Introduction and research questions sections Assignment

Introduction and research questions sections - Assignment Example There is a salient need for restaurants to find strategies of presenting such cultural dishes, making them more appealing and acceptable. It is not an easy task for many restaurants who intend to offer traditional delicacies as they were cooked in the previous era (Axtell 15). Most of the cultures do not just consider certain foods as taboos without evidential basis, but rather based on cultural and religious beliefs. In the 21st century, hotels are striving to ensure that customers can learn to enjoy some foods regarded as taboos and enjoy their nutritional values. However, if such foods are served with the traditional labels, identifying them as taboos, customers are less likely to be interested. Restaurants are compelled to engage in rigorous research if they are to identify some of the factors contributing to viewing some foods as taboos. The value of research in any business cannot be underestimated. In the dining industry, the most critical aspect is being able to discern the customer’s preferences. When hoteliers understand the customer preferences, they can improve their services hence ensure customer loyalty. In the specific case of taboo dishes, restaurant owners should consider the presentation of the dish, its name, health benefits, and the effect of peer pressure while determining whether to eat a taboo food. Many of the taboo food present desirable nutritional values. Such foods contain elements that are needed by the body and that can serve to improve an individual’s health immensely. Therefore, it is critical for restaurants to engage in rigorous research to identify the steps that can be taken to make taboo foods acceptable (20). In order to identify the factors that determine the consumption of taboo dishes, it is critical to define research questions that will address different aspects of consumer behavior. The criticality or research questions cannot be overemphasized because they present the

Hezbollah Essay Example for Free

Hezbollah Essay Hezbollah, Arabic for â€Å"Party of God†, is also known as Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and as the Revolutionary Justice Organization (Global Security, p. 1). Hezbollah (also Hizbullah and Hizballah) is a Lebanese social, political and paramilitary organization founded in 1982. Hezbollah’s historical and political background was the Israeli Defense Force’s presence in Lebanon (1982-2000), the Lebanese Civil War (1979-1990) and the plight of Arab Palestinians, many of whom had fled to Lebanon, where their presence â€Å"changed the historical balance between Muslims and Christians† (Bennett, 2005, p. 214). In the war, Lebanon’s various religious communities vied for power and Hezbollah was established as by Shi’a to strengthen their traditionally weak political position, with help from Iran and Syria. Committed to making Lebanon an Islamic state, to the liberation of Israeli occupied territory (which it claims means dismantling the Israeli state) Hezbollah was named a terrorist organization by the USA in 1994. One scholar describes the organization, which has seats in Parliament and in the Cabinet, runs a large social welfare program, as â€Å"a moderate, mainstream political party† (Harik, 2007, p. xiv). Harik says that Hezbollah â€Å"is considered a legitimate resistance force all over the Arab and Muslim worlds† (p. 7).   Azani discusses Hezbollah as a â€Å"social protest movement† (2009, p. 1). This raises the question whether the US is correct to label Hezbollah a â€Å"terror organization† and why it does so?   Harik says that no one has ever proved that Hezbollah has ever attacked a civilian (p. xiv) or that it was responsible for attacks on US personnel (p. 193). In responding to these questions, what follows examines the history of the organizations, its aims, programs and activities and why the US regards it as a terrorist organization. The Shi’a in Lebanon Modern Lebanon was created after World War I, when the Great Powers defeated the Ottoman Empire and divided the Middle East among themselves as League of Nations mandates. These newly created states were to be given independence when they were considered ready for self-determination. The Lebanon became a French mandate. Lebanon was religiously diverse, with Christians in a small majority, followed by Sunni Muslims, followed by the Shi’a. Under four centuries of Ottoman rule, the Shi’a were suspected being Iran’s fifth column. Consequently, the community was â€Å"impoverished and underdeveloped† (Norton, 2009, p. 12). Under the French, an attempt was made to share power between the main communities. The Marionite were given the Presidency, the Sunni the office of Prime Minister, which left the Shi’a with the Speakership, a â€Å"position with far weaker constitutional powers† (Norton, p. 12). This was based on the 1932 census, which, says Norton, was â€Å"the last official census ever conducted in Lebanon† (p. 12). This arrangement continued after independence in 1943. The Shi’a community in Beirut was very small; most lived in the south and in the Beqaa valley. Azani says that the â€Å"political awakening† of the Shi’a began in the 1960s and 1970s, led by Imam Musa al-Sadr, â€Å"a Shiite cleric with the characteristics of a religious and political leader.† Born in Iran to a Lebanse family he studied at the great centers of Shi’a learning (p. 48). From 1959, al-Sadr was Mufti of Tyre and â€Å"in less than two decades he succeeded, with strenuous activity, charisma and high rhetorical ability, in organizing the Shi’a community, characterized for hundreds of years by passivity and isolationalism, and in mobilizing it into collective activity for the realization of social and political goals† (pp. 48-49). The influx of Palestinian refugees into South Lebanon upset the traditional power of the Shi’a elite in the region. The increasing politicization of Shi’a leaders in Iran impacted their role in Lebanon. From the 1970s, the number and influence of clerics increased, with al-Sadr and the future founder of Hezbollah, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, leading a movement that wanted to bring about an Islamic revolution in Lebanon, following the Iranian revolution of 1979. The Lebanese Civil War and the founding of Hezbollah On the one hand, the Shi’a in Lebanon were finding their political voice, encouraged by co-religionists in Iran. On the other hand, the security situation in Lebanon was deteriorating. The tradition of good relations between communities was breaking down with Christians being depicted as pro-Israeli, while Muslims were aligned with the Palestinian cause. April 13, 1973 a Christian paramilitary group ambushed a Palestinian bus in retaliation for the killing of a Christian earlier that day (Bennett, 2005, pp. 213-5). Fighting began between different communities, Sunni, Christian, Druze and Shi’a. In 1976, unable to stop the fighting the President asked the Syrians and other Arab leaders to â€Å"end the war.† Bennett remarks that as a result of the civil war, the word â€Å"Shia† entered the Western vocabulary (p. 215). The revolution in Iran would reinforce the word’s presence in the media. It was in the context of the civil war that Hezbollah was founded. The Palestinian Liberation Army was raiding Israel from across the border. Al-Sdar mysteriously disappeared in August 1978 (Norton, 2009, p. 29). This led to Israel invading Lebanon in June 1982, and to Hezbollah’s formation. From the start, committed to liberating Palestine, Hezbollah also raided across the border. However, its immediate aim was to end Israel’s presence in Lebanon. Between spring 1983 and the summer of 1985, Hezbollah â€Å"launched an unprecedented wave of suicide bombings which included an attack on the US Embassy and US Marine branches in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September, 1984† followed by the taking of Western hostages, according to Global Security (p. 1). Hezbullah’s Aims and Structure The organization’s Consultative Council has 12 senior scholars at its head and a Directing Council under its Secretary-General.. The organization’s charter sets out three objectives: 1. to expel the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from Lebanon, putting an end to any colonial entity. 2. to submit the Phalanges [Christian militia] to a just power and bring them all to justice for the crimes they have committed against Muslims and Christians. 3. to permit all the sons of [Lebanese] people to determine their future and to choose in all liberty the form of government they desire. [Hezbollah] call[s] upon them all to pick the option of an Islamic government, which alone is capable of guaranteeing justice and liberty for all. Only an Islamic regime can stop any further attempts at imperialist infiltration (Richardson, 2006, pp. 83-4). Hezbollah and Israel From 1978, a UN force was deployed in Lebanon to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces under Security Council Resolution 425. However, it was not until 2000 that Israeli troops were completely withdrawn. Until then, Hezbollah carried out attacks on Israelis targets. After the withdrawal, Israeli continued to launch missile strikes and raids into Lebanon and Hezbullah â€Å"in retaliation, launched rocket attacks in Northern Israel on an almost regular basis† (Bajpai, 2006, p. 594). According to Global Security, Hezbollah â€Å"operates against Israel in four main way†: 1. brimging terrorists and collaborators through the border crossings usinf foreign documents. 2. setting up a terrorist organization inside Israel and Judea, Samaria and the Gaza strip. 3. cross-border operations – smuggling weapons and terrorists 4. financial support for Palestinian organixzations and groups. Others do not use the word â€Å"terrorist† but represent Hezbullah’s activities as legitimate resistance to Israel, which has defied UN Resolutions to withdraw from all occupied territory. Bajpai writes, â€Å"even after its formal withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000, Israel engaged in frequent military incursions† (p. 594). In 2004, the UN called for the disbanding and disarming of all Lebanese militia (Resolution 1559). However, in the elections of 2005, Hizbollah won 14 seats (out of 128), and was awarded 2 cabinet posts. By 2008, Hizbollah had eleven out of thirty cabinet seats (Council on Foreign Relations, p. 1). In the 2009 election, it lost a seat but still received 10 seats in the 30 members Cabinet. Hartik says that Christians have supported Hezbollah, which makes it harder for â€Å"its enemies to float the fundamentalist stereotype of a raging gang of religious fanatics whose main aim was to put enemies of the faith to the sword† (p. 79). Other Christians are outspoken in criticizing Hezbollah as the stooge of Syria and Iran and as setting itself up as a state within the state (Azani, p. 231). As well as carrying out military or terrorist action, depending on the commentator’s perspective, it spends millions on welfare and education work, funded by Iran. In 2006, Hezbollah’s operatives crossed the Israeli border and captured two IDF soldiers. This came a month after Palestinian operatives had captured an Israeli soldier (Global Security, p. 1). In response, a 34-day war followed during which Israel launched air strikes, killing â€Å"56 citizens including 37 children† (Bajpai, 594). As a result of this war and Hezbollah’s resistance, its popularity within the Muslim world increased. The war ended with a UN brokered cease-fire and another Resolution calling for the disarming of all militia. Hezbullah did succeed in preventing a full-scale invasion. The Global Security report on Hezbollah states that in addition to funding from Iran and help from Syria, the organizatuon engaged in fund-raising around the world (p. 2). The report makes no mention of its extensive social program but the Council on Foreign Relations however describes it as a â€Å"major provider of social services† (Council on Foreign Relations, p 1.) Acts Attributed to Hezbullah In addition to the acts mentioned above, according to CFR, Hezbollah lists the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847 and the attacks in Argentine on the Israeli Embassy (1992) and on a Jewish community center (1994). Azani refers to links with other organizations across the globe. He lists an attempt to destroy US ships in Singapore in 1995 and arrests of members in 1997 for planning an attack in a US Embassy. The 9/11 Report said that Al-Qaeda operatives train at Hezbollah camps (p. 203). He refers to other arrests made in 1999 and in 2001 when plans to attack targets in South and North America were foiled.   He says that the global network is spread across forty countries and every continent, including Europe where activists have also been arrested. In Germany, two charities funding the organization were shut down (p. 205).   However, Hartik points out that while Western attention focuses on its â€Å"guerilla activities† in the Lebanon it is social welfare activities that attract support, making it in her view a â€Å"mainstream† organization. It has achieved more in this field, she says, than any other party (p. 81). On the other hand, it has refused to disarm. After 2001 and the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in NY, the US has repeatedly asked Lebanon to shut Hezbollah down and to close bank accounts. Lebanon has refused to do this, claiming that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization, which Syria also denies. Syria is one of four countries considered â€Å"state sponsors of terror† by the US State Department. In April 2010, reports began circulating that Syria had given SCUD missiles to Hezbollah. Syria denies this.

Organizational Culture In Strategic Management

Organizational Culture In Strategic Management Culture plays an important part in our society. It refers to beliefs and codes of practice that makes a community what it is. It also plays the same role in organizations. A strong organizational culture will provide stability to an organization as it has significant influence on the attitudes and behaviours of organizations members. Most of companys top managers have a strong awareness that the culture of a company is crucial to everything they do and plays irreplaceable part in their success. However, not many companies can admit that they can describe their culture and fully understand how important it is in the success of their businesses. Therefore, this paper will give a deeper insight about how an organizations culture can have a great influence on its strategic management processes. What is Organization Culture ? There are various explanations and elements to define organizational culture. For some, it means top management beliefs and values about how they should manage the organization and conduct the business (Lorsch 1986). For some, it is an evolutionary process relating to people that creates unique characters for the organization (Hatch 1993). However, in general, organizational culture has been defined as the pattern of fundamental assumptions or beliefs that a specific group has developed through learning to deal with its problems of internal assimilation and external adaptation, and that have been approved to work effectively, and therefore it can be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, feel and behave in relation to those problems (Schein 2009). The Importance of Organizational Culture in Strategic Management : Considering the importance of organizational culture and its impacts in strategic management is very essential. As organizational culture and strategies are both social processes, many strategists argue that culture and strategies are connected. According to Alvesson (2002), cultural dimension plays a vital role in all aspects of an organization. It is so impacting that it can determine the success and failure of an organization. In leadership concept, organizational culture has been identified as one the important components that strategic leaders can use to develop dynamic organization. Culture reflects the way in which people in an organization set objectives, manage their resources and perform their tasks. Culture also affects people behaviour unconsciously. Even in those organizations where the ideal of organizational culture do not receive much explicit attention, how people think, feel, value, believe and behave in a company are generally influenced by ideas, beliefs and perce ption of a cultural nature. According to Schein (2010), organizational leaders achieve success by constantly sending clear signals about their priorities, beliefs and values. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong management tool for leaders to communicate and energize their members with beliefs and values to do their jobs in a strategy supportive manner. When leaders succeed in promotion ethical culture in the organization, they will also become successful in organizational growth and consequently are competitive to their rivals. Therefore, it is very important to develop a strong culture in the organization as well as strategies that are suitable to the culture in order to be strengthened by it. If a particular strategy does not match with the organization culture, it could be almost impossible to accomplish expected outcome from the planned strategy. Organizational Culture, Vision and Mission in Strategic Management : One of the perspective to look at how organizational culture supports strategic management is through its influence on organizations missions and visions. Missions and visions play an important part in companys strategic management. According to Harrison and John (2010), a written mission statement is one of the most common way that managements use to communicate with their staffs about strategic direction. Generally, missions and visions state the companys purpose and values which provides ideals and direction for the company as it interacts with the marketplace. This will not only give a sense of purpose to internal and external stakeholders but also help them in resource allocation decisions which is very for carrying out companys strategy management. However, in order to have an effective missions and visions, managements need to connect them to organizational culture. In fact, one of the way to see an organizations culture through its reflection in core values (Schein 2010). Acc ording to Tocquigny and Butcher (2012), core values are the set of belief or ideology by which an organization operates. They are the foundation of organizational culture. In this fast paced era when everything is changing, core values are still constant. The organization may develop new strategies, policies or even significantly restructure; however, the fundamental identity of the company still remains intact. These values are the essential, foundational principles that will guide the organizations vision, mission and strategies as well as define and differentiating the organization from its competitors (Senske 2003). They create a foundation of attitudes and practices that every members have to agree to follow in order to support the vision and long term success of the organization. They also provide reference points and goals which allows organization to shape and strengthen its business. As internalized perception and beliefs can motivate staffs performance to exceptional level s, an effective strategic leaders need to understand and develop their intended implemented strategies that are suitable to organizational culture in order to pursue the vision of organizations leaders. Until organization decides what those cultural values are, and how they will interact with each other, ità ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s very difficult to do anything else, whether setting goals, establishing measurements, solving problems or even making decision effectively. One example about how organizational culture can support companys vision and mission is Facebook. Facebook is described as a cutting edge technology that constantly taking on new challenges in the worlds of milliseconds and terabyte. Their vision for the company is to create a fast changing and innovative company. They do not aim for perfection that requires a long time in order to launch the product but they weigh heavily on being able to make and ship products quickly, get customers feedback and continue to innovate it. In order to encourage creativity and innovation within the company, Facebooks culture created by Zuckerberg is a relaxed, unstructured and open culture. Employees can come and go as they please, with no standard work schedules which results in more employee freedom. If employees need to chill out, they can play video or table-top games. Collaboration and teamwork are encouraged to be in an informal communication and atmosphere. They also constantly encourage people to keeping things fresh, innovative and interesting, to be bold in experimenting new ideas, without any meddling from above. All of these have fostered for a fun-loving, casual and creative working environment which makes their staffs satisfied while achieving their goal to be a rapid innovative technology company (Robbins and Judge 2011). Organizational Culture as Competitive Advantage in Strategic Management : Another reason that makes culture become a determinant of business success or failure is due to its contribution in organizations competitive advantage. Creating and sustaining competitive advantage in a particular industry is always the major concern in organizations strategic management. This is because competitive advantage will help the organization to differentiate itself from its competitors while strengthening its position in the market place. According to McDonald and Gandz (1992), culture can contribute positively to the competitive advantage of companies. It can be a great tool for organization to increase their level of performance which makes it become more competitive in market place. Fernandez and Hogan (2003) have stated that culture is the underlying attitudes and beliefs that can strongly influence individual and group behaviour. When members in an organization share the same beliefs and values, they can understand what kind of attitudes they expect themselves and ot her people to show in working place as well as how they need to behave and react in particular situation in order cooperate well with each other. As they understand what the company is trying to accomplish, it will motivate them to work for a higher purpose which in turn helps to set an organization apart from the competition (Gilmartin 1999). Managements can also use organizational culture as an effective tool to dictate, control and manage employee behaviours in their strategic management (Sinha 2008). In fact, this is a more powerful way of managing employee than companys rules and regulations. Leaders in the company can use culture to influence, educate and shape their staff s mindset and attitude to gain their support in following the companys plan and procedure while reducing resistance in the organization. Having a strong, positive and strategy-supportive culture will affect the energy, enthusiasm, working habits and operating practices of employees which will not only booste r the efficiency and effectiveness in the department but also attract many people to work in the organization while reducing their staff turnover, hiring and training cost which results in yielding a competitive advantage. Not only contribute to companys competitive advantage , organizational culture also sustains the companys competitive advantage. As a company starts to experience the superior financial performance, its competitors will also starts to seek to copy what they believe is the source of competitive advantage that generates the success of the company. After examining the relationship between culture and superior financial performance, Barney (1986) concluded that culture is the factor that can help companies to generate sustained competitive advantage. He strongly believes that a strong and valuable organizational culture is one of the most sustainable competitive advantages a company can have. This is because a valuable and rare cultures is very difficult to imitate. Giving enough time and money, competitors can duplicate almost everything what an has done. They can hire away some of the companys best people. They can reverse engineer the companys processes. However, when it comes to orga nizational culture, they canà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t duplicate the organizations culture. It is very hard for people to define culture clearly, especially in respect of its contribution to value of companys product and service. Another reason for this is that culture is usually related to historical aspects of company development as well as to the vision, beliefs and inspiration from particular strategic leaders. Organizational culture is the uniqueness and the identity of an organization that will differentiate the company from its competitors. If companies know how to make use of culture in their strategic management, it will be a powerful tool for them to sustain their competitiveness and consistence in the market while helping them to achieve success in their strategy implementation. Even when rivals try to apply the firms cultural attributes, there will be no guarantee that they can produce the same culture or obtain superior financial performance just like what the company has achieved. A good example to illustrate this point is Zappos company. Knowing that customers nowadays not only focus on good products but they also demand excellent service from the outlets, Zapposs strategic plan is to build a long term brand that not just about shoes, clothing or online retailing but to be about the best customer service and the best customer experience. To be able to achieve this goal, Zappos believes that organizational culture is the only answer. They believe that if they can get the culture right, most of other stuffs such as great customer service, or passionate employees, or building great long term brand will naturally happen on its own. In order to make employees to deliver an excellent service, instead of just using rules and procedures like other companies to educate staffs, the managements in here have shaped their staffs mindset and attitude by using culture to transmit their message to their staffs. Zappos have created a culture that encourages employees to wow e ach other by being yourself, as crazy or weird as possible, showing your care and love for other people, and just having fun in the workplace. As the employees start to be wowed by their colleagues, they will automatically want to do the same thing for other people, especially for their customers. This culture not only makes employees to be happy in their workplace but it also encourages staffs to be creative and enthusiastic in wowing their customers which results in increase in their repeated customers and their sale performance. This culture is something unique that people usually do not find in other companies which makes it attractive to their staffs as well as to other people to work in Zappos. It becomes a competitive advantage of Zappos which cannot be copied by other competitors. It makes Zappos become more competitive and differentiate themselves from their rivals in the market place (Hsieh 2010). Organizational Culture and Strategic Decision Making : Another perspective for managements to consider about the importance of their organizational culture in strategic management is its impact on their strategic decision making. As it has been mentioned above, culture is the organization s identity, values, beliefs that influences how people, from managements to employees, behave in the organization. Therefore, Thompson and Martin (2005) have concluded that organizational culture is the heart of all strategy creation and implementation. Organizational culture provides the framework for the organization, which affects nearly all the organizational activities, from the execution of strategy to the acceptance and implementation of new processes (Soyer, kabak and Asan 2007; Hill 2009; Cumming and Worley 2009). For managements, culture affects their behaviour unconsciously. It affects the choice, incidence and application of the modes of strategy creation, which reflects the values and preferences of the strategic leader. Managements do thin g in particular ways because it is implicitly expected behaviour influenced by organizational culture. Culture also influences the selection of people for particular jobs, which results in affecting the way in which tasks are carried out and decisions are made. In addition, it influences the ability of a leader to deliver his or her ideal and vision to other members of the organization as well as gaining their support and commitment when it comes to applying new strategy in the organization. In order to have a successful strategy implementation, it requires the right attitude, approach and commitment from employees which can only be influenced by culture. When a strategy match with companys culture, the culture will become a valuable ally in strategy implementation and execution. When it is not a part of the change strategy, management will usually find it difficult to implement the strategy successfully as well as achieving their target (Lawson and Ventriss 1992). Berry (1983) also believes that it may be a wiser choice for managements to select a business or strategy that will fit their companys organizational culture well in order to shift the firm toward a new strategy instead of accomplishing cultural change, which can be very difficult to achieve. Therefore, it is very important to identify the existing cultural dimensions of the organization in order to achieve successful strategy implementation. Organizational culture can be a powerful source to support companys strategy but at the same time, it can also become a great barrier to leaders if they do not consider it carefully. By understanding the elements of organizational culture and its impact on peoples behaviour, I believes that strategic leaders will be better equipped to make wise decision in making and implementing strategies to their organization. One example about how culture influences strategic decision is Walmart. In Walmart, their philosophy is to offer customers a lower price than they can get in anywhere else. Its culture is based on low cost end of every transaction in order to make profit, not from the pricing end. With the principle of saving is important as pricing, the plan has always been to drive costs out of the system in the stores, from the manufacturers profit margins, and from merchandise brokers and other middlemen, all in the service of driving down prices at the retail level, in order for Walmart to sell more, increasing the amount of business with the vendor. In order to keep their expense low, Walmart limits its store locations to rural communities with a maximum population of 10,000. This will not only hold down real estate costs but also protect the company from heavy competition in metropolitan areas. They also try to find healthy suppliers that can provide timely deliveries at low prices. Management s in here also constantly check their competitors price to make sure that Walmart offer the best drive. All of these strategic decisions support the main principle and target which is saving costs as much as possible in order to offer lowest prices in the market (Refrigerated Transporter 2002). Conclusion : In conclusion, I firmly believe that there is a strong connection between organizational culture and strategic management. Every organization has its own unique culture. It is not only the organizations identity but also the philosophy, principles that every member in organization believe and value, which affects not only peoples attitude in the organization but also the strategic decision making and management in the company. If vision and mission of organizations leaders is the goal that the company is aiming, then I believe that culture will be the compass that leads company to achieve that goal. Without the support from organizational culture, it may be impossible for companies to achieve their intended result. Culture also plays an important role in companys competitive advantage. It is a vital element that will helps organization to protect and sustain their competitive advantage from their competitors. As organization keeps building, treasuring their culture as well as careful ly considering and applying it to their strategic management, I believe that the company will be able to accomplish their goal and their leaders vision.

The Theme of Inner Conflict in Toni Morrisons Tar Baby Essay -- Tar B

      Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, is a novel about contentions and conflicts based on learned biases and prejudices. These biases exist on a race level, gender level, and a class level. The central conflict, however, is the conflict within the main character, Jadine. This conflict, as Andrew W. A. LaVallee has suggested, is the conflict of the "race traitor."2 It is the conflict of a woman who has discarded her heritage and culture and adopted another trying to reconcile herself to the "night women" who want to bring back "the prodigal daughter."      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first of the contentions is that of race. As New York Times Book Review correspondent John Irving aptly puts it: "Miss Morrison uncovers all the stereotypical racial fears felt by whites and blacks alike." Prejudice exists between the white and black people in the house; between the black people of the house; the black people and the local populace. Sydney and Ondine Childs, the Cook and Butler in the house of Valerian Street, feel superior to the local black populace. Sydney remarks twice on how he is "A genuine Philadelphia Negro mentioned in the book of that name" (284). Part of this feeling of superiority might be class-related. The Childs' are very proud of their positions in the Street house-they are industrious and hardworking. The Dominique blacks are to them "swamp women" or "horsemen"--depersonalized figures. This is most apparent in their ignorance of their help's names--they dub Gideon, Thà ©rà ¨se, and Alma Està ©e "Yardman" an d "the Marys." At Christmas dinner Valerian adds epithets calling them "Thà ©rà ¨se the Thief and Gideon the Get Away Man." (201). But as Judylyn Ryan points out, "Both the superordinate and the subordinate exercise this prerogative of nam... ....38/.black/.bmorris.html LaVallee, Andrew W. A. "'Faces as Black as His But Smug'-The Race Traitor in Morrison's Tar Baby." Online Internet. 1 May, 1997. Available: http://ocaxp1.cc.oberlin.edu/~alavalle/morrison.html Moon, Yonghee. "Rootedness." Paraphrase. Online. Internet. 1 May. 1997. Available: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~yongmoon/root.html Morrison, Toni. "An Interview with Toni Morrison." With Tom LeClair.Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists. Ed. Tom LeClair and Larry McCaffery. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983. 252-61. Ryan, Judylyn S. "Contested Visions/Double-Vision in Tar Baby." Modern Fiction Studies Volume 39. N3&4. Fall/Winter 1993. 597-621. "Toni Morrison," Contemporary Authors, Gale Research, 1993. Online. Internet. Available: http://www.en.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/Morrison/tarbaby.html   

Music Piracy Is a Good Thing

Music Piracy is a Good thing Pirating music is one of the most common crimes in the world that happens everyday. However, ones you read this essay, I hope you will see this issue from a different perspective, it may not look like such a terrible crime after all. Most successful artists make in the tens of millions every year according to eHow. com. If that's the truth, how badly is piracy really hurting these people? If music piracy is effecting the artist so much then why do majority of the artists are living in mansions bigger than the White House?If pirating music hurts musicians income so badly it would show, and after all this time of pirating music it hasn't. Music piracy benefits artists more than it hurts, therefore it should be legal. Music piracy is mostly committed by people who are everyday people who have average income jobs and have families who end up being sued by big record companies over downloading music for free. It seems a bit to greedy when you look at the diffe rence in pay between the artist and the people who download the songs. ( †¦) say that the people who pirate the music are more likely to go to the show and buy the albums after downloading music (Ernesto).Also, people who pirate music tracks are very likely to develop an connection to the bands orartists and that will lead to them attending the shows, buying albums and merchandise. When putting this issue in perspective, record companies are just looking for money without any consideration for the ways of getting it. Record companies start suing people who have downloaded music for ridiculous amount of money in attempt to intimidate and scare off the fellons from downloading music illegally. The main groups affected are college kids that don't have the money.Sarah Barg was a sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sarah received an email from a label company stating that she owed $3,000 to the Recording Industry Association of America (Bratton). For that amount,, Sarah would be paying $7. 87 for each song. Majority of the songs she pirated were from the eighties and weren't even relevant anymore, and yet she was battling record company’s in court over them them. Sixty students like Sarah at UNL received the same similar, as well as hundreds sent out to over sixty other universities across the country. Not knowing ow else to handle the situation, Barg contacted her parents and they had to cover her settlement. â€Å"I don't know what I would have done. I'm only 20 years old,† says Barg. Well over five hundred students across the states have paid settlements to avoid being sued. â€Å"I see it as bullying,† UNL freshman Andrew Johnson says, â€Å"Legally, it makes sense, because we don't have the money to fight back. † Johnson illegally downloaded one song and settled $3,000 to avoid being sued for one song. The money used came from the 18 year old's college fund and he now has to work two jobs to compensate for his loss es.The record companies seem to target those can't fight back. In 2007, major record companies such as Warner music groups, Warner Bros Records, Inc. , and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, tried to sue a young girl from Texas named Whitney Harper for illegally downloading music from file sharing networks on the internet (Malisow). Whitney was at the time was sixteen years old and was being sued for a minimum of $750 per song when Whitney downloaded thirtyseven songs. That is a little over $20,000 and she is only sixteen years old.Harper tried to use the Innocent Infringer Act that would reduce fees to $200 per song. In order to accomplish that, Harper had to prove she was unaware of the copyright laws by claiming that the copyright notice placed on cds were not on the file sharing networks on the Internet therefore she was unaware. The companies referred to the sixteen-year-old as a â€Å"long term massive infringer† of copyright laws. Harper warned that if the companies won the case that downloading music off the Internet could never be innocent infringement. The Harper case is one the few after many years still going through federal court.The companies had stated they were going to begin transitioning away from suing individuals and find better means of fixing the issue. After years of record companies using an intimidation method to fix the pirating problem, it got them nowhere because the amount of pirates only went up, and the efforts by the companies were in most cases useless. According to the Wall Street Journal, they attempted suing many single mothers, a thirteen-year-old girl, and a dead peope. The new approach is for the companies to work with Internet service providers and when music is eing pirated the user receives a warning that they will lose Internet service if they continue(WSJ. com). The companies still reserve the right to sue if someone is a heavy violator or has ignored several warnings, but even with this new system, it still seems like the companies are only out for money, but in an attempt to escape negative attention from the media, they change their approach. According to The Independent, people who illegally download music also spend more money on music, concerts, merchandises than anyone else.The Secretary of State for Business, Peter Mandelson, stated that the record companies new approach to crack down on illegal down loaders by cutting off internet service could potentially harm the music industry more than help it. â€Å"The people who file share are the ones who are interested in music. They use file sharing as a discovery mechanism. † The artists also have mixed opinions over file sharing, some such as James Blunt and Lily Allen are anti-piracy and Shakira is pro-piracy(Shields). Sites have come out with monthly bills for unlimited music plans that seem fairer.Some artists don't feel affected by file sharing and support the fact that piracy creates a bigger fan base for them. Bands like Ange ls and Airwaves have produced free records so copyright wasn't an issue. They figure that the fans will still come see them play and record sales aren't the only thing to being in a successful band. Some artists don't seem to realize that. Most artists make plenty off of record sales even with a piracy problem, so court cases and law suits on everyday people by record companies seems a bit greedy and selfish.Even with the new laws, they are still pushing to stop this unstoppable problem. Today music piracy is referred to as a dead issue. Most cases that are still pending are being dropped. This year a $54,000 fine on a single mother of four was dropped by the U. S. District Court Judge, Micheal Davis, who stated piracy is â€Å"no longer monstrous and shocking. The need for deterrence cannot justify a two million verdict for stealing and distributing twenty-four songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music†(physorg. om). Thomas Rasset was convicted in 2007 and was order ed to pay $220,000, but the judge who presided over the trial called off the verdict, saying it was â€Å"wholly disproportionate and oppressive. † Her case was one of the thousands that had actually made it to court. In 2011, with new laws, these cases should not be forgotten about. The people who lost cases should be compensated and apologized to because they did nothing other than have an interest in the artist.

Ib Chemistry Experiment- Calculating Enthalpy Change

Chemistry Internal Assessment: Determining the Enthalpy Change of a Displacement Reaction AIM: To determine the enthalpy change for the reaction between copper(II) sulfate and zinc. BACKGROUND THEORY: Bond breaking is endothermic while bond forming is exothermic. The reaction between copper(ll) sulfate and zinc is exothermic as the energy required to form the bonds of the products is greater than the energy required to break the bonds of the reactants. In an exothermic reaction, heat is given off to the surroundings; thus, temperature of the surroundings will increase. By measuring the change in the temperature and using the formula Q= mc?T, we can calculate the enthalpy change of the reaction. Equation 1: CuSO4 + Zn ? ZnSO4 Ionic Equation: Zn (s) + Cu2+ (aq) ? Cu (s) + Zn2+ (aq) MATERIALS/APPARATUS: * 1 insulated Styrofoam cup * Copper(II) sulfate solution * Zinc Powder * 1 Thermometer * 1 Stopwatch * Weighing Boat * Electronic Balance VARIABLES: Independent| Dependent| Mass of zinc powder and concentration of copper(II) sulfate solution used. | Temperature of the solution| PROCEDURE: 1. Use a pipette to measure 25. 0cm3 of 1. 0 M copper(ll) sulfate to the insulated container. 2. Record the temperature every 30 seconds for 2. 5 minutes 3.Add the excess zing powder (6g) at exactly 3 minutes 4. Stir and record the temperature every 30 seconds for the following 10 minutes. DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING: Time (s)| Temperature (Â °C)| Time| Temperature (Â °C)| 30| 25| 390| 62| 60| 25| 420| 61| 90| 25| 450| 60| 120| 25| 480| 59| 150| 25| 510| 58| 180| 25| 540| 56| 210| 45| 570| 55| 240| 52| 600| 54| 270| 56| 630| 52| 300| 60| 660| 51| 330| 61. 5| 690| 50| 360| 62| 720| 49| Therefore, based on the graph shown above (representing the raw data), the change in temperature if the reaction had taken place instantaneously with no heat loss: ?T= 70. 5Â °C ? 25Â °C 45. 5Â °C The volume of the copper(II) sulfate solution used was 25cm3, thus the mass of the solution is 25g. Given that the specific heat capacity of the solution is 4. 18 J/K and the temperature change is 45. 5Â °C, as calculated above, thus, the heat, in joules, produced during the reaction can be calculated using the formula: Q = mc? T =mass of solution ? specific heat capacity of solution ? temperature change = 25 ? 4. 18 ? 45. 5 = 4754. 75 J In the experiment, 25cm3 of 1. 0 mol dm-3 copper(II) sulfate solution was used. Thus, number of moles of the copper(II) sulfate solution used: n(CuSO4) = (25? 000) ? 1. 0 = 0. 025 mol Therefore, the enthalpy change, in kJ/mol, for this reaction is: ?H = Q ? n(CuSO4) = 4754. 75 ? 0. 025 = -190. 19 kJ/mol Theoretical value/ Accepted Value= ? 217 kJ/mol Thus, percentage error = [(? 217+190. 19) ? (? 217)] ? 100 = 12. 35% CONCLUSION Thus, based on the experiment, the enthalpy change for the reaction is -190. 19 kJ/mol. However, as we can see from the above calculations, the percentage error is 12. 35%. This means that the result is inaccurate fr om the theoretical value of -217 kJ/mol by 12. 35%.From the graph, we can also see that once zinc is added to the solution (at exactly 3 minutes), the temperature of the solution increases until it reaches the terminal or maximum temperature of 61Â °C. Then, the temperature of the solution gradually decreases until it reaches room temperature again (temperature of the surroundings). EVALUATION (WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE THE EXPERIMENT? ) An assumption made for this experiment is that none of the heat produced by the exothermic reaction is lost to the surroundings and that the thermometer records the temperature change accurately. However, this is very unlikely to appen in reality, which would explain the percentage error. Thus, to improve the experiment, we can try to minimize the heat loss to the surroundings. This can be done by place a piece of cardboard (or any other insulated material) on top of the cup to cover the top of the cup. A hole can then be made in the cardboard fo r the thermometer. Another measure that we can take is to ensure that our eye is level with the thermometer when reading the temperature off the thermometer. We can also repeat the experiment a few times and get the average of the results recorded. This would allow us to obtain a more accurate value.