Affirmative action policies and law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Affirmative action policies and law - Essay Example For quite some time now,certain ethnic and minority groups have been pushing for better rights when it comes to higher education,employment,and government contracts.This has resulted in preferential hiring,college admissions and the allocation of government contracts when it comes to women and minority groups. It also applies to the awarding of other social benefits for these groups. The problem is that some people consider it to be reverse discrimination (Bardach, 2005; Holzer and Neumark, 2000 and Holzer and Neumark, 2006).The Civil Rights Act of 1964 started the whole push towards affirmative action. It was designed to make up for past discrimination of women and certain minority groups. In order to be considered in an affirmative action group, one or more of the following criteria must occur, which is considered different than the criteria that a regular employee would have:In the 1978 ruling of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, significant limitations were pl aced on affirmative action programs. Further limitations were placed on affirmative action programs in 1995's Adarand Constructors v. Pena and 1996's Texas v. Hopwood (Kane, 1998).1996 brought the most significant change in affirmative action programs up until this date. At that time, California voted in Proposition 209. This proposition refused to allow government agencies and related institutions from giving preferential treatment to or discriminating against individuals based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. This did not just take place in California, as other states soon adopted similar rules. In Michigan, the United States Supreme Court ruled that race could not be the leading factor in making such decisions as admission to the University of Michigan and its law school (Kane, 1998). When President Kennedy developed the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961, the term 'affirmative action' was first used. Affirmative action can be defined by the Report of the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, circa 1984, as any measure that is taken on to prevent or compensate for discriminatory action that was taken in the past, as well as to prevent it in the future. This goes beyond the simple doing away with a discriminatory practice (Kane, 1998 and Long, 2004). Affirmative action has been challenged over and over again, mainly occurring at the level of the state. The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the law passed with Proposition 209 in 1996, which bans state and local governments from hiring individuals or showing other types of preferential treatment based on the aforementioned factors in the preceding paragraphs (Kane, 1998 and Long, 2004). In 1997, former President Bill Clinton pushed for the 'mend it, don't end it' measure. As far as racial matters, he began an Initiative on Race to encourage communication on racial issues. There are many affirmative action resources available for the latest updates on the measures. These include the following: 1. The Washington Post: Affirmative Action Special Report 2. American Association for Affirmative Action 3. Americans Against Discrimination and Preferences 4. Official Proposition 209 Site (Powell, 2009) Currently, anti-discrimination laws are reaching a new level. They are being pushed so hard on a daily basis that many believe it has reached a point of 'reverse discrimination.' (Powell, 2009) Discuss the nature of the affirmative action policies you describe above in the context of being antipoverty, antidiscrimination, and compensatory. Worsening circumstances for poor individuals has been at least partially blamed for affirmative action, many scholars agree. The fact is that, after the Current Population Survey and a

Botticelli-Saville Comparitive Art Essay Example for Free

Botticelli-Saville Comparitive Art Essay The image of the nude is timeless, fundamental and universal. It has the ability to incite intense interest, yearning and even repulsion in the viewer. We often find that images of the nude reflect upon society’s attitudes towards beauty and gender issues. These issues are strongly highlighted in Jenny Saville’s nakedly confrontational ‘Propped’, which encompasses of a heavy-handed naked woman sitting on a stool. Her artwork forces the viewer to think of the female nude as not only an object, but also as a subject. Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ also addresses the issues of beauty and gender. In the artwork, Venus appears to be emerging from the sea, standing in a shell. Symbolising female desirability, the Early Renaissance painting is in accordance to the myth of her ‘birth’ as a fully grown woman. The shape and form in Propped is clearly drastically distorted. Saville has used foreshortening as a way to emphasise the weight and size of the figures body, most noticeably the small scale of the head, which looks incredibly small in contrast to the rest of the figure. Foreshortening and tone help to create a distinctive look of the figures legs and knees. There are various patches of light tones included across the chest area and knees, and the extreme distortion makes them look vast and almost bruised. There is limited colour used in the painting, mainly very natural pigments such as white, cream and light pink. Black has been used for the stool in the centre of the image, and coffee and olive colours can be seen in the background. There is also a text that can be seen scratched into the paint in mirror writing, running across and down the figures body which reads; ‘If we continue to speak in this sameness – speak as men have spoken for centuries, we will fail each other again’. Saville has painted the artwork to make a point; to make the viewer realise that fat is a feminist issue. The angle of view in the artwork is low, and the observer is made to look up at the figure. In Birth of Venus, Botticelli has used light, soothing colours throughout all aspects of the painting, including highlights added into Venus’ hair to possibly emphasise the femininity of her body. Distinctive linear style and brushstrokes have been used to ensure detail in the tones and textures of the painting. Botticelli was known for including the linear style into his artworks, a style that was revived in the late 19th century. The composition of the painting is impartially balanced. The artist has placed the figures in the artwork off to separate sides with Venus centred as the focal point. The weight and poses of the figures either side of Venus create symmetrical balance. The figure of Venus is slightly distorted. Botticelli has exaggerated the length of the neck and slope of the shoulders to enrich Venus’ natural elegance and grace. Flowing lines and decorative patterns can be seen throughout the artwork, most noticeably in the waves and leaves on the tree towards the right of the painting. Propped has the same effect as a striking photograph; that it is purposely intended to unsettle its viewer. It is a significant artwork in today’s society as it raises contemporary concerns about expectations of beauty in the female body. Unlike Birth of Venus, Propped presents us with the vibe that the observer is not necessarily male. Feminists have praised Saville for her work and her interpretation of the female nude, noting that she has reclaimed the image of women liberating it from the diminishing male gaze. Botticelli owes his inspiration for Birth of Venus to the classical ideals of ancient Greek art. At the time of its creation, almost all art was of a Christian theme. Nude women often symbolised sinful lust, however Venus remained to appear modest, attempting to hide her breasts with her hands and crotch area with her long, blonde, flowing hair. Venus strongly represented an Italian Renaissance ideal; blonde, pale-skinned voluptuous. Ideal female body figures continue to be a topic of discussion in our society today, as it was at the time Birth of Venus was produced. Both artists have used the female nude as a way to represent issues about expectations of beauty in the female body in different ways. Botticelli has depicted Venus, the pagan goddess of love, and the forerunner of spring. He has presented her as an ideal female figure for his time, consequently making her a symbol for female desirability. Jenny Saville, on the other hand, has dramatically cropped and foreshortened the female figure in her artwork in an attempt to emphasise the body’s physical bulk, creating a less than ideal female figure for contemporary society. Propped contains a strong cultural meaning, as do many of Saville’s works. Susie McKenzie speaks of her artworks in an interview with Saville in the Guardian on October 22nd 2005, stating that â€Å"Her exaggerated nudes point up, with an agonizing frankness, the disparity between the way women are perceived and the way that they feel about their bodies. † Saville has clearly represented the female nude in a way that may confront today’s society, daring her viewers to pass judgement on the figure in her artwork. Birth of Venus challenges the culture of Botticelli’s time, as it was a mythological painting, rather than relating to a religious theme as most art of that era did. Both artworks in question are figurative paintings of female nudes. Birth of Venus exists to represent the female nude as a symbol of desirability in women, as well as an icon of beauty and pleasure. Saville’s ‘Propped’ raises questions on the appearance and role of traditional paintings of the nude, such as Birth of Venus. Both artists gained inspiration from a variety of sources, all diverse from one another. Botticelli created Birth of Venus under the influences from classical ideals of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as classical sculptures he would have seen belonging to the Medici family, a client of his own. Saville spent time quenching her fascination with the body, particularly female flesh, by spending many hours watching plastic surgeons manipulate flesh. Gender issues are a strong concept in both works. A male viewing Propped will generally react negatively to the female figure in contrast to the way they might perceive Birth of Venus. Because Birth of Venus is such a strong symbol of female desirability, a male viewer will usually prefer looking at Venus rather than the heavy-handed nude figure in Propped. Women will more commonly be able to relate to the figure in Propped than Birth of Venus as it centres on issues of expectations of beauty and the way a female may feel about her body, whereas some women could be intimidated by the ambiance of Venus. Both Propped and Birth of Venus are of immense scale. Birth of Venus was painted to fit an architectural setting. At the time of its production, Botticelli intended for the observers of his artwork to view the subject matter, Venus, as an earthly goddess who stimulated humans to physical love, or as a heavenly goddess who enthused intellectual love in them. The interpretation of today’s society will differ, due to the lack of knowledge of mythological and ancient Greek themes. It has been suggested that viewers of our time will look at the painting and feel their minds simply lifted to the realm of divine love. Saville’s work has been made to be presented in galleries and exhibitions. The scale of her work (213. x 183cm) is used to overwhelm the viewer, and demands an uncomfortable degree of intimacy between the gaze of the nude figure and the observer. Her purpose of creating the artwork was to raise questions about the expectations of beauty in today’s society. We are under the impression that the viewer of this type of artwork is generally female, and Saville wants her female observers to pass judgement of the figures enormous shape and size. Propped challenges the ideal view of women, as it depicts a hefty female nude figure rather than a slim one, which is usually preferred in current society. Birth of Venus, however, provokes themes of beauty and lust, ideal to men and perhaps most other viewers. It is important to keep in mind that both artworks have been painted by different genders. Saville raises concerns about the representation of the female nude, which could be connected to the fact that she relates to the figure as a woman, and possibly faces the pressures of the anticipation and desire for beauty in her own life. Botticelli represents both beauty and pleasure in the symbolical Birth of Venus. It is an important painting not only for the Renaissance, but for our society also. This may be because Venus characterized the idealistic figure of a woman, an issue that is consistently apparent in everyday life for not only women, but also men. Women may feel intimidated or disconcerted when viewing Venus as they could feel personally uncomfortable with their own figure. Its main intention is to bring pleasure to the male eye. In brief, both artworks continue to play a significant role in society today because of these intentions, gender issues and representation of the female nude.

PESTEL Analysis of Toyota

PESTEL Analysis of Toyota Toyota Motor Corporation was established in year 1937 by its founder Kiichiro Toyoda, headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Its a part of Toyota Industries which diversified into automobiles. In 2009 Toyota Motor Corporation was declared as the largest automobile manufacturer in terms of sales and production in the world. It has more than 320,000 employees worldwide (Arkadi Borowski, 2010). It includes Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors. The product range of Toyota Motors Corporation is very large and includes cars, sport utility vehicles, trucks, electricity driven vehicles, crossovers and luxury-type vehicles. Its total revenues per year are more than 30 trillion Yen. Some of the key persons are Fujio Cho (Chairman), Katsuaki Watanabe (Vice Chariman) and Akio Toyoda (President). Importance of external environment analysis Often the external environment is the one which cannot be controlled by individual compared to internal environment. However, these factors are responsible for most of the decisions taken by the company and help in understanding the limiting factors. Without analysing the external environment it is difficult to draft a successful strategy (Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland Robert E. Hoskisson, 2009). Without proper analysis of competitors it would be difficult to craft a strategy to compete with them (Robert E. Hoskisson, Michael A. Hitt R. Duane Ireland, 2008). It is also necessary to understand the culture of the country in which the company is operating (Kip Becker, 2000). The kind of political stability and government ruling in a country is also a crucial factor in choosing the country (R. K. Singh, 2009). The key analysis areas would be the political condition of the country where the company is situated, the economic growth of the target market, technological factors, legal factors and ecological factors. These factors provide the overall impact of these factors on the company. These all factors in combination can be termed as microenvironment analysis. Justification of choice of analytical framework For analysis of the above environment issues and factors PESTEL framework can be used appropriately since PESTEL framework provides the overall impact of the external environment on the given company/firm. PESTEL framework which is complete in itself since starting from the Political to Economic to Sociological, Technological, Ecological and Legal aspects of any firm and hence analyses the overall macro environment for any company. External environment analysis: PESTEL Framework In the below analysis the PESTEL model is used to see the effect of various parameters mentioned below on the industry and their impact on Toyota with respect to the human resource policies of the company. This will help us to get better insight of the effect of these external parameters in crafting of human resource policies. Political: Political aspect of the framework consider the factors like trading policies, Funding grant and Initiatives, International pressure group, wars and conflicts, government policies, terrorism, political trends, government leadership and structure in which a company is dealing. Basically the political environment of the region in which company is dealing affects its policies a lot. Since due to recent economic downturns in which government in different nations played a major role in helping the companys to cope up with extreme economic situations. And for a company like Toyota which is operating in so many nations and has such a wide range of products that the political interference by the government becomes very important in such cases. The policies of the government and earnings of the bank also affect the macro environment due to which big impact comes on the company. Due to the US government intervention in the recruitment process of the companys who is advocating to provide more and more in house jobs so the company now have stopped hiring their manpower from home nation but hiring major portion of their manpower from the US for their US operations. Also they take into consideration the political dynamics of the country and avoid any issues that can generate from the already existing unhealthy political relations of the two countries like the company has operations both in India and Pakistan but they avoid relocation the employees of both the countries in the opposite countries. Economical: Economic aspect of the PESTEL environments investigates into all the external economic factors related with the company, impact of these factors on the company favorable or unfavorable. Economic analysis in PESTEL framework includes economic situations and trends in home country, economic trends overseas, taxation rules, market and trade cycle, disposable income of the customers, demand and supply effects, CPI, exchange rates, inflation rate etc. All these factors are very important to the company as they directly affect the revenues of the company. For most of the rising economies of the world Toyota is a pillar company since without Toyota in automobile industry it is not easy to develop the steel business, glass sector or plastic industry. Though Toyota at present is facing rising losses due to improper structure of some of their automotives which they have to recall in large numbers due to which company have to incur big losses from year 2007 till date. Economic factors have contributed maximum for the HR policy changes in Toyota and other forms as well. As with the recent recession which almost impacted the countries around the world, companies have changed themselves a lot so as to cope with the current situation in the marketplace. Economic factors such as customer demand, inflation rate, disposable income and GDP growth rate has a major impact on the HR policies of the company. Some of the major impacts of the economic factors are as follows: Recruitment policy: Since during economic slowdown demand for the companys product will reduce hence the demand will also reduce for the employees of the company. Hence the recruitment policy of Toyota also gets affected during the recent slowdown in the economy. Toyota minimised the input of employees they were hiring in previous years. Even the rewards and incentives suffered due to economical slowdown. Layoffs: There have been various cases in the past where the employees were laid off due to financial crisis in this industry (Jeremy W. Peters, 2005). Though at Toyota which is provides assurance to its employees that they will not be laid off until extreme conditions but due to the bad economic condition world-wide and the losses which company have incurred due to recall of various model of its cars they have to lay off the people who were performing reasonably good. Relocations of staff: During the economic crisis need for the efficiency of the employees get increased so the process of retraining and relocation get increased. At Toyota also during recession special training were provided to the employees to increase their productivity and due to limited number of staff employees were shifted from one place to other according to the requirement. Location choices: Human resource department of the company is also looking in to hiring more from the country and thus trying to take most of their work from the country which offers better export and import policies and where the overall cost is less which could be due to cheap available labour or raw material, tax concession and lesser tax rates offered. Sociological: Sociological parameters of the macro environment analysis of the company includes the consumer attitude and behaviour, media news, trends, diversity, education, lifestyle changes, demographic changes, ethical issues, employee attitude, management style etc. Toyota Company works as a part of the society as it employs millions of people directly and indirectly. Its various products have revolutionalized the society by changing trends in mobility world. Ethically Toyota motors is taken as one of the strongest company as despite of huge losses they have recalled some of their car models and have repaired many cars which were having minor defects at free of cost. Toyota understand that there are cultural differences in every country and it is reflected even in the way of working and hence they prefer to employ people of the same country as of the country in which there offices are located so that it is easier for the employees to adjust to the work cultural. Also, the avoid relocation of employees unless it is very essential. Technological: Technological aspect of the framework includes the competing technology development, research funding, replacement technologies, maturity of technology, information and communication, Innovations, research etc. The technological investments made by Toyota are huge and it has always being pioneer in technological field. It is always known for its innovation initiatives, replacement mechanisms, and research funding and other initiatives. The large investments which Toyota has made in technical field have increased the risk and uncertainties for the company. The technological environment is changing at a fast pace so the companies need to cope up with this change. Henceforth, more number of employees with the highly functional skills is required for coping up with those changes. Toyota also promoted various trainings among employees to abreast them with latest technological advances. Following are some of the HR policies changes which have been observed due to the changes in the technological factors: Numerical flexibility: Numerical flexibility refers to the flexibility in the workforce in term of number of workforce employed in the company. Due to the technological up gradation and automation of various operations the number f recruitments have decreased over the year. Most of the temporary workers or agents who were working at Toyota were released from their services at Toyota while some of the Toyotas real work force was downsized. Functional flexibility: It is a special skill with the employees of the company that they are functionally flexible and trained for multiple skills. Since such employees can be proved as of great importance to company at the time of crisis. At Toyota employees are trained more on job and they are trained for multiple skills and they are functionally flexible and can work different work whenever required. So during economic crisis the employees were made functionally flexible and were involved into many a functions. Ecological: Environmental aspect of the PESTEL analysis takes into accounts the ecological factors, environmental regulations, customer values etc. The environmental factor has big impact in case of Toyota as the Environmental factors especially customer values and regulation decide the fate of any business. Toyota has established many RD centres to make use of its infrastructure and human capital resource which is very crucial for Toyota. Toyota spends as much as $1.1 billion per hour for research and development purpose so as to improve the quality of technology in order to minimize their carbon foot prints. In order to encourage employees to conserve energy and minimize the wastages it started an initiative to reward the employees for doing so. This helped in establishing a culture where the employee became more aware and conscious about the environment and participated in saving it (Kathryn Tyler, 2006). Legal: Legal framework considers the factors like current legislations in the home market, future legislations, regulatory body and processes, employement laws etc. Toyota Company is subject to various legislations such as competition laws, intellectual property laws, consumer protection and taxation etc (Terry Halbert Elaine Ingulli, 2008). When the auto industry reached to development efforts were made so as to create a web of local suppliers that make possible to meet the growing legal requirements for the national integration of production. Toyota gives a lot of emphasis on whistle blower policy and has even drafted a document that explains the legal rights of the employee regarding this. They also have strict norms against sexual harassment and discrimination among employees on the basis of race, colour or nationality. They have outlined code of conducts for employees so that they do not violate any of these laws and are very strict on these especially after the Sayaka Kobayashi sexual harassment case in 2006. Conclusion: It is evident from the above analysis that the external environmental factor has a huge impact on the human resource policies of an organization especially in the case of the Toyota. Though Toyota always believe in consistent and fair HR practices providing clean and safe work place to employees but the impact of the recession which was a major economical factor was apparently observed even in the HR practices of the company. The company was always committed in providing stable employment to employees and rewarded with rapid promotion to skilful worker but due to recession and various other external factors Toyota reduced the number of new recruitments and was even forced to lay off the employees. The employees were asked to relocate and functional flexibility was demanded from them. Even the rewards were then depended on the profitability. The company is very serious about the environment and has initiated a go green mission where they give incentives to employees for minimising the wastage and saving the energy. They give a lot of emphasis on training and cross functional culture due to dynamism in technological advancements. They have very strict norms for unethical practices, sexual harassments and whistle blowing policy. Thus we can conclude that external environmental factor has a huge impact on the HR policies of a company and they are highly related as company has regularly addressed these problems by bringing changes in their policies.

Essay --

When Scott Sullivan found out that Cooper was asking questions, Sullivan was â€Å"furious† with her and told her not to concern herself with financial audits (Anderson 51). Cooper and her team then made the decision to â€Å"quietly† investigate company accounting entries. The audit team made their first discoveries of fraudulent entries in May, 2002. They were able to trace fraudulent entries back to 2000. Less than a week after the Fort Worth Weekly article was printed, WorldCom accounting employee Mark Abide read the article. Having serious concerns about its revelations, Abide forwarded a copy to Glyn Smith who was on WorldCom’s internal audit staff. On May 29, 2002, WorldCom’s internal audit team, who was led by Cynthia Cooper, met to discuss an audit report as well as the Fort Worth Weekly article on Kim Emigh. During this meeting the audit team discussed â€Å"$1.4 billion that had been added to the company’s capital expenses† (Krim 5). It should also be noted that during this time, WorldCom’s external auditor, Arthur Anderson had just been indicted in the Enron scandal. Additionally, WorldCom’s CEO, Bernie Ebbers, had just resigned as large loans he received form the company had come to light sparking an investigation by the SEC. An accounting department employee, Sanjeev Sethi, at the internal audit meeting revealed that his department did not generate the $1.4 billion adjustments. The adjustments came from higher up in the organization. Cynthia Cooper and the audit team began to investigate the adjustments. Just days later, David Myers wrote multiple notes to Cooper attempting to keep Sethi from looking into capital expense reports. Cynthia Cooper confronted Betty Vinson who had processed the fraudulent entries. Vinson ackn... ...there . . . (United States of America V. Bernie J. Ebbers 2002, 27) The second piece of evidence is a memorandum the Ebbers sent on July 10, 2001, to a senior WorldCom officer requesting information concerning â€Å"those one time events that had to happen in order for us to have a chance to make out numbers† (United States of America V. Bernie J. Ebbers 2002, 27). Being that Sullivan was comfortable enough leaving Ebbers a voicemail using terms such as â€Å"one time stuff† and â€Å"junk. . . in the numbers† along with Ebbers’ own memo is enough evidence, in and of itself, to suggest Ebbers wasn’t innocent in perpetuating the fraud. Fraud Victims The fraud perpetuated by WorldCom executives casts a big shadow with wide ranging effects. The fraud has claimed numerous victims. Not only did thousands of employees lose their jobs, they lost their means to support their family. Essay -- When Scott Sullivan found out that Cooper was asking questions, Sullivan was â€Å"furious† with her and told her not to concern herself with financial audits (Anderson 51). Cooper and her team then made the decision to â€Å"quietly† investigate company accounting entries. The audit team made their first discoveries of fraudulent entries in May, 2002. They were able to trace fraudulent entries back to 2000. Less than a week after the Fort Worth Weekly article was printed, WorldCom accounting employee Mark Abide read the article. Having serious concerns about its revelations, Abide forwarded a copy to Glyn Smith who was on WorldCom’s internal audit staff. On May 29, 2002, WorldCom’s internal audit team, who was led by Cynthia Cooper, met to discuss an audit report as well as the Fort Worth Weekly article on Kim Emigh. During this meeting the audit team discussed â€Å"$1.4 billion that had been added to the company’s capital expenses† (Krim 5). It should also be noted that during this time, WorldCom’s external auditor, Arthur Anderson had just been indicted in the Enron scandal. Additionally, WorldCom’s CEO, Bernie Ebbers, had just resigned as large loans he received form the company had come to light sparking an investigation by the SEC. An accounting department employee, Sanjeev Sethi, at the internal audit meeting revealed that his department did not generate the $1.4 billion adjustments. The adjustments came from higher up in the organization. Cynthia Cooper and the audit team began to investigate the adjustments. Just days later, David Myers wrote multiple notes to Cooper attempting to keep Sethi from looking into capital expense reports. Cynthia Cooper confronted Betty Vinson who had processed the fraudulent entries. Vinson ackn... ...there . . . (United States of America V. Bernie J. Ebbers 2002, 27) The second piece of evidence is a memorandum the Ebbers sent on July 10, 2001, to a senior WorldCom officer requesting information concerning â€Å"those one time events that had to happen in order for us to have a chance to make out numbers† (United States of America V. Bernie J. Ebbers 2002, 27). Being that Sullivan was comfortable enough leaving Ebbers a voicemail using terms such as â€Å"one time stuff† and â€Å"junk. . . in the numbers† along with Ebbers’ own memo is enough evidence, in and of itself, to suggest Ebbers wasn’t innocent in perpetuating the fraud. Fraud Victims The fraud perpetuated by WorldCom executives casts a big shadow with wide ranging effects. The fraud has claimed numerous victims. Not only did thousands of employees lose their jobs, they lost their means to support their family.

Family Heritage In Everyday Use Essay -- Everyday Use Alice Walker Ess

Family Heritage In Everyday Use In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To Dee, the narrator's oldest daughter, heritage is the past - something to frame or hang on the wall, a mere artistic, aesthetic reminder of her family history. Walker depicts Dee's view of family heritage as being one of confusion and lack of understanding. The differences in attitude that Dee and Maggie portray about their heritage are seen early in the story. When the family's house burned down ten or twelve years ago, Maggie was deeply affected by the tragedy of losing her home where she grew up. As her mother describes, "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" (409). Dee, on the other hand, had hated the house. Her mother had wanted to ask her, "Why don't you dance around the ashes?" (409). Dee did not hold any significance in the home where she had grown up. In her confusion about her heritage, it was just a house to her. Another example of Dee's confusion about her own African-American heritage is expressed when she announces to her mother and sister that she has changed her name to "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." When her mother questions her about the change, Dee says, "I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me" (411). According to her mother, the name has been in the family since before the Civil War and most likely represents family unity to her. However, Dee does not realize that. Apparently, she believes that by changing her name she is expressing solidarity with her African ancestors and rejecting the oppression implied by the taking on of American names by black slaves. Commenting ... ...tage" (413). That comment is somewhat ironic since it appears to be Dee who does not understand what family heritage is all about. Walker's view is very clear at the end of the story. By Dee wanting to hang the family heirloom on the wall to look at from a distance, she is alienating herself from her family heritage. That is exactly what Walker thinks is the wrong thing to do. Walker would prefer the quilts to be used and integrated into daily life, like Maggie and her mother prefer. The same idea applies to all of the other household items that Dee has her eye on: the churn top, the dasher, and the benches for the table that her daddy made. They all are a part of life for Maggie and her mother. Walker believes that the only value that they hold for Dee is that they would be good trinkets to show off in her house. By using the quilts in this symbolic way, Walker is making the point that family heirlooms can only have meaning if they remain connected to the culture they sprang from - in essence, to be put to "Everyday Use." Works Cited: Walker, Alice. â€Å"Everyday Use.† Robert DiYanni, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Nature is our friend Essay

Time has come now to realize that the energies of the Earth’s own kingdoms are very precious! The plants own natural state of love, joy and pride, is the core essence of Life. This is the understanding we all need to free ourselves from limiting thought forms. see more:trees our best friends essay 150 words The new consciousness contains a great love both for the planet and the nature. The new thinking will make us change our attitudes to plants and animals that continuously give us gifts. Many people on Earth have taken the nature for granted. It is here as en obvious part of life, it seems, and very few of us have really noticed how many gifts we are receiving from plants and animals. Every single particle in what we eat is conscious. Everything we take into our bodies comes from nature! The development has now entered a new track. We will all soon feel the connection to nature in a new way and start giving thanks to the specific plants that we love to eat and use as a part of our life, for example cotton an linen. It is really a gift from the plants to us. As they consist of conscious particles, they receive the gratitude from us by the particles’ mutual togetherness system. The Earth is an interesting planet for beings from many dimensions because it is very special†¦ because we have water and we have the rich life in nature as a consequence of that. This is an enormous abundance, consisting or the light particles of our solar system. It is really time to appreciate that we live on the most precious planet in our galaxy. The journey through the suffering and separation is soon over. The next years to come, we all will open our eyes for the true gifts of nature. It will lead us to new choices. When we chose to incarnate in physical body, one of our goals is to enjoy nature because this is the only planet where we can do it. When we one day move on, our love for nature and our ability to visualize what it looks like, make us able to create trees and flowers in our gardens in higher dimensions..:) by our own thought power. We live on a planet where we originally have developed from simple beings, like Darwin discovered. However, we have not developed because the  strongest won like Darwin said. The human race is what it is because we were transformed from Neanderthals by creating masters that originally came from other civilizations in our galaxy thousands of years ago.

Pros and Cons for Outsourcing

The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing services in the US By Berend Schoute (1713035), student of the VU university Amsterdam. INTRODUCTION Hillary Clinton, â€Å"I don't know what reality the Bush administration is living in, but it's certainly not the reality I represent, from one end of New York to the other. † This response came on the statement of the head of U. S. President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Gregory Mankiw. He said: â€Å"outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade,† which makes it â€Å"a good thing. † In the last decade most economists are a proponents of offshoring services outside of the US.They say that the benefits of outsourcing exceed the disadvantages. The main discussion is more likely a political one. It shows that a lot of citizens are pursuing protectionism to prevent any problems for American workers. THEORY Outsourcing occurs when a company fragmentizes a production process and sends this to another outsi de company. When companies are outsourcing to other countries/continents, it is also known as offshoring. A survey held by Lewin and Peeters (2006) showed that 90 of the 650 companies that are listed on the US Forbes Global 2000 are offshoring major business functions at that time.This outcome says that many major companies are interested in outsourcing jobs. Further outcomes mentioned that overall IT-functions (66% of the survey participants) are mostly shipped elsewhere, followed by Finance/accounting functions (60%). The most attractive destination for offshoring is India, where 60% of the functions of companies participated in the survey is to be offshored to. (Lewin and Peeters,2006) There are multiple arguments for offshoring jobs to another country. Some of these reasons can be examined by simply looking at the numbers, but most of them are abstract and difficult to catch.We speak of an omitted variable bias when a model that you create misses some important causal variables. The model can give you some positive results, but it isn’t reliable. This problem can occur in every survey, so the investigators need to be careful with the outcomes. The main argument for outsourcing is clearly labor cost reduction. The differences in wages are very large between the developing countries and the US. For example, an IT-specialist is paid $ 60 per hour on average in the US, where India pays this worker only $ 6 per hour.Although these cost benefits trough labor are substantial, extra costs incur when setting up the new offshore location. After taking all costs in account, there still is a cost reduction of 45 to 55 % (Mckinsey Global institute,2003). This cost reduction can cause a higher productivity because the domestic firm can focus on other important operations. Drezner (2003) said: ‘Thanks to outsourcing, U. S. firms save money and become more profitable, benefiting shareholders and increasing returns on investment. Foreign facilities boost deman d for U. S. roducts, such as computers and telecommunications equipment, necessary for their outsourced function. And U. S. labor can be reallocated to more competitive, better-paying jobs’. This statement is fully supported by most economists. The commodification process allows the spread of the benefits of IT-outsourcing even further, making the growth and the competitive advantage even greater (Drezner, 2003). A simple explanation of the advantage can be given by looking at the Heckscher-Ohlin model. This model simply suggests that countries that are capital abundant will export capital intensive products vice versa.For example it explains the fact that India focuses on labor intensive products because this abundance causes a competitive advantage caused by relatively low wages. In reality it’s off course more difficult, because the underlying assumptions are hardly realistic: 1. factors of production are perfectly mobile and 2. no difference in level of technology across countries. Drezner(2003) explained this by the following statement: ‘The logic underlying an open economy is that if the economy sheds jobs in uncompetitive sectors, employment in competitive sectors will grow.If hitech industries are no longer competitive, where will new jobs be created? ’ This previous theoretical introduction didn’t made the discussion between the pros and cons yet clear. It simply shoes some arguments of a proponent and a opponent. We still need hard evidence from both parties to give a good view on the truth. PROS VIEW Opponents of outsourcing are talking about the fact that American workers are losing their jobs cause of the labor movements. This is off course a fact, but what are the actual numbers ? The Mckinsey Global institute (2003) notes that in the upcoming 5 years , the growth was going to be around 30-40%.Forrester Research predicts that the total outsourced jobs will be around 3,3 million in 2015. According to projections, the hardest hit sectors will be financial services and information technology (IT). In one May 2003 survey of chief information officers, 68 percent of IT executives said that their offshore contracts would grow in the subsequent year (Mckinsey Global institute,2003). Therefore, at first sight the perception of the opponents is really sustainable. The total growth in the last two years (2002-2003) was really good, the productivity growth was even greater.The overall job growth have been really alarming. This indicates that the opponents are right in their perception. Controversially, if you unpack the numbers, you will find that 90% of all jobs in the US require geographic proximity. So these jobs were untouched anyway. The Forrester prediction of 3,3 million is spread over 15 years which means 220 thousand extra outsources jobs per year. Nowadays employment in the United States is about 130 million, and with approximately 22 million new jobs to be added till 2010, means that the ef fect of offshoring is less than 0,2% of American workers (Drezner,2003).Another argument of the proponents is that the net change in the outflow of workers against the inflow is negative. So the difference between insourcing workers because of foreign companies coming to the US and outsourcing is getting smaller. An important argument pro outsourcing is the fact that it increases the productivity of a company. The question we need to ask ourselves is can we confirm this increase with empirical evidence. Amiti & Wei (2006) investigated this question and have found some nice figures. In their survey hey tried to analyze whether there are any benefits of outsourcing in the productivity of a company. To prevent an omitted variable bias, they needed to find a valid instrument for service offshoring. In their regression model they used the number of internet hosts in the countries that supply the largest shares of services to the US. These outcomes reflect the changes in new technologies that would only affect US productivity through their effect on offshoring. Their empirical outcome was that there is a positive effect on productivity through outsourcing. CONSThe American citizens who are pursuing protectionism to prevent any problems for American workers. They say that they lose jobs because of outsourcing. This off course is true, but it’s important to look at the percentage that is reemployed. This number is provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tells us that 69% of the workers that lost their job due to offshoring, eventually is reemployed. In the previous, I only talked about low-skilled jobs outsourced to other countries. Nowadays a new trend is unfolding with the outsourcing of high value added jobs to ‘developing’ countries.For example radiologists who can be replaced by cheaper Indian radiologists that constantly are able to screen material that was send to them by US hospitals. The exact numbers aren’t clear because this trend recently came up. The debate about the high skilled outsourcing should focus on consolidating strength of the US in higher value added knowledge services where investment in human capital will be decisive. Until there is no empirical evidence of a negative effect of this kind of outsourcing, the US must focus on the quality of their higher value added knowledge services (Rudiger, K. 2007). There are also a couple of other disadvantages that come up when outsourcing services overseas. These disadvantages have been used by the opponents of outsourcing. A first struggle can be that a newcomer can find itself a unreliable supplier, which puts his work aside when finding a better paying partner or a supplier loses the workers who finds better paying jobs. In reality a supplier loses around 15 to 20 % of it’s workers each year (Weidenbaum, 2003). Other hidden costs or disruptions can be for example bad infrastructure, a lot of power blackouts and extra transportation cos ts.Weidenbaum also states ‘overseas managers often do not understand the American business environment: our customers, lingo, traditions, and high-quality control and expectations for prompt delivery of goods and performance of services’. These disadvantages can be prevented by good outsourcing preparation. CONCLUSION In the beginning of this essay I discussed the US protectionism to offshoring jobs. When looking at all the studies it came clear that offshoring brings substantially benefits to the economy of the US (and the world).In this essay we saw that firms can reduce costs up to 55 % of the particular department. Because of the cost reduction and productivity growth, the US can improve its output and competitive advantages against other countries. The disadvantages do not outweigh all the advantages of outsourcing discussed in this essay. When the politicians focus on the flexibility and quality of the economy they can create a win-win situation for the US. In the upcoming years next studies need to be about whether any skill group (high value added services in particular) is relatively more affected. REFERENCES Amiti & Wei. 2006). Service Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from the United States. NBER Working Paper no. 11926. Drezner, D. (2004). The outsourcing bogeyman. Foreign Affairs. Mckinsey Global institute. (2003). Offshoring: Is It a Win-Win Game? † Weidenbaum. (2003). Outsourcing: Pros and cons. Business Horizons (2005) 48, 311—315 Lewin and Peeters (2006). â€Å"Offshoring work: Business hype or the onset of fundamental transformation? † Long Range Planning, 39(3): 221–239. Rudiger, K. (2007). Offshoring, a threat for the UK’s knowledge jobs? A working paper prepared for the Knowledge Economy Programme.