JKL International plc. International Human Resource Essay

INTRODUCTION With the trend of globalisation, the number of multinational companies is constantly increasing as well as expatriates (Business Recorder, 2011). Expatriate management now is an essential issue of human resource department because it takes a large amount of budget from the corporation. It is inevitable for expatriates to face culture barriers in subsidiaries because of unique national cultures in all countries over the world. National culture is †cultural experiences, beliefs, learned behaviour patterns, and values shared by citizens of the same nation† (Neale _et al_, 2006, p.26). A national culture will significantly affect any employee working in firms and furthermore, national culture will influence the management framework in a company as well accompanied with organisational culture so that cross culture management is helpful not only for the supervisors’ decisions but also for employees especially for expatriates (Chen, 2006, p. 2). In the case study of JKL, it showed a range of problems in their expatriates which related national cultures and JKL will implement a British managerial system into its Russian subsidiary. This essay will first examine the problems and issues in managing expatriates in JKL and then evaluate the proposal from Jim Flinn, the CEO of Zagorski who will apply an entire British managerial system into a Russian subsidiary. ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT (CASE STUDY) JKL is a British pharmaceutical company which was founded in 1925 and it has expanded its business by acquiring other pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia, India, Greece and USA. Recently, JKL has made the largest acquisition of Zagorski, a pharmaceutical company in Russia. At the headquarter of UK, JKL applies a decentralised organisational structure. All managers are required to give their own opinions to avoid some drawbacks of group decision making which is conformity pressure in groups (Robbins and Judge, 2009, p.336). Employees are allowed to propose valuable ideas to manufacture and administrative systems as well. Supervisors will award monetary incentives (one of the physical needs) as motivation to employees and managers (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.129) if their initiatives are judged as potential innovations. On the other hand, in subsidiaries, JKL applied localised human resource practices in order to fit local cultural values and legal systems (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.217) by keeping local managers with existing  organisational and managerial systems. In past years, those subsidiaries in Malaysia, India and Greece were continually making profits to JKL and JKL also regularly sent managers and specialists to those subsidiaries for expatriation in a period of time. After the acquisition of Zagorski, Dr. Jim Flinn will be the CEO who had spent last three years in the subsidiary of USA. PART ONE: EXPATRIATES MANAGEMENT AND CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS INTRODUCTION Culture is a popular topic in literature research and it could be described as a †software of the mind† (Hofstede, 1991, p. 2) .With the trend of globalisation, managing cultural differences has become an important issue in human resource management of multinational corporations. Misunderstanding may be occurred if culture differences are not well-managed even these colleagues are working in the same organisation (Hall, 1995, p.6). In the case study, seven expatriates of JKL have their own problems and for JKL, there is a high expatriate leaving rate after repatriation (Appendix F). This essay will identify the problem of seven expatriates working in JKL and its subsidiaries and after that, rational proposals of changes will be given to them on the basis of improvements of JKL’s human resource department. EXPATRIATES AND ORGANISATION PROBLEMS AND PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES EXPATRIATES In the case study it lists seven expatriates with their problems and in the following essay they will be numbered from A to G. A (RETURNED FROM PENNSYLVANIA, USA) According to the case study, expatriate A was the first expatriate to Pennsylvania because of an attractive salary. The reason of returning is that expatiate A was annoyed about following managers received better compensation packages than him although they were almost doing the same works. The main problems of the human resource department of JKL are rewarding system and lack of correct performance appraisal system. †Every employee believes, and most experts believe, that pay and rewards are an important part of an organisation’s human resource management† (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.91). In fact, the first expatriate to a subsidiary will face loads of difficulties in practical and then try to solve them as a pioneer (Business Wire, 1998). As a result, the first expatriate is deserved to have a better compensation package than followers. As the perspective of organisation, the first expatriate may important to human resource managers because this person can be regarded as a training model of human resource management (Arusha Times, 2009, p.16). On the other hand, because of lacking effective performance appraisal, expatriate A had a lower compensation package compared with following managers and that may be the reason of the compensation package of expatriate A was retain unvarying for a long time as well. Expatriates sometimes will feel unfair if performance evaluate system is not effective enough because insufficient performance appraisal system may make expatriates uncertain of their performance especially for those hard working expats (Gordon, 2010, p.56). The possible solution of dealing this problem is establishing an effective reward system by performance appraisal (Performance -related reward system). Performance-related pay (PRP) can change the payment from a rigid structure to a flexible way depended on performance (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.94). By applying this system, the productivity of employees will be significantly increased and for expatriates, they will be motivated and more  willing to finish their assignments as well (Gielen, Kerkhofs and Van, 2010, p.299). Furthermore, accurate evaluation is also a factor which company need to take account because there is an essential link between motivation and performance appraisal (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.315). B (RETURNED FROM INDIA) The reason of expatriate B returning to UK is that his spouse and child had enough of India living and schooling as seemed to be suffering (Case Study). The main problem of the human resource department of JKL is expatriate selection especially in cross-cultural suitability and family. Cross-cultural suitability and family are two of the most crucial criteria of expatriate selection (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.120). In culture aspect, Hofstede’s national culture model demonstrated the main various between UK and India in power distance and individualism (Appendix A). According to appendix A, the power distance column in India is much higher than it in UK as well as individualism so that there maybe the reason of his spouse had enough of India. In addition, unlike Western Europe civilisation, there is a caste system in India which cause the high power distance and many females in India basically are not regarded as equal to males (Robert _et al_., 2000, pp.654-656). Moreover, individualism in India is much less important than UK so that residents in India intend to work, study and live collectively (South Asian Studies, 2011) that is totally different to UK. As a result, the wife and child keened on back to UK because of the cultural adjustment problem while her husband was still working only with British colleagues (Case Study). The solutions will be provided here are selecting an appropriate candidate as an expatriate and putting more emphasis on cross-cultural suitability and family requirement. Cotemporary, the family element is having more important weight in expatriate selection because of non-working factors and potential influence to working expatriates (Andreason and Aaron, 2008, pp. 386-387). C (RETURNED AFTER A-FIVE-YEAR-ASSIGNMENT AND WOULD BE SENT OUT IMMEDIATELY) The problem of JKL here is about repatriate management and in detail; it will be related to re-entry management. In general, after completing an international assignment, an expatriate will go back to the home country as called re-entry or repatriation (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, p.337). However, most repatriates will cope with culture shock after they back to the home country. Using an example of India and UK here, although many British work in India as expats for its booming economic and after their finishing assignments, back to UK, they therefore only find they cannot work under a UK context (The International Herald Tribune, 2009). That may be the reason that JKL sent employee C abroad again without hesitation in order to avoid coping with culture shocks (Case Study). It is obviously that JKL need to improve their repatriate management and there are many models here from other multinational companies. JKL could ‘Offer repatriation training, pre-departure training, and re-entry orientation to employees and their families’ (Liu, 2005, p.129) and expats can increase the awareness of repatriation and decrease the uncertainty after back to the home country . Moreover, JKL could prepare a job vacancy in expatriate management division of human resource management because expatriates have various working experiences in other countries (Berman and Ursula, 2009, pp.80-81). D (NOW WORKING IN GREECE AS AN EXPATRIATE) The major issue of expatriate D in Greece now is adapting the local customs and culture in Greece although JKL had a prepared pre-departure training programme (Case Study). In Hofstede’s national culture demonstration of UK and Greece (Appendix B), the uncertainty avoidance is extremely high and no long-term orientation in Greece. In the case of expatriate D, a problem of communication is occurred as well. In theoretical aspect, there four problems in cross-cultural oral communication: †semantics, word connotations, tone differences and differences among perceptions† (Robbins and Judge, 2009, pp.407-408) and English and Greek are classified to two different language system. As a result, it will take a longer training  programme to completely learn and understand a foreign language. Likewise the body language and gestures in England are slightly different to the world, for example, a †V† gesture means victory or peace in many countries but in England, †if the palm and fingers face inward, it means ‘up yours’ especially if executed with an upward jerk of the fingers† (New York Times, 1996, p.E7). Consequently, post-departure training is a rational option for expatriate D to continually make adjustments into Greek culture. The reason is that post-departure training is suit for expatriates living in a country which has an entirely different culture and it can accelerate accustoming another culture (Managing Training and Development, 2005). E AND F (CONFUSED AFTER REPATRIATE) Expatriate E and F have similar problems after finishing their international assignments because JKL currently have no response about their repatriate (Case Study). The problem of JKL must be repatriate management. The possible solution will be provided here is putting emphasis on repatriate management. In fact, in last ten years, there is an increasing number of multinational corporations focus on repatriate management while in 1990s, only few companies would hold a re-entry discussion. According to a survey in 1997, only 27% firms supposed to hold a discussion about re-entry and it had been improved in 2000s. In 2004, there are 86% companies intended to discuss the re-entry issue (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.199). JKL could offer repatriate supports to repatriates such as give interaction to human resource management to increase the sense of loyalty so that the company can avoid losing these experienced employees (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, pp. 343-344). G (THOUGHT GREEK DISCRIMINATE AGAINST FEMALE) From expatriate G’s case, it seems Greek dislike the idea of female even she is well qualified or experienced (Case Study). Thus, for JKL, it shall  investigate the culture and even the working environment in Greece. From Hofstede’s national culture model, UK and Greece possess almost the same figure in masculinity and Greece actually has a lower masculinity figure than UK (Appendix B). However, the power distance in Greece is much higher than it in UK which means whatever a male or female, their ideas are hardly applied to supervisors as an employee. In Greek working condition, it is surprisingly to find much evidence of discrimination against female. According to an official report written by Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) (2002, pp.13-21), there are approximately 4500 rapes in working communities every year and only 6% are reported to police. Furthermore, Sexual harassment in communities is common in Greece due to no specific legislation of sexual harassment. Those factors may be the reasons of Greek male employees discriminate against female in the working place. In JKL’s view, it is a challenge to solve this problem as well, one of the effective ways is sending a male expatriate instead of female employee in Greece to prevent any hidden risks in Greece and make further investigation in Greek subsidiaries. ORGANISATION From the case study, JKL have a high expatriate failure rate (Exceed 46%) in subsidiaries except USA (Appendix F). JKL has paid a low attention on cross culture management because it applies a localised managerial system and most managers in the subsidiaries are from the host countries. In fact, many multicultural corporations which apply localised managerial system have the same issue in manage culture difference (National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2006, p.1). According to Brunstein (1995, pp. 275-280), a localised managerial system will positively fit the local context and it is easier to bring profit like autonomy units in a shorter of time than centralised management system. However, the drawbacks are employees especially the expatriates from the parent company will probably face a huge  culture shock in the subsidiary if their cultures are totally different. As a result, JKL must release many improvements in human resource department especially in expatriate management field. If JKL continually applies a localised managerial system in acquired firms, it may only have problems on expatriates’ management. However, once the supervisors intended to transplant the whole management system into a country with entirely different national culture like flag-planting, it definitely will bring a serious impact to the target subsidiary and the worst consequence may like the failure of Japanisation entering UK in 1990s. CONCLUSION The main problem that JKL has is on its international human resource management as a part of managerial system. In the case study, seven expatriate had a range of typical expatriate problems comprising training, expatriate selection and repatriate management. Moreover, 43 per cent of expatriate left JKL after their repatriation and at least 46 per cent of expatriate cannot complete their tour in subsidiaries except USA. In short, those fundamental factors of expatriates’ problems are totally based on various national cultures that JKL need to take account in its cross culture management. PART TWO: APPRAISE THE DECENTRALISED MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS OF JKL APPLIED IN RUSSIAN AFFILIATE INTRODUCTION Like national cultures, many companies have developed their own organisational culture as well as managerial structure. Organisational structure is important to multinational corporations because it will definitely interact with different national cultures in host countries (Francesco and Gold, 2005, p.236). In the case study, JKL applies a  polycentric control system in Malaysia, India and Greece and decision making authority is awarded to subsidiaries in order to avoid drawbacks on the motivation and political problems in these countries (Stonehouse _et al_, 2004, pp.382-383). As a result, those subsidiaries make profit very shortly (Case Study). This essay will evaluate Jim Flinn’s proposal who intends to transplant a whole managerial system from JKL headquarter to its Russian affiliate. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS OF JKL’S AND ZAGORSKI’S STRUCTURES AND MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS At the headquarter in UK and its affiliate in USA, JKL uses a decentralised management structure and employees will be empowered to make decisions on their own works (Case Study). Currently, many European multinational companies applied decentralised managerial structure and developed an organisational culture called ‘old boys network’ with high autonomy (Bartlett, Ghoshal and Birkinshaw 2003 pp.342-343). Decentralised structure is one of the most successful management systems in transnational corporations which has experienced a long time modification and has generated many derivative systems. Under this system, diverse standards are made to fit specific manufacturing cases and it will enhance developing new and innovative products (Johnson _et al_, 2008, p. 166). For JKL, it is a brilliant choice because innovation is actually a crucial factor to a pharmaceutical company. Yet, the weak point of this system is hard to implement global business strategies because those subsidiaries are working as autonomies while Zagorski used to apply a centralised structure which renowned for the efficiency of implements business strategies. Furthermore, JKL developed a monitoring system with performance appraisal in headquarter and USA which can significantly motivate employees in working place (Decenzo and Robbins, 1999, pp. 292-294). However, there are a few weaknesses of performance appraisal system. For example, a report from General Electric (GE) which applied performance appraisal system and it found that those employees who received a honest but negative feedback from supervisors would actually not motivated them but decrease the motivation in their work  (Oberg, 2000, p. 64). On the contrast, a centralised structure has a formal bureaucracy system with a tall hierarchy and fixed official duties (Francesco and Gold 2005, pp.240-241). This structure is therefore suit for small or middle-sized companies at the beginning stage for effective control power in strategy implementation (Jeong, 2001, p. 446). One the other hand, the Economist (2004, p.33) found that with the increasing size of firms, a centralised structure will constantly lose the efficiency of decision making process through the complicated bureaucracy system and the employees will get used to receive orders from supervisors instead of expressing their own idea. In addition, there is no performance related rewards in Zagorski because a tall hierarchy management system proposed to make a uniform management system by formalised, vertical and fair control so that regulations are designed to fit every employee as a same unit (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 1999, p.712). NATIONAL CULTURE DIFFERENCES JKL used to transplant their management system to its subsidiary in USA and it successful worked. This is the main reason that Jim Flinn, the former manager in US affiliate wants to transplant the system to Russia again. Before making the final decision, it is necessary to analyse the reasons of this success in USA. As main economics in Europe and North America, there are many similarities in the national culture of UK and USA. According to Harris, Moran and Moran (2004, pp.297-298, pp. 437-440), free enterprise, culture affinity, English speaking, private, good manners, aggressive and self-realisation are the common key words of American and British. Moreover, in Hofstede’s national culture model (Appendix C), the national culture of USA and UK are almost the same and in uncertainty avoidance column, USA is slightly higher than UK. However, Russia is totally a different country in East Europe. First, employees in Russia are regarded as a kind of cost rather than a resource (Organizational Dynamics, 1999, p.75). Second, beside the language usage, all management decisions are made by supervisors in business context.  Furthermore, Russian basically have a slow time sense and they intend to work collectively (Harris, Moran and Moran, 2004, pp.497-500). In Hofstede’s national culture demonstration (Appendix D), Russia has a higher power distances, lower individualism, higher uncertainty avoidance and no long term orientation compared to UK and USA. From a report, Russian firms used to apply a reactor business strategy in order to meet immediate need instead of long term benefits but most of those companies are finally failed (Milles and Snow, 1978, p. 353). RELEVANT CASES After culture analysis, it is showed that there is a huge difference in national culture between Russia and UK. Hence, it is not sure that Jim Flinn will still succeed again in his transplanting programme. Look back at history, in 1990s, Japanisation once became a popular word in UK and Toyota established its manufacturing plant in Derby in 1992 because there was an existing skilled engineering workforce there (The Independent, 1992, p.23). During the early 1990’s only about 55000 people were employed by Japanese companies in the UK (The Journal, 1999). Japanisation is a Japanese managerial system with Cost-centred Just in Time System, long term contracts, vertical integration to supplier and low labour turnover rate (Hasegawa, 2001, pp.165-166). However, once Japanese manager attempted to entirely implement this system into British subsidiaries, it was not worked effectively with British employees and many Japanese companies like Nissan finally failed in UK market because Japanese manufacturing method did not fit British economic and culture conditions with collective working method (Procter and Ackroyd, 1998, p. 241, pp.244-245). In Hofstede’s national culture model (Appendix E), Japan is a collective, success oriented and long term oriented country with high uncertainty avoidance which is almost an opposite of UK. It is recommended to apply a centralised managerial structure in Russia because many most Russian companies applied a †traditional production-oriented culture with strong factory patriotism† just like a  typical Soviet traditions (Clarke, 2004, p. 418). In 2003, IKEA opened its first store in Russia and many Swedish worked in IKEA Russia as expatriates. After repatriation, their feedbacks are high power distance in the working place accompanied with rigid centralised management structures (Jonsson, 2008, p.34). Despite the nation culture of Russia possess a high power distance, there are some autonomous states in Russia which has rich unexplored natural resources such as Komi and Sakhalin actually have a more decentralised culture and many Dutch petroleum and pharmaceutical companies had established their affiliates with decentralised management structures in those regions (Condon, and Dauman, 1993, p.31). FORECAST According to the case study, Jim Flinn intends to use a ‘top-down’ change approach to transplant the managerial structure which may be imposed in a coercive manner (Balogun and Hailey, 2004, p.27). Once Jim Flinn has completely applied the management system that used in the headquarter and USA, the employees in Russian subsidiaries have to cope with a huge culture difference from West Europe. Jim Flinn may draw attention on the success of Dutch pharmaceutical companies in Russia as mentioned before. Thus, in a short term, transition will be a main issue in Russian subsidiary and it probably will take a long time in this process. However, in a long term perspective, the management structure of JKL’s headquarter may bring a range of benefits because a decentralised management system is exactly helpful in research and development department although the Russian employees are used to reluctant in changes (Case Study). CONCLUSION The main problem of JKL’s Russian affiliate is culture adjustment if Jim Flinn transplants the whole management structure from JKL to Zagorski. In fact, national culture will strongly influence the organisational culture as well as managerial framework of a company. Changing management system in a  subsidiary is not a flag-planting work because of various national cultures involved. In the first part of essay, some expatriates actually have problems on their international assignments in India and Greece. Hence, it can be estimated that, after the transplantation, many local employees working in Russia subsidiaries may have the same problems. Furthermore, many previous cases above are provided which could be used as a reference to Jim Flinn as well. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This essay examined the problems in managing expatriates in JKL and evaluated the proposal from Jim Flinn who will transplant a British managerial system to a Russian subsidiary. 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Purdie (2004), _Global and Transnational Business, Strategy and Management_, pp. 382-383, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, West Sussex, England. The Independent (1992), ‘Britain’s motor parts suppliers learn Japanese’, p.23, 8 June, 1992. The International Herald Tribune (2009), ‘A Reverse Culture Shock in India: Workers Returning Home Find It Hard to Cope with Clash between Two Worlds’, p.10, 28 November, 2009. The Journal (1999), ‘Japanese bring 150 more jobs –  £5m investment in Tees Valley’, p.26, 8 September, 1999.

Comparing and Contrasting Sonnet 130 and Ars Poetica Essay

â€Å"Change what you see by changing how you see† (Huie). This quote relates to â€Å"Sonnet 130,† by William Shakespeare and â€Å"Ars Poetica,† by Archibald Mac Leish. Sonnet 130 is about the faults of his mistress, but realizes by the end of the poem, that his love is all that matters. This man did not see his mistress as an ugly woman, but instead saw her as someone whom he loves dearly. In a different way, Ars Poetica states that â€Å"a poem should not mean, but be† (MacLeish 23). People who read a poem may try to interpret its real meaning, but there is really nothing to interpret. A poem should just mean what it says. Although both â€Å"Sonnet 130,† by William Shakespeare and â€Å"Ars Poetica,†by Archibald MacLeish have similar themes such as simplicity, and similar devices such as using imagery to describe beauty and nature, they have different meanings, since one poem seems to expect a considerable amount from a mistress, and the other poem expects nothing of a poem. One similarity between â€Å"Sonnet 130† and â€Å"Ars Poetica† is their themes of wanting nothing but simplicity in a poem and a mistress (stated in the last couplet), and love and adoration. When reading â€Å"Sonnet 130† one might think that this man spends his time complaining about his mistress, and clearly dosen’t love her, however, by the end of the poem he realizes that his mistress may not be beautiful, but their love is beautiful, and that is all that matters. â€Å"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare† (Shakespeare 13). In â€Å"Ars Poetica,† MacLeish explains that â€Å"a poem should be wordless† (7) and â€Å"a poem should be motionless in time† (9). One might be confused by what the poem is actually trying to say, but he ended the poem by saying, â€Å"a poem should not mean, but be† (23), which was a clearer statement. As was said before, a poem is not something people should over analyze, it should just make you feel the way it does. Almost ike a painting or sculpture, a poem is not a puzzle, but a mood or a feeling. Both poems seem to have different views on what to expect from a mistress/poem. In â€Å"Sonnet 130,† Shakespeare expects a great deal of things from his mistress. There are twelve lines discussing the disappointment of his mistress’ eyes, lips, hair, cheeks, breath, voice, and how she walks. Lines such as her eyes â€Å"are nothing like the sun† (Shakespeare 1), her lips are less red than coral, and her hairs are like black wires growing on her head, show how displeased he is at these unattractive qualities. â€Å"Ars Poetica† is completely different in this way. MacLeish says, â€Å"A poem should be palpable and mute† (1), and â€Å"Dumb as old medallions to the thumb† (3). These words demonstrate how he believes that poetry should be different than what society expects them to be. He wants nothing of a poem, but just believes that poems should be whatever they want to be. Another similarity between â€Å"Sonnet 130† and â€Å"Ars Poetica† would be that they both use imagery to compare beauty and nature. â€Å"Sonnet 130† used this device, to demonstrate the nature of beauty through imagery. â€Å"I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, but no such roses see I in her cheeks† (Shakespeare 5). This compares his mistress’ cheeks to the beauty of a rose. â€Å"Ars Poetica† has many lines that use imagery, one of which compares words to the flight of birds, â€Å"a poem should be wordless as the flight of birds† (MacLeish 7). Both writers did an impeccable job using imagery to enhance the readers understanding and use descriptive words to make the poem more beautiful and interesting sounding. â€Å"Ars Poetica† and â€Å"Sonnet 130† are similar in the way that they both have a similar theme of simplicity and adoration. â€Å"Ars Poetica† wanting a poem be in it’s simplest terms and wanting it to mean only just what it says. Although in â€Å"Sonnet 130† Shakespeare does seem to expect a lot from a mistress, he states at the end of the poem, that he wants nothing more than the mistress he has. Another similarity is that they both compare beauty and nature. This device was used purely to entice the reader, and make it easier for the reader to understand. One essential difference between both poems, would be that in â€Å"Ars Poetica, the poet strongly believes that a poem should be â€Å"wordless† and simple, almost careless. However, in â€Å"Sonnet 130,† Shakespeare spends most of the poem taking about his mistress’ unattractive qualities and seems quite expectant of a number of things. Analyzing these key similarities and differences are what help the reader understand the poem in a more analyitical way.

A Dirty Job Chapter 1

For when the Gods made man, They kept immortality for themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, Let Days be full of joy. Love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man. – The Epic of Gilgamesh 1 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH – HE KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME – Charlie Asher walked the earth like an ant walks on the surface of water, as if the slightest misstep might send him plummeting through the surface to be sucked to the depths below. Blessed with the Beta Male imagination, he spent much of his life squinting into the future so he might spot ways in which the world was conspiring to kill him – him; his wife, Rachel; and now, newborn Sophie. But despite his attention, his paranoia, his ceaseless fretting from the moment Rachel peed a blue stripe on the pregnancy stick to the time they wheeled her into recovery at St. Francis Memorial, Death slipped in. â€Å"She’s not breathing,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s breathing fine,† Rachel said, patting the baby’s back. â€Å"Do you want to hold her?† Charlie had held baby Sophie for a few seconds earlier in the day, and had handed her quickly to a nurse insisting that someone more qualified than he do some finger and toe counting. He’d done it twice and kept coming up with twenty-one. â€Å"They act like that’s all there is to it. Like if the kid has the minimum ten fingers and ten toes it’s all going to be fine. What if there are extras? Huh? Extra-credit fingers? What if the kid has a tail?† (Charlie was sure he’d spotted a tail in the six-month sonogram. Umbilical indeed! He’d kept a hard copy.) â€Å"She doesn’t have a tail, Mr. Asher,† the nurse explained. â€Å"And it’s ten and ten, we’ve all checked. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest.† â€Å"I’ll still love her, even with her extra finger.† â€Å"She’s perfectly normal.† â€Å"Or toe.† â€Å"We really do know what we’re doing, Mr. Asher. She’s a beautiful, healthy baby girl.† â€Å"Or a tail.† The nurse sighed. She was short, wide, and had a tattoo of a snake up her right calf that showed through her white nurse stockings. She spent four hours of every workday massaging preemie babies, her hands threaded through ports in a Lucite incubator, like she was handling a radioactive spark in there. She talked to them, coaxed them, told them how special they were, and felt their hearts fluttering in chests no bigger than a balled-up pair of sweat socks. She cried over every one, and believed that her tears and touch poured a bit of her own life into the tiny bodies, which was just fine with her. She could spare it. She had been a neonatal nurse for twenty years and had never so much as raised her voice to a new father. â€Å"There’s no goddamn tail, you doofus! Look!† She pulled down the blanket and aimed baby Sophie’s bottom at him like she might unleash a fusillade of weapons-grade poopage such as the guileless Beta Male had never seen. Charlie jumped back – a lean and nimble thirty, he was – then, once he realized that the baby wasn’t loaded, he straightened the lapels on his tweed jacket in a gesture of righteous indignation. â€Å"You could have removed her tail in the delivery room and we’d never know.† He didn’t know. He’d been asked to leave the delivery room, first by the ob-gyn and finally by Rachel. (â€Å"Him or me,† Rachel said. â€Å"One of us has to go.†) In Rachel’s room, Charlie said: â€Å"If they removed her tail, I want it. She’ll want it when she gets older.† â€Å"Sophie, your Papa isn’t really insane. He just hasn’t slept for a couple of days.† â€Å"She’s looking at me,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s looking at me like I blew her college money at the track and now she’s going to have to turn tricks to get her MBA.† Rachel took his hand. â€Å"Honey, I don’t think her eyes can even focus this early, and besides, she’s a little young to start worrying about her turning tricks to get her MFA.† â€Å"MBA,† Charlie corrected. â€Å"They start very young these days. By the time I figure out how to get to the track, she could be old enough. God, your parents are going to hate me.† â€Å"And that would be different how?† â€Å"New reasons, that’s how. Now I’ve made their granddaughter a shiksa.† â€Å"She’s not a shiksa, Charlie. We’ve been through this. She’s my daughter, so she’s as Jewish as I am.† Charlie went down on one knee next to the bed and took one of Sophie’s tiny hands between his fingers. â€Å"Daddy’s sorry he made you a shiksa.† He put his head down, buried his face in the crook where the baby met Rachel’s side. Rachel traced his hairline with her fingernail, describing a tight U-turn around his narrow forehead. â€Å"You need to go home and get some sleep.† Charlie mumbled something into the covers. When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. â€Å"She feels warm.† â€Å"She is warm. She’s supposed to be. It’s a mammal thing. Goes with the breast-feeding. Why are you crying?† â€Å"You guys are so beautiful.† He began arranging Rachel’s dark hair across the pillow, brought a long lock down over Sophie’s head, and started styling it into a baby hairpiece. â€Å"It will be okay if she can’t grow hair. There was that angry Irish singer who didn’t have any hair and she was attractive. If we had her tail we could transplant plugs from that.† â€Å"Charlie! Go home!† â€Å"Your parents will blame me. Their bald shiksa granddaughter turning tricks and getting a business degree – it will be all my fault.† Rachel grabbed the buzzer from the blanket and held it up like it was wired to a bomb. â€Å"Charlie, if you don’t go home and get some sleep right now, I swear I’ll buzz the nurse and have her throw you out.† She sounded stern, but she was smiling. Charlie liked looking at her smile, always had; it felt like approval and permission at the same time. Permission to be Charlie Asher. â€Å"Okay, I’ll go.† He reached to feel her forehead. â€Å"Do you have a fever? You look tired.† â€Å"I just gave birth, you squirrel!† â€Å"I’m just concerned about you.† He was not a squirrel. She was blaming him for Sophie’s tail, that’s why she’d said squirrel, and not doofus like everyone else. â€Å"Sweetie, go. Now. So I can get some rest.† Charlie fluffed her pillows, checked her water pitcher, tucked in the blankets, kissed her forehead, kissed the baby’s head, fluffed the baby, then started to rearrange the flowers that his mother had sent, moving the big stargazer lily in the front, accenting it with a spray of baby’s breath – â€Å"Charlie!† â€Å"I’m going. Jeez.† He checked the room, one last time, then backed toward the door. â€Å"Can I bring you anything from home?† â€Å"I’ll be fine. The ready kit you packed covered everything, I think. In fact, I may not even need the fire extinguisher.† â€Å"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it – â€Å" â€Å"Go! I’ll get some rest, the doctor will check Sophie out, and we’ll take her home in the morning.† â€Å"That seems soon.† â€Å"It’s standard.† â€Å"Should I bring more propane for the camp stove?† â€Å"We’ll try to make it last.† â€Å"But – â€Å" Rachel held up the buzzer, as if her demands were not met, the consequences could be dire. â€Å"Love you,† she said. â€Å"Love you, too,† Charlie said. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"Bye, Daddy.† Rachel puppeted Sophie’s little hand in a wave. Charlie felt a lump rising in his throat. No one had ever called him Daddy before, not even a puppet. (He had once asked Rachel, â€Å"Who’s your daddy?† during sex, to which she had replied, â€Å"Saul Goldstein,† thus rendering him impotent for a week and raising all kinds of issues that he didn’t really like to think about.) He backed out of the room, palming the door shut as he went, then headed down the hall and past the desk where the neonatal nurse with the snake tattoo gave him a sideways smile as he went by. Charlie drove a six-year-old minivan that he’d inherited from his father, along with the thrift store and the building that housed it. The minivan always smelled faintly of dust, mothballs, and body odor, despite a forest of smell-good Christmas trees that Charlie had hung from every hook, knob, and protrusion. He opened the car door and the odor of the unwanted – the wares of the thrift-store owner – washed over him. Before he even had the key in the ignition, he noticed the Sarah McLachlan CD lying on the passenger seat. Well, Rachel was going to miss that. It was her favorite CD and there she was, recovering without it, and he could not have that. Charlie grabbed the CD, locked the van, and headed back up to Rachel’s room. To his relief, the nurse had stepped away from the desk so he didn’t have to endure her frosty stare of accusation, or what he guessed would be her frosty stare of accusation. He’d mentally prepared a short speech about how being a good husband and father included anticipating the wants and needs of his wife and that included bringing her music – well, he could use the speech on the way out if she gave him the frosty stare. He opened the door to Rachel’s room slowly so as not to startle her – anticipating her warm smile of disapproval, but instead she appeared to be asleep and there was a very tall black man dressed in mint green standing next to her bed. â€Å"What are you doing here?† The man in mint green turned, startled. â€Å"You can see me?† He gestured to his chocolate-brown tie, and Charlie was reminded, just for a second, of those thin mints they put on the pillow in nicer hotels. â€Å"Of course I can see you. What are you doing here?† Charlie moved to Rachel’s bedside, putting himself between the stranger and his family. Baby Sophie seemed fascinated by the tall black man. â€Å"This is not good,† said Mint Green. â€Å"You’re in the wrong room,† Charlie said. â€Å"You get out of here.† Charlie reached behind and patted Rachel’s hand. â€Å"This is really, really not good.† â€Å"Sir, my wife is trying to sleep and you’re in the wrong room. Now please go before – â€Å" â€Å"She’s not sleeping,† said Mint Green. His voice was soft, and a little Southern. â€Å"I’m sorry.† Charlie turned to look down at Rachel, expecting to see her smile, hear her tell him to calm down, but her eyes were closed and her head had lolled off the pillow. â€Å"Honey?† Charlie dropped the CD he was carrying and shook her gently. â€Å"Honey?† Baby Sophie began to cry. Charlie felt Rachel’s forehead, took her by the shoulders, and shook her. â€Å"Honey, wake up. Rachel.† He put his ear to her heart and heard nothing. â€Å"Nurse!† Charlie scrambled across the bed to grab the buzzer that had slipped from Rachel’s hand and lay on the blanket. â€Å"Nurse!† He pounded the button and turned to look at the man in mint green. â€Å"What happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He was gone. Charlie ran into the hall, but no one was out there. â€Å"Nurse!† Twenty seconds later the nurse with the snake tattoo arrived, followed in another thirty seconds by a resuscitation team with a crash cart. There was nothing they could do. A Dirty Job Chapter 1 For when the Gods made man, They kept immortality for themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, Let Days be full of joy. Love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man. – The Epic of Gilgamesh 1 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH – HE KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME – Charlie Asher walked the earth like an ant walks on the surface of water, as if the slightest misstep might send him plummeting through the surface to be sucked to the depths below. Blessed with the Beta Male imagination, he spent much of his life squinting into the future so he might spot ways in which the world was conspiring to kill him – him; his wife, Rachel; and now, newborn Sophie. But despite his attention, his paranoia, his ceaseless fretting from the moment Rachel peed a blue stripe on the pregnancy stick to the time they wheeled her into recovery at St. Francis Memorial, Death slipped in. â€Å"She’s not breathing,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s breathing fine,† Rachel said, patting the baby’s back. â€Å"Do you want to hold her?† Charlie had held baby Sophie for a few seconds earlier in the day, and had handed her quickly to a nurse insisting that someone more qualified than he do some finger and toe counting. He’d done it twice and kept coming up with twenty-one. â€Å"They act like that’s all there is to it. Like if the kid has the minimum ten fingers and ten toes it’s all going to be fine. What if there are extras? Huh? Extra-credit fingers? What if the kid has a tail?† (Charlie was sure he’d spotted a tail in the six-month sonogram. Umbilical indeed! He’d kept a hard copy.) â€Å"She doesn’t have a tail, Mr. Asher,† the nurse explained. â€Å"And it’s ten and ten, we’ve all checked. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest.† â€Å"I’ll still love her, even with her extra finger.† â€Å"She’s perfectly normal.† â€Å"Or toe.† â€Å"We really do know what we’re doing, Mr. Asher. She’s a beautiful, healthy baby girl.† â€Å"Or a tail.† The nurse sighed. She was short, wide, and had a tattoo of a snake up her right calf that showed through her white nurse stockings. She spent four hours of every workday massaging preemie babies, her hands threaded through ports in a Lucite incubator, like she was handling a radioactive spark in there. She talked to them, coaxed them, told them how special they were, and felt their hearts fluttering in chests no bigger than a balled-up pair of sweat socks. She cried over every one, and believed that her tears and touch poured a bit of her own life into the tiny bodies, which was just fine with her. She could spare it. She had been a neonatal nurse for twenty years and had never so much as raised her voice to a new father. â€Å"There’s no goddamn tail, you doofus! Look!† She pulled down the blanket and aimed baby Sophie’s bottom at him like she might unleash a fusillade of weapons-grade poopage such as the guileless Beta Male had never seen. Charlie jumped back – a lean and nimble thirty, he was – then, once he realized that the baby wasn’t loaded, he straightened the lapels on his tweed jacket in a gesture of righteous indignation. â€Å"You could have removed her tail in the delivery room and we’d never know.† He didn’t know. He’d been asked to leave the delivery room, first by the ob-gyn and finally by Rachel. (â€Å"Him or me,† Rachel said. â€Å"One of us has to go.†) In Rachel’s room, Charlie said: â€Å"If they removed her tail, I want it. She’ll want it when she gets older.† â€Å"Sophie, your Papa isn’t really insane. He just hasn’t slept for a couple of days.† â€Å"She’s looking at me,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s looking at me like I blew her college money at the track and now she’s going to have to turn tricks to get her MBA.† Rachel took his hand. â€Å"Honey, I don’t think her eyes can even focus this early, and besides, she’s a little young to start worrying about her turning tricks to get her MFA.† â€Å"MBA,† Charlie corrected. â€Å"They start very young these days. By the time I figure out how to get to the track, she could be old enough. God, your parents are going to hate me.† â€Å"And that would be different how?† â€Å"New reasons, that’s how. Now I’ve made their granddaughter a shiksa.† â€Å"She’s not a shiksa, Charlie. We’ve been through this. She’s my daughter, so she’s as Jewish as I am.† Charlie went down on one knee next to the bed and took one of Sophie’s tiny hands between his fingers. â€Å"Daddy’s sorry he made you a shiksa.† He put his head down, buried his face in the crook where the baby met Rachel’s side. Rachel traced his hairline with her fingernail, describing a tight U-turn around his narrow forehead. â€Å"You need to go home and get some sleep.† Charlie mumbled something into the covers. When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. â€Å"She feels warm.† â€Å"She is warm. She’s supposed to be. It’s a mammal thing. Goes with the breast-feeding. Why are you crying?† â€Å"You guys are so beautiful.† He began arranging Rachel’s dark hair across the pillow, brought a long lock down over Sophie’s head, and started styling it into a baby hairpiece. â€Å"It will be okay if she can’t grow hair. There was that angry Irish singer who didn’t have any hair and she was attractive. If we had her tail we could transplant plugs from that.† â€Å"Charlie! Go home!† â€Å"Your parents will blame me. Their bald shiksa granddaughter turning tricks and getting a business degree – it will be all my fault.† Rachel grabbed the buzzer from the blanket and held it up like it was wired to a bomb. â€Å"Charlie, if you don’t go home and get some sleep right now, I swear I’ll buzz the nurse and have her throw you out.† She sounded stern, but she was smiling. Charlie liked looking at her smile, always had; it felt like approval and permission at the same time. Permission to be Charlie Asher. â€Å"Okay, I’ll go.† He reached to feel her forehead. â€Å"Do you have a fever? You look tired.† â€Å"I just gave birth, you squirrel!† â€Å"I’m just concerned about you.† He was not a squirrel. She was blaming him for Sophie’s tail, that’s why she’d said squirrel, and not doofus like everyone else. â€Å"Sweetie, go. Now. So I can get some rest.† Charlie fluffed her pillows, checked her water pitcher, tucked in the blankets, kissed her forehead, kissed the baby’s head, fluffed the baby, then started to rearrange the flowers that his mother had sent, moving the big stargazer lily in the front, accenting it with a spray of baby’s breath – â€Å"Charlie!† â€Å"I’m going. Jeez.† He checked the room, one last time, then backed toward the door. â€Å"Can I bring you anything from home?† â€Å"I’ll be fine. The ready kit you packed covered everything, I think. In fact, I may not even need the fire extinguisher.† â€Å"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it – â€Å" â€Å"Go! I’ll get some rest, the doctor will check Sophie out, and we’ll take her home in the morning.† â€Å"That seems soon.† â€Å"It’s standard.† â€Å"Should I bring more propane for the camp stove?† â€Å"We’ll try to make it last.† â€Å"But – â€Å" Rachel held up the buzzer, as if her demands were not met, the consequences could be dire. â€Å"Love you,† she said. â€Å"Love you, too,† Charlie said. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"Bye, Daddy.† Rachel puppeted Sophie’s little hand in a wave. Charlie felt a lump rising in his throat. No one had ever called him Daddy before, not even a puppet. (He had once asked Rachel, â€Å"Who’s your daddy?† during sex, to which she had replied, â€Å"Saul Goldstein,† thus rendering him impotent for a week and raising all kinds of issues that he didn’t really like to think about.) He backed out of the room, palming the door shut as he went, then headed down the hall and past the desk where the neonatal nurse with the snake tattoo gave him a sideways smile as he went by. Charlie drove a six-year-old minivan that he’d inherited from his father, along with the thrift store and the building that housed it. The minivan always smelled faintly of dust, mothballs, and body odor, despite a forest of smell-good Christmas trees that Charlie had hung from every hook, knob, and protrusion. He opened the car door and the odor of the unwanted – the wares of the thrift-store owner – washed over him. Before he even had the key in the ignition, he noticed the Sarah McLachlan CD lying on the passenger seat. Well, Rachel was going to miss that. It was her favorite CD and there she was, recovering without it, and he could not have that. Charlie grabbed the CD, locked the van, and headed back up to Rachel’s room. To his relief, the nurse had stepped away from the desk so he didn’t have to endure her frosty stare of accusation, or what he guessed would be her frosty stare of accusation. He’d mentally prepared a short speech about how being a good husband and father included anticipating the wants and needs of his wife and that included bringing her music – well, he could use the speech on the way out if she gave him the frosty stare. He opened the door to Rachel’s room slowly so as not to startle her – anticipating her warm smile of disapproval, but instead she appeared to be asleep and there was a very tall black man dressed in mint green standing next to her bed. â€Å"What are you doing here?† The man in mint green turned, startled. â€Å"You can see me?† He gestured to his chocolate-brown tie, and Charlie was reminded, just for a second, of those thin mints they put on the pillow in nicer hotels. â€Å"Of course I can see you. What are you doing here?† Charlie moved to Rachel’s bedside, putting himself between the stranger and his family. Baby Sophie seemed fascinated by the tall black man. â€Å"This is not good,† said Mint Green. â€Å"You’re in the wrong room,† Charlie said. â€Å"You get out of here.† Charlie reached behind and patted Rachel’s hand. â€Å"This is really, really not good.† â€Å"Sir, my wife is trying to sleep and you’re in the wrong room. Now please go before – â€Å" â€Å"She’s not sleeping,† said Mint Green. His voice was soft, and a little Southern. â€Å"I’m sorry.† Charlie turned to look down at Rachel, expecting to see her smile, hear her tell him to calm down, but her eyes were closed and her head had lolled off the pillow. â€Å"Honey?† Charlie dropped the CD he was carrying and shook her gently. â€Å"Honey?† Baby Sophie began to cry. Charlie felt Rachel’s forehead, took her by the shoulders, and shook her. â€Å"Honey, wake up. Rachel.† He put his ear to her heart and heard nothing. â€Å"Nurse!† Charlie scrambled across the bed to grab the buzzer that had slipped from Rachel’s hand and lay on the blanket. â€Å"Nurse!† He pounded the button and turned to look at the man in mint green. â€Å"What happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He was gone. Charlie ran into the hall, but no one was out there. â€Å"Nurse!† Twenty seconds later the nurse with the snake tattoo arrived, followed in another thirty seconds by a resuscitation team with a crash cart. There was nothing they could do.

The Common Perception of Juvenile Offenders Essay

The Common Perception of Juvenile Offenders - Essay Example The Certain reason for it cannot be distinguished strictly. Presumably such behavior is encouraged with the stereotypes, common for police and jurors and is rooted in the past where the slavery and beliefs of blacks being not as clever as whites and much more aggressive were wide-spread. Mass-media is also likely to influence such point of view, describing the evil nature of Black juvenile offenders and the misguided yet still innocent nature of White juvenile offenders ». Thus shooting at school committed by a white adolescent would most likely be described as shocking, while same act committed by a black one - as expectable. There are no special explorations of for reasons of juvenile legal discrimination, but similar tests were conducted with adults and resulted in the theory of similarity-leniency, where people tend to show more empathy with ones whom they consider alike to their person. That was not the first experiment of a kind, still it was the first one conducted in order to prove the existence of racial prejudice directed onto coloured juveniles. The confinement of African American juveniles throughout the United States is abnormal. The rate of juvenile confinements for several years has decreased, and thus the predominance of arrests of coloured juveniles has become even more obvious. According to researches, coloured youth commits more crimes and is arrested twice as often as white juveniles. Still, the other reason for such misbalance was also caused by the difference in attitude to black or latin juveniles in comparison to white ones. It is bound not only with the biased attitude but also with the difference in the life circumstances of juveniles that result in stricter sentences. For example under the law of Minnesota, a punishment for trying crack cocaine is four years of confinement, while trying powdered cocaine leads only to probation period.

Signifier of Victorian Architecture Annotated Bibliography

Signifier of Victorian Architecture - Annotated Bibliography Example The architecture was like that so that it could fit with the period and all that was going on at that time. This architecture applied to almost all the buildings from that time. Some people maintained older architectures. The Victorian architectures have several readable meanings because the forgotten convictions, monuments, and architectural style show the religious and cultural aspect (Crimson 5). The forgotten convictions, monuments, and the architectural style show that there has been a transformation over the years probably due to interaction with other cultures and architectures from all over the world that have influenced the current architecture. The source is valid as Crimson presents pieces of evidence that support his arguments fully. For example, he gives sufficient evidence to support his claim by showing the cultural exchanges that influenced the Victorian architecture. The pieces of evidence presented by the author are objective research and not personal narrations. Moreover, Mark Crinson is a professor of Art History at Manchester University. This book is relevant to my topic as it addresses the qualities of the Victorian architecture that have a meaning. The book’s conclusion on the Victorian architecture is applicable to my subject area because the book succeeds in showing that religious and political agendas and the racial theory were responsible for guiding the architects during the Victorian era. The book’s targeted audience is any individual who is interested in learning about how the Western architecture has changed over time and what has been its major influence and in turn how it has influenced the architectures in other continents especially the architecture and history students. The book develops my research by providing a lot of information on the changes that have occurred from the Victorian era.

Assume you are employed in a small restaurant in Bolton and your Essay

Assume you are employed in a small restaurant in Bolton and your manager ask you to prepare a report describing following conce - Essay Example The major factors affecting the restaurant business are the price and quality. The price and quality are in turn determined by several factors such as demand and supply. This paper focuses on how different factors and concepts can affect the operations of a restaurant business located in Bolton. The concepts that will be considered include market demand and supply, concepts of elasticity of demand and supply, determination of equilibrium, business organisation and behavior, and the market structure. Market Demand and Supply Analysis of demand and supply gives insights into how markets operate. Additionally, the demand and supply concepts explain how sellers are able to allocate prices to goods and services. Restaurant businesses deal with provision of goods and services. The restaurant industry is greatly influenced by the supply and demand forces. In a restaurant business, there is a need for balancing of resources, which are often scarce. Understanding supply and demand factors and their application in the restaurant business is crucial since it affects the sales and purchases and, hence, crucial decisions in a business. Supply and demand varies from place to place as well as with time (Parsa, et al., 2005; Taylor and Weerapana, 2011). The supply in a restaurant business is determined by several factors, which include the price of the goods. Tastes and preference of the consumers is another factor affecting the restaurant business. The number of consumers varies and this determines the quantity of foods that restaurants require to make. Additionally, the income level of people living around the restaurant, who comprise the prospective customers, determines the quantities of foods restaurants require to prepare. In Bolton, the number of restaurants is quite high. The commodity price, which is in this case food, is determined by both supply and demand. The commodity prices greatly affect the profitability of restaurants. Commodities such as vegetables and meat are affected by food production. When the prices for commodities are low, restaurants can reduce the prices of their foods without compromising on the profitability of the business. However, when commodity prices are high, it becomes hard to attract customers through price reduction since this would lead to losses (Greco, 2005; Taylor and Weerapana, 2011). The supply and demand affect the price of commodities in restaurant business. If the supply of raw food is less, the demand will be more resulting in increased prices. High prices for raw foods will reflect in the restaurant menu. For the restaurant at Bolton, the manager must assess how the price of the different ingredients required will affect the sales. Additionally, the manager must consider the economic statues of the customers to determine the ingredients to use. If the customers are willing to pay much, the manager should focus on upgrading the ingredients to improve the quality. In Bolton, the economic situation is consid erably good and people are willing to spend much at eating out. Therefore, it would be advisable for the manager to focus on quality. Customers are likely to be interested more in the quality than in the price (McEachern, 2011). There must be ways of attracting customers and retaining them. Since the number of restaurants is considerably high, consumers will be tempted to try out different outlets. Therefore, a

Jordanian cuisine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Jordanian cuisine - Essay Example Lamb and chicken meat is the most preferred choice of meat. Men and women do not dine together and eating with the right hand is the preferred method. The flavors include grains, cheese, herbs, fresh and dried fruits, yoghurt and spices. A team of professional chefs and local women camp at Petra kitchen in Petra to offer cookery lessons in making traditional Jordanian cuisine. Though the menu varies with seasons, a wide range of delicious dishes, mezze plates, a main dish, dessert or fresh fruits, bread (Shrak), and coffee dominates a Jordanian cuisine. The staple food of Jordan is Mansaf that takes hours in preparing and feasting. It consists of a lamb cooked in yoghurt, lightly spiced, seasoned with aromatic herbs, and served with rice. They reserved Mensef that is a Bedouin feast and the pride of Jordanian cuisine for special occasions like weddings. The preparation of Mensef entails the roasting of a whole sheep, serving huge chunks of the roasted meat with rice, yoghurt, and fried nuts on a huge plate. They also reserved a delicacy of softly cooked eyes for the guests of honor. Stuffed baby Lamb is also a popular dish in the traditional Jordan enjoyed as a main meal. It comprises a roasted lamb, nuts, rice, raisins, and chopped onions (The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan Web). There is a variety of kebabs in the Jordanian cuisine. Knafeh is the main dessert in a Jordanian cuisine and comprises of white cheese covered with sweet syrup and gooey. Jordanian wine is also acceptable in a Jordanian cuisine (Responsible travel Web). Cooking a Jordanian Cuisine is however easy and fun and requires no special equipment. Due to its delicious nature and simplicity in cooking, the Jordanian Cuisine has spread in Europe as well as maintaining its traditional aspects in

Personality Types Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Personality Types - Essay Example They are abstract thinkers who love to understand events and objects as much as possible, and are frustrated by any hindrance in this quest. They prefer to focus on the larger picture and think in the long term, making them ideal candidates for development work. They trust facts and believe that they are capable of holding all facts in objective thought. Most INTJ individuals have complex inner processes, but find it difficult to interpret these to another person. The INTJ are perfectionists, and believe that everything and everyone has a capacity for improvement. They often focus on achieving this improvement in their own functioning and in the tasks they take up. They also expect improvement from the people in their lives – a characteristic that can lead to strife. The INTJ also trust their own instincts and decisions completely, and can be put off by non-constructive criticism and non-responsiveness of others. But while this may be perceived as rigidity, they can in fact be very open to any input that would help improve an end result. Methods of study for an INTJ Since the INTJ are introverted and find social situations difficult, they study better when alone or with very few similar minded peers. They should try and find a location with the least interference if studying in a common study room.

Inputs of Industrial Services of America Research Paper

Inputs of Industrial Services of America - Research Paper Example Besides, all these essentials are interconnected. As such, they must work together, and a change in one must result in the subsequent change in rest, for the model to be effective (Burke, 2010). According to the pioneers of the model, the first input of an organization is the environment. This entails the external factors of an organization, having significant implications on a firm’s ultimate achievement. The model deems the environment transformation to be having a significant compulsion to an organization’s definitive transformation (Burke, 2010). The model is anchored in the principle that the organization is an open structure, where the outside surroundings have significant impacts on its subsystems. Additionally, the firm ought to apply environment change to review the changes within an organization. The next input of the model is resources. According to Nadler and Tushman, an organization acquires inputs from within and externally to the firm, and then changes th em into outputs. The output may comprise of the firm’s actions, performance, as well as its behavior. Additionally, these occur at the individual, group, and wholesome stage. As such, if an organization is performing below the set objectives, it ought to review its resources. These resources may include capital and information, along with others (Burke, 2010). A firm’s history is also essential for the success of a firm. Various firms substantially rely on their history for success. Companies with well-known products usually possess a niche over their rivals. However, a firm’s history may be detrimental to their objective achievement, since their competitors may use it to their advantage. This may be through counterfeit and... Various organizations face numerous crises in their endeavor to attain their set objectives. Therefore, there is a dire need for organizational transformation in order to keep these organizations on track and realize their initial purpose.Various organization experts have developed models to aid organizations in implementing organizational transformation. Nadler and Tushman together pioneered in the development of an Organization Diagnosis model identified as Nadler-Tushman Congruence model. This model is helpful, since firms employ it in improving an organization’s efficiency, and consequently, promoting the revenue accrual. The model also aids in determining the consequences of transforming an organization. Besides, it is critical to assess the nature and intensity of the predicaments an organization encounters prior to employing the model. The model also highlights the consequence of evaluating an organization before implementing changes in an organization. Besides, approac hes of organizational modification that worked elsewhere may not work within another organization. This has been the case of many organizations, where a new management staff employs an organization plan that worked in their earlier firms. This produces devastating results, since the predicaments facing their new company are dissimilar to the ones facing their former companies. Organizations encounter several challenges in their pursuit of set goals. These challenges may include competition, counterfeit and brand disputes among others.

Cause and Effect of Sleep deprivation Essay Example for Free

Cause and Effect of Sleep deprivation Essay I am a firm believer that many factors such as our culture, our upbringing, and beliefs that we were introduced to all affects what we do, how we live and even what we eat! People in China, Vietnam and Switzerland have been known to eat dogs for thousands of year, some as a source of survival during war and famine while others eat it as a cuisine meaning it is a part of their regular diet! I’ve even read somewhere that people in China have been known to say that a huge reason they consume dog meat is to keep them warm in the harsh winters! Have they heard of a jacket and hot coco? They don’t see it any different from eating cows and pigs, but someone like me thinks that is disgusting! I see people all the time whose treat their dog as their best friend, I’ve heard that when you begin to grow attached to your dog you soon see them as people. I could never imagine it being okay to eat a dog! Functionalism has a lot to do with this also when you come to think of it. This tradition has been the norm in these places for years! It wasn’t until recently that proposed laws have been presented to implement a law that bans the eating of cats and dogs. Americans are truly the people of the land of the free and are strong believers that a dog is a mans best friend, in my opinion. Beating, not feeding, and mistreating dogs are all violations of the law, neglect, and animal abuse! I could not even imagine hearing a story of someone eating one! It is common knowledge here that dogs are like people and should be treated as such and so they are not put on a dinner plate, at least the way I view things. I strongly feel that our individual believes and knowledge is the reason we eat what we eat, they are culturally relative in more ways that one. This definitely is a beautiful thing as everyone can be their own person and act how they feel but this causes cultural diversity conflict all the time! Take this scenario for instance; two people are meeting for a blind date and obviously know nothing about one another. It becomes time to order and the woman is disgusted by the menu because everything is meat and fat of the meat from some type of animal, see, she’s vegetarian. The woman loves animals and does not believe in eating them and this sparks a conversation. Do you think it’s a good one as her date has already ordered the number four, which is the half slab of baby back ribs with chicken shish kabobs, and a side of pork rings? I can imagine that she stormed out of there after giving him a good lecture. Though her actions are understandable they aren’t quite right. Ethnocentrism would be the perfect would to explain that situation! The woman thinks that he beliefs are the right ones and that the man is wrong for eating what he loves to eat! Ethnocentrism is when you believe that your culture, your beliefs are better than everyone else’s and only yours make sense! This is a big reason there is conflict within cultures. Instead of using cultural relativism and trying to understand others point of view or even just accepting it as their choice we fight for what we think is the right way, the only way. Interactionism helps us understand that our mind plays a role in our how what our body does including why we eat or don’t eat what we eat. I love dogs, so I would vomit at the thought of eating one. However, once again this doesn’t mean I should hate someone that eats it as a dish at home. Being open and understanding can truly help because just as the conflict theory states that there is a power struggle between cultures, these cultures have the power to become knowledgeable of one another and ultimately obtain culture relativism.

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of historys greatest political battles. The first of its kind since the Civil War, this bill drastically called for the end of all segregation in all public places. In the eyes of the civil rights movement leaders, this bill was long over due. Kennedys crusade began slowly to the dismay of many civil rights leaders in February of 1963. He began by sending the United States Congress a Special Message on Civil Rights, stating, Our Constitution is color blind, but the practices of the country do not always conform to the principles of the Constitution(Loevy, 5). Kennedy received praise for these strong and moving words yet was criticized for his weak legislative proposals to remedy the situation. By May of 1963, his proposal would change greatly however, after two men, from opposite positions set the civil rights movement into intense motion. Martin Luther King despite advice to do otherwise began massive protests in the street of Birmingham. To combat these protests, Police Commissioner Bull Conner used any means, including dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods on protestors. Making newspapers and television everywhere, the Birmingham atrocity along with Kings famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, ignited the moral conscious of Americans nationwide. While Conner earned a negative reputation, President Kennedy wisely commented, Bull Connor has done more for civil rights than anyone elseThe civil rights movement should thank God for him. He has helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln (Whalen 86). The apparent Birmingham defeat for King in re ality was the key point in which the battle to win civil rights became a national fight with the President as one of its strongest allies. Before the Birmingham situation, Kennedy kept a fragile balance with the civil rights activists and the Southern Democrats. While in office, Congress consisted of a great number of Southern Democrats with some liberal Northerners and Western Democrats (Loevy 8). In order to pass many of his liberal programs, a large number of them economic, Kennedy needed the support of these Southern Democrats. To add to this complicated situation, Kennedy knew that while the Southern Democrats would not support civil rights proposals directly, his economic plans, including aid to education and raising the minimum wage, if approved, would benefit the black population. Kennedy also needed the Southern Democrats voter support in the upcoming 1964 presidential election to secure re-election. Any aggravation to this party would only guarantee a loss for Kennedy. Motivated by the Birmingham situation, by the summer of 1963 Kennedy could no longer placate the Southern Democrats by leaving civil rights legislation untouched. Although realizing how action could endanger his chances for re-election, he saw beyond politics and into the moral issue. With public support Kennedy was willing to wage in the political war that would inevitably ensue. Kennedy and Johnson both were very aware of the walls that Congress would build to stop any proposals involving civil rights. Immediate and effective action became the new focus. Together Kennedy, Johnson, and the civil rights leaders combined efforts to achieve speedy and thorough results. By May 31, 1963, Kennedy announced his plans for the civil rights movements to the public. First hand attempts to maintain segregation by the outspoken racist Governor George Wallace of Alabama provided Kennedy with the ideal timing to deliver his message. Before even outlining the details of his new proposal he told the nation, Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law (Loevy 17). Immediately thereafter, he and Johnson headed meetings to outline the plans. The Leadership Conference of Civil Rights consisting of fifty or so civil rights organizations which had previously been established after Kennedys initial proposals, called for a meeting on July 2nd inviting its participating members but also extended invitation to an additional fifty religious groups and other possible helpful groups. The organization finally felt confident in fighting for this bill with unanimous determination to overrun possible roadblocks by mobilizing the nation behind the bill (Berman 57). Despite administrative support from Kennedy and Johnson, their goal remained difficult to achieve. The Leadership Conference dedicated their goals to achieving a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC), a provision called Part III, named after the third proposed Eisenhower administration civil rights bill, and eliminating segregation in all accommodations. The FEPC would consist of enforcing employment equality and fairness while the Part III would allow the United States attorney general to file civil rights suits, thereby relieving individuals of filing a suit which could cause dangerous retaliations. Knowing the approval of this proposal would be hard to attain the Leadership Conference strove for all, while accepting that concessions would most likely have to be made. Still attempting to mobilize the public and get the bill some attention, the civil rights activists continued to demonstrate. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, headed by King, had over 200,000 participants and proved those who feared violence wrong. The protest continued with peace while the crowd repeated, Pass the Bill (Levy 24). Despite the success of the protest in Washington D.C., the Leadership Conference was having a hard time getting the proposed bill past the House Judiciary Committee. The Bill needed to be tailored to get the future approval of both the Republican and Democratic civil rights supporters, enough to overrule the perceived resistant Senate by 2/3s vote if necessary. Yet the bill could not be so tailored that it be minimally effective in the eyes of the Leadership Conference. Finally after a plea to the House Judiciary Committee by Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General, a bill hoping to please all parties moved to the House of Representatives. However when it appeared that the bill was finally making some headway, the unthinkable happened, President Kennedy was assassinated. Many civil rights leaders feared that Johnson, originally from the South, would not push for the bill as Kennedy had. However, Johnson surprised many when he pushed for the bill as before. In his first address to Congress after Kennedys death, Johnson stated, No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedys memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long (Loevy, 356). By that February the bill made its way through the House of Representatives with a vote of 290-130. Resembling Kennedys October 1963 proposal the House of Representatives surprised many by adding an amendment guaranteeing women as well as minorities to the protection of employment opportunity section of the bill (Loevy 357). Once in the Senate, however, the bill faced its biggest challenges, including the infamous filibuster, or talking the bill to death. Since the Senate allows for endless debate on bills, making the filibuster a clever tactic, a cloture or two-thirds vote is necessary to overrule and end any debating. From March to June the bill was debated in the Senate until finally a vote of 71-29 on June 10, 1964, overruled the filibustering Senators. For the first time in American history, a southern filibuster of a civil rights bill was stopped by a cloture (Loevy 360). The civil rights supporters were satisfied with the fact that the bill included ending segregation in nearly all public places, cut off United States Government funds to programs that discriminated, and guaranteed equal employment opportunity. In order to avoid a second filibuster, the House of Representatives approved the bill with the Senates amendments making the civil rights bill the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, as Pres ident Johnson signed the bill in one of the largest bill-signing ceremonies ever. The political fight that occurred in the Senate by determined Southern Democrats will forever remain as one of the greatest legislative showdowns in American history. After passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 however, no longer could segregation be legal or tolerated. In public places the rights of a black person were to be equal to that of a white person. In employment, blacks, minorities, and women could not be discriminated against. The federal government cut off funds to any business, educational institution, state or local government that practiced racial discrimination. To enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law also stated that the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were to intervene in situations in the South where blacks continued to be denied civil rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only changed the United States on a social level but politically too. This bill set the precedent for using a cloture to stop a filibuster in the Senate. Similar cloture votes in 1966 and 1968, with bills for equal voting rights and guaranteed equal housing respectively were used to stop Southern filibusters. The Civil Rights Act also proved that mass demonstration and peaceful protesting are heard in Washington D.C. Martin Luther King and the Leadership Conference started with nothing and achieved everything. From the segregated South those who fought for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the course of American history and ridded the nation of inequality under the law.

Out of Africa Movie and Book Essay -- Movie Film comparison compare co

Out of Africa Movie and Book Winner of seven Academy Awards, including 1985's Best Picture, Out Of Africa is the story of Karen Blixen and her travels in Africa. Based on her writings after returning to Denmark, Out of Africa is a love story of both Karen Blixen and her true love, Denys Hatton, and a love for Africa's land and people. The movie is based on the books "Out of Africa: Shadows on the Grass", written by Karen Blixen under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, and "Silence Will Speak", the story of Denys Hatton, written by Errol Trzebinski. The film follows the story in the books almost identically and is a fascinating account of the life of Karen Blixen and the barriers she had to overcome during her time in Africa. The movie focuses on the seventeen years Karen Blixen spent in Africa between 1913 and 1930. Her letters that are compiled to make up the book "Out of Africa" are extremely detailed and revealing about her time in Africa. As in real life, the movie starts with Blixen arriving in Kenya for the purposes of marrying her cousin Baron Bror Blixen. A friend before they met in Kenya to wed, this marriage was a marriage of convenience. The Baron held the title and Karen had the money they needed to take advantage of the wild south of Africa and be cattle ranchers. Like many Europeans of the time, they came to Africa to exploit the untouched natural resources and people. But, this was not the case because Baron Blixen decided before Karen showed up that they would instead grow coffee, a risky venture at such a high altitude and Karen's first barrier to overcome. With the adventure of growing coffee came the task of gaining a workforce. For this Karen... ... an account of her entire time in Kenya. The movie Out of Africa was a wonderfully told love story of a woman and a man, and a woman and a land. The African people and areas are romantically displayed in this film, a true joy to watch through and through. Karen Blixen's life is a remarkable tale of one woman's journey of self-discovery, through love and hate, confusion and comprehension, black and white. Works Cited Dinesen, Isak. Letters From Africa. Chicago: The UP of Chicago, 1980. Dinesen, Isak. Out Of Africa and Shadows on the Grass. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Dinesen, Isak. Tania. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967. Out Of Africa. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Perf. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Videocassette. MCA/Universal Home Video, 1985. Trzebinski, Errol. Silence Will Speak. Chicago: the UP of Chicago, 1977.

Inaccuracies Of The Consumer Price Index (cpi) :: essays research papers

Inaccuracies of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) The Consumer Price Index is a measure of the prices of a fixed market basket of some 300 consumer goods and services purchased by a "typical" urban consumer. The 1982-1984 period serves as the base period so analysts can compare other year's changes with this base period. The composition of the market basket is fixed in the base period and is assumed not to change from one period to another. The reason for the assumption is because the CPI measures the costliness of a constant standard of living. Critics claim that the CPI is inaccurate because it overstates the increases in the cost of living. For this reason, the CPI has been said to be inaccurate. First, consumers do change their spending patterns. Even though the composition off the market basket is assumed not to change, it does because consumers change their spending patterns. Because consumers substitute lower priced products in lieu of higher priced ones, the weight has shifted. The CPI assumes that this does not occur and therefore it overcompensates the standard of living. Secondly, because the base period was over a decade ago, the quality of the products has increased significantly, and therefore the prices should be higher. The CPI, however, assumes that the increases in prices is a result of inflation rather than quality improvements which is false. Here also, the CPI overstates the rate of inflation. Many consumers do not mind the overcompensation of the CPI because in most cases it means more money in their pockets, but there are some consequences. This may cause an ongoing inflation trend. The reason why the government does not restrict it is because they are worried about getting re-elected. Even if the President does call for a revision of the CPI, Congress would defeat it to keep their positions. Another consequence of the overstated CPI involves the adjustment of tax brackets. Their intent of indexing is to prevent inflation to cause people to be placed into a higher tax bracket. For example, if your income increases by 10%, that may put you in a higher level tax bracket, but if product prices have also

Muslim Girls :: essays research papers

The central Bosnian village Dolina is located in a valley north of the Bosnian-Hercegovinian capital, Sarejevo. From a very early age Muslim girls are taught that their role as a female is to assist their mother with household chores and to serve the men. While her male siblings, who spend most of their time playing and walking around the village, are not expected to work around the house (Bringa 106). Muslim boys were given privileges because they were male. Muslim women usually did not leave the household for employment because they maintained the household agriculture, however they could sew and knit for other villagers. Women’s work mainly consisted of tending to the garden where they grew the vegetables for household consumption. The women also did the milking and the processing of cheese (Bringa 52-4). The busiest part of a Muslim woman’s day was in the morning when she did the cooking and the cleaning. A women’s daily routine, which includes social calls t o her neighbors, know as â€Å"coffee visits†, revolves around both her children and husband’s schedule. A woman was expected to be home whenever her husband was home (Bringa 87-8). The daily interaction between neighboring households occurs mainly through the women’s â€Å"coffee visits.† During the â€Å"coffee visits† the women are expected to uphold Muslim community values so as not to damage the reputation of their household (Bringa 91). Tone Bringa wrote: â€Å"as a wife a woman’s behavior was judged in relation to her behavior within the neighborhood and village, and in terms of her critical role as representative of the moral standing of her household on a daily basis†(105). Women determine and maintain the environment that exists within the household while the men are the providers of material substance (Bringa 86). The men spend most of their time working outside the village in nearby market towns or in the industrial suburb s of Sarajevo. Some of the most common jobs include bricklayer, welder, carpenter, electrician, car mechanic, warden, and lorry driver (Bringa 51). Fontana del Re is a poverty stricken neighborhood in Naples, Itlay. Just like in the Bosnian village of Dolina, the women of Fontana del Re, Naples tend to stay close to home while the men leave the area to find work. Life in Naples is focused on the mother. Thomas Belmonte wrote, the mother â€Å"is at the center because she controls and distributes the twin sources of human vitality, food and love† (89).

Finches in the Galapagos Islands Essay

English naturalist, Charles Darwin, believed the finches he collected and observed on the Galapagos Islands shared a common ancestor because he found they all greatly resembled a bird located on the Ecuadorian coast off South America. When Darwin initially began his journey on the Beagle, he was biased toward the widely accepted idea that every living thing on Earth was a divine creation, which remained unchanging and existing as it was originally created. However, when Darwin arrived on the Galapagos Island he began to see a flaw in this theory. Examining and collecting the islands animal population closely and carefully he began to see uncanny similarities between the animals upon the island and the animals on the South America mainland. For example, Darwin discovered that the fossils of extinct armadillos and the currently living armadillo population on the island had many of the same features, though the current population of armadillos had certain characteristic that helped it survive in the islands environment. Using this, the finches and other animal specimens, he was struck by the idea that this animals must have migrated long ago from South America to the island, giving rise to a new and thriving animal population. Darwin was also able to conclude the finches shared a common ancestor from the written works of Charles Lyell and Thomas Malthus. While sailing on the Beagle toward the island, he was able to read and analyze Charles Lyell’s Princeples of Geology which, discussed in great detail, the Jean Batispe Lamarck theory of evolution. He believed animal structures evolved over time due to frequent use or disuse, and was eventually passed through to their offspring. For example he proposed the lengthing of the giraffe’s neck was due in part to the trees it lived among. In order for it to obtain its food it had to crane its neck forward and reach up. Lamarck, believe, over time, the giraffes structure eventually began to get longer and longer as it was passed from each genernertaion of offspring.