William Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream Essay

In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare crafts a play with three very different viewpoints that can be interpreted in many ways, some with obvious interpretations and other with much less obvious ones. Shakespeare also ends A midsummer Night’s Dream, with an apology that is just as less obvious as some of the play’s interpretation. Yet, If a person looks past the obvious interpretations of the play, one can begin to piece together the possible message, that mortals no matter the status or power they may have on earth, are all subject to greater unseen powers regardless of whether they believe in them or not. Shakespeare’s epilogue at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream has also confused many critics about the meaning and has resulted many different interpretations. Shakespeare through the character Robin clearly tries to give a message to the audience but does not give that message clearly for everyone to understand. It appears to be a type of disclaimer, but the exact nature of the offense and the reasoning behind isn’t made clear: â€Å"If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here, While these visions did appear† (Epilogue 1-4). If the â€Å"shadows† in the play offend the audience, one wonders how and why. It is clear that Shakespeare had wished to escape â€Å"the serpent’s tongue,† which leads one to believe he was aware of a possible negative reaction. Therefore, he suggests to those who may be offended toShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1339 Words   |  6 PagesHonors For A Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare 1. Title of the book - The title of the book is called A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare. 2. Author s name - The author of the book A Midsummer Night s Dream is William Shakespeare. 3. The year the piece was written - A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare was believed to have been written between 1590-1596. 4. Major Characters - There are three major characters in the book A Midsummer Night s Dream by WilliamRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1474 Words   |  6 Pagesinstance, one could look at the movies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare in Love. The latter follows the life of William Shakespeare himself, everything from his love affair with Viola de Lesseps to his creation of Romeo and Juliet. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of the most famous plays of Shakespeare’s, revolving around the tumultuous relationships of four lovers, aided, and sometimes thwarted by the mischief of fairies. Although Shakespeare in Love outlines a few of the characteristicsRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1548 Words   |  7 Pagesspoken by Helena in Act 1 Scene 1 line 234, explains that it matters not what the eyes see but what the mind thinks it sees. In the play, A Midsummer Night s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, there are several instances where the act of seeing is being portrayed. The definition of vision is the ability to see, something you imagine or something you dream. This proves that even though one has the ability to see; the mind tends to interfere and sometimes presents a different picture. VariousRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream867 Words   |  4 Pagesspecifically how they will benefit that other person, you’re in love.† In A Midsummer Night s Dream, William Shakespeare intertwined each individual characters. Through the concept of true love and presented to the audiences a twisted yet romantic love story. The love stories of Renaissance are richly colorful, so Shakespeare used multiple literary techniques to present to the readers a vivid image of true love. Shakespeare applied metaphor in the lines of Lysander. In Act 1, scene 1, Lysander saysRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream990 Words   |  4 PagesSymbols in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Symbols help to play an important part in giving a deeper meaning to a story. William Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream and by using these symbols he offers some insight onto why certain events take place in the play. Symbols are sometimes hard to decipher but as the reader continues to read the symbol’s meaning might become more clear. Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in A Midsummer Night’s DreamRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1397 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeare’s comedies, like those of most Renaissance playwrights, involve love and its obstacles. Much of the comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream derives from the attempt of Lysander and Hermia to remain together while overcoming the adult authority figure who attempts to hinder the love of a young couple. The overcoming of an obstacle functions as a common motif in Renaissance comedy. The audience must wonder, however, whether Lysander and Hermia, as well as Demetrius and Helena, actually loveRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1207 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been categorized as a comedy play because of all the characters being passionately in love to the point of being foolish. It’s a play all about love, and the characters that are in love are only young adults, so they are still naive when it comes to love. Their naivety and foolishness regarding love is what allows them to be taken advantage of by mischievous fairies when they all run away into the woods. By critiquing the love affairs and numerousRead MoreA Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare1882 Words   |  8 PagesWritten during the Elizabethan era where gender roles played an important part in society and relationships, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare portrays the interaction between both sexes, and the women’s respo nse to the expectation of such norms. Although the characters: Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena, and Titania, are portrayed as objects (both sexual and material) contingent upon their male lovers, they are also given empowerment. During the Elizabethan Era, and present throughout MNDRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1277 Words   |  6 Pagestogether. Nor will love ever be a controllable compulsion. Maybe we are fools for going into the perilous, eccentric universe of love; yet what fun would life be without it? William Shakespeare s play A Midsummer Night s Dream investigates the unconventional, unreasonable and unpredictable nature of love during his time. Shakespeare conveys this through the main plot of the play, which is composed of the relationships between three couples. The three couples show examples of three different types ofRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1442 Words   |  6 Pages William Shakespeare is estimated to have lived from 1564 to about 1616. He is often recognized as great English poet, actor, and playwright, and paved the way for many on all of those categories. Over that span he wrote many pieces that are still relevant today such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. I would like to take a deeper look into one on his pieces â€Å"A Midsummers Night’s Dream.† This piece is estimated to have first been preformed in about 1595 and then later published in 1600. Many William Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream Essay Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents an assortment of characters whose difficulties with their lover’s present itself in many situation of the play through these unique relationships. In Act 3 Puck is reporting to Oberon about Titania and Bottom when Demetrius and Hermia enter the scene Puck states â€Å"This the woman but not this the man† (3.2.44). Puck’s quote holds a simple but repeated metaphor of the play itself and its reoccurring themes on the mystery love presents. Puck’s motives throughout the play don’t ever seem to get clearer aside from knowing that he services Oberon, and makes one mistakes to shake up the entire story before choosing to cause his own mischief. Through the entire story the fairy Puck plays one of the main antagonists, even from the beginning he is responsible for a lot of problems but later solutions. Shakespeare cast Oberon and Puck as character to create a living metaphor for the m ystery behind conflict and resolution experienced in relationships. The maelstrom the characters find themselves in originates from the quickly running emotions produced from the mystery love presents each of them. The conflicts that arise in the play are exemplified situations in which many people experience in their own relationship. In Act 3 Shakespeare plays with the how uniquely delicate relationships are when love is unclear between the characters it create chaos for everyone. Puck is viewed as a moderator between the characters of theShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1339 Words   |  6 PagesHonors For A Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare 1. Title of the book - The title of the book is called A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare. 2. Author s name - The author of the book A Midsummer Night s Dream is William Shakespeare. 3. The year the piece was written - A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare was believed to have been written between 1590-1596. 4. Major Characters - There are three major characters in the book A Midsummer Night s Dream by WilliamRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1474 Words   |  6 Pagesinstance, one could look at the movies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare in Love. The latter follows the life of William Shakespeare himself, everything from his love affair with Viola de Lesseps to his creation of Romeo and Juliet. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of the most famous plays of Shakespeare’s, revolving around the tumultuous relationships of four lovers, aided, and sometimes thwarted by the mischief of fairies. Although Shakespeare in Love outlines a few of the characteristicsRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1548 Words   |  7 Pagesspoken by Helena in Act 1 Scene 1 line 234, explains that it matters not what the eyes see but what the mind thinks it sees. In the play, A Midsummer Night s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, there are several instances where the act of seeing is being portrayed. The definition of vision is the ability to see, something you imagine or something you dream. This proves that even though one has the ability to see; the mind tends to interfere and sometimes presents a different picture. VariousRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream867 Words   |  4 Pagesspecifically how they will benefit that other person, you’re in love.† In A Midsummer Night s Dream, William Shakespeare intertwined each individual characters. Through the concept of true love and presented to the audiences a twisted yet romantic love story. The love stories of Renaissance are richly colorful, so Shakespeare used multiple literary techniques to present to the readers a vivid image of true love. Shakespeare applied metaphor in the lines of Lysander. In Act 1, scene 1, Lysander saysRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream990 Words   |  4 PagesSymbols in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Symbols help to play an important part in giving a deeper meaning to a story. William Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream and by using these symbols he offers some insight onto why certain events take place in the play. Symbols are sometimes hard to decipher but as the reader continues to read the symbol’s meaning might become more clear. Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in A Midsummer Night’s DreamRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1397 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeare’s comedies, like those of most Renaissance playwrights, involve love and its obstacles. Much of the comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream derives from the attempt of Lysander and Hermia to remain together while overcoming the adult authority figure who attempts to hinder the love of a young couple. The overcoming of an obstacle functions as a common motif in Renaissance comedy. The audience must wonder, however, whether Lysander and Hermia, as well as Demetrius and Helena, actually loveRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1207 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been categorized as a comedy play because of all the characters being passionately in love to the point of being foolish. It’s a play all about love, and the characters that are in love are only young adults, so they are still naive when it comes to love. Their naivety and foolishness regarding love is what allows them to be taken advantage of by mischievous fairies when they all run away into the woods. By critiquing the love affairs and numerousRead MoreA Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare1882 Words   |  8 PagesWritten during the Elizabethan era where gender roles played an important part in society and relationships, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare portrays the interaction between both sexes, and the women’s respo nse to the expectation of such norms. Although the characters: Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena, and Titania, are portrayed as objects (both sexual and material) contingent upon their male lovers, they are also given empowerment. During the Elizabethan Era, and present throughout MNDRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1277 Words   |  6 Pagestogether. Nor will love ever be a controllable compulsion. Maybe we are fools for going into the perilous, eccentric universe of love; yet what fun would life be without it? William Shakespeare s play A Midsummer Night s Dream investigates the unconventional, unreasonable and unpredictable nature of love during his time. Shakespeare conveys this through the main plot of the play, which is composed of the relationships between three couples. The three couples show examples of three different types ofRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1442 Words   |  6 Pages William Shakespeare is estimated to have lived from 1564 to about 1616. He is often recognized as great English poet, actor, and playwright, and paved the way for many on all of those categories. Over that span he wrote many pieces that are still relevant today such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. I would like to take a deeper look into one on his pieces â€Å"A Midsummers Night’s Dream.† This piece is estimated to have first been preformed in about 1595 and then later published in 1600. Many

Adrienne Rich Free Essays

string(206) " This allows the reader to become part of an oral history for the nation, and thus a map maker in a sense, as memory is presented by Rich as a type of map, it is with this metaphor that the poems progress\." This essay will present the motif of the mapmaker in Adrienne Rich’s book Atlas of the Difficult World.   The themes throughout the book will be extolled in this essay and dissected through the theme of this subject brought together through metaphor, concrete imagery and the allusion to place as well as destination which Rich suggests throughout her work in concepts both metaphysical, and real. Rich’s title poem of Atlas of the Difficult World brings forth a voice which is cut into a duality of realism as well as a harsh sense of that reality. We will write a custom essay sample on Adrienne Rich or any similar topic only for you Order Now    The images prevalent in this poem brings the images of the map into a bizarre reality which suggests a striking and honest concept of Americana in a disturbing light.   This is the key factor of the theme of map in Rich’s Atlas of the Difficult World: which is, in the very least, best described as disturbing. The title poem relates to the reader the concept of women’s work.   This poem then imagines for the readers the idea of placement such as topographical, geographical or landscape; Rich presents the concept to the reader of where a woman is in relation to the margins of the country. The poem further expounds upon this notion by suggesting the idea, or rather of questioning the reader as to the nature of the woman’s   place in relation to ‘our’ consciousness in a topographical sense of the term.   This would seem as though Rich is delving into a political stream of consciousness, but it is in the map, in the geography, or landscape which rests as the pinnacle of the poem’s place as it relates to the reader. In the issue of maps, of place, Rich also brings forth the concept of roles, of patriarchy and the woman’s dialectic towards such a predestined role.   Rich goes on to extrapolate from the concept of topography the idea of a woman’s place, or women’s work. The poem is a tantalizing tease between the idea of women’s work in the margins of the country, and the map of women’s recorded obsequious nature, but not her unrecorded consciousness as to her own definition of place.   Ã‚   The title poem then serves as a gateway from the speaker to the reader through the path of topography into the un-traversed landscape of indirect and misguided concepts of what women’s work is, and the conscious factor of that work and its place in the United States.   The poem serves as an undercurrent to an alternative to the idea of landscape, of the United States in regards to feminism (as is a standard theme in Rich’s poems), politics, and personal space. The way in which boundaries of the ‘map’ (politics, consciousness, gender, etc.) are disregarded by the speaker is a fundamental element in the poem; this disregard allows for both the speaker and the reader to explore other areas of the typography, and the structure of such devices as gender, roles, etc. Thus, the speaker allows the reader to realize the relation of self, role, politics, and all of the above, to the composition of the atlas, and the role that an individual, or in this case, the role of the reader as a map reader: I promised to show you a map you say but this is a mural then yes let it be these are small distinctions where do we see it from is the question (pt. II, ll. 22-24). Thus, the concept of personal roles comes into play in the poem as a question of perspective. The role of the narrator then is to allow the reader a chance to be guided through the atlas.   The atlas in the poem pays attention to not only geography but also stories; such stories are in relation to historical facts as well as personal lives. This allows the reader to respond to the poem through various avenues of perspective such as they may be presented through historical place, and geography as well as body and mind locations; thus, each reading of the poem by individual readers will give a different perspective of the atlas since each reader is coming from their own personal frame of reference. The poet, the narrator comes into the poem and suggests or brings forth to the reader the daring possibility of questioning their own place in the atlas, the landscape. This challenge is perpetuated from the concept of women’s work, and the changing definition of what that entails, â€Å"These are not roads / you knew me by. But the woman driving, walking, watching / for life and death, is the same† (pt. I, ll. 77-79). The narrator presents women on the map, or the road to the reader, and the reader in turn becomes an active part of the poem since the reader brings their own interpretation through personal reference to the perspective of these women. The poems then are different roads along the entirety of the atlas, and the question which the poet reiterates to the reader is where do the poems take the reader; which direction?   Thus, affirmation of the role of the map is a central motif in Rich’s Atlas of a Difficult World. The following poems of Atlas of a Difficult World then are each designed as a road into the different parts of the atlas on different levels and from different perspectives.  Ã‚   The poems are not limited to the topography of the atlas but also delve into the history of the place.   There are thirteen parts of the book which in turn are vignettes which come from a myriad of women’s lives. The voice which Rich lends to each ‘story’ is relatively urgent and gives the reader a sense that it is important that they read these lines not only for the benefit of the woman who lived the story but for the reader’s personal benefit since it is with the reader that a continuation and change in the story may occur.   This allows the reader to become part of an oral history for the nation, and thus a map maker in a sense, as memory is presented by Rich as a type of map, it is with this metaphor that the poems progress. You read "Adrienne Rich" in category "Papers"    It is by recognizing the importance of history, even in small characters that allows for the roles of women to change from obsequious to strong willed; from patriarchal to gynocentric.   Rich’s purpose in her poems is a striking narrative of forcing the reader to notice how women have been excluded in large part from the history, the geography of the land, the United States’ history. Thus, through use of landscape and the connection of landscape to events, Rich gives the reader a chance to notice these women. In Part I of Atlas of a Difficult World, Rich gives testimonies from a myriad of women who have a vast knowledge of economic hardship which incites fear and which either delays or spurns action forward.   There is also a theme of silence and the breaking of silence in the atlas, the memory of these moments with the different women in the poems. There is one poem which gives details of an unknown woman who was murdered:   The woman was a farm worker who had been in deep exposure to toxins:   â€Å"Malathion in the throat, communion, / the hospital at the edge of the fields, / prematures slipping from unsafe wombs† (ll. 8-10). This woman has a type of communion with death, and her character is anonymous because there are countless other women who are or were in the same situation, so many that their story became one story it had been told too often that the names were unimportant and then, eventually her story was forgotten.   Rich brings the concept of the mapmaker as a memory harvester into her poems to give the reader an interactive part in the poem. Since this story is being retold to the reader, the reader must carry it in their memory, and thus give credit to the live that died, to the woman.   The woman had been oppressed and exposed to environmental dangers, and because the woman had worked to survive but died anyway, it is important that her life be chartered into this ‘atlas’ of memory, of story. Rich does not want the idea of denial of memory to play a major role in the development of the country, of the atlas as she writes, â€Å"I don’t want to hear how he beat her . . ., / tore up her writing . . . / . . . I don’t want to know / wreckage† (ll. 39-40, 48-49). The interesting factor in this woman’s story is that her small death is actually a beginning of a national cover up story, and thus, her story becomes part of the landscape of history, however minute.   The woman’s death is a national cover up which involved violence and amoral behavior and which were the opposite of the striving of America, in industry.   Through the denial of this story, history is changed, is made false through the help of the media. This theme of denial changes the landscape of the map, it erases important structures of the geography, and this lead into Part V of Atlas of a Difficult World in which a queer woman is murdered and yet, her story does not succumb to erasure: I don’t want to know how he tracked them along the Appalachian Trail, hid close by their tent, pitched as they thought in seclusion killing one woman, the other dragging herself into town his defense they had teased his loathing of what they were I don’t want to know but this is not a bad dream of mine (ll. 45-51). In Parts II and III, the poem becomes an evocation of the American ideal or geography.   The poems exercise their voice towards symmetry or balance in history in which women’s history is not erased or ruined or made to seem slavish, but instead integrates the real roles of women. In Part IV the poems introduce mourning of the women lost in the margins of the atlas, whose stories were covered up or never known, and the poem cries for ‘still unbegun work of repair’ (1. 25).   In this part, women are alluded to as prisoners, â€Å"locked away out of sight and hearing, out of mind, shunted aside / those needed to teach, advise, persuade, weigh arguments / those urgently needed for the work of perception† (ll. 19-21). It seems that Rich is suggesting that these women were covered up in the landslide of the country, or that they were unchartered in its conception, unrecognized. In Parts VI-VIII Rich gives the allusion of the map and the lives of the women unraveling which becomes apparent as the men in the stories, or poems went on dreaming large dreams in the landscape of the history of the atlas, while the women went on with untold stories of contention, they women went on without receiving. Rich goes on to state in these parts that the men continued in the map of the country thinking, and Rich suggests the irony of this by stating, â€Å"Slaves – you would not be that† (pt. VI, l. 14).   This is a main point made by Rich in which she is stating that the men did not allow themselves to be considered or made slaves through physical force nor psychological devices but that women and others had to bear that history. There is a culmination of the focus of map making in Parts IX-XI which studies the fragmentation of the atlas through false history, as Rich states through the narrator, â€Å"one woman / like and unlike so many, fooled as to her destiny, the scope of her task† (pt. XI, ll. 16-17). In Part XII Rich gives the reader a chance of seeing restoration in the land through the recognition of women’s roles and values by giving the reader these lines to ponder, â€Å"What homage will be paid to a beauty built to last / from inside out . . . / I didn’t speak then / of your beauty at the wheel beside me . . . / – I speak of them now† (ll. 1-2, 9-10, 18). Thus, being a mapmaker, or a keeper of true history is the legacy Rich gives to her readers.   It is through the role of speaking and not remaining silent, of allowing the atlas to grow, and of exploring the roads which were once unchartered that Rich’s motif of map making is an allusion to recognition of women’s history, as Rich writes, â€Å"I know you are reading this poem† throughout the last part because the poem aspires to be nothing less than the unspoken, archetypal stories women know well. Rich concludes, â€Å"I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else left to read / there where you have landed, stripped as you are† (ll. 36-37) which in its honesty gives women a place on the atlas of the United States instead of remaining in the margins, in the back alleys of the topography. Work Cited Rich, A.   An Atlas of a Difficult World.   W.W. Norton Company.   1991. How to cite Adrienne Rich, Papers

Significance of Vladimir Lenin free essay sample

Breaking the barrier between attaining both economic success and political achievement, Vladimir Lenin almost singlehandedly ended the Tsardom and brought the socialist â€Å"Bolshevik† party to power in Russia. Lenin’s unique experiences in his youth led him to his status as a revolutionary and ultimately changed Russia and the world. Lenin’s early life helped to shape his destiny as a revolutionary leader. As with most people, Lenin’s beliefs and ideals were instilled in him at a young, impressionable age. Lenin was born in a small rural town on the Volga River called Simbirsk on April 10, 1877. He was born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, to a family of two sisters and three brothers, all of whom became revolutionaries. Vladimir’s father, Iliya Ulyanov, was a school inspector and was ironically a nobleman. Lenin was raised in an upper-middle class family and even expressed this fact openly at his rallies validating it by saying, â€Å"By their social status the founders of modern scientific socialism, Marx and Engels, themselves belonged to the bourgeois intelligentsia† (What Is to Be Done 2). Marx and Engels were the two inventors of Communism, who were well educated upper-class members of society that believed in social change. One of Lenin’s older brothers, Alexander, was also a revolutionary. In 1887, he and four others were arrested for plotting to assassinate Tsar Alexander III. Alexander Ulyanov was publicly hanged that same year. Before his death, Alexander said that, â€Å"[Vladimir] showed no interest in public affairs† (Gottfried 18). In fact, it was Alexander’s death that triggered Vladimir’s resentment toward the Tsarist government and helped to instill a prideful need for revolution. He first demonstrated his beliefs at a protest at Kazan University, for which he was promptly expelled. He was allowed to continue his studies by himself and eventually got his degree in law in 1891. Some of Lenin’s later influences were Karl Marx and Nicholas Chernyshevsky, whose book was the namesake for Lenin’s most popular pamphlet, â€Å"What is To Be Done? † Their philosophy of a â€Å"class struggle† showed that the wealthy upper class took advantage of the lower class for their own benefit. These combined experiences laid the foundation for Lenin’s radical beliefs in revolution. As Lenin began to work as a lawyer and write his many pamphlets, a storm began to brew in his mind regarding the impending revolution. Lenin, like others in the socialist party, wanted social and economic equality for the proletariat, or working class. He also wanted a more just government that was governed by the proletariat as opposed to the aristocrats who had been in power for 300 years. Many protests happened near his place of work in St. Petersburg, as it was a university town and full of young, idealistic minds. Lenin actively participated in many protests and gained a devoted following. This did not go unnoticed, as many times Lenin was arrested for speaking against the tsar. These infractions were trumped by his eventual banishment for actions against the tsar to western Siberia and then to Munich. For most of his exile he traveled across Europe and spoke at rallies and socialist meetings. Lenin returned to his homeland to help in the 1905 revolution, in which he was elected to lead the local Socialist party. After the bloody battles, he resumed his exile until the next revolution in 1917. The more prominent 1917 revolution was a turning point because it became a declaration of war between the â€Å"Red† Bolshevik party and the â€Å"White† Menshevik party. Lenin’s determination and leadership led to the revolutions’ success. His drive to overthrow the provisional government and start a communist Russia is apparent in his many pamphlets: â€Å"When the workers and laboring peasants took hold of the powers of state it became our duty to quell the resistance of the exploiting class† (A Letter to American Workingmen 6). His goal, through much death and bloodshed, was reached. In October 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks took power and became the de facto leaders of Russia. This massive power-shift changed Russia and the world for the next century. Lenin worked extremely hard for his county. He is said to have worked long days in ill health, and even did work after the strokes that would eventually kill him (Reed 5). Unfortunately, Lenin’s successor was not so benevolent. After Lenin’s death in 1924 at the age of 53, Joseph Stalin took power and almost strangled it to death. Stalin was a brutal dictator, killing about 60 million of his own people; not even Hitler had that many kills under his belt. Lenin, before his death even foresaw that violence would be nevitable, â€Å"If it has got to the point where [congress] could go so far as to use physical violence†¦ then one can imagine the mess we’ve got ourselves into† (Shuckman 202). Stalinism was a gross bastardization of Leninism and led to Russia’s reputation of being a brutal, warmongering land. This was in no way Lenin’s fault; the most he did was appoint Stalin as his successor and he was loyal to Lenin at the time. Ultimately , though, Russia was a contender for the most powerful country in the world for more than fifty years. Most notably, Lenin’s work led to the long and tense Cold War and the spread of Communism across the globe. The USSR also annexed many lands and called them their own. This led to many conflicts including the Chechen wars and the current war in Afghanistan. Many terrorists in Afghanistan use soviet weapons from the Russian occupation, so the war in Afghanistan can partially be attributed to the former Soviet Union. Communism had a profound impact on Russia and the world. Though many say it was the bane of the 20th century, Communism was and still is an important aspect of history and life. Lenin was truly the forefather of modern Communism and without him, the mighty superpower that was the Soviet Union would not have been. His many works are now standard reading for students of political science and it has found immortality in the many statues and cities in his honor. Even though many democracies still fear the implications of socialism, such as United States Republicans calling President Obama a Socialist, much of the fear and xenophobia has subsided. Lenin’s vision of a utopian society was never fully reached, however, the impact of his dedication to communism can be felt throughout the world almost a century after his death.

Transculturalism and Local Culture in East Asia Golden Arches Case

Introduction In the book under analysis, the author introduces cross-cultural evaluation of consumerist trends, particularly expansion of the famous fast food chain McDonald’s in East Asia. In particular, the researcher puts forward the statement that Golden Arches stand for something more important than food consumption.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Transculturalism and Local Culture in East Asia: Golden Arches Case specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Rather, McDonald’s has become a cultural and global symbol correlating with contradictory meanings and associations that the world’s known company develops across various economies. The fast food chain is more than food; it also a means of connecting to various societies. More importantly, it has shaped a new vision of pop culture in Asian cultures. In particular, the expansion of the Golden Arches networks has contributed greatly to developmen t and advancement of the popular culture to the next level. The restaurant network has envisioned a new attitude to life and communication, as well as has introduced tangible changes to East Asian dietary habits. While discussing cross-cultural influence of McDonald’s expansion, the authors highlight the evident difference between such concepts as transnationalism and globalism due to their contrastive purposes. In particular, McDonald’s is confined to global trends because it pursues to create a new global culture under which all societies and nations would be united by communication and media. Due to the spread of fast food chains all over the world, the global culture becomes a reality in which people envision Golden Arches East as a part of Asian culture. The globalization process, however, distorts the genuine meaning and role of culture in society. As such, Asian societies undergo simultaneous changes owing to the impossibility to alienate Asian culture from the outside influence. While focusing on Hong Kong’s culture and external environment, the author insists that the region can be considered â€Å"the quintessential postmodern environment, where the boundaries of status, style, and taste dissolve almost as fast as they are formed†i. In fact, the global trends imposed by Golden Arches symbolism poses threat to local cultures because of the attempt to create globalized perspectives shaping new concepts and antinational traditions. Moreover, McDonald’s stands at the core of consumption culture formation.Advertising Looking for essay on asian? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Many economies are engaged with fast food chains development because masses of consumers who are ready to adjust to the new consumerist patterns. The Golden Arches strongly correlate with the standardization and automation modes introduced to the food industry. Methods Used to Explore Bookâ₠¬â„¢s Key Arguments and Theses Data Considered to Analyze the Arguments In the book, the author emphasizes the impact of McDonald’s culture as a means of connecting various cultures through reference made to anecdotal situations and real-to-life cases of people visiting McDonald’s fast food restaurants and describing their experiences. At the beginning of each chapter, the author applies to personal accounts and makes the corresponding conclusions afterword to draw the reader’s attention. For instance, while exploring the shifts in Chinese dietary habits, the author resorts to personal recounts of the residents of San Tine village about the meals they used eating in McDonald’s. The accounts, however, were not confined to mere description of types of dishes. Rather, the reflection was extremely vivid and could be compared with the experiences that a person receives while attending a very refined and respectable restaurant. Being overwhelmed with the food e xperiences, many people visiting fast food in Hong Kong have become dependent from the American-style consumerist patterns, which are not associated with taste preferences only, but with the cultural and symbolic meanings that this food has for the Chinese . The real-to-life story about the importance of food consumption ideologies is supported by the author’s reflections on the importance of transnationalism and fast food industry expansion. In particular, Watson argues, â€Å"the people of Hong Kong have embraced American-style fast foods, and by so doing they might appear to be in the vanguard of a worldwide culinary revolution†ii. At the same time, the scholar insists that globalist trends of food consumption do not have a tangible impact on local cultures. It is impossible to distinguish between local and national cultures because transitional processes have become part of the Chinese culture. The Chinese culture has outlined further trends in commercialism and co nsumption. While analyzing empirical evidence and tracing historical origins of fast food integration, the author, nevertheless, stresses that McDonald’s does not become the major reason for standardization and automation of food production. Moreover, Chinese dietary habits have been shifts to a new pattern of life in the country.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Transculturalism and Local Culture in East Asia: Golden Arches Case specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Although GAE was associated with new behaviors and consumerist culture, the main reason for cross-cultural transformation was management. Specifically, Chinese managers do not consider fast food as the invention of the Americans. Most of meals have acquired Chinese colloquial names; Chinese youth has used referring to American snacks as to common lunch activities in Hong Kong. Due to different culturally predetermined perceptions, Chinese have iden tified GAE concepts with their traditional outlooks on meals and snacks. Despite differences in food preferences, McDonalds did introduce slight changes to dietary habits in Hong Kong. For instance, by recounting the story of Mr. Ng, the owner of the Hong Kong fast food chain, the author successfully explains the consequences of cross-cultural interaction, as well as how Americanized meals have integrated into an ordinary life of individuals. While describing the private case of managing McDonald’s in Hong Kong, the author critically asserts that personnel of the fast food restaurant â€Å"†¦made the transition from an exotic, trendy establishment patronized by self-conscious status seekers to a competitively priced chain offering â€Å"value meals† to busy, preoccupied consumers†iii. Apart from personal accounts, the chapter focuses on statistics and surveys underlining the presence of discrepancies between the ideological filling of American McDonald†™s and that located in Hong Kong. Though the Chinese managers have borrowed the ideas from Western fast food industry, the cultural patterns of local consumers have remained unchanged. To underline the differences in cultural and social perceptions of fast food industry, the author refers to a cross-cultural analysis of custom, traditions, and trend in serving people. For example, the chapter explores the differences in perceiving hospitality, which is reflected differently in Chinese society. In such a manner, the author places an emphasis on the importance of correlating food choice and national identity. In other Asian countries, such as Korea, McDonald’s acquires a new symbolic and cultural meaning, which predetermined by the desire of Korean people to be both nationalistic and global. In this respect, food consumption culture is not associated with the concepts pursued with GAE, but with the unique patterns these concepts shape within a particular society.Advertising Looking for essay on asian? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More While describing the consumerist trends in China and Korea, the author manages to succinctly and consistently define identical patterns of perceiving McDonald’s within the context of historic and symbolic representation in both cultures. To explain the issue, the author argues, â€Å"Koreans’ attitude toward American fast food vary with their gender, economic condition, and political viewpoint†iv. Therefore, it is hard to persuade Chinese and Korean people that eating McDonald’s meals are not part of their food consumption culture. The analysis of cultural influences and changing perceptions has revealed author’s valuable contribution to the discussion of international patterns in commerce, as well as how local societies are triggered and represented within this context. The chapters dedicated to the analysis of food habits in China and Korea has put forward the significance of social messages that food industry expansion introduces. In addition, t he main strength of interpreting commoditization in Asian region lies in author’s attempt to contrast and compare the way various Asian societies perceive Americanized patterns of consumption. Weaknesses of Evidence Although many explanation shave been provided for trends in globalization and transnationalism, as well as for their impact on the development of American patterns of consumption in East Asia, the author fails to introduce generalized and logical conclusion from the proposed references to other researches and personal observations. Representing McDonalds both a globalized trend and a signifier of free market initiatives, the author fails to differ it from another concept of GAE that is more associated with a â€Å"local† institution. Evaluating the chapters Despite the lack of transparency and accuracy of exposition on the investigated topic, the reader will definitely understand the features and characteristics of GAE. While using persuasive evidence, the author provides an account on various Asian societies assimilating global trends in consumption and fast food industry. In addition, the chapters provide strong parallels between the Western and Eastern food cultures, as well as their obvious differences, that are not lied in menus, but in the social and cultural messages that they deliver. Through use of different names, Asians convert definitions and concepts accepted in American culture and use their own associations. For instance, Koreans cannot consider Hamburger as a snack, but as a meal. Thus, confronting different culture, fast food industries faces serious cultural and ethnic challenges. Due to the fact that more meanings assigned in a cross-cultural environment do not contribute to the popularity of American food cultures, which poses a threat to the actual idea of McDonald’s consumption concept. While reviewing the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of Asian societies to fast food centers, the author has made interes ting assumptions. In particular, Watson notes that fast food restaurants are regarded as leisure centers, particularly for youth who visit these places for communicating and interacting. The principle of using McDonald’s for other purposes than eating meals is frequently observed across cultures. In this respect, the chapters provide examples of visiting fast food centre for celebrating various events and organizing various meetings. The priority, therefore, is not given to the menu anymore. Analysis of Counter-Arguments Overall, the presented examples, cases, surveys, and author’s personal observations prove that the expansion of Western culture and fast food chains have not undermine the local cuisines, traditions, and authentic preferences in consumption patterns. Regardless of the homogenous trends of the globalization process, the author skillfully manages to introduce anthropological theories to examine exotic peoples and practices and shed light on the peculiari ties of behavior with regard to the consumerist trends. In addition, the chapters present early historical studies investigating the history of McDonald’s development. In addition, the author discusses people’s lifestyles and views them as consumers. Addressing such East Asian cities as Hong Kong and Seoul, the author highlights possible biases and preferences influencing the system of global production. Specific attention is paid on the detachment of GAE from its Americano origins, as well as assimilation of McDonald’s culture in Asian societies. The localization process is explained by different experiences that consumers face. In addition, the genuine symbol of McDonald’s food production is under the threat as far as Asian societies are concerned. In particular, the author provides examples of consumers treating the Big Mac as a symbol of American imperialism. At the same time, growing numbers of Korean children celebrate various events at fast food ce nters. In addition, Watson stresses that the localization process bears one-way character because the corporation also needs to adjust to new environments to achieve profitability. The chapter shows how consumers, along with McDonald’s management, have changed their fast food centers into leisure cafes, meeting halls, and afterschool clubs. The contributors, therefore, have paid closer attention to the outcomes of these activities for education, socialization, and family organization. What is more important is that the chapters conclude that there is no connection between fast food boom and development of child-centered consumer culture in Asian region. Modernization and Modern Transformations in East Asia Provided the process of modernization is associated with global development, the author sufficiently covers the complexities and challenges of modern trends in consumption. Addressing the main contributors in studying food production industries, the author notes, â€Å"fro m a cultural point of view, McDonald’s, like many other products of industrialization and modernization, is treated by most Americans as simply a necessity of modern life†v. Chinese, by contrast, observe the Big Mac has been transforming into an exclusive cuisine because McDonald’s has not just become a place where people order meals. The complexities of social interactions and perceptions of the ‘Americanized’ approach prevented the Asian societies from accepting modern introductions. Because fast food chains reflect the globalization process, it has also become a modern industrial power and focus of modern business activities. Within local communities, McDonald’s has become the main source of revival of local businesses and economies. In addition, the author accentuates that the integration of GAE also triggered the development of modern habits and skills among youth. In particular, the author has researched, â€Å"parents make every effort to encourage their children to learn all kinds of skills†¦that are supposedly necessary in the modern world, and will save money to meet their children demand for food†¦Ã¢â‚¬ vi. Therefore, children visiting fast food centers are engaged into modern patterns of communication, and they strive to become part of popular culture. Apart from improvement to the communication and culture, Asian societies have also been affected by modern trends in managing fast food industries, which contradict significantly the existing administrative strategies. In particular, the author argues, â€Å"by combining methods of preparation and hygiene with traditional Chinese cuisine, they could recapture Beijing’s fast food market from the control of foreign chains†vii. Taking McDonald’s as a model of management by local communities and governments allow Asian societies to build up a bridge to global culture. Bibliography Galgano, Michael J., Arndt, J. Chris, and Raymond M. Hyser, Doing History: Research and Writing in the Digital Age. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. Watson, Watson. Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia. UK: Standford University Press, 2006. i James Watson. Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia. (UK: Standford University Press), 10. ii Ibid., 79. iii Ibid., 87 iv Ibid., 139. v Ibid., 53. vi Ibid., 66. vii Ibid., 74. This essay on Transculturalism and Local Culture in East Asia: Golden Arches Case was written and submitted by user Maya D. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

These famous people failed at first, then found success

These famous people failed at first, then found success Ever get discouraged because you feel like nothing’s going your way? Or maybe you’ve been at it for a few years and just feel that you aren’t where you should- or want to- be. Chances are, you’re being too hard on yourself and not allowing for the normal ebb and flow of failure that leads to most success. Don’t believe it? We have proof. Here are 10 people who totally failed at first and then went on to achieve great success, fame, and fortune! Use them for inspiration when next you’re getting down on yourself.1. R.H. MacyYou probably don’t know this guy by name alone, but chances are you’ve shopped at one of his stores. That’s right, the founder of Macy’s department stores managed to fail at seven early business attempts before landing on the perfect breakthrough with his first NYC store.2. Bill GatesFirst, he dropped out of Harvard. Then, his first business was a failed company you’ve likely never heard of called Traf-o-Data. But his next company, Microsoft, did much better. Much,  much better.3. Albert EinsteinAs a kid, Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old. In fact, he couldn’t read until the age of seven- his parents and teachers thought he might not be very bright at all. He was expelled from school and denied admission to Zurich Polytechnic. But then he went on to become such a success in his field that his name is now used as a synonym for â€Å"genius† all over the world.4. Steven SpielbergSpielberg was rejected from USC’s School of Theater, Film, Television three times, then dropped out of Cal State, Long Beach. He eventually went back and finished school in 2002, but only after becoming the big-budget award-winning smash success he is today.  5. J.K. RowlingThe billion dollar empress of the Harry Potter franchise? She was a divorced, depressed, and penniless single mother attending school while on welfare. Now she’s one of the richest women in the world.6. Tyler PerryFrom a rough abusive childhood, high school expulsion, and two attempted suicides, Tyler Perry went on to work several jobs and try to build his career. At one point, he sunk everything he had into his first film, which flopped spectacularly. He kept at it, though (even sleeping in his car) and now he’s one of entertainment’s most respected and highest paid men.7. Emily BluntThe award-winning acclaimed actress had a terrible stutter until the age of 14. But Blunt was encouraged to do theatre, which changed everything. Through hard work and gigs that asked her to play different characters and use different accents, she was able to overcome her stutter and become an international film star of the first degree.8. Vera WangFashion designer Vera Wang failed first at figure skating when she didn’t make the 1968 Olympic team. She then became a Vogue editor, but was passed over for a coveted promotion. At the age of 40, she s tarted designing wedding gowns and, well, the rest is history. She’s now worth over a billion dollars. She’s even come full circle by designing costumes for Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.  9. Lucille BallEveryone loves â€Å"Lucy,† but before this sitcom star was tearing it up with husband Desi Arnaz on cable, she was considered the â€Å"Queen of B Movies† because the only work she could get was on second-tier films people found silly. She’s now remembered as one of the funniest and most accomplished comediennes of all time.

All About Si, the French Adverb or Conjunction

All About Si, the French Adverb or Conjunction The French word si can be an adverb or a conjunction. Either way, si has several meanings and is used in numerous French constructions. Practicing the use of this word is important for grasping its nuances. Si If Si is the French word for if: Je ne sais pas si je veux y aller. (I dont know if I want to go.)Dis-moi si à §a te conviendra. (Tell me if that will work for you.)Et si je ne suis pas fatiguà ©? (And if Im not tired?)Si jà ©tais riche, jachà ¨terais une maison. (If I were rich, I would buy a house.) Si So Si can be used as an intensifier: Je suis si fatiguà ©. (Im so tired.)Jai si faim. (Im so hungry.)Je ne savais pas quil à ©tait si mignon. (I didnt know he was so cute.) Si As, So Si can make a comparison: Il nest pas si intelligent quil pense. (Hes not as smart as he thinks.)Ce nest pas si facile. (Its not as easy as that, Its not that easy.) Si While, Whereas Si can put two clauses in opposition: Sil est beau, sa femme est laide. (Whereas he is handsome, his wife is ugly.)Si tu es gentil, ton frà ¨re est mà ©chant. (Youre kind, while your brother is mean.) Si However, No Matter How Si can be followed by a subjunctive clause to express a concession: Si beau quil fasse, je ne peux pas sortir (No matter how nice the weather is, I cant go out)Si gentil que tu sois, je ne taime pas (However kind you are, I dont love you) Si Yes Si means yes in response to a negative question or statement: Tu ne vas pas venir? Si, je vais venir. (Youre not going to come? Yes, I am going to come.)Nas-tu pas dargent? Si, jen ai. (Dont you have any money? Yes, I do.)Jeanne nest pas prà ªte. Si, si! (Jeanne isnt ready. Yes, yes!) Si Did I Hear Correctly, Is This What Youre Asking? If someone asks a question and youre not sure (or cant believe) you heard correctly, you can request confirmation or clarification by repeating what you did hear with the word si:Si jai faim?(Are you asking) if Im hungry?(You couldnt really hear the question)Si je veux quoi?Youre asking if I want what?(Youre not sure you heard correctly; you heard Do you want a free TV?)Si jai combien denfants?Youre asking if I have how many kids?(You didnt hear how many, or you heard Do you have 7 kids?) Et Si What if, How About In informal French, et si is often tacked on the beginning of a suggestion (with the verb in the imperfect): Et si on allait au cinà ©? (How about going to the movies?)Et si tu amenais ton frà ¨re? (Why dont you bring your brother?)Et si on parlait damour? (What if we talked about love?)

Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Business Environment - Essay Example 1 5,6 1.3 Explain the responsibilities of an organisation and strategies employed to meet them. 1 6,7 LO2 Understandthe nature of the national environment in which businesses operate. 2.1 Explain how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively. 1 7,8,9,10 2.2 Assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on business organisations and their activities. 1 10,11 2.3 Evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the activities of a selected organisation. 1 11 LO3 Understand the behaviour of organisations in their market environment. 3.1 Explain how market structures determine the pricing and output decisions of businesses. 1 12,13 3.2 Illustrate the way in which market forces shape organisational responses using a range of examples. 1 13 3.3 Judge how the business and cultural environments shape the behaviour of a selected organisation. 1 14 LO4 Be able to assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities . 4.1 Discuss the significance of international trade to UK business organisations. 2 15 4.2 Analyse the impact of global factors on UK business organisations 2 15,16, 4.3 Evaluate the impact of policies of the European Union on UK business organisations. ... A business organisation has a boundary, which separates it from its external environment. The main rationale of this assignment is to spot the purposes of business organisation, analyze the criterion used by different types of business organisations to meet the demand of stakeholders, and explain strategies and responsibilities of business organisations, which they use to meet their goals. LO1 Understand the organisational purposes of businesses. Purpose of business organisation      Businesses run to ensure they meet the needs of customers. Therefore, according to many businesses, customers are more essential to a business than stockholders, employees, and managers. Without consumers, entrepreneurs cannot operate businesses (Shorthose & Maycroft 2012, P.33). Therefore, the main principle of business organisation is to ensure that customers experience the best services and are fully satisfied. The organisations vision statement portrays the future state of the organisation. Havin g quality managers and leaders enable a business to create vision and strategy (Fleming 2004, P.4). However, under all business conditions, the purpose of a certain organisation is to ensure that the businesses survive. Business organisation should establish shared values and vision for the businesses (Shorthose & Maycroft 2012, P.35). Business organisation must create mission statement and some commitments to maintain the mission at all the organisational levels. The main purpose of this mission statement is to protect the organisation from being sidetracked and distracted. The mission and values focus on the resources and strategies of the business organisation (Fleming 2004, P.7). The major resources of a business organisation include employees, their experiences, and

Discuss the role of the Emergency Manager and the Fundamentals of Essay - 1

Discuss the role of the Emergency Manager and the Fundamentals of Emergency Management - Essay Example In other words, disaster mitigation and risk-reduction measures are needed for a good response. However, one must realize (and be realistic enough) that most disasters cannot be seen in advance or forecasted with any degree of certainty. From an emergency response perspective, it can be said there are no real measures of success (if based on the number of lives saved or in the minimization of damage); but one should always look at each disaster as something unique that cannot be neatly categorized. What is meant here is that disasters are chaotic events and luck is a big part of the outcome. A disaster is not a linear-progression event that can predicted with high degree of precision and therefore is hard for anyone to control completely. Moreover, disasters can easily deteriorate into a catastrophe if the wrong response is employed (like in Japan). This portion talks about the role of the emergency manager and the fundamentals of any emergency management program. It is vital to know these two things for any disaster response to be effective in terms of limiting the damage, saving lives and in the recovery efforts after. Role of Emergency Manager – the primary role of the emergency manager is to prepare a populace for a disaster, whether man-made or natural disasters. In this regard, the manager must implement a disaster preparedness plan to help the people prepare, devise an early warning sign or system to notify people in advance (this is also to prevent panic resulting from rumors and the usual miscommunication in an emergency situation). For this, the manager must put into place a crisis communications plan as a preventive measure and at the same as a pro-active orientation. This team should be composed of the highest local official (or a designated alternate) who can make the decisions, members of the team who can be contacted and authorized to disseminate vital information and also designate a chief of an Incident Command System (ICS) put

Homosexuality Essay Example for Free

Homosexuality Essay In today’s society homosexuality is frequently discussed and the morality of being gay or not is questioned. Based on what culture, ethics, knowledge a person has acquired in their lifetime and how their parent, teacher, preacher, or other type of mentor views the issue, people will form their own beliefs about homosexuality. Each culture has their own values regarding the appropriateness of certain types f sexuality. In Michael Levin’s â€Å"Why Homosexuality is Abnormal,† he justifies that â€Å"homosexuality is abnormal and hence undesirable- not because it is immoral or sinful, or because it weakens society or hampers evolutionary development, but for a purely mechanical reason† (290). Michael justified that homosexuality is abnormal and then goes to state that the unhappiness of homosexuals is highly due to the misuse of bodily parts; therefore, they are bound to be unhappy. Levin’s thesis claims that the abnormality of the homosexuality does not make them to live a desirable way of life which, I completely disagree with. In disagreement with Levin, the use of bodily parts in a homosexual relationship is not a misuse, but an alteration of functions and the terminology of abnormal does not lead to unhappiness. Levin claims to state that the misuse of bodily parts in a homosexual relationship will lead to an undesirable and unhappy life. I will begin my argument with why the use of bodily parts in homosexual relationship is not misuse, but an altered function, can lead to a desirable and happy life. For instance, if one day LeBron James gets into a serve accident and becomes a paraplegic. His basketball career is terminated because he is paralyzed from the waist down, which means he is not capable of using his legs ever again. His ability to walk, run, jog, jump, swim, and etc. are now vanished; therefore, causing him to never play in the National Basketball Association. As time went by, he realized the inability to use his lower body parts in a common function was not going to stop him from playing basketball. LeBron decided he was going to play wheelchair basketball and continue his drive to play basketball because that is what makes him content. Through his altered body usage, LeBron learned how to maneuver and causing him to win multiple rewards in basketball. After winning multiple rewards, it made LeBron recognize that if one has the desire to be happy and shoot for their goals, than anything is possible. In the end, LeBron was just as successful using his altered body parts and the ability to function just fine like a normal human being. In respect to LeBron’s scenario, a homosexual’s body parts should not be judged just because the bodily parts are altered and used not in the way that Levin expects. Levin argues that the misuse of body parts causes unfullfillment, which than lead to unhappiness. He uses the terminology of â€Å"evolution† as a measurement to justify the idea that heterosexuals are normal human beings and homosexuals as abnormal because they are incapable of reproducing offspring. Levin argues â€Å"human beings have penises and vaginas because our ancestors who put their penises into vaginas (or put their vaginas around penises) tended to reproduce, passing along to have penises and vaginas and to use them in this way† (302). This is what genitalia are for is what Levin said and any other uses such as homosexuals are abnormal. So, basically what Levin is trying to say is that homosexuals can never be happy because they misuse their bodily parts, which causes them to never fulfill their desires and than leads to unhappiness. In a sense, â€Å"we are â€Å"programmed† through evolution to enjoy using our organs in evolutionarily adaptive (i. e. normal) ways† (302). My theory is that homosexuals can be happy. How is Levin to judge and say that it does not fulfill their desires and makes them unhappy? Why would people do things to make themselves emotionally hurt or unhappy? If homosexuals partake in homosexual activities, it is because that is what makes them emotionally happy from the inside, not because to partake in activities just for the hell of it. If that is what fulfills their personal desires than there should be nothing abnormal or wrong about it. Just because Levin does not have those personal desires does not mean he can criticize on others about it. Levin talks a lot about evolution and how our heterosexual ancestors who had penises and vaginas passing it down for the next ancestors; well, if one think’s about it homosexuals have also evolved over time too. Just because back then in society people did not talk about it and in present-day they do, does not mean homosexuals have not been around. The fact is that it has been around just not ever mentioned. For example, talking about sex was never mentioned in the old times, but present-day people talk about it in public. Overtime, society has gained more knowledge, hence making people acknowledge more about homosexuality. Since, homosexuality has been here throughout history and continues to evolve then, Levin’s statement about evolution implies the same for homosexuals making them normal human beings. Levin’s second argument is about using the terminology â€Å"abnormal† when misusing sexual organs. He never gives a clear definition on what is abnormal, but only for the fact what I have mentioned above. For Levin, an activity is abnormal in the relevant sense whenever it involves using an organ for purposes for which it was not intended (302). Implying that being abnormal is when one does not use the penis to penetrate through the vagina to fertilize eggs and reproduce offsprings. If this is how society should be and if is this how these organs should be used, then why is it that heterosexuals partake in activities such as oral sex and anal sex? â€Å"Levin argues that penises are for inserting into vaginas, not for inserting into mouths or other orifices; vaginas are for receiving penises, not for rubbing up against other vaginas† (302). This statement is being hypocritical because these are the same actions heterosexuals partake in also, making them â€Å"abnormal† as well. He misuses the word â€Å"abnormal. † The clear definition of abnormal means is extraordinary, uncommon, rare, or different. If Levin is calling homosexuals uncommon and rare, then what makes philosophy professors common? Being a philosophy professor is uncommon in a sense that only a small minority of people do it, but it is not â€Å"abnormal† in Levin’s sense. And since majority of the heterosexual population do partake in different activities using their genitalia for other purposes, this would make them common versus uncommon. Levin last argument is about the policy issues. He is trying to say society should protect their children because if the legislation provided rights to the homosexuals, then children will have the odds to become a homosexual. In his argument Levin even states, â€Å"If homosexuality is unnatural, legislation which raises the odds that a given child will become homosexual raised the odds that he will be unhappy† (295). Legalizing homosexuality means coming to the conclusion that it is acceptable to get married to the same gender and the government would have no objections against this action. If this occurred many religious practices would raise questions and make comparison to the Bible. If Levin were saying that homosexuals would cause harm to children if allowed by the government, then what would one say when children watch pornography or movies that show kissing the same gender or opposite gender? Present-day children are already watching TV shows that harm their knowledge. What difference would it make if a child found a gay couple holding hands or kissing? Also, how much knowledge can a little child retain, they can only have minimal understanding of what is going on. In society there are other issues such as violence, murders, terrorist attacks that are more harmful to children than homosexuals being together. Levin does not stop to evaluate that continuing to degrade homosexuals and define them as abnormal based on their desires will continue to divide up the society causing tension to build up and unhappiness. After all America gives the freedom to believe in one’s own practices without any judgments. In disagreement to Levin’s argument that the abnormality of homosexuality misusing their bodily parts causing unhappiness should also take into account of policy issues in Levin’s statement. Being unique and different than the majority of the norm does not mean they are harmful to the community. In America people have the right to worship in whatever they believe in; therefore, fulfilling one’s need by misusing bodily parts does not prove they are abnormal or can lead to unhappiness. In conclusion, determining the quality of one’s life is based on the fulfilling individual’s desires and a homosexual is clearly not destined to be unhappy with the abstract use of body parts. He or she can still live a happy life in altering their functions because that is what makes morally content and fulfill their personal desires.

Examination of Tennysons use of Narrative Voice in his Poetry Essay

Examination of Tennyson's use of Narrative Voice in his Poetry Tennyson employs the effects of narrative voice frequently in his poetry, the emotional impression of which varies from poem to poem and indeed, from reader to reader. However, within the poems studied the use of a ‘voice’ appears to consistently attempt to convey some theme or emotive experience in which the reader is invited, if not encouraged, to experience from the perspective of the appropriate speaker. In Ulysses the reader is witness to Ulysses’ reminiscences of more exciting years in his past, in which he laments over the reversion of his life to that of an ‘idle king’. Here, Tennyson is able to present a recurrent theme in his poetry: activity or the lack thereof. However, the use of a persona provides the reader with a more personally emotional representation of this theme, evoking an empathy perhaps not achievable otherwise. The admirable resistance of Ulysses to the incompetency of old age is extremely persuasive, his optimism affects the reader in such a way as to sway them towards a similar opinion and ...

One of the widespread and shocking causes of injustices today is racism

In our modern times, the word racism shouldn't even exist. We should know better than to superficially discriminate against a person because of their race. However, the matter of the fact is that racism does exist and it is a prevalent part of our society. In your life time more than half of you are likely to be subject to racial abuse. Even at school racial stereotypes are candidly thrown about but at some point someone will be hurt by it. In Twelve Angry men the initial unanimous vote bar juror 8, in favour of condemning the boy was based solely on the presumptions made from incomplete facts and presumptions about the boy’s personality due to the stereotypes associated with the boy’s South American heritage. Juror #10 is openly bitter and prejudiced. He believes that anyone coming from a poor neighbourhood is less than human. We can see right from the start that the verdict that the defendant is undoubtedly ‘guilty’ is locked in his mind simply because he has a personal grudge against people like the defendant and he separates himself from their culture by using ‘us’ and ‘them’. He believes that their all alike and he knows all about them and how their no good. When he unleashes his bigotry to the others in a speech, the rest of the disturbed jury turn their backs on him disgusted by his outright racism. Today, one in 4 African-American men between the ages of 20 and 29 are imprisoned, on parole, or under the control of the U. S. criminal justice system in some way – which is more than there are in college. For Latinos, the figure is 1 in 10. For ‘whites’, the number is 1 in 16. A recent study has found that 85% of all black American males will be arrested at least once in their lifetimes. The race of the victim has an impact on sentencing as well. In Dallas, the rape of a white woman results in an average sentence of 10 years, while the rape of a Latino woman gets 5 years and the rape of a black woman gets 2 years. Nationally, murderers with white victims are up to 4. 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than murderers with black victims. So you might say, that’s America, we don’t need to worry about racism down under. WRONG!! Late 2004, late one night Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36 year old local of Palm Island of the coast of QLD was arrested for being drunk and died an hour late in a police cell. He suffered massive internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a ‘liver that had been ‘almost cleaved in two' from a huge compressive force. ‘ The officer who arrested him, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, claimed that Mulrunji had fallen on stairs. A pathologist's report claimed that the death of was an ‘accident'. Due to this obvious injustice Lex Wotton another Aboriginal man and others set fire to the local police station, court house and police barracks in revolt. A coroner's inquest found that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was responsible for Mulrunji's death, as the injuries were consistent with a beating. However, a court found Hurley not guilty for manslaughter. He has since been promoted and is an Inspector on the Gold Coast. In comparison Lex Wotton is now facing a life sentence in prison after an all white jury found him guilty of ‘rioting with destruction'. Athough is an extreme example and all cases aren’t as excessive, racism is still prevalent in our society.

INFS1602 Assignment A Essay

The purpose of this report was to design a start-up strategy and IS infrastructure for Ruth & Luke (R&L) Crowdsource’s business. Research for this report identifies the focus (target market), opportunities and threats in entering the market and provides a detailed business model. This report incorporated recent statistical data in relation to online social media, various journal articles and books obtained online. Research for the target market indicates that the seekers comprise of mainly businesses of a variety of sizes that are familiar with the practice of crowd-sourcing. In regards to the solvers, findings suggest that university students and academics will be the dominant target market for R&L Crowdsource’s business. Using the five-forces model to identify new market entrants, substitute products and services, customers, suppliers, and competitive rivalry, overall there is a medium-high level of threat in entering the market. Further research recommends that R&L Crowdsource should focus more on achieving an easily accessible system with availability to an extensive range of audiences while raising reputation and credibility by advertising through online social media, the ‘Google’ search engine and newspapers. The efficiency and effectiveness of R&L Crowdsource’s business operations will be dependent on the amount of investment into the appropriate information systems, which may be financed through revenue obtained by charging a fee to seekers. Target markets (seekers/solvers) R&L Crowdsource will be commencing the online business initiative for clients who are seeking for their business problems to be solved through outsourcing the business solution. To identify potential target markets R&L Crowdsource needs to consider following characteristics: Seekers: Type of clients : R&L Crowdsource needs to determine the type of business that their client conducts i.e. retail companies or IT companies. Online and offline research needs to be undertaken to see which sectors of these markets need R&L Crowdsource’s business solution services. This is because a variety of companies encounter different levels of difficulty within the businesses operations. As this is a relatively new type of service, it has not widely adopted it yet. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should focus more on those who have used this service previously or are in the same industry where their competitors have used due to the fact that they are more likely to be interested (Alzawahreh & Khasawneh, 2011). This can be done through online research and surveys. Size of clients : Online research conducted primarily from Innocentive.com (www.Innocentive.com) suggests that the size of clients should not be prioritised. The research revealed that regardless of whether they are operating internationally or domestically, a variety of different sized companies are likely to favour outsourcing their business problems. Examples of these companies include P&G (Spradlin, 2012). Solvers: In order to target the market for seekers effectively, the directors of R&L Crowdsource should reflect on their experiences as past seekers. Primarily, different participants will conduct each project and depending on the characteristics of the projects, it may require more time and work. People who already have a full-time job are not likely to desire spending their spare time on additional works unless it has either a high level of reimbursement or it is an area of interest. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should initially seek university students and academics that are qualified in certain fields so that the outcome will be more reliable. Implementation of 5 forces model New Market Entrants This type of business initiative is fully based on the supplier and they are free to participate and exit for the given challenges. The company will have a middleman role, which connects the suppliers to its clients. There are few economies of scale in place because there is no significant capital investment required and specialised technology is not required. The company will likely encounter other competitors coming into the market when it commences sooner or later. However, its strong brand development achieved by successful and stable customer relationship established will lead to a low threat of new entrants in the market. Substitute products and services Those who request these services would be less concerned about the process, caring only about the outcome. The assumption based on this initiative is that â€Å"the wisdom of crowds† will come up with optimised ideas for the challenges. Furthermore, clients who are considered as conservative will have a tendency to solve the business problems with internationally well-recognised business consulting companies as they can work collaboratively. They provide more systematic ways of solving problems and can work interactively with the companies as their group of employees will work for the company with well-trained and qualified human labours while it costs more. This may result a high level of client satisfaction rate. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that large sized companies would substitute this type of service by using their internal resources. This means that there is a medium to high level of threats of substitute services. Customers At the present, the bargaining power lies with the customers until R&L Crowdsource has built up a reputable audience consisting of both seekers and solvers. The main feature of this business initiative is that clients do not know who will be participating in the task and this will seem unattractive to more conservative companies due to the fact that they would be prefer to spend their resources on reputable companies and individuals instead of taking a risk through Crowdsourcing. Suppliers Suppliers will be those who are willing to attempt given challenges with other people collaboratively to discover the ideal solution. Since the business has a fundamental idea that collaborative work with other people who have different background will come up with better ideas, supplier bargaining power will be considered as relatively lower in this business type. This is because development of Internet accessibility has allowed a large number of users to facilitate a variety of internet resources regardless of their geographical location. Therefore, we assume that there will be a large number of potential participants who would like to take challenges with certain level of reimbursement. Competitive Rivalry This type of an online business is not widely recognised so far and only few existing competitors have provided the services. However, this does not benefit the R&L Crowdsource’s business because it also has a disadvantage, which is the lower level of switching costs for clients. A differentiated feature of this business from its potential competitors in the market is that the business problem will be worked on by a group of people who have different background knowledge rather than one individual. Therefore, even though this business market is considered as a blue-chip business, there is medium to high level of industry rivalry between competitors. Business Strategy R&L should utilise a click only strategy to assist their online business. The strengths of an online business lie with the low start-up capital and overhead costs, consisting of mainly purchasing a domain, designing the website and promoting the business. In this case, however, we will be promoting the business mainly through online social media which no cost. In order to gain exposure or popularity, something essential for every business, after designing the website, marketing should be invested in to find potential customers. Re-iterating the target markets from above, solvers would primarily consist of people who may not have full-time jobs and for people who may be full-time studying. However, knowing the target market will not increase website traffic, advertisements and other methods should be used in establishing R&L’s company’s reputation. R&L should advertise firstly with ‘Google’s AdWords’. As ‘Google’ dominates the search engine market, with 83% of search users using ‘Google’ and just under 1 trillion uses per year it emphasises its popularity. This online advertising program would allow for R&L’s advertisements to appear on ‘Google’ and its partner websites and will only charge R&L when someone clicks their ad. Using online social media is another method they should undertake in order to attract more seekers and solvers. Creating a page on ‘Facebook’ will allow R&L to announce co-creation projects and communicate with the public. If, for example, a large business ‘likes’ this page, it will be opened to a greater number of people, increasing credibility and reputation. Other sites such as twitter may also be used for announcements and increasing popularity. Advertising on newspapers or magazines should also be considered. Placing advertisements on the business section of newspapers may appeal more to seekers whereas advertising on other sections may appeal more to solvers. However, this may be less effective in finding solvers if we consider our target market for solvers to be full-time students in comparison to advertising on ‘Google’ and online social media websites. Once a Crowdsourcing project is established and seekers are found, if the project is successful, R&L should attempt to increase popularity and credibility through their client’s business in an attempt to continue the network effect mentioned earlier. Web 2.0 Mainstream and emerging Web 2.0 technologies and applications have greatly enabled users to share with and communicate to the broader world through online media. By advertising R&L’s business through social media, there is a higher potential to develop and expand this business. This business strategy relies partly on the network effect, as it will be dependent on the amount of users. As more users participate, the network will grow exponentially. Statistics also reveal that 60% of social media users are willing to post about products/services on ‘Facebook’ if it is of interest and that 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media campaigns . As seen from these statistics, it is evident that the use of online social media such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ will be of benefit in increasing website traffic and exposure to the broader population. Also, in order to establish this liaison system, many applications or programs of web 2.0 should be employed to enable the operations of the business. As they are just starting the business, the use of free web-based tools such as ‘Google Docs’ and ‘eGroupWare’ will enhance the ability for the solvers to collaborate as any work submitted or edited will be updated automatically for everyone to read. As with any content management systems, roles must be set in order to maintain an efficient workplace. Having editors who can only edit material and administrators to watch over the work and behaviour of the editors will dissuade solvers from abusing their editing privileges. Using web based email clients such as ‘Gmail’ or ‘Hotmail’ will allow for seekers and solvers to communicate with R&L in regards to any problems outside of the work. As these web-based clients have options to organise emails into separate areas or folders, the emails won’t be as cluttered and be easier to deal with. Business Model: An organisation’s business model is essentially the blueprint of their business logic and ideologies (Ludeke-Freund, 2013). As such, it is critical that an effective business model is both established and adhered to. Osterwalder’s business model canvas is explained in nine different pillars. Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition Relationships Clients Key Resources Channels Cost Structure Revenue Stream Source: Alexander Osterwalder Value Proposition RL Crowdsource needs to provide a universal crowd sourcing service, which connects solvers and seekers alike. The competitive advantage that RL Crowdsource should be striving for is an easily accessible system, which provides access to an extensive range of audiences. Whilst crowd sourcing is freely available on the Internet, R&L should implement a system that easily connects a seeker directly to the best available solvers. In an increasingly global generation, RL Crowdsource should also have the ability to bypass language issues, which would normally stop a seeker from outsourcing work. The presence of RL Crowdsource as an intermediary will also enable easier transactions. Payment and reward incentives would be transacted through RL Crowdsource, decreasing the possibility of fraud and enabling peace of mind for many users. Other solvers may be motivated by the social benefits derived from creations that benefits society greatly. Some others may not be motivated by recognition or monetary incentives but instead, choose to â€Å"free reveal† ideas (Krogh, 2006). R&L Crowdsource should endeavour to harness these different sources of motivation by being the delivery system for any rewards and incentives. The communication and collaboration between solvers and seekers in the project should produce greater satisfaction and results. It should be noted that the satisfaction and results were facilitated through RL Crowdsource’s C2C business system, and thus forms part of the value proposition to R&L Crowdsource’s clients. Pathak (2009) articulates this through emphasising the efficient nature of platforms, which allow consumers to cooperate and collaborate with each other in real time. RL Crowdsource will conduct advertising and recruiting activities on behalf of the client. This is particularly important because a large part of RL Crowdsource’s target audience will have little or no expertise and experience in this area. Key Activities To successfully enable the value propositions stated above, R&L Crowdsource must establish a system to connect consumers. A key element of that aspect would be a search RSS feed that connects a solver’s characteristics and qualifications with that of a seeker’s. The feed should have different categories alongside a onsite search engine. De La Torre-Diez (2013) educates that an RSS Feed is an extremely effective method for sharing frequently updated information on the Internet. It is also a low-cost method of creating universal access to the offerings of the firm through the Internet (Ning et al., 2008). A customer relationship management system and a multilingual search engine within the company’s website would also be useful for developing customer relationships and achieving the value propositions. The implementation of these systems would be dependant on the availability of capital. As the firm invests in these information systems, the key is for quicker and more accurate connections between seekers and solvers. This will thus create more value for everyone as more users use the site. Key Resources Capital is clearly the most important resource. It will enable R&L Crowdsource to obtain technological requirements such as computers, networks, databases and customised ERP systems. A physical location to store these items will need to be available as well. As the value propositions are primarily based online, R&L Crowdsource should mitigate a lot of resource expenses attributed to traditional brick and mortar businesses (Pure-Play e-Business Development, 2000). Key Partners The key partners of a firm are those who support and aid the firm’s success on a professional level (Clark, Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2012). As such, R&L Crowdsource should consider its I.T department or outsourced I.T consultants to be a key partner. This is because the firm’s value propositions rely entirely on the ability of its information systems. The design and accessibility of the system will also determine the success of the system. Other key partners could include large business customers whose reputation can give credibility to R&L Crowdsource’s legitimacy. Likewise, R&L should consider all users as a key partner simply because it relies on its users to create the value proposition for other users. Customer Relationship Managing customer relationships is critical for every business that aspires to attain a competitive advantage. The nature of a customer relationship is defined by how responsive, attentive, personalised and customised it is (Bankston 2013). A key aim to maintaining customer relationship is therefore to increase efficiency and effectiveness for every seeker or solver. Due to the low switching costs attributed to many businesses based primarily online (Pure-Play e-Business Development, 2000), customer loyalty is often defined through the value and customer service attained by the customer. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource must continue investing in the key resources defined above to maintain customer loyalty. Other methods to enhance customer loyalty can be through discounts and lower pricing. Channel Communication between the firm and its customers is a vital element. For a firm whose value proposition is primarily based online, it is rational to have communication channels based primarily online as well. Milburn (2004) states that the challenges faced by companies, involves encouraging a behavioural change to electronic communication. This makes sense for the company because electronic communication is often the method of communication with the lowest cost as well (Milburn, 2004). Methods such as email and enquiry forms on the website should be used. The advantage of electronic communications lies in the fact that it is accessible at any time of the day. However for electronic communication to be successful, it must be quick, responsive and easy to navigate (Bernier, 2013). Customer Segments R&L Crowdsource should be creating value for both seekers and solvers. It is paramount that both segments of the market see value in order for R&L Crowdsource to deliver its value propositions. The most important customers are the customers who generate the most revenue for the firm. These typically include organisations that use R&L Crowdsource extensively . Cost Structure The most important costs in this business model involve the business systems that deliver the value proposition to our clients. This includes the database (which needs to be constantly updated), alongside server bandwidth and RSS Feed design. These resources are likely to be the most expensive as it also incurs a constant maintenance cost. Legal support will also be required to make sure R&L Crowdsource abides by national and international legislation in its activities. Revenue Streams The revenue streams for R&L Crowdsource should be primarily from the seekers. An example of this can be seen by eBay.com, where the seller pays a percentage of the final sale price to eBay, alongside administration fees. This is a model that R&L Crowdsource should adopt. Bonakdar et al. (2012) educates that misguided revenue gaining ideals will hurt all business models. Therefore, R&L Crowdsource should refrain from charging fees on solvers. This will allow the number of solvers to increase because the service is free to them. Revenue will thus rise naturally as the number of seekers increases. References 1. Alzawahreh, A., Khasawneh, S. (2011). Business Strategies Adopted by Jordanian Organisations: The Key to sustained Competitive Advantage. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Volume 3 . 2. Amir Bonakdar, T. W. (2013). Transformative Influence of Business Processes on the Business Model: Classifying the State of the Practice in the Software Industry. Hawaii: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 3. Bankston, K. (2013). What’s Your Top Goal. Credit Union Management . 4. Bernier, P. (2013). Taking the Customer Experience Mobile. Business Source Premier (7), pp. 8-11. 5. Clark, T., Osterwalder, A. (2012). Business Model You: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your Career. Hoboken, New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons . 6. Cherry Tree & Co. (2000). Pure-Play e-Business Development. USA: Cherry Tree & Co. 7. ComScore, 2011. Statistic Brain. [Online] Available at: http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/ [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 8. Kristin Purcell, J. B. L. R., 2012. PewInternet. [Online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Search-Engine-Use-2012/Summary-of-findings.aspx [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 9. Krogh, v. (2006). Free Revealing and the Private Collective Model for Innovation Incentives. R&D Management , 36 (3), 295-306. 10. Ledeke-Freund, F. (2013). Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State-of-the-art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production , April Edition, 9-19. 11. Milburn, P. (2004). Customer Communications: Keeping Pace in an Ever-Changing Environment. Keeping Good Companies , 56 (8), 458-459. 12. Pathak, B. (2009). C2C Business Models: Beyond Online Marketplaces. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Publishing. 13. Pring, C., 2012. The Social Skinny. [Online] Available at: http://thesocialskinny.com/99-new-social-media-stats-for-2012/ [Accessed 16 April 2013]. 14. Spradlin, D. (2012). Are you Solving the Right Problem?. Harvard Business Review 15. Torre-Diez, I. d. (2013). Development and Performance Evaluation of a New RSS Tool for a Web-Based System. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Volume 7. 16. X Ning, H. J. (2008). RSS: A Framwork Enabling Ranked Research on the Semantic Web. Information Processing and Management . Overview of the Report The main purpose of the assignment is to illustrate how our client should commence their own business initiative into a viable business venture with our recommendation as a team of Information System consultants. Basically, we had to design a ideal and optimized business model for our client with reasonable explanation and how Information System will accelerate their business initiative. During our preparation for the group project for INFS1602, we started from reviewing the lecture notes and prescribed text book individually for the brainstorming stage. This was suggested by Justin as we did not fully understand all concepts and theories that the lecturer explained during the week 1 to 5 lectures. This idea was an absolutely good starter for our group work and we were able to find the right direction and it gave us a clear way of completing the work After the brainstorming stage, we had to discuss more details regarding of the assignment as none of us had the identical idea such as which target market we should decide as well as how we can recommend which business model Ruth and Luke should adopt. Throughout the brainstorming process, we came up with a variety of different ideas for potential target markets and Porter’s competitive forces model described in the text book was used in order to justify why we chose the target markets for the client’s business. This textbook resources were quiet useful, however, we needed to do further researches since it illustrated mainly generalized ideas and we wanted to see how actual Porter’s competitive forces model is adopted in practice. Therefore, we found some samples of the Porter’s model and this gave us very clear ideas about the first part of the assignment. When we were doing the second part of the assignment which is describing how our client should use information systems and technology to create value and how mainstream and emerging Web 2.0 technologies and applications could be used to enable the strategy and operation of the business, we referred to our textbook mainly from chapter 3 to chapter 4. Some case studies from the text book were significantly helpful to understand how actual information system is working for existing companies. Particularly, in terms of answering how the business initiative can generate revenue, the case study in chapter4 was a time-saver as we discussed these issues during workshop and various different opinions and perspectives from classmates stimulated when we were doing the brainstorming. In conclusion, while we were doing the group assignment, we encountered some conflicts as they had different point of view for the same issues and we effectively solved those issues cooperatively. Workshops, textbook and the lecture notes were the main resources that we used and a bit of supportive online researches were conducted in order to verify our recommendation for the client. Also we all agreed that information system is a combination of all different business knowledge and can maximise a business strategy if we can apply properly.