Describe the Role and Status of Women in the 1940s and 1950s Essay

After the First World War women had gained a huge step towards having equality with men. In 1918 married women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. During the war women had proved themselves as capable as men, not only as nurses near the front lines working in very dangerous positions but also back in Britain working to help the war effort in jobs that before the war they could never have even had a chance of getting. However women were still a long way of having any vague equality with men, and when the men returned from war things changed as men were still considered far above women. Although it had got worse since the end of the war it should be recognised that womens role in society had been greatly improved since the days before the First World War. During the Second World War many of the men were conscripted to go away to war. This meant that their jobs now needed to be filled in order for the country to work., women got jobs in all areas of employment from working in manual labour to working in banks. They also managed to prove that they could do the jobs just as well as men and were able to work in jobs that had previously been for men only. Gaining all these new jobs had been a huge leap towards women gaining equality with men, however when the men returned from war most if the women lost their war time jobs. This happened because of a number of reasons. Firstly, public opinion in general believed that the soldiers who had been fighting deserved to come back to jobs and not have to struggle with unemployment. Also some bosses of small and large companies felt that men were still better and didnt want to employ women over men. A women who had worked as a welder during the war years was told, â€Å"Oh my goodness, youve got the best qualifications that we ever had apply for the job, but your a woman, and I wonder what the boys would say if I employed a woman† A newspaper editor was told when she was dismissed,†Oh its nothing wrong with your work, but we have to safeguard the succession and the successor has to be a man†. Bosses who were taking this line, and most of them were were infact taking and supporting the governments line. The governments official line said it is doubtless true that there are many jobs done during the war by women for which men are better suited, both mentally and physically. And, if there is to be a nation in the future, there must be children and children mean homes and endless chores. So that there must naturally be a drift back from the services and the factories to domestic work. I believe that this is showing that men and the government (dominated by men) were showing an incompetence to realise that women were able to do the jobs that men traditionally did. So although women had again gained a further step towards equality after the war they had again lost some of that newly gained freedom when the war ended in 1945. However not all women were displeased at societys attitude as after the war many women wanted to start families and now the men had come back from the war they were able to do this. The evidence for this lies in an area known as the baby boom, when the birth rate soared dramatically after the war. Even after the war when women were gaining more equality with men they did not have equal pay rates as men. A woman doing the same amount of work as a man would be paid two thirds of what a man would be paid. Women didnt, understandably find this fair and in August 1943 them women who worked at a Rolls Royce factory went on strike and after a week on strike they were given equal pay. However all over the rest of the country women continued be exploited by societies views. Even the government were not willing to even think about women being equal to men. When female school teachers asked for equal pay with men, Churchill dismissed their demand with one word. Even though now he was falling out of favour with the people and was soon to lose the general election, it showed that some men and in incredibly important positions within society, had no respect still for womens role in society. This meant that their status remained below a mans status even though in some cases they had become more equal, such as the right it do certain types of jobs. Before 1948 the government offered no medical assistance to women or their children only a small amount to men. In 1942 the Beveridge report was published which illustrated the importance of setting up a Welfare State which would look after all citizens equally. In July 1948 the National Health Service Act and the National Insurance Act were introduced for a weekly payment by all people earning wages. This was a huge advance for womens equality and their place in society as it now made them equal. In the first few months thousands of women went to the NHS to be treated of illnesses that they had previously had to suffer in silence. The introduction of the Welfare State also brought about the Butler Education Act. This meant that the minimum age to leave school was now raised to fifteen for all children. This was another huge advance for girls in school as it meant that there was now not only had free secondary education, and therefor this meant that the government recognised girls ability to thrive within a working and intellectual environment. It also meant that they were being put on the same level platform and being given equal opportunities in schools as boys, which would then go onto to effect the whole generations and its way of dealing with women as equals. However the system was slightly corrupt and it was not entirely equal. When pupils went up into secondary schools they had to take an 11+ exam to determine which type of school they would go in to. There were three different types, grammar for the most academic, secondary modern and technical for pupils who would be more suited to manual and primary sector jobs. Although the system seemed to give equal opportunities for both girls and boys there were infact more grammar schools for boys than there were for girls. The Welfare State also introduced family allowances to try and deal with poverty among families with a large numbers of children. It meant that for each child a small payment was paid to the women to help keep the child. This meant that the women now had some control over the finances within the household and that the man could not just go out and spend the money needed for the children. I believe that in the 1940s and 50s womens role in society improved greatly and that there were huge leaps made towards equality. However there were still some major issues that still had not been resolved and needed to be if there was going to get equality between men and women

Safe Drinking Water

Issue: Safe Drinking Water When looking alot of the big issues within today's environment I took great interest in safe drinking water. There is not that much of safe drinking water to efficiently hydrate every single person on the planet. Alot of third world countries, especially within Africa and Asia, have issues with their own water supplies being safe to drink. Now if there is safe enough water, they may not be readily available or within a close area to where people are living. One of the reasons why safe drinking water is such a high concern has to deal with the pollution in the water and what the pollution causes.Research done by many organizations, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), have found out that over 75 percent of all diseases in developing countries arise from polluted drinking water. How and what are some of the solutions that are going to be taken into action? Many Organizatio ns have taken the steps to working towards a solution and some even have already initiated their solutions. Some of the Organizations that have focused on the issues are: Global Water, EPA, TWAS, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Operation Safe Drinking Water.To start off, I am going to introduce to you Global Water. Global Water is an international, non-profit, humanitarian organization. This organization was founded in 1982 and their primary focus started with creating safe water supplies, sanitation facilities, and hygiene-related facilities for rural villagers in developing countries. This volunteer-based organization has quite a few successful projects utilizing water and sanitation as a tool to create sustainable socioeconomic development in the poor rural villages. The organization became pretty successful base on their â€Å"Technology Push† program.This program consisted of low-maintenance, state of the art, water equipment that would be used in the wa ter, sanitation, and hygiene-related facilities. Not only were these devices low-maintenance, volunteer groups would reach out to the villagers and teach them how to use and maintain the devices. With this equipment the villages were able to access, purity, and distribute new sources of safe water. The water projects of Global Water have an immediate life-changing impact on the families of the villages. This Organization has been around for 25 years and has brought over 1. billion people safe drinking water and 769 million people sanitation facilities. This organization wasn't always successful. The problems they had were not that many. The main issue was the size of the volunteer teams and the time and donations given. The speed of the process to reach such a number that they have today had taken over 2 decades to complete. Not nearly as fast as they wanted to do. If they were able to get larger teams and obtain more money, they could have saved more lives and put down for faciliti es for more poor communities. Next is the EPA.EPA, also known as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974. The SDWA is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water. Under this law, the EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the state water suppliers who implement those standards. This policy was set in 1974 to ensure Americans receive high quality drinking water every day from a public water system. The reason mainly for the policy set was to ensure the safety of the Americans health.There are over 160,000 public water systems, not including private systems, that provide the drinking water to almost all living Americans. There are a number of threats to drinking water in America due to the number of improperly disposed chemicals, animal wastes, pesticides, human wastes, and even wastes that have been injected deep underground. This policy controls any treatment use, chemical contaminants, underground injection control, and monitoring programs for all public water systems as well as some private water systems.Unfortunately this does not include some well water systems that very few individuals have. Now passing this policy was not cheap. It has been estimated over a 5 billion dollars has already been spent since 2003 on the SDWA. The US EPA has taken a infrastructure survey, released in 2001, estimating that drinking water systems will need to invest about 150 billion over a 20-year period to ensure the continued development, storage, treatment, and distribution of safe drinking water. When the estimate was set down, many did agree that it was a conservative low estimate. Now we are coming to TWAS.TWAS stands for Third World Academy of Sciences. TWAS is an international autonomous scientific organization dedicated to promoting scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development. TWAS was founded in Italy, 1983. Since 1986, TWAS has supported scientific research in over 100 countries through a variety of programs with more than 2000 eminent scientists world-wide. What the scientists of TWAS were looking into different ways of using and recycling water that we already have. Now what they discovered is not the lack of freshwater in rural areas, but the access to the fresh water.From there research, 77 percent of city and towns people have access to save drinking water, but only 17 percent of rural inhabitants have access in the Congo. Now this varies from one country to another, but all similar percentages for rural communities are still quite low. There were many solutions that had come about from TWAS, but some of the simple ones were for example, Pipeline water supplies. What I mean by that is innovative micro level methods to capture and harvest rainwater on rooftops, soak pits, and village ponds.Not only did this ease the water-shortage problems, but it was an efficient starting method to obtaining water and used wate r treatment pills to make the water safe to drink. Next is UNICEF. UNICEF stands for The United Nations Children's Fund. UNICEF works in over 190 countries to save and improve children's lives by providing clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, health care, and emergency relief. UNICEF works towards the day when zero children die from preventable causes and every child has a safe and healthy childhood.One of the solutions for safe drinking water that UNICEF has provided are simple plastic buckets and inexpensive water purification tablets that provide safe drinking water. Now this is just a temporary method versus some of the permanent ones. Alot of the challenges that were being faced for the UNICEF was mainly ways to build dams and other facilities on the rivers in remote communities. Unfortunately the lack funding came into play. The goal of UNICEF is to deliver over 15000 water buckets by this year and hoping to build water purification facilities in the remote commun ities.Last but not least, Operation Safe Drinking Water. Operation Safe Drinking Water is a small charity that has been working to install rain-catchment systems for school systems in south and central America. This is probably the least effective system without purification. But the main goal for the charity was to prevent the communities and especially the young students to stop drinking the polluted waters of streams or contaminated wells. Not only did the sickness drop over 50% for absent rates, fewer students have gotten sick or missed any classes.This is a newer all-volunteer group that has successfully helped over 50 schools with 500 or more students attending. This method is pretty effective only for preventing the drinking from the polluted streams and wells, but there is no purification system within the tanks that are provided. In conclusion, safe drinking water is probably one of the most important things within a humans life. It is a necessity. Without water, we cannot live. A human being can survive 3 days without water. Without safe water, a human being might only survive 3 days with some of the water sources that are only available to some.With the progression of the different Organizations around the world, more and more areas are being either treated or in the process to being treated so that third world countries as well as even first rate countries have safe drinking water. Organizations today estimate that within the next 30 years, we could have over 60% of the third world countries converted to safe, treated, drinking water. References Bass, J. (n. d. ). The Solution. Operation Safe Drinking Water. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from operationsafedrinkingwater. org/the-solution Kuepper, T. (n. d. ). Water Shortage, Drinking Water Crisis Solutions.Water Shortage, Drinking Water Crisis Solutions. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from http://www. globalwater. org/ Nybo, T. (n. d. ). Simple solutions to provide safe drinking water to remote communi ties in Haiti :: News from the Field :: Media Center :: U. S. Fund for UNICEF – UNICEF USA. Help Children :: Humanitarian Aid & Emergency Relief :: U. S. Fund for UNICEF – UNICEF USA. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from http://www. unicefusa. org/news/news-from-the-field/simple-solutions-help-provide-water-in-remote-areas-in-haiti. html Rao, C. (n. d. ). Safe Drinking Water aâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬  TWAS Portal. Welcome to TWAS aâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬  TWAS Portal. Retrieved November 14,

Euthanasia Position Paper †Against Euthanasia Essay

Many people don’t know what the word â€Å"Euthanasia† means, Euthanasia from Greek â€Å"ÃŽ µÃ¡ ½ ÃŽ ¸ÃŽ ±ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ±ÃÆ'ÃŽ ¯ÃŽ ±Ã¢â‚¬ , †mercy killing†, is the act or practice of ending a life of someone who is suffering for being sick or injured (humans or animals). Euthanasia has more than one meaning, the first one belongs to the historian Suetonius who talked about how Augustus died fast without suffering in his wife’s arm. Saying that he had got the mercy killing (Euthanasia) he wished for. The word â€Å"Euthanasia† at the beginning used in a medical context in the 17th century by â€Å"Francis Bacon† when he referred to an easy death or painless and a satisfying death, when it was their duty to make the people who suffer feel relaxed or stop suffering anymore. But is the Euthanasia conceder as a crime or not? Is it legal to end a life of a person in order to make them stop from suffering? Or it’s illegal because you donâ €™t know if he can survive at the end of his suffering? There is also a law for the euthanasia but still, not everyone knows what is euthanasia and what does it mean and if it mercy or murder. â€Å"Every day, rational people all over the world pray to be allowed to die. And sometimes they plead for others to kill them. Some are dying already . . . some of them want to die because they are unwilling to live in the only way left open to them† (Biggs, 2001). In Holland, it was reported that after several years of judicial toleration that ‘euthanasia’ finally became formally documented, and in Canada, they had 2,149 ‘euthanasia’ patients on their 1st year of legalized assisted suicide. There were 1982 reports for helping deaths, 1977 euthanasia death report, and 5 supported suicide deaths report In the 1st year since the legalization of euthanasia (June 17, 2016 – June 30, 2017). In Quà ©bec, there were 167 reports of euthanasia deaths before the government legalizing euthanasia (assisted death). Soon the 30 of June, there have been reported 2149 supported death in Canada. The discussion about euthanasia is getting more intense in part at least and that’s because there is confusion about the terminology about the care at the end of life. The word â€Å"Euthanasia† firstly was meant ‘good death’ but in the modern society it became a death that is free from concern and from pain, overwhelmingly it brought about over the use of medication. Nowadays it has become to mean â€Å"mercy killing†, make an end to somebody’s life in order to spare him from suffering. Many people say that Euthanasia is a murder, and some other say that it is Mercy! So which M is it, is it considered as a murder or a mercy?, â€Å"To all who may think of this moment as the start and the bright light on their life, to others who may think about the end of this moment as the end of their suffering and the start of relieve . . . yes, to all who ask for relieving. Bless you, all.† (Basri, Z. 2012). It is a serious problem in medical morals, as the intended intrusion to end a life in order to release an uncontrolled suffering and pain (Harris, 2001). Euthanasia is a primary problem in the world today. But it is still a negotiable question with not yet clear answers. Over the years has been the target for the argument of ‘slippery slope’. Also, the meaning of euthanasia has been changing because of the changing of the views and policies. The historical used to think of euthanasia that it’s a painless and fast death. But it has been changed now, it meant for them to the ending of a life of the hopeless patients to cure. The progress we have in medicine in the past years had late up our time with death. 200 years ago only like 8% of the people reach the age of 75, nowadays more than 58% of the population live longer. But while the progress of medicine increases, it also increases the chance of fatal illnesses. Nowadays waiting for death can be hard to endure. And duo to the progress in medicine the old and senescent people see the end or their death take much longer. But it’s true that we take longer to die nowadays than the past, but now it makes us feel less pain than we used to feel in the past for those who suffer sickness or pain, but it’s not without mental suffering. In the conclusion, the argument about the euthanasia â€Å"mercy killing† may never end there are many people with and many are against it, this argument is hard to be solved. Some say that if someone wants to die you just should let him it’s his decision people need to take their own decision sometimes and why it is the death penalty (killing someone for committing a crime) is legal but euthanasia is not legal?. Some others say we should never allow for that and they should handle this pain now and they may get better soon or someday. In my opinion, we shouldn’t just give up on someone’s life he may actually get better late it could be just a bad time but after it, they will be better by medicine and by believing in God and that God can cure them they just need to have faith in him. But it’s still all about the person’s opinion, what is yours?. ï  ¶ List of references †¢ Biggs, H. (2001). Euthanasia, Death with Dignity and the Law. North America (the U.S and Canada): Hart Publishing, pp. 9. Available at https://books.google.com.eg/books?id=MJvbBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false †¢ Schadenberg, A. (2017). Canada Euthanizes 2,149 Patients During the First Year of Legalized Assisted Suicide. Canada: Ottawa: international. Available at http://www.lifenews.com/2017/10/09/canada-euthanizes-1982-patients-during-the-first-year-of-legalized-assisted-suicide/ †¢ Manning, M. (1998) Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: killing or Caring. New York: Paulist Press, pp. 1. Available at https://books.google.com.eg/books?id=t1THVkQPbfsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=euthanasia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUkteQtvPXAhVCXBoKHVZQDdsQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=euthanasia&f=false †¢ Basri, Z. (2012) Euthanasia: which M is it? Mercy or Murder. United States of America: AuthorHouse, pp. 2-7. Available at https://books.google.com.eg/books?id=-QWl9azSeD8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=about+euthanasia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLl7eb6_PXAhUEuRQKHdOZDQAQ6AEIUDAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false †¢ Harper, J. P. (2003) the contemporary advocacy of euthanasia In P. Harper, ed., Council or Europe Euthanasia: Ethical and human aspects. Europe: Council of Europe, pp. 27

Is Whistle Blowing Ethical or not Research Paper

Is Whistle Blowing Ethical or not - Research Paper Example The morality comes into question when there is a conflict between the individual’s duty to staying loyal to the firm and the freedom to speak out against what is wrong. The dilemma is severe because of the fact that individuals/employees are legally and morally bound to show their loyalty to their employers as well as ascertain the fact that one does not, directly or indirectly, get involved in any wrongdoing (Beauchamp and Bowie). It has become a common practice to link whistle blowing to loyalty with ones employer, such that several literature surrounds topics such as â€Å"whistle blowing versus organizational loyalty† or â€Å"whistle blowing and loyalty† (Lindblom). In his book, Robert Duska offers an interesting insight- that loyalty to the firm is an impossible event. According to Duska, employees have a contractual obligation to perform their duties responsibly in return for the compensation that they get (Larmer). However, according to him, the concept o f personal responsibility to the company is void and that no loyalty issues should arise when discussing the notion of whistle blowing. According to him, one must engage in whistle blowing only for the collective good of the society (Larmer). The conflict of whistle blowing with loyalty is more intricate than suggested. ... Hence, in this context, loyalty would mean that the individual must show concern towards the potential harm and loss of reputation, goodwill, sales etc. that the organization would suffer as a result of him/her blowing the whistle. However, there is another view by Ronald Duska, which states that organizations should not be recipients of loyalty simply because only â€Å"humans† can be objects of loyalty and not the organization as an entity in itself (Lindblom). Also, according to Bok, whistle blowing almost always pertains to the personal level since it involves unveiling the wrongdoings of someone else. The whistle blower may face tremendous moral and ethical conflict when it comes to the same because of several reasons. One of the reasons is the uncertainty whether or not the act is going to result in the general welfare of the public. Furthermore, the whistle blower is faced with moral dilemma when he/she has to weigh his/her moral responsibility to protect the interests of his co-workers versus his/her responsibility to protect the interests of the public. In any case, the latter is considered more important. A final reason for the dilemma, according to Bok, is the potential threat of loss of job, social circle, reputation, or even violence that could result from blowing the whistle. On the contrary, however, whistle blowers often receive strong support and appreciation from the society since they perform a vital job. The job is indispensable because, if it weren’t for the whistle blower the truth of the moment would lay hidden from the public forever and would result in injustice. Furthermore, Bok has emphasized three main elements that lead to whistle blowing becoming a problem. First

Advance project management(project plan) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Advance project management(project plan) - Essay Example port will better inform centre’s stakeholders about the advances the centre is making and will serve as a tool for attracting funding to the organization. In order to achieve set goals and objectives of the project, it is critical to breakdown the workload and tasks, which should be done in order to complete the project. A work breakdown structure is a â€Å"deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team† (The Project Management Body of Knowledge, cited by Workbreakdownstructure.com, n.d.). Below is presented detailed work breakdown structure, with the details on sub-deliverables of the project. Success of any project depends on the accurate estimation of the activity duration. The project requires estimation of the various requirements of cost, time and resources throughout the project. In order to ensure that the project will be completed on time it is necessary to understand how much time each activity will require (Pcubed, n.d). Below is given the list of activities for this project, along with their estimated completion timeframe in weeks/days. Project initiation part is excluded from this list. Even though the estimation of each activity’s duration provides information of the time it will take to complete the whole project, activity duration estimation is dependent on the other elements of the project, including time and resource estimates (Pcubed, n.d.). This issue will be addressed in the next sections of the report. In order to complete the project there will be involved different stakeholders and people. It is critical to track roles and responsibilities of every team member (Viswanathan, 2014). The project team is comprised of 4 key people, including: project manager, marketing specialist, writer/editor, and staff assistant. This team will perform the main job related to the preparation of content of the Annual report, design, and bidding for subcontractors for designer’s work, printing and

Emphysema lung disease Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emphysema lung disease - Essay Example Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke decreased elasticity of the lungs and destroys the alveoli. Another cause of emphysema is deficiency of alpha-1-antitrypsin, a substance that fights a destructive enzyme in the lungs called trypsin. An alpha-1-antitrypsin deficient person cannot fight the destructive effects of trypsin and the lung is slowly destroyed. Though the role of genetics in the development of emphysema is unclear, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency may be inherited. Other causes of emphysema are air pollution, abnormal airway reactivity, sex and old age. Air pollution has similar effect on the lungs like cigarette smoke. The pollutants will inflame the airways and destroy the lung tissues. Abnormal airway reactivity, such as bronchial asthma, can lead to emphysema. The differences between male and female hormones are suspected to make more men develop emphysema than women. It is also found that lung function normally declines with age, that lung tissues are destroyed as one gets old and this condition will lead to emphysema. The most common symptom of emphysema is shortness of breath. Due to the collapse of the chest wall, a person with emphysema has to struggle to exhale completely because his airways are close when exhaling. In the advance case of emphysema, a person may engage in "purse-lipped breathing" wherein the person purse his lips, leaving only a small opening. When exhaling, the lips block the flow of air and increase pressure in the collapsed airways. Since air is trapped behind obstructed airways, a person with emphysema may develop a "barrel chest" where the distance from the chest to the back becomes more pronounced. Other symptoms are cough and wheezing and decrease in tolerance for exercise.When experiencing shortness of breath, decrease in the ability to exercise or perform daily activities, a persistent cough or wheezing, consult your doctor since these may be indicative of other diseases such as heart problem and other lung diseases. The doctor can also help in formulating a plan to quit smoking. Watch out if the lips, tongue, fingernails, or skin turn blue since these indicate cyanosis or severe worsening of your lung condition. If these symptoms are seen, rush to the hospital's emergency department. If the doctor suspects emphysema in a patient, he will recommend physical examination, with particular focus on breathing sounds, heart sounds, and general physical appearance. A number of tests may be ordered or performed such as chest x-ray, lung function tests, bloods tests. These tests will gauge the extent of the disease, the remaining lung function, and the presence of lung infections. Looking at the chest x-ray results, the doctor can identify changes in the lungs that may indicate emphysema, detect presence of an infection or a mass in the lung (such as a tumor). The lung function tests will give specific information on how the lungs are working mechanically. In the lung function test, the patient is made to breathe into a tube that is connected to a computer or some other monitoring device. The lung function tests measure how much air the lungs can hold, how quickly the lungs can expel air during expiration, and how much reserve capacity the lungs have for increased demand such as during exercise. The blood tests will check white blood cell count, which in turn indicates an acute

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 35

Case Study Example First of all, the condition of the two mothers when their children became sick has to be given the first priority i.e. were they breast-feeding their children? Could they have been infected by the disease? Where they live and what type of food they eat when breast-feeding. In addition, it would be prudent to determine the age of the children, when they became sick for instance: Did they fall sick at the same age? Consequently, various environmental factors would be taken into consideration for example: The environment of the working place; where they come from; and the people they interact with at the work place. The second step would involve undertaking scientific tests on the factors identified to determine if they could cause diseases with similar symptoms. However, specific consideration would be given to the composition of the mother’s milk and if possible compared to the laboratory results of the breast milk of the co-worker: This is only possible if the laboratory results indicating the chemical component of the co-worker’s breast milk is available. Research indicates that there is a high sense of relationship between certain diseases and industries (Handley 2001). This is mostly evident when there is one family member working in an industry or when there is an industry next to a residential place. In this regard, there would be a case for the woman in the court (Handley 2001). However, such allegations would require proper proof/ medical evidence for the woman to win. On the other hand, there are various occupational health and safety laws that are applied in industries to not only protect the lives of the workers and the environment, but also their family members (Hartnett 2008). The woman win the case in the event that the court finds out that such rules are not properly followed by the company as

Black and white people Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Black and white people - Essay Example Booker T. Washington comes into the public spotlight for the first time to present key note speeches as a great crusader for the civilization of the Negroes. Initially the colored people thought that his driving force was anti whites crusade ,so the showed him love and cheered him with the expectation that he would curse and put deeper demonizing of the whites ,however he had surprise for all, whites and the colored ,because his ideas were clearly cemented on the need of friendship and support from both groups and the cooperation between the races. His dreams and desires were that the colored and the poor be accorded equal chance in life and that they correlate in equal measures as their white brothers and as members of a universal race. The ascendancy of Booker T. Washington came at a time when the country was recovering from war and the concentration had shifted to the development of the country’s economy and there was the sense of unknowing and hesitation on how to handle the sons of the freedmen. Mr. Washington understood the dealings of the south since his birth days and all of his actions and ideas were geared at the benefiting of the population from the south and the north in equal measure. The wisdom and love employed by the education system used by this Negro crusader left many his enemies confused and developed him and his ideas into a cult. Even though there was the development of some individuals becoming anti his ideologies and attempting all means of changing the minds of people from him, the logics and general benefits of his ideas made his work to acquire tremendous gains among the whites and the colored. Despite the threats to his popularity arising from those against his ideologies to the whites i.e. dining with President Roosevelt, Mr. Washington continued undeterred to advocate for the accommodation of one another between the northerners and the southerners. This led to his recognition in all the aspects of the world

Internet and Information Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Internet and Information Paper - Assignment Example All you need to do is get an access of an Internet connected computer and get the information you want by exploring the sites in the web. However, as there are many sites in the web that provide information, one may become doubtful about the value of those sources, particularly when it comes to the credibility and reliability of the information. On such cases, Internet users should exercise their critical evaluation skills when reviewing the information found in online articles. This is because failure in evaluating information critically may mislead readers, which may result to misinformed judgements. Miriam J. Metzger (2007), in her article Making Sense of Credibility on the Web, evaluates different journals about online information evaluation and concludes that there are three factors that affect the credibility of online information; namely, the content of the information, the author, and the site on which the information appear (p. 2078). With these factors, Metzger also asserts that the Checklist Approach to online information evaluation is the most useful tool in evaluating the reliability and credibility of information in the Internet. The criteria in the checklist include the 1) objectivity of the argument, 2) author’s professional record, 3) date of the sources, 4) academic writing conventions (grammar and referencing styles), and 5) â€Å"stamp of approval† from official evaluation committee/s (Metzger, 2007, p. 2080). In evaluating the objectivity of the information, one should read the article and consider whether the author presents the two opposing sides of the argument without personal biases. Readers should also consider the author’s professional record to see if the author has a comprehensive theoretical background and/or field experience of the topic in question. Further, it is also necessary to check the writing style and presentation of the article because these show how the author values the academic and professional c ontent of his/her article, which also affect its academic and professional reception of the article. As readers, we also look forward to getting fresh information as it informs us on current social conditions; thus, we should be vigilant about the date of the article to ensure that we can get fresh information on the topic. Lastly, the presence of â€Å"stamps of approval† adds value to the article as it suggests that professionals and members of official evaluation committees also read the article. With regard to your inquiry about the â€Å"digital divide,† the term refers to the gap between â€Å"information haves† and â€Å"information have-nots† (Campbell, Martin, & Fabos, 2012, p. 63). â€Å"Information haves† are those people who can buy computers and Internet services while â€Å"information have-nots† are those whose financial capabilities are not enough to buy those services. The gap between the two groups increases because of the fact that there are still other factors that affect people’s inability to get Internet access. For instance, Campbell et al. (2012) further explain that age, educational attainment, and family background may also inhibit people to get Internet access. Specifically, learning to use the Internet and understanding basic Internet skills may become challenging tasks for older people; the same is true for people with lower educational attai

The Percentage of Men and Women in the U.S Essay Example for Free

The Percentage of Men and Women in the U.S Essay In 1950, 86 percent of men and 34 percent of women age 16 and older were in the labor force (See Figure 1). Although the 1964 Civil Rights Act had outlawed employment discrimination based on race and gender, gender quotas in education had not yet been challenged effectively, and enforcement of the law lagged behind its adoption. Women who entered law, medicine, dentistry, or veterinary medicine before 1970 did so despite discrimination based on gender. At the time of the 1970 census, sample data revealed that about 20,000 women held jobs in engineering, 13,000 as lawyers or judges, and nearly 26,000 as physicians or dentists. By 1970 women had clearly succeeded better in entering some male professions than others; one physician out of ten was a woman, but only one in twenty veterinarians was a woman. In cognizance of the rising population of working mothers, new womens magazines arose in the 1970s like Ms. and Working Woman, which offered advice and encouragement to the working mother, but the real problems of juggling family needs with employment responsibilities had grown no easier. The dilemma of the working mother stemmed partly from the nations refusal to mandate child day care at local, state, or federal levels (Blackwelder, 1997, p.197). In the face of the inadequacy of affordable day care and continued public rhetoric undermining working mothers’ confidence, working mothers of the 1970s turned to each other for support and for advice. A â€Å"handbook† for working mothers published in 1977 addressed the issue of guilt before turning to advice on the emotional, career, and logistical issues confronting working mothers. The author, Niki Scott, reached a not overwhelmingly affirmative conclusion about the situation of the working mother: â€Å"Perhaps youll learn . . . that some of your guilt is unwarranted; that though . . .guilt in working mothers is nearly universal, most women do not do it allthey just do the best they can; that children are not quite as vulnerable as we might think, given a chance to develop; and that you are not alone† (Scott, 1978). By 2002, wide gaps of men and women in the workforce had converged to 74 and 60 percent, respectively (BLS, 2003). BLS expects the male and female labor force participation rates to continue to converge to 73 and 62 percent, respectively, in 2010 (Fullerton Toossi, 2001). In general, converging labor force participation among men and women visualize that the number of workers that are women is increasing. It was 47 percent in 2000 and is expected to be 48 percent in 2010 (See Figure 1). Currently, U. S. employers are under constant pressure to ensure equality for women with respect to employment, advancement opportunities, and compensation. They also need to accommodate working mothers and fathers through parental leaves, part-time employment, flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and child care assistance. In addition, because more women are working, employers are more sensitive to the growing need for policies and procedures to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace. Some organizations have special orientation programs to acquaint all personnel with the problem and to warn potential offenders of the consequences. Indeed, globalization has the potential to improve women’s economic achievement. For example, increased employment opportunities for women in non-traditional sectors might enable them to earn and control income, giving a source of empowerment and enhancing women’s capacity to negotiate their role and status within the household and society (Bailey, 2005). In addition, the World Bank’s report entitled Enhancing Women’s Participation in Economic Development stated that women’s economic development will benefit their households and society as a whole: â€Å"International experience has proved that support for a stronger role for women in society contributes to economic growth through improved child survival rates, better family health, and reduced fertility rates. † (Bailey, 2005) Work or Family? With women’s entry into workforce participation came concerns about work-family balance, especially as women began to consider whether and at what points in their careers to have children (Orenstein, 2000). Work-family issues were depicted as either/or dilemmas in which women had to pick or choose sides (Williams, 2000). If they chose both work and family, they were labeled as superwomen or second shifters (Schwartz, 1989). Work and family women still reported exhaustion and guilt over time and energy conflicts between competing (public-private) realms (Edley, 2001). They sought to manage double binds of managerial and feminine identities, career and relational time, and embodied (feminine) differences from professional, rational, and masculine norms (Nadesan Trethewey, 2000).

Failures Of The Juvenile Justice System Criminology Essay

Failures Of The Juvenile Justice System Criminology Essay Juvenile justice systems across the country are experiencing major challenges resulted in a failure to meet their original goal to change the deviant behavior of the juvenile delinquent by focusing on rehabilitation in order to ensure juveniles have an opportunity for a future life as a productive citizen. Despite this goal juvenile justice system, in many cases, has failed to rehabilitate the juvenile and instead have become more prone to placing juvenile delinquents in juvenile detention facilities, or trying them as adult offenders. Once the juvenile delinquent becomes a part of the system, adult or juvenile, they have difficulty escaping from the stigma and moving on to create better lives. Instead of delinquents making positive changes in their life, they instead graduate up to adult prison and become adult criminal offenders. These failings within the juvenile justice system can be attributed to the lack of education, lack of support services and an inability to incarcerate the more serious juvenile offenders. In fact 80% of juveniles who enter New Yorks juvenile facilities end up returning or graduating to adult prisons within three years (Louis, 2008). This recidivism rate is 20% higher that the New York adult criminal justice system. In other states, such as Oklahoma or Texas, the rate is even higher. The juvenile justice system has also failed to provide a fair and equal juvenile justice process which is obvious based on the racial disparities present in Americaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s juvenile justice system. Minorities, African Americans especially, are placed in juvenile detention centers or receive waivers that require them to be tried as adults. These failures have been attributed to the delinquent or criminal behavior of the minority by the juvenile justice system but by critics it has been attributed to racial profiling of police and bias in the juvenile courts. The fact is in the juvenile justice system there have been many failures that have resulted in many challenges. These challenges make it difficult for the juvenile justice system to meet its original goal of rehabilitation and have resulted instead with juveniles that are not reformed but instead have the tools to become adult offenders. When juveniles are removed from their homes and placed in a juvenile detention they do not become reformed but instead there behavior will worsen in this type of an environment. Juveniles that are laced in detention centers are faced with becoming more aggressive than the next juvenile just to survive. Instead of learning to become more productive members of society the juvenile learns new criminal skills. Juvenile offenders in current society commit the same delinquent acts of the past but they also commit offenses that are far more serious and violent than when the juvenile justice system was first established. Instead of rehabilitating juvenile and taking steps in repairing the family the juvenile justice system has been quick to punish the juvenile. The lacking of effective counseling services for juvenile delinquents before and after being detained or incarcerated has been considered a large part of the overall problem in the juvenile justice system as well as a very low success rate in making positive changes in the life of the juvenile offender. The research will seek to understand the extent of the failures of the juvenile justice system by presenting statistical research and real world examples of these failures. The better juvenile justice professionals understand the failure of the system the more effective they can be in developing more effective measures for ensuring the juvenile learns new and positive behavior and does not grow up to become an adult criminal offender. Through rehabilitative services and programs the juvenile will have an opportunity to make positive changes in their lives and become more productive members of society. Literature Review Research has shown that the juvenile justice system has failed in their goal to rehabilitate juveniles to ensure they do not grow up to become adult criminals. In research conducted by Annie Casey Foundation it was discovered that the juvenile justice system is ineffective, dangerous, and inadequate. Instead of investing in the future of juveniles the system is just focused on punishing the juvenile and removing them from society. Juveniles that are detained or that are adjudicated to the adult court system are not taught new positive behaviors that assist them in becoming upstanding members of society and instead they learn new criminal behaviors. In Oklahoma, precisely the Creek County area of Oklahoma, which is likely one of the highest areas of juvenile offenders in the state there exists a definite problem of dealing with the issues of juvenile crime. Furthermore, the juvenile justice system has no real punitive measures that can be put in place to deal with juvenile offenders who should be removed from society. The lacking of effective counseling services for pre-incarceration level and post-incarceration level offenders has been considered a large part of the overall problem in the State of Oklahoma. In fact despite the proof that rehabilitative programs can work the state has failed to aggressively implement them and prefers instead to detain or incarcerate. The Juvenile Re-entry of Oklahoma County program is one such program that has been shown to be successful with only a 10% failure rate (Kelly, 2010). The program provides the juveniles with an opportunity to obtain their high school diploma or G.E.D and an opportunity to learn a new job skill. In a recent analysis of the program it was discovered that many of the participants not only obtain their education but go on to obtain their college degrees. The state of Texas has one of the largest the juvenile justice populations in the country and juveniles are detained in a large majority of cases. The Texas juvenile justice system has large caseloads where juveniles in some cases will be detained for a year without ever going in front of a judge. The judges in the state are quick to detain the juvenile because the state has become limited in the resources available to rehabilitee the juvenile offender. In New York the juvenile justice system became so corrupt and the treatment of juveniles so inhumane the governor called for a complete overhaul and reform of the New York juvenile justice system (Louis, 2008). Juveniles were routinely restrained while in custody and left face first on the ground for hours. Juvenile justice officers were known for being cruel and aggressive. Since the reform efforts the juvenile receive discipline but is not subject to inhuman treatment. Perhaps one of the alleged problems are the extremely restrictive laws which were passed as result of the 14th Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Whereas; juvenile offenders are to be handled in such a restrictive manner as it give the offenders the idea that thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s nothing the system can do to them, in such a case like Thompson V. Oklahoma, where the State of Oklahoma petitioned to charge the defendant as an adult for premeditate murder, or 1st degree murder, which was approved and Thompson was so tried and convicted, to be later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court (487 U.S. 815, 1988). The trend for the juvenile justice system to detain the juvenile over finding effective rehabilitative services is not the only challenge facing juvenile justice systems across the nation. After a two-and-a-half year investigation by the Civil Right Division it was discovered similar to the adult criminal justice system that the minority is treated more harshly than the non-minority. The research showed that law enforcement, which has discretion in what happens to the juvenile, is far more likely to detain the minority juvenile and release the non-minority juvenile into the custody of their parents or guardian. The report also said black juveniles were treated more harshly than white teenagers in detention practices and transfers to criminal court to be tried as adults (Dries, 2012). As a result there is a major overrepresentation of minorities in both the juvenile and adult justice systems. All criminal offenders in the juvenile justice system should be guaranteed an equal and fair juvenile justice process but this is just not the case. While juveniles are afforded some due process rights, the juvenile justice system is not focused on equality or even justice. It is instead focused on punishing juveniles for their bad behavior. When juveniles are placed within juvenile detention centers instead of sent being home with their parents and being required to attend rehabilitative programs and services that will assist them in changing their behavior and leading a more positive lifestyle. Research has shown that juveniles that are placed in juvenile detention centers are seven times more likely to grow up to become adult criminal offenders or to be tried as an adult while juveniles. Further, those who ended up being sentenced to juvenile prison were 37 times more likely to be arrested again as adults, compared with similarly misbehaved kids who were either not caught or not put into the system (Szalavitz, 2009). The failure to employ rehabilitative services has resulted in a growing juvenile justice population.

Stakeholder their importance and engagement

Stakeholder their importance and engagement Introduction Stakeholder is someone who has interest in any organization, project, or business institute. Stakeholder analysis is critical. Stakeholder analysis is a tool or a set of tools. This uses for generating knowledge about individuals and organizations. The main aim is to understand their behaviour, intentions, interactions and interests. This also helps to assessing the influence and resources they bring to bear on decision making or implementation processes. In general these stakeholder included staff, shareholder, owner, government, media, community, customer, supplier, creditor, trade union. Stakeholder analysis  used to identify constrain and conflict in  project management and  business administration. This information is used to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed in a  project  plan,  policy, program, or other action. Stakeholder analysis is a key part of  stakeholder management. Define the terms Terms of stakeholder refers to individual or groups who can effect or effected by a corporation activity. (Sevendsen, 1998) People who have direct or indirect effect on any project can called stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis is analyzing the attitude of stakeholder towards something (business, project, government). Stakeholder could be a person or group and they can react positively or negatively towards the project or business, government. According to their impact there are three types of stakeholders. Primary stakeholder: the person or group, who ultimately affected by the project .It could be negatively or positively. Customers, owners, employees, associates, partners, contractors, suppliers, people that are related or local people are normally the primary stakeholders. Secondary stakeholder: mainly the intermediaries, the person or group indirectly affected by organisation action. Secondary stakeholder could be the community. Key stakeholders: this group can be part of first two groups as well. They have significant influence upon or impact within any organisation. This happened when secondary stake holder got influence. For example community some time could create pressure if they are on legal ground. There is some suggestion by different writer about the method of stakeholder mapping According to Mitchell, et al. (1997) stakeholder is classed based on power to influence. However, according to Johnson and Schools (1993) Stakeholder analysis or stakeholder mapping has evolved in recent years as at method for analysing the likely interests and actions of stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis means assess the stakeholder according to their interest and influence. Stakeholders are categorised on a graph rating their level of interest against the power they possess to exercise those interests. The stakeholders in this way are broadly divided into four groups; low interest/low power (A), high interest/low power (B), low interest/high power (C) and high interest/high power (D). Stake holder mapping is strategic business tool, this identify deferent level of power and influence acquire by stake holder. It also examined the power stake holder can exert, the relative likelihood of them using the power, and their level of interest regarding the companys activities. The objective of this analysis is to find out which potential group or individual stakeholder is more likely to affect the company. Then the company need to decide how to attend those group or individual stakeholders. Stakeholders are divided in four groups.Presentation1.jpg Figure According to figure 1 section has low level of interest and low level of power. To explain this diagram the writer use Manchester united football club. So for Manchester United (MU) in section A would be press, government, UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) they all got little effort on MU. They also got low interest in MU fuctions.MU can informed them after any decisions made. Section D is included fans, player, staff, FA (Football Association), supplier. This group need to inform. They got low power on decisions make, but got high interest on MU events. Section C is lenders, sponsor they need to satisfy on any change or decisions made. As they got high power MU need to care full of any warning sing for them. Finally section D is the key players the owner (Glazer), who got the high interest power and high interest. They can make any strategic choice. Benefits Stakeholder analysis has been used as management and strategic tool identifying optional strategy and managing other stakeholder , identifying current and future opportunity and threat and how best to handle them (Blair and Fottler, 1996) the main aim is to how much and what kind of attention need pay to stakeholders. For any project knowing the stakeholder interest is vital. This could lead to project success and also the failure of any project. It is very help full to know stakeholder interest. This allows the project manager to become proactive. For example if there is project of building of gym .Then the project planer can implement the customer interstate(modern gym instruments) the same time they can think of government interest ,fire exist .Both stakeholder preference can prevent future implication. These possible could be losing customer and accuse by health and safety. This analysis helps to bypass the future complication. Moreover it saves cost of future change and penalty. Project often get failure, because of protest from stakeholder. Stakeholder can be motivated by the managers. There is a mechanism to influence these stake holders. The information about stakeholder can be used by the managers to make mechanism to influence stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis is a great tool to bypass any possible risks. This risk can come from any stakeholders. Recently BT took some steps to increase its share price. It establishes a telephone exchange in Hong Kong and did some more investment in telecom industry. This all increase their share price. But at the same time BT make huge dept. This was not expected by the shareholders. So BT needs to sell some of its assets to reduce the debt. This happened, because of not considering shareholder expectation. BT could easily bypass this risk by pre- assessment of the full stakeholder analysis. Key stakeholder need to be informed about the project during the implementation stage .GMPTE building the metro link train service in team side area. It is long time project and creates a lot of traffic jam in this area. GMPTE is giving update in press or internet to keeping all stakeholders inform about the project condition. This giving them the support against the complication faces by the traveller and complains. This lets them do the project without any interruptions. By getting the most powerful stakeholder opinion, project planer can shape their project at early stage. Moreover, there is possibility to have support from them. All combine input can improve the total quality of the project. By gaining support from the powerful stakeholder will give access to more resources for project. This can make project successful. Advance and continues communication with the stakeholders will insure the stakeholders the activity of the project and their benefits. This will lead them to give every support when necessary. By capturing people reaction can let the project planer to build the project and put action plan to win people support. Stakeholder analysis helps to set the parameter of CSR (corporate social responsibility). Early stakeholder analysis can give sufficient information about the project. Moreover it can help the managers to take decision in future as well, like CSR .Stakeholder analysis gives detail information about all kind of stakeholders, which they can use in future. CSR is one of the elements of core competence and it is easily gain by the stakeholder analysis. It happened mostly in retail sector .They use all stake holder data for marketing communication and assesses them as potential buyer. Stakeholder mapping classify stakeholders and recognize groups possibly can influence and be affected by corporation decisions. Stakeholder mapping helps to develop the interaction between stakeholder and organisation. This is base on the stakeholder interest. For example when any new Tesco store open they send newsletter to the local community to keep them inform. Because they got high interest, but contribute little power. Disadvantage A big limitation on this analysis is the environment change. According to Vrvasovszky Brugha( 2000) the environment, the context of analysis, stakeholder interest, position, alliance and influence change over time. Political context can change over time. There are more likely to sudden transformation in developing countries .Therefore stakeholder analysis is time prospective. If the analysis takes too long to finish, the situation can change. This change is mainly happened in political position and legislation. As they both can change suddenly. The analysis result could go wrong on the basis of meaning of validity. This is because the respondent stakeholder answers are base on his or her position. If the changes by the project are on their favour, they will give a positive opinion about the project. Alternatively if the project can harm their desire, they could do the opposite. In Bangladesh a government own organization the National Telecommunication Board was converting to private sector. This project was faced huge protest by its employee. It was because the change will harm their current position (Und, 2009). Analyst could be influenced by their own value, prospective and understanding the policy issue, which is essential to do the analysis. Most of the time the analysts are from stakeholder, or acting on behalf of stakeholders .They could think about their interest and use the analysis to picture their aim. Sometimes it is impossible to shape the project, as to satisfy different stakeholder. This happened when different staked holder has different interest and each oppose other. For example Tesco chain store is expanding all over UK. Recently they open a new store in Middleton, Manchester. When they built the store they need to build a leisure centre, to satisfy the council. This extra constriction cost was not accepted by shareholders. According to Tesco official (2011) to build a new store it takes about  £10 million for each supper store. This types of cost may be oppose by the shareholder and bring a conflict between stakeholders. This also encourages the project planer over budgeting and could lead to project failure. Analysing for big project, need to consider different level and different kind of stakeholders. It is very complicated to that, as it is hard to consider which stakeholders might have power and who do not. Conclusion On the base of discussion from different scholar, the writer comes up the summary of the report. Stakeholder analysis is vital for any project. Because it bring the fundamental thing of project constrain, success factor and risk. Moreover, it shows the stakeholder engagement with the project and brings their interest. In this report it also seen that it has some limitation. But those limitation can be overcome easily and have perfect analysis of stakeholder. The analysis can build right project plan and that is the major thing in project success.

King Arthur Essay examples -- Essays Papers

King Arthur Character Analysis Although King Arthur is one of the most well-known figures in the world, his true identity remains a mystery. Attempts to identify the historical Arthur have been unsuccessful, since he is largely a product of fiction. Most historians, though, agree that the real Arthur was probably a battle leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons in the sixthth century. In literature, King Arthur's character is unique and ever changing, taking on a different face in every work. There is never a clearly definitive picture that identifies Arthur's character. It is therefore necessary to look at a few different sources to get better insight into the character of Arthur, the once and future king. GRAPH Arthurian literature can be divided into two basic categories, pseudo-histories and romances. The main difference between the two is that pseudo-histories such as Wace and much of the Celtic work, for example, Geoffrey of Monmouth show Arthur as a strong, central character, making him the dominant figure in the story. He is the one who goes on quests and battles, gaining respect and glory for his court. In romances, however, Arthur is most often overshadowed by his knights, staying mainly in the background as the source and the inspiration behind their great chivalric deeds. GRAPH The first written chronicle of Arthur's adventures comes from Nennius, a monk from North Wales. In his ninth century writing, Nennius tells of Arthur's twelve victories over the Saxons but describes him only as a dux bellorum "a leader of battles" and not a king. It was Geoffrey of Monmouth who first proclaimed Arthur as king in his twelft... ... continues to personify the ideal of the chivalric code and remains a glorious, beloved, and respected king whose authority stays intact despite his weaknesses. These qualities make King Arthur a true legend, which continues to fascinate and intrigue audiences throughout the generations. Sources of information Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993. Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore.Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. Lacy, Norris J. The Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1986. Broughton, Bradford B. Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood and Chivalry: Concepts and Terms. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. Camelot and Arthurian Legend: Arthur. online 4/27/98 http://www.eliki.com/ancient/myth/camelot/arthur

Counterculture Essay -- Culture Cultural Movements Sixties 60s Papers

Counterculture For the first time in American history, a large population of people of all ages, classes, and races came together to challenge the traditional institutions, traditional values in society, and "the establishment" in general. Youth, women, ethnic minorities, environmentalists, migrant workers and others caused the emergence of the counter culture. This cultural movement from 1960 to 1973 was caused by many factors. This era was one that was filled with many important events that shaped the way that Americans viewed life. Those who were unhappy with what was going on around them and took part in this social phenomenon reflected and demonstrated their attitudes, values, and ideals in many ways. Various things from protests to songs expressed their views and made their point get across to America. This cultural movement had a profound impact on society. It had both beneficial and detrimental effects on the society. As we look back on the sixties, it was one of the most important decades because it accomplished so many important things. The sixties was an era that was filled with so many important events that caused people to become actively involved in challenging the structure of American society and taking a stand. Civil rights was one of the most important issues. African Americans were still treated unequally although the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were supposed to grant them equality. Separate but equal wasn't enough for most people. Incidents where African Americans were denied rights caused much rebellion. When Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her seat on the bus to a white person, Montgomery's black community boycotted the buses. These incidents became more frequent and more people took... ...ew the society and take action. The actions of women, youth, African Americans, environmentalists and other caused the emergence of the counter culture that had such a profound impact on society. Although there were many different factors causing the surfacing of the counter culture and many different methods to challenge the traditional society, the goals of all of the groups were the same. They all wanted some form of change and change was what they got in return for their actions. Although women are still paid less than men, and there are still many more whites than blacks in government positions, the sixties was an era of progress. The counter culture has paved the way for American society today and created a country that allows and accepts free expression and doesn't frown down upon those who challenge the long-established society values and institutions. Counterculture Essay -- Culture Cultural Movements Sixties 60s Papers Counterculture For the first time in American history, a large population of people of all ages, classes, and races came together to challenge the traditional institutions, traditional values in society, and "the establishment" in general. Youth, women, ethnic minorities, environmentalists, migrant workers and others caused the emergence of the counter culture. This cultural movement from 1960 to 1973 was caused by many factors. This era was one that was filled with many important events that shaped the way that Americans viewed life. Those who were unhappy with what was going on around them and took part in this social phenomenon reflected and demonstrated their attitudes, values, and ideals in many ways. Various things from protests to songs expressed their views and made their point get across to America. This cultural movement had a profound impact on society. It had both beneficial and detrimental effects on the society. As we look back on the sixties, it was one of the most important decades because it accomplished so many important things. The sixties was an era that was filled with so many important events that caused people to become actively involved in challenging the structure of American society and taking a stand. Civil rights was one of the most important issues. African Americans were still treated unequally although the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were supposed to grant them equality. Separate but equal wasn't enough for most people. Incidents where African Americans were denied rights caused much rebellion. When Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her seat on the bus to a white person, Montgomery's black community boycotted the buses. These incidents became more frequent and more people took... ...ew the society and take action. The actions of women, youth, African Americans, environmentalists and other caused the emergence of the counter culture that had such a profound impact on society. Although there were many different factors causing the surfacing of the counter culture and many different methods to challenge the traditional society, the goals of all of the groups were the same. They all wanted some form of change and change was what they got in return for their actions. Although women are still paid less than men, and there are still many more whites than blacks in government positions, the sixties was an era of progress. The counter culture has paved the way for American society today and created a country that allows and accepts free expression and doesn't frown down upon those who challenge the long-established society values and institutions.

Procurement & Resource Based View

Procurement is An Integral Part of Resource- ­ Based View of An Organization Phuong Duong University College Dublin (12251697) 4112 words ABSTRACT Procurement has become an increasingly widespread practice among organizations and is today of strategic importance that attract great interest from scholars in the literature. The primary purpose of the paper is to contribute with a review of leading studies that analyze procurement from the resource- ­? based view of the organization. The paper begins by setting out the business environment of procurement and then presents the development and propensity of procurement.This is followed by a review of principal works and differences of perspectives of resource- ­? based view. The next section contains an analysis of the relationship between procurement and resource- ­? based theory and discusses empirical works on outsourcing that address outsourcing from the resource- ­? based view. The studies are classified into two categories : those studying the propensity to procure and those studying the relationship between procurement decision and firm’s performance. Finally, some insights are put together to assess the outsourcing decision influenced by resource- ­? based view with the im of contributing to a better understanding of outsourcing and its role from the perspective of resource- ­? based view of an organization. 1. Procurement and the propensity to procure in modern business context Procurement, or in other words, â€Å"sourcing†, for years has become â€Å"a financial material, but strategically peripheral, corporate function† of an organization (Gottfredson et al. , 2005). In the literature, procurement becomes a key component and is of major strategic importance to many organizations (Humphreys et al. , 1998, Paulraj et al. , 2006). Recent decades have witnessed significant changes in acro- ­? economic trends that direct business environment. These changes have been driven by increased globalization, technology innovation, changing consumer behaviours, and consequently, a shift toward procurement and outsourcing (Giunipero et al. , 2005, Giunipero et al. , 2006, Zheng et al. , 2007). Gottfredson et al. (2005) argued that globalization, accompanied by technological advances, is causing the core of competition to change. These days, the ownership of capabilities of an organization is not as important as its ability to govern and take advantage of critical capabilities, whether or not they are he organization’s assets. Procurement is developing so sophisticatedly that even core functions such as engineering, R&D, manufacturing and marketing can be outsourced. That, according to Gottfredson et al. (2005), in turn, is changing the way the firms think about their organizations, their core values and their competitive abilities. The author also revealed that an emphasis on capability sourcing could result in an organization’s better strategic p osition by reducing costs, streamlining the company, and enhancing quality. Critical functions provided by more qualified partners usually allow organizations to mprove their core capabilities that help them take the lead in their industries. With the business world changing everyday, the propensity to procure becomes prominent than ever. Nowadays procurement is not only practiced by companies in the technology industries but also spread to multiple businesses such as supply chain, manufacturing, services and so forth. It is recognized that not passive cost- ­? focused, but proactive value- ­? focused procurement strategies are a means of achieving competitive advantage and integral to long- ­? term organizational strategy (Leseure et al. , 2005, Mehra and Inman, 2004,Noonan and Wallace, 2004). In a study of the impact of procurement or purchasing on supply integration and performance, Paulraj et al. (2006) also concluded that: (1) a more strategic purchasing function leads to better supply integration; (2) managers must comprehend the importance of purchasing in incorporating buyer- ­? supplier by focusing on â€Å"process, relational, information, and cross- ­? organisational teams†; (3) strategic procurement can create a win- ­? win situation for both buyer and supplier. Taking these into account, it is undeniable that there is a tendency to procure or outsource among organizations.To assist with procurement decision making, Gottfredson et al. (2005) developed a sourcing opportunities map like Figure 1 to help companies judge the relative merits of their outsourcing possibilities. The vertical dimension of the exhibit â€Å"measures how proprietary a process or function is† while the horizontal axis indicates the degree of commonality, both within and outside the company’s industry. The author found that capabilities locating in the upper right portion of the map are potential candidates for procurement. Once capabilities pr omising strong candidates for alternative sourcing are discovered, the ompany needs to figure out how to source them. In this stage, cost and quality requirements should be taken into account to detect key capability gaps to be filled and top- ­? performing competitors or suppliers to partner with. To address these issues, another assessment map has been introduced, again by Gottfredson et al. (2005) as described in the Figure 2 below. Figure 1 What should you outsource? Source: Adapted from (Gottfredson et al. , 2005). Figure 2 How strong are your capabilities? Source: Adapted from (Gottfredson et al. , 2005) The author explained that the position of capabilities on this grid eterminates suitable goals for an outsourcing relationship. Specifically, functions that fall in the upper left should be outsourced to low- ­? cost providers regardless of reduction in quality, while those falling in the lower left require outsourcing partners that can both reduce costs and improve qualit y. 2. Resource- ­based view In the opinion of Mol (2003), resource- ­? based view has today become the domineering perspective of analyzing corporation strategy. However, this concept has been perceived and developed by different scholars in the literature. Porter (1985) suggested a firm’s competitive position an be analyzed by looking at industry structure and the role of internal decision making was overlooked. This theory contradicts itself with earlier strategic management arguments which highlighted both internal and external factors (Skinner, 1969, Ansoff, 1965) and therefore several scholars such as Barney (1991), Amit and Schoemaker (2006), and Peteraf (2006) felt a different perspective and went on developing the resource- ­? based view based on the researches of Coase (1937) and Wernerfelt (1984). In an effort to stress the significance of managerial choice and internal factors, Barney (1991) concluded that he resource- ­? based view â€Å"examines the link between a firm’s characteristics and performance† by investigating varied resources within the firm. By the nature of its activities, procurement management is subject to obtaining inputs from outside partners in the organization’s environment (Mol, 2003). According to Wernerfelt (1984), resource- ­? based approach â€Å"views the firm as a historically determined collection of assets or resources which are tied semi- ­? permanently to the firm’s management†. Lockett and Thompson (2001) criticized that resource- ­? based view is sometimes used to distinguish â€Å"appropriate esources, such as physical capital or brand names, from less tangible assets, such as organizational routines and capabilities†. Appropriate resources can be seen as assets utilized as appropriate over a specific period, while dynamic resources may lie in capabilities that form additional opportunities over time. The crucial requirements of resource- ­? based vi ew are that relevant resources, regardless of their nature, are specific to the firm and not easy to be imitated by rivals (Barney, 1991). It was noted by Lockett and Thompson (2001) that resource- ­? based view is implied in the sense that each firm’s pportunity set is exclusive and a product of the resources is obtained from its past experience. â€Å"Therefore, it follows that decisions about the appropriate boundaries of a firm’s activities should reflect its existing resource bundle. If firms face a similar external environment, in the sense of similar product and factor markets, the resource- ­? based view suggests that those firms with a similar initial resource endowment should display similar ceteris paribus patterns of behavior and performance†. 3. Procurement is an integral part of resource–based view of an organization Procurement and resource- ­based iew Procurement, or in many context, usually referred to as â€Å"outsourcing†, is defined as â€Å" astrategic decision that entails the external contracting of determined non- ­? strategic activities or business processes necessary for the manufacture of goods or the provision of services by means of agreements or contracts with higher capability firms to undertake those activities or business processes, with the aim of improving competitive advantage† (Espino Rodriguez and Padron Robaina, 2006). According to resource- ­? based view, resources can be exploited by means of contracts (Barney, 1999, Gainey and Klaas, 2003,Grant, 1991) and this perspective can be used as a framework to help organizations decide which activities should be outsourced and which to perform in- ­? house. In this regard, one of the dominant frameworks that explain the propensity of procurement is core competences approach (Gilley and Rasheed, 2000, Teng et al. , 2007). Based on this approach, a firm should invest in activities generating core capabilities and outsource the rest (Prahalad, 1990, Hilmer and Quinn, 1994), regarding that the former activities are those providing the firm’s growth and development (Peteraf, 2006). It is pointed out by Prahalad 1990) that a firm can perform better by focusing on those resources generating the core competences. According to the author, short- ­? term success results from the price and the attributes of the products, while long- ­? term competitive advantages lie on the core capabilities, which derives from the firm’s collective learning. Strategic outsourcing, based on resources and capabilities, signifies a deep understanding of the core competences, which assist organizations to build their long- ­? term competitiveness (Bettis et al. , 1992). Espino Rodriguez and Padron Robaina (2006) concluded that the resource ased view helps to distinguish the core competences and provides knowledge (Hilmer and Quinn, 1994) about which activities to perform with internal resources and which to procu re, â€Å"determining that the possession of some resources and capabilities is what defines what the firm itself will do and what it will obtain from third parties†. In order to explain the integral part that procurement plays from resource- ­? based view, it is important to look into the framework developed by Grant (1991), in which a firm’s resources and capabilities are the main considerations in formulating strategies. In this framework or strategy formulation, five stages were established to associate strategy, competitive advantage and resources and capabilities. Among these five stages, the last one refers to â€Å"identifying the resource gaps which need to be filled and invest in replenishing, augmenting and upgrading the firm’s resource base† where there is a place for procurement. This is demonstrated in Figure 3 as below. Grant (1991) believes that regarding the lack of firm’s resources and capabilities, the firm needs to decide betw een developing resources in- ­? house and outsourcing resources from the third parties. Hence, in order to

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz Question: Do you think The Wizard of Oz provided Americans with the hope that their dreams could come true, or do you think that the movie might have made Americans even more upset with their own reality? Every human being faces their own demons and troubles. We try to escape them – some do it through their own battles, but most of us just want to forget, even if it is for a little while. After our moment in paradise is over, we can face our burdens with a new strength provided by escapism. Movies, books, music, poetry and art were just a few ways for artists to express themselves and for the audience to get lost in.This audience mostly consisted of middle-class average Americans, who worked hard and long. Escapism was very popular during the time of the Great Depression in the US. During the day people would work hard for their money, fight for their survival and try to keep their heads up through all of the difficulties, but during the evening they would sca tter around town just to find someplace to relax. Most Americans would go around town and search for folks with similar interests. People would always love to go to bars and have a few drinks, exchange stories and laugh.The motion pictures, though, have always been a silent awe – sitting there and enjoying the entertainment unfold before your eyes was pretty magical, even for our day and time in the 21st century. The Wizard of Oz was a hit movie that came out in 1939. The light colorful drawings and the flamboyant set kept the viewers satisfied and yearning for more. Since it was one of the first movies with color, it was quite the success. The special effects in the delightful motion picture kept the audience growing bigger and bigger.Special effects were used in the movie quite often, which seem pretty silly to our 21st century technologically advanced brains, but in fact seemed very impressive at the time. Because of all these technical improvements from the previous movie s and taking a few steps forward in development, the film was also one of the most expensive made at the time. Produced by Lions Gate Entertainment, the movie cost an awful lot for the Great Depression era – about 2 million dollars. The motion picture paid off its large bill in time, even if it wasn’t as big of a hit at first.Because of its light theme and enjoyable melodies, the musical soon gained its place in the media. To us now, the movie seems a bit too dramatically done and very silly, but at that time it was really wonderful. The lightly careless way it just swept up your thoughts and mind was amazing, it kept the audience’s attention for the whole show. Forgetting your daily life was now much easier, especially because of the catchy tunes in songs. Lyrics were very simple and fitting, the actors dramatic enough to keep it entertaining but not worrisome.The obnoxious way Dorothy was portrayed may seem very annoying to us now, but during the Great Depress ion era it was very amusing and quite fitting. Due to the actors being very talented and skillful, the film was enjoyable. Even if The Wizard of Oz has absolutely nothing to do with the Great Depression, it has an implied meaning suitable for all times. All of the characters went on searching for something more, but in the end realized that what they were looking for was with them all along. A great disappointment at the end of the film might seem the Great Wizard. He happens to be a fellow man from Kansas, just like Dorothy.That symbolizes how simple and modest even the best of things can be. By processing this information of hidden meanings, the audience slowly learned from the movies they watched. They began to realize certain values in life, began to see things differently. â€Å"That’s a horse of a different color† says the guard of Emerald City once Dorothy arrives, and now that quote is very fitting. Even if the audience didn’t look deep enough into the c haracters to find the hidden meanings and ideas, it was still a very entertaining film. Its simplicity and the humorous story truly did help the average American with escapism.The movie has a charismatic effect on its viewers, making it very hard not to sing along or at least laugh at the characters. It swept you away from the first minutes of song and special effects. Musicals always have the effect of moving the audience’s emotions. Due to the color change once Dorothy arrives to Munchkin Land, the movie is quite breathtaking for those times. The Great Depression was most definitely affected by movies like this; they made people’s lives easier and more bearable. Now the demons and troubles Americans faced came easier, since entertainment served as a distraction.

Family and friends Essay

Katherine had done exercise which was more than necessary. She went to the gym about 5 times a week, which had really been a waste of time, as she was underweight and there was no need for her to exercise. This is because she did not have many calories which needed to be burnt off by exercising. Her diet was mainly made up of; unnourished foods and she did not eat as much as she did not either have the time, or did not enjoy eating at all. She was anorexic and also had the eating disorder of being bulimic. Although, my client is a very clean and hygienic person; she likes working in areas which are clean, and thought this was very important. However, my client was a very heavy smoker and alcoholic. Intellectually:  My client worked 6 days a week and only gets Sundays off to spend with her family and friends. Although, the Sunday Katherine sort off she did not make any use of it as she slept most of the day as she was very tired. My client was a very independent person, and did not at all try to be dependent’s he did not think she was self-worth and she had a low self esteem. Katherine was often stressing about either work or her family this made her become a very paranoid and anxious person. However she was a very hard working person. Emotionally:  Katherine was always depressed because, she is always being caught up in her work. My client does have the ability to go out and socialize; but feels that she does not have the confidence to go out and make new friends. By doing this she thinks bad of herself, which makes her feel disappointed about herself. Katherine was always sad and unhappy, most of the day which did not improve her motherly skills with her children. Socially:  My client had some friends but didn’t have a close nor good relationship with both her family and friends. And had a problem against talking to other people and making new friends, as she did not feel self-worth and didn’t have the self-esteem to boost her confidence. She wouldn’t organize day trips to enjoy her holidays, and whenever she tried something would go wrong.  AFTER:  My client- Katherine Lewis  But now my client is doing more of this. Physically: Katherine now does a regular amount of exercise. My client takes part in more exercise activities; she has also widened her variety in activities, which has been really good for her physical status. She takes part in things like: swimming, aerobics, dance- for about an hour each session, and jogging, walking for about- 30 minutes each day. Katherine has improved her diet dramatically as, she now eats more than usual and has a very spread out and balanced diet plan. Her diet is mainly made up of now, more nutritious and healthy foods; she also replaced her diet of made up of mostly liquids, to fruits and nuts. On the whole Katherine has a stable weight which is really good for her body, and is slowing becoming a much healthier person from before. Intellectually:  My client now gets up earlier and goes to bed quicker, as this refreshes her for the morning activities which lay ahead of her. This also gives her the opportunity to think straight, and get ready for the challenges which may come ahead of her. She has begun thinking more about the positive things in life, rather than always thinking about the negative sides of things. She has stopped stressing so much about her work and home life, so this gives her a better view upon things, such as how to go solve a problem, or how to spend more time with the family. Her intellectual thinking skills, has improved massively, as she feels more confident about herself. Emotionally:  Katherine goes out more, and opens up her feelings much more than she used to. She feels that she has become a more self-assured person, so this encourages her more to go out and spend some time with her family and friends. My client, who used to feel that she had no one to discuss problems with, has now realised that her family and friends are always there to talk to and to confide with. She used to always be depressed, but now has found resolutions to that, and is happier than before. She emotionally is aware that she has many people around her, who will support and provide her with company if she ever needs it. Overall, my client is a supplementary joyful person, than before.  Socially:  Katherine has now started socializing more than she used to. She invites family and friends over to her house, to get to know them better. This has assisted her a lot, in her socializing skills; she goes out more and has meet many new friends; which are all from different backgrounds. She has the confidence, and the assurance to create a relationship with new people.

The Twilight Saga 2: New Moon Chapter 5 CHEATER

â€Å"BELLA, WHY DON'T YOU TAKE OFF,† MIKE SUGGESTED, his eyes focused off to the side, not really looking at me. I wondered how long that had been going on without me noticing. It was a slow afternoon at Newton's. At the moment there were only two patrons in the store, dedicated backpackers from the sound of their conversation. Mike had spent the last hour going through the pros and cons of two brands of lightweight packs with them. But they'd taken a break from serious pricing to indulge in trying to one-up each other with their latest tales from the trail. Their distraction had given Mike a chance to escape. â€Å"I don't mind staying,† I said. I still hadn't been able to sink back into my protective shell of numbness, and everything seemed oddly close and loud today, like I'd taken cotton out of my ears. I tried to tune out the laughing hikers without success. â€Å"I'm telling you,† said the thickset man with the orange beard that didn't match his dark brown hair. â€Å"I've seen grizzlies pretty close up in Yellowstone, but they had nothing on this brute.† His hair was matted, and his clothes looked like they'd been on his back for more than a few days. Fresh from the mountains. â€Å"Not a chance. Black bears don't get that big. The grizzlies you saw were probably cubs.† The second man was tall and lean, his face tanned and wind-whipped into an impressive leathery crust. â€Å"Seriously, Bella, as soon as these two give up, I'm closing the place down,† Mike murmured. â€Å"If you want me to go† I shrugged. â€Å"On all fours it was taller than you,† the bearded man insisted while I gathered my things together. â€Å"Big as a house and pitch-black. I'm going to report it to the ranger here. People ought to be warnedthis wasn't up on the mountain, mind youthis was only a few miles from the trailhead.† Leather-face laughed and rolled his eyes. â€Å"Let me guessyou were on your way in? Hadn't eaten real food or slept off the ground in a week, right?† â€Å"Hey, uh, Mike, right?† the bearded man called, looking toward us. â€Å"See you Monday,† I mumbled. â€Å"Yes, sir,† Mike replied, turning away. â€Å"Say, have there been any warnings around here recentlyabout black bears?† â€Å"No, sir. But it's always good to keep your distance and store your food correctly. Have you seen the new bear-safe canisters? They only weigh two pounds† The doors slid open to let me out into the rain. I hunched over inside my jacket as I dashed for my truck. The rain hammering against my hood sounded unusually loud, too, but soon the roar of the engine drowned out everything else. I didn't want to go back to Charlie's empty house. Last night had been particularly brutal, and I had no desire to revisit the scene of the suffering. Even after the pain had subsided enough for me to sleep, it wasn't over. Like I'd told Jessica after the movie, there was never any doubt that I would have nightmares. I always had nightmares now, every night. Not nightmares really, not in the plural, because it was always the same nightmare. You'd think I'd get bored after so many months, grow immune to it. But the dream never failed to horrify me, and only ended when I woke myself with screaming. Charlie didn't come in to see what was wrong anymore, to make sure there was no intruder strangling me or something like thathe was used to it now. My nightmare probably wouldn't even frighten someone else. Nothing jumped out and screamed, â€Å"Boo!† There were no zombies, no ghosts, no psychopaths. There was nothing, really. Only nothing. Just the endless maze of moss-covered trees, so quiet that the silence was an uncomfortable pressure against my eardrums. It was dark, like dusk on a cloudy day, with only enough light to see that there was nothing to see. I hurried through the gloom without a path, always searching, searching, searching, getting more frantic as the time stretched on, trying to move faster, though the speed made me clumsy Then there would come the point in my dreamand I could feel it coming now, but could never seem to wake myself up before it hitwhen I couldn't remember what it was that I was searching for. When I realized that there was nothing to search for, and nothing to find. That there never had been anything more than just this empty, dreary wood, and there never would be anything more for me n othing but nothing That was usually about when the screaming started. I wasn't paying attention to where I was drivingjust wandering through empty, wet side roads as I avoided the ways that would take me homebecause I didn't have anywhere to go. I wished I could feel numb again, but I couldn't remember how I'd managed it before. The nightmare was nagging at my mind and making me think about things that would cause me pain. I didn't want to remember the forest. Even as I shuddered away from the images, I felt my eyes fill with tears and the aching begin around the edges of the hole in my chest. I took one hand from the steering wheel and wrapped it around my torso to hold it in one piece. It will be as if I'd never existed. The words ran through my head, lacking the perfect clarity of my hallucination last night. They were just words, soundless, like print on a page. Just words, but they ripped the hole wide open, and I stomped on the brake, knowing I should not drive while this incapacitated. I curled over, pressing my face against the steering wheel and trying to breathe without lungs. I wondered how long this could last. Maybe someday, years from nowif the pain would just decrease to the point where I could bear itI would be able to look back on those few short months that would always be the best of my life. And, if it were possible that the pain would ever soften enough to allow me to do that, I was sure that I would feel grateful for as much time as he'd given me. More than I'd asked for, more than I'd deserved. Maybe someday I'd be able to see it that way. But what if this hole never got any better? If the raw edges never healed? If the damage was permanent and irreversible? I held myself tightly together. As if he'd never existed, I thought in despair. What a stupid and impossible promise to make! He could steal my pictures and reclaim his gifts, but that didn't put things back the way they'd been before I'd met him. The physical evidence was the most insignificant part of the equation. I was changed, my insides altered almost past the point of recognition. Even my outsides looked differentmy face sallow, white except for the purple circles the nightmares had left under my eyes. My eyes were dark enough against my pallid skin thatif I were beautiful, and seen from a distanceI might even pass for a vampire now. But I was not beautiful, and I probably looked closer to a zombie. As if he'd never existed? That was insanity. It was a promise that he could never keep, a promise that was broken as soon as he'd made it. I thumped my head against the steering wheel, trying to distract myself from the sharper pain. It made me feel silly for ever worrying about keeping my promise. Where was the logic in sticking to an agreement that had already been violated by the other party? Who cared if I was reckless and stupid? There was no reason to avoid recklessness, no reason why I shouldn't get to be stupid. I laughed humorlessly to myself, still gasping for air. Reckless in Forksnow there was a hopeless proposition. The dark humor distracted me, and the distraction eased the pain. My breath came easier, and I was able to lean back against the seat. Though it was cold today, my forehead was damp with sweat. I concentrated on my hopeless proposition to keep from sliding back into the excruciating memories. To be reckless in Forks would take a lot of creativitymaybe more than I had. But I wished I could find some way I might feel better if I weren't holding fast, all alone, to a broken pact. If I were an oath-breaker, too. But how could I cheat on my side of the deal, here in this harmless little town? Of course, Forks hadn't always been so harmless, but now it was exactly what it had always appeared to be. It was dull, it was safe. I stared out the windshield for a long moment, my thoughts moving sluggishlyI couldn't seem to make those thoughts go anywhere. I cut the engine, which was groaning in a pitiful way after idling for so long, and stepped out into the drizzle. The cold rain dripped through my hair and then trickled across my cheeks like freshwater tears. It helped to clear my head. I blinked the water from my eyes, staring blankly across the road. After a minute of staring, I recognized where I was. I'd parked in the middle of the north lane of Russell Avenue. I was standing in front of the Cheneys' housemy truck was blocking their drivewayand across the road lived the Markses. I knew I needed to move my truck, and that I ought to go home. It was wrong to wander the way I had, distracted and impaired, a menace on the roads of Forks. Besides, someone would notice me soon enough, and report me to Charlie. As I took a deep breath in preparation to move, a sign in the Markses' yard caught my eyeit was just a big piece of cardboard leaning against their mailbox post, with black letters scrawled in caps across it. Sometimes, kismet happens. Coincidence? Or was it meant to be? I didn't know, but it seemed kind of silly to think that it was somehow fated, that the dilapidated motorcycles rusting in the Markses' front yard beside the hand-printed FOR SALE, AS IS sign were serving some higher purpose by existing there, right where I needed them to be. So maybe it wasn't kismet. Maybe there were just all kinds of ways to be reckless, and I only now had my eyes open to them. Reckless and stupid. Those were Charlie's two very favorite words to apply to motorcycles. Charlie's job didn't get a lot of action compared to cops in bigger towns, but he did get called in on traffic accidents. With the long, wet stretches of freeway twisting and turning through the forest, blind corner after blind corner, there was no shortage of that kind of action. But even with all the huge log-haulers barreling around the turns, mostly people walked away. The exceptions to that rule were often on motorcycles, and Charlie had seen one too many victims, almost always kids, smeared on the highway. He'd made me promise before I was ten that I would never accept a ride on a motorcycle. Even at that age, I didn't have to think twice before promising. Who would want to ride a motorcycle here? It would be like taking a sixty-mile-per-hour bath. So many promises I kept It clicked together for me then. I wanted to be stupid and reckless, and I wanted to break promises. Why stop at one? That's as far as I thought it through. I sloshed through the rain to the Markses' front door and rang the bell. One of the Marks boys opened the door, the younger one, the freshman. I couldn't remember his name. His sandy hair only came up to my shoulder. He had no trouble remembering my name. â€Å"Bella Swan?† he asked in surprise. â€Å"How much do you want for the bike?† I panted, jerking my thumb over my shoulder toward the sales display. â€Å"Are you serious?† he demanded. â€Å"Of course I am.† â€Å"They don't work.† I sighed impatientlythis was something I'd already inferred from the sign. â€Å"How much?† â€Å"If you really want one, just take it. My mom made my dad move them down to the road so they'd get picked up with the garbage.† I glanced at the bikes again and saw that they were resting on a pile of yard clippings and dead branches. â€Å"Are you positive about that?† â€Å"Sure, you want to ask her?† It was probably better not to involve adults who might mention this to Charlie. â€Å"No, I believe you.† â€Å"You want me to help you?† he offered. â€Å"They're not light.† â€Å"Okay, thanks. I only need one, though.† â€Å"Might as well take both,† the boy said. â€Å"Maybe you could scavenge some parts.† He followed me out into the downpour and helped me load both of the heavy bikes into the back of my truck. He seemed eager to be rid of them, so I didn't argue. â€Å"What are you going to do with them, anyway?† he asked. â€Å"They haven't worked in years.† â€Å"I kind of guessed that,† I said, shrugging. My spur-of-the-moment whim hadn't come with a plan intact. â€Å"Maybe I'll take them to Dowling's.† He snorted. â€Å"Dowling would charge more to fix them than they'd be worth running.† I couldn't argue with that. John Dowling had earned a reputation for his pricing; no one went to him except in an emergency. Most people preferred to make the drive up to Port Angeles, if their car was able. I'd been very lucky on that frontI'd been worried, when Charlie first gifted me my ancient truck, that I wouldn't be able to afford to keep it running. But I'd never had a single problem with it, other than the screaming-loud engine and the fifty-five-mile-per-hour maximum speed limit. Jacob Black had kept it in great shape when it had belonged to his father, Billy Inspiration hit like a bolt of lightningnot unreasonable, considering the storm. â€Å"You know what? That's okay. I know someone who builds cars.† â€Å"Oh. That's good.† He smiled in relief. He waved as I pulled away, still smiling. Friendly kid. I drove quickly and purposefully now, in a hurry to get home before there was the slightest chance of Charlie appearing, even in the highly unlikely event that he might knock off early. I dashed through the house to the phone, keys still in hand. â€Å"Chief Swan, please,† I said when the deputy answered. â€Å"It's Bella.† â€Å"Oh, hey, Bella,† Deputy Steve said affably. â€Å"I'll go get him.† I waited. â€Å"What's wrong, Bella?† Charlie demanded as soon as he picked up the phone. â€Å"Can't I call you at work without there being an emergency?† He was quiet for a minute. â€Å"You never have before. Is there an emergency?† â€Å"No. I just wanted directions to the Blacks' placeI'm not sure I can remember the way. I want to visit Jacob. I haven't seen him in months.† When Charlie spoke again, his voice was much happier. â€Å"That's a great idea, Bells. Do you have a pen?† The directions he gave me were very simple. I assured him that I would be back for dinner, though he tried to tell me not to hurry. He wanted to join me in La Push, and I wasn't having that. So it was with a deadline that I drove too quickly through the storm-darkened streets out of town. I hoped I could get Jacob alone. Billy would probably tell on me if he knew what I was up to. While I drove, I worried a little bit about Billy's reaction to seeing me. He would be too pleased. In Billy's mind, no doubt, this had all worked out better than he had dared to hope. His pleasure and relief would only remind me of the one I couldn't bear to be reminded of. Not again today, I pleaded silently. I was spent. The Blacks' house was vaguely familiar, a small wooden place with narrow windows, the dull red paint making it resemble a tiny barn. Jacob's head peered out of the window before I could even get out of the truck. No doubt the familiar roar of the engine had tipped him off to my approach. Jacob had been very grateful when Charlie bought Billy's truck for me, saving Jacob from having to drive it when he came of age. I liked my truck very much, but Jacob seemed to consider the speed restrictions a shortcoming. He met me halfway to the house. â€Å"Bella!† His excited grin stretched wide across his face, the bright teeth standing in vivid contrast to the deep russet color of his skin. I'd never seen his hair out of its usual ponytail before. It fell like black satin curtains on either side of his broad face. Jacob had grown into some of his potential in the last eight months. He'd passed that point where the soft muscles of childhood hardened into the solid, lanky build of a teenager; the tendons and veins had become prominent under the red-brown skin of his arms, his hands. His face was still sweet like I remembered it, though it had hardened, toothe planes of his cheekbones sharper, his jaw squared off, all childish roundness gone. â€Å"Hey, Jacob!† I felt an unfamiliar surge of enthusiasm at his smile. I realized that I was pleased to see him. This knowledge surprised me. I smiled back, and something clicked silently into place, like two corresponding puzzle pieces. I'd forgotten how much I really liked Jacob Black. He stopped a few feet away from me, and I stared up at him in surprise, leaning my head back though the rain pelted my face. â€Å"You grew again!† I accused in amazement. He laughed, his smile widening impossibly. â€Å"Six five,† he announced with self-satisfaction. His voice was deeper, but it had the husky tone I remembered. â€Å"Is it ever going to stop?† I shook my head in disbelief. â€Å"You're huge.† â€Å"Still a beanpole, though.† He grimaced. â€Å"Come inside! You're getting all wet.† He led the way, twisting his hair in his big hands as he walked. He pulled a rubber band from his hip pocket and wound it around the bundle. â€Å"Hey, Dad,† he called as he ducked to get through the front door. â€Å"Look who stopped by.† Billy was in the tiny square living room, a book in his hands. He set the book in his lap and wheeled himself forward when he saw me. â€Å"Well, what do you know! It's good to see you, Bella.† We shook hands. Mine was lost in his wide grasp. â€Å"What brings you out here? Everything okay with Charlie?† â€Å"Yes, absolutely. I just wanted to see JacobI haven't seen him in forever.† Jacob's eyes brightened at my words. He was smiling so big it looked like it would hurt his cheeks. â€Å"Can you stay for dinner?† Billy was eager, too. â€Å"No, I've got to feed Charlie, you know.† â€Å"I'll call him now,† Billy suggested. â€Å"He's always invited.† I laughed to hide my discomfort. â€Å"It's not like you'll never see me again. I promise I'll be back again soonso much you'll get sick of me.† After all, if Jacob could fix the bike, someone had to teach me how to ride it. Billy chuckled in response. â€Å"Okay, maybe next time.† â€Å"So, Bella, what do you want to do?† Jacob asked. â€Å"Whatever. What were you doing before I interrupted?† I was strangely comfortable here. It was familiar, but only distantly. There were no painful reminders of the recent past. Jacob hesitated. â€Å"I was just heading out to work on my car, but we can do something else† â€Å"No, that's perfect!† I interrupted. â€Å"I'd love to see your car.† â€Å"Okay,† he said, not convinced. â€Å"It's out back, in the garage.† Even better, I thought to myself. I waved at Billy. â€Å"See you later.† A thick stand of trees and shrubbery concealed his garage from the house. The garage was no more than a couple of big preformed sheds that had been bolted together with their interior walls knocked out. Under this shelter, raised on cinder blocks, was what looked to me like a completed automobile. I recognized the symbol on the grille, at least. â€Å"What kind of Volkswagen is that?† I asked. â€Å"It's an old Rabbit1986, a classic.† â€Å"How's it going?† â€Å"Almost finished,† he said cheerfully. And then his voice dropped into a lower key. â€Å"My dad made good on his promise last spring.† â€Å"Ah,† I said. He seemed to understand my reluctance to open the subject. I tried not to remember last May at the prom. Jacob had been bribed by his father with money and car parts to deliver a message there. Billy wanted me to stay a safe distance from the most important person in my life. It turned out that his concern was, in the end, unnecessary. I was all too safe now. But I was going to see what I could do to change that. â€Å"Jacob, what do you know about motorcycles?† I asked. He shrugged. â€Å"Some. My friend Embry has a dirt bike. We work on it together sometimes. Why?† â€Å"Well† I pursed my lips as I considered. I wasn't sure if he could keep his mouth shut, but I didn't have many other options. â€Å"I recently acquired a couple of bikes, and they're not in the greatest condition. I wonder if you could get them running?† â€Å"Cool.† He seemed truly pleased by the challenge. His face glowed. â€Å"I'll give it a try.† I held up one finger in warning. â€Å"The thing is,† I explained, â€Å"Charlie doesn't approve of motorcycles. Honestly, he'd probably bust a vein in his forehead if he knew about this. So you can't tell Billy.† â€Å"Sure, sure.† Jacob smiled. â€Å"I understand.† â€Å"I'll pay you,† I continued. This offended him. â€Å"No. I want to help. You can't pay me.† â€Å"Well how about a trade, then?† I was making this up as I went, but it seemed reasonable enough. â€Å"I only need one bikeand I'll need lessons, too. So how about this? I'll give you the other bike, and then you can teach me.† â€Å"Swee-eet.† He made the word into two syllables. â€Å"Wait a secare you legal yet? When's your birthday?† â€Å"You missed it,† he teased, narrowing his eyes in mock resentment. â€Å"I'm sixteen.† â€Å"Not that your age ever stopped you before,† I muttered. â€Å"Sorry about your birthday.† â€Å"Don't worry about it. I missed yours. What are you, forty?† I sniffed. â€Å"Close.† â€Å"We'll have a joint party to make up for it.† â€Å"Sounds like a date.† His eyes sparkled at the word. I needed to reign in the enthusiasm before I gave him the wrong ideait was just that it had been a long time since I'd felt so light and buoyant. The rarity of the feeling made it more difficult to manage. â€Å"Maybe when the bikes are finishedour present to ourselves,† I added. â€Å"Deal. When will you bring them down?† I bit my lip, embarrassed. â€Å"They're in my truck now,† I admitted. â€Å"Great.† He seemed to mean it. â€Å"Will Billy see if we bring them around?† He winked at me. â€Å"We'll be sneaky.† We eased around from the east, sticking to the trees when we were in view of the windows, affecting a casual-looking stroll, just in case. Jacob unloaded the bikes swiftly from the truck bed, wheeling them one by one into the shrubbery where I hid. It looked too easy for himI'd remembered the bikes being much, much heavier than that. â€Å"These aren't half bad,† Jacob appraised as we pushed them through the cover of the trees. â€Å"This one here will actually be worth something when I'm doneit's an old Harley Sprint.† â€Å"That one's yours, then.† â€Å"Are you sure?† â€Å"Absolutely.† â€Å"These are going to take some cash, though,† he said, frowning down at the blackened metal. â€Å"We'll have to save up for parts first.† â€Å"We nothing,† I disagreed. â€Å"If you're doing this for free, I'll pay for the parts.† â€Å"I don't know† he muttered. â€Å"I've got some money saved. College fund, you know.† College, schmollege, I thought to myself. It wasn't like I'd saved up enough to go anywhere specialand besides, I had no desire to leave Forks anyway. What difference would it make if I skimmed a little bit off the top? Jacob just nodded. This all made perfect sense to him. As we skulked back to the makeshift garage, I contemplated my luck. Only a teenage boy would agree to this: deceiving both our parents while repairing dangerous vehicles using money meant for my college education. He didn't see anything wrong with that picture. Jacob was a gift from the gods.