Essay on Critical Analysis - Picassos Guernica - 1561 Words

Critical Analysis of Guernica - By Bryce Craig Spanish artist Pablo Picasso can often be collectively seen as the greatest and most influential artist of the twentieth century. In a historical sense he encompassed all that is to be a practicing modernist artist and prevailed as one of the most significant artists overall in human history. Picasso’s most well renowned painting presents to his audience a graphic reflection of the horrors and brutality of war; Guernica (1937) depicts the Spanish town of the same name being torn apart by the explosive fury that was the German air raid on the innocent and unaware village during the Spanish Civil War. The painting is currently housed in the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid yet also has a reputable†¦show more content†¦Through his training he became proficient in countless fields but was predominately a painter and famously explored the Cubist movement. Cubism was an art movement developed in the early 20th century that was concerned with the dissembling of images and their ana lytical or synthetic reconstruction, as well as the refinement of detail and emphasis on bold shape. Picasso found artists such as Delacroix, Cezanne and Manet extremely influential, as well as his artistic father, Jose Blasco. Through his challenging of convention to his persistent experimentation of concepts he created some of the greatest artworks of the 20th century, such as The Old Guitarist, 1903, Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, 1907 and his most well-known piece Guernica, 1937. The audiences of Guernica, 1937 are presented with a chilling message of the terrors of war and its traumatic impact on humanity; this is the understood function of Picasso’s iconic painting, to evoke emotional response and educate the public of the event. Picasso wished to express his anti-war message to the people, and what more of an opportunity would he have then being commissioned earlier that year to create an artwork for the 1937 World’s Fair, Paris. After the initial exhibition the work went on tour and has ending up in many differentShow MoreRelatedChapter 33 – Early 20th Century5648 Words   |  23 Pagesforth by Jung and Freud. | |d. |One of the leading proponents of Surrealism was Salvador Dalà ­. | ____ 40. The goal of Dalà ­s paranoiac-critical method was to __________. |a. |portray the art of madmen | |b. |illustrate the sado-masochistic theories of Krafft-Ebing Read MoreLes Demoiselles DAvignon5704 Words   |  23 Pagesconfrontational manner and none are conventionally  feminine. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. Two are shown with  African mask-like  faces and three more with faces in the  Iberian  style of Picassos native Spain, giving them a savage aura. In this adaptation of  Primitivism  and abandonment of  perspective  in favor of a flat, two-dimensional  picture plane, Picasso makes a radical departure from traditional European painting. The work is widelyRead MoreViolence on Television Does Not Impact Behavior Essay3474 Words   |  14 Pagesconsensus has been emerging that emphasizes media education, at home and in school, to promote critical thinking by youth in relation to all information and images they receive through the media. AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH: FOSTERING CRITICAL USE OF THE MEDIA Canadas Media Awareness Network provides resources to parents, teachers, community leaders, and students themselves to promote critical analysis of media content. Teachers can go to its Web site for curriculum materials and lesson plansRead MoreAge of Enlightenment and Century5169 Words   |  21 Pagestwo paintings reflect about the social life of peasants in the sixteenth century and of urban dwellers in the nineteenth century. 9. 91: Between 1815 and 1848 the condition of the laboring classes and the problem of political stability were critical issues in England. Describe and analyze the reforms that social critics and politicians of this period proposed to resolve these problems. 9. 92: Describe and analyze the issues and ideas in the debate in Europe between 1750 and

Theu.s. State Department Defines Terrorism - 1785 Words

The U.S. State Department defines terrorism, according to Piazza (2006), â€Å"premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience† (p. 165). Throughout history, labor disputes have often been accompanied by terror and resistance movements. Terrorism dates way back in history, but political terrorism only dates back to the last century and is regarded as a new phenomenon. For example, Afghanistan has seen conflict since it was created as a county. The most notable is the terror of the terrorist group the Taliban. The Taliban rose to power when commanders imposed heavy costs on trades between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many people had to adapt to the high risk environment created by the commanders and this spurred the acts of violence. Today conflict is evident throughout the country. What is the cause of modern political terrorism? There are many schools of thought on why a modern country will experience terrorism. In this paper I focus on the theory of a poor economy fueling acts of terror and the different schools of thoughts that focus on this subject. An economy is influenced by many categories. Many of these categories, such as the gap between wealthy and poor, economic and resource distribution, socioeconomic status, employment, and social welfare and policy all account for a country’s economy. When there is poor performance in these areas the country

New York now and then, and the future Free Essays

New York has the charm to draw the people’s interest from all over the world. New York has been the gateway of immigration in America for centuries has remained the city of dreams for the immigrants; it would not be wrong to call it the. City of American dream. We will write a custom essay sample on New York: now and then, and the future or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is the third most populated nation in the US with multicultural population of Italian, Irish, African American, Germany, Hispanic, Asian origin. Living in the city is captivating, because it offers variety of jobs in various areas with higher income and better living conditions. As the city’s population soared up in 20th century, the city witnessed the City subway opening in 1904 and arrival of the skyscrapers, such as Empire State Building, in 1920’s. During the Jazz age (between World War I and Great Depression) immigrant families moved outside Manhattan, raising the population of Brooklyn, which made Brooklyn more populous than Manhattan. During the WW1 and WWII the growths of women workers increased in garment factories triggering the foundation of International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. In 1927, Tin Pan Alley opened the first modern musical (Jerome Kern’s Show Boat) in Broadway. One of the most important events in New York history is the Stock Market Crash, that devastated stock market in America in 1929 leading to Great Depression in 1930’s. However, more the finance and business, New York is famous for it politics and politicians. For over eighty years, New York’s politic has been played by the democratic political machine, called Tammany Hal that collapsed after the Republican reformer Fiorello LaGuardia elected mayor in 1934. The city has great monuments and parks and the master builder has been Robert Moses, who constructed bridges, parks and parkways in the 20th century. Later in mid-20th century, New York became a hub for high-tech companies and becoming the headquarter GE, IBM, Eastman Kodak, and Xerox like companies. In     the last quarter of 20th century, the New York population growth has dropped to only 2% (1965 to 1997), from 32% in 1940 to 1965. This drop is caused by the dis-organized city development.   New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world. It has also been associated protectionism and corruption. Another issue is the failure of public welfare as few cheaper rentals are avalible along with affordable quality schools, colleges and public hospitals. Due to lack of the government efforts to cater to these problems, the crime rate is also growing which makes living some where unsafe. It was the tragedy of 9-11 that changed the city in many aspects. The terrorism act had cost not only thousands of lives, but also huge grief in the hearts of its citizens. After 9/11 the government has tightened up the immigration regulations, however the tragedy has brought suspicions in a multicultural city that always welcome outsiders. Even thought the city at present is working on massive developmental projects, there are poor areas in city which has to be revamped. In order to succeed the city government needs to maintain New York international image by working on more horizontal development rather than vertical development. Such plan will need to reconstruct the older city laying the advanced infrastructure for the poor segment at well. Even though there is no perfect city in the world; New York is still one of the best cities to live in. Reference: Lange, Alexandra , Building the (New) New York. Retrieved May 15, 2007, Web site: http://nymag.com/realestate/features/2016/17143/ Malve Von Hassell , (1996). Homesteading in New York City, 1978-1993. Bergin ; Garvey. Jameson W. Doig, (2000). Empire on the Hudson: Entrepreneurial Vision and Political Power at the Port of New York Authority . Columbia University Press. How to cite New York: now and then, and the future, Essay examples

Business Economics Termed as Demand and Supply

Question: Describe about the Business Economics for Termed as Demand and Supply. Answer: Part A Introduction: The most important concept of economics is termed as Demand and Supply. The quantity of a product or service that is desired by the purchasers is termed as demand. The quantity that is offered by the marketers is termed as supply. The relationship between demand and supply motivate the forces behind the distribution of resource. The factors that will influence the market demand of a farming company specializing in wheat and barley production are as follows: 1. Taste and preferences of the customers The most important factor that influences the demand of a farming company is the taste and preferences of the customers. If the customers have a great taste and preference for wheat and barley, in that case the demand for wheat and barley will increase. The increase in demand will lead to the increase in the price, as the customers will be ready to purchase the products at the available price. Figure: Taste and preferences of the customers (Source: Created by Author) Changes in the price of substitutes The change in the price of substitute goods will affect the demand of the products. Suppose, there is a shortage of wheat due to bad weather condition, in that case the demand for barley will increase. The price of wheat will be increased and as a result, the supply of wheat will decrease. This will also lead to decrease in the demand for wheat, as the customers will be able to consume barley at possibly cheaper prices. Income of the people Wheat is considered as a normal good as the customers find the product as necessity. As a result, the increase in income leads to the increase in demand of wheat. The number of customers in the market The demand for wheat and barley will depend on the number of customers in the market. The increase in the number of customers in the market will lead to the increase in the demand for wheat and barley. The factors that will influence the market supply of a farming company specializing in wheat and barley production are as follows: Price of the given commodity If the price of wheat increases, it leads to the increase in the supply of wheat. This is mainly because at a higher price there is a high chance of making profit. This induces the firm to sell more products in the market. Prices of other goods If the price of barley increases, then it will affect the supply of wheat. The increase in the price of barley will make it more profitable as compared to wheat. As a result, the supply of wheat will be less as compared to the supply of barley. Change in technology The supply in the agricultural product will be affected due to technological advances. Objectives of the firm With the objective of profit maximization, the firms will lead to increase in the supply of both wheat and barley. Price elasticity of demand is used as a measure that shows the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good or service due to a change in price. In this case, the price elasticity of demand is inelastic. In other words, a change in price of wheat will have a small impact on the change in quantity demanded. The customers will not reduce the purchases of wheat even if the price rises. The graph shows an increase in the price of the goods will not affect its demand (Thimmapuram and Kim 2013). Figure: Inelastic Demand (Source: Created By Author) Part B A bumper harvest will bring stability in agriculture in both the US and South America. The bumper harvest will take place due to a good monsoon season that will increase the global yield of wheat. This will lead to an increase in the supply of wheat in the market that will in turn shift the supply curve towards the right. This will also have an impact on both equilibrium price and quantity. Figure: The impact of bumper harvest (Source: Created By Author) The graph shows that the supply curve S1 and the demand curve DD intersects at the equilibrium point E1. At point E1, the equilibrium price is P1 and the equilibrium quantity is Q1. The equilibrium quantity Q1 is exchanged between the buyers and suppliers. The bumper harvest of wheat shifts the supply curve to the right that is the supply curve increases and shifts to S2 from S1. The new supply curve S2 intersects with the demand curve DD at the new equilibrium point E. The graph shows that the increase in supply leads to fall in price from P1 to P2. Thus, the increase in supply leads to the fall in price and increase in equilibrium quantity. Hence, a bumper harvest in the U.S. and South America increase the global wheat yield (Bowen and Sosa 2014). Part C Agriculture is known to contribute both positive and negative externality to the society. A particular feature of damage of the negative externality is the damage done by fertilizer used in agriculture to rivers and streams. The fertilizer used in agriculture consists of nitrates and phosphorus that is similar to the leaching process that occurs in pesticides. The introduction of taxes on fertilizer will help in reducing the use of fertilizer. This in turn will reduce the damages done to rivers and streams. However, the introduction of taxes will have a little effect in terms of reduction in quantity. This is mainly because, the price elasticity of fertilizer is low and as a result, the quantity reduction will take place if they are set at higher prices. The receiving environmental condition leads to the variation of damage done by fertilizer (David 2013). Due to risk-aversion, the farmers can exceed the use of fertilizers. The farmers will prefer to overuse fertilizer rather than underuse them. The tax on fertilizer will lead to the reduction of use of fertilizer but it will not reduce their profits. The profits will not be affected, as there are many technologies that will successfully replace the use of artificial fertilizer. Figure: The introduction of Tax by the government (Source: Created By Author) The graph shows that the introduction of tax reduces the efficiency in the economy by causing deadweight loss. On the other hand, when the farmer pays the tax while purchasing the fertilizer, the net benefit of the farmer is reduced. However, the national income is not reduced with the payment of tax. It transfers the income from the farmer to the government. The government to increase the welfare of the society uses the income. With the introduction of taxes, the cost of farmers is increased. Part C The farming company (Silo Pty Ltd), is a perfectly competitive market as it mostly produces homogeneous products for both sellers and buyers who are well informed about price. The competitive market is characterized by free entry and exit. The producers are mainly the price takers in this market. The farming company has a large number of sellers and as a result, the firm does not have the power to influence the overall supply in the market. The prices are determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curve (Mirman et al. 2015). Figure: Perfectly competitive market structure (Source: Created By Author) The graph shows P denotes the price and quantity is Q. Under the perfect competitive market structure, Marginal Cost exceeds Average Total Cost that is MC exceeds ATC. Under this market structure, the customers and the producers are well informed about the price. The product acts as a perfect substitute that is barley is a perfect substitute for wheat. In other words, the increase in the price of wheat will increase the demand for barley. Similarly, the fall in the price of wheat will lower the demand for barley. Under this market structure the firms sell their products where the most profit is generated. The third parties are not affected by cost or benefits of an activity under the perfect competitive market. References Bowen, W.G. and Sosa, J.A., 2014. Prospects for faculty in the arts and sciences: A study of factors affecting demand and supply, 1987 to 2012. Princeton University Press retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=enlr=id=DxIABAAAQBAJoi=fndpg=PP1dq=Bowen,+W.G.+and+Sosa,+J.A.,+2014.+Prospects+for+faculty+in+the+arts+and+sciences:+A+study+of+factors+affecting+demand+and+supply,+1987+to+2012.+Princeton+University+Press.ots=YTjE98pQTgsig=0Nsmf30zgA-bWD2P6mYCVwNNq2g#v=onepageqf=false. David, M.J., 2013. Tax. MIL, a Matlab toolbox for multiple instance learning retrieved from https://www.david-baias.ro/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Tax-and-Legal-Alert-no-38_DB_EN.pdf. Mirman, L.J., Salgueiro, E. and Santugini, M., 2015. Learning in a Perfectly Competitive Market retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2501419. Thimmapuram, P.R. and Kim, J., 2013. Consumers' price elasticity of demand modeling with economic effects on electricity markets using an agent-based model. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 4(1), pp.390-397 retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6461495/.

Mysticism Essays - Mental Processes, Spirituality, Cognition

Mysticism In this article I would like to bring the findings of my somewhat unusual but increasingly accepted field ? mysticism? to the discussion, for I think they may offer some helpful insights about consciousness. Why? When a biologist seeks to understand a complex phenomenon, one key strategy is to look to at it in its simplest form. Probably the most famous is the humble bacterium E. coli. Its simple gene structure has allowed us to understand much of the gene functioning of complex species. Similarly many biologists have turned to the ?memory' of the simple sea slug to understand our own more kaleidoscopic memory. Freud and Durkheim both used totemism, which they construed as thesimplest form of religion, to understand the complexities of religious life.1 The methodological principle is: to understand something complex turn to its simple forms. Mystical experiences may represent just such a simple form of human consciousness. Usually our minds are an enormously complex stew of thoughts, feelings, sensations, wants, snatches of song, pains, drives, daydreams and, of course, consciousness itself more or less aware of it all. To understand consciousness in itself, the obvious thing would be to clear away as much of this internal detritus and noise as possible. It turns out that mystics seem to be doing precisely that. The technique that most mystics use is some form of meditation or contemplation. These are procedures that, often by recycling a mental subroutine,2 systematically reduce mental activity. During meditation, one begins to slow down the thinking process, and have fewer or less intense thoughts. One's thoughts become as if more distant, vague, or less preoccupying; one stops paying as much attention to bodily sensations; one has fewer or less intense fantasies and daydreams. Thus by reducing the intensity or compelling quality of outward perception and inward thoughts, one may come to a time of greater stillness. Ultimately one may become utterly silent inside, as though in a gap between thoughts, where one becomes completely perception- and thought-free. One neither thinks nor perceives any mental or sensory content. Yet, despite this suspension of content, one emerges from such events confident that one had remained awake inside, fully conscious. This experience, which has been called the pure consciousness event, or PCE, has been identified in virtually every tradition. Though PCEs typically happen to any single individual only occasionally, they are quite regular for some practitioners.3 The pure consciousness event may be defined as a wakeful but contentless (non-intentional) consciousness. These PCEs, encounters with consciousness devoid of intentional content, may be just the least complex encounter with awareness per se that we students of consciousness seek. The PCE may serve, in short, as the E coli of consciousness studies.4 But the story does not stop here. Regular and long-term meditation, according to many traditions, leads to advanced experiences, known in general as ?enlightenment'. Their discriminating feature is a deep shift in epistemological structure: the experienced relationship between the self and one's perceptual objects changes profoundly. In many people this new structure becomes permanent.5 These long-term shifts in epistemological structure often take the form of two quantum leaps in experience; typically they develop sequentially.6 The first is an experience of a permanent interior stillness, even while engaged in thought and activity ? one remains aware of one's own awareness while simultaneously remaining conscious of thoughts, sensations and actions. Because of its phenomenological dualism ? a heightened cognizance of awareness itself plus a consciousness of thoughts and objects ? I call it the dualistic mystical state (DMS). The second shift is described as a perceived unity of one's own awareness per se with the objects around one, an immediate sense of a quasi-physical unity between self, objects and other people. States akin to this have been called ?extrovertive-' or sometimes ?nature-' mysticism; but I prefer to call it the unitive mystical state, UMS.7 Like the PCE, these latter two may serve as fertile fields for students of consciousness to plough. To understand them, I want to introduce the idea of the relative intensity of a thought or desire. Some desires have a high relative intensity. Let's say I am walking across the street when I see a huge truck hurtling at me. Virtually 100% of my attention is taken up with the truck, the fear, and getting out of the way. It is virtually impossible for me to think about anything else at that time. I don't even consider keeping my suit clean, how my hair might look, the discomfort in my tummy, or the classes I will teach tomorrow. The fear and running Mysticism Essays - Mental Processes, Spirituality, Cognition Mysticism In this article I would like to bring the findings of my somewhat unusual but increasingly accepted field ? mysticism? to the discussion, for I think they may offer some helpful insights about consciousness. Why? When a biologist seeks to understand a complex phenomenon, one key strategy is to look to at it in its simplest form. Probably the most famous is the humble bacterium E. coli. Its simple gene structure has allowed us to understand much of the gene functioning of complex species. Similarly many biologists have turned to the ?memory' of the simple sea slug to understand our own more kaleidoscopic memory. Freud and Durkheim both used totemism, which they construed as thesimplest form of religion, to understand the complexities of religious life.1 The methodological principle is: to understand something complex turn to its simple forms. Mystical experiences may represent just such a simple form of human consciousness. Usually our minds are an enormously complex stew of thoughts, feelings, sensations, wants, snatches of song, pains, drives, daydreams and, of course, consciousness itself more or less aware of it all. To understand consciousness in itself, the obvious thing would be to clear away as much of this internal detritus and noise as possible. It turns out that mystics seem to be doing precisely that. The technique that most mystics use is some form of meditation or contemplation. These are procedures that, often by recycling a mental subroutine,2 systematically reduce mental activity. During meditation, one begins to slow down the thinking process, and have fewer or less intense thoughts. One's thoughts become as if more distant, vague, or less preoccupying; one stops paying as much attention to bodily sensations; one has fewer or less intense fantasies and daydreams. Thus by reducing the intensity or compelling quality of outward perception and inward thoughts, one may come to a time of greater stillness. Ultimately one may become utterly silent inside, as though in a gap between thoughts, where one becomes completely perception- and thought-free. One neither thinks nor perceives any mental or sensory content. Yet, despite this suspension of content, one emerges from such events confident that one had remained awake inside, fully conscious. This experience, which has been called the pure consciousness event, or PCE, has been identified in virtually every tradition. Though PCEs typically happen to any single individual only occasionally, they are quite regular for some practitioners.3 The pure consciousness event may be defined as a wakeful but contentless (non-intentional) consciousness. These PCEs, encounters with consciousness devoid of intentional content, may be just the least complex encounter with awareness per se that we students of consciousness seek. The PCE may serve, in short, as the E coli of consciousness studies.4 But the story does not stop here. Regular and long-term meditation, according to many traditions, leads to advanced experiences, known in general as ?enlightenment'. Their discriminating feature is a deep shift in epistemological structure: the experienced relationship between the self and one's perceptual objects changes profoundly. In many people this new structure becomes permanent.5 These long-term shifts in epistemological structure often take the form of two quantum leaps in experience; typically they develop sequentially.6 The first is an experience of a permanent interior stillness, even while engaged in thought and activity ? one remains aware of one's own awareness while simultaneously remaining conscious of thoughts, sensations and actions. Because of its phenomenological dualism ? a heightened cognizance of awareness itself plus a consciousness of thoughts and objects ? I call it the dualistic mystical state (DMS). The second shift is described as a perceived unity of one's own awareness per se with the objects around one, an immediate sense of a quasi-physical unity between self, objects and other people. States akin to this have been called ?extrovertive-' or sometimes ?nature-' mysticism; but I prefer to call it the unitive mystical state, UMS.7 Like the PCE, these latter two may serve as fertile fields for students of consciousness to plough. To understand them, I want to introduce the idea of the relative intensity of a thought or desire. Some desires have a high relative intensity. Let's say I am walking across the street when I see a huge truck hurtling at me. Virtually 100% of my attention is taken up with the truck, the fear, and getting out of the way. It is virtually impossible for me to think about anything else at that time. I don't even consider keeping my suit clean, how my hair might look, the discomfort in my tummy, or the classes I will teach tomorrow. The fear and running

The Lovely Bones (Book Report) essays

The Lovely Bones (Book Report) essays There always seems to be something extremely upsetting when we hear about the murder of a child. When we hear about tragedies of this nature through news or television shows, one can only imagine the pain and grief the family is going through. No matter how heartbreaking we find the situation we hear about to be, we know that our grief is just a small fraction compared to the grief the entire family and those closet to the deceased child are feeling. In the novel, The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold takes us into the lives of the Salmon family, who have just experienced the loss of their fourteen-year-old relative Susie. She not only illustrates for us how the family grieves in their own separate ways, but how Susie struggles in heaven to come to grips with her death and the pain she feels watching her family deal with this hardship without her help. The Salmons were a typical American family that consisted of both parents and three children, fourteen-year-old Susie, thirteen-year-old Lind sey and three-year-old Buckley. On December 6, 1973, their lives unexpectedly change forever. While walking home from school, Susie happens upon a man from her neighborhood named Mr. Harvey. He lures Susie to his home where he eventually rapes and murders her. In great detail, Susie describes her horrible ordeal, I fought hard. I fought as hard as I could not to let Mr. Harvey hurt me, but my hard-as-I-could was not hard enough, not even close (12). After the brutal rape, with Mr. Harvey still lying on top of her, Susie realizes what will soon happen, I knew he was going to kill me. I did not realize then that I was an animal already dying (14). As time passes and Susie does not return home from school, her parents begin to worry. It is when Detective Len Fenerman explains to Mr. Salmon that they have found a body part, an elbow bone, that reality sets in and the possibility that Susie has been murdered arises. Th...

Glasgow City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Glasgow City - Essay Example Glasgow in itself is an old city and we trace its origin back in the 12th century  (Slack, 2004). The city has transformed itself from a poor city to a more beautiful city and as a tourist destination. Glasgow tourism strategy 2016 provides the city’s outline and ambitious plan for the decade long development of Scotland’s tourist industry. According to this strategy, the city expects 4 million visitors every year before 2016. This is in accordance with global projections which estimate a growth by 4% every year in the tourism sector. Economically, this would prove advantageous as the city will earn averagely  £ 1 billion every year. With all this projections it is now evident that the win for the bid is in line with its tourism strategy. This is because the event is likely to bring millions of people from all over the world to participate in the event in one way or the other. It is important to understand that a country with good tourist destination has high chance s of hosting some of the world’s major sporting events. It is argued that besides sporting, there is need to promote cultural interaction and economic development  (Tomlinson, 2005). Apart from gaining economically in sports, the host nation is also supposed to earn from tourism. This was one factor that ensured Glasgow city won the bid. The city hosted the 1988 Garden Festival and won the European City of Culture (ECoC) title in 1990  (Weiler, 2004). In addition to this the City also boasts of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and a Gallery of modern art which was opened in 1996. The gallery of modern art now holds the title of UK City of Architecture and Design. All this fit in the city’s strategy and the games will only help in emphasizing more on cultural value and promote tourism. Glasgow city also boasts of hosting the UEFA Champions League Final in 2002 one of the most prestigious soccer event in the world   (Glanville, 2012). Moreover, the city collected their E uropean Capital of Sport title in 2003 something that made them host the UEFA Cup Final in 2007  (Woods, 2007).. Besides the good sporting reputation the tourism industry in the city has been rebranding itself. Major brands like ‘Glasgow Scotland with Style’ and ‘safe pair of hand’ have been key in ensuring that the country host major sporting and cultural events. Besides this, the long term strategies such as infrastructure investment, civic engagement and unwavering belief has helped the country to attract many tourists in the city. All these are important in ensuring that the country promotes its tourism industry and this fits with the strategy of Glasgow city.  

Effective Privatization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Effective Privatization - Essay Example (Yarrow 1999, 157-168) Transfer f ownership makes credible the fact that the firm does not have limitless government backing (although governments do bail out even private companies from time to time) for example it bailed out the rail companies and rail track because transport is vital to the economy. (Vickers 1991) Selling assets at a fair price leaves government wealth unaltered. If prospects f tougher treatment in the future lead to productivity improvements in state firms the government becomes better off when the productivity improves not when (or if) the firm is sold. (Chang 1992, 31-32) Many privatised firms now face intense competition often from abroad. However, natural monopolies have aquired a new framework f regulation. This has favoured price capping, administered by independent regularity agencies (quangoes) and subject to periodic review. (Shirley 1999, 115-136) Increasingly, the UK has been driven to regulate not merely conduct but structure. This presupposes that some parts f a natural monopoly can be hived off and become suitable for competition. In practice, this has usually been down stream activities in a vertically related industry i.e. union f firms at different production stages in the same industry. (Vickers 1991) To as Recent privatisations include 1British Rail (now taken back into public ownership as a not for profit organisation) 2 British Air Ways 3 Air Traffic Control 4 British Steel 5 British Gas 6 British Telecom 7 The Water Companies 8 And most Power Companies To assess the effects f the present governments nationalisation policy we would have to take in to consideration the fact that we have a socialist government, one f whose key beliefs is that public ownership is the better way to run the country, although this government does not appear to be as hard line in that respect as previous Labour Governments. (Stiglitz 1994, 307-323) Arguments for Privatisation 1 Opening up production and consumption to market forces, increase competition, economic efficiency and consumer choice 2 Breaking down monopolies into more competitive industries and introduces competition into the goods market 3 Enables the privatised firms to compete for finance on the private capital markets both home and abroad 4 Ensures that firms become accountable to their shareholders and their desire for profit 5 Ensures that businesses are run on commercial rather than political grounds 6 Reduces the burden on the governments finances to support nationalised industries Arguments against Privatisation 1 Privatisation may simply create private sector monopolies with high barriers to new firms entering the industry. There are a number f reasons why these might exist; (a)The existing firm has significant economies f scale that new firms cannot compete as in the case f natural monopolies (b) The start up costs for new firms are prohibitive 2 Privatised firms make decisions based on commercial profit maximising grounds. Nationalised firms make decisions in the public interest. If the government want to focus on poverty reduction and development then

Financial Performance Interpretation (Strategic management Class) Essay

Financial Performance Interpretation (Strategic management Class) - Essay Example the ratio between the current assets and liabilities. These ratios can be compared for all three offices of the company to other companies to give us an idea of how well Stilsim Company is performing. Despite the fact that Stilsim has been performing profitably for the past two and a half decades, a SWOT analysis shows that the reason why they have been suffering financially lately is due to them not implementing upgrades to keep up with the fast growth of the business. If we compare Stilsim to a competitor such as Cross Country Healthcare we can see that it is performing satisfactorily as shown in Table 1 below. In order to fix the problem we first need to identify it, and in order to do so a good approach is to compare the three offices. A comparison of the profit margins for the three offices is given in Table 2 below. We can clearly see that it is the Capital City office that is struggling, despite the fact that it is the main office and therefore is expected to perform better than the others. A alarming observation is that Stilsim is spending more money and earning roughly the same profit each year, and in the long run this could become a serious bottleneck for the company’s growth and survival. After a comparison to one of their competitors we can see that currently Stilsim company is performing satisfactorily. However, by analyzing the performance of their three offices we have been able to identify the issue and the company should attempt to rectify the problem. Being in the business for 25 years, the company should be aiming higher and increasing their profits, rather than ending up increasing their expenses each subsequent year with the same profits. By analyzing Stilsim company’s finances using internal analysis, external analysis and ratio analysis several issues have been identified, the most significant being the performance of the Capital City Office which is running in to a loss and is a financial

Partitioning Methods to Improve Obsolescence Forecasting

Partitioning Methods to Improve Obsolescence Forecasting Amol Kulkarni Abstract Clustering is an unsupervised classification of observations or data items into groups or clusters. The problem of clustering has been addressed by many researchers in various disciplines, which serves to reflect its usefulness as one of the steps in exploratory data analysis. This paper presents an overview of partitioning methods, with a goal of providing useful advice and references to identifying the optimal number of cluster and provide a basic introduction to cluster validation techniques. The aim of clustering methods carried out in this paper is to present useful information which would aid in forecasting obsolescence. INRODUCTION There have been more inventions recorded in the past thirty years than all the rest of recorded humanity, and this pace hastens every month. As a result, the product life cycle has been decreasing rapidly, and the life cycle of products no longer fit together with the life cycle of their components. This issue is termed as obsolescence, wherein a component can no longer be obtained from its original manufacturer. Obsolescence can be broadly categorized into Planned and Unplanned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence can be considered as a business strategy, in which the obsolescence of a product is built into it from its conception. As Philip Kotler termed it Much so-called planned obsolescence is the working of the competitive and technological forces in a free society-forces that lead to ever-improving goods and services. On the other hand, unplanned obsolescence causes more harm to a burgeoning industry than good. This issue is more prevalent in the electronics industry; the procurem ent life-cycles for electronic components are significantly shorter than the manufacturing and support life-cycle. Therefore, it is highly important to implement and operate an active management of obsolescence to mitigate and avoid extreme costs [1]. One such product that has been plagued by threat of obsolescence is the digital camera. Ever-since the invention of smartphones there has been a huge dip in the digital camera sales, as can be seen from Figure 1. The decreasing price, the exponential rate at which the pixels and the resolution of the smart-phones improved can be termed as few of the factors that cannibalized the digital camera market. Figure 1 Worldwide Sales of Digital Cameras (2011-2016) [2] and Worldwide sale of cellphones on the right (2007-2016) [3] CLUSTERING Humans naturally use clustering to understand the world around them. The ability to group sets of objects based on similarities are fundamental to learning. Researchers have sought to capture these natural learning methods mathematically and this has birthed the clustering research. To help us solve problems at-least approximately as our brain, mathematically precise notation of clustering is important [4]. Clustering is a useful technique to explore natural groupings within multivariate data for a structure of natural groupings, also for feature extraction and summarizing. Clustering is also useful in identifying outliers, forming hypotheses concerning relationships. Clustering can be thought of as partitioning a given space into K groups i.e., à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Å": à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¹ à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ {1, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, K}. One method of carrying out this partitioning is to optimize some internal clustering criteria such as the distance between each observation within a c luster etc. While clustering plays an important role in data analysis and serves as a preprocessing step for a multitude of learning task, our primary interest lies in the ability of clusters to gain more information from the data to improve prediction accuracy. As clustering, can be thought of separating classes, it should help in classification task. The aim of clustering is to find useful groups of objects, usefulness being defined by the goals of the data analysis. Most clustering algorithms require us to know the number of clusters beforehand. However, there is no intuitive way of identifying the optimal number of clusters. Identifying optimal clustering is dependent on the methods used for measuring similarities, and the parameters used for partitioning, in general identifying the optimal number of clusters. Determining number of clusters is often an ad hoc decision based on prior knowledge, assumptions, and practical experience is very subjective. This paper performs k-means and k-medoids clustering to gain information from the data structure that could play an important role in predicting obsolescence. It also tries to address the issue of assessing cluster tendency, which is a first and foremost step while carrying out unsupervised machine learning process. Optimization of internal and external clustering criteria will be carried out to identify the optimal number of cluster. Cluster Validation will be carried out to identify the most suitable clustering algorithm. DATA CLEANING Missing value in a dataset is a common occurrence in real world problems. It is important to know how to handle missing data to reduce bias and to produce powerful models. Sometimes ignoring the missing data, biases the answers and potentially leads to incorrect conclusion. Rubin in [7] differentiated between three types of missing values in the dataset: Missing completely at random (MCAR): when cases with missing values can be thought of as a random sample of all the cases; MCAR occurs rarely in practice. Missing at random (MAR): when conditioned on all the data we have, any remaining missing value is completely random; that is, it does not depend on some missing variables. So, missing values can be modelled using the observed data. Then, we can use specialized missing data analysis methods on the available data to correct for the effects of missing values. Missing not at random (MNAR): when data is neither MCAR nor MAR. This is difficult to handle because it will require strong assumptions about the patterns of missing data. While in practice the use of complete case methods which drops the observations containing missing values is quite common, this method has the disadvantage that it is inefficient and potentially leads to bias. Initial approach was to visually explore each individual variable with the help of VIM. However, upon learning the limitations of filling in missing values through exploratory data analysis, this approach was abandoned in favor of multiple imputations. Joint Modelling (JM) and Fully Conditional Specification (FCS) are the two emerging general methods in imputing multivariate data. If multivariate distribution of the missing data is a reasonable assumption, then Joint Modelling which imputes data based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques would be the best method. FCS specifies the multivariate imputation model on a variable-by-variable basis by a set of conditional densities, one for each incomplete variable. Starting from an initial imputation, FCS draws imputations by iterating over the conditional densities. A low number of iterations is often sufficient. FCS is attractive as an alternative to JM in cases where no suitable multivariate distribution can be found [8]. The Multiple imputations approach involves filling in missing values multiple times, creating multiple complete datasets. Because multiple imputations involve creating multiple predictions for each missing value, the analysis of data imputed multiple times take into account the uncertainty in the imputations and yield accurate standard errors. Multiple imputation techniques have been utilized to impute missing values in the dataset, primarily because it preserves the relation in the data and it also preserves uncertainty about these relations. This method is by no means perfect, it has its own complexities. The only complexity was having variables of different types (binary, unordered and continuous), thereby making the application of models, which assumed multivariate normal distribution- theoretically inappropriate. There are several complexities that surface listed in [8]. In order to address this issue It is convenient to specify imputation model separately for each column in th e data. This is called as chained equations wherein the specification occurs at a variable level, which is well understood by the user. The first task is to identify the variables to be included in the imputation process. This generally includes all the variables that will be used in the subsequent analysis irrespective of the presence of missing data, as well as variables that may be predictive of the missing data. There are three specific issues that often come up when selecting variables: (1) creating an imputation model that is more general than the analysis model, (2) imputing variables at the item level vs. the summary level, and (3) imputing variables that reflect raw scores vs. standardized scores. To help make a decision on these aspects, the distribution of the variables may help guide the decision. For example, if the raw scores of a continuous measure are more normally distributed than the corresponding standardized scores then using the raw scores in the imputation model, will likely better meet the assumptions of the linear regressions being used in the imputation process. The following image shows the missing values in the data-frame containing the information regarding digital camera. Figure 2 Missing Variables We can see that Effective Pixels has missing values for all its observations. After cross verifying it with the source website, the web scrapper was rewriting to correctly capture this variable from the website. The date variable was converted from a numeric to a date and this enabled the identification of errors in the observation for USB in the dataset. Two cameras that were released in 1994 1995 were shown to have USB 2.0, after searching online, it was found out that USB 2.0 was released in the year 2005 and USB 1.0 was released in the year 1996. As, most of the cameras before 1997 used PC-serial port a new level was introduced to the USB variable to indicate this. DATA DESCRIPTION The dataset containing the specification of the digital cameras was acquired using rvest -package [5] in R from the url provided in [6]. The structure of the data set is as shown in Appendix A. The data-frame contains 2199 observation and 55 variables. Appendix B contains the descriptive statistics of the quantitative variables in the data-frame. Figure 4 The Distribution of Body-Type in the dataset Observation: Most of the compact, Large SLR and ultracompact cameras are discontinued. Figure 5 Plot showing the status of Digital Cameras from 1994-2017 Observation: Most of the cameras released before 2007 have been discontinued however, we can see that few cameras announced between the period of 1996-2006 are still in production. Fewer new cameras have been announced after the year 2012, this can be evidenced due to the decreasing number of camera sales presented in Figure 5. Figure 6 Distribution of different Cameras (1994-2017) Observation: Between the period of 1996 2012 the digital camera market was dominated by the compact cameras. After 2012, fewer new compact cameras have been announced or are still in production. Same can be said about the fate of ultracompact cameras. In the year 2017, only SLR style mirrorless cameras have been announced, signaling the death of point and shoot cameras. Figure 7 Plot showing the Change in the Total Resolution and Effective Pixels of Digital Camera over the Years Observation: Total resolution has seen an improvement over the years. The presence of outliers can be seen in the top-left corner of the plot. Although the effective pixel is around 10, the total resolution is far higher than any of the cameras announced between the period 1996-2001. These could be the cameras that are still in production as evidenced from Figure 7. ASSESSING CLUSTER TENDENCY A primary issue with unsupervised machine learning is the fact if carried out blindly, clustering methods will divide the data into clusters, because that is what they are supposed to do. Therefore, before choosing a clustering approach, it is important to decide whether the dataset contains meaningful clusters. If the data does contain meaningful clusters, then the number of clusters is also an issue that needs to be looked at. This process is called assessing clustering tendency (feasibility of cluster analysis). To carry out a feasibility study of cluster analysis Hopkins statistic will be used to assess the clustering tendency of the dataset. Hopkins statistic assess the clustering tendency based on the probability that a given data follows a uniform distribution (tests for spatial randomness). If the value of the statistic is close to zero this implies that the data does not follow uniform distribution and thus we can reject the null hypothesis. Hopkins statistic is calculated using the following formula: Where xi is the distance between two neighboring points in a given, dataset and yi represents the distance between two neighboring points of a simulated dataset following uniform distribution. If the value of H is 0.5, this implies that and are close to one another and thus the given data follows a uniform distribution. The next step in the unsupervised learning method is to identify the optimal number of clusters. The Hopkins statistic for the digital camera dataset was found to be 0.00715041. Since Hopkins statistic was quite low, we can conclude that the dataset is highly clusterable. A visual assessment of the clustering tendency was also carried out and the result can be seen in Figure 8. Figure 8 Dissimilarity Matrix of the dataset DETERMINING OPTIMAL NUMBER OF CLUSTERS One simple solution to identify the optimal number of cluster is to perform hierarchical clustering and determine the number of clusters based on the dendogram generated. However, we will utilize the following methods to identify the optimal number of clusters: An optimization criterion such as within sum of squares or Average Silhouette width Comparing evidence against null hypothesis. (Gap Statistic) SUM OF SQUARES The basic idea behind partitioning methods like k-means clustering algorithms, is to define clusters such that the total within cluster sum of squares is minimized. Where Ck is the kth cluster and W(Ck) is the variation within the cluster. Our aim is to minimize the total within cluster sum of squares as it measures the compactness of the clusters. In this approach, we generally perform clustering method, by varying the number of clusters (k). For each k we compute the total within sum of squares. We then plot the total within sum of squares against the k-value, the location of bend or knee in the plot is considered as an appropriate value of the cluster. AVERAGE SILHOUETTE WIDTH Average silhouette is a measure of the quality of clustering, in that it determines the how well an object lies within its cluster. The metric can range from -1 to 1, where higher values are better. Average silhouette method computes the average silhouette of observations for different number of clusters. The optimal number of clusters is the one that maximizes the average silhouette over a range of possible values for different number of clusters [9]. Average silhouette functions similar to within sum of squares method. We carry out the clustering algorithm by varying the number of clusters, then we calculate average silhouette of observation for each cluster. We then plot the average silhouette against different number of clusters. The location with the highest value of average silhouette width is considered as the optimum number of cluster. GAP STATISTIC This method compares the total within sum of squares for different number of cluster with their expected values while assuming that the data follows a distribution with no obvious clustering. The reference dataset is generated using Monte Carlo simulations of the sampling process. For each variable (xi) in the dataset we compute its range [min(xi), max(xj)] and generate n values uniformly from the range min to max. The total within cluster variation for both the observed data and the reference data is computed for different number of clusters. The gap statistic for a given number of cluster is defined as follows: denotes the expectation under a sample of size n from the reference distribution. is defined via bootstrapping and computing the average . The gap statistic measures the deviation of the observed Wk value from its expected value under the null hypothesis. The estimate of the optimal number of clusters will be a value that maximizes Gapn(k). This implies that the clustering structure is far away from the uniform distribution of points. The standard deviation (sdk) of is also computed in order to define the standard error sk as follows: Finally, we choose the smallest value of the number of cluster such that the gap statistic is within one standard deviation of the gap at k+1 Gap(k)à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥Gap(k+1) sk+1 The above method and its explanation are borrowed from [10]. DATA PRE-PROCESSING The issue with K-means clustering is that it cannot handle categorical variables. As the K-means algorithm defines a cost function that computes Euclidean distance between two numeric values. However, it is not possible to define such distance between categorical values. Hence, the need to treat categorical data as numeric. While it is not improper to deal with variables in this manner, however categorical variables lose their meaning once they are treated as numeric. To be able to perform clustering efficiently, Gower distance will be used for clustering. The concept of Gower distance is that for each variable a distance metric that works well for that particular type of variable is used. It is scaled between 0 and 1 and then a linear combination of weights is calculated to create the final distance matrix. PARTITIONING METHODS K-MEANS K-means clustering is the simplest and the most commonly used partitioning method for splitting a dataset into a set of k clusters. In this method, we first choose K initial centroids. Each point is then assigned to the closest centroid, and each collection of points is assigned to a centroid in the cluster. The centroid of each cluster is updated based on the additional points assigned to the cluster. We repeat his until the centroids find a steady state. Figure 9 Plot Showing total sum of square and Average Silhouette width for different number of clusters We can see from Figure 9, that the optimal number of clusters suggested by the optimization criteria is 3 clusters using WSS method and 2 clusters using Average Silhouette width method. Considering the dependent variable is factor with two levels, having two clusters does make sense. The disadvantage of optimization criterion to identify the optimal clusters is that, it is sometimes ambiguous. A more sophisticated method is the gap statistic method. Figure 10 Gap Statistic for different number of clusters From Figure 10, we can see that the Gap statistic is high for 2 clusters. Hence, we carry out k-means clustering with 2 clusters on a majority basis. Figure 11 Visualizing K-means Clustering Method The data separates into two relatively distinct clusters, with the red category in the left region, while the region on the right contains the blue category. There is a limited overlap at the interface between the classes. To visualize K-means it is necessary to bring the number of dimensions down to two. The graph produced by fviz_cluster: Factoextra Ver: 1.0 [11] is not a selection of any two dimensions. The plot shows the projection of the entire data onto the first two principle components. These are the dimensions which show the most variation in the data. The 52.8% indicates that the first principle component accounts for 52.8% variation in the data, whereas the second principle component accounts for 23.9% variation in the data. Together both the dimensions account for 76.7% of the variation. The polygon in red and blue represent the cluster means. PARTITIONING AROUND MEDOIDS K means clustering is highly sensitive to outliers, this would affect the assignment of observations to their respective clusters. Partitioning around medoids also known as K-medoids clustering are much more robust compared to k-means. K-medoids is based on the search of medoids among the observation of the dataset. These medoids represent the structure of the data. Much like K-means, after finding the medoids for each of the K- clusters, each observation is assigned to the nearest medoid. The aim is to find K-medoids such that it minimizes the sum of dissimilarities of the observations within the cluster. Figure 12 Plot Showing total sum of square and Average Silhouette width for different number of clusters We can see from Figure 12, that the optimal number of clusters suggested by the optimization criteria is 3 clusters using WSS method and 2 clusters using Average Silhouette width method. Considering the dependent variable is factor with two levels, having two clusters does make sense. The disadvantage of optimization criterion to identify the optimal clusters is that, it is sometimes ambiguous. A more sophisticated method is the gap statistic method. Figure 13 Gap Statistic for different number of clusters From Figure 13, we can see that the Gap statistic is high for 2 clusters. Hence, we carry out partitioning around medoids clustering with 2 clusters on a majority basis. Figure 14 Plot visualizing PAM clustering method The data separates into two relatively distinct clusters, with the red category in the lower region, while the upper region contains the blue category. There is a limited overlap at the interface between the classes. fviz_cluster: Factoextra Ver: 1.0 [11] transforms the initial set of variables into a new set of variables through principal component analysis. This dimensionality reduction algorithm operates on the 72 variables and outputs the two new variables that represent the projection of the original dataset. CLUSTER VALIDATION The next step in cluster analysis is to find the goodness of fit and to avoid finding patterns in noise and to compare clustering algorithms, cluster validation is carried out. The following cluster validation measures to compare K-means and PAM clustering will be used: Connectivity: Indicates the extent to which the observations are placed in the same cluster as their nearest neighbors in the data space. It has a value ranging from 0 to à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ and should be minimized Dunn: It is the ratio of shortest distance between two clusters to the largest intra-cluster distance. It has a value ranging from 0 to à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¾ and should be maximized. Average Silhouette width The results of internal validation measures are presented in the table below. K-means for two cluster has performed better for each statistic. Figure 15 Plot Comparing Connectivity and Dunn Index for K-means and PAM for different number of clusters      Ã‚   Figure 16 Plot Comparing Average Silhouette width of K-means and PAM Clustering Algorithm Validation Measures Number of Clusters 2 3 4 5 6 kmeans Connectivity 139.9575 292.5563 406.5429 514.3913 605.5373 Dunn 0.0661 0.0246 0.0223 0.0244 0.0291 Silhouette 0.4369 0.3174 0.2814 0.2679 0.2447 pam Connectivity 156.1004 333.754 474.4298 520.3913 635.3687 Dunn 0.0275 0.0397 0.022 0.028 0.0246 Silhouette 0.4271 0.3035 0.2757 0.2661 0.2325 Table 1 Presenting the values of different validation measures for K-means and PAM Validation Measures Score Method Clusters Connectivity 139.9575 kmeans 2 Dunn 0.0661 kmeans 2 Silhouette 0.4369 kmeans 2 Table 2 Optimal Scores for the Validation Measures CONCLUSION In this research work, partitioning methods like K-means and Partitioning around medoids were developed. The performances of these two approaches have been observed on the basis of their Connectivity, Dunn index and Average Silhouette width. The results indicate that K-means clustering algorithm with K = 2 performs better than partitioning around medoids with two clusters. The findings of this paper will be very useful to predict obsolescence with higher accuracy. FUTURE WORK Advanced clustering algorithms such as Model based clustering and Density based clustering can be carried out to find the multivariate data structure as most of the variables are categorical. [1] Bjoern Bartels, Ulrich Ermel, Peter Sandborn and Michael G. Pecht (2012). Strategies to the Prediction, Mitigation and Management of Product Obsolescence. [2] Source Figure 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/269927/sales-of-analog-and-digital-cameras-worldwide-since-2002/ [3] Source, Figure 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263437/global-smartphone-sales-to-end-users-since-2007/ [4] S. Still, and W. Bialek, How many Clusters? An Information Theoretic Perspective, Neural Computation, 2004. [5] Wickham, Hadley, rvest: Easily Harvest (Scrape) Web Pages. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rvest/rvest.pdf, Ver. 0.3.2 [6] https://www.dpreview.com [7] Rubin, D.B., Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 1976. [8] Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations Stef van Buuren, Karin Groothuis . [9] Learning the k in k-means Greg Hamerly, Charles Elkan [10] Robert Tibshirani, Guenther Walther and Trevor Hast

Preventing the export of conflict diamonds in the Democratic Republic o

Preventing the export of conflict diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has large reserves of cobalt, gold, gems, copper, timber, and uranium. However, the most valuable resource that the DRC possess is its large reserve of diamonds. Diamonds essentially serve as a pillar to the DRC’s struggling economy. Plagued by civil unrest, the DRC is desperately trying to stabilize its economy. Their efforts have been met with stiff resistance due to the ongoing civil war and illegal diamond trade. Not only is the DRC losing potential revenue from the illegal mining of diamonds, but also these diamonds are being used to finance the rebel armies. In response, the U.N. has drafted several resolutions and imposed sanctions in order to try and curtail the illegal trade. The DRC has also agreed to follow the Kimberley Process in hopes of preventing the export of illegal diamonds. However, these efforts are not enough to stop the trafficking of diamonds. Several steps must be taken to strengthen the Kimberley Process and change government policies within the DRC in order to stabilize the economy and end the civil war. History of conflict in the Congo The DRC’s current unstable government can be attributed mainly to its turbulent history. Since the late 1800’s the Congo region has experienced relatively few periods of peace and economic stability. Colonization severely hindered the future development of the Congo region. In the late 1870’s, King Leopold II of Belgium colonized the Congo territory. Treaties were signed with several tribal rulers in the territory, giving the King Leopold sovereignty in their areas. In 1885, the territory formally became the Congo Free State, he... ...r 22, 2002. Dietrich, Christian. Hard currency: the criminalized diamond economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbours. Ottawa: Partnership Africa Canada, c2002. Muller, Emma. Diamonds Smuggling Through Congo Republic Makes Mockery of Kimberley Process. Polishedprices.com, July 10, 2003. Tamm, Ingrid J. Diamonds in peace and war: severing the conflict-diamond connection. Cambridge, Mass: World Peace Foundation, 2002. U.N. document. Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitations of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo. www.globalpolicy.org William Wallis. Comment and Analysis: Kimberley Process: Africa's conflict diamonds: is the UN-backed certification scheme failing to bring transparency to the trade?" Financial Times October 29, 2003. www.kimberleyprocess.com

Incident Response Essay

The emergency services (Police, Fire and Ambulance) have to respond to all emergency situations, but they have different roles and responsibilities and they have graded response policies. All emergencies are graded by the call handler according to the information from the caller and not by the way the incident is reported. If a caller dials 999 believing an incident is an emergency the call handler will assess the information and then decide whether it is top priority or if the incident does actually require an emergency response. Call handlers work under the supervision of team managers and incident managers. The standards of fire cover all fire services in the United Kingdom and were set originally in the 1930’s but were established in 1958 by the Home Office. They were more clearly defined and revised in 1974 and again in 1985. Fire risk assessment, until the current year, has been based upon this guidance, which consists of a prose description of the risk categories and a formula designed to determine a points rating or fire grading of premises. When the risk category of an area had been determined, the criteria set by the Home Office demanded that the fire service response to emergency calls, met minimum requirements in terms of speed and weight of attack. Grading of incidents by the Fire service is split into 5 categories: Category ‘A’ Built up areas in large cities containing large commercial and industrial premises or high rise property where there is a strong chance of fire spread. The recommended minimum first attendance was three pumps, two to attend within five minutes and one within eight minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘B’ Refers to large cities and towns with multi-storey buildings, including large areas of residential housing as well as industrial estates with high-risk occupants. The recommended minimum first attendance was two pumps, one to arrive within five minutes and the other within eight minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘C’ Refers to the outskirts of larger towns and the built-up areas of smaller towns and extensive areas of residential dwellings such as terraced houses  and semi-detached houses, blocks of flats as well as light industry/commercial properties. The recommended minimum first attendance was one pump within eight to ten minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘D’ Consisting of rural property, villages and farms and all areas that do not come under categories A-C. The recommended minimum first attendance was one pump within 20 minutes, to be achieved on 75% of occasions. Rural and remote is a separate category and has no pre-determined response time. The majority of Merseyside (91%) is classed as C or D risk. http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/foi/Information%20Classes/Policies/item11547.pdf Grading of incidents by the police in England and wales are graded as ‘emergency ‘or ‘non-emergency’ in four grades. Grade 1 is the emergency response. An emergency contact will result in immediate police response. It involves circumstances where an incident is reported to the police which is currently taking place and there is a risk of danger to life, the use or immediate threat or use of violence or serious injury to a person or property. Criminal conduct will be dealt with as an emergency if the crime is going to be serious and is in progress, an offender has just been disturbed at the scene or the offender has been detained and there is a high risk that he is a threat to the general public. When the incident involves traffic collision it will be classed as an emergency if it involves or is likely to involve serious personal injury and also if the road is blocked due to the collision and if there is a dangerous or excessive build up of traffic. Also if the call handler who takes the call feels strongly that the incident should be classed as an emergency. The urban response time for this Grade is 10 minutes and the rural response time is 17 minutes. Grade 2 is classed as a Priority response. The call handler feels that the incident is important or urgent but does not need an emergency response. This could include incidents such as a concern for someone’s welfare, an offender has been detained but is not a threat to anyone, a road traffic accident that has injuries or has caused a serious obstruction, a witness may be lost or a person is suffering distress and is believed to be vulnerable. Resourses for a Grade 2 incident should be sent as soon as is safely possible and  within 15 minutes. Grade 3 is classed as a scheduled response. This is when the needs of the caller can be best achieved by scheduling a response. This could be when the response time is not critical when apprehending offenders or a better quality of policing can be given if it is dealt with by a scheduled response by a police officer or even by that person attending the police station. Incidents should be resolved to satisfaction level of caller as soon as possible and must be within 48 hours of first call. Grade 4 is classed as Resolution without deployment. This is used when an incident can be re solved through telephone advice, help desk, frequently asked questions or other appropriate agencies or services. The caller is advised of an agreed call-back time and to be as soon as possible and within 24 hours. Grading of incidents by the Ambulance Service are placed in three categories, this grading also applies to urgent calls from GPs and other health professionals, as well as calls from the general public. Category A is Priority. This is when an incident is considered to be immediately life-threatening examples are when a person is suffering with chest pains/cardiac arrest, unconscious/fainting or has breathing problems. The response time for a category A is within 8 minutes or less. Category B is where an incident is serious but not immediately life-threatening, examples are when someone has fallen or has serious bleeding, a sick person with no priority symptoms or overdose/poisoning. The response time for category B is within 14 minutes in urban areas and within 19 minutes in rural areas. Category C is when an incident is not serious or life-threatening, examples when someone has fallen over and assistance is required, and a sick person with a range of non-serious conditions such as d iarrhoea or someone with abdominal/back pains. In 2000 the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) became responsible for assessing the training and standards of all drivers who drive emergency response vehicles which are fitted with blue lights and sirens. When talking to other agencies the DSA drew up the Blue Light Users Working Party Expectations Document. This document contained a list of the expectations that drivers of emergency response vehicles should meet before being allowed  to drive these vehicles. This document was accepted by the three main emergency services (police, fire and ambulance). This document includes performance criteria and knowledge and consists of these three elements. All emergency drivers need to be over the age of 18 and in good health also must not have any motoring convictions against their name and this is checked every three years. Element one is the ability to assess the need for an emergency response. Element two is the ability to drive the vehicle safely to emergencies and element three is the ability to show the correct attitude when responding to emergencies. Police Service Drivers have to meet the standards set by the DSA but the police service also have their own driving centres. At the driving centres police are trained and graded according to National Training Standards, which is then approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). The type of driver training depends on the job role of that police officer. Police drivers can be graded as Standard response drivers, advanced drivers or pursuit drivers. Advanced drivers and pursuit drivers have intense training and they use high powered vehicles and advanced techniques for responding quickly and safely to emergencies. Fire Service Drivers The fire service also has its own driver training centres where drivers are trained to the standards met by their Fire Authority. To drive an Emergency Fire Appliance drivers must hold a Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) Licence and have received the necessary training and assessments. Only then can they be allowed to drive when responding to emergency situations provided the vehicle is fitted with audible/visual warning devices. Ambulance Service Drivers need to hold C1 (medium sized vehicle) and D1 (minibus) licences and receive the appropriate training by the DSA. Although some Ambulance Services especially in London state that ambulance drivers must hold a LGV licence. Ambulance driver training and assessments are usually carried out by independent driver training centres and not the Ambulance Service. Drivers of emergency vehicles also have to understand that bad driving can cause accidents. Drivers of emergency vehicles are not above the law even when attending emergencies they have to show that whilst going to an emergency they drove with care and attention and did not drive in a dangerous way, if they were foun d to have driven dangerously then they can be prosecuted in the same way as a member of the general public can. Also if the driver is convicted of a  serious traffic offence they may be disqualified from driving both emergency and privately owned vehicles. To reduce the danger to themselves and the general public the drivers of emergency vehicles must use their sirens and blue flashing lights to warn other road users as well as pedestrians and cyclists that their vehicle is responding to an emergency. Flashing blue lights and sirens should only be used when attending emergencies although police drivers can use flashing blue lights and sirens when attempting to stop another driver. Drivers of emergency vehicles have to follow the same traffic laws as everyone else, but when using flashing blue lights and sirens they are exempt from a number of motoring rules which means they can go through a red traffic light, pass to the right of a keep left sign, drive on a motorway hard shoulder even against the direction of the traffic and not follow the speed limit. The Highway Code is a book of rules which all drivers have to abide by the Highway Code makes no special rules for the emergency services other than for members of the general public to listen for the sirens and look for the blue flashing lights and to let them pass safely but still taking notice of all traffic signs. During unsociable hours consideration is given to the use of sirens especially around residential areas, unless conditions are bad and they need to use their siren. Blue lights would only be used as they are visible to road users at night. When there is an advantage to a silent approach then driving is altered and speed reduced. Members of the Public service are often judged harshly from the public, when it comes down to the pursuing of stolen vehicles. Although the public services do a good job when they pursuing stolen vehicles or on their way to an emergency incident there have been cases where their have been incidents where it has affected the public services. Example At 11.20 on the 19th of May 2008, Haley Adamson a 16 year old school girl was struck by a police car going 70mph whilst she was crossing a road in a residential area in Newcastle which had a 30mph speed limit. Hayley died immediately from the impact of the police car. The police car was being driven in pursuit of a vehicle that had just been registered on the police number plate recognition system. At the time of the incident the driver Pc

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Essays - English-language Films

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Essays - English-language Films 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne was born in France in 1828 and always had a love for the sea. He once tried to be a sea captain on a boat but things did not work out. Jules Verne has written many very famous books such as Journey To the Center of the Earth, Five Weeks in a balloon and Around the World in Eighty Days. I have written a review on one of his most famous books 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This book combines adventure, suspense and mystery throwing in a few pieces of information about life under the sea. The book begins with some great suspense, it begins with a boat chasing a giant monster that has destroyed some huge unsinkable ships. Every time they get close to this monster a giant stream of water shoots hundreds of feet into the air, causing the boat to back off. Once in a while the monster will disappear from sight for hours. While reading this part of the book the reader feels like he is on the boat chasing the monster also. A lot of times the boat gets close enough to the monster to catch it and thoughts of what you think the monster could be run through your head like crazy. When they finally make an attempt to capture it, it disappears beneath the depths of the ocean. One of the most suspenseful and mysterious parts of the book was when the characters were thrown into a big room inside the submarine that seemed to have no doors. At this point in the book the characters have no idea what was going on, neither does the reader. The only thing that happens during the time in this room is a man comes in and gives them some food, minutes later they all fell asleep. Why where they put to sleep, where is this room that seems to have no doors? This is just one of the hundreds of questions going through your head during these couple chapters of the book. When they wake up all the lights in the room are off and the submarine is shaking. When they finally meet and become comfortable with the captain they get an invitation to go hunting 2 miles under the sea. They put on these huge underwater suits that can withezd the pressure two miles under the sea, then the cabin fills up with water and a door opens. Two miles under the sea, what adventures are down there waiting for them? What amazing sites are two miles under the sea? What dangerous are awaiting people in the depths of the sea?

Quotes from Kenneth Grahames The Wind in the Willows

Quotes from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows After retiring early from his career at the Bank of England, Kenneth Grahame spent his days in the early 1900s on the River Thames expanding on and writing out the bedtime stories he used to tell his daughter about a collection of anthropomorphized woodland critters in the highly-quoted collection of short stories that would come to be known as The Wind in the Willows. This collection mixed moralistic stories with mysticism and adventure tales, beautifully depicting the natural world of the region in imaginative prose that has delighted audiences of all ages in its many adaptations since including a play, musical and even animated film. The central characters include Mr. Toad, Mole, Rat, Mr. Badger, Otter and Portley, The Weasels, Pan, The Gaolers Daughter, The Wayfarer, and rabbits, which are described as a mixed lot. Read on to discover some of the best quotes from this delightful childrens tale, perfect for use in any classroom discussion. Setting the Scene of the Thames The Wind in the Willows opens by setting the scene along the riverfront, full of unique animal characters including the mild-mannered homebody named Mole who starts the story by leaving his home only to find himself overwhelmed by the world around him: The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. Once out in the world, Mole chuckles to himself about a great truth hes discovered in leaving behind his responsibilities of spring cleaning saying, After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working. Interestingly, the early part of the book feels somewhat autobiographical for Grahame, who described his time after retirement as mostly spent messing about in boats. This sentiment is shared by the first other creature Mole meets when he ventures out of his home and down to the river for the first time, a leisurely water vole named Rat who says to Mole, There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Still, theres a hierarchy and a sense of prejudice even in the cute animal world that Grahame constructs, as illustrated in the character of the Mole in that he implicitly does not trust certain creatures:Â   Weasels- and stoats- and foxes- and so on. Theyre all right in a way- Im very good friends with them- pass the time of day when we meet, and all that- but they break out sometimes, theres no denying it, and then- well, you cant really trust them, and thats the fact. Ultimately, Mole decides to pal around with Rat and the two boat down the river together, with Rat teaching Mole the ways of the water, though he warns of going beyond the Wild Wood into the Wide World because thats something that doesnt matter, either to you or me. Ive never been there, and Im never going, nor you either, if youve got any sense at all. Mr. Toad and a Story of Dangerous Obsessions In the next chapter, Mole and Rat dock near the royal Toad Hall to stop in on one of Rats friends, Mr. Toad, who is rich, friendly, happy, but also conceited and easily distracted by the latest fad. His current obsession upon their meeting: driving a horse-drawn carriage: Glorious, stirring sight! The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here today- in next week tomorrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped- always somebody elses horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my! Somehow, Toad manages to convince Rat and Mole to accompany him on a carriage-ride and camping adventure together, against both of their better judgements: Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat, though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to over-ride his personal objections. Unfortunately, this does not end well as the reckless Toad careens the carriage off the road to avoid a collision with a speeding motorcar driver, breaking the carriage beyond use or repair. Consequently, Toad also loses his obsession with horse-drawn carriages, replaced by the insatiable need to drive a motorcar. Mole and Rat took the opportunity to excuse themselves from Toads company but admitted that it was never a wrong time to call on Toad because early or late, hes always the same fellow; always good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when you go! The Elusive Badger Chapter Three opens in the winter with Mole leaving Rat to set out on his own quest while his friend took a long rest, namely to satiate his long-standing desire to meet the elusive Badger: The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about the place. Before he fell asleep, though, Rat had warned Mole that Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing, and that Mole would be better off waiting for Badger to visit them instead, but Mole didnt listen and instead set off for the Wild Wood in hopes of finding him home. Unfortunately, while navigating the wilderness, Mole gets lost and begins to panic saying The whole wood seemed running now, running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or- somebody? In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither. Rat, having woken from his nap to find Mole gone, guesses that his friend had gone to the Wild Wood in search of Badger and sets out to recover his lost companion, and fortunately finds him just before snow begins to fall heavily. The two then stumble through the winter storm wherein they happen upon the Badgers dwelling. Badger, contrary to Rats warning, is incredibly accommodating to his two unexpected guests and opens his spacious, warm home to the pair where they gossip about the goings on in the world and in the Wild Wood: Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didnt bother themselves about the past- they never do; theyre too busy...The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent- I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world. Badger offers another side of Grahames own personality: his concern for the well-being of nature, of the effect mankind has on the natural world. Rats own misconception that the Badger is a mean spirited old codger could be interpreted as Grahames own projection of the criticisms hed received as a slightly cynical employee of the Bank of England who merely realized the temporary nature of human civilization as we know it: I see you dont understand, and I must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city- a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever...People come- they stay for a while, they flourish, they build- and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, Ive been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be. Other Selected Quotes from Chapter 7 The trio also discusses the happenings of Mr. Toad, who has apparently totaled seven cars since the incident with the carriage several months before and was summarily arrested in the middle of the book- for more information, and to learn more about what happens to all the creatures of the Willows, continue reading this selection of quotes from the Chapter 7 of The Wind in the Willows: Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fullness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humorously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs d isposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered. Sudden and magnificent, the suns broad golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn. As they stared blankly in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last best gift that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should be happy and lighthearted as before. Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can re-capture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties; so Mole, after struggling with his memory for a brief space, shook his head sadly and followed the Rat.

Wine Market (ALDI Group) Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Wine Market (ALDI Group) - Case Study Example In 2008, ALDI's global revenues reached an estimated $65,700.0 million in tendered sales. Distribution of revenues across markets reveals growth in some regions of the world, and retraction in others. Adequate analysis of sites for aggressive advancement of wine varietals within ALDI stores across the board requires data on the overall picture of the various market regions and segmentation analysis of both the wine industry and its customers, for future integration of operations and knowledge sharing with industry partners toward realization of the Group's planned expansion in this product area. One of the strengths of ALDI's German based operations has been the Group's flexible approach to strategic opportunities during moments of economic downturn. A company known for its vision of offering the 'cheapest' high caliber products to its markets, ALDI has brought its 'home,' national and international brand grocery product lines to customers at the lowest possible prices while retaining the select-assortment concept indicative of specialty stores. ALDI's philosophy of grocery retail is based on a 'less-is-more' approach; from supplier selection to store location development and operations, each step in the distribution to market chain is managed to facilitate savings substantial enough to impact the everyday lives of consumers. The Group is reliant upon a tri-partite model of conducting retail business, which includes concentration on: 1. Purchasing power which translates to customer savings, by a large grocery retailer with focused attention on a limited number of 1,400 grocery and household items, of which are mostly ALDI 'select brands'; 2. Streamlined operations that enable the corporation to reduce costs; 3. Adherence to stringent quality standards dedicated to matching or exceeding the leading national brand in taste, appearance, and/or performance. In the context of the most recent global financial crisis, ALDI is looking for ways in which to expand its market share in the retail wine sector. Strategic planning toward this vision must acknowledge points of saturation in the wine market, as well as the total competitive picture in the retail grocery industry. For instance, ALDI's market share in its home country, Germany, has actually seen a reduction recently due to a high level of competition from other compatriot corporations. In efforts to retain the Group's 19% share of the German national market, the stores have begun to offer shoppers more in the way of international brands, and better incentives through semi-weekly promotions in order to capture a larger segment of the middle-class consumer population. Despite the challenge faced at home, ALDI's operations in over 15 other countries continue to be successful, and while hit and miss in 'hot' markets in Eastern Europe sustained by youth demographics, ALDI has recently opened stores in Hungary and Poland. The Commonwealth countries of South Pacific offer a similar demographic operations in Australia now

Human Resources Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Human Resources Management - Research Paper Example The job knowledge tests are based on multiple-choice questions (MCQs) that may either be administered via a computer or paper and pencil. Personality tests tend to assess the candidate’s personality characteristics that relate to the job. Such factors include extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, conflict avoidance and resolution skills, and agreeableness. These tests may be based on MCQs or True/False questions and are also administered via a computer or paper and pencil. Situational judgment tests provide the candidates with situations in which they are required to tell how they would perform. These situations are usually the ones the candidates would be encountering at work. These tests may either be administered in written form or may be videotaped. These tests tend to evaluate the informed decision making skills of the candidates in tough circumstances and with very little time to make the decision. Interview is amongst the most widely employed methods of selection. Most interviews are unstructured which means that there are no definite questions and these interviews are without any agreed-upon standards of evaluation of the candidate’s performance. These interviews may be conducted face-to-face, over the phone, or in a group. Structured interviews, on the other hand, evaluate the candidate’s skills with the help of a definite set of questions previously set by the interviewer. Like the unstructured interviews, the structured interviews are also conducted either face-to-face, over the phone, or in a group. Interviewing is a technical process and requires very fine skills on the part of the interviewer for the skills of the candidate to be appropriately judged. There are certain strategies and precautions that can help an interviewer make the interview effective. Some organizations take the services of an employment agency to conduct the

Creative & Critical Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Creative & Critical - Assignment Example However consistent the effects of that approach to achieving peace is, the fact remains that nobody wants to be involved in a war. No man would willingly become a soldier, ready to kill nameless others who have not done him personal harm but rather harmed his nation or a weaker one that needed protection. While numerous articles and opinion papers in the 21st century have condemned war and its outcomes to the best of the writers abilities, the most scathing condemnation of war was not done during our most recent times. Rather, it was written during the events unfolding within World War I by Wilfred Owen in his sonnet â€Å"Dulce Et Decorum Est†. The gravity of the poem can only be attributed to the fact that Owen wrote the poem while recovering from shell shock or in modern lingo â€Å"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder† more commonly known as PTSD in 1917, having served as a British war soldier. Writing many a war related poems during this time including â€Å"Strange Meeting†, â€Å"Insensibility†, and â€Å"S.I.W.†, this practice was actually one of the methods that he employed in order to help him deal with the trauma of the war and its lifelong effects upon him (Williamson, Andrew â€Å"Dulce Et Decorum Est†). It is from this highly graphic recall of his involvement in the war that led to the highly creative and almost 3-D like depiction of the war within his writing. While published posthumously in 1920 the sonnet translates into English as â€Å"It is sweet and honorable to die for ones country† (Williamson, Andrew â€Å"Dulce Et Decorum Est†). However, nothing about the lines from the sonnet depict war and the soldier experiences as being such. For example, the first stanza of the sonnet describes: Anybody who reads the above stanza without being told of the era that it was written it would absolutely swear that it was written by a modern day soldier coming home from