Identity and Object Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Identity and Object - Essay Example How do these symbols or historical objects obtain their identities? Is it the objects that give the identity to the people or is it the people that give the objects an identity? Various examples of nations and their national symbols will be used to illustrate the significance of national symbols and explore the relationship between the identity of these historical objects and the people. Symbols are used to serve as an identity of people from a given nation. For example during the world cup, soccer teams from various nations identify themselves using their flags. The players also wear sportswear that has the national color of their flags which makes it possible to know which player represents a given country. During the medal ceremony the flags of these countries are also flown by the players to identify the nations they are from and also as a way to honor their countries. Flags hoisted represent winning countries in the worldcup which reinforces pride in one’s national identity. Symbols give a country an identity among other nations based on its unique heritage. For example the national symbols of India represent its richness in flora and fauna. The Panthera tigris (tiger) is an animal covered with yellow fur and dark stripes that is found in India. As an animal, it is graceful, agile, strong and powerful and symbolizes its diversity in wild life. National symbols instill pride in one’s culture and history. National symbols require one to be familiar with their culture in order to appreciate the national symbols. The national song of India Vande Mataram was composed in Sanskrit and is sung in the same language. The song was a source of inspiration to the Indian people during the struggle for freedom. The song appreciates the struggle as an important event in India’s History. Moreover singing the song requires one to be conversant with the Sanskrit language which enhances appreciation for the overall Indian culture. Thirdly,

Orgainizational research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Orgainizational research - Essay Example The fact that Ahold and Enron were the source of empirical evidence may have incorporated some form of bias, as the two organizations were high-ranking CSR organization prior to the induction of the concept. H (4): Four, the uniqueness of the CSR strategies determine its success. This follows Smith’s concept that if a firms’ strategies are conceived carefully and genuinely, then they must be unique despite the similarities of corporate reports even from the closest rivals. This research focuses on a new perspective on CSR: A sense-making approach that will enhance our understanding on CSR strategies and the impacts of specific sense-making processes in an organization. The assumption is that a thorough investigation and understanding of how people speak, talk, and tend to behave towards CSR strategies will provide a rich context of exploration on the nature of CSR in organizations (Banerjee, 2007). Essentially, the research combines the theories of sense making by Weick and other scholars (including Palazzo and Bazu, and Wheaterbee and Mills). The research uses a qualitative case study approach for collection of data, as this generally enables consideration of specific elements of industry and context, as well as respecting the unique nature of CSR (Leedy and Ormrod, 2010). The concept of CSR is has been constantly expanding and evolving over time, presenting difficulties in analyzing theories on CSR. Moreover, different scholars combined different approaches using similar terminologies but came up with diverse definitions. Examples include corporate social performance, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, corporate governance, sustainable development, and corporate citizenship, among others (Banerjee, 2007). There literature review identifies six foci of CSR in a chronological order. The first focus of CSR was a pro-CSR attitude, fostered by the legitimacy and social contract

Human resource management--Should U.S. companies use offshore Essay

Human resource management--Should U.S. companies use offshore locations to enjoy lower wage rates Are there ethical issues or concerns about employee morale t - Essay Example Outsourcing in the field of Information Technology is nothing new as in recent years it has changed shape several times to reflect new, and arguably better-planned, organizational objectives. And best practices for creating contracts are now evolving that promise to move outsourcing from a road often pockmarked with potholes and lawsuit-bound to a more reliable relationship for both provider and customer. There has been a general perception that outsourcing means taking jobs away from a region, particularly if we talk about the US. From a financial standpoint, the debate regarding the United States businesses spreading into offshore locations is more pertinent than anything else within the lengths and breadths of the nation since financial health has ensured decent composition of an economically secure nation and US is sure to thrive on the same premise. (Hom, 2005) What remains to be seen is to realize that US authorities could do a lot more than raising the offshore locations’ cutting down on wage rates since they need to understand the bigger picture and forget about the short term incentives, if any, they have in sight. The US businesses would suffer immensely due to the high offshore costs in terms of the employee insurance and the like since it would encourage outsourcing of jobs which would have been easily completed had the individuals been given the offshore guarantees, coming from the US land alone. Much needs to be done in the relevant context and that too quickly. (Domberger, 1998) As far as US is concerned, this could be made appropriate if the offshore policies and strategies are proportionate with the policies that have been laid down time and again within the US. What this means is that the laws that allow for the effective handling of employees as well as the workers within the US need to be followed so that the top management understands what is best for them and how they can contribute in

Gender Inequality: Causes and Impacts

Gender Inequality: Causes and Impacts Research Paper:  Gender Inequality For many centuries, men have been the dominant gender and women have been the minority. Men were the breadwinners† and women just stayed home and took care of the housework and children. Women barely had any rights. Their husbands could abuse them and get away with it easily. Fortunately, over a period of time, things have slowly changed. However, this is still a very serious and widespread problem. Women are still at the bottom of the chain. What was the cause of this inequality and what will be the consequences if this problem continues to linger? Gender inequality, in my definition, is the unequal and biased treatment between the two sexes. I strongly believe that the unequal treatment of women is something that should have stayed in primitive times. We are in the present now and we are far more advanced than we ever were and yet we are old school in our thinking of how men and women should be treated. I can strongly identify with gender inequality because many of my closest friends have faced it or still face it. Materialist theories define gender inequality as a result of how men and women are tied to the economic structure of society. They believe that womens role as a mother and wife are devalued by society and deny access to highly respected public opportunities. Gender inequality is definitely something that we often take for granted; it is accepted and seems so normal in society. These differences often seem invisible to us even though it happens in our everyday life in everything from employment and education to polit ics and the media without us being aware of it. Before we look at the gender inequalities in paid employment, it is vital to look at unpaid labor and the discriminations that women face. History has shown us that the roles and responsibilities for men and women were already chosen for them. In the United Kingdom, there was a trend of male dominance in employment until World War II where women gained male-orientated jobs for the first time whilst the men fought in the front line. Before this, the males were often the breadwinners and therefore provided for their family. On the other hand, the females were more inclined to be involved in unpaid labor often labeled as housewives who performed chores around the family home and looked after the children. You could apply Leslie Feinberg’s theory to this as back then it was just accepted and seen as the way of life for men and women. It was found in a study in 2006 that on average ‘women spent 180 minutes per day on housework; that’s 78% more time than men who spent only 101 minutes per day.’ This reveals that even in current society women are still accepted to partake in unpaid labor through housework rather than be in employment and this reflects the past in the United Kingdom. A very good example of this are the employment rates in the UK as it was around 79% for men and 70 % for women which has remained unchanged since 1999. (Office of National Statistics, 2008). It has to be said that in recent times, the division between males and females is less evident but inclination towards male dominance in employment is still shown. It was reported that the gender pay gap in the UK is one of the highest in Europe: women who work full-time earned 17% less per hour than men and women working part-time earned 39% less per hour than men working full-time. (Office of National Statistics, 2008) In the United States, the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. However, women’s place in society and in employment has improved greatly since the Equal Pay Act of 1970. Over the years, there has been an increase of women in the workplace with women working in a larger number of senior positions. This reveals that even though there have been improvements in some areas, men often still have the upper hand in employment. Today, this gender inequality is accepted in society which reveals a strong unfairness against women in employment. Men and women still follow very different career paths. Men are much more likely than women to be employed in skilled trades whereas women are more likely than not to be forced into working lower paid labor jobs such as cleaning. ‘Women tend not to put their whole bodies into engagement in a physical task with the same ease and naturalness as men’ (Young, Iris. M, 207). There is the national organization for tradeswomen called ‘Women and Manual Trades (WAMT) who support training women to wo rk in plumbing, building and electricians for example. As well as this, they address the problem of low female representation in such work. Although there are organisations such as the WAMT who support women working in skilled trades the likeliness of women to partake in such a job is still very low and shows little improvement. This, yet again, reveals the strong dominance of men in employment worldwide. The notion of being a female is considered to have more challenges than male within the mass media. There is an unbalanced and stereotyped representation of women in the media and a lot of the time they are dominated by men in their roles. Gender inequalities traditionally were greatly enforced in media output with women being used in advertisements to sell anything from cars to tobacco. As well as this, women were often portrayed as ‘sex objects’ in the media, especially in the 1980’s when men’s magazines were first distributed. This still happens in rec ent times as women are displayed in the magazines mostly for male entertainment which is a major gender inequality as it uses the objectification of women. As well as this, women often feel insecure and are forced to impress men by copying what they see in the magazines. This happens in most of the media from the magazines and newspapers to advertisements in television they are such powerful forces which influence society to a great extent. Furthermore, women in more contemporary media are still sexualized and the men still look at women in the same way as before. It was discovered in the late 1990’s that ‘44% of music videos contain sexual imagery. Women are far more likely than men to be presented in provocative or revealing clothing and sexually objectified.’ This links to female stereotypes and sexualization which are abused in this present day in media especially with the rapid growth of the internet in recent years often through sexual images of women linke d to the sex industry such as pornography being easily accessible on the internet which often depicts women as mere entertainment for men. The nature of pornography is a prime example of the sexualized representation of women in society. Gender inequality is not an issue that can be resolved within a day or two, and reaching our final goal of equality is not going to be an easy step, all we can do is break it down into many factors and give it time to pay off. First part of our resolution is educational wise, which is basically teaching our young ones counter gender stereotypes from kinder-garden, and holding on to these beliefs all the way till college. This can be done by showing both sexes that there aren’t any male or female biased sports, there isn’t a major that a girl shouldn’t get into because it’s a â€Å"man major†, those stereotypes should be totally eradicated from all new generations. Another part of our resolution is promoting equality in the labor fields; maybe have a long lasting initiative to promote equality in all labor fields. Some people might say that women cannot perform many jobs that men do like construction working, well during WW2, women were the only ones doing these â€Å"men jobs† while all the men were gone to fight in the war. Another possible way to resolve our issue is through celebrities and TV. Nowadays, everyone’s role model is a Hollywood star, a singer, a model, so basically a celebrity. Why don’t we make these celebrities indirectly implant the idea of equality in our human brains, why don’t they show us that males and females are capable of doing the same jobs and quests and that segregation is not needed. Again, I repeat that this won’t be an easy process and it might take a very long time but at the end of the day, gender inequality is a very big issue and it has to be resolved sooner or later. Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are women viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible. We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. With determination, commitment and strong belief, we can achieve our goal.

Comparing Frances Zefferilli’s Hamlet and Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay ex

Comparing Frances Zefferilli’s Hamlet and Shakespeare’s Hamlet I believe Frances Zefferilli’s version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, made in 1990, is one of the best versions of the play to be put onto screen. The film, starring Mel Gibson as Hamlet, and Glen Close as Queen Gertrude, takes a different look to the play. Zefferilli explores the physiological stability of Hamlet very well, especially in Act 3, Scene 4. My interpretation of that scene in the text was different to the one given in the movie. After reading the scene, I had the notion that Hamlet was already quite confused - he had just come out of a scene where he could have killed the king, but his blunted purpose gets in the way. The killing of Polonius in the text gave me the idea that Macbeth was anxious to find out who h...

The use of recombinant technology can only benefit humans

Recombination is a way in which meiosis produces new combinations of genetic information. During synapsis, chromatids may exchange parts with other chromatids, leading to a physical exchange of chromosome parts; thus, genes from both parents may be combined on the same chromosome, creating a new combination. Recombinant DNA technology is a series of techniques in which DNA fragments are linked to self-replicating forms of DNA to create recombinant DNA molecules. These molecules in turn are replicated in a host cell to create clones of the inserted segments. I think that recombinant technology only benefits humans as it allows us much greater control over genetic manipulation, which we can then use to our advantage. Indge, Rowland and Baker (2000) summarises some of the ways that recombinant technology has been beneficial to humans; > Genetically engineered micro organisms- large amounts of insulin and human growth hormone can be produced cheaply. > Genetically modified plants- Desirable plants can be transferred from an organism to a crop plant. > Genetically modified animals- human proteins such as haemoglobin and blood-clotting factors, are already produced in the milk of transgenic cows, goats and sheep. > Human gene therapy- gene therapy involves inserting a ‘normal' gene into an organism's body to correct a genetic disorder. ; Mapping human chromosomes (the Human Genome Project)- scientists in over 1000 laboratories around the world are contributing to the Human Genome Project. Their aim is to create a map of all human chromosomes, identifying the precise location of every gene. This will help to develop new gene therapy treatments. The ability to clone genes through the use of recombinant technology is a big advantage to humans. The production of human insulin is now done on a very large scale and benefits many thousands of diabetics. Kent (2000) states that human insulin made by recombinant DNA technology produces fewer side effects than insulin prepared from cow or pig pancreatic extracts, previously the main source of insulin. But diabetics are not the only people who are benefiting from recombinant technology. Jones and Jones (1999) show that considerable advances in genetic engineering are making gene therapy possible. Gene therapy is intended to correct inherited disorders, such as cystic fibrosis, which are caused by a defective gene. If the ‘correct' gene could be inserted into the affected person's cells, then they should be free of the disease. Recombinant technology is also beneficial to humans when it comes to crop production. Genetic engineering is used to produce pest resistant varieties of crop, which means that fewer pesticides would have to be used on the crops and they would produce a greater yield. Jones and Jones (1999) say that tomatoes have been produced containing genes that result in them remaining fresh for much longer than usual after picking. This makes it much easier, and therefore cheaper, to transport them form grower to sale point, so they have a much longer shelf life. But genetically modified crops can also cause problems in the environment. If crops are produced containing a gene making them resistant to herbicides and are then sprayed with the herbicide to kill weeds, this gene might then somehow spread to wild plants and affect the balance of the ecosystem. Although recombinant technology is of great use to humans when it comes to gene therapy and genetically modified crops it can also be a threat if used in the wrong way. Jones and Jones (1999) state that the techniques of genetic engineering could be used deliberately to create new organisms that could infect and kill humans. There are, of course, already many organisms that can do this, but little use had been made on biological warfare. About half of the nations of the world signed a treaty in 1972 pledging not to produce biological weapons of any kind. However, the concern remains, and it is certainly possible that new, highly dangerous forms of infectious organisms could be used deliberately.

Challenges of Scholarly Writing

Writing is a means of expressing oneself through words and even a method of sharing information about different fields of study. Many have enjoyed and appreciated various forms literature that have transformed readers to another place or make them feel that they are someone else. The benefits of writing are endless. More so, it has become an integral part of a person's life and an inevitable component of the society. For without it, the world today would be bland and monotonous. Since we were toddlers we were trained to read and write so that in our adult years, we will be equipped with a tool that can advance our status in the society which can either be for personal or professional purposes. For me, writing has been an arduous but rewarding part of my life. At first, I was a little apprehensive about writing because it requires the writer to know a lot about sentence constructions, proper usage of punctuations and others. It seemed that writing was a tedious task that demanded time and effort in order to produce high-quality outputs. But after numerous writing exercises and trials, I was able to get used to with the rules and guidelines involved in writing. Because of this, I was able to be exposed to various forms of writing such as creative, technical and scholarly writing. Among the three, creative writing is the easiest and most enjoyable because it gives freedom to the writer to write about anything under the sun. It is like typing on the keyboard or scribbling on a piece paper everything that pops in your head. Meanwhile, technical writing demands technical knowledge about a certain subject which makes it harder than creative and scholarly writing. However, scholarly writing is a different story because it is arduous to write but the end results are beneficial and helpful particularly to the academe. During my days as a student, I was bombarded with a lot of scholarly papers which helped us to learn more about the courses that we took in college. There were days that ideas just came flowing in your mind that helped me finished my research or writing papers in a short amount of time. But there are also moments when you can not seem to extract any good thoughts from your brain even if you spend hours and hours researching, reading and brainstorming. This type of incident is famously known as writer’s block wherein the writer experiences a short-term inability to start or continue the writing process which is frequently caused by the lack of drive and creativity. Also, another writing obstacle is the generation of ideas or thoughts. The most difficult part of writing is the beginning and the conclusion phase. As a writer, I found it hard to organize and develop properly my views and perceptions about a certain subject matter. Even though there is a lot of information, sometimes it is difficult to synthesize all of them to make coherent and logical paragraphs. Aside from this, writers particularly students also go through many obstacles in scholarly writing such as poor structure of writing composition, incorrect usage of grammar and words, citations and plagiarism. When these factors remained unnoticed, the likelihood of generating a solid writing material would be impossible. The key to producing a well-structured scholarly paper is that the thesis statement must be direct and concise. Also, it should be supported by strong arguments at the body of the paper and followed by a conclusion that summarizes the main points and answers the thesis statement. More so, grammar and language used should be appropriate to the topic to make the paper credible and smooth-flowing. However, the most important factor to consider in writing is using proper citations to avoid plagiarism. In writing, it is inevitable to borrow ideas from other writers or previous studies. In order to avoid committing a professional misconduct, writers should cite all sources that they have used in their scholarly papers as a sign of acknowledgment that the incorporated information were taken from other publications. As an alternative, it would be better if writers tried to create their own ideas instead of copying other people’s work thus their skills in writing and critical thinking would be further developed. There is no shortcut in making excellent scholarly papers. Writers must learn the basics of writing before they can be able to yield productive outputs. Moreover, there is no alternate for sitting down and jotting down your ideas on paper so writers should make the best out of writing and try to be honest and responsible .