Culture Influences the Lives of Individuals Essay

The novel â€Å"Kite Runner† by Khaled Hosseini vividly portrays the impact of culture on personality and even destiny of the main characters. Khaled Hosseini describes unique Afghan culture, its traditions and rituals, social norms and human relations which have a great influence on decisions of the protagonist and his life. Thesis using different themes and motifs, Hosseini creates a powerful life story portraying that culture and national identity determine destiny of a person, his life choices and relations with others. The book is based on the ideas of friendship and family relations, generation gap and immigration, cultural assimilation in America and cultural identity. In the interview Hosseini comments that â€Å"Because the themes of friendship, †¦ the uneasy love between fathers and sons are universal themes and not specifically Afghan, the book has been able to reach across cultural, racial, religious, and gender† (cited Azad 2004). The protagonist of the novel, Amir, is faced by cultural traditions of his nations, misunderstanding with his father and feeling guilt. Hosseini portrays family relations typical for many Afghans based on a man’s power and dominance and oppression of women in this culture. This theme is closely connected with generation gap and inability of Amir’s father to understand his only son. In contrast to many young people of his culture, Amir loves literature and poetry. He is portrayed as a radical whose circumstances and temperament lead him into a very different experience. Literature and story writing are not considered as a good profession for a man like Amir belonging to high social classes. The conflict between this cultural tradition and Amir’s desire to become a writer creates a tension and misunderstanding between Amir and his father. The idea of friendship and close peer relations between men is another theme which runs through the novel. When he was a child, Amir betrayed Hassan and defamed him. Many years have passed, but he feels guilty because of his weakness and disloyalty. Using this theme, Hosseini portrays that much human behavior is based not on the underlying values people hold, but on their compliance to the pressures exerted by the social world around them which can be resisted only at a high price. Everyone lives by cultural and social rules whose existence they are well aware of, but that they cannot resist their social world mostly rules them. In the explanations that the people in this book give of their lives, the dominant form personal level takes is that of the world of other people. Amir ponders: â€Å"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded †¦ with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night† (Hosseini 198). The novel vividly portrays a conflict between Afghan culture and the Soviet Union traditions spread in this land. On the other hand, through minor characters of Afghan military, Hassan and his wife, Hosseini depicts different cultural traditions and national identity of two opposite cultures. Patriotism is not always a delusion and there may be values in one’s country that are worth defending, even dying for. However, states’ molding of their citizens into a common way of life is under challenge today. It is under challenge in part because of the resurgence of ethnicity and ethnic identity. These ideas of self echo Hosseini’s interpretation of culture: both self and culture are seen by some as belonging to a particular place, bounding and shaping the beings therein, and by others as radically open and free. In his interview Hosseini comments: â€Å"It’s hard not to feel some guilt in a country where privilege and poverty are basically next door to each other† (Jolly 2006). The themes of immigration and assimilations help readers to perceive cultural differences between Afghan and American cultures based on different values and religious traditions. In contrast to Afghanistan, American culture is based on collective consciousness. This contradiction can best be resolved by considering self and culture in a common phenomenological framework: a framework based on how people experience the world. For Afghan people, their experienced are based on revolutions and military struggle, constant tension to be killed and master-servant relations. Through the character of Sohrab, a nephew of Amir, Hosseini depicts a strong bond between relatives and importance of blood relations. In spite of great risk and Taliban rule, Amir returns to Kabul and saves his nephew Sohrab. Through this theme, Hosseini depicts that this choice of values and identities is not really free. People pick and choose themselves in accordance with their class, gender, religious belief, ethnicity, and citizenship, as well as all the exigencies of their own personal molding, from a cultural frame; they pick and choose themselves in negotiation with and performance for others. â€Å"Hosseini gives his readers credit by being subtle about his metaphors, such as the fact that Afghanis live among war and kite flying is children playing at war, preparing for it† (Most Readers Loved This Novel 2005, G3). For Amir, his half-brother Hassan, choice is not free, but it seems to be free: as if, from the vast array of available cultural choices as to what one might believe, how one might live, they make their choices and live and believe accordingly. For the most part, these men characters shape themselves in ways close to home, in congruence with their membership in home societies. Following Makhmalbaf (2001) â€Å"transformation changes the socioeconomic infrastructure that in turn breaks the traditional culture and creates a more modern one, exporting oil and consuming the products of industrialized countries† (29). The facts, events and destinies of the characters described by Hosseini show that culture is the main factor which determines human life and personality. According to Hall and Gay (1996): â€Å"The cultural shaping of self occurs at what may analytically be viewed as separate levels of consciousness† (34). In the novel, lives of all characters are shaped by a particular language and set of social practices that condition them as to how they comprehend self and world. All characters think in language and behave in accordance with Afghan cultural values and norms of their ethical group. In sum, the novel portrays that the self universally is made of past memories and future anticipation linked to an ever-shifting present. Amir’s experience in America shows that human self-identity does not disappear in the other country determining life goals and behavior. Human personality is culturally shaped: people of different cultural backgrounds clearly have different ways of experiencing the world.

Minimum Alternate Tax

Minimum Alternate Tax * Contributed under income tax * by vakilsearch Taxation on income is a vital source of revenue for our Government. Although Companies have to follow a mind-bogglingly complex procedure, the list of exemptions and deductions is long. As a result, a lot of Companies used these deductions and exemptions and escaped tax liability. While they enjoyed book profits as per their profit and loss accounts (and sometimes even distributed dividend), tax liability as per the Income Tax Act was either nil or negative or insignificant.To counter this â€Å"problem† the government came up with the concept of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) in the financial year 1997-1998. What is Minimum Alternate Tax? As per section 115 JA of the Income Tax Act, if a company’s taxable income is less than a certain percentage of the booked profits, then by default, that much of the book profits will be considered as taxable income and tax has to be paid on that. The current rate for MAT is 18%, up from 7. 5% in 2001-2002. Since this is a very broad provision, sometime companies who genuinely deserve tax relief get stuck with MAT liability.Hence, a system of MAT credit entitlement was brought in. MAT Credit Under this system, if a company pays Minimum Alternate Tax, then the difference between the tax that would have been payable if there was no MAT and the actual tax paid under MAT regime can be carried forward as a credit and can be set off against any tax in the future that is not under the MAT regime. For example, if a company has a book profit of 10 lakhs and after applying the provisions of Income tax act, arrives at a taxable income of only Rs. 1 lakh, then MAT becomes applicable as 18% of 10 lakhs is 1. lakhs. However, the difference between the tax paid on 1. 8 lakhs and the tax calculation on 1 lakh is carried forward as MAT credit. Say, the next year, a profit of 11 lakhs is booked but this time due to some cost-cutting initiatives, the company calcul ates a taxable income of 6 lakhs. Hence, MAT is not applicable as the taxable income is more than 18%. Here the company can choose to set off their tax liability with the tax credit they have from the last time when they paid MAT. Criticisms As can be easily seen, capital intensive companies like steel & construction etc. ave long been chronic victims of MAT and have lobbied for its removal ever since its inception. A lot of them are yet to encounter a period where they haven’t had to pay MAT. And considering that MAT credit can be carried forward only for a period of ten assessment years at a time, it has led to capital erosion on account of MAT. It is another instance of short-sightedness on the part of the Government; and one among many measures which cripple our global competitiveness for short-term revenue collection. (Contributed to The Hindu Business Line)

“Night” by Elie Wiesel Essay

Have you ever been separated from your family? What if living wasn’t guaranteed? The holocaust killed over eleven million people. The purpose of the holocaust was to eliminate the entire Jewish race. In Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his family were separated. Elie was forced to take care of his father while his mother and sister were killed. The Jews’ freedom, identity, and sense of hope were taken from them to make the Jews feel less than human. Is freedom really free? In Night, they lost their freedom when the Germans made a new edict that stated, â€Å"All Jews are prohibited from leaving their house for three days under penalty of death (page 10). † Also, the Germans stated that, â€Å"From this moment on, you [Jews] are under the authority of the German Army (pages 23-24)†. Without the Jews’ freedom they couldn’t fight back. With that in mind, the Germans took away the Jews’ sense of hope as well. In order to do this, however, the Germans practically starved all the Jews to death; â€Å"At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup and crust of stale bread (page 52). † The Germans also killed most of the Jews for little things like backtalk, taking an extra ration of food, or pilfering from the kitchen. To make the Jews feel less than human, the Germans took away their identities. They did this by taking away their name and referring to them as only a number. They even tattooed that number onto their skin. This was so the Jews would not forget that the Germans were of more value then they were, and that Germans were worth more than just a number and worth more then Jewish people in general. Another way was by placing them all in one type of surrounding (concentration camps). Also by forcing them all to wear a yellow star to show the world that they were â€Å"Jews†. By doing that they were hoping to eventually break them down and make them feel ashamed for being Jewish. This is what the Jewish people went through, and the hardships every single Jew must go through to, hopefully, see the sun tomorrow. Freedom is of no use anymore. Identity has vanished into thin air. The Jews’ sense of hope turned into ashes along with them. If you were there, in Elie’s shoes, would you want to keep on living?

The use of budgets in the improvement of management performance and Essay

The use of budgets in the improvement of management performance and control within global businesses - Essay Example What were relevant a century ago are no longer valid because of increased competition and ever changing products, their characteristics and consumer preferences. The following piece of information would be useful for companies presently engaged in traditional budgeting but willing to switch over to other types of budgeting. The purposes of budgeting One of the functions of management is â€Å"planning†. Budgeting is a part and form of planning necessitated by resource constraints. It has been defined as the formal expression of plans, goals, and objectives a management is committed to, concerning all aspects of operations in a business for a given period of time. It is a part of profit planning mechanism based on forecasting and probabilities according to the manager’s best judgement. Budgeting is more often found to be useful in making a business more profitable (Shim, Siegel, & Shim, 2011). Thus, budgeting helps estimate resources in terms of monetary value needed for business activities. Budgeting process forces one to rigorous thinking and the realities of the process will also force one to rethink the plans. Budgeting helps in determining the timing of the requirements. The business is able to monitor its income and expenditure and identify problems if any. It is the basis for accountability of managers and provides transparency. Without the budget, funds cannot be raised from financiers (Shapiro, 2001). Conventional budgeting Called traditional budgeting, it is based on the historical accounting though for the first year the figures are only estimates. Past expenditures are taken as bench marks for future performance. Thus, the budget turns out as list of planned expenditure and incomes. These budgets calculate estimated sales through market demand or production capacity and arrive at estimated revenues. It main purpose is to verify whether actual results are as per the estimates made for each cost or responsibility centre. Thus, budgeting s erves as a management tool for the purpose of controlling the responsibility centres. It also helps to have an overview of how different responsibility centres are interrelated. This type of budgeting can be useful for producer dominated markets such as those existed during the period immediately after world war II when demand for products was high with limited competition (Rohm, 2007). Types of budgets Unlike traditional budgeting which is function oriented, activity based budgeting (ABB) focuses on activity. It looks at the budgeted cost of activities that are required for manufacture and sale of products or for providing services. The activity based budgeting is directly linked to cost management as a part of planning and control. As in traditional budgeting, ABB starts with the forecasting of demand for the company’s products or services known as sales budget. Where as in functional budgeting, company proceeds to make inventory budget, material purchases and the cost of g oods sold budget, ABB considers the demand for output of each activity determined by its cost driver. Rate of consumption of resources for each activity is used for estimating or budgeting the needed resources. In functional budgeting, resources required are directly measured with the use of sales forecasted. In ABB, sales forecasts are employed to measure the activities which then enable determination of resource requirement. This way a company is able control waste and efficiency which is the ultimate goal of budgeting. Application of activity based costing helps preparation of master budget in a more practical manner. In effect, ABB applies the ABC model which assigns resource costs to activities and allocates activity costs to produce products and services (Shim, Siegel, & Shim, 2011). Zero Based

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 13

Psychology - Essay Example From among the known brain functions, this paper chooses to discuss memory and how it can be improved through the reading of newspapers. Unlike the other sources of news and information that are used at intervals, newspaper reading is a daily activity and thus expected to work better in enhancing memory, which some psychologists say can be done through frequent repetition (Anderson, 1976). Three distinct types of memory are set in the psychology literature: sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Memory is considered sensory when people see more than they can actually report (Baddeley, 2000), suggesting that information is received through the senses and emotions rather than through the brain. Consequently, it involves a memory span of only a few hundred milliseconds and a capacity of only about 12 items (Anderson, 1976). As such, this type of memory degrades quickly. There is a similar limitation in capacity for short-term memory although the duration extends up to a minute. As for long-term memory, it can store much larger quantities of information for prolonged periods of time, sometimes even for a whole life span. This type of memory can either be declarative or procedural, which differ in the way the mind processes information. It is declarative when, like sensory memory, information is received based on sensations, emotions and personal associations regarding time or place, while it is procedural when memory functions well because of repetition (Snowden, 2001). Whatever the types of memory people are prone to, many studies show that memory functions can be improved through rehearsal and repetition. This means that people with sensory and short-term memory can store information for long-term purposes if they receive it repeatedly and they are forced to retrieve the information for daily use (Baddeley, 2000). Not all psychologists share this view,

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

Public Administration - Case Study Example The experiment showed that limiting members of each crew would be more efficient and less costly. The replacement would involve the use of more advanced equipment that would require less of human labor. The most important information that helped a great deal during the whole procedure was the use of number of residents representing the city. It helped to identify all aspects of the city and the character of garbage deposition throughout the city. It gave a clear picture that is important in predicting and planning for the city. Another important aspect is the use of time and population as the basic data unit. During the experiment, certain assumptions made lead to its success. The garbage cans used are of average capacity from each home. Therefore, the amount of garbage is of the same capacity from each home. Another assumption is the residents willingly cooperating with the staff and following every instruction as required. Methods of analysis used to evaluate the methods were the same in all scenarios. The study used tables to represent and analyze the data collected. The study considered the total average weight collected in five days, time taken to access seven hundred and thirty units in the street, time taken to access five hundred and sixty five units in the alley, labor costs and price of equipment. The next step is conversion of the data to the total city population to give the overall picture. In the method one and two, were not effective as it was prone to a lot of time wasted. The methods could not allow for maximum garbage collection. Although method three and four were quite efficient, the cost of maintenance of the modified rear-loading packer would cost the town a lot. Method 5 proved to be very efficient and economical. The side-loaded vehicle eased the work and it improved every individual’s responsibility in garbage collection. The cost of modification and purchase the trucks in method 4 in a spurn of 20 years is

The Themes of the Body and Physical Experience Characterise Classic Essay

The Themes of the Body and Physical Experience Characterise Classic Urban Theory - Essay Example As the report declares as the techniques became more and more refined, the labor force was divided on the basis of the knowledge and skill individuals were able to acquire. The faster they adapted to the changing conditions, the better the pay they received. â€Å"The nineteenth century demanded the functional specialization of man and his work; this specialization makes one individual incomparable to another †¦, however, this specialization makes each man the more directly dependent upon the supplementary activities of all others†. This paper discusses that the influx of the factory enabled corporate heads to enact surveillance strategies, if for no other reason than to negotiate pay with workers or to keep track of wages earned. This surveillance further served to dictate the impersonal ordering of the clock into working hours and off-time hours, creating a means by which individuals could only identify themselves with part of a crowd rather than a subjective being. This led to feelings of alienation as the individual perceived themselves as different from, yet the same as, their co-workers on the factory floor, yet had no room in which to explore or express this difference. Explorations of art, literature and science into this mechanized realm produced the idea of the phantasmagorical. Phantasmagorical is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions. J.C. Powys defines it as the â€Å"incongruous imagery in surreal art and literature†.

The causes of world war I Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The causes of world war I - Research Paper Example World War 1 was by caused the diplomatic clashes that occurred between some of the great powers from countries such as Italy, the Austro Hungarian Empire, Germany and the British Empire. These countries clashed over some European and colonial issues causing high tension. The diplomatic clashes might have resulted in a change to power balance in Europe. One source of dispute was over the Balkans territory. This tension was caused by the competition between Austria Hungary, Serbia and Russia over the territory. There are many events that are thought to have triggered the war, which include national politics, assassination, economics and cultures, complex webs of alliances and counterbalances, which were developed with some of the European powers in the year 1870. There are some domestic political factors that may have resulted to the war. They include such factors as German domestic politics. This involved politics between parties such as Social Democratic Party, which had a significant impact on the elections that took place in Germany in the year 1912. The government in Germany was dominated Prussian Junkers; they were the Prussian landowning gentry, who controlled Prussia. This led to increased fear as a result of the rise of left wing parties. It is with such fear that Fritz Fischer thought an external war would distract the population resulting to support for the government.1 Germany might have been ambivalent about the war with the worry that if the Germans lost the war, Germany woul d have faced disastrous consequences, which include a drop of the economy and a shortage of raw materials. Another domestic factor that might have contributed to the war was French domestic politics. The loss of the Alsace-Lorraine resulted to increased anger among the French. France being compelled to pay large reparation to Germany in the year 1870 was seen as a source of humiliation in

Business law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business law - Research Paper Example California State, the major employment legal tussles the business organizations are facing is the definition of workers and validity of non-competition agreement. The labor law of California has two definitions of workers as either independent contractor or employee under labor code 2750.5 (Californi Law, 2013). Similarly, labor laws define the circumstances under which a business organization can draw a non-competition agreement under labor code 16601 of the California labor law. Cases One of the cases filed by involves how workers are classified as independent contractors or employees (Narayan v. EGL, Inc., 2007). EGL which is a transportation company has been sued by three of it truck drivers for failing to offer employees benefits as required by the California labor code. The truck drivers had signed an agreement with the company to indicate that they are independent contractors. Despite this agreement, they sued EGL for failing to offer them benefits enjoyed by employees under l abor code 2802(a) (California Law, 2013). The appeal court of California held that there were facts to show the truck drivers were employees rather than independent contractors as EGL firm claimed. Consequently, the drivers were entitled to employees benefits provided under the California labor code. ... Creteguard, Inc, 2010). Silguero as a sales representative of Floor Seal Technology (FST) agreed to undertake a non-compete agreement for fear of been sacked by the employer. However, FST terminated his work after two months that forced him to seek employment in Creteguard firm. Consequently, Creteguard terminated his job after it was informed by FST of the existence of non-compete agreement with Silguero. Accordingly, the California court of appeal dismissed the validity of non-compete agreement under the California labor law. Rationale The findings of the two courts are informed by various critical reasons on the liberties of the employees as provided under the labor laws of California. In Narayan vs. EGL Company, the judges evaluated the supervision level the truck drivers were receiving from the company in undertaking their duties. To the extent that the drivers were distributing the firm’s products under the direction and supervision of the firm’s management, it wa s a clear indication they were under the employment supervision like other ordinary employees of the firm. The denial by the firm to grant them full autonomy in scheduling their distribution routes and strategies negated the very requirement of an independent agreement. Consequently, the truck drivers are entitled to receive with full employment benefits provided under labor code 2802(a) of the California labor laws. Similarly, the judgment the judges of appeal court of California made on Silguero vs. Creteguard firm is informed by legal observation. Even though the California business and profession code under section 16601 provides for non-compete agreements, it can only apply in owners of a partnership, limited companies and corporations. Indeed, the

Write an essay outlining the strategic business objectives of an

Write an outlining the strategic business objectives of an information system, including a description of its management, organisation and technology components. Make use of diagrams where appropriate - Essay Example This paper focuses on the objectives played by information systems in an organization. It will also look into the management, business and technology components of the information systems. To begin, information systems refer to ‘the set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and distribute information to support decision making, coordination and control in an organization.’ In addition to this information systems help in the analysis and solving of problems and; come up with products that are new in the markets (Laudon, and Jane, p12). Information systems have roles that they do play in organizations. ‘The network revolution and the internet’ is one of these roles. Over the years, there have been numerous developments in information systems. For instance, there are available software that are very easy to use, people can now analyse huge amounts of data and in an easy way (Beynon-Davies-Robert, & Chris, p134). These two features and many more, enable communication networks to be very powerful due to the computer technology. The internet is one of these communication networks, which is very vital for any company, regardless its size. The internet can connect numerous countries and is a platform for people in different fields to exchange information. Companies are able to use the internet to make business transactions, graphical presentations, documents, among other things. This happens very easily despite the distance between the different parties. The internet has different importance to any company. Collaboration and information is one of these roles. Whereby, people in an organization can easily communicate by the exchange of emails, or even transmitting documents, as reports. The internet can also be used to access information. For example, during a research; or when one requires certain information, they can look for related documents, or even read books online. In addition to

Bill of Rights Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bill of Rights - Coursework Example There is also the danger that individual rights of speech and assembly and redressal of grievances can be used by canny citizens to trouble others, for example, the encouragement of an intrusive media, and unnecessary litigation in courts of law. While such a clause may have been necessary for the security of the individual in pioneering days (this is also debatable, as these arms were often trained on the original inhabitants-the Red Indians-who have today been unjustly herded into settlements, in their own land) now, it has led to lawlessness: shooting sprees in malls and schools, for instance. Fourth: This amendment was enacted to ensure privacy as well as protection against unlawful or malicious action against citizens by the agents of the state, which may also be seen as the benefit accruing to a citizen from it. There are circumstances when exceptions to the amendment become justified for the sake of the security of the state and citizenry. These exceptions are, for example, detainment and search of a person who behaves in a suspicious manner, or searching of persons in sensitive areas like airports/ border areas. As a matter of fact, the 9/11 incident possibly happened because of adhering strictly to the spirit of this amendment, whereby travellers at airports were not checked thoroughly. The advantage to the citizen was that it was fair to him. ... Fifth: This amendment was enacted to ensure fair treatment of the individual who is charged with a crime. The advantage to the citizen was that it was fair to him. Even a citizen charged for a crime has a right to be fairly treated, especially in the event that he is wrongly charged. The disadvantage is that a canny lawyer could use the amendment to subvert the justice system. Eg, in the OJ Simpson case, the criminal case against Simpson absolved him of the murder of his wife, Nicole, while civil proceedings held him culpable! Sixth: The amendment like the fifth was enacted to prevent arbitrary treatment of an accused, and to ensure justice for all. This is an excellent provision governing the justice system, to safeguard a citizen's rights, and to ensure speedy disposal of cases. Any negative feature of this could come about not because of the amendment per se, but because of the way the system could be perverted by those seeking to take advantage of it. (eg perverting the law by canny lawyers to adhere to the letter of it minus the spirit.) Seventh: England had courts of common law, which gave legal (monetary) relief, and courts for equity which decided non-monetarily (an injunction, for instance) This amendment sought to combine both the jurisdictions. The advantage or disadvantage of the amendment depends totally on the complications involved in a case-especially where both equity and common law elements are involved. Complexity in the actual application of the amendment is inevitable, not because of anything contained within it, but because judicial disaputes are essentially complicated. Eighth: This amendment was enacted to ensure humane treatment of a crimininal, and herein lay its strong point. But a habitual

E-commerce Essay Example for Free

E-commerce Essay Introduction E-commerce means conducting business online. Selling goods, in the traditional sense, is possible to do electronically because of certain software programs that run the main functions of an e-commerce Web site, including product display, online ordering, and inventory management. The software resides on a commerce server and works in conjunction with online payment systems to process payments. Since these servers and data lines make up the backbone of the Internet, in a broad sense, e-commerce means doing business over interconnected networks. Here are a few examples of e-commerce: accepting credit cards for commercial online sales generating online advertising revenue trading stock in an online brokerage account driving information through a company via its intranet driving manufacturing and distribution through a value chain with partners on an extranet selling to consumers on a pay-per-download basis, through a Web site Globalization of production and increasing competition spurs greater business use of innovative information systems. As globalization extends its reach over cities and regions, the positions of those places within the emerging global paradigms of regional economies is changing. Only those regions and cities that can mobilize assets for local advantage would succeed. E-commerce is a burning issue of today because the global business is moving towards a virtual business world. Everything is done here virtually. The transaction is done within seconds not being present physically. People now want hassle-free shopping. They are indifferent to go to the market for purchasing the goods or taking the services. All they want one stop service. All these things can be done only with the help of e-commerce. So, the scope for the implementation of e-commerce is ever on the increase in Bangladesh. The main objective of preparing this paper is to identify the feasibility of the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh and the challenges behind it. Description: The feasibility analysis of the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh is a matter of detailed anatomy. If we want the actual scenario regarding the issue, at first, we will have to go for the analysis of both of the sides- arguments for and arguments against in detail. Here, we would like to make a comparative explanation of the feasibility to implement e-commerce in Bangladesh. Arguments For: There are several arguments for the feasibility of the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh. These are mentioned below: Cost effective: E-commerce is the process of buying and selling of goods or services over the internet. If any organization can once portrait the e-commerce based website then it has to spend the maintenance cost only. So, it can be feasible to implement e-commerce in Bangladesh. Technical know-how: Today some institutions are promoting e-commerce in Bangladesh. There are some private or public institutions providing the website development courses and some of these institutions are promoting the e-commerce based website with special importance. So, it can be possible to implement e-commerce in Bangladesh. Infra-structure: E-commerce needs a special infra-structure to be implemented or practiced. As we are moving towards the global market sharing it can be possible to implement e-commerce if we restructure or modify our existing organizational structure. M-commerce aspects: There is enough potentiality for our m-commerce sector to be developed. Especially, 3rd Generation network is coming within this November. So, if we can ensure the handsets with specification of GSM 2000+ Bandwidth then we can definitely think of the feasibility of e-commerce in Bangladesh as well. Reducing digital divide gap: The mass people are currently experiencing an acute digital divide gap. If we can ensure the digital Bangladesh through reducing this gap we can definitely plan for the implementation of e-commerce in our country. Reduced pricing: As the e-commerce involves internet marketing, the physical marketing cost is reduced considerably. So, the seller can provide the goods and services at a minimum price. So, the feasibility of implementing the e-commerce practice in Bangladesh is quite feasible. Comprehensive education system: The education system in our country is on a changing trend now the time being. Both the public and private universities are now enlisting the course related to the e-commerce sector. So, after some days we can implement e-commerce in Bangladesh as well. Transport facilities: Though we have crisis in the transport sector, the sector is highly a potential one. The present govt. of Bangladesh is planning for some projects for the development of transport sector. If it happens, the physical delivery of the goods and services will become easier according to the prior order via internet. So, in that sense, the implementation of e-commerce can be considered feasible in Bangladesh. Increasing market place: The participation of the mass people in the modern amenities is gradually increasing. As a result, the market place for the e-commerce based organization is ever on the increase. In the circumstances, the implementation of e-commerce is quite feasible. Easier transaction process: The people always want simplified lifestyle. E-commerce can make it happen. So, the implementation of e-commerce will be encouraged by most of the people. In that sense, the implication of e-commerce in Bangladesh will be encouraged. Modern payment systems: In day to day life we come across some modern payment systems like different types of cards. It is a positive sign for the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh. So, this is high time we planned for e-commerce implementation. Less complexity of cyber law: The cyber law involves comparatively less complexity in Bangladesh. So, there is respectively less implications regarding law provisions to implement e-commerce in Bangladesh. New entrepreneurship: In present times, it is observed that the percentage of the new initiators is ever on the increase. As the e-commerce implementation needs high initiatives, it is feasible to implement the e-commerce in Bangladesh. Increasing number of users: The number of internet user is increasing day by day. So, there is enough scope for the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh. Arguments Against: There are several arguments against the feasibility of the implementation of e-commerce in Bangladesh. These are mentioned below: Cost orientation: The implementation of e-commerce is cost oriented to some extent. The e-commerce demands for the high involvement of technological infra-structure. If an organization wants to implement e-commerce in the operational fields, it has to develop or modify the overall infra-structure having an alignment with technological use. In the context of Bangladesh the implementation of e-commerce is almost next to impossible as the organizations are not financially that much solvent. Lack of technical know-how: The e-commerce involves a high volume of technological use in the operational fields. The maintenance of the e-commerce systems is also the matter of high technological know-how oriented personnel involvement. But there is an unavailability of such personnel supply in Bangladesh. As it is not still a part of our traditional educational system, it will take a long time to fetch such intellectual personnel. Poor Infra-structure: If we try to implement the e-commerce in the every sphere of our day to day life, at first, we will have to develop the overall infra-structure of the country, ensure the education in the fullest sense. Other than the implementation of the e-commerce is not possible in Bangladesh. Lack of trust: In case of e-commerce, the payment of the goods is paid through credit card number or bank account number at first. Then the seller ensures the delivery of the goods or services to the buyer. But as per the context of Bangladesh, the buyer can hardly have the full faith on such types of advance payment system. So, this is also a constraint for e-commerce implementation in Bangladesh. Communication problem: The e-commerce depends on the communication process to some extent. But the communication system of Bangladesh is not that much advanced as the infrastructure of the communication system is poorly furnished. If a buyer purchases the products and waits for the physical delivery of that product it is influenced by the communication system. So, before implementing the e-commerce in Bangladesh, at first, we will have to concentrate on the development of the communication system. Digital divide gap: Bangladesh is a developing country. In this country the mass people have little access to the technological instruments rather than the poverty stricken problems. Some people here are using the modern amenities. But the majority can not have the minimum requirements. As a result, the physical divide is ever on the rise. Traditional education system: Our education system is still traditional. Here the aspects of e-commerce are hardly encouraged. The students of our country can barely research on it. So, the expansion or implementation of e-commerce seems to be impractical. Insufficient transport facilities: E-commerce commerce involves the physical transport while ensuring the physical delivery of the product. The transport facility in our country is still traditional and underdeveloped to some extent. So, we can not think of the implementation of e-commerce in our country to the date. Digital goods vs. Physical goods: E-commerce is feasible for the buying and selling of digital goods only. The features of the digital goods can be displayed in the e-commerce based websites. There is less option to test the physical goods before purchasing but in case of physical goods and the perishable goods, there is lots of scope for mismatch of the real goods and the goods displayed in the websites. So, the implementation of the e-commerce in our country totally depends on the trust of our people. Taxation: The implementation of e-commerce is encouraged in the aspect of Bangladesh but the govt. will be the ultimate repentant of the issue because the process of buying and selling of goods via internet involves lots of scope for tax escape. If e-commerce is implemented in Bangladesh the law regarding the issue is to be introduced first which is not possible over night. The govt. sector needs also to involve those personnel who have that much technical know-how to minimize the escapes. Limited market place: There is a very few people who have the access to the modern technologies and  amenities. They can hardly use internet frequently. Most of the people, here, can rarely use internet and e-commerce based websites. So, the e-commerce sector has limited market place. If e-commerce is implemented in Bangladesh, the limitations will be much more than the competitive advantages. Delivery after confirmation of payment: E-commerce emphasizes on the paid delivery. But in Bangladesh we people are not accustomed to this system. We want the products or goods to be delivered before the payment and the settlement. As a result, the psychology of our people does not support e-commerce system to some extent. We know the tradition of a nation cannot easily be transformed overnight. So, it is not feasible to implement e-commerce in a third world country like Bangladesh. Traditional payment systems: The payment system in our country is still traditional. The use of debit card or credit card or visa card is still relatively low. In fact, most of the people do not even understand the functionality of these payment methods. In this situation, the implementation of e-commerce is not only impractical but also making a castle in the air. M-commerce limitations: E-commerce is dependent on m-commerce to some extent. We cannot think of e-commerce without efficient m-commerce. But m-commerce is still not that much developed in our country. If we try to implement e-commerce in Bangladesh, at first, we will have to go for large screen mobile based m-commerce. Large screen based m-commerce can support e-commerce as the e-commerce based websites are of high resolution. But most of us cannot afford such type of large screen mobile like I-phone of Apple or HTC costing approximately 40000 taka. So, it is not feasible to think of implementing e-commerce in Bangladeshi perspective. Limited implementation of cyber law: In Bangladesh, there are law regarding the cyber crime but it is not sufficient to protect the cyber crime. Even, the provisions present, are not  thoroughly enforced. But the e-commerce system involves virtual transactions in various phases. These transactions involve high hacking risks as well. If we think about the implementation of e-commerce before introducing the proper provisions and without enforcing those provisions, it will not be that much fruitful. The parties associated with it will be in monetary risks and most of them will not get encouraged to go for e-commerce. Lack of entrepreneurship: As the e-commerce practices is of very recent times, the sector demands for new entrepreneurship. But there is no such encouraging institution in Bangladesh that can lead the new generation or new entrepreneurship to take initiative to march on this sector. Limited number of users: The e-commerce depends mostly on the proactive interaction of the buyer and the seller of the goods or services over the internet. But the number of internet user is still relatively low in our country. So, there is a question mark to the feasibility of implementing e-commerce in Bangladesh. Conclusion: The government can initiate pilot projects and programs for capability-building, training and e-commerce support services, such as Web design. In general, government initiatives should be in line with current efforts in the foregoing areas of concern. Coordination with development cooperation agencies is important to avoid any duplication of initiatives and efforts. But there are several reasons that can challenge the feasibility of the e-commerce implementation in Bangladesh. The challenges would really be hard nut to crack. The End

Risk Factors for Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Sewing Tasks

Risk Factors for Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Sewing Tasks Title: Work-related psychosocial, physical and sociodemographic risk factors for musculoskeletal symptoms of the neck, shoulders and low back among workers engaged in sewing tasks Abstract Background: Neck/shoulder and back pain are highly prevalent among workers engaged in sewing activities, but their risk factors are controversial or not well-established. Methods: Data on sociodemographic and work-related factors and musculoskeletal pain (MSP) were based on questionnaire surveys of Iranian sewing workers (n = 632) (i.e. carpet weavers, shoe workers and sewing machine operators). Results: The prevalence of neck, shoulder and low back pain was 57.9%, 40.5% and 51.6%, respectively. The prevalence of neck/shoulder pain was higher among females and with increasing age. Working posture and fast working were independently associated with neck, shoulder and low back pain. Number of years worked as a sewing worker was associated with neck and low back pain. Long duration of continuous sitting work without a break was only associated with neck pain. Conclusions: The findings emphasise the importance of individual, physical and psychosocial aspects of sewing tasks in association with MSP and highlight the role of prevention in the workplace in order to reduce MSP. Keywords: hand-sewn; shoemaking; carpet weaving; sewing machine; MSDs Introduction Musculoskeletal pain (MSP) in the low back and neck/shoulders is a common cause of reduced quality of life, sick leave, and work disability in both industrialized and industrially developing countries (van der Windt et al. 2000; Picavet and Schouten 2003; McBeth and Jones 2007; Dianat and Salimi 2014). The risk and protective factors of these pains among different occupational groups, particularly in those involved in sedentary and repetitive activities, can be divided into physical, psychosocial, organizational and sociodemographic factors (Arià «ns et al. 2000; van der Windt et al. 2000; Linton 2001; Cà ´tà © et al. 2008; Dianat and Salimi 2014). Evidence suggests that neck/shoulder and back pain are highly prevalent among workers engaged in sewing activities. Previous epidemiological studies have shown a high prevalence of neck/shoulder and back pain among sewing machine operators (Serratos-Perez and Mendiola-Anda 1993; Roquelaure et al., 2002; Ãâ€"ztà ¼rk and Esin 2011), hand-woven carpet weavers (Motamedzade and Moghimbeigi 2012; Nazari et al. 2012) and hand-sewn shoe workers (Dianat and Salimi 2014). Such tasks are typically highly repetitive, which are performed in a seated working posture for a long period of time. The operations usually require the operator to lean forward (with a forward inclined posture of both head and trunk) to see the point of operation and have better visual control of the task. Such a working condition can impose excessive physical load on the musculoskeletal system, and may eventually lead to the development of MSP in the neck/shoulder and back area. Several previous studies have assessed MSP among occupations involving sewing operations such as shoe sewing machine operators (Serratos-Perez and Mendiola-Anda 1993; Roquelaure et al. 2002), garment sewing machine operators (Westgaard and Jansen 1992; Kaergaard and Andersen 2000; Ãâ€"ztà ¼rk and Esin 2011; Wang et al. 2007; Dianat et al. 2015), hand-woven carpet weavers (Motamedzade and Moghimbeigi 2012; Nazari et al. 2012) and hand-sewn shoe workers (Dianat and Salimi 2014), although the effects of risk factors are not consistent and conclusive. There are, for example, very few studies which have examined the association between working postures and MSP among sewing machine operators with some studies showing positive association (Dianat et al. 2015), while others show no association (Ãâ€"ztà ¼rk and Esin 2011). This also seems to be the case for other relatively similar occupations (i.e. carpet weaving and shoemaking) and their contributing risk factors. Therefore, to reduce m usculoskeletal pain, there is a need to improve the understanding of the risk factors associated with such complaints among this working population. Further research in this area will help to better understand the nature of those jobs involving sewing operation and to develop corrective measures and intervention strategies for this population. It also contributes more evidence to the debate and has the potential to inform work practises in other developing societies with similar occupational groups. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of neck, shoulder and low back pain and their contributing sociodemographic and work-related (psychosocial and physical) risk factors among workers involved in different sewing activities. The intention was to place the discussion in a wider occupational context and use the findings to highlight areas that need more attention and to assist in introducing preventative measures and developing guidelines regarding safe working practices for those jobs involving sewing operation. Methods Study design and sample This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted in three provinces (East Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Kordestan) in the western part of Iran. The study population consisted of those workers engaged in different sewing activities including hand-woven carpet weavers, hand-sewn shoe workers and sewing machine operators. Data on the number of workers and workshops in the study area was obtained from the Iranian Ministry of Industries and Mines. There were about 14,000 hand-woven carpet weavers, 7,000 hand-sewn shoe workers and 5,000 sewing machine operators in the study area who worked at approximately 1800, 1700 and 500 different workshops, respectively. Sampling was done using a multi-stage random selection process. In the first stage, the required numbers of workshops, which included 60 workshops from each of the three different occupational groups, were selected randomly (using probability proportion to size sampling method). Using the same procedure, participants were then selected from these workshops. The participants were familiarised with the study procedure and their questions were answered by the investigators. They each signed a written informed consent form before participation in the study. The study protocol was approved by the ethical review committee of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Measures and data collection The data were collected using both questionnaire and direct observation of the participants during their work. Arrangements were made and then investigators visited the selected workshops for data collection. The questionnaire, administered by interviewing the participants, was composed of items on sociodemographic characteristics, work-related psychosocial and physical risk factors and musculoskeletal pain in the last month. Working postures were assessed through direct observation of participants’ postures at their workstations using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method (McAtamney and Corlett 1993). Musculoskeletal pain The questions on MSP were adapted from the standardised Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire (Kuorinka et al. 1987). This questionnaire has been translated and revised into Persian language and has an established validity and reliability (Dianat et al. 2014; Dianat and Karimi, 2014). The participants were asked whether they had experienced pain in the neck, shoulders or low back lasting for more than 1 day during the previous month. The location of these anatomic areas was also demonstrated by a drawing in the questionnaire. The response alternatives were: No/Yes. Those participants who reported MSP in any of these body areas were asked to rate its severity using a scale of 1 – very low pain to 5 – very high pain. Disruption of normal activities due to MSP (No/Yes) was also included. Sociodemographic and work-related factors The sociodemographic details included age, gender, height, weight, body mass index (BMI as weight/height2), educational level (Illiterate, Primary school, Secondary school, and Diploma), marital status (Single, Married), being involved in regular sport and physical activities each week (for at least 30 min) (No/Yes) and smoking habits (No/Yes). The questions regarding the work-related psychosocial and physical factors were based on prior knowledge and a literature review (Westgaard and Jansen 1992; Kaergaard and Andersen 2000; Wang et al. 2007; Ãâ€"ztà ¼rk and Esin 2011; Dianat and Salimi 2014) and included daily working hours, number of years worked as a sewing worker, having a second job (No/Yes), perceived speed of work (asking ‘Does your work require you to work very fast? No/Yes), duration of continuous work without a break (> 10 min) (asking ‘How many hours do you usually work without breaks (breaks > 10 min)?’), perceived pressure due to work (asking ‘Do you feel pressure due to work? No/Yes’) and job satisfaction based on the question: ‘How much are you satisfied with your job? Low, Moderate, High’. The questionnaire was tested in a pilot study on a sample of 65 participants in order to obtain feedback on the content, clarity and wording of the items of the questionnair e. The test-retest reliability (stability) of the items of the questionnaire was also good (Kappa coefficients ranged from 0.80 to 0.98). Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) (McAtamney and Corlett 1993) was used to assess the working postures of operators at their workstations. The RULA is a reliable and validated observational method for assessing biomechanical and postural loading on the musculoskeletal system of operators which is known to contribute to MSP. This method gives a score for each body part, where combinations of individual scores for upper arm, lower arm and wrist are called score â€Å"A†, those for neck, trunk and leg give score â€Å"B†, and the final score is called â€Å"grand score† which indicates the musculoskeletal loading associated with the operator’s posture. The original version of RULA checklist has been translated and revised into the Persian language and has shown to be valid and reliable (Dianat and Salimi 2014). The observations and recordings of working postures were performed by two trained observers. The inter-rater reliability of the RULA scores was also found to be good (Kappa coefficients ranging from 0.82 to 0.99). Statistical analysis The analysis of the data was performed using SPSS software (version 17.0; SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Sociodemographic data and work-related characteristics of the study participants were tabulated. Logistic regression models with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were developed to estimate the effects. The relationship between prevalence rates and study variables (sociodemographic and work-related characteristics) was initially assessed using univariate binary logistic regression analysis. The variables in the logistic regression analyses included sociodemographic (age, gender, BMI, educational level, marital status, smoking and being involved in regular sport/physical activities each week) and work-related characteristics (daily working hours, number of years worked as a sewing worker, having a second job, perceived speed of work, duration of continuous work without a break, perceived pressure due to work and job satisfaction) as well as three RULA scores including RULA score A (arm/wrist score), RULA score B (neck/trunk/leg score) and final RULA grand score. Multiple logistic regression analysis (using backward stepwise procedure) was also performed to estimate the association between independent variables and the reported neck, shoulder and low back pain in the multivariate context. The study variables were theoretically of equal importance, and therefore an equal role was assigned for all of them in the regression models without any adjustment. The assumptions of the models (including the presence of outliers and collinearity) were checked and the fit of the models was confirmed by the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. P Discussion The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of MSP and their contributing risk factors among sewing workers in a wider occupational context. One of the main findings of the study was that the prevalence of MSP was considerably high among the study population with 76.2% of the sample reporting this, and of these 68% had more than one site of discomfort or pain. This finding provides further evidence that musculoskeletal pain and discomfort is a major problem in this group of workers. More than one-third of the respondents reported disruption of normal activities due to MSP. Individual factors including gender (being female), age (> 30 years old) and lower educational level were independently associated with the occurrence of MSP. Work-related variables such as the number of years worked as a sewing worker (> 20 years for the neck and > 10 years for the low back pain), duration of continuous sitting work (> 2 h) without a break, fast working and working postures were al so found to be independently associated with the occurrence of MSP among sewing workers. There were several notable findings regarding the relation of individual factors to MSP. The results of the present study indicated that gender was a significant factor for neck and shoulder complaints, so that females experienced such complaints more frequently than males. This is similar to the findings of Wang et al. (2007), who reported a higher prevalence of neck/shoulder pain in female sewing machine operators than in males. It was also shown that age was significantly positively associated with neck and shoulder pain. It has been acknowledged that better understanding of the task characteristics may provide an insight into the job (re)design to support the user needs of older working population in future (Stedmon et al. 2012). Moreover, the findings indicated that workers with a higher educational level were less likely to report shoulder and low back pain than other workers. This supports the finding of a study conducted among hand-sewn shoe workers (Dianat and Salimi 2014). As shown in this study, working posture was an important risk factor for the neck, shoulders and low back pain among sewing workers. This finding provide further evidence that the sewing operations involve frequent head and trunk bending movements over the duration of the task, and therefore imposes unacceptable postural loading on the upper body and limbs. Our findings indicated that the RULA scores for the workers’ upper and lower arm/wrist scores (score A), neck/trunk/legs scores (score B), and the grand scores were relatively high. The relatively high RULA scores in this study highlights that the working postures of the workers were constrained by both the visual and the manual aspects of the sewing tasks, and that the design of the sewing workstations had a significant influence on the postures adopted. This emphasises that in most cases the workers’ postures at their workstations need to be investigated and some changes are required immediately. These findings are in part consistent with several previous reports of poor working postures (assessed by the RULA method) among workers involved in sewing machine operating (Ãâ€"ztà ¼rk and Esin 2011; Teodoroski et al. 2012; Dianat et al. 2015) or hand-sewn shoemaking tasks (Dianat and Salimi 2014). The results also suggest that there is a need to consider other work-related physical and psychosocial aspects of sewing tasks. Interestingly, our findings indicated that perceived speed of work (i.e. fast working) was another independent factor that was positively associated with the occurrence of MSP in all studied body regions (i.e. neck, shoulder and low back areas) among sewing workers. This finding may be attributed to the fact that these workers were paid based on the number of items they completed and this provided an incentive to work at high speed without adequate rest breaks. Moreover, the finding indicated that years of employment as a sewing worker was positively associated with the presence of symptoms in the neck and low back areas, which is in agreement with several previous observations (Kaergaard and Andersen 2000; Wang et al. 2007; Dianat and Salimi 2014). It is also interesting to note that the sewing workers in this study had frequent periods of long duration of sewing work without breaks (i.e. sitting in one place in a static or non-moving position for more than 2 hours), but this was only associated with the occurrence of neck complaints. The results from some previous studies suggest that the long duration of sitting work without a break may increase the risk for neck/shoulder pain among different occupational groups (Wang et al. 2007; Johnston et al. 2008; Dianat and Salimi 2014), and that regular rest breaks may reduce the risk for such complaints (McLean et al. 2001). Therefore, sewing workers should be advised to take regular rest breaks in order to minimise exposure and to help recovery from static and awkward postures. The present study has an advantage that the observer error was controlled by using two trained interviewers in comparison to studies in which there were separate observer for each case. However, the findings presented should be interpreted in the context of the cross-sectional study design. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of both individual and work-related aspects of sewing tasks in association with MSP. Thus, in addition to the work-related factors, it might be useful to consider individual factors (such as age, gender and education) as potential confounders in future analysis of MSP among this working group. Conclusions In conclusion, the main finding of the study was that neck, shoulder and low back pain are frequent in workers involved in different sewing activities. The findings highlight the importance of both individual and work-related (psychosocial and physical) aspects of sewing tasks in association with MSP and emphasis the need for ergonomic interventions for improving the working conditions of this working group. Working posture and fast working were found to be as important predictors of MSP in all studied body regions. Number of years worked as a sewing worker was also shown to increase the risk for neck and low back pain among sewing workers. However, long duration of continuous sitting work without a break was only associated with the occurrence of neck pain. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that working postures of sewing workers should be improved through workstation design for sewing tasks (i.e. based on workers’ anthropometry). Moreover, workers involv ed in these tasks should also be advised to take regular rest breaks in order to alleviate exposure and also to aid recovery from unhealthy working postures. These findings highlight the role of prevention in the workplace in order to reduce MSP.

A Comparison Between Death of a Naturalist and Digging Essay examples -

A Comparison Between Death of a Naturalist and Digging For GCSE course work we have to compare two poems from a foreign culture. The two poems we picked were both by the popular Irish poem ‘Seamus Heaney.’ The two poems we’re looking at ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and ‘Digging’ could be seen as autobiographical. ‘Death of a Naturalist’ is basically about a young boy who had a keenness for nature, which has disintegrated throughout a summer. ‘Digging’ is about the poet remembering his childhood, he writes about about digging as though it is patriotic of his family. He talks about fore fathers and how he will continue this tradition, not by digging on a farm but with his pen, writing. Although with seemingly different storylines, the poems actually start off quite similarly; with both poems taking you back you a specific time in the poets’ childhood. In ‘Digging’ the poet is remembering other people in his life, like his grandfather and father but with ‘Death of a Naturalist’ his memories are all introspective. In both poems the original plot is elaborated upon with ‘Death of a Naturalist’ taking a negative line and ‘Digging’ turning positive. In ‘Death of a Naturalist’ the poem is split into two stanzas; this separates the poets’ opinion in two, full of enthusiasm in one ‘I would fill jam pots full of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ To the lack of enthusiasm in the second ‘I sickened, turned, and ran’ ‘Digging’ is split into many stanza’s of seemingly almost random length, nut when you look closer you see that they get longer when the poem read to better things, for example the poet get most enthusiastic when he remembers his grandfather this is reflected in the fact that this stanza is by far the longest at eight lines. .. ...athered there for vengeance’ There are examples of onomatopoeia in both poems although it isn’t used at length in either. I noticed ‘slap’ is used in both poems, both in descriptions of mud or dirt sentences, showing the link in the poets’ language. Overall I enjoyed both poems though I did prefer ‘Digging’ as I like the way the poet flicked back and forth through time. I could also visualise this poem more, like a film, which I liked. I also like the cast use of alliteration which made the poem kind of roll off your tongue. There is also a really good use of onomatopoeia in the poem in the second stanza. ‘Under my window a clean rasping sound’ This sentence really draws you into the poem and you can almost hear the rasping as the shovel sinks into the ground. To sum up, all of these factors and more are the reason as to why I prefer ‘Digging’

Give Science A Chance Essay -- Stem Cell Research

It’s no secret that stem cell research is a highly controversial topic that could potentially lead to big steps in the advancement of modern medicine. There are many factors that need to be considered when making an argument for or against stem cell research. Not just the physical, tangible factors (types of stem cells, possible uses and benefits, and funding) but the emotional ones (ethics and morals) as well. While understanding the reasons opposing stem cell research is simple, understanding the reasons supporting it may be even simpler. Stem cell research should continue because stem cell research has the potential to advance modern medicine and better our world. Technically, there is no defined function for stem cells within the human body and, in theory, can form into almost any kind of cell within the body. There are two types of stem cells in the body known as either adult or embryonic. Adult stem cells are defined as multipotent, which are cells limited on the many types of cells it could become. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, which are cells that can be developed into any type of cell. Stem cells can be collected from various areas in the body. Bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, placenta, brain, liver, and skin fibers are all examples of where adult stem cells are found. Obtaining these quality stem cells is thought to be the key to potentially finding cures for many dreaded diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and even paralysis. It is the powerful possibilities of stem cell research that make it such a valuable asset to the advancement of modern medicine. Possibly the most highly debated issues of stem cell research is the use of embryonic stem cells and whether their use is et... ... Ideas. By Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011. 632-39. Print. 2. Gyatso, Tenzin. "Our Faith In Science." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. By Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011. 527-29. Print. 3. Winslow, Ron, and Gautam Naik. "Obama Overturns Bush Policy on Stem Cell Research Funding." Online.wsj.com. Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 19 May 2012. . 4. "Stem Cell Basics - Types of Stem Cells." Stem Cells at the National Academies. 2009. Web. 22 May 2012. . 5. New York Times. "Stem Cells." Stem Cells. New York Times, 11 May 2011. Web. 22 May 2012. .

America Needs the Affordable Care Act Essay -- America Needs Obamacar

According to Newsweek, the University Medical Center on average has about $100,000 dollars a month in unpaid doctor’s visits and operations and special procedures; this burden gets passed on to the County taxpayer (Johnson). Unpaid bills occur due to people taken to the hospital and either do not have, or have very poor health insurance. The current process is not fair to anyone, whether one has no health insurance or one who has paid for it. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise referred to as Obamacare, signed into law on March 23, 2010, this requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. The purchase of this care is purchased either individually or through the government market place. The act will lower the cost of insurance on all Americans, and additionally relive pressures felt at hospitals under the circumstance one does not have health insurance. Similar acts have been passed in states like Massachusetts resulting in high success; the in dividual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is justified and constitutional. The health insurance debate is not new, as there have been numerous law debates, deriving in the law passing when it comes to health care. One of the first people to introduce a government run health care was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. One of the reasons for bringing the bill forward was due to similar laws being passed in Europe; however, the bill never made it to a vote. Representative George H. Utter from Rhode Island once stated that he voted against the bill because he did not believe that the federal government had the resources to insure everyone (Fletcher). Also in 1949 Harry Truman proposed his Fair Deal Act: including giving aid to farmers, assist s... ...tives-20140118,0,4710689.story>. Johnson, Matthew. "How Obamacare Will Effect County Taxpayers." Newsday. N.p., 9 Sep 2012. Web. 7 Jan 2014. . King, Paul. "Study Shows Who Are The Safest Drivers in America." Associated Press. N.p., 17 Apr 2013. Web. 16 Jan 2014. . Kolesnikova, Maria. "How Romneycare Helped Massachusetts." Boston Globe. N.p., 8 Dec 2012. Web. 2 Jan 2014. . Weber, Joseph. "Obamacare Will Destroy America." Fox News. N.p., 31 May 2013. Web. 15 Jan 2014. . America Needs the Affordable Care Act Essay -- America Needs Obamacar According to Newsweek, the University Medical Center on average has about $100,000 dollars a month in unpaid doctor’s visits and operations and special procedures; this burden gets passed on to the County taxpayer (Johnson). Unpaid bills occur due to people taken to the hospital and either do not have, or have very poor health insurance. The current process is not fair to anyone, whether one has no health insurance or one who has paid for it. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise referred to as Obamacare, signed into law on March 23, 2010, this requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. The purchase of this care is purchased either individually or through the government market place. The act will lower the cost of insurance on all Americans, and additionally relive pressures felt at hospitals under the circumstance one does not have health insurance. Similar acts have been passed in states like Massachusetts resulting in high success; the in dividual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is justified and constitutional. The health insurance debate is not new, as there have been numerous law debates, deriving in the law passing when it comes to health care. One of the first people to introduce a government run health care was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. One of the reasons for bringing the bill forward was due to similar laws being passed in Europe; however, the bill never made it to a vote. Representative George H. Utter from Rhode Island once stated that he voted against the bill because he did not believe that the federal government had the resources to insure everyone (Fletcher). Also in 1949 Harry Truman proposed his Fair Deal Act: including giving aid to farmers, assist s... ...tives-20140118,0,4710689.story>. Johnson, Matthew. "How Obamacare Will Effect County Taxpayers." Newsday. N.p., 9 Sep 2012. Web. 7 Jan 2014. . King, Paul. "Study Shows Who Are The Safest Drivers in America." Associated Press. N.p., 17 Apr 2013. Web. 16 Jan 2014. . Kolesnikova, Maria. "How Romneycare Helped Massachusetts." Boston Globe. N.p., 8 Dec 2012. Web. 2 Jan 2014. . Weber, Joseph. "Obamacare Will Destroy America." Fox News. N.p., 31 May 2013. Web. 15 Jan 2014. .

Casebook method Essay

Sustainable Housing Featured Case Writers and Cases: †¢ Foreword †¢ MurraySilvermanandTomThomas(SanFranciscoStateUniversity)-Kimpton Hotels: Balancing Strategy and Environmental Sustainability †¢ TerenceTsaiandShuboLiu(ChinaEuropeInternationalBusinessSchool) -Hunghom Peninsula in Hong Kong: A Realistic Call for Corporate Social Responsibilities †¢ CharlesCorbett(UCLAAndersonSchoolofManagement)-The ReUse People: Turning Scrap into Sales †¢ Winnersofthe2012oikosCaseWritingCompetition †¢ Forthcomingcaseteachingeventsandothernews †¢ Howtosubscribe. 1 â€Å"BedZED†bytelex4. CreativeCommonsLicense. Attribution2. 5Generic(CCBY2. 5). Foreword Dear reader, ThetopicofourSpring2012issue isSustainableHousing. Ourhomes, officesandotherbuildingscause awholerangeofenvironmental impacts,includingcarbondioxide emissions,relatedtotheuseof energyfortheheating,lighting andrunningofthesebuildings; productionofconstruction materials;anddeconstructionof buildingsattheendoftheirlife. Inaddition,homelessnessand urbanslumsaresomeofthesocial problemsrelatedtothetopicof  sustainablehousing. Inthisissuewepresentthree casesfromtheoikosonlinecase collection. TheKimptonHotels case(byMurraySilvermanandTom Thomas)describestherolloutof amajorenvironmentalinitiative (â€Å"EarthCare†programme)atthe chainofboutiquehotels. Terence TsaiandShuboLiuwriteabouttheir caseHunghomPeninsulainHong Kongandthecontroversyinvolved intheproposeddemolitionofthe never-occupiedresidentialbuilding complexofHunghomPeninsula. Ourthirdcase–TheReUsePeople (byCharlesCorbett)–alsofocuses onthebuildingdeconstruction processandgivesanaccountof anorganisationthatspecialises indeconstructionwiththeaimof reusingasmuchofthematerialsas possible,hencekeepingthemoutof landfill. Youwillfindseveralothercases onsustainablehousingintheoikos onlinecasecollection. Youmay beinterestedtochecktheLiving Homescase(byRebeccaHennand AndrewJ. Hoffman)whichdescribes astart-upcompanyoffering â€Å"green†,prefabricatedhomes. The HaywardLumberCompanycase tracesthegreeningofHayward LumberCompany,whichdecidedto switchtoForestStewardshipCouncil (FSC)certifiedlumbertomeeta growingdemandforgreenbuilding materialsinCalifornia. Another California-centredcaseisThe AmbroseHotelbyMagaliDelmasand CharlesCorbettthatdescribesecolabellingstrategiesofaCaliforniabasedhotel. Adifferentangletothe sustainablehousingproblemistaken byLisaJonesChristenseninthe caseJamiiBoraandKaputeiTown: thiscaseoutlinesanentrepreneurial solutiontotheproblemofurban slumsinNairobi(Kenya)andthe processofcreatinganinnovative newtown. Finally,thecaseThe Mountain’sInstitutesEarthBrick MachinebyJohnBuffingtonandTed Londonexposesthechallengesof growinganon-profitorganisation– TheMountainInstitute(TMI)–that producesenvironmentally-friendly bricksfromdirt,allowingforlow costconstructionofhousingand otherstructures. Fromtheecchcasecollection, otherinterestingcasesdealingwith environmentalandsocialaspects ofhousingareZETACommunities (StanfordBusinessSchool)–a net-zeroenergy,prefabricated housingcompany; ProjectFrog (DardenBusinessPublishing)–a  sustainable-buildingmanufacturer transitioningfromstart-uptothe nextphaseofgrowth;Alarcity Housing(IBSCenterforManagement Research)–ethicalpoliciesand practicesofacorporationinthe Indianhousingconstructionindustry; TheOrchidEcotel(IveyPublishing) –anenvironmentally-friendly hotelinIndia;and,finally,Dharavi (HarvardBusinessPublishing)–redevelopmentofthelargestslumin Asia. Wehopethatyouwillenjoy readingtheSpring2012issueand discoveringorganisationsthatdeal witharangeofenvironmentaland socialproblemsrelatedtohousing. Asusually,wewouldbevery happytoreceiveyourfeedback, includingsuggestionsfornewissues, sodosendusanemailtocase@ oikosinternational. org. LiudmilaNazarkina oikosCaseQuarterlyEditor NextissueofoikosCaseQuarterly (Summer2012)willbefocused onthetopicofCross-Sector Partnershipsandwewillfeature thefollowingcases: †¢ â€Å"BuildingandScalingaCrossSectorPartnership:Oxfam America&SwissReEmpower FarmersinEthiopia†by JonathanDoh,TedLondon andVasiliaKilibarda †¢ â€Å"CorporateSocial Engagement:HowAramex CrossesBoundaries†byLuk VanWassenhoveandLea Stadtler †¢ â€Å"Transformingtheglobal FishingIndustry:TheMarine StewardshipCouncilatfull sail? †byAileenIonescuSomers,UlrichSteger, AlexanderNickandOliver Salzmann 2 2 Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic KimptonHotels:BalancingStrategyand EnvironmentalSustainability by Murray Silverman and Tom Thomas The Case Story topmanagementcommitment,use ofcross-functionalteams,employee engagementandcommunication methodsused. Thereweretwo basicgroundrulesfortherollout. First,newinitiativeshadtoreduce costs,havenonetcostimpactand investmentshadtohaveamaximum 12monthpayback. Second,new initiativescouldn’tadversely affectcustomerperceptionsor satisfaction. â€Å"Students often get so wrapped up in the initiatives that they believe an organization can introduce, they lose track of the difficulties associated with implementing initiatives: How do you engage employees and managers? How do you embed new values and initiatives in the organizational culture? † webelievethattheimportance ofembeddingsustainabilityinto organizationsisnotgivenenough attention. Kimptondoesan excellentjobofinstitutionalizing sustainability,providingstudents withanopportunitytoseehowthey didit. Wehavesuccessfullyintroducedthis caseinenvironmentalmanagement, business&societyandstrategic managementcourses. Topicsthat canbeusedtoinitiateorfocus discussionforeachofthethree coursesarelistedbelow: Strategy course–creating sustainablecompetitiveadvantage, branddifferentiation,cost savingsandtoplinebenefits,first moveradvantages,cause-related marketing,aligningstrategyand structurewithcorevalues,andthe integrationofstrategicmanagement andenvironmentalvalues. Business & Society course– corporatecitizenshipandsocial responsibility,stakeholderrelations, socialcapital,strategicphilanthropy andtheintegrationofstrategic managementandenvironmental values. forshareholdersandsocietyby leadingtheirorganizationstoward greatersocialandenvironmental sustainability. Hereceivedhis MasterofPublicPolicy(MPP)degree fromtheUniversityofMichigan, AnnArbor,andanMBAandPh. D. inBusinessandPublicPolicyatthe UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley. Dr. Silverman,Dr. Thomasandthree colleaguescreatedSFSU’sMBA EmphasisinSustainableBusinessin 2007. TheSFSUCollegeofBusiness wasrecognizedrecentlybythe AspenInstitute’sBeyondGrey Pinstripesasoneofthetopbusiness schoolsintheworld(#16)at integratingsocialandenvironmental issuesintoitscurriculum. Kimpton’sfounder,BillKimpton, iscreditedwithinventingthe â€Å"boutique†hotelsegmentin1981. By2005,KimptonHotelswas comprisedof39hotelsthroughout NorthAmericaandCanada,each onedesignedtocreateauniqueand exceptionalguestexperience. Animportantaspectoftheir effortstoestablishtheKimpton brandwasthedevelopmentand rollouttoalloftheirhotelsof amajorenvironmentalinitiative theynamedEarthCare. EarthCare wasbuiltonanalreadyestablished commitmenttoenvironmentaland socialresponsibility. TheirHotel Tritonwasamodelfortheprogram, asitalreadyincludedinitiatives suchas:energyefficientlighting solutions,low-flow/highpressure showerheadsandsinkaerators,and toiletsthatreducewateruse,linen andtowelreuseprogram,non-toxic, non-allergenic,allnaturalcleaning products,lowVOCpaintsusedto paintwallsandceilingsandmore. Plannedfutureinitiativeswentwell beyondthoseintheTritonHotel. Thecasedetailstheinternal implementationprocess,including Teaching the Case. TomThomasandIwantedtowritea casethatshowedthatsustainability couldbeintegraltotheoverall strategyofthebusiness. We wantedbothstrategyandbusiness sustainabilityinstructorstoembrace it. Thiscasedemonstrateshow sustainabilitycanleadtobothtop lineandbottomlinebenefits. Also, MurraySilvermanisaProfessor ofManagementintheCollegeof BusinessatSanFranciscoState University. HereceivedhisM. S. inIndustrialAdministrationfrom PurdueUniversity’sKrannert SchoolandhisPh. D. inBusiness fromStanfordUniversity. Professor Silvermanteachesintheareasof Business&SocietyandBusiness& theNaturalEnvironment. TomE. ThomasisanAssociate ProfessoratSanFranciscoState University,whereheco-directs (withMurraySilverman)theCenter forEthicalandSustainableBusiness. Histeachingandresearchare focusedonhelpingfutureexecutives andmanagerscreategreatervalue Murray Silverman 3 Tom Thomas Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic Environmental course– environmentalimpactsinthe hotelindustry,potentialfor financialbenefitsofenvironmental initiatives,industryenvironmental leadership,voluntaryinitiativesand self-regulation,institutionalization ofenvironmentalcommitment, green-washing,andtheintegration ofstrategicmanagementand environmentalvalues. Inteachingthecase,wetypically focusfirstonwhetherthereisa ‘businesscase’forEarthCare. This allowsustointroducetop-lineand bottomlineconsiderationsaswell astangibleandintangiblebenefits. Thesecondareaoffocusis institutionalization. Studentsoften getsowrappedupintheinitiatives thattheybelieveanorganization canintroduce,theylosetrackof thedifficultiesassociatedwith implementinginitiatives:How doyouengageemployeesand managers? Howdoyouembed newvaluesandinitiativesinthe organizationalculture? Thiscase iswellsuitedtoexploreboththe ‘businesscase’andtheissueof institutionalization. Webelievethereisadearthof casesthatallowstudentstoexplore theprocessofinstitutionalizing andembeddingsustainabilityinto organizations. WeofferanMBA courseinManagingtheSustainable Businessthatfocusesonthe internalaspectsofintroducingand embeddinginitiatives. Wewant ourstudentstobe‘intrapreneurs,’ changeagentswhocanact fromwithintheirorganizations, whethertheyareinmarketing,HR, operations,etc. Twocasesthatwe havefoundtobeexcellentinregard totheinternalissuesandprocesses associatedwithintroducingchange areHermesMicrotechandWalMart’sSustainabilityStrategy(A). Favorite Cases challengesdidtheyfaceandhow didtheydealwiththosechallenges? HereatSanFranciscoState University,weestablishedour CenterforEthicalandSustainable Businessin2010. Oneofour initiativesisaCasewritersForum. Theinitiativewouldincludea varietyofeffortstopromote andsupportthedevelopmentof businesssustainabilitycasestudies byfosteringcollaborationamong leadingsustainabilitycasewriters whoteachatbusinessschoolsin theSanFranciscoBayArea,and providingincentivesandmentoring supporttohelpfacultydevelopand applycasewritingskillsinthearea ofbusinesssustainability. New Case Development Case Purchase Information Wewouldliketoseemorecases thatfocusontheintroductionof sustainabilityinitiativesinlarger businesses. Whileitisofteneasier togetpermissiontowritecasesin start-upsandsmallenvironmentally orientedbusinesses,weneedmore casesrelatingtolargercorporations, asmanyofourstudentswillbe workingthere. Iwouldespecially liketoseethefocusontheinternal process. Whowasthedriver? What Inspectioncopyofthecase â€Å"KimptonHotels:Balancing StrategyandEnvironmental Sustainability†isavailablefrom theoikosCaseCollection. Please contactMurraySilvermanand TomThomasforpermissionrights. Thiscaseisalsopartoftheoikos CaseCollectionbook(Volume 1):CaseStudiesinSustainability ManagementandStrategy publishedbyGreenleaf. 4 4 â€Å"Swallowtail†bytanakawho. CreativeCommonsLicense. Attribution2. 5Generic(CCBY2. 5). Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic HunghomPeninsulainHongKong:ARealistic CallforCorporateSocialResponsibilities by Terence Tsai and Shubo Liu The Case Story Hunghomwaslatersoldtothe privatepropertydeveloperswho originallybuiltthecomplex. The developers,NewWorldDevelopment CompanyLimited(NWD)andSun HungKaiPropertiesLimited(SHKP) cameupwithareconstruction proposalforHunghomPeninsula: demolishandredevelopthearea intoaluxuriousprivateestate. However,theintentiontodemolish thenever-occupiedHunghom Peninsulacameunderheavy criticismfromthepublicinlarge partbecausethedemolition processwouldproduceextensive pollutiontotheenvironment,which violatedbothsocialpartiesand thecompanies’corporatemission ofbeingresponsibletothesociety. Underthesecircumstances,the managementteamhadtowithdraw thedemolitionplanandreconsider theirdecision. Afterthedevelopers thoughttwiceaboutalltherelevant parties’interestsandtookcorporate socialresponsibilityintoaccount, theygaveupthedemolitionplan anddecidedtoconductanextensive internalreconfigurationand renovationtoupgradetheproperty tomedium-gradeprivatehousing estatestandard. â€Å"The case served as a good example to students and the future managers and gave insight on how business profitability could be balanced with environmental concern and social responsibility. † information. Thiscasehadbeenusedinboth MBAandEMBAcoursesinBusiness Ethics,thelastmoduleofBusiness Strategicclass. Duringtheclass, thecaseprovokedholisticthinking ofstrategicmanagementaswellas discussionofbusinessenvironment analysisandstakeholderanalysis. Themajorlearninganddiscussions fellonStakeholderAnalysisbythe case. The(A)and(B)casesvividly presenta‘stakeholderdilemma’ tocasereadersandpermitteda detailedstakeholderanalysis:to predicttheresponsesofdifferent stakeholdersoftherealestate project,studentsperformboth quantitativeandqualitative analyses. Theclassparticipantsfoundthe caseusefulbecausethecase pointedouttostudentsthe importanceofissuesassociated withbusinessethicsandreviewed theroleofcorporatesocial responsibilityinbusinessstrategy. Inaddition,thecaseservedasa goodexampletostudentsandthe futuremanagersandgaveinsight onhowbusinessprofitabilitycould bebalancedwithenvironmental concernandsocialresponsibility. Itgavestudentsagoodchanceto analyzestakeholders’needsand businessenvironmentandreminded studentsthatbesidesprofit, companiesalsoneededtotake socialresponsibilityandbusiness ethicsintoaccountwhentheymake decisions. Theteachingflowcanbeseenfrom thefollowingquestions: 1. Whatfactorsshouldthe developersconsiderinmaking thedecision? Whoarethe involvedstakeholders? (Acase) 2. Whichproposalshouldthe developerschoose? Why? (A case) 3. WhatroleshouldtheHong KongGovernmentplayinthis incident? (Bcase) Theresidentialbuildingcomplex ofHunghomPeninsulawasbuilt undertheHongKonggovernment’s PrivateSectorParticipationScheme (PSPS)programthatwasintended toprovidehousingformiddleclass residentsatadiscountedprice. Duetoaneconomicdownturnand ashrinkingrealestatemarket threateningpropertyvalues, Terence Tsai Shubo Liu TerenceTsaiisanassociate professorinManagementandthe DirectorofCaseDevelopment CentreofChinaEurope InternationalBusinessSchool. Hisresearchinterestsinclude ManagementofMultinational /TransnationalCorporations (MNCs),Globalizationof ChineseEnterprises,Strategic EnvironmentManagementand Cross-CulturalManagement. ShuboLiuisadoctoralstudent attheEdinburghUniversity BusinessSchoolandResearch AssistantattheChinaEurope InternationalBusinessSchool. HisPhDtopicisGreenInnovation andheisworkingwithTerence ondevelopinganumberofcases ofsustainabilityinnovationin MNCsinChina. Teaching the Case Wedevelopedthecasebased onaMBAin-classdiscussionina selectivecourseofSustainability DevelopmentandStrategyat CEIBS. Oneoftheclassparticipants wasfromHongKongandhetold thestoryofHunghomPeninsula project. Boththeinstructorand otherparticipantsfoundthisstory interestingandthuswedecided todevelopthestoryintoagood teachingcasewithadditional 5 Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic 4. Whatwastheunderlyingcause ofthiscontroversialincident? (Bcase) 5. Whatwouldyoudoifyouwere thedecisionmaker? What bettermeasureswouldyou takeifyouwereinasimilar scenarioorinthefuture? (C case) 6. Thedeveloperschangedtheir mindin2weekstime. What areyouropinionsoftheirnew decision? Pleasecommenton theseactions. (Ccase) 7. Whatistheissue’simpact onHongKong’sbusiness environment? (Ccase) Favorite Cases Welikeusingtheâ€Å"SinyiReal EstateinTaiwan†case(Ivey Publishing,9B08M77). Thiscase portraystheimportanceof corporatecultureandbusiness ethics. Italsogivesanexample thatafirmcanusebusinessethics asitsdifferentiationstrategy. ThecaseillustratesSinyiReal Estate’sinnovativeHRandservice practices. becomingmainstreamforthey notonlyhelpfirmsuseresources moreeffectivelybutalsopavethe wayforsustainabledevelopment. Successfulcasesinthisfieldare worthmorestudiesandsharing withothers. Case Purchase Information New Case Development. Wehavedoneseveralroundsof interviewswithGeneralElectric andPhilipsinChinatoinvestigate bothfirms’greeninnovation processes. Currentlyandinthe future,eco-innovationsare Inspectioncopyofthecase â€Å"HunghomPeninsulainHongKong: ARealisticCallforCorporate SocialResponsibilities†isavailable fromtheoikosCaseCollection. Thiscaseisavailableforpurchase fromecch:PartA(710-046-1), PartB(710-047-1)andPartC (710-048-1). 6 1 â€Å"MEC’sgreenroofamongothers†by416style. CreativeCommonsLicense. Attribution2. 5Generic(CCBY2. 5). Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic The ReUse People: Turning Scrap into Sales  by Charles Corbett The Case Story operations,butoftendonot havethefinancialslacktodoso. Second,thecasepresentsagood vehiclefordiscussingthetradeoffsbetweenvariousapproaches togrowth,oneofwhichisorganic, theotheravariationonfranchising. Thecasealsoshowshowgood managementsystems(inthiscase, fordeconstructionprocess,storage, logistics,etc. )canhelpavoidlarge amountsofwasteunnecessarily goingtolandfill. Manyofthe deconstructedmaterialscould besalvagedandsoldlocally,or inMexico,ordonatedtocharity (Habitat). TheReUsePeoplefilla needbyconnectingasupplyand ademandthatalreadyexistbut  indifferentplaces;onecanthink ofTRPasapipelinebetweenthat supplyanddemand. â€Å"When I use the case at UCLA, Ted Reiff is usually able to join the class discussion, which naturally adds further insight to the discussions. Faculty teaching this case elsewhere in the US could consider inviting one of the regional managers to join the class discussion, to get deeper insight into how TRP is run. † Thecasewaswrittentobeused inacourseonenvironmental managementor(social) entrepreneurship,primarilyto CharlesCorbett,Ph. D. ,isprofessor ofOperationsManagementand EnvironmentalManagementat theUCLAAndersonSchoolof Management. Hisresearchand teachingfocusonoperationsof entrepreneursandsmallbusiness, andonsustainabilityandoperations. Hisresearchhasbeenpublishedin theleadingjournalsinthefield, andhehasbeeninvitedtopresent over100seminarsandlectures atinstitutionsandconferences worldwide,includingoveradozen keynotesandtutorials. Hehas receivednumerousteachingawards demonstrateafewkeypoints. One istoshowhowsalvagingleftover materials(inthiscasebuilding materials)canbeturnedintoa viablebusinessmodel. Anotheris todiscussthechallengesfacedby anysmallorganizationthatplans togrowbutthatfacesfinancial constraintsindoingso. Forinstance, itiseasytoassumethatyouhave morecontroloverdeconstruction operationsifyouhireyourown crews,butthatassumesthatyou haveawell-runorganizationin whichmanagementinCalifornia canexerteffectivecontrolover crewsinChicago. Similarly,itseems plausiblethatyoucanexpand fasterbycertifyingothers,butthat assumesthatyoucanfindsuitable demolitioncontractorsinother partsofthecountryandcantrain andcertifythemfasterthanifyou weretoattempttohireyourown crewsinthosesamelocations. Purelybasedonfinancials,growing withTRPcrewslooksfarbetter, asTRPearnsmoremoneyon deconstructionwiththeirown crews. Giventhatthereisenough timetoexpandslowly,thenarrow financialpicturewouldfavor growingorganicallywithin-house crews,notjumpingintotoomany locationsatoncebutopeninga warehousewithatleast2-3crews inonelocationandmakingit successfulbeforemovingtothe atUCLA. Heiscurrentlyservingas DeputyDeanforAcademicAffairs (2009-12),andwaspreviously anAssociateDeanfortheMBA program. ProfessorCorbettholdsa Ph. D. inProductionandOperations ManagementfromINSEADin Fountainbleau,France,andaDrs. in OperationsResearchfromErasmus UniversityRotterdam(Netherlands). TheReUsePeople(TRP)case discussesanorganizationthat specializesindeconstructionof buildings,withtheaimofreusingas muchofthematerialsaspossible, hencekeepingthemoutoflandfill. Theorganizationisfacingaclassical growth-relateddilemma:should itgroworganically,keepingmost oftheworkin-housebuthence limitingitsgrowthrate,orshould itâ€Å"franchise†itsdeconstruction approachbycertifyingother companiesinthedeconstruction process? ThemissionofTheReUse Peopleissquarelyenvironmental, buttheorganizationisincreasingly aimingtoprovidesocialbenefits toobyreachingouttocommunity organizationsandproviding employmentopportunities. Atthe timeofthecasewritingTRPwas growingbycertifyingcontractors, partlyopportunistically,andthey havesincedecidedtokeepdoing that. Sincethecasewaswritten, TRP’snationalexpansionhas continued. Teaching the Case Thecasecanbeusedtohighlight severalpedagogicalpoints. First, thecasehighlightsachallenge commontomanysuccessfulnonprofitorganizations:oncethey growbeyondwhattheoriginal entrepreneurcancontrol,they needtobringinstafftomanage 7 Charles Corbett Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic nextlocation. However,consider TRP’smission:keepingmaterial outoflandfill. Tofulfillthat mission,TRPshouldgrowasfastas possible,consideringthefinancial considerationsasaconstraintrather thantheobjective. Thatargues stronglyforgrowingbycertifying contractors. Studentsusuallyenjoydiscussing thesetrade-offs,asthisdiscussion forcesthemtogettotheheartof theconflictbetweenTRP’smission andtheconstraintsitfaces. For variousreasons,TRPhasended upfocusingmoreonexpandingby workingwithpartnersandcertifying crewselsewhere,ratherthantrying tohireandmanagetheirowncrews alloverthecountry. Thereisaverygood30-minute videothatfeaturesTheReUse PeopleandthatIoftenshowin myclass. Itisoneoftheepisodes intheCalifornia’sGoldseriesby HuellHowser(California’sGreen #123-HOMEDECONSTRUCTION). Partofthevideoisalsoavailableon YouTube,andcanbeaccessedfrom TRP’swebsiteunderMediaCenter, Audio&VideoClips. WhenIusethe caseatUCLA,TedReiffisusually abletojointheclassdiscussion, whichnaturallyaddsfurtherinsight tothediscussions. Facultyteaching thiscaseelsewhereintheUS couldconsiderinvitingoneofthe regionalmanagerstojointheclass discussion,togetdeeperinsightinto howTRPisrun. featuringamedicaldoctorwho startsaclinicandsubsequentlya collectionofcommunityprogramsin atownshipinSouthAfrica). Thelast caseispartoftheoikosonlineCase Collection. New Case Development Forenvironmentalmanagementand socialentrepreneurship,Iwould liketoseemorecaseswithtangible takeaways,intheformsofspecific tools,checklists,etc. Inparticular, morecasesusinglife-cycle assessmenttoinformmanagerial decision-makingwouldbevaluable. Forsocialentrepreneurship,it wouldbehelpfultohavemorecases thatgetintothedetailsoftheâ€Å"how to†:notjustfocusingonamajor decisionthattheentrepreneuris facing,butalsogettingintomore specificsonhowtheentrepreneur shouldexecutewhicheverstrategy s/hechooses. Favorite Cases  Otherfavoritecasesinclude FreeportIndonesia(RichardVietor, HBS,onsustainability,enablesgreat discussionsamongstudents),and Ndlovu:TheClockTicks(Charles Corbett&SarangDeo,UCLA/ Kellogg,onsocialentrepreneurship, Case Purchase Information Inspectioncopyofthecaseâ€Å"TheReUsePeople:TurningScrapintoSales†isavailablefromtheoikosCase Collection. PleasecontactCharlesCorbettforpermissionrights. Thiscaseisalsopartofthenewoikos CaseCollectionbook(Volume2):CaseStudiesinSocialEntrepreneurshipandSustainabilitypublishedby Greenleaf. 8 8 â€Å"Deconstruction1†byDiamondMoutain. CreativeCommonsLicense. Attribution2. 5Generic(CCBY2. 5). Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic News Case Writing Competitions oikos Case Writing Competition 2012 Weareverypleasedtoannounce thewinnersofthe2012oikos CaseWritingCompetition! Youcan downloadinspectioncopiesofthe winningcasesfromouronline casecollection. Corporate Sustainability track: FirstPlace: Mind the Gap: Royal Dutch Shell’s Sustainability Aagenda in Nigeria EstherHennchen(ESADEBusiness School),JosepMariaLozano(ESADE BusinessSchool) SecondPlace: Building and Scaling a Cross-Sector Partnership: Oxfam America and Swiss Re’s Empower Farmers in Ethiopia JonathanDoh(VillanovaUniversity),TedLondon(WilliamDavidson Institute/RossSchoolofBusiness, UniversityofMichigan)andVasilia (Lea)Kilibarda(WilliamDavidson Institute,UniversityofMichigan) ThirdPlace: Of Orangutans and Chainsaws: Cargill, Inc. Confronts The Rainforest Action Network’s Palm Oil Advocacy RamSubramanian(MontclairState University) Runners-Up: Walmart: Love, Earth N. CraigSmith(INSEAD)andRobert J. Crawford(IndependentWriter) Sustainable Development at PepsiCo DebapratimPurkayastha(IBS Hyderabad)andAdapaSrinivasaRao (IBSHyderabad). Social Entrepreneurship track: FirstPlace: TerraCycle JanLepoutre(VlerickLeuvenGent ManagementSchool),StuartRead (IMD)andPhilippeMargery(IMD) SecondPlace: World Toilet Organization: Leveraging Resources for Social Impact ImranChowdhury(ESSECBusiness SchoolandPaceUniversity)and ThierrySibieude(ESSEC BusinessSchool) ThirdPlace: Crediamigo: Partnering with VivaCred? EmmanuelRaufflet(HECMontreal) andFredericLavoie(CECI) Runners-Up: Bio-Vert: Green to What Limit? CatherineBedard(Concordia University),GenevieveGrainger (ConcordiaUniversity)andRaymond Paquin(ConcordiaUniversity) Nuru Energy FilipeSantos(INSEAD)andAnneMarieCarrick-Cagna(INSEAD). Free cases /Teaching materials oikosFreeCaseCollectionnow comprisesthreecases:Better PlacebyDrorEtzionandJeroen Struben(McGillUniversity,Canada); LululemonbyAndreaErinBass (UniversityofNebraska-Omaha, USA);andPortlandRoasting CompanybyMadeleinePullman, GregStokes,PriceGregory,Mark LangstonandBrandonArends (PortlandStateUniversity,USA). BetterPlacecasewasfeaturedin Issue3(SustainableMobility)of oikosCaseQuarterly;Lululemonand PortlandRoastingCompanywere featuredinIssue5(Sustainable Lifestyles)ofoikosCaseQuarterly. Ifyouareafacultymemberand youareinterestedinteaching thesecases,youcanrequestafree teachingnotebysendingusanemail tofreecase@oikosinternational. org. CasePlace Search of the Week â€Å"SearchoftheWeek†helps CasePlaceviewersquicklylocate teachingmaterialsthatrelateto currentevents. Themostrecent newsearchersareGreenBuilding andConsumerism. CasePlaceuserscanviewand downloadteachingcases,research notes,workingpapers, policyreports,essays,interviews andsyllabirelatedtothesetopics. ecch Case Awards 2012 Thisyearanunprecedented13 schoolsfrom7countriesin4 geographicalregionshaveproduced winnersinthe2012ecchcase awardsandcompetitions. The OutstandingContributiontothe casemethodawardwaswonby JamesAErskine,MichielRLeenders andLouiseAMauffette-Leendersof theRichardIveySchoolofBusiness. Visitwww. ecch. com/awards2012for moreinformationandtoviewthe winningcases. 10 9 Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic Winter2012Issue5|www. oikosinternational. org/academic Case Teaching Workshops ecch workshop: Teaching with Cases 27-29 June 2012 AESE,Portugal Thisannualworkshopisrunin associationwiththeRichardIvey SchoolofBusiness. Itdispelsthe mystiqueofteachingwithcases whilehelpingteachersavoid someoftheelementarypitfalls. Theframeworkoftheworkshop isbasedontheuniqueconcepts developedbythetutors. This 3-dayworkshopwillbeofbenefit toawideaudience,including: experiencedandinexperienced teachersinterestedinparticipatory learningandcaseuse;juniorand seniorfacultyfromanysectoror discipline. Fees:? 695/â‚ ¬825non-residential. Feesincludecoursematerialsand lunches. ecchmemberorganisations receive10%discount. Aminimumof onesubsidisedplaceforparticipants indevelopingcountriesisavailable onthisevent. Moreinformationon theecchwebsite. speakabouttheirbusinessandtake questionsfromparticipants. With thesupportoftheeventspeakers, participantswillworkinteams throughaseriesofexercisesto completeacasedraftbasedonthe guestentrepreneur’sexperiences. Thecaseswillbelookedatbythe speakersandtheentrepreneuranda winningcasewillbeannounced. Fees:? 335/â‚ ¬400non-residential. Feesincludecoursematerialsand lunch. ecchmemberorganisations receive10%discount. Aminimumof onesubsidisedplaceforparticipants indevelopingcountriesisavailable onthisevent. Moreinformationon theecchwebsite. ecch workshop: Aligning Your Teaching and Research – The Potential of Case Studies 26 October 2012 Europe(venuetobeconfirmed) Atatimewhenuniversities areencouragingacademicsto strengthenthelinkbetween theirresearchandteaching,this workshopwillprovideaframework forusingthecasemethodinthis process. Bybringingresearchinto theclassroom,thetutorbenefits fromstudentinputandresponses, whilststudentsrespondwelltothe enthusiasmandvestedinterestof thetutor. Thisworkshopexplores theuseofcasestomaximisethe potentialofthelinkbetween researchandtechnique. Participants willworkthroughtheirown experiencesandopportunitiesina supportiveenvironment. Fees:? 335non-residential. Feesincludecoursematerialsand lunch. ecchmemberorganisations receive10%discount. Aminimumof onesubsidisedplaceforparticipants indevelopingcountriesisavailable onthisevent. Moreinformationon theecchwebsite. GRONEN – Teaching Case Development Laboratory 28 June 2012 GRONENResearchConference2012, CouventRoyal,SaintMaximinla SainteBaume,France TheoikosFacultyDevelopment. Symposiumwillofferaplatform forreviewingkeystrategieson howcorporatesustainabilitycan  beintegratedintoteachingat businessschools. Professional DevelopmentWorkshop(PDW) 3–TeachingCaseDevelopment Laboratory–aimsatexchanging experiencesinusingteachingcases insustainability-relatedcourses,as wellasmainstreamdisciplinessuch ascorporatestrategy,marketing, entrepreneurshipandfinance. Theworkshopintendstogather scholarswithintheGRONENnetwork whoareteachingcasesor/and areinvolvedincasewriting. By includingexperiencedcasewriters andinstructorswewillexplore principles,methodologiesandtools forefficientcaseteachingand discusswhatanâ€Å"ideal†teaching noteshouldinclude. Pleaseregisterforthisworkshopvia GRONENwebsite. Case Writing Workshops ecch workshop: Writing Cases (Singapore) 11-13 June 2012 NationalUniversityofSingapore Thisintensiveworkshop,presented inassociationwiththeRichardIvey SchoolofBusiness,willbeledby oneoftheworld’smostexperienced casemethodtutors. Theworkshop aimstohelpparticipantswrite effectivecasesquicklyanddevelop skillstocreateamoreenriching classroomenvironmentfortheir students. Theframeworkofthe workshopisbasedontheunique conceptsdevelopedbythetutor. Eachparticipantwillberequired tocompleteapre-workshop. Cases and Entrepreneurship – Making it Work for You 28 June 2012 CranfieldSchoolofManagement,UK Thisonedayeventwillbean opportunityforspecialistsof entrepreneurshipeducationtoshare theirexperienceofusingcases tomaketheirteachingengaging, participatoryandmeaningful. The programmeincludesanoverview ofusingcasesinentrepreneurship teaching;usingcasestolink research,teachingandpractice; designinganinstructors’manual (teachingnote)toguideeffective caseteaching;andanentrepreneur spotlight–aguestentrepreneur fromanunpublishedcompanywill 10 11 10 Spring2012Issue6|www. oikosinternational. org/academic assignment. Thiswillinvolve conductingafieldinterviewwith acasecontactpersonandwriting theopeningparagraph(upto60 words)forapotentialcase. During theworkshop,eachparticipantwill completeashortcasebasedonthis interview. Fees:? 695/â‚ ¬845non-residential. Feesincludecoursematerialsand lunch. ecchmemberorganisations receive10%discount. Anoptional socialdinnerwillbeheldon12June foranadditionalcostof? 30/â‚ ¬40. A minimumofonesubsidisedplacefor participantsindevelopingcountries isavailableonthisevent. More informationontheecchwebsite. Cases that Sing in the Classroom: Insights into Developing and Teaching ecch workshop: Writing Cases (Portugal). 2-4 July 2012 AESE,Portugal Presentedinassociationwiththe RichardIveySchoolofBusiness,the workshopaimstohelpparticipants writeeffectivecasesquicklyand developskillstocreateamore enrichingclassroomenvironmentfor theirstudents. Theframeworkof theworkshopisbasedontheunique conceptsdevelopedbythetutors. Eachparticipantwillberequired tocompleteapre-workshop assignment. Thiswillinvolve conductingafieldinterviewwith acasecontactpersonandwriting theopeningparagraph(upto60 words)forapotentialcase. During theworkshop,eachparticipantwill completeashortcasebasedonthis interview. Fees:? 695/â‚ ¬825non-residential. Feesincludecoursematerialsand lunches. ecchmemberorganisations receive10%discount. Aminimumof onesubsidisedplaceforparticipants indevelopingcountriesisavailable onthisevent. Moreinformationon theecchwebsite. briefoverviewoncasewriting programmesandexistingcase writingcompetitionswithafocuson sustainability-relatedcompetitions (e. g. EFMD,DarkSide,NextBillion, August 2012 (exact date to be oikos). InPart2wewilldiveintothe confirmed) practiceofcasewritingprogramsby AcademyofManagementconference sharingtheexperiencesoftheUNDP 2012,Boston,US GIMCaseWritingInitiativeandother ThisProfessionalDevelopment initiatives. Part3willbedevotedto Workshopwilltakeplaceatthe awrap-upa.