteration of the cloud computing platform for Apple, the iCloud (Verizon Wireless, 2012; Apple, 2012; Canada, 2012; Beavis, 2012). B. Company Description Apple the company is in the business of the design, manufacture, and the marketing of mobile products for telecommunications and media consumption, in essence, even as it is known traditionally as a maker of computing products with its Mac line of computers. The products revolve around an ecosystem and a platform for the consumption of content, including music, books, and apps. The key

Project management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 11

Project management - Essay Example Planning involves the certain establishment of policies, process and systematic methods to aim for achieving the goal associated to the project management. Planning is continuous phenomenon and should be progressed as the project progresses. The planning of the project as the part of the project management involves the scheduling of the project, budgeting of the project, directing the project and controlling the project. Each part of planning requires the managers to systematically control the project. There are mainly three types of business planning; strategic, tactical and operational. The strategic planning has most often a period of about 5 or more years. The business employing the tactical planning often restricts the planning to a period to 1 to 5 years. However, the operation planning regarding the project management is planned to implement at the time of planning and at the place of planning. Long term strategic plan having a span of 10 years is often utilized in business. While, three years plan and this year budget plan are the plans that are also employed by businesses. The planning as the part of project management is acquired to various level of the organization. Managers try to motivate the individuals to work better for the good of the organization. At this stage, managers plan of themselves and for the other individuals. However, team or group planning is also an important level for the working environment. The upper level managers plan for the organization and set the goals of the organization that comes in the Strategic project planning level. A good manager should have good communication and should be responsive to deal with the planning problems. A project manager should know how to deal with the situation to be a successful project manager. According to Kerzner, the nine steps involve in the planning of the

Police officers Essay Example for Free

Police officers Essay Have you ever been in a situation where you find yourself stuck between facing consequences for things you haven’t done and giving in to someone who seems to be on a power trip and is taking advantage of their superiority over you? Whether it be a manager taking advantage of his power in the work place or a police man or woman doing unnecessary and over the top things to you. Abuse of power seems to be a common thing in some police officers every day life and this is not okay. It is very apparent what a police officers job is and that is to protect and serve the community and make sure that real criminals are being served justice, however; some may come across police officers that use the fact that they have badges and weapons to their advantage in order to basically become a bully instead of a hero. Of course not all police officers are corrupt, most are actually doing their job and are concerned with the safety of all people and not just their own but those few that are corrupt need to be stopped and be punished for their police brutality and/or abuse of power. So the question is, are police men and women being evaluated thoroughly enough so as not to hire corrupt officers? Are police officers being punished and or brought to justice because of their wrong doings? In this paper I will bring some cases of police brutality and or abuse of police powers to your attention as well as if and how police are being punished because of their illegal or down right cruel behavior. Becoming a police officer is far from an easy task as it should be, but why is it that after so much questioning and tests of integrity and moral values citizens are becoming more and more victimized by police officers? In my opinion police officers are not being as extensively tested for a corrupt mind set as we are led to believe they are. Possible police officers are asked questions on a polygraph test that mostly tie in with the questions asked in the application process so as to get details and obviously the truth out of anything remotely suspicious on the application. These questions mostly having to do with drug use or theft and anything that may prove an officer to be dishonest about questions already asked prior to the polygraph. These questions however rarely have to do with how officers view a citizens race, religion, gender, levels of class, etc. For example, a police officer is not asked in a polygraph test if he does not like Muslim people or if he is disgusted by gay individuals.

The Power Struggle in The Yellow Wallpaper -- Yellow Wallpaper essays

The Power Struggle in The Yellow Wallpaper      Ã‚   The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800's, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children and keeping house. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by males. The men held the jobs, the men held the knowledge, the men held the key to the lock known as society   - or so they thought. The narrator in "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control from her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman who goes insane, it is actually about a woman’s quest for control of her life. The narrator is being completely controlled by her husband. The narrator's husband has told the her over and over again that she is sick. She sees this as control because she cannot tell him differently. He is a physician so he knows these things. She also has a brother who is a physician, and he says the same thing. In the beginning of the story, she is like a child taking orders from a parent. Whatever these male doctors say must be true. The narrator says, "personally, I disagree with their ideas" (480), and it is clear she does not want to accept their theories but has no other choice. She is controlled by her husband. Control is exemplified later in the story in the choice of rooms in which she must stay. She has no say whatsoever in this decision. She is forced to stay in a room she is uncomfortable with. This is the bedroom in which John has trapped her; this room is not a room in which she wants to be. The windows are barred and the bed is bolted down. This is a subliminal clue of control. And there is the horrible yellow wallpaper. "I n... ... the wallpaper no longer oppresses her. As time goes on, she gains confidence and control over both and ultimately dominates them. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832 - 1916. Ed. Barbara H. Solomon. New York: Mentor, 1994. 480-496. Delamotte, Eugenia C. reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol. 37. Ed. Paula Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. Works Consulted Treichler, Paula. "Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Rpt. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale 1991. 188-194. Shumaker, Conrad. "Too Terribly Good to Be Printed: Charlotte Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol. 37. Ed. Paula Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. 194-198.   

Comical Interlude in a Midsummer Night??â„¢s Dream

A comical interlude is a part in a play where there is a break from the main plotting and is a chance for the audience and actors to relax. Some may argue that the final scene in ‘A Midsummer Night's dream' is only a comical interlude and nothing more as it does not relate to the main story directly. However, I would argue against this and say that the last scene is written by Shakespeare as a clever way of showing the audience what might have happened to the lovers. Also, a common convention of comedies is mockery, so the craftsman's play could be interpreted as a way of mocking the foolish behavior of the four lovers.Another classic convention of comedy is forbidden love. In both ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' and ‘Paramus and Thesis' there is a couple who are forbidden to marry. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, it's Segues forbidding Alexander and his daughter Hernia to marry, ‘Scornful Alexander†¦ And all my right of her I do estate unto Demerits'. This sho ws that Segues treats Alexander with contempt and considers him unworthy to marry his daughter. The word ‘estate' shows that Segues treats Hernia as his property and not as a human. This reflects what life was like in the Elizabethan era as women were expected to obey their fathers and men in general.In ‘Paramus and Thesis', we do not get told that the lovers are forbidden to marry, however Snout says, ‘Paramus and Thesis, Did whisper often, very secretly. ‘ So, we presume that these lovers are not meant to be together- that's why they're meeting in private. One explanation to why Shakespeare connected these two is because at the beginning, the forbidden love is very serious as people may die however at the end in ‘Paramus and Thesis', it is very humorous. It also means that the characters watching ‘Paramus and Thesis' can look jack and laugh at themselves, so Shakespeare is mocking a key flaw in humanity, our hypocritical nature.In both plays, th e couples decide to run off together. Hernia and Alexander go to the forest, ‘Steal forth†¦ And in the wood, a league without the town'. The word ‘steal' automatically shows you that what they are doing is criminal and very serious. On the other hand, Paramus and Thesis decide to go to Minus' Tomb', Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway. Compared to the serious language used by Alexander, Bottom mispronouncing ‘Minus' tomb' for ‘Ninny's tomb' is humorous as it wows how uneducated him and the rest of the carpenters are.You could also say that it shows how arrogant Bottom is, as clearly he was not listening when Quince corrects Flute of the same mistake, ‘Minus' tomb, man'. The more likely explanation is that Shakespeare is showing Bottom to be the arrogant fool he is, as Quince managed to understand it. There is a huge difference in where the couples plan to meet, the forest is a very magical place where as Paramus and Thesis are meeting at a tomb which is a very sad, depressing place.With forests you associate getting lost and infusion which is another classic convention of comedies where as you associate death with tombs and death is a common convention of tragedies. However you could interpret the forest to be like a tomb for the lovers as they fall asleep there and are lucky to be alive thanks to the fairies. The more plausible explanation to why Shakespeare used this comparison between locations is because he wanted to show the strong contrast between a comical forest and a depressing tomb. This is where the stories first start to take different turns and they divide into being a tragedy and a modem.Both plans seem flawless but they are both disturbed in some way or another. In ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream', Oberon and Puck disrupt Hernia and Lassoer's love together by having Alexander fall in love with Helena, ‘anoint his eyes'. The word ‘anoint' portrays the fairies and very delicate and gentle w hen really the fairies are quite the opposite. In ‘Paramus and Thesis', the Lion disrupts the love, ‘[roaring] 0-! [Lion tears Thistle's mantle]'. This is comical for the audience as the Lion is meant to be a roaring beast and all he says is ‘O', This could be interpreted to how that Snug is very stupid or to show that he is very shy.It is more likely that he is very stupid as this is a lot more comical for the audience. It also contrasts from ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' as the lion (a fearsome animal) is portrayed comically where as the fairies (conventionally happy) portrayed as powerful characters in the play so it shows the tops-truly nature of the play. In both plays, one of the lovers thinks that the other has been slain. Hernia thinks that Demerits has killed Alexander, ‘Out, dog†¦ Hast thou slain him, then? She thinks this as she is so madly in love' with Alexander and is full of hatred for Demerits.Shakespeare is trying to young love and s how how easily it can affect someone. On the other hand Paramus thinks that Thesis has been eaten by the Lion, ‘O dainty duck! O dear†¦ Lion vile hath here deflowered my dear'. The term ‘deflowered' is humorous for the audience as Bottom is trying to say that Thesis is dead but it can be seen to mean that she's lost her virginity to the lion which is extremely comical along with ‘dainty duck also being a sexual reference adding to the comedic value.Both characters use an animal adaptor to portray their emotions, Shakespeare has had Hernia call Demerits a dog to show that she is angry and show that this part of the play is very serious. Bottom/ Paramus says ‘Dainty Duck as he is meant to be upset- but as it's a humorous production and a duck is a tame animal it is funny because Bottom has most likely made another mistake adding to his egotistical character, it is also a oxymoron as ducks are far from dainty. Not to mention, Shakespeare has used alliterati on. There is a connection between both plays throughout and that is still the case in the IANAL part.Alexander and Hernia get married and live happily ever after, where as both Paramus and Thesis kill themselves. ‘Now die, die, die, die'. This line performed by Bottom as Paramus in the play is an extremely comical moment. Bottom is a self- assured and over confident character who tries to make every part of his role eccentric and exaggerated. So he repeats this line to make it more dramatic but it becomes a comical moment because Shakespeare has created Bottoms character for the audience to laugh at. Another interpretation to why Shakespeare has added in his part is because there is no death in ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream'.This makes sense as the play is a comedy and one of the key conventions of a comedy is that nobody dies and there is at least one marriage at the end. Perhaps Shakespeare included this death of Paramus because the audiences of the time loved seeing peop le die. So I think the reason Shakespeare killed Paramus off in this humorous way to keep his audience interested and laughing at the same time. The repetition of the word ‘Die' creates humor as it emphasizes it to the audience and shows how stuck up Bottom is trying to milk every line he has.Another explanation to why Shakespeare has written it like this is because he wants us to remember Bottom's humorous death. This particular explanation argues that the craftsman's play does have relevance to the main story as Shakespeare wants you to remember Paramus dying as much as the wedding. So Shakespeare has put in Bottoms death to show you that Alexander and Hernia were lucky to escape death. On the other hand, you could say that Shakespeare wanted to continue the parallel structure right through to the end so in a way he could be suggesting that marriage is like dying.When they awake into the real world once again, Demerits says, ‘Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream'. With it being a comedy the plausible interpretation is that Shakespeare put in the craftsman's play to simply demonstrate what could have happened, not what actually happened. ‘Are you sure that we are awake? Is a rhetorical question often delivered to the audience as to get them to start questioning themselves as to whether or not they have been truly awake the whole time.So, the green world was all real in the play so the characters ND audience could see the deeper meaning of how humanity has many flaws which are humorous. To conclude, although I understand that the final act is a comical interlude and that's how most audiences now and then view it, I believe that Shakespeare wrote it in to have a greater meaning than that as it links in to the main plotting so perfectly. The major plot points of ‘Paramus and Thesis' are not the exact same to ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' but mirrored with tragic conventions instead of comedic to s ymbolism what could of have happened to the lovers.

Is the Chinese Renminbi Undervalued Essay

Since July 2005, first time being revalued after 11 years of fixing at 8.27, Chinese Yuan has been heading towards only one direction – all the way from 8.27 to 6.27. Although Yuan is a highly regulated currency by government, Chinese officials could no longer peg the Yuan as it used to be in a closed economy because WTO had opened up doors for Chinese manufacturers in 2001 to export cheap goods and services to developed countries. With trillions of foreign capital flooding into the country, Yuan has appreciated over 30% over seven years. However, this one-way money flow cannot be sustained. Though it is not sure whether Yuan is at the absolute equilibrium, it is currently neither significantly undervalued nor overvalued. This essay is going to explain why Yuan is modestly priced with analysis in both the fundamentals and money flows. Needs for appreciation in past In theory, two open economies should have equivalent purchasing power – that is, if 10 units of foreign currency can buy something that is valued at 1 unit of domestic currency, the implied equilibrium exchange rate should also be 10(domestic as based money). Otherwise, there is an arbitrage opportunity. We call this Purchase Power Parity. In reality, despite some limitations about this theory, it explains most of the valuation problem in China. Take a look at China’s Balance of Payments over 2003-2010 and it is obvious to observe huge surplus annually in both current and capital & financial account, accumulating to a foreign reserve of $3.3 trillion. Reach equilibrium? At the government level, on one hand, it had to increase money base to maintain exchange rate against USD at a gradual appreciation pace. On the other hand, it needs to hold huge foreign assets, primarily in USD, to back up its currency from deprecation in the event of capital outflows. Amid the money inflow, Chinese central bank faced mounting pressure of inflation on local assets. The private sectors are impacted in two ways. Firstly, Chinese residents and companies feel much richer now because higher RMB increases their purchase power of foreign assets. This means more imports and capital account outflows. Secondly, inflation and appreciation means that Chinese products and services are more expensive. And this would lead to less exports. Pew Survey showed that 70% of Chinese people feel financially better off than five years ago, which among the best in the world. In the last a few years, the fact of continues Yuan appreciation, associated with stories about how China is cash rich and how Chinese investors are buying everything they can in the world, raises interesting discussion if Yuan had appreciated enough. There is also a trend that more goods are manufactured in new WTO members such as Nepal and Vietnam that have price advantage over China. Moreover, in the currency forward market, investors have priced in modest depreciation for Yuan in the next 12 months and spot market is no longer moving towards one direction. Data shows†¦ All those various observations reveal the same process that drives RMB exchange rate to an equilibrium level. Recent data also suggests that at current FX level, the rise in trade surplus and capital & finance account surplus slowed (see chart below). So does foreign reserve. What does it means? If we apply a popular formula: Capital out flow = Foreign Reserve – FDI – Trade surplus Numbers imply that 62.4 – 128.5 – 145.8 = 211.9 billions has flown out of China in the first three quarters of 2012. Although this estimation still lacks of actual evidence, the scale of growth slowing down in foreign reserve in 2012 is worth attention since it is so large that it is hard to be justified by seasonal adjustment or calculation period discrepancy. This might signal the start of reverse capital flows of Yuan, which means Yuan is no longer undervalued. Ultimately†¦ The answer to Yuan’s valuation problem is complex especially given that it is still mostly controlled by government and there are so many dynamic factors to consider. So far there are some money flows and data support the conclusion that Yuan is no longer significantly undervalued. In the long run, as expectation of Chinese government to allow a fully conversion Yuan is built on, maybe the real answer can only be found out by then.

How Womens Heart Attack Symptoms Differ from Mens

How Women's Heart Attack Symptoms Differ from Men's Research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicates that women often experience new or different physical symptoms as long as a month or more before experiencing heart attacks. Among the 515 women studied, 95% said they knew their symptoms were new or different a month or more before experiencing their heart attack, or Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). The symptoms most commonly reported were unusual fatigue (70.6%), sleep disturbance (47.8%), and shortness of breath (42.1%). Many women never had chest pains Surprisingly, fewer than 30% reported having chest pain or discomfort prior to their heart attacks, and 43% reported have no chest pain during any phase of the attack. Most doctors, however, continue to consider chest pain as the most important heart attack symptom in both women and men. The 2003 NIH study, titled Womens Early Warning Symptoms of AMI, is one of the first to investigate womens experience with heart attacks, and how this experience differs from mens. Recognition of symptoms that provide an early indication of heart attack, either imminently or in the near future, is critical to forestalling or preventing the disease. In a NIH press release, Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN, Principal Investigator of the study at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, said, Symptoms such as indigestion, sleep disturbances, or weakness in the arms, which many of us experience on a daily basis, were recognized by many women in the study as warning signals for AMI. Because there was considerable variability in the frequency and severity of symptoms, she added, we need to know at what point these symptoms help us predict a cardiac event. Womens symptoms not as predictable According to Patricia A.Grady, PhD, RN, Director of the NINR: Increasingly, it is evident that womens symptoms are not as predictable as mens. This study offers hope that both women and clinicians will realize the wide range of symptoms that can indicate heart attack. It is important not to miss the earliest possible opportunity to prevent or ease AMI, which is the number one cause of death in both women and men. The womens major symptoms prior to their heart attack included: Unusual fatigue - 70%Sleep disturbance - 48%Shortness of breath - 42%Indigestion - 39%Anxiety - 35% Major symptoms during the heart attack include: Shortness of breath - 58%Weakness - 55%Unusual fatigue - 43%Cold sweat - 39%Dizziness - 39% Related NIH research into heart attacks in women includes possible ethnic and racial differences.