Definition of Public Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Definition of Public Relations - Essay Example However, in developing of an appropriate ‘public relation’ schedule, it is always important to picture how it will appeal to different people. This definition was provided by a female Military officer aged 33 years. A Community Health Officer defines public relations as the ability to foster and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between the community and county government. In the explanation, the officer attributes that public relation is very similar to ‘community relations.’ The health officer is male aged 45 years. A permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Public Works attributes the fact that Public Relations is a management function, which aims at establishing and sustaining a self sufficient inter-link between the Ministry and the public on whom its success or failure depends. The permanent secretary is male aged 51 years. A female student aged 20 years, taking Bachelor of Arts (English & Journalism) defines Public Relations as an art of communication which can be between a firm, State, or an individual and the most suitable audience. A Marketing male student aged 22 defines public relations as the ability of an organization to communicate its activities, products, and services to customers in the right manner prescribed to them, right time, and in the right place. Public relations is purely a management function that aims at establishing and maintaining ‘mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and co-operation’ (Fawkes, quoted in Wilcox et al. 2003: 7) between a firm, government, or an individual and the general public. Because organizations are always concerned with maintaining a good public image, they assess public opinions, which can be relevant in solving problems, help in accepting and adapting to changes, identifying any warning elements to help anticipate trends, and promote ethical behavior. Newsom et al. (2012)

Urban Planning and 19th Century Essay Example for Free

Urban Planning and 19th Century Essay For many within the modern movement, the marriage between town and country represented the means of achieving an ideal form of settlement. Discuss the 19th century origins of this concept and how it was interpreted in different ways by modernist architects and urbanists in the 20th century. If architecture could change a person’s wellbeing; an architectural movement could create an ideal society. The modernists were not original in seeking an urban utopia. Architects of the 1800s had designed their ideal settlements to improve workers lives through the built environment. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a rejecting of history and tradition, yet these 19th century projects, unknowingly, influenced the urban proposals of the ‘International style’. Through this century of proposals from 1830-1940s, lies a recurring theme of ‘utopia’; a rational, clean city with massive green areas, where both the convenience of the town and beauty of the countryside unite. The beginning of the convergence between ‘town’ and ‘countryside’ is due to the socialist thinkers of the 19th century, with their belief that one’s environment affects one’s character. The concept of architecture changing a person was explored dramatically by the socialist and radical thinker, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). The totalitarian design of his ‘Panoptikon’ was to â€Å"grind rogues honest†. It was built as a cylindrical prison and could be applied to schools and hospitals. The principle behind this machine-like institute was that the incarcerated would believe they are under constant surveillance, thus minimising chances of misbehaviour. This perceived scrutiny would allow the inhabitants to become better citizens. Due to rapid industrialisation in the 19th century, larger city populations exploded, and squalor was rampant. Many of the old cities had seen their populations double. Around 1800 about one fifth of Britain’s population lived in the countryside, but by 1851 half the population of the country was housed in London. This lead to uncontrolled housing developments, where the private sector responded to the population boom by building poor quality, high density housing for workers. The thinkers of the 19th century, like the modernists of the 1930s believed a planned urban form could solve these social problems. In its earliest form, the marriage between town and country is subtle; placing of private gardens or greenbelts, yet this soon grows into an entire ‘Garden City’ movement. Like Bentham, industrialist Robert Owen (1771-1858) believed that a person’s morale was affected by their surroundings. However, he believed less in the social engineering of Bentham and more on socialism, striving for better conditions for the working class. His mill at New Lanark, Scotland, was to become â€Å"the most important experiment for the happiness of the human race that has yet been instituted in any part of the world.† Owen’s humane regime was a stark contrast to the slums present in cities. At his mill, he built communal buildings and gardens for leisure and exercise, a â€Å"complete ideological systems for small communities†, where the workers children were also educated. This new high standard of living encouraged workers’ productivity. His New Lanark model encouraged him to build this environment of mutual co-operation at a larger scale. Owen devised a ‘Plan for an Ideal Village’, an area with specific size and population, of between 500 to 1500. This plan was similar to structures of towns found in ancient Greece; there was a geometric layout and a focus on agriculture to become self-sufficient. This theory became a development called ‘New Harmony’, which was to be situated in the US, with an estimate population for five thousand designed as a quadrangle with sides of thousand feet. The design was never realised. Owen was called a ‘Utopian socialist’ by the revolutionary communist Karl Marx, and Owen shared this title with Charles Fourier (1772-1837). Fourier believed that co-operation was key to have a successful community, and to achieve this phalanxes’ should be established. This ‘phalanstery’ would â€Å"1) Discover and organize a system of industry; (2) Guarantee to every individual the equivalent of their natural rights; and (3) Associate the interests of rich and poor.† These ‘natural rights’ included the ‘gathering of natural products’ and fishing, and these communal hotel-like settlements facilitated this with laid-out gardens and grounds for exercise. Jean-Baptiste Godin (1817-1888) modelled his iron foundry at Guise on the Oise on one of Fourier’s ‘phalanxes’, with prevalent communal values. The residential buildings at the foundry were ‘familistiere’. The merge of buildings and landscape was similar to the ideal Palladian relationship between the inside space and the exterior. Living standards of workers vastly improved, and by combining industry and nature the ‘familistiere’ provided its inhabitants with â€Å"les à ©quivalents de la richesse â€Å"(the equivalent of wealth). Figure 2-E.Howards Three Magnets Though Owen, Fourier and Godin believed in the ‘ideal settlement’, all projects were too small a scale to eliminate urban hardship. The Public Health Act of 1875 was the first legal action to resolve the appalling living conditions and preventing the spread of cholera in cities. The expanding sprawl of the city had pushed the countryside further away from workers in city centres. In 1898, Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) wrote the â€Å"Garden Cities of Tomorrow†, which was the first realistic sign of a marriage between town and country to form an urban utopia. His â€Å"Three Magnets† diagram, showed the pull of the idyllic fresh air and low rent of the countryside, merged with the opportunities and convenience of the city into one ‘Garden City’. This utopian settlement noted the economic independence of the factory towns of Owen; each city would have its own industries and farms as to be self-sufficient. The settlements would have an optimum 32,000 inhabitants on 2,000 hectacres. It had a circular periphery enclosing a population of 30,000, the remaining would live on the agriculture belt which was ran only electrified industry. Six principal streets ran to the centre, where the main public offices were surrounded by four one-acre parks. In all, this ‘Garden City’ seemed â€Å"to blend, by rational means, the various demands of an expanding capitalist society and the nostalgia for communities on a human scale.† Howard believed these garden cities could be built on the peripheries of a central city and be connected by rail; he was opposed to the idea of these being identified as ‘garden suburbs’. After the success of the â€Å"Garden Cities of Tomorrow†, Howard founded the ‘Garden City Association’ in 1899. His first project was for a town 80 miles from London called Letchworth, with architects Barry Parker (1867 – 1947) and Raymond Unwin (1863 – 1940). In 1904, the town was realised. Unwin and Parker were associated with the ‘Arts and Craft movement’ of J.Ruskin and W.Morris, which opposed machine-like design and opted for picturesque ornament rooted in tradition. Letchworth was a family orientated settlement, where â€Å"the monotony of street fronts was broken by the turning of houses on their lots so each could command the sunniest and pleasantest view.† With an amicable architecture, a high-quality street system, it had ample space with â€Å"twelve houses to the acre.† The basic model by Howard had a centre of parkland and a lacked a commercial centre of a city. This design was developed by Unwin, who saw the ‘Garden City’ as a proposal for satellite towns of major cities. He based his first design on the city of London, and with Parker developed Hampstead Garden Suburb (1905), later to be followed by Welwyn (1920). Howard’s model inspired builders in Sweden, the US and Australia, where the layout of the capital Canberra was influenced by this ‘Garden City’ movement. It is in post-World War I that we see the 19th century ideas of Howard influence on European city planners. In mainland Europe socialist reform through housing was taking place. With a shortage of living space in the liberal city of Amsterdam, and the election of the SDAP (Socialist Democratic Worker’s Party), the State took control of all municipal building. The Woningwet Housing Act (1902) had been a result of â€Å"investigations into the living conditions of workers, the first hygienic regulations, and the interventions of scientific and philanthropic associations†. The most notable developments in Amsterdam are apartments built for two socialist housing societies, Eigen Haard and De Daagard. They were both designed by Michel de Klerk (1884-1923), who had studied under H.P. Berlage (1856 – 1934), and who was influenced by Bruno Taut (1880-1936). De Klerk is seen as a link between the Traditionalists and the Modernists and had been interested by Unwin’s model. He was a member of the ‘Amsterdam school’, a team who built a garden suburb project in Rotterdam. He became one of the leading Dutch architects in the Expressionism movement â€Å"which reached for a romantic, soulful symbolization of reality†.

Communicating Through Music in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin Essay

Historically, strong family relationships have been emphasized by American society. Strong family ties have been significant to maintaining healthy lifestyles and relationships across many cultures, including African American culture. Sonny, the younger brother in James Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, has suffered from a heroin addiction which caused him to separate from both his parents and his older brother. The essay portrays two brothers who struggle with their difficult Harlem environment, cultural issues, and their emotional detachment from one another. As the brothers struggle with their inner conflicts and outward environmental struggles, they are reunited through a common theme in the essay: music. Baldwin empowers Sonny with a gift of extraordinary musicianship, and uses this gift to enlighten and empower the narrator. Baldwin’s essay narrates the trials of the narrator on his journey to self- discovery and the brothers trial of rebuilding their brotherly bond with music as their guide. The essay uses music as a form of communication between the brothers and symbolizes it as a powerful force in their relationship. In Baldwin’s essay, â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, the narrator and Sonny are empowered through music, and through this empowerment, the music is able to rekindle and rebuild the brothers relationship. During the first half of the 20th century, Harlem became a mecca for African American culture and ideas. Home to the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem housed many influential African American leaders and influenced much of African American culture of the 20th century. Harlem’s population exploded during the 1920s-30s due to the Harlem Renaissance, and continued to expand until reaching its peak during the 1950s. The decade of the 195... ...frican American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2002. 54-100. EBSCOhost. Web. 8 May 2015. "Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna Sheets-Nesbitt. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. 115-157. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Web. 3 May 2015. http://galenet.galegroup.com.db24.linccweb.org/servlet/LitCrit/lincclin_spjc/FJ3593150004 Tracey, Sherard. "Sonny’s Bebop: Baldwin's "Blues Text" as Intracultural Critique." African American Review32.4 (1998): 691-705. JSTOR. Web. 9 May 2015. .

Midterm review Essay

I thought I would just offer some guidelines for study for the essay portion of the midterm exam. Remember that you will have 3 hours to complete the exam. You may use your notes, articles, etc., but you need to have familiarity with the material before you start or you may run out of time. Remember also that you can only enter the test one time, so you can’t go away and start again†¦be prepared†¦these are possible essay questions†¦familiarize yourself with these topics and know how to write thorough responses to the questions. Baase states that it is not only technologies and systems that change quickly, but also the social impacts and controversies that are inherent in such rapid development. Discuss some of the positive and negative aspects that the pace of advancement has upon our culture as a whole. Use detailed examples. What are some of the key impacts of the Industrial Revolution? You may discuss not only ones which came about within the time-span attributed to the Industrial Revolution, but also those which stretched long past the end of that particular historical era. Do you agree with the assertion that we are now living in a third-great technological transformation—the Knowledge Revolution? Have computers truly changed our lives so much that we can call this a revolution like the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century? Support your answer providing specific comparisons from the two periods. Discuss the Neolithic Revolution, citing its importance in terms of laying the groundwork for the ongoing development of technological advances throughout history. Utilize specific examples in order to better illustrate your arguments. Discuss the specific role the Protestant Reformation played in laying the groundwork for the advancement of communication techniques and technologies within Western culture. Define and compare at least two of the ethical theories described by Baase. What are their strengths? In what areas do they lack? Do these theories hold up within our modern, technological society? Has the development of digital technologies democratized the art of photography? How has this affected our appreciation of the photographer as artist and photography as an art form? Explain using specific examples. How have  changes in technology affected the recording industry and our understanding of what it means to be a professional musician? How have changes in technology affected our access to recorded music and the control exercised by traditional distributors? How will all these changes affect cultural trends and our expectations of music as an art form? Provide specific examples. How have changes in communications technologies affected how we write and what we write? How do Wikis and blogs compare to traditional forms such as textbooks and newspaper editorials? Please be specific. I hope that this helps guide your preparation.

Concept of Demolition Man Essay

* The Hollywood film represents the danger of globalization and cultural and environmental homogeneity, standardization and sanitation. * Friedman argues that because globalization is creating a single marketplace, it is homogenizing consumption and culture and can run the risk of wiping out ecological and cultural diversity throughout the world. In the Cold War system, cultures didn’t interact as frequently or directly as they do today, where they are often offered up for global competition and comparison against one another. Diversity in Globalization * Friedman argues that because globalization is often associated with Americanization, countries need to develop strong cultural and environmental filters so they can interact with but not be overwhelmed and swallowed by the herd. He suggests the most important filter is the ability to â€Å"glocalize,† meaning a culture’s ability to absorb natural influences into their culture yet reject those that are alien—to assimilate aspects of globalization into your culture in a way that adds diversity without overwhelming. * Globalization will be sustainable as long as we manage these filters in a way that protects our culture while simultaneously getting the best out of others’ cultures. Methods for Greening Globalization * Mobilize the environmental entrepreneurs– term coined by Keith Algers for an organization meant to stop the logging activities in the rainforest in Brazil while formulating a plan to avoid unemployment among these loggers. Looking at the bigger picture, it implies finding solution to the growing problems of compromise in the industrialized society that environmental protection and economic development can coexist together. * Environmentally Sound Production Methods – Corporations and shareholders should be pressured by the government to adapt new environmental policies. The government hitting companies over the head with both new regulations and new tax incentives to be green, and with SFC telling companies they have to start accurately portraying their environmental liabilities to shareholders—such as where they are being sued for dumping and what the cleaning up cost—there has been a paradigm shift. * Learning how to use globalization itself. Where globalization is an asset is in the fact that it is creating â€Å"Super-empowered environmentalist†, who are acting on their own, can now fight back rather effectively against both the Electronic Herd and governments. Thanks to the Internet, environmentalists in one country are quickly relaying how a multinational behaves in their country to environmentalists in other countries. Preventing cultural homogeneity * GlocalizationHhlksal;kl;ksdsl;adkls;adkals;d—the ability of a culture, when it encounters another strong cultures, to absorb influences that naturally fit into and can enrich that culture, to resist those things that are alien and to compartmentalize those things that, while different, can nevertheless be enjoyed and celebrated as different. * Unhelathy Glocalization—when you absorb something that isn’t part of your culture, doesn’t connect with anything latent in your culture, but you have so lost touch with your culture, you think it does. * Glocalism alone is not sufficient to protect indigenous cultures from globalization. Some hard filters are also needed. To begin with you need zoning laws, protected area laws and educational programs to preserve unique regions and a cultural heritage from insidious homogenous development.

Of Mice and Men Study Guide

Of Mice and Men Study Guide Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella by John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, the book tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers and long-time friends employed on a ranch in California. Through its use of colloquial language and detailed characterization, Of Mice and Men offers an unsparing portrait of its characters and the violent and harsh conditions they face. Fast Facts: Of Mice and Men Author: John SteinbeckPublisher: Viking PressYear Published: 1937Genre: Literary fictionType of Work: NovellaOriginal Language: EnglishThemes: The nature of dreams, strength vs. weakness, man vs. natureCharacters: George Milton, Lennie Small, Curley, Candy, Crooks, Curley’s wifeNotable Adaptations: 1939 film directed by Lewis Milestone, 1992 film directed by Gary SiniseFun Fact: John Steinbecks dog ate an early draft of Of Mice and Men. Plot Summary George and Lennie are two farm workers traveling through California in search of work. When the novella begins, they have just been kicked off a bus while journeying to their latest ranch. They spend the night in a makeshift shelter and arrive at the ranch in the morning. The ranch owner is initially hesitant because Lennie, who is physically strong but has a mental disability, doesnt speak, but he ultimately accepts the men as workers. Lennie and George meet fellow ranch hands Candy, Carlson, and Slim, as well as Curley, the son of the ranch owner. Curley, a diminutive but confrontational man, verbally targets Lennie. Carlson shoots Candys old, dying dog. Lennie reveals that he and George have a plan to buy their own land someday, and Candy offers to join them, pitching in his own money. Slim gives Lennie a puppy from his own dog’s recent litter. The next day, Curley attacks Lennie once more. Out of fear, Lennie grabs Curleys fist and crushes it. Later, the ranch workers go out drinking, and Lennie stays behind. He talks to Crooks, an African American farm hand who lives separately from the other workers. Curleys wife approaches and asks what happened to her husbands hand. When none of the men tell her, she berates Crooks with racial slurs and threats. The following day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy by petting it too hard. Curleys wife finds him with the puppys body in the barn. Lennie and Curleys wife begin to converse. Curleys wife reveals her former dreams of Hollywood stardom and offers to let Lennie touch her hair. While doing so, Lennie unintentionally breaks her neck and kills her. When the farm workers discover Curleys wifes body, Curley begins a vengeful pursuit of Lennie, with the other workers in tow. George takes Carlsons gun and breaks away from the group in order to meet Lennie at their predetermined spot. George tells Lennie all about the beautiful future in which they have a farm of their own to tend to rabbits, then finally shoots Lennie in the back of the head. Major Characters Lennie Small. Contrary to his surname, Lennie is an extremely large and physically strong man. However, he is also gentle-hearted and often fearful. Lennie has a mental disability and is dependent on George for protection. He loves rubbing soft materials and small creatures, from mice to puppies to hair. This desire leads to unintentional destruction and even death. George Milton. Crafty and resourceful, George is both the domineering leader and loyal protector of Lennie. Although he sometimes complains about taking care of Lennie, he is deeply committed to him. At the end of the novella, George decides to kill Lennie in order to protect him from greater harm at the hands of the other ranch workers. Curley. Curley is the son of the ranch owner and a former Golden Gloves boxer. Despite his small stature, Curley picks fights and struts around confidently. He is a jealous husband who rages at his wife. He also targets Lennie, despite the fact that gentle Lennie doesnt want a fight. When Lennie accidentally kills Curleys wife, Curley seeks out Lennie in a murderous rage. Candy. Candy is an old farm worker who has lost a hand. He owns an aging dog that Carlson insists upon shooting. When Candy overhears Lennie talk about his plan to buy some land with George, Candy offers up $350 of his own money to join them. Crooks. Crooks, the only African American character on the farm, lives away from the other workers in segregated quarters. He is world-weary and skeptical of Lennies dream of buying land. Crooks faces racism on the ranch, most notably when Curleys wife verbally attacks him with racial slurs and violent threats. Curley’s wife. Curleys wife, whose name is never mentioned, is treated badly by her husband and warily by the other farm workers. She has a flirtatious nature, but she also expresses loneliness and lost dreams during a conversation with Lennie. When Crooks and Lennie refuse to tell her what happened to her husbands hand, she verbally attacks Crooks with racial slurs and threats. She ultimately dies an accidental death at Lennies hands. Major Themes The Nature of Dreams. Dreams play a key role in Of Mice and Men. Most significantly, George and Lennie share a dream of owning their own land, but their perspectives on this dream differ significantly. In Lennies mind, the dream is sure to become reality; for George, discussing the dream is a way to comfort Lennie and pass the time in a harsh environment. Strength vs. Weakness. In Of Mice and Men, strength and weakness have a complex relationship. This relationship is most evident in Lennie, whose physical strength is a direct contrast to his gentle and guileless personality. In the tough world of the book, strength- particularly mental toughness- is essential. Man vs. Nature. Tension between the human world and the natural world exists throughout Of Mice and Men. Sometimes the characters exert control over the natural world, and sometimes, the natural world rises up to overpower the characters. Ultimately, the novella suggests that the natural and human worlds- the worlds of mice and men- are not so different after all. Literary Style Of Mice and Mens literary style is largely simple and straightforward. The dialogue is written in a colloquial dialect intended to reflect the working-class backgrounds of the ranch workers, whose speech is also peppered with slang terms and vulgar expressions. The novella is also notable for its use of foreshadowing. Lennies accidental murder of the puppy parallels his accidental murder of Curleys wife; the apparent mercy killing of Candys dog mirrors the mercy killing of Lennie. Of Mice and Men has been the subject of censorship due to its harsh subject matter, but it remains one of the most widely-read works of American literature of the 20th century. About the Author Born in 1902, John Steinbeck is one of the most prominent and widely-read American writers of the 20th Century. Much of his work focuses on everyman protagonists in California during the Great Depression. He said that Of Mice and Men was inspired in part by his own experiences alongside migrant workers during the 1910s. In addition to Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck penned over two dozen books, including The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952).  He won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize.

Catalina de Erauso essays

Catalina de Erauso essays Lieutenant Nun is a novel based in 1585. Catalina de Erauso is the main character of the memoir, and she faces a world where there were certain expectations for women, and at the time. Women did not play mens roles like they do today. For example, Catalina enlists to be a soldier shortly after life in a convent. Today, that might be a little out of the ordinary, but not unheard of. Whats interesting about Catalina is that she not only participates in masculine activities, but after the convent, she even dresses like a man and takes on the characteristics of a man, including playing with women, dressing like a man, and fighting and killing enemies. She is arguably a transvestite. Of course the question arises about Catalina de Erausos role, regarding the fact that she could possible be a soldier in the body of a woman, or a woman playing the role of a soldier. Because Catalina takes on masculine characteristics so well, fights, dresses like a man, and is even perceived by others as a man, its easy to say that shes a soldier in the body of a woman, but I believe that Catalina is a woman playing the role of a soldier. Catalina is a virgin, and of course, has the orient of a woman. She enters the convent when she is four and stays until she is about fifteen when she decides to escape. Catalina was rebellious natured, and I believe that Catalina, as a woman, had the desire to experience what a man in the world would experience, and that is why she chose to escape. For example, the only ecstasy for Catalina in the convent is praying. So why not escape and experience the ecstasies of a man? For example being involved with women, killing, fighting, escaping, and succeeding at ripping people off. Even the thrill of having responsibilities is what Catalina, perhaps wishes to experience. When Catalina starts on her journey, often times, she finds herself in thrilling scenarios where she is forced...

Ornithocheirus - Facts and Figures

Ornithocheirus - Facts and Figures Name: Ornithocheirus (Greek for bird hand); pronounced OR-nith-oh-CARE-usHabitat: Shores of western Europe and South AmericaHistorical Period: Middle Cretaceous (100-95 million years ago)Size and Weight: Wingspans of 10-20 feet and weights of 50-100 poundsDiet: FishDistinguishing Characteristics: Large wingspan; long, thin snout with bony protuberance on end About Ornithocheirus Ornithocheirus wasnt the largest pterosaur ever to take to the skies during the Mesozoic Erathat honor belonged to the truly enormous Quetzalcoatlusbut it was certainly the biggest pterosaur of the middle Cretaceous period since Quetzalcoatlus didnt appear on the scene until shortly before the K/T Extinction Event. Aside from its 10- to 20-foot wingspan, what set Ornithocheirus apart from other pterosaurs was the bony keel on the end of its snout, which may have been used to crack open the shells of crustaceans, to intimidate other pterosaurs in search of the same prey, or to attract the opposite sex during mating season. Discovered in the early 19th century, Ornithocheirus occasioned its share of disputes among the famous paleontologists of the day. This pterosaur was officially named in 1870 by Harry Seeley, who chose its moniker (Greek for bird hand) because he assumed Ornithocheirus was ancestral to modern birds. He was wrongbirds actually descended from small theropod dinosaurs, probably multiple times during the later Mesozoic Erabut not as wrong as his rival Richard Owen, who at that time didnt accept the theory of evolution and thus didnt believe Ornithocheirus was ancestral to anything! The confusion Seeley generated over a century ago, no matter how well-meaning, persists today. At one time or another, there have been dozens of named Ornithocheirus species, most of them based on fragmentary and poorly preserved fossil specimens, of which only one, O. simus, remains in widespread use. Further complicating matters, the more recent discovery of large pterosaurs dating from late Cretaceous South Americasuch as Anhanguera and Tupuxuararaises the possibility that these genera should properly be assigned as Ornithocheirus species.

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 21

Case Study Example Additionally, â€Å"Persuasion  is a matter of persuaders engineering actors decisions to produce the desired action† (Funkhouser & Parker, 1999, p.28). Jill presents raw data to her guests that require her to breakdown for them so that they may be emotionally appealed. She further makes the assumption that once they leave they will read the information in the folder that she presents to them. Jill completely fails to communicate to her guests effectively because of the lack of emphasis to the significance of her proposed research. Effective communication requires adequate appeal to the passion, logic and the character of an individual. Jill’s does not appeal to these aspects hence she is not able to convince her guests to donate towards her research. As pointed out by Barker (2010), â€Å"the key to effective persuasion is having powerful ideas and delivering them well† (p.75). Though Jill presents herself and her work in a systematic and orderly way, she does not convince the guests to be passionate about her work. In addition, she does not appeal to their logic by demonstrating clearly in very basic language how the project would be helpful to the society as well as the donors. Instead, she assumes that the guests (donors) will understand what she is up to. Nothstine & Michael (1989) have mentioned that â€Å"most people have never been trained in formal logic and reasoning† (p. 47). On the other hand, the potential donors are people that are rich and their character may be based on the need for self-actualization. Jill fails to clearly communicate to the guests by appealing to their character. It is clear that there is an aspect that is lacking in the communication, as well put by Mayo and Jarvis (1992), â€Å"Persuasive  communication  is more effective when salespeople create a sense of togetherness with those with whom they speak† (p.1). At the ends of the day, she ends up not getting any correspondence from

Telecommunication companies in uk (fixed line) Essay

Telecommunication companies in uk (fixed line) - Essay Example Reports have highlighted that the market volumes around the world are expected to rise to 1,180 million (Datamonitor, 2009). It has also been estimated that the voice only transmission segment generates as much as 61% of the overall market value and this amounts to almost $330.9 billion (Datamonitor, 2009). The non voice transmissions segment however generated revenue of about $204.6 billion in 2008 which totals to almost 38.2% of the market aggregate (Datamonitor, 2009). The history of telephone in Britain dates back to 1877, when telephone first arrived there. Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) demonstrated the primal telephone invented by Graham Bell to the British Association for the Advancement of Science assembly, which is situated at Glasgow in September 1876, giving its description as "the greatest by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph" (Gow & Smith, 2006). However, the very first pair of handy telephones happened to be seen in Great Britain only in July 1877. William Preece who was the Chief Electrician of the Post Office brought this pair to UK. Later, after a few months passed, the British Association put the ‘perfected’ type of telephone by Graham Bell on display in a meeting at Plymouth. Finally, later in the year 1878, the British company took up the Bell patent and the Telephone Co. Ltd. was formed. This happens to be the oldest company in Telecommunication history of Europe, which later became well know n as BT (British Telecom). Here in, the first telephone line was set up. This was erected starting from Londons Hays Wharf at the south of the Thames stretching up to Hays Wharf Office on the northern side of the river (Connected Earth, 2007). This company later was amalgamated, taken over and eventually the control was transferred to state, under the control of the Post Office. This later became a privatized company, British Telecommunications private limited company; that serves 170 countries as on date (When

Management guru profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management guru profile - Essay Example The most unique ability of this management guru was to look at any given system or factory operations and give suggestions on how both the quality of the end product and the efficiency of the work could be improved. In fact, as one of the leading lights of the industrial age, he recognized that the people responsible for the management of a company have to cooperate with and consider the problems faced by the labor (Boddy, 2002). Taylor made it clear that without efficient planning or recognizing the problems of the workers, no management system could increase profitability. According to the system devised by Taylor, productivity could be improved if the right person was found for doing the right job and that the person was to be given increasing rewards for increased performance. His systems and thoughts got popular enough in his own lifetime that he became the first recognized management consultant. He helped several businesses increase productivity while reducing labor costs to the extent that work which was previously done by hundreds of workers could be done with a few dozen (Nelson, 1980). His most famous work, The Principles of Scientific Management was written to describe a system which could be easily applied to many different companies at the time. Its usefulness is still accepted today since his ideas about improving both the lives of the workers and the performance of a company continue to remain important considerations for management personnel. The modern fields of organizational psychology, organizational behavior and the scientific analysis of management techniques owe a lot to Taylor (Nelson, 1980). In conclusion, the values given by Fredrick Taylor can be summarized as a making a logical analysis, improving the production quality, reduced spending, better living conditions for workers, giving workers smart goals/feedback, supporting the

Informal report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informal report - Assignment Example As a point of departure, the procedures for the survey process were agreed between the company management team and the union, which represents the workers. For instance, the issue of testing employees at mid-contract was ruled out since it undermined the workers’ rights in terms of initial appointment regulations. However, the 63% of the production and 82% of the white-collar workers agreed to have workers tested during hiring time. On the other hand, the 62% of the production and 72% of the white-collar workers agreed the workers to be tested when they appear to be under the influence of drugs. This is an indication that, the policy drafting should be flexible to accommodate the wishes of the majority workers in order to avoid the crash with the worker’s union. The survey was done using questionnaires that were distributed between the two categories of workers because they were perceived to offer lucid and reliable information (Employee Drug Testing, 26). The data coll ected was then analyzed and percentages calculated. Some of the primary areas investigated include the production and transport sections. These areas serve a fundamental role in the company in its bid to achieve the corporate citizenship. Some of the instances investigated and considered in the drafting of this policy include non-violent and physical approach to workers in convincing them to take up the drug testing exercise. In case a worker refuses to undergo a drug test, he/she should not be forced to avoid the risk of civil and criminal complaints that involves assault. Procedural consultative avenues were considered to greater extent in removing the excesses that may come along with this process of drug testing (Cresce, 23). Another factor considered during this survey is the circumstances, in which the testing should take place. In case of Random and cause, they should be clearly spelled out in the policy such that the employees can be able to know when they can be called for such

Italian Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Italian Renaissance - Essay Example The refined and educated thinkers of the Renaissance spoke and read Greek and Latin which helped the transformation of several fields of learning including those which were the dominions of the church and the impact was visible even in the aspects of Christian learning such as theology and spirituality. The Renaissance which nourished itself on antiquity, the rediscovery of Greek and Roman ways, resulted in new ways of thinking in theology and spirituality, and restructured the essence of Christian learning. "The Renaissance was a revival of learning and art. The Europeans were always aware of antiquity since they lived with it, but they now saw everything in a different light. They ceased to see the world through ecclesiastical glasses... Great interest in Greek and Roman art, language, and philosophy developed... Thus, the Renaissance had its intellectual impact. It would, in effect, replace the church's dominance in the area of thought... To this extent, the Renaissance was anti-c lerical but not anti- religious." (Bausch, Cannon, and Obach 1989, P. 225). Significantly, Renaissance was most influential in theology and spirituality of Christianity which were no longer exclusively served by art and science which began to be studied for their own sakes. Theology and spirituality are the two essential domains of Christian learning which were most influenced by the Renaissance thought and thinkers. It is of great importance to analyse the influence of Italian Renaissance on the theology and spirituality as it can help one comprehend the role played by the Renaissance in bringing out drastic change in these areas of Christian thinking. Therefore, this paper undertakes a profound analysis of the Italian Renaissance in relation to the role it played in the transformation of two of the most important spheres of Christianity, i.e. theology and spirituality. In other words, it looks into the Italian Renaissance from a historical point of view and a theological point of view, comparing the theology and spirituality of the period before Renaissance with that of the period after Renaissance. In such a comparative analysis of the theology and spirituality in relation to Renaissance, it becomes lucid that this great event of revival in learning and art was central to ultimate transformation in these areas, which was corresponding to the spirit of humanism. Notwithstanding the attempts to limit the great role of Renaissance in making vital revival in theology and spirituality, it becomes obvious that the Renaissance played a seminal role in transforming these spheres of Christian knowledge. The Influence of Italian Renaissance on the Theology and Spirituality From the historical point of view, the Renaissance is one of the essential factors which caused the revival of Christian ideology and it resulted in the Reformation. There were several central elements in the early phase of the Renaissance which could very well pave the way for a complete change or reformation in the Christian thought and ideology. In an analysis of the situation before and after the Renaissance,

Informal report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informal report - Assignment Example As a point of departure, the procedures for the survey process were agreed between the company management team and the union, which represents the workers. For instance, the issue of testing employees at mid-contract was ruled out since it undermined the workers’ rights in terms of initial appointment regulations. However, the 63% of the production and 82% of the white-collar workers agreed to have workers tested during hiring time. On the other hand, the 62% of the production and 72% of the white-collar workers agreed the workers to be tested when they appear to be under the influence of drugs. This is an indication that, the policy drafting should be flexible to accommodate the wishes of the majority workers in order to avoid the crash with the worker’s union. The survey was done using questionnaires that were distributed between the two categories of workers because they were perceived to offer lucid and reliable information (Employee Drug Testing, 26). The data coll ected was then analyzed and percentages calculated. Some of the primary areas investigated include the production and transport sections. These areas serve a fundamental role in the company in its bid to achieve the corporate citizenship. Some of the instances investigated and considered in the drafting of this policy include non-violent and physical approach to workers in convincing them to take up the drug testing exercise. In case a worker refuses to undergo a drug test, he/she should not be forced to avoid the risk of civil and criminal complaints that involves assault. Procedural consultative avenues were considered to greater extent in removing the excesses that may come along with this process of drug testing (Cresce, 23). Another factor considered during this survey is the circumstances, in which the testing should take place. In case of Random and cause, they should be clearly spelled out in the policy such that the employees can be able to know when they can be called for such

Influnce of greek mythology on the modern world Research Paper

Influnce of greek mythology on the modern world - Research Paper Example This corpus of materials includes a huge collection of narratives, some of which explains the origin of the world and others that detail the lives and adventures of various gods and goddess, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures. These accounts were initially disseminated in an oral poetic tradition primarily referred to as written Greek literature in modern world. Tames (2009, p 40) notes that Greek mythology is rich in stories of heroes and heroines who were victorious, gods and goddess that quarreled frequently and also creatures that were usual and mysterious. The Greek mythology provided entertainment to the Greek people while at the same time trying to offer answers to question about how the world and human beings came into existence .This tales were very powerful and provided a great inspiration to ancient Greek arts and materials for their play. In additional, these tales provided important and valuable records of history and provide encouragement to the Greek to take pride in their cultural past that was very vibrant. Tames states that the Greek myths were traditionally passed from one generation to the other orally. Also many at times, poets were paid in order to make a recitation of poems which they had memorized. Later on, these tales were put down onto written .documents. Tames (2009, p 40) The influence of Greek mythology on modern society According to enotes.com, (2011), Greek mythology has continued to exert an extensive and profound influence on various fields on modern society for hundreds of years. The impacts of Greek mythology in today’s modern world can be noted in various areas including; language, sport, literature, psychology, Astronomy, modern Art, Films and Drama. The influence of Greek mythology in the aforementioned areas will be dealt with below in a detailed and comprehensive manner and where possible appropriate examples provided. enotes.com, (2011) Language Even though few people speak Greek language internationall y, Greek mythology has shaped English and other languages over the world. For example, the phrase â€Å"Herculean task† means a task that requires great input and effort. The drug which is known as morphine derives its name from the Greek god of sleep; Morheus.The concept â€Å"venereal disease† has specific reference to god Venus. The term â€Å"aphrodisiac†, which refers to any substance or circumstances that arouses sexual desire originates from the goddess of love In modern days, a woman who may not be beautiful can be called a â€Å"happy†, that is, a winged monster with a woman’s torso and birds feet. On the other hand, a man who is handsome is referred to as â€Å"adoris†, that is, the mortal man who was so handsome that Aphrodite goddess fell in love with him. Computer viruses known as â€Å"Trojan â€Å"have their comparison to the Greek –built Trojan horses, that were used by the Greek to gain access to Troy and end the Tr ojan war.Myth-and-mythology.com,states that the impacts of Greek mythology on language is not confined to individual words in modern world but extends to many other expression, proverbs and clinches . For example, the expressions â€Å"caught between a rock and a hard place† and â€Å"between the devil and the blue sea† both came from the tales about sailors being caught between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis of the Greek mythology.(enotes.com,2011) Some of the other commonly used expression that demonstrate the impact of Greek mythology in modern society include; on Achilles heel meaning a single fatal

Engagement Letters Essay Example for Free

Engagement Letters Essay Engagement letters are a great tool to enhance and clarify expectations between CPA’s and their clients. When engagement letters are used consistently, they can help build client relationships. CPA’s can also use them as a marketing tool, letting the client know what services they are being offered, and identifying supplemental services that may be beneficial to them. Such as discussing in the engagement letter for a tax client that tax planning services could be offered with a new signed engagement letter. Professional Standards While the AICPA does not require engagement letters, the standards do discuss establishing an understanding with the client, and it is preferable that this communication be written. Protection from Legal Liability Engagement letters can be a good basis of defense in the event of a malpractice claim. Also, if the intended users are identified in the engagement letter, it can limit those who can sue the CPA for use of the work product in some states. Our firm does not happen to be consistent with getting signed engagement letters before services are performed. Recently, we did some valuation services for one of our larger clients that was quite intensive and took a good deal of time. The client received the information and then the bill. He called and told the CPA that was working with him that he did not ask for the valuation services to be done that he was just asking about such services. This is interesting, since the client forwarded the information necessary to complete the services. However, such confusion could have been avoided had a signed engagement letter been in place for the valuation services. I also really like the idea of using them as a marketing tool. Engagement Letters: Why Use One? Retrieved from http://www. proaccess1. com/downloads/CPA_Engagement_Letters_Why. pdf What is audit risk? Audit risk equals inherent risk times control risk multiplied by detection risk. Inherent and control risk cannot be controlled by the auditor as they are a function of the client and its internal control environment. Detection risk is however a function of the effectiveness of the audit procedures performed. Misstatements that make it through the client’s controls and through the audit would be considered the audit risk.

Comparative Analysis Essay on Two Articles

Comparative Analysis Essay on Two Articles Introduction Here the selected two articles are Article 1: Basics about Employee Motivation written by Carter McNamara, Article2: Employee Motivation by Dr. Robert E. Wubbolding. As the assignment is to do a comparative analysis between two articles on a related topic, the selection was done on topic of employee motivation which is an essential topic in effective business administration. In the first article it is basically focuses on the new managers and supervisors. First it describes how to clear up the myths of employee motivation. Then it describes basic principles in employee motivation. Subsequently it provides the details of step you can take for employee motivation. The second article is starts with a serious problem in human resource management and then starts the discussion about the Ideas of the management that need to absolutely give up by the management. Then it opens up for a discussion of why employees succeed or fail and what we can do. Accordingly there are no clear cut similarities that we can find it these two articles. But after the reading and the understanding it will open-up for broader understanding of the area of employee motivation. Comparative Analysis As above said Article 1: Basics about Employee Motivation introduces the myths to clear up in the employee motivation. Those are as follows: I can motivate people- Not really they have to motivate themselves Money is a good motivator understand the motivation factor of each of employees Fear is a damn good motivator Fear is a great motivator for a very short time I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees- Not really different people are motivated by different things. Increased job satisfaction means increased job performance- Increased job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased job performance I cant comprehend employee motivation its a science -Supporting your employees to motivate themselves toward increased performance in their jobs.ÂÂ   Article 2: Employee Motivation also introduces the ideas which have to be given up by the management. Those are somewhat new when compare with the myths of article one. The following four ideas are ineffective and actually constitute barriers to increased quality. As a manager, I can force employees to do what I want them to do Increasing the compensation package is sufficient to keep people happy It is not necessary to reward people for doing what they are supposed to do. People are good, honest, and will always perform to the best of their ability In article one introduces specific steps that can help to go a long way toward supporting the employees to motivate them in an organization. 1.ÂÂ  Do more than read this article apply what youre reading here 2.ÂÂ  Briefly write down the motivational factors that sustain you and what you can do to sustain them 3.ÂÂ  Make of list of three to five things that motivate each of your employees 4.ÂÂ  Work with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are taken into consideration in your reward systems 5.ÂÂ  Have one-on-one meetings with each employeeÂÂ   6.ÂÂ  Cultivate strong skills in delegation 7.ÂÂ  Reward it when youÂÂ  seeÂÂ  it 8.ÂÂ  Reward it soon after you see it 9.ÂÂ  Implement at least the basic principles of performance management 10.ÂÂ  Establish goals that are SMARTER 11.ÂÂ  Clearly convey how employee results contribute to organizational results 12.ÂÂ  Celebrate achievements 13.ÂÂ  Let employees hear from their customers (internal or external) 14.ÂÂ  Admit to yourself (and to an appropriate someone else) if you dont like an employee In article two introduces this area as What you can do and it says like this, Write a description of the behaviour of two employees with whom you need help. Be specific about their negative behaviours. After you read Employee Motivation, return to these two employees, using your new skills. You will be surprised at your success in helping employees learn to modify their behaviours in positive ways-ways that will help their productivity and make them happier-a win-win for everyone! But in article one Basics about Employee Motivation introduces five basic principles in the employee motivation. Motivating employees starts with motivating yourself its amazing how, if you hate your job, it seems like everyone else does, too. If you are very stressed out, it seems like everyone else is, too. Enthusiasm is contagious. If youre enthusiastic about your job, its much easier for others to be, too. Also, if youre doing a good job of taking care of yourself and your own job, youll have much clearer perspective on how others are doing in theirs. Always work to align goals of the organization with goals of employees as mentioned above, employees can be all fired up about their work and be working very hard. However, if the results of their work dont contribute to the goals of the organization, then the organization is not any better off than if the employees were sitting on their hands maybe worse off! Therefore, its critical that managers and supervisors know what they want from their employees. Key to supporting the motivation of your employees is understanding what motivates each of them Each person is motivated by different things. Whatever steps you take to support the motivation of your employees, they should first include finding out what it is that really motivates each of your employees. You can find this out by asking them, listening to them and observing them. (More about this later on below.) Recognize that supporting employee motivation is a process, not a task Organizations change all the time, as do people. Indeed, it is an ongoing process to sustain an environment where each employee can strongly motivate themselves. If you look at sustaining employee motivation as an ongoing process, then youll be much more fulfilled and motivated yourself. Support employee motivation by using organizational systems (for example, policies and procedures) dont just count on good intentions Dont just count on cultivating strong interpersonal relationships with employees to help motivate them. The nature of these relationships can change greatly, for example, during times of stress. Instead, use reliable and comprehensive systems in the workplace to help motivate employees. For example, establish compensation systems, employee performance systems, organizational policies and procedures, etc., In article two also describes this in a different manner. It always focuses to speak to the heart of the reader as considering him or her as a manger rather than introducing concepts and approaches in employee motivation. It is as follows with some key areas that author needs to emphasize. That society believes this is illustrated by the actions of our institutions. Authorities believe that stiffer penalties will, of themselves, cure the drug problem; that more effective punishments will control student behaviour. And the world of employment, in which most people spend a high percentage of their time, has surpassed other institutions in affirming this fallacious theory-that people can be effectively controlled from above. The fact is that employees can be helped to become more productive, to show initiative, and to do quality work. But the use of force alone brings only temporary compliance. If you are willing to make a commitment to change, you can learn how to coach employees in an effective manner. You can learn effective ways to talk with employees who are apathetic, resistant, or who suffer from other negative traits or attitudes. If you have ever found yourself without words to respond to an employee, or getting defensive, or giving in to the urge to verbally attack an employee, you will benefit from implementing the ideas contained in this book. These skills can help you feel more comfortable about your job. You might even look forward to Monday mornings! Positive results depend on one condition-you must learn the technique and then put it into practice. Article always try to build a conversation with the reader. It introduces the employees behaviours where the need of the employee motivation will arise as follows. Do you have employees who Are consistently late to work? Perform below their potential? Lack initiative? Fail to follow through? Seem to be moody? Perform poor quality work? Conclusion Article 1 first start up with what a manager should give up if he wants to motivate the employees. After that author wants to clear the myths of motivation and then gradually input the fresh ideas of motivation. Article 2, Employee Motivation, is a tool book that addresses the concerns of anyone who ever wanted to Motivate anyone!. It first asks serious of question which readers mind will open to a new area. Then introduces basic principles in employee motivation and then things can do when implementing those principles. So more or less both the articles try to open the readers mind by thinking that the reader will implement what the authors have mentioned.

The Value of Product Testing Essay -- Business Market Research

Based upon 30 years of marketing research experience, spanning thousands of research projects, I am convinced that product testing is the single most valuable marketing research that most companies ever do. The great value of product testing is, perhaps, best illustrated by some of its many uses. It can be used to: • Achieve product superiority over competitive products. • Continuously improve product performance and customer satisfaction (i.e., to maintain product superiority, especially as consumer tastes evolve over time). • Monitor the potential threat levels posed by competitive products to understand competitive strengths and weaknesses. • Cost-reduce product formulations and/or processing methods, while maintaining product superiority. • Measure the effects of aging upon product quality (shelf-life studies). • Implicitly measure the effects of price, brand name, or packaging upon perceived product performance/ quality. • Provide guidance to research and development in creating new products or upgrading existing products. • Monitor product quality from different factories, through different channels of distribution, and from year to year. • Predict consumer acceptance of new products. Companies committed to rigorous product testing and continuous product improvement can, in most instances, achieve product superiority over their competitors. Product superiority, in turn, helps strengthen brand share, magnifies the positive effects of all marketing activities (advertising, promotion, selling, etc.), and often allows the superior product to command a premium price relative to competitors. Most companies, unfortunately, do very little product testing. Few companies really u... ...he structure and mechanics of execution will vary greatly from product category to product category. For example, computer software can be tested, furniture can be tested, store environments can be tested, dog food can be tested, airline service can be tested, equipment prototypes can be tested, etc. Competitive Advantage The ultimate benefit of product testing is competitive advantage. Product superiority is the surest way to dominate a product category or an industry. Companies dedicated to ongoing product improvement and product testing can achieve product superiority, and achieve a competitive advantage of great strategic significance. Companies that ignore product improvement and product testing, on the other hand, may wake up one morning to find themselves on the brink of extinction from a competitor who has built "a better mousetrap."

Negative Impact of Advertisement Essay

Advertising is a tool widely used by businesses and the media to promote their products. Unfortunately, advertising is pushing America more and more into a quick downward spiral. Advertisement acts like a fish hook for consumers. They have baits about the interest and wants of their consumers. Then when consumers grab a hold of it, advertisers reel them in on buying the products. The majority of advertisements are alarmingly misleading. They also convey an unrealistic view of certain products. Companies pay millions of dollars a year on advertising and go beyond the limit to persuade their customers. Little do consumers know they are indulging in this unnecessary luxury with nothing to gain. Advertising is unethical due to its negative impact on children, false images, and unrealistic expectations; however, advertisements do perform an important role on providing services to society. Without a doubt children are affected the most by advertising. At a young age, a child allows their mind to be molded and constructed. They don’t have much understanding of all the negative effects of the media and its advertisements. Children grow up to be everything they are surrounded by, as they are very susceptible to all outside influences. In many cases, children are most likely tended to misinterpret the messages conveyed through the advertisement. They end up having misinformed beliefs about many issues, which creates a desire to own a particular product being advertised. Joseph McLaughlin, a researcher from Fordham University, stated that â€Å"Children younger than 6 are especially susceptible to television advertising because many of them can’t tell the difference between a commercial and a program.† Because they are not able to distinguish the difference, glossy images in magazines, billboards, or flashy advertisement on television only create the im pulse for excessive desire to buy. Eric Schlosseris a well-known journalist that wrote the article â€Å"Kids Kustomers†. Along with McLaughlin, Schlosser shares a similar statement about advertising toward children. He  says, â€Å"The aim of most children’s advertising is straight forward: get kids to nag their parents and nag them well† (521). This means that advertisers are trying to focus their attention to make kids want their products and nag their parents until they get it for them. Children are the future, and an important part of the present as well. With these kinds of effects of advertising on them, this only creates a very wrong impression on their young minds about living without the needs of materialistic joys. Above all else, advertising is unethical. It creates an unrealistic image that urges people to buy in on the product. It gives them a natural high from the initial â€Å"new† or â€Å"delicious† feeling and leaving them unsatisfied after the feeling has worn off. Fast food advertisements are well known for exaggerating their products. Katie Robbins from Delish, wrote an article called â€Å"Fast Food: Truth behind Advertising†. In the article she says, â€Å"It looked so juicy and hearty, piled high with crunchy pickles and onions and resting on a soft, pillowy bed of a bun. But the actual sandwich that greeted when we ordered it at the Golden Arches didn’t look quite like the images we’d been seeing on billboard. Tired and limp, it was the anemic younger brother of the plucky McRib of our dreams† (Robbins). This means that people invest in a product they believe they saw in the advertisement but in reality, it’s just a pathetic excuse for fast food joints to make money. False beauty in advertising and pressure to look good caused many women to strive for the ideal perfection. Like Robbins, Jo Swinson, a writer from CNNopinion also wrote an article about how advertising contains false images. She stated: For some, the desire to look as perfect as these models can become all-consuming, and a wealth of evidence suggests that people in the UK are experiencing serious body image problems — a trend undoubtedly replicated around the globe. People unhappy about their bodies can develop eating disorders, turn to diet pills or steroids, or try cosmetic surgery and Botox injections. This means that women everywhere are willing to starve themselves or go beyond the limit to get the perfect body, to make them look like their favorite celebrities even. Advertising create unrealistic expectations. Ads for prescription drugs aimed directly toward consumer have resulted in unrealistic expectations  about the effectiveness of the drugs and its side-effects. In these kinds of advertisements, the visual images only show healthy, happy people. It never truly shows the actual downside effects of the drugs. Beauty and health products share a similar component by not living up to their promises; therefore, resulting in wasting consumer’s money once again. Herman CP, a psychologist from PubMed stated, â€Å"The false-hope syndrome suggests that unrealistic expectations in advertising about dieting set dieters up for failure.† This shows that fitness and health ads set consumers up to failure when they don’t see a change in their body, thus lead them to lose hope and give up. Gina-Marie Cheeseman from TriplePundit, shares a similar argument with Herman about unrealistic expectations. She says, â€Å"One of the implicati ons is that is creates an unrealistic expectation about the product that the company is advertising. Airbrushing sure does create unrealistic expectations, and U.S. women are shelling out money to meet those expectations.† This means that women everywhere are spending money on products to enhance their beauty to look like the one they see in the advertisements. Little did they know, advertisers used Photoshop and airbrushing to enhance the look of their models. Advertising however, still plays an important role on providing services to society. It offers social benefits. Along with that, advertising can be used to promote free speech since it is free speech: â€Å"This is especially true in countries where free speech has been suppressed. Advertising there, especially when it comes from the Western world where free speech is embraced, can encourage the idea that free speech is important,† says by Miranda Morley, a writer from SmallBusiness. This shows that advertising can be influential to foreign country that doesn’t allow freedom of speech. Like Morley, John E. Calfee also talks about how advertising is useful. He says, â€Å"But advertising does much more. It routinely provides immense amounts of information that benefits primarily parties other than the advertiser. This may sound odd, but it is a logical result of market forces and the nature of information itself† (98). Through providing information, it gives it a reason for research, and that research is backed-up by a firm sponsor thus creates credibility through its products. Although advertising plays an important role in society, unfortunately it is one of the major reasons why America is spinning into a downward spiral, doing major harm with little positive intention. Murray Lunn, a writer from Helium says, â€Å" Deceitful advertising, over the years, have caused consumers to associated the majority of advertising as a â€Å"sleazy† attempt to make them buy a product or service; participating in these types of advertising methods can cause a â€Å"black eye† on a business to the marketplace.† This means that businesses may put themselves in danger in the marketplace if they participate in these deceitful advertising. An article written by Shelly Frost, a writer from SmallBusiness, talks about how advertising affects businesses. She stated, â€Å"The Company is sometimes charged a fine for both current false advertising and any future incidents of deceptive advertising. If the company is sued, additional expenses come in the form of legal fees and money that must be paid to consumers who filed the suit.† Companies could lose more many than what they spend on making the advertisements if they’re caught false advertising. Advertising has long been seen as a way to convince consumers to spend their dollars on products or services they may not truly need. It is unethical. Women, who would see beauty ads, would want to emulate the thinness and beauty of such models. Today’s society has become cultures of consumerisms, and it is teaching children the false sense of self-worth. Also those consumers that were given the false impression about a product through various forms of media tend to suffer the most from society’s portrayal of the perfect body. Advertising is unethical and if not monitor carefully, it can affect and individual more negatively than for the better. Works Cited Calfe, John. â€Å"How Advertising Informs to Our Benefits.† Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture. 4th Edition. Ed. Micheal Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2004. 97-109. Print. Lunn, Murray. â€Å"The Negative Effects of Advertising.† Helium. N.p., 03 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. Frost, Shelley. â€Å"Negative Effects of False Advertising.† Small Business. Chron, 05 June 2010. Web. 02 Apr. 2013. McLaughlin, Joseph. â€Å"Researcher Shows Negative Effects of Advertising on Children.†Fordhamn.edu. Fordham University College, 17 May 2010. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. Morley, Miranda. â€Å"The Positive Effects of Advertising.† Small Business. Chron. N.p., 11 June 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. Robins, Kate. â€Å"Food in the News.Fast Food: Truth in Advertising?† Delish. N.p., 16 Nov. 2010. Web. 02. Apr. 2013. Swinson, Jo. â€Å"False Beauty in Advertising and the Pressure to Look ‘good'† CNN. Cable News Network. 10.Aug. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. CP, Herman. â€Å"Effects of expose to unrealistic promises about dieting.† PubMed. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. Cheeseman, Gina-Marie. â€Å"British Regulatory Agency Bans Christian Dior Mascara Ad.†TriplePundit. N.p., 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. Schlosser, Eric. â€Å"Kid Kustomer.† From Inquiry to Academic Writing A Text and Reader. 2nd Edition. Ed. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 519-526. Print.

How Ronald Reagan’s Ended Cold War Essay

How Ronald Reagan’s Ended the Cold War with the Soviet Union â€Å"I’ve always recognized that ultimately there’s got to be a settlement, a solution. † —Ronald Reagan, December 23, 1981 President Ronald Reagan initially had a hard-lined foreign policy with the Soviet Union. At the beginning of his administration, he focused on massive reduction of arms, confirmation of agreements between the U. S. and the Soviet Union, series of negotiations regarding arms control specifically to the employment of arms of the Soviets outside their territory and reciprocity (Matlock, 2004, â€Å"Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War ended†). However, these policies have not been effective in promoting changes in the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders were not intimidated by Reagan’s rigid approach that led the Soviets to continue with their communist ways. By 1985, Reagan started to change the direction of his policy. He opted to soften his methods by facilitating negotiations on arms negotiation, preventing the use of Euromissiles, â€Å"compromising strategic nuclear weapons† and complying with the restrictions of the SALT II treaty (Wittner, 2004, â€Å"Did Reagan’s military build-up really lead to victory in the Cold War?†). Because of this, the American public felt that there was a brewing nuclear war between the U. S. and the Soviet Union that resulted to numerous mass protests. The public stir influenced Reagan to make an announcement proposing for conciliatory efforts with the Soviet Union to assure the public that there will be no war. Then, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev forged an alliance in â€Å"implementing disarmament and peace†(Wittner, 2004, â€Å"Did Reagan’s military build-up really lead to victory in the Cold War? †). Reagan’s continuous efforts amid many hurdles, strategic alliance with Soviet leaders and American political transparency have pushed both countries to stop global domination through arms that put an end to the Cold War (Wittner, 2004, â€Å"Did Reagan’s military build-up really lead to victory in the Cold War? †). References Matlock, J. (2004). Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War ended. Random House Publishing. Wittner, L. S. (2004). Did Reagan’s military build-up really lead to victory in the Cold War?. History News Network. Retrieved March 29, 2008 from http://hnn. us/articles/2732. html

Gender Roles In The importance of Being Earnest Essay

In The Importance of Being Earnest, the question of each gender’s role in society often centers on power. In the Victorian world men had greater influence than women. Men made the decisions for their families, while women worked around the house. Wilde raises interesting questions about gender roles in The Importance of Being Earnest, by putting women (like Lady Bracknell) in positions of power and by showing that men can be irresponsible and bad at Decision-making The traditional view of gender relations in the Victorian era was that men were active, manly, assertive and economically independent whilst women were assumed to be passive, pliant and dependent. I believe that Oscar Wilde does challenge these traditional roles deliberately to make humor out of these characteristics and to make fun of the conventional roles of society. The two main male characters, Jack and Algernon, cannot really be regarded as masculine, or at any rate both of them do not fit the criteria for wha t characteristics a stereotypical Victorian man would be they are both what people at that time would call ‘dandy’s’. Algy and jacks un gentlemanly behavior and trivial pursuits can be seen as comic and deliberate in making men seem less powerful and serious. Algy is also a little too concerned with clothing to come across as masculine. This can be seen when he criticizes Jack by saying that he had ‘never known anyone to put so much effort into dressing and to produce so little effect’. Algernon also says in Act two when talking to Cecily that he wouldn’t trust Jack to buy his outfits as he has ‘†no taste in neckties†. Algy is dandy, making him unmasculine and a bit of a joke in the eyes of the Victorian audience. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨ A time in the play when we see women as having more power then men is in the character lady Bracknel, she is strong and blunt even coming across as a bit intimidating we get the feel that even Algy is afraid of her as he would rather make up a fake man then tell her that â€Å" he cannot have the pleasure of dinning† with her. Another strong female character we see is Gwendolyn. She is feminine in some aspects like how se wanted the proper engagement (she makes jack proposes formally), but at the same time she can be seen as more masculine then Jack especially because she is quite assertive. Gwendolyn is also breaking stereotypes as when her  mother tells her to wait in the carriage but she defies her, were as most girls at this time would not even dare to disobey there mothers. A good example of Gwendolyn being assertive is when Jack is made to propose to her properly. Even though Gwendolyn knows exactly what he is going to ask her and she even tells him that she is going to accept him before he proposes, Gwendolyn insists on a proper proposal, which is absurd. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Gwendolyn is clearly going to be more and more like her mother as she matures we see Algy mention this when he says that a girl’s worst flaw is that â€Å"they will end up just like their mothers†. Her mother, Lady Bracknell, is probably the most masculine character in the play. She is very pompous and the most assertive of all the characters. She has the power to stop Jack from marrying Gwendolen and has the ability to boss the male characters of the play around. Lady Bracknell’s masculinity is funny because it is almost absurd. She is seen as lacking some more feminine characteristics like sympathy for example she has no sympathy for Bunbury who she claims â€Å"should just make up his mind whether he is going to live or die† .She gives Jack no condolences when he says that he had â€Å"lost† both his parents, instead she says that he was careless, and when he explains that he was found she appears to be outraged and shocked giving us the impression that she has control over the situation. Lady Bracknell has the upper hand over all the main characters in the play. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨After the examination of the female characters it can be concluded that the female characters are not really typical Victorian women than are Algernon and Jack typical Victorian men. Oscar Wilde has created characters that challenge the Victorian views of gender relations and this is what causes the play to be so funny. The characters are not what you would expect and can be seen as over exaggerated stereotypes of gender roles at the time.

FILM Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

FILM - Movie Review Example They derived pleasure in living amongst themselves without interacting with outsiders. Children who were curious and asked endless questions about life beyond theirs, their parent made them belief that no life existed beyond margins of the community. No one ever left the Dinka society out of curiosity to verify the truth (Deng 75). Dinka children went through informal system of education. It was the responsibility of their parents to instill communal values in them. Parents taught the children to be strong, independent members of the community. At a tender age of six to five years, they had to learn cattle grazing and other related activities like milking. Livestock herding was the main source of livelihood. In addition, the community instilled in the children moral values through singing games. Strength, courage and prowess in fighting were valuable assets. These qualities made someone a warrior. After that, they married and later become village elder. Their lives revolved around this same circle. This is the traditional system of education. Although formal education existed around them through the missionaries, they did not regard western education as useful and applicable in their lives. In fact, it is only weak children who did not take care of the cattle that got admitted to formal schools, because they w ere not resourceful to the community. Apart from the weaklings, paramount chiefs and Christianized families admitted their children to schools too. However, everything came to an abrupt halt after war broke up in1987. Most of the Dinka children became homeless after forceful and tragic separation from their families. Young boys trekked for days to refugee camps in Ethiopia (Bixler 36). At the refugee camps, the young boys were subject to hard labor like cutting wood to build their shelter. In addition, they had no cattle to look after. Education became a privilege at the camps. The other boys envied the few

Travelling As A Source Of Learning English Essay

Travelling As A Source Of Learning English - Essay Example English is an international medium for communication. On an international front, English plays an important role in binding contracts between governments of two countries (Riches and Curt-Christiansen). Therefore, it is deemed critical for professionals from several fields to develop English language. On the other side, in some Asian countries, English is considered as a status symbol. It is believed to be a communication medium of upper social class. Additionally, those individuals, who are not a native English speakers are believed to be excellent learners of this language because they attempt to increase their linguistics. This essay attempted to analyze the importance of traveling across various cultures in the development of advanced linguistics in youth. At the same time, I have been able to dwell on my strong skill of tongue because of my frequent international traveling experience. English is also considered as an international medium of communication. Therefore, used in fabricating various international contracts among nations. Hence, in the light of this argument, politicians should develop their English in order, to understand the embedded meanings of a legal document. On the other, as a student of English, I consider it as my duty to understand English better than anyone in the world does. However, to accomplish this goal, I am regularly reading ancient English literature in order to; understand the very roots of English. On the other hand, my teachers helped me, during my quest of learning English.

Contemporary Issues in Business and Management Essay

Contemporary Issues in Business and Management - Essay Example The external business environment includes demographic, social, cultural, political, legal, economical, technological, and environmental factors. The environment in which an organization operates, significantly impacts every aspects of the business. The business strategy, marketing strategy as well as the operational strategy of a company is highly dependent on its external business environment. In addition, the internal functions of the business are also impacted to a large extent (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2010). In the same way, corporate culture is also a crucial factor for a business to operate efficiently in the market place. According to Daft (2009), corporate culture acts as the most important mechanism for attracting, retaining and motivating the talent. In the similar manner, different scholars have laid emphasis to the fact that a company’s value is dependent upon the way people are treated in an organization (Daft and Marcic, 2010). In this study, we will try to unc over the importance of business environment and corporate culture in an organization. The company chosen for conducting the study is Nokia and according to the report Nokia is currently dealing with issues pertaining to external business environment and corporate culture. This study will also underpin how the company is dealing with these prevailing situations. Now getting further deep into the study, a brief overview of Nokia is presented below. Nokia: A Brief Overview Nokia is a Finland based multinational company that operates in the field of information and communication technology. The company was founded in the year 1865 and is presently headquartered at Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland. The founders of the company were Leo Mechelin and Fredrik Idestam. From the date of its incorporation, the company has always tried to offer customers with high product value (Bontje Musterd and Pelzer, 2011). In addition, the company also aims to connect the whole world with their technology offeri ngs. Such intentions also reflect in their tagline which states â€Å"connecting people†. The principal products of the company are portable IT devices and mobile telephones. Apart from that, Nokia also sells different type of games, application, media, music, and messaging platform through the company’s OVI platform. Similarly digital map and navigator services are also provided without any cost through Navteq, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia. The company is divided into three divisions namely mobile phones, mobile solutions, and markets. The mobile solutions division is responsible for overseeing Nokia’s portfolio of mobile computers and Smartphone, whereas the mobile phone division is responsible for administering the product portfolio of mobile phone. The market division looks after the supply chain and distribution activities (Yahoo Finance, 2012). The company has also entered into various strategic alliances which helps them to cater to diversi fied customer base and large geographical locations. Vertu, Navteq and Nokia Siemens networks are some of the strategic alliances of the company (Plunkett, 2009). Some of the major competitors of the company are Samsung, Apple, HTC, Motorola and the local players of the market (where Nokia is having its operations). Until 31 December, 2011, the company had an employee strength of 130, 050. As of financial year 2011, the company

Article Critique Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article Critique - Research Paper Example The model was measured as the best. Question 3: The key aspects noted on the article is that social disparities may have been a factor in the study since the community would not allow an individual who is sick and needs blood not to be given since this will cause problems in the community between the patients family and the entire community. Question 4: The study of Jehovah Witness can be used for future research on behavioral change within this population group to deriver to the society and culture more information that are not applicable and thus able to curb the ones may cause death to an individual. Question 5: According to the article the limitation of this study is that behavioral changes theories are not universally accepted and thus they are criticized by the community. Transtheoretical theory may be affected since it emphasizes change model for it to be applicable since the community is on there

Martha McCakey Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Martha McCakey - Case Study Example Moreover one of her old classmates working for the same company also encouraged her to join that company and finally she decided to join Praxis Associates. (Kyurinyan, 2006) Martha McCaskey was a hard working young woman who believed in good ethical standards at the work place. She never believed in short cuts to achieve targets. She has completed many successful projects at a fast pace and soon became a valuable member of the company. As a business tactics, Praxis Associates often hired ex employees of their competitors to obtain valuable information regarding the functioning of the competitors. They have divided the division into two sub groups; old guards and new guards. Old The attitude of the top management of Praxis associates was motivated only by the profit. They were ready to engage in any sort of activities to capture business and also they never believed in business ethics. For them, Business is a competitive world where only the smarter ones will succeed and the others will fail. In order to achieve targets anything can be done as per their moral standards. Moreover they forced the employees to go up to the maximum extent to achieve the targets. They never bothered about retaining the employees. It is under this circumstances Martha McCaskey asked to complete a project. It was a crucial time period of her career. The successful completion of that project will ensure her higher bonuses and promotion. But she found no way to complete the project without compromising her ethical standards. She was forced to decide whether she wanted to maintain her integrity and high standards or to compromise with all such things. Morality and ethical standards are vanishing gradually from the modern world. Globalization and liberalization policies made the competition immense in the business world. It is extremely hard to survive in a highly competitive business world by keeping all the ethical standards. Business is a smart game where most of the moves

Comparison between devised play and Hot Money Essay Example for Free

Comparison between devised play and Hot Money Essay For our second scripted play we had to perform the farcical comedy Hot Money. This comedy is about two unintelligent bank robbers who get lost and end up finding themselves in a rundown manor. The Lord and Butler of the manor arrive home to find a suitcase of money and they both scheme to take it. The play ends with the blowing up of the house and money. My contribution to the performance was as the Butler, Phelps. I contributed to the main farcical comedy of the piece mainly through my actions. I stay in role throughout the piece even when the audience found parts amusing. The main similarity between Zoolander and Hot Money is that they are both comedies and for the purpose of entertaining people. However Hot Money being a farce made the play more extravagant and unlikely situations to happen. It had broad physical humour, and deliberate absurdity and nonsense. An example of this is when the house is blown up with Phelps inside; although the house has blown up I still remain unharmed. Zoolander also contained elements of a farce as it is a parody it imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself. For example when Derek Zoolander imitates the stereotypical male model of the 21st century. Hot Money was set in the 1920s however we performed the play as a whole with the characters more stereotypical of peoples views rather than how the characters would have been in the 1920s. This made our play was appropriate for any time period between the 1920s and now. However Zoolander is a modern film set in the 21st century and a parody of male fashion models and the people who work within that industry. There are also similarities in the themes of the plays. For a start both plays contain characters that are essentially making fun of themselves unintentionally. However, one of the differences is that the society of Hot Money ranges from the lower class stereotypical bank robbers to the very upper class Lord of the Manor, with these vastly different worlds of rich and poor both depicted in the play it meant that the audience could be amused by people who are higher up in society than them and people who were also lower down. In contrast, the society of Zoolander is, at its richest level. It contains rich male models, prime ministers and the fashion designer Mugatu. However the richness and upper-class of these characters contrast with their own stupidity and self humiliation. As Hot Money is set in the outskirts of London all the characters within this play are Londoners. The lower class had the cockney accent of 1920s and the upper class characters had an aristocratic accent. In contrast, the society of Zoolander is of the typical Americans as it is set in New York, America. Zoolander being a film has had many retakes and editing, this makes the film seem more polished and perfected than our play, Hot Money. These retakes and editing make the film seem more effective and amusing to watch to an audience. However as we were not able to retake or edit any of our play as it was performed live, this may have affected how effective it was to an audience but on the other hand as it was performed live it may have made the play seem more effective as people prefer to watch things live than on a television screen. There are many differences and similarities in the characters represented in Hot Money and Zoolander. Both contain characters which are comical to an audience, unintelligent and make fun of themselves unintentionally. The stupidity of many characters including Derek Zoolander in Zoolander and Bert in Hot Money are represented by their slow speech and length of time to react to other people and to react to happenings around them. However Zoolander does surprisingly contain sharp witted characters such as Mugatu characterised by there quick come backs and intelligence. Zoolander is very affective to an audience although as it is very over the top not all audiences may find it amusing, this is also true for Hot Money. In conclusion to this essay, I would like to say that I have learnt a lot about the difference between the two different comedies and the difference between a film and a play. At first there seemed to be a big difference between a farcical comedy and a parody but now I can there are many similarities as well.

Strengthening Community Resilience Through Disaster Risk Management Environmental Sciences Essay

Strengthening Community Resilience Through Disaster Risk Management Environmental Sciences Essay Disasters pose serious threats to development as it holds back countrys progress and its achievement towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while highlighting, particularly among poor countries, the prevailing poverty situation. Despite billions of budget spent by the government and assistance from the international development organizations for development programs and projects, interference of disasters could put these efforts into nothing; as disasters could result to enormous physical, economic and psycho-social damages and decades of development could be wiped out in a minute. Disasters destroy infrastructures, such as roads, bridges, communication satellites, buildings, schools and houses. It can also damage livelihood and agriculture; from pest infestations to droughts, extreme rains and floods, which could wreak havoc on the entire community livelihood. Moreover, as disaster happens, it displaces people and exposes them to diseases and injuries which could further lead them to hardship, starvation and deprivation. In general disaster can lead to loss of public and private resources and investments, disruption on the production of goods and provision of services, loss of employment for formal and non- formal economy, interruption of development programs and switching of crucial resources to other short-term needs such as recovery and emergency response programs, and health concerns (UNDP-DMTP, 1994). These problems on natural disasters are further compounded by the issues of climate change. Disaster risks and climate change are threats to human well-being and adversely reinforce each other. Disaster risk is an intrinsic characteristic of human society, arising from the combination of natural and human factors and subject to exacerbation or reduction by human agency (OBrien, 2008:7). The effects of climate change can increase disaster risks, by changing the magnitude and frequency of extreme events. The changes in the average climatic conditions and climate variability, affect the underlying risk factors, and generate new threats, which could create more serious consequences to human and the environment (Tearfund, 2008). The increasing global average temperature, occurrence of extreme weather events, changes in precipitation and sea level rises would, likewise, adversely affect human health, agriculture, forests, water resources, and coastal areas. Direct impacts are: less food pr oduction, increase range of infectious diseases including vector-borne and water-related diseases, decline in fresh water resources; and indirect impacts such as increase in prices of goods and services. These ultimately increase poverty. The poor, vulnerable and at risk communities are mostly affected for they have few options (DAP, 2010). Disaster is indeed a development concern; however despite this recognition, we argue that many disasters are rooted mainly from many development failures (UN-ISDR, 2010). The lack of appropriate development planning where disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are loosely or weakly integrated into the local and national agenda is seen as a weakness to development. And the inadequateness of top-down and one-way approach in dealing with disaster management, is considered ineffective stance in providing rightful and productive solutions among problems encountered at the community level, frequently, resulting to failure in addressing local needs, untapped potential local resources and capacities, consequently, increasing peoples vulnerabilities (Victoria, 2003). Nevertheless, with the shifting paradigm from emergency management to disaster risk management, and the growing recognition on community participation, this shed another area where parallel effort from the national, local and community levels can be harmonized and replicated. And in line with community participation, the Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) emerged to address the needs of vulnerable communities and to improve their disaster resiliency. It is an approach that emphasizes active involvement of communities; while strongly locates people at the heart of the decision making and implementation of disaster risk management activities (ADPC-CBDRM-11, 2003). Purpose and Objectives The paper aims to determine how Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) increases community resiliencies and contributes towards climate change adaptation. The objectives of this study are to explain the features, processes and actors of the CBDRM and how it contributes to community resiliency; identify the strengths and weaknesses of the approach within the frame of community participation and participatory development; to cite best practices of CBDRM applications, and to provide recommendations for future policy and research studies. Methodology and Limitations The paper explores the effectiveness and potential of CBDRM to address impact of climate change variability. The arguments rendered are mainly based on deskwork and cursory research that is limited to literature review from available case studies, articles and publications from various local, national and international sources. The paper is divided into four parts. First, we link disaster risk management with climate change adaptation by identifying their commonalities and differences. Second, we closely examine what CBDRM is, its feature, processes and actors involved. Third, we determine what would be the possible limitations or challenges in applying community participation in disaster management. Fourth, we give practical examples by listing down several good practices of CBDRM being implemented in different countries. And fifth, we provide conclusions and recommendations. Linking Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation As noted, disasters have enormous impact on human development while changes in climate will further extend the challenges brought by disasters. With the increasing concerns on its impact, this has emphasized the urgent move from disaster response to preventive measures mainly aimed at reducing the likelihood that a natural hazard translates into a disaster. The shift to disaster risk management (DRM) from emergency management, implies addressing underlying social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to reduce the probability of a disaster occurring. Moreover, DRM tries to address hazard risks as an integral part of development. DRM is based on a continuous assessment of vulnerabilities and risks and involves many actors and stakeholders, such as governments, technical experts and local communities. (Sperling, F., et.al., 2005: 11). According to ISDR, policy responses concerned with disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change have developed along different tracks (Sperling, F., et.al., 2005: 12). The DRM, on one hand, is based on humanitarian assistance efforts; the specific response measures are based from accumulated experiences of exposure to disasters. The responses are localized with broader preventive measures with the aim of addressing vulnerabilities. On the other hand, response to climate change, being a global issue, has been mostly top-down process through advances in scientific research leading to international policy responses through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Responses to climate change are categorized under mitigation and adaptation which are both interdependent; mitigation tackling the cause of climate change, while adaptation tackling the effects. (Sperling, F., et.al., 2005). DRM and adaptation to climate change have commonalities and differences. On their commonalities, the policies and measures for both areas are concerned with risk management approach with the aim of addressing the underlying vulnerabilities. While both acknowledge that the degree of vulnerability is a function of the magnitude of physical exposure and prevalent environmental and socioeconomic conditions; thus both depend on evaluating risks, vulnerabilities and possible remedial measures characterized as being continuous process and forward looking perspective. Additionally on dealing climate change risks, the adaptation measures is based on the existing vulnerability to climate variability and extremes; hence improving the capacity of communities, governments or regions to deal with current climate vulnerabilities is likely to improve their capacity to deal with future climatic changes (Sperling, 2005:16). On their differences, the time horizons for DRM is concerned more of the present or near term trends, that is 5-10 years, while climate change projections are usually 20 or even hundred more years. Another is on physical exposure; mitigating disaster is different from climate change mitigation. The former is focused on limiting the adverse impact of a particular hazard; while the latter is a function within the capacity of humans to influence their exposure to change, concluding that climate change is largely driven by anthropogenic activities. Lastly, on the scope of disaster, DRM includes not only climate related disasters such as hydro-meteorological (torrential rain, floods, droughts, storms) but also geo-morphological (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) hazards (Sperling, 2005). Supporting the claim of Sperling (2005:17), DRM and adaptation to climate change have converging agendas; this therefore offers an opportunity to build a comprehensive risk management framework which recognizes current and future vulnerabilities as well as the compound effects of multiple disasters within a given region. This brings us next to a specific DRM approach where its aim is to increase community resiliency through the active participation of community members. The Community-Based Disaster Risk Management Approach Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR), as part of the DRM framework, into national and local development agenda is among the crucial concerns for many international organizations, national governments, civil society organizations, research groups, and local development actors. The recognition on its importance stemmed out from understanding the link between development and disaster, and disaster intensity and climate change. Under DRR lens, disasters are seen as complex problems that demand collective actions from different sectors; hence, this locates community at the forefront of disaster management. As defined by Abarquez (2004), communities are group of people that may share one or more things in common such as living in the same environment and similar disaster risk exposure. Their differentiation in terms of socio-economic aspects, linkages and dynamics are several factors that contribute to their vulnerabilities. By and large, it is the communities who are directly affected by both development and disasters, for being either beneficiaries or victims of the two circumstances. They are the front liners. They understand their local opportunities and constraints and they are the most interested in understanding local affairs where survival and well-being is at stake. Hence, integrating them within disaster risk management framework entails a promising outcome. Whereas, a growing consensus asserts that most top-down disaster risk management and response programs fail to address specific local needs of vulnerable communities, ignore the potential of local resources and capacities, and may in some cases even increase peoples vulnerability (Abarquez, 2004:12). Community participation provides opportunities for the poor to air their concerns, and allowing the poor to have more control over development assistance. This ensures that allocation of development funds is responsive to the needs of the poor, better targeting of poverty programs, more responsive government and better delivery of public goods and services, better maintained community assets, and a more informed and involved citizenry that is capable of undertaking self-initiated development activity (Mansuri, 2003: 2). According to World Bank, in general, community driven development aims to (i) enhance sustainability; (ii) improve efficiency and effectiveness; (iii) allow poverty reduction efforts to be taken to scale; (iv) make development more inclusive; (v) empower poor people, build social capital, and strengthen governance; and (vi) complement market and public sector activities. (Mansuri, 2003: 2) The CBDRM provides opportunities for the local community to evaluate their situations based on their own experiences and promotes participation and partnership. They take responsibility for all stages of the program including both planning and implementation, and in partnership with local, provincial, and national entities. As defined, CBDRM is a process of disaster risk management in which at risk communities are actively engaged in the identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risks in order to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities. This means that the people are at the heart of decision making and implementation of disaster risk management activities. (Abarquez, 2004:9). Given the existing natural hazards and vulnerabilities of a community, the CBDRM process should lead to progressive improvements in public safety and community disaster resilience. And it should contribute to equitable and sustainable community development in the long term (Abarquez, 2004:20) As shown in the conceptual framework below, natural hazards such as hydro-meteorological, geo-morphological and climate change induced hazards can interplay with existing community vulnerabilities which in turn could pose high risks to the affected community. As a consequence of a disastrous event, people are helpless victims who rely heavily on external assistance for aid. The cost and damage assessment is done by external experts, and recommendations are usually mainly focus on material or physical aid and technical solutions. Due to lack of community plan, outside donors decide on what the needs are. The aim of existing disaster management is to reduce the immediate suffering and meet emergency needs and bring back the situation into normal. With the application of CBDRM approach, people participate in disaster management, where people are involved in planning, decision-making, damage, needs and capacity assessment. The people perceived as active actors in rebuilding their lives and livelihood. The focus is community preparedness and strengthening the organization with the aim of reducing vulnerabilities and increase peoples capacity to better cope with disasters. With the result of safe, disaster-resilient and developed community, this ultimately contributes towards poverty reduction. Figure : Conceptual Framework The CBDRM Features In summary the CBDRM features as according to Abarquez (2004) are: Role of community is central in disaster risk management. That is, local people are capable of initiating and sustaining their own development and they are the prime movers in reducing disaster risks in their community. Community is the key resource in disaster risk management. The communities are the main beneficiaries, the same way that they are the key resource and frontline actor in the CBDRM implementation. The aim is disaster risk reduction. The main strategy is to enhance capacities and resources of most vulnerable groups and to reduce their vulnerability in order to avoid the occurrence of disasters in future. Recognition of the link between disaster risk management and the development process. CBDRM should lead to general improvement in peoples quality of life and the natural environment. The approach assumes that addressing the root causes of disasters, e.g. poverty, discrimination and marginalization, poor governance and bad political and economic management, would contribute towards the overall improvement in the quality of life and environment. Application of multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approaches. CBDRM brings together local community and even national stakeholders for disaster risk management to expand its resource base. CBDRM recognizes that different people have different perceptions of risk, different vulnerabilities and capacities. The CBDRM Process The CBDRM process entails a thorough assessment of the communitys hazard exposure and analysis of their vulnerabilities as well as capacities. The gathered information serves as the basis for activities, projects and programs to reduce disaster risks. Community involvement is required in the process of assessment, planning, and implementation to ensure that all needs and concerns felt at the local level are considered and appropriately tackled. Using the NGO CBDRM implementation perspective, according to Luna (2007) and Abarquez (2004), generally the processes include: Community/site selection and partnership building. Communities that are very vulnerable are selected, based on previous experiences in disaster and current threats. Other criteria include the poverty situation, interest and cooperation of the LGU officials, accessibility of the area, the peace and order situation, and the presence of local workers in the community. Formation and training of Community Disaster Action Teams and Volunteers. Training of the local government officials and community leaders are done to enhance their capacity for disaster prevention, mitigation and response. The training is done in participatory manner in such a way that after the series of training, the participants would be able to come out with community assessment, hazards maps, and plan for disaster mitigation projects. The participatory rural appraisal techniques are used for community assessment. Hazard mapping. Actual on-site mapping of the community is done by the volunteers using ocular survey and global positioning system. This is a diagnostic process to identify the risks that the community faces and how people overcome those risks. The process involves hazard assessment, vulnerability assessment and capacity assessment. In doing the assessments, peoples perception of risk is considered. People themselves identify risk reduction measures that will reduce vulnerabilities and enhance capacities. These risk reduction measures are then translated into a community disaster risk management plan. Formulation of the Local Disaster Action Plans. The community assessments and the hazard map became the basis for formulating a local disaster action plan. Plan Integration and Implementation. The plan formulated by the Disaster Action Team is forwarded to the local council for integration in comprehensive development plan. The Community Disaster Action Teams and Volunteers should lead to the implementation of the community plan and motivate the other members of the community to support the activities in the plan. Project monitoring and evaluation by the community, local government and outside evaluators. The CBDRM Actors Under CBDRM local community serves as the main actor together with the participation and support from other stakeholders. The actors in the CBDRM are composed of two layers, the insiders and the outsiders. Actors in the inner layer are the individuals, family, organizations and other stakeholders who are located within the community. The multiple stakeholders such as farmers, fishers, women, laborers, youth and other members of the community that has special concerns and needs, with their differing perceptions, and interests are important to be considered in arriving in a broad consensus on targets, strategies and methodologies in the community. The outsiders refer to those sectors and agencies which are located outside of the community. These are external NGOs, national government agencies and other international organizations (Abarquez, 2004). This brings us to a consideration of the shortcomings and limitations of participatory development. Limitations and Challenges of Community Participation in Disaster Management Though we have argued that community participation in the context of disaster management is imperative, there are still several debates under the context of participatory development that could somehow influence its successful implementation, hence, should be taken into account especially during the planning phase of the CBDRM First, the complexity of individual motivations. It is difficult to move a community towards certain direction, particularly if its members have different interests and motivations. As noted earlier, community is a complex social structure comprised of different perspectives, opinions and motivations. Conversely, motivation and willingness to participate is dictated by individual thinking and determined by own underlying interests. Their experiences on disasters could influence their behavior; however for community members who have not experienced extreme natural disaster, raising their interest in prevention and capacity building becomes more difficult as it seems abstract for them, unlike physical measures or infrastructure such as installing early warning devices and others. Similarly, exposure to external aids could influence communitys interest to participate; this is in particular to urban areas, who have become accustomed to receiving external assistance thus their reluctance to undertake risk management on their own (Solo, n.d.). Another area under this is the personal-driven motivations with vested interests that could influence, hamper or even deviate the result of the participatory development process. And politicians or soon to be politicians find this kind of activity personally beneficial for them. Second, participation requires effort and time. The CBDRM implementation is comprised of various activities, such as planning and capacity buildings, that require active and continuous participation from various stakeholders. While these activities involved a considerable time and effort, some community members perceive these series of participation as waste of time and/or economically unproductive activity, thus opt to focus more on their work and earn money, instead. While for the part of the organizer, participatory process such as public consultation is also time consuming. Organizing requires proper and detailed planning for scheduling of activities, identifying stakeholders, sending out invitation and confirming attendance. The quality and productivity of the activity is affected by the possible low turn-out of attendance among target participants. Second, restricted women participation and cultural boundaries. The CBDRM puts emphasis on the different risks and vulnerabilities faced by members of the communities, such that, male perceived risks differently as compared to female, and similar with adult to children. However, some culture restricts participation and voluntarism; concrete example is on women participation. There are some cultures that confine womens role within the boundaries of domestic activities. Despite the current effort to gender mainstream disaster reduction, with the consequent enormous household tasks directly or indirectly imposed to them, these offer women less time to interact in social activities and participate in community development actions. Third, local power relation within the community. The dynamics that exists within the community is clearly manifested on the relationship between the rich and poor, elite and commoners, and literate and illiterate. These relationships bring us to the questions on who can really participate, who can talk and verbalize their opinions during public consultations or workshops. Often times, those who are well-informed and have time to participate dominate the discussion, while leaving behind the poor and the illiterate who has the greater degree of vulnerability. To put stress further, the UNDP states that the communities who are most vulnerable to natural events are frequently those who have a disproportionately high number of illiterate members (Solo, n.d.). Fourth, local knowledge influenced by local power relations. CBDRM builds on the existing local knowledge to assess community risks, and serve as basis in developing plans. However, local knowledge can be influenced by local power relations, authority and gender (Mosse, 2002). Other personalities or stakeholders may impute their own interests to or influence the local knowledge which would not necessarily resolve the issues of disaster risks or lead for the greater and common interests of improving community resiliency. Fifth, creating development fatigue among stakeholders. Since participatory development is among the most popular approaches in development, many development initiatives have embraced and integrated it within their programs and projects. Consultations and/or collaboration among stakeholders has been repeatedly being undertaken along different stages of one or more different programs and projects, this repeated process could eventually create fatigue among stakeholders, especially when despite of continuing consultations no advancement or progress is achieved. These are some of the limitations and challenges that may be faced by project implementers of CBDRM. And to understand more what CBDRM is as applied to real world, the next part gives us practical examples illustrating how CBDRM could potentially increase community resiliency. CBDRM Good Practices Globally, CBDRM has been promoted as an approach to improve community resiliency. International development organizations and non-government organizations strongly lobby CBDRM for policy adoption and mainstreaming in the disaster management framework of national and local governments. Currently, most CBDRM projects are led by local and international NGOs, either in partnership with other civil society organizations, NGOs, international development organizations or local government. The United Nation International Strategy for Disaster Reduction compiled the good practices in CBDRM that illustrates how communities have worked together towards a common goal and benefitted from their undertaking. Below are some of the examples that are considered CBDRM good practices and linked with climate change adaptation being implemented in different countries. Involving community members in increasing public awareness and capacity building through creating information campaigns to enhance the safety of the population at risk. The project stimulates creativeness and innovativeness from the local actors and similarly optimizes local knowledge and local resources in a way easily understandable to the local community members. This is a project implemented in Haiti in 22 settlements in coordination with their Local Civil Protection Committees (LCPCs) through the assistance from Oxfam GB. Another is creating access among low income groups to disaster micro-insurance scheme. Taking into account that risk transfer supports sustainable economic recovery, micro-insurance could serve as a cushion to lessen impact of disaster, particularly among the poor victims whom majority have little or no access to risk transfer schemes. Micro-insurance represents an innovative approach to risk identification, pooling and transfer; wherein risk is transferred from the individual level to the community or inter-community levels. With the implementation of micro-insurance, this elicit positive feedbacks from the communities claiming that insurance in times of crisis is essential, the affordability of the scheme makes it accessible for the poor households, and which consequently result to reduced dependence from outside relief. This is the approach of the Afat Vimo scheme, a project implemented in India, which is part of the Regional Risk Transfer Initiative (RRTI), an action learning pro ject (ALP) of the Gujaratbased All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI). With the long drought being experienced, crop failures and the consequent food shortage, this has led a community in Indonesia to identify a mechanism to prevent food shortage. The community established a monitoring system for food security and livelihood and community early warning system largely based from their indigenous knowledge in combination with modern science. The project has three components: community awareness and indicator development to monitor food security and livelihood; community early warning system; and advocacy on appropriate agricultural system such as promotion of crops suitable for drought-prone land. The project is in partnership with local NGO aiming to increase community resilience from drought in Southeastern Indonesia. Another project where it illustrates that local context of communities can be a dynamic force in reducing risks, is on creating flood and typhoon-resilient homes through employing a cost-effective retrofitting. The program central theme is to make families and the community active players in the process of reducing the vulnerability through the integration of storm resistant techniques in existing and future houses and buildings. It involves local and grassroots consultation and preventive action planning. The project is Development Workshop France (DWF), a program initiated in Vietnam through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and European Commission Humanitarian aid Office (ECHO) In order to understand local environmental situation, develop awareness and capacity to deal with, and to contribute to relevant policy formulation, one of the communities in Namibia established an inter-community platform and local-level monitoring as support for local decision making. The plat-form serves as medium for community organization and communication. Moreover, the approach strengthens capacity among the community to coordinate their own activities and preparing their development plans. The local-level monitoring, on the other hand, is used to support information exchange and decision making designed by the communities. The communities identify relevant indicators to monitor their livelihoods including key environmental elements. They discuss the results, analyze them and use them where appropriate for decision making. This provides a tool for identification of environmental changes affecting livelihoods that may be based on management actions, climate variability, policy changes or other factors. The project contributes to capacity building and institutional development among communities so they can enhance their own resource management and livelihoods and thereby enhance their capacity to manage and reduce risks related to drought and desertification and other potential disasters. This is a project implemented in Namibia, where several policy instruments have been influenced by the project and a number of derivative projects are ongoing. The convergence of a community-level approach and city governments participation strengthens sustainability and ownership; this is the underlying assumption in one of the CBDRM projects in the Philippines. Wherein, it mainstream community-based mitigation in the city governance through partnering with the local government in the implementation of the project. The project has five (5) components, these are: (i) CBDRM participatory risk assessment training of trainers (ToT) for the city officials, who in turn provide training to communities; reactivation of the City Disaster Coordinating Council and Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council; institutionalization of a school Disaster Safety Day; celebration of the Disaster Safety Day in all schools; developing and implementing a City Disaster Risk Reduction Plan. This is a CBDRM project implemented in the P