Family in African-American Literature Essay Example for Free

Family in African-American Literature Essay In literary pieces such as Alice Walker’s story â€Å"Everyday Use†, Langston Hughes’ â€Å"My People†, and Robert Hayden’s poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, the theme of family relationships is significantly evident. In â€Å"Everyday Use†, Walker presents one stage and aspect of a family life when one adult child chooses to live on her own while the other one stays with the family. Hughes’ poem portrays his love for his people which he considers to be a family as a whole. Meanwhile, Hayden’s â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, talks about the narration and description of a boy about his father whom he is not well acquainted with. As the first piece speaks of a story about a family in relation to their heritage, the latter speaks of a boy’s reminiscence of a father who was never able to show his love directly to his children. These two aspects of family relationships reveal several angles to look upon.   Such family situations are influenced by authors’ own race and heritage. Alice Walker portrays the story of a fully grown-up daughter, Dee, who goes back to home to her home to visit her mother, Mrs. Johnson and her younger sister, Maggie. She arrives accompanied by an African American Muslim man who is currently dating her. She comes home to collect some family possessions which she intends to turn into artistic pieces to be exhibited in a museum. Meanwhile, her sister Maggie grimaces as her sister takes some of their personal belongings including a quilt that her mother has promised to give her as a wedding present. Dee tells her mother that Maggie would only ruin the quilt by using it everyday which puzzles Mrs. Johnson as she could not think of any way to use the quilt than to spread them. When Mrs. Johnson sees the sadness in her younger daughter’s eyes upon Dee taking the quilt, she snatches it away and gives it to Maggie. Dee walks away after claiming that their problem is they do not understand their own heritage (Walker). In this story, Walker portrays a family whose eldest daughter has become estranged from them. In the first part of the story, Mrs. Johnson recounts how Dee had hated living in their house and even almost set it on fire when she was young. The concept of a dysfunctional family is quite present here; however, it focuses more on the mother-child relationship rather than every member of the family. It is important to note that Walker made use of the damaged relationship of Dee to her mother and sister to show and illustrate the different types of African American people. On the other hand, Langston Hughes shows his love and appreciation for his people in his poem â€Å"My People†. He does not speak of family but his tone and use of words make it seem as if he is speaking of his beloved family. â€Å"The night is beautiful, / So the faces of my people† (lines 1-2). The possessive pronoun â€Å"my† indicates a certain intimacy between him and â€Å"his† people which is usually used for referring to a small group of people who shares something intimate and common such as â€Å"my family†. In this regard, Hughes speaks highly of his race as if he is talking about a family he loves most. â€Å"The stars are beautiful, /  So the eyes of my people† (3-4). The comparison of his people to the heavens indicates the depth of his love and care for them as he would to his family. â€Å"Beautiful, also, is the sun. / Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people† (5-6). In the poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, it can be assumed that Robert Hayden personally speaks through the voice of the speaker in his poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†. His distant relationship with his father is evident. In this melancholic poem, he narrates about the concealed appreciation of a son for his father’s acts of love by means of writing it in a prose. The narrator tells about the labors of his father even on a cold winter Sunday. However, in the poem, the speaker emphasizes that his father’s great efforts are usually ignored. The title of the poem itself already suggests a background for the readers. The speaker is obviously focused only on the â€Å"winter Sundays† and why it means too much work for the father. In the first stanza of the poem, the detailed description of the speaker’s father is very noticeable. He illustrated him by means of mentioning his physical condition as he works on cold Sundays. He could have described it in a clearer way by going straight to the point.   Nevertheless, he expressed his father’s poor countenance in a way that the reader can visualize the father’s hands cracked hands and the busy Sundays. The first two lines of the poem somewhat develops a thesis that would cover the whole idea in the poem. â€Å"Sundays too my father got up early / And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,† (1-2). Sundays should be a day of rest but the speaker stresses that his father still wakes up even before the sun rose to go to work. He further highlights the weary countenance of his father as he describes his father’s â€Å"cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / Banked fires blaze† (3-5). The poem further shows how heartbreaking the father’s situation must be by writing the last line of the first stanza with, â€Å"No one ever thanked him† (5). With the last line, it is reasonable to consider that the speaker is one of those people who failed to thank him. In this regard, it can be assumed that the speaker is already in his old or middle age when he remembers how his father has shown him love in his own way. Clearly, these renowned African-American writers have frequently used the theme of family relationships to further address the problems of their society. The issues of racism, nationalism, and love are the implicit ideas which are present in the three literary pieces discussed. These authors portrays different types of African-American families which serves as the representation of the current society that they are in. since the family is the basic unit of society, it is the primary target of societal effects such as racism and other social issues. Every problem of the society can become the problem of the family which is why the most meaningful literary works of art somewhat involves the theme of family relationships. Works Cited Hayden, Robert. â€Å"Those Winter Sundays.† The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Ed. Arnold Rampersad, Hilary Herbold. United States of America: Oxford University Press US, 2006. 261. Hughes, Langston. â€Å"My People.† Poem Hunter. 19 April 2009. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-people/ Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. Ed. Barbara Christian. United States of America: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

The Virgin And The Gypsy, D.H. Lawrence

The Virgin And The Gypsy, D.H. Lawrence The novel The Virgin and the Gypsy was found in France after David Herbert Lawrences death in 1930. Immediately recognized as a masterpiece in which Lawrence had distilled and purified his ideas about sexuality and morality, The Virgin and the Gypsy has become a classic and is one of Lawrences most electrifying short novels. It has been published as it was found, which was probably incomplete. The story has some rough edges that undoubtedly would have been smoothed with more rewriting. The book raises interesting questions about what love, proper behavior, and life are all about. In this book, Lawrence is in usual top form in describing the longing of a young girl, a virgin, for the slightly unconventional. Her vision of her future being a stayed and commonplace marriage to one of the local boys of character and money, she longs for something else before that fate befalls her. She does find that love, very much by accident. She comes across a Gypsy and she falls deeply and viscerally in love with him. Yet, she is coy and she is proper about it. Although she badly wishes to be with him, she understands the potential scandal of such a union. Her father being one that is a non-believer, despite his position as the rector; she sees his revulsion for those things of the body. The rectors wife had left him for an impoverished boy. She sought something the rector just could not provide to her. Even though she was his everything, he was not able to make her feel the love she wished deeply even to her bones. Her daughter too felt that there was more than just the future she envisioned. She felt that it was not a matter that could be ignored. It was a matter that had to be satisfied and soon. But how to do so, without being seen as a prostitute by her own family; that was the mystery and the beauty of the book. Finally, amongst a great flood and terror that is more frightful than can be imagined, she finds herself with the Gypsy in her own bedroom, safe from the outside world of people because of the isolation and protection afforded by an unanticipated flood. Here she makes the passionate love to him that she had heretofore only dreamed about. Here she becomes a woman, and becomes a lover at the same time. As always, Lawrence fills the text with serious metaphor and memory. He uses symbolism, systematically revealing the undercurrents of his characters huge love and anticipation with thinly veiled double entendres and images. This book is specifically recommended for Lawrence readers, but in addition, the book is highly recommended to those seeking love and those fulfilled in love. The gypsy represents her free-born will, which separates her from the rest of the Saywells. He is an outsider, on an old, old war-path against such as herself . . . Yes, if she belonged to any side, and to any clan, it was to his. Under the influence of the absent mother, an adulterous couple she encounters, and the defiant gypsy who endures in opposition, Yvette is forced into a confrontation with her sneering father-a confrontation that brings out his hidden evil and self-righteousness. Both The Virgin and the Gypsy and That Evening Sun deal with characters who are social outsiders living under social restrictions. The Virgin and the Gypsy is a picture of the social climate in England. Characters like Cynthia, the Eastwoods and the gipsies are affected by social snobbery. That Evening Sun is the portrayal of Nancy, a black woman, who struggles against racism. The outsiders from these selections are physically, emotionally, and socially isolated. Social isolation affects the characters in The Virgin and the Gypsy and That Evening Sun. Nancy experiences social rejection from both society and from the family she works for. She is discriminated for being black and is shown no respect in society. There is also the factor of generational prejudice in the family Nancy works for. The mother is passing on their racial prejudice to their children who will carry on a racist attitude forever. The children uses phrases like scairder than niggers(199) as an insult conveying their disrespect of the black culture. The gipsies are isolated from society because they are different. They lead a different lifestyle and act as individuals. Society describes gipsies as pagan pariahs(36), non-Christians and outcasts. Restrictions are placed on people like the gipsies that create a social scale and rank people accordingly. This novel is very intriguing and teaches lessons of morality, religion, and of life and death intended for those with imagination and insight. The authors style contributes deeply to the intrigue and true meaning to this novel. The authors use of imagery makes tensions in the story vivid and emphatic. In this story there is a re-occurring tension between religion and desire. The tension between religion and desire is most clearly demonstrated between the characters of Yvette and the rector. Yvette was brought up in a world of religious conventions and beliefs, an environment of forgiveness, love, and morality. This world is later realized to truly be a world of repression towards all feelings of passion and desire; not the environment of forgiveness, love, and morality Yvette and the readers are lead to believe. This starts the conflict between religion and desire, and confuses Yvette greatly because her religious upbringing denies and contradicts all her natural instincts of love, passion, and sexuality. The rector and Yvette do not share the same understanding of love. They are both very different in their thoughts and ex pressions, of what love is. The narrator in the story tells us what the rector thinks of Cynthia, his lost wife. He describes her as the pure white snow-flower (p.6) and expresses that her husband thought of her on inaccessible heightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦that she was throned in lone splendor aloft their lives, never to be touched (p.7) This would have the reader believe that Cynthia is considered in the rectors eyes to be like god not bodily in his life. At another point in the novel the narrator informs the reader that the rector believes Cynthia to be sacred and that she was enshrined in his heart, as if she were a religious idol, never simply expressing any love or desire for his lost wife. Its like the rector has moral religious love for his lost wife, and not passion or desire, like

Employee Motivation Case Study: Specsavers

Employee Motivation Case Study: Specsavers Culture is made up of values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture within a organization can also be describe as behavior s that results when a group arrives at a set of general unspoken as well as unwritten rules for working together. Base on data studied the culture at Specsavers is all about serving people. Such culture involves a lot of interaction with customers. As part of its culture Specsavers depends on its people to deliver the highest standards of customer care and service. To accomplish such the organization provides a variety of interesting job roles, as well as opportunities for career development. In culturing the organization the human resource department must play a vital role in paving the way forward. These roles include: Increase workforce activities: In doing so human resource personnel must ensure managers are properly trained as to how to manage and utilize resources from different backgrounds not just efface diversity. Creating and maintaining systems that will motivate and develop individuals employed to the company. Such move will only motivate employees to put their best foot forward thereby going the extra mile where necessary or when needed. Considering the kind of culture in place at the above mentioned company, providing and deploying the right mixture of skills, knowledge and experience will be essential in maintaining the culture type already in place. Create and maintain relationship between the people who work for and with the organization. Thereby catering for the changing needs of those employed to Specsavers. Undertaking measures that will ensure proper execution of action that will promote success for all. Employees are expected to share Specsavers vision of providing patients with the best possible service. In realizing the companys vision Human resource must assist by ensuring proper training for the human resource workforce. Before sharing the companys vision one must first have full knowledge as to what are the companys. Therefore it creating a manual outlining the companys vision and objectives would be a good way to start, then ensure that all staff is furnish with a copy. While not everyone enjoys reading; the next step for human resource would be to host seminars explaining the document in its entirety, giving individuals a chance to voice their concerns and have their questions answered. With full knowledge as to the objectives and vision of the company all parties involve will be better able to embrace and realize the companys vision, thereby enhancing their personal growth as well as the companys growth. One key factor in employee motivation and retention is the opportunity employees want to continue to grow and develop job and career enhancing skills. In fact, this opportunity to continue to grow and develop through training and development is one of the most important factors in employee motivation. Other ways of ensuring staff has the potential to deliver quality customer care and are motivated are: Ask the employee to train other employees with the information learned at a seminar or training session. Offer the time at a department meeting or lunch to discuss the information or present the information learned to others. Expand the job to include new, higher level responsibilities. Provide the opportunity for the employee to cross-train in other roles and responsibilities. Assign the employee to head projects or teams. Provide more authority for the employee to self-manage and make decisions. According to the overview Specsavers depends on its people to deliver at the highest level, thus with such measures and more implemented the directors and owners at Specsavers along with its customers will be in for a treat as it relates to customer care. While all three (3) terms are job related and can be observed within most organization worldwide, one should always bear in mind that there are differences between the terms explained below. Job roles within organizations come with different levels of responsibilities. Such levels are directly related to persons expertise and training. Job description is a written statement that defines the duties, relationships and results expected of anyone in the job. It is an overall view of what is to be done in the job. Typically it includes is a written statement that defines the duties, relationships and results expected of anyone in the job. It is an overall view of what is to be done in the job. On the other hand, job specification can be deem to be a statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. Technology and Human Resources In todays world information cannot be carried out effectively without high-tech tools. Technology has simply changed the way in which companies communicate overall. By extension technology has changed the skills that employees really need. While trying to cope with such changes companies word wide has to also deal another growing disease known as globalization. Globalization simply reduces the autonomy of the nation state. Hence, provide less protection and barriers to trade; allow companies the freedom to move their jobs elsewhere; in the end force companies to choose the lay off or redundancy path. As a result firms today are threatened by globalization, technological advancement and sustainability challenges. In handling each challenge the human resource managers do have a role to play. He or she must direct the firm in dealing with as well coping with the rapid changes. Such HRM must develop systems to ensure that their human resource is highly productive. Such a person must ensure that their way of doing things is highly adoptable. Thereby able to change quickly to suit the needs of the market thereby meet the need of their customer and at the same time outperform their competitor. To further deal with the sudden changes HR must familiarize themselves with sophisticated devices, this while educating others employees. In the same breath use electronic communication to develop measures to safeguard data integrity; protect customer data thereby preventing identity theft. Motivating employees to perform effectively from remote locations; as well as managing IT cost and new developments are also great ways of directing a firm. Raise standards: The human resource manager is responsible for the establishment of standards that provide quality management guidance and quality assurance requirements for business. These standards allow manufacturing to receive certification for complying with world-class standards for quality. This certification is important to have especially if you are handling large global accounts and need for your customers to trust that your product is in compliance with set standards of quality. According to Gary Dressler; Human Resource Management is a process of creating and maintaining relationship between the people who work for and with an organization. At Specsavers a lot depends on its people to deliver the highest standard in terms of customer care. In return staff members are provided with variety of interesting job roles, as well as opportunities for career development. With such culture in place at Specsavers poor management and leadership style will have adverse effects on relationship with staff; thereby interfere with performance of the business. The harmony and quality of the team revolves around good leadership. The impact of bad leadership can turn out to be an expensive experience for the company. Good leadership is the driving force that pushes the members forward to the company objectives. Management must understand the strengths and weaknesses of its members or team and provide the encouragement to the team. Praise and encouragement on good work has immense power to bring out the best in a person. However a poor leader only sees the weaknesses and uses it as a way for blaming the members which results in a low morale within the team. A team with a low morale loses interest in their tasks, leading to delay in the production of outputs. Delay in the results leads to the payment of penalty, thereby eating up a huge portion of the companys revenue. Similarly a highly de-motivated team on losing the passion to work fails to come up with innovative ideas and has a lower level of commitment to the task allotted. This has a negative impact on the productivity of the products and services. Inability to come up with imaginative and innovative ideas can lead to the loss of business, especially in knowledge industry as the customers prefer those companies which can aid to its profitability through significant brainstorms. The team leader assists the team members to identify their individual goals on the basis of their strengths and weaknesses. An individual who lacks the leadership skills fails to assess the strengths and weaknesses of his team and thus would not be able to guide his team in attaining the goals. Absence of an effective counsel leads to ineffective time management. The long hours put in leads to a disruptive work-life balance bringing about a high level of physical and mental stress. High level of stress ends up in physical and psychological diseases, thereby making one abstain from office for days. Failure to provide the output on the pre determined date leads to the payment of huge penalties to the customers and loss of business. Thus a quick recovery from this cycle is inevitable for the survival of the business entity. A poor manager has little control over time management. His ineffective leadership fails to draw commitment to work resulting to long hours in the office. He also fails to understand the individual capabilities of his members, pushing unmanageable work load on the team members. Lack of an effective communication amongst the manager and the team members, the heavy work load, and the immense dissatisfaction forces the individuals to move to another project within the same company or to resign from the company. Thus poor leadership qualities are one of the major causes for labour attrition. The importance of induction training must not be underestimated at anytime, this as it signals the start of the relationship between an employer and employee. It is during this time important standards and patterns are set so as to enhance good behavior for the future. Inductions should develop the skills, knowledge and behavior that an organization needs. These requirements need to be defined beforehand in order to ensure a smooth working relationship. Induction training should entails immediate needs and priorities, so health and safety, facilities and conveniences should always be explained immediately. It is also important to ensure employees understand any contractual relationships they are entering into. Other aspects of such induction should focus on the organization and the job. Regarding the organization, new employees should be given a structured view of the organization by receiving mission statements, structure charts and business plans. They need to know how they fit into an organization, so meetings with appropriate people and accountability charts are vital. Inductees must also be familiarized with the culture of an organization and also need to understand all relevant rules. This way when given the job persons will hit the ground running have full understanding of what is required of him or her; thereby not hampering production in any way. Balanced Scorecard The purpose of the balanced scorecard is to implement a business strategy thereby translating it into a set of performance measures derived from strategic goals that allocate rewards to executives and managers based on their success at meeting or exceeding the performance measures. Balanced Scorecard enables companies to evaluated activities from various perspectives such as: Financial perspective Customer perspective Process perspective Innovation perspective http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTHWuztOjGZ5nZV8Y795LtpIiAs-NryApxcMP3HUYUFSOli2km7wQ Building a Country: Malaysias Development Building a Country: Malaysias Development Abstract In this paper, the major discussion is about the process of building Malaysia country. Besides, it also includes how the Malaysian people accept the revolution from Sultanate perspective until the country becomes a democratic country. Malaysia had achieved their independence day in the year of 1957. In these democratic countries, there are a few political parties which are formed before Malaysia gets their independence day from the British which are United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Indian through Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). In that time, they are the three biggest political parties which are occupied by the three biggest ethnic in Malaysia which are Chinese, Malay and Indians. These parties are formed to fight for the independence of our country, Malaya which is now Malaysia. In addition, the factors which affect the process of building our country, Malaysia are also being discussed in this paper. Besides, through this paper, we will also know how our prime minister builds Malaysia. Introduction 31 August 1957 is a historical day in Malaysia because it is the day where Malaysia gained its independence from British which had colonized our country for few decades. At that time, the major politic parties which consists of United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) which are being separated by their ethnic and different identity. These parties had to cooperate together by putting aside of their own ethnic and misunderstanding to deal with the independency of our country, Malaysia. In this way, these political parties, UMNO, MCA and MIC had formed an association party based on their own ethnic to participate in the election to choose a leader to lead the peoples to fight for independence. On that time, Tunku Abdul Rahman, which has become our first prime minister in Malaysia had changed the current style of setting up an association of government through the election where the winning party does not have suf ficient votes from the peoples to form a government. After that, a new political party, the Alliance party, is being formed after people from different ethnic done with dealing within each other. Tunku Abdul Rahman, our deceased prime minister is the leader of the Alliance party and he has won the election on that time with the agreement from UMNO, MCA and MIC where they cannot be one of the participate where the leader of the Alliance party contest. It is the first in the history in all over the world where a multi-racial together formed a political party. Malaysia, which is located in the middle of the Southeast Asian region in the world map, is directly affected by many other factors. There are some of the important principles which must be examined before analyze the politics in Malaysia, for example, most of the people in Malaysia are Malay, so they are the leader in the politics. Besides, social civilization and politics have a strong bond between them. In addition, culture be tween different religions also has some effect on Malaysian politics. Historical Perspective of Malaysian Politics: Nationality and Politics On 16 September 1963, Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah) has combined to become a union called Malaysia. All the states in Malaysia claim that they are Malaysian people and there is no any separation compared to the neighbor country such as Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. This shows that even though Malays are the dominant in this country and they have the first priority if compared to other clan in Malaysia, they still can tolerate and accept each other with different ethnic and races. There are few states in Malaysia which have their own Sultan which is the head of the state and even though after the federation of Malaysia, those state with the Sultan will still have their own power. While in Sabah and Sarawak, they are given to have their own way to administrate their own states. The unity among the people from different states allowed Malaysia to change from a small country into a big country. After Malaysia has become independence in 1957, they seldom focus ed on the nation building compared to state building. But after Mahathir has taken over the prime minister position, he promoted a ‘Look East’ policy which gives the first priority to the east. Besides, he also makes Malaysia to recognize as an Islamic state and the government is ruling the country with a right view. The Transformation from ‘sultanate nationality’ to ‘nation building’ Malays, who are the dominant in Malaysia, are divided into few groups because of different states and ethnic and they are the main subjects when defining the nation building in Malaysia. Besides, they are strongly influenced by the loyalty, the Sultan and the King except for those who lives in Penang, Singapore and Malacca. These three states do not have any Sultan or King, so, they have to pay their loyalty to who govern the states. There are some divisions of the states in Malaysia which are Pahang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Perak is called Negeri-negeri Melayu Bersekutu, while Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Johor and Terengganu are called as Negeri-negeri Tidak Bersekutu. While for Penang, Singapore and Malacca which do not have any Sultanate or King are called Negeri-negeri Selat. All this separation had created some arguments which have affected the nation building. UMNO and Malayan Union in 1946 UMNO, a party which united all the Malay association from the Peninsula to fight for the proposal of Malayan Union by the effort of a Johor Malay leader, Dato Onn Jaafar. Malayan Union is to unite all the Malays and non-malays to create an equal citizenship. Besides, Malayan Union also has a new idea which is to replace the traditional leaders, Sultanate, with a Governor. But, the Malays, who claim themselves as a Bumiputera reject this idea because they think that this might harm their identity and leadership of the Malay itself. In addition, they also rejected the concept that created by the British. Due to the strong power from the Malay dominant, the British colonial power to realize that they will not have any chances to win the support of the Malay communities through the rejection. After that Persekutuan Tanah Melayu was formed to replaced Malayan Union which is led by Dato’ Onn Jaafar. ‘Nation Building’ and ‘State Building’ under Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman is the first leaders who balance the races and ethnicity between three major communities. He is the first leaders who gain the trust of all the communities in Malaysia at that time. Furthermore, the compromises between the leaders of different communities towards the power politics also under controlled. In Malaysia, the power politics are used to ensure that the multi religious-custom society is able to govern without any revolution which will cause chaos. Besides, it is also important that the nation building ethnic and the race in a country is stabilizing because it will cause harm if the racial ethnic balance is being neglected. During the general election in May 1969, Tunku Abdul Rahman has made a toleration with the sensitive issues which involves religious and racial. Besides, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Razak also realized that harmony between the communities is the most important to ensure the peace of Malaysia. In September 1970, Tunku Abdul Razak replaced Tunku Abdul Rahman as the second prime minister in Malaysia. While in 1971, our second prime minister, Tunku Abdul Razak introduced a new policy, Dasar Ekonomi Baru. The purpose of this policy is to abolish the famine, to make equality to the socio-economic and abolish the recognition of the race towards the economic function. In addition, he is the first who formed the Barisan National to take over the Alliance Party which has become a strong party at that time. Until today, our Malaysia Government retains this strong national resilience to make sure the stability of the politic in our country. Besides, he also succeeds in building a good diplomatic relationship between the other countries. Due to the diplomatic relationship with China, it improves the position of Chinese ethnic in Malaysia which they can go to China anytime they wanted to. When our fourth prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir led our country, it is the best performance in Malaysia where all the sectors shows a good re sult. Malaysia as a Fundamental Moderate Islamic Country: Malaysia, is it an Islamic or Secular State? When our first prime minister led Malaysia, he ever said that Malaysia has an official religion which is Islam. But this statement has brought many troubles to Malaysia because the others who are non-Muslims and even for the Muslims also unsatisfied with this statement. Some even said that this is an anti-Islamic and causes the Muslims to separate into few different groups which are extreme, moderate and liberal. Many questions have been asked according to that statement and thus causing the worldwide politics become a complicated and brings harm to Islam. Malaysia, which is mostly dominated by Muslims, some of the parties like Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP or PAS) take this opportunity to obtain their support in the election by using Islam as their center. They even use this to influence their supporters that UMNO and BN are the parties who will bring harms to Islam in their campaigns. Besides, they even develop a slogan ‘Membangun Bersama Islam’ to announce Hudud as a part of Islamic law and uses this to win over the votes from the Muslim supporter. Malaysia and Terrorism Dr. Mahathir has clarified the misunderstanding by some of the peoples on Islam in BBC interview due to some people call the Muslims as a terrorist. This has caused Malaysia has been prejudiced by other country due to this kind of statement. But, they do not know the truth which our country, Malaysia, is the only one multi-racial country who wins against the terrorism. Besides, Malaysia uses its democratic system to won against the communism after World War II. Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was the leader of Malaysia at that time, also stated that he has prepared to fight against the terrorism rather than staying there doing nothing and he also encourage the people to fight for it. After that, the spirit of fight against the terrorism has influenced many other countries and thus, Malaysia has become the role model. In addition, Malaysia also shows to the outside world that they can live peacefully and harmony in one country with multi-racial and urge the world community to stop hurting eac h other. Unfortunately, some other people who misunderstand Dr. Mahathir who encourage the people in the world not to fight with each other like copying what Osama Ben Laden said. This caused the foreign people think that we are only acting to the world towards the terrorism but actually we are supporting it. It is bad to judge our country like this because we are really a multi-racial who can live peacefully with each other, tolerate and accept different culture between us. But fortunately Mahathir shown to the world by forming the GERAKAN which is represent by Muslim and non-Muslim. Fundamental Islamic Country When Malaysia firstly announces our country as a ‘fundamental based Islamic’ country, this news shocked all the Malays especially the PAS. Besides, Mahathir also said that whoever does not support the government parties will definitely go to hell after they died. It has frightens a lot of people. In addition, Mahathir also wanted to get rid of PAS because he thinks that most of the Malay will support PAS just because of their ideology. In addition, he also said that when building a country, development is more important than punishment and he said that he dislikes using weapon to rule the country. Furthermore, the non-Muslims know that the announcement given by Mahathir will not bring any harm to them because they have faith with Mahathir that he will guide Malaysia towards a good future. Even the UMNO in Penang, which is a politic party based by Malay, was also run by a Chinese leader. This can show that the harmony between the multi-racial in our country where they can accept each other. Malaysia and Mahathir as an Agent of Change: Malaysian State Building at the Era of the Globalized World Dr. Mahathir, Malaysia fourth prime minister stated that globalization means that it is a world without any border but does not mean everything named globalization is a good thing and must be well prepared if anything bad is happen, an action is needed to be taken. Malaysia is developing well under the lead of Dr. Mahathir and he never give up to guide Malaysia towards a better future. Besides, he also never loses direction when Malaysia is facing crisis. In addition, he also encourages the people to maintain a good relationship with their neighbor’s country. By this way, just can bring a lot of benefit to us while contribute to the economy of our country. Furthermore, Dr. Mahathir also realize that the global effects might bring negative effect to our country, so he hopes that this kind of effect can be minimize. Malaysian Ways: Role Models in Handling the Financial Crisis When Dr. Mahathir flash back the crisis that happened in 1969, he said that all the community should cooperate together to ensure that the crisis will not happened again. He also found an effective ways to reduce the divergence between different races and try to abolish the famine among the community. While dealing with the crisis of economic in Malaysia, he also facing the disturbance of the politic which caused by the other politic party who opposes the Barisan Nasional. But, Dr. Mahathir is good at dealing with the crisis. He was able to find an effective ways to handle the crisis by develop a new strategy to rebuild the economic in Malaysia. He also ever said that Malaysia is a business country where they trade and buy. This is how the economic in Malaysia grow. Besides, we also need the investment by the foreign country and maintain a good relationship with others country. When Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed work as our second finance minister, he bring our country economy back to the right track and thus Malaysia have an excellent achievement on that time. While in 1997, our country faces the crisis of currency but, Dr. Mahathir had decide to find ways to fix the currency exchange rates to save our country from financial crisis. A strategy has been developed to maintain the currency of our country. After the new strategy started, there is a change in Malaysia economic. Then they even build National Economic Action Council (NEAC) to give them some advice on the economic problem faced by our country. With the help of NEAC, some movements have been taken to solve the crisis. Besides, the government also takes some action to control the currency from being flowing out too much from our country. But fortunately this control is just for a while and the share market of our currency has back to normal and the investment from the foreign country is not affected. Many people invest in our country because our currency is in a fixed rate at most of the time and this is a good thing. Furthermore, the way how our country control the flow of our currency has also been recognized and used by the global financial system because it is unexpectedly a good way to solve the financial crisis and thus causing other foreign country to look high on our fourth prime minister, Dr. Mahathir. Meanwhile, some of the investor from western quit from invest on our market and luckily that time China stepped in and lend us a hand. A year has passed and our country has finally revived from financial crisis and many foreign countries started to accept the way how our Dr. Mahathir deals with the financial crisis. After a few years, Bank Negara Malaysia showed that the economy in our country has improved and our currency is now acceptable by the foreign country. This means that Malaysia finally survived from the financial crisis with the help of our prime minister, Dr. Mahathir. Conclusion As a conclusion, the way how our ministers build our country and save our country from many kind of crisis is a history and it should be remembered by every Malaysian. Without those leaders, our country will not have a better life like nowadays with how they fight for our independence from colony of British and save us from crisis. They had shown to the world how a leader should be like and the capability which must have in a leader. Without the leaders, our country, Malaysia will not become a strong country which brings a lot of contribution to the world. Besides, all kind of challenges which faced by our country has become our experience to make us a better country and try to maintain a good relationship between the multi-racial.

Martyrdom and September 11th :: Martyr Islam Muslim 9/11 9-11 Terrorism Terrorist

On September the 11th 2001, the international crisis of terrorism exploded in America. The dark cloud that loomed over lower Manhattan eventually cleared but the reality of the American entrance into the battlefield of terror didn’t dissipate. When President Bush addressed his stunned and grieving nation, he declared a crusade on terrorists and all who harbored them, and â€Å"when [his] remarks were translated into Arabic for broadcast throughout the Middle East, the word crusade was rendered as ‘war of the cross’† (Carrol 5). This religious reference rang true to those terrorists who had attacked the World Trade Center; all were members of Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network Al Qaeda. The group is a militant Islamist organization that believes those who commit acts like those of September 11th are martyrs, welcomed into eternal paradise. The phenomenon of martyrdom is not exclusive to Islam. By definition, a martyr is â€Å"one who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny his religion by words or deeds; such action is afforded special, institutionalized recognition in most major religions of the world†¦the term may also refer to anyone who sacrifices his life or something of great value for the sake of principle† (Britannica). The word is derived from the Greek word for witness. Throughout the ages, willingness to die for a noble cause has been a persistent idea. In three of the world’s major religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam, martyrdom has played a significant role. In Judaism, the concept of martyrdom is referred to as Kiddush Hashem which means sanctification of God's name. This definition includes refusal to renounce the word of God for reasons of convenience or to save one’s life. According to Judaic beliefs, Abraham, the first Hebrew patriarch, was thrown into a furnace for denouncing idolatry. Though he was saved by God, his brush with death made him the first martyr of the Jewish faith. During medieval times, Jews were persecuted by Christians throughout Europe, and were frequently put to death for crimes such as blood libel and host desecration1. Many Jews were forced to flee Spain during the Inquisition to avoid being unjustly persecuted under the pretense of similar offenses. These martyrs were usually burned at the stake. In the 1940’s Hitler systematically slayed over six million Jews during the reign of the Third Reich. These are just a few examples of martyrs of Judaism. In early Christianity, all believers were considered martyrs. Later, this distinction was reserved for those who refused to renounce their faith and suffered as a result, whether they were injured or killed. Eventually, only those who were killed for their beliefs were considered martyrs.

English Media Coursework (Saving Private Ryan) Essay examples -- essay

Analyze the methods used to make the opening battle sequence of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ both shocking and realistic, and say how effective you find it as an introduction to the film Steven Spielberg’s master piece Saving Private Ryan earned itself 5 academy awards, including the best director award in 1998. The all star cast starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns brings to life the horror of war. Seen through the eyes of a squad of American soldiers, the story begins with World War 2’s historic D-Day invasion, then moves beyond the beach as the men embark on a dangerous special mission. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) must take his men behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Faced with impossible odds, the men question their orders. Why are eight men risking their lives to save just one? Surrounded by the brutal realities of war, each man searches for his own answer-and the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honor, decency and courage. Saving Private Ryan earned its awards for bringing back the realism of World War 2 and for portraying what the shocking chances of survival were at the historic battle of Omaha beach on D-Day in June 1944. Omaha beach was only one of the invasion sites of the American, British and Canadian coalition forces. The special reason why Steven Spielberg chose to direct his movie with Omaha beach as its backdrop was due to the fact that out of all the other landing sites, Omaha beach was the bloodiest battle field and it took 15,000 lives of young American soldiers to capture the beach. In the past, war genre films meant hardcore action and a hero waging a one man war against an army, a typical movie would be Rambo 3. Although it is based on a true story, it did not take one American to battle the whole Russian army with a bow and arrow. Saving Private Ryan brings back to life the real heroes that fought in a war, men who were willing to give up their lives just to make a difference, now tha t ultimate sacrifice is what true heroism is. In a way Saving Private Ryan was finally able to create a difference between action genre films like Rambo 3 and war genre films like Black Hawk Down, and define completely new conventions of war genre films. The realism of the movie is what gave the movie its academy awards. A few explosions cannot bring back ... ...n the beach. Hundreds of bodies lay dead, the music although creates a peaceful effect, the first reaction of a sentimental audience would be tears dripping out of their eye’s. The final shot of the scene is the close up on Peter Ryan laying dead on the beach with a bloody tide rushing in. The ending scene was probably the most effective scene of all because it immediately shows the reality and chaos war brings to mankind and what kind of courage it takes people to rise up against it. Overall I think Steven Spielberg has created a masterpiece in re-creating D-Day. Not only that, the way the whole battle sequence followed and linked each other was remarkable. I mean to say the graveyard, the old veteran crying, the music, really prepared me to expect the next scene to be a battle. But I did not know it was going to be that chaotic and brutal that it literally shocked and surprised me. The accuracy and the, idea of hand held cameras really involved me with the movie and I think that’s what I enjoyed the most, the realism of the movie convinced me that, that is how D-Day happened. Saving Private Ryan was definitely worth watching, it has taken the war film genre to a whole new level.

Impact of Advertising on Customer Loyality

*BEST PRACTICE: Customer *loyalty _The limited number of business contacts, the difficulty of recruiting new business customers and the cost of some business products or services all mean that maintaining customer loyalty is key to B2B marketing success. Sara Goodwins looks at some popular approaches to this problem_ Is it easier and less expensive to sell to existing customers than to find new ones? Of course it is. In the B2B arena, however, sales cycles are longer. If customers are not to be tempted away by competitors, marketing needs to encourage them to develop a relationship with the brand. Anthony Green, sales & marketing director of Concep, comments: â€Å"If businesses keep in touch, customers become familiar with products and services on offer and the company will be taken into consideration when a purchase is made. † When keeping in touch with customers, communication should achieve a number of objectives. Firstly, it should reassure the customer that they made a good choice of partner/supplier. It should also add value to the relationship, above what has been contracted, seek additional opportunities for further business, and inform business and client about new developments. Existing customers, lapsed customers and prospects should be approached differently. Marketers can assume that customers are familiar with the business and currently prefer your products/services or have done so in the recent past. Ideally no customer should ever go elsewhere, but there will be events such as changes in personnel, expiry of contracts, upheavals in the market, that change the relationship. Julie Cooper, co-director of events management company Fab, points out, â€Å"If a key contact within the client company is replaced, you have to establish confidence and trust with a new person – and the new contact may well bring with them pre-existing relationships with competing suppliers. † Keep in touch Lapsed customers, because of the past business relationship, should not be contacted in the same way as prospects. Alan Curnow, communications manager of Grass Roots, explains: â€Å"The distinction between clients and prospects is (more one of) tone than substance; we may need to refresh prospects' memories of who we are, whereas clients – even if they haven't bought from us for some time – know us. † Jan-Pieter Lips, head of business-to-business at Loyalty Management UK, which operates Nectar for Business, adds: â€Å"Experience shows that there is a direct correlation between winning back a lapsed customer and the time that has passed since the last transaction. Simon Ward, director of rewards scheme Seed, considers that the frequency of customer orders is like a pulse. â€Å"Businesses should monitor customertransactions and identify when they change. They can then contact thecustomer and find out why. † David Lebond, executive director of P&MM, agrees: â€Å"Doing something wrong is the best opportunity for getting a customer for life; if you handle a complaint well, put things right and demonstrate that you have the customers' interests at heart then not only will customers be retained, they'll also talk about you in glowing terms. Newsletters Newsletters and customers magazines are one of the most obvious communications methods, which can be used to maintain customerrelationships and loyalty. Richard Bush, managing director of Base One, says, â€Å"The trend for customermagazines – which we saw in the mid 90s – has diminished as many businesses found they were expensive and their success difficult to measure, although the need for what they provided still remains. † Electronic newsletters have taken over as less expensive, more measurable and interactive replacements. To include relevant material, you need to consider things like: life cycle of products/services and how they relate to customers and information held about customers which helps target mailings. Allow readers to choose – for example: offer the flexibility to pick areas of interest, frequency of mailing, etc. but make sure that they can change their selections with each mailing. Denise Cox, newsletter specialist at Newsweaver, says, â€Å"Stay away from complicated password-protected access to subscription profiles; this is a real turn-off and readers may just start deleting your emails instead of trying to change their preferences. Newsletters need a simple lay-out, clear navigation and no fancy graphics such as Flash that could cause them to be filtered. They require a table of contents on each page to provide clear choice and encourage further reading; around five main articles per newsletter of 300-700 words and a 100-word synopsis of each article on the front page with a link. â€Å"It is also extremely important that you have a strong call-to-action in your articles,† says Cox of Newsweaver. â€Å"It's astonishing how many companies don't. Yet it's your key opportunity to incite sales, feedback and make requests for more information. Readers typically decide within eight seconds whether to read on, set the information aside – which probably means they'll never read it – or delete it. The ‘from' and ‘subject' of the email need to tempt recipients to open it. ‘From' should be your brand, helping to build recognition; ‘subject' should be interesting and relevant. Content could include: articles stimulating thought and discussion, pertinent information relating to technological innovations, legislation affecting the industry, links to relevant news, client wins and case studies, industry reports and website links. Email newsletters are extremely cost-effective, popular, and immediate, and offer measurable conversion rates. Their main disadvantage is one of commitment. Companies must be prepared to publish a regular, well thought-out newsletter for it to be of marketing use and to respond to the interest it arouses. Reward/loyalty programmes â€Å"Reward programmes and loyalty programmes are not the same. The former is tactical, the latter strategic,† says Lebond of P&MM, he adds, â€Å"Reward programmes are a form of payment for repeat business; loyalty programmes represent a state of mind created in the customer. Reward programmes are most effective when there is rivalry in a sector (the programme then makes the point of difference); or there are frequent purchases to lock collectors into the scheme; or it's easy to change suppliers so customers need to be induced to stay. Reward programmes are effective anywhere where customer retention is key. Geraldine Tosh, managing director of IP oints, says, â€Å"A client running a website which relies heavily on advertisers, for example, can tempt people to the site using a reward programme. Extra points could be offered to clients making it their homepage for example, or using it frequently, etc. Branded reward programmes are often more cost-effective and less labour-intensive as well as enabling value to accumulate quickly. The main disadvantage is that companies usually have to commit for a period of time. Steve Cooper, marketing manager at Argos Business Solutions says, â€Å"In some cases a tailored scheme is more appropriate for a company where aligning with a different brand may conflict with or dilute the impact of their own brand and communications. † White label reward programmes aim to build value into a company's brand and offer companies more control of how uch value they're giving away. Tosh of IPoints says, â€Å"Reward catalogues can be tailored to include a business's own product or service at a reduced price. Companies could even tailor the earning and redemption around their customers' business needs. † Customers who know that your company is helping to build their business have a powerful incentive to buy from you. Rewards are short-term encouragements; loyalty is long-term commitment. As Lebond of P says, â€Å"If you get the right people with the constant attitude of ‘how can I make my customers even happier' then you don't need a reward programme. Corporate hospitality Customer events are undervalued largely because the value of them is difficult to assess. Face-to-face communications and shared experiences are very personal and the positive associations remain for a long time. Sarah Webster, director of communications at Eventia, explains, â€Å"Corporate hospitality enables suppliers to deepen their relationship with clients and to understand the motivations and constraints that influence buying decisions. † Corporate hospitality also adds value, as Rob Allen, chief executive at TRO, explains. Take the example of an accountancy firm which organises a breakfast briefing for its clients on the morning following the budget. By explaining the full implications of the Chancellor's new financial provisions, the firm is enabling its client companies to make significant savings or profits. The client relationship is enhanced. † Bush of Base One has no doubt, â€Å"Thirty minutes in a room with your top 10 customers is worth thousands of DM pieces. † Dedicated client website Webpages are particularly powerful marketing tools when used in conjunction with other marketing communication. Businesses can track the customer's journey through the site. Marketers can then use the information to tailor communications which recognise each client's interests. The main problem with websites is that the information they contain needs to be frequently refreshed to ensure that customers revisit. Many of the suggestions for newsletters apply equally to websites. Anthony Green, sales & marketing director of Concep, comments: â€Å"Additional information tied into a newsletter article can be put on the webpage. Those who click on the webpage have decided consciously that they want to access further information. Companies can then analyse the click-throughs and understand the specific areas of interest on both a macro and per-recipient level. † Tosh of IPoints is succinct, â€Å"Use microsites and reward schemes to collect information and then use the information in communications. † Communication is the key Relevant, valuable and timely communications are seminal to maintainingcustomer loyalty. Lebond of P says, â€Å"Every piece of communication could potentially be the lowest common denominator in a business's contact with its clients, so each one must be as good as possible. More business is lost by poor communications then by anything else. † Newsletters draw customers to websites where their interests can be analysed and responded to, reward programmes encourage frequent transactions, and hospitality enables personal contact. Curnow of Grass Roots explains, â€Å"Loyalty is not so much a pattern of behaviour as a state-of-mind. The single most conclusive evidence of loyalty is advocacy, not usage. The acid test is not how much the customer spends but how hard it would be to prise him away. And of course you cannot put a value on that

Ocean Carrier’s Case Essay

1) Do you expect daily spot hire rates to increase or decrease next year? According to the Case description, Exhibit 3 showed order booking and delivery schedule for bulk capsizes for coming years from 2001 to 2004. It was larger than the number of current fleet size in Exhibit 2. Thus, the spot hire rates would likely to decrease since capsizes are available. 2) What factors drive average daily hire rates? Daily hire rate were determined by the supply and the demand. From Exhibit 2, the existing capsizes carriers in terms of the sum of the loading ability. Factors of supply such as age and size of vessel, cost of repair and maintenance as well as demand factor such as market condition would affect daily rates. 3) How would you characterize the long-term prospects of the capsize dry bulk industry? According to Case description, availability of fleet in the market and availability of transports good drives average daily hire rates. The daily hire rates would increase if ore exports from Australia and India starts in coming years. This would bring huge business trade. In absence of a new business, the average daily rates will decrease because of increasing number of fleet (demand is decreasing). There are about 2 million tons of capsize with age over 24 years. We will hope that these old vessels would be soon scrapped and this would reduce the supply of the capsize vessels. However, those old vessels were not a significant part of the total existing vessels. So we probably will not see a result that an obviously decreasing in supply because of the scraping of old vessels. In Exhibit3, the current order of new capsize vessels delivered in the coming 4 years. There will be a large supply of new capsize vessels from 2001 to 2003. This will increase the supply of capsize vessel in the future. 4) Evaluate the cost of the new capsize and forecast the expected cash flows. See OceanCariers4.xls 5) Should Ms Linn purchase the $39m capsize? Make 2 different assumptions. First, assume that Ocean Carriers is a US firm subject to 35% taxation. Second, assume that Ocean Carriers is located in Hong Kong, where owners of Hong Kong ships are notrequired to pay any tax on profits made overseas and are also exempted from paying any tax on profit made on cargo uplifted from Hong Kong. See OceanCarrier5.xls 6) What do you think of the company’s policy of not operating ships over 15 years old? This is a low-risk policy of company; this policy will save the company from uncertainty. At the same time, it will be not able to take advantage of returns on investment of vessels in the next years. This policy will not give a favorable outlook for investment.