The philosophical ideas of determinism, compatibilism and Essay

The philosophical ideas of determinism, compatibilism and libertarianism - Essay Example Determinism and compatibilism are two philosophical concepts which are strongly connected to human acts, behavior and events happening as a result. Determinism and compatibilism is voluntary in nature and when compared both these concepts has certain similarities. Determinism is a freedom which influences man to act in a certain manner which leads to further events or happenings. In the same manner, compatibilism is also an act which when performed in align with a person’s surroundings bring about positive after effects. In the same way, determinism is exclusively related to the freedom of human to act or react, just as compatibility. Compatibility is a philosophical idea which states that the free will is strongly linked with the pre- destined fate. Determination is also in a way, a strong belief within a person to act in a certain way to achieve a positive result in align with their fate. Comparision of Determinism and Libertarianism While determinism is a strong belief within a person to achieve some goal in align with pre- destined fate. Libertarianism is also a concept which believes that the human actions and events related to it are not within our control. Determinist believes that irrelevant to the action and thoughts of a person, the events happen according to a predetermined frame work of deeds. Same way, libertinism claims that actions of a person are not controllable and free will is just an opportunity for a person to prove his integrity and truthfulness to humanity and universe. Comparison of Compatibilism with Libertianism Compatibilism is a philosophical idea which believes that determinism and free will is connected deeply but the applicability of a person’s thought and actions is out of control in relation to uncontrollable external environment .On the other hand, libertinism is a concept which propagates complete freedom to human beings in any circumstances. Compatibility also detail about ethics and moral responsibility on a person, whereas libertinism states that ethical and moral responsibility of a person high due to the ultimate freedom given to him. Compatibility believes that freewill and determinism makes a complete combination. Obviously, Libertinism agrees with this matter as it advocates ultimate freedom to the human in every circumstance. According to (Wilmot) â€Å"Libertinism is the conviction that one has to be liberated from moral restraints in

Write a discution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write a discution - Essay Example tough environment to retain or get the right skilled employees, and it is for this reason, that organizations are continuously seeking for the best skills in their HR teams. My experience in HR has been great; the feeling of identifying and managing talent has been the best and on top of my professional goals. I always feel proud to create a connection between the employees and management. I agree with you on the point that the most important resource an organization has are its employees. Therefore, having a good management system to attract and retain skilled employees really improves the performance of the organization. Finally, helping the employees get benefits and rewards for their efforts, while at the same time proving to the management that the organization is performing at its optimum point is an important task for the HR. I agree with you on the role of HR towards the employees. They should be able to address employee issues, and create a conducive environment that will allow the employees improve their performance. A happy employee is a positive sign towards a company’s performance and the HR should always be responsible in ensuring the employees are happy and

Analysis Of Life Insurance Industry In India Economics Essay

Analysis Of Life Insurance Industry In India Economics Essay Since inception the Indian life insurance industry has its own origin and history. It has passed through many hurdles and hindrances in order to attain the present status. However, the income earning capacity of an individual citizen of a nation and the eagerness and awareness of the general public are the two key determinants of the growth of any insurance industry. In the Indian context, the insurance habits among the general public during the independence decade was rare and in the following decades, it has slowly increased. There was a remarkable improvement in the Indian insurance industry soon after the economic reform era (1991). After 1991 the Indian life insurance industry has geared up in all respects, as well as it is being forced to face a lot of healthy competition from many national as well as international private insurance players. In this paper we have analyzed the performance of LIC over a time period of 1980 to 2009, attempt has been made to analyse the overall performance of Life Insurance Industry of India between pre- and post economic reform era. To measure the current status, volume of competitions and challenges faced by the Life Insurance Corporation of India and to measure the effectiveness of investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009. Data were analysed by using Regression, Trend Analysis and Anova. The study reveals that there is a tremendous growth in the performance of Indian Life Insurance industry and LIC due to the policy of LPG. Insurance industry also improved a lot due to the emergence of Private sector and opening up for foreign players. Further there is also a huge change in the investment pattern of LIC. There is a increasing trend toward the investment in Stock market by LIC from 60% to 93% from 1980 to 2009 due to the effective regulation of SEBI and increasing transparen cy of stock market. I. Introduction Life insurance is a contract for the payment of a sum of money to a person assured on happening of the event ensured against. Usually the contracts provide for the payment of the amount on a date of maturity or at a specified date at periodic intervals or at unfortunate death, if it occurs earlier. Life insurance is universally acknowledged to be an institution, which eliminates risk, substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of breadwinner. Life insurance is civilisations partial solution to the problems that caused by death. In short, life insurance is concerned with two hazards that stand across the life-path of every person: 1.That of dying prematurely is leaving a dependent family to fend for itself. 2. That of living till old age without visible means of support. The nationalization of insurance business in the country resulted in the establishment of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in 1956 as a wholly- owned corporation of the government of India. Indias life insurance market has grown rapidly over the past six years, with new business premiums growing at over 40% per year. The premium income of Indias life insurance market is set to double by 2012 on better penetration and higher incomes. Insurance penetration in India is currently about 4% of its GDP, much lower than the developed market level of 6-9%. In several segments of the population, the penetration is lower than potential. For example, in urban areas, the penetration of life insurance in the mass market is about 65%, and its considerably less in the low-income unbanked segment. In rural areas, life insurance penetration in the banked segment is estimated to be about 40%, while it is marginal at best in the unbanked segment. The total premium could go up to $80-100 billion by 2012 from the present $40 billion as higher per capita income increases per capita insurance intensity. The average household premium will rise to Rs 3,000-4,100 from the current Rs 1,300 as will penetration by the existing and new players. Indias ratio of life insurance premium to its GDP is around 4 per cent against 6-9 per cent in the developed world. It could rise to 5.1-6.2 by 2012 in tandem with the countrys demographic profile. India has 17 life insurers and the state owned Life Insurance Corp. of India dominates the industry with over 70 percent market share, though private players have been growing aggressively. Considering the worlds largest population and an annual growth rate of nearly 7 per cent, India offers great opportunities for insurers. US based online insurance company ebix.com plans to enter the Indian market following deregulation of its insurance sector. In a diverse country such as India it is imperative that a universal insurance infrastructure be created to maximize efficiency in the insurance industry. Online insurer ebix.com can offers the Indian market a business-to-consumer internet portal where consumers have more choice while purchasing insurance and an internet-based agency management system that will help agents work more efficiently with multiple carriers. Foreign holding in Indian insurance companies is limited to 26 per cent. The market is moving beyond single-premium policies and unit linked insurance products which are easier to sell. The agency model is the dominant sales channel accounting for more than 85 per cent of fresh premiums but overall inactivity and attrition is much higher at 50-55 per cent than the global average of 25 per cent. GIVE REFERENCE II. Review of Literature In the present section an attempt has been made to examine the review of literature related to the study. Rao, R.T.S. (2000) in this article had explained the phenomenal growth experienced by life insurance industries recently, in line with the countrys improving economic fundamentals. By comparing the growth, penetration, density and other insurance variables, he had shown that India is still an underdeveloped insurance market, it has a huge catch-up potential. According to him even though there is strong potential for expansion of insurance into rural areas, growth has so far remained slow. Considering that the bulk of the Indian population still resides in rural areas, it is imperative that the insurance industrys development should not miss this vast sector of the population. Goyal, K. (2004), in this article has reviewed that private insurance companies had reason to celebrate with the lifting of the sectoral cap in the insurance sector to 49 per cent in the Union Budget 2004-05, as against 26 per cent earlier. However, to offset the excitement, there was also an imposition of service tax of 10 per cent on the risk premium for life insurance, which has the industry with mixed feelings. The FDI hike has been a much-awaited plea of these companies, who believed that they could plough in more money into the business if their foreign partners were permitted an increased holding. Jain, A.K. (2004), revealed that Waves of liberalization have done wonders to proper the insurance occupation to the status of a career with a bright future. The average mindset, particularly of younger generation in India was very amenable to the changes in insurance as an avenue where exhilarating opportunities are opened up in changed environment. Krishnamurthy, S. (2005) in this article had reviewed that Insurance companies have a pivotal role in offering insurance products which meet the requirements of the people and, at the same time, are affordable. Some of the challenges faced by the insurance sector pertain to the demand conditions, competition in the sector, product innovations, delivery and distribution systems, use of technology, and regulation. With the liberalization and entry of private companies in insurance, the Indian insurance sector has started showing signs of significant change. Ray, Subhashish and Pathak, Ajay. (2006) opined that ever since the privatization of the insurance sector in India in 2000, the industries has been witnessing the birth of numerous private players, mostly joint ventures between foreign insurance giants and Indian diversified conglomerates and each one is trying to make an inroad into the huge untapped market. Sinha, Ram Pratap. (2007) opined that the deregulation of general insurance industry in India is having far-reaching consequences in terms of market size, structure and operational practices. As compared to the international standards the penetration level of general insurance companies in India is quite low and, therefore, has tremendous potential for growth. His analysis revealed that the public sector insurers dominate the private sector insurers in terms of mean technical efficiency in constant returns to scale, while the private sector insurers have a slightly higher mean technical efficiency than the public sector insurers in variable returns to scale. Goswami, P. (2007) in this article had reviewed that the insurance industry in India was opened up to private sector participation in the year 2000. Prior to this, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India was the sole player in the life insurance industry in India. In six years since the entry of private players in the insurance market, LIC has lost 29% market share to the private players, although both, market size and the insurance premium being collected, are on the rise. In 2005, life insurance accounted for 79% of the total insurance market in India. It was found that the responsiveness dimension of service quality provides maximum customer satisfaction in the life insurance industry in India. Sabera. (2007) indicated that in March 2000, when the Government of India liberalized the insurance sector, lifted the entry restrictions for private insurance players, allowing the foreign players to enter into the market and start their operations in India. The entry of private players helps in spreading and keeping the operation in the Indian insurance sector which in turn results in restructuring and revitalizing of public sector companies. III. Research Methodology The research article is based upon descriptive as well as exploratory research. Secondary sources of data collection have been adopted for the study. The relevant and required data are collected from the text books, national and international articles, RBI Bulletin (various issues) as well as annual reports of LIC. The Statistical tools used in this research article are Correlation, Regression, ANOVA, the method of least squares and linear trend. The method of least square has been used for analysing the overall performance of Life Insurance Industry of India between pre- and post economic reform era and to measure the current status, volume of competitions and challenges faced by the Life Insurance Corporation of India. For processing the data and estimating the results, Excel, SPSS-16 packages have been used. Objectives: The following are the objectives of the present study To analyze the overall performance of Life Insurance Industry of India between pre- and post economic reform era To measure the current status, volume of competitions and challenges faced by the Life Insurance Corporation of India To measure the change in the effectiveness of the investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009. Hypothesis: The study is based on the hypothesis that There is no significance difference in the performance of Life Insurance Industry between pre- and post economic reform era There is no significance Change in the pattern of the investment strategy of LIC over the period 1980 to 2009. Status and Position of Indian Life Insurance Industry in the pre LPG era In India, life insurance in its modern form came from England in the year 1818. The first life insurance was Oriental life insurance Company started by Europeans in Calcutta. All the insurance industries established during that period of time were brought up with the purpose of looking after the needs of European community and Indian natives were not being insured by these companies. Later on with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But still Indian lives were being treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them. However in the year 1870, Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society heralded the birth of first Indian life insurance company and covered Indian lives at normal rates. Starting as Indian enterprise with highly patriotic motives, insurance companies came into existence to carry the message of insurance and social security through insurance to various sectors of the society. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was another one of such companies inspired by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement during 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies. The United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Co-operative Assurance at Lahore were established in 1906. In 1907, the Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko, house of the great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile, General Assurance and Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies that established during the same period. Prior to 1912, India had no legislation to regulate insurance business. However in the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the Provident Fund Act were passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary, but in actuall the Act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on many accounts, putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage. The first two decades of the twentieth century saw lot of growth in insurance industries. From 44 companies with total business-in-force of Rs.22.44 crore, it rose to 176 companies with total business-in-force of Rs.298 crore in 1938. During the mushrooming of insurance companies many financially unsound concerns were also floated which failed miserably. The Insurance Act 1938 was the first legislation governing not only life insurance but also non-life insurance to provide strict state control over insurance business. The demand for nationalization of life insurance industry was made repeatedly in the past but it gathered momentum in 1944 when a bill to amend the Life Insurance Act 1938 was introduced in the Legislative Assembly. However, it was much later on the 19th of January, 1956, that life insurance in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of nationalization. Nationalization wa s accomplished in two stages; initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a reasonable cost. In the year 1956, LIC had 5 zonal offices, 33 divisional offices and 212 branch offices, apart from its corporate office. Since life insurance contracts are long term contracts and during the currency of the policy it requires a variety of services needs felt in the later years to expand the operations and place a branch office at each district headquarter. Re-organization of LIC took place and large numbers of new branch offices were opened. As a result of the re-organization servicing functions were transferred to the branches, and branches were made accounting units. It worked wonders with the performance of the corporation. It may be seen from the fact that about 200.00 crores of New Business in 1957 the corporation crossed 1000.00 crores only in the year 1969-70, and it took another 10 years for LIC to cross 2000.00 crores mark of new business. But with the re-organization happening in the early eighties, by 1985-86 LIC had already crossed 7000.00 crores Sum Assured on new polic ies. Table 1. Growth of LIC between 1959 and 1999 Table 1. Growth of LIC between 1959 and 1999 S.No. Particulars 1957 1999 1 Annual Business: Sum Assured Policies First year premium 336.3 crores 8,00,000 14 crores 75606 crores 14857000 4171 crores 2 Business in force: Sum Assured Policies Renewal premium 1477 crores 5686000 74 crores 459201 crores 91726000 16136crores 3 Group Business in force: Sum Assured No. of Lives 5.29 crores 69558 crores 21671000 4 Life Fund: 41040 crores 127389.06 crores Source: Secondary Data Annual Reports of LIC. Progress of Indian Life Insurance Industry in the Post LPG Era Insurance sector reforms: In 1993, Malhotra Committee headed by former Finance Secretary and RBI Governor R.N. Malhotra was formed to evaluate the Indian insurance industry and recommend its future direction. The Malhotra committee was set up with the objective of complementing the reforms initiated in the financial sector. The reforms were aimed at creating a more efficient and competitive financial system suitable for the requirements of the economy keeping in mind the structural changes currently underway and recognizing that insurance is an important part of the overall financial system where it was necessary to address the need for similar reformsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In 1994, the committee submitted the report and some of the key recommendations included: 1) Structure Government stake in the insurance Companies to be brought down to 50%. Government should take over the holdings of GIC and its subsidiaries so that these subsidiaries can act as independent corporations. All the insurance companies should be given greater freedom to operate. 2) Competition Private Companies with a minimum paid up capital of Rs.1bn should be allowed to enter the industry. No Company should deal in both Life and General Insurance through a single entity. Foreign companies may be allowed to enter the industry in collaboration with the domestic companies. Postal Life Insurance should be allowed to operate in the rural market. Only One State Level Life Insurance Company should be allowed to operate in each state. 3) Regulatory Body The Insurance Act should be changed. An Insurance Regulatory body should be set up. Controller of Insurance (Currently a part from the Finance Ministry) should be made independent. 4) Investments Mandatory Investments of LIC Life Fund in government securities to be reduced from 75% to 50%. GIC and its subsidiaries are not to hold more than 5% in any company (There current holdings to be brought down to this level over a period of time). 5) Customer Service LIC should pay interest on delays in payments beyond 30 days. Insurance companies must be encouraged to set up unit linked pension plans. Computerisation of operations and updating of technology to be carried out in the insurance industry The committee emphasized that in order to improve the customer services and increase the coverage of the insurance industry should be opened up to competition. But at the same time, the committee felt the need to exercise caution as any failure on the part of new players could ruin the public confidence in the industry. Hence, it was decided to allow competition in a limited way by stipulating the minimum capital requirement of Rs.100 crores. The committee felt the need to provide greater autonomy to insurance companies in order to improve their performance and enable them to act as independent companies with economic motives. For this purpose, it had proposed setting up an independent regulatory body. MAJOR POLICY CHANGES Insurance sector has been opened up for competition from Indian private insurance companies with the enactment of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (IRDA Act). As per the provisions of IRDA Act, 1999, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) was established on 19th April 2000 to protect the interests of holder of insurance policy and to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry. IRDA Act 1999 paved the way for the entry of private players into the insurance market which was hitherto the exclusive privilege of public sector insurance companies/ corporations. Under the new dispensation Indian insurance companies in private sector were permitted to operate in India with the following conditions: Company is formed and registered under the Companies Act, 1956; The aggregate holdings of equity shares by a foreign company, either by itself or through its subsidiary companies or its nominees, do not exceed 26%, paid up equity capital of such Indian insurance company; The companys sole purpose is to carry on life insurance business or general insurance business or reinsurance business. The minimum paid up equity capital for life or general insurance business is Rs.100 crores. The minimum paid up equity capital for carrying on reinsurance business has been prescribed as Rs.200 crores. The Authority has notified 27 Regulations on various issues which include Registration of Insurers, Regulation on insurance agents, Solvency Margin, Re-insurance, Obligation of Insurers to Rural and Social sector, Investment and Accounting Procedure, Protection of policy holders interest etc. Applications were invited by the Authority with effect from 15th August, 2000 for issue of the Certificate of Registration to both life and non-life insurers. IRDA has so far granted registration to 12 private life insurance companies and 9 general insurance companies. If the existing public sector insurance companies are included, there are currently 13 insurance companies in the life side and 13 companies operating in general insurance business. Today LIC functions with 2048 fully computerized branch offices, 100 divisional offices, 7 zonal offices and the corporate office. LICs Wide Area Network covers 100 divisional offices and it connects all the branches through a Metro Area Network. LIC has tied up with some Banks and Service providers to offer an on-line premium collection facility in selected cities. LICs ECS and ATM premium payment facility is an addition to customer convenience. Apart from on-line Kiosks and IVRS, Info Centers have been commissioned at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune and many other cities. With a vision of providing easy access to its policyholders, the LIC has launched its SATELLITE SAMPARK offices. These satellite offices are smaller, leaner and closer to the customer. The digitalized records of the satellite offices will facilitate the customer anywhere servicing and many other conveniences in the future. LIC continues to be the dominant life insurer eve n in the liberalized scenario of Indian insurance industries and is moving fast on a new growth trajectory surpassing its own past records. LIC has issued over one crore policies during the current year. Table-2: Total Life Insurance Premium (Rs. Crore) INSURER 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03 2001-02 LIC 149789.99 127822.84 90792.22 75127.29 63533.43 54628.49 49821.91 (17.19) (40.79) (20.85) (18.25) (16.30) (9.65) (42.79) Aviva 1891.88 1147.23 600.27 253.42 81.50 13.47 NA   Bajaj Allianz 9725.31 5345.24 3133.58 1001.68 220.80 69.17 7.14 Bharti Axa 118.41 7.78 NA   NA NA NA NA Birla Sunlife 3272.19 1776.71 1259.68 915.47 537.54 143.92 28.26 Future Generali 2.49 NA   NA NA NA NA NA HDFC Std 4858.56 2855.87 1569.91 686.63 297.76 148.83 33.46 ICICI Pru 13561.06 7912.99 4261.05 2363.82 989.28 417.62 116.38 IDBI Fortis 11.90   NA NA NA NA NA NA ING Vysya 1158.87 707.20 425.38 338.86 88.51 21.16 4.19 Kotak Mahindra 1691.14 971.51 621.85 466.16 150.72 40.32 7.58 Met Life 1159.54 492.71 205.99 81.53 28.73 7.91 0.48 Max New York 2714.60 1500.28 788.13 413.43 215.25 96.59 38.95 Reliance Life 3225.44 1004.66 224.21 106.55 31.06 6.47 0.28 Sahara 143.49 51.00 27.66 1.74 NA   NA NA SBI Life 5622.14 2928.49 1075.32 601.18 225.67 72.39 14.69 Shriram 358.05 184.17 10.33   NA NA NA NA Tata AIG 2046.35 1367.18 880.19 497.04 253.53 81.21 21.14 Private Total 51561.42 28253.00 15083.54 7727.51 3120.33 1119.06 272.55 (82.50) (87.31) (95.19) (147.65) (178.83) (310.59) (4124.31) Total (LIC+Private) 201351.41 156075.84 105875.76 82854.80 66653.75 55747.55 50094.46 (29.01) (47.38) (27.78) (24.31) (19.56) (11.28) (43.54) Note: Figure in bracket indicates the growth over the previous year in percent. Two way ANOVA Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit Rows 49560705298 17 2915335606 37.2725415 4.7941E-36 1.723833402 Columns 1069788739 6 178298123.2 2.27954002 0.0417493 2.188760765 Error 7978104529 102 78216711.07 Total 58608598567 125 Analysis and Interpretation Table 2 shows total life insurance premium during the year 2001-02 to 2007-08. The proportion of premium collected by LIC out of total premium collected by life insurance industry is declined from 97% in 2001-02 to 74% in 2007-08. It indicates the increasing competition from private sector. ICICI prudential is becoming a stronger and stronger player by keeping over a lot of business of LIC. But still there is a lot of scope of development in the life insurance industry where private sector will be a challenge in the front of LIC. By applying ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance, It is being observed that there is a significance difference in the performance of LIC and other Private Sector insurance companies over a period of 2001-02 to 2007-08 Table 3: Total Life Insurance Premium Year (X) Total life insurance premium (Y) U=X-A/ H U2 UY 2002 50094.46 -3 9 -150283.38 2003 55747.55 -2 4 -111495.1 2004 66653.75 -1 1 -66653.75 2005 82854.80 0 0 0 2006 105875.76 1 1 105875.76 2007 156075.84 2 4 312151.68 2008 201351.41 3 9 604054.23 718653.57 0 28 693649.44 Source- compiled from table 2. Y = A+BX ÃŽÂ £Y=nA+B X ÃŽÂ £XY=A ÃŽÂ £X+BÃŽÂ £ X2 Y=A+Bu ÃŽÂ £Y=nA+B ÃŽÂ £U ÃŽÂ £uY=A ÃŽÂ £u+B ÃŽÂ £u2 ÃŽÂ £Y=nA A= ÃŽÂ £Y/n ÃŽÂ £uY=BÃŽÂ £ u2 B= ÃŽÂ £uY/ ÃŽÂ £u2 A= ÃŽÂ £Y/n A= 718653.57/7= 102664.79 B= ÃŽÂ £uY/ ÃŽÂ £u2= 693649.44/28= 24773.19 Y=A+B (X-2004) 102664.79+ 24773.19 (2012-2004) 102664.79+ 24773.19 (8) 300,850.35 crore Based on the middle year 2005, the trend value for the year 2012 can be calculated using the linear function Y=A+BX, where, AB are constant. If we substitute the values in the trend line equation, the expected total LIC premium for the year 2012 is Rs. 300,850.35 crores. It shows that the total business is in increasing trend. Table 4: Investment strategy of LIC (Rupees crore) Year Sector-wise Instrument-wise of which Total (2 to 5) Or (6 to 7) (end-March) Public Private Joint Co-operative Stock exchange securities Loans 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1979 3411.9 618.1 29.9 527.8 2733.8 1853.1 4587.7 1980 3915.5 770.1 0 602.1 3113.4 2173.6 5287.7 1981 4707.8 647.2 0 665.5 3591.3 2725.6 6020.5 1982 5410.7 698.7 32 753 4040.6 2612 6894.4 1983 6189.7 787.4 32.7 825.2 NA NA 7835 1984 7020.8 891.4 40.1 905.3 NA NA 8857.6 1985 7919.5 1010.6 51.2 972.9 NA NA 9954.2 1986 9063.8 1121.3 68 1036.

Jujitsu - The Gentle Art :: essays research papers

To a person not conversant with this art, Jujitsu may be considered as a foul or derogatory term in Japanese. However, Jujitsu us one of the most effective and deadly forms of martial arts taught today. Unique among other forms of combat, Jujitsu holds the position of a â€Å"parent art†, of from which other forms of martial arts such as Aikido, Judo and several Karate styles were extracted. Jujitsu is a combination of all levels of combat. It incorporates chokes, striking, grappling, nerve and pressure point attacks, joint locks, redirection of momentum and throws. The exact origins of Jujitsu are unclear, as most of its history was passed on in the oral tradition. The few early written references show that its origins date back to Japanese mythology, where it is said that the gods, Kajima and Kadori, used Jujitsu to discipline the lawless and wild inhabitants of the Eastern provinces. Therefore, by definition, the art is nearly 2000 years old, however records do exist which show that the art was being practiced as far back as the 8th Century, over twelve hundred years ago. Jujitsu was formalised and most popular during the Edo period of Japan. This was the era of the Samurai. Jujitsu was the Samurai’s main set of combat techniques, after the sword. Jujitsu was a part of the Samurai’s fighting skills, something he could use when he was unable to use his favourite weapon. There are many different styles of Jujitsu that exist around the world, and many different ways to actually spell the name. The original spelling derived directly from the Japanese was Jujitsu. As the popularity and practice of this martial art spread across Europe, the spelling and pronunciation was forced to change. This occurred during World War II, when the name Jujitsu had to be changed to Jiu-jitsu (pronounced Jeeu-jitsu). This name-change occurred because the Germans occupying the area at the time claimed that the name resembled the word â€Å"Jew†, which was illegal to be spoken. Therefore the name was slightly altered so that the art could continue to exist and be taught throughout Europe. Despite the difference is spelling, the meaning of the words is basically the same. The literal meaning of the name is â€Å"the gentle art†, however, since there can be many different translations of Japanese words, â€Å"Ju† can also mean soft, yielding, pliant and flexible, which are all important fundamental principles in this dangerous art.

Effects on Conflict in Northern Ireland Essay

Social segregation is one of the effects of the conflict on the people of Northern Ireland. The Protestants and the Catholics grew up in an atmosphere of tension and violence. They each received different education, each praising their own and condemning the deeds of the other. In addition, most of them live in separate residential areas. The Belfast ‘peace’ wall is one of many walls built to separate Protestants and Catholics. The violence in the country also means that the Protestants and the Catholics believe that their own people were right and the other party was responsible for the conflict. Thus the young people of Northern Ireland could grow up without meeting anyone from the other community. This has led to the lack of understanding between the two religious groups. Thus it led to the growth of hatred and prejudices between them. With increased hostility, violence continued to rise. The economy of Northern Ireland was also affected by the conflict. Prior to the conflict, many overseas companies were invested in Northern Ireland. Tourists came to the country as it was peaceful and attractive. As a result of the conflict, both foreign investments and tourism declined. The foreign-owned factories closed down when violence increased operating costs in Northern Ireland. The constant threat of bombings and high cost of security drove away large manufacturers in great numbers. People were afraid of their safety and did not want to come to Northern Ireland and investors were afraid to invest there too. This reduced the revenue (income) for Northern Ireland, leading to declining economy. The conflict also affected Northern Ireland politically. Prior to the conflict, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) organized several demonstrations to end discrimination against the Catholics. The Civil Rights marches pressured the Northern Ireland government to pass anti-discrimination measures in Northern Ireland. As a result of the conflict, the government agreed to abolish the unequal voting system. After Bloody Sunday in 1972, an agreement was reached to introduce power-sharing between the Catholics and Protestants in 1998. However this agreement has not been fully implemented as different political parties refused to share power. Among all 3, the most serious effect is the social segregation. This is because it leads to many young people in Northern Ireland growing up with hatred and prejudice towards the other community. With the rise of prejudice, there would be no end to the conflict in Northern Ireland. If prejudice can be overcome, there would be better understanding among people of Protestants and Catholics especially the youth. This would reduce violence, leading to greater reconciliation and greater success at both political reforms and the return of investments and tourists. Nur Liyana

Dexter vs. Breaking Bad

The American Dream: Dexter vs. Breaking Bad The concept of the American Dream has been around us since the foundation of America and is largely what forms it. This ideal embraces fundamental freedoms that are endowed to each person. It strives for freedom, opportunity, and entrepreneurship for all people. Two television series that incorporate this principle are Dexter and Breaking Bad. Dexter focuses on a blood splatter analyst named Dexter who works to find clues/evidence in crime scenes by day, and secretly is a vigilante serial killer by night.Breaking Bad encompasses a chemistry teacher named Walter White who finds out that he has contracted lung cancer and must find a way to pay for his medical bills. Given his expertise with chemical properties, he decides to cook and sell the illegal and hazardous drug, methamphetamine. Both television shows Breaking Bad and Dexter criticize and portray ideals of the American Dream in their sophisticated plots and character portrayals. A larg e aspect of the American Dream is to ‘dream big. With both series, this concept is definitely represented well.In both circumstances, the protagonists in each show must cover p their devious ways to fit in and not be noticed by their surroundings. Walter does this by confining himself to his meth lab when he gets the free time in order to cook with his partner in crime, Jesse Pinkman. Dexter has to mask his acts of murder as well during his nighttime raids where he stalks his next malevolent victim. The average person Just looking at Dexter and Walter from a general standpoint would not have a clue as to what their side Jobs are.It is for this reason that the two shows do such worthy Jobs of depicting the characters as underdogs with lifestyles that would go unseen by most individuals. The family life and its significance is another key component to look at in both of the series. The concept of a strong family is a vital part of the American Dream. Both Dexter and Walter must support their families' needs and remain in good standing as fathers of their house. In both shows, the chemistry between the families lack greatly and thus successfully criticize that part of the American Dream.Walter must provide for his family while enduring the unfortunate hardship of his progressing lung cancer. Although he does end up providing enough money, Skylar, his wife, demands a divorce due to his chronic lying bout his whereabouts and his ignorance to his other fatherly demands – socializing with his family and being an exceptional role model. Dexter criticizes the notion of a structured and united family life. This original characteristic usually consisted of a happily married husband and wife that were raising a few children in a white picket fenced house.This stereotype is definitely combated in Dexter. Although Dexter does have a toddler son named Harrison whom he loves dearly and relates himself with his beginning, Dexter also has relations with numerous wo men throughout the series. Just a few women he does hook up with are Lila West, Rita Bennett, and Hannah McKay. America has its dark side. It is very apparent to the viewer that both shows do a superb Job at displaying this unfortunate reality.By doing so, the shows simultaneously mock the stereotypical characteristic of the American Dream ideal that the struggles and In Breaking Bad, there are numerous events that take place that embody this notion, such as the drug cartels that are largely organized under the main distributor, Gustavo Fring. There are many murders that occur as well, such as when Gale Boetticher (another meth. ab partner with Walter) is shot and killed by Jesse Pinkman due to Pinkman fearing that Gale would replace him as a partner of Walter, which would be a large financial disadvantage for Pinkman.It is no surprise that Dexter provides an abundant share of violence as well. Being centered on a serial killer, what would one expect? Dexter often makes his victims suffer the punishment that he believes they deserve. A prime example of this is when he hunts down and manages to abduct the infamous ‘bathtub killer' Arthur Mitchell. Dexter chats with Arthur about their beliefs of life and ridicules Arthur for killing innocent victims. Finally, Dexter bludgeons Arthur to death with the back of a hammer to end the scene on a sadistic, yet satisfying note.The method in which Walter gains his money is a superb example of another criticism of the American Dream ideal. The labor-intensive factory working environment was the original norm of how many Americans in the mid '50s found themselves in. Walter shatters this stereotype with his frequent seven-fgure drug deals with various clients. Not only does Walter live out this get- rich-quick mentality, but several others, such as Jesse Pinkman, Gustavo Fring, and Gale Boetticher are shown throughout the series to achieve wealth in a similar way – the exchanging of illegal drugs.Although the A merican Dream ideal has evolved over time, it is still largely predominant in todays society. The two television series do wonderful Jobs of portraying and criticizing the American Dream. Some of the major characteristics that they target are the importance of family life, the mentality to ‘dream big, and the reality of the ‘dark side' of America. The relations, portrayals, and criticisms of the American Dream ideal between Dexter and Breaking Bad can be easily deciphered if one Just simply looks for them.

Classroom Strategies for Improving Behavior Management

Classroom Strategies for Improving Behavior Management Behavior management is one of the biggest challenges that all teachers face. Some teachers are naturally strong in this area while others have to work hard to be an effective teacher with behavior management. It is crucial to understand that all situations and classes are different. Teachers must quickly figure out what works with a particular group of students. There is not a single strategy that a teacher can implement to establish better behavior management. Instead, it will take a combination of several strategies to create the desired atmosphere of maximized learning. Veteran teachers often use these simple strategies to maximize the time they have with their students by minimizing the distractions. Establish Rules and Expectations Immediately It is well documented that the first few days of school are essential in setting the tone for the remainder of the year. I would argue that the first few minutes of those first few days are the most critical. Students are generally well behaved, and attentive in those first few minutes giving you the opportunity to captivate their attention immediately, lay the foundation for acceptable behavior, and dictate the overall tone for the remainder of the year. Rules and expectations are two different things. Rules are negative in nature and include a list of things a teacher does not want students to do. Expectations are positive in nature and include a list of things that a teacher wants students to do. Both can play a role in effective behavior management in the classroom. Rules and expectations should be simple and straightforward covering the essential aspects of behavior management. It is essential that they are well written avoiding vagueness and wordiness that can be counterproductive by creating confusion. It is also beneficial to limit how many rules/expectations you establish. It is better to have a few well-written rules and expectations than a hundred that no one can remember. Practice! Practice! Practice! Expectations should be practiced several times throughout the course of the first few weeks. The key to effective expectations is for them to become a habit. This is done through prioritized repetition at the beginning of the year.  Some will see this as a waste of time, but those that put in the time at the beginning of the year will reap the benefits throughout the course of the year. Every expectation should be discussed and practiced until it becomes routine. Get Parents on Board It is crucial that teachers establish meaningful, trusting relationships early on in the school year. If a teacher waits until there is an issue to reach out to a parent, then the results may not be positive. Parents must be as aware of your rules and expectations as the students are. There are many ways to establish an open communication line with parents. Teachers must become adept at utilizing these different forms of communication. Begin by making contact with the parents of those students who have a reputation of having behavior problems. Keep the conversation entirely positive in nature. It is likely that this will provide you with credibility as they are probably not used to hearing positive comments about their child. Be Firm Do not back down! You must hold a student accountable if they fail to follow a rule or expectation. This is especially true at the beginning of the year. A teacher must get their bluff in early. They can lighten up as the year progresses. This is another vital aspect of setting the tone. Teachers who take the opposite approach will likely have a difficult time with behavior management throughout the year. Most students will respond positively to a structured learning environment, and this begins and ends with consistent accountability. Be Consistent and Fair  Ã‚   Never let your students know that you have favorites. Most teachers would argue that they do not have favorites, but the reality is that there are some students that are more endearing than others. It is essential that you are fair and consistent no matter who the student is. If you give one student three days or detention for talking, give the next student the same punishment. Of course, history can also factor into your classroom discipline decision. If you have disciplined a student several times for the same offense, you can defend giving them a tougher consequence. Stay Calm and Listen Do not jump to conclusions! If a student reports an incident to you, it is necessary to investigate the situation thoroughly before making a decision. This can be time-consuming, but ultimately it makes your decision defendable. Making a snap decision can create an appearance of negligence on your part. It is equally essential that you remain calm. It is easy to overreact to a situation, especially out of frustration. Do not allow yourself to handle a situation when you are emotional. It will not only diminish your credibility but could make you a target from students looking to capitalize on a weakness. Handle Issues Internally The majority of discipline issues need to be addressed by the classroom teacher. Consistently sending students to the principal on a discipline referral undermines a teacher’s authority with students and sends a message to the principle that you are ineffective in handling classroom management issues. Sending a student to the principal should be reserved for serious discipline infractions or repeated discipline infractions for which nothing else has worked. If you are sending more than five students to the office a year, you likely need to reevaluate your approach to behavior management. Build Rapport Teachers who are well-liked and respected are less likely to have discipline issues than teachers who are not. These are not qualities that just happen. They are earned over time by giving respect to all students. Once a teacher develops this reputation, their job in this area becomes easier. This type of rapport is built by investing time into building relationships with students that extend outside what happens in your classroom. Taking an interest in what is going on in their lives can be endearing in developing positive teacher-student relationships. Develop Interactive, Engaging Lessons A classroom full of engaged students is less likely to become a behavior issue, than a classroom full of bored students. Teachers must create dynamic lessons that are both interactive and engaging. Most behavior issues originate out of frustration or boredom. Great teachers are able to eliminate both of these issues through creative teaching. The teacher must be fun, passionate, and enthusiastic while differentiating lessons to meet individual needs in the classroom.

The Concept of Strategic Planning and Its Relevance

The Concept of Strategic Planning and Its Relevance Abstract The purpose of this essay is to analyse the concept of strategic planning and its relevance to the activities of an organization. Strategic planning has been viewed as an important cornerstone in the decision making activities of an organization. It enables an organization to achieve its goals and objectives through the development of plans. These plans can either be long term, medium or short term depending on the type of business and the context that strategic planning will be used in.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Concept of Strategic Planning and Its Relevance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Introduction Strategic practitioners recognised the importance of strategies in the processes and operations of an organization which saw a lot of emphasis being placed on strategy which later saw the development of strategic planning as an organizational concept. Strategic planning slowly replaced corporate p lanning which mostly involved developing formal plans that lacked any strategic focus. This change was largely due to the emphasis placed on the planning activities of an organization. The relationships that were meant to result from this change sometimes could not be achieved. Researchers found that only few organizations were able to succeed in achieving their goals and objectives through the use of strategies. Practitioners of strategic planning have founded their research efforts on the assumption that the creative task of formulating and implementing strategies can be designed into a series of actions referred to as planning that will lead to results that can be repeated in the future. Definition of Strategic Planning Strategic planning is a technique that is used to organize the present activities of an organization to reflect the desired future projections of what the organization wants to achieve over a certain period of time. A strategic plan is a map or guide that will be used to lead the organization from where it is now to where it would like to be. Strategic planning mostly focuses on the external environment of an organization. Since every organization has different activities and operations that set it apart from other companies, the strategic plans of every organization will therefore be different from that of the other organization; therefore Strategic planning systems will be designed to deal with the unique characteristics of organizations (Samson and Daft 2009). Strategic planning is derived from strategy which is the layout of a plan or set of actions that will be used by the organization to achieve their objectives. Strategic planning is the systematic and formalised effort made by an organization to develop detailed plans that would be used to implement the objectives, goals, strategies, and policies of an organization (Wittman and Reuter, 2008). Planning deals with looking at the future results of current decisions that are made by deci sion makers. This means that strategic planning provides managers and people in positions of decision making with the cause and effect of consequences that would occur over time if that particular decision was made. If the decision maker does not like the results of the decision, he can easily change it to one that would yield positive results. Strategic planning looks at the alternative courses of action that are available in the future and what options are chosen from these alternatives, they are used as a basis for making present day decisionsAdvertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Grunic and Kuhn (2008) viewed strategic planning as a process that began with the identification of objectives and goals which later led to the development of organizational strategies, plans and policies that would be used to achieve these goals. Strategic planning was seen to be a process of making decisions in advance that would determine what kind of planning activities would be undertaken and how these activities would be done. The process was also systematic as the various activities were organized in a sequence. Strategic planning process was geared towards companies that had their operations and activities in one particular industry within the market. The basic format of a strategic planning process that is used by most organizations is to first develop the company’s mission, objectives and goals as a first step. Once this is done the organization’s internal and external environment is assessed to determine the strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats. The next step will involve selecting strategies that will be used to deal with the identified strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats. The organization should ensure that the identified strategies are in line with its mission ad goals. After the app ropriate strategies are identified and developed, they are finally implemented. Hills and Jones (2009) note that organizations go through a new process of strategic planning every year as a result of changing business environments and the global economy. This however does not mean that new strategies have to be identified and implemented every year. What usually happens in most organizations is that the strategies are modified or reaffirmed since the strategic plan is usually designed for a period of more than five years. Strategic Planning for Small businesses and Improved Performance Given all the evidence on the benefits of strategic planning, most small businesses still do not practice planning. Most of the concepts and research on strategic planning have been geared towards helping larger organizations. Managers of small businesses mostly focus on the short term rather than on the long term strategies. Their decision making technique is characterised to be reactive instead of p roactive and deliberate. For those managers who do practice strategic planning, the process is mostly characterised by ad hoc instead of formal activities (Wang et al. 2006).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Concept of Strategic Planning and Its Relevance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to May (2010), small business owners today are realising more than ever that they need strategic planning to make decisions. This has emerged out of their uneasiness about what the future holds for their businesses or the fact that they have attained the present level of small business success without any strategic planning and they don’t feel like proceeding with ventures that they are unsure will yield any profits. Such uncertainties lead them to secure stable and predictable styles of management that mostly involve strategic planning. The main difference of strategic planning for both the large and small busin esses is that the larger organization can financially afford to conduct extensive strategic planning activities which at times might be very expensive while the small business has a limited amount of financial resources. The strategic activities of the smaller organization might be limited or constrained due to finances; the smaller business will also mostly rely on its internal resources do the planning (May, 2010). Wang et al (2006) conducted investigations on why some small businesses failed in their activities and operations. They noted that the major reason was attributed to the lack of strategic planning and poor business motivation. Previous studies by scholars such as Mintzberg, Crawford and Lefebvre also suggested that formal strategic planning systems in small organizations were absent. The authors noted that small business strategic planning was mostly characterized by informal planning systems that were unstructured and sporadic. Other characteristics were that the proce ss was viewed to be incomprehensive, incremental and reactive. Wang et al (2006) note that the motivation for a small business owner to be in business was mostly interwoven with their personal lives. Most small businesses are family owned which shows that the personal motivation in starting the business lies in trying to provide a better life for the business owners and their families. Some of these owner usually lack a business background or the technical known how of running the business. This means that they lack basic strategic planning information. Such a situation enables the businesses owners and entrepreneurs to get away with developing short term strategic plans for their businesses .Because of the size of the firm and constant uncertainty in the global business environment, small business have a limited ability to control events. That is why their focus is on short term and medium planning instead of long term. The strategic model should be designed in a simple and inexpen sive way Pitfalls of Strategic Planning The main problems experienced by small businesses when trying to initiate the planning process have been identified as the lack of time and lack of proper strategic planning knowledge. But when managers discover ways to overcome these constraints, strategic planning can lead to the improved performance of the business.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Small business managers need to gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of small businesses which will set a strong foundation for strategic planning activities. The size and simple structure of small firms allows them to increase their responsiveness to external changes. In discussing the failure of the concept, various studies have been referred to further explain why strategic planning sometimes fails in organizations. One pitfall is that no one study has been found that has assessed the outcomes of deviating from the long range plans. All studies that have been conducted on the subject do not show whether there has been any negative consequences of not following the long range strategic plan. Another pitfall came from an earlier study that highlighted that while particular companies engaged in systematically planned activities, other organizations that did not engage in strategic planning were able to surpass these companies performance wise; this showed that t he best planners did not always perform the best (Dimitrou and Thompson, 2007). Studies done in the 1970s by scholars such as Malik and Karger found favourable results when strategic planning was used while other studies such as those done by Sheehan, Grinyer and Norburn did not see any benefits of practicing strategic planning. Henry Mintzberg after a review of these studies came up with a conclusion that planning was not the only best way. He noted that in some circumstances it did not pay and that when planning was at its best, it might have had some suitability to particular and not all organizational contexts. Another pitfall of strategic planning is that most companies find the solutions derived from the formal process of strategic planning to not be what they had actually expected. They usually had a basic idea of the kind of results to expect once the process was done. Strategic planning makes a majority of the firms today to engage in less risky forms of long range planning in their decision making activities which often at times do not yield the best results. Major criticisms have been drawn to the fact that strategic planning does not in any way contribute to the strategic thinking of major decision makers in organizations. Many of the benefits that accrue from strategic planning cannot be measured and it is difficult to prove the planning process in absolute terms. This is due to the fact when the planning process is initiated; it becomes hard to compare what has happened with what could have happened. This leads to a lot of speculations and formation of assumptions that are in most cases usually wrong. There is also another pitfall in the form of identifying the amount of costs that have been used in the planning process (Hill and Jones, 2009). These costs can only be seen if additional profit made by the organization exceeds the additional costs used in planning. Logical expectations of most organizations are that strategic planning will lead the company to be successful in the future; this is a big misconception. Most managers view strategic plans to be the key that will lead the organization to market success which explains why they become devastated when the strategic plans fail (Hill and Jones, 2009). Conclusion Planning activities are important to an organization to ensure that everything moves in a systematic and orderly manner. Without planning the members of an organization would lack a guide or plan that would direct them to achieve the organizational mission, vision, goals and objectives. Planning is therefore to be the most important activity that an organization should undertake to ensure that it runs smoothly and effectively. Strategic planning should also be given the same level of importance as general organizational planning. While strategic planning for organizations has been going on for a very long time, the smaller businesses are yet to catch on, yet planning is very important for an organization to achi eve optimum success through the proper utilization of resources. Strategic planning might have some pitfalls but when used in the proper way and in the right organizational context, it can improve the performance of both large and small businesses. Managers should therefore exercise this concept to ensure the decisions they make now will reflect what the organization wants to achieve in the future. References Dimitrou, H.T., and Thompson, R. (2007) Strategic planning for regional development in  the UK. Oxford, UK: Routledge Grunic, R. and Kuhn, R. (2008) Process based strategic planning. 5th Edition. Berlin: Springer- Verlag Hill, C., and Jones, G. (2009) Strategic management theory: an integrated approach.  Ohio, US: South Western Cengage Learning May, M.G. (2010) Strategic planning. New York: Business Expert Press Samson, D., and Daft, R.L. (2009) Management Third Asia Pacific Edition. Australia: Cengage Learning Wang, C., Walker, E.A., and Redmond, J. (2006) Ownership motiva tion and strategic planning in small businesses. Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and  Sustainability. Vol II, No.4 Wittman, R. and Reuter, M.P. (2008) Strategic planning: how to deliver maximum value  through effective business. London: Kogan Page

Italian Verbs For Beginners - Mood and Tenses

Italian Verbs For Beginners - Mood and Tenses When learning Italian, students naturally tend to look for grammatical patterns. Studying Italian verbs in a programmatic fashion is a wise idea because its an efficient use of time, and Italian verbs are classified in a variety of ways. When studying Italian verbs, though, avoid the temptation to make absolute comparisons to English. Although there are many similarities between the two languages, there are also many fundamental differences. In addition, there are always exceptions to the rule. So while taking an organized approach to Italian verbs is a terrific way to improve your Italian, think of it like ordering in an Italian restaurant: be prepared to order a different primo if your favorite dish isnt available. The Santa Trinit of VerbsVerbs are fundamental to any language, and Italian is no exception. There are three primary groups of Italian verbs, classified according to the ending of their infinitives: first conjugation (-are verbs), second conjugation (-ere verbs), and third conjugation (-ire verbs). Most Italian verbs belong to the first-conjugation group and follow a highly uniform pattern. Once you learn how to conjugate one -are verb, youve essentially learned hundreds of them. And what about those Italian verbs that dont end in -are? Second-conjugation (-ere) verbs account for approximately one-quarter of all Italian verbs. Although many have some sort of irregular structure, there are also many regular -ere verbs. The final group of Italian verbs is those that end in ​-ire. Feeling Tense? A Little Moody?Feeling tense studying Italian verbs? Or maybe youre a bit moody. There is a difference. Mood (a variation of the word mode) refers to the attitude of the speaker toward what he or she is saying. There are four finite moods (modi finiti) in Italian: indicative (indicativo), which is used to indicate facts; subjunctive (congiuntivo), which is used to express an attitude or feeling toward an event; conditional (condizionale), which is used to express what would happen in a hypothetical situation; and imperative (imperativo), which is used to give commands. (Note that modern English only has three finite moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative.) There are also three indefinite moods (modi indefiniti) in Italian, so-called because the forms do not indicate the person (i.e., first, second, or third): infinitive (infinito), participle (participio), and gerund (gerundio). Moods are divided into one or more tenses, which indicates the time when the action of the verb takes place (present, past, or future). For reference, the chart below lists the mood and tenses of Italian verbs in English and Italian. ITALIAN VERBS: MOOD AND TENSEIndicative / Indicativopresent / presentepresent perfect / passato prossimoimperfect / imperfettopast perfect / trapassato prossimoabsolute past / passato remotopreterite perfect / trapassato remotofuture / futuro semplicefuture perfect / futuro anteriore Subjunctive / Congiuntivopresent / presentepast / passatoimperfect / imperfettopast perfect / trapassato Conditional / Condizionalepresent / presentepast / passato Imperative / Imperativopresent / presente Infinitive / Infinitivopresent / presentepast / passato Participle / Participiopresent / presentepast / passato Gerund / Gerundiopresent / presentepast / passato Conjugating Italian Verbs SingularI personII personIII personPluralI personII personIII person Learning six forms for every verb would be an endless task. Fortunately, most Italian verbs are regular verbs, meaning they are conjugated following a regular pattern. In fact, there are only three irregular first conjugation verbs. Once the regular verb endings are memorized the pattern can be applied to other verbs of the same group. Or, they are irregular, and do not follow a regular pattern. Although numerous, even the irregular second and third conjugation verbs fall into a few groups that make it easier to memorize. Essere and Avere: Dont Leave Home Without ThemLanguage means action, and you cant speak Italian without the verbs essere (to be) and avere (to have). These two essential verbs are used in compound verb formations, idiomatic expressions, and many other grammatical constructions. Become the maestro of these two verbs and youll have taken a giant step towards learning Italian. In TransitReady for action? Then its time for a transitive verb- those that take a direct object (complemento oggetto): Luisa legge un libro (Luisa reads a book). Transitive verbs can also be used in the absolute sense; that is, with an implicit direct object: Luisa legge (Luisa reads [a book, magazine, newspaper]). Intransitive verbs, on the other hand, are those that never take a direct object: Giorgio cammina (Giorgio walks). Some verbs can be classified as either transitive or intransitive, depending on the context of the sentence. Verbs With Voice!Italian verbs (like verbs in many other languages) have two voices. A verb is in the active voice when the subject carries out or performs the action of the verb: Marco ha preparato le valigie (Marco packed the suitcases). A verb is in the passive voice when the subject is acted on by the verb: La scena à ¨ stata filmata da un famoso regista (The scene was filmed by a famous director). Only transitive verbs with an explicit direct object can be transformed from the active voice to the passive voice. Mirror, Mirror, on the WallYou wake up (svegliarsi), take a shower (farsi la doccia), comb your hair (pettinarsi), and get dressed (vestirsi). You couldnt start your day without reflexive verbs (verbi riflessivi). Those are verbs whose action reverts to the subject: Mi lavo (I wash myself). In Italian, reflexive pronouns (i pronomi reflessivi) are required when conjugating reflexive verbs. Coulda, Woulda, ShouldaThere are three important Italian verbs known as verbi servili or verbi modali (modal verbs). These verbs, potere (to be able to, can), volere (to want), dovere (to have to, must), can stand alone, taking on their given meaning. They can also follow the infinitive of other verbs, functioning to modify the meaning of those verbs. Verbs That End In -sene, -sela, -celaThere are a group of Italian verbs that are conjugated with two different pronoun particles. Verbs such as meravigliarsene and provarcisi are called pronominal verbs (verbi pronominali). In fact, they are still classified as either first-conjugation (-are verbs), second-conjugation (-ere verbs), or third-conjugation (-ire verbs) according to the ending of their infinitives. Many pronominal verbs are used idiomatically. Shadowed By A PrepositionCertain Italian verbs (and expressions) are followed by specific prepositions such as a, di, per, and su. But to the consternation of students of all levels and abilities, there is no hard-and-fast set of rules governing this grammatical usage. This is one instance in which language learners must familiarize themselves with tables that include Italian verbs and expressions followed by specific prepositions as well as verbs followed directly by the infinitive.

Quality Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Quality Management - Essay Example The government findings produced a 600 pages report that indicated problems within the management system. The problems included breakdowns in emergency care, an unorganized framework for keeping record of patients and improper treatment of medical waste. The emergency units were dirty and unhealthy. The patients moved around in the corridors, lost and unattended. Children were not attended immediately and were discharged without any medical attention. The entire chaos resulted from the inefficient handling of the five P’s and thus the CEO was fired when he/she suggested the improvement of the organization by the means of engaging more nurses, redefining the policies and procedures, and retraining the staffs. The CEO’s suggestion included the three P’s namely People, Processes and Policies; however he/she missed the vital P’s that represent Product and Premises. Here the effect is the â€Å"Unorganized management and inefficient services† and the probable factors causing this are lack of trained employees, lack of adequate funds, and lack of training provider, conflict between employees and management and unskilled and inexperienced management. The elements of the 5P Model include people, processes, policies, premises and product. Policies are the guidelines for the actions of the university. This is on the whole an enabler and influencer of the 4 other P’s and factors for the resources allocation (money, effort and time etc.) to the accomplishment of the firm’s service quality objectives. People are the staffs and professors related to the University. Processes are the procedure by means of which tasks are done within the University. Premises are the location of the University and Product is the education it is imparting to the students. In this regard it can be said that efficient functioning of all the five factors are essential for the smooth running of the University. If one among the five elements doesn’t get

White privileges in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

White privileges in America - Essay Example The society of the United States of America inherently is a country of the whites. The American society has been structured by racial discrimination profoundly and racism has lastingly marked the society of the country as concluded by the report of the United Nations Human Council for the year 2009. However the racism affects the white population of the country as well, as they are from birth always been isolated from the people of color in the daily life. That is how racism is experienced by the white population of the society. (Lund and Colin, p 8: Wise, p viii) Racism and the privileges for the white thus hurt the living of the people of color and to some extent affect the white as well. 1. The White Privilege The roots of the society of America are permeated by the factor of racism which gets reflected in each and every institutions of the society. It get resembles in the culture of the society, in the society’s character as well as in its structure. There are several boun daries in the social lives set by the majority of the white population of the country for the people of the different skin color.... Whiteness and non whiteness stratified the society of the United States of America. In the society of America real situations are defined by Whiteness and it also impose real consequences.(Guess, 650; Lund and Colin, 8) According to Wise the society of the United States of America always bestowed some advantages to the individual born white in the society. These are the advantages from which the people of color are deliberately withheld. Whiteness which may have different meaning in different time and places, however in the United States of America being white entitles some common experience based upon the advantages and privileges from the people of color along with belongings. The racialization of a subordinate group also brings with it the racialization of the super ordinate group as they enjoy the position of dominance in the society and added to their advantages (Wise, viii, 3: Guess, 651) In the words of Wise, white privilege is enjoying every kinds of social, political economi cal as well as educational benefits along with facilities in health care services that an individual requires for earning prosperity, social security and respect for himself over the other classes of the society. According to him in short white privilege is the root of problems existing in a society that is not a meritocracy. (This is your nation on White Privilege) 2. Privileges enjoyed by the white population of the country According to the reports of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for the year 2009 and the United States Census Bureau for 2006, the total percentage of the white population of the society is 73.9 percent that experienced the unemployment rate

Remembering my Childhood in the Continent of Africa Personal Statement

Remembering my Childhood in the Continent of Africa - Personal Statement Example Sendaris as the narrator patronizes his own childhood while praising almost all the events which Hugh went through in his childhood. Apart from the praises, I established that later on the article Sendaris is sympathetic of what Hugh went through after his family moved to Mogadishu (Sendaris 247). I have witnessed also the fact that, the narrator has managed to pin point positive and inspiring events, in the African continent which is full of third world countries. The narrator portrays the negativity experienced in the three African countries which Hugh lived in as normal and intriguing. The themes the narrator is trying to display are admiration, jealously and sympathy. Sendaris’ view on what Hugh went through during his childhood is sarcastic. Judging from the narration, in reality Hugh’s experience, in Africa, has been rough and exhilarating. To my amazement, Sendaris is praising and admiring Hugh’s childhood, but this is controversial. I do not consider Hugh to be privileged because his family moves from one African country to another. In my analysis, I discovered that Sendaris’ praises and admirations on Hugh’s childhood are transitional. The transition moves from praise and admiration to jealousy and later on to sympathy. The transition does not depend on what Sendaris thinks of Hugh, but on what Hugh is experienced in his childhood. I categorize Sendaris’ description of Hugh’s childhood experience as overrated. Truthfully speaking, I know that the two countries which Hugh lived in when he was a child, that is Congo and Somali have suffered their share of suffering. Sendaris is sarcastic in his narration; he is intrigued with the thrilling events which Hugh came across. Experiences like seeing a man who had hanged himself on a pole (Sendaris 246) and an animal shot to death while Hugh and his fellow classmates watched (Sendaris 245) are

Apple case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Apple case study - Essay Example The company in its approach, designed strategies based on the market player’s weaknesses and customer generational needs to ensure faster growth. In particular, it integrated superior infrastructural set up than market players, which provided modern recording and sales techniques. This is to ensure that customers receive modern musical services based on broadband and iPod technological enabled systems. Ideally, most customers in the music industry including recorders consider modern technological enabled production system, which ensures good quality hence superior returns. This element enabled Apple to develop its .market rapidly due to its advancement in various aspects, which was a weakness to renowned market players. Variably, the company also integrated its management techniques to ensure effective administration of its resources to ensure quality proceeds, a concept the dominant firms poorly executed. It also provided favorable recording terms with initiation of subsidy f und system to poor artist who would could not sustain recording expenses. This aspect attracted most artist to its services coupled with it modern techniques of production. Further, its technological capacity through adoption of Apple computers, which offered a breakthrough towards effective management, and coordination of web music highly, attracted most individuals including Michael Jackson (Lynch 2009). It is imperative to note that its launching strategy also propelled its performance since it communicated basic information where it provided potential services, which were unique to its rivals. 2. SWOT analysis on Apple business model Apple designed its operations based on superior strategies with a strong focus to gaining competitive benefits and provision of quality services to customers globally (Lynch 2009). In particular, its infrastructural capacity provided its greatest strength, which has significantly contributed to its competitiveness and general performance. Modern gen erational musical production and publishing techniques is critical towards production of superior music with high demand. Variably, its sound management practices have also enhanced its operations compared to its rivals since the administration of its affairs is based on clear ideals and principles. The company has a substantial market share with strong strategic alliance network portfolios, which facilitates its sales and financial prospects for example Nokia and Samsung service providers. Quality production and delivery of service to consumers also forms its major strength in this industry where quality greatly affects performance potentials. Imperatively, the strengths contributed greatly to its sound performance compared to its rivals, which operated on inferior management practices, adopted low quality generational musical infrastructure and poor strategic coordination. Similarly, the company’s opportunities include increased demand of its services, market expansion, new ventures and diversification capacities, and favorable legislation to regulate the industry effectively. Observation of these opportunities is vital since they hold the organizations continuous competitiveness and performance capacity. The organization also faces various threats and weaknesses, which should be addressed to ensure sustainable growth without providing unwarranted leeway to new entrants (Lynch 2009). The strengths and weaknesses include possible new

A Focus on the Case of Sole Remaining supplier Essay

A Focus on the Case of Sole Remaining supplier - Essay Example In some cases, the subject of upholding ethics has only resulted in dilemmas with far reaching implications. Such is a situation of the case ‘Sole Remaining Supplier’. The case describes a heart pacemaker technology; though it is a marvelous device, it also raises ethical questions. The device has the capability of making automatic adjustments depending on the deviations from normal heartbeats. The device has the ability of stimulating heartbeats in the cases of abnormal pulse rates. However, during its developmental course, the device was marred by certain limitations. Despite the fact that the incidences occurred several decades back, the device is subject to relevant ethical questions. This paper considers a scenario where the pacemaker technology is gaining momentum despite its inherent weaknesses and regular failures that cause death. Later, the technology raises concerns and prompts reconsideration. Additionally, the device also consists of delicate transistors, th e delicacy of which increases the probability of the device becoming faulty. If the processes of supplying the transistors are halted, people are likely to miss the devices. On the other hand, if the supply process continues, people are likely to be victims of the failed devices. A decision has to be made eventually. The crucial question then is what course of action a transistor supplier should take. Utilitarian issues in the case Utilitarianism refers to the ethical theory which postulates that taking an appropriate course of action increases the chances of perfection. Its moral worthiness is based on the consequences of actions (Rawls, 2011). Proponents of this theory are J.S. Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism may be considered as an ethical approach that is quantitative and reductionistic. It considerably differs from other ethical theories such as deontological ethics, virtue ethics, pragmatic ethics and other consequantialist approaches. While deontological ethics differ from utilitarianism in their disregard for consequantialism, pragmatic, virtue and other consequantialist ethics differ from utilitarianism through their considerable regard of character as an aspect that determines the achievement of pleasurable ethical results. Utilitarianism is arguably the greatest principle that allows achieving happiness and felicity. Even so, the practicability of utilitarianism has not been without shortcomings, such as not accounting adequately for moral concepts such as promise and justice. This had prompted some changes in the theory to iron out the shortcomings. When an individual encounters a situation which requires him or her to make a choice, he or she should first hold back, weigh the situation in terms of appropriate choices, considering the consequences of each choice. On determining the choice that will yield the pleasurable outcomes, one can then proceed to take the course of action, and this could be applicable to the Sole Supplier case. Utili tarian elements that are presented in the case concern obligations, ethics for common good, action consequences, moral good and conflicting interests. For a business rising from scratches, some models of corporate social responsibility emphasize the primacy of the corporation’s economic responsibility to stick to survival while making profits. Other responsibilities, such as abiding by ethical activities that are discretionary, are not a priority (Sun, 2010). Other approaches hold that ethics should come first, so corporations should consider conforming to ethical and legal standards as the most important aspect. In this case, it does not matter whether a business is competitive or not; businesses could still maintain competitiveness or become competitive even while

Alternative Methods of Involving Employees in Decision Making Essay

Alternative Methods of Involving Employees in Decision Making - Essay Example Moreover, I have realised the method of transition from one paragraph to another in order to keep the flow of a paper from feedbacks. Introduction â€Å"Employee involvement is not the goal nor is it a tool. Rather, employee involvement is a management and leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their work organization† (Employee Involvement: How to Involve Employees in Decision Making, 2012). Advancements in science and technologies and subsequent development of new organizational principles stress the importance of employee involvement in decision making process in an organization. Earlier, top management and middle management were responsible for taking critical decisions with respect to the functioning of the organization. However, the necessities of employee involvement in decision making process are well documented by modern researches. â€Å"For a company to remain healthy over the long term, a new strategic direction that would help it to grow and offer its people challenging work, is needed† (Xarcos, 2009). Ensuring employee participation in the decision making is one way of giving a strategic direction to an organization. â€Å"The concept of employee involvement originates from a leader kind of philosophy where people contribute to the effectiveness of the company and improvement is continuous. Companies that employ this strategy are most successful in areas of their business†(Alexander, 2011). Employees are the most important resource as far as an organization is concerned. In fact employees are the only active resource of an organization and the supervision from this active resource is necessary mobilize all the other passive resources of an organization. Being the only active resource in an organization, employees should be given participation in the decision making process so that they may feel more attachments towards the organization. Differe nt methods are used by different for ensuring employee participation in the decision making process. This paper analyses the alternative methods of involving employees in decision making and the benefits and challenges that these might present for an organisation. Alternative methods of involving employees in decision making The following figure illustrates the ladder of decision making in an organization. Ladder of Decision Making Level 1. Executive Decision Level 2. Executive Decision with Report Level 3. Consultative Decision Level 4. Employee Recommendation Level 5. Delegated Decision (with Veto) Level 6. Delegated decision (w/o Veto) Level 7. Employee Decision Responsibility for the Decision (Gallagher, 2002) At level 1, the chief executive is taking decisions independently and he may or may not inform his decision to the employees during latter stages. At level 2, the executive takes decisions and inform it to the employees in the near future itself. At level 3, the executive welcomes ideas from employees before the decision making process. At level 4, the executive assigns the duty of decision making to the employees whereas at level 5, the executive can accept or reject the decisions taken by the employees. At level 6 employee decisions will be accepted by the executive whereas at level 7, employees may not even inform the executive about their decisions. â€Å"Strategies to encourage employee involvement through participatory, consultative and cooperative workplaces have been widely promoted since the 1970s†

A Focus on the Case of Sole Remaining supplier Essay

A Focus on the Case of Sole Remaining supplier - Essay Example In some cases, the subject of upholding ethics has only resulted in dilemmas with far reaching implications. Such is a situation of the case ‘Sole Remaining Supplier’. The case describes a heart pacemaker technology; though it is a marvelous device, it also raises ethical questions. The device has the capability of making automatic adjustments depending on the deviations from normal heartbeats. The device has the ability of stimulating heartbeats in the cases of abnormal pulse rates. However, during its developmental course, the device was marred by certain limitations. Despite the fact that the incidences occurred several decades back, the device is subject to relevant ethical questions. This paper considers a scenario where the pacemaker technology is gaining momentum despite its inherent weaknesses and regular failures that cause death. Later, the technology raises concerns and prompts reconsideration. Additionally, the device also consists of delicate transistors, th e delicacy of which increases the probability of the device becoming faulty. If the processes of supplying the transistors are halted, people are likely to miss the devices. On the other hand, if the supply process continues, people are likely to be victims of the failed devices. A decision has to be made eventually. The crucial question then is what course of action a transistor supplier should take. Utilitarian issues in the case Utilitarianism refers to the ethical theory which postulates that taking an appropriate course of action increases the chances of perfection. Its moral worthiness is based on the consequences of actions (Rawls, 2011). Proponents of this theory are J.S. Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism may be considered as an ethical approach that is quantitative and reductionistic. It considerably differs from other ethical theories such as deontological ethics, virtue ethics, pragmatic ethics and other consequantialist approaches. While deontological ethics differ from utilitarianism in their disregard for consequantialism, pragmatic, virtue and other consequantialist ethics differ from utilitarianism through their considerable regard of character as an aspect that determines the achievement of pleasurable ethical results. Utilitarianism is arguably the greatest principle that allows achieving happiness and felicity. Even so, the practicability of utilitarianism has not been without shortcomings, such as not accounting adequately for moral concepts such as promise and justice. This had prompted some changes in the theory to iron out the shortcomings. When an individual encounters a situation which requires him or her to make a choice, he or she should first hold back, weigh the situation in terms of appropriate choices, considering the consequences of each choice. On determining the choice that will yield the pleasurable outcomes, one can then proceed to take the course of action, and this could be applicable to the Sole Supplier case. Utili tarian elements that are presented in the case concern obligations, ethics for common good, action consequences, moral good and conflicting interests. For a business rising from scratches, some models of corporate social responsibility emphasize the primacy of the corporation’s economic responsibility to stick to survival while making profits. Other responsibilities, such as abiding by ethical activities that are discretionary, are not a priority (Sun, 2010). Other approaches hold that ethics should come first, so corporations should consider conforming to ethical and legal standards as the most important aspect. In this case, it does not matter whether a business is competitive or not; businesses could still maintain competitiveness or become competitive even while

African American Culture 5 Essay Example for Free

African American Culture 5 Essay Question# 4: African cultures, by and large, bring a similar world view to the relationship between man and the spiritual realm, one that is marked by an extremely personal interaction. In the broader African spiritual world human beings are seen to be under the constant influence of other people, their ancestors, minor deities, the Creator, and various forces of nature. As a result the African spiritual world can be described as interactive since all things are endowed with life-force. How is this idea expressed in ritual approaches to morality, wrongdoing, and spiritual empowerment? African American religion has always been heavily involved and influenced by the notion of morality, wrong doing and spiritual empowerment since the slave days if not earlier, African Americans came to embrace Protestant Christianity and adapted their own version of it which is consistent with evidence in the 19th century and a little bit of the 18th, at the time Christianity had little effect on slave society through the efforts of Anglicans, but it was not because African Americans rejected the gospel but because whites seized Christian brotherhood from blacks. As blacks in the South and in the British Caribbean struggled to develop individual and collective identities from the ideas and ways of African culture and their new conditions of life, the series of efforts by evangelicals to convert slaves eventually gave rise to a distinct African-American form of Christian theology, worship style, and religious community. The importance of religion and having their own take on it is among African Americans, as among all people, rests on fulfilling the human need for an understanding of one’s place in both the spiritual and temporal world. Although it was difficult, African Americans discovered in evangelical conversion requirements an opportunity to reassert personal authority based on their ability to communicate directly with God and to bring others to recognize the need for personal repentance and acceptance of Jesus. A perfect example that supports the connection between religious involvement and a sense of personal identity, is found in a slave woman who, back then it was not common for them to tell missionaries that her people have come from across the sea and lost their father and mother, and therefore want to know the Father. The displacement of Africans, for whom locality was critical to interactions with the spiritual world, did not strip them of their religious identity, but required them to learn the spiritual landscape of their new home and reshape their practices accordingly. â€Å"Come Shouting to Zion† details the many religious rituals that Africans preserved in the new world, especially those surrounding fundamental life events such as the birth and naming of children, marriage, burial ceremonies, and ritual dancing and singing to communicate with ancestors and deities. The influence of Africans with many diverse but fundamentally similar cultures in a strange new land encouraged slaves to form new pan-African cultures, which grew increasingly popular as later generations of slaves were born into bondage in America, establishing a distinct African-American culture. The pidgin African-English is a prime example of Africans in American creating a system of communication that was not traceable to a particular African ethnic origin, nor was it a perfect imitation of American English, but was instead shared by blacks in America. As slaves first encountered a foreign language that whites wished them to learn well enough to be more productive but not well enough to pose a threat to the race-based socioeconomic hierarchy, so they became acquainted with Christianity at the will of whites, but when given the opportunity, appropriated it for their own purposes. In the early encounters between slaves and Christianity it is without question that African, and particularly American-born slaves, sought a spirituality that would explain or show their temporal condition. Some salves looked to a theology of liberation and equality among Christians, which they could glean from 18th century evangelicals, mostly Anglicans, who tried to downplay these aspects of biblical teaching. The early period of evangelism was restricted by the fears of slave-owners that slaves who converted to Christianity would feel empowered to revolt against their bondage. Several conspired rebellions and many smaller incidents of black assertion were linked to blacks who had heard enough preaching to identify themselves with the enslaved nation of Israel. This fed the fears of whites, and Anglicans continued to complain that the planters who prohibited them from educating slaves on religious matters were the largest hindrance to saving African American souls. While racism was strengthened and slaves were unable to improve their social status by conforming to white European-American values, very few blacks found the Christian message Anglicans shared with them appealing . Anglican churches maintained strict separation of rich and poor, white and black, during services and sacraments. The high-church emphasized that learned men alone were authorized to teach and that blacks would listen without questioning and to accept the extension of their temporal message and isolation from whites into the religious sphere. Under these terms, it is I am not surprised that Christianity failed to take root as a meaningful religion, a spiritual world that Africans wanted to live in. But it is essential to recognize the role of whites in shaping the message that Africans were allowed to hear, and the role specifically of slaveholders in excluding blacks from access to Christianity. That blacks expressed their agency in rejecting this early version of Christianity offered to them. . At the same time Anglicans were confused over their lack of success in the Southern mainland, Moravians made a significant impact on blacks in the Caribbean by bringing a different vision of a Christian community. Moravians, Methodists, Separate Baptists, and a few other missionaries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries who sought out African Americans stressed spiritual, if not always worldly, equality. Africans identified with and embraced images of a savior who had suffered like they did, and joined these Christian images with African musical modes of expression to create spirituals that reminded: â€Å"Jesus been down to de mire/ You must bow low to de mire† (Stuckey, 139). However, you must finally accept Christianity as an affirmation of their lowly place in society and a divine exhortation to obedience and docility, as many white slaveholders had hoped they would. Rather, blacks found opportunities at biracial revival meetings which were meetings held at locations most often church, in which slaves and blacks were black would interpret what they heard and to share their divinely inspired interpretations of Christian faith, even from pulpits. During this critical period when a significant portion of blacks in the Caribbean and American South were first offered Christianity, they clearly adopted it and transformed it into something that was their own. After the period of revivals that first sparked wide-scale conversions in the South, many African-Americans focused on building a community in which they could support one another and worship in their own African-influenced style. Local black congregations extended their religious community, most notably with the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in1816. As an institution spanning several states, the A. M. E. Church allowed blacks to take part at different levels in a collective, hierarchical social system as had never before been possible under American slavery. blacks continued to participate as minorities in biracial congregations (still with segregated seating) in most parts of the south and the expanding frontier, but found fewer opportunities to become ordained preachers or lay leaders in mixed parishes, where they were likely only to be allowed to â€Å"exercise the gift, provided they teach sound Doctrine sic† under the approval of whites (Frey Wood, 166). In the creation of their own religious communities in which no whites were present to criticize â€Å"overemotional† black forms of religious expression and persisting practices, such as polygamy and dancing, African-Americans actively designed a spirituality that fulfilled their needs in the slave societies of the Americas. African-American religiosity was then, as it is now, â€Å"centered on extended and expanding families and households, the importance of self-determination and personal dignity, mutual aid, and shared responsibility for the progress of the race† (Hortons, xi). In my opinion, African agency is most clearly supported by evidence of Africans defining their faith, modes of worship, and religious ties as part of a larger emerging African-American culture. Change was a relentless fact of life for Africans in 18th and 19th century America, most tragically present in enslavement and removal from Africa and domestic trade within the Americas that broke up families as masters bought and sold property. Outside the personal struggles of individual slaves, the changes in ideology and society wrought by the era of the American Revolution exposed Africans and their descendents to evolving external ideas about their place within American society, their rights as humans, and their needs as spiritual beings. Religion was one of the few arenas in which African-Americans could control the changes in their individual lives and their culture as a whole. Evolving religious traditions provided individuals over generations with a source of spiritual renewal and a supportive community and prepared an institution that could serve future generations. The long and turbulent transition from African forms of religiosity to African-influenced forms of Protestantism shows that black Americans created, out of all religious ideas and structures available to them, a faith that was their own. Question#3 The musical selections in this section come from Africa and the Americas. Some are examples of the preservation of traditional musical styles; others are examples of the adaptation of traditional modes of expression to modern styles. Prevalent in each performance is the use of either percussion instruments such as drums or singing in groups or by soloists. How do these musical selections exemplify a common African musical aesthetic, i. e. rhythmic syncopation, call-and-response, melodic constructions, vocal colors, in both traditional and contemporary expressions? African dance has contributed many characteristics to dance in America. We see evidence of this in many aspects of dance today. Being such a diverse nation, America has the blessing of combining original dances from different cultures to create an amazing dance repertoire. American dance as we know would be completely different, if it weren’t for the Africans. African dance began with the different rhythms of the tribes. Its roots in America began with the slave trade. The American slave trade began in 1619, (However, Africans were imported as slaves to the West Indies staring almost a century before that) with the arrival of Dutch trading ships carrying a cargo of Africans to Virginia. They were first brought over by boat to places such as Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti. Eventually different countries end up taking over those nations and slaves fall under their rule. In Brazil, the Portuguese take over, in Cuba the Spanish take over, and in Haiti, the French take over. The retaining of African culture by those in slavery was stronger in the other nations than in America, as the Spanish and French rulers adhered to the more lenient view of dancing taken by the Catholic Church. In America, the Protestant church strongly disapproved of dance. Therefore, dances that occurred in the West Indies, Brazil, Haiti and Cuba retained more of the African dance structure, than those in America did. Those dances can be classified as recreational or sacred. An example of a recreational dance is the Juba, which was a competitive dance where opponents would outdo each other in feats of skill, sometimes while balancing something on their head. Sacred dances were based on the worship of religious gods. The goal of the dance was for the dancer to become possessed by the god so that it would speak through the dancer. Two examples are voodoo and Shango dances. Traces of the African religious practice of possession, or disengaging from reality through the combined effects of music and dance, can be detected in the appeal of some forms of jazz dance. In America, the dance movement of Africa was restrained mainly by two factors: the attitude of the church towards dancing as being immoral and the restricted use of the primary African instrument (the drum). Drumming was banned in 1739 following a slave insurrection. White plantation owners responded by banning all drums and that forced slaves to search for other percussion options. They substituted with banjos, clapping hands, stomping feet, and the fiddle. Dances that occurred on the Plantations were for recreation and religious reasons also. Because of the European influence in America, the movement gave a distinct American appearance, rather than a strictly African one. Many dances imitated animals. There were also circle dances and dances for celebrations. Another category that emerged was competitive dances. The most well known one was the cakewalk. The slaves had witnessed their owners’ dancing festivities and imitated their stiff upper bodies while contrasting it with loose leg movements. The owners enjoyed watching this and gave a cake to the best dancer. The observation of African dancing by the whites led to them stereotyping the dancing slave. They began to blacken their faces and imitate them using such indigenous movements as the ‘shuffle’. The imitation dances by whites started an era of American entertainment based on the stereotype on the dancing ‘Negro’. Before the Civil War, professional dancers were mostly white, with the exception of William Henry Lane. He was also known as Master Juba and was a freeborn slave thought to be the best dancer in the World. He had lived in Manhattan where the Irish immigrants also lived. His dancing was a combination of Irish jig dancing and African rhythm, just like the slaves who were forced to compete with the Irish migrant workers aboard the ships. Both his movements and the Nigerian slaves are said to be the start of tap dance. Minstrelsy was also a popular form of entertainment in America from 1845 –1900. The Minstrel show was a group of male performers that portrayed the Negro as either slow and shuffling or sharply dressed and quick moving. The minstrel show proved prominent in spreading vernacular dances like the cakewalk and jig dancing on a wide scale. The next major change after minstrelsy came with the birth of ragtime music and ballroom dancing after 1910. A bunch of animal dances were seen in white ballrooms. Examples were the Turkey Trot, and Chicken Scratch. The invasion of ballrooms with native inspired dances set the stage for the same process to occur on Broadway. Zeigfield borrowed some of these dances for his Follies. Social dance became introduced on the theatrical stage. The big aspect being borrowed wasn’t the actual dances, but their swinging qualities. In 1921, Shuffle Along featured a jazz inspired dance called the Charleston. It left the audience with a lot of energy and a new respect towards black dancing. Tap was now also brought to white audiences and the musical comedies took on a new, more rhythmic life. In the late 1920s, jazz inspired songs replaced the popular white standards and America accepted Jazz music as its own. Louis Armstrong was a big part of the creation of swing music. It was a style of jazz music that emphasized African influenced rhythm and was played by big bands. Faster and sharper footwork came about and the Lindy was the new dance craze. It incorporated the shuffle and glide and buck and wing movements from early African dances. The Lindy was significant for starting jazz dance styles used in later musicals. It also gave the opportunity for white choreographers to experience African swing. Jazz music and dancing slowed down in popularity after WWII. Technology and music were evolving. The beat became more complex and musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizie Gillespie explored more with improve. The overall result was, jazz music became something more to listen to rather than to dance socially. The advent of Television in the 1950s also kept people at home instead of on the dance floors. African American dance became more of an artistic expression than a social means. Professional companies and dancers restored early African rhythms and the beauty and emotion of their traditional songs, including Catherine Dunham’s Shango, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations and Bill T. Jones’ Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In the past 50 years, African American dance has been rich in innovations as well as connections with the past. The definition of professional dance has broadened beyond ballet, modern, and jazz. Popular and social dances, including the urban black dance forms of break dancing and hip-hop have been recognized for their artistry and expressiveness. Dance created and performed by African Americans has become a permanent part of American dance. Every dancer and almost every person in America, in one way or another has danced steps that resemble early African polyrhythmic movements. Personally, I think the dance World in America could no have flourished as well as it did without it’s African influences. since the slave trade the drum has been used all over the world as a means of communication and self expression. Its broad variety of users includes the early African tribes, using them for ceremonial purposes. The Africans brought drums with them to the Americas and helped to develop their popularity among American musicians. In the mid 1900’s drum sets were brought about. These revolutionary collaborations of percussive pieces started off with a pair of hi-hats, a bass and snare drum, and a couple of tom toms. Later as the music progressed, so did the drum kits, completely eliminating the need for an entire drum section. With the coming of the rock and roll movement the drum kits were changing, they needed to accommodate the new music styles. They became sonically diverse and even electronic drums were brought about; making them infinitely adjustable both ergonomically and musically. With every major drum manufacturer competing to have the best product on the market drums will always be evolving. African American musicians and early slaves choose to use drums as a common form of expression because of the deep bass that was used to duplicate heart beat and thunder. The sound waves for open ended and string instruments is fairly straight forward. However, for a closed end instrument, such as a drum, the sound waves are different. A lot of the energy is dissipated through the shell of the drum, which is the reason for the variance in drum construction these days. Many different kinds of wood are used to generate different sounds, or a different amount of energy absorption. For a warmer, deeper sound maple construction is used while birch is used to get a high, resonant tone full of vibration. The heaviest wood that dissipates the most amount of energy is oak, creating a lower, flat sound. Question#1 I believe that Egypt’s economic progress over the last decade is a great example of showing how They have come a long way and are still vastly improving. Egypt is the third-largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region (after Saudi Arabia and Israel), as well as one of the strongest, with significant potential for future economic growth and diversification. With a real commitment to economic reform, which favors a large privatization program and the encouragement of private investment and growth. The improvement in Ghana is evident in how their country has such a diverse economy. The Gold Coast was renamed Ghana upon independence in 1957 because of indications that present-day inhabitants descended from migrants who moved south from the ancient kingdom of Ghana. By West African standards, Ghana has a relatively diverse and rich natural resource base Mineralsprincipally gold, diamonds, manganese ore, and bauxiteare produced and exported. Exploration for oil and gas resources is ongoing. Timber and marine resources are important but declining resources. Agriculture remains a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-third of GDP and about 55% of formal employment. Cash crops consist primarily of cocoa and cocoa products, which typically provide about one-third of export revenue, timber products, coconuts and other palm products, shear nuts , and coffee. Ghana also has established a successful program of nontraditional agricultural products for export including pineapples, cashews, and peppers. Cassava, yams, plantains, corn, rice, peanuts, millet, and sorghum are the basic foodstuffs. Fish, poultry, and meat also are important dietary staples. Ghanas industrial base is relatively advanced compared to many other African countries. Industries include textiles, apparel, steel (using scrap), tires, oil refining, flour milling, beverages, tobacco, simple consumer goods, and car, truck, and bus assembly. Industry, including mining, manufacturing, construction and electricity, accounts for about 25% of GDP. I strongly believe that since Ghana and Egypt have improved so vastly it is helping African Americans improve in general, the saying â€Å"We come from a long line of kings and queens is such a truthful statement if you look back on history. We have a lot of ancestry that lies within Ghana and Egypt. With the knowledge of the past it will help us to continue realize our past and bring us to terms with the future. We can reverse the process by not letting people hold us back and to not blame others. I also believe that strong knowledge of Ghana and Egypt and Mali, will also further our culture by being educated and not told how our past was. There are a lot of invention by many great African Americans that most people do not know that black inventors were behind the idea, not that is matters that a black or a white person constructed or came up with an idea for a patent, it is essential that we are have contributed just as many things if not more than any other culture. There have been so many contributions to society to western civilization and I feel it is so important that we surround our selves with knowledge of our ancestors because they worked hard to get us to the point today where we are able to vote and the possibility of a black president. The saying that we come from a long line kings and queens is so powerful because it shows you that black really is beautiful and if you retrace our ancestors you will find out that our people were just as important as kings and queens. Lewis Temple was the inventor of a whaling harpoon called the Temples Toggle and the Temples Iron. He was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1800 and arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1829. He worked as a blacksmith and had lots of friends that were whalers who bought harpoons and had lots of conversations with them. Granville T. Wood was known as the black Edison. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio on April 23,1856. He never finished elementary school and he worked in a machine shop at a very young age. He moved to Missouri in 1872 at the age of sixteen. By 1881 he opened a factory in Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactured telephone, telegraph and electrical equipment. He filed for his first application for a patent in 1884 for an improved steam-boiler furnace. Woods patented the telographony , a combination of the telegraph and the telephone. He produced one of his most important inventions in 1887, it was called the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph. It enabled messages to be sent from moving trains and railways stations. In 1890 he set out to improve the lighting system by creating an efficient safe economical dimmer. It was safer and and resulted in 40% energy savings. Woods also created an overhead conducting system for electrical railways and the electrified third rail. By the time of his death in 1910 he had 150 patents awarded to him all together. Lewis H. L was a pioneer in the development of the electric light bulb. He was also the only black member of the Edison Pioneers, a group of inventors and scientists who worked with Thomas Edison. He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848 and was raised in Boston. He enlisted in the Navy and served as a cabin boy on the U. S. S Massaoitta the age of sixteen. Latimer was given the assignment to draw plans for Alexander Graham Bells telephone patent . In 1879 Latimer went to work as a draftsman for Hiram Maxim, who invented the machine gun and headed the electric lighting company. Latimer worked on improving the quality of the carbon filament used in the light bulb. In 1882 he received a patent for an improved process for manufacturing carbon filaments. Gerrett is best remembered for his invention of the gas mask and the three way traffic signal. Mogan was born on March 4,1875 in Paris, Kentucky. He left school after fifth grade at the age of fourteen. He left Kentucky and headed for Cincinnati, Ohio and got a job as a handy man in a sewing shop. Morgan directed his attention to the frequent instances of firemen being overcome by fumes and thick smoke when they went into burning buildings. He perfected breathing device which he patented in 1914. In 1923morgan patented an automatic traffic signal which he sold to the General Electric Company for four thousand dollars. In 1963 Garrett A. Morgan died at ht age of 88 in Cleveland, Ohio after he was ill for two years. Just to name a few ,those were a couple of major contributors to the African American culture and western civilization.