Children and Prejudice Essay

Abstract Over the last century, researchers have been debating whether prejudices are inborn in children, researchers then found that children are in fact prejudiced, but debate arises about how they become prejudiced. Some studies suggested that children are born with being prejudiced and that it is innate and natural, where as other studies argue that prejudice behavior are learnt socially off parents, family, peers and the social environment in which they grew up in. Theories have been devised to help explain the prejudice processes of children by in-group and out-group behavior; there is the Developmental Intergroup Theory and the Social Identity Developmental theory. A new debate has been surfacing about the decrease of prejudice at the age of seven and no decrease of prejudice. One Australian study shows consistency with children of American and Canada, but some studies show no racial prejudice towards other races in children. Children and Prejudice. Question of whether children are prejudiced has long been debated. Past and recent researches have found that there are in fact prejudice tendencies in children and that it can be present at the age of three to four years, but it is unclear how children become prejudiced. Definition of prejudice according to Allport (1954) is that prejudice is â€Å"thinking ill of others without sufficient warrant† (As cited in Eagly, xxxx, p. 45) and according to Kosslyn and Rosenberg (2004) prejudice is â€Å"an attitude (generally negative) toward members of a group† (p.G-7). In the course of research on the prejudice of children, there has been debate over the â€Å"relative role of cognition versus environmental-learning factors†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gutman & Hickson, 1996, p. 448). Several theories have tried to explain the prejudice in children, for example, the Developmental Intergroup Theory (Bigler & Liben, 1996) and the Social Identity Development Theory (Nesdale, Durkin, Maass & Griffiths, 2005). Several measures have been used to measure racial attitudes of children towards other races such as the Preschool Racial Attitudes Measure and the Multiresponse Racial Attitude measure (Aboud, 2003). Less then half a century ago, some social theorists believed that prejudice are inborn in people and that it is inherent and instinctive, it was considered natural to not like people who differ physically and like people who are the similar to one self; but research in the last three decades they have discarded those theories. Researchers are now convinced that children are prejudiced by learning it socially, children observe, and are influenced by the â€Å"existence of patterns in the culture in which they live† (Clark, 1955, p.17). This being that, children believed not to be born with tendencies to be prejudiced but learn it socially by how they live. Consistent with Clark, Bigler and Liben (2007), believes that young children are often seen as being unaffected by the negative biases of adults, but many studies show that prejudice exist by the age of four years old. Allport (1958) states that children start to notice physical characteristics that mark a racial group membership. Like researches above, findings of Kowalski’s (2003) research, they have found that children as young as preschoolers start to have negative attitudes to other racial/out ‘ groups, they have a tendency to say positive statements about same race and negative statements about other races (Aboud, 1987; Aboud & Sherry, 1984, as cited in Kowalski, 2003). Until quite recently, there were differences of opinion concerning the age at which children start to develop and express racial prejudices. According to a recent research of white kindergarten children and African-American children, they show a preference for skin color. These children were asked a few questions and they showed a great awareness of skin color, this finding supports the idea that racial awareness is present as young as the age of three (Clark,1970). Some children as young as three years if age begins to express begin to express racial and religious attitudes similar to those held by adults in their society. The racial and religious attitudes of sixth-graders are barely different from the attitudes of high-school students. There is general agreement that children can be prejudiced, but what factors there is, is unclear. It is debated between environmental-learning and cognition development. Research on cognition development tries explaining prejudice at different ages of cognitive development and the Environmental-learning explains that children and discrimination is not rooted in the child but it is learnt through a social context. According to Allport (1988), children are prejudiced because children â€Å"filter and distort environmental input†, this means children are prejudiced due to the lack of cognitive capacity at a certain age and that children have immature thoughts (As cited in Gutman & Hickson, 1996, p. 448). From the Social/ Environmental Learning theory perspective, racial ideas of children are not concrete, more easily changed, than racial ideas of adults. It is probable; too, that racial attitudes and behavior are learnt off adults. The racial and religious attitudes of a young child may become more positive or more negative as he/she matures, according to the social environment of the child. The direction these attitudes will take form of expression, will be determined by the type of experiences that the child has grown up in (Clark, 1970). In line with Clark (1970), some researchers suggest that children self identify with parents and learn off them (Sinclair, Dun & Lowery, 2004). Social Learning Theory argues that children develop beliefs and behaviors by mimicking off an important model in their life, usually family and peers (Bandura, 1997, as cited in Sinclair, Dunn & Lowery, 2004). Likewise, attachment theory suggests that children internalize their parents’ expectations. Sinclair et al (2004) research provided evidence that parents’ racial attitudes does in fact influence both their children’s implicit and explicit racial prejudice, also their results suggest that children that identify with parents adopt the racial attitudes of their parents more on an implicit than explicit level. In fact parents’ implicit racial attitudes may have a bigger influence on children than their explicit racial attitudes because parents are unaware of implicit biases, it is unconscious and therefore, unable to consciously stop themselves from showing prejudice attitudes. This research also suggests that, parents’ racial attitudes may be particularly influential early in childhood, but peers and other form of social environmental attitudes can influence children more as they get older. Some researchers suggest that the influence of environmental-learning factors, in addition to cognitive factors, be given more serious research consideration. This would mean, for example, taking into account the fact that on the basis of their differing exposure to group information, children form different schemata (cognitive structures containing information about groups e. g. , Bem, 1981). According to Bergen ( ) family affects the development of prejudice in children through modeling, which children observes and imitates important role models, Children around seven to nine years of age can show prejudice behavior without a model, and where as younger children do not understand rules, there fore they look at adult models (Bergen,), also when children adopt their parents prejudices they emotionally emerge with their parents likes and dislikes. Bergen ( ) concluded that a prejudiced child goes through several stages, such as, fear of strangers, racial awareness, identification with in-group, identification with parent’s emotion and total rejections of out-group, and seen later on this is similar to the Social Identity Developmental Theory phase’s. Researchers believe that the Social Learning Theory is weakening; researchers are now turning to the basic cognitive processes of a child’s prejudice behavior (Aboud & Sherry, 1984; Bigler &Liben, 1993). Also, Bigler and Liben (2007) suggest that Social Learning theory does not explain prejudice in children, Social Learning Theory is stating that human behavior is not innate but learnt through important/ appropriate models (Vaughan & Hogg, 2008) . A group norm study used the Social identity-developmental theory, which has four phases. The first one is undifferentiated (two to three years of age) followed by ethnic awareness (ethnic awareness begins at three years old off labeling from parents), and then ethnic preference (the child learns that he or she is apart of a social group) and then ethnic prejudice (children around the age of seven has crystallized attitudes towards certain races, but other research suggest that at this age prejudice decreases) (Nesdale et al, 2005; Nesdale, 2004). In this research, the findings were consistent with the Social Identity-Developmental Theory Children’s prejudice phases, they found that seven year old biases of out-groups are different to those of a younger age and is more stable; Nesdale et al (2005) suggests that children at this age should be a the concrete operational stage, which allows them to have more stable thinking and crystallized. Prejudices towards certain type of people are not known why, children only notice certain cues, for example, gender rather then a handicapped person. Research indicates that young children tend to focus on perceptually outstanding characteristics in a person (perceptional cues being race, gender, age & attractiveness, etc). Children observe the characteristics of physical appearance. They notice perceptual similarities and differences among those who live, work & socialize together. They then gather the social groups they observe which must have been caused by meaningful differences between groups (Bigler & Liben, 2007). The new theoretical model by Bigler and Liben (2007), called the Developmental Intergroup Theory (DIT), tries to establish this classification skills in children that affects stereotyping. This theory is combined by two theories, first being the inter-group theory, which is social identification within a group (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and second one being the Self-categorization Theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher & Wetherall, 1987). Their DIT theory proposes that salience grouping increases in children when adults label groups or group members (Bigler & Liben, 2007 â€Å"Racial prejudice is a predisposition to react favorably to members of a racial group, because of their group affiliation† (Aboud, 1988, p. 48). The majority of child racial prejudice studies have all been researched on children in North America. As stated above one research suggests that children’s prejudice is crystallized at the age of seven and does not decline but other research tends to suggest it does, according to Gutman and Hickson (1996) both can happen because at that age children have more developed mature mind and that because of that it can seem like it decreases because the child has a crystallized conception of a group in their mind. According to Katz (1975) the decrease happen due to social desirability’s and that prejudice is not accepted and according to Aboud (1993) the decline happens because of maturing cognitive development of the child (Augoustinos & Rosewarne, 2001). Ausgosustinos and Rosewarne (2001) results of their research indicated that like the results of North American studies on children, Euro-Australian children in early years of middle school start to show less prejudice towards other groups than the younger children did. North American children prejudices are similar to the children in Australia. Consistent with Doyle and Aboud’s (1995) research on North American children who showed less racial prejudice towards out-groups as they get older can also be seen in Euro-Australian children, they found that older Euro-Australian start to show less racial prejudice towards Aborigines, but as seen later other Australian studies are not consistent with this finding (As cited in Augoustinos & Rosewarne, 2001). Some measures used to measure racial attitudes are the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure (PRAM) and the Multiresponse Racial Attitude (MRA), these look for racial attitudes and preferences in young children and also to find the in-group and out-group attitudes in children. In Aboud’s (1988) finding that the MRA has implications, it goes beyond in finding in-group and out-group results, it doesn’t separate the groups apart and that questions were to open ended and positively worded. Another concern in this field of research is that, overseas research has mainly found that at the age of seven prejudice declines, but some of the findings in Australian studies have found not consistency of declining prejudice at that age. Another problem in Australian studies is that some children do not show bias towards other races (Augoustinos and Reynolds, 2001); this problem could be further looked in future studies. Overall, Aboud’s twenty years (1988) that children are prejudiced and there is general agreement in other researches that children can be prejudiced and that is can start from an early age around three to five years, there is still a debate on whether there are cognitive developmental factors or social learning factors; contemporary researchers are starting to try and explain children and prejudice by using cognitive developmental approaches. There has been debate over weather prejudice declines at seven or are just more implicit and repress because of social undesirability of showing prejudiced behavior. Measures used for researching child prejudice should be looked again and also further studies of child prejudices over different countries as most researches on child prejudice are studied in America and Canada; Perhaps future studies should look at England, Australia and some other multicultural countries in Europe. References Aboud, F. E. (2003). The formation of in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice in young children: Are they distinct attitudes? Developmental Psychology, 39, 48-60. Augoustinos, M. , & Reynolds, K. J. (2001). The development of prejudice in children. D. Garvey (Eds.), Understanding prejudice, racism, and social conflict (pp. 57-73). London: SAGE publications. Augoustinos, M. , & Rosewarne, D. L. (2001). Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19, 143-156. Bergen, T. J. (2001). The Development of Prejudice in Children. Education, 122, 154-163. Bigler, R. S. , & Liben. L. S. (2007) Developmental Intergroup Theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 132-166. Clark, K. B. (1970). The problem of Prejudice. Prejudice and your Child. (pp. 17-24). Boston: Beacon Press. Eagly, A. H. (in press). Prejudice: Toward a more inclusive understanding. In A. H. Eagly, R. M. Baron, & V. L. Hamilton (Eds. ), The social psychology of group identity and social conflict: Theory, application, and practice. Washington, DC: APA Books. Gutman, D. B. , & Hickson, F. (1996). The relationship between racial attitudes and social-cognitive development in children: An Australian study. Developmental Psychology, 12, 448-456. Kosslyn, S. M. , & Rosenberg, R. S. (2004). Psychology (pp. G-7). Sydney: Pearson. Kowalski, K. (2003). The Emergence of Ethnic and Racial Attitudes in Preschool-Aged Children. The Journal of Social Psychology, 143, 677-690. Nesdale, A. R. (2004) Development of Prejudice in Children. In M. Augoustinos & K. Reynolds (Eds), The Psychology of Prejudice and Racism (pp. 1-12), Sage Nesdale, D. , Durkin, K. , Maass, A. , & Griffiths, J. (2005). Group Norm, Threat, and Children’s Racial Prejudice. Child Development, 76, 652-663. Sinclair, S. , Dunn, E. , & Lowery, B. S. (2005). The relationship between parental racial attitudes and children’s implicit prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 283-289. Vaughan, G. M. , & Hogg, M. A. (2008). Aggression. Introduction to Social Psychology (pp. 452-453). Australia: Pearson.

The Language of Performing Arts

On being given the task of creating and performing a song based on the stimulus provided, it seemed doable and was approached by my group and I with enthusiasm and determination. We achieved roughly what to set out too. With some effort and contribution, every member of the group provided a vital input into the making of our final piece. Although all group members could have put in more effort to provide a more tidy finish to the performance, I believe the song written was of a good quality. When given the stimulus our group came up with several ideas based on â€Å"Of Mice and Men† for lyrics, although only those who knew the play were inspired by this particular stimulus. The other stimulus was ‘Dustbowl Days' by Nicole S.Porter and this again provided vague ideas for lyrics. The group however took more specific ideas from â€Å"Dustbowl Days† and used ‘Life' as a topic for the song, the lyrics were then written around this. As far as music is concerned the group decided that the lyrics could not be written out until chords and melody were fitted into place. As I was the most experienced with music in the group it was my job to find chords that created a sad yet effective pattern for a deep and meaningful song. After tampering with a E, D flat minor, G sharp minor, B chord progression for the verse I finally came up with just a simple A minor, F change over. Then every eighth bar a G fitted well. The rhythm was straight and of a moderate tempo, we decided working with a straight 4:4 rhythm would be easiest and besides that would fit our song better too. We practised improvising melodies over these chords until the group agreed on one fitting better than the others. To do this we took notes from the chords and practised singing them over the top of the chord to try and create a sad yet beautiful sound, this was achieved by holding the first note of the first chord of each verse and then using notes which fitted into the scales of both chords for the rest of the verse. Two members of the group then wrote the lyrics while I taught the other two members the chords and appropriate piano and guitar parts. We felt we wanted to include more instruments to give a thicker texture to make the song deeper. The piano part consisted of a simple set of notes (A, C, E, F) linking each chord before each change over. These harmonised very well as the notes were taken from the chords. The timbre of our song was very important to all members of the group and we decided that the lead guitar should be dominant and of a more clear sound so in order to do this the rhythm guitar used palm muted power chords while the lead clearly picked the notes from the chords. This did not only prove more practical but also have a more calm and tranquil effect as intended due to the songs nature. We then decided we wanted to try and make the audience ‘fall in love' with our song, this was ambitious but in order to do this we intended to take advantage of the G chord every eighth bar and create a hook from it, this we achieved and although the singers did not harmonise with each other they did harmonise with the chord creating a hook line. A chorus proved quite difficult to make as our verse had come to us so quickly we were puzzled as to what to do. As the verse was in a minor key we decided the chorus should be in a major key. We came up with possibilities for a chorus and decided it should definitely consist of C major as the first chord as this fitted the well with the song. Certain members of the group then wrote more lyrics and insisted they had to be the lyrics for the non-existent chorus; this made writing it an even trickier job. After agreeing to all meet up and work on the chorus during a free block only two of the members of our group turned up, this added insult to injury and we finally decided as a group we shouldn't spoil our song by adding another melody and set of lyrics which were of poorer standard to the verse' and instead we should simply just have a guitar picking chords C, D Bb, and G. This didn't turn out to be too badly and fitted the song well, and after speeding the tempo of the chorus up it fitted the song well. The transition from verse to chorus was immediate and very smooth, and then from chorus to verse it was paused with a two beat rest. As far as the performance of the song went it could have been better, the picked intro went as planned as with the fist verse and chorus, but one of the members of our group had decided to change the structure of our song at short notice, therefore the song did not end properly as not all group members had been informed of the removal of one of the verses. The part of the song that did go to plan was played pretty well and with little mistakes. Intentions were met as far as the audience were concerned although our mistake was noticeable it was not really commented upon. Little feedback was given but the audience responded all the same as the general tranquillity of the song was felt by most. If we got the chance to make and perform a song again I would insure more harmonising was done to create a deeper feel in timbre, and possibly more instruments were used including drums to maintain time. I would also ensure all group members were at rehearsals as appose to just two, this would mean more work could be put in to a shorter space of time.

Art Essay Example for Free (#3)

Art Essay * Art is a term that describes a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities, but here refers to the visual arts, which cover the creation of images or objects in fields including paintings, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. They are two paintings that have been drawn by Dmitry Levitzky in 1773 and by Millais in 1871. The first portrait by Dmitry levitzky is called Nelidova, Ekaterina Ivanovna who she is the daughter of Lieutenant Ivan Dmitrievich Nelidov. She was raised in the Smolny Institute for Young Ladies and was noticed there by Empress Catherine II, who made her a maid of honor to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, later Empress, whose husband Emperor Pavel I. She was sincerely attached to him, although their relations were never intimate. She was able to influence Pavel I, preventing some of his unwise decisions and tantrums. She was also a close friend of the Empress Maria Feodorovna. The second portrait by John Everett Millais is called The Martyr of Solway the â€Å"Margaret† depicted by Millais was Margaret Wilson, who was born in 1667 in Glenvernoch in Wigtownshire. She was a young and devout Presbyterian who was a member of the Covenanters, a Scottish Presbyterian movement of the 17th century in Scotland who signed the National Covenant in 1638 to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Stuart kings embraced the belief of the Divine Right of the Monarch. However, not only did they believe that God wished them to be the infallible rulers of their kingdom – they also believed that they were the spiritual heads of the Church of Scotland. This latter belief was anathema to the Scots. Their belief was quite simple – no man, not even a king, could be spiritual head of their church. The following piece will demonstrate the differences and similarities between the two images in a compare and a contrast manner. Analyze the fundamental differences. Point out the major mutual points. Art. (2017, Feb 05).

Thinking in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Thinking in the Workplace - Essay Example being in school bring him his own set of challenges- stress, so much work to do, running out of time, procrastination and not enough rest leading to tiredness. If he is confronted with the same set of challenges everyday, the effects could interfere with his normal functions as an individual and even be detrimental to his physical and mental health. Hence, it is important for him to take action and start to make use of an appropriate time management program that he can stick to. There have been countless time management tips for people who apparently cannot follow a regular plan to better manage their schedule and have time to finish workload and still have rest. The following is a simple five-step plan, especially devised for students like Chris. 1) Make a â€Å"To do† list. Before planning out a particular schedule, determine and list down the things that you want to achieve and when they need to be done. This could be on a daily or a weekly basis and should be detailed. 2) Prioritize. After listing your goals or tasks, arrange them according to the urgency or importance. Tips-for-Boomers suggests these specific categories a) Urgent b) Important but not urgent c) Neither important nor urgent. 3) Schedule. After having prioritized the tasks, it is now time to decide when to do the job individually. It is advisable that he set or reserve a specific time frame for doing the necessary tasks, and another time frame for his leisure and recreation. 4) Reinforce and Maintain. Some time management plans do not work because they are not maintained or are hard to sustain. To help Chris in making his time management plan last, he should develop ways to reinforce his actions. One suggested way is the use of the reward system. After a few observations it is found out that Chris prefers to look at maps over verbal directions to a place. He also likes to look at pictures or paintings, and movies and is more likely to retain information presented visually. It is therefore

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Bad Habits of Good Employees Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Political objectives of the principal participants of the 1991 gulf Essay

Political objectives of the principal participants of the 1991 gulf war - Essay Example Iraq was the largest victim as it pertained to achievement of its own objectives, including sanctions which led to significant economic problems in the country, citizen poverty and starvation, and virtually complete isolation from the international community. Kuwait achieved socio-political stability by driving out the massive population of Palestinians in a nation where there has been significant tensions and mistrust between domestic citizens, government and the Palestinians. This essay identifies all victories and detriments to fulfilment of principal partner political objectives as a consequence of the 1991 Gulf War. The 1991 Gulf War encompassed a six week confrontation against Iraq by US-led coalition forces as a response to Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait. In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait which brought rapid condemnation stemming from many member countries of the United Nations who feared that growing economic strength of Iraq would destabilise the balance of power in the Middle East. In total, 34 different nations from around the world joined the joint military operations of the Gulf War or provided economic support for defeating Iraq’s objectives. The United Nations was growing substantially concerned that a Kuwaiti-controlling Iraq which was now threatening and antagonizing Saudi Arabia, a nation with significant geopolitical importance for its international oil supply, would give Saddam Hussein control over nearly all oil reserves in the region. Kuwait represented a strategic environment by which Iraq’s Hussein could strike against Saudi oil fields, which would threaten oil procurement and pricing throughout the developed world. Between 1980 and 1988, one of the longest wars of the 20th Century, Iraq had been at war with Iran which was motivated by border-related disputes. Saudi Arabia, which feared a growing hegemony within Iran, had loaned approximately $26 billion USD to Iraq in an effort to prevent the Shia in Iran from

End-Stage Renal Disease Facilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Perspectives on Adult Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Perspectives on Adult Learning - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that  race and ethnicity were largely ignored in most of the literature despite its increasing significance during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. On the contrary the racial and ethnic minorities continued to be largely ignored through laws that essentially aimed at desecration of public schools as well as other public institutions that offered adult education. Historically education in the North American and European states have focused on offering education and developing learning modules with key emphasis on the majority adult learners that comprised of white population, while ignoring the other races. Such blatant discrimination and colorblind attitude toward adult education and learning has been deeply embedded in the social structure of the Western world.This discussion declares that  the adult learning modules began incorporating crucial issues aimed at the growing multicultural population thus indicating its acceptance and ackno wledgment of the growing diversity and the need for inclusive education. Since the concept of multiculturalism entailed and presupposed the domination of one particular race, in case of the Western world - the majority White population; the key aim of the post globalization adult education system was to include the beliefs, perspectives and cultural context of the racial minorities and ethnically diverse population.

Ancient Egyptian Religion Seen Through Art and Architecture Essay Example for Free

Ancient Egyptian Religion Seen Through Art and Architecture Essay These compositions demonstrated not only a style of art never before seen, but they also showed innovative techniques that have been duplicated for centuries. Although these works, which consisted mostly of pottery and wall murals, seem to be quite simple to the untrained eye, they were what most consider to be a stylized portrait of the times. J. R. Harris comments on this in his book, The Legacy of Egypt, purported lack of grace and charm, unnatural stylizationthese were not shortcomings, but essential manifestations of Ancient Egyptian arts specific nature (194). Another unique aspect of the Ancient Egyptian culture was the construction of elaborate, and sometimes enormous, works of architecture. This is due to the great care that the Ancient Egyptian populace took in constructing the temples, tombs, and halls of their period. In construction, the perfect knowledge of geometry of the architects is fully demonstrated (Howell 41). Ancient Egypt’s buildings were, in their time, the most remarkable landmarks known to man. Also, the ability of the architects of Ancient Egypt to include decorations into the edifices they constructed was highly developed. Tombs and temples alike were greatly adorned with colorful paintings, hieroglyphs, and symbols that added to their beauty. The earliest known art of the Ancient Egyptians was believed to have been very undefined and unskilled, according to Elizabeth Payne in her book, The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Crudely at first, they began drawing the duck and the fish on the sides of their pottery bowls. Then, little by little, over the long years, their skill as artists increased and their everyday objects became as beautiful as they were useful (27). After this eventual increase in the artistic talent of the people, new practices came in to use by which Ancient Egyptians expressed themselves. For example, tombs went from being mere pits and hollows in the sand to being quite complex. These structures have become what the world knows today as the Pyramids of Giza. A main characteristic of their religion was the fact that they believed in numerous gods which each had a special power or purpose. The gods personified everything the Egyptians wondered about or feared or hoped for. Reigning supreme over this multitude was Ra, the great god of the sun (Howell 51). Each entity was constructed his or her own temple so that the people could worship there. Also, the priests made sacrifices to the entities and bathed and anointed golden figures of them. The gods were often represented by animals and specialized symbols. The religion, art, and architecture of the Ancient Egyptians were so closely tied to one another that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between them. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians religion was the most common subject matter of their sculptures, paintings, and structures. For example, the prominent area of construction was that for temples and tombs. Such edifices were skillfully painted with murals to depict the purpose of the room or section; a temple would have pictures of the gods, and a tomb would have art showing a burial or death. In addition, ancient mythological texts were beautifully carved and painted on these walls. Although these were all applications of art and architecture in religion, the most prominent is most likely the funerary art of the Ancient Egyptians. Although the Ancient Egyptians religion has been fully demonstrated through Egyptian art and architecture the influence of their beliefs has extended far beyond what is imaginable. According to Noel Q. King, author of Religions of Africa, Egyptian religion of old has had one of the greatest effects upon Africa’s modern religions (47-48). For example, the multiple gods that the Ancient Egyptians adopted into their theism so long ago are still today present in many African tribes. In addition, the methods used in ancient mummification are the root of corpse preservation in modern society. Such contributions of the Ancient Egyptians have been adapted into methods used by today’s populace in many instances. This is because the culture of Ancient Egypt has provided a stimulus which creates the desire to live, to succeed, and to be remembered in history (Showker 156). ? Works Cited Harris, J. R. The Legacy of Egypt. 2nd ed. Glasgow: Oxford University Press, 1971. Howell, J. Morton. Egypt’s Past, Present and Future. Ohio: Service Publishing Company, 1929. King, Noel Q. Religions of Africa. New York: Harper and Row Publishing Company, 1970. Payne, Elizabeth. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. New York: Random House Publishing Company, 1964. Showker, Kay. Egypt: A Complete Guide with Nile Cruises and Visits to the Pyramids. New York: Fodor’s, 1992.

Feminine Identity and the Corset: A History

Feminine Identity and the Corset: A History Concepts of feminine identity have changed drastically throughout history. Ancient sculpture reveals that beauty was considered to be a woman who was greatly obese, perhaps because of its connotations of a woman well-fed in a world where that was a difficult achievement. The ancient Greeks valued a more muscular figure in their artwork of the feminine ideal, yet these figures still retained a soft roundness. In modern times, the feminine ideal has shifted to something closer to the skeletal. As this transition occurred, fashion has played a significant role in shaping the female identity. The durability and versatility of the corset as a defining garment is almost as astonishing as its continuing appeal. Even after it lost its widespread popularity, the continued use of the corset in Hollywood depictions of the feminine preserved its use, established its historic connotations and illustrated how it symbolized something larger than itself. Contemporary fashion has given the corset a n ew lease on life as women continue to turn to this garment as a means of identification within the modern world. Although the corset has traditionally been viewed as a symbol of female submission, any intrinsic meaning is subject to wide interpretation. What the immediate meaning usually comes from is available imagery, past or present, the suggestive pictures that have pervaded public consciousness and are loaded with shared associations (Hollander, 1995: 26). The tight-lacing of the 17th and 18th centuries indicate the degree to which the corset was considered a means of female sexual expression and define ideas of female beauty. Understanding how the corset has been used in Hollywood, revitalized in cult fashions and re-introduced in high fashion illustrates how it can operate to convey female submission and aggressive sexuality depending upon the internal and external factors at play in its design and use within modern fashion. Hollywoods Creation Hollywood and the big name movie producers have employed the corset in any number of ways from the beginning of the industry. The corset was already used in everyday dress when Hollywood emerged and it was already a strategic garment in Vaudeville and Broadway. Even then, women craved the fashions they saw on stage depending upon the persona of the actress and the intentions of the wearer. Broadway and Vaudeville star Anna Held is the first great example of the corset as a defining garment of the female character. Most of her fame was not attributed to her singing voice, but rather to her rolling eyes, eighteen inch waist and naughty songs (Kenrick, 2004). As is shown in Figure 1, Held continued the practice of tight-lacing in order to portray an enticing, sexually appealing woman with a tiny waist and accented upper features. Through these types of costumes in combination with her activities, Held demonstrated a life of independence and success while remaining sexy and appealing to the opposite sex. Author Eve Golden was quoted saying Held was everything that was glamorous about Broadway, everything that was naughty about Paris (Van Degans, 2006). Mae West achieved similar associations in notoriety and accomplishments. As early as age 14, West was being hailed as The Baby Vamp (Mae West Biography, 2004). Like Held, she became famous because of her quick wit and brazen sexuality. In 1926, Mae wrote, produced and directed the Broadway show Sex, which led her to be arrested for obscenity (Mae West, 2004). She was so controversial that new censorship codes were put in place in 1934 specifically to address her writing, but this didnt keep her from filling her lines with outrageous innuendo and double entendres. Her first film role was supporting George Raft in Night After Night (1932), in which Raft said she stole everything but the cameras. The first film to star West, She Done Him Wrong (1933), the film version of Diamond Lil, broke box-office records and saved Paramount from selling out to MGM (Mae West, 2004). Although West continued to emphasize the hourglass figure, she rejected the wasp-waist and tight-lacing of Held. Instea d, as is shown in Figure 2, West presented a narrow yet proportionately-sized waist. Women wishing to appear independent and sexual began including the corset to heighten and claim their sexuality. Although many stars who appeared in corsets as a part of their outer costume, such as Mae West and Anna Held, retained doubtful reputations as wild, free and sexual women, the corset was also used by good girls. In the 1950 film Two Weeks with Love, Jane Powell, the girl-next-door, deepened her image with the part of Patti Robinson, a 17-year-old vying for the love of a charming Latin man. A main point in the plot refers to the vital role of the corset as a means of defining a woman, something no real femme fatale of the time would be without (Two Weeks with Love, 1950). This good girls struggles to acquire a corset helped to blur the boundaries between the appealingly feminine good girl and the aggressively sexual bad girl. Throughout Hollywoods progression, women were often seen using corsets as a means of obtaining the ideal female figure despite changing fashions. Thus, Hollywood allowed the garment to shape and redefine the figures of thousands of American women through the gene rations. Examples include the hourglass figures of Debbie Reynolds in How the West Was Won and Marilyn Monroe in River of No Return, the cinch waist shown in The Glass Slipper on Leslie Caron and the straight-line figure of Betty Grable. Each of these images gives women something they can identify with that would encourage their use of the corset to express some aspect of their sexuality. Debbie Reynolds is sweetly sassy with the traditional hourglass figure. Marilyn Monroe disrobes for the camera to casually reveal her stunning shape. Leslie Carons super slim waist is emphasized by the attention of the actors while Betty Grables curves are made more alluring by the control maintained in the World War II poster. In each case, the use of the corset emphasizes rather than negates the sexual appeal of the women and provides her with an aura of power. Throughout these depictions and regardless of the finished shape, the corset was essential to full expression of true femininity. Without it, the female was somehow less than a woman as she lacked any sexual identity. The corsets continued use as a symbol of female empowerment in Hollywood ensured its continued use in society. Corsets Return in Cult Fashion Modern fashions use of the corset began with the Gothic fashions of the late 20th century although it can be found in other styles as well. Fashion designers working within smaller cult groups incorporated it as a feature element of everyday outerwear. Again, it is typically used to heighten a womans sex appeal, but the forms of interpretation can vary widely based upon the vision of the designer and the intention of the wearer. One such designer is Vivienne Westwood, who worked in the rock and roll movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain. Her fashions reflect the sexual freedom of female expression found in the womens movements of the time. She felt the repression and conservatism of Britain were in opposition to the freedom and liberation being expressed in America. She rebelled against these attitudes in the aggressive, outspoken nature of the clothing she designed. Westwood discovered that there was a dramatic potential in the clothes themselves that could be heightened: laden with associations, biker gear links sexuality, violence and death, in a twentieth century archetype (Savage, 2001: 21). She built on these ideas by adding metal studs, chicken bones, chains, zippers and other things to her designs. This made her the mother of the punk rock fashions (Savage, 2001: 21). Many of these designs included the corset as a fetish object, made in leather, vinyl or other materials (see Figure 7) to denote a dominatrix-type image. This gave the garment connotations of power and control. The jewel-like elements on the corset featured in Figure 7 also provides a strong element of decadence and wealth. Westwood then took the corset in a new direction as she defined the romantic pirate movement and the savages movement of asymmetrical skirts and ripped layers. Her corsets took on softer fabrics, but did not reduce the sense of power and control associated with the earlier designs. The sensuous images used in the Aphrodite and Adonis corset epitomizes the type of soft, yet blatant, sexuality the corset has come to represent. Westwoods reworking of the corset for outerwear has become one of her most recognizable trademarks. Romantic and historically accurate, the corsets are also surprisingly practical. Stretch fabrics allow ease of movement, and removable sleeves convert a daytime garment to evening wear. Once a symbol of constraint, corsets are now an expression of female sexuality and empowerment (Vivienne Westwood, 2004). Westwoods brilliance is in finding a means of melding the blatant sexuality of the corset-as-outer-garment crowd with the soft femininity of the corset-as-undergarment crowd. Madonnas now legendary conical bra, created by Jean Paul Gaultier and worn throughout her Blonde Ambition tour nearly ten years later, would never have happened if it hadnt been for Westwood playing with the concept of underwear as outerwear some time before him (Frankel, 2001: 52). Westwood recognized the attraction to this style was the inherent empowerment afforded the wearer. There is always a sense of dange r just under the surface of her designs, as is somewhat apparent in the example pictured in Figure 9. The Corset in High Fashion From its appearance in cult fashions, the corset has also been accepted back into high society as a symbol of status and taste. The corset had many positive connotations of social status, self-discipline, artistry, respectability, beauty, youth and erotic allure (Steele, 2001: 1). These concepts have been re-introduced to the corset as fashion designers increasingly recognize its appeal as an undergarment to women seeking psychological empowerment as well as an outer garment to highlight and reclaim sexual expression. Even when the full corset is not used, many designs mimic the hourglass shape in the cut of a jacket, the lacing on the back of a shirt or the boning of an evening gown. The corset captured the dichotomy between artifice and restraint and reflected the highly ornamental status given to the female body (Keenan, 2001: 171). However, the primary purpose of these elements continues to focus on providing the wearer with a sense of sexual power. Following Vivienne Westwood, haute couture designer Jean Paul Gaultier realized the corsets connotations of feminine power. The corset My first trademark piece. At the beginning of the 20th century, women considered corsets anti-freedom, but when I put them on the runway in the early 1980s, it was to express the power of femininity. It was supposed to be hidden, but making it apparent made people rediscover it. I love the fact that a woman or man wearing one feels strong and powerful (Davis et al, 2006: 43). His corset dress designs are based on the idea of the corset with many designs incorporating boning, support and tabs, but his favorite feature seems to be the lacing which adds a touch of the romantic and the sexual as is highlighted in Figures 10 and 11. Whether through the Paris runway or the cult sectors, the corset has entered mainstream fashion thanks to the creativity of designers, the versatility of new fabrics and techniques and the desire of women to construct an identity in keeping with the pressures of the modern era. Designers such as Stella McCartney have modified the corset dress to make it extremely wearable. The dress pictured in Figure 12 could be worn to an evening event as easily as an afternoon lunch. Designers have begun using elements of the corset in ever-more casual designs. In addition to the feminizing aspects of the fabrics and patterns selected for these pieces of clothing, the slimming features of the corset combined with its breast enhancing abilities are at the heart of this popularity. Psychologically, the popularity of the corset can be explained by its strong connotation. The corset, still being a historical garment, probably gives the wearer the feeling of timelessness and freedom felt when wearing fancy dress. It lets her adopt a role, a character, maybe a powerful seductress, which is not allowed during daily life (All Tied Up, 2006). By wearing a corset-inspired top, a modern-day woman gains the ability of expressing her femininity, exploring her sexuality, imbuing herself with a feeling of confidence and power and showing off her figure in its best light. Conclusion The Corset-Defined Identity Throughout its long history, the corset has been a significant player in the shaping of female clothing and female identity. Whether used by outrageous female actresses pushing the bounds of female sexual expression such as Mae West or Anna Held or incorporated into films by directors to illustrate a specific point, the corset remained a significant symbol of female identity throughout most of Hollywoods history from the vamp to the alluring ideal feminine. Moving into the 21st century, the corset has not phased out of production or usage. With designers such as Vivienne Westwood redefining both the function and the message of the corset, as well as revolutionizing the fabrics, materials and comfort level of these garments, the corset has seen a comeback into modern clothing. By bringing the corset into the open, Westwood also brought the subject of female sexuality more into the open, encouraging discussion and display. Her powerful designs and innovative fabrics served to highligh t the concept that the feminine could be powerful as well as shapely even while comfort remained a concern. The corset was then morphed into other styles of clothing for a variety of purposes. This effectively brought the idea of the feminine into a new context still defined by the shape of the corset, the feminine had suddenly been shaped into something defined by the individual woman and could reflect everything from guileless submission to the needs of the male to powerful aggression and control on the part of the female. The corset bears an everlasting sexual attraction: it glorifies, underlines, exacerbates and idealizes the female form. It has evolved aesthetically and symbolically: from underwear to outerwear (in late nineteenth century ball gowns), from corsets to bustiers, from constriction to power, from lingerie to armor (All Tied Up, 2006). I think you see why the shaping of the waist is important regarding sexuality. You state that W.Westwood was solely responsible for the comeback of corsets in the 80s. you could argue that it has always been there. Doirs new look (the nipped in waist) a corset in a more relaxed form. Not only female wears corset. Men do. Currently and in the past. Could talk about the waist coat acting like a corset for men or look up dandies Corsets Return in Cult Fashion and The Corset in High Fashion chapters can be cut down a lot if you look at the trickle down theory by simmel.

Frankenstein Essay -- essays research papers

The story Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus made different feelings to me. I read it first time about five years ago, and when I read it now, I understood the concept differently. The story has a from of letters from Mr. R. Walton, the traveler, to his sister Margaret. Walton wanted to reach the North Pole and wanted to discover new parts of the World. In the land of ice his ship found a man, Victor Frankenstein. He told his story, why he was there and what happened to him, to Mr. Walton in order to warn him from doing something ‘bad’. Mr. Victor Frankenstein was a scientist who wanted to discover something new. His desire for it was so strong that he put all his efforts and life to it. He studied chemistry, anthropology and other nature science. He made researches with death body and he wanted to alive it. One day he was successful and he created a man. It was ugly Creature with a man body shape, but very big and strong. Frankenstein was shocked by his work and he run away from his laboratory. When he went back, the Creature was not there. From that time the Frankenstein’s life changed dramatically. After that accident his best friend Henry Clerval arrived to visit him and took him back to the home. His young brother William was killed and his sister Justine Moritz was suited to be guilty from that crime. Frankenstein knew that she was not murderer; he know who was it, but he did not have enough power and courage to said it. He was afraid that people would find out what he created. He felt he should protect his family from the Creature. Frankenstein was depressed and ill. He wanted to find the Creature and revenge William’s and Justin’s death. He wanted to correct his mistake and kill the Creature. Once Frankenstein went to the trip and in the mountains a he met the Creature after long time. The Creature told him about his life. About how he was happy when he knew only feelings such hunger, thirst, cold and warm. Then he was confronted with people’s fear. He helped to safe child from the river and his reward was shot by child’s father. The Creature started to think about pleasure from saving the life, about pleasure from love and about pain of loneliness. Then Creature observed one family for a long time and learned to speak and started to think about it existence. Creature did not... ...in and the Creature when the creature said, “ I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? Shall I respect man when he contemns me?'; The Creatures desire to be affiliated with a men was very strong, but was refused mostly because of body-shape. We can see the same principle in the society. One example could be racism. Other idea is how strong individual’s desire can be. Frankenstein did not thing about others, about consequences, while he was fulfilling his own desire. Should the person put at risk a group of people in order to fulfil the desire? Is personal pleasure more than group’s pain? While reading this book these questions came to my mind. Even though the story is about irresponsible behavior of individual, I still think that and individual should do what wants. But he/she should be responsible for the act and not to harm others. The story also strengthens my opinion that we do not have right to judge person before we analyze him/her. Prejudges could cause big evil in the society.

Macroeconomic Case Studies :: essays papers

Macroeconomic Case Studies The article titled ‘Fed Unlikely to Alter Course’ by John M. Berry of the Washington Post takes an interesting look at actions that Alan Greenspan his colleges of the Federal Reserve have been taking over the last 9 months to slow the economic growth of United States. The astonishing growth rate of 7.3% is fueled by an economy that is in the midst of a â€Å"high tech revolution†. The article also explores the contrasting view of other economists that say that the Fed has increased interest rates too much in its attempts to slow the economy. The means by which Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve have chose to slow the economy is through a monetary policy, or more specifically, an increase in the national interest rate. The article states that the Fed officials have come to a â€Å"broad agreement that they will keep raising the rates until growth slows to a more sustainable pace to make sure inflation stays under control.† Because of the booming economy and the investment in the stock market the exchange of money has increased for goods and services, which in turn increases the price level or the quantity of money demanded. By increasing the interest rates the Fed commits itself to adjusting the supply of money in the United States to meet that rate at a point of equilibrium. If the interest rate is increased, less goods and services are demanded, and therefore will slow down the economy and reduce the rate of inflation. The article points out that as â€Å"stock prices have risen over the last couple of ye ars, so have American household wealth and consumer spending.† This is precisely the cycle that Fed officials want to interrupt to slow growth before it fuels more inflation. At the time this article was written the stock market prices had fallen sharply especially in the technology sector. But the Fed continued on the path to raise interest rates further noting that the index that they closely follow and contains a broader rage of public traded US stocks, the Wilshire 5000, is up for the year. Even though they began raising rates gradually 9 months ago, it takes almost a year for the economy to feel the full effects. In this case the results of the interest rates increased could be felt as last as the second half of 2000.

Tim Obriens On the Rainy River Essay -- Tim Obrien On the Rainy Riv

Tim O'brien's "On the Rainy River" Tim O'brien's "On the Rainy River" is a true story told by a 41 year old of his life at the age of 21. The fact that O'brien is writing this 20 years later adds a new aspect to the story. He describes himself as a young man with the world in his back pocket. O'brien has just graduated from Macalester College and has a free ride to Harvard. Unfortunately, his storybook world collapses when he receives a draft notice for the Vietnam war, a war that he has "taken a modest stand against"(44) in 1968. Upon receiving his draft notice, O'brien was thrown into a world of what he calls "moral confusion"(44). As a 21 year-old, he follows every rule put forth in front of him, even though he says "he couldn't tolerate authority"(45). If O'brien didn't follow authority, though, he never would have been successful. This is one of the causes of his moral confusion. O'Brien has never had to make moral testing decisions in his life, like whether to face his family or to run to Canada. Another cause for his moral confusion was his stand on the war. He thought it was wrong for numerous reasons, such as not knowing why they were fighting. O'Brien would have gladly fought in a war that he believed in but the draft board didn't let him choose his war. All of these pressures came down to whether he would be the conformist of the past or believe in what he thought was right. All of the pressures built up and something inside of him cr...

Educational Planning Essay

The University has recognized the significance of each unit producing and maintaining Disaster Recovery Plans (also known as business continuity or contingency plans) in order to prepare and address how each unit will continue doing business in the event of a severe disruption or disaster. The Disaster Recovery Planning Team, coordinated by the Client Advocacy Office (CAO) will be the primary resource for assisting each unit with the DRP initiative, by providing education, awareness and tools. The team will work to identify, collect, and organize information and tools for disaster recovery planning and documentation, and disseminate all information to University units in an effective and easily understood manner, so that unit plans may aggressively be developed, tested, distributed, and a copy provided to the CAO for central tracking purposes. After the initial endeavor, the responsibility for providing support will transition from the DRP Team to the Client Advocacy Office. Definitions: Business Continuity is an all-encompassing term covering both disaster recovery planning and business resumption planning. Disaster Recovery is the ability to respond to an interruption in services by implementing a plan to restore an organization’s critical business functions. Both are differentiated from Loss Prevention Planning, which comprises regularly scheduled activities such as system back-ups, system authentication and authorization (security), virus scanning, and system usage monitoring (primarily for capacity indications). The primary focus of this effort is on Disaster Recovery Planning. Developing the Plan: The following ten steps, more thoroughly described in the document that follows, generally characterize disaster Recovery Plans: Purpose and Scope for a Unit Disaster Recovery Plan The primary reason for a unit to engage in business continuity and contingency planning (also known as â€Å"disaster recovery† planning) is to ensure the ability of the unit to function effectively in the event of a severe disruption to normal operations. Severe disruptions can arise from several sources: natural disasters (tornadoes, fire, flood, etc. , equipment failures, process failures, from mistakes or errors in judgment, as well as from malicious acts (such as denial of service attacks, hacking, viruses, and arson, among others). While the unit may not be able to prevent any of these from occurring, planning enables the unit to resume essential operations more rapidly than if no plan existed. Before proceeding further, it is important to distinguish between loss preventi on planning and disaster recovery planning. The focus of Loss prevention planning is on minimizing a unit’s exposure to the elements of risk that can threaten normal operations. In the technology realm, unit loss prevention planning includes such activities as providing for system back-ups, making sure that passwords remain confidential and are changed regularly, and for ensuring operating systems remain secure and free of viruses. Disaster recovery planning focuses on the set of actions a unit must take to restore service and normal (or as nearly normal as practical) operations in the event that a significant loss has occurred. A systematic disaster recovery plan does not focus unit efforts and planning on each type of possible disruption. Rather it looks for the common elements in any disaster: i. . , loss of information, loss of personnel, loss of equipment, loss of access to information and facilities, and seeks to design the contingency program around all main activities the unit performs. The plan will specify the set of actions for implementation for each activity in the event of any of these disruptions in order for the unit to resume doing business in the minimum amount of time. Disaster Recovery Planning consists of three principal sets of activities. 1. Identifying the common elements of plausible disruptions that might severely disrupt critical or important unit operations. . Anticipating the impacts and effects that might result from these operational disruptions. 3. Developing and documenting contingent responses so that recovery from these interruptions can occur as quickly as possible. The major outcome of a Unit Disaster Recovery Planning Project is the development of a unit plan. The plan benefits the unit in that it: †¢ Establishes the criteria and severity of a disruption based on the impact the disruption will cause to the unit’s critical functions. †¢ Determines critical functions and systems, and the associated durations required for recovery. Determines the resources required to support those critical functions and systems, and defines the requirements for a recovery site. †¢ Identifies the people, skills, resources and suppliers needed to assist in the recovery process. †¢ Identifies the vital records, which must be stored offsite to support resumptions of unit operations. †¢ Documents the appropriate procedures and the information required to recover from a disaster or severe disruption. †¢ Addresses the need to maintain the currency of the plan’s information over time. Addresses testing the documented procedure s to ensure their completeness and accuracy. Objective and Goals for a Disaster Recovery Planning Project The primary objective of any contingency plan is to ensure the ability of the unit to function effectively in the event of an interruption due to the loss of information, loss of personnel, or loss of access to information and facilities. The goals for contingency planning are to provide for: †¢ The continuation of critical and important unit operations in the event of an interruption. †¢ The recovery of normal operations in the event of an interruption. The timely notification of appropriate unit and university officials in a predetermined manner as interruption severity or duration escalates. †¢ The offline backup and availability, or alternative availability, of critical components, including: Data files, Software, Hardware, Voice and Data Communications, Documentation, Supplies and forms, People, Inventory Lists. †¢ An alternate method for performing activities electronically and/or manually. †¢ Any required changes in user methods necessary to accomplish such alternate means of processing. †¢ The periodic testing of the plan to ensure its continuing effectiveness. Documentation on the business unit’s plan for response, recovery, resumption, restoration, and return after severe disruption. Contingency planning seeks to accomplish the goals above, while minimizing certain exposures to risks that may impact the recovery and business resumption process, including: †¢ The number of decisions that must be made following a disaster or severe disruption. †¢ Single point of failure conditions in the unit infrastructure. †¢ Dependence on the par ticipation of any specific person or group of people in the recovery process. †¢ The lack of available staff with suitable skills to affect the recovery. The needs to develop, test, or debug new procedures, programs or systems during recovery. †¢ The adverse impact of lost data, recognizing that the loss of some transactions may be inevitable. Conducting the Business Disaster Planning Project There are three phases of a Disaster Recovery Planning Project. †¢ The information needed to identify critical systems, potential impacts and risks, resources, and recovery procedures are gathered in Phase I. †¢ Phase II is the actual writing and testing of the Disaster Recovery Plan. †¢ Phase III is ongoing and consists of plan maintenance and audits. I. Information Gathering Step One – Organize the Project The scope and objectives of the plan and the planning process are determined, a coordinator appointed, the project team is assembled, and a work plan and schedule for completing the initial phases of the project are developed. Step Two – Conduct Business Impact Analysis Critical systems, applications, and business processes are identified and prioritized. Interruption impacts are evaluated and planning assumptions, including the physical scope and duration of the outage, are made. Step Three – Conduct Risk Assessment The physical risks to the unit are defined and quantified. The risks identify the vulnerability of the critical systems, by identifying physical security, backup procedures and/or systems, data security, and the likelihood of a disaster occurring. By definition Risk Assessment is the process of not only identifying, but also minimizing the exposures to certain threats, which an organization may experience. While gathering information for the DRP, system vulnerability is reviewed and a determination made to either accept the risk or make modifications to reduce it. Step Four – Develop Strategic Outline for Recovery Recovery strategies are developed to minimize the impact of an outage. Recovery strategies address how the critical functions, identified in the Business Impact Analysis (step 2), will be recovered and to what level resources will be required, the period in which they will be recovered, and the role central University resources will play in augmenting or assisting unit resources in affecting timely recovery. The recovery process normally consists of these stages: 1. Immediate response 2. Environmental restoration 3. Functional restoration 4. Data synchronization 5. Restoration of business functions . Interim site 7. Return home Step Five – Review Onsite and Offsite Backup and Recovery Procedures Vital records required for supporting the critical systems, data center operations, and other priority functions as identified in the Business Impact Analysis, are verified and procedures needed to recover them and to reconstruct lost data are developed. In addition, the review of the procedures to establish and maintain offsite backup are completed. Vital records include everything from the libraries, files, and code to forms and documentation. Step Six – Select Alternate Facility This item addresses determining recovery center requirements, identifying alternatives and making an alternative facility, site recommendation/selection. Consideration should be given to the use of University resources (e. g. , Administrative Information Services, Computer Lab, or another unit) as alternative sites before seeking outside solutions For further information on alternative University sites please contact the Client Advocacy Office at 517-353-4856. II. Writing and Testing the Plan Step Seven – Develop Recovery Plan This phase centers on documenting the actual recovery plan. This includes documenting the current environment as well as the recovery environment and action plans to follow at the time of a disaster or severe disruption, specifically describing how recovery (as defined in the strategies) for each system and application is accomplished. Step Eight – Test the Plan A test plan/strategy for each recovery application as well as the operating environment is developed. Testing occurs on the plans and assumptions made for completeness and accuracy. Modifications occur as necessary following the results of the testing. This portion of the project is perpetual for the life of the plan.

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization is a documentary and TV series about the rises and falls of Athens. Liam Neeson narrates throughout the documentary of the civilization of ancient Greece. The filmmaker Anthony Geffen covered both the fourth and fifth centuries B. C. Actors were also used to portray historical events and people during this period. The documentary starts with the history of Athens beginning with the rule of Peisistratos whom transformed the city. He needed allies, in that way his son could have the throne.Peisistratos encouraged farming and provided loans and soon Athens was exporting olive oil to nations around the Mediterranian to Egypt, Persia, and Phoenicia. The booming trade made Athens wealthy and prosperous. Athens became the big apple of Greece. At this time potters were the lower of the lows in Athens. After the death of Peisistratos, his son Hippias took over. He ruled fairly at first, but after his brother’s death, he turned to be a tyrant. Self d efense was his only motive and since his only threat was from aristocrats, he turned against them.The aristocrats under the leadership of Cleisthenes captured Hippias and banished him from Athens. The people of Athens then took destiny into their own hands. Isagoras and his partners locked themselves in the Acropolis, but they were forced to surrender and he was forced into exile. Cleisthenes was recalled from exile and asked to form a Government. He came up with the idea of people, both rich and poor, discussing the issues facing them and casting votes to make a decision.On issues like rising of taxes, building of roads and going to war, votes were cast, with a white stone for yes and a black one for no. The super power in the world at that time was Persia. Athens was attacked by the Persians in the battle of Marathon. Athens asked for Sparta’s help, but did not receive it. Though outnumbered, Athens won the battle. A man who participated in the war was Themistocles. He was risen to power through democracy. He was one of history’s greatest leaders and he knew that to hold out against another Persian invasion, they would need a strong navy. The Triremes were warships.They became useful in another war against the Persia when Athens defeated them in the Straits of Salamis. Themistocles was then ostracized, and then died in Persia. The other people highlighted in the documentary were Pericles who built the Parthenon. A major decision was taken by Pericles to attack Sparta resulting in the Peloponnesian War. This war lasted 27 years and finally Athens surrendered to Sparta. Aspasia was his lover. She was made fun of in the theaters and in some tragedies. Pericles died from the plague, which was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.Socrates was a man who used reason and logic and cared about individuals. He was a man who loved debates. He was later blamed for Athens defeat by Sparta. He was pleaded guilty with the death penalty. The reason why he dies was because he questioned the world around him and was easiest person to blame. Though the film is called The Greeks, however it is essentially a story of Athens and its people. The movie contains re-enactments of various scenes which consist of people dressed in ancient costumes moving in front of an out of focus camera.It gives the viewers a basic knowledge of their society at the time. However, the music in the background was too loud and very distracting making it difficult to hear the movie. One information that struck to my attention that they forgot to mention is that there were four major battles in this war; Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea. Only Marathon and Salamis are noted in the documentary. This film covers the basic information about the history of Athens and is directed towards people who are beginners in this subject.However, for the people who are experts might find some inaccuracies and embellishments in this documentary. In conclusio n, Athens had been through many battles and changes throughout their history, from the battle of Marathon to the creation of democracy. It shows viewers who are new to this subject a good understanding of their leaders and famous philosophers. The documentary does a great job explaining and depicting the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of that period.

Contribution Margin and Break Even Analysis

Many factors come into play in determining business success. One of them is the financial factor. For a company to set financial goals it is crucial that its management know in detail the products or services they sale or provide. This is the analysis of two different scenarios at Aunt Connie's Cookies Simulation (University of Phoenix, 2011) and the financial performance of Jamestown Electric Supply Company (Heiter, et. al. 2008). During both analysis I applied concepts like fixed and variable costs, contribution margin, break-even point, indifference point, and operating leverage. Aunt Connie's Cookies Scenario Simulation  The Aunt Connie's brand grew successfully producing Lemon Creme and Mint cookies. Maria Villanueva is the current chief executive officer of this family-owned company (University of Phoenix, 2011). She faces critical decisions to make because both the lemon creme and mint cookies prices increased and sales volume decreased. Maria should apply several accounting concepts to reach her goal of increasing sales and revenue for the company. Some opportunities and challenges lined up for Aunt Connie's Cookies like large bulk orders and the buyout of a competitor's factory (University of Phoenix, 2011). A confectioner commissioned Aunt Connie's Cookies to fill a bulk order of one million packages of the Real Mint cookies delivered in one month's time. The stipulations of the order weights greatly on the company as the confectioner will only pay $1. 20 per package, which is much cheaper than the mass market selling at $1. 50 per packet. Rejecting the order may seem foolish as Aunt Connie's Cookies has the capacity to produce the order, and could be missing out on a good opportunity if she declines to fill the order (University of Phoenix, 2011). In deciding which cookie's production to reduce, Maria took into account the concepts of contribution margin, unit contribution margin, and operating profits. This decision was necessary to create sufficient capacity to accommodate the mint cookies bulk order. The contribution margin is the amount of money that remians from the revenue obtained after sales to pay for fixed expenses and to contribute to the operating profits after deducting variable expenses. Alternatively, the unit contribution margin of each unit sales, in this case each pack of cookies adds to profit. Finally, operating profit is the profit earned from a company's core business operations, also known as earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). Maria calculated the contribution margin and the unit contribution margin for each type of cookie, determined to reduce the production of lemon creme cookies and to increase the production capacity for the bulk order of real mint cookies. Maria can sell mint cookies at $1. 20 per package, below the selling price of $1. 50 because the real mint cookies provide a greater total contribution margin and that the lemon cream cookies provides a greater unit contribution margin. Maria knew that Aunt Connie's Cookies should produce more of the cookies with the greater contribution margin per unit to maximize the shop's operating profit. If the scenario changed, and the bulk order was for lemon cookies, Maria would have to turn over the order to the confectioner. The unit contribution margin for the lemon cookies is smaller and Maria would have to increase the production capacity to make the same operating profit as for the mint cookies, to the point of going beyond the factory's production capacity. Maria faced the opportunity to buy a peanut butter cookie plant. She could use this plant to make more lemon creme cookies because the near-term demand exceeded 600,000 packs. The challenge for Maria is to make a decision about going forward or not with this business (University of Phoenix, 2011). If the new plant has a break-even volume of creme cookies of 650,000 packs, Maria must ensure that Aunt Connie's Cookie shop sales the same amount of packs or more. If the business sales less, it will make a loss, if it sells more, it will be a profit. The break-even point in volume is the point where the plant's fixed expenses are covered. In the case that Maria considers Aunt Connie's Cookie shop cannot sell that much, she may ensure viability of the plant by (1) trying to reduce the fixed costs (e. g. renegotiating rent, reducing telephone bills, insurance, etc. ), (2) trying to reduce variable costs (e. g. purchasing at lower cost the ingredients used to make cookies), or (3) increasing the selling price of the cookies. Any of these strategies can reduce the break-even point in volume. In the worst of the scenarios, Maria should not buy the peanut butter cookie plant. Key Learning Points. During the simulation I applied several concepts such as contribution margin, break-even point, fixed and variable costs, indifference point, and operating leverage. All these concepts interrelate and form part of the cost volume profit analysis tool. The application of these concepts by managers help organizations attain good financial performance. Cost volume profit analysis (CVP analysis) is a powerful tool that can help managers in understanding better the relationship that exists among the cost, the volume, and the profit in a business. Managers can make good business decision if they concentrate in trying to understand the interaction that exists among (1) the prices of product or services, (2) the level of activity, (3) the volume of product , (4) the variable cost per unit, (4) the total fixed costs and (5) and the mixture of the product or services. Business decision may be about changes to company's pricing policy, selection of a marketing strategy to use, choosing which products to manufacture or services to provide, and even about the acquision of new companies. The break-even point (BEP) is one element of CVP analysis. BEP is the level of output at which the profit is zero. Break even analysis helps managers determine how far sales can decline before their companies start to lose money. The indifference point is the volume at which costs for both labor-intensive operations and equipment intensive operations are equal. When volumes increase, revenues increase. However, the presence of lower variable costs per unit in equipment-intensive operations ensures that the operating profits increase more significantly when compared to labor-intensive operations. Equipment-intensive operations have higher fixed costs and lower variable costs per until when compared to labor -intensive operations. Jamestown Electric Supply Company. Jamestown Electric Supply Company has been in business for 45 years. The company designs, manufactures, and delivers electrical supplies in various forms to different type of businesses. Jamestown invested heavily in research and development of automotive electronic technology to provide its customers with modern functionality, safety, and performance. Jamestown products have outstanding features that create competitive advantage to commodities that customers regard as standard features on all automobiles. Jamestown has hundreds of diverse contracts with different divisions and plants of each of the major automobile manufacturers. Most of the contracts show good gross profit margin on sales, but others do not show acceptable bottom-line profits or show no profit. Although Jamestown's sales, continue to rise, profit declined in the period under analysis from 2003 to 2007 as showed on Exhibit One. Jamestown top managers believe that if sales growth remained positive, the problems with the profit would resolve. Warehousing and shipping managers think that customer service expenses are out of control and causing significant cost increases for the company. Jamestown customer services include overnight delivery of electronic component products, just-in-time inventory deliveries to client's plants, warehousing of client parts, special part support services, and many other customer services designed to gain and maintain clients. Exhibit One. Jamestown Electric Supply Company Income Statements for 2003 to 2007. Electric Supply Company financial performance is in jeopardy and top management have to change its customer service policy and marketing strategy after carefully analyzing the information obtained after performing a CVP analysis. The focus of the analysis should be in understanding the relationship between product price, volume, per unit variable cost, and the mix of products sold by Jamestown Electric. Calculating the contribution margin on the products which Jamestown Electric sales will allow management to know more in detail how much each unit sale will contribute to the company profit. Calculating the break-even point will provide information about which products do not bring either profit or loss, and about how far sales can decrease before Jamestown Electric starts to lose money. James Electric product cost structure has a higher percentage of variable costs than in fixed costs, which involves less operating leverage or risk. One of he options management should consider is to closely monitor the variable expenses incurred by customer service in order to increase the company profits. Jamestown Electrical Supply Company management will definitely benefit from setting a regular schedule to analyze contribution margins either monthly or quarterly to track product margin performance more accurately. Conclusion Managers can help their organizations achieve a good financial performance when they apply basic accounting concepts in their business strategic plans. Knowing the existing relationship between these concepts contribute to ensure their organization's financial success.

Mukherjee vs Rodriguez

Mukherjee vs. Rodriguez As of today, The United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than any other country in the world. The number of immigrants totaled 37. 5 million as of 2006. All of this has to do with Richard Rodriguez and Bharati Mukherjee’s stories based on immigration in the United States. Entitled â€Å"Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† and †Two Ways to Belong in America†. Where as Rodriguez’s story is about a young Mexican immigrant finding it hard to live in a society where he struggles to understand it’s main language. He believes as a child that he doesn’t belong in a country where it’s main language is not of his. He only feels at peace when he is with his family speaking his own language. As well as where Mukherjee’s story is of two sisters named Mira and Bharati, both immigrants and very successful in their careers. Explaining how Mira all of a sudden has rage towards the country she has lived in for thirty years, due to the lack of effort shown by the U. S. Congress to enact a legislation that would not allow any government benefits towards resident aliens. As for Bharati, she has mixed feelings on the subject at hand. Rodriguez and Mukherjee’s stories share a common theme and purpose, but are diverse in their conflict and focus. Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† and â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† share a common theme in where they both are legal immigrants living in America. Rodriguez’s story is based on his childhood where he is living as a Mexican immigrant. Since Spanish is the only language he is able to interpret, he reference â€Å"The language of thei r Mexican past sounded in counterpoint to the English of public society† (Rodriguez pg. 309). For â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† the two sisters are living in the United States while Bharati is an American citizen, Mira is not. However both have Indian roots within them. For both of them their cultural backgrounds are very strong within them. As of course, them being an immigrant in a new country that they are not familiar with, they both have very strong bounds with their cultural heritage. Where as for example in Mukherjee’s story she shows how traditional her family is with their Indian marriages by saying how they are properly done in her home country. Mukherjee states †We would endure out two years in America, secure our degrees, then return to India to marry the grooms of our father’s choosing† (Mukherjee pg. 316). However, they both did not follow those guidelines by marrying grooms of their own choosing. In Rodriguez’s story he shows how speaking Spanish made him feel at home, by whenever he spoke to his family members or friends in Spanish he felt as if he was recognized as someone special. While there are similar qualities between the two stories there are contrarieties too. One being their formalities of education, reading where Mukherjee’s story was coming, from the sisters were well educated and successful in their careers. They both received degrees in their prestige subjects. As for Rodriguez’s story when he was younger it seemed as if it was very difficult for his upbringing into education. For example, his parents learning of the English language, as he states â€Å"In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accented, not always grammatical English† (Rodriguez pg. 309). It seemed as if the schooling where he was coming from was not as much of a impact as compared to mukherjee’s learning’s. In â€Å"Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† as a young boy Rodriguez was very secluded from the rest of civilization by reason of his inability of learning the English language. In â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† the sisters were very much in content with the rest of the world. They would travel all throughout the world willing to try anything new. Where as Rodriguez, he was concealed from his very own neighborhood, he didn’t know the names of his neighbors, as he states, â€Å"But no one in the family knew the names of the old couple who lived next door; until I was seven years old, I did not know the names of the kids who lived across the street† (Rodriguez pg. 309). The stories by Rodriguez and Mukherjee’s stories had a similar case and dedication, however were disparate in their upbringings and socialization. Being in a country where your not accustomed to is difficult enough, living their must be an even bigger challenge. In Rodriguez’s case he couldn’t speak Spanish outside of his home so he felt at lost. In Mukherjee’s situation even after living for 30 years in this country they were still at subject to be dismissed from it. This shows you being the outsider in a world isn’t as easy to sustain, even when they had thought they had finally made it.

Self Leadership and Goal Setting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self Leadership and Goal Setting - Essay Example Therefore, leadership is not only about leading people but should also motivate others to become leaders themselves. The latter process, which is referred to as self-leadership, can also be defined as an internal process that influences and controls behaviour, using behavioural and cognitive strategies (Neck & Houghton, 2006, p. 270). One strategy, which is widely adopted, is goal setting and hence the main purpose of this paper is to discuss the goal setting theory and to ascertain that it is an important strategy, which needs to be adhered to, in order to attain self-leadership. This paper provides an overview of the goal-setting theory and a summary of the ideas behind the theory, various arguments, their strengths and weaknesses. Goal setting is considered to be the most influential and widely represented framework within the self-management literature. Several self-management studies, which have been carried out with different purposes and contexts, have consistently favoured th e notion that individuals can improve their performance and develop an ideal behaviour when they set specific and challenging goals for themselves. (Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky, & Bazerman, 2009, p. 6; Clarke, Crowe, Oades, & Deane 2009; Fu, Richards, & Jones, 2009). A number of studies and research has documented this topic, each providing a different definition for goal setting. According to the Goal-setting theory, setting goals will have positive effect on the performance level of an individual and when the set goals are more specific, challenging and taken seriously by the individual their performance will only be enhanced further. In addition, the goal-setting theory also hypothesizes that aim of goal-setting is not simply limited to enhancing immediate performance levels of an individual. (Marsh et al., 1995, p. 5). Locke and Latham (2006, p. 265) also provide similar arguments in their article about how goal-setting drives an individual’s performance and also emphas ize that when the goals set are vague or abstract such as those which rely on delivering one’s best effort, the result of the performance often turns out be inadequate or ineffective. The goal-setting theory also argues that a positive relationship between goal difficulty and task performance can be expected only when an individual possesses the capacity to complete a task without the interference of conflicting goals and thoughts. (Locke & Latham, 2006, p. 265). In relation to issues concerned with professional development such as time-management (Fitsimmons, 2008, p. 61), improvement of employee behaviour (Houghton & Neck, 2002, p. 673) and performance and career management (Greenhaus, Callanan, & Kaplan, 1995 p. 3; Orpen, 1995) goal-setting has always had a positive impact on an individual and the skills gained through these issues constitute important aspects of self-leadership. This has also been reinstated by Topper (2009, p. 561) who believes that time and career manag ement, and improving behaviour and performance of an individual are all vital aspects of self-development. Topper (2009, p. 561) defines self-leadership as a strategic approach undertaken by an individual to attain self-development and which provides tools that could be

Geneticly Modified Organisms Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Geneticly Modified Organisms - Research Paper Example In many instances, some scientists consider it a miracle since it is instrumental in solving such problems (Hamilton, 2001). This has been successful through production of modified crops, food, drugs, vaccines and even livestock. Since the success story of genetically modified organism is appealing, many people are improving technology to have an optimum solution to these problems. The second factor that has been influential in production of this organism is the economic factor. The economy in many parts of the word has been dwindling due to lack of better ways of solving problems. As such, scientists have been engaged to help find better ways of solving such problems. They have come up with the technology that manipulates organisms to increase production (Povich, 2010). This has been successful as many scientists have successfully increased production. As a matter of fact, modification has been successful since it involves many sectors of the economy. When production in many economi c aspects is improved, the whole economy will record a significant growth. The third factor that has made it possible for research in technology is the political condition. Many parts of the world are struggling to find political solutions to a number of problems that affect their people. To solve the situation, the political bigwigs have to find solutions that are sustainable. Technology and modification is one of the factors that have helped solve the problems. Political and Legal Influences The politics of a country are dominated by few people who have power. The people in power have an obligation of making decisions that will enhance the lives of the masses. As such, they can make decisions depending on the underlying factors. However, some politicians make decisions depending on the underlying interest. Some politicians will make decisions depending on their links with some of the companies that control some vital aspects in the political environment. For instance, a better par t of the American population has vast information in concerns to Monsanto (Peters, 2012). This is a renowned company that has been influential in providing a weed killer that is used in lawns. The company has been influential in providing superb services in regard to weed killers and providing adorable lawns. However, what most people have not deciphered is that the company is also influential in providing vast food products. This is due to the political influence and affluence it has in the United States. It is stated that employees that used to work for the company new hold influential positions in the government. As such, they have a better chance of making decisions that could affect the company in the near future. Since they still have vested interests in the company, they are not likely to make decisions that will ground the company. In most cases, they are protective to the company and will make decisions that seem to favor the company. Monsanto is a company that has been mak ing dreadful chemicals that kill weeds. Apparently, this has been detrimental to the environment as most of these residues are environmental pollutants. Though the company has been producing chemicals that pollute the earth’s surface, the company is still given the leeway to engage in production of food products. This is partly due to the political influence the company has. In the recent past, the company has b

Is Kitsch always ironic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Is Kitsch always ironic - Essay Example All the above descriptions of Kitsch should be regarded as just part of a greater framework. More specifically, Kitsch can be related with various aspects of modern life with a special reference to art (as already explained above). Current paper examines a particular aspect of Kitsch: Irony. This sense is mostly related with Kitsch as part of the art trends within a particular society. In other words, the relationship between Kitsch and Irony could be developed mainly in the greater field of art. Towards this direction, it is suggested by Hjort et al. (1997, 229) that ‘the very notion of "taste" in art necessitates the existence of "bad taste" and, consequently, bad art; but bad art comes in many varieties and is subject to different kinds of objections; there is sheer technical incompetence, just to begin with (although artistic inability as such is much less fatal than it used to be)’. The above descriptions of Kitsch could be considered as valid only if referring to a rt; in other parts of social and political life Kitsch would be considered to take different format in accordance with the conditions applied on each particular area. As already mentioned above, Kitsch can have many different aspects. In accordance with a definition given by the Dictionary of Art (London, 1998) ‘â€Å"Kitsch† has sometimes been used (for example, by Harold Rosenberg) to refer to virtually any form of popular art or entertainment, especially when sentimental; but though much popular art is cheap and crude, it is at least direct and unpretentious’. In accordance with the above, it is stated by Calinescu (1987, 260) that ‘seen as a lie, a kitsch work implies a close relationship and even a collaboration of sorts between the kitsch-artist and the kitsch-man; the latter wants to be "beautifully" lied to and the former is willing to play the game in exchange for financial gain;