Fda and Tobacco Regulation

The FDA and Tobacco Regulation 10/15/2012 MAN 4701/ 82844 Do you agree with the Food and Drug Administration that nicotine can be classified as a drug and that cigarettes can be classified as devices under the definitions in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act? Under the definition of a drug in the Food, Drug , and Cosmetics Act of 1938 it is defined as a product that affects the structure or any function of the body. As a group we decided that is in fact considered a drug because as a company, the tobacco manufactures in fact knew what their product was doing to potential consumers.Due to the abundance of deaths occurring each year, we figured a ban would be best for the situation. Unfortunately, as Kessler believed, a ban would be unworkable. 1) Did the FDA make any legal or political errors that defeated its efforts to regulate tobacco? We did believe that the FDA did make some political errors in defeating its efforts to regulate tobacco. To start with, the FDA recognized the tobac co industry to be very powerful. Also, they decided to regulate cigarettes as medical devise which did not lead to a ban. Another action that went wrong is that they didn’t impose restrictions on adult smoking, instead focused on under aged smoking.2) Do you agree with the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court? Why or why not? As a group, we didn’t agree with the decision of the Supreme Court. The court ended up with a 5-4 majority split. Both sides had valuable points in the argument but the Supreme Court came out on top. Defendant Justice O’Connor stated that although tobacco was one of the nation’s most troubling public health problems, the FDA had no jurisdiction over it.As stated earlier, since they considered nicotine a drug, they would have to ban them completely which was unworkable. 3) Do you believe that the story reveals flaws in American Government and the regulatory process, or do you believe that the story reveals a system that, despite faults , is ultimately responsive and just? We viewed the story as determining right from wrong. We believed since the ban didn’t fall through, then there must be some sort of flaws in the government. Since banning cigarettes would save tons of lives, we figured that would be the correct approach. ) Should congress enact FDA regulation of tobacco products even if it adds to the competitive advantage of Philip Morris? We agreed that a regulation should be placed on tobacco products even if it adds to the competitive advantage of Philip Morris. We though the public’s health should be of the highest priority instead of worrying about a competitive advantage. With that said, if regulations were passed cigarette smoking would be passed then followed by less deaths related to tobacco usage.

Behaviorism, Constructivism and ICTs for Education

Education nowadays is not what it used to be around 50 years ago. The introduction and development of technology has taken education to an entirely different level then it was previously. These innovative tools are covered under the broad category of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). There has been research work on development of theoretical models that can facilitate educational learning. These theories and more additional helpful tools have not only facilitated the gaining of education but also improved the quality of education system.Behaviorism and constructivism are two of these main revolutionary concepts in education. The three terms â€Å"behaviorism†, â€Å"constructivism† and â€Å"ICTs† would first be explained separately and then it would be seen that how they fall together in a picture and facilitate educational learning. Behaviorism Behaviorism is that school of thought which is of the opinion that it is learning process that inculc ates learning by the acquisitions of new behaviors in surrounding of environmental conditions.Behaviorists believe that learning does not regard any mental activities rather it can be achieved by behaviors which according to them are systematic and observable. They believe that the process of â€Å"conditioning† facilitates the acquisition of behavior which ultimately facilitates learning. Conditioning is categorized in classical and operant. Classical conditioning is the process in which the object is conditioned as such that it he would response in a specific manner to a certain stimulus. We see this often in educational setting in form of fear conditioning that children are so much fearful of failure in exams or tests.Operant conditioning is the conditioning in which a response to a stimulus is reinforced by either rewarding or punishment. This concept is also very much applicable in educational setting as we see teachers rewarding and punishing to get desired behavior fro m students (On Purpose Associates n. d. ). Constructivism Contrary to behaviorism is the school of though of constructivism. They are of the opinion that knowledge is a consequence of one’s personal experiences. According to constructivists, humans generate knowledge and formulate their own understanding model through reflection of their experiences.Human mentality makes sense of the experiences and therefore learning takes place when proper shape is given to these experiences in mentality. In educational setting, constructivism comes into play as it focuses on promotion of customized syllabus in accordance with student’s knowledge. This is achieved by giving students hand on problems. Apart from that, teachers conduct assessment in the form of assigning open ended questions to the students and conduct dialogues and debates amongst students which lead to the open mindedness of students.The students are therefore able to conceive and manipulate information in a better w ay (Bruner n. d. ). ICTs ICT is acronym of Information Communication Technology. The three words are very meaningful and together they form ICT which has been the pulse of the developmental changes in all fields in years behind. The concept is very vast but in short we can say that ICT comprises of all innovative tools of digital technology which has helped in all the fields to save, extract, communicate and interpret the information in a digital manner.This has been made possible by digital electronic aids such as computers, laptops, emails, robotic machines and many more. ICTs have enabled the people to come together and form intercultural and inter communal links to share ideas and experiences together. The ICTs have plenty scope and potential in education field. ICTs and its tools has facilitated education by coming up with tools and equipments that have improved both the earning and the teaching. ICTs focus is to create awareness in the students of the usage of computers and ot her technological devices that may enhance the acquisition of knowledge for them.Learning by Doing Learning by doing as the name suggests is the way that a person learns any action or activity by actually doing it himself. There is always a first time but that has first time has to be DONE as only then a person learns and is able to see where he is faulty and through this he can learn. The examples can be given simply as when the child is learning how to walk, the parents are there just to support him and keep him out of danger. It is the child himself who tries again and again and learns how to walk. Similarly, a more business oriented example can be that of starting a new business.The businessman approaches his business with his own ideas and therefore learns the business. The theories of behaviorism can come here that a person who will do an action comes across a negative consequence then he would still be learning and would avoid the repetition of the same incident again. Constr uctivism is applicable here to as they emphasize on experiences. When a person BEHAVES he does an activity i. e. he interacts with the environment and as a result conditioning takes place. This conditioning gives him an experience may it be good or bad.Through these behaviors and experiences he is able to formulate his own understanding model. Therefore this shows that both behaviorism and constructivism are active when a person is learning by doing (Engines for Education 2008). Role of ICTs, Behaviorism and Constructivism in Education The use of ICTs has promoted the teaching and learning and made it superior. If we just take computer as an example of educational technology we see that it has been devised for students and humans to address to their needs and problems. ICTs address to the problems of both students and teachers.Though the effects of the use of ICTs in schools and educational settings are good but we see that the facilities are inadequate. The effects of ICTs are good as they enable the students to use educational software through which they are able to get activity based learning in a better technologically equipped learning environment. This environment and educational software have given opportunities to the teachers to change their teaching ways and make it more comprehensive with the use of these tools. Effective teaching automatically ensures effective learning as well.These tools of educational technology have enabled the teachers and students to identify systematic problems and then discover systematic solutions for it. Constructivism school of thought complements educational technology. They say that students should be taken away from the standardized curriculum and their thinking skills need to be developed by experiential learning. If the students are given a proper educational environment which hold high relevance then they would interact with the environment to generate the desired experiences.These experiences take form of personal sets of meanings and information framework for a separate student. In educational setting, student gains knowledge either through interaction with environment or by the intervention of school in form of curriculum imposed on students. Usually the learning is resultant of mix of both these sources. Constructivism also focuses on bringing out prior knowledge of students out. Effective use of ICT by the students would give teachers an opportunity to know the prior knowledge of the students (Newhouse 2002).There are many different types of ICTs and tools which are helpful in educational setting and can explain how people learn through them and how teachers effectively use them for teaching. One example can be Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs). This device is operated with the help of a projector and a PC. This board is placed in the front center of the class and is connected to the PC and projector. Through equipments like keyboard, mouse, pencil and other devices students are able to ach ieve interaction with it.It facilitates the teacher to teach the whole class easily keeping in view the discipline of the class along with teaching. The research has proven that the introduction of IWBS have enhanced the thinking of the students, facilitated the teaching methods of teachers and therefore ultimately lead to effective learning (Newman n. d. ). We see that both Behaviorism and Constructivism do not apply similarly in every learning environment. It varies. In some environment which is behavior oriented and which requires high motivation level of people then we see that behaviorism is in action.Such environment has the need of people to be reinforced and requires there behavior to be aligned for efficient performance. In learning environment that promotes learning through experiences and acquisition of skills through interaction with environment, constructivism is in action. This rationale is well justified but usually we see that successful schools and educational setti ngs take both the approaches together along with ICTs. Conclusion Education has revolved with the development in technology. Tools of ICTs facilitate the acquisition of education.There have been many theories that have also supported educational cause. Two main theories are Behaviorism and Constructivism. They are both used contrary to each other. Behaviorism believes in learning through conditioning whereas Constructivism focuses on experiential learning. We see that these theories apply with the ICT tools and they result in effective learning and teaching system. References Bruner, J. n. d. , Constructivist Theory. Viewed July 15, 2010, retrieved from http://tip. psychology. org/bruner. html Engines for Education, 2008, Learning By Doing. Viewed July 15, 2010, retrieved from http://www.engines4ed. org/hyperbook/nodes/NODE-120-pg. html Newhouse, C. Paul 2002, Literature Review: The Impact of ICT on Learning and Teaching. Viewed July 15, 2010, retrieved from http://www. det. wa. edu . au/education/cmis/eval/downloads/pd/impactreview. pdf Newman, n. d. , Types of ICT: Interactive Whiteboards. Viewed July 15, 2010, retrieved from http://www. newman. ac. uk/Students_websites/~shugufta. nazir/typeict. htm On Purpose Associates, n. d. , About Learning: Behaviorism. Viewed July 15, 2010, retrieved from http://www. funderstanding. com/content/behaviorism

Should Children Be Allowed on Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Should Children Be Allowed on Facebook - Essay Example The content of the article, which is a rather apprehensive note from a parent’s blog, is able to attract much debate. Two perspectives have been presented; one that children under the age of 13 should not be legally allowed to join Facebook and the other one is that children who do join Facebook under the legal age can be monitored through proper parental surveillance. But the question that arises is that to what extent can the parents monitor a child’s Facebook account? (Dellantonia, 2011). Research shows that children are most likely and the first ones to use technology for morally wrong reasons. And thus, when these young children are exposed to such unlimited freedom, results can be debilitating (Junghyun, 2011). On one hand, it is true that Facebook currently has millions of children lying about their ages on profiles (Dellantonia, 2011) and there is no real way to detect it but if Facebook complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, it can still have 13-year-olds join Facebook as that is a profitable opportunity for Facebook, but in that case it will have to invest in developing a system which will require parents’ informed consent before the child joins in and that is not profitable for Facebook (Kashmir, 2011). Even when children do not initiate illegal activity, they are often subjects to the illicit behavioral practices of those with deviant purposes and notorious plans. The young children and young adults continue to be victims of many heinous crimes led through the internet including drug trafficking, bullying, stalking, and pornography (Fodeman, 2009). In Waukesha County, Wisconsin, for example, a boy was convicted of having at least 300 nude photos of boys aged 13 to 19. He posed as a girl on Facebook and used the photos were used to blackmail some of those boys to engage in performing sexual acts with him (Marsico, 2010).  

Arguing to Persuade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arguing to Persuade - Essay Example Argument to persuasion invites more use of language resources than argument to persuade (Caine 54). A persuasive paper intends to use logic and reasoning to convince others abandon their stands and beliefs and be conformed to the writers views). In this regard, this writing prior to preparation is necessary. There are stipulated steps that, if followed would result to a high performing persuasive paper. To begin with, an author should choose a certain stand (Wachob 34). Before one embarks on convincing others about his point of view, he or she must be sure of what he or she believes. Understanding and analyzing the audience follows; after this, the writer must delve into serious research on the topic. This enables one form concrete decisions, explanations to every statement and also boosts personal confidence and esteem. It is also in this level that one understands the failures of former works in the topic and develops mechanisms to counter them. The research on the topic also helps indentify reliable and legitimate sources of information and experts on the same. From the research plane, one is to develop a hypothesis, a proposition, a claim on the topic. The hypothesis should be debatable, carry with it two opposing ends. One can resort to having a thesis that stands against his or her stand, doing this ensures that the claim is debatable. The next move is to try and extrapolate possible refutations against your stand. This stage can be meant to do two things, prepare one psychologically to defend his or her stand and prepare answers to the refutations citing legitimate and available evidences (Forsyth 23). The next point is to provide concrete reasons for a particulate stand. This can be done by providing evidences by the use of facts, statistics from dependable sources and by the use of illustrations and examples. There are elements of a good persuasive writing. There should be order of how things get presented. This allows a clear flow of information witho ut conflicting of ideas, facts and truths. To start with is the introduction of the paper. This part gives an oversight of the paper and should not to be too lengthy. Terminologies in the topic of the paper should be defined and be explained at this point. Explanation of the background of the paper can also be given in the introduction (Caine 64). In the end of introduction, the claim should be introduced in a clear and precise way. The thesis can tell the reader the actual topic of the paper and the organization of the paper After introduction and having stated the thesis, the next thing in line is defending the thesis by providing evidences. This happens in the body of the paper and should take a minimum of three paragraphs. The thesis carries the whole paper. At this point, it is healthy to have the extrapolated refutations in the fingertips so as to start countering them from the very first defense. The paragraphs should also be arranged in accordance with the weight of the evid ences, starting from the beast to the least. The last statement of the paragraph should also be able to link with the next paragraph in a manner that embraces a perfect flow of information. (Wachob 39) After a perfect statement of the writers evidences, the paper should proceed to a new paragraph or segment that purely focuses on refutations. Since the writer communicates through writing, he or she is denied the chance of getting

Industry Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Industry Experience - Essay Example elopment of a management report because I have the background and knowledge in management to help a company formulate its overall strategies and goals. For example, I am aware that HRM (Human Resource Management) is one of the prime examples through which strategic management can influence what occurs within a company by a mixture of theory and pragmatic practice. It is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall. Many firms are realizing that a traditional functional organization is evermore unsuitable for the current environment in which they operate. The present time and environment demand firms to be more agile and adapt quickly to their surroundings. The best method here, firms have realized, is to develop easily deployable teams containing individuals that are fit for certain jobs and projects. The process by which a firm formulates and implements its strategy through the resources at its disposal. It can be mirrored with the actual definition of management as well in that it is devising goals and methods by which an organization is to be run, with a direction (Kono, 1996). Strategic management dwells upon where the firm currently stands, where it will be in three (short term), five (mid term) or ten (long term) years if no changes are made, whether this predicted position of the firm is acceptable, and if not, what changes will have to be made now in order to secure a position where it is envisioned to be in. Strategic management rises above the petty problems of day to day business processes to devise a direction

Discussion 1 Week 10 Comparing Transshipment Models to Inventory Assignment

Discussion 1 Week 10 Comparing Transshipment Models to Inventory Applications - Assignment Example imply means that there is an objective of minimizing costs by ensuring that the most effective level of inventory is deemed to be maintained to maximize revenues and returns. The transportation model, defined as a special type of linear programming method which aims to allocate items or products from a source (or sources) to identified destinations (Taylor, 2010). The objective is to minimize costs of transporting these products. From the explanation of Taylor (2010), the transportation model could be considered an example of decision making under certainty. Decision-making satisfy the certainty condition when the evaluators or decision makers have the essential information to make a responsible decision. As emphasized, â€Å"people are reasonably sure about what will happen when they make a decision. The information is available and is considered to be reliable, and the cause and effect relationships are known† (Decision making under certainty, uncertainty and risk, 2007, par. 2). Transportation models contain all the required information to enable decision makers to identify the actual cost of transporting goods from the source/s to the specific destinations. As such, the formulation of the transportation problem includes identification of the objective function, which is usually to minimize transportation cost. Likewise, all decision variables and constraints are also appropriately identified and explicitly certain, in the formulation process to enable the decision makers to recommend the most viable solution. Benge, V. (2014). Can We Apply the Transshipment Models to Inventory Applications? Retrieved from Chron Small Business:

John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row - Essay Example As the discussion highlights Doc is a man of scientific approach, but at the same time, he is interested in enjoying the luxuries of day to day life. He is not the one to chase the perfect disciplines in life, but is willing to carry on happily with the available levels of discipline. The readers first see him leaving his Western Biological Laboratory for purchasing five quarts of beer. He is not interested to tread the beaten and routine tracks of life and exhibits defiance towards the vested interests that take control of the society and his approach is evident in his suggested â€Å"method for getting revenge on a bank if anyone should ever want to: `Rent a safety deposit box, then deposit in it one fresh salmon and go away for six months.† Thus Doc is an individual who accepts and lauds the contradictory facets of life and his Western Biological is a kind of experimental laboratory for the living things as per their levels of progression. This study outlines that a true philosopher (the realized soul) knows the past, present and the future and they are one with the, the great leveler of humankind, the Time. They are unaffected by the day to day agitations, ups and downs occurring in the world outside. The author compares Mack and the boys, the ordinary folks, to such philosophers as they have the capacity to survive in this world of pluralities and pairs of opposites, like happiness and sorrow, light and darkness etc. There are others, the simple types of people, to whom ignorance is bliss and they also remain happy, like philosophers, in all circumstances. The intelligent, successful and competitive people remain upset always; their mind is full of agitations over the business and secular challenges they face and the author categorizes them as men with â€Å" bad stomachs and bad souls† but Mack and the boys are fit physically and mentally. They are carefree people, eat what they like, and do what they wish.  

Choose two poems from the book Donkey Gospel and argue for a single Thesis

Choose two poems from the book Donkey Gospel and argue for a single theme supported by both poems - Thesis Example This paper gives an insight into two of his famous poems from the very collection, and how the two may be compared to each other on the basis of stark humour. The poet is not afraid to go all out and make comments about everyday things that might end up hurting others. This is because, he has tried to make everything simple and help people understand the spirit and jest hidden in everything. His writing style elucidates the kind of writing a man with an open conscience would be able to carry out well. The two poems chosen for the purpose of analysis within this paper are ‘Jet’ and ‘Reading Moby Dick at 30,000 Feet’. Both the poems have the element of humour within them explained with the help of examples taken from life’s perspective. â€Å"On earth, men celebrate their hairiness, and it is good, a way of letting life out of the box, uncapping the bottle to let the effervescence gush through the narrow, usually constricted neck.† (Hoagland, Ton y) These lines have been taken from the poem titled Jet, and they talk about the obviousness that a person must go through in life, in order to understand its true meaning. Adept with deep humour, the lines talk about how a man has no choice but to celebrate the joy of life with what he has, even if it is his own bodily hair, and doing this is the best way by which one can let go of himself. He has tried to make an analogy of a person’s imagination and mind with that of champagne gushing out of the narrow neck of a glass bottle. The humour in the lines can be seen in the way Hoagland has tried to portray the simplicity of life; equipped with personal hair. He means to tell his readers that a person might not have much but even facial or body hair is enough to get him out of the rat race that everyone seems to be so inherently a part of. In his other poem titled â€Å"Reading Moby Dick at 30,000 Feet, he writes, â€Å"I would estimate the distance between myself and my own f eelings is roughly the same as the mileage from Seattle to New York, so I can lean back into the upholstered interval between Muzak and lunch, . . .† (Hoagland, Tony) Through these very lines, the poet has again tried to make humorous comparisons of life with analogies taken from everyday routines that people undergo. He has tried to depict how human emotions and feelings do not only play up when a person wants them to do so, against or for someone else. Feelings are something that is strong enough to distance a man from his own self too. So in accordance to the same, he writes that his feelings are as far away from himself as the distance there is between Seattle and New York and the best part about embarking upon this long journey of figuring out what his feelings are actually, is that during the interim period, a person is able to relax into his calm sub conscious mind and make travels to and fro the various nooks and crannies in the corner of one’s mind (between mus ic and lunch, or other aspects of daily living.) Both these poems thus are very similar to one another on the basis of the theme that they have been written in. They both talk about certain fundamental questions of life and how to counter a person’s emotions. Both poems have strong analogies with a certain hint of humour equipped in them as well. Even though the poems might answer different questions altogether, they do fall into line while coming

The Lord of the Flies -Plot Outline Essay Example for Free

The Lord of the Flies -Plot Outline Essay A group of well manned English boys were put on a plane and sent to a boarding school because of their country being in a nuclear war. On their way to the school, their plane gets shot down and they end up on an inhabited island. The first character we meet is Ralph. He is a typical school boy who is very athletic with fair hair. His character is portrayed as smart, wise, insightful and one with very good leadership skills. He is elected as chief by the boys because of these qualities. Then we come across Piggy, a fat boy who wears glasses and has asthma. In spite of these insecurities, Piggy is very wise, highly intelligent, insightful for his age. He is the reason behind Ralphs ideas and plans. He always thinks things through and likes to have order. He is actually the one to discover the conch. Then there is Jack who is accustomed to leading because he is the leader of the choir boys, but because Ralph is elected as chief, Jack becomes jealous and revengeful. Jack is the first boy to turn savage and primitive and does things impulsively. He becomes very cruel and violent and just wants to hunt and kill. Jack starts painting his face to take on a different persona. Then theres Simon, a typical shy school boy who is extremely wise and intelligent. He is very mature and has an adult understanding of life. He is very compassionate and sensitive. He is the only one on the island who is in touch with his inner most feelings. As time progresses, they boys start reverting to savagery behaviour and they move more away from civilization. They start separate tribes : Ralphs tribe and The Hunters (following Jack). The boys who are following Ralph wants to be rescued, and the ones who follow Jack wants to hunt and be free. With all this erg to hunt, they end up killing two innocent boys. After the murders, the hunters are now out to hunt Ralph. At the end, whats left of the boys are rescued. In this novel Golding shows that every human being has evil in them, even if you the most holy person on earth. Everyone isnt perfect, some has more evil in them than others. Some keep in all in and one day they snap and do something theyll regret forever! You can have the worst evil in you and you wont realise it until something happens

Of Mice and Men and Oliver Twist Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men and Oliver Twist Essay Of mice and men written by John Steinbeck is set in 1930 during the economic depression caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Unlike Oliver Twist, Of mice and men is set in USA, near the Salinas River, in the hot and beautiful state of California. On the other hand, Charles Dickens Oliver Twist is set in the powerful and the majestic city of London, over-ruled with darkness and murky pollution brought about by what was the industrial revolution in 1870, when the novel was set. The Industrial revolution really puts the whole evil and darkness of London into a shadow which adds to the sinister acts that unveil themselves as the novel progresses. The two main characters of of mice and men are two migrant agricultural labourers, George Milton and Lennie Smalls. George, Small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features. Every part of him defined : small, strong hands, slender arms and a thin bony face. The second part of an unlikely relationship between these two friends is Lennie, who is a large man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders. George is Lennies guardian, because of his mental immaturity he is totally reliant on Georges leadership and commanding power, over of which he follows. In my opinion, without George, Lennie would either be dead or locked up in jail, as a result of him doing stupid acts. It is ironic that Lennies surname is Small, because of his huge size, Bear like as the author describes. In the time of which of mice and men is set, there is lots of tension. Social classes, women, people who suffer from racism all suffer at the same expense during this period. Crooks is the only black man In this novel, and it is through him that we can see the position of blacks in America. Crooks, is crippled because he got kicked by a horse, he has his own little room, away from the rest of the hands. The other hands openly refer to Crooks as Nigger, this example directly amplifies the life and times of the Black Americans at this time. Women are also represented through Curleys wife. Curleys wife is one quarter of an unhappy marriage. The other three quarters of the marriage is Curley, the bosses sun, who has full power of his wife and tells her what to do constantly. Steinbeck deliberately doesnt give Curleys wife a name, this representing the insignificance and illustrates ownership over women at this time. Curleys Wife doesnt really love Curley, and didnt really marry him because of love. She married him to prove a point to her mother, who destroyed the relationship she did have with the one she did love. She admitted, that marrying him was a Way Out. Curleys wife is an ambitious, flirtatious, good looking, young women, who the ranch hands try to ignore and avoid. She is trapped in loneliness, in Curleys wrath, she is where she isnt loved, and her only alternative is to make the most out of what she has got. Aint I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways? Youre a nice guy. I dont know why I cant talk to you I aint doin no harm to you. Previous to the murder, in the barn. There, in my opinion, is a hierarchy at the ranch, and at the bottom lies Curleys wife and Crooks, two characters treated insignificantly and are discriminated due to their social classes, a women and a black. In California, the setting for this novel, the atmosphere and the surroundings is very harsh and tough for the workers. The attitude and behaviour of the workers in the novel reflect this well. For the workers, there was no cash benefit for the workers, so If they lose their job then they have to do without and mainly starve. The law, I learned is enforced well, but strangely enough, without any force as we never see any police during the novel. California is described extremely well, it is very interestingly described too, this appeals to the reader and gives the novel a very bright and happy start. The first few pages focus on the setting and commentate on all the happenings that go on, this builds a sense of reality. Steinbeck was born and raised in California, near Salinas, so he had an advantage when attempting to describe it as he can relate to it very well. Oliver Twist is almost exactly the opposite in comparison. It is a very dark novel. London at this time set the scene for the monstrosities that happened and the events that took place. You could almost guess what was to expect when reading the first few pages of Oliver Twist, but to do the same with Of mice and men would be completely different. Of Mice and Men starts on a high, very bright and colourful, but it changes contrasts and horrible happenings crowd the last few chapters of the novel. The two main characters in Oliver Twist are Oliver and Fagin. Oliver is a young orphan, brought into the then cruel world by an unknown mother. Fagin, is an Un-human man, whose features are aged and ugly. He is a ring leader of a gang of thieves that rob the city of London of valuable possessions, such as money, watches and gold. The Artful Dodger is Fagins keen apprentice, willing to learn, who knows all the tricks of the trade, a master of theft and scams. Bill Sikes, Fagins second man, is a ruthless cut throat man, whose large size and aggressive attributes add to the murder later on in the novel. The two murderers, Lennie and Sikes have many similarities. Firstly Sikes and Lennie are two large and intimidating men, whos leader is considerably smaller than them. Secondly, they both receive orders and are followers to their two leaders. Although Sikes doesnt receive commands off Fagin to an extent where he cannot survive without him, like Lennie, one part of the story he does. This is the main event that leads up to the murder of Nancy. In the early hours of the morning, when all the human and civilised world is asleep, London is awake. Fagin is awake in his chair. Waiting. Sikes enters with the loot that he has stolen from peoples houses. Fagin starts to talk about Nancy, Sikes girlfriend. He goes on and explains that Nancy could be a leak and could tell on them to the police. Fagin, knowing that Sikes has the mordacity and the capability of murder, begins to perform reverse psychology. He knows that if he pulls the right strings that Sikes could do anything for him. Sikes quite easily falls into Fagins mastermind trap, as if he had been brainwashed or hypnotised, he is now going to commit Fagins murder for him. Sikes goes to where Nancy is sleeping and severely shouts and screams at her. This traumatises her, to the extent where she doesnt know what is going on. This makes Nancy vulnerable, and this is where Sikes commits his brutal and sick attack on her. We can tell, just by reading these several lines of the story, the evil and cunningness of Sikes. He continuously beats Nancy to death with a wooden stick. Leaning up top the murder of Curleys wife, which was by far not as hellacious and as horrific as this, Lennie was minding his own business and was in the barn, calmly stroking one of Slims pups. Not knowing his own strength Lennie accidentally killed the pup. Lennie began to become sad and at the same time, angry. He repeatedly thought about George not letting him tend the rabbits, at the home of which the whole is dream is based around. An hell say : Now just for that you aint gunna tend no rabbits. Lennie put the pup in the straw, and began to talk to himself, moaning the death of the pup. Curleys wife enters and begins to flirt with Lennie, who confesses to her liking for stroking nice things. She invites him to stroke her long soft hair, but as the stroking becomes harder, she panics; the harder he strokes the more she panics and then Lennie accidentally breaks her neck. He half-buries the body in the hay and runs off to the brush. As you can tell, both the two murders are of a totally different nature. In of mice and men, the murder was unexpected, and didnt really fit into the surrounding story, On the other hand, In Oliver Twist, a murder was almost inevitable. Sikes was a premeditated murder, as he had thought it out and planned the whereabouts etc. Lennies was out of the blue, an accident neither him or anyone else could of prevented. The setting of the two murders, also are totally different. The murder of Curleys wife was in the barn, in the sunny and hot state of California. The murder of Nancy was in the grimy claustrophobic city of London. The descriptions in the stories of the murders, are again totally opposite. In Oliver Twist, Dickens almost runs a post-mortem on the body, and describes Sikes moves in detail after the murderer. In of mice and men, however, Steinbeck runs a bleak vague synopsis on the happenings.

Social Media And New Media In Ghana Media Essay

Social Media And New Media In Ghana Media Essay Social media is a growing phenomenon in our present information age. For many persons, particularly the youth, social media provides the platform to create, disseminate and share information with persons of shared ties. The power and influences of the social media phenomenon in shaping our world today cannot be overlooked. Its impact is witnessed as a coordinating tool for a significant number of the worlds political movements including the political revolutions that took place in the Middle East commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. Again in political campaigning, social media is credited to have contributed significantly to the electoral success of then candidate Barak Obama as his adoption of the technology facilitated his reach and garnered support from many young voters during the 2008 American presidential elections. The social media fad is believed to have enhanced cultural exchanges, created, maintained and deepened social ties in a significant number of social settings. F or quite a number of people, it is almost impossible to exist in our present world and not be affected by the social media phenomenon. It has become part of our new world which is driven extensively by information and communication. The social media application runs on the foot of the internet technology. The internet directs the manner in which communication is carried from place to place, person to person and culture to culture in our world today. It has become as ubiquitous as the human species and almost a measure of human civilisation. Researchers and scholars have divergent opinions of the impacts of the internet and new media technology on our world today. Their opinions are expressed broadly in utopian and dystopian perspectives and cover all aspects of life of which the technology is used. The utopians appreciate the Internet as potentially an enormous tool for good. The positive possibilities from the Internet include supporting the practice of democracy, human interactions, concerted political action, education, etc. On the other hand the dystopians, the cyberpunks and the alarmists, see danger in every digital project even an ultimate loss of our humanity. Understanding the internet and all its associated technology and applications requires an understanding of the dimensions under which the internet can be studied. Bell (2001) explains that there are three ways to understanding the internet or its synonym cyberspace. Bell describes the meaning of the internet or cyberspace under: a) material b) symbolic and c) experiential stories. He cites Stanley Aronowitz (1996) as providing the terms ontology, phenomenology and pragmatics to discuss ways of thinking about the internet technology. Material stories of the internet technology provide a historical understanding of how the technology came to exist and the transformations it has undergone. Whittaker (2004: Pp 13) explains that symbolic stories of the internet or cyberspace give literary and generic accounts most notably in cyberpunk but also in science fiction and other speculative fiction. Bell, citing Jordan (1999), provides an explanation to symbolic stories of cyberspace as the ways in which cyberspace are depicted in films and fiction. Therefore movies such as Robocop which prompted civic discourses over the use of robotics in solving human limitations, and The Matrix provide good examples to understanding symbolic stories of cyberspace. New media and social media New media tools, which are internet based technologies and applications provide platforms for social media tools to be used civic discourses. There is often the tendency to interchange the terms new media and social media. However, it must be noted that new media and social media mean different things though both exist in cyberspace and are associated with the internet technology. According to wiseGEEK new media denotes the various technologies that have emerged rapidly in our present millennium. The major types of new media include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs and video sharing sites such as YouTube. One of its most defining characteristics is interactivity. Social media, however, refers to online technologies and practices that are used to share opinions and information, promote discussion and build relationships (Crown 2009; 2). iCrossing (2008) indicates that social media shares the characteristics of Participation, Openness, Conversation, Community, and Connectedness are currently presented in the following basic forms Goode (2009) explains that social media facilitates citizens engagements in new forms of civic participation as they construct, archive, tag and reticulate news stories and political media content. Bakardjieva (2011) describes how blogs, a social media application and bloggers have become visible in the Bulgarian public sphere. In the Bulgarian scenario, the tool was adopted to protest against a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court to strip a territory in the south-east of Bulgaria of its status as a protected natural reserve. The countrys young people and environmentalist groups engaged in civic protests in the streets to challenge the decision as they organized and reported their actions by blogs, websites and text messages. The brief but centrally placed and well-attended civic actions obligated the Bulgarias mass media and parliamentarians to situate the issue on their agenda. http://edc.education.ed.ac.uk/sindhur/files/2010/09/Different-Media-and-modes-of-communication-Every-day-life.jpg  [1]   Figure : DIFFERENT MEDIA AND MODES OF COMMUNICATION-AN EVERYDAY LIFE PICTURE. The British government recognises how digital technology has transformed the way in which people communicate and share information at the local, national and international levels. To ensure that the potential of the transforming power is harnessed well enough to facilitate citizen engagement and proper governance, investments into providing adequate guidelines for civil servants to appreciate these changes so that they can operate effectively in a dynamic media environment. The British Government via new media tools and online access is tailoring its services to its public more conveniently all day and all week. The quote below is taken from the introductory chapter on connecting civil servants through social media in The Guide for Civil Servants (pp 11): Use of social media techniques is not restricted to government interaction with citizens or business. There is already a range of tools dedicated to encouraging discussion and sharing knowledge and best practice among civil servants. Social media and New media in Ghana Ghana has not been isolated from the global social media craze. Universally, Facebook is noted as the most popular social media platform and is most recognized in Ghana as well. Currently, there are about 1,436,560 Facebook users in Ghana, which makes it rank number 73 globally (Socialbaker 2012). The social networking statistics from Socialbaker illustrates that the penetration of Facebook in Ghana  is  5.90%  of the countrys population and  110.76%  in relation to the number of Internet users. The population of Facebookers users grew by more than  231,140  in the last 6 months. About 41% of Ghanas Facebook user population is between 18 and 24 years, an age group that can be found typically beginning university education or exiting into the professional world. Other social media like YouTube, twitter and LinkedIn are also popular among Ghanaians. Though their popularity is high among the youth and IT savvy persons, statistics on these social media applications are rather low or unavailable. No Ghanaian profile or account is listed in the top 200 global accounts. The same applies with YouTube and LinkedIn. Increasingly, the Whats App application and Blackberry messaging (BBM) which are described as social networking applications are also becoming popular platforms among Ghanaians for information dissemination. All the applications, Facebook, YouTube, twitter Whats App and BBM are available on mobile phone devices commonly referred to as smartphones. They are also on other portable new media gadgets such as ipads and tablets. Chart  [2]   Figure : User age distribution on Facebook in Ghana Ghana was one of the first African countries to get connected to the Internet in 1989-1990 however, the extent of use of the new media technology among Ghanaians is limited. This is a result of the underdevelopment of existing telecommunications infrastructure, though in recent times significant investments have been in developing them (Sey 2011). The investments have been supported by a national communications policy which highlights the Government of Ghanas commitment to accelerating the socio-economic development process of the country through ICT (Republic of Ghana, 2003, p. 14; cited in Sey 2011). In the wake of this policy, there has been considerable improvements in internet connectivity which begun in the early 1990s with the slow bandwidth dial up access to the now high speed broadband connectivity. Mobile phone telephony is not only big on the African Continent but equally the predominate mode of telecommunications in Ghana. Again because of the generally poor fixed line infrastructure. Ghanas National Communications Authority is cited to have announced a mobile telephony penetration rate of about 88.6% as at January 2012 with the leading service provider recording over 10 million subscriptions (Modern Ghana, 2012). Mobile phones in Ghana have varied uses aside its basic use for calls. Sey (2011) reports that in 2007 just over one fixed line existed per 100 inhabitants. Uses of new media in Ghana A number of several accounts have been given for the varied uses of the new media technology in Ghana. However, some research account that the application is appropriated to business and community development. Sey (2011) cites (Slater Kwami, 2005) who indicate that a substantial section of users get onto the Internet as an escape mechanism to connect with the Western world as a poverty reduction strategy. They add that the Internet provides some users with the means to reach people in Western countries who are perceived as potential sources of financial means for migration while others who do not anticipate physically leaving the country might content themselves with enjoying Western life vicariously through foreign content online. Sending e-mails, finding and communicating with pen pals, applying to schools abroad, watching movies, listening to music, and playing games are also some other uses that Ghanaians put the new media to use (Alhassan, 2004; Burrell, 2009; Daily Graphic, 20 03; Slater Kwami, 2005. Cited in Sey 2011). Political parties have also embraced the new media technology and are using social media particularly to grasp the attention of young people. A Communication official of the New Patriotic Party says the party adopts a writing style suitable for the social media in its messaging as the technology creates a better communication channel between the party and voters. The National Democratic Congress says the interactive nature of social media facilitates incorporating feedback from voters into the partys decision making processes (Boakyewaa Pokua 2011). Amongst Students of the University of Ghana, the most popular social media tool is Facebook. Its uses are varied from meeting new friends, sharing information on academic work, and updating family and friends with what is happening in ones life (Dentaa 2011). 2. Problem Statement There is recorded data on citizens disconnections from civic life in our present information society. These are noticeable among younger generations in Western democracies. The United States, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all recorded younger peoples withdrawal in participating in conventional politics and government which constitute civic activities, in alarming numbers. Putnam (2000) argues that, Americans in the last three decades of the 20th century witnessed much less engagements in terms of political participation, charitable contributions, involvement in community organizations, and even participation in social activities with some of these trends obvious among college students. Despite a withdrawal from offline civic life, studies suggest interests in online civic engagements. As a fledgling democratic state, with a history of military dispensations that have stifled civic discourses and civil liberties, Ghana is on the brink of developing its democratic creden tials. The new democratic dispensation gives rise to civic participation in social and political discourses mainly through traditional media. Increasingly, young Ghanaians- a significant number of whom are enrolled in the universities, seek to master the use of the internet and more particularly social media tools to express themselves, explore their identities, and connect with peers. Hence there is opportunity to utilise the characteristics these online tools present to promote civic discourses amongst this group. The study thus seeks to ascertain the use of social media for civic discourses amongst students of the University of Ghana. Questions the study will speak to: Are students of the University of Ghana engaged in civic discourses via social media? What principles of civic discourses are seen in their social media engagements? 3. Background Social transformation is a common phenomenon in our human life and often characterises the conception of civilised society. A transformed society is one which may have at least undergone essential changes in its core institutions, economy, and the relationships between social groups or classes, the creation and distribution of wealth, power and status. Technology has played a key role in the transformation of society. Theorist like Marshal Mcluhan posit in determinist theories that technology changes society and recount human evolution from the Tribal age through Literate, Print and present Electronic age. But besides the influences of technology on social transformation, the contributions of social institutions cannot be overlooked, particularly universities. Universities have contributed significantly to the processes of social change and development. Stories of early civilisations recount the centrality of higher institutions of academic studies in the transformations that took place in those societies. The role of universities has been in generating skilled resources for labour sectors of social life and also in providing scientific investigations and solutions to social phenomenon. As the world rapidly changes and develops or perhaps becomes a lot more civilised, universities can be seen to take on the added role of encouraging and facilitating new cultural values. It is also plausible to see the institution involved in training and socialising members of new social elites. Thus the contributions of universities in fostering heightened awareness of and participation in civic discourses is one worth studying. The practice of citizens contributing in any way possible to how they are governed cannot be overemphasized. However the challenge to this has been in the sustenance of citizens interest in engaging in public activities which support contributions to governance. Evidences of Citizens having less time for public life abound in many countries, despite their resourcefulness in bringing more knowledge and skills to the market place of ideas. Reasons ascribed to citizens having less time for public activities include having less faith that government will be able to deliver on promises, more and more disconnect from community affairs because they seem to find the information, allies, and resources they need to affect an issue or decision they care about outside of the physical public space. A central tenet of Putnams bowling alone thesis holds that much of the decline of civic engagement in America during the last third of the twentieth century is attributable to the replacement of an unusually civic generation by several generations (their children and grandchildren) that are less embedded in community life. (2000, p. 275). He supports this claim with evidence that members of this older generation tend to exhibit consistently high patterns of certain forms of civic activity (membership in civil society groups, voting, and attending city government meetings, for example) throughout their lives. By contrast, younger generations (especially the current youth demographic) have by and large failed to develop comparable civic habits, preferring to spend the majority of their free time on wholly personal pursuits. While some very recent data on one type of civic engagement, voting, contradict this pessimistic assessment (Kirby Marcello, 2006), most of the relevant indicators point toward a greatly diminished Universities have frequently been regarded as key institutions in processes of social change and development. The most explicit role they have been allocated is the production of highly skilled labour and research output to meet perceived economic needs. But to this role may be added, especially during periods of more radical change, roles in the building of new institutions of civil society, in encouraging and facilitating new cultural values, and in training and socialising members of new social elites. 4. Purpose The purpose of the study is to identify civic discourse engagements of students of the University of Ghana via the social media. The study objectives are: to evaluate whether civic discourses take place among students of the university of Ghana. to identify the forms of such civic discourses students of the university of Ghana to ascertain whether such discourses conform to the principles for civic discourses. The study will thus provide data on social media uses for civic discourse interactions and make recommendations on the possibility of nurturing a generation of elites who adopt technology to further discourses that affect how they are governed and their society at large. Findings from the study can help in selecting and developing alternate communication channels for the promotion of civic discourse in Ghana and among an increasing youth population enchanted by the new media and its varied applications. 5. Significance The study is significant as it will support in identifying and exploring how applicable modern technologies can be engaged to facilitate civic discourses which are essential in beefing up processes of good governance and democracy. Traditionally universities have functioned as centres of teaching and research. In their teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. Students who graduate from the university ultimately work and live in societies. The university provides a heterogeneous environment which initiates students to diverse people and perspectives. There is a tendency that students may be more motivated and prepared to participate fully in civic life. Students interactions and experiences of diversity whether inside or outside of the classroom, have the possibility to introduce them to new ideas and to challenge their pre-existing views (e.g. Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, Gurin, 2002). As a result, students attitudes toward civic issues may shift in substantial ways, and they may become more involved in community service and political activities. 6. Methodology Various methods are available for conducting studies on Computer Mediated Discourses and civic discourses in mass communication research. The most familiar methods used have been surveys and content analyses. Within the domain of content analysis textual analysis, rhetoric and discourse analyses have been identified as probable methods to studying problems relating to civic discourses specifically or discourses generally. Surveys Survey as a research method denotes gathering information from a sample of individuals. Wimmer and Dominick (2011) explain two types of survey methods that can be used for research processes: Descriptive surveys and analytical surveys. A descriptive survey attempts to explain what exists at the moment. An example for this type of survey is that of broadcast networks frequently conducting surveys of their audiences to identify their programming tastes, evolving values and lifestyle variations that might affect their programming. Descriptive surveys thus examine the as it is situation in the area under study. An analytical survey attempts to describe and explain why situations exist (Wimmer and Dominic 2011). The approach ordinarily examines two or more variables investigating research questions or testing research hypotheses. From the results researchers can examine the interrelationships among the variables and develop explanatory interpretations. For example, television station owners survey the market to determine how lifestyles affect viewing habits or to determine whether viewers lifestyles can be used to predict the success of syndicated programming (Wimmer and Dominic 2011). Adopting a survey approach in conducting studies on social media and civic discourses will facilitate investigations into the problem in a realistic setting. For example newspaper reading, commenting on social happenings on television or radio and participating in political issues of governance, all of which are probable civic activities can be examined in their real environments other than in a laboratory or screening room where artificial conditions are generated if studied as experiments. Secondly, surveys allow researchers to collect data on and examine many variables including demographic variables and use a variety of statistics to analyse the data collected. Thus patterns of relationships of differences or closeness are possible to be deduced to enable positing hypotheses as well as provide explanations to the problem. Considering that a constraint to research is funding and costs associated to carrying out the research, the reasonable cost of surveys in relation to the amount of information gathered (some online surveys are free) makes it a useful and widely used method. Researchers are able to control their research expenses by selecting from mail, telephone, personal interview, group administration, and the Internet modes of surveys. Related to this surveys have no geographic constraints and they can be conducted almost anywhere. Probably a significant benefit for using surveys in research is the availability existing data which makes it possible to carry out a whole study without the use of a questionnaire or contacting a respondent. Data sources such government documents, class or students registration lists may be depended on as primary data sources or as supportive sources of information. However an essential shortcoming in the use of surveys is the inability to draw causal or non-causal relationships between dependent and independent variables. Thus for a study as this it is not possible to draw casual or non-causal relations between social media use and civic discourses. This is because independent variables cannot be manipulated the way they are in laboratory experiments. Without control over independent variables, the researcher cannot be certain whether the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables are causal or non-causal. Results from surveys may easily be considered bias in the event of inappropriate wording or placement of questions within a questionnaire. This thus means careful scrutiny of words chosen to solicit data and organized unambiguously would be required. This can be strenuous and time consuming. An example Where did you hear the news about the presidents death? is mildly biased against newspapers. The word hear suggests that radio, television, or other people is a more appropriate answer (Wimmer and Dominic 2011, pp 190). The possibility of including wrong respondents in survey research is almost not negligible. Respondents may claim to possess a characteristic necessary for the study but may in fact be deficient in that feature. A mail survey or Internet survey may be completed by a teenager when the target respondent is a parent in the household.

Macbeth and Othello Essay -- Shakespeare macbeth Othello Essays

Macbeth and Othello â€Å"Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding† (Macbeth, III.i.62) â€Å"Renew I could not like the moon† (Timon of Athens, IV.iii.68) What distinguishes Macbeth and Othello from other tragedies is the fact that their protagonists are neither fathers nor sons, mothers nor daughters. We know nothing of Macbeth or Othello’s parents, and neither of them has children. Lady Macbeth makes a passing reference to having once â€Å"given suck† and to â€Å"how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks [her]† but never returns to the subject, and in any case, what remains impressed in one’s memory is the line that follows: â€Å"I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn† (I.vii.54). Clearly, she is not the maternal type. This is reiterated a few scenes later, with her invocation of the spirits to â€Å"unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse [†¦] Come to my womanâ€⠄¢s breasts And take my milk for gall (I.v.40-47).† The notion of cruelty forming inside her cannot but be likened to that of the baby that would grow there if she were not â€Å"unsexed,† as if cruelty were somehow taking the place of the foetus. There is a definite sense of this in the phrase â€Å"stopping up th’ access and passage†, as if what is being insisted upon were the prevention of either sex/conception (â€Å"access†) or childbirth (â€Å"passage†). It is as if she will bear fruit to or cultivate cruelty rather than a son or daughter—one has the distinct impression of a misused womb and... ...o all the human sons do hate From forth thy plenteous bosom, poor root. [†¦] Teem with new monsters [†¦] Dry up thy marrows† (IV.iii..178-192). For this passage encapsulates everything I have discussed so far: the notion of giving birth to monsters and monstrous deeds instead of children, the idea of obstructing the possibility of a satisfying ending and denying that of continuation (â€Å"Dry up thy marrows† distinctly recalls â€Å"stopping up th’ access and passage†), of engendering death and wiping out everything but a transient present. There is the same bitter after-taste as in the other plays, as if we had partaken of the roots Timon is forced to live on, and that same exhaustion that comes from ranting and railing and coming to no satisfying conclusion. The bed is unmade, the sheets are tangled and dirty, our voices are hoarse, and we are none the better for it.

Manchester Airport operates in an increasingly competitive environment

Manchester Airport operates in an increasingly competitive environment and must differentiate itself not only. Finance All organisations must take great care in setting their financial targets. If they are set too low then they will be readily achieved and full potential will not be reached. At present the economic regulation of airports is targeted solely at reducing the charges to airlines. Non-aviation income is not regulated and the Airport, therefore, seeks to encourage the development of such revenue streams to sustain the profitability of the Company. To maintain its reputation as a quality service provider, therefore, Manchester Airport has to ensure that it increases capacity and markets itself to become more attractive as the â€Å"airport of choice†. External factors Which Affect financial Performance Numerous factors influence the financial activities and the financial performance of organisations Five major external factors which affect Manchester Airport are: 1 Constant change 2 Competitive environment 3 Single till 4 Government regulations 5 Economic environment Change Along with all other business the Airport operates in an environment which is constantly changing. For example: 1 The freight market is volatile and can fluctuate annually. Reasons for this include: 1. competitor activity 2. noise considerations – freight only aircraft tend to be noisier and older 3. technological development 2 World events can have an effect dramatic on both freight and passenger travel. For example: 1. Since 11 September 2001 the number o people flying across the North Atlantic has fallen dramatically and this has had an effect in business travel and some airlines. 2. the war in Iraq has also had an effect on travel 3. The SARS virus has had an effect on the number of passengers travelling to the very east of the world. 1 Charter flights are also in a volatile market and are affected by events such as: 1. the general economic conditions 2. foreign currency exchange rates 3. consumer confidence I tour operators 4. competitor activities 5. trades towards off-season holidays 6. weather conditions 1 the Airport must comply with regulations and legislation which is subject to change, for example: 1. The establishment of a single market within the Euro... ...atement, which indicates the broad methodology used and is titled Basis of Opinion. Statement of According Policies Principles of accounting policies are declared in this statement. Details are provided of particular accounting methods used such as description. Trading Account The trading account forms the first part of the Profit and loss Account. It is used to calculate the amount of gross profit or loss. Paying Wages and Salaries The payment of wages and salaries for Manchester Airport plc staff is handled by the Payroll Section which is part of one of the other group companies, Manchester Airport Aviation Service (MAAS), and is located on the Airport site. They hold information about all employees. This includes: 1 Name 2 Address 3 National Insurance Number 4 Starting Salary 5 Salary Scale From this information they are able to calculate the amount to be paid and deductions such as National Insurance payments, pension, tax and union subscription. The majority of staff are salaried, that is their payments are based on an annual figure, but are paid on a monthly basis. Some staff, mainly annual workers , are still paid on an hourly rate.

End of History Economics Essay

The set of short essays in question–compiled into a single essay by Foreign Policy–states the facts correctly about the current economic depression (they refuse to call it that, they opt for the less alarmist term of â€Å"recession†). But merely stating the facts correctly completely misses the point. Most couch-potato news junkies already know everything that is present in this essay. But that’s exactly the point: the essays in question here cover up more than they reveal. Their job–or so it seems–is to calm a public that might begin to ask fundamental questions about capitalism and globalization. The facts are clear: the structures and attitudes behind the facts are not. This is the purpose of this review. The facts are the following: that the economic depression will continue. Due to globalization, a depression or recession is not merely American or western, but it is global. Many economies in the developing world, through pressure from the US and the IMF, have linked their economies to the US market, which means, as a result, to the US dollar. These economies are talking given the fall in American consumer spending. The dollar has been wildly overvalued in recent years, but, in a recession of global proportions, running to the dollar for protection seems to be a popular–albeit irrational–option. The increase in the value of the US dollar means several things. On top of the already deep depression, food prices will begin to go up. This is social disaster, and not just for the US. Rises in food and transport mean that millions of economically marginal families will go into permanent decline and default. It means that the families that have already seen their homes foreclosed and dreams dashed will not be able to recover. As banks no longer lend as much, investment and spending are choked off, making recovery that much harder. The conclusion of all this is that the depression is here to stay. But the very last thing the writers in this essay want to deal with are the structural reasons for this decline and its global scope. The objections to the approach of this essay will now follow: 1. Not a single one of these writers mentions the word â€Å"gold. † For a long time, prices of gold have skyrocketed. The reason is not hard to see: gold is stable, it retains its value, it is a universal signal that something is not right with the globalist economy. God is a safe investment, far more safe than the dollar. But apparently, this is invisible to the authors. 2. The above authors have adeptly avoided the basic structural issues at work. a. First, that the basic contradiction in American capitalism is that excess production needs to be continually mopped up by wild consumption. As a result, American capital has gone insane in hiring PR firms and advertising agencies to create demand. b. The global economy is dependent on this artificially expanded and inflated demand, since these economies are export oriented, and that is economic code for â€Å"dumb Americans need to go into debt. † Without constant and deepening debt, the production not merely of American firms, but also the economies of the development world (largely shaped by American financial and political power), cannot sell their wares to the US and EU markets. c. Therefore, the basic contradiction is clear: debt drives the economy, but debt cannot last forever or get infinitely deeper. Therefore, global depressions and radical structural â€Å"re-adjustments† are a â€Å"normal† part of economic life. Put more succinctly, the entire artificial creation of demand is a scam designed to make a handful wealthy, while the remainder of the population drown in debt. Such a situation can only but deepen the already outrageous distinctions among classes in American and European life, as the majority default, while the liquidity becomes more and more monopolized by an oligarchy. The money here is not â€Å"lost, it merely changes hands. Well then, who now has it? The question is not even brought up, let alone answered. Money in these things is never â€Å"lost,† gone down some financial black hole: it changes hands. But the political and social implications of such a question cannot be realistically dealt with by major establishment publications such as FP. 3. But it gets worse: the contradiction in the relations between consumption and debt at the root of the economy is also related to the US dollar and its foreign holdings. Stephen Roach reminds American readers that home construction and personal consumption make up a whopping 80% of the US GDP. This means that no amount of â€Å"restructuring† can deal with the contradiction above. The contradiction lies at the very heart of the US economy and the global system, itself fashioned by the US. But its relation to the dollar is another matter. Most major trading states with the US such as China, South Korea or Saudi Arabia have been stocking dollars for decades for the purpose of facilitating trade with the US as well as maintaining a safe investment. But this is a major crisis that is closely connected to the credit contradiction, and the fact that it is avoided in the article mentioned cannot be an accident. The major trading partners of the US have trillions of liquid dollars in its banks. If the dollar weakens, or is replaced by the Euro for global trade, or that financial markets become regionalized (e. g. locally dependent on the Yuan or ruble), that liquid remains relatively worthless in foreign banks. Therefore, if the American economy is no longer the market of choice, due to the fact that credit cannot be extended any farther, then those now useless dollars will be ejected. That ejection, even by the most optimistic economist, can only means not merely the collapse of the US economy, but the collapse of the globalized economy as well. The notion, common to all the above authors, that the economy will eventually â€Å"recover† is a matter of dogma: it is not argued, merely assumed. But this is an assumption with a strong base. It is assumed because the alternative in unthinkable: a restructuring of the global economy based on regional or national lines, based around local production and occasional import substitution. Most economists are not even trained to handle such contingencies, and it is just not part of their vocabularies. But it is a necessity if the global recession turns into a major depression, and national states and regions begin being forced to protect their own populations instead of being part of the IMF/US led global economic system, where the irrationality of the American consumer and the amoral manipulation of the American elites mean the destruction of families and societies across the globe. They assume that globalization is â€Å"inevitable† and morally correct, and hence, that there is no other option. Theirs is the infamous â€Å"end of history† thesis of the official American ideologies at George Mason University: American empire is providential and has been crated by the â€Å"forces of history. † All moral problems have been solved and liberal democracy, anti-nationalism and globalism are here to stay. The subconscious acceptance of this fantastic view of history and American life colors all establishment writing on this subject. There is no real connection between university based economics and the average American. The former does not write for the latter, but for the system as a unit, more and more isolated from the average American family. Therefore, the question here is not merely an economic one, but a political one: there are now two Americas: the wealthy elite, university professors and TV talking heads on the one side, and the vast bulk of the (globe’s) population, on the other. They live two different lives: one suffers for the enrichment of the other. The global economy will not â€Å"bounce back,† as the nature of the current recession is built right into its assumptions and maxims. The job of modern economics, or so it seems, it to make sure that the average American consumer does not know that.

AIDS in World History

The epidemic of human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus causing acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has transformed international history involving the emergence of social norms and stereotypes against Black races, homosexuals, and countries plagued by the disease (e.g. Africa, Thailand, etc.).Historically, the first convincing evidence of HIV virus and actual disease process of AIDS was found in the blood of an unknown man from Kinshasa, Africa in 1959 (Iliffe, 2007 p.311). Eventually, the infection reached the Western Nations initially in Los Angeles around June 1981 wherein a rare pulmonary Pneumocystis carinii was found infecting six cases with blood-borne HIV condition (Feigal, Levine and Biggar, 2000 p.1).By mid-1982, approximately 450 cases of HIV had been identified by CDC, and by the end of the year, an estimated case increase of 300 or more was received by the same organization (Finkel, 2007 p.89). The event marked the first AIDS epidemic creating a global stigma against races, demographics, countries and gender associated with the disease epidemiology (Parker and Aggleton, 2003).From 1982 to 1985, AIDS and HIV monitoring institutions were able to file an approximate 16,000 cases of HIV, while death toll caused by the disease had reached 8,100 for 1985 alone (Finkel, 2007 p.89). By the end of 2002, UNAIDS reported 42 million people with AIDS worldwide, while 25 million had already died of the infection (Porth, 2005 p.427).Due to the increasing number of infected population, AIDS had reshaped the world history by influencing the world’s views on countries, nations, and people responsible for the spread of the disease across the globe.I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discussiona.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Epidemiology and its International ImpactAIDS epidemic has kept on growing in its exponential rates since its marked discovery in June, 1981. In United States, AIDS epidemic rose from the 1985 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) records of 5,600 to 82,764 in 1989, 816,000 by the end of 2000, and UNAIDS records of 3.5 million by the end of 2002 (Porth, 2005 p.428; Patterson, 2005 p.179).In an international perspective, global AIDS prevalence among adults from 15 to 49 years old has increased from approximately 8.5 million in 1990 to 38.6 million in 2005, while African AIDS prevalence trend among the similar demographics has increased as well from 1.3 million in 1985 to 25 million as of 2005 (UNAIDS, 2006).According to Steinbrook (2004), there are nine countries that have the most number of HIV-infected demographics, and eight of these are from sub-Saharan Africa totaling to approximately 12 million individuals with AIDS. The country and race of African people have been severely affected by the global stereotypes and trauma against AIDS.According to Iliffe (2007), convincing trace of HIV-1 transmission has been detected in chimpanzees exclusive to the region of Kinshasa, while the ten subtypes of HIV-1 have been foun d in an early epidemic only within the equatorial Africa, which consequently suggests the viral origin of AIDS (p.311).The increasing international stigma over sub-Saharan Africa has affected the global ethnicities of blacks, African American and African immigrants in every part of the world (Steinbrook, 2004).According to the review study of Valdiserri (2002), race and ethnic groups associated with the groups dramatically affected by AIDS infection have experienced negative attitudes, prejudice, judgment and discrimination from the social public.b.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Global Trend of AIDS EpidemicThe complex hallmark of AIDS in World History involves the rising trend of social stigma against AIDS epidemic and demographics associated with the disease epidemiology (Steinbrook, 2004).According to the review study of Valdiserri (2002), series of national interviews from 1990s to 2000 reveals that the 1 out of 5 individuals living in the study sample (n=5,600 American adults) possess negative a ttitudes against races associated and patients with AIDS.According to Perloff (2001), the increasing trend of AIDS epidemic triggered various social prejudice and negative attitudes against various groups of individuals across the world. In mainland South Africa, women and children who obtained HIV becomes the social projection of rejection, prejudice and discrimination brought by the global stigma towards AIDS (Brown, Macintyre and Trujilo, 2003).In United States, African American or Blacks have been viewed negatively after the American public harbor more stigmatizing attitudes from sub-Sahara’s reported HIV infection, while in Thailand, social hostility towards prostitutes (e.g. police harassment, discrimination, etc.) are increasing   consistently (Perloff, 2001 p.130).According to Armstrong-Dailey and Zarbock (2001), the common impact of AIDS stigma on a global perspective is the development of social ostracism among families or patients who contracted with AIDS (p.119) .According to the study of Sudha, Vijay and Lakshmi (2005), 51.13% of the sample (n=800) felt the need to publicly denounce the names of AIDS patients for the public to avoid them, while 73.75% of the families interviewed prefer to keep AIDS condition among family relatives only.Discrimination brought by the public and even medical practitioners becomes the by-product of the worldwide stigma stimulated by the exponential growth rate of AIDS (Perloff, 2001 p.130).c.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Impact of AIDS in Future GenerationWith the continuous rising trend of AIDS population worldwide, social stigma of the general public against the race, demographics and individuals associated with the disease epidemiology is likely to increase causing global negative attitudes, fear and prejudice against their population (Armstrong-Dailey and Zarbock, 2001 p.119).Contrary to the above predictions, the study of Blower, Schwartz and Mills (2003), public stigma against AIDS patient may reduce depending on the inc reasing health awareness of the public regarding HIV prevention and patient management.Meanwhile, Piot, Bartos and Ghys et al. (2001) have predicted that the immediate future implications of AIDS epidemic in high stakes countries (e.g. South Africa, Thailand, U.S, etc.) are (a) the increase in medical expenditures of the country (e.g. predicted 45% in South Africa, etc.), (b) decreased of life expectancy (e.g. 59 y/o down to 45 y/o by 2005 in South Africa, etc.), and (c) reduced economic efficiency of the country’s economy.II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ConclusionFrom the localized outbreak of 1981 to the massive infection of 21st century, AIDS has dramatically affected the global trend of social perceptions and health care due to the global stigma caused by the exponential increases of AIDS epidemic.AIDS patients in globally known epidemic countries, such as South Africa, India, United States, Thailand, are predicted to suffer social ostracism wherein patien ts may fail to publicly seek AIDS medical treatment due to their fears of discrimination, persecution and inferior treatment.According to presented studies, the global effects of AIDS epidemic may increase the countries’ allocations for medical expenditures, and decrease the life expectancy of the general population.III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ReferencesArmstrong-Dailey, A., & Zarbock, S. F. (2001). Hospice Care for Children. New York, London: Oxford University Press US.Blower, S., Schwartz, E. J., & Mills, J. (2003, June). Forecasting the Future of HIV Epidemics: the Impact of Antiretroviral Therapies & Imperfect Vaccines. AIDS Reviews, 5, 113-125.Brown, L., Macintyre, K., & Trujillo, L. (2003, February). Interventions to Reduce HIV/AIDS Stigma: What Have We Learned?. AIDS Education and Prevention, 15, 49-69.Feigal, E. G., Levine, A. M., & Biggar, R. J. (2000). AIDS-related Cancers and Their Treatment. New York, U.S.A: Informa Health Care.Finkel, M. (2007). Truth, Lies, and Public Health: How We are Affected when Science and Politics Collide. New York, U.S.A: Greenwood Publishing Group.Iliffe, J. (2007). Africans: The History of a Continent. New York, London: Cambridge University Press.

Frederick Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Essay

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, author, salesman, and reformer. Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African American history and a formidable public presence. He was a firm believer in equality of all people whether they were black, women, native Americans or immigrants. He was fond of saying â€Å"I would unite with anybody to do right and nobody to do wrong. † Frederick was born a slave in Maryland. He was only with his mother for a couple of weeks, he was raised by his grandparents. His mother, Harriot Bailey, died when he was only seven years old. The identity of his father is obscure. It was said that his father was a white man, perhaps his owner. He later said he knew nothing about his father. At the age of six his grandmother took him to the plantation and left him there. At the age of eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with his owners brother Hugh Auld. It was shortly after he arrived that Mrs Auld started to teach him the alphabet and how to read. Her husband thought it was wrong saying that he would become dissatisfied with his life and have a desire for freedom. Hugh forbid his wife to continue so Douglass took it upon himself to learn. The white kids in the neighborhood helped him learn and in return Douglass would give away his food. At the age of twelve he purchased a book called The Columbian Orator. It helped him to gain a different look and understanding on the power of the written and spoken words. Frederick returned to the eastern shore at the age of fifteen he became a field hand. During this time he had an encounter with the â€Å"slave breaker† Edward Covey. Covey restored his sense of self-worth after the fights. At the age of eighteen he was sent back to live with the Auld family. In September 1838 he succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor. he then moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he and his newly married wife Anna Murray begin to raise a family. When he had a chance, he went to abolitionist meetings. In October 1841 after one of the meetings he became a lecturer. He became partners with William Lloyd Garrison. This work led him to public speaking and writing. He also participated in the very first woman’s right conventions. He also wrote three autobiographies starting with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass followed by My Bondage and my Freedom in 1855 and ending with Life and Times of Frederick Douglass which he wrote after the civil war in 1892. When he returned to the United States he published his own newspaper â€Å"The North Star†. Douglass was recognized all over the world as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for equal opportunity and justice. Douglass fought for equality for his people. He was also recognized for a defender of women’s rights. Douglass became a trusted advisor of Lincoln, recorder of Deeds for Washington, D. C, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, and Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti. In 1872 Douglass was the first African American to receive a nomination for Vice President of the United States. During the campaign, he neither campaigned for the ticket nor even acknowledged that he had been nominated. In 1877 he was appointed to United States Marshal. He was appointed to the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia in 1877. After his wife died in 1882 he was in a state of depression until his associate Ida B Wells brought meaning back to life for him. Douglass remarried in 1884 to Helen Pitts, a white feminist from New York. The couple faced a storm of controversy as a result of their marriage since she was a white woman and nearly 20 years younger than him. Later in life Douglass was determined to find out his birthday. He adopted February 14th because of his mother, she used to always call him her little valentine. On February 20th 1895 Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington D. C. Shortly after the meeting he returned home, Douglass died of a stroke or a massive heart attack in his adopted home town of Washington D. C. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Frederick Douglass was sought to exemplify three keys for success. Believe in yourself, Take advantage of every opportunity, and Use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive change for yourself and society. Douglass also stated that † Whatever is possible for me is possible for you†. By taking these key words and making them his own, Douglass created a life of honor, respect and success that he never would have dreamed of when he was a younger boy living on the plantation. Works Cited http://www. frederickdouglass. org/douglass_bio. html Douglass, Frederick Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Christian Age Office. 1895 Fight for Emancipation. Accessed April 19, 2007.

History of Capitalism

It seems that in the United States of America Capitalism streams with grace. For me capitalism seems to be the best way for an economy to grow. Some may say, capitalism is unfair in terms of competition and giving the best possible price to the consumer. Or that capitalism creates classes where â€Å"the rich get richer and the poor get poorer†. I†m no doctor of the economy, or a spokesperson for all of America, but I feel that company†s can be more profitable both in an economic and a personal standpoint by running a business based on capitalism. Looking at the predicament with competition, from most of my experiences at this stage of life for me, competition has done great things in terms of making products cheaper for me. For example, the computer hardware business, I built a computer one year ago using an Intel Pentium II 300mhz processor. I paid $520 for the motherboard and processor. Since AMD (a competitor of Intel) came out with the AMD K-6-2 processor, Intel†s prices have dropped considerably. As a matter of fact, I was on the Internet just yesterday and saw that I could by an Intel Pentium II 333mhz processor and a motherboard for just $335. It†s just too bad that I couldn†t say the same for Microsoft†s prices. But that topic alone could spawn a novel. I think that of late, many Americans have less faith in their government than they did 50 years ago. And having the government control the country†s industry would create all kinds of dilemmas. I was thinking about the statement â€Å"the rich get richer and the poor get poorer† and also about capitalism creating economic classes among society. Again, I†m not a economics major, so the next few statements are going to be based on my assumption that – the difference between say, a doctors salary and a janitors salary in a capitalist economy would be much more significant than in a socialist economy. With that being said, I think that a capitalist economy can promote much more motivation for self improvement and fulfillment than a socialist economy can provide. Lets say you went to college for four, six, or even eight years to be a business executive. And the guy pushing the mail cart who, perhaps, dropped out of school in the 11th grade, was pulling in about the same amount as you are, now what†s that going to do for your motivation or dignity for that matter? Why bother going through all that work and mental stress when we can be lackadaisical and unproductive but still receive the same opportunities and benefits as the executives (kind of like Union workers – Just Kidding)? The point I†m trying to make is, most people like rewards, and most people like accomplishment. It just seems that capitalism can offer more to the society and its individuals by allowing them to set and work towards goals. Plus by providing a good standard of living for workers I think capitalism helps to allow people to gain confidence in their government. Getting away form capitalism, there are a lot of stupid and foolish laws that exist today but most are ethical. It appears that what is an ethical guideline for most of us today, often will be translated to law or regulation some time in the future. I find it strange how ethics and morals are learned. I mean, I feel that I am a fairly ethical person, especially in public places like, work or school. A little common sense can get you the basics of morals and ethics. In the work place, attention to the ethics beyond the basics looks to be deteriorated for many companies and employees for that matter. Consequently, it looks like there is no clear moral conductor to guide upper management about what is right or wrong. But, for me its confusing to learn because there are so many different ways to look at ethics, similar to religion, how do you know really what style is best for you and your surroundings, or maybe, the best is a little of each?

Artificial Intelligence in Business Applications

Artificial Intelligence in Business Applications Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Business functions that can/cannot be automated INTRODUCTION Computer systems today are a part of almost all businesses; this is because they provide us, along with the added use of the Internet, with a variety of means that made business operations easier, productivity higher, and communication processes faster. Computers and the programs (or the software applications that are installed on them) along with the robotic systems do a great amount of the tasks that were previously performed by the employees and/or workers themselves. This transformation, towards an automated work environment, saved businesses a lot of unwanted expenses, a lot of time, and caused profits to increase steadily. Computers substituted, in different business structures, classical machines and tools, such as the calculator, the fax, the telephone, the photocopier and many more. The automation of different business functions led many organisations and companies to a higher level in what concerns production and management. But the point that should be understood is that even though many processes and functions related to businesses and organisations have been automated, there are still many aspects that are not, or that cannot be, automated for a wide range of reasons. BUSINESS FUNCTIONS The main objective of any business is to achieve success. To be able to reach success, an organisation needs to have an effective structure because any entity depends exclusively on two factors which are management and use of information. An efficient use of information systems can allow an easier and faster access to data that are essential for the workflow and for the quality of that work and, therefore, can assist the management in performing its duties in the best possible manner and in making the right decisions at the right times. In order to achieve such objectives, specific business functions should be established and specific tasks should be performed. Every k ind of business and every organisation, depending on the nature of their operations, the products or services that are provided by them, their geographic location, and depending on the management and production schools that they relate to, have different business functions, but there are certain generic functions that apply to all kinds of businesses all over the world. These functions are usually general management, information management, operations management, marketing, finance and accounting, and human resources. Lan and Unhelkar (2005) identify the various generic business functions by stating that they are the function of Management and Administration which is the department whose tasks are to â€Å"corporate resources, corporate image, quality in all aspects, industrial relations, stakeholders relations, productivity, [and] promotion,† the function of Human Resources that should deal with â€Å"job analysis, position classification, employee training, employee select ion, employee auditing and promotion† in addition to other related tasks, the function of Finance and Accounts that is responsible for â€Å"the capital operations required by the entire enterprise activities†¦ the funds required by management, administration, sales, marketing, human resources, [and] purchasing,† the function of Purchase and Procurement, the function of Sales and Marketing, and the function of Customer Care or Customer Support.

Challenges and Strategies for Personal Success Essay

Challenges and Strategies for Personal Success - Essay Example Within my educational realms, the personal and professional goals are deemed as very significant. This is because I have properly understood the dual  role of education and attaining a graduate degree under my belt in the aptest way. I have realized how this will work well with the changing times and how I would be able to cope up with pressure when it is exerted on me. The personal and professional goals might be different but what is important here is a collective vision to set things right within the domains of the graduates who are fulfilling their educational responsibilities. The reasons for pursuing graduate studies lie in the fact that the student understands that if he is a graduate, he would be offered a handsome job and thus his life would be made secure. On the flip side of the coin, the ramifications seem horrendous to state the least – where this individual can face wrath within his future domains and would often be at the mercy of others, which indeed is an un fortunate reality. It is true that a GPA will give a good measure of my talent and the way in which I aspire for education within my university. Thus it is pertinent that a graduate must be motivated enough to have a sound GPA and should not think of anything else other than having a standard GPA at the university, and so would be my case in essence. This indeed is a challenge right from the onset as far as I am concerned – as soon as I enroll within the university. It is a fact that the challenges in the line of attaining top-quality education for a graduate are many and my case is no different. However, what is important for me is the manner in which I acquaint myself with the changing norms and procedures. One such challenge is the way in which I will try to come at par with the studies which are being offered. It is quite possible that I might feel weak within studies or within a subject and on that count; I will feel that I cannot cope up with the same. I might not be ab le to impart the much needed time towards my graduate studies which would lead to more frustration and worries on my part. Another challenge that I might face is to maintain a considerably solid GPA in order to remain ahead of my class fellows as well as to have a solid rapport with the university administration. I need to have a GPA which is a clear representation of my skills, abilities, my educational capacities, talents and so on and so forth. Last challenge that a graduate like me might have within my graduate studies is in the way I need to pay my semester or term fees, which seem to be on the rise every now and then. Since the university authorities do not usually assign a reason before raising the fees, it leaves the students and their guardians high and dries most of the times. The definable steps in achieving short term and long term goals would bank a great deal on how things shape up within my understanding levels of education.