There Have Been Very Few Writers Who Have Been Dogged By Controversy T

There have been very few writers who have been dogged by controversy throughout their careers. Some have been persecuted in less enlightened times such as Mark Twain, and some have been ridiculed by the press like Edgar Allan Poe. Yet, Salman Rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by a foreign government. To say Salman Rushdie is a very controversial writer in todays society would be a gross understatement. Rushdie in fact could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press. It is not that Rushdie prides himself on being rebellious, he simply presents his ideas bluntly and it just so happens that his ideas address extremely volatile topics such as the Islam religion. Rushdies philosophy was eloquently put when he wrote, What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Contrary to many great authors, Rushdie did not endure a traumatic childhood, suffer from alcohol addiction, or live with chronic depression. Instead, Rushdie actually had what many would view as a close to perfect upbringing. Rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class Moslem family in the great city of Bombay, India. His paternal grandfather was an Urdu poet, and his father a Cambridge educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England where he excelled in his studies. Rushdie went on to continue his studies at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. After graduating in 1968 he worked for a time with television in Pakistan as an actor with the theatre group at Oval House in Kennington. Then, from 1971 to 1981 Rushdie earned his living by working intermittently as a freelance advertising copywriter for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker. Rushdie eventually began his literary career in 1975 when he made his debut with Grimus, a sort of fantastical science fiction novel based on the twelfth century Sufi poem The Conference of Birds. Grimus however received little fame and Rushdie truly broke into the literary world with his second novel Midnights Children, in 1981, which won him the Booker prize and international fame. This novel began his controversial persona as well. The novel is a comic allegory of Indian history that revolves around the life of its narrator, Saleem Sinai, and the one thousand children born after Indias Declaration of Independence. The reason this novel arose so much controversy though, especially in India, is because of his unflattering depiction of Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister, and her son Sanjay, also a former Prime Minister. Indira actually sued Rushdie following the books unveiling and won. The next two books Rushdie wrote seemed even bolder, Shame (1983), centered on a well-to-do Pakistani family. Rushdie used this familys history as a metaphor for Pakistans own tainted history. Shame was actually banned in Pakistan shortly after its release. The second book titled Sea of Stories, was written for children and created a story of an affable robot, talking fish, dark villains, and an Arabian princess in distress. Although not classic Rushdie, it was certainly a sign of Rushdies versatility. In 1989, Rushdie released a book that has brought him more fame than any of his other works combined. The book is entitled Satanic Verses and may very well cost Salman Rushdie his life even today. Many people say Satanic Verses perhaps went too far. Fearlessly, Rushdie portrayed one of its characters as the prophet Mohamed and quoted scriptures from the holy Islam Quran. This would be all good and well, had Rushdie omitted his own personal alterations and interpretations of these scriptures. This was viewed as the ultimate blasphemy, a direct offense to all Muslims. This action was received as such too, and the Muslim Church retaliated by placing a million-dollar bounty on the head of Rushdie. Although this forced Rushdie into hiding and presented him with numerous sleepless nights, this reaction also gave Rushdie a new podium to shout from. As Balaji Venkateswaran said so perfectly, It also made him a demi-god among litterateurs, an icon to be brandished in support of free speech, a metaphor in the fight against censorship.

Online MBA programs become attractive to Australian students Essays

Online MBA programs become attractive to Australian students Essays Online MBA programs become attractive to Australian students Essay Online MBA programs become attractive to Australian students Essay The managing director of the online forum and student website Business Because, Paul Clarke, claims that the business schools in Australia and their online MBA programs have become a real attraction for students who want to get an MBA. The reasons for this high interest are the high standards, the links that Australia has with South and East Asia as well as the great employment prospects ahead of the online MBA students. In the previous year, the content view and the interest has raised and doubled for schools like the Australian Graduate School of Management and the Business School in Melbourne. The level of interest for these schools and their online MBA programs is much higher that the interest for schools and online MBA business programs in Europe, especially in the UK. Mark McKenna, an accountant, 30, has just finished his full time online MBA which lasted one year at Melbourne Business School. He comes from London. Mark says he wanted to experience a different culture, to see how it is to work and live in some other culture. The biggest attraction at Melbourne Business School was the module â€Å"business in Asia†. The module allowed students, joined in teams, to work for China companies and be engaged in the company’s consulting projects. Mark McKenna says he spent 2 weeks working for a US software mining company in Beijing. He worked on the reviews about the operational challenges and marketing challenges in China. In the last 3 years, the Business School at the University of Queensland has received 400% more applications. The dean of the University of Queensland, Professor Andrew Griffiths, said that the government of Queensland made very big biotechnology investments and these exact investments led to increase in the demand for IT experts and engineers with MBAs. The business schools from Australia have numerous links with markets from South and East Asia. The Sydney Business School has a close working relationship with the Jiao Tong University. This collaboration helps the businesses from China to enter the markets into Australia. Professor Richard Hall, the dean for management education, says that students at online MBA business programs have to understand the work of the Chinese companies so that they will be able to give the best advice. MBAs from Australia have better chances at getting visas than MBAs from Britain. Students from Britain are so attracted to these opportunities in Australia that each year, more and more students choose to go part-time and study in Australia. With their part-time studies or extended studies, they get qualifies for a working visa. Matt Barnett from London moved to Sydney and opened Verbate, a company for market research online. He was a student at AGSM and made a lot of contacts, so now, he has a rich list with clients. According to him, getting an MBA means you get the key that opens all doors and you can work with international companies.

Basis for Violent Crimes Committed by Teenage Offenders Research Proposal

Basis for Violent Crimes Committed by Teenage Offenders - Research Proposal Example Applicable Sources Peak (2012), in his book, Justice Administration: Police, Courts, and Corrections Management, has shown that when teenagers turn to criminal actions, this suggests a number of issues are at the heart of why this is happening, such as the environment of the child with non-existent adult supervision, friends who are in gangs, and failure within the school system in classwork achievements. There are also not enough regular after-school programs that young people can get involved in and, with a weakened economy, what community programs are in place, are having their public funding reduced or cut altogether. Violent video games are also seen as being part of the creation of violent behaviors in those without the ability to separate fiction from reality. In this respect, and in alignment with friends who aside from playing violent video games and who also engage in gang activities, this type of environment applies to the social learning theory, whereby what others do, is considered cool or normal (Peak 2012). Teenagers, who have not learned yet to analyze new media literacy, meaning the truth of what is seen, rather than what the message implies, learn that what they encounter, is (to them) what life really is as a standard level of living. While other teenagers head home to read their school books and do homework, at-risk teenagers go to hang out with their friends who engage in criminal activities instead. Therefore, reinforcement of negative influences by friends and through media viewpoints (violent video games, violent movies), will condition an at-risk teenager towards a life of crime. Juvenile justice systems encounter many at-risk teenagers,... Basis for Violent Crimes Committed by Teenage Offenders Juvenile offenders, aged 18 and under, are committing more violent crimes such as murders of old people and babies and, in order to find a solution to why this is happening, the background and environments of these offenders must be examined further to determine what is setting off these crimes. There is speculation that a lack of adult parenting or supervision is one cause. Another suspected cause is that teenagers play too many violent video games and perhaps, the theory of social learning should be applied here during research. It would also appear that current judgments and punishments made against young offenders, do not deter them enough so that they would move away from the environment that assists or encourages them to commit these crimes. Communities are also stressed because rehabilitative services operate on limited budgets and, with an overload of cases, care and attention will also be limited. In the community itself, people are more afraid because, with youthful offenders, one cannot always protect oneself against younger criminals because laws also protect the young against abuse. Therefore, it is imperative to find the solutions to both problems in offender social environments and also in the sentencing laws for juvenile offenders. The plan is to submit immediately to the Institutional Review Board for permission to conduct this study. The research requires a great amount of work, first in vetting the studies for inclusion into the database, and second, for reviewing enough research studies, books and case studies for inclusion into the literature review.

Customer Service Software and how it provides tools used in enhancing Essay

Customer Service Software and how it provides tools used in enhancing customer service - Essay Example An excellent customer service ensures that the customers know the services expected from the organization, and the organization should ensure high quality information about the regular customer needs. The company management should be easily accessible, and response should be fast. Customer service provides a framework in the creation of commendable customer relationship within the organization. Customer service creates trust and loyalty between the organization and the customers transcending moment interaction. Mostly, complaining psychology ensues as measurement for crises ad opportunities (Kelshall 2009, p.223). Customer service entails all the activities that enhance high level customer satisfaction by ensuring the services and the product meet the customer expectation, and it enhances income and revenue generation. Customers and the Organization Customers can be regarded as key stakeholders to every success within an organization. The constant drive in customer satisfaction is th e duty of all people within an organization. The appreciation of the employees in organizations takes place regardless of whether the link is direct or indirect. Many organizations consider the customer role as the prime. This happens through corporate training programs and improved communication techniques. Customer satisfaction by an organization requires maintenance of the customer contacts. Marketers enhance customer satisfaction through market survey and research to offer insights on the new services and products sought by the customers (Rao & Madhavi 2004, p. 38). Customers influence the decision by the marketing team towards decision making. Customers are crucial determinants of profits and revenues and ensure job security within an organization. Therefore, viability of an organization measured based on the potential of an organization to attract customers. Provision of excellent customer service is the paramount goal of an organization (Chung 2006, p. 10). Customer satisfact ion and the client retention Customer retention ensures continued business relationship between the customer and the firm. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is the measure of the surpassing power of goods and services by an organization to customer expectation. Commendable customer satisfaction accompanies loyalty. The organization with high customer satisfaction pays little attention to the advertising from their competitors. Satisfaction influences repurchasing intention and ensures customer retention. Unsatisfied customers may continue their patronage based on fear of shifting to other alternatives. Fear is created by the unawareness of the other services elsewhere, especially when using the repurchase intention in measuring the customer satisfaction (Kelshall 2009, p.224). Relationship between organization profitability and customer satisfaction Many studies indicate the correlation between the customer satisfaction and the organization profitability. Happy employees comm unicate well with the customers. The customers continue with their patronage. The relationship develops leading to continuous loyalty. Invariably, the defection rate reduces and acquisition of new customers results. Good customer service is critical in enhancing customer perceived value. The overall assessment of the customer on the product utility improves the customer loyalty. The customer perceived values influence the cost and the tastes of the customers. The interaction efficiency with the staff influences the perceived value

Euthanasia Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Euthanasia - Article Example physical or mental pain without prospect of relief† and have â€Å"provided a medical practitioner, while appearing to be lucid, with two written requests more than 10 days apart expressly stating the person’s free and informed consent to opt to die†. Organizations opposed to the idea of euthanasia aver that the contentions were weak and insufficient. In particular the phrase: â€Å"appearing to be lucid† is subject to scrutiny and subjective assessment of its veracity. Euthanasia has been specifically defined as â€Å"the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. The key word here is "intentional". If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia.† (Euthanasia.com 1) The problem has been a source of controversial debate since people from diverse parts of the world hold various beliefs and values that run counter to the objective of euthanasia. Killing, has been viewed, as a criminal act and whatever purpose it deems to be achieved, it is still regarded as contrary to human law. Organizations and states which supported and legalized euthanasia have done so on the grounds that patients who are in pain and suffering without any recourse for recovery should be accorded with the right to die with dignity. The issue therefore continues to be debated upon with an impending bill seeking amendment to the Criminal Code to permit the â€Å"right to die with dignity†. The author concluded the article through inferring that despite identification of particular circumstances allowing euthanasia, it still could be subject to loopholes. Collier (2009, 464) specifically emphasized that the phrase â€Å"appearing to be lucid† is easily contestable given the state of physical and mental condition of the patients. In this regard, he is most likely arguing against euthanasia as a way to end a patient’s misery and pain. The author identified what the particular circumstances are in considering medical practitioners

Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector

Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector In Supply Chain management, Bullwhip effect has attracted some considerable importance in the FMCG sector in the last 20 years. The phenomenon Bullwhip Effect shows how small changes at the customers end have tremendous impact on the operations back there in the chain. The cause behind this effect is mainly attributed to the increasing demand variability in the supply chain. We consider the number of companies taking part in a single supply chain. Each of the company gets the order from its immediate downstream company to be fulfilled. In Bullwhip effect the orders to the suppliers tend to have a larger variance than sales to the buyer. This demand distortion then gets amplified while propagating upstream. The paper mainly focuses on how the Bullwhip effect the matching of the demand and supply and the main causes leading to this. It also focuses on the PG case study to understand the Bullwhip effect and the steps taken to dampen the bullwhip effect. Further it aims at quantifying the bullwhip effect and reducing its impact on the supply chain. Acknowledgement I am thankful to Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (MPSTME) for giving me this opportunity to understand the Bullwhip Effect and the major causes and the PG case. Furthermore helping us understand the various techniques and procedures for writing a research project. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my college mentor Prof. Jinu Kurian for her continuous guidance and support and being available at all times whenever the need may arise. I would also like to thank Prof. Prasad Chakrabarty for his help and support in the project. Table of Contents Introduction The bullwhip effect occurs when the demand order variability in the supply chain is amplified as they moved upstream in a supply chain. Distorted information from single end of a supply chain to the other may lead to tremendous inefficiencies. Companies can effectively deal with the bullwhip effect by thoroughly understanding its underlying causes. Organizational leaders are implementing various innovative strategies that pose new challenges: integrating new information systems defining new organizational inter relationships implementing new incentive and measurement systems. At macroscopic level, Bullwhip Effect generates inefficiencies in production scheduling, sourcing, capacity utilization, distribution and the profit generation. While if we take a look at the operating level it induces additional inventory which is placed inappropriately to maintain the service levels. It also reduces the performance level by decreasing the incoming cash and the potential revenue. It can even dilute any companys competitive strategies. 2 factors have changed the landscape of supply chain management in the last few years significantly. Availability and use of the technology and software applications to allow capture and sharing of information across a supply chain mostly through extranets Increasing indulgence of members of the supply chain in order to move towards to put aside the traditional arms-length relationships amongst each other and in its place move towards closer, partnership-type arrangements. Again, the networks over which these collaborations take place must include the necessary levels of performance, scalability, security and reliability to realise these benefits to their maximum potential. Problem Statement To analyse the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures. Significance Global competition in the world market today contains many challenges to achieve a degree of predictability in the supply chain and remove the impact of Bullwhip Effect. Researchers have examined the bullwhip effect and some models to reduce it, however a very few research has been done on analysing the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures quantifying the effect of bullwhip and its Measurement still remains an exigent research path. Research Methods A case-study based approach was employed to conduct the research. Data were gathered primarily through interviews, observations and archival sources. At the hospitals, Interviews were conducted, in person, with doctors, nurses, administrators, and other hospital staff. At the diagnostic laboratory, personal interviews were conducted with the CEO, pathologists and other lab technicians. As far as data gathering is concerned, we decided to employ an informal, minimally structured, non-directive interview approach, enabling to minimize the influence of the assumptions. . Literature Review Fluctuations in demand have a varying graph when we compare from industry to industry. Driven by seasonal demand and business cycles, apparel industry faces major demand adjustments, while the diaper market is subjected to constant demand in the market arena. Due to misjudgement of demands, the big players in the retail market can be subjected to inventory shortages or surpluses. But given the consistency of demand in the diaper market the diaper supply chain should be more efficient and accurate. But it isnt the case. The diaper market even with the reliable demand patterns isnt able to match the demand-production matching. The major cause to this supply chain inefficiency can be subjected to Bullwhip Effect. The term was coined by Procter Gamble who noticed amplification in the information distortion as the information of the order travelled upstream in the supply chain. Bullwhip effect or Whiplash effect can be majorly seen in the forecast driven distribution channels. It indicates a lack of synchronization among the members across the supply chain. Even if there is a small fluctuation in the customer sales, it reflected upstream in an amplified form. Because of this supply patterns does not match the demand patterns resulting in inventory surplus at various stages of the supply chain.C:UsersIndiaDesktopblwhp.jpg As the customer demand would be rarely perfectly stable, businesses should forecast demand in order to match the demands with the production and managing their inventory levels. Some of the major reasons behind bullwhip effect are:- Forecast Errors Overreaction to backlogs Lead time variability No communication and no coordination along the supply chain members Delay in information and material flow Price fluctuations Product promotions Order batching raw material orders from ProcterGamble to its suppliers fluctuated over time. On further noticing it was found that farther down the chain, when sales at retail stores were studied, it was found that the fluctuation which was present, were small. It is reasonable to assume that the consumers of the diapers at the last stage of the supply chain used them at a steady rate. Although consumption at the end product was stable, orders for raw material were highly variable, increasing costs and making it difficult for supply to match demands. Lack of coordination between supply chain members also results if information distortion occurs within the supply chain. Considering the Bullwhip effect PG observed in the diaper supply chain. As a result of the bullwhip effect, orders PG receives from its distributors are much more variable than the demand for the diapers at retailers. The lack of the supply chain coordination between members has an adverse effect on manufacturing cost. It increases the manufacturing cost in the supply chain. PG and its suppliers must satisfy a stream of orders that is even more variable than customer demand. ProcterGamble responded to the increased change by either building excess capacity or by holding excess inventory, both of which increase the manufacturing cost per unit produced. It even increases the replenishment lead time in the supply chain. The increased variability due to bullwhip effect makes scheduling at PG and supplier plants much more difficult as compared to a situation with level demand. There are times when the capacity which is available and inventory cannot supply the orders coming in. This results in higher replenishment lead times in the supply chain from both PG and its suppliers. It even hurts the level of product availability and results in more stock outs in the supply chain. Very high fluctuations in orders make it difficult for PG to supply all distributor and retailer orders on time. This increases the likelihood that retailers will run out of stock, resulting in lost sales for the supply chain. It also leads to an increase in the inventory costs. To handle the increased variability in demand PG has to carry a higher level of inventory than would be required if the supply chain was coordinated. As a result, inventory costs in the supply chain increase. The high levels of inventory also increase the warehousing space required and thus the warehousing cost incurred. It impacts the transportation cost in the supply chain. The transportation requirements over time at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with the orders being filled. As a result of bullwhip effect, transportation requirements fluctuate significantly over time. This raises transportation cost because surplus transportation capacity needs to be maintained to cover high demand periods. It also leads to the increase in labour costs associated with shipping and receiving in the supply chain. Labour requirements for shipping at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with orders. A similar fluctuation occurs for the labour requirements for receiving at distributors and retailers. The various stages have the option of carrying excess labour capacity in response to the fluctuation in orders. Either option increases total labour cost. PG estimated that due to the manual interventions required in their process of ordering, billing and shipment systems, each deal to its customers cost between $35 to $75 to process. Sharing point-of-sale (POS) data across the supply chain can help reduce the bullwhip effect. A primary cause for information distortion is the fact that each level of the supply chain uses orders to forecast the future demand. Given that orders received by different levels vary, forecasts at different levels also vary. If retailers share POS data with other supply chain stages, all supply chain stages can forecast future demand based on customer demand. Sharing of POS data helps reduce information distortion because all stages now respond to the same change in the customer demand. Sharing aggregate Point Of Sale data is sufficient to reduceinformation distortion. PG has convinced many retailers to share demand data. PG in turn shares the data with its suppliers, improving coordination in the supply chain. In a continuous replenishment programs (CRS), the wholesaler or the manufacturer replenishes the inventorey regularly based on Point of sale data. In its simplest form, CRS seeks to allow more accurate production planning of inventories and also matching of supply and demand. Success with continuous replenishment programs is achieved when production planning has become demand-driven on an end-to-end basis throughout the supply chain. . Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a family of business models in which the buyer of a product provides certain information to a supplier of that product and the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed inventory of the material, usually at the buyers consumption location (usually a store). A third-party logistics provider can also be involved to make sure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps. PG now employs vendor-managed inventory (VMI) in its supply chain, starting with its supplier, 3M, and its customer, Wal-Mart In VMI, packaged-goods behemoth Procter Gamble (PG) initiated a value pricing scheme for sales to retailers. Value pricing was PG label for everyday low pricing (EDLP), a pricing strategy under which retailers are charged a consistent price rather than a high baseline price punctuated by sporadic, deep discounts. PG had many reasons for converting to EDLP. Its sales force had grown to rely on discounting to drive sales and the use of deep discounts had spiralled out of control, cutting into earnings. Background SMS Hospital, operating in Jaipur, is one of the largest government healthcare providers in Rajasthan. It consists of more than 500 beds and offers healthcare services ranging from a 24 hour accident and emergency service, to acute medical and surgical care, operating theatre suites, intensive care, ocus on cardiac and orthopedics areas and head injury and orthopaedic related trauma and community care. The hospital services more than 40,000 patient admissions and an average length of stay of 3.62 days for all patients. There are10 operating rooms (OR) with state of the art equipment, in-patients have hospital wards, acute cases beyond normal post-operative hospital care have rehabilitation unit for recovery and related ancillary services in the hospital facilities. These rooms are being used for major inpatient procedures. On an average of about 27,000 operations are performed in these rooms in a year. Specialty and staffed with suitably qualified nurses and technicians organizes 500+ beds in the hospital. The Operating Room Management Department (ORMD) is the central division, which faces daily challenges of managing and allocating the staff and equipment so that surgeries can be performed in an efficient, cost effective, and safe manner. The equipment that is owned by the hospital may either be dedicated to a theatre or be shared across theatres. The Operating Room staff is comprised of registered nurses, nursing assistants, scrub technicians and unit secretaries and an Operating Room nurse super vises all these. Equipment to be used for Operating Rooms may either be owned by the hospital or be procured from outside on a loan/hire basis. The Operating Room Management Department is responsible for assignment of theatre suitable for the scheduled surgery and ensuring the availability of staff and equipment when needed. Quality and cost of patient care implications are on overstaffed, undermanned, and unbalanced nursing teams. The hospital has adopted a hybrid strategy to meet its nurse requirements in both wards and Operating Rooms. The hospital has employed a group of permanent, full time nurse staff, which is also, complemented by a bank of casual, part time nurses which are available at short notice. Also, the hospital also has made some arrangements with several private agencies, which are known for providing qualified nurses for short periods to hospitals, on a temporary basis. Fifty % of the hospitals requirements) in the terms of nurse requirements are usually been met by permanent staff, thirty% by part time nurses and twenty% from agency staff. The hospital havent employ any specialist/surgeon, but only has a small group of physicians for overall supervision of the wards. Instead, it has arrangement with a large group of consultant surgeons who hold privileges to avail of the hospital facilities for treatment of their patients. The hospital derives its revenues from the fees charged for the use of its facilities ORs, hospital beds and other services from the patients. In most cases hospital charges are borne by patients medical insurance providers and the hospitals revenue is based on negotiated rates with these firms. Value Chain Figure 1 illustrates a schematic description of SMSs service value chain. As shown in the figure, the multi-stage process begins with the patients consultation with his or her primary care physician. Upon receiving a referral from the general practitioner to visit a medical specialist, the patient will then be assessed by a specialist. This stage does not involve the hospital and may consist of several visits to the doctors office and diagnostic laboratories, deals with the assessment of patients condition and treatment options. A determination of the need for surgery results in the addition of the patient to the doctors list of patients requiring surgery/hospitalization. Typically, specialist doctors have privileges at several hospitals in the area, and the choice of hospital for surgery is determined by a number of factors that include cost, patient preference, case complexity, wait involved, facilities and other services provided by the hospital. Following the choice of hospital, the patient is scheduled for surgery by assigning a slot in one of the doctors theatre sessions at the hospital. It is not uncommon for elective surgeries to be scheduled several weeks to a few months in advance. The schedule for each session along with patient and surgery details is expected to be communicated by the doctors office to the hospital well in advance to enable the hospital to make adequate arrangements. The surgeons operating list is not frozen and is dynamic with additions possible at a later stage (in some cases a few hours in advance) and the hospital is expected to be responsive and be able to provide the requisite support of staff, equipment and supplies. Surgery represents the third stage of the value chain and Saint Marys hospital is responsible for providing required support services. These include staffing the theatres with qualified nurses and technicians, and making available all equipment and supplies needed. The hospital is also responsible for pre-operative care of the patient and getting the patient ready for surgery and for post-operative care. Insufficient capacity and delays in these phases can result in blockage and starving of theatre resulting in underutilization of ORs with consequent adverse impact on hospital costs and efficiency. Post-operative care in hospital wards and in subsequent rehabilitation areas, if necessary represent the fourth and fifth stages before the patient is discharged and exits the hospital system. Constraints on bed capacity in wards can lead to fewer surgeries being scheduled resulting in lower theatre utilization. This is in contrast to the rehabilitation services, where capacity shortage may only lead to patients being off-loaded to other facilities owned by competitors, thereby resulting in loss of potential revenue. Planning and Scheduling at SMS Hospital Planning and scheduling at Saint Marys hospital is similar to other hospitals in Australia with annual theatre plans forming the basis for hospitals activities. The theatre plan involves assignment of theatre sessions to consultant surgeons and essentially defines the demand for hospitals services. A half-day slot is considered the basic unit for this purpose and thus each theatre has a capacity of 10 sessions per week, based on a five day week. As described earlier, surgeons expect hospitals to provide complete flexibility in organizing the activities within their sessions and hence assignment of a theatre session to a surgeon commits the hospital for providing the necessary staff and equipment for operation and post-operative care, and hence the hospital workload is a direct consequence of the theatre plan. In practice, theatre planning at Saint Marys begins three to four months in advance, in September/October for the following year. The plan is developed in consultation with the surgeons and varies little from year to year, except for changes to accommodate vacation periods of surgeons and other planned absences. The plan can be characterized as cyclic with effort to evenly spread out sessions assigned to individual surgeons. Further, to the extent feasible, weekly schedules are adopted. For example, a surgeon with 50 sessions would be assigned one session per week, usually in the same time slot every week (say, Monday morning). One feature of session plan at Saint Marys Hospital that merits special mention relates to the practice of concentration of sessions assigned to particular specialty. As a result, we find, sessions corresponding to different specialties peaking on different days of the week. Such practices are not unique to Saint Marys and are quite common at other hospitals i n Australia. The annual session plan forms the basis for nurse and technician staffing in the hospital. The labor cost of nurses and technicians is perhaps the most significant controllable operating cost at Saint Marys and directly impacts the hospitals financial viability. Staffing plan for nurses in the OR theatres is prepared for each calendar month on a monthly basis, two weeks in advance to conform to regulatory requirements. The initial plan is developed on the basis of the session plan. The nurse schedule is revised and frozen only a day in advance, at which time the requirements are assessed based on surgery lists available in the hospital. Besides adjustments for providing the required number of qualified nurses, the final schedule takes into account deviations from the initial plan (for example, absence due to sickness, or inability to schedule the nurse due to excess overtime on the previous day etc.) At this stage there is only very limited flexibility in respect of permanent, full t ime staff and the nurse scheduler relies on part time staff, supplemented by supply from external agency to meet the requirements. As mentioned earlier, current practices at Saint Marys hospital result in 20-25% of nursing needs being met with agency sources. In monetary terms, the proportion is higher due to higher rates paid for the temporary staff. Nurse staffing in wards is similar and schedules are frozen only a day in advance. Observations Our interviews with doctors/surgeons indicated that in a majority of specialties there is no discernable pattern in the demand for elective surgeries. This is in contrast to illnesses such as flu, hay fever that exhibit pronounced seasonality. Thus, daily demand for elective surgery end customer demand can be reasonably be described as fairly uniform with no seasonality (day of the week, month etc.) and low to moderate variability. Figure 2 describes the pattern of admissions (which corresponds to demand) for orthopaedic surgeries at Saint Marys hospital by day of the week. The figure is based on data for one year and excludes the holiday period (mid-December to mid-January) in Australia during which most doctors avoid scheduling elective surgeries. The data in Figure 2 shows mild seasonality by month (admissions range from a low of 332 to a peak of 512 with mean of 470) and high variability by day of the week. Excluding the weekends, the average daily admissions range from a low of 58 on Fridays to a peak of 123 on Wednesdays. The pattern is similar for other specialties, except for the location of the peak. While in Figure 2 the peak occurs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, for other specialties it might occur on other days of the week. Taken in conjunction with our premise that end customer demand is fairly constant, Figure 2 suggests strongly presence of phenomena similar to the bullwhip effect. In the remainder of this section we discuss briefly the impact of this pattern on hospital performance operational and financial. First, increased variability in the number of surgeries performed directly impacts the demand for post-operative services in the wards. Consequently, on peak days, shortage of beds makes the wards the bottleneck, thereby restricting the number of surgeries and reducing the theatre utilization and hospital throughput, which in turn leads to lower revenues and lower operating profits. While the hospital is a not-for-profit organization, operating profits represent one of the key funding sources for financing investments in equipment and facilities, and lower levels or absence of operating profit can severely restrict the hospitals ability to provide state-of-the-art high quality service. Second, the demand for nursing services both in theatres and wards is directly affected by higher variability and results in higher labor costs. With Saint Marys strategy of meeting the nursing demand with a mix of full time, part time and agency staff, higher variability of demand translates to the need for higher levels of flexibility and larger proportion of casual and agency staff. Higher wage rates for these categories increases operating costs and leads to lower profits. Third, SMSs reliance on flexible (part time and agency) staff affects the hospitals operating performance in more subtle, but significant manner. Higher levels of temporary staff leads to frequent changes in the composition of support staff assigned to each theatre, thereby inhibiting development of cohesive support teams. Consultant surgeons in our interviews mentioned this factor repeatedly as the primary cause of inefficiencies in theatre, requiring more operating time and reduction in efficient use of theatre capacity. The role of cohesive support teams in improving OR efficiencies is well known and has been noted in many other hospital environments. In the absence of such a support team, the surgery list scheduled for each session tends to be shorter (thus reducing hospital revenues). Alternately, with normal list the theatre time will be higher than planned, resulting in overtime and increasing operating costs. In either case, this practice adversely affects hospitals profits. Furthermore, this factor influences the doctors choice of hospital, prompting use of Saint Marys for more complex cases requiring its facilities. For simpler cases, the doctors tend to choose other hospitals with more efficiently organized OR theatres, perhaps with more limited range of services. As the more complex cases typically involve higher costs, this behavior has an adverse impact on Saint Marys finances. Under the Australian system the fees payable (to the hospital and doctor) are based on predetermined rates for each class and do not depend on the case complexity within each class. To summarize, increased variability in the demand for elective surgeries at Saint Marys hospital results in lower efficiencies, higher operating costs and lower revenues leading to lower profits. Thus, the presence of bullwhip effect leads to degradation of performance as in the case of manufactured goods reported in the literature. While this is intuitive and not surprising, it is interesting to note the dynamics are different from those observed in manufacturing higher levels of inventories and shortages. Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.09.56 AM.png Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.13.36 AM.png Methods for coping with the Bullwhip Effect The preceding section highlighted the different causes of the bullwhip effect in the healthcare sector and identified strategies to mitigate the detrimental impact of the effect. We briefly summarize the strategies (see Table for a summary): (i) Reducing uncertainty In order to minimize or eliminate bullwhip effect, it is important to reduce uncertainty throughout the service value chain. If information about customer can be centrally managed and if each stage of the service value chain can be provided with latest information in a timely manner, it will help eliminate duplication of effort at different stages and also ensure data consistency across all groups that require that data. It is also critical that dynamic updating of information is performed which will greatly help reduce uncertainty. (ii) Reducing variability There is inherent variability in the customer demand process and any effort that can be taken to minimize this variability will help reduce the overall bullwhip effect. Also, localized practices that lead to increased variability in demand at any of the stages should be eliminated with better coordination. Use of good forecasting methods will also assist the reduction of variability. (iii) Developing strategic partnerships The bullwhip effect can be minimized by developing key strategic partnerships with different links in the service value chain. For example, in case of hospitals, the hospital administration has to forge strategic alliances with medical specialists. These partnerships will change the way in which the information is shared and will help foster better coordination between the two parties. Although this may not fully eliminate bullwhip effect, it will go a long way in reducing the effect. (iv) Realignment of incentives One prime reason for the lack of coordination and meaningful information sharing is that the different entities are evaluated on the basis of different criteria and receive rewards for different activities. The evaluation and reward system should be modified to stress cooperation across stages and so that the planning is performed on system-level objectives and not on division/local level objectives. (v) Improving coordination across stages of service value chain To reduce the bullwhip effect, it is also important to ensure coordination across stages that are facilitated and improved. Summary and Future Research In this paper we have identified and described a phenomenon in healthcare industry that is similar to the bullwhip effect observed in the manufacturing sector which results in amplification of demand variability upstream in the service chain. Not surprisingly, this distortion likewise leads to performance degradation. However, the similarity with the manufacturing sector does not extend much further since the causes and the impact are somewhat different. For example, while bullwhip effect in manufactured goods results in higher levels of inventory and shortages, in hospitals it leads to lower levels of throughput, higher operating costs and longer patient waits. Hence, initiatives and strategies for minimizing the bullwhip effect and its impact require a different approach that addresses directly the root causes. Our study also indicates that the potential for performance improvements is quite significant. While our study focused on hospitals and other allied institutions in the health sector, we conjecture that a similar phenomenon may be present in other service industries. For example, billing practices in consumer utilities (electricity, gas etc) and credit card services with monthly cycles leads to variable unbalanced loads in certain segments. Similarly, scheduling practices in auto repair industry result in some variability amplification. Together this suggests that a more detailed study of the bullwhip phenomenon in services is warranted and may lead to order-of-magnitude performance improvements similar to those realized during the past two decades in the manufactured goods industries.

Maritime Law :: essays research papers

Maritime Law The value of many shipments depends upon fluctuations in the currency rates, freight, handling charges, and other expenses. By means of insurance protection will be provided to goods from any uncontrollable variables. A contract of Marine Insurance is defined by section 7 of the Marine Insurance Act of 1909 as: "A contract whereby the insurer undertakes to indemnify the assured, in manner and to the extent thereby agreed, against marine losses, that is to say, the losses incident to marine adventure." The purpose of marine insurance is to provide protection against financial loss for an amount, which is as close as possible to the actual loss recognized. Marine insurance is a contract by which one party for a specified consideration promises to pay another party a sum of money on the loss of goods that are subject to marine transport. Therefore marine insurance is a contract of indemnity, which is a contract of reimbursement, and the amount redeemable is measured by the extent of the assured's or the insured's financial loss. The terms and conditions of the contract entered into with the insurer determine the amount of reimbursement that is to be received by the insured. A contract of marine insurance is embodied in a policy, which specifies: "1- The name of the insured, or of some person who effects the insurance on his behalf. 2- The subject matter insured and the risk insured against. 3- The voyage, or period of time, or both, as the case may be, covered by the insurance. 4- The sum or sums insured. 5- The names of the insurers." The promissor in an insurance contract is called the insurer or underwriter, the person to whom the promise is made is the insured, assured or the policyholder and finally the contract is referred as the policy. In order to avoid these situations marine cargo insurance has different coverage for different purposes. http://uniserve.edu.au/law/pub/icl/marincon/MarineInsuranceandCargoCla.html http://ra.irv.uit.no/trade_law/documents/insurance/mia_1906/art/mia_1906.html#01 General Average Loss 55 Section 72(1) says that a general average loss is any loss or damage voluntarily incurred for the general safety of the ship and cargo. For example, where goods are thrown overboard in a storm for the purposes of saving a ship, and the rest of the cargo. The Admiral Zmajevic (1983) 2 LLR 86. 56 Section 72(3) says that the several persons interested in the ship, freight and cargo must contribute rateably to indemnify the person whose goods have been sacrificed against all but his proportion of the general loss. 1.Does your policy cover perils? 2.Does it cover war risks and riots? Due to events like the Los Angeles 3.Does it cover? Nature of Marine Insurance

Decision Making Paper Essay

This paper examines the correlation between personal, organizational and cultural values. The paper also discusses how these values affect the decision making in individual’s personal and professional lives. Value is a social principal goal or standard held by an individual, class or society. Values are shaped by surrounding situations. Normally the three values are accepted in society such as Personal Value, Organizational Value and Cultural Value. Personal Values are the principals that define human as an individual. Personal values, such as honesty, reliability and trust determine how one will face the world and relate with people. It also consists of caring, courage, creativity, friendliness, honesty, honour, independence, integrity and spirituality. Organizational values are the principals that guide human’s behavior in professional contexts. They define how person work and how he or she relate to co-workers, managers and clients. They also reveal person’s potential of advancement. It also consists of autonomy, competitiveness, conscientiousness, dedication, ethics, loyalty, professionalism, punctuality and team player. Cultural values, like practice of the faith and customs, are principals that sustain connections with person’s cultural roots. They help person feel connected to a larger community of people with similar backgrounds. It also consists of celebration of diversity, ethnic roots, faith, linguistic ties, national ties, regional ties and tradition. Personal, professional and cultural values are connected to each other. These values are something that affects every area of person’s personal and professional lives. In our daily routine we interact with these values very often especially personal values. Personal values are something which we are learning from our childhood. Our parents are the pioneers of these values. They teach us what is correct and what is wrong. As we grow, we take our own decisions but our parents have a great influence in our thought process. I believe this is how we learn how to respect our own personal value when we grow as an adult. Next one is professional values. We begin to learn this value as soon as we enter into the world of independence. Each organization has its own set of rules and regulations. We need to follow those while taking care of our own personal values. At workplace the main important thing is how we interact with co-workers, managers and clients. How you present yourself with others is also very important. Cultural values are something again goes with the personal values. They give importance to the tradition, cultural ethics and your opinion of relating those to the workplace and personal life. In society sometimes people with same backgrounds come together and form a group and share their cultural values. At workplace also sometimes we notice people with same cultural values come together and have better understanding between them. Finding balance between personal, organization and cultural values is very crucial. Many times in our life we need to fight to take the decision based on these three values. For example for me as a woman find the right balance between my personal life with family and professional life is very difficult. Family (kids) comes first while taking any decision for myself even when to decide the right career path and when to start it. For working mother balance between these values plays an important role while taking any decisions. Many times I noticed that one needs to give up on something in order to achieve on whatever he or she wants. Same principal applies to the values. Sometimes professional values overcome personal values but if we can manage both of them and achieve the result we want then that will be a big success. Resolving a conflict by analyzing the situation needs practice but one will achieve this by paying attention and keeping balance between the values. Decision making is a very important process. â€Å"Decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. † (Harris Robert, 1997). I believe if we give respect to all the three values equally and give importance to all of them while making a decision then our decision making process will be much easier than we expected and we can keep the right balance in the personal and professional life. We will be able to take correct decisions in life if we start appreciating these values more significantly.

Definition and Examples of Lists in Composition

Definition and Examples of Lists in Composition Definition In composition, a list is a  series of particular images, details, or facts.  Also called a  series, a catalog, an inventory, and (in  classical rhetoric)  enumeratio. Lists are often used in works of fiction and creative nonfiction (including essays) to evoke a sense of place or character. Lists are commonly used in business writing and technical writing to convey factual information succinctly.   The items in a list are usually arranged in parallel form and separated by commas (or semicolons if the items themselves contain commas). In business writing and technical writing, lists are commonly arranged vertically, with each item preceded by a number or a bullet. Lists may also be used as a discovery or prewriting strategy. (See listing.) See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Writing With Descriptive ListsAccumulationAsyndeton and PolysyndetonCongeriesCoordinate Adjectives and Cumulative AdjectivesCrotEnumeratioFocusingListicleOutlineRhythmSpacingSerial CommaSynathroesmusSystropheTetracolon Climax  and  TricolonWilliam H. Gass on Writing With Lists Lists in Paragraphs and Essays Edward Abbeys List of Examples in The Great American DesertIan Fraziers List of Reasons in Great PlainsLists in Bill Brysons Neither Here Nor ThereLists in William Least Heat-Moons Place DescriptionStreet Yarn by Walt WhitmanWhen I Come to Be Old by Jonathan Swift Examples and Observations A rat can creep out late at night and have a feast. In the horse barn you will find oats that the trotters and pacers have spilled. In the trampled grass of the infield you will find old discarded lunch boxes containing the foul remains of peanut butter sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, cracker crumbs, bits of doughnuts, and particles of cheese. In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone home to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones, and the wooden sticks of lollypops. Everywhere is loot for a rat- in tents, in booths, in hay lofts- why, a fair has enough disgusting leftover food to satisfy a whole army of rats.(E.B. White, Charlottes Web. Harper Brothers, 1952)There were too many bells at  Castrevenford altogether. There were the clock chimes, which sounded the hours, halves and quarters with peevish insistence; the bells in the Science Building; the electric bell which marked the beginning and end of each lesson; the hand bells in the Houses; the chapel bell, which had obviously suffered some radical mishap during its casting.(Edmund Crispin [Bruce Montgomery],  Love Lies Bleeding, 1948) Her speech was an endlessly interesting, swerving path of old punch lines, heartfelt cris de coeur, puns new and old, dramatic true confessions, challenges, witty one-liners, wee Scotticisms, tag lines from Frank Sinatra songs, obsolete mountain nouns, and moral exhortations.(Annie Dillard, An American Childhood. Harper Row, 1987)What a jovial and a merry world would this be, may it please your worships, but for that inextricable labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent, melancholy, large jointures, impositions and lies!(Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, 1759-1767)The modern technocracies of the West have their roots in the medieval European world, from which there emerged three great inventions: the mechanical clock, which provided a new conception of time; the printing press with movable type, which attacked the epistemology of the oral tradition; and the telescope, which attacked the fundamental propositions of Judeo-Christian theology. Each of these was significa nt in creating a new relationship between tools and culture.(Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words Socialism and Communism draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, Nature Cure quack, pacifist and feminist in England.(George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937)Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind.(Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet, 1844)My own inclination is to think of [lists] as a rhetorical figure- like hyperbole, say, or zeugma- as essentially humble figure that can be extended indefinitely and still flavour what it is applied to.(Francis Spufford, The Chatto Book of Cabbages and Kings: Lists in Literature. Chatto Windus, 1989)A List of Tom Sawyers TreasuresThere was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. . . . And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had besid es the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldnt unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a dog-collar- but no dog- the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while- plenty of company- and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876) The Contents of Mildreds CupboardsWhen she opened the cupboards, an ache slid down her forehead into her nasal passage and throbbed on the roof of each nostril. It continued like an arrow into her skull, and skated up and down her neck until it had no place else to go. Mildred gave her head a good shake. Bags of black-eyed peas, pinto beans, butter beans, lima beans, and a big bag of rice stared her in the face. She opened another cabinet and there sat half a jar of peanut butter, a can of sweet peas and carrots, one can of creamed corn, and two cans of pork-n-beans. There was nothing in the refrigerator except a few crinkly apples shed gotten from the apple man two weeks ago, a stick of margarine, four eggs, a quart of milk, a box of lard, a can of Pet milk, and a two-inch piece of salt pork.(Terry McMillan, Mama. Houghton Mifflin, 1987)The List as a Graphic Device- Keep in mind that graphic devices should be used carefully and with moderation, not just for decoration or to dress up a letter or report. Used properly, they can help you toorganize, arrange, and emphasize your ideasmake your work easier to read and recallpreview and summarize your ideas, for example, headingslist related items to help readers distinguish, follow, compare, and recall themas this bulleted list does(Philip C. Kolin, Successful Writing at Work, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2007)- The most important effect of any list is to create white space on the page, making for a relaxed visual environment in which information can be scanned and understood.(Roy Peter Clark, How to Write Short. Little, Brown and Company, 2013) The Appeal of Online ListsWe share what we’re thinking about- and we think about the things we can remember. This facet of sharing helps explain the appeal of list-type stories . . ., as well as stories that stick in your mind because they are bizarre. Lists also get shared because of another feature that [marketing professor Jonah] Berger often finds successful: the promise of practical value. We see top-ten lists on Buzzfeed and the like all the time, he notes. It allows people to feel like there’s a nice packet of useful information that they can share with others. We want to feel smart and for others to perceive us as smart and helpful, so we craft our online image accordingly.(Maria Konnikova, The Six Things That Make Stories Go Viral Will Amaze, and Maybe Infuriate, You. The New Yorker, January 21, 2014)The Functions of Lists- Lists . . . may compile a history, gather evidence, order and organize phenomena, present an agenda of apparent formlessness, and express a multiplicity of voices and experiences. . . .Each unit in a list possesses an individual significance but also a specific meaning by virtue of its membership with the other units in the compilation (though this is not to say that the units are always equally significant). Writers find a wide range of application for lists because of this capability, and subsequently critics offer a variety of readings.(Robert E. Belknap, The List: The Uses and Pleasures of Cataloguing. Yale University  Press, 2004)- [E]ssayists have been using the list as a way to structure thought for a long time. (Sontag’s Notes on Camp, to point to a famous example, takes the form of a list of fifty-eight numbered fragments.) But the list is a way of writing that anticipates, and addresses itself to, a certain capriciousness in the reader. By not only allowing partial and fleeting engagement but by actively encouraging it, the list becomes the form which accommodates itself most smoothly to the way a lo t of us read now, a lot of the time. It’s the house style of a distracted culture.(Marc OConnell, 10 Paragraphs About Lists You Need in Your Life Right Now. The New Yorker, August 29, 2013) Dorothy Sayers on the Advertisers ListsThe very work that engaged him- or rather, the shadow simulacrum of himself that signed itself on every morning- wafted him into a sphere of dim platonic archetypes, bearing a scarcely recognizable relationship to anything in the living world. Here those strange entities, the Thrifty Housewife, the Man of Discrimination, the Keen Buyer and the Good Judge, for ever young, for ever handsome, for ever virtuous, economical and inquisitive, moved to and fro upon their complicated orbits, comparing prices and values, making tests of purity, asking indiscreet questions about each others ailments, household expenses, bed-springs, shaving cream, diet, laundry work and boots, perpetually spending to save and saving to spend, cutting out coupons and collecting cartons, surprising husbands with margarine and wives with patent washers and vacuum-cleaners, occupied from morning to night in washing, cooking, dusting, filing, saving their children from germs, t heir complexions from wind and weather, their teeth from decay and their stomachs from indigestion, and yet adding so many hours to the day by labour-saving appliances  that they had always leisure for visiting the talkies, sprawling on the beach to picnic upon Potted Meats and Tinned Fruit, and (when adorned by So-and-sos Silks, Blanks Gloves, Dashs Footwear, Whatnots Weatherproof Complexion Cream and Thingummys Beautifying Shampoos), even attending Renalagh, Cowes, the Grand Stand at Ascot, Monte Carlo and the Queens Drawing-Rooms.(Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise, 1933) Tom Wolfes List: Subway Station at 50th Street and Broadway (circa 1965)All round them, tens, scores, it seems like hundreds, of faces and bodies are perspiring, trooping and bellying up the stairs with arteriosclerotic grimaces past a showcase full of such novelty items as Joy Buzzers, Squirting Nickels, Finger Rats, Scary Tarantulas and spoons with realistic dead flies on them, past Freds barbershop, which is just off the landing and has glossy photographs of young men with the kind of baroque haircuts one can get in there, and up onto 50th Street into a madhouse of traffic and shops with weird lingerie and gray hair-dyeing displays in the windows, signs for free teacup readings and a pool-playing match between the Playboy Bunnies and Downeys Showgirls, and then everybody pounds on toward the Time-Life Building, the Brill Building or NBC.(Tom Wolfe, A Sunday Kind of Love. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1965)Two Lists in Tender Is the Nigh tWith Nicole’s help Rosemary bought two dresses and two hats and four pairs of shoes with her money. Nicole bought from a great list that ran two pages, and bought the things in the windows besides. Everything she liked that she couldn’t possibly use herself, she bought as a present for a friend. She bought colored beads, folding beach cushions, artificial flowers, honey, a guest bed, bags, scarfs, love birds, miniatures for a doll’s house and three yards of some new cloth the color of prawns. She bought a dozen bathing suits, a rubber alligator, a traveling chess set of gold and ivory, big linen handkerchiefs for Abe, two chamois leather jackets of kingfisher blue and burning bush from Hermesbought all these things not a bit like a high-class courtesan buying underwear and jewels, which were after all professional equipment and insurancebut with an entirely different point of view. Nicole was the product of much ingenuity and toil. For her sake trains began the ir run at Chicago and traversed the round belly of the continent to California; chicle factories fumed and link belts grew link by link in factories; men mixed toothpaste in vats and drew mouthwash out of copper hogsheads; girls canned tomatoes quickly in August or worked rudely at the Five-and-Tens on Christmas Eve; half-breed Indians toiled on Brazilian coffee plantations and dreamers were muscled out of patent rights in new tractorsthese were some of the people who gave a tithe to Nicole, and as the whole system swayed and thundered onward it lent a feverish bloom to such processes of hers as wholesale buying, like the flush of a fireman’s face holding his post before a spreading blaze. She illustrated very simple principles, containing in herself her own doom, but illustrated them so accurately that there was grace in the procedure, and presently Rosemary would try to imitate it.(F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night, 1934) Clarks List at the Museum of Civilization: The Snow GlobeConsider the snow globe. Consider the mind that invented those miniature storms, the factory worker who turned sheets of plastic into white flakes of snow, the hand that drew the plan for the miniature Severn City with its church steeple and city hall, the assembly-line worker who watched the globe glide past on a conveyer belt somewhere in China. Consider the white gloves on the hands of the woman who inserted the snow globes into boxes, to be packed into larger boxes, crates, shipping containers. Consider the card games played belowdecks in the evenings on the ship carrying the containers across the ocean, a hand stubbing out a cigarette in an overflowing ashtray, a haze of blue smoke in dim light, the cadences of a half dozen languages united by common profanities, the sailors’ dreams of land and women, these men for whom the ocean was a gray-line horizon to be traversed in ships the size of overturned skyscrapers. Co nsider the signature on the shipping manifest when the ship reached port, a signature unlike any other on earth, the coffee cup in the hand of the driver delivering boxes to the distribution center, the secret hopes of the UPS man carrying boxes of snow globes from there to the Severn City Airport. Clark shook the globe and held it up to the light. When he looked through it, the planes were warped and caught in whirling snow.(Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014)

Gardens essays

Gardens essays During World War 2, people at home helped win the war as much as any soldier did. A good part of our resources were used to support the national war effort. People at the home front had to do everything they could to help their country. They helped fund the war by purchasing bonds, recycling, conserving raw materials like oil, and rallying behind their troops. All these efforts helped us achieve victory but were not enough on their own. Food needed to be shipped out to troops who were fighting at home and abroad. Many of them may have starved if it weren't for the victory gardens that people planted. These gardens helped feed a nation that was fighting for freedom. If we were going to win the war, we needed lots of food. Government agencies, private foundations, businesses, schools, and seed companies helped spread this message. They used all different forms of propaganda, such as colorful posters and feature articles in magazines and newspapers to get the word out. Also public service booklets helped provide information. These booklets taught the basics of gardening. They covered topics like how to plant, when to plant, how to tend plants, soil health, pest identification, and what to plant. Hearst (Good Housekeeping), International Harvester, Beech-nut packing company, Simon and Schuster (House and Garden Magazine) were the main providers of these booklets. Of course factual information wouldn't be enough to keep people gardening and stick with it. The government came up with messages that were simple, symbolic, and patriotic. They wanted people to make gardening a family and community effort. It became a pastime and national duty, not a chore or burden. The victory gardens were vegetables gardens planted during the war to provide enough food for civilians and troops. These gardens came in every shape and size, from window boxes to community plots. They were planted ...

Final exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final exam - Essay Example lution in any way and it would be very wise for any person to accept reality as a stepping stone in trying to solve different kinds of problems that we encounter every day in our lives. Basically, real life is concerned with solving problems hence it would be sheer waste of time to be found crying when confronted with a difficult situation because life itself is an experience where we encounter new things on a daily basis. There was a time when I was so devastated after loosing my most prized possession, a state of the art laptop to thieves. I even contemplated committing suicide but little did I know then that greater things were lying ahead. From this traumatic experience, I learned that it is a noble gesture to accept reality. I reassured myself that, if in the first place I managed to buy this machine with a purpose in life, there was nothing whatsoever that would stop me from replacing it. Whilst recounting the loss, this unfortunate incident rekindled the sense of self determin ation in my life and within a couple of weeks, I had acquired an even more advanced machine. I also learned that it was always very wise to take precautionary measures of also storing my data on an external hard drive such that I would not loose my valuable information in the event of a similar incident mentioned above. From this experience, I realized that the tendency of submitting yourself to fate does not solve anything in real life. By virtue of accepting reality, one stands better chances of solving problems than someone who believes in crying. Over and above, it can be noted that sometimes really bad things may happen to our lives but that would not in actual fact spell the end of the world. Accepting reality is a virtue and there is no use of behaving like a cry baby in the case of misfortunes as this would not reverse the actual situation on the ground. In fact, we gain more experience from such kind of bad

Violation of Human Rights by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - Sri Research Paper

Violation of Human Rights by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka - Research Paper Example The number of internally displaced people is also still high as many people fear the recurring of attacks if they are to go back without the security being given to them. Many have as a result escaped to India. The restrictions of the government on humanitarian aid have hampered the provision of basic needs to the displaced people and many people die in the camps as a result. Many observers have cited that there is still a climate of fear in the country and that there are crucial human rights that are still being violated .There are several feeble rights in the country that are still being violated. The judicial system is manipulated by the government officials. Privacy rights of citizens are being infringed by the government and in many instances it has spurred the denial of human rights- right to fair public trial, right to privacy, right to freedom of speech, right of press which is allegedly the poorest in all democratic countries, right of assembly and association. Journalists that are critical of the government have reportedly been harassed by public authorities (Report by the international crisis group, 2007). In addition, the government has hindered the operations of several non-governmental organisations. Official corruption especially in election law violations has raised concerns where the presidential and parliamentary elections are nothing bu t fair. Politically, the president has made amendments in his favor. The specific human rights abuses with regards to the universal declaration are several. Human rights have been under siege before and after the war. The cease fire exists only in name as the country has still not recovered from its human rights crisis. Everyone should be given equal dignity and rights (article 1), no one should be discriminated by the basis of their sex, race or color (article 2), the right to life liberty and security (article 3) has been undermined. The declaration asserts that people should not be subjected to torture (article 5) neither should they be held unlawfully (article 6). People affected should be compensated by a national tribunal for having his acts violated (article 8), and according to article 10 everyone must have a fair hearing. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has not taken these rights into account to put them in to practice. Actually almost all rights have been violated and even worse no tangible actions have been done. As a result social progress and th e general standard of life have deteriorated (universal declaration charter). Generally the human rights in the country are weak. There is violence against people on the basis of their sexual orientation where women are discriminated. Trafficking in persons and child abuse/ child labor are another rights that have been violated