Review on Mississippi Masala

Response Paper on Mississippi Masala (1991): the impact of racism and race in the identities of the characters The themes of racial identities & interracial racism are ones that surface multiple times in the movie Mississippi Masala (1991) by Mila Nair. In the beginning of the film, we notice Jay’s resentment of having to leave his country Uganda. Jay argues with his childhood friend Okelo that he has â€Å"been called a boot licker and a traitor to Indians†¦ Uganda is my first home and India my second†. It saddens Jay that after 34 years of his life it all came down to the â€Å"color of [his] skin†.His childhood friend reminds him that â€Å"Africa is for Africans†¦ black Africans†. The exile of South Asians, which is enforced by military leader Idi Amin, tarnishes the view of the African culture for Jay. He, along with the other South Asians that are forced to leave, turns his back to the African culture he grew up and welcomes the Indian cult ure in American land. Jay even goes as far as not saying goodbye to his brother-like friend Okelo treating him with a cold shoulder. Jay fails to realize that his friend’s close mindedness is not one to blame for the ignorance that was going around in Uganda.Another instance where race and the color of the skin create bias is at the wedding of Mina’s cousin, where two ladies are gossiping. The ladies comment on Mina’s dark complexion, noting that one cannot be â€Å"dark and without money and expect to get with Harry†. Notice the appraisal for a fair or light skin color. This racism, coming from within the culture, is an example of the struggle that Mina and the family face. Because she is a ‘darkie’ and poor, she cannot expect to woo the heart of the rich Indian bachelor Harry.Racisms is used as a double-edged sword; best seen when Uncle Jammubhai says that â€Å"people of color stick together†¦united we stand, divided we fall† y et regards blacks as ‘foreigners’ and troublesome if they tarnish the family’s honor. Mina’s relationship with an African American is a parent’s â€Å"ultimate fear† since it involves the South Asian daughter marrying someone who is neither Indian nor White. There are also cases of racial identities that become affected by the events that transpire. Mina regards herself as ‘masala’ which is symbolic in regards to the title of the movie.Masala is a mixture of spices, which we can take to represent her South Asian heritage. However, Mina was born and raised for part of her childhood in Uganda, so she also has African roots. ‘Mississippi Masala’ represents a mixture of American and South Asian roots. While in exile from her first home Uganda, and being raised through Indian culture, which she is geographically disconnected from, Mina learns to simultaneously welcome the American culture and its ideals as well. In other words, Mina is embracing the hybridity of cultures.This case is seen best when we see her fit just right at her cousins wedding and the African American dance club. Mina welcomes diversity and constructs her identity based on ideals from her present. Mina cares not to make the same mistake as her father and pursues and interracial relationship with African-American rug cleaner Demetrius. However both communities don’t take their union as light matter. The Indian community regards their love as a â€Å"dishonor and shame† to the family, with some mothers going as far calling it a ‘rebellion’ and sending their daughters to their countries to get married.Demetrius, who worked hard to create his cleaning company, gets a cold shoulder from his clients. The white lady, who gave a good recommendation of him to the bank, withdraws her good comments about him, and gets the bank to threaten to remove his loan. His aunt Rose says that ‘the days of slavery are o ver†¦[but]the world is not so quick to change†. She is referring to the racism and the pointing of the fingers that occurs when one goes outside the norm of what is expected.

Night World : Witchlight Chapter 3

Keller turned her head quickly. Nissa was standing there, cool and imperturbable as always, one hand on her hip. Her short mink-colored hair wasn't even ruffled; her eyes, just a shade or two darker, were steady. And she was holding an ironwood fighting stick with a very sharp point. Keller growled faintly in relief. You couldn't ask Nissa to be creative-her mind didn't work that way. But on any question of logic, she was unbeatable, and she had nerves of ice. More important right now, she was a superb fighter. â€Å"If you want to play, why don't you try me?† she suggested, and whipped the fighting stick around expertly a few times. It whistled in the air, traced a complicated figure, and ended up casually across her shoulder. Then she slowly extended the point toward the vampire's throat. â€Å"Yeah, and don't leave me out.† This voice was husky and shaky but still grim. It came from behind the counter. Winnie was pulling herself up. She coughed once, then stood straight, facing the vampire. Energy, orange and pulsating, flared between her cupped hands. Witch power. You're alive, Keller thought. She couldn't suppress the flash of relief. The vampire looked from one girl to the other. Then he glanced at Keller, who was lying on her side, feebly trying to make her legs work. Her tail lashed furiously. â€Å"Come on!† the other vampire shouted. He was staggering under the weight of the dragon, heading for the door. â€Å"Let's get Azhdeha out of here. He's the most important thing.† The first vampire hesitated one instant, then whirled and plunged after his friend. Together, they hustled the dragon out into the mall. Then they were gone. Keller gave one final gasping snarl and felt herself change. This time, it felt more like a snail falling out of a shell. Her claws dissolved, her tail withered, and she slumped into her human body. â€Å"Boss! Are you okay?† Winnie came toward her, a little unsteadily. Keller raised her head, black hair falling on either side to the floor. She pushed herself up with her arms and looked around, taking stock. The shop was quiet It was also a wreck. Winnie's impact with the wall had knocked off most of the decorative plates and clocks there. Keller's fight with the dragon had trashed a lot of the shelves. There were shattered Christmas ornaments everywhere, little glittering fragments of scarlet and holly green and royal purple. It was like being in a giant kaleidoscope. And outside, chaos was gathering. The entire fight had only taken about five minutes, but all the time it had been going on, people had been running away from the shop and screaming. Keller had noticed them; she had simply filed them away in her mind as unimportant. There had been nothing she could do about them. Now, there were security officers closing in, and someone had undoubtedly called the police. She pushed with her arms again and managed to stand up. â€Å"Nissa.† It hurt her throat to speak. â€Å"Where's the car?† â€Å"Right down there.† Nissa pointed at the floor. â€Å"Directly below us, parked outside the Mrs. Fields cookie store.† â€Å"Okay. Let's get Diana out.† Keller looked at the young girl with the shimmering hair who as yet hadn't spoken a single word. â€Å"Can you walk?† Iliana stared at her. She didn't say anything. Stunned and frightened, Keller guessed. Well, a lot had happened in the last few minutes. â€Å"I know this all seems bizarre to you, and you're probably wondering who we are.Ill explain everything. But right now, we have to get out of here. Okay?† Iliana shrank a little, trembling. Not exactly a hero, Keller thought. Or quick on the uptake. Then she decided she was being unfair. This girl was the Witch Child; she undoubtedly had hidden strengths. â€Å"Come on,† Galen said to Iliana gently. â€Å"She's right; it isn't safe here.† Iliana looked up at him earnestly. She seemed about to agree. Then she gave a little shiver, shut her eyes, and fainted. Galen caught her as she fell. Keller stared. â€Å"She's too pure to deal with this kind of stuff,† Winnie said defensively. â€Å"Violence and all. It's not the same as being chicken.† It was at that exact moment that Keller could pinpoint her first real doubts about the new Wild Power. Galen looked down at the girl who lay in his arms like a broken lily. He looked at Keller. â€Å"You take her; well surround you and cover you,† Keller said, cutting him off. She knew her hair was in complete disarray, a wild cyclone of black around her. Her sleek jumpsuit was torn and stained, and she was clutching her right shoulder, which still throbbed in agony. But she must have looked fairly commanding, because Galen didn't say another word, just nodded and started toward the door. Nissa led the way in front of him. Winnie and Keller fell in behind. They were ready to fight, but when the security guards with walkie-talkies saw Nissa whirling her stick, they backed away. The ordinary people, curious onlookers attracted by all the noise, not only backed away but ran. Lots of them screamed. â€Å"Go,† Keller said. â€Å"Fast. Go.† They made it to Mrs. Fields without anybody trying to stop them. A girl with a red apron flattened herself against a wall as they thrust their way behind the counter and into the sanctum full of industrial-sized ovens in the back. A gangly boy dropped a tray with a clang, and lumps of raw cookie dough scattered on the floor. And then they were bursting through the back entrance, and there was the car, a white limousine illegally parked at the curb. Nissa whipped out a key chain and pressed a button, and Keller heard the click of doors unlocking. â€Å"Inside!† she said to Galen. He got in. Winnie ran around the car to get in the other side. Nissa slid into the driver's seat. Keller ducked in last and snapped, â€Å"Go!† even as she slammed the door. Nissa floored it. The limousine shot forward like a dolphin-just as a security truck sped up from the rear. A police car appeared dead in front of them. Nissa was an excellent driver. The limo swerved with a squeal of tires and peeled out of another of the parking lot's exits. A second police car swung toward them as Nissa dodged traffic. This one had lights and sirens on. Nissa gunned the engine, and the limo surged forward again. A freeway on-ramp was ahead. â€Å"Hang on,† Nissa said briefly. They were passing the on-ramp-they were past it. No, they weren't. At the last possible second, the limo screamed into a ninety-degree turn. Everyone inside was thrown around. Keller clenched her teeth as her wounded arm hit the window. Then they were shooting up the on-ramp and onto the freeway. With a little patter, cat's paws of rain appeared on the windshield. Keller, leaning forward to look over Nissa's shoulder, was happy. With icy rain and the low, gray fog, they probably wouldn't be chased by helicopter. The big limousine roared past the few other cars on the road and Winnie sat looking out the rear window, murmuring a spell to confuse and delay any pursuit. â€Å"We lost them,† Nissa said. Keller sat back and let out her breath. For the first time since she'd entered the mall, she allowed herself to relax minutely. We did it. At the same moment, Winnie turned. She pounded the backseat with a small, hard fist. â€Å"We did it! Keller-we got the Wild Power! We†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Her voice trailed off as she saw Keller's face. â€Å"And, uh†¦ I guess I disobeyed orders.† Her pounding was self-conscious now; she ducked her strawberry-blond head. â€Å"Um, I'm sorry, Boss.† â€Å"You'd better be,† Keller said. She held Winnie's gaze a moment, then said, â€Å"You could have gotten yourself killed, witch-and for absolutely no good reason.† Winnie grimaced. â€Å"I know. I lost it. I'm sorry.† But she smiled timidly at Keller afterward. Keller's team knew how to read her. â€Å"Sorry, too, Boss,† Nissa said from the front seat. She slanted a glance at Keller from her mink-colored eyes. â€Å"I wasn't supposed to leave the car.† â€Å"But you thought we might need a little help,† Keller said. She nodded, meeting Nissa's eyes in the mirror. â€Å"I'm glad you did.† The faintest flush of pleasure colored Nissa's cheeks. Galen cleared his throat. â€Å"Um, for the record, I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to charge in like that in the middle of your operation.† Keller looked at him. He was smiling slightly, hesitantly, the way Winnie had. A nice smile. The corner of his mouth naturally quirked upward, giving him a hint of mischief in all but the most serious moments. His green-gold eyes were apologetic but hopeful. â€Å"Yeah, who are you, guy?† Winnie was looking him up and down, her dark lashes twinkling. â€Å"Did Circle Daybreak send you? I thought we were on this mission alone.† â€Å"You were. I belong to Circle Daybreak, but they didn't send me. I just-well, I was outside the shop, and I couldn't just stand there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  His voice died. The smile died, too. â€Å"You're really mad, aren't you?† he said to Keller. â€Å"Mad?† She took a slow breath. â€Å"I'm furious.† He blinked. â€Å"I don't-â€Å" â€Å"You stopped me. I could have killed him!† His gold-green eyes opened in shock and something like remembered pain. â€Å"He was killing you.† â€Å"I know that,† Keller snarled. â€Å"It doesn't matter what happens to me. What matters is that now he's free. Don't you understand what he is?† Winfrith was looking sober. â€Å"I don't know. But he hit me with something powerful. Pure energy like what I use, but about a hundred times stronger.† â€Å"He's a dragon,† Keller said. She saw Nissa's shoulders stiffen, but Winnie just shook her head, bewildered. â€Å"A kind of shapeshifter that hasn't been around for about thirty thousand years.† â€Å"He can turn into a dragon?† Keller didn't smile. â€Å"No, of course not. Don't be silly. I don't know what he can do-but a dragon is what he is. Inside.† Winnie suddenly looked queasy as this hit home. Keller turned back to Galen. â€Å"And that's what you let loose on the world. It was the only chance to kill him-nobody will be able to take him by surprise like that again. Which means that everything he does after this is going to be your fault.† Galen shut his eyes, looking dizzy. â€Å"I'm sorry. But when I saw you-I couldn't let you die†¦.† â€Å"I'm expendable. I don't know who you are, but I'm willing to bet you're expendable. The only one here who isn't expendable is her.† Keller jerked a thumb at Iliana, who lay in a pool of pale silver-gold hair on the seat beside Galen. â€Å"And if you think that dragon isn't going to come back and try to get her again, you're crazy. I'd have died happy knowing that I'd gotten rid of him.† Galen's eyes were open again, and Keller saw a flicker in them at the â€Å"don't know who you are.† But at the end, he said quietly, â€Å"I'm expendable. And I'm sorry. I didn't think† â€Å"That's right! You didn't! And now the whole world is going to suffer.† Galen shut up and sat back. And Keller felt odd. She wasn't sorry for slapping him down, she told herself. He deserved it. But his face was so pale now, and his expression was so bleak. As if he'd not only understood everything she'd said but expanded on it in his own mind. And the look of hurt in his eyes was almost insupportable. Good, Keller told herself. But then she remembered the moment she'd spent inside his mind. It had been a sunlit place, warm and open, without dark corners or shadowed crevasses. Now that would be gone forever. There was going to be a huge black fissure in it, full of horror and shame. A mark he would carry for the rest of his life. Well, welcome to the real world, Keller thought, and her throat tightened and hurt. She stared out the window angrily. â€Å"See, it's really important that we keep Iliana safe,† Winfrith was saying quietly to Galen. He didn't ask why, and Keller had noticed before that he hadn't asked why Iliana wasn't expendable. But Winnie went on telling him anyway. â€Å"She's a Wild Power. You know about those?† â€Å"Who doesn't these days?† He said it almost in a whisper. â€Å"Well, most humans, for one thing. But she's not just a Wild Power; she's the Witch Child. Somebody we witches have been expecting for centuries. The prophecies say she's going to unite the shape-shifters and the witches. She's going to marry the son of the First House of the shapeshifters. And then the two races will be united, and all the shapeshifters will join Circle Daybreak, and well be able to hold off the end of the world at the millennium.† Winnie finished out of breath. Then she cocked her strawberry-blond head. â€Å"You don't seem surprised. Who are you, guy? You didn't really say before.† â€Å"Me?† He was still looking into the distance. â€Å"I'm nobody, compared to you people.† Then he gave a little wry smile that didn't reach his eyes. â€Å"I'm expendable.† Nissa caught Keller's eye in the rearview mirror, looking concerned. Keller just shrugged. Sure, Winnie was telling this expendable guy a lot. But it didn't matter. He wasn't on the enemy side; and anyway, the enemy knew everything Winnie was saying. They had identified Iliana as the third Wild Power; the dragon proved that. They wouldn't have sent him if they hadn't been sure. But still, it was time to get rid of this interfering boy. They certainly couldn't take him to the safe house where they were taking Iliana. â€Å"Nobody tailing us?† Keller said. Nissa shook her head. â€Å"We lost them all miles ago.† â€Å"You're sure?† â€Å"Dead certain.† â€Å"Okay. Take any exit, and we'll drop him off.† She turned to Galen. â€Å"I hope you can find your way home.† ‘I want to go with you.† â€Å"Sorry. We have important things to do.† Keller didn't need to add, And you're not part of them. â€Å"Look.† Galen took a deep breath. His pale face was strained and exhausted, as if he'd somehow lost three days' sleep since he'd gotten into the limo. And there was something close to desperation in his eyes. â€Å"I need to go with you. I need to help, to try and make up for what I did. I need to make it right.† â€Å"You can't.† Keller said it even more brusquely than she meant to. â€Å"You're not trained, and you're not involved in this. You're no good.† He gave her a look. It didn't disagree with anything she'd said, but somehow, for just an instant, it made her feel small. His greeny-gold eyes were just the opposite of the dragon's opaque ones. Keller could see for miles in them, endless light-filled fathoms, and it was all despair. A sorrow so great that it shook her. She knew it must be costing him a lot to show her that, to hold himself so open and vulnerable. But he kept looking at her steadily. â€Å"You don't understand,† he said quietly. I have to help you. I have to try, at least. I know I'm not in your class as a fighter. But I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He hesitated. â€Å"I didn't want to say this-â€Å" At that moment, Iliana groaned and sat up. Or tried to. She didn't make it all the way. She put a hand to her head and started to fall off the seat. Galen steadied her, putting an arm around her to keep her propped up. â€Å"Are you all right?† Keller asked. She leaned forward, trying to get a look at the girl's face. Winnie was leaning forward, too, her expression eager. â€Å"How're you feeling? You're not really hurt, are you? You just fainted from the shock.† Diana looked around the limousine. She seemed utterly confused and disoriented. Keller was struck again by the girl's unearthly beauty. This close, she looked like a flower, or maybe a girl made from flowers. She had peach-blossom skin and hazy iris-colored eyes. Her hair was like corn silk, fine and shimmering even in this dim light. Her hands were small and graceful, fingers half curled like flower petals. â€Å"It's such an honor to meet you,† Winnie said, and her voice turned formal as she uttered the traditional greeting of the witches. â€Å"Unity, Daughter of Hellewise. I'm Winfrith Arlin.† She dimpled. â€Å"But it's really ‘Arm-of-Lightning.' My family's an old one, almost as old as yours.† Diana stared at her. Then she stared at the back of Nissa's mink-colored head. Then her eyes slid to Keller. Then she sucked in a deep breath and started screaming.

Police Essay

Some more Information about the investigation to date: The Australian Crime Commission and the Crime and Misconduct Commission (SLD) had been kept In the loop by the QPS since the early stages of this Investigation, because of their interest in illicit firearm sales and organized crime. Upon learning of Crag's arrest, the AC expressed an interest in interviewing him about his knowledge of and connections to a high-profile outlaw motorcycle gang operating on the coast. Craig:Craig was arrested by QPS officers at his home. He made It clear that he intended to exercise his right to remain silent, so no QPS interview took place. However, as the investigation falls within the ambit of the Sac's Highest Risk Criminal Targets Special Investigation, an AC examiner has available special powers that can compel Craig to attend and give evidence at an AC hearing. The AC decides that this Is an appropriate way to proceed at this stage. Answer the following questions 1. Can Craig refuse to attend the hearing? What would happen if he did?Provide 2 thoughtful arguments why you think the establishment of ‘new investigators' such as the AC or CM is necessary and/or appropriate. 4. Provide 2 thoughtful arguments why you think the establishment of ‘new Investigators' such as the AC or CM Is not necessary and/or appropriate. Police Essay By Soapstone Some more information about the investigation to date: had been kept in the loop by the QPS since the early stages of this investigation, because of their interest in illicit firearm sales and organized crime.Upon learning of Craig arrest, the AC expressed an interest in interviewing him about his knowledge Craig was arrested by QPS officers at his home. He made it clear that he intended to attend and give evidence at an AC hearing. The AC decides that this is an Craig attends the hearing and provides the examiner with useful information to continue the investigation into the outlaw motorcycle gang, although not sufficient investigators' such as the AC or CM is not necessary and/or appropriate.

Physical Attractiveness and Long-term Relationships Essay

Physical Attractiveness and Long-term Relationships - Essay Example Women often favor the "macho man" than his less attractive competitor. Accordingly, "Human attraction to aesthetics, good looks advertise good health" (Lecture, 7/18/2007). True enough, physical beauty alone can blind individuals and lure them to dive into an intimate association. In the real world situations, it is notable that the satisfaction of the physical ideals becomes an important basis in people's search for casual, non-committed, short term relationships. However, physical attractiveness alone is insufficient in sustaining that bond let alone ensure the longevity of that relationship. It becomes apparent that both sexes relax their ideals of physical attractiveness when considering a long term partnership. An intimate relationship which is fully founded on the physical attractiveness of each partner is most likely to fail. Beauty is a shallow basis in pursuing a long-lasting relationship. The success or even the mere survival of a relationship depends on more intrinsic factors like the partner's acceptance of each other, sensitivity, commitment to the relationship, and most especially their level of understanding and love to each other. Real life examples provide us more than enough illustration to support this argument. As partners goes through their relationship, they become overwhelmed with concerns which are bigger than what meets the eye. Thus, as they began to face the storms and struggles, they begin to care less about the physical appearance of their partner. In fact, just spending time with the person 24 hours a day each day of the week makes the importance of physical beauty fade into the background. At this stage, the partners become more concerned on their individual diffe rences, emotional struggles, and other problems. The ability of the partners to surpass these critical periods is determined by their love for each other alone and not on their level of physical attractiveness. Love alone, which enables a person to accept his partner for all that she is and instills him with the commitment to make the relationship work, can sustain a long term partnership. Relationships which are founded on immediate physical attraction are more likely to fail when individual differences become apparent. In fact, these partnerships are often disastrous and can be attributed to the high divorce rate and long-term singledom (Feinmann, s. 4). Physical attractiveness can be more detrimental than beneficial in a relationship. Studies stress that beauty often boosts the self-confidence of women, gives them security in the relationship and becomes their ticket in doing dirty tactics: "Data from young U.S. females show that compared to less-attractive females, attractive females report higher frequencies of using attractiveness enhancement tactics (e.g., wearing makeup), flirting with other males to make a date jealous, and acting possessively" (Elia/Chen p.33). All of the aforementioned strategies of more attractive female becomes damaging to the relationship because they can become causes of disagreement between partners. Flirting with other men and becoming overly possessive are two things which are extremely loathed and are unacceptable to guys. In this way, physical attracti

The spatial differences betwee men and women - this is for a gender Essay

The spatial differences betwee men and women - this is for a gender psychology class - Essay Example an others but certain abilities like spatial understanding, mathematical abilities and verbal skills have been shown as having a certain gender component. Kimura (2002) reports the generally accepted observations for human and non human males which show that males of the species tend to have more aggressive behaviors than the females. She goes on to say that, â€Å"We also know that in general males are better at a variety of spatial or navigational tasks (Kimura, 2002, p. 1).† Kimura (2002) is in agreement with Putrevu (2001) who suggests that the differences originate from the biology and the evolutionary path which has been taken by the genders in humans. This focus on evolutionary psychology goes a long way in helping us understand why it is important for men to be more aggressive than the female of the species. For instance, for biological reasons, including pregnancy, childbirth, and nurturing the child, women have made more significant investments in their children. Therefore, women who are more agreeable and nurturing may have caused better chances for the survival of their offspring and created an evolutionary advantage for their genetic code. In this regard, where women have greater sensitivity to nonverbal cues it could be useful to them in evolutionary terms for rearing children. Biological differences certainly extend to the functioning of the brain since one hemisphere of the brain comes across as being dominant for various kinds of processing. Research on the topic shows that the male brain is more functionally lateralized and the female brain is more integrated. This is the basic reason for why men exhibit superior spatial abilities and women excel in verbal and linguistic skills (Putrevu, 2001). Researchers also suggest that sexual hormones and early formation environmental factors are also connected with differences in perceptual-motor skills observed between men and women (Kimura, 2002). Despite the acceptance of fact and research which is the

Consumer Purchasing and the Rehabilitation Industry Coursework

Consumer Purchasing and the Rehabilitation Industry - Coursework Example Studies show that consumers have provided the impetus for economic recovery in many countries, including the US. In the wake of the US economic recession following 9/11, for example, the employment rate declined, wages stagnated, personal incomes struggled, but consumers were spending 10 percent more than the levels before the crunch. What happened was the consumers deferred their household mortgage and non-mortgage payments (housing and car loans, mostly) to pay for their daily consumption (Lilly, S. (2005). This means that come hell or high water, the consumer market is always there to lap up any brands that fulfill their needs. But precisely because the economy is in a strait jacket, producers of consumer goods and services need to navigate a minefield of challenges presented by a market made up of consumers who would only part with their hard-earned money if the brands offered to them have enough pulling power to influence their purchasing decisions. Logically, competition has ti ghtened up not only for the consumer market for goods but also for professional services, such that even the latter sector now calls for a branding strategy. The same thing goes for recruitment activities, which now use the branding approach to bag the most capable talents and personnel. Brand i Brand is the sum total of all that is known, thought, felt and perceived about a company, its product or service. It is the process of making products and companies into brands. The consumers' response to brand revolves around its image, and a strong and positive brand image influences consumers into making the decision to purchase. The marketer's principal goal is to build a relationship with buyers, not only for a single sale but also for the long term. The essence of this relationship consists of a strong bond that may be established between brand and buyer. Marketing concepts traditionally associated with the goods industry has been adopted in the service industry due to pressures exerted by rising prices and increased competition. Like all other industries, the rehabilitation industry has been buffeted by changes in technology and local economies. As in marketing for products, promotional efforts for the service sector now also put quality and customer satisfaction at the front burner. This discursive essay puts forward selected facts and theories about branding, the new challenges in marketing brands to a stingier and pickier consumer market, how bonds are established and maintained between brand and buyer, and how brands dictate the pace and scope of consumer purchasing. The essay also tracks down the journey of branding into the service industry, paying particular attention to the rehabilitation sector, which by necessity has evolved from its purely voluntary configuration into an industry as highly competitive as the market for consumer goods. II. Literature Review Haynes, A., et al. (1999) enthuse at the comprehensive brand presentation (CBP) technique, a formalized approach that aligns the manufacturing and

SOCIOLOGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

SOCIOLOGY - Essay Example A great deal of research work has shown that violence has deep and long lasting effects (Johnson, 2008). Psychologists admit the fact that children pass 13 hours in a week (boys) and 5 hours (girls) in playing video games. Dr. Anderson and his co-workers demonstrated that violent video games develop the feelings of hostility (Anderson et al, 2003). Theorist’s stress that people should wisely think and select what they want to watch on TV. Sociologists made research and found that whatever TV news broadcast or newspapers write is all based on their own thinking knowledge. TV news has influenced people in different ways .the news of terrorism, murder, thefts and crime makes people feel hostile and aggressive. Researchers found a relationship between the media and the conduct. The principal and the foremost effect is to copy what is being shown. Secondly, it makes people insensitive making them hard-hearted about rest of the world. Others say that violent news makes people dreadful about the problems and pains of others (Johnson, 2008). Conclusion: Psychologists unite about the effects of TV news while research in this are is quite difficult to measure. A psychologist mentioned is very difficult to prove the relationship between violent media and the conduct through specific methodology. Anderson, C.A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L.R., Johnson, J., Linz, D., Malamuth, N., & Wartella, E. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 4, pp.

NIE National Intelligence Estimates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

NIE National Intelligence Estimates - Essay Example Summary This section of my paper will be a summary of the article â€Å"Intelligence Estimates: How Useful to Congress†.1 National Intelligence Estimates (NIE’s) entail the collection or analysis of trends that are difficult and extensive to understand. This complex, estimative analysis report explores Congress efforts, under the guise of oversight, which can dilute or distort the NIE so as not to be true and accurate assessments. The scope and political influences from a variety of sources can be a bone of contention between the intelligence communities (IC) and Congress. The article describes many historically compiled examples unraveling the limitations faced by the NIE processes. NIE typically tries to cull out estimations from quite broad and extensive conclusions. However, some of the processes involve a single agency and do not intend to divulge any specific sources owing to a sense of mistrust. Considering this reluctance on the part of an administration which h olds a specific policy, may end up in a â€Å"watering down† of the conclusions so as to avoid possible controversies. As a result, a skeptical Congress has, over time, become more demanding with its insistence and request for the completed analyses. This distrust has lead to multiple efforts to pass legislations which accrue more authority to the Congress. Examples include the constant alterations into the Defense Authorization Act and the approval processes for the associated agencies such as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Without question, the scope of discontent cited in the article includes the aftermath of Iraq’s WMD Program. The article reported the well documented problems with the IC that place a great reliance on limited information, thereby resulting in wrong conclusions. Again, the findings listed in the article mention a shift in the scope and direction of the new global threat of terrorism. The current and perceived threats faced by the U.S. encourage the passing of new polices like the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. This act enunciated new guidelines that NIE must follow in the future to avoid the repetition of the mistakes made in the past. However, much terminology inherent in the language of the act is quite problematic and difficult to interpret. The article concludes with the ongoing oversights incumbent on the future NIEs so that they may better understand Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The report conveys the importance of key judgments which are included in the 2007 NIE report. The report, â€Å"Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities†, highlights a shift which in a way oversimplifies a new narrative. These judgments were included by the Director of the DNI and placed in the ‘UNCLASSIFIED’ version .This new story line no way changes the importance or the goals of the NIE, except for suggesting some changes in the mechanisms resorted to while interacting with the public. Analysis Overview In this section, I will develop an analytical response to the article in which I will offer further historical and contextual possibilities that may exemplify how the Congressional processes could be harmful. Specifically, I will address the varied issues that can have a negative impact on the customer-analyst interaction. To understand this potential non-productive interaction, the NIE has engaged in a series of collaborations

Critically assess the claim that market research is essential to Essay

Critically assess the claim that market research is essential to small, family owned firms. Do you think that the research aims, methods, tools, outcomes, and e - Essay Example Family owned business market research is usually discussed by the family members who are member of the company. While in big organizations, market research is discussed by high ranking personnel and a team of marketing personnel. We will discuss the importance of market research in a small family owned business. Family businesses have their own special set of challenges. Not only are you in personal relationships with a number of the people you are working with, which can complicate those relationships and those with your other employees, but you also need to deal with leadership roles and how ownership is passed to future generations. (www.smallbusinessnotes.com). Market research deals with the gathering of information, analyzing data and recording. Its uses include helping create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, and expand into new markets. Market research can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level. It can be found out what market characteristics a target market has. With market research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers. (www.wikipedia.org). Like any other business the small family owned business needs to have a market research to be able to ... Family members who are involved in the business usually have contradicting ideas and sometimes resulted in misunderstanding because emotions interfere. This is a market research should enters. The family members should put in mind that in market research the success and growth of the business is possible. Market research will also reduce the risk at the earliest stage. Small and big companies start the market research by gathering market information to ensure that they can serve their client by: remaining current with trends, keeping ahead of their competitors and seeking out new markets. Market Research There are several steps that need to be done in order to have a successful market research. The first thing that we need to identify is the problem involve in the company. A family owned company usually have problem in concluding in several things. One of the dimensions that need to be overcome by the family owned company is involvement of emotion during decision making. In a market research it is a waste if you proceed into something without identifying the problem first. Like any other business the family owned business should be able to identify the problem of their business correctly. Market research also helps companies develop information regarding new products or product lines and learn how well new items will be received. It can also help businesses learn how the public responds to a comparable product already on the market. In this way, business can stay in the loop, keeping in touch with the wants and needs of potential consumers. They can halt production of a product that the public shows little or no interest in, or change it, improve it, or

HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY QUESTION ASSIGNMENT - 1

HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY QUESTION - Assignment Example Typical causes of infertility in female entail; autoimmune disorder, cancer, diabetes, hormonal imbalance, old age, intrauterine growth such as fibroids, clotting disorders, pelvic infection, poor nutrition and surgery to prevent pregnancy for example tubal ligation. The most common cause of infertility is impotence and hormonal imbalance. Treatment of infertility depends on the cause. Emotional causes can be prevented through education and counseling. If the cause of infertility is infections, then infection treatment can be considered an effective remedy. Various options have emerged regarding treatment of infertility. Medication such as hormonal injection can help restore the hormonal balance hence increasing chances of fertility. Artificial insemination entails inserting a donated sperm cell into the womb of a woman with an intention of treating infertility and allowing fertilization to take place (Lumley& Judith, 30). In vitro fertilization is a method of fertility treatment which involves combing sperm and egg outside the body and transferring the embryo into the uterus after fertilization. Surrogate pregnancy entail the transfer of an embryo made by combining both the male and female gamete into the womb of another woman in cases where the biological mother is unable to carry the pregnancy as a result of compli cations. Complication such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome may emerge due to excessive stimulation of the ovaries as a treatment for infertility. The signs of the syndrome are to be detected earlier for effective treatment. Use of certain drugs to stimulate the ovary has been known to increase the risk of cancer. Egg removal during in vitro fertilization can result to injuries to other organs and sometimes pelvic infection. Other complications involve ectopic pregnancy and heterotopic pregnancy. Symptom in male includes presence of warts on the penis or the scrotum area while female may have the warts

Where Does the Customer Fit in Innovation Strategy Assignment

Where Does the Customer Fit in Innovation Strategy - Assignment Example se a panel data constructed from numerous organizational surveys conducted over a nine-year period to prove the very importance of customer-input as a way of responding to rapid market changes; â€Å"market orientation† is, thus, a critical factor both for the success of a new product released into the market as well as that of the firm in general. Investigating the very same topic but in a different dimension in a study titled â€Å"Integrating Customers in Product Innovation: Lessons from Industrial Development Contractors and In-House Contractors in Rapidly Changing Customer Markets,† Sandmeier, Morrison and Gassmann (2010) concurs with above scholars noting that the modern customer is an active co-designer in the creation of value, injecting their specialized knowledge of needs into the mainstream production away from the traditional, passive recipient. Dell’s ‘IdeaStorm,’ one of the most successful crowd sourcing forums ever invented in history, serves as a perfect example of how the ideas generated by the customers can be efficiently incorporated into the innovation process. Through IdeaStorm alongside organized events, customer panels, partnerships among other avenues, the company gathers product requirements directly from tens of thousands of daily customer-interactions with a complete view of the industry’s landscape (Rohrbeck, Steinhoff, & Perder, 2008). Dell started out as a direct seller from its very inception—beginning with a mail order way before the use of the internet to drive sales. The deletion of the traditional middlemen distribution process allowed the company to generate own corrective market data tailored towards customer needs. In its quest to deliver value to customers, the company has pursued virtual integration, developing effective partnerships with manufacturers [suppliers] that enabled â€Å"just-in-time† delivery with significant cost and product pricing advantages compared to the competitors’ in-house operations. Most

My Sisters Keeper Essay Example for Free

My Sisters Keeper Essay My Sister’s Keeper is a movie about a young girl named Anna (Abigail Breslin) whose life was brought to be for a very important purpose. She was born into a loving family with two adoring parents that made the decision to have another child in the hopes of saving the life of older their daughter that has leukemia. Throughout the entire movie the family and therefore the audience is presented with love, laughter and many emotional moral issues. Just like in real life there are many ups and downs and obstacles to be overcome. Some of moral dilemmas the characters face include stem cell research, at what age can children start making life changing decisions life for themselves and euthanasia to an extent. Wikipedia defines stem cell controversy as â€Å"the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells†1. In this movie the creation of the human embryo was done by the parents and done so in the natural way. Although created from love, the results were still the same. From the time Anna was born she had gone through numerous and painful surgeries. In my opinion the surgeries were justified lifesaving and miraculous surgeries that provided the entire family with memories they can all cherish after Kate’s- Anna’s older sister (Sofia Vassilleva) passing. However as Kate got older and developed her own voice additional and perhaps unseen problems emerged. She was screaming to be heard about how she felt about the decisions made about her life and was being ignored. So she decided that Anna was old enough and strong enough to fight for her rights regardless of her age. The subject of what age a children can start making life altering choices fall upon two of the characters in this movie. We, the audience are lead to believe that Anna whom is eleven has decided that’s enough is enough- as she exclaims to an attorney that she’s trying to hire â€Å"I want to sue my parents for the right to my own body.† As the attorney, played by Alec Baldin read her medical history we get the sense that this all has gone too far. Something that was meant to be miraculous has somehow turned into something almost tortious and something that no parent in their right mind would put their child through. So therein lies the main debate of the move, Is Anna old enough and wise enough to make decisions about her own life and body. However later we discover it isn’t Anna who is seeking her independents, it’s her sister Kate. At 15, Kate has also spent the majority of her life in and out of surgery, as well as watching her family hurt from the pain that she’s experiencing. So she’s the one who is struggling to be heard since her parents are the ones able to make medical decisions for her and her sister. Kate has convinced her little sister Anna to no longer agree to any more surgeries to help prolong her life. This to many, including her mother (Cameron Diaz) is a form of suicide. There is such a fine line separating suicide from not accepting medical assistants to save your life. After my own life experiences I would have to agree that Kate has the right to choose when her life ends. I could only imagine, as we all could ONLY imagine not having been in that situation. I don’t honestly believe one would know how they would react until in that position themselves. There seem to be countless things to consider when considering ending your life. Mainly I would think it would be the loved ones you’re leaving behind. They will be the ones left her to face the pain of losing the person they love. In this movie the person that seems to struggle the most with the idea of loss is the person that seemed to fight the hardest, Sara, the mother. Thankfully they offer a light at the end of the tunnel. Although Kate is no longer alive her spirit seems to live. There is a new found sparkle that develops in her families eyes after time is allowed to heal some of their wounds. Leading the audience to believe that perhaps there is a peace that is brought when the suffering ends. This movie was nothing less than an emotional rollercoaster that left my mind spinning with questions for myself many hours after watching it. Although many people in class that felt a lot of anger towards the mother in the film, again I go back to no one would really know what they’d do until in that position. She was faced with an issue and dealt with it the best and only way she knew how- her way. In my opinion morality and ethics seem to come down to a lot of judgments and theories on what we’d do if that situation happened to us. As I’ve gotten older and with what I’ve experienced I believe that besides myself I only have one person to answer to and that’s my Lord and Savior and on the day I have to answer for what I’ve done, I truly believe if it was done with Him in my heart then I’ll have given the right answers.

Innovation And Risk At Heathrow Terminal Five Construction Essay

Innovation And Risk At Heathrow Terminal Five Construction Essay This study of the Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5) examines how innovation, risk and uncertainty were managed within a distinct megaproject depicting joint uncertainties encountered during the life-span of the T5s project. The paper intends to provide an understanding of how organizations react to risk and uncertainty by merging and matching routines and innovation. It demonstrates how approach to risk and uncertainty are formed by the contractual framework in hefty multià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ party projects. The paper attends to a gap in the literature of risk and uncertainty is management to deliver innovation in large-scale megaprojects. Megaprojects are infamous for high chance of failure that typically induces organizational strategies for risk avoidance. Yet tactics for managing risk and uncertainty are crucial to the practices and innovation that prevail over the challenges of effectively delivering largeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ scale, complex projects. The likelihood of a fifth terminal at Heathrow appeared as early as 1982, when there was question of whether to extend Stansted or extend Heathrow (backed by BA). BAA officially publicized its proposal for T5 in May 1992, presenting a formal planning application on 17 February 1993. A public inquiry into the proposals commenced on 16 May 1995 and lasted nearly four years. In conclusion, more than eight years after the initial preparation application, on 20 November 2001 the British government took the decision to fund planning permission for the construction of a fifth passenger terminal at Heathrow. Heathrow Terminal 5 was planned as the base for all British Airways domestic and international flights. It was designed for handling 30 million passengers annually; its design is compatible with the biggest airliner in the world presently, the airbus A380. T5 is spread over 260 hectors, which house large four storey terminal building and a satellite building. Both the facilities are connected via an underground mover transit system. Other airport infrastructure includes a 4,000 space multi storey car park, a big hotel and an 87 meter tall air traffic control tower. T5 is linked by road to the neighboring M25, an underground railway station with branches of the Heathrow Express and the London Undergrounds Piccadilly Line provides fast transportation to and from central London (Doherty, 2008) PROJECT LIFE CYCLE The series of decisions shaping British Airports Authoritys (BAA) approach to innovation and risk management on T5 will be discussed in brief and viewed against the T5 projects life cycle. Define Planning Design and Organize Construction and Control Closing and Integration into airport operations PROJECT SCOPE (DEFINE STAGE) Heathrow Terminal 5 project is a representation of a megaproject, incorporating enormous investments in buildings, systems, technology and human processes. The project was a mammoth project in many aspects, from the time-span of the project to the actual magnitude of construction and the complex combination of services that were to be commissioned during the life-span of the project. The increasing need for more flights and the present airports reaching their capacity of efficient operations was the main reason behind the initiation of this project. as naturally understood by the nature of the project the project charter was the British government through British Airports Authoritys (BAA), BAA was the driving force behind the execution of this mega project and they worked through many suppliers and contractors. Dividing the projects work into many sub-projects (NAO, 2005). General Project Info (Source: Doherty, 2008) Cost  £ 4.3 Billion Start of Construction Summer of 2002 Estimated Customer Handling Annually 30 Million PLANNING PHASE The project received the go ahead for construction in 2001 after a long lasting planning which began in 1986. The planning was delayed due to a historically long enquiry lasting from 1995 to 1999; the enquiry resulted in about 700 restrictions on the project including the rerouting of two rivers to meet the stringent environmental requirements. 30th March 2008 was set as the project opening date in 2001 and a budget of  £4.3 billion was established in 2003. In the planning phase, BAA primed, developed and cultured the approach that would be utilized in the delivering of the project. Due to the high importance and the involvement of many risk factors, it was determined that the project director should take up a position on the companys main Board. So the delivering of regular project progress reports from planning through design and construction to commissioning and the acquiring of the resources and high level support needed in overcoming any problems hindering its progression can be easily handled. Planned Terminal Dimensions (Source: Doherty, 2008) Terminal 5 A 396m (long) X 176m (wide) X 40m (high) Terminal 5 B 442m (long) X 52m (wide) X 19.5m (high) Size of Terminal 5 Site 260 Ha Cark Parking Space 3800 Spaces DESIGN PHASE The major design activity started in 1989, with the design of the main building. A large integrated project tram was formed comprising of architects and designers to work with BAA. The work on the design drawing went on during the projects construction phase, to address issues like the adaptation of the airport facilities to the new A 380 airliner. FORESIGHT IN DESIGN PHASE When in the design stage there are important considerations about not just designing a facility that caters to the current requirements, but also caters to the projected requirements of the future and in the case of case of such massive projects, the design foresight is not just for the near future. What will travelling through Heathrow Airport be like in the next century? Will we still have to wait in queues? Will we still be travelling as frequently as today or just use virtual travel? Over  £1million a day is spent by BAA on building sections of airport and a comparable sum on retaining and developing them. The buildings will be there for decades so we want to make sure that they will answer to tomorrows needs. The Airports of the Future will be a reaction to the characteristics of the future and these are tangled and inter-reliant: ASPECT EXAMPLES Environment climate, resources, pollution, noise Technology communications, users interfaces, intelligent buildings, materials Future Society global politics, (de)regulation, security, tax, welfare, culture Future Business globalization, supply chains, retail, money, employment patterns Future Passengers demographics, lifestyles, expectations Future Aviation alliances, aircraft developments, market segmentation, congestion During this phase, Norman Haste, T5s first Project Director, stressed that many large projects fail due to the lack of investment in the design: this is when you achieve your biggest wins. Youre never going to achieve them during the construction phase. To permit digital harmonization of design as well as the integration and testing of components during the construction phase, single model environment (SME) was developed. The SME was a real-time CAD system which enabled a virtual environment and allowed the visualization of the designed elements and entities. This greatly assisted in the decisions to move forward in construction. (Yin, 2004) CONSTRUCTION PHASE The activities were divided into two phases of construction. The infrastructure and buildings were constructed from July 2001 to March 2008 and from January 2006 to March 2008 the integration of systems and the retail fit-out was carried out. RECRUITMENT AND TASK DIVISION The project manager divided the construction phase into the following four activities: Buildings Rails Tunnels Infrastructure Systems 300 highly trained and experienced group of skilled workers were put under a small team of senior managers of BAA. The responsibility of 16 major projects and 147 sub-projects was shared by these teams. The value of these projects ranged from  £1m. These groups were responsible for 16 major projects and 147 sub projects, with the smallest valued at  £1m ranging to  £300m. (Wolstenholme, 2008) CLOSING PHASE INTEGRATION INTO AIRPORT OPERATIONS Over three years were spent in preparation of the systems, people and processes before the opening. The last six months were spent in testing and trials, simulating 72 real operational situation testing involving about 2500 test subjects. In spite of being completely aware of the potential risks that could arise at opening and the extensive simulation testing prior to the opening the BAA BA team was unable to prevent the major complexities arising at the commencement service. The initial five days of service saw misplacement of 20,000 bags and cancellation 501 flights, sustaining $31m in costs. The first full schedule of operations was achieved after 12 days of opening. MANAGING RISK AND UNCERTAINTY Formal contracts are formed to manage risk and uncertainty in a project the basis of these contracts take shape from past experiences and assessments. BA realized this during planning that the scale and complexity of the T5 project demanded a new approach as many uncertainties could not be predestined. BAA recognized that a standard commercial agreement would not be suitable. To recognize, isolate and deal with risks BAA had to develop a contractual approach which cultivated a routine-driven culture and attitude whilst leaving space for flexibility when dealing with random or unplanned events. (Done, 2008) It was concluded that a desired outcome can only be achieved by rewriting the rule book; they created a new type of agreement which was based on two fundamental principles: The client bears the risk The client works collaboratively with contractors in integrated project teams. RISK BEARING The agreements of the T5 projects were a form of cost-plus incentive contracts, in which the incurred costs on the contractors are reimbursed by the client; additionally the contractor is rewarded for exceptional performance with a cut from the profit margin. The risks are shared between the contractor and the client in other forms of cost-incentive contracts but in T5 contracts BAA assumed full liability for the risk. (Done, 2008) INTEGRATED PROJECT TEAMS Incorporated project teams were created at the beginning of the planning inquiry to build the general plan of the facility. T5s construction was considered as a string of consumer products delivered by teams. The intention was a creation a virtually integrated supply chain composed of incorporated project teams under the lead of BAA staff, consultants, contractors or other organizations. The agreements did not state the work to be carried out by first tier suppliers; instead it was an obligation from suppliers to provide competence when and where it was required on the project. This method allowed BAA access to competent individuals with the competencies and experience to carry out the detailed tasks, irrespective of the needs of their head organization. The formation of virtual teams eliminated the chances of the risks from being transferred to a sole supplier and didnt allow a single supplier to be held responsible for any letdown in achieving projects objectives. The teams were anticipated to work in cooperation with each other towards accomplishing project objectives by solving problems and acting on any experience gained, instead of pointing fingers at others for any failure in the pursuit of commercial advantage. BALANCING ROUTINES AND INNOVATION The T5 case demonstrates that in projects of huge magnitude the risks and uncertainties can by no means be fully eradicated, but careful and extensive planning can reduce the chance of unfavorable outcomes or provide a mechanism or a list of actions to be taken in-case of an unexpected occurrence. However, when megaprojects run into unidentified problems or emerging events as they eventfully always do a well-prepared or pre-planned reaction is not sufficient at all times. Sometimes fresh or distinctive solutions must be found to prevail over the barriers in progress. Therefore, managing risk and uncertainty in megaprojects entails in finding a well thought-out balance between executing routines and supporting innovation. This is expressed as a trade-off between developing the capability to exploit repetitive processes to cope with risks, whilst being able to explore and implement customized solutions when unexpected events take place. (Shenhar, 2007) ROUTINES The scale, regularity and obviousness of actions performed on a project provide opportunities to develop recursive and stable project and operational processes. These routines that are planned in a illicit order, cut down into core repetitive responsibilities, based on homogeneous design modules and components and frequently repeated processes. Practices must be formulated to cope with basic risks that could obstruct the advancement of the whole project. INNOVATION In a lot of cases, however unforeseen troubles and opportunities to perk up performance cannot be taken care of by resorting back to an existing inventory of routines. Such situations can be so unanticipated or odd that they entail new and ground-breaking ways of solving them to attain or surpass their performance objectives. Our research identified two levels of organizational flexibility and innovative capability in response to uncertainty: The overall project Sub-project levels THE OVERALL PROJECT A main uncertainty which can prove to be threatening to the projects progress, demands a response from the projects senior management or clients organization. When the Heathrow Express project grinded to a halt to a standstill due to a collapsed tunnel a resolution was made possible as the clients project directors and managers enjoyed the liberty to put into practice and adjust the cost-reimbursable approach based on the past experience gained from the Glaxco research facility. SUB-PROJECT LEVELS A big project is time and again carried out as a plan divided into major projects and sub-projects. As comprised of LOR and Mott MacDonald, managers responsible for an individual project within a larger program need the independence and liberty to draft solutions to troubles or occurrences that they come across. Our research recognized quite a few other cases of integrated project teams operating innovatively around issues that stalled progress specific sub-projects within the overall T5 main project, for example the use of digital modeling and construction of buildings and facilities, including air traffic control tower, airside road tunnel and main terminal roof. FAILURES BAGGAGE SYSTEM FAILURE The baggage handling system installed at T5 is the largest baggage handling system in Europe installed at any single terminal. There are two systems; a main a main baggage sorter and a fast track system. An integrated team from the system was designed by an integrated team of BAA, BA and Vanderlande Industries of the Netherlands, the system handles both intra-terminal and inter-terminal luggage and has the capacity to process 70,000 bags per day. Automatic identification, explosives screening, fast tracking for urgent bags, sorting and automatic sorting and passenger reconciliation are the processes the system performs as it handles the baggage. On the opening the system failed and the initial five days of service saw misplacement of 20,000 bags and cancellation 501 flights, sustaining $31m in costs. The first full schedule of operations was achieved after 12 days of opening. On investigation it was discovered that the cause of problem was the dissimilarity of the staff with the new system, although there was a lot of time and time and money invested in the training of the staff, emphasis on training was also huge due to the complexity of the system. Still the results were unfavorable and costs were faced due the failure (HCTC, 2008). CONCLUSION Big projects demonstrate low innovation and high risk, although the success of such projects depends of increasing the innovation and reducing risk factors, a clear identification of risks and uncertainties is needed to find equilibrium between the routines and the innovation. Responsiveness to react to unforeseen events is greatly reduced if the focus is more on the routines and on the other hand focusing on just innovation lead to less control oriented environment leading to chaos. Our objective has been to scrutinize the affects of the contractual framework in the Terminal 5 project, on the balance of innovation and routines. Economists and Lawyers would take up dissimilar point of views, but focus is neither on economic consequences and choices nor with legal construction and interpretation. We are more focused on analyzing the strategy of an organization during the complete life span of the project, which mitigates the risks and uses innovation to achieve project objectives. We have established that the contractual framework is vital in finding an appropriate balance between innovation and routines. Megaprojects need routines to address risks and create a room for innovation to deal with uncertainty. Routines generate a consistency of approach such as the CIPP, T5 Project Delivery Handbook, and progressive design fixity to address risks recognized before project execution. However, predefined and planned routines are not enough to cope with unusual events or incidents, not previously acknowledged during the planning stage. A megaproject must keep scope for deviation and innovation as a reaction to such uncertainty. In the T5 case the contract provided a framework for a deliberative process and opted for the resolution to problems with and between suppliers to address unexpected problems. Organizations and managers accountable for the whole project and sub-projects had the self-sufficiency, elasticity and space to search experiment and put into practice exclusive solutions to unanticipated problems encountered during the life-cycle of the project.

Portrayal Of Women In Advertisements Media Essay

Portrayal Of Women In Advertisements Media Essay This Article was written by Jacob M. Duker and Lewis R.Tucker, Jr. in 1977. In this article the discussion is based on the portrayal of women in advertising. The article basically says that the negative impact of women through advertisement showing them as housewives or sex objects have become a major source of concern for the women. The National Organization of Women (NOW) complained in 1971 that the women were still portrayed as domestic adjuncts, demeaned housekeepers, dependent on men, submissive, sex objects and unintelligent. According to the article the research that was conducted by Courtney and Lockeretz, sexton and haberman on advertisements and print advertisements concluded on the note that women were not portrayed accurately meaning that the advertisements do no show the actual role occupied by women in a Society and the image of women reflected in ads is quite narrow. Now only the proportions of sex-object role portrayals have decreased significantly whereas the others have not. However the role of women in advertisements has improved quite a lot since the old times as they are not portrayed as the stereotyped women as they were portrayed before. But still the fact is that more advertisements are made on women being as sex objects, or house wives. As the hypothesis statement of this article states that there is no difference in the perception of advertisements portraying women in the role of mother, sex objects, housewife, or glamour girl between female subjects who show strong and those who show weak orientations toward the womens liberation movement. In order to explain this relationship quantitative research was conducted in which College students were used exclusively because they are the ones who are most likely to adopt current popular opinion towards both womens lib and sex role portrayal in advertisements. Moreover it relies on the use of actual advertisements. Ads were pretested to insure that they did reflect the identified feminist issues. The pretests involved discussion of the ads with 30 female under-graduates to identify ads whose literal (as opposed to symbolic) messages were understood and which did project the image of women respectively as mother, sex object, glamour girl, housewife, working mother, modern woman, and professional, respectively. The following advertisements were chosen. 1. Mother feeding baby with a new disposable bottle (mother). 2. Beautiful female positioned by a line of cosmetics explicitly emphasizing sexiness (sex object). 3. Beautiful female being featured as a center of attention because o f her beautiful hair, the result of using a well-known creme rinse (glamour girl). 4. Several housewives taking part in a testimonial for a new pressure-type drain opener (housewife). 5. A cereal ad featuring a mother with a young daughter discussing the importance of pursuing a career while being able to look out for the welfare of the family (working mother). 6. Beautiful female positioned in a hair coloring ad as an independent individual free to pursue anything without worry (modern woman). 7. Biographical profile of a female orchestra conductor indicating the brand of Scotch whiskey she preferred (professional). The advertisements was shown to 104 females between the ages of 18 and 21 who represented the student body of a northeastern university. The sample is biased toward younger, educated individuals. Coming to the Results only for advertisement 2, which portrayed a female as a sex object, did they obtained chi square value of 4.122 begin to approach significance. For all ot her role representations, the chi square values reflecting differences among groups did not exceed 1.76. These findings are especially striking because they involve the reactions of the two conceptually predetermined polar groups, the traditionalists and the pro feminists. Of further interest is the finding that the three groups of respondents showed no significant differences in both their positive and their negative reactions. The two polar groups both liked the portrayals in advertisements 2, 3, 4, and 7, both disliked the portrayals in advertisement 1, and groups were divided relatively evenly toward those in advertisements 5 and 6. This study has established an important conclusion with regard to profeminism and its relationship to reactions to roles for women (portrayal of women) in advertisements. We know now that having pro-feminist opinions does not change the roles being assigned to women in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be perception of ad vertisements portraying women and the independent variable will be strong and those who show weak orientations toward the womens liberation movement. Womens Role Portrayal Preferences in Advertisements: An Empirical Study This Article is written by Lawrence H. Wortzel and John M. Frisbie in Oct, 1974. This article is based on the two published studies which did research on the role that women portrayal in print advertising. The Courtney and Lockeretz study concluded that the women are right on the part where they say that full views of their roles in a society are not shown. They are always shown as housewives or some fashion object or the most common as sex objects. These roles do not define a women and role they play or have to play in a society. The other case study by Wagner and Banos indicates that there has been a large amount of improvement in showing womens role as a working member of a society. However they did not do much research on the effectiveness of the advertisement meaning that what kind of advertisement do women find more appealing or does the advertisement showing women in a working role make the product more better or desirable compared to the advertisements in which women were sho wn as sex or fashion object. Therefore this research has two hypothesis statements, one, when a women appears in an advertisement the desirability of the product advertised to women exposed to the ads will be enhanced if that woman is portrayed in a career or neutral role, rather than a sex object, family, or fashion object role. Two, those women who most strongly agree with the tenets of women liberation Movement will most strongly consider a products desirability enhanced when a woman appearing in the ad is portrayed in a career or neutral role, rather than a sex object, family, or fashion object role. The traditional role of women was however not rejected. In this experiment, subjects were asked to design print ads by matching pictures of products with pictures of women. Two portfolios were prepared: one consisting of pictures of products, the other containing pictures of women. The product portfolio consisted of pictures of three products in each of seven product categories: small appliances, large appliances, womens grooming products, womens personal products, household products, foods, and mens grooming and personal products. The specific product categories were selected to provide diversity while remaining within the boundaries of plausibility; each product category is one in which the picture of a woman in an advertisement would not be unexpected. Any product that consistently used advertising that portrayed a woman in a particular role was rejected to minimize possible bias due to conditioning. The portfolio of womens pictures consisted of five pictures depicting women in ea ch of the five roles-neutral, family, career, sex object, and fashion object-for a total of 25 pictures in all. The two portfolios were presented to a convenience sample of 100 young (ages 21 to 35) women. While the sample of young women was not drawn randomly, every effort was made to insure that a distribution of demographic characteristics would be achieved. The results indicated no consistent preference for specific female roles that always enhance product desirability and that cut across product categories. Coming to the result we must see that the women participating in this experiment appear to have chosen their preferred role-background on the basis of the specific product class with which they were con-fronted. For products that are usually used by households or families, the family role-back-ground was preferred. Preference for the family role-background was marginal for small appliances and strong for large appliances and food. For products that women use alone the neutra l or career role-backgrounds were prefer-red, although the traditional fashion role was still acceptable. There is no product for which a sex-object role was considered the most enhancing role portrayal. After doing several research and experiment the article concludes by saying that women are indeed very happy when they are portrayed as traditional homemaker, fashion or sex objects. Women did find their liberation in ad to be portrayed by a housewife role. The reason they prefer these role portrayals they chose could be that advertisement has played a big part in making women accept the traditional role portrayals in ads in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be desirability of the product and the independent variable will be exposed to the ads and woman portrayed in a career or neutral role. Amanda B. Bower (Autumn, 2001)Highly Attractive Model in Advertising and the Women who Loathe Them: The implications of Negative Affect for Spokesperson Effectiveness This Article is written by Amanda B. Bower in 2001. In this article the author tries to explain the impact that good looking models in advertisements, have on the self esteem of the women. As we know that the use of Attractive Models in advertising has become very popular in the world today but the effect is yet to be measure. Some women may have negative effects by comparing themselves to the attractive model and may think less of themselves. The purpose of the research was to find out that if the highly attractive images of women in advertising can persuade and if they have a positive or negative impact on the women living in a society. The physical Attractiveness plays a very important role as women want to compare themselves with the images of perfection, flawlessness, skinniness and beauty depicted in advertising. Would the one comparing herself would have an effect on her self-esteem and have a negative effect on the spokes person effectiveness. The results of the study showed that the people who compared themselves to the spokes person actually had a negative reaction and the effectiveness of the spokes person was reduced. This tells us that that there although there may be negative relation between negative effect and spokesperson efficiency but still the negative relation has to be more high for model derogation to take place. The patterns suggest an interesting limited condition. For Methodology 38 undergraduates were chosen and were given 5 photos of models to select from who would look better using the treadmill. The photos that were given were chosen from more than 100 photos of models from different magazines and none of them were from advertisements. While conducting the first study it was kept in mind that HAM would be the ones with who majority would like to compare themselves so to simplify the findings, a second study was performed. It was decided to take such a product that would emphasize more on the malleable part of womans physical appear ance. This was done in order to see if the negative effect still existed when the body was not strongly emphasized on as it was done in the first case study. Regarding first study results strong evidence was shown that the comparers report relatively high levels of comparison with the model, whereas non-comparers report relatively low levels of comparison. Comparers had more negative feelings and found the models to be more attractive than the non-comparers. Results regarding Study 2 where One hundred eleven women participated indicated that the mean beauty evaluation (10.88) was again at approximately the midpoint of the scale and was not significantly different from the HAM beauty in the first study. This suggests again that the subjects view the model as representing the average beautiful model presented in advertising. The purpose of this study was see whether the highly attractive models had an ability to persuade and also if HAMs had an positive or negative effect on women. Re sults showed that more importance is given to Spokesperson expertise and evaluation of product in a advertisement in product evaluation and intentions. So the dependent variable in this article will be self esteem and the independent variable will be advertising, and physical Attractiveness. Images of Women in Advertisements: Effects on Attitudes Related to Sexual Aggression This Article is written by Kyra Lanis and Katherine Covell in 1998. In this Article they have tried to make a point that portrayal of women by media can influence sexual attitudes and beliefs. As we all know that Advertising has a very strong power of persuading and manipulating. Bretl and Canto(1988) estimated and found out that a average american is exposed to over 37,000 advertisements each year. Certain Role Portrayals have been played by women in advertisements but according to this article very little attention has been given to the portrayal of sexuality of women in advertisements. So basically the purpose of this article and research is to see the effects of advertisements when women are presented in sexually provocative or a non-traditional manner. According to the article the stereotypic portrayal has an impact on attitudes of women as they become more conscious and have social anxiety meaning they start to believe that they have to be like the stereotypic women displayed i n advertisements as the others might start judging them if they act differently. Secondly their desire and motivation to achieve anything becomes very low and their interest in politics participation decreases and this all because of the impact of stereotypic portrayed of women in advertisements.. For the experiment 90 participants were taken out of which 45 were males and the other 45 were females and they were all undergraduate students from university of Toronto. There were 2 studies on which participants had to participate. First study was to make own judgments about some advertisements and a second study in which they had to assist with the normalization of a questionnaire being made by a researcher. The results showed that control advertisements were rated as more appealing than the sex objects and progressive advertisements. The research further concludes by saying that although in some places women are also being depicted in wide range of social and occupational roles but th ere has been a vast increase in the sexually exploitive use of women in advertisements. So the dependent variable in this article will be sexual attitudes and beliefs whereas the independent variable will be portrayal of women and advertising. A Longitudinal View of Womens Role Portrayal In Television Advertising The Article has been written by Marjorie Caballero and Paul J. Solomon in 1984. In this article by Adrian Furnham and Nadine Bitar, growing awareness of womens role in society has been told meaning that women are now participating more in the labor force and that is changing the image of women and now people are again evaluating womens contribution in a society. This role of women also has had many criticisms and some revolve around the stereotypical sex-role portrayal of women in the mass media. Here, the hypothesis of this article would be that the marketers and society have begun to accept the changing role of women. The article also tells that according to the findings Women were portrayed more in decorative roles and in the home compared to men. And even if they were shown doing work in advertisements, the jobs that they had in the advertisements were traditional female Occupations and there was rarely a time when women were portrayed as professionals or authorities. The image we assume of a women by watching advertisements are of a young beautiful girl found in her home or kitchen and whenever she has any problems she is looking for some male influence to solve her problems. She is a sex-object and her job is take care of the male. For the research a quantitative methodology was followed, total of 2095 and 1872 commercials were reviewed and analyzed in 1977 and 1980 respectively. The Commercials were analyzed according to the following variable which was channel, time of day, ad distribution, characters women appear with, age, product category, role played by women and voice over. According to report trends by Schneider and Schneider showed that the changing roles being shown in the advertisements are being accepted by the society. So the dependent variable in this article will be belief and the independent variable will be awareness. The Impact of Women in Advertisements on Attitudes Towards Women This article is written by Natalie J. MacKay and Katherine Covell in 1997. In this Article, a link is trying to be shown between images of women in advertisements and sexual attitudes. The continuous showing of these kind of advertisements undermine womens striving for equality. Media has played a huge part in our culture. According to the article the people really do have perception that gender role and traits of men and women shown in advertisements is how they actually live in real world where men are shown as the one with the authority and the ones dominating on women whereas women are shown as the ones who only worry about their body image and are sex objects and are answerable to the men. According to the hypothesis that is males are most likely to be affected by advertisement type toward sexual aggression whereas females are not received partial support. According to Livingstone and Green all this portrayal advertisement is creating negative attitudes. The article further says that over the past 5 decades the portrayals in advertisement has changed. Earlier women were shown as objects of sexual gratification, house makers, spouses and mothers. But now as women have started to enter the workforce, the image of women have begun to transform. Now women have started becoming the main characters in advertisements where they are portrayed as working in market place and in progressive occupations and are shown as equal to their male counterparts. The positive change has changed the image of women of only being sex objects. But the opposing portrayals of women have started to confuse people about womens role in society because people still believed in the stereotyped women that were shown in previous advertisements. For Methodology 46 female and 46 middle class undergraduate students were selected from rural University College. Only Print Ad vertisement had been used. Before starting the study 150 colored advertisements from different magazines were rated by a senior psychology class. Rating was based on general appeal and the extent to which they met the criteria of exemplifying sex image. Out of the 150 advertisements there were 35 advertisements which were rated consistently as appealing and exemplifying sex image. These 35 advertisements were then shown to different undergraduate psychology class who did not take part in the main study. After there rating the final 20 advertisements were selected in which there was one set of 10 sex image and one set of 10 progressive image. After this the study took place and each participant was tested individually. They had to rate the picture on scale of 5 on the basis of use of color, graphical design, amount of product information presented, spatial layout and most importantly general appeal rating. The results Showed that Progressive Advertisements were rated more appealing t han the sex image advertisements. So we can conclude by saying that advertisements in which women have been shown in productive roles and are not shown as the typical stereotypical labels attached to them have been given unfavorable ratings. Perhaps it is because women are now being considered less feminine as they were shown earlier. So the dependent variable in this article will be attitudes and the independent variable will be portrayal advertisement. The Portrayal of Womens Images in Magazine Advertisements: Goffmans Gender Analysis Revisited This Article has been written by Mee-Eun Kang in 1997. The purpose of this article was to show the changes in the image of women in magazine advertisements since Goffmans 1979 study. According to the findings indicated in the article the images of women seen in 1991 advertisements is pretty much the same compared to the images found in 1979 advertisements. But however change was found in the stereotypical portrayal of women. The magazine of 1991 showed more body display than those from 1979. The hypothesis of this study is as follows: The print advertisements in 1991 samples will show less frequent gender displays in terms of function ranking, ritualization of subordination, relative size, feminine touch, licensed withdrawal, body display, and independence (self-assertiveness) than those of 1979. According to gender behavior told by Goffman relationship, playing the instructing role and main telephonic conversations are no longer shown in modern magazine advertisements. Moreover the article says that now the advertisements target more specific audiences. Other than that the Print Advertisement has almost remained the same but the huge change has been seen in the TV Advertisements and that is due to cultural alterations. The purpose of TV advertisements is to maximize demand of a product and using women in a sexist tone in advertisements has had more collective implications and according of Goffman if the media play their part correctly the people watching these advertisements are forced to believe that the way in which women are depicted in advertisements is indeed the way women live in reality. For methodology magazine advertisement was the unit of analysis. Print Advertisements were taken from 1979 and 1991 womens popular magazines. A Total of 504 magazine advertisements we re selected for this study in which 252 were from 1979 magazine and the other 252 were from 1991 magazine. The forms of gender display that were measured while comparing these advertisements were Feminine Touch, Relative Size, Function Ranking, Body Display, Self Assertiveness, Ritualization of Subordination and Licensed Withdrawal. The results showed that the there was not much change in the extent of sexism in magazines and the hypothesis is unsupported. Therefore it is concluded by saying that the portrayal of women in advertisements has not changed much since 1979. Still the same stereotyped images of women are being shown in magazine. So the dependent variable in this article will be perception of audiences and the independent variable will be advertisement and cultural alteration. The Elastic Body Image: The Effect of Television Advertising and Programming on Body Image This Article has been written by Myers, P.N., Biocca in 1992. In this article it has been told that the stereotypes of women shown in advertisements where women are being portrayed as being the sex object and the ones with perfect body has started creating so many problems for the young generations girls. The girls have actually been so demotivated and disturbed by the stereotypes that they have started having eating disorders which has started to bring so many health issues for them. The hypothesis statement in this article is whether the ideal body shown in advertisements and print advertisements play a key role in making women believe that body size is not perfect?. Therefore the Independent Variable in this article will be Ideal Body Programming and Body Commercials which affect the females thinking towards their body images and mood. According to Downs and Harrison work, viewers receive 5260 attractiveness messages per year out of which 1850 messages deal directly with beauty. Two researches with sample size of 1000 and 446 were conducted towards the perceived body image. All the participants were mid or late teens. The results showed that body images were misperceived. The last part of experimentation will be based on elastic body image referring to rickety self image. For that image following Hypothesis has been formed H1: Conflict will take place between internalized body ideal body and objective body shape because of exposure to body image advertising and programming. The conflict will lead to depression, self loathing, rejection and anxiety. For this a study took place where 76 college students in the age range of 15 to 24 took part to test the hypothesis. 120 advertisements were selected out of which 60 were BIC and the other 60 were NIC. The advertisement had to be rated for body image oriented ones and neutral image oriented ones. The advertisement which had highest scores in both category were selected and then video was made including the highest scoring commercials of both categorys and were watched by the subjects. The hypothesis was true to some amount because BIC did have a distorting effect but in way contradictory to the hypothesis. The mood change before and after the tapes were played were measured by The Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL). Body image distortion was measured through a Body Image Detection Device (BIDD) was used to measure Body image distortion. The statistics were then used by the researchers to conclude the result on mood and body image through ANOVA and ANCOVA. Waltz,T. (November 24, 2004). The Effects of Magazines on the Self-Esteem and Portrayal of Stereotypes in Teenagers The Article has been written by Waltz T. on November 24, 2004. The article basically says that the Stereotypes shown in magazine and the print advertisements shown have had a huge impact on the self confidence and representation of girls in the real world as they feel less of themselves now and have been demoralized and demotivated after seeing such Print advertisements. The independent variable will be the stereotypes depicted in the advertisements whereas the dependent variable will be self esteem and self image. The Survey conducted at Mason High School in November 2004 was done to see if Magazines had any positive or negative effect on both genders and whether they believed that the gender portrayed in magazine were realistic or not and also to see if according to them the stereotypes were being enforced in magazine. The Female survey showed that the most read magazine among girls ranging in age from 15 to 18 years was Seventeen with 50%, 47% read Cosmopolitan, 21% read YM and 21 % read other magazines. 41% of the survey takers took the tips that are offered in the magazine and 35% of the women believed to have a positive change in their lives. Only 9% felt that Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, YM and other magazines portrayed gender correctly whereas 79% felt stereotypes were being enforced by the variety of magazines. The Male surveys also had some interesting results. Age range was between 15 to 18. It was found out 31% of men that were surveyed read teenager magazines with maxim read by most at 23%, 4% read Esquire, 0% read Razor and 12% other magazines. Shockingly 19% of the males admitted that they read girl magazines. Only 8% men used the tips offered in the magazine. 19% of men had a positive change. 12% felt that gender was portrayed realistically and 50% believed that stereotypes were enforced in magazines. The author concludes by saying that magazines are the main reason for stereotypes having negative effects on teenagers nowadays and and giving them wro ng version of the world and the people living in it. The article is related to the research as talks about the impact of print advertisements and how they have had effect on teenagers. Joellen W. Hawkins and Cynthia S. Aber(1993) Women in Advertisements in Medical Journals This Article has been written by Joellen W.Hawkins and Cynthia S. Aber in 1993. In this article it is written that according to studies conducted by Prather and Fidell there is more chance of women being in advertisements where they have to be pictured as needing psychoactive drugs, whereas there is more chance that men are depicted in advertisements for non-psychoactive drugs. Moreover the article says that all this is done because it is believed that women problems are related to emotional symptoms whereas men suffer problems, pressure and anxiety due to work pressure they get from their offices. The evidence of gender differences is also apparent in the wording of ads. Mens problems are told in advertisement in a clean and direct manner whereas womens problems are told in a humorous way because people assume that women really have no tension and pressures except to look good and maintain their body figures. A study was designed in order to see that what are the images of women as providers and consumers of health care that are portrayed in picture advertisements in medical journals and specially to see if there was any difference in the images of portraying men and women in picture advertisements. In Methodology 209 picture advertisements were taken from general and clinical medical journals and all pictures which portrayed women as either providers or consumer were included in the selected picture advertisements. Out of the 209 advertisements 76 were found to appear more than once, 43 appeared twice, 12 three times, 7 four times, 13 between 5 to 10 times and one ad appeared 17 times. The advertisements shown are very gender stereotyped showing women as disorientated and needing medication for sleep or depression, women as passive and men as active, men as authority figures and women as their patients, men as workers and women as sex objects or virgin. The article is concluded by saying that the number of labor force of women working has increased over the p ast two decades but a examination of medical advertisements made it clear that women are still not being shown the way they really are in reality. In this article the independent variable is image of women as psychoactive drugs and the dependent variable is the problems it creates among women. The article is related to the research as it tells the effects of advertisement on people according to the gender.

My Sociological Perspective Essay -- Sociology essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sociology is a part of everyday life. People experience sociological changes when they get married, get a new job, or get discriminated against. All of these things can alter a person’s perspective on a group of people or even the world. Since the beginning of this class, I have personally endured several sociological changes in my life. I recently started a new job. I’m meeting new and wonderful people and I no longer dread having to go to work. I have also begun setting plans for my wedding to the one girl who I know will make everyday better than the one before. But, perhaps the one instance that has affected me the most and the deepest was when my parents got a divorce. This is something that occurred over ten years ago but it still plagues me to this day. One moment I thought that we had a perfect family unit. Everyone was happy and everyone got along great. Then, the next thing I knew, my parents were in court everyday trying to get custody of my older sister and myself. This left me hurt and confused. The worst part was after the divorce was over. My father got custody of us- which I preferred because it meant I didn’t have to move away and I didn’t have to live with my mother’s new boyfriend (her boyfriend while she was married). My mother got visitation rights two days of the week and every Sunday. So, instead of seeing my mother everyday when she would come home from work and having her tuck me in at night, I now saw her only three times a week. This was the...

Is Monogamy the Best Form of Marriage? Essay -- essays papers

Is Monogamy the Best Form of Marriage? In the United States, marriage is a commitment two people make for the rest of their lives. The average American marriage lasts seven years. Well over half of all marriages end in divorce (Francouer, 72). Statistics in the infidelity have rose fifty percent since the 1970s and is rising all the time. The divorce count in this country is now up to one out of every three-marriage end in divorce. Serial polygamy is a common lifestyle for those who are divorced and then become remarried. The relationship between a husband and wife should be sacred and trustworthy. Without the trust and honesty there is no marriage. Monogamy is the loving, sharing, and devoting one's self to another person for the rest of their life. Monogamy should be the most important aspect in a marriage. The Western Religious leaders and moralists believe only one spouse for life is the highest form of marriage. Some of the most "primitive" peoples are strictly monogamous in their ideals, while some "highly advanced" cultures have moved away from the stri...