Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Great Northern American Case Study Essay

The textbook defines perception as the process by which the individual selects, organizes, interprets, and responds to information. The Oxford dictionary defines perception as the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses; the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Your perception is your reality, therefore statements such as, â€Å"the customer is always right,† hold true to a certain extent. What people perceive is what they believe, based on what they see, hear, and think. Perception affects decision making and the choices people make. This is why it is imperative not only for the salespeople of Great Northern American to understand how people form perceptions, but this is important for any person looking to build business relationships and loyal customers. Customer satisfaction is crucial to create business relationships and repeat customers. To be successful, salespeople must quickly identify opportunities and predict t he changing needs and wants of customers. â€Å"Recent advances in customer equity research have rekindled the importance of understanding how customers form perceptions of satisfaction and quality (Blattberg and Deighton, 1996).† It is also essential for Joe Salatino’s sales force to understand that the drivers of customer satisfaction may shift over time. Things happen gradually and people’s perception may change. Why do consumers choose certain products to purchase over others? According to Don Shapiro, President and Founder of First Concepts Consultants, Inc, â€Å"People say yes because they see a high perceived value in what is offered for sale.† If perceptions of value are high, the more likely the sale will be made. â€Å"Closing the sale is primarily about raising the customers’ perceptions of value as high as possible (Shapiro, 2012).† This is where things like subscribing to prospects’ local newspapers and researching things they value come into play. â€Å"The ave rage experienced and trained sales person does not go far enough in developing these things with their prospects. They do enough to be a good producer but  lose sales they could have closed had they just done a bit more. They simply do not fully understand what is going on inside their prospects’ minds, everything that might affect the prospects’ decisions and what would increase the prospects’ perceptions of value the most (Shapiro, 2012).† Some statistics say the top ten percent of salespeople comprehend what goes on inside a perspective client’s mind, their understanding of how people form perceptions gives them a competitive advantage. Attribution is the method in which people use information to make conclusions about the causes of behavior or events. The ability to determine how people make attributions is a tremendous positive for the salespeople of Great Northern American. This element gives them an opportunity to take the information in order to convince perspective clients to make the purchase. The 30-person sales force of the Great Northern American Telemarketing Company works on commission and bonuses, therefore I believe the expectancy theory would be most appropriate for Joe Salatino to apply. â€Å"In the inquiry of behavioral issues related to sales force compensation, expectancy theory has enjoyed substantial popularity. The expectancy theory suggests that both the desirability of the reward or compensation (referred to as valance) and an individual’s estimate of the likelihood of attaining that reward (referred to as expectancy) are important determinants of a salesperson’s behavior. In the context of sales compensation issues, expectancy theory suggests that any method of compensation should (1) tie reward to performance, and (2) strengthen the salesperson’s perceived connection between performance and the reward received (Chowdhury and Massad, 1997).† Motivational strategies are necessary for the expectancy theory, â€Å"motivation and performance are positively correlated. An increase in the level of motivation should correspond to an increase in the amount of effort expended in selling tasks, which in turn should improve performance (Chowdhury and Massad, 1997).† According to the case study, the Great Northern American salesroom features all kinds of motivational devices such as rotating blues lights along with noise and a fast pace, all which create a perfect environment for the expectancy theory. Executing the expectancy theory can prove to be a challenging, yet purposeful task that goes beyond an annual review. Six implementations Joe Salatino could use to apply the expectancy theory include: 1) to make expectations clear, 2) provide continuous feedback, 3)  use corrective actions privately, 4) believe in your employees, 5) use praise tactics publicly, and 6) make rewards achievable. According to David Burkus, the editor of LDRLB, employees without goals will be naturally aimless. Joe Salatino should provide his sales team with clear achiev able goals and make sure there are measurable standards in place to evaluate their performance. Giving immediate, continuous feedback allows an employee to know that their actions affect not just them, but the company as well. Joe should keep in mind that employees are motivated by setting goals and by receiving continuous feedback on where they stand relative to those goals. Recent research shows how rewarding it can be when employees are aware they are making progress. Most people are discouraged by negative feedback, especially if they feel it’s embarrassing. Therefore, the most adequate place to discuss an ongoing, performance-related issue or correcting a recent, specific error is in an office, with the door closed. Joe should also believe in his employees; the perception of a leaders’ trust is the key factor of revolutionary leadership. Make announcements of praise publicly, make everyone aware when an employee has made a particularly outstanding presentation, sale, or any other notable achievement. Even though competition at Great Northern American is stiff for the sales force due to the internet users, it is still important to make bonuses and rewards achievable. Vary the basis for the awards, for example, top sales might be one category, but other categories can include top research or most diligent. Distinguish that numerous types of merits can motivate your employees to focus on additional areas of their performance. Other ways Mr. Salatino can help improve employees’ performance is by helping employees to experience the mastery of their work and then add challenges as their mastery starts to unfold. Leverage social persuasion by igniting faith in employees while simultaneously arranging situations for their success. Highlight realistic models of engagement. Help employees develop endurance while reducing anxiety and depression so they know they can do what is necessary to produce a certain outcome. Self-efficacy refers to people’s belief in their ability to muster up what is necessary to exercise control over life’s challenges. â€Å"People with stronger self-efficacious beliefs tend to set higher personal goals and remain committed to those goals in the face of adversity. They also view challenges as tasks to be mastered  and recover quickly from setbacks. Self-efficacy is particularly relevant to success in sales where adversities such as rejection, stress, and competition are unavoidable aspects of the profession. When salespeople hold strong self efficacious beliefs, they are better able to adjust to adversity and more likely to remain committed to assisting customers, making sales, and meeting quotas. In contrast, for salespeople who lack confidence in their professional abilities, these adversities increase their sense of helplessness and decrease their commitment toward goal achievement, often leading to withdrawal from clients, the organization, or the profession (Lewin and Sager, 2010).† Joe Salatino can leverage an understanding of the value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople in a number of different ways. He needs to be sure not to confuse self-esteem, which is having a good view of yourself with self-efficacy, which is belief about your ability and capacity to accomplish a task or to deal with the challenges of life. By keeping these two things distinct, Joe can choose better qualified candidates for Great Northern American. There is a major variation in the degree to which salespeople perceive job conditions as stressful. Research has shown there are huge differences in the way individual salespeople respond to job stressors and view workloads. Self-efficacy is one of the determining factors. You can give identical sales situations to two people and it will be viewed very differently depending on the level of self-efficacy. A salesperson with low self-efficacy may find the assignment intolerable and extremely stressful, whereas an individual with high self-efficacy may perceive it as practical and not stressful at all. Concluding that low self-efficacy can make people believe that tasks are harder than they actually are; and may view job expectations as contrasting and confusing. Individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy are more capable of dealing with higher job demands and possess the ability to view difficult situations as a challenge rather than seeing them as a threat. Social cognitive theory suggests that individuals form beliefs about what they can and cannot do. Those beliefs are used to set individual goals, to predict consequences of behaviors, and to initiate actions required for goal achievement. Self-efficacy is the central mechanism of self-regulation. People’s beliefs in their efficacy influence the choices they make, their aspirations, how much effort they mobilize in a  given endeavor, how long they persevere in the face of difficulties and setbacks, whether their thought patterns are self-hindering or self-aiding, the amount of stress they experience in coping with taxing environmental demands, and their vulnerability to depression. Sales research views self-efficacy as a critical variable that can influence salespeople’s perceptions and responses to challenges and negative situations on the job. People with higher self-efficacy believe in their ability to handle their work well and are more likely to become successful in their careers. Self-efficacy enhances employees’ willingness to exert effort and master a challenge and thus, plays an important role in increasing work effectiveness, job satisfaction, and productivity. Because salespeople are monitored on their individual performance, experience high rates of rejection, and practice more autonomy, it is imperative for Mr. Salatino to select highly self-efficacious individuals. In addition to searching for individuals with excellent communication skills, those that possess an upbeat attitude and are highly self-motivated, it would be to Great Northern American’s advantage for Joe to search for individuals who also possess conscientiousness and extraversion. Having the knowledge that self-efficacy is derived from mastery experiences, social persuasion, and stress resilience will also aid in selecting the most successful salespeople to help build an even more successful company now and in the years to come. References Chowdhury, J., & Massad, V.J. (1997). An eclectic paradigm of salesperson compensation: toward a comprehensive framework of the determinants of sales compensation modes. Journal of Marketing Management (10711988), 7(1), 61-80. Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2012, November). Attribution Theory (Weiner) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved November 1st, 2012 from http://www.learning-theories.com/weiners-attribution-theory.html Lewin, J. E., & Sager, J. K. (2010). The Influence of Personal Characteristics and Coping Strategies on Salespersons’ Turnover Intentions. Journal Of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 30(4), 355-370. Shapiro, D. Why people buy: conclusions from 30 years studying prospects and salespeople. July 30, 2012. Retrieved on November 1, 2012 from http://www.marketingexecutives.biz/why-people-buy-conclusions-30-years-studying-prospects-and-salespeople

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

History of Culinary Arts Essay

The history of culinary arts started in the early 1800 when the first cooking school in Boston was established to teach the art of American cooking and prepare the students to deliver and forward their knowledge to others. It was in 1896 Fannie Merritt Farmer published the first cook book; the book was written referring the Boston cooking school. In the year 1946 the first cooking show was telecasted on the televised. After thatJames Beard the father of American cuisine conducted regular cooking classes concentrating on the art of American cooking. In 1960s the French cuisine has been entered the American society by Julia Child. Later in the year the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was founded and established this was the first culinary school that offers career-based courses of course in the art of cooking. The first campus of the CIA was inNew York and was started in 1972 and now there are Different types of cooking schools that offer different kinds of training programs to its candidates and the selection of the appropriate culinary arts and it can be determined by considering the goals and interests and aid to choose the education programaccordingly. The school was begun with the intention of offering education courses in culinary arts. The school offers both long term and short term courses. There are a number of students who enrol in the CIA and each year and the number of applicants increase. Prior to the establishing of the CIA, those who wanted to have a career in culinary arts typically had to go through many tests and challenges like until they become seasoned chefs by gaining on-the-job trainings. Looking at this today internships and recruitments are among the main essentials. â€Å".

Article Critique on Video Game Play and Aggressive Thoughts and Behavior Essay

The study by Vincent Cicchirillo and Rebecca M. Chory-Assad (2005) entitled Effects of Affective Orientation and Video Game Play on Aggressive Thoughts and Behavior investigates the effect of violent video game on aggressive thoughts and behavior and the mediating role of affective orientation on this relationship. This study is prompted by the scarcity of research examining the role played by an individual’s personality in the processing of media effects. The underlying concept which frames the study is that of priming which is the idea that a certain stimulus will activate similar stimulus present in the mind of an individual, thus enabling a reproduction of the outside or presentation stimulus to occur (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). Media effect is based on this concept. It also supported by the neoassociatve perspective on cognition. In the neoassociative model, the mind is a network of nodes that corresponds to certain emotions, behaviors and thoughts. These nodes are connected by pathways that are strengthened by frequency of use and relatedness. When a particular node is activated, related nodes will be activated as well through the networks, resulting to production of other emotions, behaviors or thoughts which were not directly stimulated. Researches found that media such as video game can activate cognitive nodes (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). According to Cicchirillo and Chory-Assad (2005), personality traits such as affective orientation play a part in the processing of media effects. They define affective orientation as the tendency of an individual to utilize his emotions as a guide for behavior and decision-making (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). A person with a high affective orientation will respond to emotional cues and act accordingly, while one with a low affective orientation will act based on factual variables. The independent variable in the study is the administration of video game varying in content. The first video involved violence and the other involved non-violence. A second independent variable is the level of affective orientation of the participants. The dependent variables in the study are aggressive thoughts and aggressive behavior. Each dependent variable is measured with an appropriate scale to determine its interaction with the independent variables. Cicchirillo and Chory-Assad (2005) make two hypotheses in the study. First, participants who played violent video games will exhibit more aggressive thoughts and behavior than those who played non-violent games. This hypothesis is based on the gathered research supporting it and the concept of priming (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). Second, participants with high affective orientation who played violent video games will exhibit more aggressive thoughts and behavior than participants with low affective orientation who played the similar game and participants who played non-violent games (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). This hypothesis is based on the assumption that affective orientation mediates on the effect of violent video games on thought and behavior. To test the hypothesis, the researcher randomly asked 80 communication students at the beginning of the semester to answer questionnaires measuring their affective orientation. This was the first phase of the methodology. Thereafter, the second phase which is a laboratory test was initiated. The students who participated in the first phase were called back to participate in the second phase which involves the actual playing of video games. The students were divided randomly into two groups. One group was assigned to play a violent video game; the other group assigned to play a non-violent game. After playing for ten minutes, the students were asked to take a word completion test for three minutes to measure aggressive thoughts. Upon completion of the test, the students were told to evaluate the researcher on the pretext that this evaluation will be the basis for a research grant which the researcher was applying for. The evaluation form asked the students to assess the researcher’s courtesy, competence and deservedness of a financial support. The test was designed to measure the students’ aggressive behavior after playing the video game. A debriefing about the whole research was conducted after the students completed the evaluation. The results show that violent video games do not directly prime aggressive thought but it does prime aggressive behavior. They further conclude that some other process other than aggressive thoughts mediates the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). In addition, the study also shows that affective orientation does not mediate between video games and affective behavior, but between affective behavior and aggressive affect (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). In other words, video games stimulate the aggressive affect which may increase aggressive behavior depending on the level of affective orientation. A participant with a high affective orientation is more likely to exhibit aggressive though and behavior after playing violent video games than one who is otherwise. The methodology designed by the researchers is experimental to test both hypotheses. In the first hypotheses, they measured relationship between the independent variable (violent video game play) and dependent variable (aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior). In the second hypotheses, they measured the correlation between affective orientation and video game play in predicting the level of aggressive cognition and behavior. In measuring affective orientation, student participants were asked to answer Booth-Butterfield Affective Orientation 15 scale which was used in previous studies about the influence of affective orientation in behavior(Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). To measure aggressive cognition, mean scores from the word completion task were analyzed, while scores obtained from the evaluation of the researchers were used to measure aggressive behavior. The researchers decided to separate the scores obtained from three items in the evaluation of aggressive behavior because the correlation is low and the alpha reliability is unacceptable (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). The psychometric tools used by the researchers in measuring the variables of the study were culled from previous investigations of similar nature to ensure reliability and validity (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). Thus, the tools can be considered appropriate for the variables present in the hypotheses. There is a concern though about the nature of video games used in the experiment. From what Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad (2005) related, it can be observed that the violent video game [Grand Theft Auto] is relatively more complex than the non-violent game [etris)] As such, the researchers took a longer time in explaining the mechanics of the violent video game which may have affected the students’ evaluation of the researchers in the last phase of the experiment (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). The length of playing time and number of video games used may also have affected the correlative scores between variables. In previous studies, participants were allowed longer exposure to a number of media compared to the exposure used in this study (Anderson cited in Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). A significant result may have arisen if this method was appropriated. In addition, the instrument used in measuring aggressive condition, a word completion task, may also have influenced, or more specifically, limited the responses of students. According to the recommendations of the researchers, an alternative instrument, such as thought listing, may record accurate and significant results obtained during the actual playing of the game; a less constricted instrument may allow for a precise mapping of aggressive thoughts (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). Moreover, the method of word completion is a novel psychometric method in that only two studies have used it (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). The researchers reported that during the period between the first and second phase of the test, some of the student participants who answered the affective orientation questionnaire did not show up during the lab test (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). The original sample of 80 students was cut down to 59 and an additional 5 students who were not present during the first phase participated in the lab test. This significantly affected the results of the study. According to Kazdin (2003), in terms of sample selection, attrition, or the difference in the number of participant drop-outs in the groups, has significant effect on the result. He further suggested that to avoid attrition, researchers should select participants who are not likely to pull out of the experiment (2003). Considering that the experiment was done in a school setting, which is relatively easier to supervise than a broader setting such as a community, the researchers could have avoided the huge drop out of participants. The number of sample is crucial in arriving at a more definitive result as demonstrated in a similar study involving a sample of 65 participants (Anderson, C. ited in Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad, 2005). The partial validation of both hypotheses in the study may be different if the following changes are adapted in the study. As mentioned, an increase of sample size will yield to a significant relationship between aggressive thought and aggressive behavior. A close (but not intrusive) monitoring of participants may enable researchers to avoid the occurrence of attrition. In addition, utilizing a more naturalistic setting for the lab tes t may result to significant changes. According to Kazdin (2003), one factor influencing the external validity of a research design is the level of a participant’s awareness that he or she is undertaking an experiment. The â€Å"reactivity to experimental arrangements† may be lowered if the researchers utilized non-artificial and informal setting. Another improvement applicable to the study is the distribution of sample. According to the researchers, there was a random uneven distribution of the participants in terms of gender and number, and this may have affected the results. Increasing the sample size and close monitoring of the participants will resolve this discrepancy. The statistical analyses used to measure the relationship of the variable are appropriate for testing the hypotheses. The impact of violent video-game play to aggressive thought and behavior, which is the first hypothesis, was determined using a one-tailed t-test. This test determines the relationship of two groups—in the studies case, the players of violent video games and players of non-violent video games—to a single variable. Cicchirillo & Chorry-Assad (2005) reports that violent video-game play influences aggressive behavior, but not aggressive thought. Since the second hypothesis involved a the relationship of two independent variables—that is, level of affective orientation and video-game play—the researchers appropriately used regression analyses to determine the closest fit in this relationship. The results show that high scores on affective orientation and playing violent video games influence some aggressive behavior, but, similar to the first hypothesis, not aggressive thoughts (Cicchirill & Chorry-Assad, 2005). Because of the numerous variables present in the study, an alternative method may present more disadvantage than otherwise. However, to accommodate the use of a more naturalistic set-up, the study may require a longer methodology in terms of time. The researchers may involve a sample of much younger participants—for instance, high school students. To measure their affective orientation, school departments such as the guidance office may be utilized to administer tests at the beginning of the school year. Instead of a laboratory test for the second phase, a survey may be done to gather data on violent video game use of the specific sample chosen for the test. Methods to measure aggressive thought and behavior may be similar to the Cicchirill & Chorry-Assad study, but may include observation of actual behavior of the participants in a natural school setting. The disadvantages of this method involve the constraints on time and money resources inherent in a longer experimentation, and the bigger probability of attrition also due to time element. The research may be extended by exploring cultural factors involved in determining affective orientation. According to Zimbardo et al (2005), personality types, such as thinking versus feeling, are influenced by cultural affiliations. For instance, some cultures do not distinguish thought and emotions as much as Americans do (Zimbardo et al, 2005). Further research such as this may enlighten recent issues involving mass killings in US associated with violent behavior adapted by young people from media. It may also explore the role of gender differences in determining affective orientation, the results of which may establish empirical grounds for gender associated aggression.

Monday, July 29, 2019

The family experiencing leukemia and a financial crisis Assignment

The family experiencing leukemia and a financial crisis - Assignment Example Furthermore, she is increasingly under stress of having to balance her role at work and acting as a caregiver for Peter in the hospital (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2002). In addition, Maria is in a psychological and emotional dilemma on how to deal with her 8 year old daughter. Maria’s work and caregiver attention to Peter do not let her have enough time for dealing with her daughter’s emotional stress. Katy, the 8 year old child, is facing an emotional difficulty in coping with her brother’s diagnosis. Accordingly, she is affected by the lack of parental attention and thus acts out in anger both at school and at home. Furthermore, her disability in coping is exhibited by her reluctance to visit her brother in hospital (Pedia, 2012). Foremost, as a solution for Maria’s emotional coping stress, a referral to a support group is necessary. Consequently, she will be able to receive professional emotional support and coping mechanisms pertaining to the stressors resulting from caregiver role and taking care of her sick son (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2002). In addition, Maria equally needs to seek social support from her church. This can be through church members who rotationally volunteer to assist her in household chores such as grocery or taking care of Katy whenever she is at work or at the hospital with Peter. In essence, Maria should be advised to seek the professional help from social workers that can assist her with a homemaker. The main purpose is to obtain a homemaker that can assist her with household chores while she is at work and consequently lower her caregiver stressors. Moreover, Maria needs to be furnished with a list of animal shelters that assist families in financial need by providing free food for their pets (Pedia, 2012). Both parents of Katy need to be advised by family psychiatrist on the need to devote some parental attention time for Katy. Furthermore, in providing parental attention to Katy they need to reassure

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 27

Business - Essay Example This therefore implies that it is important to make sure that the workforce is satisfied and relating well with one another. A workforce that is well motivated, working as a team, and has a good working environment are all ingredients required for success of any business. It is upon the management to build of any business to ensure that there is team work I the organization, and that the workforce is motivated. In building employee motivation there is need for the management to create a strong foundation that should act as the main driving force of the employees. Building a foundation involves revisiting the organization’s mission, vision and objectives. It is important to make sure that all employees are fully aware of the organization’s vision, mission, and objectives. This is important since it gives a guideline on what the organization as a whole is working towards. Additionally, knowledge of the mission, vision, and objectives is important for employees to make a self-assessment to determine if they are in correspondence with individual career goals and aspirations. Correspondence of individual career goals with goals of the organization brings a sense of belonging and therefore there are higher chances of feeling motivated. This should be done frequently new employees joining the organization in order to ensure that the entire workforce is well motivated. It is upon the management to build a conducive and welcoming atmosphere within the organization in a bid to motivate the workforce. A good working environment motivates employees and there are hardly any cases of absenteeism. This is because a conducive atmosphere in work places makes employees feel important and comfortable. It is extremely easy to handle all forms of work related challenges when employees are in a comfortable environment. The management should ensure that employees feel comfortable to approach them with all questions regarding work. For instance, the

Saturday, July 27, 2019

The perils of falling inflation Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The perils of falling inflation - Article Example America also suffered the same consequences as Europe, where it was reported in September that the inflation rate dropped from 2% to 1.2% in July, and it has stayed like that for a period of time, this led Federal Reserve propose to loosen the monetary policy, they argued that this policy was working with other economies such as Japan which had not experienced low inflation for the last 15 years. Britain was seen as the only rich economy where inflation rate was doing well on an average of 2.7% overall. Therefore, this article studies the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the circulation of income in rich economies such as Europe and America. This can be the best method of stabilization when it comes to issues of policies in any given economy (Addison 1987).it Experimental analyses has received very little concentration among macroeconomists Disaggregate variables are analyzed to recognize the repercussion of restriping the macroeconomic models, but they are not measur ed as alternative helpful information. The paper tries to determine which common aggregate variables explain the pattern of relationship among individual income and macroeconomic shocks. The paper uses several measures of macroeconomic shocks which include Gross National Products (GNP) growth, real devaluation rate, unemployment, and inflation rate. All the indicators seem to affect income inequality to some extent, higher inflation reduces sectoral and education income for all populations. Aggregate variables to consider in the paper are displayed in the figure 1 below. Figure 1: Dynamic index models, sectoral income Gross National Product (GNP) (I) Surveys show consumers still expect medium term inflation to be at their reach or above the central bank’s target of 2%.but if the economy will experience high unemployment, wages and prices are eventually likely to fall. Ultra-low inflations have dangerous effects, where it tends to go with weaker economies and higher than neces sary joblessness. For example, America unemployment rate is 7.2%, Spains26.6% and France 11.1%.this means that the nominal incomes will experience slow growth than when the prices would have raised. This pushes household and governments debts impossible to pay, especially to economies with a single currency. Trade liberation mostly touched on exports promotion and imports liberalization, with reduction in tariffs for imports and attractive incentives for foreign Investments, will be an advantage to countries with a single currency like Spain and Italy to compete with big economies such as Germany with the inflation rate of 1.3%, which undermines it ability to combat more recession. This lead to the increase in fixed investments up to 30% and over as indicated in Figure 1.the changes reflects to have an increment or rise of the unemployment rate, although a recovery in economic activities would be realized after implementation of the reforms .most Rich

Friday, July 26, 2019

BIET 336 (Individual recommendation report) Essay

BIET 336 (Individual recommendation report) - Essay Example This report entails discussions on the methods that criminals use during car theft; with two recommendations on mitigating the incident. Stealing cars has only negative effects in USA; and criminals employ various stealing methods. The Carjacking practice entails taking vehicles through force. Carjacking is very serious because the car owners are mostly assaulted. Carjacking entails criminals driving away the vehicle, after forcing the passengers or operators from the car. Automotive theft also involves fraudulent theft. This entails the unlawful acquisition of cars from the owner or seller, by fraudulent funds transfer. Most automobiles acquired through this unlawful method are immediately resold thereafter (Lesikar 346). The table below illustrates automobile theft increasing statistics in the USA. Criminals use various equipments during car theft. Weapons like firearms or knife are mostly applied during carjacking incidences. The weapons are used to break car windows or threaten the car owner. Spare wires and screw drivers are used for connecting the ignition and the power source during car theft. This power connection enables the criminals to drive away the vehicles. In the 2012 and 2013 analysis of car theft figures by the National Automobile Club; there are cities with decreased car theft rates (Los Angeles, and San Diego). This has been made possible through regular police patrols in the cities. Police on patrol are responsible for conducting random checks on vehicles. Other cities have significant increase in car theft rates (New York and Dallas). This is attributed to increased fraudulent car theft in affected cities. The criminals acquire the cars through unlawful methods. There are significant differences between increased and decreased car theft rates. This is because the two sets of affected cities employ different strategies in curbing the car theft practice; cities which employ effective strategies like

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Monique and the Mango Rains Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Monique and the Mango Rains - Essay Example A major cause is that women in Mali are deprived of child custody rights. Kris discusses Monique in her book stating that she is more educated and skilled than her husband, they both speak different languages and they both belonged to different cities. As Kris gets to know more and more about Monique, it is revealed that she is unhappy with her married life and that she was having an affair with a man she wanted to marry. Because of the cultural practice of arranged marriages, she was forced to live with a man she never wanted to marry. (Holloway, 35) Forced marriages are a common society trait in Mali, though they have been influenced by western culture too, but they try to stick to their centuries old traditions of arranged marriages. No woman is allowed to marry the person of her own choice. It is important for the girls to maintain their virginity till marriage or else it is stated as to bring a bad name to their parents and their tribe. Gifts are paid from the groom to the girl’s family on marriage which is considered no more than the price of the girl. Such kind of marriages are not only uncivilized but also a cause of mental torture for the poor women. Arranged marriages are considered to bring honor to the family. In education, women are also at a disadvantage. Parents think of boys’ education as a better investment than a girl’s education which results in gender difference in education. Statistics show that at the level of primary education the girls ratio is 33% whereas that of boys it is 48% , in secondary schools this ratio is as much as double than that of girls Early forced marriages resulting in pregnancy keeps women away from continuing their education. Many girls are only dropped out of school only because boys of their families are preferred since they are the ones who live with their parents all their

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Strategic management analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic management analysis - Essay Example The Paper will also suggest several recommendations that will be deemed as helpful in improving the Coffee house’s operations within the United States market. A Brief History of Starbucks. Starbucks is an American global corporation that specializes in selling coffee in its various coffee houses situated all over the world. Its main base of operations is currently at Seattle, Washington. The first Starbucks coffee shop opened its doors in the Seattle Springs area of Washington in 1971 and the company has grown to become the largest coffee house company in the world. It boasts of having about 19,972 stores which are spread out in 60 countries across the globe. Most of the company’s branches are currently located in the United States with an approximately 12,937 branches. ... Starbucks has also expanded its current investments into the entertainment industry and through its Starbucks Entertainment division as well as its hear Music brand, it also markets films, books and music. Most of the company’s product offerings are found to be not only seasonal but also specifically tailored particularly to satisfy the requirements of customers in the locality that the branch is located. Some of its branded products such as coffee and ice cream are sold in grocery stores all over the United States (Starbucks 2012). The United States Coffee House Market The Coffee Shop business and the entire coffee industry have had a significant boom over the recent years. This is especially so in the case of the specialty coffees offered by the industry. The market for these coffees has registered significant growth that has been spurred by the growing trend of the consumers becoming increasingly educated about the industry’s espresso-based drinks as well as how they are made (Starbucks 2012). According to research data conducted by First Research, the United States is host to about 20,000 coffee shop businesses whose total combined revenue has been estimated to stand at $10 billion as of 2011. More than 50% of these sales have been seen to be generated by the country’s top 50 coffee shop operators. Most of the county’s coffee shop operators have increasingly been spreading their business into the international market with Starbucks reporting to having set up shop in over 5,500 licensed locations outside the United States in 2010 (Green and Keegan 2012). The average gross margin for a single coffee shop in the country is

Assignment 2-Exploring Ethnographies Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

2-Exploring Ethnographies - Assignment Example This is observed meticulously and scrupulously. The men of any age, meeting by chance on the road or any place one or more women, not only will keep from being stopped, they will not look at them, [Page 20] 134 cont. will even turn away to look toward the opposite side, as though to indicate that they want even to escape the danger and occasion of their eyes meeting. Failure in this traditional precept is considered very grave, and the culprit would fall into the general indignation, into the censure of all, since any look or smile between persons of different sex and diverse dynasty is generally considered bad and immoral. Never will the women of one dynasty let themselves be seen eating or drinking in the presence of men of another dynasty, and vice versa. There is not, however, any prohibition of these relations between individuals of the same dynasty, be they men or women. Therefore, when one sees, a man talking to a woman, one is to understand immediately that they are from the same dynastic branch, because, even between husband and wife, the same rules are observed in public, even though not so scrupuleusly; it will, however, be difficult for the man to talk or to offer anything to his own wife in public, to place her by his side or for them to be together, except when they leave the house and both go to gather fruits, small tubers, or other things in the ferest; this is considered a private act.† 6. What aspect of the culture subject of your group differs from a practice (or aspect of a practice) in modern-day American culture? Write at least three sentences explaining how it differs, providing at least one example. America is rich in cultural diversity; one can find people belonging to different backgrounds, ethnicity, and race sharing the same space. American constitution allows full freedom to its residents to enjoy life of their own choice. A Negro can marry an Irish born, or a Latin can

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Justice, ethics & morality according to Marx and Nietzsche Research Paper

Justice, ethics & morality according to Marx and Nietzsche - Research Paper Example The current order is bound to change and will ultimately be superseded by new different form of society. Marx proceeds to argue that historical change is not an arbitrary succession; rather it develops through stages and involves progression (Sayers, 2013). Development is divided into several distinct stages or means of production. Feudalism gives way to capitalism which is eventually replaced by socialism. Each stage evolves from the previous form as a higher historical form. Each stage of the process is initially constituent to progressive development and is appropriate for its time relative to the conditions which it supersedes. However, each stage of the process constitutes only a transitory stage that inevitably perishes and is replaced by a higher more developed stage (Sayers, 2013). During the course of development, the favorable conditions for the emergence of the next stage begin to establish themselves within the present. As the process progresses, the present conditions cease to be progressive and become a hindrance to the process of development. This is the basis of Marx’s criticism of capitalism and advocacy for socialism. Marx regards both in historical terms and does not criticize the present on the basis of universal principles, rather it is immanent and relative (Elster, 1985). For instant, relative to feudal conditions from which capitalism evolves, capitalism is viewed as a progressive development. From the perspective of capitalist society, the hierarchical, feudal system with its privileges and restrictions on commerce, and trade is oppressive and unfair. However, as the conditions for a socialist structure takes shape within capitalism, it becomes a hindrance to further development. From the stand point of a higher society, the capitalist system appears to be an impediment to human development and unjustified. This standpoint emerges as the capitalist society develops and is

Monday, July 22, 2019

A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay Example for Free

A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds preeminent dramatist. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several shorter poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. William Shakespeares influence extends from theatre and literature to present-day movies and the English language itself. Shakespeare transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished  through characterization, plot, language and genre. Shakespeares writings have also impacted a large number of notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville and Charles Dickens, and continue to influence new authors even today. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world after the various writers of the Bible, and many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages. Shakespeare made many contributions to English Literature and one of the ones that affect us every day is his contribution to the English language. Shakespeare is called the greatest author in the English language not only because his works are in English, but also for his profound and lasting impact on the language itself. Of the 25,000 words in the canon, roughly 3,000 were coined by Shakespeare himself. The article Words Shakespeare Invented by Amanda Mabillard contains a list of a few words Shakespeare coined. 2 Shakespeares writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to and during Shakespeares time, the grammar and rules of English were not standardized. But once Shakespeares plays became popular in the late seventeenth  and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language. Among Shakespeares greatest contributions to the English language must be the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which have enriched the language making it more colourful and expressive. Some estimates at the number of words coined by Shakespeare number in the several thousands. One word Shakespeare is known to have coined is the word â€Å"accused†. He took the Greek prefix acou-, acous-, acouso-, or acoust-, meaning denotes hearing,  which was already being used in Late Middle English, and combined it with the past tense ending -ed to refer to those who are on trial are those who need a hearing to determine their guilt or innocence. Shakespeare first coined the word accused in the play Richard II, Act I, Scene I, when, speaking of those who are being formally charged of treason, King Richard II says: Then call them to our presence; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser and the accused freely speak. (I. i. 16-18) The word unreal was also coined by Shakespeare. He took the Latin  prefix un-meaning not or deprived of and combined it with the Latin 3 word realis being used in Late Middle English as a word in legal terminology meaning relating to things, especially real property. The word unreal first appears in Macbeth in Act III, Scene IV when Macbeth exclaims of the ghost of Banquo, Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence! 1. 1. Influen on Theatre Shakespeares works have been a major influence on subsequent theatre. Not only did Shakespeare create some of the most admired plays in Western literature. For example Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear had being ranked among the  worlds greatest plays. He also transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through plot and language. Specifically, in plays like Hamlet, Shakespeare integrated characterization with plot, such that if the main character was different in any way, the plot would be totally changed. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare mixed tragedy and comedy together to create a new romantic tragedy genre. Through his soliloquies, Shakespeare showed how plays could explore a characters inner motivations and conflict. 1. 2. Influence on Europe and America Literature  Shakespeare is cited as an influence on a large number of writers in the following centuries, including major novelists such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner. Examples of this influence include the large number of Shakespearean quotations throughout Dickens writings and the fact that at least 25 of Dickens titles are drawn from Shakespeare, while Melville frequently used Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies, in Moby-Dick. In fact, Shakespeare so influenced Melville that 4 the novels main antagonist, Captain Ahab, is a classic Shakespearean tragic figure,  a great man brought down by his faults. Shakespeare has also influenced a number of English poets, especially Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge who were obsessed with self-consciousness, a modern theme Shakespeare anticipated in plays such as Hamlet. Shakespeares writings were so influential to English poetry of the 1800s that critic George Steiner has called all English poetic dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson feeble variations on Shakespearean themes. 1. 3. Influence on the English Language Shakespeares writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to  and during Shakespeares time, the grammar and rules of English were not standardized. But once Shakespeares plays became popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer. He expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and  grammatical structures. 5 2. Categories of William Shakespeare’s Plays Shakespearean’s plays can be divided into three categories. The three categories are comedy, tragedy and historical plays. 2. 1. Characteristics of William Shakespeare’s Comedy and Tragedy When studying Shakespearean comedy, there are several traits that are common to all of The Bards comedic works. It is important to note that the term comedy didnt quite have the same meaning to Elizabethan audiences as it does today. While there is certainly quite a bit of humour to be found in Shakespeares  comedies, comedy generally referred to a light-hearted play with a happy ending, as opposed to his more dramatic tragedies and history plays. 2. 2. Shakespeares Comedies The comedies of William Shakespeare are Alls Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Loves Labour Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles Prince of Tyre, Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Winters Tale and Measure for Measure. Some of these works are truly funny from beginning to end, while others,  like The Merchant of Venice, have a very serious tone or strong dramatic moments. In all of these works, there are few common elements can be found in Shakespearean’s Comedy. 2. 2. 1. Young lovers struggling to overcome obstacles 6 There will be a struggle for young lovers to overcome difficulty in William Shakespeare’s Comedy. These obstacles are typically brought out by the elders in the play, often parents or guardians of the lovers. Various circumstances cause the lovers to be kept apart, either literally or figuratively, and thus they must find their way back together in the end.  For example in the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia and Lysander must also overcome a major obstacle if they want to be together because Hermias dad wants her to marry someone else. 2. 2. 2. A Greater Emphasis on Situations than Characters William Shakespeare gave greater emphasis to a situation than a character. This numbs the audiences connection to the characters, so that when characters experience misfortune, the audience still finds it laughable. For example in the play of Midsummer Night’s Dream, both Demetrius and Lysander suddenly leave off being in love with Hermia and fall in love with Helena, and they do not know why,  even though the viewer does know. 2. 2. 3. Deception of Characters Deception of characters is one of the common characteristics for William Shakespeare’s Comedy, especially mistaken identity. Whether it takes the form of mixed-up twins or a clever disguise, mistaken identity was one of Shakespeares favourite and most-used plot devices. Gender mix-ups were also quite popular. Shakespeare quite often had characters masquerading as the opposite sex, leading to many misunderstandings and comical situations. During Shakespeares lifetime, men frequently played all the roles in a play, which added another dimension to the  comedy. For example in the Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino and Lady Olivia have 7 mistaken identity on Viola as a man, because Viola has disguised herself as a man in order to work for Duke Orsino. 2. 2. 4. Separation and re-unification Separation of family or lovers is also one of the famous characteristic can be found in William Shakespeare’s Comedies. For instance, in the Twelfth Night, Viola and her identical twin brother, Sebastian have separated for a period because they met a storm and faced shipwreck. Finally they meet each other again at the end of the play. 2. 2. 5. Clever Plot Twists Shakespearean comedy always involves multiple plot lines, cleverly intertwined to keep the audience guessing. These unexpected twists are always straightened out in a happy ending. Interesting climax often with an unexpected twist has made Shakespeare’s Comedy unique. For example, in the Twelfth Night, when Sir Toby and Sir Andrew attacked Sebastian which they thought Sebastian was Cesario, Lady Olivia came in to stop the fight and she asks Sebestian to marry her. While she also thought Sebastian was Cesario. 2. 2. 6. Clever dialogue and witty banter: Shakespeare is a huge fan of punning and snappy wordplay; so naturally, his  characters know how to get their witty repartee on. Shakespeare reserves some of the best dialogue for his warring lovers, especially Oberon and Titania in the Midsummer Night’s Dream, and even the rude mechanicals manage to wow us with their clever banter. 8 2. 2. 7. Happy Ending All the Shakespearean Comedies have happy ending. For example, at the end of the Twelfth Night, Viola and Orsino, Lady Olivia and Sebastian and Maria and Sir Toby, they finally found their love ones. 2. 3. Shakespearean’s Tragedies Shakespeare’s tragedies are typically the easiest to identify because they  contain a heroic figure, often a nobleman, who has a serious fatal flaw. Their weakness thus becomes their down fall and is often the cause of their or others demise. Also included as elements of tragedy is a serious theme, and in the end the death of someone important. Listed below are some of the most common elements in Shakespearean tragedies. 2. 3. 1. The Fatal Flaw All of the heroes in Shakespeares tragedies have a weakness in personality that eventually leads to their downfall. For example, in the Romeo and Juliet, because of Romeo kindness, his friend, Mercutio fought with Tybalt and died. 2. 3.  2. Fall of the Nobleman Many of the men in Shakespeares tragedies have extreme wealth and power, making their downfall more tragic. For example, in the Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet came from high class family, but their parents were enemies and caused Romeo and Juliet died at the end. 9 2. 3. 3. External pressure Shakespeares tragic heroes often fall victim to external pressure from others, such as evil spirits and manipulative characters who play a role in their downfall. 2. 3. 4. Hero The hero has opportunities for redemption but never takes advantage of these in time, which leads to death.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

History of Alzheimers

History of Alzheimers Learning From Alzheimers On November 25, 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a 37-year-old neuropathologist and psychiatrist at the Hospital for the Mentally Ill and for Epileptics in Frankfurt, Germany, examined a female patient with an unusual mental illness. Her symptoms included memory loss, language problems, and delusional behavior. After the patient died in 1906, Alzheimer examined her brain and found strange formations of the amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Today, Alzheimers disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. People with Alzheimers progressively lose memory, language skills, and the ability to perceive time and space. The risk of developing Alzheimers also increases with age. Like PD, the underlying disease of Alzheimer starts decade or more before diagnosis. While the exact mechanism by which the disease spread isnt known, the pathology is driven by the aggregation of misfolded proteins either amyloid-beta plaques or tau tangles, or both with the damage spreading from neuron to neuron in a prion-like manner. Alzheimers researchers have recently developed some ingenious tools to help track the disease in the living brain. In 2002, Chester Mathis and the psychiatrist William Klunk developed the PET imaging method to detect and measure amyloid-beta deposition in the brain of living Alzheimers patients. The method involves injecting patients with a radioactive tracer that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier and bind selectively to the amyloid-beta protein. The detectors surrounding the patients head capture the radiation emitted by the tracer and convert them into a picture that represents the relative amounts of plaque buildup in different parts of the brain. PET imaging is an example of a biomarker, a metric that can quantify the progress of a disease in a living patient more sensitively than a clinical test like the UPDRS. No such imaging technique yet exists that can detect alpha-synuclein aggregates in the brains of people with PD. Other potential biomarkers are chemical assays that estimate the amyloid content in a patients cerebrospinal fluid, circulating blood, and urine. In the past decade, with the help of biomarkers, Alzheimers researchers have tested numerous drugs designed to target and break down amyloid-beta plaques. While some showed promise in open-label studies, they all failed when tested in phase 3 trials in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimers. One possible reason is that the drugs were given too late in the disease. To address that issue, Alzheimers researchers are working on three early-intervention studies. The first involves an extended family in South America. They are descendants from an individual who carried a rare mutation, called the Paisa mutation, for a heritable form of Alzheimers disease. By late 20th century, the mutation had spread to around 5,000 people in the city of Medellin. This Alzheimers kindred came to the attention of the University of Antioquia neuroscientist Francisco Lopera. A simple genetic screening test can determine which kindred members possessed the bad gene. Those individuals with the bad gene could be given anti-amyloid-beta drugs long before they showed any cognitive impairments. Loperas project is part of the Alzheimers Prevention Initiative headed by the psychiatrist Eric Reiman at the Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. In the trial, the Paisa volunteers get a baseline cognitive assessment plus a biomarker evaluation (involving PET imaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and other assays) to measure the distribution of amyloid beta. They are given Genentechs drug crenezumab, or a placebo. Researchers follow individuals for at least five years. A second genetic study also part of Banners Alzheimers Prevention Initiative involves 1,300 currently healthy individuals age 60 to 75 in Europe and North America. Members of this cohort are at high risk of developing Alzheimers because they have been identified as carrying two copies of a gene called apolipoprotein E4. Such people are not guaranteed to develop Alzheimers like carriers of the Paisa mutation, but their risk is extremely high. Study subjects will receive either a placebo or one of two experimental drugs developed by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The third study, known as the A4 trials, is supervised by Dr, Reisa Sperling of Harvard Medical School. It involves a cohort of 1,000 healthy individuals age 70 or older. The individuals in the group exhibit normal cognitive abilities but also have higher than normal levels of amyloid-beta plaques in their brains as measured by a PET scan. This puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimers. The question is, can that risk be reduced or eliminated? *** PD researchers require imaging and other biomarkers for alpha-synuclein that enable scientists to identify people and also to monitor the disease as it progresses. Chester Mathis and his colleagues are developing a radiotracer that will bind to alpha-synuclein and yield a PET image for PD. The PET tracer is just one element in a bigger Fox Foundation project the Parkinsons Progression Marker Initiative. The idea is to follow several groups of people forward in time performing clinical exams, taking biological samples, and doing multiple imaging scans along the way. Other researchers are looking elsewhere for Parkinsons biomarkers that might allow for early diagnosis. Kathleen Shannon and her colleagues at Rush University Medical Center accessed old colon biopsies performed during routine colonoscopy procedures for three individuals who went on to develop PD. Because these biopsies were done two to five years before the onset of the PD motor symptoms, they provided an opportunity to see if alpha-synuclein was present in the gut before motor symptoms emerged. Another possible place to look for alpha-synuclein is the submandibular gland. Charles Adler of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, biopsied the submandibular glands in twelve people with PD for more than five years and found Lewy pathology in nine of them. The British mathematician Max Little has developed computer algorithms to analyze human voice recordings to detect irregular patterns in PD patients. His PD Voice Initiative uses phone call data as potential biomarkers to diagnose and measure the progression of PD. Key Takeaways Alzheimers researchers have developed some ingenious tools to help track the disease in the living brain.To address the issue that the drugs were given too late in the disease in human drug trials, Alzheimers researchers are working on three early-intervention studies. Inspired by the Alzheimers researchers, PD researchers are working on multiple fronts to develop biomarkers to track PD in the living brain.

View Of Politicians Police And Criminal Nexus Criminology Essay

View Of Politicians Police And Criminal Nexus Criminology Essay The various crime syndicates/mafia organizations have developed significant muscle and money power and have established linkages The existing criminal justice system, which was essentially designed to deal with the individual crimes, is unable to deal with government functionaries, political leaders and others to be able to operate with impunity. The tragedy is not that the evils afflicting society and the emerging system are not known, but the indifference of the leaders across the spectrum to the damage they are doing to the political system is abysmal. Enjoyment of power is wrecking the system from within. There is a need to nip the budding criminal in early stages which will be helpful in ending nexus considerably. INTRODUCTION The rule of law is a hallmark of democracy. To put it simply, it means order and stability in the society.  [1]  Politicians need money and muscle power to maintain their positions of power and authority. Criminals thrive on wrongdoings and need some help to keep the police personnel out of their way. Police is dependent upon the politicians for promotions and smooth service in business. So there exists a mutual benefit relationship between police, politicians and criminals. Once the politician reaches a particular stature and develops a clout, he dictates terms to Police and Bureaucracy much to the delight of the criminal elements. The bonds become stronger and either finds it difficult to survive without the help of the other and the point of no return is reached.  [2]   POLITICAL POLICE AND CRIMINAL NEXUS The police are a foundation of rule of law and play an essential role in establishing it. They maintain the law and order in the society and protect the right and freedoms of the citizens. The rule of law presumes that police should serve the citizen and remain free from the influence of political establishment  [3]  . Police has varied duties from serving the people to protecting the state. The local in India, are corrupt by and large and the reality is often disputed. Most police officers associate themselves with criminals in their locality as the police are often involved in the same crimes and/or in many cases seek to claim a share of the money collected by the criminals.  [4]  The police provide assistance to the criminals by refusing to register a case against them. Police are considered to be criminals in uniform who work according to the wishes of the political parties in power at the expense of state funds. Most police officers associate themselves with criminals in their locality as the police are often involved in the same crimes and/or in many cases seek to claim a share of the money collected by the criminals. The police assist the criminals by ei ther refusing to take any action against them or, if under pressure, by registering cases but failing to properly investigate them. Some policemen have not got over their old colonial mentality and are persisting in barbaric acts in a free country which claims to be run by democratic constitution and rule of law. The nexus between criminal gangs, police, bureaucracy and politicians has come out clearly in various parts of the country.  [5]  The history of police and criminal nexus is very old. Report on the nexus between the Bombay City Police and the Bombay under-world was prepared by CBI in 1986 which shows that police and criminal nexus is not new. An organized crime syndicate or mafia generally commences its activities by indulging in petty crime at the local level, mostly relating to illicit distillation/gambling/organized satta and prostitution in the larger towns. In port towns, their activities involve smuggling and sale of imported goods and progressively graduate to narcotics and drug trafficking. In the bigger cities, the main source of income relates to real estate forcibly occupying lands/buildings, procuring such properties at cheap rates by forcing out the existing occupants/tenants etc. Even in the smaller towns and rural areas, muscle-men have become the order of the day . Hired assassins have become a part of these organizations. The various crime syndicates organizations have developed significant muscle and money power and have established linkages with government functionaries, political leaders and others to be able to operate with impunity. The existing criminal justice system, which was essentially designed to deal with the individual crimes, is unable to deal with the activities of the Mafia; the provisions of law in regard economic offences are weak; there are insurmountable legal difficulties in attaching/confiscation of the property acquired through Mafia activities. In certain States, like Bihar, Haryana and UP, these gangs enjoy the patronage of local level politicians, cutting across party lines and the protection of governmental functionaries. Some political leaders become the leaders of these gangs and, over the years, get themselves elected to local bodies, State Assemblies and the national Parliament. Consequently, such elements have acquired considerable political clout seriously jeopardizing the smooth functioning of the administration and the safety of life and property of the common man, causing a sense of despair and alienation among the people. The big smuggling Syndicates, having international linkage s, have spread into and infected the various economic and financial activities, including Havana transactions, circulation of black money and operations of a vicious parallel economy causing serious damage to the economic fibre of the country. These syndicates have acquired substantial financial and muscle power and social respectability and have successfully corrupted the government machinery at all levels and wield enough influence to make the task of Investigating and Prosecuting agencies extremely difficult; even the members of the Judicial system have not escaped the embrace of the Mafia. Certain elements of the Mafia have shifted to narcotics, drugs and weapon smuggling and established narco-terrorism networks, specially in the States of JK, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Bombay bomb blast case and the communal, riots in Surat and Ahmedabad have demonstrated how the Indian underworld has been exploited by the Pak ISI and the latters network in UAE to cause sabotage, subv ersion and communal tension in various parts of the country. The investigations into the Bombay bomb blast cases have revealed extensive linkages of the underworld in the various governmental agencies, political circles, business sector and the film world. It is evident that the muscle power of the crime Syndicates is sustained by their enormous financial power which, in turn, is, secured by the Mafia elements by committing economic offences with impunity. the various economic intelligence/investigative/enforcement agencies under Secretary (Revenue) operates are Central Board of Excise Customs (CBEC) it is responsible for the prevention of smuggling, In this and other tasks, it is assisted by the by the Director General of Revenue Intelligence (DGRI) and the Directorate General of Anti-Evasion (DGAE). The DGRI deals with the evasion of customs duties; the DGAE with Excise duty evasion. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) The CEIB is res ponsible for coordinating and strengthening the intelligence gathering activities and the investigative and enforcement actions of the various agencies responsible for investigation into economic offences and the enforcement of economic laws. Its main tasks are Identification of major sources generating black money; directing and developing intelligence about such sources; planning and coordinating action and operations against such sources. Enforcement Directorate This Directorate is concerned with the enforcement of the investigation and penal provision of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act; collection of intelligence relating to foreign exchange offences; enquiries into suspected violations of the provisions of FERA, etc. Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) The NCB is responsible for the administration of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. It is responsible for coordination with different Central and State Government Departments/Ministries and the various Central and State law enforcement agencies for the implementation of the NDPS Act. These are the main agencies to tackle the crimes related to the tax and narcotic substances but the functioning of these agencies is hampered by the pressure which is result police political and criminal nexus The linkages developed by crime Syndicates get generally confirmed when pressure is mounted on the concerned agencies not to take action against the offenders or to go slow in the cases against them. Such pressures are mounted either immediately after a raid is conducted or at the time when prosecution is about to be initiated. Pressures are also exerted whenever corrupt and undesirable officers are shifted from sensitive assignments (Preventive Customs Divisions at the Airports, sensitive Collect orates in the Central Excise etc.) In the narcotics arena, which includes cultivation of opium, manufacture of alkaloids, prevention of narcotics, smuggling etc. the financial stakes are astronomically high. Consequently, the level of corruption is of a very high order in this area of functioning and enormous pressures are brought to bear even when subordinate officials are posted away especially when the shift of an officer adversely affects the interests of those who are making easy money. Narcotics trade has a world-wide network of smugglers who also have close links with terrorists. Terrorists indulge in narcotics trade to amass huge funds, in various foreign currencies, from which they source their procurement of weapons etc. the consequences of the this nexus between criminal and politicians is very harmful and to deal with the consequences we have to empower these agencies with the more effective power and machinery. The tragedy is not that the evils afflicting society and the emerging system are not known, but the indifference of the leaders across the spectrum to the damage they are doing to the political system is abysmal. Enjoyment of power is wrecking the system from within. It is matter for most serious concern that an increasing number of police officers are serving jail terms or facing trials for serious offences There is an emergence of the politico-bureaucratic-criminal nexus which has assumed command in several parts of the country. It is indeed a matter for utmost concern that many functionaries, who are elements of the criminal nexus, may also be occupying sensitive positions in the security management apparatus. According to a recent study the present Lok Sabha has the unique distinction of having as many as 125 members with criminal background.  [6]  There are serious charges of rape, murder, kidnapping and extortion pending against many of the honorable members. They have not been convicted yet and there is no chance for it in the near future. Cases against them have been pending since ages and can never be disposed off. Saner elements in civil society and concerned citizens are beginning to be worried at the spectre of full-fledged criminalisation of politics and politicisation of criminals to use the formulation of one of our Prime Ministers.  [7]  If the present trend of criminalization among the elected representatives continues, the doomsday of rule of law in India would soon arrive. The present day politicians have proved late Churchill right when he said that scoundrels would rule India. Rather the situation today is far worse. The language of politics has changed over the years. Celebrations over, the politicians will now be back at the games they play in the pursuit of power and all that goes with it.  [8]  Politicians are busy , they cannot spare time for the people and are engrossed in the chase for power. They do not have a moment to ponder over what they have done to the Constitution. In fact, politicians of all sorts have hijacked the democratic system to run it for their own convenience and not for serving the people. If any organ of the State chooses to block their way, they try to bend it to their will by means fair and foul.  [9]  In the past two decades and more there has been a growing increase in complaints of corruption, particularly at the levels which hurt the common man the most. Consequently, people have lost trust in the commitment and capacity of the governments, at the Centre and in the States, to promote their welfare.  [10]   Elections involving money and muscle power have failed to produce desirable results. The communalisation and criminalisation of politics, endemic corruption and ineffectiveness of the governmental machinery have tarnished the image of governance and severely eroded its effectiveness.  [11]  White collar criminality is fairly prevalent in Politics. The standards of conduct are high among politicians as they are in commercial life. White-collar crimes violate trust and create disgust, which lowers social morale and produces social disorganization on a large scale. Other crimes produce relatively little effect on social institutions or social organization.  [12]  Some people believe that there are still innocent and honest politicians in the country, but nothing is being done by these honest people to control the pervasive corruption in the country. The politicians are busy playing blame games. There is hesitation to call a spade a spade. The rule of law is a legal maxim that states no person is immune to law. it means that law is equal for every man and no one is above the law is supreme this is purely a concept of democracy where peoples will are supreme and laws are made to meet the expectations of the public. India is the democratic country and rule of law is the hallmark of it we have a vast machinery to protect the rule of the law in our country we have CBI, IB and other investigating agencies they are there to protect the rule of law but because of the police political and criminal nexus the functioning of these agencies are affected very much because agencies like CBI, CID and other investigating agencies start their investigation on the recommendation of state government or central government or SC or HC state governments which are dominated by the MLAS who have their glorious criminal records generally not preferred to give investigation charge to CBI and they preferred to give the matter to CID which is a p uppet at the hands of state government which has made them useless. The functioning of these agencies are dominated by the political masters who hamper it at every level for the primary information of the crime as well as information of the local activity. These agencies are dependent upon the police which corrupt in the present time. they are the criminals in uniform who provide every facility to criminals and help them at every level from the time of registration of the complaint inside the police stations, prisons and even the courts. Sometimes they are involved in escape of criminals from the lockup As the Supreme Court rightly observed that if the protector becomes the predator, the civilized society would cease to exist. This phrase can be to describe the current scenario of India. CONCLUSION At present, there is no mechanism which is specifically designated to collect and collate intelligence pertaining to the linkages developed by criminals with the governmental set up. Nonetheless, the  various intelligence agencies collect, in the  normal course of their functioning, information about the nexus between  the bureaucracy and politicians with the Mafia gangs, smugglers and the  underworld. These agencies use such available inputs only within the  narrow confines of their work charter and choose not to take undue  cognisance and follow-up action, leave alone sharing with any other  agencies. Thus, all these agencies function within their own cocoons,  with the result that a plethora of information fails to get specific and  purposeful attention needed for the exposure of the linkages. It is,  therefore, necessary to immediately have an institutionalized system  which while giving total freedom to the various agencies to pursue their  charter of wor k, would simultaneously cast on them the onus of sharing  such inputs to a nodal outfit whose job will be to process this information  for attention of a single designated authority. This will enable the  nodal Group to provide useful leads to the various agencies and, over  time, a progressive database will get generated to facilitate periodic  reviews and analysis which could then be passed to a designated body Fighting the nexus between the politicians and criminal elements should become a National agenda transcending party politics. Conscious efforts should be made by all parties to prevent infiltration of criminal elements in their ranks. They should lend their support to amend the Representation of Peoples Act to deny opportunities to people with criminal records of moral turpitude and violence, to contest the elections. They should also lend support to pass legislation to deal firmly with organized crime. . There is need for a special legislation like other countri es to deal with this menace. We need special courts and suitable modifications in the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Acts to make justice swifter. A stitch in time saves nine. The inability of the criminal justice system to deal firmly with infractions like gambling, prostitution, drugs lead to development of organized crime. Yesterdays petty criminals are todays dons. Hence, there is a need to nip the budding criminal in early stages which will be helpful in ending nexus considerably.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Gothic Genre: The Red Room versus The Monkeys Paw Essay -- essays res

The Red Room was written in the late 19th century by H.G Wells. During this time the gothic genre was incredibly popular with every type of person as it was a great form of entertainment due to the fact they didn't have a television or a computer back then. The gothic genre started becoming most popular in 1837 and continuing untill 1901 during the Victorian period, they appeared in magazines as short,cliffhanger ending,eerie stories. The most famous examples of gothic stories are "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelly and "Dracula" by Bram Stoker which most people have heard of. The Red Room is a prime example of a gothic story. It shows typical characteristics that would be included in a story of the gothic genre. Even the title of the book "The Red Room" has a certain darkness about it. "The" makes it sound unique as though there is only one red room which sounds very different to saying "a" red room and by chosing to do this there is a sense of weirdness before the book has even been read. "Red" makes us think of blood, anger and evil. There is also alliteration in the title with the hard sounding "r" . The story starts off with a rainy, gloomy,candle light or fire light setting, very typical opening features of a story written in the gothic genre. H.G Wells describes a fire-lightened room and straight away ghosts and the supernatural are mentioned by the main character, this gets the reader involved straight away where it starts with speech. After this the reader meets the strange characters of the story - the old people.When the narrator meets the old people we see his arrogence towards them as he describes them in a sense that he is actually mocking them and their suspicions to do with the red room. When infact the old people... ...ey have a mind of their own and they are out to get the narrator. The ending of the story tells the reader that there was nothing in the red room, all that time the reader was convinced that there was some sort of ghost or spirit present at the time so because you find this out the tension level goes down. The tension also increases as the old man describes how fear is what he discovered in the red room describing it as "a power of darkness". This spooks the reader. H.G Wells, the author of "The Red Room" has used certain writing techniques in order to create and build up tension in his story. Techniques such as imagery, alliteration, repitition, choice of language and punctuation in order to create a tension build up or decrease. I think the story is a typical one of the gothic genre as it explores each idea of being trapped , darkness and fear very well.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Comparing the Characters in Laurents West Side Story and Shakespeare

Meshing Together of Characters in Arthur Laurents' West Side Story and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet The meshing of characters between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Bernstein’s West Side Story formulate significant similarities between the two. In Romeo and Juliet the story of â€Å"Two households both alike in dignity,† (Montagues and Capulets) who have been feuding is parallel to the two gangs in West Side Story (Jets and Sharks). This grouping of loyalties keeps the segregation of the two groups at a dead lock, thus producing the tension that keeps the two lovers in each play (Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria) in the unattainable, intangible realm of their idealistic love. It is these two groupings that cause the star-crossed lovers to forfeit their lives in Romeo and Juliet’s instance and costs Tony his life in his and Maria’s love. Why do these groups feud and keep love bound by hatred? How are these groups alike in their intent? What are the similarities between the leaders of the groups or gangs in both Romeo and Juliet and West S ide Story? The hatred of diversity is what created these groupings, binding them to love their hate. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets is kept heated by the servants. Montague: Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? Speak, nephew: were you by when it began? Benvolio: Here were the servants of your adversary And yours, close fighting ere I did approach. I drew to part them. In the instant came The fiery Tybalt with his sword prepared (Shakespeare 875). The servants uphold the ancient grudge that has plagued the houses of Montague and Capulet. The older men of the two househol... ... segregation limits on different cultures and households keeps us away from death. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet cover up this message of segregation by bleeding the characters together and putting the idea of idealistic love in the forbears of the main characters. This cover up causes us to analyze their love and relationship and separate relationships with the other characters rather than see the picture for what it is. Never was there a story of more woe than that of Racism and what we Know! Works Cited Laurents, Arthur. West Side Story. (A musical, based on a conception of Jerome Robbins; music by Leonard Bernstein; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.) NY: Random House, 1966. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volume I. Ed. W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright. NY: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 247-277.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

God’s Responsibility for the Fall of Man

God’s Responsibility For The Fall Of Man Within Literature, an unofficial definition for human wrongdoing has been connected to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. Their incompetence of following God’s orders, resulting in the punishment of mankind, has been thoroughly outlined within the text of the Bible. Yet are their actions truly of their own? God’s inept decision creating man within his image and His disdain leadership left human beings in a inferior position to disobey his orders, leaving him solely to blame for their ignorant actions.The power of leadership is a critical factor that even figures of immortal stature need to practice. God’s first mistake leading to the fall of man lies within decisions to create an entity upon the earth similar to him. â€Å"And God created the human in his image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them† (Simon 98). Why would someone create a figure of life within his own lik eness without giving them the same amount of freedom?Regardless of his position as the ultimate Creator, the expectations set within creating life forms with authoritative intentions similar to his own leaves God’s image as a wise leader questionable. His kind nature may have been proposed as good intentions, but the lack of decisive decision-making leaves him exposed to lacking thorough process for leadership. Another essential factor of successful leadership is to be supported by followers who believe in their leader.Adam & Eve’s actions within the Garden of Eden are more appropriately noted as a poor lack of leadership then a story of betrayal and self-disobedience. Within chapters 1-3 of Genesis, the persuasive words of the Snake easily motivate Eve to break God’s command and strive to eat the forbidden fruit. â€Å"For God knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will become as gods knowing good and evil† (Simon 99). If Go d’s leadership was sufficient enough, how could this even take place?God’s insufficient leadership over his creations allowed Adam & Eve to be easily swayed by the leadership of an animal which he placed them in power to control. This is confirmed in later chapters of Genesis 6-9 where he makes the ultimate decision to dispose of all things he gave life to. â€Å" I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth, from human to cattle to crawling thing to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them† (Simon 101).For a leader to dispose and restart his initial intentions due to regret shows that mistakes have been made by that individual. And God’s decision to do so emulates that the fall of mankind was not of his subjects, but of his own disdain leadership skills. In conclusion, God’s poor decision making led to the evident fall of mankind. His actions were that of a leader who had well intentions, but had a poor pe rception of his follower’s involvement to his leadership. If he were more methodic in his decision making, he would of never regretted his choices made during the seven days of creation.

Christopher Pawling Popular Fiction Ideology or Utopia

excogitation customary Fition governmental theory or Utopia? Christopher Pawling pop allegory and Literary reproof Despite the growth of interest in normal manufacture, it has been difficult to introduce courses on them in college and university syllabi beca do it is s manger non considered as mainstream publications, retributory a minor or circumferential genre. The self-importance-definition of English books depends heavy on what is absent from its field- its signifi stoolt separate- carbonated waterular literature or paraliterature whose absence from the course of instruction enables us to go d possess the dominant literary finale.Paraliterature is a sort of taboo against which the self of literature proper is fashi adeptd. Darko Suvin says that a set which does non take into account 90% of its domain seems to dedicate a de influenceed spate in the sm exclusively p wileition it focuses on. i. e. high literature. In the last fewer years, there has been an attempt to initiate interdisciplinary courses. The prejudice against favourite literature has at rest(p) down because it garners the widest ratifiership. It is overly more inextricably linked to other aesthetic modalitys of conference homogeneous film and TV. Pop fic has been include in the curriculum since the mid-sixties.This is not a soft option just now has generated a serious corpus of reproach predicated on theory. So reading pop fic is not as much of a peripheral preoccupation as was assumed earlier. often propagation of the secondary move out on pop lit has been untheorised and eclectic. The prospective scholar has been face with a) payoff, marketing and consumption of general assemblyalisation which elude subject matters embodied in the school textbook edition themselves and b) Analyses using the tools of lit criticism to snap off an internal account of the themes embodied indoors the text or genre, but argon unable to bring on connexions amongst the literary artefact and the accessible context.In such situations, the socio-historical context is seen as something extraneous. Sociologists be possessed of dealt with texts of favourite horti socialisation as direct be arrs of ideology. Popular illustration reflects friendly meanings/ mores and intervene in the manners of nine by organising and on a lower floorstand controls which bring in previously entirely been subject to overt champion reflection. Pop fic, like all other ethnic creations, interprets human contract. Genre synopsis Popular saucys be not guileless(a) repositories of socio system of logical data. They generate norms/ expectations on which the readers acceptance/ rejection of the text depends. bring break quotation from James Genres be essentially contracts. The level of the thriller offers a form of pleasure (un indisputablety betwixt security and adventure) that is different from that of womens coquette. The relative autonomy of the yarn helps to define pictorial springaries of different genres. These genres do not popu latish in a vacuum but they circulate in specific social, heathenish and historical contexts. We must ac copeledge that our hot genres differ from those of other societies so they cannot be seen within umbrella terms like universal archetypal structures. Narrative and ideology Macherey and Goldman A breakthrough in pagan readings has been that the mediations between text and social club are present in the text itself. Levi Strauss- Ideology is present in both the form and content of the myth as text and the report itself provides the crucial link between the external reality of social experience and the internal meaning which is derived therefrom. Frederic Jameson- narrative is a form of reasoning somewhat experience and society. Pierre Macherey starts with an epitome of the internal logic or problematic of the text in front going on to reconstruct the ideologic field which lie s behind the narrative.The agent tests out certain ideologic propositions which form the terra firma of the literary discourse. The narrative may then reveal any contradictions inherent in those assumptions and then suppresses them through magical resolutions. The narrative may get flawed if the author refuses this escape bridle-path and keep abreasts the contradiction till they destabilize the text. Jules Vernes fabrication, The Mysterious Island begins with a supposedly straightforward celebration of textileistic acquisition.It is subverted by Captain Nemo who epitomizes a scientific spirit of enquiry untainted by social relations. This ideal image of comprehension is finally spurned by Verne and Nemo rejected as an anachronistic figure whose illusions crush him and his island. It helps to undermine the effect of an all-conquering apprehension. Vernes story does not offer a informed interrogation of the bourgeois image of attainment. Machereys reading reveals a flaw in the narrative which allows us to gain main course to the repressed meanings of political unconscious mind (Frederic Jameson) of the narrative. Martin Jordins analysis of 1950s novel wolfsbane shows that the narrative of wolfbane just does not reproduce given ideological assumptions about the mathematical expire of science in society but that it also puts that ideology to work testing, defining and reconstructing it in the impact of interpreting the changing content of historical experience. Wolfbane reverses the science fictionalization formula by implying that science must first be liberated from its service to an irrational social order before it can find an instrument of human progress or produce a more unleash and equal society.During this period, the readership of SF (the scientific philia class) had to be subordinated to the necessarily of the corporate economy. The text became a billet of ideological struggle and not just a reflection of external social proc esses. The narrative constructs sooner than reflects an ideological position. Jordins analysis of Wolfbane emphasizes the disillusionment with science as part of a creative interrogation of ideology within the text. Mellor concentrates on the way in which science fiction expresses the man vision of its readership, on its relative autonomy, rather than treating it as a relatively independent entity.The flight from science reflects a process of fragmentation which is already detectable outside the text, in the maturation world vision of the educated middle class. Mellor constructs an overall picture of SF as a genre, whereas Jordin concentrates on the narrative mechanics of one moment of change and because is bound to privilege the more self-governing features of the text. provided the authors share the same philosophy. The Popular/ selected Dichotomy Lowenthal and Cawelti Macherey breaks with established literary criticism in his refusal to divide the sphere of literature b etween elite literature (an autonomous realm which is somehow free from ideology), and grossplace or mass literature (supposedly a direct reflection of ideology and therefore not amenable to the sophisticated analysis given to canonic texts). Macherey says a text is literary because it is know as such, at a certain moment, under certain conditions. It may not have been recognized as such before or after. Machereys highlights the relativity of literary shelter and he call for to problematize categories such as democratic and high literature. Verne has been added to the curriculum since Macherey, so we can conclude that the canon is a historical construct, rather than a restore entity, and that is open to revision. He challenged that a science fiction work by a minor author is not a literary text and has been proved adept in a subsequent era. at that butt are no separate mode of analysis for the study of usual fiction and real literature. This dichotomy leads to a reductioni st court.According to Tony Bennett, non-canonized texts are necessarily collapsed back into the conditions of drudgery from which they derive. Popular fiction is often special(a) to an account of marketing strategies employed in promoting bestsellers. Or mass fiction is analyse as a component of the culture industry. Leo Lowenthals book writings, Popular Culture and Society says that since the division of literature into art and commodity in the 18th century, the popular literary products can make no claim to insight and truth.The takings of a market economy has hidden implications for the turn tail between author and reader. hitherto even high art or serious literature is not so impervious to markets, consumption patterns and economic arrive at as to warrant assessment only in terms of what Pierre Bordieux calls symbolical winnings. (See Randal stoolsons discussion of Bordieuxs crinkle about economic vs. symbolic profit in Pierre Bourdieux on Art, Literature and C ulture- Editors Introduction to Pierre Bourdieux, The Field of Cultural drudgery Essays on Art and Literature. Cambridge Polity Press, 1993, p. 15. ) John Caweltis Adventure, Mystery and Romance argues that popular fiction is intrinsically more ideological than its elite counterpart. For Cawelti, ceremonious fiction has the serve well of reproducing cultural consensus, in contrast to mimetic (elite) fiction which confronts us with the problematic and contrasting reality of the world. Mimetic literature represents sustenance as we know it tour the formulaic reflects the construction of an ideal world without the disorder, ambiguity, perplexity and limitations of the world of our experience. Formulaic literature is an artwork of escape which makes it popular. The tensions, ambiguities and frustrations. mystery (p. 9) This model attempts to maintain popular fiction by assignment it to the realms of escape and distraction. at that place is no head in Caweltis scheme for a li terature of genuine innovation, or for one of informal underground education. That is limit to the domain of mimetic literature. If popular fiction is schematic in an artistically conservative sense, all literature is concerned with the manipulation of narrative expectations in some way, and even the to the highest degree sophisticated literary subversion inescapably sets up generic patterns after a while. charge an arch modernist such as Theodore Adorno has recognize that formulae (which he terms as stereotypes) are an essential share in the government activity and anticipation of experience. It would be wiser to ask under what conditions specific literary genres become exacting and lose their creative potential while acknowledging that this is a question which applies to both popular and elite fiction. Cawelti privileges the consensual role of popular culture. Formulaic lit, he says, assimilates stark naked interests into conventional imaginative structures. The vague-o riented action stories of the early on 70s use a tralatitious formula- the hard boil thriller- but fill it with new content. The conventional forms of fantasy they use are not very different from the adventure stories that have been enjoyed by American audiences for several decades. Caweltis functionalist theory has its origins in mainstream American sociology. American culture, he believes, embodies a set of pump determine which gradually spread outwards to the periphery of society and eventually squash marginal groups such as the black minorities. hardly this model takes certain values for given(p) and assumes that culture is a homogenous entity rather than seeing it as a site of struggle which is marked by contradictions. But while the black action stories dispose to make the black man an instigant of action , they also glorify a machismo image with the result that the cultural integrating of the male section of the community takes conduct at the cost of the woman, who experiences a take over subordination. While Lowenthal condemns pop fic as a purveyor of false consciousness, Cawelti tends to extol this function in a rather uncritical a manner. Cawelti highlights the harmonising, normative function of formulaic narrative whereas when we look at the ideological counterpoint within each text, it becomes clear that it is also potentially subverter of that consensus. Popular Fiction and Common Sense the Influence of Gramsci Even the most banal narratives illuminate the significant reality which lies behind the ostensibly unified, conflict-free world of ideology.Rosalind Brunts chapter on Barbara Cartlands romance stories highlights a contradiction in the narrative, between the intended message which focuses on the role of woman as a transcendent, spiritual being, and the actual process of narration which concentrates on the more mundane reality of bonk and marriage- historical necessities lead women to pursue men and to turn hit the sack into a n economically rational career. at that placefore virginity is seen a s a commodity which secures the heroine an economic place in the world through a good marriage.Cartlands novels show womens involvement in a ancient commodity market that is incongruous with her romanticist idealism. The spiritual union of marriage is eternally celebrated at the end of the novel but the impulse of the narrative is towards a materialist account of gender relations. Brunt focuses on the contradictions in the text. Her feminist reading shows that the authors intentions are partially subverted at an unconscious level by a material reality that cannot be wished away by the magical resolutions at the end of the text.Cartlands novels can be interpreted in a way that renders them potentially subversive of the authors own intentions, They do not generate an alternative feeling of female identity. In fact, they endorse values opposite to those of the womens movement and Cartland undoubtedly opposes an y move towards greater social and cultural equality for her sex. Gramsci terms the Cartlandian approach to her readers as common sense (the length between hegemonic ideology and material reality).Women are naturally subordinate to men and they know it. They have to operate in a different manner if they are to pull round as women. Women, therefore, are socialised into existent gender relations. Everything is enclosed within a circular narrative. The heroine has to decide between marrying for love or money. The choice has to be establish on common sense, and there is no suggestion that there is a triad choice- that of not marrying at all. Her dependence on marriage as a route to economic security is acknowledged unquestionably. There are contradictions in the world of lived ideology- stone age elements combine with principles of a more advanced science, prejudices from all quondam(prenominal) phases of history and intuitions of a future philosophy. hither Gramsci highlights the d ialectic between ideology and utopia which is so crucial in the making of popular fiction. A Stone Age element in Cartlands fiction is, for example, is the spell with the aristocracy. The intuitions of a utopian future are free from contradictions. Most formulaic fiction in normal times, says Gramsci, have a predominance of Stone Age elements.At times of intensified political and cultural struggle, common sense adopts a more utopian outlook. At those times, there is an active popular demand for literature which embodies alternative values. Popular Fiction Ideology or Utopia? What is the alliance between popular fiction and cultural politics at certain spot moments in the post-war period? The seesawing dialectics between ideology and utopia has to be seen in this context. In the late 50s, British society was moving towards the godliness of affluence. The fear was that an old world of true value, associated with the pre-war working class, was on the verge of extinction. In Stuart Laings Room at the Top, the vision of a romantic haven ground on an alternative reality- the relationship between the hero and the heroine- amidst the rat race collapses with the heroines death. At the end, there is a cynical acceptance of the present and the fatal values of affluence. In the 60s, there was a counter-culture which highlighted the need to reframe relationships within the frame of the perquisites of political change. Middle class pressure groups at the time attempted to make society live up to its stated ideals, rather than movements with a concrete vision of the just society. The counter culture was hardly a mass movement in the mere sense of the word because it was largely confined to the middle class. But it did have a populist outlook, rejecting cultural divisions and celebrating popular art as an arena of cultural struggle. Chapter by David Glover- concentrates on that moment in the 1960s when certain writers of fantasy- Tolkein, Peake, Burroughs and Mooreco ck, acquired a cult lieu among the counter-culture.Each of these authors reached maximum exposure and circulation through the strong suit of mass market paperbacks. Fantasy gave style to the search for utopian alternatives. The taste for anti-realist texts among the among the counter-culture can be seen as a manakin of literary equiavlent to the alteration of consciousness, suggesting new ways of perceiving ones relationship with others, society in general and the natural world. The content of these utopian tales offered the vision of a human proportions, an organic society base on the small collective and the needs of the individual.Glover concludes that the enclosed world of utopia/ fantasy provided a touchstone for a critique of vivacious social structures and the construction of alternatives, social models prefigured in the achievements of literary technique. Counter culture was a spent force by the early 70s. Popular fantasy developed instead in a cult of the blade and sorcery. The world vision of the counter culture had been inspired by the past, a need to recover a world which had disappeared with industrialism. There was a strong plea for traditional political values, not a mere revival of pastoralism.Adams novel signalled that return to move and tested conservative values. That was to prove an of the essence(predicate) component of political rhetoric in the 1970s. This book does not offer a comprehensive introduction to the study of popular fiction. There is an emphasis in Pawlings book on studies which concentrate on the meanings which form around texts, genres or authors, rather than analyses which might examine the way in which those meanings have been understood by item groups of readers. The concentration on the point of production rather than consumption is the outcome of a moment in cultural studies.The process of reception has been highlighted in determining the meaning generated by individual texts. Texts can have different meaning s for different groups of readers. A work cannot merely be collapsed into its various moments of reception. It is requirement to focus on the text as a source of meaning creation. This allows the student to test his/ her reading of popular fiction against the various approaches on offer here. The function of a book like this should be to encourage others to embark on their own analyses.