Comparing Gender Roles of Americans over Past 100 Yrs

Kristal Smith Professor Ryan Enc 1101 Section 39547 November 22, 2012 Contemporary Roles vs Roles 100 Years Ago If we look at America 100 years ago, the changes from then to now are phenomenal. In 1906, the average life span was 47 years. Only 18% of the homes had their own private bathtub. There were only 8000 cars total in the United States with only 144 miles of paved road. [1] Today we have an estimate 250 million registered vehicles in the United States. There have been laws passed that every home must have its own bathtub and fresh source of water.Considering the changes the United States has made over the past 100 years, it is no surprise that the roles of men and women have changed as well. The roles of men and women in contemporary society verses their roles in society 100 years ago present a large gap of physical and psychological differences. The American woman of the 1900’s was to be seen, not heard. She was the homemaker and the one to raise the children. She cook ed, cleaned, tended the laundry, taught the children and took care of her husband.She had no rights or freedoms in the political or religious world. was Limited rights and freedoms with a full load of responsibility was a difficult task to succeed at however the role was well defined which provided a sense of security. She was able to maintain a soft and emotional dispostion simply because there were no expectations of her to be any other way. The 1900’s American woman is the definition of what we term the traditional role of a woman. [2] Her counterpart, the 1900’s American man, was the worker, provider and protector.He had a voice in politics and religion. He gained respect and prestige by his job, his wife, and his children. The role of the man was simple but very important. He was strong and secure with the emotional support of his wife. The roles of the 1900 American women and man complimented each other well and were successful. The American woman role of modern day society has evolved since the 1900’s. In modern day, woman have the right to vote and run for presidency if she chooses to.Women have equal rights as men in the political and religious fields as well in the work force. In modern day, many women work and help support financially for their family. The modern day American woman has more weight and stress to carry along with her rights and freedoms. This often prevents her from being soft and emotional. Their counterpart, the modern day American man, still follow the traditional roles of being the provider and the protector, but there are also a lot of â€Å"stay-at-home† dads which means they are now the homemaker.In some cases, he is not the protector and security which can affect his masculinity. It is complicated to adequately detail the modern day roles of men and women as the lines are no longer clearly defined. The past 100 years has served the American man and woman a diverse amount of changes from woman gainin g equal rights to men cooking and cleaning. In the 1900’s, the roles of women and men were clearly defined and accepted. Today, the roles are not defined and the expectations are confused.Men and women both can now be the political leader, the provider, the homemaker, and the protector. The modern day roles of men and women sharing rights and freedoms are perceived as a good thing. Perhaps the traditional roles were more successful at complimenting each other as they eliminated the problem of gender role confusion. Works Cited 1. â€Å"Women 100 years Ago vs Women Now† http://recomparison. com/comparisons/100358/women-100-years-ago-vs-women-now/ 2. â€Å"100 Years Ago in America† http://rense. com/general70/100yrs. htm Copyright  © 2002 JPS/Kitco Inc

Crime scene Essay

Review Questions 1. What is physical evidence? Provide at least three examples in your answer. Physical evidence is anything that can establish a crime that has happened and anything that links the crime and the criminal. Physical evidence might include objects like weapons, fibers and hair. 2. Describe three ways that a crime scene can be recorded. What is a benefit of each? Photography can show crime scenes at wide angles and can be taken at different vantage points. Drawings can show the location of evidence and contain accurate accounts of the distances. Notes contain description of the crime scene and location of evidence. 3. What is a chain of custody? Why is it important? Chain of custody is a list of persons who had possession of the evidence during the crime investigation. Chain of custody is important because it shows who has access to the evidence and indicates that it has been in the possession of law enforcement. 4. What three types of photographs are taken at crime scenes? Describe each type? Overview Photographs are taken at different points to show any entries and exits to the crime scene. Intermediate Photographs helps to show the evidence in relation to other objects in the room. Close up Photographs are taken to help record specific details that may not b picked up by photographs taken from longer ranges. 5. Why is it important to record the crime scene? It is important to record crime scenes because it helps to create a chain of custody showing what is present at the scene and its location as well as over all location. Critical Thinking Questions 1. Why is it important to secure the crime scene? What do you think would be the most difficult part of doing this? The main reason is that has the potential for contaminating or destroying evidence even if they don’t mean to do so. The most difficult part about this is reporters, civilians and family getting in the way. 2. What type of recording do you think would be the most useful to crime investigators? Why? Videography would be a useful recording tool in a investigation because of recording and the visual elements of the scene. 3. What do you think would be the best method of submitting evidence to a crime lab? Why? 4. What type of evidence do you think would be most difficult to collect? Why? Trace evidence would be difficult to find because its small ad not easily seen. 5. What does the Fourth Amendment protect against? Do you agree with these restrictions on collecting evidence? Why or why not? The fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches & seizures agree with the restrictions because it has to be in plane site or have probable cause.

International Marketing-Core Assessment Term Paper

International Marketing-Core Assessment - Term Paper Example The reduction of the outlet performance due to overcrowding is evident is some parts of the US while in other towns it does not exist making the process complex because of reduced performance of the outlets. In fact, the creation of many outlets in an area reduced the incomes of the outlets by sharing the market among the outlets. The faster rate of growth was affected by the global financial crisis which affected the buying power of the consumers. The development of a strong brand presence and image improved its market share. The green and white package makes Starbucks product identification simple and attractive (Allen, 2010, p. 56). Some customers in the survey of the product indicated their purchase is based on package and not the contents. The provision of diverse range of beverage products offered a platform for growth and expansion. Consequently, the performance of the outlets has increased over the last decade making Starbucks the fastest growing brand in the market. The anal ysis of the company will cover issues of emerging markets, growth strategies, and regional economic and political integration. Likewise, the issues of culture in business performance will be addressed in the process to establish the best possible expansion criteria or process to be employed by the company. The use of expansion strategies such as mergers, acquisition, franchising and exporting will be evaluated to offer recommendations for change and development. Emerging markets After the global financial crisis experienced in 2007 to 2009, changes have been instituted in the financial and banking sectors. The revenue collection of the club was affected by the crisis resulting in the change of taxation. Increase in tax results, in reduction of profit margins of the company. The change in economic growth affects the performance of all the business firms regardless of the specialization. The financial crisis witnessed in the past two years led to closure and withdrawal of companies fr om initially entered markets. The financial crisis brought the need for financial regulation. Higher Interest rates affect the performance of the company by deterring investments. Economic change can have adverse change in the performance of any business. Inflation leads to increase in higher wages due to increased living standards (Shaw, 2011, p. 67). Strong currency conversion affects exportation of products. In the next three years, the company will face the entire economic factor at varying degree. The most significant one is the increasing inflation which leads to rising of the wage level thus increasing the production costs of the company. Despite the negative effect of inflation, it is worth mentioning that the financial report provided indicates, there will be an increase in the living standard resulting, in the increase in purchasing power of the population. The organization has a strategic review and planning will be able to benefit from the focused improvement in the nati onal earnings. The strategic direction chosen by the management will facilitate growth because it takes into consideration the issues that can negatively affect the business performance. The global market is an external factor affecting the business. Yips global strategy frame work deals with the evaluation of the potential market and constraints of the global market. The frame work developed by Yip includes the analysis of position and resources of the

Literary Analysis with 7 sources on William Faulkner's A Rose for Essay

Literary Analysis with 7 sources on William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily - Essay Example The representation of death and decay, involving the house, the town, and Emily herself are shown through her relationships with the male characters of the story. Emily symbolizes the victimized generation in South America after the civil war. She also stands as a metaphor of changes in womanhood and the society. This paper is a critical appreciation of the story. The central character in the story, Emily Grierson, stands as a symbol, representing a tradition. She is given the responsibility of upholding that tradition. The unknown narrator in the story calls her a â€Å"fallen monument†. Faulkner deliberately takes a woman to represent a fading tradition. Her emotions are shaped by her community which is responsible for creating such female victims. As Abby H. P. Weslock has written in her brief note on feminism, â€Å"A feminist critique, however, reveals Emily as a casualty of patriarchy and literally of her own father and lover† (Abby 245). She is both an idol and a victim because she is admired for keeping the tradition and also victimized for doing her duty. At the surface level, the story is about death, murder, and the changes in the social conditions during a transition period in America. However, at the bottom level, the theme is love and passion. Emily very desperately needs a man. Her passions were suppressed by the conventions of her society in which she lived, and she had absolutely no control over the situations. The narrator comments that â€Å"even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized† (Faulkner). The only white light in her life is seen when Baron steps in, but that too does not last. The denial of this only chance drives her into insanity, turning her into a murderer. â€Å"We remembered all the young men her father had driven away†, points out the narrator (Faulkner). Emily, therefore, lives as a representative of those who made her pace betwe en social obligations and physical passion. She is a fine example showing how one’s passions turn into psychic illness. In short, her case is that of necrophilia. The attitudes of the people in the town serves as a contrast to Emily’s options in her life: she is â€Å"a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town† (Faulkner). In other words, the attitudes of the people are patriarchal. Emily lives an isolated life, â€Å"no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier† (Faulkner). It is important to note that her miseries are not the result of her actions in life. In fact, she has no choice to act. The imagery used by the narrator to show the quantum of her isolation is: â€Å"She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water† (Faulkner). The story can, therefore, be called a sexist text, because, basically it deals with the victimization of female sex. However, the narrator remains n eutral to the old and new attitudes, leaving the readers to decide who wins, whether man or Emily. Robert Crosman observes that â€Å"If there is a battle between the sexes in â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, the reader must decide who wins† (Robert 361). Faulkner thus very cleverly involves the readers too with his skilful narrative techniques for judging Emily’s actions in the old mansion. A second closer look at how the tradition of patriarchy has made her insane is imperative. The story, â€Å"A Rose for Emily

Introduction to the city Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Introduction to the city - Essay Example Cash flow can be defined as ‘the pattern of income and expenses, and its consequences for how much money is available at a given time’ The process of managing working capital would involve deciding what quantity of cash, other liquid assets, accounts receivable and inventories the firm would require to have at any given point of time. â€Å" The management of working capital is concerned with the management of assets such as cash, marketable securities, account receivable, investor prepaid expenses and the current assets; also liabilities such as accounts payables, wages payables and accruals.†2 Working capital can generally be generated by receiving short term loan from a bank or by placing aside a sum from the equity. Generally working capital can not be added up while taking a long term loan from a bank. According to Keynes a firm holds working capital for three basic reasons; to benefit from timely opportunities arising in the market, as a fund to deal with unforeseen crisis that require immediate action and to carry out the regular business activities of cash inflow and outflow. The process of working capital management is relatively complex and it is meant to ensure that a firm is capable to carry out its regular activities with optimum efficiency at the same time fulfill the short term debt requirements and forthcoming operational expenditures. This process requires an analytical approach towards the spending and receiving of the funds available on hand. â€Å"The analysis requires decisions to be taken for the following questions such as: how should the firm manage its cash? To whom should the firm grant credit? How much inventory should the firm keep? What should be the composition of the firm’s current debt? â€Å"3 The goal of managing working capital is to have cash inflow as early as possible and to delay the cash outflow as much as possible and at the

America's intervention in Syria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

America's intervention in Syria - Essay Example America has previously intervened in other crisis like this such as in Egypt and Iraq though Syria’s case has been complicated by failure of China and Russia to adopt a resolution by the United Nation’s Security Council. This paper therefore recommends against military intervention but a diplomatic and politically negotiated solution for the benefit of both Syrians and America. Introduction The uprising in Tunisia ignited the turning point in the leadership of many Arab countries. In what begun within the social media, it is now clear that the uprising in Tunisia was a significant event in the Arab spring. It took only one year since this uprising begun in Tunisia and now Syrians are fighting to overthrow the Damascus regime led by their authoritarian leader Bashar al-Assad. Despite the many deaths that have occurred in other countries such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt due to the same fight against dictatorship, innocent Syrians continue to die. It is also important to note that Syrians who are persistently seeking to overthrow the government and Bashar regime has constantly faced severely and violent crackdown from him. The increasing violent attack on Syrians by Bashar regime has not only led to the death of many Syrians, but has presented a serious humanitarian crisis in the nation. . As stated by (), the number of Syrians who have died in the violence stand at seven thousand since the beginning of the violence in March this year. Moreover, the matter has been complicated further by the rejection by China and Russia to adopt a resolution on the matter by the United Nation’s Security Council. Although the certain interventions have been successful in the past like in Libya where dictator Gadhafi was brought down, intervention in Syria is tricky and the feasibility of United States intervention is in question. Background of the Study and History Syria is an Arab nation found along the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea within the Middl e East. This nation is very diverse in terms of both ethnicity and religious even though many citizens of the nation are Sunni Arab Muslims. Civilization has taken place in different nations since many years and centuries, however, Syria can be rated as very young in terms of civilization. Although its boarders were drawn over a hundred years ago by the European colony, it has not adopted the modern democracy with regards to national governance. Currently, the nation is in the center of a serious humanitarian crisis resulting from violence between government forces and National Coalition of Revolution and other militia groups (Hasan, 2012). The conflict in Syria begun when the peaceful protesters mainly inspired by revolution in both Tunisia and Egypt begun challenging the dictatorial regime led by Assad in late March 2011 (Unham, 2013). The response from the government was not only severe, but exhibited the highest level of atrocity never witnesses in the country. The government be gun raping, kidnapping, killing and torturing activists as well as their family members. This never deterred many protesters but only served to energize their operations. The government then directed and increased atrocities to small children and women mutilating their bodies and dumping by the roadsides (Unham, 2013). When military begun shooting direct on the protesters, the civilian responded by shooting back thus the fighting escalated from a mere protest into civil war. The year 2012 marked the midst of highest atrocities ever

The Economy, Global Finance, and Inequality Research Paper

The Economy, Global Finance, and Inequality - Research Paper Example The Economy, Global Finance, and Inequality Introduction After the 9/11 attacks, America realized that it could not trust anyone entering her borders. In response to the terrorist attacks, U.S. immediately began to develop an aggressive foreign policy. Resulting from the attacks, George Bush increased spending on defense and focused on protecting the country against future attacks (Wright, 2007). Changes in strategies, which focused on cracking down terrorists, were established; for example, the Department of Homeland Security was developed. This ensured safety of citizens and promoted domestic peace. The country also began investigations of illegal immigrants entering its borders. In addition, America also strengthened ties with Japan, Pakistan, and India. Change in the U.S. foreign policy was directed towards protecting businesses and citizens and defeating terrorist groups. The 9/11 attacks refer to a sequence of four suicide attacks which were committed in the U.S. on 11th Septem ber, 2001. The attacks were coordinated to strike Washington D.C. and New York City (Gow, 2002). The attacks were done by 19 terrorists from the terrorist group known as al-Qaeda, which is an Islamist militant group. During the attacks, the terrorists hijacked four jets carrying passengers. The group intentionally piloted two of the planes into the Twin Towers, making the towers collapse. This destroyed the World Trade Center complex located in the New York City. The group also directed American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pentagon in Virginia. However, the group’s intention to direct the fourth plane to a target in Washington failed after the plane crashed near Shanksville when its passengers tried to take control of the plane (Wyndham, 2011). The attacks led to deaths of approximately 3000 people: all the passengers boarding the four planes died together with all the 19 hijackers, and 227 civilians died from the attacks. Osama, the leader of the terrorist group, admitted resp onsibility for the attacks after several investigations. Osama and his group gave the United States reasons for establishing the 9/11 attacks. Some of the reasons for the attacks include support of Israel by the U.S, the existence of U.S. army in Saudi Arabia, and U.S. sanctions against Iraq (Bodden, 2007). The United States responded to the 9/11 attacks through initiating the war on terror policy and invading Afghanistan with a mission of disposing the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda. The attacks made most countries strengthen their antiterrorism laws and develop law enforcement powers (Scott, 2007). Political and Non-State Actors Both political and non-state actors were involved in one way or another during the event of 9/11. The political actors involved include the president and the Congress. The president during the event was George Bush, who reacted to the event with a lot of aggressiveness. The president played a role during the event through acting swiftly in addressing t he issue of rescue and recovery. The president addressed the issue through setting up relief funds which assisted the victims of the attacks (Wyndham, 2011). The relief funds provided financial assistance to several survivors of the attacks and to the different families of the victims. The president also played a role in guiding the Congress in amending changes,

Perceptions of Adjustment to Stepfamily Living Research Paper

Perceptions of Adjustment to Stepfamily Living - Research Paper Example These chapters have been presented along a two step model of perception and conception. The above diagram shows the theoretical framework that must be adopted for the various direct and indirect decision aids for qualitative analysis in terms of the frequency of complaints as far as adjustment patterns go. This has been studied on the basis of multiple regression which entails the identification of predictable values of the independent and dependent variables through an equation. The scope for repeated purchases can be studied through a focus on multiple regression: The summary shows that the most popular aid was the cognitive functioning which had the strongest correlation with the dependant variable. This can be further studied through the Pearson's Regression as follows. The values found in the Pearson's model were entered into the Regression model as they were shown to correlate. Pearson's correlation has been followed to conduct analysis between decision aids identified by the consumer survey to study the complaint frequency in the adjustment process. This activity has been carried out to arrive at a conclusion regarding whether or not the variables enjoy any kind of association with one another. The output defined significant correlation with all decision aids. The values attributed to each are as follows: Cognitive functioning: 2.21 (r = 0.369) Age groups: 2.2.3 (r = 0.345) Sex: 2.2.6 (r = 0.344) Violence: 2.2.7 (r = 0.343) Overall policies: 2.2.8 (r = 0.361) In this case, another relevant evaluation method is the stepwise regression method. The stepwise regression method after the enter method in the multiple regression method. Model R R Square Adjusted Square Std Error of the Adjustment 1 .369(a) .136 .127 23.67861 a) Predictors: (Constant) Cognitive functioning b) Dependant variable: Frequency of complaints Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig 1 Regression 8667.706 1 8667.706 15.459 000 (a) Residual 54964.294 98 560.676 Total 63614.000 99 ANOVA (b) c) Predictors: (Constant) Age groups d) Dependant variable: Frequency of complaints Parties Involved: Demographic Inventory To begin with, the data collected has been divided into three basic categories. These include information pertaining to the following parties in the larger scheme of foster home relationships and other activities: (Zetlin et al, 2003) Foster parents / individuals Children placed

The UK Motor Insurance Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The UK Motor Insurance Industry - Essay Example The last few years have seen the major insurers cut costs and attempt to consolidate their market share with a wave of mergers and take-overs. The current state of the industry is marked by competition. The future will be driven by innovation, and will benefit the UK consumer. The private motor underwriting result deteriorated in 2005, as the market returned a loss of 232 million. The private motor underwriting loss has been increasing since 2001 when it approached the break-even mark with a loss of only 86 and the market has not made a profit since 1994. This has resulted in the consolidation of the industry as smaller insurers find it more difficult to compete. In both private and commercial motor insurers, the top 20 companies are responsible for over 95% of the business (The Association of British Insurers 2007). This trend is likely to continue as smaller companies continue to stand losses and are forced to merge, consolidate, or innovate. The Internet has offered brokers a new low cost outlet to offer competitive rates to consumers. According to Lee Mooney, Admiral motor product group manager says, "The Internet is growing in importance as a medium because of the savings it can offer big insurers"(Lorenz 2002 p.12). The obvious success of direct insurance companies prompted traditional insurance players to set up their own distinct direct insurance brands. It is forecast that by the end of 2007, 20% of the motor insurance will be sold over the Internet (The Association of British Insurers 2007). "The development of websites and of broadband Internet access is likely to lead to more integrated insurance purchasing, as consumers research the Web and then choose a direct supplier either online or through a retail outlet" (The Association of British Insurers 2007). One of the driving forces behind the need to lower costs through direct marketing has been the increased cost of servicing claims. The nature on motor insurance is such that the client is paying a fee now for a service to be rendered in the future (Abdelhamid 2005 p.214). Fluctuations in claims due to inflation and rising repair rates may exceed the premium value. This has forced insurers to become dependent on the value of the return on the invested premiums. When investment value drops, this places the insurer in jeopardy of taking a loss on the claim. This has had the effect of promoting lower cost Internet and call centre based sales activities. As direct marketing companies proliferate they also look to differentiate their products. In 2005, Admiral launched MultiCar. Drivers who have 2 or more cars in their household could get a discount of up to 23% on their motor car insurance (Cheap Car Insurance). Norwich, a division of Aviva since its merger with CGU in 2000, offers the pay as you drive program. They offer a black box telemetry system that bills you for the miles you drive (Could pay-as-you-drive insurance work 2004). Innovations in service and pricing will continue to drive the industry. Norwich Union, the largest automobile insurer in the Great Britain, has set up its own medical clinic to treat victims of car accidents involving its policyholders. They have their own clinics, doctors and therapists that treat people making claims. It quickens recovery, cuts costs, and limits the potential of future litigation. This is one more innovation that is driving the motor insurance industry. Motor insurance has gone through a revolution

Ford Galaxy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ford Galaxy - Essay Example Ford Galaxy is a seven-seater luxury large Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) developed jointly by Ford and Volkswagen and was first introduced in 1995. During the Frankfurt Motor Show held last September 2005, the latest Ford Galaxy model was unveiled. It will be available in the market in the middle of 2006. In the Motor Industry Facts 2006 published by SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd.), total car registration in UK reached 2.4 million as of 2005. In table 1 below, Lower Medium segment remains to be the most dominant car type in the industry owning 31.2% of the market. Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, and Renault Megane are among the products included in this category. However, total car registration was down by 5% compared to 2004. Major factors attributed to such decline were lower consumer spending, increasing interest rates, and intense competition in the industry. Very evident in the last three years in the industry was the shift of consumer preferences in terms of car type. Share of Superminis like Corsa, Fiesta, and 206 went down by 3.9% while its alternative Lower Medium increased market share by 2.8%. Furthermore, SUVs or Dual Purpose 4x4s and MPVs increased share in the industry New car registrations can be classified as non-private (fleet and business) and private. An estimated of about 44.1% of total car registrations were categorised as private vehicles. ... In terms of non-private, 49% were contributed by business segment and the remaining 7.3% for fleet. Table 1 MPV's or minivans are slowly gaining popularity in the industry resulting to a 3-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% against total industry CAGR of -1.6%. However, total MPV declined by 8% which is somewhat similar to the situation of the total car industry. MPVs are also known as people carrier, multi-utility vehicle, or to some extent as minivan. A typical MPV can seat 7 people or more, relatively higher than normal sedans, and can be characterised as a family car. It is further segmented in three major categories - mini-MPV (e.g. Hyundai Matrix), compact MPV (e.g. Vauxhall Zafira), and large MPV (e.g. Ford Galaxy) depending on its body size and seating capacity. Market Needs In the survey involving 3,000 new car buyers conducted by Vauxhall Motors last 2003, reliability turned out to be the most important consideration affecting car purchase. Price which was the primary consideration in year 2002 fell to 4th position. Comfort, fuel economy, price, exterior size and space in vehicle are other leading considerations influencing car purchase in UK. Market Forecast Car registration forecast in 2006 is still negatively skewed according to SMMT. Expected new car registrations will be around 2.375 million or -2.7% compared to actual car registration in 2005. Weak economic forecast which is directly related to weakening consumer spending is considered as one of the significant deterrents in 2006. Conversely, diesel demand is predicted to increase in the coming years. Competition General target buyers for MPV are young families with children age 6 to 11 years old who want better fuel economic savings. The growing fierce

Jacob Lawrence Essay Example for Free

Jacob Lawrence Essay 1.0 Background Jacob Lawrence, one of the most important artists of the 20th century and best known for his series of narrative paintings depicting important moment in African American history was born on 7th September 1917 in Atlantic City (pbs.org, para. 1). He spent a portion of his childhood life in Pennsylvania after which his parents separated in 1924. Jacob and his siblings went with the mother to New York and settled in Harlem. He was introduced to art at his teen age when his mother enrolled him in Utopia Children’s center which provided an after school art program in Harlem. By 1930’s he could participate in the art programs at the Harlem Art Workshop and the Harlem community art centre, where he got a chance to meet leading American artists of the time such as Augusta Savage and Charles Alton, the director of Harlem workshop at the time and who later became a professor of art at Howard University (pbs.org, para.1). Having trained as a painter at the Harlem workshop inside the New York Public Library’s 113 5th street branch, and despite being much younger than   most of the artists and other writers who took part in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s, Lawrence was a force to recon with (Hughes, para.2). He was not interested in the type of idealized and fake primitives of blacks otherwise referred to as the Noble Negroes in art Deco guise, as they were usually produced as an antidote to the stereotypical racists. He gained confidence particularly from Alain Locke, who was a Harvard trained artist and also the first black Rhodes scholar in America. Locke strongly believed in the pieces of work done by blacks, as it could speak explicitly to African-Americans while still embodying value as well as self critical powers of modernism. Precisely, Locke believed that, â€Å"There is in truly great art in no essential conflict between racial or national traits and universal human valu es† (Hughes, para. 2). 2.0 The work of Jacob Lawrence Lawrence became well known at the age of 21 years when he did his â€Å"Toussant L’Ouverture Series†, a 41 painting collection that depicted a successful rebellion by the Haitian slaves. Three years later at the age of 24, his work became the first from an African American to be included in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art (Lawrence, para. 1). Lawrence therefore considered himself to be both an artist and an educator. He used his art to tell stories about the black American history as he felt that this was being overlooked in the teaching of history in America. For instance, Lawrence did a forty panel series which he called â€Å"The Life of Harriet Tubman† who in the 1800s had helped many slaves in the north to free through an Underground Railroad (Sernett, pp. 218). From his childhood, Lawrence had been steeped in stories about movement and migration and therefore with encouragement from Locke, he worked hard to get historical background and related facts right. Months of research in the Schomburg Collection of the Public Library which is the chief archive of African American life and history in New York, saw the realization of his other piece of work, â€Å"Migration Series† which could help trace the mass influx of African Americas from the south to the North as a result of World War I. The two series are known for use of detailed titles and creative images to create narrative history of events (Lawrence, para. 2). Additionally, the series are notable for lack of language use. The author was in no way a propagandist. He however advocated for front social realism which was at its peak in America at the time as evidenced by labor camps, prisons, deserted villages, city slums and race riots which were mainly his subject matter. Lawrence attributed his success to his black experience which was his heritage, more so as far as black Americans struggle to secure independence and justice was concerned. Even during adult hood, he extended this theme to include all human struggles for liberty, and although each of his paintings evidenced his sense of humor as well as human pain and misery, they offered hope for the human condition. In 1937, Lawrence secured a two-year scholarship to the American artist school, where he studied with the   Wilson, Philip Riesman and Eugene Moreley before marrying one of the pupil of Savage who was also a west Indian painter, Gwendolyn Knight in 1941.This scholarship took him out of Harlem but he still maintained a close contact with the community which was the focus of his work as evidenced by his work â€Å"Street Scene Restaurant†, â€Å"Street orator†, â€Å"Interior† and â€Å"Interior scenes† which were shown in 1938. Other notable work that was done by Lawrence were a 32 painting series, â€Å"The Frederic Douglass† and the 22 panel   series that he painted while on honeymoon in 1941. In the explosive 1960s, Lawrence painted what most critics have called his work of â€Å"Protest† in favor of civil rights struggle in the South. In one of his paintings, â€Å"The ordeal of Alice†, he showed a black girl dressed in white trying to get into a newly desegregated school in the South but demonic tormentors attack her with arrows in a scene that is common only with religious martyrs. In the late 1960s though, Lawrence progressed from portraying racial injustice into showing racial harmony. At this time he did his series, â€Å"Builders†, which showed both whites and blacks working together in building projects, scenes which could be interpreted to mean rebuilding the society. Despite the changing trends, both political and in artistic field, Lawrence remained true to his own original and creative path until his death in June 9, 2000 (Sernett, pp. 82). 3.0 His work compared with others A comparison between the work of art done by Jacob Lawrence and that of other artists of his time reveals a lot of difference, with most these differences inclined to Lawrence’s outstanding. While most of the artists, especially those doing watercolor paintings like him, are usually inclined to beauty and elegance, Lawrence was different. Even the most recent artists such as Thomas Deir, despite making  Ã‚   the highest sale of $ 10,000 in the Waikiki gallery, do not seem to belong to the same school of thought with Jacob Lawrence (hawaiiart.com). The work of Lawrence, despite bringing out beauty, also carries some real life meanings as far as human life is concerned. The â€Å"Toussant L’Ouverture Series†, for example is a series that is not only elegant but also carries success. Depicting a successful rebellion by slaves, especially at the time when slave trade and slavery accompanied with a lot of other human misery was rampant, the painting can be said to carry more than Thomas Dier’s   â€Å"Mokulua Milky Way   valued at   over $2000† as far as   human values and relevance   is concerned (hawaiiart.com). Other renowned artists such Judy Abott or Michelle Amatrula, though recognized for making huge sales from their pieces of work, do not address contemporary issues like Lawrence does. The other artist who could in away compares to Jacob Lawrence is Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) who is particularly known for his Luminists landscape particularly of the storms and marshes in South America as well as still life paintings. Martin Johnson Heade (originally Heed) was equally a talented artist of the nineteenth century. He is remembered for   his flora, fauna and landscape paintings that do not only have a rich effect of color and light but could also portray some poetic sentiments. Lawrence however still appears to outweigh Heade in what can be drawn from a critical analysis of their work. Put in simple terms, while the work from both artists share beauty, Lawrence has some educative aspect injected into his work. By all definitions, Lawrence was better than most of the other artists of the time as evidenced by the numerous awards and credit that goes to his name. In 1974, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a major retrospective of the work done by Lawrence which later resulted to his election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983, while in 1977, he received an invitation to paint during the inauguration of Jimmy Carter. In May 2007, the White House Historical Association bought Lawrence’s â€Å"Builders† shown below for $2.5 million at auction. This painting today hangs in the white House Green Room (Crehan, para.5). 4.0 Conclusion Jacob Lawrence is probably one of the best artists that ever appeared on the face of earth. His work reveals a rare talent that he recognized and exploited fully. Despite being a black American, he beat all odds to become one of the best artists of the 21st century while the plight of fellow black Americans remained a dear concern to his heart. This is what his work addressed.  Jacob Lawrence is no doubt a legend whose life deserves recognition by and over generations while his artistic work will continue to demand respect over centuries.

Globalization Localization Product

Globalization Localization Product 1. The paradoxes of globalization vs. localisation and profitability vs. responsibility In todays continuously changing world, globalization is what every business, organization, and nation should seek and welcome as a positive change. However, many people are unaware of the main focus and meaning of globalization, especially in comparison to localization. A large number of people believe that globalization is just another common word used to refer to changes and differences that cannot be explained. Therefore, many different activities or changes are improperly labelled to be a part of or caused by globalization. Localization is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired local preferences. Ideally, a product or service is developed so that localization is relatively easy to achieve for example, by creating technical illustrations for manuals in which the text can easily be changed to another language. The process of first enabling a product to be localized and then localizing it for different national audiences is sometimes known as globalization. In localizing a product, in addition to language translation, such details as time zones, money, national holidays, local color sensitivities, product or service names, gender roles, and geographic examples must all be considered. A successfully localized service or product is one that appears to have been developed within the local culture. Globalization is also a term that refers to the process of global integration of the economies of nations by allowing the unrestricted flow of goods, services, investments and currencies between countries. The process of globalization has both positive and negative impacts on life at the individual and nationals levels. Globalization and localization are almost opposite concepts but can coexist. Globalization can briefly be defined as ‘something that affects and changes the traditional arrangements. It is a term that directly implies change and therefore is a continuous process over a long period of time as compared to quickly changing into a wanted or desirable end business system. Globalization, focusing on a narrower scale, refers to sequences that occur in ones mind or behaviour that lead to processes that evolve as people or organizations pursue their daily tasks in a hopeful attempt to accomplish their specific goals. Both globalization and localization have many costs and benefits, although not always considered when making decisions that significantly affect a group or countrys outcome. Two main benefits of globalization include it being a good way for a company to make more money and also initiate more openness between countries on the economic level. Moreover, other positive aspects of globalization include the increase in productivity and improvement in standards of living. On the other hand, the benefits of localization are more beneficial to a single state/country because it involves and allows a country to have its own specific national style of economic practices that reflect upon the countrys distinctiveness. The costs of globalization mainly comprise of giving up a countrys distinction of its politics, culture, economy where as costs of localization involve less trade and international investment. Although many people view a decrease in a countrys involvement with trade and investment as a benefit, in the long run it is a cost because it denies the country the ability to communicate with other countries and to increase its technology and status (by importing and learning about other countries products). An increase in trade would also allow a country to advertise its products and abilities and export items to different countries with high odds of making a profit. Another cost of localization is its evolution from the pressures that lead organizations to narrow their horizons and participate in dissimilar forms of behaviour not always accepted and approved by globally integrated countries. The costs of globalization are not weighed as heavily as those costs of localization because time wi ll override many of the unavoidable problems. Therefore, globalization cannot be stopped and as the political and cultural changes occur, organizations with strong economic performances will survive, succeed and replace those less productive. From an economic point of view, globalization focuses on the expansion of production and trade whereas localization focuses on more narrow and specific activities of consumers and producers. These two dynamics operate in all human activity from cultural and social to economic and political activities. From the social and cultural aspect, globalization attempts to extend its ideas and practices beyond its original and present setting whereas localization discourages new ideas, norms and practices. In addition, these two sets of dynamics are linked in a way that it seems every change in globalization causes a change in localization and vice versa. Todays world affairs and processes are greatly affected by the tensions between the different aspects and characteristics of globalization versus localization. In my opinion, the benefits of globalization discussed in this paper are far more important than its costs or the costs and benefits of localization. Although, localization and globalization will continue co-existing, globalization will continue to increasingly dominate over time because most countries are generally leading to and becoming more accepting of the idea of globalization. The benefits gained by globalization are the most important to peoples lives because it aides in the learning process of people expanding their horizons and understanding the benefits to countries, organizations, and groups working together. Although losing some part of ones national identity can be a disadvantage at times, the advantages of being able to work together and help each other in a globally integrated world are much more. It is widely known that for a business to be successful it needs to provide a good or service that is desired by the public and also to obtain a profit in providing said well or service. Now while these are the most important components to a successful business, they are not the only ones. The social responsibilities of a business include the following: environmental protection and preservation, employee safety and morale, product safety for the consumer. The financial manager must keep these three social responsibilities in mind when making any and all decisions. The purpose organizations should serve has been a puzzle for strategists over years. There are two perspectives from which this paradox could be viewed: shareholder value—profitability oriented and stakeholder value—focused on responsibility. According to the shareholder value perspective, each company is established to serve the purposes of their owners. In other words, an organization should focus on increase of its stock value through the implementation of profitable business strategies. Even though it might be in the interests of shareholders to treat stakeholders well, there is no moral obligation to do so. On the other hand, stakeholder value proponents argue that a company purpose should be seen as an agreement among shareholders, employees, banks, customers, suppliers, governments and community and an entity should orient on the interests and values of its stakeholders. Stakeholders value perspective assumes that an organization should serve the interests of all parties that can be influenced by its activities or are somehow involved into the company operations. Even though all stakeholders are interested in the company profitability, there are also other business areas on which stakeholders place high value such as quality is demanded by customers; job security, occupational safety, good working conditions are required by employees; prompt payments, shared risk taking, secure demand are preferred by suppliers. Therefore, maximizing shareholders value to the detriment of the other stakeholders interests would be unjust. That is the emphasis that major shareholders place on stock pric e appreciation and dividends must be balanced against the legitimate demands of other parties. The choice of the major company purpose—the reason for which an organization exists is the essential one because it defines what will be the company mission i.e. the business philosophy that should guide strategic choices i.e. who should ensure that the strategies pursued are in accordance with the mission. If the company purpose is clearly specified, it will give direction to the strategy process and influence the strategy content. Moreover, the values share by an organizations members may have an impact on strategic choices and thus the company mission. 2. Grupo Elektra analysis For analyzing the performance of Grupo Elektra one of the helpful techniques is to scan the internal and external environment of the company with application of the SWOT analysis at different stages of its development in a chronological order. Environmental factors internal to the company can be classified as strengths (S) and weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm are opportunities (O) and threats (T). The following is the SWOT analysis for Grupo Elektra. Internal environmental factors: STRENGTHS Grupo Elektra was the first Mexican manufacturer of TV sets that allowed introducing a new product at the market. Ricardo Salinas, Elektras new CEO, employed a group of talented and competent professional managers. As a result the company had a competitive advantage in future business development based on the excellent management team that allowed achieving quality levels with greater efficiency, while other competitors was based on the trial and error approach. The company profits were properly divided: for distribution to employees, for commercial reinvestment and the product/service development. This rational division of profits allowed further continuous development of the company accompanied with employees motivated to put much effort into there work. In 1995, the company had extended its service range (domestic wire transfer, extended warranty program, photo products and processing services, as well as saving accounts) that strengthened its position at the market. The distribution network was increased to more than 500 stores all over Mexico that made Elektras products more available to customers. With four different chains (Elektra, Bodega de Remates, Salinas y Rocha and The One) Grupo Elektra covered 87% of the Mexican population it means that the company was monopolistic. The business plan for the international expansion is made by Filiberto Jimenez in order to attack the main competitor La Curacao. The plan successfully worked and in 2001 La Curacao went bankrupt that allowed Elektra redouble companys position at the Latin America market. Elektra offered 20% lower prices than it closest competitor La Curacao that gave a possibility to deserve the customers loyalty. The major factor in Elektras success was the partnership with TV Azteca. The channel did not advertise any of Elektras competitors that allow company to create unique image and to be very effective with advertising efforts. Elektra had a huge media budget of $27 million per year and it was the largest advertiser in Mexico, in terms of airtime. The strategy followed by Elektra requires careful analyses before any merger or acquisition is made and any acquisition should result in the additional value to the whole company. The strong side of the Grupo Elektra management is a well prepared and experienced management team and motivating techniques applied to employees, people are allowed with freedom to express themselves. WEAKNESSES In the management of the company there is only one person, Alvaro Rodriguez, who makes final decisions. This limited decision power may lead to difficulties in further management of Elektra. The company has a problem with the production of cloth for the clothing chain The One. The production capacity was not enough, so there were the shortage of stock level, colors and sizes of cloths. The company is not concentrated on one kind of business, there are many business directions and not all of them are enough qualified. In El Salvador and the Dominican Republic the existed Elektras business model didnt work. The main source of companys income is financial services, such as credits. The Elektra tries to attract more and more people to live on a credit and to pay quite high interest rates. External environmental factors: OPPORTUNITIES Offering Elektras services internationally provided the opportunities to compete at the worldwide market. In year 2001 Grupo Elektra was already a well recognized in many countries. THREATS Evaluation of management and suggested solutions As SWOT analyses demonstrates strengths prevail over weaknesses in Elektra case that explains continuous prosperity and success of the company in the market. However, certain weaknesses still present and are better to be eliminated. First of all, the management is performed by a group of well prepared managers while the final decision is always made only by one person, while others are not informed what principles and criteria are followed in making decisions. It is a risky strategy since biases the success of the company toward the decision of Alvaro. Moreover, it will be rather difficult in the future to replace Alvaro Rodriguez with anyone who will be equally active, smart and so well informed about the business of the company. More people should participate in the decision making process in order to avoid subjectivity and provide necessary support to the next CEO if something happens to Alvaro Rodriguez. From one side, the Elektra system perpetuates such type of culture where lower-income groups owe their lives or earnings to a central figure in this case Elektra owner Ricardo Salinas Pliego. For example, Elektra employs 4,000 â€Å"investigators† so every potential credit client can be visited at home before a credit sale is approved. From another point of view, the Elektra gives the chance of purchasing new things immediately and it makes peoples life better.

Changes in the family structure | Analysis

Changes in the family structure | Analysis Many countries have experienced very significant changes in patterns of family formation and family structure. Great Britain is one of the countries where these changes have been particularly marked with the result that British families have become less stable . The roles of women and men with the parents or within the family have also changed. The last 100 years have seen changes in attitudes and expectations. Bruner, J. (1985) Vygotsk, the last 100 years have been seen in the structure of technology, attitudes and expectations. Families are mix of cohabiting parents, stepfamilies, single parent families, those living apart together and civil partnerships, as well as the traditional family. it was necessary to prove that in one of five ways such as unreasonable behaviour, desertion, adultery, two years separation with consent, five years separation without consent. J. (1985) Vygotsky, the public are divided into their views in which relaxation of societal attitudes towards marriage means it is no longer seen as unusual to be involved in a complicated family structure. Families are no longer just made up of married parents living with their children. Although seven in ten households are still headed up by married couples, this proportion has been declining for some time. Families are now a mix of cohabiting parents, stepfamilies, single parent families, those living apart together and civil partnerships, as well as the traditional nuclear family. The changes in marriage, divorce and cohabitation have contributed to the growing number of new types of family. Two in five of all marriages are now remarriages, which makes stepfamilies one of the fastest growing family forms in Britain. In the decade to 2006, the number of single parent families also increased to 2.3 million, making up 14% of all families. Consequently more and more children are now growing up in single parent families, and in stepfamilies. A growing number of couples are also now living apart together, often following failed marriages or cohabitations. Initial estimates suggest that around two million people have regular partners in other households excluding full-time students and people who live with their parents. In most cases this is due to working in a different location to the family home or because the relationship is still in the early stages . However, womens focus on their career may also be a factor. As women choose to focus on their career before set tling into a committed relationship, they are getting married and having children later in life. Finally civil partnerships between same sex couples have created a new type of family. By the end of 2007 there had been 26,787 civil partnerships since the law was introduced in December 2005. Teenage motherhood is one of the most distinctive features of British Demography. Without teenage pregnancies, Britains rate would fall from 1.8 to 1.68 (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2; also Coleman 1997). Teenagers throughout Europe both East and West now engage in sexual intercourse at earlier ages than their parents or grand-parents. In disapproval pre-marital sex . Marriage was broken, little remained to prevent young people who are physically ready to have sex from doing so. The analysis of European social attitudes data (Chapter 3; also Scott, Alwin, and Braun 1996) provides information about attitudes to pre-marital sex in various countries in 1994. In these information ,52 per cent were opposed to men, and 63 per cent opposed to women, having any pre-marital sex. Only a small number believed that pre-marital sex was natural (McKibbin 1998: 296) For teenage men and women in Britain today, the average age at à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rst intercourse is 17. But whereas in most of Western Europe, rates of teenage motherhood have fallen as teenage sexual activity has risen. Demographically, Britain more closely resembles to Eastern Europe, where a tradition of marriage has long meant high teenage fertility rates (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2; also Coleman 1996b: 23).Almost all of the East European births are inside marriage while all of the Western are outside marriage with a large number being outside partnership as well. In Britain, teenage births account for just over one-à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ fth of all non-marital births 21 per cent while 80-90 per cent of teenage births are outside legal marriage. In 1996, there were 44,700 babies born to women aged 15-19. Although this represents a rise over the previous year. However, it is also the case that the number of teenage girls in the population was falling from the early 1980s onwards and that the rate at which 15-19 year olds become pregnant and remain pregnant .The conception rate and the abortion rate was stable or rising throughout the period and into the late 1990s (ONS 1997d: 62). Figure shows changes in the abortion rates for selected years since 1974.There was a large drop from 1974-84 when teenage births fell steadily. From 1984 onwards, however, conceptions have à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uctuated around 60 and abortions around 35, per 1000 women aged 15-19. The stability of both the conception and abortion rates gives few grounds for thinking that in the short term at least . British teenagers will behave different than they have in the past. And as their numbers in the population are set to rise over the next decade and number of b abies born to teenagers (Craig 1997). Britain is also distinctive for its high divorce rate. Thirty years ago, there were two divorces for every 1,000 marriages. Liberalization of the divorce laws in the 1970s was sharp rise in divorce and by the mid-1980s about 1,000 marriages ended in divorce a rate (Pullinger 1998). The rate of increase is slower now than in the 1970s and early 1980s largely because the married population contains fewer of those at high risk (Murphy and Wang, Chapter 4). Nonetheless, 40 per cent of marriages will end in divorce measures of divorce per 1,000 marriages or per 1,000 population. Moreover, people are divorcing after shorter periods of marriage. One in ten marriages which took place in 1981 ended in divorce within 4.5 years, compared with one in ten divorcing within 6 years in 1971 and after 25 years in 1951 (Roberts 1996: 2). Early marriage have long been understood to be strongly associated with marital breakdown. The younger the age at marriage, the greater the likelihood of the marriage ending (Kiernan and Mueller, Chapter 16). Between 1971 and 1996, people under age 25 experienced the greatest growth in divorce rates with rates increasing for men and women (Pullinger 1998). The problem of lone motherhood is poverty. Research suggests that, as a group, lone mothers have few chances of obtaining other than low-paid work, often because they enter the labour market disadvantaged by their low level of qualià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ cations (Bryson, Ford, and White 1998). The majority, however, have young children to care for and thus need jobs which provide enough income to meet the costs of child care. Consequently, lone mothers in Britain are less likely to be employed than in most other case countries and in the 1970s and their employment rate has declined. The difference in economic activity between married and lone mothers is particularly sharp between women with children under age 5. In the 1970s, lone mothers with preschool children were more likely to be in work than married mothers This changed during the1980s, and during the 1990s married mothers with young children have been twice as likely as lone mothers to be economically active. During the1990s one in two m arried mothers with pre-school children have been in employment compared with fewer than one in four comparable lone mothers (Kiernan, Land, and Lewis1998: 128). Most of the fall in employment among lone mothers has come in full-time work while the full-time employment of married women has risen with part-time work remaining stable. People live alone for a variety of reasons. For example, living alone may be a permanent choice and for others , it may be a temporary. While there are more people living alone at all ages and the largest increases since 1971 have come among men and women under retirement age, particularly those aged under 40 (Hall and Ogden 1997). The increase in solo living among people under pension age rejects the way in which household change is some-times linked to economic change. Since 1970s ,the number of lone-parent families has been increased in Britain and also the proportion of children raised in such families (Coleman and Chandola, Chapter 2). In the late 1990s, 1.6million families in Britain with dependent children. During the 1960s, divorce overtook death as the primary source of lone-parent families while in the 1970s and 1980s, sharply rising divorce rates and falling remarriage rates furthered their growth (Kiernan, Land, and Lewis 1998; Murphy and Wang,Chapter4). From the mid-1980s, however, most of the growth in lone-parent families has come from never-married mothers as changing attitudes towards pre-marital sex. Nonetheless, there has been a substantial increase in the number of single women who become mothers while not living with a partner (Berthoud, McKay, and Rowlingson, Chapter 15). Since in 1990s, women who had never married before becoming mothers (Pullinger 1998). The parents who were working and busy of whole day to day responsibilities, grandparents could spend more time with their grandchildren and develop a special bond (Weissvourd, 1998). Children and their grandparents each were close to each other and were able to offer mutual support for each other. There were lot of facilities on the parents to teach their children even that grand parents played important role in this situation. This gave scope for reciprocal social relationships and joint interaction in learning and contrasts with the role of the parents as well as grand parents in learning (Bruner, 1985). In the context of the family, mutual trust and respect for each members perspective (Rommetveit, 1974, 1979) was a important to this process. Government has moved away from financial support for marriage towards families. Legislative changes have given families more flexibility to maintain their home and work lives and have a degree of choice in their options. The public would like to see support made available to families and delivered to the service provider and providing additional cash. In recent years the amount of money spent by government to support families has increased significantly but it has also been dramatically re-targeted which has the effect of shifting support from one type of family form to others. Up until 1999 the three key family benefits were Child Benefit (which began in 1975), Family Credit for low-income working families, Married Mans Allowance (it became the Married Couples Allowance in 1990). Family benefit as it is available to all those in employment with a low income including single people with no dependants. However, couples and single parents do get additional credit and there is a childca re element for those that have children.

Economic Geography of Industry Location in India :: India Economics Industries Essays

Economic Geography of Industry Location in India ____________________________________ Paper prepared for the UNU/WIDER Project Conference on Spatial Inequality in Asia 3 Economic Geography of Industry Location in India Where do different industries locate? What factors influence the spatial distribution of economic activity within countries? Finding answers to these questions is important for understanding the development potential of sub national regions. This is particularly important for developing countries as they have relatively lower levels of overall investment and economic activity is concentrated in one or a few growth centers. Thus, regions that do not attract dynamic industries are not only characterized by low productivity, but also by lower relative incomes and standards of living. These questions on industry location and their implications are not new. Examining the locational aspects of economic activity has long been of interest to geographers, planners, and regional scientists (Weber, 1909; Là ¶sch, 1940; Hotelling, 1929; Greenhut and Greenhut, 1975, Isard 1956). However, analytic difficulties in modeling increasing returns to scale marginalized the analysis of geographic aspects in mainstream economic analysis (Krugman 1991). Recent research on externalities, increasing returns to scale, and imperfect spatial competition (Dixit and Stiglitz 1977; Fujita, et al. 1999; Krugman 1991) has led to renewed interest in analyzing the spatial organization of economic activity. This is especially true in case of geographic concentration or clustering. Models in the ‘New Economic Geography’ literature (see review in Fujita, Krugman, and Venables, 1999) allow us to move from the question ‘Where will manufacturing concentrate (if it does)?’ to the question ‘What manufacturing will concentrate where?’ These insightful theoretical models provide, for the most part, renewed analytical support for the â€Å"cumulative causation† arguments made in earlier decades on the core-periphery relationship, on agglomeration economies, and on industrial clustering. In this context, we are interested in finding empirical answers to these (very old) questions, and to go beyond, to ask, â€Å"What manufacturing will locate where and why†? Industry location and concentration decisions are driven by two fundamental considerations: a set of â€Å"pure† location or â€Å"economic geography† criteria, including well recognized elements such as urbanization and localization economies, market access, infrastructure availability, etc. The other is a set of â€Å"practical† or â€Å"political economy† criteria, where the state is a key player in industrial ownership and production, and uses location considerations that are different from the private sector. The private sector responds to the very strong influence of state regulations, and the result is an industrial geography that is shaped by factors of economic geography and political economy. To understand the process of industrial location and concentration, it is important to first analyze the location decisions of firms in particular industries.

Subversion of Class and Gender Roles in Jane Austens Persuasion Essay

Subversion of Class and Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Persuasion      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Jane Austen's Persuasion, Mrs. Croft makes but few appearances and delivers little dialogue.   Nevertheless, Austen gives her significant narrative and thematic importance.   Mrs. Croft provides a foil for several of the Elliots, while developing a commonality with the frequently ostracized Anne.   This bond between Mrs. Croft and Austen's heroine valorizes Mrs. Croft's radical views concerning feminism and marriage.   Beyond signifying a paradigm shift in such social morals, though, the roles of Admiral and Mrs. Croft allow Austen to subvert the dominant upper class culture.   By exhibiting superior but genuine manners, by demonstrating the complacency of the dominant culture, and by exerting their own counterculture, Admiral and Mrs. Croft expose both the foolishness and the artifice of their upper class acquaintances.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Austen clearly contrasts Mrs. Croft with Sir Walter, Elizabeth and Mary, and therein reveals the selfish and impractical nature of luxury, saying, "none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days" (50).   She admits to the confinement of a frigate, but notes that "any reasonable woman may be perfectly happy in one" (50, italics mine).   Meanwhile, Sir Walter cannot imagine life without "[journeys], London, servants, horses . . ." (10), and, for Elizabeth, "the sacrifice of one pair of horses would be hardly less painful than of both" (10).   Mrs. Croft thus highlights the Elliots' frivolousness.   The Crofts also illustrate Sir Walter's vanity, by moving his several looking glasses into storage, since Admiral Croft requires only one.   Similarly, Mrs. Croft exposes Mary's self pity, allowing us to co... ...ne Elliot as worthy not only of the noble relations of their family, but also of the superior culture of the Crofts.    Works Cited and Consulted Austen, Jane.   Persuasion.   1993.   Ware, Herts:   Wordsworth, 1996. Craik, W. A. Jane Austen in her Time. London: Nelson, 1969. DaDundo, Laura. "Jane Austen" Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography. Vol. III. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992. Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1986. Magill, Frank N., ed. English Novel: Richardson to Hardy. Pasadena: Salem Softbacks, 1980. Southam, Brian. "Jane Austen." British Writers. Vol. IV. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Scribners, 1981. Tanner, Tony. "In Between: Persuasion." Persuasion. By Jane Austen. Ed. Patricia Meyers Spacks. New York: Norton and Co., 1995.   

The Tenant :: essays research papers

Seneca Falls. This topic in my opinion closely relates to Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In 1848, around the same time this novel was published the Seneca Falls women's rights convention took place in the United States. They fought for the woman’s right to vote and overall equality. It was like men and women lived in different worlds they had to obey different rules and standards. Men basically had little rule, while women were very oppressed. They couldn’t make decisions and own property. Bronte certainly flipped the script with this novel showing the empowered female through her protagonist Helen Graham. Helen Graham is a young woman who changes her identity when she flees from her alcoholic husband who's been leading a life of corruption. She enters this nosy town who finds her new face to be quite interesting. Her new neighbor, Gilbert Markham, is terribly fascinated with Helen. At one point I felt that he could be deemed a stalker because she would not give him the time of day and he still persisted. Eventually Helen gives him her diary which pours out the confessions of her previously disastrous life and gives way to hope for a new future and helps both Gilbert and the reader understand the pain of this troubled woman. Helen passionately challenging ideas such as the extreme sheltering of girls, and the extreme exposure of boys, to the harshness of the world. We especially see this when Gilbert Markham argues with Helen over the differential treatment of boys and girls and the implied outcomes. Helen's protective treatment of her son Arthur sparks reaction in Gilbert. Gilbert's response to this is to say that â€Å"†¦and by such means ... you will never render him virtuous†. His outlook is that based on the society in order to prepare boys to be men it is necessary for them to be exposed to the dangers of the world as a means of developing a strong moral character. It is a double standard for females by the view that girls and women must be protected from the harsh realities of the world in order to protect them from moral distress or tainting. It is this contradiction that Helen addresses, challenging the importance of exposure to use as a strengthening of moral character, and the valu e of keeping girls in complete ignorance of the world's vice to prevent their corruption.

Rough Draft on Drug Wars

Rough Draft Thousands upon thousands of lives have been taken due to the huge demand for drugs crossing from Mexico into the United States. The murder rate is extremely high, and has caused so much chaos between both countries because of this. Drug dealers in the United States contact drug dealers in Mexico, and vice versa, to cross the drugs between borders illegally. A high percentage of the time, either of the drug dealers from both sides will have a scape goat swim the border while carrying high amounts of drugs with them, or will attempt to cross it over smuggled in a vehicle.In Mexico, it is extremely corrupt and even the law enforcement is involved in the crossing of drugs illegally. This being done causes so much conflict between the two countries and it’s very scary for anyone living in the Mexico side of it, because wars will break out over the drugs almost daily and many people’s lives end up being taken because of this. Innocent people can be caught in betwe en a gun fight and their lives are in extreme danger, which is another reason why this drug war continues to go on.Many families try and flee their country to come into the United States so their families do not have to live in danger, but if being caught trying to cross over illegally, there are extremely harsh consequences. It is sad to know that millions of families have to live in fear and are too scared to leave their houses because they are scared of being caught in between one of the many gun fights that break out. There have been many cases where the Mexican Cartels will hire the elderly people of Mexico, and sometimes even children, to be their drug traffickers, putting them at extreme risk of being badly hurt, incarcerated, or even murdered.The Mexican Cartels believe that using children or the elderly will make it look less likely to be any type of illegal activity, but in the mix of it all, they have had many of them hurt or in extreme trouble with the law. Drug wars are not only held between the United States and Mexico; there are so many other places dealing with the same problem and that is why we need to raise awareness on the situation more than we already have. There have been many attempts in causing this fight to end, but it is too big of a fight for anyone to be able to get ahold of everyone causing this chaos.Any drug cartel around the world could careless who gets ahold of their drugs as long as they’re making money, and they are putting our younger generations at risk of becoming addicted to the drugs they are passing out to the world. Addiction is so high and the effects are incredibly bad. The effects of addiction could either be hereditary, or something one has seen throughout their lives causing them to do exactly as they had seen. There needs to be more educational programs out there to teach every one of the effects of addiction.The strong effects of drug use affect your body and can eventually begin to start to deteriorate over time. Your brain, muscles, respiratory system, liver, and every part of your body will begin to deteriorate after long periods of using illegal substances. Drug use especially affects your brain and the way you allow your thoughts to flow. Drug users are very irresponsible and can only go on with their lives if they are getting high. It is a horrible thing to get into and can cause the one with the disease to not even be able to enjoy life anymore without feeling the effects of the drug they are addicted to.The way I believe we should educate others on the causes and effects of addiction are to hold seminars and educate the younger children in grade school. People who are educated on the extreme effects of drug use might actually not get into them with proper education. Those who were never educated on the effects of drug use are most likely going to be the ones to fall victim of peer pressure and eventually get into drugs themselves. In other cases, it is hard to avoid and ca n be picked up as a child, seeing family members or other individuals doing drugs.We should educate everyone, as well as having no tolerance laws when it comes to hard drugs and giving longer sentences to those who are caught with the drugs, instead of letting them off on probation or parole. Many people would completely disagree with allowing marijuana to be legal, but if you think about it, it could eventually cause the drug violence to end around the world. Marijuana has the least effects out of all the drugs in the world, and although people take it to the extreme, it is honestly a harmless drug and should not be causing this many people to have their lives taken over it.

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization is a documentary and TV series about the rises and falls of Athens. Liam Neeson narrates throughout the documentary of the civilization of ancient Greece. The filmmaker Anthony Geffen covered both the fourth and fifth centuries B. C. Actors were also used to portray historical events and people during this period. The documentary starts with the history of Athens beginning with the rule of Peisistratos whom transformed the city. He needed allies, in that way his son could have the throne.Peisistratos encouraged farming and provided loans and soon Athens was exporting olive oil to nations around the Mediterranian to Egypt, Persia, and Phoenicia. The booming trade made Athens wealthy and prosperous. Athens became the big apple of Greece. At this time potters were the lower of the lows in Athens. After the death of Peisistratos, his son Hippias took over. He ruled fairly at first, but after his brother’s death, he turned to be a tyrant. Self d efense was his only motive and since his only threat was from aristocrats, he turned against them.The aristocrats under the leadership of Cleisthenes captured Hippias and banished him from Athens. The people of Athens then took destiny into their own hands. Isagoras and his partners locked themselves in the Acropolis, but they were forced to surrender and he was forced into exile. Cleisthenes was recalled from exile and asked to form a Government. He came up with the idea of people, both rich and poor, discussing the issues facing them and casting votes to make a decision.On issues like rising of taxes, building of roads and going to war, votes were cast, with a white stone for yes and a black one for no. The super power in the world at that time was Persia. Athens was attacked by the Persians in the battle of Marathon. Athens asked for Sparta’s help, but did not receive it. Though outnumbered, Athens won the battle. A man who participated in the war was Themistocles. He was risen to power through democracy. He was one of history’s greatest leaders and he knew that to hold out against another Persian invasion, they would need a strong navy. The Triremes were warships.They became useful in another war against the Persia when Athens defeated them in the Straits of Salamis. Themistocles was then ostracized, and then died in Persia. The other people highlighted in the documentary were Pericles who built the Parthenon. A major decision was taken by Pericles to attack Sparta resulting in the Peloponnesian War. This war lasted 27 years and finally Athens surrendered to Sparta. Aspasia was his lover. She was made fun of in the theaters and in some tragedies. Pericles died from the plague, which was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.Socrates was a man who used reason and logic and cared about individuals. He was a man who loved debates. He was later blamed for Athens defeat by Sparta. He was pleaded guilty with the death penalty. The reason why he dies was because he questioned the world around him and was easiest person to blame. Though the film is called The Greeks, however it is essentially a story of Athens and its people. The movie contains re-enactments of various scenes which consist of people dressed in ancient costumes moving in front of an out of focus camera.It gives the viewers a basic knowledge of their society at the time. However, the music in the background was too loud and very distracting making it difficult to hear the movie. One information that struck to my attention that they forgot to mention is that there were four major battles in this war; Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea. Only Marathon and Salamis are noted in the documentary. This film covers the basic information about the history of Athens and is directed towards people who are beginners in this subject.However, for the people who are experts might find some inaccuracies and embellishments in this documentary. In conclusio n, Athens had been through many battles and changes throughout their history, from the battle of Marathon to the creation of democracy. It shows viewers who are new to this subject a good understanding of their leaders and famous philosophers. The documentary does a great job explaining and depicting the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of that period.

Interview with Grandparents Essay

The concept of marriage has changed over the years, the definition has not. When interviewing Dante (sr. ) and Joanne Zarlenga, both had much to say on the topic. Dante, a retired engineer, navy man, and company owner, said â€Å"I feel as though the sanctity of marriage has diminished over the years. † With this being said, the definition of marriage is the formal union of two persons, recognized by the law and oftentimes the church. The concept of marriage has radically changed. In the days when Dante and Joanne were married, 60+ years ago, marriage was the ultimate form of commitment, meant to last a lifetime. In today’s society, marriage is simply another level of commitment, ready to be terminated at one’s wish. Parenthood is often considered the most difficult journey in the life of a person. When one becomes a parent, whether or not it is within marriage, he/she becomes responsible for the life of another. Joanne said, in a humorous way, â€Å"I think the most difficult aspect of parenthood is giving birth†¦.. your father might have been the most painful. † Dante then interrupted by saying, â€Å"there are many ups and downs about parenthood, but a good parent never quits.† These are words to live by. The sheer concept of being responsible for the life of another person is difficult and often terrifying, but watching that child blossom that makes parenthood so fulfilling and rewarding. By anyone’s standards, there are many rewarding aspects of parenthood. As Joanne stated, â€Å"it’s hard to pinpoint one moment of parenthood that has been the ‘most’ rewarding. † She continued by saying, â€Å"from the moment my first child was born to the moment I take my last breathe, that is the most rewarding part of parenthood. † This statement says so much. Joanne is simply stating that every aspect of parenthood is rewarding, not just one particular moment. â€Å"There are so many things to be proud of my children for. They’ve all grown into such wonderful adults,† said Dante. It is parents like Joanne and Dante who prove that even difficult task can be rewarding. As everyone knows, becoming a parent changes every aspect of one’s life, especially personal and work. When Dante and Joanne had their first child, Joanne missed a lot of work. She was the type of mother who wanted to be there to raise her child instead of hiring a nanny to do it for her. Because she was taking so much time off work, Dante began to work longer days to compensate for the lack of a second income. Like all parents, Dante and Joanne did what they could to create a comfortable life for their children. The change of parenthood was â€Å"a breath of fresh air,† said Dante. â€Å"It was nice to know I was capable of more than creating parts or taking orders,† he continued. Parenthood is not for everyone because of the changes that occur in one’s own life. As far as changing the past, both Dante and Joanne agreed that although they might not have been perfect parents, there was nothing they would do to rewrite history. Whatever their means of parenting, it must have worked because they raise four children into four successful adults. There are so many things parents-to-be should know. As stated by Dante, â€Å"the one thing I wish I would have known prior to becoming a parent is just how hard parenthood is. † There is not one single piece of advice the Zarlengas would give because there are so many lessons better learned through experience. â€Å"The one thing I will tell anybody considering becoming a parent, be ready to give your life for someone else,† said Joanne. Parenting and grandparenting are separated by a generation. Grandparenting comes in many different forms. Some grandparents co-raise their grandchildren, some just babysit occasionally or when they are needed. â€Å"There is only one wrong form of grandparenting, trying to raise grandchildren as your own,† said Dante. Oftentimes grandparents used grandchildren as a way to correct there mistakes when they raised their own children. As said by Joanne, â€Å"grandparenting is like a second chance at parenting. It is also the best way to share the wealth of knowledge with my children.† She acknowledges that there are certain lines not to be crossed by a grandparent. Throughout the many stages of parenthood, there are many challenges to be faced and many rewards to be reaped. In the eyes of Joanne, one of the hardest parts of parenthood is not knowing how to calm your child down as a new parent. â€Å"there were nights when Joe(the oldest) wouldn’t stop crying and it killed me inside because there wasn’t anything I could do about it,† said Joanne. Dante agreed adding, â€Å"it was difficult when the kids were learning things that I could no longer help them with. I felt incompetent.† Both agreed that the most rewarding part of parenthood is looking at who their children have become and the wonderful things they have accomplished. After interviewing Dante and Joanne Zarlenga, my grandparents, I felt a sense of hope for the future. I realized that there are many things to look forward to in the future. There was nothing that I was too surprised by. Getting married and raising a family is one of the most challenging endeavors, but the rewards are unmatched by anything else. There are many aspects I would deem necessary to be a good parent. One of the main qualities would be patience. I can only imagine the difficulty of raising a child and then letting him go. I often feel that being a parent, in certain ways, is similar to being a manager of a big corporation. Both involved a great deal of responsibility to be accountable for other people’s lives. I know my grandparents very well and know that their children are their pride and joy and their grandchildren are a close second. They would do anything for anyone in their family and not expect anything in return. The Zarlengas are truly selfless which makes them the best type of parent and grandparent.

Encouraging more Respect for the Dutch Culture Essay

Introduction For my personal project I have decided to write a book (appendix 1) about the Dutch culture and habits. I was inspired to do this project, because a lot of people think that everyone in Holland smoked marihuana at least once a day, walks on clogs all the time and has a garden full of tulips. When I first joined ISS I noticed that everyone assumed that I loved cheese and they still do. This inspired me to do write this book, because I want people to know more about Holland and gain more respect for the country. This is important to me, because I want everyone to not always stereotype the Netherlands. My Area of Interaction for this project will be Community and Service. I chose this Area of Interaction, because I am writing a book for the community to read. I want to inspire the community to see Holland through a different view. I want people to have more respect for the Dutch  culture and its habits after reading my book. By doing this I not only help the school community, but also the Dutch community by encouraging more respect for their culture. Since I am doing this for free it is a service. I think that giving out a book for free is going to make the book more successful. More people would want to read it and so more people will be encouraged to have more respect for Holland. That is why my AOI is Community and Service. My goal of writing this book is that people will start to have more respect for the Dutch culture. I do not want everyone to just assume that I wear clogs at home, eat cheese everyday and especially that I smoke marihuana. I also want to get more non-fiction writing experience and skill by writing this book. This will help me for writing essays and other informative writing tasks. I will measure my goal by seeing if the attitude of people improves after reading my book. What I mean to say by this is that: if they lessened the stereotypical comments, than I believe that their respect has increased. I have designed an 11-point plan for my Personal Project. Make a survey and ask the questions to people in Holland to get their opinion. Buy and read books about the Dutch culture, so I can use these in my project. Find websites on the Internet about clogs, Dutch cheese, drug consumption in the Netherlands etc. I will keep researching. Ask the questions of the survey to people in ISS. Plan out my book. I will plan out what I want chapters to be about and in what order I will put them. Write an introduction for the book. Writing an introduction is important, because it introduces the reader to the book and shows what the reader can expect. I will start on writing the book and finish at least 1/3 of it before the progress fair, so I can present this on the progress fair. I will finish my book around January. This will not be the completed version. I will ask some people to read the rough draft. I will use the feedback I get to improve and finish the book. When finished I will make a table of contents and a cover page. Then I put everything together in a folder and hand it in on the due date. Description of the process Research and Planning First, I had to plan out the whole entire process. As shown in the introduction I had an eleven-point plan to finish my personal project. That was just a rough draft of all the things I was going to do, but now I will describe the whole process in detail. I started my project a little bit before the summer break. I started researching on how to write a non-fiction book. This was very critical to my project, because I have never written a book before and it was very likely to take longer if I did not use these websites. (Stephanie Chandeler, 2009) (Bobbi Linkemer, 2010) After this I thought of the survey questions I was going to ask people about Holland. The week after I planned this, my family and me went to the Netherlands and I planned to do the survey there. I asked the survey questions to as many family members and friends as I could, until we went home. I had about 25 persons interviewed and I was convinced that this was going to help me during the project. I put all the answers of the survey into an Excel document. (appendix 2) After the all this research I realized that I did not have a plan. I quickly made a 11-point plan to write my book. I was very stupid of me to write the plan so late. I will discuss this further in the conclusion. Two weeks after school started I asked the survey questions to the whole entire tenth grade class. Some of these surveys were very useful and actually helped me writing my book. But many of them were not taken seriously and I thought this was very disappointing, because I expected a little better of my classmates. Writing the first half and rewriting first half After all of this research I started writing the book. Three weeks after the school started I wrote my introduction to the book (word from the Author). This was very important to the book, because in this introduction I had to introduce the whole entire book and as I said before I have difficulties starting a writing task. But once I get into writing, then I can keep on writing for maybe 15 minutes straight. After that I wrote chapter one of my book. It was not very hard on deciding what my first chapter should be on, because almost every non-fiction book starts out with a basic overview of the topic that will be discussed. So my first chapter was about the geographical facts about Holland, like its area, population, religion  percentage and other basic facts about The Netherlands. The second chapter was about the provinces of Holland. I believed that this was important to explain, because every province is different and I wanted to show that not everything in Holland is the same a s some people think. It is like the states in the U.S., people in Georgia are completely different from people in Texas. Then I started on the third chapter, which was about the water in Holland. I talked about the lakes, rivers, seas and polders in Holland. The fourth chapter was the last chapter I wrote before the progress fair. It was about the history of Holland. I discussed important wars and events that effected Holland on what it is today. Three days later I presented what I had written so far at the progress fair. Not a lot of people were interested in my project and only about 5 kids stopped to look and ask questions about my project. A week later the biggest problem happened throughout the whole project. I lost all my progress so far on what I have written. For some reason my laptop deleted nearly everything that I had written so far. The only thing that wasn’t gone was my introduction. This was a very big problem and I should have had a back up. The next school week and one and a half week of the break I spend rewriting my whole entire first half of the book. This wasted a lot of my time I could have actually spent starting my second half of the book. I believe that the second version of my book was slightly different than the first version, but only small improvements were made. It could even be that I may have left some things out and have added some things, so my first version could have been better or worse. Writing the second half of the book The second half of the book was a little more difficult. I had covered all of the basic things, like geography and history. Now I needed all the things that people were stereotyping and making fun of, because my goal was to encourage more respect for the Dutch community by writing the actual truth instead of writing. I first decided to make a chapter on significant and famous Dutch people before talking about stereotypes. In the appendix chapter 5 of my book is shown and as you can see I talk about famous Dutch people in the past (like Vincent Van Gogh), and famous Dutch people in the present (like Johan Cruijff). I thought that this was also important to put into my book, because some people did not know any famous Dutch people and I  thought it was a good idea to also include this in my book. I finally started writing about some typical Dutch things. My sixth chapter was about Dutch holidays and traditions. I included holidays in them like the Dutch carnaval and Sinterklaas, because those are two very popular and well-known holidays all over Holland. This chapter is also included in the appendix. My seventh chapter was about Dutch eating habits and I talked about food like Dutch cheese and its stereotypes and liquorice. I hoped that I made a lot of things clear about Dutch people and cheese in this chapter. The eighth chapter of my book was about tolerance in the Netherlands. Here I hope I made a lot of things clear about the red light district, drug legalization in Holland and legalized prostitution in Holland. My final chapter was about typical Dutch things like windmills and tulips. I explained that not everyone grows tulips in their garden and not everyone in Holland lives in a windmill! After I finished all of my chapters I let my mother and father read it through for some feedback. Using the feedback I got, I improved my book. Afterwards I wrote my afterword and bibliography. In the afterword I thanked all the people that helped me write the book and summarize the conclusion of the book. At last I put the book together and made a table of contents. So, finally after 6 months of hard work, problems and bad time management I finished my book and handed it in. I hope everyone who will read the book will gain more respect for the people of The Netherlands and will think twice before concluding anything about Holland and its culture. Analysis Useful resources and the AOI linked to it My project was a project that was based on and dependent on a lot of research. So the research changed my personal project a lot. As I told in the process description, I did some research on how to write a book and I also did a survey with a lot of people. This survey affected my personal project a lot, because this showed me what people of different ages were thinking about Holland internationally. I used this survey in a lot of chapters in my book, so I could see what people were thinking about Holland. As I mentioned before my project was dependent on research. I used a lot of websites and most other websites were useful in the same way. I found websites about cheese, traditions, polders and many other things. There were  only two parts of my research that were more important than all the information sources. These were the survey and the websites on how to write a book. These helped me reach my goal better. The survey helped, because this showed me what a lot of people were thinking and so I could decide what I should write several of my chapters about. The websites on how to write book helped, because it is always very difficult for me to start an essay or any other writing task. These websites helped me start out and guided me throughout the whole writing process. Another very useful website that helped me finish my longest chapter, chapter 2, was a website called tripadvisor.com (Tripadvisor, 2000) I used a lot of sources I used and it would be a miracle if I remembered all of them word by word. Some of which I remember do relate to the AOI. The source that links the most to the AOI is my survey results. Asking people from two different communities questions about their personal opinions created this survey. One was the Dutch community who all gave similar answers and mostly answers that make sense to me. The other was an international community who also gave similar answers, but made less sense. Some people did not take this survey seriously and some people gave stupid answers. One example is that some people just wrote weed next to every answer. These were the survey that did not help me at all and I just threw them away. By seeing this I could conclude that not a lot of foreigners knew about the Dutch people and their culture. Changes in the plan I changed a lot of things in the plan. At the very beginning I said that I would create the survey first. What I actually did first was research on how to write a book. This was an important change in the plan, because if I didn’t than probably my book would have been less organized, I probably forgot the table of contents and my introduction would take maybe three days. Another change I made in one of the points in the plan was that I did not interview people from the I was planning in doing so, but than I decided not to. I am a very shy person when it comes to asking a stranger a bunch of questions. I was afraid that they might be startled and most of them just say no, because they don’t have time. I was also afraid that people think I am some crazy kid asking them some stupid questions about their own country. Another change in the plan was that I switched point 4 and 5 around. Now, I  first planned out the book and then I surveyed the tenth grade. I did this, because I saw that some people were still getting used to their homework pattern in tenth grade and would probably forget one â€Å"unimportant† survey and that would leave me with maybe 15 completed surveys in my hands. So I first planned out the book and later when most people were less stressed I asked the survey questions. The biggest change is probably that I would have had the book finished in January. I had to change this, because of the problem that occurred I explained about in the description process. Almost all of my work got deleted. Due to this I could not work on my second half of the project in the Christmas break. I finished up my rough draft in the February break and had two days to use feedback from my mother and father to improve my book. This change also had effect on nearly all of my last points, because of the little time that was left after the deletion of my project. Techniques used in the project and time management I did not use a lot of different techniques in my project. Since my project is writing a book not as many techniques are used as in making a movie or sporting. The technique I used most was research and write. For a non-fiction book this is obvious, because the information in the book does require a lot of research. There are also other techniques I used, like the interview. The interview was, as I explained before, critical to my project. This interview was very effective to my project, because it is always good to not only have second hand sources. To have a first hand source can come in really handy, because one cannot always believe what is on the Internet. My time management could have been better. First of all it would have been better if I had finished everything up until my book introduction in the summer break, because than I could have entirely focused on writing my book for the rest of the year. The other big thing that interfered with my time schedule was the deletion of my project. As I explained before I had to rewrite all over again during the Christmas break. And the last thing that is again completely my fault, is that I let the final chapter of my book all come down to one holiday. I worked everyday on the project in the holiday and was really stressed throughout the whole ‘holiday’. I should have spread it out over the last three weeks, but I admit I was too lazy and thought that I wasted half of my Christmas break on my project that I won’t do a lot  in the weeks to come. This is a thought that I will not ever think again after what happened. Has my understanding of my AOI grown during the project? My understanding of the AOI has definitely improved over the course of the year. My understanding about why one should respect another culture has grown a lot. I have realized more than ever that I have to respect other cultures more and stop making stereotypical jokes in order to gain respect from other people for my culture. I also understand more how my book could contribute and has contributed to a community. By reading my book some people have gained respect for Holland and its culture as I mentioned before. Now maybe 10 people read the book and maybe 5 of these have gained respect for the Dutch culture. This benefitted the small Dutch community in our school. But let us say that half of Germany reads my book. I think that around 40%/50% of these people would actually understand and respect the Dutch culture more. If such a thing happened than it could have contributed to the whole Dutch community. Understanding and quality of the product I understand many more things now about writing a book. The main thing that I have learned is to have a back up for every chapter you make. I have learned this the hard way. Another major thing that I understand now is that writing a book is not as easy as I expected it to be. It requires a lot of research, creativity and especially time. If you do not plan you time well then writing a book can take a really long time. I wrote a book double-spaced, size 14 and 6800 words in 46 pages in about 6 months. A writer that does single-spaced, size 12 and around 500 pages would maybe take 30 years over one book if he/she wrote in my tempo. And if I wrote in their tempo than I would be done with the project in maybe a month or so. So my understanding is that writing a book is mostly about planning and a lot of dedication to one’s work. I am quite proud on what I produced. I never thought myself capable of writing a book. Compared to the work of a professional writer my book is very short. I compared my work to a book called â€Å"The Dutch, I presume?†(Martijn de Rooj, April 2009) and another book called â€Å"Holland† (Herman Van Amsterdam, 2009) and saw that mine was way shorter. These man also has more experience when it comes to writing a book. they designed it really clever and also had other professionals working with them; like  professional photographers and artists. The Difficulty of the project Overall I would not consider my project as a difficult project. I also don’t think it is easy. Writing a book is not as easy as people think it is, because it requires a lot of planning and a bit of creativity. But it is also not extremely difficult, because if you planned everything than you just let your mind and hands do the work and just keep on writing until you cannot write anymore. I think writing a non-fiction book is more for people who are looking for a challenge. Conclusion Have I met my Goal? I believe that I have met my goal to a certain extent. The first part of my goal was to encourage more respect for the Dutch culture. This point is not very clear yet, because only one foreigner has read the book until now. But I believe that the book will have some impact on the respect people have for Holland. I told some of my classmates some facts about the Netherlands and they stopped making fun of the things I told them are not even close to the truth. My other goal was to get more informative writing skills. I believe that I really have achieved this goal, because I find it easier to write more on one-world essays or history essays now, because I wrote this book. This project also helped me a lot with researching skills. Before I only used to look on the Internet, but now I will start using other sources like books and first hand sources to research. By doing this I can get more information about a subject and this will, hopefully, get me better grades. Things that I would do differently if I could start over There are a lot of things I would do differently next time. The first one is to have a back up for everything I write. This was the biggest problem I had throughout the whole project. Due to this I wasted a whole break rewriting all the things I did not back up. If I do this differently if I could start over than I would probably have way more time to do the rest of my book. This brings me to the other thing I would do differently if I could start over: time management. I should have planned my time better throughout the 6 months I had. Because I did not plan my time well in the ending I had to  finish the second half of my project in one and a half week. Another thing that I could improve is that I should let more than just 2 people give me feedback on my book. Both of the people that gave me feedback were Dutch and I should have let someone with a different nationality look at it. This would have been an advantage, because than I would have gotten another cultures point of view. The benefit of another culture’s point of view is that all the things that think could be appropriate in Holland could be inappropriate in other cultures. Because I might have put one or two jokes in my book that could be seen as inappropriate, but I left them in there due to that the two people giving feedback were ok with it. Personal lesson I learned from doing this project I have learned a lot by doing this project. The main thing is that I learned to organize better. I was always terrible at organizing my work, so I got in time trouble a lot of time. By doing this project along with all the essays and tests we got I had to learn organizing the hard way. Another thing I learned and I kept mentioning throughout the whole report is that I HAVE to make a back up for all the important work I have done. If I do not do this something like what happened in December might happen and completely ruin days of works. I also learned that if I really put myself into something I could write about a lot of information quickly. Another important thing that I realized while writing my book was that if I want people to respect my culture and stop stereotyping, I also have to do the same thing. I realized this while talking to a couple of my friends about respect for one’s country. I realized that in order for me to achieve my goal of people respecting my culture, I had to do the same thing. I have learned a lot by doing this project and I hope that other people have learned a lot too by reading my book. Bibliography Chandler, Stephanie. â€Å"How to Write Your Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days: 8 Steps Get Your Book Out of Your Head and on to Paper.† Scribd. 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. . Linkemer,