The Constitution :: American America History

The Constitution A case for the connection of America's colonial and revolutionary religious and political experiences to the basic principles of the Constitution can be readily made. One point in favor of this conclusion is the fact that most Americans at that time had little beside their experiences on which to base their political ideas. This is due to the lack of advanced schooling among common Americans at that time. Other points also concur with the main idea and make the theory of the connection plausible. Much evidence to support this claim can be found in the wording of the Constitution itself. Even the Preamble has an important idea that arose from the Revolutionary period. The first line of the Preamble states, We the People of the United States... ." This implies that the new government that was being formed derived its sovereignty from the people, which would serve to prevent it from becoming corrupt and disinterested in the people, as the framers believed Britain's government had become. If the Bill of Rights is considered, more supporting ideas become evident. The First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom could have been influenced by the colonial tradition of relative religious freedom. This tradition was clear even in the early colonies, like Plymouth, which was formed by Puritan dissenters from England seeking religious freedom. Roger Williams, the proprietor of Rhode Island, probably made an even larger contribution to this tradition by advocating and allowing comple te religious freedom. William Penn also contributed to this idea in Pennsylvania, where the Quakers were tolerant of other denominations. In addition to the tradition of religious tolerance in the colonies, there was a tradition of self-government and popular involvement in government. Nearly every colony had a government with elected representatives in a legislature, which usually made laws largely without interference from Parliament or the king. Jamestown, the earliest of the colonies, had an assembly, the House of Burgesses, which was elected by the property owners of the colony. Maryland developed a system of government much like Britain's, with a representative assembly, the House of Delegates, and the governor sharing power. The Puritan colony in Massachusetts originally had a government similar to a corporate board of directors with the first eight stockholders, called freemen" holding power. Later, the definition of freemen" grew to include all male citizens, and the people were given a strong voice in their own government.

Amazon analysis Essay

1. Introduction Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 (Amazon, n.d.) and the website went online on July 16, 1995 (Webley, 2010). Amazon has its headquarter in Seattle, Washington and several offices on all continents. (Amazon, n.d.) At the beginning Amazon sold only books and after a period of development they expanded into a wider range of products such as multimedia products, household items, toys, clothing, jewellery, sporting goods and grocery (Amazon, n.d.). In the following the business strategy of Amazon is analysed in regard to a theoretical background. First of all, Amazon’s strategy is examined in terms of Porter’s Five Forces and Generic Strategies. Moreover, Amazon’s internationalisation strategy is examined including the obstacles they might face in their development process and how those can be overcome. Furthermore, economic theory is used to evaluate the aspects of market power and competition. 2. Analysis of Amazon 2.1. Amazon in Porter’s frameworks 2.1.1. Porter’s Five Forces It can be recommended to organisations to analyse the environment they operate in. This can be done on several levels such as the macro-environment, industry, competitors and the organisation itself. When analysing the industry the model of Porter’s Five Forces is an appropriate tool. It includes the five competitive forces threat of entry, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and competitive rivalry. Figure 1: The five forces framework (Tanbots, n.d.) Threat of entry describes the level of barriers that need to be overcome by new entrants in an industry. The typical barriers are (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011): Scale and experience Access to supply and distribution channels Expected retaliation Legislation or government action Differentiation In the case of Amazon the barrier scale and experience is the most significant. Amazon is the largest online retailer (Netonomy.NET, 2013). As a consequence they operate on a very large scale which results in economies of scale and other cost advantages. For a new entrant it would be very difficult to achieve this from scratch as this would requires large amounts of investment. As a new competitor in this sector does not have those cost advantages it is very likely that they have to charge higher prices. Amazon is in business for almost 18 years now which is comparable long for any online company. During this time they were able to build up a lot of valuable experience which is likely to be reflected in their cost curve as well. â€Å"A substitute performs the same or a similar function as an industry’s product by a different means.† (Porter, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, 2008) The threat of a substitute is high when it offers an attractive price-perf ormance ratio and when the buyer’s switching costs are low. (Porter, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, 2008) Switching costs are very low because it does not make a difference to the customer where they buy their books, music downloads or kitchen appliances just to name a few. The product is either the same or very  similar. So customers have the free choice where they want to purchase their products. However, there might be high emotional switching costs as customers built up a high loyalty in the past. Amazon makes use of this with their Kindle for example. There are many e-book readers available but when a customer purchases the Kindle they are also going to purchase their e-books from Amazon because then switching costs would be high as they would need a different e-book reader. This is a mean for Amazon to counteract the threat of substitutes. Suppliers can put pressure on companies by either reducing the quality of the good or service or by raising prices. The bargaining power of suppliers is high when one or more of several key elements are given such as the industry is dominated by only a few suppliers, the product is unique or differentiated and the industry is not an important customer of the supplier. (Porter, How competitive forces shape strategy, 1979) In the case of Amazon the bargaining po wer of suppliers is limited. On the one hand the power of suppliers is high because Amazon depends from their suppliers in the sense that books for example are usually not offered by a large number of different publishing companies. The same is true for the multimedia sector. So those suppliers could increase prices. On the other hand with Amazon being the largest online retailer it is a major customer of the industry. Publishing companies for example cannot risk to lose Amazon as a customer. Customers can pressure the companies to reduce prices, increase quality of the product or service and play competitors off against each other if they have a high bargaining power. (Porter, How competitive forces shape strategy, 1979) The key issue in the case of Amazon is that most of their products are standard and undifferentiated. As a lot of competitors in the online market as well as in the high street sector offer the same or very similar products customers can easily play competitors off against each other or demand lower prices. Due to those facts customers have a fairly high bargaining power. Rivalry among existing competitors is very high as Amazon has not only to compete with other online shops but also with high street retailers. Amazon offers a wide range of products and they are faced with different competitors across their product categories. There is only one factor that differentiates Amazon from the other retailers which is that Amazon offers such an immense range of products. 2.1.2. Generic Strategies Companies can develop a competitive advantage either in having lower costs than competitors or by product differentiation so that customers are willing to pay higher prices for that unique characteristic. The strategies that are developed to achieve this can either focus on the broad or narrow scope. (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011) Figure 2: Generic Competitive Strategies (Burgeen, 2013) With Amazon being the largest online retailing company it is clear that they focus on the broad scale and try to target as many customers as possible. The two possible strategies to develop a competitive advantage are therefore cost leadership or differentiation. Most of the goods and services that are sold by Amazon are standardised and undifferentiated. As Amazon does not produce the goods they sell it is not possible to develop a competitive advantage in terms of a differentiation strategy. As Amazon operates on such a large scale which makes it possible to achieve economies of scale and with some degree of bargaining power towards their suppliers it is quite obvious that cost leadership most likely to be the strategy that Amazon pursues that the moment. However, Amazon is always seeking to develop something unique mostly in the area of customer service. At the moment, they are developing a drone that could deliver small packages to the customers in 30 minutes or less (Amazon, n.d.). This unique service is a mean of differentiation to other online stores for which customers are certainly willing to pay a higher price. This strategy of cost leadership and developing new unique features can ensure that Amazon maintains their competitive advantage. 2.2. Modes of entry The selection of transactional corporation of entry modes was impacted by a variety of integrated factors. These multinational firms have the advantages of technology, scale and fund to entry a new market and area (Chan et al., 1992), for the party to accept, these multinational companies not only promote the development of economic and technology, but also bring a lot of employment opportunities for these new market. And at the same time, for the party of multinational companies which will extend a new area, and scale for their business, fuse with the local technology habit and culture can also  make the company become more diversified, bring more benefit for the company. Like the Amazon, which include 3 subsidiary corporations respectively are Alexa Internet, A9 and Internet Movie Database, IMDB. And its development strategy is vigorously develop enterprise diversification, make it more competitive and better integrated into the international market. In the theory of entry model, there have several points which respectively are Licensing or franchising, Joint venture, and Wholly owned subsidiary. 2.2.1. Licensing or franchising For the part of licensing or franchising, which means the franchise owners in the form of the contract, franchisees are allowed to be paid for the use of its name, trademark, proprietary technology, operational and management experience to carry out commercial activities. Since Amazon as an E-commerce sale platform and already involved with a number of product areas, then which can cooperate with other product firms, especially when they entry a new country of market, collaborate with the local enterprise and brand which was known by native is the fastest way to fit in these market, and also these Products manufacturer named amazon’s name will lead to better development. But the barrier of licensing or franchising is also exists, for example, these franchise and franchisee business ideas and products form may not conform to the principle of amazon’s brand, then these differences about management idea may be will bring conflicts and contradictions to each other. Then in order to prevent problem like this happened, Amazon on the aspect of international development should make full of investigation and examination before cooperation when they prepare to into a new market of country to avoid these problems. 2.2.2. Joint venture At the part of Joint venture, when an enterprise prepare to entry a new market, shall make a research about the condition of this industry in this market, whether have the condition for the development or already over-saturated. So how to competition with local enterprise, how to be accepted by native and how to stand out are the most important problems that Amazon should be consider, and with the object of joint venture may also produce interest on the friction. But through joint venture will save lots of cost and time on the part of adjustment period, Amazon can use a certain  technology, experience and talent which come from the object of cooperation. Reduce the risk caused by the poor preparation, distribute respective benefits at the same time, and also can draw appropriate management experience and local development, lay the foundation for the next market. 2.2.3. Wholly owned subsidiary In addition to Licensing or franchising, Joint venture, there is a better way of freedom to control which is Wholly owned subsidiary. It refers to a subsidiary fully owned or controlled by only one parent company, and there are exist two ways to set up subsidiary: first is set up a new firm from the beginning and construct a new set of production equipment; second is purchase an existing firm and its equipment. So Amazon should also develop like the other transactional corporations, through after a long period of survey and investigation about the condition of development in this area, through the acquisition of local companies or set up a new subsidiary to complete the integration with the local market, for example, amazon used to announced a $75 million deal to buy â€Å"joyo.com†, will be for amazon joyo, under a wholly owned subsidiary in China(Wang, 2012), which rely on the strong platform and group advantage of Amazon, so in the management and operational funds aspects w ithout having worry. But the through this way will spent a huge of money, then Amazon should planning in this aspect prudently, comprehensive estimation its operating situation and development prospect. Establish a wholly owned subsidiary of the company also need to take a lot of resources, so the risk what faced by Amazon may be high. One of source of risk is the target market of political or social uncertain or instability, and some risks like these may cause harm on company material property and personal safety when it become more serious, as long as fully understand the targets market of customer before they entering, the parent company will decrease these risks. 3. Individualized Pricing 3.1. Analysis of individualized pricing With the advent of online retailers and comparison sites, product price becomes more transparent for consumers. In order to effectively promote products in sales, enterprises must develop effective strategies of pricing  for the market, such as individualized pricing. In the age of electronic commerce, production can be product personalized service. So the individualized pricing also appears. Individualized pricing let consumers to choose the individualized products they wanted and pay the price. Although personalized pricing can enhance profits largely, many companies still hesitate that customers will feel the individualized pricing is unfair. There is a case about ‘Amazon’, which is an online shopping company. In 2000, customers have found that Amazon charge different prices to different people. For the some one DVD, the price to new customer is lower than that to old customers by four dollars. Amazon’s explanation is that this is a random discount for differ ent customers. Based on customer’s response to discount, company re-measures the price of products for each customer. From the result, the customer feels that they buy more frequently, the price become lower. This makes regular customers satisfied. It is obvious that the company want to compete with other opponents by using the strategy of individualized pricing. Today, customers can compare the products from different stores. Then, they can buy the necessary goods online at a lower price. In recent years, the only way to ensure efficient pricing is to use a dynamic way such as the individualized pricing. This means that retailers need to understand the value of customers and how to obtain the loyalty of customers. By analysis the situation of market and customers, the companies can make the efficient price of products to absorb consumers. Due to most retailers heavily dependent on competitive prices, they try to keep the same price or slightly lower prices than that of competitors. The companies can obtain higher market share. But some companies abuse the market power, they dominate market by reducing product’s price. This behavior will be prohibited by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which is a non-for-profit and non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom. It enforces both consumer protection and competition law. Therefore the individualized pricing has both advantages and disadvantages. It depends on how the companies use this method. Appropriately using of individualized pricing can promote activeness of market. If individualized pricing is excessive, it will become the abuse of market power. The OFT acts as the UK’s economic regular. 3.2. Government’s role Government has played a leading role in maintaining fair competition in the internal market of retailing sector, which requires competitors competition of fair, just, open, equal and orderly with rivals, then which means to follow the principle of fair competition, and the principle of fair competition, so follow the survival of the fittest, for the country of internal aspect, the government always played the role to maintain market fair competition, the enterprise operation and so on. But also in some other special circumstances, like in order to protect domestic industries then form a monopoly to resist the invasion of foreign industry, using economic and legal means to create condition for the internal retail enterprise in market competition, at the same time, promoting its development abroad when it has sufficient capacity. Competition on the international market, when excessive foreign enterprise brand occupies a certain market share of the product, the government should implement the corresponding protection measures to cultivate the local retail brands, this can better promote the healthy development of domestic enterprises. Government can make laws or raise taxes in order to limit the foreign-owned enterprise to enter the local market, but in taking measures should be multi-faceted and carefully implemented. Excessive restrictions could cut competition consciousness between local businesses moreover can form local monopoly enterprises, but if the limit of foreign-owned enterprise is not enough, it may only effect the resource and product flow in the market environment. EU retail and wholesale industry annual output value accounted for 11% of EU GDP, providing nearly 30 million jobs, accounting for 15% of total EU employment. Enhance the competitiveness of the retail industry is essential to ensure the European Union’s economic growth and employment, so in addition to developing their own factors of each local enterprise, the government should vigorously developing its regulation function to balance the market competitiveness and create a good market environment for each of the retail enterprise’s development. 4. Conclusion Amazon as the one of most largest and popular e-commerce should select which way of entry modes cautiously when they development internalization strategy. Fully do the preparation before entry a new market, through  authorization, the establishment of joint ventures or subsidiaries gradually penetrated into new markets. The model of future business will be global. Amazon operates in a very competitive environment as there is a high level of rivalry among competitors such as other online stores and high street shops. Additionally, there is a high threat of substitutes as well as high bargaining power of buyers. However, Amazon recognized that being the cost leader does not ensure having a competitive advantage in the future. This is why they try to develop new features in the sector of online stores in order to be able to add something unique to their mainly standardized products. This is their mean to maintain their position as the world’s leading online store. Due to the price of products has a strong influence on customers, price has become the key to ensure business and customer loyalty. Individualized pricing becomes more popular. Undoubtedly, some retail providers can establish the customer loyalty and obtain more profit. But the using of individualized pricing still needs to be supervised. Otherwise, it will cause the abuse of market power. So this is the significance of OFT and government. The government should be regulated according to different market situations, creating a fair competitive environment for the retail market and avoid vicious competition which may arise. Bibliography Amazon. (n.d.). About Amazon. Retrieved 03 18, 2014, from http://www.amazon.com/b?node=239364011 Amazon. (n.d.). Amazon Prime Air. Retrieved 03 18, 2014, from http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011 Amazon. (n.d.). Global Locations. Retrieved 03 18, 2014, from http://www.amazon.com/b?node=239366011 Burgeen. (2013, 06 29). Porter’s Generic Strategies. Retrieved 03 18, 2014, from http://www.burgeen.com/main/porters-generic-strategies/ Chan, K. W., Peter, H. (1992) ‘Global Strategy and Multinationals’ Entry Mode Choice’, Journal of International Business Studies, 23(1), pp.29-53. Johnson, G., Whittington, R., & Scholes, K. (2011). Exploring Strategy. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Netonomy.NET. (2013, 01 30). TOP 5 Largest online retailers – Who are these companies and how did they make it to the top? Retrieved 03 18, 2014, from http://netonomy.net/2013/01/30/top-5-largest-online-retailers-who-companies-h

Nature vs nurture Essay

There has always been a big debate on nature verses nurture. It is a debate that is still going on today. Many psychologist and other professions still trying make an agreement for one or the other. I believe that is it both nature and nurture because it cannot be just one overpowering the other. I believe that both nature and nurture intertwine with one another for every human since birth. Psychologists such as Erickson believed that nature determines the sequence of the stages and it sets the limits within which nurture operates. But is this really true? To me it felt that Erickson believed it intertwined some but he was more on the nature side more. I don’t think nature determines it mainly because nurture could do the same thing. It depends on the situation. One of the psychologists that I agree with the most is Vygotsky. Vygotsky is a developmental psychologist. Most developmental psychologist believe that nature and nurture combine to influence development, biological fa ctor play a stronger role in some aspects of development, such as physical development, and environmental factors playing a stronger role in others, such as moral development. His theories are theories that seem to be more relatable and approachable than the other psychologist who are leaning more to nature or more to nurture. Vygotsky views on cognitive development was Intellectual development can only be understood in terms of a child’s historical and cultural context. Also, Development depends on the sign systems that individuals have available to them. Vygotsky assumed that adults could convey children through conversations how their culture interpret and respond to the world. He believed that every culture has transmitted physical and cognitive tools that are used in daily lives. He believed that thoughts and languages become more interdependent in the first five years of a child’s life. There are complex mental processes that begin as a social activity and child are able to transform the processes that they use in a social activity in their own internalization of activity. He believed that children can perform more challenging activities when they have someone there to help them who are more competent (Ormrod,2008). Around the same time Vygotsky was doing this making his own theories, there was another man who was from Russia as well named, Piaget, who had his own ideas. Piaget and Vygotsky were similar in some ways but they also had some differences. Piaget assumed that children are active and motivated learners. He feels that children are curious about  their surroundings. He assumed that children construct knowledge through experience. He believed that they gained this by the physical and social environment, which is critical for cognitive growth. Piaget had his own stages of cognitive development. The first one is sensorimotor, which occurs from birth until the toddler is two years of age. Sensorimotor is when they start forming objec t permanence and they have progress from reflexive to goal-oriented behavior. Second, the preoperational stage which is from age two to seven years old. This is when they develop the ability to use symbol to represent an object. Third, is concrete operational from ages seven to eleven years of age. They are thinking more logically in this stage. They are less egocentric. Lastly, it is formal operation which starts at eleven and goes to adulthood. They are able to think abstract and can solve problems through a system of experimenting (Ormrod, 2008). I believe what Piaget and Vygotsky had implanted because when I am talking to little kids, it is easier to talk to them to see how they see things. Having that open communication as an adult, I get a feeling on where they are coming from and try to go from there. They are things that the environment cannot teach a child. I feel there are things that are already innate in them while they were in the womb and after they came out. It is ver y hard to choose that one conquers the other because they play out equally. Weather it is nature or nurture, it is very important when it comes to human development. It is very clear that they play a big role in everyday life and it will continue to play a role until the day that we pass away. I am a firm believer that both nature and nurture plays a role in life. Everything that Piaget and Vygotsky said is very true. Even other psychologists that are more on the nature side or more on the nurture side, they all bring valid points. References Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, 6th. Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson. Merrill, Prentice-Hall. Slavin, R. (2003). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice and Practice, 7th. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Miller, P. (1983). Theories of Developmental Psychology. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. Santrock, J.(1996). Child Development. Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark Publishers.

Poetry Analysis: Persimmons Essay

â€Å"See through.† Surely, most people have experienced this feeling before, the feelings of being seen, but not truly â€Å"seen.† As if every part of their being, their roots, their culture, and history meant nothing and holds no value to anyone but themselves, just as the speaker is raised in a bi-lingual, bi-culture atmosphere although most of us may be forgotten throughout our lifetime from daily encounters or short terms relationships; semester long classmates and professors, the poem â€Å"Persimmons† by Li-Young Lee reveals to us with his brilliant use of imagery, symbolism, and other literary devices, emotions so rooted, that they almost escape words. In the poem, the reality revealed is that we will someday fade away from people and this world. But that the true beauty lies during the events in our lives and until the finale, we are the ones to hold the sweet, ripe â€Å"Persimmon,† a sacred and distinct â€Å"sun inside [each of us]†¦ golden [and] warm.† Li-Young Lee implements imagery and symbolism to underline the metamorphosis of the early life of the struggles of social placement of a young American Chinese boy to the deep passions of a young man. â€Å"Persimmons† teach us that even if we may go blind, just like the speakers father in the poem, it comes to show that our experiences of life, that despite not everyone will appreciate, or understand fully, that it is something that will forever remain etched in our souls. At first the poem starts out a bit scattered. There were several pieces that did not seem to follow the time and meaning, but while seemingly scattered, his memories do in fact connect in several ways. As one specific device, most of his recollections involve the symbol of the Chinese fruit, persimmons. The poem begins with an unpleasant memory from the speaker’s sixth grade classroom where he recalls being slapped on the head and ordered to â€Å"stand in the corner for not knowing the difference/between [the words] persimmon and precision†(3-5). Right at that moment the speaker’s attitude is that of confusion. In the first stanza, we learn that Mrs. Walker was the speaker’s teacher in sixth grade: In sixth grade Mrs. Walker Slapped the back of my head and made me stand in the corner for not knowing the difference between persimmon and precision. How to choose   persimmons. This is precision. (1-6) To Mrs. Walker, the point is simple; the young boy, whose native language is Chinese, simply cannot attain and grasp the elements of English. Clearly he confuses the words that are seen from Mrs. Walker’s point of view to have nothing in common, but maybe only holds similar sounds and that is all. But in the boy’s mind, the two words are connected in a way that Mrs. Walker will never grasp without delving deep. A particular literary device that Lee uses is the choice of enjambment at the word â€Å"choose,† (6) which breaks the first stanza and draws attention to the act of selection, and the process of making choices. Although in the first stanza it is seen that the speaker, as a child and as a student is stripped from the power to choose in the process and codes of the incident of his classroom assimilation, he regains power by justifying his linguistic conflations of the words â€Å"persimmon and precision,† (5) by connecting the words through their sim ilar sounds and by symbolic association: â€Å"How to choose/ persimmons. This is precision† (6– 7) and â€Å"fight and fright, wren and yarn† (31). While justifying the melting pot of his words, he also re-claims control by demonstrating his command of the English language. In the second stanza, however, Lee elaborates on the correct way of carefully selecting and eating a persimmon, and along with that it is affirmed that the speaker does in fact know the difference between the two words. The speaker reveals his understanding of â€Å"precision† in the diction being used by Lee to describe how to pick out and eat a persimmon; the words â€Å"soft,† â€Å"sweet,† â€Å"sniff,† and â€Å"brown-spotted, are given to the fruit characterizing it and transcending the physical sense of the Chinese fruit and transforming it into an important element, and symbol. Whereas the character of Mrs. Walker  would fall in the category of the â€Å"teachers† that one may meet throughout life. It can be anyone: from a school teacher, a semester –long college peer, a random onlooker, or society itself. However, these â€Å"teachers† not judge one’s personality, but are also ignorant. In defined terms; a person may be treated as a sheep, when in fact, they are the ones fenced in, not able to reach, see or feel further; they do not bother to survey into the deep and enigmatic waters of people, Self, and emotions, in this case, the boy’s mind. The teacher is not aware that his mind is full of different worlds; the world or emotions, and his rich culture. The only thing they perceive is that the boy may have a problem; that the boy has trouble with words, which in a way he does, but for him, the words that tend to â€Å"stick out of the page† for him are because of the assimilations that they induce: Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted. Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one Will be fragrant. How to eat: Put the knife away, lay down the newspaper. Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat. Chew the skin, suck it,  and swallow. Now, eat   the meat of the fruit,  so sweet,  all of it, to the heart. Can Mrs. Walker and anyone belonging to this pragmatic world even care to imagine the world within him? To the speaker a persimmon is precision, because one needs the ability of perceiving a precise persimmon and the persimmon itself is precision by its existence; a soft fruit, the shape, the smell of a ripe one is an art; not everyone has the talent to spot one and the proper knowledge of how to eat one, just like Mrs. Walker incorrectly prepares the persimmons for the class, as she uses a knife to â€Å"cut it up† (41) as if she were â€Å"cutting up† this demonstrates her violation of the Chinese culture of the speaker. The poem takes on a dramatic turn at the third stanza, where the speaker fast  forwards through time. Here the speaker describes the moment of a passionate experience with his lover. Here by Lee’s use of symbolism and contrasting word choice is significant because of specific time and place it is being used. In this moment, the speaker has forgotten his Chinese, this could represent the past problems of assimilation to have faded in the aspect of the triumph over the English language. Although he has perhaps gained societal acceptance as an Asian American, he has also gravely lost, where his loss out wins his gain; the loss of his native language, the loss of his culture. As a second interpretation would be that when the speaker forgets about the â€Å"Dew† and the fact that they are â€Å"Naked,† but recalls the â€Å"Crickets: chiu chiu† and that â€Å"Ni, wo: [means] you and me† represents his total captivation in the moment, the moment when tw o lovers unite, creating a union, one perhaps forgets that fact of nakedness, because perhaps in that beautiful moment, one does not feel naked, because their significant other is there, and they are all they need to feel covered, a moment were all barriers are broken, both feel free comfortable in the bareness, where he even forgets the background sound playing. By the use of symbolism, it is known that â€Å"Persimmon† is the main symbol, and so acts as a metaphor of the love scene, focusing on the passionate experience that marks the speaker for life. In the ninth stanza, a new scene is present and there is another shift in time, this time the speaker is a mature adult, visiting his parents, but also revisiting old memories, that arouse ancient feelings. In this particular stanza, Lee’s use of vivid imagery is openly present, where he describes the speakers elderly father who has gone blind: I rummage, looking for something I lost†¦. I find a box†¦. three paintings by my father: Hibiscus leaf and a white flower. Two cats preening. Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the cloth. †¦.Which is this? †¦.Oh, the feel of the wolf tail on the silk, the strength, the tense precision in the wrist†¦. Eyes closed. These I painted blind. Some things never leave a person: Scent of the hair of one you love, The texture of persimmons, in your palm, the ripe weight. (62-88). Lee’s use of concrete details allows has a great impact and effect on this particular poem, because it draws the reader in, allowing them to engage and become more attune to the feelings the poet is trying to transmit: the sight of the Hibiscus, the movements of the â€Å"cat’s preening† (75). Although the speaker’s father has lost his eyesight, he can still â€Å"see† the world. When a person goes blind, they are shut out from the world, but the thing that stays with the person transcends the sense of vision; the smell, the texture, the weight of the persimmon that the father speaks of that will â€Å"never leave a person,† (85) that the feel of a ripe persimmon in the palm will remain a part of you , just like the speakers culture, his memories and experiences. This could also represent an important shift in the poems tone, in that the speakers finally accepts his culture or art of reminiscing of familiar emotions, both like being â€Å"back home.† His experiences, although not entirely positive, have helped him grow into the man he is now. Li-Young Lee, by using sensory imagery and â€Å"precise† diction along with the informal stanza structure, reveals to the reader that, despite the speakers his bi-cultural past, he has now realized, through his experiences, that some of the most important things will not always be â€Å"visible† and he is at peace with his culture. The obscurity of words that Lee demonstrates in this poem correlates with the obscure and that of which is not accepted in our materialistic, and practical world. But the bitter-sweet irony of it all is that at times, as soon as something like a marvelous feeling or thought is put into words, its mystical beauty may diminish. This poem is not only a self contained piece of poetry. It is art, a ticket to see, witness, and feel between our and the poet’s inner world. Li-Young Lee, knowing that words cannot directly express these feelings; he us es his poetry as a tool to evoke such feelings in us utilizing the informal poetic form and the advantage of symbolism and imagery, has allowed us to picture detailed, vivid scenes to show us how superficial and apathetic the world around us can be to the secretly immense, and passionate world in each of us. Citation Dmitry, Divov. â€Å"Analysis of Persimmons by Li-Young Lee.† Web. 25 Feb 2012. .

The advantages and disadvantages of encouraging more migrants into the United Kingdom

There are many negative points about migrants coming into our country, but there are just as many positive points. But how many migrants are too much, and how can we say stop to migrants when they are the foundation of today's society? Different groups around the world have been migrating into England since the early Iron Age. The first settlers to arrive in England were during the expansion of the Proto-Celtic movement, in about 500 BC. Then between 300 and 500 AD, the great migration movement started; England was bombarded with new settlers from all around Europe. There were the Angles and Saxons from modern Germany: the estimated total number of Germanic settlers varies between 10,000-200,000. There were also many Scandinavians tribes migrated into England between the late 8th century into the early 11th century, like the Vikings and the Varangians. As you can see migrants are the foundation of today's society, all of our ancestors were originally from somewhere else. So why is it a problem for migrants to be coming into our country in this century? The problem is that England being a small country can't physical cope with the demand for more living space. England already has a high birth rate and increased numbers of older people are living longer. So how can we cope with the non-stop flow of migrants coming into our country? From about 1991 to 2001 the population increased rapidly due to migrants coming into the country and starting families. More than one in 10 now living in the UK is foreign born, and one in 3 people living in London was also foreign born. About 8.2% of the English population was born in a different country but have been living in England. â€Å"letting the UK population spiral out of control, as the Government has done in recent years, will make Britain increasingly vulnerable to resource problems as the 21st century unfolds and is a recipe for future insecurity.† OPT, Optimum Population Trust If we don't act now against population rise, England could face the same problems as India and China. Will England be forced into sterilizing a vast number of women and men? â€Å"The UK's population is also forecast to grow by 40 per cent over the next seven decades, from 61 million today to over 85 million by 2081† Office for National Statistics The rise in migrants and asylum seekers has lead parts of the UK to major impact problems; one being the need for more housing. Many of the migrants and asylum seekers that come into the country don't have anywhere to live; because they are the government main concern to house as quickly as possible, they are on priority list to get council house. â€Å"Foreign migrants are being favoured over UK citizens when it comes to social housing, around 11% of new migrants have been allocated social housing.† First online This means that many British people waiting a house won't be given one as quickly as a non-born resident. Another problem with the high amount of migrants and mainly asylum seekers is that they are being given benefits. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work until they have been granted a place to stay in England as a Refugee. This has caused elevated rises in many asylum seekers not working, 3 out 10 are not working. As the rise migrants workers come into the country, there are fewer places for British born people to find work. Most public service jobs have been taking by the migrants and most health services have hired workers from other countries. â€Å"The hotels and shops in my remote Scottish community are filled with workers from the EU, now there are no jobs for the local young people, so most of them on into close towns or cities.† Geva Blanette BBC news talk night Another factor which is a disadvantage of migrants is the increase of malaria, HIV and TB. Many British born children are immune from malaria, HIV and TB, and England didn't fear these 3 killing diseases as much as other countries. But as the amount of migrants and asylum seekers increase, the amount of cases of these disease increases. Facts show that, 70% of individuals diagnosed with HIV, TB and malaria in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were non-UK born. Most of the migrants infected with these diseases are from devolving counties, 45% of non-UK born tuberculosis cases originated from South Asia and 39% from sub-Saharan Africa. Could the government being doing more to try and stop this rise of 3 killer diseases. The facts are that England just doesn't have room to accommodate all these migrants and provide them all with a job and we don't need to be burdened with an outburst of diseases. Migrants are coming into our country and bringing new foods, new materials and more workers. We should encourage these new ethnic ideas and ways of living. These foreign workers are happy to do the jobs which English workers aren't happy to do; they also tend work harder for the same money. â€Å"Migrants work harder, earn more and pay more tax than Britons!† Home Office So if we do send these migrants home who will do the jobs that were happy to do? Whole sectors of the economy and many public services have become highly dependent on migrant labour, and would collapse overnight if those workers were no longer available One major industry that relies greatly on migrants is the health sector, 30% are doctors and well over 10% of nurses. In education, overseas teachers play an important role in staffing schools, and a growing number of London education authorities are recruiting staff directly from abroad. The rapid increase in demand for workers in the IT industry means that over 50,000 people have been recruited. â€Å"It also suggested that the work ethic of the new arrivals was also having a positive impact on British workers† the independent Migrant workers contributed à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½6 billion to the country's economic growth last year and earned, on average, higher wages than the British workers. â€Å"High levels of skills – higher on average than the UK natives and that employ migrants found them to be harder workers and reliable â€Å". Home Office Migrants are becoming part of the foundation of our society they are the strawberry pickers, the dentists, the doctors, the nurse's, carers, taxi drivers, cleaners, bus drivers, waiters and train drivers. We need them to help us make a better life. There has been much discussion in the media on the idea that migrants may have a big effect on employment and befits for British-born workers, but there is little evidence little on effect employment or befits. â€Å"The overwhelming majority of empirical studies agree that there is essentially no statistically significant effect of immigration on labour market outcomes† Glover The population rose by 189,000, due to the high number of migrants and also people leaving the country. This steady increase over the last decade has shown that the UK can't cope with the massive growth. But the government figures show that migration has given the UK a life line to an economy suffering from lack of skills and struggling to support growing bills. I personally feel that we should allow people from different countries and races to work in The UK; I feel that the UK can befit greatly by the mixed culture and races. The need for migrant workers is shown by many facts and I believe that they can make a huge difference for our economy. But I also feel that the government should be doing more to stop un-wanted people coming into our country who are not prepared to work. The government should have stricter laws and rules on who should be allowed into the UK.

Explain T. Adorno and M. Horkheimers critique of the culture industry Essay

Explain T. Adorno and M. Horkheimers critique of the culture industry and discuss whether these are still relevant for understanding cultural production today - Essay Example Therefore, culture is produced and consumed like any other industrial commodity. According to Theodor Adorno, commercialisation of culture is a capitalistic idea whose main goal is to maximise profit. Culture is the slave of the corporate which is used to gain profit. To achieve their goal, the culture on the market must be attractive to the larger segment of the group or society (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1979). Theodor Adorno and Horkheimer have critically analysed the concept of a culture industry. They view the idea as a continuation of a capitalistic system, which aims to reduce cost of production while increasing profit. In a pure capitalistic setting, the factors of production are used efficiently to attain maximum benefits. For example, workers are paid according to their input contribution, which encourage high labour utility. Marxist theory predicted that the capitalist system will eventually fall because it will trigger a social revolution from the exploited workers. The work o f the two scholars is pointing out why the social revolution did not happen as anticipated by Marx. Mass media technology is the main factor of production in industrial culture, which includes; use of radio, television and publications. Mass media technology allows information to spread quickly to a large audience (Bottomore, 1984). To understand the critic of Adorno and Horkheimer, it is important to note that they are products of the German culture, which they viewed as superior to the popular culture of many western nations. They referred their culture as high culture that educates and motivates people. On their observation, popular culture is not exciting, and it enhances uniformity in a society. To these analysts, culture industry leads to standardisation in the society, which refers to being accustomed to the products of the culture industry. This makes the public to be addicted to the mass culture and forget to challenge the inequality of the ruling economic system (Marcuse, 1964). In their theory of pseudo individuality, they claim that the culture industry makes an individual a commodity of trade, which is produced and sold in mass. For instance, a music work of an artist can be reproduced in mass and sold to consumers. The artist involved is advertised and treated like any other industrial product making person lose their individual identity as a human being (Adorno, 2001). According to two scholars, the mass culture is the trickery system that politicians use to attain their desired goals, so the popular culture is the tool that enables them to gain support of the masses. For example, during the Second World War, the mass entertainment and information was used to rally Americans to approve and support a war that was long and costly (Kellner, 2003). According to Jarvis (1998) mass media is a deception idea which is meant to enslave the public. Popular culture is the product of all the social classes in a society, but commercialisation of culture diff erentiated the structure so that they can sell to the larger group in the market. The corporations involved in production and marketing of culture are inherently capitalistic hence they propagate capitalistic ideology. The theorist found the mass media to be blind of the social inequalities in a society. It makes people forget the plain truth of economic and social differences, making them appear as if they are living in a dark cave. Just like in a capitalist system, culture industry uses its own ways of dominance to ensure the control of the masses and the continuity of the system. Therefore, the mass media is the main tool of dominance in the culture industry, which ensures people consume the products of the industry (Martin-Barbero, 1993). It encourages people to forget

What makes a run on bank When is the government intervention necessary Essay

What makes a run on bank When is the government intervention necessary - Essay Example A bank run progress is an automated momentum gaining process which is, said or believed comes true as the peoples are expecting it to come true: eventually as the deposition withdrawals increase the image of the bank falls provoking many withdrawals. Continuation of a bank run for long time can result in a bankruptcy as bank runs have a very ugly reputation. Insecurity during a bank run creates fear to same extent when the room is on fire. The panic drives us to the nearest visible exit blindly like a reflex without a single thought that the seen exit shown up like an oasis is really an exit or just a mirage. Sometimes it is better not to take risks with your money. The panic or â€Å"the shout† of a bank run is as fast and as growing like a fire. This panic takes an epidemic look as the depositors start to feel the same with other banks too as an incoming shock as this kind of economic disasters are very frequently on the headlines. It’s like when my friend’s ba nk is under a bank run the next bank could be mine. So a bank run is efficiently capable of contaminating its misfortune to cause several bankruptcies at least if the total economic breakdown is managed to block. (Shin, 2009) What causes bank run? Banks have an origin of centuries. Once they were just little shops that were used to collect fund from people and use them as to lend to the borrowers. This model, however, does not look much tough. Particularly in case of depositors, they can freely withdraw their money with a small penalty where a bank cannot ever ask for the money to be returned whenever they need it. Thus, an error arises in this model. In order to nullify this error a bank generally keeps a cash reserve which the bank uses to lend money to the borrowers taking only a little part from the deposits. However, if the bank is completely healthy it can survive a bankruptcy in the long run, but the sufferings of a bank run cannot be avoided when many people take their money back much than the cash reserved. So if a rough situation arises like this all depositors may not get their money back. The thing that makes the situation much worse is the first come first serve policy of the withdrawal. As long the bank have their cash reserve depositors can take their money back, but beyond the cash reserve level the bank is unable to return the money back. Hence, the insecure and desperate depositors rush to the bank to take their money bank thinking this to be a bank run. On forcing the borrowers to return fast the bank undergoes a loss as fire sales occur and the money taken back is very less may be less than the total deposits. In September 2007, a United Kingdom bank called Northern Rock experienced a severe bank run when depositors rushed to the bank to withdraw their money. UK experienced bank run even before. In case of US also bank run was not uncommon prior to 1930s. However, bank runs become rare after that. Why do bank runs exits?   There are three main reasons. (Shin, 2009) (I) Individual Liquidity Shock: Money could be needed in any time as an individual could suffer a liquidity shock for various reasons such as damage repairs from any sort of disaster, loss of earning, emergency hospitalization which leaves no choice to the depositors to withdraw their money. When the individual liquidity shock is completely independent and there are multiple depositors ten we consider it as the aggregate liquidity shock is non- stochastic, so in that case for a particular period of time a fixed amount of deposits are allowed to be withdrawn. This way the policy of cash reserve can resolve the bank run problem. In reality completely independent liquidity shocks are quite unrealistic as aggregate liquidity shocks are found normally in the time of currency crisis or natural disasters. That