Leadership of Stalin and Hitler Essay

Stalin and Hitler were influential leaders in history. Although Stalin and Hitler grew to have immense leadership powers, can these individuals be considered great leaders? Based on the grave crimes against humanity both leaders committed under power; Stalin and Hitler should not be considered great leaders, but rather leaders that were excellent at widely influencing and leading masses of people. Hitler led with authoritarian and charismatic leadership styles. Hitler used charisma to attract the masses to the ‘Fuhrer party’ for many diverse reasons; including ethnic, economic, religious and scientific reasons. Unfortunately, the type of charismatic leadership Hitler exhibited would be better characterized as hero worship. â€Å"Under clouds of uncertainty, many people look to heroes who can bring comfort and assurance, and who can inspire and explain the future (Raelin 2003). † Although Hitler’s main goal was genocide, many of his followers were unaware of his long-term intentions. As Hitler’s charisma drew in more followers, he was able to dominate lower levels of leaders â€Å". . . who were influenced by the great charisma of the ‘great’ leader . . . (Eatwell 2006). † As Hitler’s power grew, he began to use authoritarian leadership to force the genocide policies he desired on his followers. With grave threats of death and injury, Hitler was able to influence large numbers of followers to carry out the holocaust and many other crimes against the Jewish people. Stalin led by dictatorship. Stalin inspired incredible loyalty and devotion among subordinates simply by â€Å". . . terrifying everyone around him and creating an aura of infallibility, invincible power, and wisdom (Naimark 2006). † Subordinates respected Stalin out of fear for their lives and lack of knowledge of any other choices available. In all, Stalin and Hitler were not great leaders that inspired good. Stalin and Hitler were evil leaders that used influence and leadership to commit grave crimes against humanity for their own personal gain.

Holland Enterprises Essay

Holland Enterprises Most recently the firm Holland Enterprises has retained an hr consultant to review analyze and revise the current compensation and benefit structure. We have seen since 2007 a 25% decrease in the workforce due to a lack of the benefits system that is in place. My team is committed to analyze and potentially change the perception that Holland’s benefit system is unfair and uncompetitive in the marketplace. We will find that organizations excel and remain competitive when they have consistent human resource practices that align with the companies organizational goals. Increasing organizational productivity is important to any organization. â€Å"Managers know that simply paying employees more will not result in increased output and improved quality. They frequently find that employees who are overpaid or highly paid relative to others doing comparable work are sometimes less productive than their lower-paid peers or counterparts†¦Organizations realize that if they are to b e more competitive, they must change this â€Å"I’m owed it† mentality to an â€Å"I earned it† mentality. A major opportunity available to organizations to bring about this change in attitude is to reduce the fixed part of compensation packages and increase the variable part. The variable components consist of all short- and long-term incentives and awards. The kind and amount of incentives and awards must be linked directly to desired employee behaviors, contributions, or results achieved. These incentives and awards comprise a pay-for-performance program â€Å"(Henderson, 2006). In other words Holland needs to have a system in place that rewards employees fairly while exciting them to provide the very best customer service to meet the demand of the business. â€Å" Through the use of a fair and stimulating compensation system, Holland Enterprises can motivate their employees to complete their assigned tasks at the standards expected and in return the employee is compensated with a wage/salary, wage/salary add-ons, incentive payments and/or other benefits and services† (Henderson, 2006). In order to promote positive change and make the compensation strategy fair for all the organization must, â€Å"improve cost and quality competitiveness and where information overload is a problem facing all organizations and their employees, information regarding work requirements, performance standards, and organizational recognition and rewards programs must be readily available, complete, and accepted. The compensation system, therefore, must be able to transmit a message that is understood and accepted by all employees that they are valued contributors to organizational success and that the organization is willing to share the revenues from its products in an equitable manner with all members† (Henderson, 2006). In order to create some harmony and renew the faith of the people the company has decided to change the compensation and the benefit structure to become more competitive and become more in line with the companies organizational effectiveness and plan. The new plan should have a more competitive edge, one that will motivate the employees and should be in line with the organizations strategy. Organizational leaders, including those occupying the executive suites and those in charge of human resources and compensation practices, must be able to recognize and integrate the long-term strategic objectives of the organization with its short-term tactical requirements. An understanding of how organizational strategy and its related tactics interact and become integrated is becoming increasingly important to managers at all levels performing various organizational assignments. Compensation takes on many forms in any organization, this may include the obvious pay/wages, health care/insurance other fringe benefits such as paid time off, disability, bonuses and other monetary stipends. Pay may be adjusted based on how hard the employee chooses to work or what type of lifestyle the employee has. â€Å"Proper and acceptable performance of diff erent kinds of jobs requires different kinds and amounts of employee knowledge and skills, which vary significantly among individuals. In the course of their lives, many individuals acquire various kinds and levels of knowledge that organizations value. Additionally, through education, experience, training, and natural predisposition, some individuals are able to demonstrate different and greater skills than others. The worth to the organization of the individually acquired and job-required knowledge and skills is identified through job rates of pay† (Henderson, 2006). In order to construct a new pay structure and benefit system we must first look at the five major components that will factor into our decisions. These components are compensation and benefit philosophy, pay grades, ratio of base pay to incentive pay, external equity and internal equity and other types of benefits such as deferred compensation, health insurance vacation and sick leave. â€Å"There are a number of components that need to be addressed when developing your compensation systems to ensure they align with your organizational strategy and objectives. One key to remember is that your compensation strategy must help to create the work culture you want. How you structure your systems and manage the internal and external equity issues, will directly inform the culture of your organization†¦Ã¢â‚¬ A compensation philosophy is developed to guide the design and complexity of your compensation programs; this is done by identifying your goals and objectives, considering your c ompetitiveness in attracting and retaining employees, your emphasis on internal and/or external equity, and whether performance is tied to increases. Understanding what balance you want to achieve between direct salary and indirect benefit is critical in developing your overall total compensation approach. A consistent philosophy provides a strong foundation for both the organization and the employee. Without a philosophy, leaders often find themselves unsure of what to offer as a starting salary for a new employee. This can lead to offering too high a total compensation package for a new employee in relation to existing employees, or being unable to successfully hire because the total compensation offer is too low to be competitive† (hrcouncil.com). Using the five components will allow Holland to remain competitive within the industry. Pay grades are a fair way to help determine the amount of pay a person will receive. The general characteristics of a pay grade system set forth by the federal government include that there should be 15 pay grades with 10 steps within each grade; there should be a 25 to 30 percent increase from minimum to the maximum pay within each grade (Henderson, 2006). â€Å"When an organization is establishing its wage policy, it must maintain external comp etitiveness. In other words, wages need to be high enough to attract, motivate and retain talent; but, wages shouldn’t be so high that they drive labor costs beyond those of competitors in the product market. Salary surveys help to determine the pay rates of various positions† (erieri.com, 2013). â€Å"Each organization must develop its own pay policy line, which is a trend line or line of best fit that best represents the middle pay value of jobs that have been evaluated or classified to have particular worth. A line of best fit produces a trend line by minimizing the sum of the squares of the vertical deviations around the line. A line of best fit can be a straight or curved line. In either case, it is one that best represents the middle pay value of all jobs or the benchmark jobs used to establish a pay policy line†(Henderson, 2006). The ratio of base pay would be to identify the lowest and highest rate of pay is a basic step in establishing a pay policy line. After identification, the next step is to establish† what management expects to be the average or central tendency value paid to the lowest-rated job and the average pay rate of the highest-rated job. These highest and lowest average values should be the midpoint of the pay for those jobs assigned this rate when a range of pay is available for each category. When only one rate of pay is assigned to a job or group of jobs, normally the average or midpoint value is the single rate. The midpoint value is normally the marke t or going rate† (Henderson, 2006). Internal equity compares different jobs inside a single organization in terms of their â€Å"relative contributions to the organization’s objectives, whereas external equity refers to how an employer positions its pay relative to what competitors are paying. Equity reviews are completed to ensure that salaries for positions are internally consistent and remain externally competitive.External equity reviews are warranted if significant discrepancies exist between a position’s salary and prevailing salaries positions in other companies or institutions within the same geographic area. Difficulties in recruitment and retention support the need for an external equity review. Every effort must be made to ensure that equity exists and the concept of equal pay for equal work is embraced† (Henderson, 2006). Holland Enterprises need to understand that the cost of human capital is high when you are losing staff because of salary issues and benefit problems. And lastly employee benefits are a very important portion of the employee’s tenure with the organization. Most compensation components included within employee benefits are made available through some type of insurance plan. â€Å"An important group of benefit components, ho wever, is frequently noninsurance based and provides income to the employee at some future date. Employee benefits can be further classified under these seven major groups: (1) disability income continuation, (2) loss-of-job income continuation, (3) deferred income, (4) spouse or family income continuation, (5) health and accident protection, (6) property and liability protection, and (7) a special group of benefits and services called perquisites. Each of these groups contains a number of compensation components, which may have a variety of features that may be made available only to certain employees or certain groups of employees† (Henderson, 2006). The organizations that supply the benefits and compensation play a huge role in the success of the business. Security for families is key for any employee and they rely on the specific benefits and compensation that they receive and the employers rely on superior employees that will be attracted to their company. This is the exact reason why Holland should take much care when analyzing the benefits and compensation packages in the future as they must remain competitive if they would like to stay in business. The way to motivate employees is to provide a fair, competitive and secure place to work. This may be attained if Holland Enterprises will be on board with paying the workers the incentives they deserve and in turn will receive the hard work in return and keep Holland Enterprise just as profitable as ever. References Henderson, R. (2006). Compensation management in a knowledge-based world. (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0131494791 Retrieved from: http://www.hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/compensation-systems.cfm Retrieved from: Retrieved from:http://www.erieri.com/tutorials/sa/index.html?lesson_2.htm Retrieved from: http://www.stonybrook.edu/hr/employmentservices/classification/equity_review.shtml

How does Shakespeare explore the theme of love against self-interest in the Merchant of Venice?

How does Shakespeare explore the theme of love against self-interest in the Merchant of Venice? In the Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare explores the themes of love and self-interest; the characters own self-interests seem to conquer all feelings of affection towards other characters through money, revenge and spite. The play is about a Christian merchant called Antonio who borrows money from a Jewish money lender called Shylock; hence his friend Bassanio can seek the women he claims to love in the fictional place of Belmont.However, Shylock creates a bond which states that if Antonio does not pay back the money lent to him, Shylock shall receive a pound of Antonio’s flesh. In order to understand the characters’ conflicting emotions and incentives, it is important to understand the definitions of love and self-interest.For now, I will define love as an altruistic affection for someone that may provoke sacrificial acts. As for self-interest, I think this can contrastingly be defined as an egotistical focus on one’s own needs and desires, regardless of those around you. Love is demonstrated in the play by acts of devotion.Portia helps save Antonio from a gruesome death by dressing up as a man and a lawyer. This is an act of devotion towards Bassanio because she is trying to help a man she does not know in order to satisfy Bassanio. She says â€Å"I have within my mind a thousand raw trick of these bragging jacks, which I will practice†.This illustrates her affection for Bassanio because she immediately forms a biased opinion of the men unknown to her who threaten Antonio’s – Bassanio’s greatest friend’s- safety. Shakespeare uses the word â€Å"raw† meaning rude to imply how mean Portia wants to be to these men hurting Antonio.The fact that she is so passionately against these men leads us to believe that Portia cares a great deal for Antonio’s welfare. Portia’s apparent care for Antonio il lustrates her affection for Bassanio who regards Antonio highly as a ‘dear friend’.This affection is increased to the extent that it could be called love as Portia sacrifices her own time, safety and comfort, by traveling a great distance and illegally impersonating a lawyer. However it is debatable as to whether the character of Portia helps Antonio in order to condemn Shylock because he is a Jew.Anti-Semitism and the conflict between Jews and Christians highlights the key theme of self-interest. For example, one could question if Lorenzo only marries Jessica to spite her father because of his religion. He states â€Å"Here dwells my father Jew†.The word dwell is often associated with beasts living in caves and therefore shows that Lorenzo dislikes Shylock and finds him uncivilised. Also, he uses the word â€Å"father† which literally means Lorenzo is Shylocks son which is not true. Dramatically, this particular line is often portrayed sarcastically, givi ng new meaning to the word â€Å"father†.This sarcasm demonstrates that Lorenzo thinks it humorous that Shylock is, or will be, his father in law because he doesn’t like him. This acts in contrast to the common perception of the strength father-son relationships.It also implies that as a son, Lorenzo will receive an inheritance or dowry from Shylock, foreshadowing the future as Jessica steals Shylocks gold and jewels for Lorenzo when she runs away with him. Next, the word ‘Jew’, referring to Shylock’s religion Judaism is used with no definite or indefinite article before it.This could be portrayed as insulting towards Shylock as by using no article, Lorenzo has made the word bitter like he struggles with himself to speak it. This emphasises Lorenzo’s dislike for Shylock and turns his feelings into hate.Through understanding the effects of all these language choices, it is debatable as to whether Lorenzo and Jessica’s relationship is ge nuine or simply a contrivance created to spite Shylock. The fact that Jessica brings Shylock’s money to Lorenzo links to how money is often associated with self-interest and we can compare the power of avarice over that of love. Shylock cries ‘O, my ducats!O, my daughter’. This initially indicates that he values his money over his daughter, implying that his greed outweighs his love. However, when we see Shylock later on he appears more hurt by the fact that his daughter sold a ring, which was given to him by his late wife, than he is by the loss of the ring’s value.He says ‘I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys’. The fact that a â€Å"wilderness of monkeys† would be large and valuable shows a softer side of Shylock which we can sympathise with, and shows that sometimes love and the tokens of that love, matter more to him than his covetous egotism.In conclusion, I think that if we think of the love in Shakespeare’ s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, where the â€Å"star-crossed lovers† –Romeo and Juliet- value each other’s lives above their own in their extreme self-sacrifice, then I do not think this type of love exists in the Merchant of Venice.However, if we define love as a feeling of affection for another individual then we see this clearly, although not without its drawbacks. For instance, although Portia and Bassanio claim to love oneanother, Bassanio seeks Portia in the first place because he is greatly in debt and needs her money. Also, Shylock argues that Jews are human beings just like Christians. He says â€Å"If you prick us, do we not bleed? †Nevertheless, Christians like Lorenzo hate Jews simply because they are Jews. Therefore, although Christians seem to speak more about mercy and love, they do not exhibit these qualities regularly, producing the debate as to whether love in this play is merely a false pretence for self-interest and spite.

Culture, Social Status and Identity in Viramontes' The Months and Essay

Culture, Social Status and Identity in Viramontes' The Months and Tan's Rules of the Game - Essay Example These stories are the same because they depict the cultural and social status of their characters, and the main protagonists want to mold identities that conflict with their society’s beliefs about womanhood, but they are different, because they discover dissimilar sanctuaries, where they can be, who they are, without being judged. These short stories are the same, because they portray the cultural and social status of the characters. The beliefs and practices of the protagonist in â€Å"The Moths† demonstrate that she comes from a conservative and patriarchal society. This society demands their women to be submissive and skilled in feminine tasks and values, such as crocheting. Her father, who she calls Apa, often gets angry with her, because she dislikes going to church. As part of their conservative and religious culture, they are expected to go to mass every Sundays, especially decent girls and women. But she does not does not like the church, because its â€Å"vas tness† makes her feel alone (Viramontes). Likewise, in â€Å"Rules of the Game,† Waverly’s Chinese is culture is very conservative, where hierarchies exist. On top of the family hierarchy are parents, who children will and should never disobey. When Waverly’s mother says this, she embodies the â€Å"strong wind† in her daughter’s life: â€Å"Strongest wind cannot be seen† (Tan). She cannot see her mother, who is always at her back, watching and commenting on her every move, not only in chess, but in real life. The social status of the characters is also evident in the settings of the story. The protagonist in â€Å"The Moths† lives in a place where superstitions are respected. Her grandmother mixes dried moth wings with Vicks to soothe her â€Å"bull hands† and shrink them back to normal size (Viramontes). Her grandmother also has stomach cancer, but they do not have money to pay for expensive therapies. Similarly, Waverl y lives in a poor community, although she is not aware that she is poor. They live on a â€Å"†¦two-bedroom flat that sat above a small Chinese bakery† (Tan). It signifies living in a cramped and controlled space, where Waverly cannot expect to express her freedoms. These stories are also the same, because the female protagonists challenge their cultures, in order to form their identities. The protagonist in â€Å"The Moths† does not believe in following cultural norms about womanhood. Instead of learning how to crochet, she learns how to plant with her grandmother. Her â€Å"bull hand† signifies that she does not fit with her society, because her personality, preferences, and beliefs oppose female stereotypes and Christian norms. When she smells the chile, she cries not only because of the chile’s spice on her eyes, but also because of herself. She is like a chile that hurts the feelings of her family, who wants her to be someone she is not. She is also compared to the â€Å"defiant† sun, because they both resist changing for others (Tan). When the sun meets the land during sunset, the union depicts that â€Å"endings† are windows to â€Å"rebirths† (Tan). But if she will be reborn, she will be the same pertinent and critical daughter that makes Apa angry and disappointed. Also, Waverly defies her culture, by becoming a great chess player and toppling every other man or boy she plays with. Moreover,

Thomas Stonewall Jackson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Thomas Stonewall Jackson - Essay Example While he did not excel, he worked hard to complete his training and successfully graduated in 1846. His final grade placed him 17th among his class of 59 students, (Cooke, 1866) an indication of the potential that he was later to unlock. Following his graduation, Jackson transferred to Mexico where he received military training and served for five years. Within this time the Mexican war broke out, and he earned two brevets for his role in the war. In February 1852, he resigned from his designation in Army and accepted professorship at Virginia Military Institute. Soon he was recognized as a professor of artillery tactics and natural philosophy at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. He had a significant role in the Civil War, commanding the confederation army, and fought in a number of important battles such as the battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson lost an arm as a consequence of this battle, and while he survived the amputation, complications brought on by pneumonia meant tha t he died eight days later. Thomas Jackson married twice in his life, first to Elinor Junkin and later to Mary Anna Morrison. He married Elinor Junkin in 1853 but she didn’t survive after giving a stillbirth and died due to postpartum hemorrhage on October 22, 1854, after just one year of marriage. Thomas Jackson married again in 1857 with Mary Anna and had two daughters, of these one survived, she was named Julia Laura. MILITARY CAREER Jackson is considered by many Military Historians to be the ‘most blessed’ tactical commander. He started his military career as a Second Lieutenant in United States Army in the artillery regiment. Due to his excellent commanding personality and strong decisive powers, he was sent on Mexican War for two years where he served at different battles like Chapultepec, Contreras and Mexico City. As a consequence of the battles he fought and his determination he earned two brevets and was promoted as First Lieutenant. During war in Mexic o, he met Robert Lee for the first time, this relationship would prove to be highly influential (Doak, 2005). One of Jackson’s key leadership traits was the ability to show strong decisive power, choosing a course and sticking to it, despite opposition. An example of this was during the battle at Chapultepec, where Jackson refused to obey orders which he considered to be wrong. He later argued that his denial was justified, as he considered the withdrawal of the army would do more harm than good under the circumstances surrounding that battle. However, he learned later in his career to follow instructions of those senior to him even when he knew that the decisions that they made were incorrect. It was this aggressive attitude that earned him his second brevet, and his subsequent promotion to Major. He was the only army officer to receive two promotions during the three year Mexico War. Jackson was complimented with a nickname†Stonewall† during first battle of Bull Run. Jackson resigned from his army service in February 1852 to follow up with his professorship. JACKSON AS A PROFESSOR After retiring from the Army, Jackson accepted a new career as a professor at Virginia Military Institute and taught Experimental Philosophy and was an Instructor of Artillery. The ideas and theories that he presented were unusual and many are still in use today. Many of his concepts are considered to be military

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT - Essay Example The person behind this is Ingvar Kamprad, a dyslexic, who established IKEA in Almhult, Sweden at the age of 17. The ownership is under a Dutch-registered foundation which is run by the family of Ingvar Kamprad. The owner and franchiser is Inter IKEA Systems B.V. which also holds the IKEA trademark and the IKEA concept. The mother company of IKEA Group of Companies is INGKA Holding B. V., who is also the owner of Swedwood Industrial group, and is owned solely by Stichting INGKA Foundation which is registered in Netherlands. The said IKEA concept is based on different functional home and furnishing products that are sold in cheap price – enough to make it affordable to many people because the concept aims to cater to the needs of people to have a good life by having a nice and comfortable house. The IKEA concept is still maintained up to now and can be seen through the transaction of every business. IKEA has also the idea of getting out of the status quo of producing high quality materials with a high-end price and producing low quality product at low price. For them, it is better to produce high quality products that are affordable. This is possible according to IKEA through having devises that are cost-efficient and innovative at the same time. With this thinking, IKEA is successful in creating good products with nice designs at affordable price. The IKEA brand has complex ownership because it is owned by so many companies and foundations. Then those companies which are considered retailers pay 3% royalty of the total sales to the original owners, which is the Kamprad family. The distribution of products is made through different outlets around the world. There are 251 stores which can be found in 34 countries dominantly in Europe, United States, Canada, Asia, Middle East, and Australia. The countries which have the first IKEA store are Sweden (1958), Norway (1963), Denmark (1969), Switzerland (1973), Germany (1974),

CMG490 MOD 5 CA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

CMG490 MOD 5 CA - Essay Example Disadvantages of this CMS also can push the company out of business. A contract management system should function for retrieving and tracking of any information relevant to contracts. Security concerns of Company about this CMS are also severe. Edward is still missing best services of CMS in the market. It cannot locate any record in the system. CSM is a holistic approach for the security and data redundancy. IT management systems are important for both client and management even a client does not have sufficient knowledge about these systems. USDA Rural Development in New York signs a contract with an EPA certified to control the Lead Hazard control system. Projectmate is more commonly used software as contract management software by clients. SWOT analysis of Projectmate supports the developer to see the potential risks of the construction. The Projectmate is web based and can be accessed by the outsiders who are irrelevant of the system. Cost and Time aspects of the Projectmate pro vide more opportunities to manager to attract more clients. BuildTool is software similar to functions for Projectmate in the market This paper addresses the different aspects of the contracts and contract management systems. Contract will be defined from different point of views, and its management for the organizations. Life cycle management of a contract is essential for the involving parties in a contract. After establishing the importance of the CLM, the trial process of a crime is the part of this study that will point out the important stages of a criminal trial process. A Contract management system is a system that has been optimized for the storage and management of contractual agreements in documented forms. CMS is beyond the simple document in that contract management and in most cases overlap with vendor management systems (Betz, 407). In the modern day context, contracts are considered to

Literature Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Literature Review - Essay Example No time lag will be there in between the data transfer. PDM tools collaborate with other parts of the system to increase the efficiency and speed of the system. Improved productivity of the engineers is the second advantage of PDM system. It is widely accepted that engineers are wasting a substantial period of time for searching , retrieving, filing, handling and storing of document and information. PDM system can help the engineers in avoiding all the above time wasting areas of their profession. The third advantage is the improved control. PDM system ensures the availability of up to date data to all to ensure better control (Crow, n. d). Grundey (2009) has mentioned that Product Data Management (PDM) software helps to provide revision control and file access permission capability for CAD data. Moreover, PDM system improves housekeeping. At the same time PDM system has the disadvantages of more browsing needed to locate files and lot of searching to be done for related draft files (Grundey 2009). Product life management, sometimes "product life cycle management", represents management of all data relating to the design, production, support and ultimate disposal of manufactured goods. Every product has a life period like the living things. It starts from the design stage and ends at the disposal stage. Even though PLM is widely used in the engineering CAD field, it is used in other areas like word processors; spreadsheet and graphics programs; requirements analysis and market assessment tools; field trouble reports; and even emails or other correspondence (Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), 2009). PLM provides the users a vision; a blue print; a road map; a backbone,( a platform where other components could be based on), a bird-eye view,( an overall picture on what you are doing or going to do with your products) (The Secret of Lean PLM implementation, n. d, p. 3). PLM help engineers or others to

Applying for masters in architecture Personal Statement

Applying for masters in architecture - Personal Statement Example In the past three years, I have especially been passionate about handling T-squares and drawing boards. Most important, university education in Architecture has opened newer avenues for exploring my passion in the specialty. The new exploit is the use of CAD and other software in survey and executing my architectural drawings. Nevertheless, I still aspire to have a studio where I use drawing boards and T-squares for creating models. I have always done exceptionally well in my studies and been among the top students in my class. My good performances and passion have always inspired me to seek opportunities to improve my skills through practical skills application and to attend higher learning at every opportunity. I have exhibited a passion, the ability to be efficient and innovative in the exploitation of knowledge learned in high school and through to undergraduate level while studying Architecture. During my University foundation, an accomplished architect once asked me my motivation for being an architect. In my response, I said that I wanted to improve the status of the world for better. Asked to elaborate further, I said that, my aim is creating easy and remarkable. The world needs doctors, and I view architects through a similar prism as doctors. Architects are, for this reason, necessary to model concept designs and spaces for utmost fulfilling of and exceeding people’s desires. My passion in structures had begun way before I decided to pursue a career in architecture. Structures have always fascinated me, and I have always tried conceptualizing their creation from infinity to the magnificently completed structures. It is my sincere conviction that I will get a chance in the institution to advance my skills. My confidence in my abilities and astute principals give strength to my resolve to study and be an

'Was the Order of the Knights Templar actually fathered by the Essay

'Was the Order of the Knights Templar actually fathered by the POLITICS of Bernard of Clairvaux (St.Bernard) If so, what were his (possibly hidden)intentions - Essay Example In this age of turmoil, Bernard de Fontaine, or St. Bernard of Clairvaux, emerged as a man of religious fervor and political acumen who devoted his considerable talents to advance the cause of the Church. Motivated by his perception of the Church’s need in the prevalent political and ecclesiastical climate, St. Bernard used the Order of the Knights Templar to further his vision of an independent, secure Church. St. Bernard of Clairvaux was the embodiment of religious devotion coupled with political astuteness. Bernard was born at Fontaine, near Dijon, France, to Champagne nobility. Even in his formative years, â€Å"Piety was his all† (Bousset, qtd. by Gildas, Catholic Encyclopedia). In 1113, Bernard joined the Benedictine Order at Citeaux. He founded a new House in June, 1115 at Clairvaux, the ‘Valley of Light,’ and served as its’ Abbot for the rest of his life. Bernard practiced a rigid austerity and advocated the revival of the original regularity and devotion of monasticism. Under his charismatic influence, men flocked to his Order. Bernard founded 163 monasteries in different parts of Europe (Gildas, Catholic Encyclopedia). He spurned all opportunities to attain high ecclesiastical office and lived a life characterized by holiness and reputed miracles. His mystical theology deeply influenced Catholic spirituality. He authored about 330 sermons, 500 existing letters and thirteen treatises, whose commendable style secured for him the title, ‘Mellifluous Doctor.’ Bernard’s erudition, eloquence and devotion made him â€Å"the most powerful religious influence in France, and, in time, in all Western Europe† (Questia, Encyclopedia). Bernard died in August 1153 and was canonized in 1174 as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition to his piety, Bernard was a consummate politician, as evidenced by the innumerable occasions on which he played the role of

Propolis To Be Selected For Winter Promotion Essay Example for Free

Propolis To Be Selected For Winter Promotion Essay Introduction In coming winter, there will be a special promotion event and a brand of propolis capsules will be selected to present. The aim of this report is to describe the basic information of propolis, show the popularity of propolis and evaluate the advantages and reputation of best seller on market. Firstly the method of research is described, followed by the findings. Then conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made. Methodology Research was conducted to find out the information about propolis. Firstly, table of information about basic information of propolis and research results of evaluation of Comvita Propolis Capsules were conducted by Mr. Tim Burch. Then, websites of two exhibition were visited to get information on Popularity of propolis as a health supplement product. Findings (a) Basic information of propolis According to the table of information, propolis is produced by bee and it is used to build the hives in nature. It is 100% natural substance. Regarding the function, propolis has special power in strengthen and accelerate regeneration of cell as to speed up wound healing. It helps to whiten skin and make skin fine. Besides, boosting immune system is another unique effect of propolis. It contains some anti-allergies like asthma and nasal allergy. Therefore, it helps fight inflammation caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi and lower the chance for other complication occur. (b) Popularity of propolis as a health supplement product Propolis has a board usage as a health supplement product. From the website of MedinePlus(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/390.html) shows the following findings. There sufficient evidence to rate effectiveness for Cold sores, Genital herpes and Mouth surgery. Propolis is very popular as it has many medicinal uses today and it presents over the world. From the website of JAFRA(http://www.jafra.gr.jp/eng/propolis1.html)  shows the findings that just in Japan, there are 300 companies are selling propolis health foods and the market is still increasing. Thus, it shows that propolis is very well-received now. (c) Evaluation of Comvita Propolis Capsules Based on research results from Mr. Tim Burch about the best seller on market, Comvita Propolis Capsules. It evaluates this brand of propolis has two major advantages. High purity and flavonoid has found in Comvita Propolis Capsules, it has competitive content of purity and flavonoid than other product. One of the unique features of the product is † additives free†. Comvita Propolis Capsules is a natural product with no artificial colourings lavourings or preservatives. Other than advantages, it has a reputation for honesty and efficiency. There is more than 1000 positive reviews by users on online shopping websites. And Comvita Propolis Capsules becomes the finalist of ‘Product of the Year’ by the Women’s Weekly Health Wellbeing magazine in Australia. It is perceived that Comvita Propolis Capsules is the best seller on market. Nevertheless, the products are not very stable during winter due to the peak consuming season. Pre-order is needed for porduct s supply.

Tourism Is, Perhaps, An Impossible Dream Essay Example for Free

Tourism Is, Perhaps, An Impossible Dream Essay Tourism is considered as a very important sector for most developing countries. It has been viewed as a source of both foreign currency and income for the natives. In this essay I will discuss the importance of tourism and whether it can be sustained, by first trying to represent how important tourism is to developing countries and then making a point how sustainable development can be different to sustainable tourism. I will discuss the problems of modern day tourism and will conclude whether sustainable tourism is possible. The tourism industry has shown to be very important to most developing countries as a source of government revenue and therefore a chance to achieve economic growth and development. A successful tourism industry might mean, that the country’s unemployment rate will fall, as now there will be more job opportunities available. Therefore standards of living are likely to increase due to the fact that more jobs are provided, which indicates that the native population will have more disposable income available for spending. Therefore on the second Earth Summit in 1997 â€Å"Earth summit II† tourism was debated as a recognised economic sector (Holden, (2008). Countries such as Jamaica, who continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism, have remittances equivalent to tourism revenues accounting for nearly 20% of GDP (CIA, (2009)). This is an example of how important tourism can be to a developing country, which poses great physical natural beauty. Therefore the aim of its government should be to protect and sustain this habitat in order to keep the tourism industry alive. However, today’s situation of global recession for example threatens the country with an increase in unemployment as a decline in consumer confidence is expected during 2009, which will take its toll on demand for tourism (WTO, (2009)). Therefore the need to attract tourists brings us to the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a term that has been raised accompanying the heightened awareness of environmental problems (Holden, (2008)). Development cannot take place upon a deteriorating environmental resource base and neither can the environment be protected when the development excludes the  costs of its destruction. However, the need for economic growth often does not take in consideration the need for sustainable development. Tourism in developing countries can be viewed as a way of achieving development. Therefore sustainable development and sustainable tourism are linked together but are not the same. Sustainable tourism places the emphasis on the customer and marketing considerations of tourism to sustain the tourism industry and sustainable development emphasises on developing tourism as a means to achieve wider social and environmental goals (Holden, (2008)). â€Å"Since the early 1990s, the sustainable tourism debate has become more holistic to cover not just environmental issues but also socio-cultural, economic and political dimensions† (Holden, (2008), p158). There are some traditions through which sustainability has been injected into tourism. The first one is the resource based tradition, which emphasises conservation and the need to protect the nature and culture of the country from the potential threats of tourism activities (Holden, (2008)). This brings us to the next tradition, which is the â€Å"activity-based† tradition, which accepts that tourism development can contribute to sustainability. â€Å"This is a position that is strongly advocated by the tourism industry in a desire to sustain tourism and its resource base for future development, aiming to sustain the capital investment in tourism† (Holden, (2008), p161). The third â€Å"community based† tradition focuses on the political economy by advocating the wider involvement of stakeholders. The difference between the resource based traditions is that it views sustainability in a physical way, whereas the other two have a bias towards social construction of sustainability, in which decisions are made about acceptable levels of trade-off between economic and social gains against natural resource losses (Holden, (2008)). The key difference between the two is the important relationship between the stakeholders and those parties who hold the absolu te power of decision making (Holden, (2008)). These traditions however are affected by political forces, which determine which stakeholders have access to and management of natural resources. Therefore a huge threat to the country’s tourism is the desire of local government and hotel owners to maximise their profits from the increased foreign interest in their natural country’s beauty, by building more and more hotels. This  leads to the destruction of a big part of the surrounding natural habitat, which will not only harm the country’s nature but also will chase away the tourist, who coming with the idea to escape one metropolis is put into a different one, or as from my own personal experience – a half-ready metropolis, meaning that some of the hotels are still in construction. Therefore it is necessary to realise that sustainable tourism is not merely connected with conservation or preparation of the physical environment but incorporates cultural, economic and political dimensions (Holden, (2008) ). A common definition for sustainable tourism is â€Å"tourism development that avoids damage to the environment, economy and cultures of the locations where it takes place† (Forsyth, (2000)). It aims to ensure that the development is a positive experience for local people and tourists themselves. Despite this, sustainable tourism is not widely understood, as it is sometimes compared to ecotourism. Ecotourism is â€Å"a form of tourism that focuses exclusively on wildlife, nature, or exotic cultures† (Forsyth, (2000)). Such tourism has been show not to be good for environment, or for the people who experience this attention. Therefore, sustainable tourism is â€Å"an attempt to improve the impacts of all types of tourism, and this implies seeking ways to build partnerships between tourism companies and local governments or managers of resorts† (Forsyth, (2000)). However to what extent is sustainable tourism achievable? Sustainable tourism requires co-operation between companies and the managers of destinations. It does not, however, require a marked interest from consumers as it is believed. Sustainable tourism does not have to be advertised as environmentally or culturally sensitive in order to succeed, rather:†profits may be increased simply by adopting some general environmental principles, such as recycling waste, planning for long-term sustainability, and seeking local partnerships for resort management. If these actions result in cleaner, less crowded, holiday resorts, then they are in effect sustainable tourism without being labelled so.† (Forsyth, (2000)). One way of achieving this is to increase the vertical integration of tourism companies, so that individual companies have greater control over the marketing of holidays, transportation of tourists, and then management  of resorts (Forsyth, (2000)). Another way of achieving sustainable tourism is by reducing competition from smaller companies, which may result in reducing the pressure for lower prices of holidays, as presence of competition leads to the rapid over-development of resorts and the reluctance of large companies to increase their costs by attending to the long-term sustainability of locations (Forsyth, (2000)). However there are some aspects of tourism that might inhibit it to be sustainable. The first one is that the primary product of tourism is heritage, wealth, and expected legacy of the community that serves as the tourist destination, not something produced by the industry. If these business activities, promoting the â€Å"saleable† or appealing aspects, degrade the community’s heritage and wealth, then the community suffers more directly than the consumer, who can return to his or her own country without responsibility for or awareness of the impacts of his tourist activities (ICLEI, (1999)). This unfortunately is the situation for mass tourism. Mass tourism holds the threat of bringing large numbers of uninformed foreigners into local social systems that with their tourism activities can undermine and degrade pre-existing social relationships and values, as well as destroying the sights by leaving their mark or taking a â€Å"souvenir† (ICLEI, (1999)). Also the intrusion of large numbers of foreigners with high consumption into natural areas can produce severe changes in those areas. This is going to be inevitable in the future, as the world population has been predicted to increase by 47% by the year 2050 (ICLEI, (1999)). Therefore the future of sustainable tourism might be in danger due to the high amount of resources that will have to be used in order to support the population and satisfy the needs of the tourists. More and more resorts are likely to become overcrowded and will lose their credibility as an attractive destination. Solutions to most tourism impacts are found in the shared interest of local communities, tourism businesses, and tourism consumers to maintain the natural wealth and social heritage of the tourist destination (ICLEI, (1999)). Therefore to achieve sustainable tourism over the short-run,  companies and resort managers must be provided with the right incentives to influence them to reduce the negative impacts of tourism. However over the long-run tourists and companies have to think more about how tourism can impact other people. Marcel Proust once stated that most tourists seem to want to travel through one hundred countries with one pair of eyes, whereas the best journey would be to travel through one country with a hundred pair of eyes (Forsyth, (2000)). Providing more diversity of holiday destinations may help avoid some of the negative impacts and will assure a better experience. However, tourism will never be completely sustainable as every industry has impacts, but it can work towards becoming more sustainable. References Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (2009) â€Å"The World Factbook: Jamaica† available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html as at 21st April 2009 Forsyth T. (2000) â€Å"What is Sustainable Tourism?†, available at: http://www.fathom.com/course/21701788/session1.html as at 21st April 2009 Holden A. (2008) Environment and tourism, Second edition, Abingdon, Routledge, p150-162 Department of Economic and Social Affairs: International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) (1999) â€Å"Tourism and sustainable development: sustainable tourism: a local authority perspective†, available at: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/iclei.pdf as at 21st April 2009 Sustainabletourism (2009) â€Å"Sustainable tourism† available at: http://www.sustainabletourism.net/ as at 21st April 2009 World Tourism Organization (WTO) (2009) â€Å"World tourism barometer†, available at: http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_1_en_excerpt.pdf as at 21st April 2009

Individual Roles in Groups | Reflection

Individual Roles in Groups | Reflection Explore and discuss individual roles and function within groups using a reflective model This essay will explore, discuss and evaluate individual roles, processes of group formation and function within groups. It will look at reflection and the importance of reflection in paramedic practice. It will reflect on my own experiences during the role I played while participating in a group presentation. It will do this by using Gibbs reflective cycle (1988) as a model (Appendix A). Reid (1993) states that within healthcare, reflection has been defined as the active process of reviewing, analysing and evaluating experiences, drawing upon theoretical concepts or previous learning, in order to inform future actions (Cited in White et al 2005). In simplistic terms this means to learn from previous experiences and to implement effective positive changes to practice. By doing this the individual will give the patient a better experience. As a result of reflecting upon practice, this will encourage pro active learning and develop autonomous professional and clinical practice (White et al 2005). Gibbs (1988:09) believes that if an experience is not reflected upon the learning potential will be lost forever. The University of Leeds devised an experiment which supports this statement, Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (Cited in White et al 2005) (Appendix B). The results of this experiment suggest that reflective practice is a vital skill for future paramedics (White et al 2005). It will enhance personal and professional development, therefore helping you to be constantly learning to excel in your chosen profession. Adair (1989, cited in Rogerson et al 1996) stated that a group is a gathering of more than two people that are identifiable by a type or name. The group should have the same goals and will need to help each other in order to achieve the reasons that they initially joined. He suggests that there are stages in the formation of groups known as group dynamics. This explains a groups behaviour and progression through four sequential stages; forming, storming, norming and performing (Adair 1989, cited in Rogerson et al 1996) (Appendix C). By way of practical example I will reflect on a group presentation in which I recently partook. When the group first met we discussed the assignment. At this stage we were in Adairs forming stage. We discussed ideas for the presentation and came up with times we could all meet. Nothing was actually confirmed we all just aired our opinions, no real progression was made during this stage. I do not believe we went through the storming stage as we did not argue over the logistics of the presentation. However we did utilise a democratic decision making process to avoid conflict. Throughout there was not a particular person who took control, we all got involved as much as each other. If two or more ideas were put forward regarding the same thing, a majorities vote always won. At each meeting we progressed and all had similar ideas to how we wanted the presentation to conclude. We were now at Adairs norming stage. At this point we were all in agreement and communicating effectively, we had group unity. Rogerson et al (1996:78) says that for a group to succeed a essential component of effective communication is necessary. We were in the Performing stage when we were ready to deliver the presentation on the allocated day. I felt a little more practice would have made everyone feel more comfortable in their roles and perform better. Benne and Sheats (1948) identified 26 different group roles from their article titled Functional Roles of Group Members (Appendix D). They categorised the group roles into three categories; task roles, personal and social roles and dysfunctional or individualistic roles. During the forming stage I believe I was the initiator/contributor as I suggested several ways of perusing our goal and in the norming stage I was the orienter. This is because during this stage I pointed out what else was needed to be included that I felt was missing and at each meeting I suggested what we should complete before leaving. The group all had the same goal which helped us to progress quickly and in addition to this we did not have any dysfunctional roles being played in our group, e.g. a blocker this type of role disagrees with everything being said and inhibits progression. We all wanted to ensure the task was done. Examples of other members roles are; an encourager who praised the group and kept us m otivated and we also had elaborator this role builds on other members ideas. This agreement and support was probably due to a shared common goal. During the formation of groups Hartley and Illingworth (2006) implied that social and emotional effects are often overlooked on individual group members. This was evident when we used the majority rules rule. The thoughts and feelings of the individual/s that were not in the majority whilst voting were not considered. This could cause them to feel inadequate and not worthy of further input. Fujishin (2007:80) suggests that while decisions are being made fast and therefore saving the group time. This does not permit commitment from the entire group as they do not fully agree with the route being taken. He suggests that for entire group commitment an alternative method of deciding would be required. I would be sure to fully listen to other peoples ideas if I was put in the same predicament, rather than immediately have a vote. During one of the set meetings there was one student who could not attend, we continued with the meeting without them. This was unfair to the student as we progressed without his thoughts or feelings. But unfair to the group as the deadline wasn’t extended due to him being unable to attend and this was a setback to the group as a whole. The next meeting took a long time to get going as we had to take the time to explain what he had missed. Continuing without the student lost us time when a the meeting could have been rearranged to a time when everyone could have attended. Listening to individuals ideas and recognising their feelings requires the ability to act upon ones own emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is to be aware of and in control of the management of your emotions, reactions, goals, intentions, and those of other people and their feelings (Gloeman 1995, cited in Chapman 2012). Cartney and Rouse (2006, cited in Chapman 2012) supported the benefits of taking into consideration the emotional impact on others. I have learnt that reflection using Gibbs (1988) model and effective communication plays a crucial part of academic learning, day to day and self learning and progression in practice. Bolton (2001, cited in Blabber 2008:62) believes thoughts and feeling are brought out of individuals by writing, that otherwise would not surface. It also facilitates a connection between the classroom and practice that would not otherwise be established (Rolfe et al, cited in Blabber 2008:62). This reflection has taught me to ensure that each individual is heard, encouraged and not left out as this will aid progression to the task in hand. As we can see reflection is important during paramedic practice. This widens our knowledge and encourages better practice (White et al 2005). This can help the paramedic to treat each individual patient with their own specific needs. Emotional intelligence which is realising the effects of your own interpersonal skills and attitude also plays a huge part of giving the right patient in the right place the right treatment at the right time. If this was not used in the correct way you could intentionally or unintentionally hurt someones feelings, resulting in ineffective communication and bad practice. This experience has taught me that camaraderie appears to be a vital component of becoming a successful paramedic. Other theorists also said Reflective practice is deemed an essential skill for future practitioners to learn and perform and pr ovides the framework for transferring and applying learning into different practical scenarios (Fearly, 1999; Duffy, 2009) Changes in Fashion and Technology: Impact of the Internet Changes in Fashion and Technology: Impact of the Internet Urban Fashion Urban cities like New York, Paris, London or Tokyo have too much to offer, there are lots of entertaining varieties of services, while its all depends on the product we buy from the electronic portals (Internet buying). The more opportunities we can have in the big cities or urban areas then in rural area. Its not always about the living as orthodox but sometimes its about the passion and the search of creativity for the destruction of hunger or we can say like to mark the business growth upwards we have to stay in the cosmopolites cities. There is a big connection in between the fashion and the mass populated areas, as the fashion business related peoples are keen to know the taste to develop the products according to the need of the customers as in mass places we can find different kind of peoples with different aesthetic senses. We have e-commerce and Internet which we can relate to the theory of Long tail in terms of culture and idea space now days. By focusing on the individual products could have given us the beneficial approach but also it would leads to the drawback of saturation in the market or in terms of products. Mass customization, through Internet selling would further facilitate the idea and capital earning. In living in the mass populated cities will also give the ecumenical advantages as well as the mass variety to select the suitable strategy for the establishment of the business. Designers and fashion houses would get more prospers in these kind of area that they can offer more as well as they could have more customers to buy the products also cities have usually wide distribution demand becomes concentrated. Cities are the natural house for the shopping malls, super marts, pubs and cinema houses; its easy to find the peoples with idiosyncratic taste from 9 million peoples in the city. (http://en.wikipedia.org, 2005) From retail space to Online The role of shelves in a retail apparel store is same as the normal groceries store or book store. The more the product is visible, the more the product sells. (Anderson, C, 2006) So there is always a great demand for the golden shelves that are just below the eye level. Managing the shelves space is becoming more and more crucial to the retailers. The same is for the fashion retailing also. In fact the shelves have got a more importance in a case of a multi-brand retailer. In most of the cases the ‘new arrivals are given the preference and are placed in the shelves which are most visible to the customers. The retail space has to be managed in a way that the sales generated should be more than the rent of the store itself and in addition it has to make profits. Well this problem can be reduced by removing the activity of buying goods from a store and replacing it by the means of online shopping. By introduction of online shopping, the storage of the products may be moved from a central location to a warehouse outside the cities, where the rent is very minimal. Also according to the latest estimates, by 2020 the retail sales in USA will be a mere 15% of the total sales. This doesnt mean that the retail store sales will be affected until there is a huge shift of the wholesale to the online shopping. (Markham, J. E, 1998) The latest trend is that the retailers are focusing on having very minimal number of products in their stores and maintain a large amount in the central warehouses. The Point of Sales (POS) are tracked daily and based on this, the products are replenished accordingly. The importance of small and large retail stores The hyper marketing store and large retailer shop in recent year shows sign of decline in department store but the number of small size boutique or retailer shops which benefit from accurate interior decoration and adhering the gratification rule of marketing , seems to be increase due to several reason unless location prices and financial issue.( Matthew M. Chew August 2008) As it mention in Small Fashion Boutiques and Retail Change in China wrote by Matthew M. Chew from Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, HKSAR, China (Project Code: 4450082) †the two advantage of small retail store compare with large retail store categorize in relational marketing and store branding†, although the smaller retail shop cannot pay for expensive advertisement like cooperating with mass media or make use of innovative marketing value and tools due to their low space size and lack of capital but As it mention in Small Fashion Boutiques and Retail Change in China wrote by Matthew M. Chew from Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, HKSAR, China (Project Code: 4450082) †their small size put them in position to develops relational marketing with their customer much more thoroughly and deeply than lager retail shop†. Relational marketing This concept directly affected the customer retention and maintain reciprocal relation between customer and retailers which strengthening the customer base, obviously the small size retail shop run by one or at least two person which increase the chance for direct communications and relationship with clients which increase the level of trust and service, also the customer loyalty might be increase if the retail shop owner benefit from accurate communication skill or using marketing tricks like put some present or attractive personal massage in cloths or accessory package also building reputation can be based on providing qualified product with affordable prices or offering some exclusive or unique fashion brand or upcoming designing, As it mention in Small Fashion Boutiques and Retail Change in China wrote by Matthew M. Chew from Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, HKSAR, China (Project Code: 4450082) â€Å"they selling selves not merely the apparel items †. Store branding Indeed the small retail shop try to develop the store as a brand this can happened in two way which are, establishing store brand due to characteristic, opinion and life style of the owner of small retailer shop or through the suitable interior design of physical store or web shops hence the personal afford of the owner essential for building reputation so the owner should has tidy and attractive apparent in any condition and dressed like a fashion guide, the owner should has specific and unique life style with proper communication skill. (Matthew M. Chew August 2008) The store location and the degree of fashion ability combine with suitable decoration are important for small retail store to compete with other retail store in department store most of the small retailer shop are based in the middle flour of department store construction which is provide more comfortable, non invasive environment that customer can focus deeply on designer clothes or accessorise in small retailer shop, the recent matter cause progressing the level of service and reach more potential customer. The small retail shop free to mix and use different brands and they are very flexible on the other hand they cannot benefit from in- store events to increasing the amount of shopping value and overcome competitors but they are able to use proper decoration like exaggerating perspective, 3D dimensional spaces, spot light, light and fade colour even the location of high fashion or popular designer clothes is seems to be important usually they should place in the middle slab of the shelf. (Matthew M. Chew August 2008) Fashion in Department Stores For not long ago people tended to go to fashion stand-alone stores whenever they were looking for fashion articles. The stand-alone stores consisted of one main fashion brand and the articles offered by it. These articles could be anything from basic-collections to the newest collection of the season. Customers preferred to visit these stores and shop whatever they desired from the brand in that specific store. As a result of having a stand-alone store the range of articles within the store was of course wider and also the amount of garments within each collection was greater. And additional opportunity is the fact that stand-alone stores can easier create a whole experience around the brand that is offered by designing the store in that specific way that is appropriate for the that specific brand. (Geo Journal 45:255-264, 1998) The concept of department stores could be seen as one of societies most innovative and influential establishments since it also changed the business world particularly from the mid 1800s to the 1930s. Not only did the concept give birth to the consumption culture but also to the modern shopping center, where everything could be found beneath one roof. Hence, today, as a result of the growing market of fashion and the also the increased knowledge of customers, fashion brands and their products are being demanded in greater markets. Customers are enjoying their opportunity of having the ability to choose from several different brands and products and also to compare. Customers like the bigger format of department hence the retail formats are no longer being seen upon as the best safe option for the retailers. These demands have elaborated in more fashion brands locating themselves within different kind of department stores. (http://www.articlesbase.com, 2009) Luxury fashion brands such as Burberry, Gucci, and Armani have their shop-in-shop stores in Illum department store in Copenhagen. (http://www.illum.eu/, 2009) Moreover, Harrods which can be considered as one of the worlds biggest department stores with over 330 departments of shopping spaces, actually have their motto saying â€Å"Omnia Omnibus Ubique† which basically means â€Å"All Things for All People, Everywhere†. Harrods have a much wider range of brands such as Christian Dior, Oscar De La Renta and Versace, however they also have less luxurious brands such as Adidas and Acne. (http://www.articlesbase.com, 2009) With the establishment of department stores, companies are able to enter a larger market and make their brand more approachable to customers. However, usually in a department store, each and every brand is dealing with a smaller location to display their products in and these locations are called shop-in-shop stores. However, this means that brands have not enough space for all their products, as in their own stand-alone stores. Usually, in this case, the brand would have to choose the specific garments it would prefer to show and sell within that restricted space. The most usual way of selecting these items is to have the most significant items for that specific brand and additionally some basic along with the latest seasons and more procured items. The result would be that each and every brand within the department store would have their restricted space offering only some items from their collections. (Fashion Retail Marketing lecture 2009-11-13) Hence, one can conclude that department stores can look more attractive and also give the customer the awesome feeling that he/she have a lot to choose from, however, by looking deeply into these shop-in-shop stores, one realizes that the variety being offered is not enough, since some articles would always be missing. Online Visual Merchandising Since apparel is a product that needs to be experienced, the visual merchandising of it in online stores is more critical than for other kind of websites offering other products. Hence it is off great importance that the result of visual merchandising in online stores really creates the environment needed for visitors in order for them to obtain that desired experience. It is also important to offer more visual product information and various product presentations, in, for example, colors, styles, and sizes etc. (Ha, Y., Kwon, W.S, Lennon, S. 2006) One of the main problems with physical goods is the categorization of the products within a store. This topic is very important for department stores and their shop-in-shop stores, since the restricted space makes it more crucial to create a successful visual merchandising so that customers can find what they want easily in the logically and visually created environment. (Ha, Y., Kwon, W.S, Lennon, S. 2006) However, with the development of online retailing the concept of categorizing the products has been taken to another level since within online retailing, companies are more independent on their choice of categorizing and visualizing their products. Hence, by giving the customer ability to search for the product online one will actually make it easier for them to find what they are looking for. Additionally the overall customer service can be increased by providing your products online. (www.businessweek.com, 2009) Although many luxury fashion brands are still very cautious about selling their products online, a great amount of them have understood the importance of online retailing and does actually offer their products on pages such as the online fashion boutique Net-a-porter.com. On their website, the customers are both given various ability to look for products in categories such as designers, clothing, shoes, bags, accessories etc and within these categories one find more specific sub-categories, such as for designers one find the names of different designers, for clothing one find dresses, skirts, jackets etc, and these goes on for all categories. However, another way of searching for their products is through the â€Å"search-box† where they can write specifically what they are searching for and easily see if the online store has the product are not. (http://uberkid.typepad.com, 2007) E commerce and its advantage and disadvantage Nowadays most of the fashion brands and company recognised the e-commerce as strong marketing tools due to daily consumption of Internet, available progressive technology, customer awareness and precious time using so it is natural reaction if e -commerce increase among most of the retailer company. (NVision, 2008) These days large number of customer tend to shopping from the web instead of wasting their time in crowded uncomfortable environment such as physical retail store there are different advantages and disadvantages for online shopping, the availability and save time can be recognize as a advantage so the customers can shop whatever they need without facing time limitation, it is easier for customer to find certain style in web shop than the physical store only by searching via essential information such size, colour, type, also client can compare the price of the goods and heat the best choice. (Laudon Traver, 2008, p. 346) The disadvantages of the online shop are the customer cannot touch or test clothes or accessories and that would be a serious problem which increase the product returns, also delivery time is critical for most customer and long delivery time will decrease the level of service and ruin the brand image, the other important thing is, the security of web site should be consider to avoid online rubbing of credit cards information by hackers (Laudon Traver, 2008, pp. 345-355). the retailer can reach more customers via online shopping and there will be no need for rent or buy expensive location for establishing physical store, it is easier for retailer to change the characteristic of their goods like prices and answer to their customers real needs but during online shopping there is no chance to gain benefit from effective communication skills and the web shopper should gain their customer trust in another way than direct relationship. (Laudon Traver, 2008, pp.556-557) CRM-system Online shop can earn profit by using customer relationship management system, this system help the online shop to collect their customer personal information and also their outcome like their opinion and suggestion with correct using of such system it is possible to record the interaction between customer and online shop and company can find out various needs of different customers so the customer loyalty increase dramatically and it have influence on level of service and customer retention, so the company can customize various marketing strategy to cover enlarge demand of e-customer the information collected by phone or email. (Xu Walton 2005) Internet- customer location The retail geography is very important in any business whether it is a groceries store, book store, fashion outlet etc. There are many factors that are taken into consideration while selecting a location of a store. Factors such as the customer concentration, customer behavior, local conditions, transportation network etc are very critical in the selection of a location. Stores that do not consider these factors will not be able to attract the customers. Also the maintenance costs of such store will also be more that the revenues generated by it. Even the physical distribution costs will also be high for such stores which are inaccessible due to very bad transport network/infrastructure. Despite of doing a lot of research for selecting the right location for a store, not all stores are successful. One of the main reasons for this is that the customers are usually distributed over a large geographical location. (Anderson, C, 2006) For such scenarios the online shopping is proving out to be a good alternative. But again the consumer behavior is critical due to the fact that most of the consumers still tend to have a physical touch of the products they buy. Well this can be applied to the fashion industry also. Most of the fashion retailers tend to open their stores mainly in bigger cities that too in prime locations. The bigger cities have higher population density and there is a high tendency of doing a good business. The best examples are location such as 5th Avenue, New York, West End, London etc which are now termed as the shopping districts. (http://en.wikipedia.org) Most of the bigger fashions brands want to open their store in these locations and are ready to pay astronomical prices are rent. One of the main advantages of these locations is that they are easily accessible. Another factor that influences the store location is the consumer behavior. One cannot expect a luxury brand like Gucci or Chanel to do good business at a location which is filled with consumers who do not have a high purchasing power. Also the local conditions such as climate, geography etc also plays a major role. (Markham, J. E, 1998) A skiwear store can do a very good business at locations where there are mountains and snow. The same way the surf wear brand can sell it products only at locations which are nearer to beaches. So Location is very crucial. Over the last decade the best solutions that have evolved for the problems related to customer geography is the Internet. Internet allows the feature called the Online shopping which enables the customers to buy the products from their homes is becoming more and more popular. Online shopping is advantageous for both the retailers and the customers. The main advantage for the retailers is that it allows them to reach the low density customers with the same efficiency as the high density ones. (Anderson, C, 2006) This is the reason that most of the traditional retailers are spending a lot of money in building up their own web shopping applications (For eg: HM, Gina Tricot etc). Some of the success stories are www.nelly.se and www.ellos.se. Though the online shopping is a best way to reach the low density and remote customers, it should be well supported by a good distribution system. Networking in the fashion world Before this television, computers and these virtual medias there were radios, those were knows as the king for the entertainment, there were only few broadcasting stations. But in twentieth century gradually this place was taken by the television and can see this trend fully involved with the human life. TV was the trend driven media before the computer and Internet, the plate form from which we can connect to the whole world is Internet. The relation of the capital earning is connected to the key factor i.e. the more networking you have in terms of marketing the more you earn. For the fashion brands and for the sake of business its more important to have the networking among the social circle of fashion peoples. Aside from using scarce distribution resources promptly or efficiently by aggregating and emphasizing on the customer, now days the strongest Medias are advertising and virtual learning via Internet or television. Once the advertisements or commercial of your product hits th en you can earn money and can touch the blockbusters level. But do you know how to make the hit; there are 2 to achieve this level. Deep search unpredictable genius. Use lowest denominators formula to create optimized product to sell. The principle related as general for the entertainment for last 10 decades was economics and distribution were scarce and the consumer attention was distracted. Its the fact that not everyone can make the movie, broadcast and makes it on air. Those have done it was the opportunity for them to capture the market. As its the sellers market and they can also to afford to waste attention. (www.bbb.org, 2008) The future of Internet in fashion The customer behavior has been changing over time and this also made the retailer to make changes accordingly. The change in the shopping experiences has moved from the traditional bazaars to independent stores/boutiques, and then came the franchisees, then the multi brand retail stores etc. This trend doesnt seem to stops anywhere. But over the last couple of decades the evolution of Internet is changing the whole scenario. (http://en.wikipedia.org) The use of Internet has been expanding at an enormous rate, especially in the last decade. (www.Internetworldstats.com) Of the time the people sit in front of the computer, 80% of the time they spend it on the Internet. The Internet has become a part of lifestyle today. The use of Internet has enables people to do most of their works online sitting in front of the computer. The shopping experience has also been influenced by the Internet mania. The customer prefers to buy the products from the Internet and as per latest estimates the cus tomers in UK spend around 17 pence in every pound they shop. (http://news.bbc.co.uk) This trend is growing and it seems that the future retailing will be dominated by the Internet. The rise of Internet has also caused a lot of dangers. The main disadvantage is that the customers cannot really check the product physically. Especially with the fashion industry, where purchased products look very attractive on retailers webpage but when finally when the products arrives he may not be satisfied with the fabric, fitting etc. So this will make the customers to return the products to the retailer. This situation is a very big problem as most the customers dont know how to return back a product to the retailers, who will be paying the postal charges etc. (http://www.oft.gov.uk) Another disadvantage of Internet shopping is the security and privacy risks. The critical information of the customers such as the name, address, credit card details etc are stored online and if no required security is maintained, there is a high probability of this data ending up in wrong hands. Another problem with the online shopping is the inability to adhere to strict delivery times. Someti mes the products do not arrive at the time the customer wishes and this will create a lot of problems. Improper distribution system is the main cause for these kinds of products. (Anderson, C, 2006) Some other problems are the hidden costs which are advertised as free but carry more price than the original. This usually happens when the retailer advertises products for free but charges high shipping costs than normal. (http://www.oft.gov.uk)

Madison vs Marshall :: essays papers

Madison vs Marshall Upon the Declaration of Independence, a â€Å"plan of confederation† was offered to be prepared for the colonies. This plan, known as The Articles of Confederation, established a â€Å"league of friendship† among the states rather than a national government. The most significant fact about the created government was it’s weakness, it could not enforce even the limited powers it had. In James Madison’s words, in his Federalist Paper #10 â€Å"complaints are everywhere heard†¦that our governments are too unstable†. The states had won their freedom but had been unable to form a nation. They fought among themselves, suffered from severe economic depression, and came close to losing the peace they had won in war. These political and economic factors generated pressure for the creation of a new national government and a constitution. In Madison’s view, politics was overrun by different â€Å"factions†, which were groups of people who shared the same interests, different from other people or the opinion of the whole. These factions, he thought, prevented the government from its most important task, which in his opinion was to protect the owner’s of the land and property. The ownership of the land was divided according to people’s different skills, faculties, and according to Madison, â€Å"the protection of these faculties is the first object of the government†. And since the majority of the people were farmers and poor, and since â€Å"those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society†, Madison wanted a constitution that would give the government the power to control the majority. In his address to the American Bar Association, Thurgood Marshall criticizes the constitution by saying that â€Å" I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever â€Å"fixed† at the Philadelphia convention†. In his opinion â€Å" the government that they devised was defective from the beginning†, meaning that the Constitution required several amendments before it became what people today consider as â€Å"the basic structure of the American government†. The constitution is very different today than what the framers began to construct two centuries ago. Marshall thinks that there was much wrong with the original document, he finds many â€Å"inherent defects†, but is willing to admit that it was â€Å"a product of its times and embodied a compromise that, under other circumstances, would not have been made†. By this he means the contradiction between promising â€Å"liberty and justice for all† and denying both from blacks.

Distress in The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock Essay -- Love Song J. A

The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock - The Distress of J.Alfred Prufrock The human psyche is divided into three distinct aspects: the Persona, the Shadow, and the Anima/Animus; at least, it is according to Jungian Psychology. Drawing heavily on the theories developed by Freud, Jung's psychological concepts tell us that if these three facets are not properly integrated - that is, if one of the three is overly dominant, or repressed, or all three are in conflict with each other - then an individual's energies - his libido - will be out of alignment, causing psychological distress and unconscious problems. The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, if read Archetypaly, reveals to us such an individual. J.Alfred Prufrock, the nebbish little man that he is, has some very serious problems - he is extremely indecisive, obsessed with trivial details, and frets over inconsequentials ('Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?'); more importantly, he seems to have an inability to confront the opposite sex, choosing instead to develop elaborate fantasies in which to meet imaginary women - all of whom seem to be either cruel, vain, or sinister in some subtle way. An archetypal analysis drawing upon Jung's theories seeks to uncover the reasons behind Prufrock's neurosis. The first line of the poem - 'Let us go then, you and I' - gives an immediate insight into Prufrock's problem: his psyche is out of joint. The 'You' and 'I' of the poem are two aspects of his personality: his Shadow and his Persona, respectively. Prufrock is very much aware of the schism within his own mind. His Persona - the aspect of himself he presents to the social world - remains dominant most of the time. His Shadow, however, comp... ...s earlier illness. Unfortunately for Prufrock, this apparent cycle is entirely contained within a small portion of the whole. Prufrock participates in a greater cycle, but one that seems to end, not in life, or rebirth, but in a symbolic death. He is a crab, a '... pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas', a man who wakes... and drowns. His cycle ends negatively, without the rebirth. He never gets his act together, never integrates his personality properly, never stops being the sad little nebbish of a man that he is; the cracks in Prufrock are never mended. -Michael J.Noakes Works Cited Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock ." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume Two. Ed. M.H.Abrams, 6th Edition. New York: Norton, 1993. 2140-2143. Distress in The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock Essay -- Love Song J. A The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock - The Distress of J.Alfred Prufrock The human psyche is divided into three distinct aspects: the Persona, the Shadow, and the Anima/Animus; at least, it is according to Jungian Psychology. Drawing heavily on the theories developed by Freud, Jung's psychological concepts tell us that if these three facets are not properly integrated - that is, if one of the three is overly dominant, or repressed, or all three are in conflict with each other - then an individual's energies - his libido - will be out of alignment, causing psychological distress and unconscious problems. The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, if read Archetypaly, reveals to us such an individual. J.Alfred Prufrock, the nebbish little man that he is, has some very serious problems - he is extremely indecisive, obsessed with trivial details, and frets over inconsequentials ('Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?'); more importantly, he seems to have an inability to confront the opposite sex, choosing instead to develop elaborate fantasies in which to meet imaginary women - all of whom seem to be either cruel, vain, or sinister in some subtle way. An archetypal analysis drawing upon Jung's theories seeks to uncover the reasons behind Prufrock's neurosis. The first line of the poem - 'Let us go then, you and I' - gives an immediate insight into Prufrock's problem: his psyche is out of joint. The 'You' and 'I' of the poem are two aspects of his personality: his Shadow and his Persona, respectively. Prufrock is very much aware of the schism within his own mind. His Persona - the aspect of himself he presents to the social world - remains dominant most of the time. His Shadow, however, comp... ...s earlier illness. Unfortunately for Prufrock, this apparent cycle is entirely contained within a small portion of the whole. Prufrock participates in a greater cycle, but one that seems to end, not in life, or rebirth, but in a symbolic death. He is a crab, a '... pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas', a man who wakes... and drowns. His cycle ends negatively, without the rebirth. He never gets his act together, never integrates his personality properly, never stops being the sad little nebbish of a man that he is; the cracks in Prufrock are never mended. -Michael J.Noakes Works Cited Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock ." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume Two. Ed. M.H.Abrams, 6th Edition. New York: Norton, 1993. 2140-2143.

jimhf Huck and Jim’s Relationship :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Huckleberry Finn and Jim’s Relationship Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates the bond formed between Huck, the young white protagonist, and Jim, Huck's black companion. Huck's father Pap, while he was still alive, had beaten Huck repeatedly, kidnapped and scared his son to the extent, that Huck, out of fear, feigns his own death to escape Pap's grasp. While Huck and Jim travel down the river it becomes apparent that Jim is more of a father figure to Huck than his biological father. Pap teaches the virtues of a life not worth living, while Jim gives Huck the proper fatherly support, compassion, and knowledge for Huck to become a man. Although Huck and Jim come from separate racial backgrounds their time together allows them to surpass their ethnic segregation and become true friends, and family. A father's attributes are meant to be examples for which his offspring can base their own lives. Pap attains non-of these attributes. Pap is an ignorant drunkard who attempts to swindle and scam any possible person. He goes so far as to even filch from his-own son. Pap views Huck as someone upon whom he can assert himself. He attempts to drain Huck of all characteristics that would make Huck superior to himself. "You're educated, too, they say; can read and write. You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't? I'll take it out of you... Ain't you a sweet-scented dandy, though? A bed; and bed-clothes... and your own father got to sleep with the hogs... I bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you."(21-23) Pap is no father to Huck, he berates, kidnaps, and beats his own son with no remorse. The only lessons that Huck learns from Pap are what not to do with his life. He's seen the draw-backs of alcohol, stealing, and other such elicit actions that his father has performed. Pap is a low down dirty scoundrel who wishes nothing but the worst for his-own son. While Pap acts as an anchor on Huck's heel, Jim opens up a new world for Huck, and becomes his companion and a resource of knowledge.

Miss Brill Essay

The short story, â€Å"Miss Brill† by Katherine Mansfield conveys to the readers of loneliness of a person and how that loneliness can seem to warp the reality around that person. The story revolves around the main character Miss Brill who goes to the park every Sunday afternoon. She wears a fox fur pelt around her neck and she strokes it as she eavesdrops on other people’s conversations. She gives emotions and voice to the fox pelt personifying the inanimate object. This suggests that she wants company to converse with; however, with no one around except the fox pelt around her neck, it is the only thing she can converse with. The readers who are observing her from objective view are given slight hints that Miss Brill is lonely but Miss Brill herself is not aware of this fact. This can be seen when she compares the old couple that were sitting nearby her to those that came out of an old cupboard. This comparison suggests she sees the old couple has these old dusty cups that have been forgotten about in the back of the cupboard. Throughout the story, Miss Brill tries to convince herself that she is part of a play and that she belongs in that play, that she holds as much importance as everybody else around her. However, as the story progresses she realizes that she is indeed alone and lonely. After hearing what the young couple had to say about her she heads for her home. Once she is home she puts the fox back in its box, but says she heard something crying. The something crying is most likely Miss Brill herself realizing the sad truth and becomes depressed.

Critical thinking skill Essay

Learning, according to the Wikipedia, is the knowledge acquired through study, experience or being thought. Parents often think that learning only takes place in the school area for their children, where the information that are being thought to their child are sufficient for them to be able to get a good grades. For me, this is not true. Effective learning also takes place beyond the school, in so many cases. Every person should be learning more from real life than in the class room. All knowledge are being junked inside a student’s brain by only the specific subject thought by the teachers, and not from a real-life experience. Personal experience is essential for every human kind to obtain knowledge that cannot be forgotten. For instance, in an early age, the teacher would teach students about animals. The students can never forget the knowledge if they are being brought to a zoo and see them in real life compare to the the information given in the class. Knowledge that are given by a life-experience, will remain in one’s memory, and will never be loss. Students should be able to use their critical thinking skill to answer various kind of questions, on the spot. This skill is necessary for students to be able to be successful in modern life in general. If this skills are not being teach in a public school system, then the system, by definition, is failing. Critical thinking is best learnt outside the classroom, where students can actually develop their brain by responding to (†¦ idk how to explain) For example, Scientificamerican.com, which is a news-blog, said that students can gain more critical thinking by watching a television, rather than being inside a classroom. By watching the daily show with Jon Stewart, students can form a pile information and interactions that do not comes from a tight school’s environment. This shows that effective learning, in this case critical thinking, do takes place outside the school.

Intersectional Analysis of Bend It Like Beckham

Intersectional analysis of Bend it Like Beckham. For this assignment, to make an intersectional analysis I decided to watch a movie. After searching and thinking for a while I picked the movie Bend it Like Beckham, since a lot of elements in this movie are applicable on my own life and I really could relate to one of the characters in the movie. As the title of the movie already implies, it is about football and takes place in England. Jesminder is a Sikh, Indian girl from a very traditional Indian family. She is not interested in fashion, boys and her looks; the only thing she is interested in is football.One time when she is playing in the park with her friends, who are all boys, Jules sees Jesminder play. Jules is an English, white girl who plays football. Jules askes if Jesminder wants to join the team, but Jesminder’s parents do not agree. She joins the team anyways and this causes a lot of friction in her own family. Parminder Nagra, who is in her real life also a member of the Sikh religion, plays Jesminder. She grew up in England and from an early age on she wanted to become an actress. Her parents wanted her to finish her education first before she was allowed to start acting.Bend it Like Beckham was her breakthrough film and got her a role in the popular TV-show ER. Keira Knightley is the actress who plays Jules in the movie. She is a white woman, born and raised in England. She started acting at a very young age. Bend it Like Beckham was also her breakthrough movie and she has played in countless of popular movies since, for example Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually, Pride and Prejudice. The director of the movie, Gurinder Chadha, is a woman from Indian decent, who is also a member of the Sikh religion, was born in Kenya but grew up in London.She studied journalism and ended up working as a reporter for the BBC and quickly realized she wanted to direct movies and documentaries. Most of her films focus on the differences between Indian an d English families and the inequality between them, mostly in a negative way for the Indians. Bend it Like Beckham is one of her most famous works. After describing the movie contents, the main actors and the director, I am going to apply intersectional analysis to this movie. Before starting the intersectional analysis the term intersectionality needs to be explained.Kimberle Crenshaw was the first person that mentioned the theory of intersectionality. This theory is a study that focuses on the different biological, social and cultural categories that define someone’s identity and place in society. All these categories are in relation with each other, for instance gender, class, race and sexual orientation combined define your place in society and sadly also the way people treat you. These so called axes all influence each other, there is not just one aspect that defines our place in society.Combinations of all the axes, the starting point of intersectionality, contribute to social inequality, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, but also religion-based discrimination. According to this theory the person who would be the most accepted is a white, straight male from a higher class. A black, gay woman from a lower class would take the lowest position in society, while a white, gay woman from lower class would stand above her, and a white, straight woman from lower class would even take a higher position in society.Now that I explained the theory of intersectionality I can apply it to the movie, but before I do that, I would like to make a point about football-movies in general, and also a point about the lead actresses of the movie. After watching this movie I decided to search for other movies about football. There are over hundreds of movies that focus on men’s football in one way or another, a team, the fans, a coach, but only a few movies, a total of seven, focus on girls that play football, and Bend it Like Beckham is the only one with the foc us on a girl who is not white.This shows that football is a sport that is still very gender-based, despite the fact that in the Netherlands alone already 120. 000 girls play football. Also race plays an important part, because all the other movies about girl’s football focus on white girls, while I know from my own experience there are a lot of girls from different races who play football. I myself played football for seven years, and I played in a team where half of the girls were non-whites. I will focus on this later on.The second point I would like to make is that despite this movie is the breakthrough for both main characters, Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, Keira is way more successful than Parminder. I researched both their filmographies, and Keira got a lot of movie offers after this movie, while Parminder’s only offer was a role, not even a leading role, in the TV-show ER. Parminder played in a few small movies, and in every single one of them the focus w as on her racial background, while Keira Knightley got very divers movie offers, from playing a pirate to an historical person. The fact hat the role offers for both women depend on their race shows that in this case Parminder has a lower position in the society. She has very limited choices to pick from, while Keira has, because of her white skin-color, more choices. With that being said I can focus myself on the movie itself. This movie really focuses on gender and ethnicity, but sexual orientation is also a big part of it. Football is still seen as a men’s sport, and these girls in the movies are automatically a minority because they play football. I myself have encountered the same problems as these girls.I am a white, straight girl living in a western country, but when I told people, that I played football, their reaction was always: ‘a girl who plays football? That is so weird! ’ And without their knowledge of my sexuality, quite often people assumed I was a lesbian because I played football. Without knowing any axes of my life, I was automatically put in a lower position, just because I am a girl who played football. This also is seen in the movie. Jules has short hair, wears baggy clothes and plays football, and her mother overhears a conversation between Jules and Jess about love, but she misinterprets it and thinks Jules is gay.The mother is very upset about her daughter being gay and when Jules tells she is not gay, the mother is very relieved and then says there is nothing wrong with being gay. Even though she says that, she is still happy her own daughter is in fact not a lesbian. This shows certain stereotypes towards girls that play football, have short hair and wear baggy clothes. Football is such a gendered sport that it automatically leads to sexism, thinking girls who play football must be lesbian because they play a men’s sport.Lesbianism is also seen as something less good than being straight, seeing the mother i s relieved her daughter is not a lesbian. The coach of the team, a young, straight white man is ashamed to be the coach of a girl’s team. He had to stop playing football due to an injury, and he wanted to do something with football. He ended up coaching the girls team, but he has never told this to his father because he is afraid his father will get angry because ‘they’re just girls’. This also shows the gender-based thinking towards girls, but intersectionality becomes even clearer when race gets involved. When Jesminder first joins the team, the eaction of the coach is that he has never seen an Indian girl play football, and he is angry with Jules for bringing her to the team because he expects her to not be able to play football, because she is an Indian girl. He says this without even seeing her play. She turns out to be the best of the team. Without knowing anything about her he places her in a lower social position than white girls, just because of h er race, and he already places himself above girls. During a match a girl from the opponent calls Jesminder names, a specific word being used is ‘Paki’, which is a swearword used towards people from Indian decent.Even though it’s a girl who calls Jesminder this and probably has experienced the same gender and sexism problems as the other girls in this movie, she still places herself above Jesminder in the social hierarchy, only because Jesminder is from a different race. A different scene that shows the lower position of Jesminder is when her parents want her to focus on school instead of football. They literally say she needs the highest grades possible for a good future because her chances for a good job are smaller than the chances of an average white girl, whose chances are again smaller than those of a white boy.This sentence alone shows her chances of a good future are gender and racial based. The class she will belong to when she’s an adult depends on how good her job is, which again depends on her gender and race. This thus shows that women who are not white almost automatically end up in the lower classes of the society. A white woman has more chances to end up in a higher class, but still has fewer chances than a white man. Jesminder would make more chances for a good job if she were an Indian boy, because then only race would be a problem, while in her case it’s race and gender.As I said, in my own football team were a lot of non-white girls, and all of them, at least they parents did, belonged to the lower class, while the white girls in my team, including myself, were from a higher class than they are. There is one point in the movie where the lower position of the male is seen. Her best friend, a boy named Tony, confesses to her he is gay, but she must promise him she will not tell anyone about this. In the Indian religion it is not acceptable to be gay, that is his reason not to tell anyone. But if he would be o penly gay, his position on the social ladder would get lower, because he would be gay, Indian man. If Jesminder would be from a different ethnicity I do not think it would have made any changes for the movie. The main point is that a white skin colour in the western world means a higher place in society than any other skin colour. If Jesminder had been a lesbian it would have placed her even lower on the social ladder. This also applies for Jules, she is a white, straight female, so she is quite privileged in general, but I think if the director had made her a lesbian, the stereotypes towards girls that play football would be even clearer and also show more struggles of women in a society.Sexuality does play a part in the movie, since Jules’ mother thinks she is a lesbian, but yet she turns out to be straight. I think this movie really shows the importance of using intersectuality when it comes to determining someone’s position in the society. The struggles of girls th at play football to be accepted playing a men’s sport and overcoming typical stereotypes are shown, just as well the struggles of an Indian football-playing girl being accepted in the western society. This movie shows that football is still a very gendered sport and that a girl’s choice to play football influences her position.Gender, race and sexuality play an important part in this movie and combinations of these axes are shown really well. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Internet Movie Database, ‘Bend it Like Beckham (2002)’, http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0286499/? ref_=sr_1 [ 2 ]. Internet Movie Database, ‘Parminder Nagra’, http://www. imdb. com/name/nm0619406/bio [ 3 ]. Internet Movie Database, ‘Keira Knightley’, http://www. imdb. com/name/nm0461136/? ref_=tt_cl_t2 [ 4 ]. Internet Movie Database, ‘Gurinder Chadha’, htt p://www. imdb. om/name/nm0149446/? ref_=tt_ov_dr [ 5 ]. UCLA School of Law, ‘Kimberle W. Crenshaw’, http://www. law. ucla. edu/faculty/all-faculty- profiles/professors/Pages/kimberle-w-crenshaw. aspx [ 6 ]. E. Midden, Transnational feminism lecture, 12 February 2013. [ 7 ]. E. Midden, Transnational feminism lecture, 7 January 2013. [ 8 ]. Internet Movie Database ‘movies about soccer’, http://www. imdb. com/list/Rt0kVvuG_IA/ [ 9 ]. Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond, ‘vrouwenvoetbal’ http://www. knvb. nl/competities/amateurvoetbal/vrouwen) [ 10 ]. K.Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989) 59. [ 11 ]. G. Wekker, and H. Lutz. , ‘High winds on a cold Plain’, Botman, Jouwe and Wekker, (eds. ) Caleidoscopische Visies, (2001), 2-4. [ 12 ]. K. Crenshaw, ‘Demarg inalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’, 65. [ 13 ]. G. Wekker, and H. Lutz. , ‘High winds on a cold Plain’, 8-9. [ 14 ]. E. Midden, Transnational feminism lecture, 12 February 2013. [ 15 ]. G. Wekker, and H. Lutz. , ‘High winds on a cold Plain’, 14-16.