Parenting As A Child With Special Needs - 1328 Words

Parenting in Lesbian-Gay (LGBT) or Same-Sex Couple Homes. A review study (American Psychological Association, 2005) showed no evidence that lesbian or gay parents are unfit to parent children nor are the children under their care as parents are disadvantaged psychosocially or economically as compared with heterosexual couples. Nevertheless, this study admitted that data on LGBT parents are limited (American Psychological Association, 2005). The same findings were noted in another study (Telingator Patterson,2008). Parenting during Post-Separation of Couples.Smyth, (2004) discussed the nature of parenting arrangements during the post-separation (whether after divorce or legal separation of couples), as follows. Parenting patterns†¦show more content†¦These families were satisfied with their child’s education but want an increase in different kinds of communication between the home and the school. Parenting in Blended Families. Juby, Le Bourdais Marcil-Gratton (2001) discussed the family situation in step- and blended families, as follows. Stepfamilies are defined, as follows: (1) one parent is not the biological parent of the children of his present spouse; and (2) both parents and the children of one spouse all live in one house. Blended families are defined, as follows: (1) both parents and their respective children from a previous marriage or conjugal relationship live in one residence; and/or (2) both parents have a common child between them, aside from their own respective children from a previous marriage or conjugal relationship. Their study showed these results, as follows. There is a tendency for children to remain with their mother after a divorce or a broken couple relationship. Children have closer contact with their â€Å"maternal half-siblings than† than with their father’s children from a previous marriage or conjugal relationship(Juby, Le B ourdais, Marcil-Gratton, 2001). â€Å"Children born into stepfamilies are at a higher risk of family breakdown than children born into intact families†(Juby, Le Bourdais, Marcil-Gratton, 2001). There is greater conjugal union stability among stepfamily couples having a

A Need For Peaceful Refuge - 1356 Words

A Need for Peaceful Refuge Every winter, people living in the middle to upper northern hemisphere can see birds migrate south in hopes of warmer weather. They need a place of refuge in order to survive. Humans, although we do not fly south, must move from one place to another in order to either live, find happiness, or experience societal needs. While some may have generally one motive for their migration, most will inhabit some other reasons for moving from their homeland. A current issue in today’s world is the crisis occurring in the Middle East. People in that area are having land disputes for, mainly, both cultural and economic reasons. Because of this, the conflict was escalated into war, and now many inhabitants of the Middle East must seek refuge in other places of the world where they can experience economic stability and practice their culture. The current Syrian refugee crisis, while it is not the only form of migration among humans on Earth, is a highly stres sed global issue and is a great example of migration. The United Nations have arranged several refugee camps for the civilians who wish to escape from the warfare. Unfortunately, their health, education, and economy is at risk. They require a stable society. Caryl Stern, a journalist who traveled to a camp in Jordan, stated that while they had temporary safety from the warfare, families were dependent on their children as they generated a mass amount of the family income (Stern, 2015). Mrs. SternShow MoreRelatedMass Media Has The Power Of People Of Minds Of Masses1485 Words   |  6 Pagesand criminals but described the pumpkin festival rioters as an unruly crowd. CNN described a group of ranchers taking over a federal building and threaten violence if removed, as a peaceful armed protest. At last, both stations showed minimal to no coverage of million-man march, which was one of the largest peaceful protest/rally by the black community. About only 20% Americans receive news by their own research or from the internet. (American Press Institute). This shows that major cable channelsRead MoreThe Great Depression Of The Twentieth Century1423 Words   |  6 Pagescommunist) Canada would serve as a land of refuge and safety and a large number of victims of communism successfully made the journey. In recent years, an organization entitled Tribute to Liberty have been urging to Canadian government to help erect a monument that would commemorate those who lose their lives due to the communist regimes and to the Canadian citizens who are descendants of communist refugees. Although this memorial reflects Canada’s role in providing refuge during this time period, there haveRead MoreThe Ending of White Minority and Nelson Mandela Essay1710 Words   |  7 Pagesfor short) youth league. When on refuge from South Africa he told Europe of Apartheid and spread the anti- Apartheid word. Mandela also took part in peaceful anti-Apartheid protests, organised a national day of strike of Black workers and supported the Freedom Charter. Mandela felt the situation was not getting better for Blacks, despite his peaceful attempts. Drastic times lead to drastic measures, so Mandela sought temporary refuge in neighbouring countries, ruled by Read MoreOil Drilling Endangers Arctic National Wildlife Riches1374 Words   |  6 Pagesand imperative† (Carson, 376). We human beings carry the responsibility of ensuring harmony amongst the living organisms inhabiting all of this planet. We need to ensure that our ecosystem is protected. In order to prevent further damage to habitats and extinction of species, we should stop developing oil drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. We know that the oil in Alaska is valuable. Yet, their development and drilling only benefit a small group of people in society. In A FirstRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Romero 1597 Words   |  7 Pagesafter personal experiences of the government’s atrocities. He began to consistently speaking out against a ruthless government which regularly terrorized its citizens and used brutal death squads to crush any dissent against them. Romero was always peaceful in the various forms of protest against the regime and made sure the people were always getting the truth, even when it ended up costing him his life. The actor who portrays him in the film is Raul Julia. Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was bornRead MoreThe At San Francesco Or Collegio La Salle1342 Words   |  6 PagesIf you are from Gejeret then you might just as well remember where Gejretians found refuge in 1975. I was one of those who took refuge at San Francesco or Collegio La Salle, which was administered by the Kerenite Fratelli, Fr. Michael, Fr. Kahsay, and Fr. Demsas. Later on, I heard Fr. Demsas joined the struggle but I ve no information if he made it to Independence Day. Also, rumor had it that afterwards, Fr. Misghina quit the La Salle seminary, got married and left for Sweden. And there is moreRead MoreSome of the Problems India Has Had to Face633 Words   |  3 Pagesmany people to have huge attachment to one’s region, language, religion and when these attachments grow to an crazy extreme level they create intolerance for other religions, languages, problems are bound to rise. So many cases of tragedy such as peaceful protests, riots and poverty has shaped th e outcome of what India has become today. An eye for an eye makes everybody blind summarizes Gandhis view of violence. Gandhi did not believe in violence as a technique of achieving his goal of an independentRead MoreA Clean Well Lighted Place - Theme and Setting Essay952 Words   |  4 Pagespeacefulness that the old man enjoys nice quiet drinks at a clean place. Later in the story the older waiter had no place to go for a drink so, he had gone to a bar/bodega for a drink; however, the mood of the bar/bodega compared to the cafà © was not as peaceful nor comfortable. The waiter mentioned â€Å"It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all thatRead MoreLeaving New York City for the Farmlands of Illinois Essay946 Words   |  4 Pagescould potentially offer. The $80,000 initial investment for the 80 acres of farm land seems like a relatively good deal, and will giv e you a great start as you venture into your new career. You will need to consider your overall financial situation. You have enough to purchase the land, but you will also need to take into consideration how much additional upfront expenses you will have in order to get the farm ready to produce crops, and how long it will take for you to yield the crops and turn a profitRead MoreIago Noy The American Dream970 Words   |  4 Pagesperspective of third world countries. Of course, it’s got it’s flaws, but people here don’t realize how good they have it. The American dream lives on but not for people in this country but in the minds of immigrants trying to reach this place and have a peaceful life. The reality is we take advantage of what we have and honestly careless about other countries only concern is our own lives. Look at your daily thoughts do you ever even come across the idea of helping anyone? No, it’s not your first thought

Explication free essay sample

Thats The way It Written by Outpace Shaker in 1992, the songs Changes dramatists the conflict between African Americans and whites during the early part of the asss. By delivering a motivational speech through his song lyrics, Outpace Is able to convey a powerful message of peace and equality for his people; he wants to see a change In African American society, not only from other races, but from the African Americans themselves. Outpace delivers the powerful line: We goat make a change.Its time for s as a people to start making some changes. Lets change the way we eat, lets change the way we live, and lets change the way we treat each other In hopes to shed light on important social issues such as racism, equality, peace, and unity. To Outpace, this song was more than Just lyrics written to a catchy beat, it was a product of his own thoughts on social issues; each lyric written served Its own purpose. We will write a custom essay sample on Explication or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Through this, Outpace was able to Incorporate relevant social truths and Issues while still maintaining an intricate rhyme scheme.The song opens with the lyrics l see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself, Is life worth living? .. Im tired of being poor and even worse Im black. which illustrates how African Americans lived during the time of Tubas writing; they suffered from a life of poverty and werent given the same opportunities as white men and women were, so Instead of trying to make a difference and change the situation, they would divert to illegal acts, Just to help themselves get by. In the song, he asks himself Should I blast myself? Hes trying to get the point across that Just because of his color, he has to suffer, which was common for African Americans at the time. Through his use of pronouns, we you and l, Outpace was able to minimize the gap between the audience and himself, creating a closer connection by making the listener feel more Involved with the situation. Along with pronouns, he uses words such as Negroes, racist, blacks to bring attention to the social discrimination against the blacks during that time. Outpace progresses with the line Cops give a damn about a negro?Pull the trigger, kill a enigma, hes a hero illustrating how African Americans, mainly males, are more targeted by the police than white males; It wasnt an Issue for African Americans to be killed, it was more of a relief to get blacks, who were dangerous, off the streets. Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares one less hungry mouth on the welfare helps portray the use of drugs in the black neighborhoods in the ASS and how the issue was ignored with beliefs that African Americans were a burden to the tax system because of their dependence on welfare from the government. Theres war on the streets and the war in the Middle East. 1 OFF While still rhyming, Outpace is able to again express the racial discrimination of African Americans by the police. Outpace continues to try and inspire his people to Join him against these issues: Its time to fight back thats what Hey said. 2 shots in the dark now Hues dead, an ironi c lyric because not only did this happen to Martin Luther King Jar, but also to Outpace himself, four years after the release of this song. l got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other. We goat start making changes, learn to see me as a brother stead of two assistant strangers. Not only does Outpace point fingers at the whites but also at his own race, for the hatred between the two cultures; he realizes his people are also to blame because they also are more concerned with individuality than the unity. He continues to say l see no changes l still see no changes throughout the song. Finally, he concludes the song with the line thats the way it is, some things will never change displaying his feeling of hopelessness for a better, equal future between African Americans and whites.

Internal Analysis Distinctive Competencies, Competitive Advantage and Profitability free essay sample

Internal Analysis: Distinctive Competencies, Competitive Advantage and  Profitability Posted on November 8, 2010 by Domingo Salazar, MBA The Roots of Competitive Advantage The Internal analysis is concerned  with the identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the company. The main implications on the read material about strategy formulation are as follows:   Starting on distinctive competencies, we can differentiate its products from its rivals, in order to  determine  our/them strengths, including two complementary sources: tangible resources and intangible resources, which in turn are referred  to the assets of a company; following this complementary sources, are the capabilities of the company, which coordinates the company’s skills, the resources, capabilities and competencies, which in turn generates the true distinctive competency. Now, all this distinctive competencies shapes the strategies that the company pursues; however, is critical to realize that the strategies a company adopts can build brand new resources. There are three main reasons for failure over time, which are inertia, prior strategic commitments, and the Icarus paradox: The first one is related  to the problematic situation changing their strategies for new and fresh ones, even more, to adapt the whole  company or vision of the company, to the new competitive and environmental conditions; the second one is referring to the actual  market’ limitations of the company to compete with its rivals is the main cause of competitive disadvantage, so the main point on this is timming; and the last one, is referring to the paradox of the greatest company assets, are the main cause of failure, if is not updated over time. Danny Miller, author of this statement, refers that many companies can become overwhelmed by their early success, as a result, they become so specialized that mislead the time-changing markets, leading to failure in most cases. Talking now about the lower-cost producers, I would like to add the Toyota case, not because is referred  on the text book, but mainly due that I am currently  involved on automotive market, so this case of success, is a great example of how a company can be  a lower cost producer and at the same time can have an output for the final  client, the customers. Offering customers value they cannot get elsewhere, this advantage can be economic or psychological such as better customer services, better after sale services, also, subsequent purchasing parts, maintenance and services by calling to remind customers for follow-up (the Chrysler is doing it now). The drivers of profitability have to be  well known  by all the managers who leads its departments or operations, managers needs to be  able to compare, benchmark and performance the company against its competitors, and internally against the own historic performance itself; thus, will help to determine  where and how the deterioration is, how the strategies are managed  and/or maximized, how the cost structure is, and so on. According to the chapter, and other related articles, profitability it can be  resumed as the net result of a number of policies and decisions made by the management; and to obtain  a narrow ratio of profits we have to exclude the discontinued operations and the extraordinary items, because these does not represent the daily operations of a company. The insights provided by Du Pont model are valuable, and it can be used for â€Å"quick and dirt† estimates of the impact that operating changes have on returns. The Return on Investment, helps to evaluate  companies’ performances, and measures the ability of  the companies to reward funding-providers and to attract new ones for future funding; also, it evaluates the performance of the company and how is the company using its assets. Definitely strategizing is more important to explain the success or failure of a company, because the whole operation of the company, the whole philosophy, mission, vision, and so on, rely on the company strategies, luck, as Einstein said, is for losers. * Resource Library * Blog * Bookstore * Glossary * Newsletters * Training * Videos * Articles Guides * More Tools * Press Center Browse by Topic - Top of Form Bottom of Form Internal and External Analysis Internal | External | SWOT Matrix | Competitive Analysis | Market Analysis Create a Plan. Track Progress. Get Better Results. Try the leading strategic planning software free for 10 days. Starting at $49 a month. Start PlanSignup takes 60 seconds| SWOT Analysis SWOT is an acronym used to describe the particular Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that are strategic factors for a specific company. A SWOT analysis should not only result in the identification of a corporation’s core competencies, but also in the identification of opportunities that the firm is not currently able to take advantage of due to a lack of appropriate resources. (Wheelen, Hunger pg 107) The SWOT analysis framework has gained widespread acceptance because it is both simple and powerful for strategy development. However, like any planning tool, SWOT is only as good as the information it contains. Thorough market research and accurate information systems are essential for the SWOT analysis to identify key issues in the environment. Marketing and Its Environment, pg 44) Assess your market: * What is happening externally and internally that will affect our company? * Who are our customers? * What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? (T hink Competitive Advantage) * What are the driving forces behind sales trends? * What are important and potentially important markets? * What is happening in the world that might affect our company? * What does it take to be successful in this market? (List the strengths all companies need to compete successfully in this market. ) Assess your company: * What do we do best? * What are our company resources – assets, intellectual property, and people? What are our company capabilities (functions)? Assess your competition: * How are we different from the competition? * What are the general market conditions of our business? * What needs are there for our products and services? * What are the customer-market-technology opportunities? * What are the customer’s problems and complains with the current products and services in the industry? * What â€Å"If only†¦. † Statements does a customer make? Opportunity an area of â€Å"need† in which a company can pe rform profitably. Threat challenge posed by an unfavorable trend or development that would lead (in absence of a defensive marketing action) to deterioration in profits/sales. An evaluation needs to be completed drawing conclusions about how the opportunities and threats may affect the firm. EXTERNAL: MACRO- demographic/economic, technological, social/cultural, political/legal MICRO- customers, competitors, channels, suppliers, publics INTERNAL RESOURCES: the firm Competitor analysis is a critical aspect of this step. * Identify the actual competitors as well as substitutes. * Assess competitors’ objectives, strategies, strengths weaknesses, and reaction patterns. * Select which competitors to attack or avoid. The Internal Analysis of strengths and weaknesses focuses on internal factors that give an organization certain advantages and disadvantages in meeting the needs of its target market. Strengths refer to core competencies that give the firm an advantage in meeting the needs of its target markets. Any analysis of company strengths should be market oriented/customer focused because strengths are only meaningful when they assist the firm in meeting customer needs. Weaknesses refer to any limitations a company faces in developing or implementing a strategy (? ). Weaknesses should also be examined from a customer perspective because customers often perceive weaknesses that a company cannot see. Being market focused when analyzing strengths and weaknesses does not mean that non-market oriented strengths and weaknesses should be forgotten. Rather, it suggests that all firms should tie their strengths and weaknesses to customer requirements. Only those strengths that relate to satisfying a customer need should be considered true core competencies. (Marketing and Its Environment, pg 44) The following area analyses are used to look at all internal factors effecting a company: * Resources: Profitability, sales, product quality brand associations, existing overall brand, relative cost of this new product, employee capability, product portfolio analysis * Capabilities: Goal: To identify internal strategic strengths, weaknesses, problems, constraints and uncertainties The External Analysis examines opportunities and threats that exist in the environment. Both opportunities and threats exist independently of the firm. The way to differentiate between a strength or weakness from an opportunity or threat is to ask: Would this issue exist if the company did not exist? If the answer is yes, it should be considered external to the firm. Opportunities refer to favorable conditions in the environment that could produce rewards for the organization if acted upon properly. That is, opportunities are situations that exist but must be acted on if the firm is to benefit from them. Threats refer to conditions or barriers that may prevent the firms from reaching its objectives. (Marketing and Its Environment, pg 44) The following area analyses are used to look at all external factors effecting a company: * Customer analysis: Segments, motivations, unmet needs Competitive analysis: Identify completely, put in strategic groups, evaluate performance, image, their objectives, strategies, culture, cost structure, strengths, weakness * Market analysis: Overall size, projected growth, profitability, entry barriers, co st structure, distribution system, trends, key success factors * Environmental analysis: Technological, governmental, economic, cultural, demographic, scenarios, information-need areas Goal: To identify external opportunities, threats, trends, and strategic uncertainties The SWOT Matrix helps visualize the analysis. Also, when executing this analysis it is important to understand how these element work together. When an organization matched internal strengths to external opportunities, it creates core competencies in meeting the needs of its customers. In addition, an organization should act to convert internal weaknesses into strengths and external threats into opportunities. SWOT Focus on your strengths. Shore up your weaknesses. Capitalize on your opportunities. Recognize your threats. Identify * Against whom do we compete? * Who are our most intense competitors? Less intense? * Makers of substitute products? * Can these competitors be grouped into strategic groups on the basis of assets, competencies, or strategies? * Who are potential competitive entrants? What are their barriers to entry? Evaluate * What are their objectives and strategies? * What is their cost structure? Do they have a cost advantage or disadvantage? * What is their image and positioning strategy? * Which are the most successful/unsuccessful competitors over time? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? * Evaluate competitors with respect to their assets and competencies. Size and Growth What are important and potentially important markets? What are their size and growth characteristics? What markets are declining? What are the driving forces behind sales trends? P rofitability For each major market consider the following: Is this a business are in which the average firm will make money? How intense is the competition among existing firms? Evaluate the threats from potential entrants and substitute products. What is the bargaining power of suppliers and customers? How attractive/profitable are the market now and in the future? Cost Structure What are the major cost and value-added components for various types of competitors? Distribution Systems What are the alternative channels of distribution? How are they changing? Market Trends What are the trends in the market? Key Success Factors What are the key success factors, assets and competencies needed to compete successfully? How will these change in the future? Environmental Analysis An environmental analysis is the four dimension of the External Analysis. The interest is in environmental trends and events that have the potential to affect strategy. This analysis should identify such trends and events and the estimate their likelihood and impact. When onducting this type of analysis, it is easy to get bogged down in an extensive, broad survey of trends. It is necessary to restrict the analysis to those areas relevant enough to have significant impact on strategy. This analysis is divided into five areas: economic, technological, political-legal, sociocultur al, and future. Economic What economic trends might have an impact on business activity? (Interest rates, inflation, unemployment levels, energy availability, disposable income, etc) Technological To what extent are existing technologies maturing? What technological developments or trends are affecting or could affect our industry? Government What changes in regulation are possible? What will their impact be on our industry? What tax or other incentives are being developed that might affect strategy development? Are there political or government stability risks? Sociocultural What are the current or emerging trends in lifestyle, fashions, and other components of culture? What are there implications? What demographic trends will affect the market size of the industry? (growth rate, income, population shifts) Do these trends represent an opportunity or a threat? Future What are significant trends and future events? What are the key areas of uncertainty as to trends or events that have the potential to impact strategy? Internal Analysis Understanding a business in depth is the goal of internal analysis. This analysis is based resources and capabilities of the firm. Resources A good starting point to identify company resources is to look at tangible, intangible and human resources. Tangible resources are the easiest to identify and evaluate: financial resources and physical assets are identifies and valued in the firm’s financial statements. Intangible resources are largely invisible, but over time become more important to the firm than tangible assets because they can be a main source for a competitive advantage. Such intangible recourses include reputational assets (brands, image, etc. ) and technological assets (proprietary technology and know-how). Human resources or human capital are the productive services human beings offer the firm in terms of their skills, knowledge, reasoning, and decision-making abilities. Competitive advantage Competitive Advantage Definition A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices. Competitive Strategies Following on from his work analysing the competitive forces in an industry, Michael Porter suggested four generic business strategies that could be adopted in order to gain competitive advantage. The four strategies relate to the extent to which the scope of a businesses activities are narrow versus broad and the extent to which a business seeks to differentiate its products. The four strategies are summarised in the figure below: The differentiation and cost leadership strategies seek competitive advantage in a broad range of market or industry segments. By contrast, the differentiation focus and cost focus strategies are adopted in a narrow market or industry. Strategy Differentiation This strategy involves selecting one or more criteria used by buyers in a market and then positioning the business uniquely to meet those criteria. This strategy is usually associated with charging a premium price for the product often to reflect the higher production costs and extra value-added features provided for the consumer. Differentiation is about charging a premium price that more than covers the additional production costs, and about giving customers clear reasons to prefer the product over other, less differentiated products. Examples of Differentiation Strategy: Mercedes cars; Bang ; Olufsen Strategy Cost Leadership With this strategy, the objective is to become the lowest-cost producer in the industry. Many (perhaps all) market segments in the industry are supplied with the emphasis placed minimising costs. If the achieved selling price can at least equal (or near)the average for the market, then the lowest-cost producer will (in theory) enjoy the best profits. This strategy is usually associated with large-scale businesses offering standard products with relatively little differentiation that are perfectly acceptable to the majority of customers. Occasionally, a low-cost leader will also discount its product to maximise sales, particularly if it has a significant cost advantage over the competition and, in doing so, it can further increase its market share. Examples of Cost Leadership: Nissan; Tesco; Dell Computers Strategy Differentiation Focus In the differentiation focus strategy, a business aims to differentiate within just one or a small number of target market segments. The special customer needs of the segment mean that there are opportunities to provide products that are clearly different from competitors who may be targeting a broader group of customers. The important issue for any business adopting this strategy is to ensure that customers really do have different needs and wants in other words that there is a valid basis for differentiation and that existing competitor products are not meeting those needs and wants. Examples of Differentiation Focus: any successful niche retailers; (e. g. The Perfume Shop); or specialist holiday operator (e. g. Carrier) Strategy Cost Focus Here a business seeks a lower-cost advantage in just on or a small number of market segments. The product will be basic perhaps a similar product to the higher-priced and featured market leader, but acceptable to sufficient consumers. Such products are often called me-toos. Examples of Cost Focus: Many smaller retailers featuring own-label or discounted label products. Competitive advantage is defined as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving competitive advantage strengthens and positions a business better within the business environment. Contents[hide] * 1 Resource-based view perspective * 2 See also * 3 References * 4 Further reading * 5 External links| [edit] Resource-based view perspective Competitive advantage is based on theory that seeks to address some of the criticisms of comparative advantage. Michael Porter proposed the theory in 1985. Competitive advantage theory suggests that states and businesses should pursue policies that create high-quality goods to sell at high prices in the market. Porter emphasizes productivity growth as the focus of national strategies. Competitive advantage rests on the notion that cheap labor is ubiquitous and natural resources are not necessary for a good economy. The other theory, comparative advantage, can lead countries to specialize in exporting primary goods and raw materials that trap countries in low-wage economies due to terms of trade. Competitive advantage attempts to correct for this issue by stressing maximizing scale economies in goods and services that garner premium prices (Stutz and Warf 2009). Competitive advantage occurs when an organization acquires or develops an attribute or combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. These attributes can include access to natural resources, such as high grade ores or inexpensive power, or access to highly trained and skilled personnel human resources. New technologies such as robotics and information technology either to be included as a part of the product, or to assist making it. Information technology has become such a prominent part of the modern business world that it can also contribute to competitive advantage by outperforming competitors with regard to internet presence. From the very beginning, i. e. Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations, the central problem of information transmittal, leading to the rise of middle-men in the marketplace, has been a significant impediment in gaining competitive advantage. By using the internet as the middle-man, the purveyor of information to the final consumer, businesses can gain a competitive advantage through creation of an effective website, which in the past required extensive effort finding the right middle-man and cultivating the relationship. The term competitive advantage is the ability gained through attributes and resources to perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market (Christensen and Fahey 1984, Kay 1994, Porter 1980 cited by Chacarbaghi and Lynch 1999, p. 45). The study of such advantage has attracted profound research interest due to contemporary issues regarding superior performance levels of firms in the present competitive market conditions. â€Å"A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential player† (Barney 1991 cited by Clulow et al. 2003, p. 221). Successfully implemented strategies will lift a firm to superior performance by facilitating the firm with competitive advantage to outperform current or potential players (Passemard and Calantone 2000, p. 18). To gain competitive advantage a business strategy of a firm manipulates the various resources over which it has direct control and these resources have the ability to generate competitive advantage (Reed and Fillippi 1990 cited by Rijamampianina 2003, p. 362). Superior performance outcomes and superiority in production resources reflects competitive advantage (Day and Wesley 1988 cited by Lau 2002, p. 125). Above writings signify competitive advantage as the ability to stay ahead of present or potential competition, thus superior performance reached through competitive advantage will ensure market leadership. Also it provides the understanding that resources held by a firm and the business strategy will have a profound impact on generating competitive advantage. Powell (2001, p. 132) views business strategy as the tool that manipulates the resources and create competitive advantage, hence, viable business strategy may not be adequate unless it possess control over unique resources that has the ability to create such a unique advantage. Summarizing the view points, competitive advantage is a key determinant of superior performance and it will ensure survival and prominent placing in the market. Superior performance being the ultimate desired goal of a firm, competitive advantage becomes the foundation highlighting the significant importance to develop same. What are strategic capabilities? The concept of capabilities in strategic management is appealing because it suggests that a company’s competitiveness depends on how it does what it does, not only what market it is in. To me and most others with an engineering background this is totally obvious. Any theory that suggests otherwise seems highly implausible and is also rejected by numerous examples of companies with strong and unique engineering skills that manage to create a market for themselves based on their own capabilities. That is not to say that choice of market is unimportant, but a brilliant plan can easily be ruined if the necessary capabilities are lacking. Similarly, a plan which may appear mediocre on paper may become highly successful if conducted by a team with excellent capabilities. Operations matter, and developing apabilities that make operations successful is a highly strategic issue. A key element of the capabilities framework is identification of the foundations on which distinctive and di fficult–to–replicate advantages can be built, maintained and enhanced (Teece et al. 1997). To my satisfaction, the cited authors also found that â€Å"The balance sheet is a poor shadow of a firm’s distinctive competences. † Instead, it is necessary to develop capabilities that help the company to create competitive advantage. This process takes time, and unique and deeply rooted capabilities cannot be bought off–the–shelf. I would like to offer the following definitions: Strategic capabilities: High–level routines, resources and competences that are recognised as important in order to create and sustain a competitive advantage. Operational capabilities: High–level routines, resources and competences that yield the firms operational functions. Dynamic capabilities: High–level routines, resources and competences that allows a firm to modify its existing operational capabilities. I’m not taking these definitions out of thin air, please check out chapter 3 of my thesis (PDF, 931kB) if you’re interested in reading more. However, you should not take these definitions as carved in stone. My view, and others’ too I think, of this subject is constantly evolving. Essentially, strategic capabilities express what a firm wants to be able to do, while operational capabilities determine what it is actually able to do. Dynamic capabilities express the capability to close the gap between existing operational capabilities and desired strategic capabilities. Assessing and enhancing strategic capability: a value-driven approach. (value chain analysis in corporate finance) Management Accounting (British) See all results for this publication Browse back issues of this publication by date June 1, 1994 | Partridge, Mike; Perren, Lew | Copyright COPYRIGHT 1999 Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Service. Share Mike Partridge and Lew Perren of the University of Brighton continue the theme that they introduced in the November issuethat firms should maintain an external strategic perspective. They move on this month to examine the strategic capability of the firm through the use of Porters value chain analysis. [1] They introduce the fundamentals of they value chain, examine some emergent issues and explore its practical application. Readers unfamiliar with the five forces model, the competitive arena, generic strategies or the Porter approach to strategy development are directed to their earlier articles in the series. 2] Strengths and weaknesses analysis is a useful way of appraising a firms resources and competencies relative to industry norms and also to the opportunities and threats perceived in the competitive environment. Historically, the SWOT approach to strategic analysis has, when used thoughtfully, offered useful signals for strategic change. What it has lacked is an explicit focus on strategic capability, differentiation and strategic advantage. This the value chain seeks to remedy. Activities and the value chain Porter suggests that firms can be viewed as a flow of activities performed to provide products or services to customers. [1] These activities can be organised into a value chain that portrays how the firm creates value (see Figure 1, which describes the †¦

Please suggest parts that I can cut out as it is t Essays

Please suggest parts that I can cut out as it is too long at the moment. Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth By Sanya Dua Modern responders can gain insight into the concerns of World War 1 through an appreciation of texts written during that time. "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth", both written in 1917 by World War I veteran, Wilfred Owen typify wartime poems. His literature highlights the contextual issues of his society such as anti-war sentiment, the horrors of war and the erosion of religious faith. Owen's work ultimately allows us to gain a deeper appreciation of the brutality of war and for those who fought, lived and suffered through it. "Dulce et Decorum Est" and " Anthem for Doomed Youth" both capture the anti-war sentiment that grew as a result of the widespread death and suffering. Owen explores the futility of war by highlighting the pointlessness of deaths that occur, through the rhetorical question and simile, "What passing bells for those who die as cattle." This degrades the lives of soldier to the same level as cattle as they are being slaughtered for others gain. Personification is used in, the monstrous anger of guns' to underscore the potential for weapons to deliver horrific damage to the lives of soldiers which fuelled the worries and concerns of their families back home. Owen continues to depict the declining support for the war in "Dulce et Decorum Est" through the use of second person to address those who would encourage young men to give up their lives for their country as illustrated in "my friend, you would not tell with such high zest". The use of "my friend" is ironic and betrays his anger as h e holds these people accountable for what he and so many others has had to endure and claims that if only they were to witness the atrocities of war then they would realise the extent of the "old Lie". Thus, the ideas that Owen presents to readers in his poem act to reinforce the futility of war by highlighting the eroding support for the war that was present in the context of the 1910s. The brutal nature of World War I was one of the main reasons behind society's concern with the conflict. Owen uses "Dulce et Decorum Est" to explore the horrors of war by capturing the concerns of those involved. Owen depicts the poor physical condition of the men, "bent double, like old beggars under sacks." This simile demonstrates how dirty and unhealthy the soldiers appear. They are compared to "old beggars" which highlights how the men have been aged prematurely by their experiences. Owen also uses imagery to make comments on the terrible mental effects that the war has on the men, "drunk with fatigue". This helps convey the exhaustion that the men had to endure and throws into sharp relief the hardships and suffering of the men. Owen conveys how depressing war can be in "Anthem for doomed youth" through the use of an comparison in "but in their eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of good byes. The pallor of girls' shall be their pall." Through this he illustrates the families' reactions to the death of loved ones. The dead soldiers do not get to be honoured; all their families and friends can do is grieve at the sorrowful news. These notions of pain and suffering are shown by Owen to be the driving force behind the contextual concern with the atrocities of war. Owen explains how the burden of World War I eroded the religious faith of those fighting for their country. During a time when religion played an integral role in everyday life, "Anthem of Doomed Youth" casts doubt on the importance of faith. Owen conveys his own loss of faith by highlighting the pointless religious mourning that follows every death by using a rhetorical question, What candles may be held to speed them all?' The candles are symbolic of religious tradition and are depicted as redundant. The idea of declining religion and loss of faith is carried into many of Owen's other works including "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Here the poet employs religious imagery to

An inspector calls is a play by JB Priestley Essay Example

An inspector calls is a play by JB Priestley Essay Example An inspector calls is a play by JB Priestley Essay An inspector calls is a play by JB Priestley Essay Essay Topic: Literature An inspector calls is a play by JB Priestley. It is set in 1912 but was written in 1945, just months after the end of World War II. It was no coincidence however, that Priestley chose to write the play at this time, it was indeed his deliberate action to publish it at such a vulnerable time. England was currently undergoing a period of great social and political change. And as many people had been affected by the war and the nation in need of drastic renovation, most people were leaning towards the introduction of a more socialist government in hope that it would draw a finer line between the extremely wealthy and the poor. However, much of the middle and upper classes still remained faithful to the ideals of capitalism, whereas Priestley, himself coming from a modest background, also favoured the ideals of socialism, many of which are presented in the play. Priestleys political views had also been very much influenced by major incidents that had occurred throughout his life. Born in 1894, he would have himself been a witness to both world wars, which would have had a great impact on his social outlook. The depression of the 1930s would also have changed his views or shed new light on how he believed society should operate. After the Wall Street crash in 1929, millions of Americans were in desperate need of financial help from the government. However, the current government, under Herbert Hoover, disapproved of such involvement in its citizens lives. His capitalist ideal of rugged individualism encouraged the belief of every man for himself. Of course this had worked fine throughout the boom of the 1920s where people did not necessitate government aid, but now as people were starving and being evicted from their homes, rugged individualism was doomed for failure. However, when FDR Roosevelt was elected in 1929, major improvements were made within the space of a year. FDR believed in having a closer relationship with his people, he believed in everybody having more of a collective responsibility. Billions of dollars were spent on setting up major projects including numerous agencies which each dealt with separate areas of unemployment. These attempts to resuscitate America worked, unemployment fell steadily down and America gradually returned to more or less how it had been in the early 1920s. Having lived through such times would have caused Priestley to take mental note of such significant events, the depression would only have strengthened his belief in socialism and collective responsibility. The play therefore, was written primarily as a vehicle for Priestleys social comment, and as the election of 1945 was steadily approaching, he chose to publish it at this time in an attempt to influence peoples ideas. The novel was written in the form of a play in order to convey this political message to the desired audience. During the period that the play was written, the theatre was mostly frequented by the upper and middle classes, and so this would seemingly be the most direct way of putting such a message across. However, Priestley had to be very careful about how he went about this. If the audience realised that they were in fact being lectured, the play would not prove to be very popular and become unsuccessful in achieving its objective. Priestley therefore disguised his message in the form of a play about a middle class man and his family. The curtain opens on the dining room of a fairly large suburban house. This setting is constant throughout and is only altered in terms of light. The family is celebrating Sheilas engagement to Gerald, Mr Birlings daughter and business competitor. The lighting at first is soft and pink, and the furniture both cosy and typical of the period. This familiar atmosphere would instantly put the audience at ease with what they are seeing, it would have been a familiar scene with which most of the audience could relate and feel comfortable with. Priestley used this technique specifically as a way of putting the audiences guard down, in order for them to fully absorb the social message that arises later in the play. In other words, the audience is now more susceptible to Priestleys message. The first character we are presented with is Mr Birling, we are told in the opening stage directions that he is a rather portentous man, and indeed his speeches would seem to reflect that. He states very briefly how glad he is about the engagement and then moves on to a speech about how Sheila and Gerald are marrying at a time of steadily increasing prosperity. We soon begin to realise that Mr Birling is a very opinionated man, but also begin to wonder how worthwhile his opinions actually are: Youll hear some people say wars inevitable, and to that I say fiddlesticks! The Germans dont want war. Nobody wants war His speeches give us an impression of a pompous, dogmatic man who only seems to value his own opinion: The titanic she sails next week forty six thousand eight hundred tons -New York in five days and every luxury and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable. Of course these quotes would be very ironic for the audience as they all know that both the sinking of the titanic and war did in fact occur; this is known as dramatic irony. Other statements also seem to suggest that Mr Birling simply sees the marriage as a way of becoming socially mobile: Your father and I have been business rivals for some time now though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and Company and now youve brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing, but working together, for lower costs and igher prices. Not only do Birlings speeches make us realise how arrogant and futile his opinions are, but they also reveal that he is in fact a staunch capitalist; he does try to justify his opinions but also entirely neglects the fact that not everybody has equal opportunities in life. He ignores the fact that not everybody can work hard to achieve to success, as not everybody has the privilege of an education or even a job to work hard in: Youd think that everybody had to look after everybody, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive community and all that nonsense. Priestley uses an interesting device in this quote, he actually paradoxes himself as a way of challenging the middle class values; the way some of these cranks talk these days He also mentions other authors prior to himself who had very similar values to him: We cant let these Bernard Shaws and HG Wellses do all the talking. We hard- headed practical businessmen must say something sometime. At this point, conveniently in the middle of one of Birlings capitalist speeches, an inspector intrudes on the evenings celebrations. The lights become harder and brighter at his entrance, as a way of signifying a powerful presence. However, this could also be criticised for making the audience feel uncomfortable with the inspectors presence, possibly making them more resistant or reluctant to accept his message. The inspector in the play is a powerful, or rather omniscient figure who is used as a vehicle to promote the authorial viewpoint. And although most of the audience will at present not be aware that they are in fact being openly criticised or challenged, some may have picked it up when Mr Birling, an obvious representation of the upper classes, was being ridiculed in his speeches. The Inspector arrives at the scene concerning the suicide of a young girl called Eva Smith; who died earlier that evening after drinking a large dose of strong disinfectant in an act of suicide. And although Mr Birling is reluctant to answer questions on such an occasion, the inspectors persistence and immunity to Birlings hints of his friendship to Chief Colonel Roberts force him to undergo an interview with the inspector. After questioning, it is revealed that Mr Birling did in fact know Eva Smith, she had been a worker at his factory before he fired her two years ago. When Birling is asked why, he admits that she was a good worker, but he was forced to sack her because she had had the audacity to ask for higher wages. He is at this point confronted by his own son, Eric, who thinks that his father was wrong for sacking Eva Smith simply because she had more charisma than the others; Why shouldnt she try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices You said yourself she was a good worker. What Priestley was trying to convey here, was his belief that the younger generation offered more optimism to the ideas of socialism, and that social views in society were beginning to change. This is further reinforced when we meet Sheila, Mr Birlings daughter. Mr Birling however, continues to completely deny any responsibility on Eva Smiths suicide, stating that he had sacked her nearly two years ago, and that he could therefore have nothing to do with the suicide whatsoever. The inspector however, seems to disagree: What happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events. At this point Sheila enters, completely oblivious to the inspectors arrival. When told of her fathers actions however, she agrees with Eric and the inspector, and seems to sympathise greatly with the death of the poor girl: But these girls arent cheap labour, theyre people. Sheila gives the impression of a caring, compassionate young girl, but in retrospective irony, the audience will soon realise how improper her words are. After some persuasion from the inspector, Mr Birling allows his daughter to be questioned. The inspector had previously mentioned that after having been fired from Birling and Co. Eva Smith was out of work for two months, and having no parents or home to go back to, she lived in lodgings with the little money she had saved from working at the factory. It so happened however that she had a wonderful stroke of luck and found a job at Milwards, a popular and somewhat prestigious fashion store of the time. However, after about a couple of months, just as she felt that she was settling down nicely, they told her she had to go. It was admitted that it had nothing to do with how Eva was working, but that a customer had made a complaint and so she would have to leave. Upon hearing this Sheila becomes uneasy and asks what the girl looked like, the inspector moves nearer towards a light and shows her a photograph of Eva, at which Sheila gives a little cry and rushes out of the room. When later Sheila is confronted with her actions, amidst repentant pleas she admits that she complained to the manager of Milwards because she had been jealous of Eva: The dress suited her, she was the right type for it. She was a very pretty girl too and that didnt make it any better. When I tried the thing on I knew it was ll wrong, I caught sight of this girl smiling at Miss Francis as if to say, doesnt she look awful and I was absolutely furious. While Priestley still thought that the younger generation provided greater hope for the ideas of socialism, this shows how he felt anyone could fall victim to hypocrisy, and how it would be very easy, however sorry afterwards, for anyone born into such wealth to succumb to the uncontrollable flaws of human nature. The play at this point seems to be that of a straightforward, detective thriller. As each of the characters involvement with Eva Smith is eventually revealed, the structure of the play seems to evolve into one of a whodunit, as each person unravels a piece of Eva Smiths history. The next person to be confronted is Gerald Croft. When it is announced that Eva Smith later changed her name to Daisy Renton he is startled and it becomes quite obvious that he has heard that name before, however he remains silent while the inspector leaves the room. Sheila senses however that something is wrong and forces Gerald into confession. He, or rather Sheila, who unravels the situation herself, reveals that he was in fact having an affair with Daisy for almost six months. Gerald tries to persuade Sheila into keeping this information from the inspector, but in something of a fit of hysteria she points out that he already knows. The omniscient inspector, even through detailed questioning, has not actually discovered anything that he didnt already know. In fact he never actually directly accuses anyone, but somehow, in a somewhat intimidating manner and a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses, he is driving them all into confession: Why you fool he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we dont know yet. Youll see. Youll see. Gerald eventually admits his Affair with Daisy, but claims that his initial intentions were good. He explains that after having met her in a bar and discovering that she had no place to live, he offered her some money and temporary stay in an empty friends house. When the inspector asks him if she eventually became his mistress however, he admits: Yes. I suppose it was inevitable. She was young, pretty and warm-hearted and intensely grateful. The act ends when Gerald confesses his affair with Eva Smith to Sheila. Priestley does this deliberately to heighten the audiences suspense with this use of climaxes, always ensuring that they are left with a cliff-hanger at the end of each act. The audiences interest is sustained not only by the progressive revelation of each persons involvement with the suicide, but also the desire to find out who, primarily, was responsible for Eva Smiths death. After Geralds confession, the inspector turns to Mrs Birling. At first she too is extremely reluctant to answer any questions, and also denies recognising the photograph of Eva Smith. But the inspector, in his omniscience, makes Mrs Birling realise that there is no use in denying recognition. The inspector makes her admit that she did in fact know this girl, and that she had refused her help two weeks ago when she had pleaded to her. (She was at the time chair of the Brumley womens charity organisation. ) When asked why, Mrs Birling calmly and unemotionally claims that she did not believe the girls story, and that she also was instantly prejudiced against her as she had enough impudence to give herself the name Birling. It is also revealed that Daisy Renton was in fact pregnant, and even though Mrs Birling was perfectly aware of this, not only did she refuse her help, but she also saw to it that others refused it too. Furthermore she recounts that she couldnt believe the girls story because Daisy had mentioned refusing money from the father of the child as it was stolen, and admittingly, Mrs Birling states that she found this very hard to believe: As if a girl of that sort would refuse money. This comment would seem to insinuate that the working classes have no morals, and would jump at any opportunity, however drastic, for money. However harsh her actions may have been though, Mrs Birling continues to vehemently deny any responsibility for Daisy Rentons death. She has no trouble however, in shifting the blame onto her own husband: And remember before you start accusing me of anything again that it wasnt I who turned her out of her employment, which probably began it all. The inspector then asks Mrs Birling whom she really believes the chief culprit is in the whole ordeal. First, she mentions the girl herself, but when asked to specify, she claims that if Daisys story was true, and the father truly was an immature drunk, then he should be the one to accept the entire blame. Not only does she say that she believes he is the chief culprit, but also makes sure to mention him having to be dealt with very severely. And despite pleas from Sheila for her mother to stop, Mrs Birling says this quite calmly, perfectly unaware that this person is of course, her own son: Mother I begged and begged you to stop But surely I mean its ridiculous I dont believe it, I wont believe it. The curtain opens with Eric entering the room as the others simply stare at him. He seems genuinely distressed and his attitude to the accusations would seem to resemble Sheilas. Erics confession turns out to be the most shocking, as not only do we find out that he is the father of the child, but also that he is a heavy drinker and that he had to even resort to stealing money from his own father. He claims to have met Eva at a bar, where he started talking to her and then they both ended up drunk by the time they had to leave. He remembers little after that, but recounts meeting her again a fortnight later. Once again he drank, but moderately, and so this time remembers going back to her house and making love. After finding out that Daisy was pregnant however, Eric offered to marry her, but she refused, saying that he was speaking out of duty, not of love. Eric however, still felt inclined to give her money until she found a job, and insisted that she accept fifty pounds: And where did you get fifty pounds from? I got it from the office You mean you stole the money? It is at this point that the play reveals its second form that of a morality play. The inspectors final speech claims that while Arthur Birling may have started the whole ordeal, each and everybody in that room was responsible for Eva Smiths suicide. And while it is too late to save Eva, as he claims: There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, hopes and fears, their suffering and chance, all intertwined with our lives And I tell you that the time will come soon when, if men will ot learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Priestleys last comment here would seem to be a reference to world war one, which occurred two years after the play was set. It is important to remember that while these are just characters in a fictional play, Priestley intended each one of them to represent a microcosm of society. Mr Birling is the rather selfish middle class businessman, but who is also seen as quite a laughable or pathetic figure whose opinions are not taken seriously by the audience. Mrs Birling represents the emotionally cold upper class woman who doesnt show the slightest bit of remorse for having turned away a pregnant woman for help, apart from when of-course she discovers shes had a part to play in the death of her own grand-son. Gerald is the young, carefree, well-off businessman who is primarily concerned with his having a good time. And finally, Eric and Sheila both represent the rather hypocritical but altogether more compassionate younger generation. Indeed, when it is eventually discovered that the inspector was not actually an inspector at all, and that no girl had actually committed suicide that day, Sheila and Eric are the only two who still show remorse for their actions: Everything we said had happened really had happened. If it didnt end tragically then thats lucky for us. But it might have done whoever that inspector was, it was anything but a joke. You began to learn something. And now youve stopped. Youre ready to go in the same old way. While Eric and Sheila are still aware of the consequences their actions may have led to, the rest of the family breathe a sigh of relief and talk rather amusedly about the supposed hoax. However, the play ends in a rather unpredictable fashion. Just as Mr Birling is laughing at Eric and Sheila for not being able to take a joke, the phone rings sharply, he answers it, and then turns round in a panic-stricken fashion at the others: That was the police. A girl has just died on her way to the infirmary after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is coming round to ask some questions As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls By closing the play in such a way, Priestley has turned the ending itself into a dramatic device. The audience will now leave the theatre wondering what the ending actually meant. Was the inspector a realistic, straightforward police inspector? Was he a hoaxer? Or did he, in his omniscience, represent something supernatural? All these questions are deliberately left unanswered by Priestly so that the audience will leave thinking about the play, and then hopefully, about the message it conveyed.

Commenting on discussion forum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Commenting on discussion forum - Essay Example To the contrary, his family cheerfully accepts him as he plays the function of a mother substitute nursing his family. The movie, â€Å"The blossoming of Maximo Oliveros,† demonstrates that gay life does not necessarily follow preordained patterns or preconceived ideas. Maximo undergoes transformation, but with little suffering, which is not in the manner in which casual viewers might anticipate. Contrary to most films, the family does not appear to undermine personal preferences such as gender. The dichotomy between gender and sexuality can be regarded as significantly interchanged within the film. The film, The blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, can be considered to place a positive reinforcement of homosexuals into perspective. The film depicts the stereotypical and real lives of gays in good light, especially regarding gender reassignment and cross-dressing. The film, The blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, mirrors cultural acceptance of homosexuality within Philippines. The treatment of homosexuality is distinct and refreshing, and the film does not resort to stereotypes at the expense of gay characters. One of the film’s most interesting aspects relates to the portrayal of the possibility that effeminate homosexuals can live relatively peacefully in the slums. The film depicts that the general mood in Philippines regarding homosexuality situated between tolerance, amusement, and acceptance; however, this does not necessarily mean that the Philippines is immune from the spurts of homophobia (Roces and Grace 61). The film demonstrates the easiness of accepting others who are diverse from the norm as long as they build a bond. The Filipino film industry has grown over the years and is increasingly embraced by the world. Presently, the film industry criticized as â€Å"poorly made† in the description of quality of films been produced. Filipino needs to embrace new genres and add innovation in the

Business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

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Application of the color combinations and principles of design Essay

Application of the color combinations and principles of design - Essay Example 31). Still life by Jacob van Walscapelle is a drawing showing fruits and flowers as the main life subjects. Light was used to emphasize on the sharpness of the fruits; with the peach being at its direction. The fine glass has a red wine, while the shorter one contains water. The grapes have their traditional pale purple shade showing maturity. In terms of principles of designs applied in the two paintings, rhythm is created in the first picture by having smooth transitions between all components of the pictures; there is no clear cut colour difference between the buildings and the field at the background. However, the audience can notice that the painting is detailed only under close scrutiny. The artist gave balance to the items in ‘Still life’ painting by arranging them at strategic points for the picture not to appear heavy at some points and light at the rest of the painting. In this respect, the tall glass is positioned at the left side; however, it balances with the huge pawpaw fruit situated at the right

BP Commerce Analysis

BP Commerce Analysis I believe strongly that we need a work environment where everyone can bring all of themselves to work every day and not feel like they have to be someone else in order to succeed. -Tony Hayward, BP CEO /BP is one of the largest organizations in oil, gas, and alternative energy industry in the world. It employs more than 100 000 people across the world and provides essential oil, gas, and energy products for nearly 13 million customers every day in more than 100 countries. The company has a wide range of businesses including exploration and production, refining and marketing, gas power, and alternative energy (BP, 2010). Despite the success in the market or economic downturns, organization always must care about their employees who bring this success through skills, competencies, and hard work. Therefore, company must have a diversity and inclusion policy in place in order to create perfect working environment for these employees, to motivate them, remunerate, and retain the best. We might ask ourselves why diversity and inclusion is so important to any large or small company. The answer is that employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and community partners place a high value on organization for being fair and meritocratic (BP, 2010). Furthermore, we need to recognize the availability of skilled employees is getting smaller in nowadays market and economic situation. Every organization tries to attract new skilled labor and to retain talented employees in the company. In order to achieve that, organizations must have reputation, operational processes and imbedded policies, working climate that not only respects differences, but expose them for competitive advantage. BP is a multinational organization and it is essential to have an up-to-date policies and procedures in place for evaluation and monitoring purposes in order to comply with equality and inclusion policies, avoid any kind of discrimination, and ensure equal opportunities for everyone. Different organizations have different policies and practices and in order to compare BP to others, this organizational audit will review BPs other main competitors such as Exxon and Shell for a comparison on diversity and inclusion issues, provide investigation summary of BPs equal opportunity and equal pay practices, and provide action plans and cost and benefit analysis in order to enhance equality and diversity practice in the organization. A Summary of Analysis The purpose of this project is to produce diversity and inclusion analysis for BPs North Africa Strategic Performance Unit (further NA SPU) based on pay review recommendations in 2009 for employees to be effective on 1st of April 2010. I will be looking at Level E (senior level leaders) to Level K (administration) concentrating on equal pay issues and gender inequality (gaps) among UK employees only. The reason for this is that NA SPU has fairly big population and it is down to UK employees based locally in UK and in the businesses across the world. More to mention, this SPU is a perfect representation sample for other similar strategic performance units across the organization. 270 employees in North Africa Strategic Performance Unit (NA SPU) 139 UK nationals in NA SPU 31 Female employees 108 Male employees Level E (senior level leaders) 7 Males; 0 Females Level F(team leaders/professionals) 26 Males; 2 Females Level G (team leaders/professionals 30 Males; 4 Females Level H (team leaders/professionals 19 Males; 6 Females Level I (specialists/advisors) 17 Males; 8 Females Level J (specialists/advisors) 8 Males; 5 Females Level K (administration) Male 1; 6 Females All analysis is done only for the UK nationals population across all Levels, and Disciplines in NA SPU In order to get a better picture about pay equality and find out if there is any gaps in gender equality it is essential to analyse consistency of Salary Review process across the NA SPU and identify potential inequality in monetary reward between genders in different departments, levels, and across different disciplines. It is important to concentrate on the data which is robust- gender, income, length of service, and grouped by levels and disciplines. The sample group of employees does consist of different levels from E (senior level leaders) to K (administrative employees). It is a healthy business population that depicts statistical average of different employees in SPUs and other businesses within the company. Even though we have split the data down to segments any equal opportunity data is best analysed by working of groups so similar in roles and at similar level can be looked at. In order to understand the data better, I am providing few tables with graphic representation and statistical summary of the proposed data, following the brief comments to bring the main points or anomalies that could be potential gaps in reward and gender equality in the workplace. E F G H I J K Level Average SalaryGraph 1 Average New Salary comparison between Males and Females All Levels Higher level male and female employees positioned on the higher range of average salary scale and lower level male and female employees positioned on the lower range of average salary- it is consistent across every level. As the graph shows all the proposed employee salaries does not have any significant and female and male employees up to level G are similarly positioned on the salary grid. However, I would like to mention that circled in red on the graph data shows that level F female employees are on the lower range of the salary comparing to level F male employees. Picking the fact that there is significantly low number of female workers in higher levels- it raises the question of the possible glass ceiling that prevents female workers to get higher levels and be paid equally. Graph 2 Average New Salary by Job Discipline All Levels This data is very interesting, because it compares proposed new average salary between male and female employees in all levels but grouped by job discipline. The lowest paid group is administration, and the highest paid group of employees are drilling, geosciences disciplines where employees considered as professional and highly skilled workforce. Unfortunately, we notice that in geosciences and petroleum engineering disciplines we a have a significant difference in average salary between male and female employees. This is due to the fact that we have few women who works in these disciplines and the pay equality is very doubtful. On the other hand women earn more in average in the administration and commercial disciplines and we do not have any women working so called male oriented jobs in drilling and maintenance disciplines. This needs more investigation of companys recruitment policies and procedures why company does not attract more women into these jobs. Graph 3 Average New Salary by Years of Service All Levels This graph shows different set of data how the salary progresses depending on length of service despite the level of the employee but across level groups and disciplines. We can notice the gradual increase in salary for women and men, however we have only few women with a lengthy history of employment with company, but the good fact is that more and more women are hired into the business comparing with 20 years ago. It is worth to mention that circled in red- employees appear in the bottom of the range due to lower levels and the job discipline itself (administration). A Discussion of the Meaning of the Data Collected To summarise the findings it is clear that males and females are equally paid and well aligned to each other in every level, but there are few gaps in certain disciplines. Even though the national UK statistics is showing that the pay gap between gender is very high (see appendix 1) BP is trying their best to operate according to Equal Pay Act (release 1970), and Equal Pay between sexes (Article 141, EC Treaty). However the lack of female employees in main leadership positions and levels in our sample population- by all means might be understood as glass ceiling effect in the company (Podro, 2006). Therefore, it is interesting to look deeper into BP diversity and inclusion policy and compare the information to main rival companies policies and think of further improvements and recommendations in order the DI policy in BP policy to be attractive and by no means discriminatory. Table 1 Diversity Policy Comparison between Competitors Recruiting Developing Diversity Inclusive Leadership BP The number of graduates recruited through global recruitment program has increased by 58% since 2005 and 63% of these are engineers or scientists. 35% of all graduate hires were women, while 34% of all graduate hires came from racial or ethnic minorities. Diversity and inclusion policy aims to create a truly inclusive meritocracy at organization, in which the diversity of workforce reflects global reach and maximizes available talent while respecting individual differences. By valuing the differences between employees company establishes a platform for creativity, innovation and problem solving. There is a commitment to the development of a culture of diversity is therefore a true business imperative. Managing Inclusion program is now mandatory for all senior level leaders and by the end of year 2006, around 1000 employees at this level had completed the program. The program is still continues to exist in the organization. Exxon Women comprise about 25 percent of companys worldwide workforce, excluding company-operated retail stores. Approximately 12 percent of executive employees are women, compared to 9 percent in 2000. Organizations strength is the quality and diversity of employees. Organization operates Global Workforce Diversity Framework to attract, develop, and retain a premier workforce, actively foster a work environment where individual and cultural differences are respected and valued; and identify and develop leadership capabilities of employees to perform effectively in a variety of environments. Organization is committed to promoting leadership opportunities for women globally and improving the gender balance in the company. Shell By the end of 2009, 14.0% of the most senior leadership positions were filled by women, up from 13.6% in 2008. As well, 26.4% of supervisory positions (up from 24.7% in 2008) and 16.1% of management positions (up from 15.3% in 2008) were held by women. With a core strategic team in Central HR as well as representatives in organizations businesses worldwide, diversity and inclusiveness is an integral part of the organization. It has a vital part to play in underpinning its continuing success by ensuring attraction, recruitment, and retaining the best people- regardless of their gender, nationality or background. Local people fill senior management positions in every country we operate in. In 37% of countries, local nationals filled more than half the senior leadership positions, compared to 32% in 2008 Sources: BP (2010); Shell (2010); ExxonMobil (2010) 3. An Equality Plan BP has made a significant investment over a short period of time to raise awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion in the organization. The diversity and inclusion team was reorganized in 2007 in order to shift ownership of diversity and inclusion to the line and embedded in the business to ensure alignment with organizational strategic plans (BP, 2010). This reorganization of the team paid dividends in the sense that the companys diversity and inclusion policy was a driving force in creating engagement in the workplace, changing leadership attitudes, improving performance representation statistics against competitors, and building pride and ownership among employees in different strategic performance units in the organization. To be more specific, in order to achieve desired results there should be a support for leaders and line managers with implementation of a framework that defines the strategy and priorities. The need of advancements or improvements on existing policies and the frameworks are imminent to achieve business goals and improve on diversity issues: Table 2 Diversity Inclusion Development and Maitenance Population Actions Leadership team Governance of diversity and inclusion strategy and periodical reviews of the progress. Ensure objectives embedded within operating business in every strategic performance unit. DI team Developing and proposing strategy, policy, and framework that advocates and supports diversity and inclusion. Cooperating with HR teams and external sources in order to be up to date with the policy and practices. HR team Serving as consultants and advising everyone involved to identify the critical DI areas in the organization that needs improvement. Leading various activities across the business to promote the equal opportunities. BP employees Everyone must take a part in helping the organization to tackle the diversity issues by taking responsibility for diverse behaviour and attitudes. It is essential to participate in creating inclusive working environment using all available tools and support. Having said that, I would like to concentrate on North Africa SPU populations gender equality and equal pay issues and provide recommendations on what can be done to improve situation and to be compliant with BP diversity model and policies: Table 3 Recommendation Costs Issue Target Recommendation Cost Equality in gender workforce Significantly increase the percentage of female employees in senior level jobs Aggressive external recruitment and local talent search via internal recruitment High costs external recruitment and headhunting can be very expensive since there is scarce pool of highly skilled women to fill in senior level positions Minimal costs local talent search via intranet, local recruitment database, and companies internal publications in every form and shape Equal pay across the levels and disciplines Ensure the pay reviews are according to equal pay act and not discriminatory among male and female workers To review the policy of Salary Review procedure and implement a equal pay process that would allow team leaders to have market data during the annual pay conversations Minimal costs internal policy review procedure, and up to line managers responsibility to be up-to-date of legalities Medium costs a market research, investigation new trends, time costs as well implementing, and communicating the new procedures (if any) Equal opportunities for career progression Increase the percentage of female workers in male dominated disciplines (for example geosciences and drilling) Professional development workshops and attractive internship schemes for university graduates Medium costs third party provided courses and development sessions Medium costs graduate recruitment campaigns, including task group time costs, competitive graduate packages to retain the best talents Culture change DI learning sessions / conferences To make aware BP population about internal issues and introduce to internal statistics Reiterate on importance of diverse workforce and how it could be change to achieve diverse working environment Minimal cost lunch and learn sessions, DI team monthly bulletins, presentations Medium costs external investigation or third party conferences and sessions about the different issues of DI On the other hand, some policies might not become a good practice and therefore organization could face a biggest obstacle- its own culture (Kirton and Greene, 2005). Having said that, it is important that organizations do not force the decisions and make the policy unnatural thing. Diversity and inclusion comes along with the culture and one changes another. So, in order to change the rules of the game in nowadays fast changing environment, organizations should come up with diversity audit to highlight the potential gaps. A Cost and Benefit Analysis It is important that leadership of the organization understands that companies that implement workforce diversity policies acquire an important benefits that strengthen not only long-term competitiveness in the market but also produce short and medium-term performance results (CSES, 2003). Therefore, a cost and benefit analysis is widely used to establish how well a planned action or new policy might turn out. The analysis always brings a results into monetary values, so the very important that a cost benefit analysis include all the costs and all the benefits in order to count the true value and establish if the new policy or new action plan is worth the money. On the other hand, companies in most cases gain positive non-monetary benefits. As Hubbard (2004) clearly explained the value of non-monetary benefits- loyalty of the staff, reputation of the organization, employer of the choice status, and etc. can not be transferred or measured into value of money. Also, the major benefit is that making employees and leadership to think critically and be explicit about the issues within the company that along with diversity and inclusion it brings new strategic choices like culture change. Would like to stress on the few diversity and inclusion initiative that BP already is working on, which is with no doubt puts organization in very positive place among the competitors and promotes business success by trying to minimize obstacles to inclusion: Affinity groups- typically form around ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities, but groups that wish to focus on other important or relevant issues may be considered on a case by case basis, and BP as organization encourages and supports affinity groups working for business benefit (BP, 2010). To name a few, these include the African American Network, Asian American Network, Womens Network, Beyond Pride, BP Latino Network, Gray Matters!, and Working Parents and Parents-to-Be. Flexible working- organization always recognizes that flexible working arrangement is almost a part of the modern working environment and can enable it to retain and attract skilled staff and increase employee commitment and morale. And the most important- the flex-working scheme is an integral part of BPs diversity and inclusion agenda. There are more of these initiatives and groups that work towards developing diverse and inclusive workforce around the world, but of course, there are costs as well associated with the implementation of diversity policies in the organization. Let not forget the cash costs of compliance with laws on discrimination, as well as the investment into programmes that serves as implementation to change internal cultures in the way that the diverse workforce is recruited, retained, and developed (CSES, 2003). To reiterate more on proposed changes for North Africa SPU and diversity and inclusion strategies for BP company as a whole, over recent years, BP has implemented and managed a wide range of global and local diversity and inclusion training programs and initiatives to support employees in understanding diversity and building inclusive behaviors. As we could see that organization is treats the DI very importantly in order to stay in the leading position in the market, however there is plenty to do and enough work in progress.

Allegory of Faith by Johannes Vermeer Essay -- Painting Allegory Faith

Allegory of Faith by Johannes Vermeer The painting, Allegory of Faith, located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was created by the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer. This study of the painting will focus on the subject matter, composition, and the symbolic meaning of the painting in relation to the Catholic faith, as well as the controversy surrounding the success of the painting among modern critics. The characteristic Baroque qualities of this painting will be illuminated through comparison with examples of Dutch 17th century paintings, Vermeer’s other works, and an analysis of his painting technique and style.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Allegory of Faith is considered to be one of Vermeer’s least successful works by some art historians. The painting features a large, pale skinned woman, whose one foot is resting on a globe while she’s staring nowhere in particular in what would appear to be a state of ecstasy. Her left arm is lying on what looks like an altar with a gold chalice, an open Bible, and a crucifix, while her right hand is holding her left breast. On the marble floor there is an apple with a bite taken out of it along with a snake crushed by some masonry. There is a curtain hanging unconvincingly against a chair and a glass sphere hanging from the ceiling. Finally, on the wall in the background, hangs a painting of the Crucifixion, which has been identified as a work by Jacob Jordaens, a Flemish painter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Allegory of Faith was possibly painted for the Catholic chaplain in The Hague, Pere Leon, although it ended up with a Protestant collector before it was sold. Even so, the work would have probably been better titled Allegory of the Catholic Faith. This is because its main function is most definitely to be a representation of faith as defined by the Roman Catholic Church. The glass sphere, attached to the ceiling by a ribbon, for example, was taken ... ...hs 61>> Still the most important aspect of Vermeer’s work is the atmosphere created by his use of light. It seems to scatter throughout the scene, gently touching the colors while being slightly modified by them. In conclusion, the Allegory of Faith presents an interesting and innovative, if somewhat controversial, effort on Jan Vermeer’s part. Despite the uncharacteristic choice of subject matter, the painting still possesses most of the qualities of his later work. It also underscores Vermeer’s allegiance to Catholicism, despite the Netherlands falling under Protestant control. Finally, it is a significant and somewhat unusual work in the Baroque period of art history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bibliography Arasse, Daniel. Vermeer: Faith In Painting. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994. Bailey, Anthony. Vermeer: A View of Delft. New York: Henry Holt, 2001. Fuchs, R. H. Dutch Painting. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978. Pops, Martin. Vermeer: Consciousness and the Chamber of Being. Ann Harbor: UMI Research Press, 1984. Snow, Edward. A Study of Vermeer. Berkley: University of California Press, 1979. End Notes

To whom it may concern

I am writing this letter in hope of consideration to your fine academic institution.   I know there are some irregularities in my recent academic past and I hope this letter can clear some of those things up as well as reassure you that I take the responsibilities of my academic career very seriously and intend to maintain the academic standard of your institution.First, let me take the time to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apply to your school.   I selected your school for its proud history in our area as well as the course curriculum that you offer.   Several friends have recommended the university positively as a great place to learn and succeed so I hope too to be able to thrive there.As you may be aware, the last semester at my previous institution was rather disastrous resulting in a 1.71 overall GPA for the term.   I am quite ashamed at such a low score, however I wish to assure you that it is the result of a very tragic and unusual situation and not aca demic negligence.My mother fell quite ill during the term and was unable to work and I had no choice but to take more hours at work to make up the slack.   I attempted to drop my classes per my university’s instructions, however they only dropped two of the total classes I was enlisted in, and the stress and worry from the extra work and assisting my ailing mother was simply too much, resulting in such poor grades.My mother passed away earlier this summer, and it’s clichà © to say that such a death makes you re-evaluate your life, but when you find yourself within the situation it’s quite true.   I thought of all the things my mother has done for me, and all the things she will never see me accomplish that she wanted to.Her death put fire to my spirits in a way and encouraged me to re-enroll as soon as I could to finish what I started, an education my mother always wanted me to have.I know university considerations are not often about sentiment, but rather about academic rigor, commitment and honesty.   However I do feel I possess these as well and feel I will be a positive addition to your student body.   I am a US Navy veteran, having spent four years in the service of our country with pride.My time in the Navy was often met with hardship and required a will to persevere and taught me to be a stronger and more resourceful human being.   Through your institution I hope to graduate and earn my commission to continue on with my career in the US Navy.In my application I have enclosed my naval evaluations.   These are evaluations done at regular intervals that serve as a kind of report card of our service.   While I understand my last academic term may have put a bad mark on my academic history I hope the spotless record of my naval service can help to put a bit of perspective on my long-term prospects as an academic student.   Should you require any additional documentation or assistance in reading said evaluations, please l et me know.In closing, again, thank you so much for the opportunity to continue my education and to make my mother and country proud.   I hope my admission to your university will be a fresh start for me on the road to my future career goals and happiness.

Popular East Asian Cinema The WritePass Journal

Popular East Asian Cinema Introduction Popular East Asian Cinema IntroductionBackgroundTheme‘A Better Tomorrow’ and ‘As Tears Go By’‘Chungking Express’‘Happy Together’StyleThe Names of Wong Kar-Wai’s moviesMusic ‘In the Mood for Love’Fashion Music The scenesConclusionBibliography Books:Related Introduction Wong Kar-Wai breakthroughs the boundaries of genre film, the narrative style and the efficiency requirements of the market. Wong’s movies always based on Wong’s thinking and bring out the signification. Although the movie themes are the popular, but the films are full of vitality and spirited improvisation. I want to have a brief study of Wong Kar-wai’s background and focus on Wong’s theme and style study and analysis from different films such as ‘As Tears Go By’, ‘Chungking Express’, ‘In the Mood For Love’ etc. As ‘In the Mood For Love’ is my favorite movie of Wong Kar-Wai, I want to have a further study of this film and have a deeper understand about the theme, the function of music, Hong Kong people’s living during 60s. Background Wong Kar-Wai was born in Shanghai in 1958 and moved to Hong Kong when he was five years old. These five years in Shanghai had influenced Wong Kar Wai’s creativity in his films such as the scenes, lifestyle and so on. The interview by New York-based Bomb Magazine (Stephen Teo, WONG KAR-WAI P.50) described the creative subconscious of Wong ‘His father was an ex-sailor, who later worked as a nightclub manager, and his mother was a housewife. From what can be discerned in Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love, both films that could be described as roughly autobiographical, sense of nightclubs, gossiping housewives playing mahjong and living the life of a sailor drifting from one place to another, are the kinds of experiences of growing up that are etched in Wong’s creative subconscious.’ After the graduation in Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he started working in TVB, Hong Kong’s premier TV station as a production assistant and received the appr eciation from Kam Kwok Leong who is a famous cross-media worker of director, actor and screenwriter in Hong Kong, Wong Kar-Wai accessed a large number of creative opportunities to contributed his ideas to a script. He also worked in different kinds of genres such as comedy, cop thrillers etc. In 1987, Alan Tang Kwong-Wing (famous producer, actor and director in Hong Kong) found Wong’s Talent after he wrote the ‘Flaming Brothers’. After that, Alan Tang sponsored Wong’s first movie – ‘As Tears Go By’, it is also the starting point of Wong’s director career. Alan Tang sponsored Wong once again in 1990 for ‘Days of Being Wild’. ‘Day of Being Wild’ had spent forty million but the box office was only nine million. Although the box office was disappointed, Wong won the Best Director in Hong Kong Film Award in 1991. Theme Hong Kong cinema is very concentrate at entertaining. Scriptwriter will pay more attention to the audiences about their preferences and aesthetic views. Movie’s ornamental is the priority for the success of the commercial movies. Most of the directors are not limited by the country, nationality, history and religion. Therefore, when the directors are choosing the topic, they will mainly focus on the packaging of the movies. Hong Kong cinema can be defined as ‘art with commercial’ or ‘commercial with art’. After the development year by year, Hong Kong movie formulated a fixed narrative style for catering to the audiences. Stephen Teo (2005, P.15) mentioned about the formula of Hong Kong movies ‘The nature of Hong Kong cinema concerns the way the industry follows commercial trends and makes films according to a formula’. Most of the movies will follow the timeline to tell the story, but Wong broke the rule at that time. ‘Days of Being Wild’ is a very good example. He ignored the narrative law of the plot, so he can not only having a wider freedom for the selection of the forms and materials, but also make the film became more artificial as you can see Wong Kar Wai’s elements in the movie. He also breaks the circulation and causal chain of Hong Kong cinema’s narrative structure. In ‘Days of being wild’ is tended to show people’s daily life with uncompleted storyline and transformation. ‘Days of Being Wild’ received the spirit of the new wave of Hong Kong cinema. ‘A Better Tomorrow’ and ‘As Tears Go By’ After five years in 1980, there was a new hot wave of ‘Hero Movie’, which started from John Woo’s ‘A Better Tomorrow’. In ‘Hero Movie’, ‘Hero’ means the leader of triad instead of police. The brotherhood in ‘Hero Movie’ replaced the strangeness plot of gangster film. The scene in ‘A Better Tomorrow’ was happened in Hong Kong in 1986; it is all about a man keeps chasing personal loyalty, self-esteem, self-confidence and status. The society background usually is simple in ‘Hero Movie’; it doesn’t emphasis the contradiction between society and people. In ‘A Better Tomorrow’, it is all about the love between father and son, brotherhood, friendship, relationship, injustice and revenge. It created a fairy story of a real ‘Hero’. Wong’s ‘As Tears Go By’ is the variation of ‘Hero Movie’. The plot of ‘As Tears Go By’ is build-up on the brotherhood of Wah and Fly under the contradiction between police and triad. Merely, Wong moved the spirit of the brotherhood between Mark ‘Gor’ Lee and Sung Tse-Ho to Wah and Fly in ‘As Tears Go By’ who shot by his brother at the end. Wah is not only accomplished the brotherhood but also shows that even ‘Hero’ can’t accomplish great things gloriously. In these two films, ‘A Better Tomorrow’ is full of idealism of justice and ethics. Under the packaging with violence, the world in ‘Hero Movie’ is having a clear definition of good and evil and the desire of justice, such as Mark ‘Gor’ Lee and Sung Tse-Ho are killing the enemies together and died eventually with brotherhood, friendship and relationship. Scriptwriter arranged them died with glory. It tur ns Mark ‘Gor’ Lee becomes the hero in the legend. Merely, the Hero’ in ‘As Tears Go By’ can’t. The dead of Wah and Fly not only breaks the rule of ‘Hero Movie’ and reached the dim of the persist of life but also shows sentiment of anti-heroism. The position of the female role in ‘A Better Tomorrow’ and ‘As Tears Go By’ are having an obvious different. In ‘Hero Movie’, the function of the female is to set off the masculinity and brotherhood. However, the female in ‘As Tears Go By’ doesn’t help a lot to the destiny of the male, but they acted an important role between the developments of the relationships. If ‘Hero Movie’ praised the brotherhood, ‘As Tears Go By’ shows Wong’s persistent of love theme. When the male died, he just laid on the street without glory. Surprisingly, the last thing he was thinking was the kiss scene with his love on the street. It shows a rare but typical romantic scene in ‘Hero Movie’. Under the treatment of romantic style, it is sensitive and imaginative. From ‘As Tears Go By’, we can see Wong’s combined genre and the ambition of the theme vision. ‘Chungking Express’ Chungking Express’ is the third movie of Wong Kar Wai. The conservative atmosphere surrounded the movie market in Hong Kong at that time, but Wong dared to restructure the genre of gangster movie and romantic movie. Generally in gangster films, police are always upright and gangsters are always bad. The dramatic elements are from the justice and interest between police and gangsters. The first part in ‘Chungking Express’ breaks the narrative rule about police chasing the gangster. It is about the relationship of the strangers, Cop 223 and the unnamed female drug dealer; their relationship seems getting start but also will be end soon. In part 2, Wong even cut the part of gangster and make it as a complete romantic story between Cop 633 and Faye. Wong had his own rationale for the emotional relationships in the film (Stephen Teo, Wong Kar-Wai 2005, P.20) ‘It’s very difficult to describe why a man likes a woman, and the deep feelings between two brothers, and so on. They are all very subtle. But I wanted to put forward the proposition that time is the biggest factor. ‘Chungking Express’ proved that Wong is not only live in his own narcissistic, but also the creativity in the movie that Hong Kong people can feel and understand about. It is valuable that Wong’s being loyal to his personal feeling about Hong Kong and the p eople who are living in Hong Kong. The modernity in ‘Chungking Express’ is very strong, it makes people believe that Wong can catch the thought of the adult and teenagers more than other directors. Wong Kar Wai expressed the loneliness and the unstable status of the relationships about the people who live in this city. Wong Kar-Wai said (David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment, 2000, p.283) ‘the two stories are quiet independent. What puts them together is that they are both love stories. I think a lot of city people have a lot of emotions but sometimes they can’t find the people to express them to’. It is the main reason of the success of ‘Chungking Express’. ‘Happy Together’ In 1994, Peter Chan who is a famous director and producer in Hong Kong and Tsui Hark filmed ‘He’s a woman, She’s a man’ and ‘The Lovers’. It started to involve the gay elements in a film, but they didn’t have an in-depth description of homosexual relationship. Following Peter Chan and Tsui Hark, other directors started filming the similar theme. Homosexual movie became a semi-major movie theme in 90s. Comparing with Wong’s ‘Happy Together’, he breakthroughs the bias and negative render in the common homosexual film in Hong Kong. ‘Happy Together’ is about two Hong Kong people living in Argentina and describe their romantic and emotional expression. There are many daily life dialogues and plot design. ‘Happy Together’ ignored the consideration of social dimension by using the location (Argentina) to point out the axis of the relationship between the characters. Comparing with the conservative atmosphere in Hong Kong cinema, Wong Kar Wai keeping his experimental development to the popular Hong Kong movie genre and the vision of the theme. The genre of movies he had breakthrough are ‘Hero Movie’, gangster movie and semi-popular and controversial movie such as homosexual theme. In fact, Wong infused his personal theme – ‘the communication between people and people’ into different movie genres, which are having market value and gimmick. Genre movie is a commercial package, which included the theme, artistic pursuit, modern culture and western culture. Under the commercial package, Wong put his persistent theme of human motion and created his own theme and style in Hong Kong Movie. Style The Names of Wong Kar-Wai’s movies Every Wong’s movies have a clear name to the audiences even his first film (‘As Tears Go By’) doesn’t have a very strong style of Wong compare with the others. Merely, the hidden meaning behind the movie names are hard to understand, it is like we already lost our way when we first look at the movie name. Wong is well known, as he doesn’t prepare a script until the day of shooting. Therefore, it becomes very hard to capture his movies. For example, ‘Chungking Express’ (literal: Chungking Forrest) but you can’t find the trace of forest. ‘2046’ is an enigmatic figure. Wong is not only like start shooting films without complete script but also he has more different style. Wong always creates the name for the movie first, but he doesn’t base on the name to consider the plot. The name of ‘Chungking Express’ is come from the famous building ‘Chungking Mansions’ in Hong Kong. It is because Wong was told by his parent when he was young about Chungking Mansions is a horrible building, people and everything are very complicated. Chungking Mansions become a mysterious symbol in Wong’s heart. ‘Happy Together’ is from the traditional Chinese translation of a novel ‘The Buenos Aires’ Affair’, which is written by Wong’s favorite Argentine writer Manuel Puig. The first appear of ‘2046’ is when Chau Mo-Wan is closing the door, and the number badge on the door is ‘2046’ in   ‘In the Mood of Love’. In 1997, the transfer of sovereignty from United Kingdom to the PRC occurred. Hong Kong under ‘one country, two systems’ will be ended afte r 50years. The year after 50 years is 2046. Wong had given 2046 different significations. In the movie ‘2046’, it represents a fantasy world. Music Wong has a strong and sensitive artistic sense. He is also very good at choosing different genre of music and applying them perfectly to the movie. The background music is just right into the film and staying at audience’s mind. In ‘Days of Being Wild’ and ‘In the Mood of Love’, Wong selected the music with the style of the 60s and 70s such as the song called ‘In the Mood for Love’ from Zhou Xuan was played by the phonograph player machine, the Jazz music ‘Quizas Quizas Quizas’. For matching the theme of martial arts in ‘Ashes of Time’, the music is majestic. Start from the prelude ‘A lonely heart’, it shows the dignified atmosphere and revealed the feeling from the heart of the agent and the other. ‘Chungking Express’, Faye keeps playing the song ‘California Dreaming’ to insinuate her love of California. Wong used ‘California Dreaming’ to tell the desire and the dream of Faye. The theme song ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ is a classic song in ‘In the Mood of Love’. No matter where the melody started, it can spur audience’s emotions. This song appeared seven times by following the slight changes between Chau Mo-Wan and Su Li-zhen. Scenes For a film, the most instant feeling that audience will receive is from the scene. Wong understand that and keeping up trying different kind of scenes. Wong Kar-Wai has a special preference of the small house in Hong Kong which is a special feature of this city. People are staying in a narrow space in most of Wong’s movie; it is the portrait of the crowded community in Hong Kong and the reflection of the world in Hong Kong people’s heart. The characters appeared in Wong’s film, they all had a closed heart such as Chau Mo-wan in ‘In The Mood of Love’, Yuddy in ‘Days of Being Wild’, Ouyang Feng in ‘Ashes of Time’, Lai Yiu-Fai in ‘Happy Together’ and Chau Mo-wan in ‘In the Mood of Love’. Wong Kar-Wai needs to write the script during the daytime, therefore most of the movie scenes occurs at the nighttime. There were also many rain scenes appeared in Wong’s movies.   In ‘Days of Being Wild’, when Lulu knows that Yuddy going to Philippine alone, she walks under the heavy rain. In ‘Chungking Express’, when cop663 is waiting for Faye inside the pub, the rain was pouring. In ‘In the Mood of Love’, Chau Mo-wan and Su-Li-zhen were waiting together when it was raining. ‘In the Mood for Love’ The beginning of ‘In the Mood for Love’, Chau Mo-Wan couple and Su Li-Zhen couple live very closed to each other, they will visit landlord sometimes. Inside the narrow space, people suppose to be closer, such as Mrs Chau and Mr Chan became more intimate (betrayal). However, Chau Mo-Wan and Ms Su started having the alienation to their partners. At the same time, the alienation makes Chau and Ms Su become closer. Wong Kar-Wai deliberately put two families together and then use the feelings between people to people to re-organize and arrange their relationships. Fashion Su Li-Zhen is a typical Chinese woman. She doesn’t have any target in her life that she wants to achieve. Living and her husband are everything. When her husband cheated on her, she didn’t know what she should do. After, she started to put her mind to another man Chau Mo-Wan who also attracted by this enchanting woman. Ms Su in the movie is always wearing colorful Cheongsam, which is not only a traditional Chinese characteristic, but also the performance of Asian womens body beauty. Cheongsam is a specific dress for woman who loves beautyin Hong Kong and China. However, there are other clothing options in 60s, but William Chang and Wong Kar-wai did not choose other costumes for her. Ms Su with Cheongsam is the woman that Chau Mo-Wan loves to see a high class and unique woman. This is the natural development of the movie, which shows that Ms Su is a tradition of oriental, and tempting deviant woman. Cheongsam also leading the path of the film. When we look at Ms Su†™s move, we can see the rhythm of the film. We are not only can hear Nat King Cole’s singing but also we can ‘listen’ Ms Su’s steps. Her pace is a proper way of jazz which is created by her high heels, omega hair style and knee-length cheongsam. We cant see the rhythm if she is wearing a shirt and a throuser. Cheongsam is a representative dress in 60s and Nat King Cole is the popular Jazz singer at that time as well and gather all scenes, props and music, we know this film is exactly about 60s. Moreover, ‘Wonton’ (a traditional dishes in Hong Kong and Shanghai) and Cheongsam are the most representative icons of Shanghai. The sewing in Shanghai is the best all over China. In 60s, most of the trailors are from Shanghai. It is a small build of Shanghai in this Hong Kong movie when Ms Su is wearing a cheongsam and buying some Wonton for her dinner. When we look at Ms Su’s cheongsam, we realised that time is changing: working, buying food, hanging out etc. The timeline in the movie is not by order. These are the fragments of her life, we realised that there is something building up between Chau Mo-Wan and Ms Su. Music The structure of the soundtrack is starts from Chau Mo-Wan’s dialogue and ended by Ms Su’s dialogue which are exactly the same script. Secondly, following by Shigeru Umebayashi’s ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ and the music at the middle of the movie plays by order and prefectly match the film. When you listening the soundtrack, it is like you are watching the movie as well. Mentioned earlier of the ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ which is the spirit of the whole film. It played everytime when the main characters appear, over and over throughout the film. The scene of Chau Mo-Wan was having dinner with Ms Su; the restaurant was playing Nat King Cole’s song. When Ms So told the secret which Chau Mo-Wan already known, the shot moves from right to back sliently and directed to Chau’s face. At the same time, it plays the song ‘Te Quiero Dijiste’. The fast rhythm of the beginning of the song is like telling the Chau’s psych ological reaction. Afterward, Nat King Cole’s music played again and the scene changed to the cigarette on Chau’s hand. There are many detail plot like that in the film including when two main characters were ordering the food in the restaurant. When the camera pan quickly between Chau and Ms So, Nat King Cole’s song still played slowly and brought out the ambiguous between two main characters. Nat King Cole is Wong’s mother’s favourate Jazz singer. Those three songs which used in the movie were the most popular songs at that time. Additionally, ‘In the Mood for Love’ also contained a lot of traditional opera such as Cantonese opera, Shaoxing opera. They are historic and precious. In 50s, there is a statement called ‘Radio Play’. It is not diffcult to see the effection of ‘Radio Play’ in the movie. The sounds were from the past and played through the radio to present. It makes the song become more attractive a nd effective. Galasso Michale, the music director in ‘Chungking Express’ also involved to the production of the soundtrack. He created two songs for ‘In the Mood For Love’ and there are 3 or 4 versions of each song. Matching with Nat King Cole’s Jazz, it achieves an excellent affection. The scenes There is an excellent and significant scene. The scene is about Chau-Mo Wan is pretending he is leaving Ms Su, and Ms Su cried because she is not willing to lost Chau. The scene appeared a set of straight lines, which are the bars, because the camera is reflected through the bars to Chau and Ms Su and it is like they are trapped in a cage, and lost their freedom. It is exactly the same with them situation – a married man and a married woman. Under the conservative society in 60s, they are living with invisible shackles. They lost the freedom to love publicly and they can only live under the pain. On the other hand, Wong used mirrors several times to express the relationship between entity and virtual body. This relationship reflected the other sides of Chau and Ms Su perfectly. When Chau and Ms So were writing the martial art novel in the hotel, the mirror reflected the virtual body of Chau and Ms So. They were have a short-term good time with self-indulgence. However in 60s, people cant be who they want to be or do what they want. Chau and Ms Su can only suppress their emotions. Conclusion Wong Kar-Wai made a great contribution to the Hong Kong movie industry. He changed the traditional narrative approach of Hong Kong movies, adding more personal elements and more in-depth to the local culture and life circumstances. The breakthrough of the ‘Hero Movie’ genre is an important starting point in Wong’s career. He also added the elements of female into the movies. Brotherhood in Wong’s approach, ‘Hero’ can die without glory, but they also have the feeling of love such as the last scene in ‘As Tears Go By’. Afterward, Wong had tried different kind of genre, such as ‘Chungking Express’ and ‘Happy Together’. His work is consistently about a theme: between people and communication. Wong is very well at using the music to express the emotions of the main characters. The music in the movies is not only the background music; it is also an important tool for bringing audiences into the movie and affecting their emotions.   ‘California Dreaming’ in ‘Chungking Express’, the song ‘In the Mood for Love’ which is sing by Zhou Xuan was played by the phonograph player machine and the jazz music ‘Quizas Quizas Quizas’ in ‘In the Mood for Love’ etc. ‘In the Mood for Love’ is the most representative film of Wong Kar-Wai. It presented different areas in 60s including living conditions, thoughts, fashion and daily lifestyle. Cause by the living space in Hong Kong is narrow; it increased the intimacy between the neighbors. They will play mahjong, having dinner together and helping each other. It is a very good reflection of the special living style in Hong Kong. For the fashion, Cheoungsam is fully expressed the beauty of Oriental women and also the best representation of traditional Chinese culture. Under the conservative ideology in 60s, people can’t love the one they want to love; they can only enjoy the time secretly like the scene when Chau Mo-Wan and Su-Li Zhen were writing the martial art novel together. Today, many Hong Kong’s independent art films and you can see Wong’s style even in some commercial movies, but most of them are the simple copy, which are lack of creativities. Wong Kar-Wai’s film may not represent the whole film industry but he did point out the future of the Hong Kong cinema. Bibliography Books: David Bordwell, (2000) PLANT HONG KONG . POPULAR CINEMA AND THE ART OF ENTERTAINMENT. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS. Stephen Teo, (2005) WONG KAR-WAI. United Kingdom: The Cromwell Press. Stephen Teo, (1997) Hong Kong cinema : the extra dimensions. London: BFI Publishing. Peter Brunette, (2005) CONTEMPORARY FILM DIRECTORS: WONG KAR WAI. United State of America: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Cheuk, P.T. (2009) Hong Kong New Wave Cinema: 1978 – 2000. Bristol: Intellect. Stokes, Lisa Odham; Hoover, Michael (1999) City on fire: Hong Kong cinema. London: Verso. Poshek Fu, David Desser, (2000) Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press. Laikwan Pang, Day Wong, (2005) Masculinities and Hong Kong cinema. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Wimal Dissanayake, Dorothy Wong, (2003) Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes of time. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Web page: Esolution. ‘In the Mood for Love’ Available at: wkw-inthemoodforlove.com/eng/homepg/homepg.asp (Accessed: 14 April 2011) Robert M. Payne. (2001) Jump Cut Website. Available at: ejumpcut.org/archive/jc44.2001/payne%20for%20site/wongkarwai1.html (Accessed: 14 April 2011) ‘Michael Galasso Music’ Available at: michaelgalasso.com/#home (Accessed: 14 April 2011)