Goals Of Black Lives Matter Movement - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2651 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/04/04 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Black Lives Matter Essay Did you like this example? In the United States in February of 2012, the nation felt a mixture of emotions. This including being both disturbed and confused about the recent and horrifying tragedy of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In the area that Martin had been staying at in Sanford, Florida, a neighborhood watch had been formed in response to the high crime rate that had been frequently occurring. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Goals Of Black Lives Matter Movement" essay for you Create order George Zimmerman regularly watched over the neighborhood with his firearm that he was licensed to carry and was the man on duty the night that Trayvon Martin died. According to CNN journalist Greg Botelho, Zimmerman had followed Martin who had left his home at night to go shop at 7-Eleven. Zimmerman was instructed by the policemen he had contacted to not follow the 17-year-old, but he disobeyed their orders. Martin, who had been running at times on his way back home, knowing that he was being followed, was fatally shot in the chest by Zimmerman. Zimmerman would go on to say that he acted out of self-defense however, further police investigations as well as the 7-Eleven camera footage of Martin shows that there is no evidence that Martin was acting in a threatening way to anyone. With that said, Martins family, along with thousands of others, believe that Zimmerman had racially profiled Trayvon Martin and that was the reason that he was targeted (Botelho 2012). George Zimmerman was arrested for his actions however, on July 13, 2013, he was acquitted and rendered not guilty on all counts. After this, social activists began to spring up in hopes to seek both justice and change. In the United States, the social movement that is the most recognizable is Black Lives Matter. This movement wanted to change the urgent issue in the United States of racial injustices inflicted towards African Americans, which still exists today. However, many Americans are unsure of how to feel about this movement and they question its productivity in achieving any of its main goals. I believe that the Black Lives Matter Movement has achieved most of the goals it set up upon its creation in 2013, making the movement relatively successful. Narration Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi were the three women who started the Black Lives Matter Movement, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman. According to the official Black Lives Matter website, Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It began as a call to action, or as author Nikita Carney called it in the journal Humanity and Society, The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation (Carney 180-199). To summarize this concisely, these quotes mean that the main goals of the movement when it first formed were to create an awareness of systemic racism towards blacks in America, to allow blacks to struggle through this together, and to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state (Herstory 2014). It is important to define key terms like systemic racism because they are vital to unde rstanding the bigger picture. Systemic racism means that there are core racist realities that are manifested in each of societys major parts. This includes individual, institutional, and structural forms of racism in the United States (Cole 2018). Partition Once again, the Black Lives Matter Movements main goals upon its creation in 2013 included creating an awareness of the systemic racism towards African Americans in the United States, allowing blacks to struggle through this together, and stopping the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans by the state. I will fully examine each of these goals to determine if they have been achieved. This is necessary in determining if the movement has been successful. Firstly, I will argue that the movement has created an awareness of systemic racism by looking at the growth of the movement over the years. Then, I will argue that the movement has allowed blacks to struggle together due to the number of organized protests set up throughout the country. Finally, although there are many statistics out there that provide different numbers and types of statistics, there are estimates that show that the number of African Americans shot and killed by police enforcement in the Unit ed States has decreased over the past few years. With these three things taken into consideration, I will come to the conclusion that the Black Lives Matter Movement has fulfilled its main goals, thereby making it an overall success. I will also address the common opposing argument which says that the movement has been unsuccessful because it has not achieved its main goal of decreasing the number of African Americans killed by police enforcement in the United States. Confirmation A whole new dimension of the Black Lives Matter Movement was created following the tragic death of Michael Brown who was fatally shot by police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri. The Black Life Matters Ride was organized and held in Ferguson a few weeks after the tragic death of Michael Brown, in an effort to protest this type of police brutality. For fifteen days, the protestors stood their ground in the streets of Ferguson despite being tear gassed and pepper sprayed day after day. When the protest concluded, eighteen people went back to their home cities and set up Black Lives Matter chapters there. There are now over thirty chapters set up in the United States. This ultimately helps their cause to grow, as does the attention it receives on the social media platform Twitter (Herstory 2014). #BlackLivesMatter was trending all over social media after Michael Browns death, helping to spread awareness to millions of people globally. Celebrities and athletes all over the wo rld also often took to Twitter to publicly share their support for the cause. This was important because they were the ones who supported the movement publicly. This included arguably the most recognizable athlete on the planet, LeBron James, who would often remain silent on certain issues during his interviews, and later make his voice heard by tweeting out a hashtag having to do with them (Cassilo 427). From July 18, 2016 through May 1, 2018, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has been used on Twitter an average of 15,856 times daily. Tweets with this hashtag would usually consist of one of the following topics; fatal police-related encounters, violent acts in general, police and law enforcement, national politicians and political parties, race, or protests (Anderson 2018). Over the past five years the hashtag has consistently remained relevant, which proves that it has not lost its ability to create public awareness. There is no denying the growth that this movement has seen as shown in the number of chapters set up throughout the country, along with the amount of attention it received on social media. This is why I believe that the Black Lives Matter Movement has successfully achieved its first goal of creating a nationwide awareness of the systemic racism inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. The movements next main goal was to allow African Americans in the United States to struggle together. The way that they have achieved this is through the peaceful protests that were organized all across the country. University of Kent professor, Dr. Richard Norman, wrote an article in 2017 where he discussed the reasons why protests in general are so important. In this article, he talks about how protests start a debate. I believe that they first create and awareness of a potential issue which leads to debate, which ideally would lead to a change being made. He also states that by protesting, people realize that they are not alone (Norman 2012). I could not agree more with Dr. Normans statement. This is because I believe that there is a sense of unity among any protesters, which can be reassuring to them that they are not alone. It will also provide them with hope that they will overcome the issue that they are protesting. In this case of course, the protests pertain to specific injustices inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. The most common example of this that the country has seen is police brutality. Over the past 1,580 days, there have been at least 2,588 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States (Robinson 2018). This amount of protests, held at different times throughout the year, and held at different locations all throughout the United States ensures that all African Americans, or anyone who wants to support the movement, has the opportunity to attend if they wish to do so. This is the reason why I argue that the Black Lives Matter Movement has achieved its second main goal of allowing blacks to struggle though this together. The third and final main goal the movement upon its creation in 2013, was to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. I believe that the movement has also successfully achieved this goal. Firstly, I will have to determine what exactly is meant by rampant and deliberate violence (Herstory 2014). Because of all of the media coverage over the past five years, the topics discussed in the tweets that had #BlackLivesMatter in them, and the purposes of all of the protests throughout the country, I am concluding that the rampant and deliberate violence means police brutality shown towards African Americans. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police (Mastrine 2018). The most serious form of police brutality and the form that has sparked a large amount of Black Lives Matter protests in response is when an innocent or non-threatening civilian is fatally shot by law enforcement. To stop anything that is on a s large of a scale as this may just about be impossible, or at the very least it would take a lot longer than a couple of years to accomplish. Therefore, I am measuring the success of this goal by determining if the number of this form of police brutality over the past few years has stopped increasing. It is easy for some people to assume that African Americans are killed a much higher rate than any other race in the United States, because of all the media coverage on tragic shooting and Black Lives Matter protests. However, it may be surprising for these people to hear that this is not the case. In fact, whites are killed at a significantly higher rate by law enforcement than African Americans. However, this does not mean that African Americans are not killed at an alarming rate. The reason why the number of African Americans killed by the police is so disturbing is because African Americans only make up thirteen percent of the entire United States population. This correlation between the low population and high amount of deaths by law enforcement is exactly why the Black Lives Matter Movement first began. According to senior reporter of the Guardian, Jon Swaine, in 2015 there were 1,136 deaths at the hands of law enforcement. African Americans made up twenty seven percent of this total. These statistics show that African Americans were killed at a much higher rate than any other race in the United States. Unarmed black Americans were killed at five times the rate of unarmed white Americans in 2015. The following year in 2016, Swaine reported that there were 1,091 deaths at the hands of law enforcement in the United States. The percentage of African Americans killed in this year decreased from twenty seven percent to twenty four percent. In 2017 however, the percentage rose back up to twenty seven percent as 1,129 deaths were recorded (DOnofrio 2018). This means that the number of African Americans fatally killed by police officers in the United States has not increased over the past few years. It is for this reason why I believe that the movement has successfully achieved its third ma in goal. Refutation There are obviously arguments that opposes the one that I have made concerning this issue. I find that it is important to address the most common of these arguments to further support my conclusion. This opposing argument says that the Black Lives Matter Movement has not been successful as it has not achieved the most important goal that it set upon its creation in 2013. Those that believe in this often say that the most important goal set up by the movement was to stop police brutality against African Americans in the United States, or at least see a significant decrease over the past few years. They will argue that all of the statistics that exist on the issue are remarkably unreliable and do not show a significant decrease. I personally believe that even if there is not a significant decrease in police brutality against blacks, that the Black Lives Matter Movement has still been a success. This is because they did achieve their other two main goals and there has not been an increa se in police brutality against blacks in the past few years. There is one part of the opposing argument that I recognize I will have to concede to. It is, in fact, true that there is no single source that keeps reliable records of this kind of information. The information I am examining simply comes from whatever those sources were able to record over the years. Every source may have different types of statistics or the same type, yet they may come to a different conclusion because their numbers are different. This is most definitely a problem and needs to be addressed sooner than later. The FBI does not require police officers to report the racial demographics of a person involved in a fatal incident. Police can also opt out of reporting other details of these fatal incidents that would be important, such as how and why a person was killed (Swaine McCarthy 2017). These pieces of information are vital in examining whether police brutality towards African Americans has increased or decreased over the past few years. This is the part of the opposing argument that both sides can agree that coming up with a conclusion to the third main goal of the movement would be much easier to do if there was this information existed and was reliable and accessible. Therefore, Im sure people on both sides of the argument would like to see the FBI require police officers to report all of the information when a fatal incident occurs. Conclusion To conclude my argument, I will review what the issue was and what my position on the issue consists of. The Black Lives Matter Movement was created in 2013 in response to the tragic death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Martin was unarmed and innocent yet was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. Thousands of other situations like this occurred, such as the killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Nationwide, people turned to the movement to bring about a positive change to injustes like these. Upon its creation, the movement created three main goals that they would set out to achieve. These issues were: to create an awareness of systemic racism towards blacks in America, to allow blacks to struggle through this together, and to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon blacks. I have come to the conclusion that the Black Lives Matter Movement can be considered a success due to the success it has had in achieving its main goals. The movement created an awareness of systemic racism in the United States through social media platforms as well as through the thirty chapters set up throughout the country. The movement has also allowed blacks to struggle together through the thousands of protests that have taken place in the last three years. Finally, there has not been an increase in police brutality against African Americans over the past four years. The way that I interpreted this, this fulfills their third main goal of stopping the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans.

Drinking Age A Huge Problem That Affects The Entire World

Today alcohol, is a huge problem that affects the entire world. In particular, in America it seemed a good idea to increase the legal drinking age to 21 years old, to lower accidents that may be caused by alcohol consumers. The issue is to understand if this decision actually helped, or if the USA should reconsider to lower the drinking age to 18 years old again. Making something illegal for such a long time, does actually preserve people to not be overtaken by it once it becomes permitted? Allowing them to get to know alcohol when they are younger, and learn how to control it, will actually help? These are the questions that arise when the drinking age in America is brought up. The drinking age was raised at 21 years old for some†¦show more content†¦This era ended just in 1933 when Congress passed the 21st Amendment, that gave to each state the power to regulate alcohol inside their borders.(LegalFlip, n.d.). During the Vietnam War, that lasted from 1959 to 1975, the legal drinking age issue arose again. The main point was that if people were able to go to war at 18 years old they should be allowed to drink too. For this reason, a lot of states stated 18 years old as the permitted drinking age. Around the 80s though, Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, started to push for rising the drinking age. That was related to two different problems: drinking and driving, and studies that showed how brain is not completely formed until around 20 years old. As a result of this, Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, that stated 21 years old as the legal age for drinking. (Trex, 2008). Even if States didn’t need to necessarily to set it as a drinking age, if they weren’t doing it the government would have had removed 10% of annual federal highway funding from states that chose an age below 21. For this reason, everyone set 21 as the minimum drinking a ge. Studies Several studies support the decision National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Those studies are also the ones that in some way managed to keep this Act still active, even if a lot of people are asking for lowering the drinking age at 18

Drug Prevention Program Free Essays

string(57) " problems or else it will affect our future generations\." Business Concept Proposal| Drug Prevention Program For| Executive summary This report is a business concept proposal that will help us develop a business plan for our organization which is NBK and that eventually will benefit them. The CSR project that we have chosen is a â€Å"Drug Prevention Program† that will benefit both NBK and society. In this proposal we first gave a small introduction about the company and what other CSRs the company is doing and then we included our aim and purpose of this project which is to increase the awareness level about this problem and provide some possible solutions and also to break all the cultural and society barriers about this specific issue. We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Prevention Program or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then we went on our 4 SMART objectives which are what exactly we are aiming to achieve by the end of the project. In order for us to analysis the market for our proposal we did a Macro and Micro analysis that will help us determine what is our strength and weakness points and what could be the opportunities and threats that we are facing. Another important part of this proposal is the financial projections. We did an estimated budget including profit and loss account and cash flow. After that we mentioned the requirements considered to ensure our project can be implemented like the logistical and operational requirements and how this may impact on the success of our project. In the viability part we showed our costs and benefit to the organization and its return on investment. Last but not least we talked about the competitive and economic viability on how the different activities that we do will mark us as a strong competitor in the business and on an economic perspective this project is going to benefit the economy as it will provide new jobs for Kuwaiti people and even give them the opportunity to work at NBK. Introduction National Bank of Kuwait is holding an event called â€Å"Drugs Prevention program†. This program is nonprofit event. This event is setup to spread awareness and take an actual action to people on drugs; or people that doesn’t know about drugs. Many people don’t release how it’s dangerous, serious issue and can cause death. Drug prevention program is will be arrange to give advices and nonprofit rehabs that can be beneficial for drug addicts. Those rehabs will be very helpful to the addicts we as the drug prevention program organizers will provides brochures with full details and contact information. Why we chose NBK? NBK is the oldest bank in Kuwait and it has a very good reputation. Also it has been through a lot of CSR events in various sectors. The campaigns NBK did are Support of National Labor is our first priority, environmental initiative, health care initiative, sport initiative and contributions, education initiative, social care and philanthropic initiative, and conferences and seminars. The activities lies under the support of National Labor are NBK Academy, which intensive training for fresh graduate that joined the bank and High flier’s leadership program; this program is to develop future leaders. As for environmental initiatives activities are hand-in-hand to preserve our beaches, this campaign launch to clean the beaches of Kuwait and Put your energy into saving energy NBK commenced its energy saving awareness campaign: ‘Put your energy into saving energy’, with staff and summer interns from NBK giving away more than 10,000 long life energy-saving light bulbs at the Avenues Mall. Health care initiative campaigns are breast cancer awareness give discounts for female employees to have a checkups and lectures and seminars for awareness and blood donation; many NBK employees donated blood for the blood hospital in Kuwait. Sport initiative and contribution NBK organized walkathon to encourage people to have a better health and lifestyle. Whereas for education initiative; NBK has hosted high schools and universities to learn day to day operations. Social and philanthropic initiative events done by NBK are Do Good Deeds in Ramdan this campaign offer free ftr banquets and Somalia famine relief campaign was launched to donate money. The last but not least the conferences and seminars which were set to increase awareness about currents issue in the society. One of the seminars was on the Global Financial Crisis and its Impact on the Region; which discussed the international outlook. Aim of the project The aim of this project â€Å"Drug Prevention Program† is to benefit the society and this fits in with NBK’s mission statement, which is to serve the national needs as a priority. This program will be good for the society as it will increase the awareness level by defining the problem, which is drug usage and then it introduces society to the ways they or the people they know can prevent it and help them find possible solutions and lead them to the right places where they can find treatments. After we make sure people have enough knowledge to prevent this problem, we can expect drug usage to decrease, because they have been introduced to this problem and know all the negatives effects drugs have on the human body. There are a lot of controversial issues in our society and drugs is one of them, so it is very important to bring this topic up to the public and let them know that there is no shame for a drug abuser to admit that they have a problem and that they need to seek therapy. There are also a lot of cultural and traditional barriers that could affect the processing of this program, so our goal is to breach and break all these barriers and expose a problem that is considered as a â€Å"Taboo† topic. It is essential to make a step now, because as we all see, it is a growing issue and the accessibility for drugs is really easy nowadays, that is why our society needs to open up their minds to these kind of problems or else it will affect our future generations. You read "Drug Prevention Program" in category "Essay examples" Key Objectives Setting objectives is really important for any organization or a project because it will let us know what we are trying to achieve and it will increase our chances of success. Our objectives will deliver major benefits to this program and the most important one that it will define the purpose of this project. We set for our project 4 different objectives for our program (Operational, Marketing, Financial and CSR) and they are all SMART objectives. * Operational Objective: Conduct a seminar every two week in a different location each time while having diverse guest speakers in each location. Marketing Objective: To increase awareness and publicity of the program through sponsored events and media notifications by 20% within the next 3 months. * Financial Objective: To increase customer base of the firm by 7% by the end of the program as a result of the program’s positive effect on society. * CSR Objective: Increase community welfare by decreasing level of society’s drug administration 15% by the end of program. Having these objectives is like a powerful tool that will help us succeed and it will keep our team motivated and seeks more accomplishments. Feasibility Analysis Macro Before venturing into a new project, it is important to assess the external environment of a business and what possible impacts can affect the project. The threats and opportunities are external factors that guide a project towards taking certain decisions over others. Social factors: Kuwait, as compared to the rest of the world, receives a generally higher average income. This shows that the majority of the population in Kuwait is on the higher side of the income range. Within the lifestyle changes are the increasing popularity of social media and its different usages within societies. It is a powerful tool to reach as many people within society as possible. Social trends in Kuwait can affect the way people look at the Drug Prevention Program (DPP). Since drug abuse is a taboo topic, tackling it publicly would face some kind of hesitance by the public. Ensuring that local positive public figures as a part of our program would change the attitudes of people in Kuwait. It would garner more publicity and receive more entrants within the program. Technological factors: The increasing usage of technology in these times means more coverage for the DPP. People surfing the net, using social media and/or browsing through the various forms of technologies can find (or be exposed to) items and events that are happening around them and more information about each finding. In order to reach a bigger range of people, the program needs to be technologically updated in terms of websites, social media and pop-up ads if necessary. Technology must also be used to enhance the quality of whatever is being presented and also to improve the organization and efficiency of what is being accomplished. There is no firm, program or organization deemed to be successful without the usage of thorough technology. The marketplace for whatever that needs to be launched today needs strict technological requirements that need to be met so that it can connect to a wider audience. Environmental factors: There are many factors that influence industries and the industries affected by environmental factors (weather and climate changes) include tourism, agriculture and economic industries. However, there should not be much stress on what environmental aspects can affect the DPP because its nature is not affected by climate changes. As long as there will not be any significant hazard, the environmental factors can be considered as off the radar for this type of DPP. Economic factors: An economy affects the way a society behave and it obviously alternate their decisions depending upon how high or low it is. If the local economy has resulted in higher interest rates, this will mean that firms will be less likely to invest in what might seem like an unpredictable gamble. This DPP needs sponsorship and is based on fund-raiser events to continue the progress of the program, and not much participation will happen if the economic times are low. Another factor of economy is the strength of the currency. Kuwait has a very strong currency and its affects import/export activities, but that will not be an issue because the program does not need much of these activities. If inflation occurs, staff will need higher salaries and this will affect the planned budget. The salaries need to be raised so that the staff can be satisfied when being compared to other raised salaries within the fields and industries. Political factors: When political factors are mentioned, one automatically thinks of the laws and regulations that restrict an action or a project from fully taking shape. Since drug abuse is a taboo topic, there are bound to be limits to what can be done through the project. The law in Kuwait prohibits the live showcase of drugs and substances that can be abused. This can somewhat hinder our performance because it will limit what the group can show a live audience to enlighten them on what needs to be stayed away from. If guest speakers in the form of previous users need to be brought in to enlighten the participants, there will be restrictions due to the law not allowing prisoners to exit their cells and talk about experiences only once their period is over. This means that only ex-abusers who have finished their trials and prison time can enlighten the participants, the newly caught addicts will not be able to. It must be noted that the DPP will not focus much on current abusers who were caught abusing rather than those who willingly wanted to quit drug and substance abuse. Before continuing further with this project, legal framework needs to be conducted so that the project is validated and under the microscopic view of the government ensuring that no illegal limits are surpassed. Legal factors: Laws banning against age and race discrimination will not affect the DPP heavily as the participation has no kind of restriction whatsoever. A participant does not even have to be an abuser, or even in contact with one. Since the jobs offered to the staff will not be permanent, there will not be a minimum wage assigned to what the individual salary amount is. There is a law in Kuwait that states: any Kuwaiti national working in the private sector will receive a fixed amount each month as an addition to what a firm is handing over as a salary. This law will not be applied to the DPP because the vacant jobs offered are not permanent positions; it is only in the duration of the events that the assigned staff will be a part of the program. Permission needs to be granted from the governmental censors to give the program the green light to go ahead with the project. After permission has been granted, the banquet hall owners need to be aware of the purpose and activities of the DPP. Macro SWOT Analysis Strengths: * Controversial * Good Cause * Society’s Benefit Weaknesses: * No monetary ROI Costly * Taboo Opportunities: * Program Expansion * Rehab Formation * Brand Image Threats: * Public Decline * Influential Competition * Insufficient funding to continue This drug prevention program has strengths and weakness. The strengths are it controversial many people might disagree to expose the idea or issue; which is currently available and increasing radically. The good cause is that it spreading awareness and leading drug addi cts to the right direction. This will benefit the society by having a better living and health. The weakness are that there aren’t monetary ROI; zero profit and it cost a lot there will be a loss in return because this campaign is setup to have better youth to have better society. Its taboo because people in the Arab region see it as shame and don’t attempt that it exists. There are many opportunities for the program; which are to expand the program and format a rehab and boost brand image. The threats are the public decline which is the society not accepting the idea. Influential competition is another threat which other companies or banks can launch a campaign similar to ours. The last threat is the insufficient funding; not having enough money or if NBK stops funding us. NBK’s CSR programs are successful due to the reason that it encompasses as many fields as it can possibly be a positive addition to. The strengths are the variety of areas that NBK is participating in to achieve and maintain an improved society. It has a diverse selection of activities: social, educational, philanthropic, sports-related and more. NBK has built a positive reputation for itself as a pioneer in merging its daily activities along with CSR activities for the improvement of society. Currently, a weakness is that NBK is not a part of any project or program that supports the fight against drug and substance abuse. The DPP is the right step and opportunity to turn this weakness into strength. Another weakness for the CSR of NBK is that it does not necessarily include the entire society. Without this program, people into drug and substance abuse are sidelined and not given any help or guidance. The opportunities resulting from external factors are that NBK can further push its CSR boundaries and continue in pursuing other untapped fields that need to be brought to the general public’s eye. NBK releases a CSR annual report that showcases their social responsibilities towards society. It lists what NBK has done the previous year in terms of initiatives and activities. This shows how the private sectors in Kuwait are competing to be the best CSR champions with the most good done to society. This benefits the society more than it benefits the firms competing to help and improve. An opportunity in the form of program continual rises due to the strong need for initiatives upping society’s standards. The next phase of the project can be adopted by NBK’s rival if the program proves to be a success. Drug and substance abuse is a taboo topic in Kuwait even today. Not wholeheartedly knowing what the general public’s reaction is means that a threat is opposing the DPP. There are bound to be people who do not want to associate themselves with taboo topics such as drugs which mean that there will be some kind of a decline from a section of the public. It is vital to assess how the threats and weaknesses fare against the strengths and opportunities of this program. Financial Projections Cash flow| |   | Year 1| Year 2| Year 3| | | | | |   | Net profit| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Depreciation| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Office Rent| | | 2,100 | 2,100 | 2,100 | Media costs| | | 93,500 | 93,500 | 93,500 | Staff| | | 11,000 | 11,000 | 11,000 | Transportation| | | 200 | 200 | 200 | Cash profits| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Increase in CA| | | n/a| n/a| n/a| Net cash from operating activities| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Renovations| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | change in FA| | | (850,000)|   |   | Net cash after investing activities| | | (850,000)| 0 | 0 | Capital induction| | | 105,050 | 0 | 0 | change in advance rentals| | | 6,300 | (417,600)| (104,400)| Net increase in cash| | | (738,650)| (417,600)| (104,400)| | | | | |   | Opening cash balance| | | 0 | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| Closing cash balance| | | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| (1,260,650)| | | | | | | | | | (745,350)| (1,281,750)| (1,831,890)| | | | | | | Net Profit| |   | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 | Inv Capital|   | | 0| 0| 0| ROI|   | | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | | | | | | | Net cashflow from operations| | | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | Requirements In order for the project to be implemented, there are a few requirements that need to be taken in to consideration. To further promote this program, it has been decided that seminars will be held at different schools and universities. To proceed with this we will need knowledgeable staff or speakers, and/or former addicts to speak at these seminars. Another requirement would be setting up booths and banners in Avenues, Marina Mall, and 360. Also for spreading the word about this program in less expensive way we will be designing different brochures and handing them out at the seminars and booths. Some of the other activities that will be done are fundraisers and getting different sponsorship’s to boost the program. For this to be done operationally speaking we will need sufficient staff to arry out the tasks and/or guest speakers, money for printing and equipment, vehicles, and having meetings and presentations. The staff will need to be able to design the brochures and banners, set up booths, and be knowledgeable about the program to deliver the message in meetings and presentations. Like most projects money is a key factor to get the job done. We will need money for gas, staff, printing, and other equipme nt. Technically the program is going to require computers for emailing and organizing with school officials and NBK members also to stay financially organized with sufficient data. For this program to run smoothly we must also focus on logistics. Organization and planning are a must for determining which schools or universities and which dates are the most appropriate and effective. As mentioned earlier the three malls were chosen for the banners and booths, because they are the most popular and seem to be the most effective for reaching the target audience. Some good locations for the seminars could be reception halls and popular locations that can be rented, for the presentations and meetings on the other the NBK meeting room seems to be most suitable for our program. Viability In terms of Return on Investment Viability, our project will not be gaining any monetary returns directly since it is a non-profit program. For the ROI formula we will calculate zero (no profit) divided by 105,050 (for one year) which will be equal to zero percent financial gain. The total investment required is 315,150 for the three years of the program. Our ROI for the first year will be zero. Competitive Viability Like any project, the Drug program will need to be viable and sustainable with regards to competition. This means that our program can survive long-term and eventually gain profit while competing with similar programs in Kuwait. In Kuwait however, there is already some competition. One major competitor is the National Anti-Drug Committee. This committee was founded in 1989, and their main goals are similar to our program’s goals, which are to focus on the youth and the protection of the health of society. Also similar to our goals is the fact that they are trying to introduce some awareness amongst the education fields. Although there is some competition already in the market, we believe that program can become more competitive nce introduced, because we will be working with NBK which is a very popular bank, especially among the youth. The National Anti-Drug Committee is not well known in Kuwait, yet has been around for many years. Although this is true about the National Anti-Drug Committee, our program will still have a competitive advantage working with NBK. Also we are goin g to be introducing many guest speakers at different seminars through different schools. We will be bringing people who have abused drugs and overcame these issues, which will have a great impact on people in a society like Kuwait. Another thing that our program is going to offer is setting up different fundraisers throughout Kuwait to raise awareness about the serious nature of drug abuse. These different activities that our project will be conducting will give our company and program a more competitive edge in the market. Economic Viability In order for our drug program to be viable economically, it will need to create different job opportunities and possibly attract people to work at NBK. This program is an extremely controversial activity in a society like Kuwait where the issue of drugs and drug abuse is a taboo subject. By confronting the matter and showing people how serious and spread out this problem is in Kuwait already, we can show people that NBK cares about this and is not afraid to be associated with fighting it. The project for NBK will require staff and/or volunteers. This will create job openings for anyone interested. It may even attract people to work for NBK, because it shows that they care about and are giving back to society. This further promotes NBK’s vision to benefit the society where they function. References * Fattahova, N. (2012). Awareness campaign to prevent drug abuse . ttp://news. kuwaittimes. net/2012/08/22/awareness-campaign-to-prevent-drug-abuse/. Last accessed 11th Nov 2012. * Kuwait. nbk. (2012). About NBK. http://www. kuwait. nbk. com/about/disclosures/default_en_gb. aspx. Last accessed 10th Nov 2012. * Murray, J. (2012). Viability (of a business). http://biztaxlaw. about. com/od/glossaryv/g/viability. htm. Last accessed 9th Nov 2012. * Vyakarnam, S . Writing a business plan, clarification and preparation – the market approach. http://https://docs. google. com/viewer/. Last accessed 14th Nov 2012 Appendix Cashflow| |   | Year 1| Year 2| Year 3| | | | | |   | Net profit| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Depreciation| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Office Rent| | | 2,100 | 2,100 | 2,100 | Media costs| | | 93,500 | 93,500 | 93,500 | Staff| | | 11,000 | 11,000 | 11,000 | Transportation| | | 200 | 200 | 200 | Cash profits| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Increasein CA| | | n/a| n/a| n/a| Net cash from operating activities| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Renovations| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | change in FA| | | (850,000)|   |   | Net cash after investing activities| | | (850,000)| 0 | 0 | Capital induction| | | 105,050 | 0 | 0 | hange in advance rentals| | | 6,300 | (417,600)| (104,400)| Net increase in cash| | | (738,650)| (417,600)| (104,400)| | | | | |   | Opening cash balance| | | 0 | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| Closing cash balance| | | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| (1,260,650)| | | | | | | | | | (745,350)| (1,281,750)| (1,831,890)| | | | | | | Net Profit| |   | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 | Inv Capital|   | | 0| 0| 0| ROI|   | | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | | | | | | | Net cashflow from operations| | | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ROI Calculation Amount of Financial Gain Total Investment Amount 0 0 105. 050 How to cite Drug Prevention Program, Essay examples

An Evaluation of Public Sector Reform of Ireland

Question: Describe about purpose of public sector reform in Ireland and administrative reform? Answer: Introduction Public sector reforms are necessary for every government to change the course of its operation. The areas of the implementation of the public sector reform are welfare, the healthcare sector, government administration and those areas where the government has substantial stake. The reasons for such public sector can be multidimensional. It can be due to budgetary reasons, political reasons, or because of the need to improve the service of the government. The public sector reform are often implemented and launched by the politicians who are in charge of government service. (Nolan, 2001) Such ideological public sector reform is for putting a stamp of the political party. This can be explained by an example. A government whose main focus is on business then it would aim to reduce the operation of a healthcare department or enable companies to control issues like useless spending, immigration and many more issues related to the government. Then again a government can act in a different wa y by encouraging the health service department or nationalize whole industries. Our report aims to explore the Public Sector reform implemented by Ireland. (Killian and Eklund, 2008) Purpose Of Public Sector Reform In Ireland Before we start analyzing the need for the public sector reform in Ireland, we must gain knowledge about the country. Ireland is considered to be a small country having a population of about 4.6 million. The government of Ireland is dependent on the Westminster and Whitehall public interest and follows common tradition of law. It has a written Constitution and the president of Ireland is an elected one possessing limited powers. The ministerial responsibility is the link of accountability between the political and administrative arena. The other form of government is the local government which also performs limited functions. (Guthrie, 2005) Over the last five years, Ireland had witnessed significant alteration in the public services. There has been reduction in the working staffs by 10 percent. Other changes that had occurred n the public services is cut in wages and also changes were brought about in the terms and conditions of employment. In this regard, a public sector reform was most needed and the government of Ireland has implemented one such reform. The objective of the reform is improving the public service efficiency and upgrading the quality of public service to the residents of the country. (Mazars.ie, 2015) Administrative Reform The international and national fiscal crisis had created an atmosphere for reform in the public administration. The direction of the public sector reform prior to fiscal crisis was different than the environment of public sector reform after the fiscal crisis. The National Recovery Plan (2010) stated that the GDP and GNP was 11 percent and 15 percent below the rates in the year 2007 (in real terms). The rate of employment had fallen by 13 percent from its previous year 2007 which depicted a peak in the level of employment. Accordingly there was a rise in the unemployment rate from 4.6 percent to 13.5 percent. (Curristine, 2008) The response of the government to the financial crisis by the end of the year 2010 was by signing a memorandum of understanding with the European Union for financial support of 85 billion to Ireland through the European Financial stability Fund. The government also took loans from the UK, Sweden and Denmark and through the Extended Fund Facility of IMF requested to them to support Ireland. This programme of support meant that Irish government was limiting their fiscal factors and framework for a period of three years. This phase of Ireland forced them to reassess its priority by reforming the public services and general operations and functions of the public administration. (Andrews, Downe and Guarneros-Meza, 2013) The first step that the government of Ireland had taken to mitigate the crisis is the reduction in employment and pay cuts in public service. The main aim of this reform was to control the government expenditure which was already under distress due to the support programme that gave financial hand to the Ireland. The Public Service Agreement in 2010 planned to cut down workers and their wages and also to revise the terms and conditions of work. This agreement was again extended by the title Public Service Stability Agreement 2013-2016 which was implemented by the Labour Relations Commission 2013. The basic framework of such extension was to increase savings for the public service payments and pension bill of 1 billion by the year 2016 for the purpose of achieving fiscal targets. The result of the reform and its extension was significant. The employment of the residents of Ireland was at its peak in 2008 and dropped by 10 percent which was from 320,000 to 287,780 in 2013. Due to the r eduction in the wage and employment, the public service expenditure also reduced from 18.7 billion to 16.6 billion in 2013. But due to the ever increasing population of Ireland, the employment-population ratio has dropped from its stable position between 70-73 public sector employees per thousand populations in the year 2008 to 63.2 per thousand populations in the year 2013. (Birrell, 2010) The next step taken by the Irish government apart from pay cut and employment removal was redeployment of workers within the public administration. This was because of the removal of employees the functioning of departments was the cut was high, was not able to function properly. So, the reshuffling of employees and their functions was required. In this context it was necessary for the public service officials to improve their flexibility, productivity and mobility to perform tasks in different sectors, organizations and boundaries in professions. The Public Sector Reform implemented by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2011 that aimed at reorienting the operations and functions of the public service. (Boyle, 2014) The plan identified five areas of priorities which are improvement in the customer service, innovation of service delivery channels, reduction in cost, improvement in leadership skills and organizational skills and upgrading the implementation of services. Other issues that were included in the reform are the developing the shared services, outsourcing and procurement procedures. The reform may have witnessed progress but significant problems still remain in this plan. The pool reduction of employees below the age of 30 was indicated as an issue which must be catered soon. The problem can be solved if proper monitoring and individuals with desired caliber are hired for the betterment of the future of the public service. (Birrell, 2012) The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform announced another reform initiative in January 2014. It named it Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16 which focuses on rendering advanced outcomes, reform dividend by which the savings must be utilized to invest in innovative services, digitalization and openness and accountability. (Jacobs, 2001) Evaluation of Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016 The public service has complemented the national recovery of the country and thus it has always played the central role in combating the challenges with strategic management. The new public service reform was set out with the ambition of new phase in the reformatory world. There are four priorities of the plan which are discussed below: (Reformplan.per.gov.ie, 2015) 1. Improved outcomes- the previous plan focused on the reduction of cost of public service whereas this plan also follows the same rule but with the view to implement improved outcome delivery by using alternative models of service delivery, commission on particular outcomes, services being more digitalized and improvements in the delivery of service at sectoral as well as organizational levels.2. Reform dividend- the new plan focuses on the issues of protecting and enhancing public services and its emphasis is on releasing resources by delivering cost effective and efficient delivery with the help of savings that will eventually be invested for the better.3. Digitalization- with the advent of technological upgradation the public service by maximum utilization of the technology to digitalize and use open data to deliver quality service and bring about innovation in information. The government has initiated a new ICT Strategy that aims at government using the emerging technologies and ensure eGovernance to improve its functioning. (ODonnell, 2015)4. Openness and accountability- the functioning of the public service must cater to the openness, aspect of transparency and accountability in order to gain the trust of the of the citizens. This also focuses on maintaining improved governance. In this regard a consultation paper has been released that concentrates on the strengthening the accountability and performance of Civil Service. Apart from these issues the Public service reform also focuses on implementing models of share service, reforming the procedure of public procurement, rationing of properties, improving aspect of leadership in the governance of public service and also bringing reforms in the Human Resource Department. (Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014 - 2016, 2015) Sectoral Reforms: The public service is of three tier - the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary which works to serve the welfare of the citizens of the Ireland. The public services of Ireland include civil, health, education, local government, prison, courts, defence and other non commercial services. Among the public servants are teachers, nurses, doctors, planners, welfare officers, defence forces, engineers, tax collectors, economic regulators, police and many more. Since a large number of human resources are engaged to the public services, this gives importance to the sectoral reform for the proper implementation of the Public service reform. (https://www.accaglobal.com, 2015) We have discussed what are reformed in this context and the reason behind such reform. Some sectors that contribute to the sectoral reform are: (Reformplan.per.gov.ie, 2015) Civil service- the contribution of civil service in Ireland is important. It deals with advising the government in times of economic distress and challenges, formulating important policies and programmes, regulating services, catering to the interest of the Ireland outside the country and serving the common people. Since the population is increasing which exerting an upward pressure on the economy, hence the need to renew the mission and strategy of the civil service must be on the run. The reformatory phase enabled the civil service to be transparent and open so that the change in the sector can impact the needs of the Ireland in a positive way. Health service- the human development index of a country takes into account the life expectancy rate. This means that the health service must be improved. The recovery of Ireland also includes the health aspect which is supported by a scheme of Universal Health Insurance (UHI). With the huge debts of Ireland, the government aimed to cut dow n cost from all sectors including the health. Thus, the financial as well as the increasing demand pressurized the health system to step towards reform. The health reform focuses on four key elements: wellbeing, service reform by implementation of Positive Ageing Strategy, structural reform by revising the model of healthcare to UHI and tax funding model. Education- during the financial distress of Ireland education had played a significant role in knowledge building and improves the financial condition of the country towards economic growth. Hence, the need to improve the education and the training sector was much needed. The four central theme of the educational reform are: learning for life to provide education universally, improve the quality and accountability by rendering high quality education and training, inclusion and diversity in the sector which focused on including disable children, children with different culture, language, social status must also be included, building infrastructure to accommodate sufficient children and also educate children with the use of technology. In this regard National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy aimed to achieve improvement targets by 2020. Local government- the need for reforming the local government is because for the recovery of Ireland overall economic development, funding from taxation, efficient delivery of services and all other public services are to be performed by the local government. So the reformation of the local government is based on Putting People First, which is the action plan of the Irish government which emphasizes on four aspects which are: focusing on economy, organization and local community by promoting economic development, creating jobs and improving the community status, to strengthening the local government system so that efficient performance is delivered to the society and building good governance, improving leadership and maintaining accountability by developing policies and ethics. Justice and Equality sector- the judiciary system of a country impacts the lives of the people by protecting life and property, preventing crimes, delivery justice, promoting and fair and equal justice and ma ny more aspect. All these play an important role in Ireland which requires this sector to reform. In order to perform justice efficiently and effectively and to solve the problems related to demography, social changes and significance reduction in budgets, the Ireland Minister of Justice and Equality implemented a reformatory programme that aimed at: focusing the citizens welfare, valuing money, maximum usage of ICT and utilize shared and common service. They key reforms that are taken are tackling crime by incorporating National Anti-Crime Strategy to achieve target by 2018. Conclusion The detrimental realities of Ireland can be detected from the rise in the debt which was around 124% of GDP in 2013 and it is expected that this debt will reduce by 2015 which will be around 122% of the GDP. (Northernireland.gov.uk, 2015) In this regard the public sector reform plays a crucial role in combating the challenges. The public sector reform requires concentrating on the service levels of the residents of Ireland. It is also important to review the reforms from time to time so that the efficiency and effectiveness of them are measured and if required can be amended with extensions. (wiseGEEK, 2015) From the report we find that the public sector reform was much needed by Ireland due to its economic distress after the financial crisis. The Public service reform has focused on all the sector s of the country in order to distribute the reformation throughout the country. (Hardiman, n.d.) References Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014 - 2016. (2015). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.reformplan.per.gov.ie/2014/resources/Action-Plan.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Andrews, R., Downe, J. and Guarneros-Meza, V. (2013).Public Sector Reform in the UK: Views and Experiences from Senior Executives. [online] https://www.cocops.eu. Available at: https://www.cocops.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/UK_WP3-Country-Report.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Birrell, D. (2010). Public sector reform in Northern Ireland: policy copying or a distinctive model of public sector modernization?.Public Money Management, 30(2), pp.109-116. Birrell, D. (2012). Policy Copying and Public Sector Reform in Northern Ireland.Regional Federal Studies, 22(3), pp.309-321. Boyle, R. (2014).Public Sector Reform in Ireland: Views and Experiences from Local Government Senior Executives. [online] https://ipa.ie/. Available at: https://ipa.ie/pdf/PublicSectorReform_LocalGovViews.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Curristine, T. (2008).Ireland. Paris: OECD. Guthrie, J. (2005).International public financial management reform. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub. Hardiman, N. (n.d.). Economic Crisis and Public Sector Reform: Lessons from Ireland.SSRN Journal. https://www.accaglobal.com, A. (2015).Northern Ireland finance minister says innovative reform is needed to tranform the public sector | ACCA Global. [online] Accaglobal.com. Available at: https://www.accaglobal.com/hk/en/discover/news/2014/12/hamilton-public.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Jacobs, S. (2001).Regulatory reform in Ireland. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Killian, J. and Eklund, N. (2008).Handbook of administrative reform. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Mazars.ie, (2015).Implementing Public Sector Reform - Mazars - Ireland. [online] Available at: https://www.mazars.ie/Home/News/Latest-News/2014-News-Archive/Implementing-Public-Sector-Reform [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Nolan, B. (2001).Public sector reform. Houndmills [England]: Palgrave. Northernireland.gov.uk, (2015).25 November 2014 - Ground-breaking review will support reform - Hamilton | Northern Ireland Executive. [online] Available at: https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news-dfp-251114-ground-breaking-review [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. ODonnell, O. (2015).Innovation in the Irish public sector. 1st ed. [ebook] Institute of Public Administration. Available at: https://www.cpmr.gov.ie/documents/innovation%20in%20the%20irish%20public%20sector.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Reformplan.per.gov.ie, (2015).Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016. [online] Available at: https://reformplan.per.gov.ie/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Reformplan.per.gov.ie, (2015).Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016. [online] Available at: https://www.reformplan.per.gov.ie/2014/exec_summary/exec_summary.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. wiseGEEK, (2015).What Are Public Sector Reforms? (with picture). [online] Available at: https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-public-sector-reforms.htm [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015].

Review of Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce Essay Example

Review of Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce Essay Perhaps no other writer in American history was more uniquely qualified to compose fiction about the American Civil War as Ambrose Bierce.   Naturally disposed toward gritty realism adn journalistic observation,but given to flights of poetic ecstacy, Bierce   served in the Civil War as a soldier, enlisting out of his home in Warsaw, Indiana, (Gale, 2001, p. 51) and wen on to attain the rank of Lieutenant by the wars close. Along the way, he faced combat, being trapped behind enemy lines,   and whose unit which participated in the battle of Shiloh [] suffered the greatest number of casualties of all Union regiments involved on 6–7 April (Gale, 2001, p. 51).   Bierce later wrote extensively about his experiences and the fiction he generated stands as some of the most interesting and innovative writing made during the early post-war years.The stories collected in Ambrose Bierces Civil War Stories were originally published in 1909 as part of the two volume set The Collecte d Works of Ambrose Bierce. The sixteen works of fiction collected in Civil War Stories span a range of genres from memoir, as in What I Saw of Shiloh, to allegory as in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, to what   might be described as adventure/travelogue, as in Four Days in Dixie. The stories in the book are placed in what appears to be a random, but   is most likely a thematic, order; however, there are no designations for one type of story as opposed to another, no sub-headings or section breaks. The stories are presented without editorial commentary or embellishment.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Unlike the facts-only historical writings that study the Civil War, Bierces writings are flavored with poetic description, biting sarcasm, colorful characters, and well-made plots. The conflicts of the large war are made at a personal level through his descriptive writings. In the case of a story like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge the death-knell of the South is prese nted as the death of a single man and the moral of the story is that to dream is sometimes to belive in a fallacy which will result in death.In other stories like What I Saw of Shiloh, the reader learns what it was like in a real Civil War battlefield, with grim and shocking descriptions of the battlefields and the dead.   His description of a mortally wounded Federal sergeant is both grotesque and blackly humorous. A bullet had clipped a groove in his skull, above the temple; from this his brain protruded in bosses, dropping off in flakes and strings. I had not previously known that one could get on, even in this unsatisfactory fashion, with so little brain. (Bierce, 1994, p. 10) The above quote shows how Bierce combined sarcasm with realistic detail in order to both horrify his readers and let them see certain realities of war which would contradict the glamorous attitudes that were often used to recruit soldiers and convince citizens to make war. Bierces themes in Civil War Sto ries often make use of pitting the fantasy of war against the reality of war.Using his life experience as a background enabled Bierce to create fiction that would ring as reality for the readers of his time and throughout to the present day.   Perhaps no story better than his most famous Civil War story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge demonstrates that Bierce wanted to discourage the glamorization of war.   However, all of the tales in Civil War Stories could be considered as showing the reality of war better than the fantasy of war. Where historical studies make use of statistics and dates, Ambrose Bierces fiction makes ample use of anecdotal evidence, and is often sheer fiction without even the pretext of being factually true. Instead, Bierce tries to express the essence of war through the immediate impact for better or worse on the individual person who experiences war. Also within the context of the lived-experience, Bierce is able to show the loss of innocence in a young person, as he does so well in Four Days in Dixie bit also the romanticization of youth and innocence even in the midst of the horrors of war, as he does in What I Saw of Shiloh.The humorous aspect of Bierces writings also gives the memoir and fictional visions of the Civil War an authentic, real-life feeling, reminding modern readers that the people who fought and died in the Civil War or had their lives completely upturned by the war   were people and not just anonymous casualties. By personalizing the war, Bierce may be offering his readers the chance to decide for themselves just how romantic war is and whether or not participating in a war   is morally or even logistically advisable.   A shift in Bierces narrative tone also shows this same encroaching cynicism:It is interesting to compare Bierces description of Chickamauga, written in 1898, with his   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   account of Shiloh, which was begun as early as 1875 [] The trembling indignation , the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   flashes of poetry, that make Shiloh a fine bit of writing, are absent from Chickamauga. In   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the latter piece he merely set down the facts with yawning indifference.   (McWilliams,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1929, p. 51)In A Horseman in the Sky Bierce offers one of the most climactic and sensational plot-twists in the book, which indicates just how hard it is to establish fiction from memoir in these stories. Of course the situation described in the story that a son would shoot his own father probably happened during the Civil War but Bierces version of it is certainly fictional and dramatized in order to leave the reader with a specific impact and meaning. The most illustrative aspect of Civil War Stories is not pictures, per se, but the dramatic mental images generated by Bierces writings.   Most readers will walk away from Civil War Stories with a   deeper and more immediate grasp of the Civil War as it impacted those who participated in it and were touched by it on a personal level. This provides an excellent counterpart to the big picture   view that is gained by reading strictly non-fiction studies of the Civil War.

Starbucks Total Supply Network

Starbucks Total Supply Network Company background Starbucks is world’s number one coffee and coffeehouse company; it has outlets in more than 55 countries. Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker established the first outlet at Seattle, Washington on March 30, 1971 (Starbucks Corporate website, 2011). To maintain the leadership role, the company adopts an effective total supply network. This paper discusses the total supply network adopted by Starbucks.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Starbucks Total Supply Network specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Total supply network In the hospitality industry, more specific in the coffee sector, the need to have an efficient supply of materials cannot be overemphasized. Starbucks adopts an integrated supply chain management where an internal department that pioneers the process; in the market, there are some coffee beans collection points managed indirectly by the company. The system aims at ens uring the company gets adequate supply of coffee and other material used in production at the right time, at an appropriate cost and quality. The company does not only fetch products in the United States where it has its head quarters, but it has diversified its team to coffee producing countries like in the East African countries where quality coffee is grown. To maintain good relations with suppliers, the company has a favorable buying price and bases the buying on the quality and the production method as adopted by the farmer. In countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, the company has implemented farmer’s education programs with the aim of facilitation the production of environmentally friendly coffees. Quality and efficiency in delivery of coffee beans and other material in the company has the main concern in the system. The company total supply chain has the following goals:Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get yo ur first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Objectives SCM; Quantity goals: Adequate supply of materials in a company when they are needed Supply of quality materials for various purposes in a business at all times (quality objective) Supply of materials at a competitive price (price objective) (Ketchen Hult, 2006) They should be managed effectively for a smooth running of business. To ensure that all the goals have been taken care effectively, the company has outsourced some of the services. However, before outsourcing it ensures that the company outsourced has been vetted for integrity, transparency and reliability. Factors that have affected the organization’s decisions regarding which parts of the network to outsource or keep in-house When outsourcing the company considers the following: Costs The company outsources services which if provided internally would not be economical in cost and management. Risk Areas that are risky when outsourced are operated int ernally; such areas include value determination and quality checks. The company’s warehousing and quality teams undertake the task on behalf of the company. Reliability and availability of an outsourcing company The outsourcing business has a number of players however, the rate of their reliability, varies. The company ensures that it uses the most reliable company operation in an economy. For example, it uses DHL and UPS Logistics Company to transport some commodities from or to other countries (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky and Simchi-levi, 2007).Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Starbucks Total Supply Network specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More How has the organization planned for the location of capacity? Starbucks has invested heavily in building and maintaining good supplier relations; the company is engaged in farmer’s empowerment programs and sets its prices slightly higher to its competitors’. The approach ensures that the company has quality and adequate coffee supply throughout the year. Starbucks procurement department looks into five main areas aimed at building capacity within the system, the areas are forward logistics, reverse logistics, international logistics, inward logistics and outwards logistics (Starbucks Corporation, 2010). References Ketchen., G. and Hult, T.M., 2006. Bridging organization theory and supply chain management: The case of best value supply chains. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2),pp. 573-580. Simchi-Levi, D., Kaminsky, P. and Simchi-levi, E., 2007. Designing and Managing the Supply Chain. New York: Mcgraw Hill. Starbucks Corporation.,2010. Starbucks and Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) Announce Next Step in Commitment to Small-Scale Farmers Web. Available from  https://stories.starbucks.com/ . Starbucks Corporate website.,2011. Starbucks Web. Available at  https://www.starbucks.com/ .

Environmental Impact Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Environmental Impact Analysis - Assignment Example Every meeting that is regularly done, the topics include all the environmental concerns that relates to every project. The recent meetings for 2015 is summarized below with highlights on the project proposal description, major key players, environmental issues related to the project, actions done, and fairness of the project. The project proposes construction of a three levels open parking garage with dimensions 91, 800 square foot, having 304 spaces with project location at the Century Centre Office Complex. The scope of works includes removal of the already existing 143 parking spaces and the current landscaping. The addition of 161 new spaces for parking with the 143 existing spaces would sum up to 304 spaces per level. In totality of the construction, there will be 1,013 parking spaces that would be created. The project with title â€Å"Century Centre Parking Structure† with Project Number PA 14-083, is a project of the Executive Office of the Planning division of the City of San Mateo. The proposed project will be located in 1400 and 1450 Fashion Island Boulevard, San Mateo, California. The planning is headed by Tricia Schimpp, with Senio Partner, Tom Wagner of the Harvest Properties. The project will provide more parking space for the workers, residents, and to all the people in the nearby vicinity. The proposed project site is at the Century Centre Office Complex with two towering office building at the middle of the parking lot. The site is surrounded with low to high multi-family at the north and south end, respectively. An executive office and the Marina Lagoon are located at the east and west side respectively. The location of the proposed project is at the Century Centre Parking Structure with address at 1400 and 1450 Fashion Island Boulevard with Parcel No. 035-440-690 and 035-440-700. A location map has been provided showing the project site location highlighted with yellow for emphasis The proposed parking lot

Data analyse and Literature Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Data analyse and Literature Review - Essay Example A more effective approach in understanding this pay should be based on considering it as an outcome of socially developed arrangements of corporate governance whereby the parties involved possess relative discretion to affect the outcomes. Including such a view in an attempt to understand executive pay tends to provide a much more conclusive explanation of the ongoing debate about executive pay both in practice and in theory (Hengartner, 2006). The issue of executive pay is one of the aspects of business that has been generating newspaper headlines quite often in the recent past. The media tends to regularly display the public outrage on the extreme highs that executive bonuses, financial gratuities and salaries have reached. In the middle of all this turmoil, many company directors have found it difficult to explain why and how much they pay their various executives as they do. The field of determining and explaining executive pay is dominated by the agency theory’s perfect contracting approach (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). This theory on executive pay explains that this is a key instrument used in alleviating agency problems. In order to ensure the separation between firm control and firm ownership is harmless, the theory states that executive pay is a key instrument used in aligning the interests between management and shareholders (Fried and Bebchuk, 2004). Pay setting is often seen as an issue of optimal pay design that is based on risk preferences and market forces. (Wiseman and Gomez-Mejia, 1997) Market forces contribute to optimal pay structures and levels that compensate the concerned executives for the various risks they took in managing the corporation in the shareholders’ best interests. This is the reason that most of the literature and studies conducted on executive pay structures tends to focus on the

Audit Procedures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Audit Procedures - Essay Example They include order management, sales transaction, and delivery to the customer, invoicing and posting to the financial statements. It also includes short-term investments and cash equivalents. In order to know aspects of the revenue cycle of an entity the auditor looks at the general ledger, which is a primary source of financial data and with the internal controls this figures should be accurate and true. For mobile streams plc the revenue cycle may comprise of sales account, trade payables and receivables account, other incomes account, cash and cash equivalents and stock ( Georgiades, 2006, 22). Audit procedures are the tests that the auditor carries out to ascertain that the revenue is stated correctly. The auditor must understand the industry that the company belongs to and this will enable him make a comparison to see if the figures are correct. Audit procedures involve designing the tests that will be carried out on the accounts, gathering the evidence, evaluating the results of the tests, and finally making decisions on the whether the evidence is sufficient. The procedures can be classified into risk assessment and further audit procedures such as test controls and substantive procedures. The overall objective of the audit will determine the risk assessment, test controls, and substantive procedures to be used (Cangemi , & Singleton, 2003 p. 272) Risk assessment involves finding out the inherent risks associated with the transactions and this information is obtained from the financial statement and accounts and assumptions level of the company. One can also source inherent risks from the strength and weaknesses of the Internal control system or form carrying out analytical procedures. An example of inherent risk is timing of the revenue recognition and it should be guided by professional rules like IASB. Example of a test control to ascertain the validity of the revenue would be to look at

Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay

Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay On 5 September 1995, Hillary Clinton, former first Lady of the United States, was invited by the Women Health Security Colloquium, which was sponsored by the World Health Organization, to attend the Fourth U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. As the Honorary Chairperson of the United States delegation to the conference, she gave the speech, Womens Rights Are Human Rights in the first few days during a special Plenary Session. In the speech, she utilized several persuasive techniques, also known as propaganda, grasping peoples attention in order to achieve support for the claim of the womens rights she was devoted to. Propaganda is usually a speech device that people intently use to induce or intensify others actions and attitudes with some deluded languages. Since propaganda is deliberate, it is often looked down as an evil and offensive tool. However, sometimes it can just be used for an act of persuasion or a personal perspective. According to Cross, propaganda is an important tool and seen in everywhere surrounding our lives. It needs to be correctly analyzed and respected and it can actually work toward good causes as well as bad (p.526). -For example, by intentionally incorporating propaganda into her speech, such as appealing to peoples emotions, distracting peoples attention, and somewhat misleading people, Hillary Clinton strengthened her persuasive power for womens rights and successfully beamed her message all over the world. Some propaganda techniques employ pathos, the act of appealing to peoples emotions. For example, plain-folks appeal, a device where a speaker tries to win our confidence and support by appearing to be a person like ourselves, is a type of propaganda. Clintons speech displays this technique when she says, We come together in fields and in factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms. Her words suggest that she is one of those everyday people in fields, factories, markets, living rooms, and board rooms. Clinton further expands this idea by saying, We share a common future. This statement suggests that because we share the same future, we are on the same level. She is telling her audience that we should listen to her points because she is one of us, and thus has similar goals and interests to us. We are effectively led to believe that we should trust her so that we can overcome our shared struggles to achieve those shared goals and that shared future. Through plain-folks appeal, she turns her audience into trusting comrades-in-arms. She then employs the bandwagon technique in a similar manner. When she says, That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that takes place here, she is again promoting that idea of oneness, which is the sharing of both struggles and goals. In the bandwagon technique, however, the goal is to pressure people to believe what everyone else believes and to conform, thus being faithful to the conference. There is a call to action. Clinton is telling the audience to jump on the bandwagon, because if one of them does not, that is the equivalent of turning away from your fellows. In the speech, she further strengthens the credibility of her argument by appealing to other emotions, such as pity and fear. Appealing to pity is achieved by attempting to win the audiences sympathy by giving examples of rightfully pitiable situations, in order to convince us of the conclusion or solution she will propose. One sees this technique in the statement: As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who cant afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes. In that sentence, she in effect not only manages to tug on the audiences heartstrings, but also to subtly declare herself as the honorary representative of these poor souls; then she becomes the voice of the voiceless and oppressed. At the same time, it is also hard not to notice how Clinton makes the use of appeal to fear, a persuasion technique that implicitly threatens the audience and like the previous examples of pathos-based argument, uses emotions rather than reasons to persuade. Clinton displays this technique in her speech by saying, As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized. Here, she is basically saying that people feel pity for those disenfranchised individuals she gives as an example, but if we continue to do nothing, their situations will deteriorate further and worst of all, such situations may affect them as well, in their own family and in their own home. Of course, the point of stirring her audience to such extents is to pursue a specific ideal, sometimes even a certain agenda. In the speech, however, she does not specify what exact action she wants her audience to take, and yet the call to action is almost palpable. Clinton achieves this by distracting her audiences attention. In particular, she uses transfer-glory by association in this case-a propaganda technique wherein the speaker attempts to transfer our good feelings about one thing, towards their viewpoints. She makes her audience aware that her goal is the improvement of womens lives, What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. However, as we can see, she is careful not to exclude anyone from appreciating her viewpoints. In fact, she sugges ts that by joining her cause, people would actually be helping themselves. Clinton even broadens the scope of these purported benefits when she says, And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish. Thus, by helping women, we are actually helping the entire world. It is an altruistic enough message in all respects. To cement such a message, however, we will notice that the speech is also littered with attempts to mislead the audience as well. For example, when she states, Women are the primary caretakers for most of the worlds children and elderly, she is making a hasty generalization in fact. As Cooper shown, A hasty generalization is a conclusion based on a sample that is too small or in some other way unrepresentative of the larger population. (p.152) Such a statement supports her overall argument and it might also be true in certain cases; however, she misleads her audience by stating it as a fact without stating a basis that men can also be the primary caretakers for children and seniors. Clintons use of another technique in her speech, stroking (Argumentum ad populum), gains my admiration. First, she presents an opposing view to her points when she states, There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. By suggesting that some people think it is not necessary to care about womens rights simply just because they think women are less useful in the field of economy and politics, she raises indignation. However, it is misleading in that it creates an opponent, an unspecified they, that may or may not exist. Thus, the argument becomes whether what they said is true or not, and not the possibility that no one truly said those instigating statements. Clinton then assures the indignant audience that there are many women who are just as successful as men in professions with high emolument in fact, stating: Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyer s, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses. She manages to present both argument and counterargument without specifying who the enemy is supposed to be and uses stroking that makes us feel we as women are very important to the society. Another technique that Clinton uses to mislead her audience to cement her message is card-stacking. Card-stacking is the technique which tells us the fact that is true but still not the entirely true in order to prevent us from being aware of some other important facts. For example, Clinton employs this technique when she states, If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are womens rights and womens rights are human rights, once and for all. While it is true that womens rights are a part of human rights, human rights are not specific to just all women, they encompass the rights of both genders. Here, Clinton uses the card-stacking to mislead us, in order to perk up the importance of womens rights. Near the end, she uses card-stacking again when she says, Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise h ealthy children and care for other relatives. Considering the very diverse memberships, values, and situations of any set of real families, this generalization is not necessarily true; thus, she subtly misleads her audience again. Throughout the history, propaganda is often used by government or politics or advertiser to affect peoples attitude and consequently alter peoples decisions to become the follower of the point of the political party or become the consumer of the company involuntarily. However, the intention of Clintons speech is completely different. It does not have to damage an oppositions credit as in some candidates speech, and neither induces people to purchase something actually unnecessary in their lives as in some ads. It is about delivering a great message for her audience regarding the significance of public women welfare. Propaganda can be used in good manners as well as bad manners. By promoting the propaganda in the positive way, Clinton successfully increased my perception of the importance of womens rights and made me want to follow her idea as long as she dedicates for this claim.

The Odyssey :: essays research papers

The Odyssey   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Odyssey is one of the two great epic poems written by the ancient Greek poet Homer. Due to its antiquity, it is not known when or where it was first written, nevertheless, the approximate date and place is 700 BC Greece. Later publications are widespread as the text is transcribed in modern English with no deviation from the original story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story is set in the lands and seas in close proximity to Greece changing by books as Odysseus, the protagonist hero, recounts of his many fated adventures and misfortunes in a series of flashbacks. Odysseus, a survivor of the bloody Trojan War that left many Greek heroes dead and a city plundered, yearns to return Ithaca and his wife Penelope, who is solicited by countless suitors, yet due to an accidental grievance done to the God of Sea, Poseidon, Odysseus is plagued by misfortunes and spend nearly ten years traveling the seas searching a path home.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Odyssey is written in the third person omniscient perspective, perhaps the only voice capable of integrating Homer’s usage of the Gods and the supernatural. This perspective shifts as necessary to give the reader a full understanding of Odysseus’ journeys. In fact, without incorporating the supernatural forces, there would be no way of understanding why Odysseus is met with such inhospitality from certain Gods or constructing a majestic recount of the actions in the plot.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Odysseus is the classic Greek hero by all standards. He is a hardened warrior who has fought against the Trojans, a dutiful husband who would journey years to return home, a cunning wayfarer who fares well with any host hostile or amicable, and a mortal in bipolar relation with the Gods. He may be the protagonist, yet as a mortal, he is only a servant to the Greek Gods. Poseidon has a bitter grudge against Odysseus for blinding the Cyclopes Polyphemus, yet Homer balances Odysseus’ fate by giving him the aid of the Goddess Athena. Thus, Odysseus’ fortunes and misfortunes are all the deeds and misdeeds of the Gods, and the protagonist is subject to his fate as determined by the supernatural. Homer’s implications about the life and fate of a man could be easily recapitulated as uncontrollable. Though the Greek Gods do not exist, man’s fortunes and misfortunes still contain unexplainable entropy, leaving mortals with no precise knowledge or grasp of their future yet mortals do have an unfailing sense of hope, just as Odysseus is determined to return home despite his foes and hardships.

The ruling idea

Nell Dunn is a feminist writer and so like many of her kind wrote plays revolving around the livelihoods of women through solitary experiences and as groups. Steaming looks at the relationships of 6 women from different social classes, ages and living in different economic circumstances. However different these 6 women are, they are brought together by the steam baths, a communal place where only females attend. Through this close environment these women are seen gravitating towards each other and communicating openly despite their class distinction and in some cases are brought together by this fascination with the opposing class. Effectively, the barriers of their class division are being brought down by the formation of female companionships. Josie is one of the poorest characters within the play, initially she is very wary of my character Nancy, who is initially seen as her complete opposite as she derives from the upper class and is the wealthiest of all 6 women. However, towards the end of the act they are seen conversing together about men and money and it turns out that they aren't as different as their stereotypes assume them to be. We wanted to take the idea of class barriers and show how each woman, although initially different comes to appreciate these differences to find out how very similar they infact are. The way in which we used staging, set and costume was very important in embedding our ruling idea in the play and using subtle factors within these aspects to present this idea to the audience. * The first way in which we created this was through the design of the set. A simple set of 4 white blocks set in a square formation was used at the central focus to the play and was where the majority of the action occurred. In doing so we were able to create a sense of togetherness in the enclosed space where conversation was accessible to all and left none of the characters out. This achieved a sense of unity among the group but also an understanding of acceptance among characters as each individual had their own â€Å"bed† -as it were- where they could keep their personal belongings and also use the space to rest, where they would not be apart from the rest of the group. Not only this but the colour of the blocks was also significant and symbolic. White creates a sense of purity and seeing as the baths are a place of cleanliness this seemed justified and would probably be found in conventional bathhouse. However, the meaning behind this choice goes deeper. Not only is the colour meant to symbolise cleanliness of a hygienic environment but it also comes to represent purity that cannot be found in the outside world, a place of troubles and grime. * The second way we achieved this was the use of costume. On entering the baths each individual character is wearing their everyday clothes, a symbol of their individual tastes, wealth and class. The costume initially gives the audience an impression of these characteristics and can perhaps makes a judgement on them and in most cases stereotype them for example Mrs Meadows and Dawn are first seen holding cheap plastic carrier bags, slippers and quite tattered looking clothes and myself as Nancy appear in patent black shoes and pearls. These outfits were purposefully chosen due to our group interpretation but also to create this stereotype so as to enable us to enhance our reasoning behind the bathrobes. The bathrobes, like the blocks, are also white, another symbol of purity and also conventional steam room wear. Like the blocks they were used to enable each character to come from the outside world, full of problems and troubles and shed themselves of the clothes their class and wealth restrict them to. Having done so, stereotypes that society creates of them are destroyed and suddenly they all become equal despite these factors. We used the colour white for the beds and the robes in an ironic way as in actual fact, a part of what this colour is meant to represent- purity and cleanliness is far from what these women's lives actually entail. Each women is subject to cases of either domestic violence, mental disorder or divorce, all which would have been shocking to be talked about so openly on stage. * A small factor is the play but also a very significant one, which added to our ruling idea, was the use of the character Bill Bradley. Nell Dunn purposefully wrote this play without a man in it and so the character of Bill is heard shouting from somewhere in the distance, responding to Violets hassles about the corroded pipes! We used this to our advantage and made a point of really shouting at him as if he were a complete nuisance not particularly because of the pipes but because he was a man and this slotted in with the fact that each and every woman at the baths has her grievances about men. From the way Dunn wrote this play it is evident that this was his purpose, to be completely set apart from this group of women who are slowly coming closer and closer to one another.

Free Essays on Ways Of Reading

â€Å"Introduction: Ways of Reading† After reading the introduction of â€Å"Ways of Reading† for the first time, an immediate sense of confusion struck. Thus, when contemplating the passage and reading it for a second time, the fog became clear. The introduction to the book â€Å"Ways of Reading† is unique in comparison to others. There is a great deal of detailed reference to the text. The introduction although difficult was enjoyable to some extent. It was broken into nine separate sections, each educating the reader on assignments to follow. The writing was fairly basic, thus the elaborate reference to types of reading was often challenging to understand. For example in the first section the author is explaining the difficulty of reading by stating â€Å"one of the difficult things about reading is that the pages before you will begin to speak only when the authors are silent and you begin to speak in their place, sometimes for them-doing their work, continuing their projects, and sometimes for yourself, following your agenda† (pg. 1). This statement is confusing to a reader. After reading over a few times it is still tough to understand. As you read further into the introduction the more the author makes note of essays from the book. This was another area of difficulty, considering the essays in the book are foreign to the average reader. The essays are used to help further the authors point. Reading things more than once strengthens your understanding of what is being said. This introduction was challenging at first because of the strong views on reading and the comparisons to essays located in the book, thus after reading it a second time, the author’s views became clearer. The introduction actually encourages you to read things more than once not just because of â€Å"misunderstandings† but also because when reading long passages it is hard to absorb so much information at once and by reading... Free Essays on Ways Of Reading Free Essays on Ways Of Reading â€Å"Introduction: Ways of Reading† After reading the introduction of â€Å"Ways of Reading† for the first time, an immediate sense of confusion struck. Thus, when contemplating the passage and reading it for a second time, the fog became clear. The introduction to the book â€Å"Ways of Reading† is unique in comparison to others. There is a great deal of detailed reference to the text. The introduction although difficult was enjoyable to some extent. It was broken into nine separate sections, each educating the reader on assignments to follow. The writing was fairly basic, thus the elaborate reference to types of reading was often challenging to understand. For example in the first section the author is explaining the difficulty of reading by stating â€Å"one of the difficult things about reading is that the pages before you will begin to speak only when the authors are silent and you begin to speak in their place, sometimes for them-doing their work, continuing their projects, and sometimes for yourself, following your agenda† (pg. 1). This statement is confusing to a reader. After reading over a few times it is still tough to understand. As you read further into the introduction the more the author makes note of essays from the book. This was another area of difficulty, considering the essays in the book are foreign to the average reader. The essays are used to help further the authors point. Reading things more than once strengthens your understanding of what is being said. This introduction was challenging at first because of the strong views on reading and the comparisons to essays located in the book, thus after reading it a second time, the author’s views became clearer. The introduction actually encourages you to read things more than once not just because of â€Å"misunderstandings† but also because when reading long passages it is hard to absorb so much information at once and by reading...