Achilles Essay

Achilles set the model or heroism in the western world. Do you think Odysseus is a better model? Why or why not? The two heroes have their different characteristics and contributions to the English Literature. They were known by their every heroism acts, honored with their people and envied by their enemies. Odysseus was portrayed as a hero by the Greek because of his many virtues and, considered as a villainous falsifier by the Romans. (http/www:wikipwedia. com). He portrayed inconstant characteristics as a hero. He’s known to be cunning and deceitful, tricky and wise. One of the most influential Greek Champions of the Trojan War, a friend of Achilles whom he had convinced to join with Menelaus (King of Spartan) troops in sailing through Troy, and retrieve Helen (mistress of the King) that was abducted by Paris of Troy. Though, he tried to avoid from coming since an oracle prophesized that he’ll be delayed long in returning home if he went, but Palamedes placed his son in front of the plough which forced him to go. He became one of the most trusted advisers and counselors. He helped and brought the battle to victory. Just before the war begun, he accompanied Menelaus and Palemedes in an attempt to negotiate Helen’s peaceful return. Menelaus made unpersuasive emotional arguments, but his arguments almost persuaded the Trojan court to hand her over. He was indeed a hero of the Greek because of his strength and intelligence, his irresistible approach towards negotiations of the land’s boundaries and properties. On the other hand, Achilles was too a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer’s lliad, which takes for its theme the Wrath of Achilles. (http/www: google. com). He was known as the quickest and the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy. His great relationship with his friend Patroclus, who wore his armor the time he’s slain by Hector. On the movie â€Å"Troy†, he became more of a hero when he turned back and join the war to save the woman he first held as a captive at the first time they conquered one of the places of Troy. He showed passionate love with the Troy Princess and tried to keep her when King Menelaus invaded and murdered the King of Troy. Though, he presented a hubristic personality, however, his soft side was revealed by the time he fell in love with the Princess, being a good and trusted friend of Patroclus also. Achilles was invulnerable on all his body except for his heel, and was killed in battle by an arrow to the heel. (The movie is very visible on this part. ) Both Odysseus and Achilles were great, intelligent and peerless warriors. They were also in love when they’re forced to join the war. The first saved his son from placing in front of the plough and the later being so brave that he fear no kings, lived according to his will and desire, and went to save his Princess from danger. And though, Achilles was killed during the war and Odysseus was trying to get his armor away from Agamemnon. For me, they are just fair of becoming great models to everyone. They are heroes and great models in their own way and right. Achilles Essay Achilles possesses superhuman strength and has a close relationship with the gods; he has all the marks of a great warrior, and indeed is proved to be the mightiest man in the Achaean army. At the beginning his mind is calm and collected, he stands up justly for the men around him and shows understanding when confronting Agamemnon, however his deep-seated character flaws constantly hinder his ability to act with nobility and integrity constantly. He cannot control his arrogance or the rage that surges up when his pride is injured. This dislikable attribute of his causes him to abandoned his comrades and even pray that the Trojans will slaughter them, all because he has been insulted at the hands of his commander, Agamemnon. Like most Homeric characters, Achilles does not develop significantly over the course of the epic; his state of mind is constantly fluctuating between where his rage is being directed all through the book. Although the death of Patroclus prompts him to seek reconciliation with Agamemnon, it does not lessen his rage, but instead redirects it toward Hector. The event does not make Achilles a more deliberative or self-reflective character. Though his mind is filled with grief and despair over his friend’s death, this only helps fuel his bloodlust, wrath, and pride that continue to consume his mind throughout the epic. He mercilessly mauls his opponents, their bodies filling the river Xanthus, angering the god, which Achilles’ shamelessly takes no note to. He immorally desecrates the body of Hector, and savagely sacrifices twelve Trojan men at the funeral of Patroclus. He does not relent in this brutality until the final book of the epic, when King Priam, begging for the return of Hector’s desecrated corpse, appeals to Achilles’ memory of his father, Peleus. Yet it remains unclear whether a father’s heartbroken pleas really transformed Achilles, or whether this scene merely testifies to Achilles’ acceptance of the god’s words, as he had previously, before Priam’s arrival, been told by Zeus that his morning and defiling of Hectors body was enough. Achilles has a strong sense of social order that in the beginning, manifests itself in his concern for the disorder in the Achaian camp; a deadly plague is destroying the soldiers, and Achilles wants to know the reason why. His king, Agamemnon, will not act, so Achilles decides to act: He calls for an assembly of the entire army. In doing this, Achilles upsets the order of protocol; only Agamemnon can decide to call an assembly, but Achilles does so to try to return order to the Achaian camp. He succeeds, partially. He finds out why the plague is killing hundreds of Achaian soldiers, but in the process, he creates disorder when it is revealed that Agamemnon is responsible for the deadly plague. Thus, Achilles’ attempt to return order to the Achaian camp does little, ultimately, to establish order. Apollo lifts the plague, but after Achilles withdraws himself and his troops from the Achaian army, disorder still remains among the Achaians. Agamemnon, of course, is as guilty of creating the ensuing disorder as Achilles is, but Achilles seems petulant and argumentative. He is undermining the little harmony that does exist. In his argument that Agamemnon receives all the best war prizes and does nothing to earn them, Achilles forgets the valuable prizes that he has received. His rage even causes him to almost attempt to kill Agamemnon, but the goddess Athena saves him from this deed. It should be noted that Achilles does not leave the Achaian army without sufficient reason: Agamemnon demanded to have the maiden Briseis, Achilles’ war prize, and Achilles saw this act as a parallel to Paris’ kidnapping of Helen — he sees himself in the same position as Menelaos. Consequently, the quarrel between himself and Agamemnon is as righteous to him as is the war against the Trojans. But even after Agamemnon offers to return Briseis, along with numerous other gifts, Achilles remains angry, indicating that one of Achilles’ major character flaws is his excessive pride. The gifts that Agamemnon offers do not compensate for the public affront, the public insult Achilles believes he has suffered. A concern for gifts, the reader realizes, is far less important to Achilles than his concern for a proper, honored place in the world. After all, Agamemnon had previously given gifts and then taken them back. He could do so again, so the promise of more gifts is possibly an empty promise. This idea of social status is in keeping with the heroic code by which Achilles has lived, but in his isolation, he comes to question the idea of fighting for glory alone because â€Å"A man dies still if he has done nothing. † The idea developing in Achilles’ mind is that the concept of home (or family) and the individual are both important to society and to a heroic warrior. (Hektor is the embodiment of this view. Some critics see these ideas slowly developing through Achilles’ ability to relate to others on a personal basis, as he does with Patroklos, and as he does in his guest-host relationship with the ambassadors from Agamemnon. However, it is only after Patroklos’ death that these relationships and broader concepts of love begin to become significant for Achilles. Ironically, with the death of Pa troklos, Achilles begins to see life and relationships with other people from a mortal point of view, and at the same time, he is drawing ever closer to the divine aspects of love. He has an obligation to avenge Patroklos’ death, and he realizes his own shortcomings as Patroklos’ protector. He also sees that his sitting by his ships is â€Å"a useless weight on the good land,† something that is causing the deaths of many Achaian warriors. Unfortunately, however, Achilles is unable to see that the Achaians feel his withdrawal as keenly as he now feels the loss of Patroklos. It is Achilles’ anger, whether he is sulking or whether he is violent, this state of mind is paramount throughout most of the epic. Achilles’ violence closes with the death of Hektor and with Achilles’ mutilation of Hektor’s corpse. By now, under Zeus’ firm hand, the gods have moved from their own state of disorder to order. When the gods see Achilles act without any sense of pity for Hektor or his family, they come back into Zeus’ all-wise fold of authority. And eventually, through his mother, Thetis, even Achilles is finally persuaded to acquiesce to Zeus’ will. In the end, Achilles is exhausted. His passions are spent, and he consents to give up Hektor’s corpse.

Gender Roles Defined

All the Pretty Horses would be widely considered a fairly typical western in the traditional sense. There are many of the common western tropes that exist explicitly and implicitly within the novel. While much of the idealistic â€Å"western† characteristics appear in a blatant manner, the novel is laced with incidents and dialogue of seemingly little consequence or significance at first glance. There are many occurrences which are overlooked in the story that represent and support a common and major idea that is stated in a more major or explicit form at other times.The role of gender is one such idea. In the early stages of the novel, the conflict which sets the entire story in motion takes place as Cole's mother has decided to sell the ranch now that his grandfather has died. Cole is distraught over this as the ranch is his desired lot in life. He attempts to talk to the familys attorney after attempts at persuasion with his mother fail only to reach similar end. The reason ing the attorney postulates for his mother's decision is a minute detail of the scene but brings about an interesting and otentially underlying idea throughout the story.His rationalizes her motives on the basis that, â€Å"she's a young woman and my guess is that she's like to have a little more social life than what she's used to† (McCarthy 17). This determination does not come off as explicitly Judgmental but simply a plausibly suggestion for her actions. Upon closer examination however, it proves to be more meaningful. The attorney is asserting Cole's mother's social life as a legitimate reason for her to forfeit the ranch her father had built from the ground up and worked so hard for.There is no such concern mentioned for the sixteen year old John Grady whom is interested in not only keeping the ranch, but running it himself. The adolescent stage of life in generally considered the pinnacle of social importance in society as adult relationships begin to form and develop. This is a very biased Judgment on the attorneys part based on a very glaring difference between Cole and his mother which is their gender. Mrs. Cole's social obligations appear to him as a legitimate reason for her to back out of the hard work, and presumably things considered â€Å"man's work† ecessary to run the ranch which she had inherited.It appears through his acceptance about Cole's mother and her decision, reaction to Cole's request, and lack of concern for his social needs that the attorney is convinced of his mother's inability to run the ranch without much displeasure because of her gender inferiority. There is no question of the ability and willingness to struggle by both Cole and his grandfather but there is a quick dismissal of the lack of drive and ambition to keep the ranch by the female entity.Such a characteristic of women as playing an inferior role to males is shown elsewhere in the novel. Examples of this ideal being maintained in the story came also in more explicit form. One such an example is in an exchange between Rawlins and Blevins as they discuss the riding skills of Cole. Rawlins is fishing for a positive response from Blevins to support his highly held esteem of Cole so asks he poses a clearly untrue and negative statement that, † suppose I was to tell you he's never been on a horse a girl couldn't ride† (McCarthy 8).This assertion is intended to draw a clear reaction to me being false due to the absurdi ty ot a male, let alone the Jonn Grady Cole, be ot a lesser ability ot riding a horse than a female. The reference to the female gender inferiority in that statement is understood by Blevins despite not being in close relations previously with Rawlins which shows an encompassing ideal that women are inferior to men. The male superiority trope surfaces again later in the novel as Rawlins and Cole come across the ranch which they work for. Rawlins observes the use of female horses as work horses and is surprised by such an act. Well†¦ I can see why theyre hard on a horse. Putting up with them bitches† (McCarthy 102). Rawlins is suggesting by his surprise in the use of female horses to perform work as opposed to males that the females are incapable, whatever the species, of performing the tasks and duties that are expected of and within the ability of a male. Along with their inadequacy he also sympathizes with the ranchers having to deal with the less desirable temperament of he females and promotes the subsequent assertion of physical dominance over the animals do to their supposed inferior gender.Such dominance would be easy to gain due to the lack of supposed equality between rider and horse as the riders are male and therefore more capable according to the ideology. Gender inadequacy is even given as verbally explicit presence in the eyes of the novel as possible when Alfonsa. Her concern for the relationship between Alejandra and Cole rests in the unfair but concrete views o f society on the morals of women compared to that of men â€Å"There is o forgiveness. For women. A man may lose his honor and regain it again. But a woman cannot. She cannot† (McCarthy 137).Alfonsa's extremely blunt but realistic views on how people perceive and forgive actions committed by men and women paints a black and white picture of the glaring inadequacy the novel's ideals carry for gender. Essentially she is saying that males lay above reproach or at least may atone for their sins or supposed sins but females are held to a much harsher standard with a greater punishment in that they cannot regain the positive image society has nitially placed upon them no matter what action that take to rectify simply because of their sex alone.The implicit and roundabout assertion of the attorney to Cole lay the foundation for a very prominent ideal of the story. Female inferiority to males is illustrated explicitly and has no bounds in terms of the realm of inadequacy or even the species as it appears to be universal. Such flaws of women can't even be atoned for in the eyes of the story as forgiveness is only available to those fortunate enough to be seen in society as forgivable because of their superiority.

The Negative Effects of Violence on TV Essay

The sum of force on telecasting presents is inacceptable. The stuff that you see on shows that are â€Å"supposedly for kids† merely don’t seem like it. As more and more violent telecasting shows and plans are aired every individual dark. childs are affected by it in a negative manner. Surveies have shown that disclosures of force to childs at early ages will impact them mentally. They will either get down to believe nil of force. or be over-frightened because of what he/she may hold seen on Television. The Television channels should non be allowed to expose this sort of stuff and force to childs at such early ages. because of the aftereffects it will hold on the adolescents and kids. First of all. there is manner excessively much force on telecasting whether it is on some premier clip channel. or even a Saturday forenoon sketch plan. For some premier clip Television shows. there are three to five hours violent Acts of the Apostless per hr. For every Saturday plan for childs. there are about twenty to 25 violent Acts of the Apostless per hr. ( Frazier ) This shows how much force there is on â€Å"children shows† . In a sample for the National Television Violence Study. it was found that around 60 per centum of ten-thousand telecasting plans contained violent stuff. ( Kunkel ) That is a batch! That survey â€Å"identified an norm of 6. 000 violent interactions in a individual hebdomad of programming across the 23 channels that were examined. including both broadcast and overseas telegram webs. More than half of the violent shows ( 53 % ) contained deadly Acts of the Apostless. and one in four of the plans with force ( 25 % ) depicted the usage of a gun. ( Kunkel ) That means that the bulk of telecasting shows. whether for kids or non. will hold force on that plan more than half the time. ) Statisticss besides showed that the mean plan for kids more frequently contained more force so the mean Adult Television. Even in some â€Å"G† rated films. there is force. That is excessively unhealthy particularly because of the effects it causes. Now. if you put that stat along with how much kids watch Television daily. â€Å"An mean American kid tickers telecasting 21-23 hours per hebdomad. ( Frazier ) That means per hebdomad. 60 per centum of those 20s or so hours will hold something violent that will hold a negative consequence on the kids. Besides. harmonizing to the American Psychiatric Association in 1996. striplings will hold viewed 10. 000 fake slayings and 200. 000 Acts of the Apostless of force by the age of 18. ( Frazier ) Besides repeated exposure to force from telecasting is unhealthy for the child’s character. With childs being around force while watching â€Å"kid’s shows† . â€Å"the child becomes less sensitive towards its effects on victims and the human enduring it causes. ( Boyse ) Research has proven in the past old ages that the force on telecastings so has a negative consequence on kids. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health in 1982. force is said to take to aggressive behaviour by kids and adolescents. Even before this. one of the most well-known surveies done in 1963 by Bandura proved that force has a important consequence on the people that view it. â€Å"He had a group of kids view a Television picture of a theoretical account who kicked and punished an hyperbolic plastic doll. After the screening. the kids were placed in a rumpus room with other kids who had non seen the picture. Those that saw the picture displayed significantly more aggressive behaviour than those who didn’t. † Other surveies showed that childs who saw violent sketchs had a high opportunity to non portion their playthings with others. Another survey made in 1972 with Liebert and Baron. confirmed the findings of Bandura. â€Å"This survey investigated children’s willingness to ache other kids after sing aggressive Television plans. Two groups of kids watched a different Television plan. one of which had aggressive content and one of which was impersonal. Those who saw the aggressive plan ( The Untouchables ) were found to be more willing to ache another kid after sing the plan than those who watched the impersonal plan ( a path race ) . † ( Frazier ) These harmful effects from the force portrayed on telecasting are grouped into three primary classs ; â€Å"children’s acquisition of aggressive attitudes and behaviours ; desensitisation. or an increased unfeelingness towards victims of force ; and increased or overdone fright of being victimized by force. While all of these effects reflect inauspicious results. it is the first – an increased leaning for violent behaviour – that is at the nucleus of public wellness concern about televised force. † ( Kunkel ) Back to desensitisation. â€Å"According to the article â€Å"Media Violence. † the American media shows heroes justifiably utilizing force as a agency to decide struggle. The American Academy of Pediatrics website suggests that drawn-out exposure to this type of force additions credence of force as a agency of work outing jobs. The 1995 to 1997 AAP National Television Study showed that 61 per centum of programming â€Å"portrayed interpersonal force. much of it in an entertaining or glamorized mode. † Children are drawn to such scheduling when the violent act seems phantasmagoric and the deficiency of effect attractive. † ( Adams ) He besides stated that force is both sanitised. â€Å"By sanitized. immediate hurting and agony by victims of force is included in less than half of all scenes of force. More than a 3rd of violent interactions depict unrealistically mild injury to victims. grossly minimizing the badness of hurt that would happen from such actions in the existent universe. In amount. most word pictures sanitize force by doing it look to be much less painful and less harmful than it truly is. By glamorized. I mean that force is performed by attractive function theoretical accounts who are frequently justified for moving sharply and who suffer no compunction. unfavorable judgment. or punishment for their violent behaviour. More than a 3rd of all force is committed by attractive characters. and more than two-thirds of the force they commit occurs without any marks of penalty. † ( Kunkel ) One other job kids might confront is overexposure to force. â€Å"Overexposure to force. and peculiarly realistically depicted force. may take kids to believe that the universe is chiefly a unsafe and insecure topographic point. They may get down to overrate the possibility that they will be victims of force. go forthing them with undue anxiousness and emphasis. ( Frazier ) Other than doing emotional jobs. it can do some harm to a child’s turning character or ethical motives. â€Å"Sigmund Freud believed that kids need to develop a sense of morality by the age of five or they could see troubles later in life. If a kid doesn’t learn to understand the difference between right and incorrect. she will non develop a proper apprehension of guilt or compunction. and will therefore be more likely to prose cute heedlessly in behaviours that are considered socially and morally incorrect. The article â€Å"Children. Adolescents. and Television† states that research has shown telecasting force to hold a negative consequence on the academic public presentation. gender. organic structure constructs. and self-images of immature viewing audiences. which can take to violent or aggressive behaviour and substance maltreatment. † ( Adams ) Nowadays. with all of these â€Å"reality shows† on MTV. The E Network. etc. it’s easy and normal to see force. Childs that watch â€Å"The Kardashians† and â€Å"Teen Mom† see their favourite famous persons act in a manner that is unprofessional on telecasting. but they don’t know better. They want to be merely like them. Television shows like those really use force and â€Å"incidents† to assist raise their evaluation and popularity. ( Caning ) With all of these mental effects caused from excessively much screening of force. this proves how telecasting scheduling should be more sensitive for the content made for kids. In add-on. parents should besides seek and lend in filtrating what their kids watch on telecasting. There are different stairss you can take. that can perchance let your kid to non be exposed to such force on Television shows. You can seek and watch telecasting with your childs. That manner. you’ll know what they watch. and you can command the content. ( Boyse ) Other options include previewing the content of the plan or possibly merely assigning them a shorter sum of clip to watch Television. At least that manner. there is a smaller opportunity for force in the smaller clip slot. ( Frazier ) One other good manner to maintain your child’s mind off of telecasting would be to seek and acquire them involved like other activities. Sports. reading. jobs. etc. ; anything like that. Another good thought would be to seek and speak to your childs about force in media. If you can explicate to them why force is incorrect. so you can be more alleviated and swear them. ( Boyse ) Good communicating is cardinal. If you try to convert to your kid that you are merely seeking to be concerned and caring. they’ll understand the point you are seeking to do. In decision. I believe that kids deserve better than what is presently traveling on. As their function theoretical accounts. we need to assist do their â€Å"future† safe. We need to ban all force from children’s scheduling. Television channels shouldn’t be allowed to expose inappropriate stuff and force to striplings. It causes them a batch of emotional hurting. even physical. Children are like sponges. They absorb what they hear or learn. If at an early age. they are exposed to force. killing. particularly on telecasting. where effects aren’t even addressed†¦ That’s non a healthy manner for kids to turn up. It’s best that we keep that off from the inexperienced person.

Teaching Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teaching - Personal Statement Example I confronted him along with his parents. I was so shocked with their reactions. They told me that education doesn't really count. People need to be practical. They just wanted his son to get by. I was seething with anger, but I tried to listen and understand their point of view. Somehow, they made sense and I sought a compromise. After that incident, I never tried to impose my value system to others. So instead of seeking questions with definite answers, I always try to provide open-ended questions. I facilitated healthy discussions, but I did not give my own conclusions and let my students decide. National standards consider relationship to be an indicator of quality care, however most assessment tools lack criteria for evaluating the strength of these relationships. If you are or were an administrator, what are some possible ways to evaluate the strength of these relationships in your school Since neither definite criteria nor assessment tools were delineated, as an administrator, I will simply formulate the school's policies regarding this. If the quality of relationships is to be determined, it will be through subjective reports analyzed by a specialized committee. For example, how do we measure the quality of relationship in a particular class The home room teacher must provide periodic reports on this. The same should be done by a selected student and another person outside to determine this. The special committee of teachers and parents can analyze the reports and will submit recommendations. There are other possible ways but this suffices. Discussion 3: In thinking back over the year as a preschool teacher, what changed for you regarding your beliefs about what it means to be a teacher of young children How will this change impact your continued growth as an educator I am a kind-hearted person, and most of my teachers in Teaching College tell me to be soft with children, which I instinctively do. However, I realized I should have been and must be tough. For me, tough means I have to be a disciplinarian. It is bad to give children the impression that the world will be lenient to whatever you do. It must be shown as early as possible the consequences of anything you do. When I was a child, I was always being bullied. This led me to grow up being timid. Until one day, I saw one boy bullying another. I intervened and talk with the bully but he kept doing it. Until one day, the bullied have had enough. He fought back and really hurt the bully. I brought the two to the principal, where we agreed to mete disciplinary action to the two. Thinking of this incident, I realized how I am so lenient. I need to be stricter and more of a disciplinarian. Also, I learned that we should teach kids to be assertive. Or else, the powers that be can and will impose abuses on people. We must not let this continue to happen. And now, I'm glad that I am more assertive and even gladder that I teach kids to be

11 Movie Reviews Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

11 Reviews - Movie Review Example This movie is just as good as the first two, and I would say that it is one of the funniest movies that I have ever watched. What makes the script so good is the interplay between Chief Inspector Lee, played by Jackie Chan, and Detective James Carter, played by Chris Rock. Some of the lines that these two actors used had me laughing nonstop. The movie begins with the introduction of the Triads, a Chinese criminal organization, and Lee and Carter pursuing an assassin at the World Criminal Court. The next scene is perhaps the best scene of the whole movie. The clues lead Carter and Lee to a martial arts studio, where a giant martial arts expert confronts them. The conversation goes back and forward between Carter and the martial arts expert, with the words â€Å"you† and â€Å"me† used in a confusing manner. After this, the clues lead the two of them to Paris, France. The first place they go to is a triad hideout, where Lee manages to kill a Triad assassin called Jasmine, and Carter meets a beautiful lady, Genevieve. After Carter and Lee are told that Shy Shen, the leader of the Triads, is not a person but a number of leaders, they discover that Genevieve has the list of Triad leaders tattooed onto her forehead. The action then switches to the Eiffel Tower, where Lee and Carter go to get back Soo-Yung, an old friend of Lee. Lee manages to defeat Kenji while Carter saves Soo-Yung. The movie ends with Jackie Chan and Chris Rock walking off into the distance while dancing to the hit song â€Å"War.† Some of the scenes in this movie are similar to the prequels, but the movie still provides plenty of entertainment. Movie Review #2 – Avatar This movie was perhaps the coolest movie that I have ever watched. In fact, Avatar has now become the highest grossing film of all time. This is largely due to the fact that the movie was made in 3-D. The director of this movie was James Cameron, who is an Oscar award winning director for his work on the film Titanic, which was the previous highest grossing movie of all time. The movie starts off showing humans invading a foreign world, Pandora. The lead character, Jake Sully, played by Australian actor Sam Worthington, has been chosen to replace his brother on the mission to Pandora. Where it gets complicated is that Sully is a paraplegic, but this all changes when he gets to use his very own avatar, which is a creature similar to the local population but used by humans. On a mission into the woods, Sully gets separated from the rest of his crew. While he is lost, a local Na’vi, Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, finds him and brings him back to her people. Back at the human base, the head of the security force is convinced to let Sully build a cover with the local population in order to gain their trust. The humans have the goal of getting hold of a mineral that is more valuable than anything else. To achieve this, the local Na’vi population must move so that the humans can go in and use the resources. This does not happen because Sully chooses to stick with the Na’vi and fight the humans for control of the land. The last scene is a huge battle between the humans and the Na’vi, which the Na’vi triumph in of course. At the end, Sully is accepted into the local culture and becomes one of them. In my opinion, Avatar is the greatest movie spectacle of all time. Movie Review #3 – Shrek The movie Shrek is one that became very successful all around the world in large part due to the quality of actors in the movie. Mike Myers (Shrek), Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona), and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) all brought star power to a movie that was

Research Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research Design - Essay Example The researcher considers the impact of confounding variables while attempting to establish the effect of the treatments by measuring changes in the dependent variable. Central to this design is random assignment. In a sense, this is the only design that can truly establish to greater degree than other designs the cause-and-effect relationship between and among variables. This is done through statistical methodologies to measure if the changes observed are significant enough to warrant causality. An example of these statistical tools is the ANOVA. The quasi-experiment, as opposed to the true experiment, does not employ random assignment. Instead, the subjects are chosen out of convenience to be part of a particular group. It can be said then that somehow the researcher may be measuring the effects of confounding variables rather than the target variable. Moreover, the reason for including the subjects in a particular group can in itself serve as a confounding variable. However, this design also has a means of comparing groups. It also uses statistical tools to account for a cause-and-effect relationship. The single-case design relies solely on an individual subject or a group of subjects to test and compare the effects of treatments. Central to this design is the baseline measure from which the researcher compares the posttest measurements.

Police Leadership and Code of Silence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Police Leadership and Code of Silence - Essay Example Also, the study identifies other ways additional to the proposed ones to handle the code of silence. The paper also, analyzes effectiveness of a properly led police organization. Proper leadership within the police department can make a positive difference in the police organization in regards to, handling the code of silence. This could be made possible by doing the following; ensuring accountability to all those in the police department whereby all those in the police department should be held responsible for their actions. This will make them responsible as they will be answerable for whatever action they take. Also, strong disciplinary actions should be taken against those who violate human rights; this will enable the policemen to ensure that do their duty responsibly and do not in any way break the rule on human rights. With the introduction of socialization, the police leadership would have greatly contributed in handling the code of silence; this through psychological testing where they are subjected to a screening mechanism both while in training and when they are on duty. This will ensure the police officers are aware of the limits that they cannot break. Police supervision should also be embraced. Police officers should be supervised while they are carrying out their duties to ensure they do their duties diligently without any harm to the community and in accordance with the set rules and guidelines. Other than this, the community and the police should socialize and work together. Here, police officers and the community will live as friends. This will ensure the hatred between the community and police officers is ironed out and that the two groups, police and the community, work together in fighting crime. It will enable the police to give better services to the community (Stojkovic, et al., 2002). Police supervision is an essential part of the police department in handling the code of silence. It is necessary in that the police officers will be acco untable in what they do to their front line supervisors. This will ensure there are no favors’ in case handling and in turn ensure that justice is achieved. Supervision is also crucial in ensuring that police officers follow rules while carrying out their duty; this will eliminate the blame game and make it easy to identify those who break the law. Another reason why police supervision is important is to ensure that the officers get the best and the required training. This will equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to handle the citizens. Supervision also promotes integrity; where the officers do and say only what is right. This will help eliminate cases like that of Frank Jude where the police covered up for each other. Police supervision is important in that it promotes justice because the wrong doers are punished (Stojkovic, et al., 2002). Police organizations are not different from other organizations when it comes to the code of silence. This is because the organizations have a set form of leadership and seniors to whom they should be accountable just like the other organizations. There are other ways to address the code of silence issue in the police organization. One such way is ensuring that there is a set of standards to be followed. This will ensure that the officers adhere to the standards and know whenever they are breaking them. Another method is the introduction of refresher courses; where the office

Motivation and leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Motivation and leadership - Assignment Example It is one of the most vital reasons behind the success of any organization. The productivity of any organization depends upon the leadership skills that are exhibited by the managers at different levels. These skills help in improvement of the present business procedures. The managers have the ability to handle tough managerial situations by implementing the leadership theories and models within their functioning activities. Various leadership theories would help in the increase of productivity and maximization of the advantages of innovation followed by achieving competitive advantage over the competitors. It is the responsibility of the leaders to motivate the employees and improve their performance. Motivation acts as another important concept stimulating the performance of the employees thereby improving the overall performance of every organization. The project deals with implementation of leadership and motivational theories and models in RasGas. ... The company is renowned for being one amongst the top global energy suppliers in this world (â€Å"Global Energy Supplier Striving for Excellence†). It oversees or manages its business operations related to all the seven LNG trains and handles helium production related operations, sales-gas production related operations, various shipping contracts and international commercial partnerships (â€Å"RasGas sets Train 7 in motion†). The company puts great efforts in managing all the seven LNG trains effectively (â€Å"RasGas getting Train 5 on track†). 1.1 Issues or challenges faced by RasGas It is very important to determine the organizational structure of a petroleum or gas producing company. The structure helps in considering how authority is allotted and responsibility is assigned. The actual organization structure of the oil companies in the oil and petroleum industry differs depending upon its size and diversification in the business activities. The oil produces can also be categorized as integrated or independent companies. RasGas is an integrated company having various departments. Each department performs its functions in a distinct manner. There are separate procedures for completion of the business operations in every process. It is known that Qatar is a region enriched with huge natural resources. Thus, the company has huge scope to show its excellence. The company has functional organizational structure. A functional organization structure is the one which consists of series of activities within the structure. The activities include coordination, controlling, supervision followed by task allocation. This term ‘organizational structure’ relates

Leadership Competencies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Leadership Competencies - Essay Example First is the competence to manage change in the organization. This enables the leaders to maintain the focus of the company on achieving its goals and objectives despite the changes that may occur affecting the company’s operations. Setting of strategy and vision is a leadership competence that helps the leaders in my organization to put the entire organization at the focus of the company’s long term goals. Leaders in my organization also enhance business skills and knowledge through mentoring and giving adequate work experience to their juniors (Topping, 2002). Leadership competencies that involve leading one’s self are very critical in the providence of effective leadership in the organization. These involve the demonstration of integrity and ethics by the leaders themselves. The display of purpose and drive while maintaining self-awareness is also an admirable leadership competence. It is usually better for a leader to lead by example. The last category of leadership competencies as witnessed in my organization involves those that concern the leadership of others. This involves effective communication and the building and maintenance of working relationships. They facilitate the coordination of staff towards the achievement of the organization’s

Stage 2&3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Stage 2 - Essay Example It is from this perspective that adolescent girls become an important subject of discussion due to the fact that adolescent girls have been found to be easily influenced by socialization, social influences, peer pressure, and social acceptability (Koplan, Liverman and Kraak, 2005). In effect, adolescent girls are more likely to make purchases of particularly food and nutrition products not necessarily because of the personal experience or education they have with the food, cosmetic or drug but because of the influences they receive from peers to purchase. It has even been established in research that due to the physical and biological changes that these girls experience at adolescence, they become more concerned about their bodies at teen ages and thus look for every means possible to appear as they find pleasing in their own eyes (Lackey and Kaczynski, 2009). Because of some of the key variables discussed about teen girls on their physical and biological changes and the quest for mo st of them to achieve a perceived perfect body appearance, this group has often become the target group for most advertisers in the food and nutrition industry. Due to the existing delight from the girls themselves, the advertisers often portray their food, cosmetic and drugs to have the potential of making these girls achieve the perfect bodies that they require or desire for themselves. As reflected in the second research question that seeks to answer the question of ways that advertisements influence the perception of girls on food products and services, Hindin, Contento & Gussow (2004) note that food products and services advertisements do not always represent the holistic truth about what they seek to portray. Rather, they target the intuitions of their audience. This way, they only emphasize on things which when audience hear will draw them to making purchase products advertised. This means that the case is not always holistic or true in what the girls are told in advertisemen ts. Where there is lack of holistic presentation of information, the advertisers have been accused of keeping key information on products that has to do with side effects and risk effects of their food, cosmetic and drugs (Luder, Melnik and DiMaio, 2008). Based on the review above, the second research question will be particularly important in answering because it will open the understanding of girls on the purpose for advertisements and the need for more holistic approach to be taken towards the making of purchases rather than basing sorely on what is presented in advertisements. By holistic approach, reference is made to the need not to base decisions on only what is presented on the face of advertisements but also take time to read extensively about advertised products and services from other sources. Once this is done, the aim for the first research question will be achieved because girls are going to be offered more and more options and bases for taking decisions on purchases. Where the accusation is also with false advertisement, the reports have been that what advertisements present is not what the products or services can really offer. In some other cases,

The Ferocious creature Essay Example for Free

The Ferocious creature Essay The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, takes place during the antebellum era, and revolves around a young boy, named Huck. The antebellum era was the years right before the Civil War, so Huck was living in a dark and murky time in American History. Huck starts off by living with The Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, who is trying to civilize him or make him to be what the perfect child should look like and make him act how a perfect child should act. Huck does not want that. He just wants to live how he wants, just like most youth want. In the novel, Huckleberry Finn befriends a runaway slave, Jim, and his adventures begin. According to Dennis Puopard, Mark Twain exposed many of the dark problems of antebellum United States. Some say Mark Twain wrote this episodic novel as a boys adventure story and that Huck is a character that children should look up to. (422) Modern readers do not see Huckleberry Finn as a childrens book because the book is racist, there a themes of lying, and characters object and criticize authority. Because, modern readers see the book as improper for children The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is on the banned books list on many school in the United States. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are racial slurs, lies, and profanity. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a childrens book in todays society because of the prominent theme of race. The topic of race and racism is strong in todays society. If a modern American citizen uses racial slurs against another race in a hurtful way that citizen would be convicted with a criminal offense. A racial slur such as the word nigger is not tolerable todays society. The word nigger was used to belittle and dehumanize African American slaves, such as Jim, in antebellum United States. Through out the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author Mark Twain includes racial slurs such as the word, nigger toward African American characters, such as Jim and other slaves. Good gracious! anybody hurt? Nom. Killed a nigger. Well, its lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. ( Twain 109). This quote shows how the white society views Jim different then themselves. They view Jim as property rather than a human with a living breathing heart. This dialoged between two white characters just shows how hurtful and cruelly someone can sound just by taking. Barbra L. Jackson professor at Fordham University in New York City says, It is hard to teach The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a diverse class because of its racial views. (63). If a college professor has a hard time teaching the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to her class, how can it be easy for high school students who are studding the novel, or even young boys whom pick up the book and start reading it? Also, Barbra L. Jackson says, I always see a lack in participation, when studying the book, the students do not want to read out loud, (64). The students do not feel right saying nigger out loud because they do not want to offend any of their classmates. The students know that the word, nigger is a taboo in modern society. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be taught or read to children because of the racial slurs. The type of racial language that Mark Twain uses in the book is offensive and crude. The exposure of the racial slurs to young children would be harmful. The young children will think it is okay to say the new words they discover from reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which would get them into trouble in the future.

Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay Example for Free

Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay On April 16, 2007 one of the most devastating mass murders in U.S history occurred at a Virginia college. Seung-Hui Cho a 23 year old South Korean alone executed the killing of 33 people by securing colleges doors to prevent escape of any students. Events such as these are truly tragic and devastating to all involved. By gathering background information about Seung-Hui Cho, we can effectively examine social development theories as they relate to Cho and review my analysis that this particular occurrence was preventable. Born in South Korea, Seung-Hui Cho immigrated to America when he was 8 years old. Although Cho was a quiet well behave child he was awkwardly withdrawn and angry (cite book). Throughout school Cho was teased and bullied which could have been the cause of his average grades throughout school. Cho’s sister Sun-kyung was often in the school newspaper and was selected to attend the most elite Ivy League Universities (Schmalleger, 2009). Cho went on to attend Virginia tech where he was recognize once again for being extremely violent and was even removed from class. Cho was referred to multiple counselors and officials where he denied all thoughts of suicide and homicide. Although Cho denied these having these thoughts students that attend Virginia Tech could see the imminent risk rising with Cho. There are many social development theories that can be applied to Seung-Hui Cho but I feel that the Life Course Perspective accurately represents Cho most effectively. With the social development perspective, human development occurs on many levels simotaneously, including psychological, biological, familial, interpersonal, cultural, social, and ecological (Schmalleger, 2009). Social development d\theories focus on delinquencies over an extended period of time as well as transitions people go through within their life span. As the Life course perspective suggests Cho exhibited showed a distinct pattern of anti-social behavior throughout his childhood and had never committed any crimes. Cho had a hard childhood and was in the shadows of his very successful sister. Even in college Cho had no friends and began to look up to other school shooters as martyrs. Although these individuals were not his friends at all in his situation they were the closest thing to having friends. In college Cho was accused of stalking women on two different occasions, was caught taking photos of the legs of female students in class and was separated out of classes. I believe that Cho’s antisocial lifestyle along with the transition any from home eventually lead him to commit the mass murder. Cho’s anti-social lifestyle seemed to escalate to criminal behaviors from the time he went off to college until the time of the Virginia Tech shooting. I believe that this tragedy could have been prevented if the proper preventative measures and treatment techniques were taken. As a boy Cho should have been taken in for a mental evaluation but I believe the integration of his family into the American society prevented that. In high school Cho being bullied and teased could have been put to a stop by teachers and surrounding students. Also when Cho started writing gruesome poems short stories and plays he should have been recommended to a counselor. Any counselor that Cho had encounters with could have been a lot more persistent in getting to the bottom of Cho’s situations. A teacher college teacher doesn’t just separate a student from her class. Finally the two females who Cho supposedly stalked could have reported Cho and pressed charges, preventing him from escalating in criminal nature. Seung-Hui Cho may have lived a particularly difficult life but with appropriate preventative and treatment measures the Virginia Tech shooting could have been prevented. One way this could have been prevented is with the support of his family. Cho’s family should have played a larger role in providing guidance and discipline and instilling sound values in Cho. Also social institutions failed him. He was bullied in teased in schools and church which could have been the reason for him being anti-social throughout his lifespan (Seung-Hui, 2013). Finally individuals in Cho’s life should have intervened immediately and constructively when delinquent behavior first occurred. After closely reviewing Cho’s background information and examining social development theories as they relate to Cho my analysis is that the Virginia Tech shooting was preventable. References Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. (5th; ed., pp. 297-341). Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hal. Retrieved from http://devry.vitalsource.com/ Seung-Hui Cho. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:22, Jul 28, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/seung-hui-cho-235991.

Violence in Films | Analysis

Violence in Films | Analysis Violence is an important part of films in order to depict the sensational and explicit appeal. Films under the genre of gangster and war featured violence as the central theme of the film. The featuring of violence in these movies had to be accounted and was justified rationally. During the world war 11, Hollywood and the OWI made films were in American involvement in that war was justified and every concept or task undertaken by them in the film was made justifiable. The Americans were shown as duty bound officers performing their duties, righteous heroes who were fighting against oppression and dictatorship. Americans were considered the heros as they possessed the right stuff that made them first in their own place. Some of the ways the justification was made were that of 1. Thematic justification: in this, the theme of the movie or the background will show social disorder and loss of control in the country, and war is used as a way to bring peace and order to that country. thus violence is justified as it is bringing social order and resulting in a positive outcome. 2. Violence as a necessary part of patriotism : all soldiers of war are shown and praised as heroes in the movies. thus during the time of war, fighting was seen as a way of expressing your patriotism for your country and the violence involved in fighting was seen as necessary part of being patriotic. 3. Ideological justification: the USA justified the violence and killing in war by providing ideological excuses such as we fight for the right to be free, we fight for democracy etc. 4. War as a rite of passage: under this justification, the hero or the character will be shown as an irresponsible, carefree teenager who goes to war to fight and learns the lessons of life there. after fighting in battles, the boy comes back home as a wise and mature man. thus violence is playing the role of a teacher, transforming juvenile boys into responsible citizens. and thus, violence is justified. 5. Alienation and dehumanizing the enemy : here, the enemy is not seen as human and is portrayed as evil and monstrous and thus killing them is justified. 6. Portrayal of hatred with the Japanese and likeness with the Chinese: Though the Japanese and Chinese look alike, Hollywood films only show hatred toward the Japanese and not the Chinese. this bias could be because china became part of the allied forces and the USA saw the Chinese as friends in the war. 7. Oversimplified Dichotomy : a war is a result of many complex problems. there is good and bad in both sides in the war. thus, it becomes difficult to choose which side to support. but Hollywood war film would over simplify complex situation in to a simple choice between good and evil: showing the USA as good and the enemy as bad, thus forcing audiences to support the USA in the war. this is also a bias that can be observed in most war movies. The 3 Hollywood films selected by the subject to analyze and identify the presence of the above parameters of justifications are: Full metal jacket Saving private Ryan Inglorious Basterds __________________________________________________________ Film 1 FULL METAL JACKET Short Introduction: this movie was produced during the 1987s. Directed and written by Stanley Kubrick, it is an adaptation of the novel The short Timers. The film follows a team/unit of US Marines through their training and the experiences that the 2 marines of the team in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The title of the movie refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by infantry riflemen. Analysis: The movie in its totality is astonishingly beautiful yet insane. It is an epic piece that shows the inglorious indignities of the war. There are numerous scenes that are violent and yet justified to be shown as per the thematic justification. In this, the theme of the movie or the background will show social disorder and loss of control in the country, and war is used as a way to bring peace and order to that country. Thus violence is justified as it is bringing social order and resulting in a positive outcome. There are numerous rape scenes, smoking, profanity, drug, nudity, intense explicit along with heavy gore violence. The movie tries to show that violence does not solve violence. Even though the absurd and explicit scenes throughout the movie depict portrayal of violence, the movie through these scenes tries to show the dark side of human behavior. Violence in the film can be seen when a couple of men are punched in the groin by the drill instructor. Also a man shooting his dri ll instructor in the chest, shows blood splattered all around the place, the shooting takes place due to the intense suffering and frustration they go through, followed by which he puts the gun in his own mouth and pulls the trigger. The movie in itself shows Violence as a necessary part of patriotism wherein in all soldiers of war are shown and praised as heroes in the movies. . The movie best captures the absurd dehumanization involved throughout the war and also through the training periods, endless pre battle waitings and the bloody cleanup after the violent war. The dialogues in the film also show the extent to which the opponents or the characters are verbally dehumanized through vulgarity and unspeakable racial dialogues. The movie depicts the dark side of human nature and dehumanization. There are themes of dehumanization and human evilness depicted throughout the movie through its gore violence. Full Metal jacket gives a chance to explore the dark side of human psyche and violent nature of humans. There is no limitation to the heroic play of ambition. War is considered as a platform to fight and show the manliness in one self. There is training to men who come from different background and socio economic status. Learning to fight is justifiable were in men fight to protect, be it from anything. This shows that fighting is considered manly, and going out to fight in the war is manliness. It is basically the rite of passage which shows the hero or the character will be shown as an irresponsible, carefree teenager who goes to war to fight and learns the lessons of life there. After fighting in battles, the boy comes back home as a wise and mature man. Thus violence is playing the role of a teacher, transforming juvenile boys into responsible citizens. And thus, violence is justified. The punch line of the movie in itself shows the characters (men) are born to kill ! This also in a way describes the Ideological justification involved in the film. Here the USA justified the violenc e and killing in war by providing ideological excuses such as we fight for the right to be free, we fight for democracy. Hence the war is justified by them as a reason to achieve something that they think is important. During the time of war, fighting was seen as a way of expressing your patriotism for your country and the violence involved in fighting was seen as necessary part of being patriotic. The intense violence in the film is thus justified in its portrayal and that it is a very important component to the film .The movie shows a lot of men dying. Be it from the opponents or the party themselves, a lot of bloodshed and yet fighting despite having lost every resources proves the patriotism involved. Fighting in the war is justified as fighting for the country. This itself shows killing and bloodshed is a part of their patriotism and right to fight for their concern. The intense bloodshed and negativity against the killers shows hatred against them and how killing them and plotting against them is justified. The movie makes us to think that there is a reason why this is happening and that the characters are doing what is right and what ought to be done. It is shown as good , the complexity in understanding the entire sphere to the film is simplified by just showing the character as superior, logical and having done something that is right and that needs to be justified whether one likes it or not . There is a sense of dichotomy involved. A war is a result of many complex problems. There is good and bad in both sides in the war. Thus, it becomes difficult to choose which side to support. But Hollywood war film would over simplify complex situation in to a simple choice between good and evil: showing the USA as good and the enemy as bad, thus forcing audiences to support the USA in the war. This is also a bias that can be observed in most war movies. ___________________________________________________________________________ Film 2 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN The movie is a screen play by Robert Rodat, and directed by the famous Steven Spielberg. It is an epic World War II objective story. Analysis: This movie is very intense, has incredible violence, brutality, messiness and dark side involved in it. The most intense parts of the film are the battle scenes. The movie is all about a group of American soldiers in World War II, who are being appointed to find, hunt and bring back Private James Ryan who is supposedly fighting somewhere in the French country side. Through the search the movie depicts the various incidents that the men appointed for the mission encounters, which also leads to death of many of the men. This shows that fighting for a cause is justifiable. Thus the USA justified the violence and killing in war by providing ideological excuses such as we fight for the right to be free, we fight for democracy we fight for a reason etc. Hence the plot in itself ideologically justified what is featured. The film throughout contains clips that depict infliction of pain and serious physical harm which are lengthy, frequent and very gory in nature. The most notable one is that of the one in the opening shot of the film. The shots starts of with the US forces landing on the Omaha Beach on the D day, which is realistic in terms of the horror of war, the injuries and fatalities involved then ,the scene lasts for 25 min. Every man in the film is depicted either dying or dead. The injuries inflicted are horrible in nature. The most memorable are the scenes that involves a man holding on to his arm that is blown off in a bomb blast, a man who is still alive on the ground with his entrails spilling out and also a scene were a solider is dragging another injured solider to the beach only to realize when he turns back that he is dragging the feet of the solider which is blown off in the blast. Hence the very depiction of violence in the movie is justified. Thus, the most interesting character in the film is the sniper played by Barry Pepper, who calls on God for strength in shooting the enemy. Thus the film throughout shows dead bodies, bloody everywhere, bodily part scattered and sometimes making the audience disgusted to look at the gruesome projection of the dead soldiers from both the parties. This explains the extent of violence and bodily violence and gore that is projected in the film, is somewhere justified as part of dehumanization and hatred against the enemy. The mission and the hunt throughout the film show the patriotism they have towards their country and men of higher order. Thus the violence involved in the mission and their patriotism that keeps them driving despite the violence is commendable. all soldiers of war are shown and praised as heroes in the movies. thus during the time of war, fighting was seen as a way of expressing your patriotism for your country and the violence involved in fighting was seen as necessary part of being patriotic. The movie shows how the men are trained for the war, and how the new entry/freshers struggle with the lifestyle involved and that fighting for the country and putting up with the violence is not an easy task .It is a mans thing and requires strength and determination. The patriotism and the extent to which men fight and give up their lives for the country and higher personnels shows how men mature over a period of time and fighting in the war is manliness and changes their way of looking at life. It is a passage of rite. The war in the movie is a result of many complex problems, along with the search mission. There is good and bad in both sides to the war. Thus, it becomes difficult to choose which side to support. But the Hollywood war film would over simplify complex situation in to a simple choice between good and evil: showing the USA as good and the enemy as bad, thus forcing audiences to support the USA in the war. This is also a bias that can be observed in most war movies. The film shows how USA s off to rescue one of their men and how justifiable they are in everything that happens or that they do throughout their journey. There is a sense of over simplifying the dichotomy. It is left to the audience to perceive the right or wrong, but the projection done by the USA gives a glance into how they justify everything they do ___________________________________________________________________________ Film 3 INGLORIOUS BASTERDS The film is one of the best known war movies, which full violence to it. The film is visually graphic in terms of the explicitly involved in it. Violence in the movie is part of the war and in the fight mission to kill Nazis. Hence violence is justified as part of the war. There are very intense scenes like in the beginning were people are shot through the floorboards, there is bloody mist and a girl running covered in blood. The strangulation, scalping of the Nazis, beating the Nazi with a bat and a baseball hitting and cutting of throat, and scalp of the head are some the extreme violence openly displayed in the film. This also shows to the extent that enemy is dehumanized and alienated, there are scenes that show the extent to which they are treated as non humans where in someone shoots in the face multiple times and the skin is lifted off the face, these torture techniques show how the enemy is dehumanized. Also towards the end, the symbol of the swastika is craved on to Waltzs f orehead, symbolizing evil. All this denotes/ communicates human tragedy dehuman. All this shows how violence is justified and how patriotic they are in accomplishing their task through any means. The movie in itself lists a lot of propaganda that is used to get their motives. Scenes where they show, Lieutenant Aldo Raine ,who assembles a special unit of Jewish-American soldiers to get to their mission, standing on a heap of dead bodies with pride, shows victory, war and killing as celebration and how creating social order can gain back control. He represents the macho man who has set out on a war and achieved the purpose and thus justifying war as a rite of passage. A sense of thematic justification is seen in the film. Eg:In the teaser, Pitt tells his troop that they are going do one thing and only one thing which is killing the Nazis. And he states that they are going to be cruel as this will show them who they are in real. He asks his troops under him to get him at least 100 scalps. The movie justifies the violence and killing in war by providing ideological excuses such as we fight for the right to be free, we fight for democracy etc. The extent of cruelty can be seen here. In order to kill the Nazis, any means to achieve social order or their motive and control is adopted. In this, the theme of the movie or the background will show social disorder and loss of control in the country, and war is used as a way to bring peace and order to that country. Thus violence is justified as it is bringing social order and resulting in a positive outcome. Violence and hatred is shown at its peak here. The protagonist takes pleasure in the violence that is being undertaken. The film glories Vengeance, revenge, disrespect to humanity in every shot. The movie oversimplifies the dichotomy by proving that they are out there to kill Nazis and they are justified in killing their enemies in the most brutal way. They put across this in a way wherein they are the superior power who knows what steps need to be undertaken and in what way. But they put it across as the right, good way of how they have fought it out. Hence leaving the audience dazed with choice of their own to react how they feel like to the extent of cruelty and brutality that the movie depicts.

The Black Death Essay -- Plague

Graveyards were full, medicine failed, parents abandoned ill children and in just six months, millions had died. It was the beginning of the Black Death. It was a deadly plague that spread through Europe and Asia from the mid 1330’s -50’s. The cause of death for twenty million people, the survivors thought it was God’s anger at something they had done and, therefore, the end of the world. In Venice, ninety thousand died and in Florence, half the population. There were three types of the plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common, the Pneumonic Plague was less common and the Septicaemic Plague was the most deadly and rarest of them all. Historians believe that the plague was caused by fleas that came to Europe from Asia on ships. At the time, people thought they were being punished by God and that they were being abandoned to fend for themselves. They thought the plague was being spread by bad smells. The plague is believed to have originated from central Asia in 1331, when the wild rats moved to live around the people, probably due to flooding and earthquakes. From central Asia, the plague spread to China and India before moving west to Iran. By 1345, the disease had spread along the trading routes to Europe. It is thought that Italian trading ships that were at Caffa also brought the plague to Constantinople, the capital of Turkey, and then to Eastern and Western Europe. The plague was then spread from person to person by bad hygiene and because the sick and dying weren’t isolated from the rest of the world. It affected more people in cities that in rural areas. This is because people in cities people are in closer proximity to each other than people in rural areas, so the germs have more people to get to than in the... ...hurch and ruling class in order to survive. Now, most people have a choice of religion and most people aren’t treated like the people of the medieval period. We have more advanced medicine and have excelled in science and knowledge. As a result of the Black Death we are now an almost perfectly civilized community that knows how to try and avoid things happening such as the Black Death. Bibliography: Mellissa Snell. (2008). Death Defined. [Online]. About.com. Available from: [23 July 2008]. E.L. Skip Knox. (Unknown). The Middle Ages: The Black Death. [Online]. Boise State University. Available from: . [23 July 2008]. Greer, V.et al. (1997) Ancient & Medieval Worlds. Mason, K.J. (2004) Experience in World History. BBC History Magazine

judahs Triumph :: essays research papers

Judah’s Triumph   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William Wyler is the director of the 1959 award-winning version of Ben-Hur. The film is an adaptation of General Lew Wallace’s novel. Karl Tunberg is credited with the actual screenplay. Sam Zimbalist was the original producer of Ben-Hur, but he died before the completion of filming. The two main characters are Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd). Another important person involved in this film is Miklos Rozsa. He composed the award-winning musical score in a total of eight weeks. Ben-Hur was released in New York City on November 18, 1959, and in Los Angeles on November 24, 1959. It was re-released in the USA in 1969. This film has grossed $70 million in the United States alone. As for location, this film was shot in entirely in Italy. Ben-Hur is one of two films to win eleven Academy Awards, the other movie being Titanic. The awards include best leading and supporting actors, best cinematography, best director, best music, best sound, and more. This film has some interesting behind the scenes trivia, most of which is in connection to the stadium or the chariot racing. According to The Internet Movie Database the design of the stadium was a controversy. â€Å"MGM asked an archaeologist what the stadium in Jerusalem had looked like. ‘Roman,’ came the reply. A second archaeologist was asked. ‘It was in a Phoenician style,’ he said. A third archaeologist was consulted, who said: ‘Stadium? I was not aware that Jerusalem had one!’ MGM engineers eventually sat down and carefully studied Ben-Hur (1926), and based their design on that.† Another intriguing fact is during the chariot race Charlton Heston’s stunt double was flipped out of the chariot. The stunt man hung on to the reigns and climbed back into the chariot. That blooper was left in the film to add more action. Marketing for this film was almost as big as the movie itself. Hundreds of toys were created, as well as Ã¢â‚¬Ë œBen-his’ and ‘Ben-hers’ bathroom towels. The Internet Movie Database also points out another big goof in editing. â€Å"Nine chariots start the chariot race. After the first crash, there appear still to be nine chariots in the race. After the third crash, six are shown, but as Ben Hur passes to catch up, clearly there [are] a total of seven in the race. After five have crashed, five are left. Messala is the sixth chariot to crash, but Ben Hur and three others finish the race.

How Do The Poets In The Selection Of Pre 1914 Poems You Have Read, :: English Literature

How Do The Poets In The Selection Of Pre 1914 Poems You Have Read, Present Different Attitudes To Death? Which Do You Find Most Convincing? What Influences Their Views? Different people have different attitudes to death. Some are afraid, some don't care. A difference of opinion is definitely shown in the selection of poems I have read. "Song" and "Remember" by Christina Rossetti suggest that she is not too bothered about death. It seems that Christina Rossetti sees death as the end, whereas William Wordsworth who wrote "We are Seven" has the attitude that love carries on and is remembered after death. Although " We are Seven" takes on a childish, almost stubborn view, the point it makes is, death cannot separate people. "Two of us in the church-yard lie, my sister and my brother, and in the church-yard cottage I dwell near them with my mother." Personally, I think Christina Rossetti's poems are most convincing as she has expressed her opinions in a realistic way. This is closely followed by "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshee Shelley, because using a metaphor has generalised what most people think about death. I think William Wordsworth's poem "We are Seven" is less convincing as it is very childish " The little maid would have her will" to me, this gives the picture of a spoilt child refusing to back down until she gets her own way! This may have been done on purpose, but it is not convincing to the adult reader because by the time you approach your adult years you are more mature and your views have been moulded by society to a certain extent. After reading the poems, I cannot see a specific pattern in which they all follow, although there is more than one category that the poems fall into. For example "Remember" by Christina Rossetti and "Ozymadias" by Percy Byshee Shelley are sonnets (a traditional form of love poetry) and "At Home" and "Song" by Christina Rossetti and "We are seven" by William Wordsworth seem to be telling a story, or giving instructions. "When I am dead, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me" "We are seven is broken up into many stanza's, each stanza developing and moving on from the previous one. It also has a definite end, which all stories have. Christina Rossetti and Percy Byshee Shelley used the sonnet form to write a poem about death, as the poems were for a lover as opposed to about a lover. This still links the traditional subject of love sonnets and these two unique sonnets about death. In "We are seven" by William Wordsworth the little girl doesn't want

Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Critique Essay

A critique on the main character in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.† This is a famous quote by Macbeth, the antagonist in William Shakespeare’s classic work, The Tragedy of Macbeth. This one line takes place when Macbeth and Banquo are returning from their victory in battle over the Norwegians. Following this quote further it could be looked at in a broader spectrum of Macbeth’s triumphs and failures. He goes from a warrior hero to a murderer, and lastly, his tragic flaw brings him to his death. When critiquing Macbeth the main points to look at are his actions, blind ambition, excessive pride, and lastly, his boldness and impression of personal invincibility which eventually leads to his death. See how he can be at the height of his life one moment and in his grave the next due to a few prophecies by witches and his blind ambition. To begin, looking at Macbeth, his actions are obviously a major flaw. In the beginning of the tragedy, his actions are looked at as heroic with his destruction of the Norwegians and King Sweno in battle. This is crucial to the play, because a tragedy depends on the downfall of an already great man. In an outside source, it is said that the lines when Macbeth killed Duncan (â€Å"unseam’d him from the nave to the chops, and fix’d his head upon our battlements†) are meant to foreshadow Macbeth’s death at the end of the play. However, as the play progresses, the major action occurs when, although Macbeth is filled with misgivings, he ascends to King Duncan’s chamber and murders him in his sleep. This shows that he is willing to kill his loyal king so that he can make the prophecies come true that he may someday be king. Following this, when Macbeth thinks back to the witches’ prophecy regarding Banquo that one of his descendants will become king. Macbeth looks at this as a threat to his own position. Unable to undo these thoughts, Macbeth hires two murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. During the Banquet the murderers contact him and explain that Banquo is dead, but Fleance escaped. Macbeth explains that he is not worried with Fleance. The final action that dooms Macbeth is when he kills Macduff’s wife and child. Macbeth goes to the Weird Sisters to hear a series of apparitions to predict his future. This first apparition is Macduff’s head warning Macbeth that a  bloody revenge of Duncan’s son, Malcolm is soon to come. When he is threatened again for his position of kingship Macbeth looks for further political survival and is also angered. He arranges the death of Macduff’s wife and children. This ultimately hurts Macbeth because it angers Macduff more, and he sides with Malcolm for revenge on Macbeth. Moreover, throughout the play Macbeth’s life if completely subverted and undermined by his insatiable ambition. At the start of the story he was reasonable enough to keep his ambition under control, although it eventually became to strong and overpowered him. However, he did control his ambition much longer than his wife who was overcome once she heard that King Duncan was coming. The first sign of Macbeth losing his ambition is with the three witches and their prophecies. Although he questions their motives, he doesn’t believe that they are in fact pushing him down a path of evil and despair. He says that their visit â€Å"cannot be ill, cannot be good.† This scene shows that Macbeth at first questions the motives of the witches, and the moral implications of killing King Duncan. He also sees his ambition forming when he doesn’t refute the title as King and in fact accepts the title of Thane of Cawdor. This shows in the lines – If Chance will have me King. Why/ Chance may crown me.† (Shakespeare; I, iii, 141-142) Macbeth’s ambition doesn’t take off until it is fueled by his wife’s great ambition. An interesting character in the story is Banquo. He parallels Macbeth in the beginning but when they both hear the prophecies he is much less accepting of them. I believe that the contrast was created to emphasize Macbeth’s tragic flaw. One critical perspective views Banquo’s function as essentially symbolic: he is portrayed as a man who, like Macbeth, has the capacity for both God’s grace and sin; but unlike the protagonist, he puts little stock in the Weird Sisters, prophecies and does not succumb to their temptations. Banquo’s reluctance to dwell on the witches’ predictions therefore underscores, by contrast, the nature of Macbeth’s descent into evil. (Scott; 238)To reiterate, looking at Macbeth’s ambition throughout the tragedy, I came to one conclusion. As time passes, a once moral man cannot hold off the temptations of the power he could achieve. This idea is stated in the following passage: â€Å"One of the most significant reasons for the enduring critical interest in Macbeth’s character is that he represents humankind’s universal propensity to temptation and sin. Macbeth’s excessive ambition motivates him to murder  Duncan, and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall.† (Scott; 236) As one can clearly see, Macbeth’s ambition clearly got to him and he couldn’t overpower it. Furthermore, the last flaw in Macbeth is his boldness and impression of personal invincibility. Toward the end of the play when Macbeth approaches the witches for three more prophesies, which seem impossible. The first prophecy is the head of Macduff warning Macbeth of a bloody revenge by Malcolm. The second is a blood-covered child who explains to Macbeth that he cannot be harmed by any man â€Å"of woman born†. The third is a child wearing a crown that explains Macbeth cannot be defeated until Birnam Wood physically â€Å"uproots† itself and moves to Dunsinane hill. Macbeth is not worried because he believes, as anyone would, these predictions are impossible. However, as the play progresses he hears from a servant that a large army is moving toward Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth ignores the warning, as he believes he is invincible. These are the beginning signs that we see that Macbeth may be ignoring his own doom due to his belief in personal invincibility. In addition, in the last portion of the play we find that English and rebel Scottish armies who march to Birnam Wood have been directed by Malcolm for each soldier to cut a branch and carry it in front of them as camouflage â€Å"to shadow the numbers of our host.† When Macbeth hears word that this has happened, he begins to realize that the prophecy has come true, but he still is trying to deny it. When Malcolm and his troops finally reach Dunsinane hill under the â€Å"leafy screens† of branches the apparition has come true: Birnam Wood has come to Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth puts on his armor and goes to battle with his army. On the battlefield Macbeth and Macduff at last come face to face. Macduff reveals to Macbeth that he entered the world by being â€Å"untimely ripp’d† from his mother’s whom. Under these circumstances he was not strictly â€Å"born† of woman. When Macbeth hears this he realizes his struggle for survival has come to an end. He realizes how foolish he was for believing in his invincibility. Macduff kills Macbeth with anger in his heart for the death of his family. These final couple scenes really show that Macbeth’s boldness and belief in invincibility end his reign of power,  and cause his death. In conclusion, â€Å"So foul and fair a day I have not seen.† Is a very appropriate quote by Macbeth for the battle at the start of the play, but also for the path of his life. In William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Macbeth, he created a character that will live on for years to come. The character Macbeth is a great antagonist because he is bought up to be a hero in the beginning of the play but because of his actions, blind ambition, boldness, and impression of personal invincibility he finds his death. This play was clearly my favorite by Shakespeare solely because of the character Macbeth and how, I, the reader could sit back and realize all of the mistakes he is making, before he realized it and was too late. Works Cited 1.) Free Essays – Blind Ambition in Macbeth. 123HelpMe.com. 02 Jan 2008. 2.) Macbeth. Cliff Notes. 26 Dec. 2007. 3.) Scott, Mark W. (Editor). Shakespeare for Students. 1992. Gale Research Inc. Detroit, Michigan.

International Human Resource Management Essay

The practise of Human Resources is moving from the traditional forms of managing people to a more strategic form whereby the Human Resources function is closely linked with organisational performance and success. This strategic form of human resources has increased the need for the Human Resource professional to understand the linkages between Corporate Strategy, Human Resource Strategy and Employee Integration. Our firm has set out to Internationalise its operations by opening to different facilities One in China Assembling and Maintaining Aircraft Engines and the other in Europe fabricating turbine blades for Aircraft engines. We have shown in the case of China the key strategies required for Organisational success and we have identified that success in China is assured if the Firm can get its strategy of Recruitment and Retention right. We have also identified that expatriate managers which are core to the operations of the facility must have a fit with the Chinese environment and as Internationally mobile employees must have an indepth understanding of the cultural and societal norms of the Chinese people thus be enabled to  manage employees to achieve success. In locating our facility in China, we chose to locate it the Shanghai area as this area is key to the aviation industry of China and has an abundance of Key Skilled and Competent people even though these people are in short supply. We have articulated a strategy for ensuring commitment and loyalty from our staff. Our Europe facility is located in the UK. We have identified the UK as a suitable location because of the abundance of the required technical skills as well as the flexible and business friendly labour laws. Even though the cost of labour is higher than some Eastern European countries, we believe that this is overshadowed by the quality of the work we would get, access to the global markets as well as the stability of the UK which is essential to the aircraft industry as delays on orders leads to very losses for all concerned in the Industry. The UK’s tax structure for business is also less stringent than comparable European economies and Airbus Industries with its main factories in France is much closer to the UK than most Eastern European countries. The issues we identified with Human Resourcing in the UK is mostly in the area of ensuring Equal Opportunities and Union/Labour Relations. The UK has very strong Unions and the laws allow the formation of Unions for willing employees thus managing this strong Unions will be one key task for HR Managers in the UK facility. We have shown in the two facilities that HR is an integral part of the organisation structure as its strategic inputs are required to guide organisational direction, visions and strategy. AEROPLANE ENGINE ASSEMBLY AND MAINTENANCE FACILITY INTRODUCTION The Peoples Republic of China is a one party state with Power centralised in the Chinese Communist Party. Though a Communist state their have been significant capitalist models applied in the certain areas of National development mainly the Economic, Industrial and Financial sectors. This liberalization of certain sectors has led to substantial growth in the Chinese economy with average â€Å"Real GDP growth rates of 10% between 2001 and 2006† (Source: Global Insight, 2007). The â€Å"Open Door Policy† adopted by China in 1979 has brought about enormous growth in the industrial output as well as the economy as a whole. As the country moved away from its â€Å"iron rice bowl† system consisting of state-owned enterprises and â€Å"lifetime† workers, various types of employment contractual agreements have begun. The past two decades have witnessed the rapid growth of Chinese and foreign owned multinational enterprises which are set to play an increasingly important role in the future of the global economy. The opening up of the vast market has created many opportunities and, at the same time, many problems to foreign enterprises. Because of the unique political, economic and cultural environment in China, it is difficult for foreign joint ventures and wholly owned foreign subsidiaries to introduce their preferred approach in managing the employees and the organisation in China. This has highlighted a crucial issue for international companies to be aware of the cross-cultural implications in the conception, design and implementation of the various market entry strategies for the Chinese markets, especially when considering the Human Resources Management strategies since Corporate Strategy will in turn determine the Human Resource (HR) strategy to be deployed. China graduates about 1.5 million students from institutions of higher learning each year. This large pool of graduates are of varying quality and those with scientific and technical degrees are very much in demand thus there is a shortage of Skilled and graduate engineers in the Chinese market.  This has led to intense competition amongst firms trying to secure these persons employment loyalties. Potential employees, having more choice in the labour markets need to be assured of the value of working for the various firms and thus Compensation and Benefit models need to be well structured. As a Wholly Owned Foreign subsidiary in the Chinese market Our Aero Engine Assembly and Maintenance firm will encounter significant challenges as a Greenfield start up within the Chinese markets and our Human Resource Strategy will be key to competitive advantage. To achieve this objective of basing our Competitive advantage on our Human Resources, there is a need for us to answer the following questions: What are the key employment issues likely to be encountered in the Chinese market? Based on the identified employment issues, what key principles of HR strategy would we suggest? What strategy are we going to deploy to manage our key skills within the firm? What other HR related issues should be considered within the Chinese market? EMPLOYMENT ISSUES IN CHINA The principle statute that governs employment and labour issues in China is the 1994 Labour Law. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security occasionally promulgates rules and regulations that supplement the law. Apart from National legislation, foreign enterprises in China are subject to Labour regulations of the area in which they operate. In June 2007, China’s parliament passed a new labour contract law requiring employers to, among other things; provide written employment contracts to their workers. To be implemented on January 1 2008, the law will require employment contracts to stipulate minimum wage and safety regulations. They  must also be drawn up within a month of starting work. The new ruling will apply to both domestic and foreign firms, except for foreign representative offices in China. These new labour laws though good for the Chinese worker do not necessarily guarantee success for a Foreign Investment Entreprise (FIE) in China. There were roughly 460,000 approved foreign companies in China at the end of 2003 (Zhou, Lu and Jiang, 2005). Many of these 460,000 firms discovered that human resources management is different in China (Zhu and Dowling, Summer 2000). CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE Some reasons adduced for the difference in HRM practise in China are though the country has significantly embraced market led business practises, central planning still exists in certain areas i.e. a government run mandatory personnel file system, a single labour union for the whole country and restrictions on city migration (Dessler, 2006). CULTURAL ISSUES Secondly the issue of culture and cross cultural sensitivities are critical to success of an FIE in China. Many HR practices commonly used in western countries being introduced through the operation of foreign invested enterprise in China, do not take cognizance of the cultural and social backgrounds in China. These cultural norms include: Preserving â€Å"Face† in Public (Chen in 1995 refers to face as a combination of dignity, self respect and prestige, one’s social standing and position as perceived by others). Another norm is the concept of guanxi. This concept is defined as â€Å"relationships that imply a continued exchange of favours which need not be founded on friendship† (Chen, 1995). The concept of time for the western manager is sequential, in short supply and strictly limits the amount of time he can afford to give to others while Chinese culturally view time as synchronic, in abundant supply and subordinate to person relationships (Trompenaars, 1993, Chapter 9). The above norms as regards Chinese culture have been ascribed to â€Å"Confucian work dynamism† as studied by Bond and his colleagues (Brewster et al, 2007). The Confucian work dynamism basically shows that countries with high Confucian work dynamism are generally long term oriented with a focus on the future, thrift and persistence. There is evidence that these cultural issues are gradually being better managed in the workplace with the adoption of training and career development programmes, and a closer linkage between personnel strategy and business strategy. EXPATRIATE STAFF MANAGEMENT The issues associated with expatriate staffing include inadequate selection methods and the lack of attention to cultural adaptability of the expatriate staff and family. Research has shown that a number of FIEs in the Chinese markets send out expatriate managers without any prior cross cultural training. The other issues encountered include the management of repatriation after the overseas assignment with issues ranging from limited continuity in International assignments, and difficulties of adjusting to more specialized and less autonomous positions at home, lack of career prospects and under valuation of the International experience. Management succession in the case of sudden expatriate manager departure and balancing the local and expatriate staff at Chinese FIEs can also be a problem. Finding local managers with strong managerial skills in the areas such as  problem solving, decision making and management of human resources could also be difficult as more foreign multinationals seek local management after expanding into China (Gamble, 2000; Melvin and Sylvester, 1997). RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION The market for skilled and graduate engineers in the Chinese market is tight resulting in rapid wage increases and high turnover rates. Poaching of employees is a common thread. Nepotism and over hiring can be a problem where there is a heavy influence of _guanxi_ and arranging for the transfer of staff from one firm to another maybe difficult due to the influence of the state and the need for staff to gain approval from former work units. The poaching of an employee could lead to liability for economic loss payable to the former employers of the FIEs new recruit. EMPLOYEE RETENTION The retention of well trained local staff has been a big challenge for FIEs in China due to the tight labour supply against overwhelming demand. To address the situation of retention most foreign owned firms in China have taken advantage of the labour laws in setting Compensation and benefits that are very competitive and also providing the other career building services into labour contracts e.g. over attachments, thus making themselves more attractive than the competition. OUR HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY IN CHINA Our firm is an aero engine assembly and maintenance in Shanghai, China. This firm is a Wholly owned Foreign subsidiary or Foreign Investment Enterprise (FIE). This strategy of market entry is as a result of a need to keep complete control over the entire Aero Engine Assembly and Maintenance process by applying World class Business and Quality Management tools. The firm has entered into partnership with Key Chinese Aero Engine parts suppliers for certain parts. These partners are recognised world wide for the quality of their products and have been supplying other aero engine  firms globally. We have recognised as fundamental to our success in China the need to employ and integrate the highest quality of staff including Home Country Nationals, Home Country Expatriates and Foreign Expatriates. Home Country Nationals are Chinese nationals based in China and recruited in China, Home Country Expatriates are Chinese Nationals who we have recruited overseas and have worked in our company with the end goal being they would be a spearhead in our move into the Chinese market while Foreign Expatriates are Nationals of other countries using their skills in China to optimise business potentials and ensure quality. Our aim is to deploy an all engaging Human Resource Strategy and our strategy is to develop the firm as a Learning Organisation. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Recruitment and Selection in our Chinese operations is going to be conducted on a localised basis with the local HR Managers being responsible for the Process of recruiting staff at the graduate level and middle management level for Home Country Nationals. The selections and recruitment of Expatriates either Home Country or Foreign would be conducted by the Head Office and the same applies for the Recruitment and Selection of senior management and executive Management staff. Where the senior or executive management staff is Chinese the local HR Managers would have an input into the process as they would have been involved in the process from the onset. Our recruitment process would differ according to the type of staff we are seeking to recruit. We would divide this process into three parts mainly Graduate Engineers and Skilled Technicians Middle Management Senior and Executive Management Expatriate Staff GRADUATE AND SKILLED TECHNICIANS The process for recruitment and selecting graduate engineers and skilled technicians would be carried out with a low cost model in mind. This is as a result of the expected high number of applications. In ensuring that we recruit the best Graduate Engineers, we would be seeking to develop relationships with Universities thereby targeting these engineers as they are leaving the Colleges and thus moulding them from the start to fit with our organisation style and culture. We would also use the mass media to reach out for applications mainly newspapers and the internet. We would deploy a web based filter system, so even though we have placed adverts in newspapers we still expect that all applications will be filled out online. The application forms would all be in Chinese but we expect any prospective applicant to be ready to learn English. Our selection process is going to be based on Testing and Interviews, we would not encourage the use of psychometric tests as we cannot assure of the validity in this environment (Chow, 2004) MIDDLE MANAGEMENT The recruiting of staff at this level would be carried out by placing adverts in newspapers, head hunting and poaching. The shortage of skilled labour in China has made employees highly mobile and thus headhunting and poaching are socially acceptable means of recruiting. Though poaching is allowed, an employer can be sued for economic damages by the former employer if the employee’s termination was not properly done. In other to ensure our indemnity any prospective employee that has been poached needs to provide evidence that his past employer has released him without any liabilities. Selection for Graduate Engineers, Skilled Technicians and Middle Management staff would be conducted via interviews. These interviews would be structured interview, job oriented questions with pre determined answers that tuned around the prospective job descriptions. These interviews will be conducted by a panel which ensures that an all round assessment is performed. SENIOR AND EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT The recruitment of this class of persons would be carried out with the assistance of an executive management recruitment agency though we expect to have difficulty in finding such agencies (Chang, 2004). We also plan to head hunt and seek the opinion of other businesses within the Chinese markets. The process of identifying, Interviewing and selection would involve the Head Office from start to contract signing. Interviews for these positions would be conducted at the head office, this is to ensure that key members of staff at the head office have the opportunity to evaluate the potential staff. EXPATRIATE STAFF The recruitment of expatriate staff would be the sole responsibility of the head office while the local HR Managers would be responsible for managing the expatriates when they are in country. The head office must ensure that the clear objectives are set for Expatriate staffs and that these persons have been selected to fit the job and the culture. The success of this class of staff will ultimately lead to organisational success as they would drive the process of instilling, Corporate culture and values, Quality Management targets and process and they would also facilitate Knowledge Transfer in the work place. It is intrinsic to success that these persons understand the values and fundamentals of local cultures as highlighted above in the section under employment issues. A thorough culture immersion programme and pre-departure visits may also be ideal. The local HR Managers must also develop programmes geared at ensuring  cultural and in country integration for expatriates both foreign and Home Country (because a national who has not lived in country for a number of years would most certainly need some form of integration back into the society). It would also be expedient for the home office HR Managers when recruiting married expatriate staff to consider the fit of the spouse to the new environment as poor spousal fit has been attributed to some expatriate failures. All offers made after selection must be written in clearly constructed contracts stating the Job description and responsibilities, remuneration, working conditions, conditions of termination and liabilities for breach of contract. Agreed clauses based on benefits structure include: terms of probation, training, confidentiality, holiday days and paid leave (www.hr.com). All labour contracts must be in Chinese and copies kept in both Chinese and English. The local HR managers must also ensure that personnel files have been received from the labour bureau before any prospective employee signs a labour contract. It has be noticed that this process could delay employment (China Staff, 2003) so it is expedient to start making the request immediately the employment process starts. RETENTION STRATEGY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Training in China is more focused on improving current performance deficiencies than on career development. The absence of career development plans plus a heavy emphasis on material incentives have contributed to the problems of high turnover and disloyalty observed in many enterprises, including foreign invested enterprise (Tomlinson, 1997). We consider training and development an integral part of our retention  strategy. As a study carried out showed that even in state owned enterprise â€Å"the level of ambition and commitment to learning and self improvement among the young employees was quite remarkable† (Lewis, 2003). The HR department intends to use ongoing training, well mapped out and articulated career development plans, and out placement services as a tool for employee loyalty and retention. All graduate engineers employed would have the opportunity to undergo a 24 month out placement in our UK based Aero Engine plant. This out placement is contingent on the employee returning to China after the outplacement period. The outplacement period also gives the employee the opportunity to attend several career developing programmes instituted between the firm and certain engineering universities in our own internal continuing education programmes. This use of outplacement is not limited to Graduate engineers alone as Middle Management and Senior Management staff would also undergo outplacement albeit to a much shorter duration and to meet certain function specific requirements. The use of in house sessions and on the job training would also be encouraged and all expatriates have a Performance related objective of ensuring Knowledge Transfer in the work place. COMPENSATION, BENEFITS AND REWARDS The compensation strategy of the firm would be based on a combination of salaries and wages, Performance based remuneration for collective efforts and individual performance bonuses. The salaries and wages would be determined by level and grade within any specific levels these salaries and wages would be constantly reviewed to be competitive with what obtains in the Engineering Industry but these reviews would also be tied to organisational performance. Workgroups meeting certain set targets would be eligible to collective  bonuses and staff performing excellently in the Graduate and Middle management would be compensated via promotions and awards while senior management and executive management staff both Home Country Nationals and Expatriates would be eligible to promotions and individual performance bonuses as set out in their contracts of employment. We have to be careful in Compensation structure because of Chinas cultural and traditional values of collectivist approach to work but at the same time we need to reward those who are contributing to organisational performance. Benefits would be determined by the contractual agreements and the stated benefits for individual positions. To foster more employee loyalties we would tie certain benefits to length of stay with the firm e.g. Leave days increase the longer you are in our employ, our contribution to social security on behalf of employee increases above that required by government increases the longer you are with the firm but this would be tied to employee performance, and we will introduce end of year profit sharing formulas for all staff which we believe is key to fostering employee commitment and loyalty. STRATEGY FOR MANAGING KEY SKILLS In developing a strategy for managing our organisations key skills we would need a model that considers how the human resources function will manage the key skills of the firms employees and at the same time create value for the stakeholders of the organisation. The Balance Scorecard model of strategic management developed by Kaplan and Norton can be adapted for this purpose. Figure 1. overleaf shows a model Human Resources Strategy Map for an organisation it has been developed based on the concept of the Balance Scorecard and does well to link all the processes from which value is added. We hope to use a similar model in managing the Key skills of our employees and one very key thing about this model it recognises that culture is an essential ingredient in ensuring organisational success. Figure 1. Human Resources Strategy Map (Source: www.hr.civilservice.gov.uk) OTHER HUMAN RESOURCES ISSUES IN CHINA UNION AND LABOUR RELATIONS Threatened by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the notably anti-union Wal-Mart recently agreed to let its Chinese workers unionize if they asked (MMR, 2004). The above statement shows that though the unions in China are normally passive, there is a growing movement in China and its beginning to make itself felt in the Business environment. The ACFTU is the only Union permitted to operate in China but this Union has about 906,000 affiliates, with 123 million members. About 40% of the two million private companies have trade unions, representing about 67% of private sector employees. Of the approximately 460,000 foreign companies in China, 20% have trade unions (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). The trade union law of China as amended stipulates amongst other things, that employees form Unions on a voluntary basis but those unions â€Å"should be established† in enterprises with more than 25 employees. The above law has been met with some confusion e.g. must firms with 25 or more employees have a union, or only if employees request one (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). This law also does not stipulate whether it’s the unions, employees or employers that are responsible for setting up this union. It has also been noticed that after years of non adversarial relationships between unions and managements, unions in China are growing more aggressive e.g. the ACFTU has also threatened to blacklist any firms refusing to allow  its workers unionize and has also been active in identifying multinationals as non compliant and ensuring wages are agreed and paid (Hewitt, Nov. 2004). UK AERO PARTS FABRICATION PLANT INTRODUCTION In the 1980’s there was a vigorous and academic debate about the nature of the American models of HRM and their relevance to UK situation. The US value system which is not truly reflected in the UK, and is certainly not reflected in continental Europe. There were a number of similarities in 1980’s between the UK and the US. Despite its cultural distance from many European countries, the nature of HRM in the UK is significantly different from the rest of Europe. As a member of European Union and a significant target for Foreign Direct Investment practisers in the UK are undergoing as much change as are those in continental Europe. As a wholly-owned large fabrication plant based in the Filton, United Kingdom, we would be producing core components (turbine blades) for a broad range of aero and related engines. In order to gain a competitive advantage over our competitors, it is very important for us to develop and encounter key human resource issues and strategies. After a long series of researches, United Kingdom was an easy choice as the ideal location to set up our plant due to the various reasons. Firstly, in the United Kingdom, the government laws relating to setting up a new plant are quite flexible, compared to most other countries in the European Union. Also, the infrastructure, as in, the technology, communication and transport systems are highly developed. Thus setting up a new plant would be easier and faster as compared to other under-developed countries. Secondly, the trade unions in the United Kingdom are not as strong as they are in a few other European Union countries (For example, Germany). So, it is easier to deal and negotiate with trade unions. Thirdly, there is easy availability of skilled labour. With the European Union working for close integration between countries, it is also easy to  acquire labour and staff from all over the European Union. Fourthly, language is not going to be a barrier in United Kingdom, as English is widely spoken all over the country. Cost of production is obviously, one of the most important issues when considering setting up a new unit. We believe that cost is going to be an issue in the United Kingdom, but the corporate strategy model we have implemented is a low cost model because we do not have a large requirement for skilled labour, expatriate staff and senior level executives. We would employ more fresh graduate engineers and managers. This is due to the fact that our assembly and maintenance plant is based in Shanghai, China, where we require more skilled labour and senior executives. As the level of education in the United Kingdom is extremely sound, it would be easier for us to employ fresh and talented graduate engineers and managers, thus reducing cost. We would now like to elaborate on the key employment issues in the UK and discuss the strategy we have adopted to combat the various human resource issues we would be facing. KEY EMPLOYMENT ISSUES IN THE U.K. The trends in the UK human resource management (HRM) are shaped by its cost-driven and competitiveness-enhancing nature. The development and implementation of HR policies is crucial to obtaining and retaining a high performing workforce. The policies need to reflect the strategic objectives of organizations together with recognizing the impact of wider demographic, sociological and technological trends and consider the medium and longer-term implications of these. The intro of new labour government since 1997 there has been signs of more protective values towards employees. However, it is the influence of EU membership that has become a greater source of initiatives aimed at employee welfare and involvement. This scene must be placed in context, with an ageing population and an uneven distribution of employment, to gain some understanding of the challenges facing HRM in the UK. The drive for leaner organizations has led to increased use of labour flexibility, downsizing and outsourcing, whilst rewards have become more performance related and benchmarking is seen as a tool for HRM  practitioners. Such trends have received strong government support. The workforce requirements need to be considered strategically and help deliver national priorities as set out in local delivery or business plans. It is essential that there is a clear ‘line of sight’ between HR practices and the delivery of high quality services. Of central importance is creating the ‘right’ culture and developing ‘customer’ focused values. This section outlines the thinking behind these goals and explains the various strategies that are helping to achieve them. KEY HRM ISSUES RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS: The Company ‘s greatest assets are the staff force hence the right recruitment and induction processes are vital in ensuring that the new employee becomes effective in the shortest time. The success of the Company depends on having the precise number of staff, with the precise skills and abilities. The best Human resource practice which can be adopted by and aero engine unit: Defining the job process of each individual skill required to ensure it meets our business desires. If a member of staff is leaving the company analysis over a short period of time if there is a real need to replace the role, if required will do it immediately or compensate within the current work force. Before recruiting company draws up a job description and the candidates are judged based on whether he/she will possess the key skills to meet key tasks. This process helps opportunities to outline the key tasks and responsibilities. The process of recruitment involves key steps: Advertising using the right medium to attract the right person. Using recruitment agency, describing them the job profile of the vacancy to  match the requirement with the apt candidate. Internet can serve as good tool for recruitment. Fresh talent recruitments (graduates). Campaigns, road shows, job fairs, etc†¦.. LEGISLATION Company’s responsibility to ensure current legislation is covered when applying any employment process and failure to do so could mean that the organization is breaking the law. The law prohibits for company to take into account a person’s gender, marriage, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin or disability in employment decisions. Taking these legislations into consideration, company adopts an important strategy when developing a job description and person specification that it must be undertaken thoroughly and objectively as the first step to ensure compliance with legislation Key areas, if legislation to be considered is: Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Sex Discrimination Act 1975 & 1986 Race Relations Act 1976 Working Time Regulations 1998 HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: The health and safety at work is majorly concerned in U.K. Each and every company needs to adopt the health and safety. The company which fails to will be fined a huge amount. At manufacturing unit it is regularly monitored and nearly recruited employed are briefed with health and safety. The employee who fails to follow the procedure will be dismissed from work  according to the health and safety regulation law. TRADE UNIONS A trade union is an organized group of employers or labours. Its main goal is to protect and advance the interests of its employee .A union often negotiates agreements with employers on pay and conditions. It may also provide legal and financial advice, sickness benefits and education facilities to its members. If a union is recognized by an employer, it can negotiate with the employer over terms and conditions known as ‘collective bargaining’. For it to work, unions and employers need to agree on how the arrangement is to operate. For example, they might make agreements providing for the deduction of union subscriptions from employers wages, which is to represent workers in negotiations and how often meetings will take place. Both these agreements on procedure and agreements between employers and unions changes the terms applying to workers are called ‘collective agreements’. EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS AND CONDITIONS: A contract of employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee. Type of Contracts: Fixed-term contract: Fixed-term workers have the same minimum rights as permanent workers. There are special regulations which protect fixed-term employees. The fixed-term employees are issued contract for certain period of time. Additional staff recruited for six months during a peak period A specialist employee taken on for the duration of a project. Someone employed to cover during another employee’s maternity leave/absence. The fixed-term employees have the right as the permanent staff: The same pay and conditions as permanent workers. The same or equivalent benefits package as permanent workers The right to be informed about permanent employment opportunities in the organization Part-time: Working part time can be a good way of balancing the work and personal commitments. Part-time, workers will be having the same right and be treated fairly in comparison to full-time colleagues. OUR HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY IN UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION: Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of candidates from which to select the appropriate person to fill a job vacancy. Vacancies may also be created when additional or new work has to be undertaken or significant changes occur in technology, procedures, or circumstances. Recruitment and selection are the processes by which organizations solicit, contact and engender interest in potential new appointees to vacant positions in the organization, and then in some way establish their suitability for appointment. The traditional or normal view regarding recruitment and selection is to assert that it is perhaps the most basic of personnel activities- if we get the wrong people in the organization, there will be problems. The problems that we might face are high labour turnover, absenteeism, disciplinary problem, disputes and low productivity. Therefore, having the right people in the organization is very crucial. A key feature of our recruitment and selection strategy would be to follow the traditional approach of interviews, application forms and references and at times, more sophisticated techniques like psychometric tests and assessment centres. Internal candidates may be sort by searching the records, asking managers or supervisors for recommendations, or internal advertisement on notice boards and in-house journals. Besides, we would also be selecting candidates with the help of recruitment agencies and consultancies, advertisements in newspapers, Internet recruitment will also play a major part in our recruitment strategy, for example, vacancy pages on our company website, providing vacancies on commercial job websites, websites of educational institutions, etc. We would also be recruiting fresh talented graduates directly from universities in UK. This is very important to us as we would require a large number of fresh graduates for our plant. Recruiting fresh graduates directly from un iversities would save us both time and money. GRADUATE ENGINEERS AND SKILLED TECHNICIANS: As mentioned above our main focus would be to recruit fresh graduates directly from universities in UK and Europe. As our plant in UK would only be a fabrication plant and does not involve assembly or maintenance, there would not be a very high requirement of skilled technicians. We would use recruitment agencies, advertisements, and references to recruit our skilled technicians from UK and Europe. MIDDLE MANAGEMENT There is a considerable requirement of middle managers for our concern and thus internet recruitment, word of mouth, application forms and interviews will be used for recruiting such managers. SENIOR AND EXECUTIVE MANAGERS The need for senior and executive managers in our UK fabrication plant is limited and so we would only be following the process of applications and one-on-one interviews to assess senior managers.