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To Kill a Mockingbird Project – Yen Vo and Eve Chen Foreshadowing – One form of foreshadowing in this novel is when Scout finds the bubble gum in the tree (page 44) . This event foreshadows the interaction between Jem, Scout and Boo, as Boo is putting those presents in the tree for Jem and Scout to find. Another instance of foreshadowing is when Jem finds his pants mended for him when he goes back to get them on page 76. We find out they were fixed for him afterwards on page 78 and when Jem states that â€Å"They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ‘em. -â€Å" ; this foreshadows the care of Boo Radley for Jem and Scout . We see later on, during the fire, that Boo cares for Scout when he places the blanket upon her. The last instance of foreshadowing would be when Scout is eavesdropping on one of Atticus’s conversations. Atticus was aware that she was listening and allowed for it to happen for quite some time before he calls her out and tells her to go to bed (page 117). This foreshadows the trial plot. Initial Incident – Boo Radley plot: I found that the initial incident within the Boo Radley plot was when Dill was curious about Boo, as it leads to further interactions with the Radley place and the climax (when the children are interacting physically with the Radley place). Trial plot: The initial incident within the trial plot would be when Atticus and Uncle Jack are conversing. This leads to the conviction of Tom and the tension between him and Bob. In Medias Res- I believe that the novel does not begin in medias res, because it does not begin in the middle of a significant event. It begins, however, with Scout explaining to us the situation and thus moving into a flashback of prior events. Motivation – I think that, in this novel, Scout’s biggest motivation is her Father. You really see her character develop as Atticus begins to tell her more. At the beginning, she was very blunt. She didn’t have much care for others or realization of her effect on others. This gradually changes throughout the book as Atticus begins to imply more about what’s right and what’s wrong. He tells her to often be mindful of others and their way of living as well as what they provide for her. For example, he tells Scout to â€Å"think about what Cal does for [her], and mind her,† which has an effect on Scout later as she no longer treats Calpurnia with disrespect or in a rude, ill-mannered way. This, among other implications, leads to a great development of Scout and thus shows the reader that Atticus is, indeed, her biggest form of motivation. Indeterminate resolution – I believe that in the Boo Radley plot there is an indeterminate resolution. I think this, because Boo Radley eventually â€Å"came out† after all that Scout, Jem, and Dill had done. Regardless to the fact that all three of these children were responsible for him coming out, Scout had been the only person to have met Boo Radley, but never saw him again afterwards. It was pleasing to see that Scout had finally been able to meet him, but will never see again nor will Jem or Dill ever meet, and this makes the resolution indeterminate and thus, the reader must decide on their own whether is was a sad, or a happy ending. Resolution – In my opinion, the resolution is satisfying, because after the development of the plot and the issues and questions that had risen from the story were resolved. Also, the solutions were realistic, regardless that they were not as expected or to my preference, but the realistic ideas enhance the story. For example, when Bob was trying to harm Jem and Scout, Scout was able to meet Boo Radley and that links the two storylines and resolves the Boo Radley plot. Setting – There are two passages in which I saw that the setting was significant to more than the physical aspect. One was : Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. because it reveals much more to us about the area, rather than just what eyes might see. We get a feeling of isolation and dreariness from the description. The other would be: The back of the Radley house was less inviting than the front: a ramshackle porch ran the width of the house; there were two doors and two dark windows between the doors. Instead of a column, a rough two-by-four supported one end of the roof. An old Franklin stove sat in a corner of the porch; above it a hat-rack mirror caught the moon and shone eerily. because it evokes a sense of darkness and fear, which is represented further as the children are leaving. Suspense – Three suspenseful moments, I believe, would include when Scout states â€Å" There was more to it than he knew, but I ecided not to tell him. † (page 50) This is suspenseful, because it leaves the reader wondering what could Scout be talking about. What was it that she wouldn’t tell him? And what was its significance? Another moment would be when Scout says â€Å"Then I saw the shadow. † This leaves a very tense and suspenseful feeling, because it raises many questions on what might happen next. The last moment would be this passage: But I must have been reasonably awake, or I would not have received the impression that was creeping into me. It was not unlike one I had last winter, and I shivered, though the night was hot. The feeling grew until the atmosphere in the courtroom was exactly the same as a cold February morning, when the mockingbirds were still, and the carpenters had stopped hammering on Miss Maudie’s new house, and every wood door in the neighborhood was shut as tight as the doors of the Radley Place. A deserted, waiting, empty street, and the courtroom was packed with people. A steaming summer night was no different from a winter morning. Mr. Heck Tate, who had entered the courtroom and was talking to Atticus, might have been wearing his high boots and lumber jacket. Atticus had stopped his tranquil journey and had put his foot onto the bottom rung of a chair; as he listened to what Mr. Tate was saying, he ran his hand slowly up and down his thigh. because it leaves questionable results within the reader and it’s a bit of a cliffhanger in which we can’t determine entirely what will happen next. Symbol – Three symbols within the novel would be mockingbirds, Boo Radley, and the snowman. The mockingbird holds a lot of symbolic meaning within the book. The mockingbird in the book represents the idea of innocence, and when killing the mockingbird it is killing the innocence. Boo Radley helps symbolize the development of Jem and Scout’s innocence into a grown-up moral perspective. The snowman, being black on the inside and white on the outside, symbolizes how the whites need the blacks even in a society in which the white people seem to be predominant. Theme – I believe that a main theme in this novel is the existence of social inequality, in which there is a growing prejudice towards various groups of people. This relates to several human conditions, such as isolation. When there is the inequality mentioned in this novel, it creates isolation to those certain individuals. Another human condition, in which it may relate, is risk-taking. As those individuals in whom the prejudice is against, they constantly take risks whenever they may do something of their will, because the spectators around them will not accept it and might do whatever is needed to stop it. The last human condition would be the commitment to values. This is major, because no matter the effects of others, these people within the book will fight until the end and will stay true to their beliefs. Tone – Narrated action: â€Å"Jem leaped off the porch and galloped toward us. He flung open the gate, danced Dill and me through, and shooed us between two rows of swishing collards. Halfway through the collards I tripped; as I tripped the roar of a shotgun shattered the neighborhood† This narrated action of the kids leaving the Radley house on page 71 creates a very urgent tone, as the use of the words â€Å"galloped† and â€Å"flung† are fast-action paced movements in which a reader would feel the urgency of the situation. Also the intensity of the tone is described in the last sentence, because in a situation such as that one the moment begins to get very tense and suspenseful as to what will happen next. Description: â€Å"The back of the Radley house was less inviting than the front: a ramshackle porch ran the width of the house; there were two doors and two dark windows between the doors. Instead of a column, a rough two-by-four supported on end of the roof. And old Franklin stove sat in the corner of the porch; above it a hat-rack mirror caught the moon and shone eerily† This is a description of the Radley house on page 70 when Scout, Jem, and Dill decide to try to see into it. The tone of this passage is an eerie, frightening one. It’s description is vivd and describes a place in which most people would run from, and thus creates the tone as states before. Dialogue: â€Å"Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’comp’ny, and you don’t let me catch you remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty! Yo’ folks might be better’n the Cunninghams but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ‘em – if you can’t act fit to eat the table you can just set here and eat in the kitchen! This is dialogue in which Calpurnia is speaking to Scout about her behaviour around Walter Cunningham. The tone this creates is very fierce and strong, because it states that she â€Å"whispered fiercely† in which a reader can imagine the anger and the strong tone that she would be addressing to Scout in. Verisimiltude – I find that a moment when Harper Lee demonstrates verisimilitude is when Cecil Jones is beckoning that Atticus defends â€Å"niggers† in a tone that it would be almost shameful of Atticus to do. This reates a feeling in which it seems realistic, because during that time, people would accuse black persons as guilty, no matter what. It shows a prejudice against different coloured persons in which readers would know was present in that time. We understand that during this era it was practically impossible for a black man to win any sort of fight against an unjust accusation, and thus, helps make the novel seem more realistic. Antagonist – Right off the bat, in Part 1, Scout seems to meet a whole range of antagonists. While some are less memorable and less significant; such as Scout’s fights on the playground, misunderstandings between her and Miss Caroline, her bickers with Jem and her utter dislike towards her cousin Francis, there are some that represent a turning point for the characters or last throughout the whole story. One antagonist I think was a turning point for Scout and Jem was Mrs. Dubose. From Scout’s point of view, Mrs. Dubose is depicted as a rather vicious woman, who likes verbally abuse the Finch family, which is no concern to their father. She is more of an antagonist for Jem rather than Scout, as her words seem to wear Jem down more than it has an effect on Scout. The other ones in Part 1 are not as strong of antagonists but their opposition with the protagonists do last throughout the story. They are Aunt Alexandra and Nathan Radley. Nathan Radley, just wants to keep the children away from his brother Boo, but in the process he appears many times to have a slight dislike for the kids. While Aunt Alexandra is someone Scout dislikes due to the attitude her aunt poses towards her. The main antagonist that appears in the trial plot is the main theme of hatred against black people. This theme is represented in many characters but is most noticeable in Bob Ewell. I think this hatred is largely evident to have affected Jem the most because he had felt the most confident that Tom would not be convicted, and starts to cry when the opposite decision is made. He then tries to shut out the memory of the trial from his mind in order to grow up in hopes of fixing this hatred. Antecedent action – 1. During the first five years in Maycomb, Atticus practiced economy more than anything; for several years thereafter he invested his earnings in his brother’s education. 2. †Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired town when I first knew it. 3. â€Å"Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. † Caricature – Scout: She is described by the adults as a girl who always wears overalls, never skirts. In the time of the story she c an be mocked for not acting the way a normal girl of her age should act. Characterization – Choleric: Scout is someone I would consider choleric. She has a restless nature as a kid and has the impulse to act on her feelings not fully aware of what the consequences will be. She can be described with having the tendency of being physically aggressive when nothing else works out due to her playground fights she constantly has with her classmates earlier on in the book. Melancholic: Mayella Ewell is a girl I feel is rather moody as she seems confused and shy. She does not want to talk much in court anxious that her words can have consequences. She also seems rather unsociable as she does not speak to anyone outside of her household except for Tom. Phlegmatic: Atticus is a lawyer who understands how to keep his calm. He is sensitive to the people around him and acts the same manner towards everyone no matter who the person may be. Sanguine: A character that I find quite lively would be Dill. Although he expresses to Scout how he feels lonely at home, he is one not to let the issue make him depressed. He finds a way to narrate it in a creative way to Jem and Scout before he reveals the truth. He is very easy going with his words as he tells Scout he hopes to marry her when he grows up, not caring about the problems that come along with his words. Direct: – Walter Cunningham (â€Å"If Walter had owned any shoes he would have worn them the first day of school and discarded them until mid-winter. He did have a clean shirt and neatly mended overalls. †) In this sentence alone, Walter doesn’t seem to be able to afford another pair of shoes or he would have not had to wait until it was cold to reuse them. Scout later in provides evidence towards this statement when she tells Miss Caroline about how the Cunningham family â€Å"never took anything they can’t pay back – no church baskets and no script stamps. She also explains to the teacher â€Å"They don’t have much, but they get along on it. † -â€Å"Burris† Ewell (â€Å"The boy stood up. He was the filthiest human I had ever seen. †) This sentence gives us detail on Burris’ physical character as previously mentioned in this chapter, the reason they children stopped to look at Burris in the first place was becau se something had crawled out of his hair. – Mrs. Dubose (â€Å"She was vicious. Once she heard Jem refer to our father as â€Å"Atticus† and her reaction was apoplectic. †) The writer does not waste time in pointing out to us that Mrs. Dubose is a vicious character. Also as many children do not refer to their fathers by their first name, she may have found this as the children growing up with disobedient manners. Indirect: – Dill (â€Å"The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole on the corner, a safe distance from the Radley gate. †) This quote is conveniently placed at the beginning, to give us hints of Dill’s character right of the bat. He, like most children, is curious and has a desire to cure his curiosity no matter the cause, but is threatened by the thought of encountering something horrific or disappointing. This characterization is again used later on in the story when he goes with the Finch children to the trial, but later ends up crying when the trial ends up leaving him confused and short of words. -Calpurnia (â€Å"Again I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them. †) Calpurnia when is first heard by Scout talking to a fellow black person, she finds it odd how she changes her dialogue and grammar to match theirs. This hints that Calpurnia, even though she is well educated I too ashamed or embarrassed to be different from the rest of her community. – Atticus (â€Å"He put the newspaper down very carefully, adjusting its creases with lingering fingers. They were trembling a little. †) In the part of the story Atticus is confronted by several men from Maycomb, somewhat threatening him for taking action on defending Tom Robinson. We can tell that Atticus must have felt some fear making his fingers tremble, but still remains calm trying to remove the children from the scene. Dynamic: I do not find Atticus as an overly dynamic character. Throughout the book, his attitude towards the people of Maycomb does not change as well his actions are not compromised. He has some instances of disbelief and confusion towards the ending of the book, but these instances do not have much effect on Attticus’ psychological thinking. Realistic: Jem is a boy with very realistic feelings. He tries to hide his problems from the people around him, as he recognizes their problems and does not want to add to the issue. He reminds me of a teenager wanting to be left alone to think of their future or to sort out their thoughts. Stock: Burris Ewell to me is considered as a stock character. He portrays what people typically think of as â€Å"hill-billys†. He is too poor and his family too corrupted for him to attend school, therefore he drops out after a few days of it. Static: Bob Ewell to me has not changed in any way throughout the story. He is a person many people disrespect dues to his attitude and actions, and he proves it by having the trial against Tom Robinson, assuming he would be a hero for treating a black person like trash. He is deeply angered though, when people do not approve of his action and threatens not only adults but having the will to kill children in the end, proving to us that his personality does not change one bit. Climax – I think the climatic event of the trial plot was when Tom was convicted of rape. In the trial the tension between the two parties, being Tom and Bob, heat up as the plot is explained more with every testimony given. The information is accumulated to a point where the jury has to make a decision. This decision would then give us the climax and the result of everything that occurs afterward. The climax of the Boo Radley plot would for me be when the children sneak into the Radley house, although they see nothing, they are chased out of the house with fear. This fear I would consider to be the climax as afterwards the children seems to gradually stop thinking about Boo Radley, resulting in a denouement. Complication- In the trial plot, Scout’s main goal is to understand the trial and the changes it brought to the people around her. This is complicated by the fact that many of the people in Maycomb whom she thought she understood are suddenly opposed to Atticus’ actions. Some significant ones are the whispers of parents towards their children to treat the Finch children well, as Scout does not understand why they needed to be treated any differently. Another would be the how the adults in the story try to get Scout and the other children to leave the court, as she feels as she needs to be there to feel at ease with what’s been happening around her. In the Boo Radley Plot, the children’s main goal is to get Boo out of his house. They are stopped however, by many adults in hopes that they would stop pestering the Radley family. To these adults dismay, they continue though until one day they attempt to sneak into the Radley house and Jem loses his pants. After this, Jem is terrified enough that they stop these attempts. They then start finding odd objects in the tree near their house that start up their goal again, but this is quickly stopped when Nathan Radley presumably fills the tree hole. Conflict- Scout: Although Scout has to deal with the problem of the aftereffects of the trial towards the ending of her story, I think her conflict is how her peers and kin try to train her to be a lady as she is aware of their attempts and reasons but feel that they re unreasonable. Jem: Jem unlike Scout has a better understanding of why the adults want him to grow up to be a gentleman, but this is complicated when the trial of Tom Robinson comes into his life. He feels confused and rather that the trial ws unjust that he tries to erase every memory of this moment, leaving his emotions with nowhere to go. Dill: Dill de als with the problem of being a lonely child. He initially is sent to Maycomb to spend time with his aunt. Miss Rachel but Maycomb later on becomes his place of refuge when he runs away from home. He explains that he left because he felt as if his parents have no interest in him and he has no siblings to share this feeling with. Atticus: Atticus may be a confident lawyer, but he seems to be self-concious when it comes to being a father. He always tries to help his children follow the correct path in life but sometimes doubts himself in the process. This happens more frequently after the trial has taken place, as Atticus hopes that his children are not outcasted in the town due to his actions and beliefs in the trial plot. Crisis- When the Boo Radley and trial plot interlock, a crisis occurs as Scout and Jem who struggle to escape from Bob Ewell are rescued by Boo, this comes as a turning point as Scout had always thought Boo would never come out of his house, even though she had moments when she wishes he does. Deux ex Machina- Bob Ewell’s death would be something I would consider as deux ex machina, as it was very unlikely that anything was going to happen to Bob Ewell after the trial, however his death was placed in there will the people of Maycomb believing he fell on his knife. I think the author had placed this in the story to give us closure being that the narrator of the story was a child that would have slept uneasy knowing that Bob Ewell was still alive. Dialogue- The dialogue in the novel I felt was well written. It was very clear in the dialogue who was speaking and who they were speaking to most of the time according to their tone of voice and the emotions they express. Discovery- Scout throughout the book, her perceptions of Boo Radley changes as it goes from believing he was a dangerous man, to someone that save her and Jem’s lives. Exposition – 1. â€Å"He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb Country born and bred; he knew his people, they knew him and because Simon Finch’s industry, Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in the town. † This background info at the beginning doesn’t seem like much, as it just explains to us how close the Finch family is to the people of the town. However later on, we find out that due to Atticus being family to almost everyone in Maycomb, it is harder for them to deal with him defending a black person accused of a despicable crime. 2. † First Purchase Africa M. E. Church was in the Quarters outside the southern town limits, across the old sawmill tracks. It was an ancient paint-peeled frame building, the only church in Maycomb with a steeple and bell, called First Purchase because it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves. Negroes worshiped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays. † This gives us insight on how the black people of the time were disrespected, that a house of worship for the people is regarded as a house of sin for a white man. Flashback- In one flashback, when Scout explains to us once when Uncle Jack helped her with an injury when she was younger. For me, I would consider the whole story a flashback. The story starts off with telling us about when Jem was thirteen, but on the next page it tells us Jem is only eleven. Foil- Bob Ewell can be considered a foil to Atticus as Atticus does not seem to view him as an enemy but someone rather with opposite values. Bob Ewell is what the people in Maycomb would consider a no-good, and being careless towards his children. While Atticus is seen as the opposite as a man who takes good care of his children and is focused on his job. Hero- the hero in this book would be Atticus. Atticus being a lawyer, to the children it seems like he is defending â€Å"innocent† people no matter who it is as to them he seems like a hero. Jem idolizes his dad, as he shows many instances of wanting to grow up and be a lawyer like his dad. Many people around Scout also praise Atticus as being a hero for being able to stand up for his beliefs and not giving up no matter the situation. Narrator- I believe Scout is a combination of a naive and reliable narrator. She is naive being that she only a child and have not developed a complete understanding about the situations around them. We catch her not understanding the trial as much as we thought when Jem accuses Scout of not being able to comprehend the situation. This is later proven when the results from the jury are shown yet she does not feel as sentimental as her family does towards the situation. Protagonist – the protagonist in this book would be Scout. It is Scout because she is narrating the story in first person, meaning the story is about problems and situations revolving her she is the only person that all the situations in the entire book could be about. Subplot – I think the Boo Radley plot would be considered as a subplot, as this plot I feel does not impact the reader as much as the trial plot. The Boo Radley part gives us an introduction to the children and their lives, but they do not give us a clear problem that the children deal with. The Boo Radley plot does not seem to have much effect on the children when they are grown enough to accept that Boo Radley will not come out of his house as they seem to accept Boo they way he is.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Research Paper

Rainey Hampton December 2011 3:A Speech World War Two Speech There must be no second-class citizens in this country. – President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army and the 34th President of the United States, was not only a remarkable soldier, but also a great leader. Bringing to his presidency his reputation as a commanding general of the successful troops in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower secured a truce in Korea and worked endlessly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. Eisenhower's â€Å"Modern Republicanism† brought a sense of security and honor to an uncertain America Was said of him by US History. Com Early years Dwight David Eisenhower was born on October 14th, 1890, in a house in Denison, Texas. His ancestors had emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania early in the 18th century. After a short stay in Texas, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas. His father, David, worked as a mechanic in a local creamery. His mother, Ida, a Mennonite, was a pacifist (didn't believe in violence and war ). Eisenhower was a very respectful child he did chores around the house, had a love for hunting and fishing, but also enjoying baseball and football — becoming a star athlete. He had minimal interest in school subjects, but eagerly read military history. Eisenhower graduated from Abilene High School in 1909. After two years of working odd jobs, he was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but was too old for admittance. However, in 1910, he received an appointment to West Point. West Point Although Eisenhower had no preliminary ambitions to become a soldier, he entered West Point — attracted by a free higher education — and passed the entrance exams in 1911. Eisenhower was an average student at the academy, but later surprised the military community with exceptional ability. At one point, he nearly had to retire his studies because of a sports injury. Ranking 61st out of 164 in his class, Eisenhower graduated in 1915. World War I While stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Eisenhower met his beloved and future first lady, Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married in Denver, Colorado, on July 1, 1916. The couple had two sons: Doud Dwight Eisenhower, who died in infancy from scarlet fever, and John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower. Eisenhower was promoted to captain in 1917 when America entered World War I. Just two years into his army career, he had already been seen by his superiors as a young officer with excellent organizational skills. For this reason, Eisenhower was not sent over seas but sent to Camp Colt,Gettysburg. At the camp, one of America’s first tank units was being formed, and it was Eisenhower’s job to train the men. His leadership skills became obvious, and even though Eisenhower had not seen combat yet, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Further education Eisenhower would continue his participation with tanks. He met Colonel George S. Patton, future tank general, at Camp Meade in Maryland. Eisenhower was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone in 1922, where Brigadier General Fox Connor swiftly became his mentor. With large military-history expertise, General Connor taught Eisenhower strategy and tactics from his own experiences, as well as other political and military encounters. In accordance with Connor, young Eisenhower was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he attended the Command and General Staff School – a training ground for promising leaders. While there, Eisenhower received the honor of best student out of a class of 300 in 1926. By 1928, Eisenhower had also graduated first in his class at the Army War College. The 38-year-old major was building an extraordinary resume, and high-ranking officials began to take notice. General Douglas MacArthur, army chief of staff, quickly sought out Major Eisenhower. By 1932, Eisenhower, stationed as an aide to MacArthur, began the tedious task of building and training a Philippines army in Manila. Eisenhower continued his call of duty with MacArthur's Army in the Philippines for seven years. In 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Eisenhower returned home. A relatively small American army in proportion to the size of the nation existed in 1939. That would change with World War II. World War II9 With the threat of a second world war on the brink of unfolding, senior officers skilled in organization were on high demand — and Eisenhower's organizational skills were his strong suit. In 1941, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall, the army's chief of staff, put Eisenhower in charge of the War Plans Division based in Washington, D. C. In 1942, General Marshall placed him in command of the invasion of North Africa. In 1944, he was made Supreme Allied Commander for the invasion of Normandy on D-Day and gave this famous message. The meticulous planning Eisenhower had been responsible for overseeing, paid off. Compared to the numbers involved, few Allied troops were killed on D-Day, the exception being the casualties at bloody Omaha Beach, one of the landing zones. From Normandy in northern France, the Allies pushed out and Paris was freed in August. On December 15th, 1944, in recognition of the work he had done, Eisenhower was promoted to the highest rank in the American army — General of the Army. A five-star rank that was retired after World War II. Just a few days later, Eisenhower had to put up defenses against the Germans' surprise counterattack in the Ardennes — the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans finally surrendered on May 7th, 1945. After the war, Eisenhower served as U. S. Army Chief of Staff. In 1948, he retired from the army, later becoming president of Columbia University, and then head of NATO in 1950. President of the United States Eisenhower was a popular president throughout his two terms in office. With a campaign slogan that couldn't miss, â€Å"I like Ike,† Eisenhower and his vice president, Richard M. Nixon, posted landslide victories in both 1952 and 1956. His moderate Republican policies helped him secure many victories in Congress, where Democrats held the majority during six of the eight years that Eisenhower was in the White House. Eisenhower helped to strengthen such established programs as Social Security and launch important new ones, such as the Interstate Highway System in 1956, which became the single largest public works program in U. S. history. In domestic policy the president pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, and emphasizing a balanced budget. There were problems and failures as well as achievements. Although he signed civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960, Eisenhower disliked having to deal with racial issues. He never endorsed the Supreme Court’s ruling in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas), that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional, and he failed to use his moral authority as president to urge speedy compliance with the court’s decision. In 1957, he did send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, when mobs tried to block the desegregation of Central High School, but he did so because he had a constitutional obligation to uphold the law, not necessarily because he supported integration. Eisenhower also refrained from publicly criticizing Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used his powers to abuse the civil liberties of dozens of citizens whom he accused of anti-American activities. Eisenhower privately despised McCarthy, and he worked behind the scenes with congressional leaders to erode McCarthy's influence. Eisenhower’s indirect tactics eventually worked, but they also prolonged the senator’s power, since many people concluded that even the president was unwilling to confront McCarthy. In September 1955, Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in Denver, Colorado. After seven weeks he left the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors reported his recovery. In November he was elected for his second term. Cold War Six months after he became president, Eisenhower secured an agreement that ended three years of fighting in Korea. On only one other occasion, in Lebanon in 1958, did Eisenhower send combat troops into action. However, defense spending remained high as Eisenhower vigorously waged the Cold War, the acute ideological, political, military and economic contest between Communist countries and the West, just short of hot war. He placed new emphasis on nuclear strength — popularly known as â€Å"massive retaliation† — to prevent the outbreak of world war. Eisenhower also frequently authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to undertake secret interventions to overthrow unfriendly governments or protect reliable anti-Communist leaders whose power was threatened. The CIA helped topple the governments of Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954, but it suffered an embarrassing failure in 1958 when it intervened in Indonesia. Eisenhower avoided war in Indochina in 1954 when he did not authorize an air strike to rescue French troops at the crucial Battle of Dien Bien Phu. After the French granted independence to the nations of Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam), Eisenhower employed U. S. power and prestige to help create a non-Communist government in South Vietnam, an action that would exert disastrous long-term consequences. The death of Joseph Stalin (1953), during Eisenhower's first term in office, caused shifts in relations with Russia. Eisenhower â€Å"waged peace,† hoping to improve U. S. Soviet relations. His attempts made it possible for future negotiations on a treaty that would ban nuclear testing in the air and seas. Unfortunately, the Soviet downing of a U. S. reconnaissance plane — the U-2 spy plane incident of May 1, 1960 — ended any prospect of a treaty before Eisenhower left office. Later years Throughout and beyond his term as president, Eisenhower followed his mo ther's heart and concentrated on maintaining world peace. He watched in delight the development of his â€Å"atoms for peace† program — loans of American uranium to â€Å"have-not† nations for peaceful purposes. In a speech of less than 10 minutes, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his political farewell to the American people on national television from the Oval Office of the White House. Before he left office for his Gettysburg farm , emphasized the necessity of maintaining adequate military strength, but cautioned: In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. He concluded with a prayer for peace â€Å"in the goodness of time. † Both themes remain timeless and urgent more than 40 years after his departure from this world on March 28, 1969, following a long battle with coronary heart disease. Mamie Eisenhower continued to live on the farm, devoting more time to family and friends, then died on November 1, 1979. Her remains are buried beside those of her husband and first child in a small chapel, on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. Regarding Atoms for PeaceThe United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace. Quotes regarding Dwight D. Eisenhower. By George S. Patton Jr. Of all the many talks I had in Washington, none gave me such pleasure as that with you. There were two reasons for this. In the first place, you are about my oldest friend. In the second place, your self-assurance and to me, at least, demonstrated ability, give me a great feeling of confidence about the future †¦ and I have the utmost confidence that through your efforts we will eventually beat the hell out of those bastards — â€Å"You name them; I'll shoot them!   Letter to Eisenhower in 1942 By Norman RockwellEisenhower had about the most expressive face I ever painted, I guess. Just like an actor's. Very mobile. When he talked, he used all the facial muscles. And he had a great, wide mouth that I liked. When he smiled, it was just like the sun came out. Order of the Day: 6 June 1944SUPREME HEADQUARTERSALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are abou t to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory! I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. SIGNED: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Organisation Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisation Behaviour - Essay Example Teams and groups are significant aspects of organizational life. That is because when employees work as a team or a group, they quickly achieve a firm’s goals. However, it has been recorded that working as a team or a group is a complex task thus there must be a good group dynamic. Group dynamics have been defined by Films for the Humanities & Sciences (2001), as the interactions among the employees or the members of a group. It is, therefore, apparent that a work group of a firm is the most significant foundation for the social identity of the workers. The reason is that the relationship within and outside the organization and the performance of work are significantly affected by the nature of a group and the group’s behaviors.  Teams and groups are significant aspects of organizational life. That is because when employees work as a team or a group, they quickly achieve a firm’s goals. However, it has been recorded that working as a team or a group is a comple x task thus there must be a good group dynamic. Group dynamics have been defined by Films for the Humanities & Sciences (2001), as the interactions among the employees or the members of a group. It is, therefore, apparent that a work group of a firm is the most significant foundation for the social identity of the workers. The reason is that the relationship within and outside the organization and the performance of work are significantly affected by the nature of a group and the group’s behaviors.

Figurative Language in Verbal Communication Literature review

Figurative Language in Verbal Communication - Literature review Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that gaining knowledge of the function of figurative language in effective communication necessitates an understanding of the interpersonal processes of everyday interaction. Individuals express themselves figuratively for purposes of civility, to escape liability for the introduction of what is conveyed, to articulate insights that are hard to communicate employing exact language, and to articulate ideas in a dense and vibrant way (Jacques 2006). Hence, figurative language is employed to articulate and induce emotions in numerous forms of conversational contexts. Politics is an excellent domain to view how figurative language may be used particularly to induce specific emotions (Jacques 2006), which may consequently affect an individual’s perception of several issues. Politicians are prominent, or controversial, for their application of figurative language to stir up emotions. Take for instance the deliberation that occurred in 1991 i n the U.S. Senate over whether the nation should intervene militarily against Iraq for its attack on Kuwait (Sadri & Flammia 2011). Figurative language was extensively exercised by the Democrats and the Republican to strengthen their arguments. For example, a Republican senator attempted to stir up the public’s emotional reaction to Hussein by portraying him in dramatic figurative expressions (Sadri & Flammia 2011: 156): Saddam Hussein is like a glutton—a geopolitical glutton. He is sitting down at a big banquet table, overflowing with goodies. And let me tell you—like every glutton, he is going to have them all. Kuwait is just the appetizer. He is gobbling it up—but it is not going to satisfy him. After a noisy belch or two, he is going to reach across the table for the next morsel. What is it going to be? Saudi Arabia? He is going to keep grabbing and gobbling. It is time to let this grisly glutton know the free lunch is over. It is time for him to pay the bill. Hence, this paper argues that figurative language can communicate understated indications of meaning in a manner that exact language cannot. Specifically, various figurative terms strongly express an individual’s figurative idea of the emotional encounter. Various empirical and linguistic scholars substantiate this assumption (Walch Publishing 2007). Moreover, according to Jacques (2006), one indication of meaning that metaphorical language may convey is the extent of emotion. In everyday life, individuals do not merely reveal emotional encounters with partners, friends, and family members, but these emotional encounters may comprise these family members and close friends in varied ways. Due to this, emotional communication is prone to be moderated by issues of face management and by standards of self-recognition of emotions (Walch Publishing 2007). A number of studies have reported findings consistent with the assumption that face management issues and social stand ards influence emotional communication.  

Continental Airlines Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Continental Airlines - Research Paper Example Part of this success is attributed to the huge investment in employee management and training. This, in turn, leads to better customer care management realized from the employees of the organization. Introduction The story behind Continental Airlines is inundated with many successes and challenges that have characterized the company since its formation. Like any other operator in the turbulent airline industry, these challenges have, over the years, affected the operations of the company and often became the basis for the strategies that have enabled the company to sail through. In any case, Continental Airlines is today regarded as one of the best performing airlines not only in the United States but across the world. Founded in 1934 with a single aircraft in Texas, Continental has grown to become the fifth largest airline in the United States and the seventh largest in the world. This is realized through an annual passenger figure of 50 million across five continents. Presently, th e airline operates over 2,300 daily departures to over 200 destinations across these continents (Burlingham, 2005). Indeed, Continental operates in an industry dominated by several market players which are always on the watch for any strategy to outdo their competitors. The company has faced several financial quagmires over the past few years but has always managed to sail through these challenges. Through continual fleet modernization and an effective employee management program, the company has always been at the forefront in the provision of quality services that transcend the very borders of culture and distance. Although the company has faced bankruptcy twice in its turbulent history, these downfalls have acted as an impetus for success and triggered a new wave of novel strategies that define the company’s overall success. Continental’s Business Strategy At the dawn of this century, Continental was normally ranked in the tenth position among the major airlines in the United States. The major focus of the management was, therefore, to create a new business strategy that would shift the fortunes of the organization. This led to the adoption of a new series of business strategies that were focused on improving industry performance through improved customer service. The first strategy was labeled Fly to Win and was meant to ensure that all the employees in the organization clearly understood what the customers actually wanted in terms of service. This would facilitate an effective response mechanism in order to avail the right products to the right clients. Secondly, Fund the Future strategy was intended to relook into the cash flow and costs incurred by the organization, in order to bail it out of its financial quagmire. The focus in this case was cost management as a way of eliminating some of the unnecessary cost centers previously realized by the organization. The third strategy, Make Reliability a Strategy, was geared towards ensuring that customers were delivered to their destinations safely and without any delays (Ray, 1999). This was also to limit any loss of luggage that was often realized in the company. In a way, reliability was seen as the best way to create customer confidence which would ultimately enable the airline to widen the customer base. The fourth strategy, Working Together, was mainly focused on employee managemen

The different factors and effects of Air Pollution policies between Essay

The different factors and effects of Air Pollution policies between China and UK - Essay Example According to Gurjar, Molina and Ojha, air polluting emissions â€Å"occur at many stages in the life cycles of products and services, that is, from raw material extraction, energy acquisition, production and manufacturing, use, reuse, recycling, through to ultimate disposal† (1). After being released, the emissions go through different chemical and physical changes leading to a variety of impacts on the environment and health of living things. In recent years, air pollution has caused harmful effects to human life. It has been realized that incidences of chronic illnesses have been constantly rising; the incidences and seriousness of acute illnesses have also increased, as well as mortality rates. Together with the health effects institute, Bates and Kennedy assert that â€Å"when air pollution began to have a significant deleterious effect on human life , it became necessary to discover and understand the links between emission sources and the air quality deterioration and h ealth effects they cause† (162). Currently, environmental social movement groups such as Greenpeace and Amnesty international are playing a significant role in influencing negotiations over environmental protection and management of oceans, the ozone layer, and nuclear deployments. In addition to that, they aid in enforcing national compliance with international mandates (Goodwin and Jasper 227). Scientist’s currently consider climate change, which is caused by air pollution as one of the most serious problems the world faces. Furthermore, the entire globe is also faced by the looming grave threat of global warming, which is a serious environmental security issue. In fact, climate change has a major impact on all aspects of human social and economic life (Yu 37). China’s Environmental History The environmental history of China is quite unique compared to that of other nations. Apart from being â€Å"one of the largest and most climatically diverse countries on t he planet† (Leibo 52), its population has been historically larger than that of other societies around the world. This â€Å"has seen Chinese territory significantly more impacted by human activity than the usual situation elsewhere† (Leibo 52). China was also among the most biologically diverse and affluent places on earth four thousand years ago. Ironically, the very rich biodiversity in China was the main explanation it has supported one-third of the human population at any given time. Initially, the effects of the large population on China’s environment were insignificant. However, with the subsequent spread and development of agriculture and clearance of farmland, the impact of the human population on the environment has become perceptible. The twentieth century has also been marked with the emergence of a consumer culture coupled with rapid industrialization. This has resulted in the rapid ecological degradation in China. Five Year Plan (1953-1957) and the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) The five year (1953-1957) soviet inspired plan was adopted during the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s era (Marks 273). This was due to his dissatisfaction with the Soviet model, because he concluded that it would lead the People’s Republic of China away from realizing their dream of attaining a socialist country. He instead adopted a ‘Maoist’ path, fast industrialization of a socialist China, with rapidly collectivized agriculture spearheading the

Alternative Ending to The Lady with the Dog Essay

Alternative Ending to The Lady with the Dog - Essay Example Regardless of how he felt about his wife, he had come to acknowledge that it was his perception that she was dim witted that made his time spent with her special. For no other woman could make him feel as intelligent as she did. Fifteen Years Before Indeed he had fallen hard for Anna. He was willing to forsake everything in his life for a lifetime with her. But that was before the night that he spent talking to his daughter about snow and how it concealed everything that was dark underneath. It made him realize, this was his family. The call of the flesh may have beckoned to him repeatedly when he sought to seek comfort with Anna all those evenings at the hotel but at the end of the night, he still returned to the unsuspecting embrace of his wife and the wide-eyed and loving welcome of his children. It was this familiar security that he could not bring himself to sacrifice for Anna in the end. The woman he married when he was in his second year of university and the children borne ou t of that union were far more important to him that the satisfaction of the illicit affair. In the end, he realized that he would have to help her accept the futility of their situation and return to her husband, no matter how difficult it might be for her. â€Å"You must go back to him and try your best to forget about me.† he coaxed her as he cradled her in his arms. Her tears soaking the shoulders of his coat. â€Å"But I do not love him Dmitri I never have. Ours was a marriage based upon my need to be taken care of. Not because I love him. I could never feel for him the way I feel for you.† her voice was shaking as she tried to convince him not to end their affair. â€Å"Listen to me Anna. When you first met him, there was surely some spark of attraction between the two of you. You must have truly felt something for him. There was love somewhere within your heart for this man. That is why you married him. You need to find that feeling within you again. Try to reme mber what you liked and loved about him and hold on to those thoughts. You must stay married to him for we can never be.† he did his best to let her down gently. He knew from their time in Yalta that Anna was a confused woman. She thought she knew what she wanted but really, all she ever knew was how to be led along by those around her. That was how he led her into this illicit affair that she tried to fight off at first. It never occurred to him that he would be the one to try to call it all off one day. She pushed him away and looked into his eyes as they sat on the divan in her room. â€Å"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you truly love your wife. Tell me why you love her and, if you convince me then I shall leave you and never make contact again.† her almost harsh, demanding voice asked him. â€Å"You told me in the throes of passion that she was not intelligent and bored you. Your children do not give you any joy because they always ask you questions you feel unprepared to answer. If we go away together we can finally leave all of that behind. We deserve to be happy Dmitri We need to leave our spouses.† He rose from the chair and walked over to the bar. He stared at himself in the mirror as he nursed his glass of Vodka. It was a ruse on his part to help him buy some time before he had to answer her daring question. He stared into the wine glass as he swirled its contents. â€Å"My wife is many things that I do not approve of. She

By suggesting the kinds of defense mechanisms that deadened human Essay

By suggesting the kinds of defense mechanisms that deadened human responses to horror, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, - Essay Example In 1923, Germany’s economy was in succession and its goods were sold abroad to secure the nations’ exports abroad. The industries that bribed politicians got bankrupt and people had to claim their jobs by working without being paid making them frustrated in the process. The situation in German’s economic sector was not well planned thus it affected the country greatly. This was because competition in the economy was rapidly increasing leading to a split in the government’s authority. This led to power sharing within the government, and the Germans were not contented with it because they got direct opposition from Berlin thus the parties become democratic champions as they were running the economy. It was believed in 1933 that the German government was collapsing as Franklin Roosevelt was not able to solve the crisis that was befalling them because the country was bankrupt and needed a lot of money for the top. Hitler came into power and had to make the eco nomy rise from its bankruptcy, by recruiting new members to direct them in SA. Hitler knew that he was making rushed decisions, and it was a hard task for him to accomplish alone, therefore help was required. Hitler transformed Germany into structures of the state, social law and the constitution of the society to attain his goal of stabilizing the state and free his nation from foreign powers and maintain geography at large. This was a mechanism that deadened human responses to horror as he grabbed the people unaware (Hunt, 625). The sanctions and poor economy convinced citizens that Hitler was not serious with stabilizing the economy because they were bankrupt. He made improvements in the government leading to a rise in the economy as he was obliged to pick his cabinet of National Socialists. Afterwards, Hitler came into power in a democratic way because he had stabilized the economy of the state without seeking help. All this led to an improved economy since profit rose above the minimal stabilizer. That was incredible and made anti-Nazi historians give up because of the defeat they had received from Hitler’s revolution that had brought changes to Germany. Hitler obtained plenary power that made him the nation’s supreme democratic making the Germans view him as a legend. During the First World War, Feldmarschall was fond of traditions, and Hitler wanted the traditions to take place so as to see the Reichstag to convince them (Hunt, 641). Germany was on top of the Reichswehr, which was an object of Hitler to courtship. Hitler appointed a chancellor without asking opinion from the rest of the committee and they got angry as it was done without their consent. Feldmarschall sent General von Hammerstein Equord who came to Hindenburg of general staff and disapproved. Hitler and Dr. Goebbels had taken control of nation radio and making it their tool to broadcast power hitherto. Hitler was carefully planning and managing soldiers for the great renewal as many government officials, army officers, lawyers and judges had abandoned their work. Hitler wanted to acquire officials and rectify the Reichstag. This would establish authority to govern virtual dictatorship to gain powers lawfully as the Germans constitution had amended. Hitler won the elections and Germany national government came up with a solution against political particulars. His intention was to devise plans from retirement

A Small-Scale Empirical Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Small-Scale Empirical Study - Essay Example A pertinent question that deserves attention is whether it is the nature of the economies of these nations, or is it the profitability of certain industries and services that draw in the capital inflows. The present report seeks to analyze the growth of FDI in India over time and to examine whether these inflows have exhibited any preferences towards specific sectors thereby reflecting the features of these particular sectors to be attractive, or whether they have flown in and spread in uniform patterns thereby reflecting the overall economic features of the emerging markets in India to be lucrative. If it is found that the direct capital inflows do exhibit some fondness for some given sectors then the implications would be strong, particularly for the emerging market economies themselves. The significance of this result would lie in the possibility of identifying the structural features which make the particular sectors worthy of investments so that similar or equivalent features an d structures could be then developed for other sectors as well to improve their potential as FDI destinations. Given the purpose, a large time series panel with cross sections would be adequate. However given the constraint of the scope, and given the objective of the present endeavour, the time period has been chosen to be from 1992-2005. The availability of data in this case was found not to be any significant problem. However due to the constraints of time and resources the analysis has been simplified to include only the top ten FDI securing sectors. India has been chosen as a representative of an emerging market that is presently a profitable FDI destination. First, we shall undertake some basic descriptive analysis by looking at the changes in FDI inflows in India over time. India under took economic reforms in 1991. Before, it used to be under heavy regulations and trade restrictions. Post 1991,

Process Improvement Essay Example for Free

Process Improvement Essay ABSTRACT This document will be evaluating an existing process within Toyota during the time of their accelerator crisis. A problem statement will be defined around the process of internal communication of concerns and ideas between foreign-based Toyota employees and the authoritative management of Toyota based in Japan. PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PROCESS Problem framing is a very important, but easily overlooked, part of decision-making. Framing a problem can have a heavy influence on the decisions that are made. It isnt enough to frame the problem; it should be framed with the solution in mind. This helps to keep the end goal of the decision-making process in mind so that the correct choices are made. In the case of Toyota, at the highest level, they had a major problem with some of their products involving unintended acceleration and their handling of  customer reports of the problem led to a whole mess of other problems. So from the outside looking in, it seems that many processes internal to Toyota had room for improvement. Although there are many different business sections of Toyota with their own respective problems such as customer service, public relations, manufacturing, the problem I would like analyze and offer improvement on is internal communication process between management and foreign employees and how the breakdown in this process affected some of the business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. As Toyota grew into a global powerhouse in the auto industry, the organizational structure that emerged was a centralized design †¦that put key decision-making in the hands of executives in Japan†¦ Some believed that Toyotas structure in the U.S. ultimately impaired its ability to prevent the safety problems before they reached the crisis (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 7-8). A quality tool or method used to help with the identification and prioritization of the potential causes of quality problems in a process is cause-and-effect analysis. In a way, this is a reverse engineering method used to identify the elements of a specific quality problem and to identify the causes so that it can be corrected. The problem wasnt the unintended acceleration of certain vehicles; the problem was the internal management decision-making that impacted the engineering of those vehicles which created the engineering problem. For some background information, the defining and founding philosophy of Toyota, the Toyota Way, has been around for a long time but it wasnt until the late 1980s in which they began production of their vehicles in the U.S. Specifically the problem of ideas from U.S.-based employees has been largely ignored for almost 20 years when it comes to key engineering or financial-based decisions. Despite the global sales volume gain, Toyota reported revenues of US $211 billion for 2009, a decrease of 19% for the previous year (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 2). Even though Toyota has been making large profits throughout the past 20 years, they experienced a decrease in 2009 and part of this was related to the ambitious initiatives and business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. Japan is notoriously consensus oriented, and companies have a strong tendency to mediate differences among individuals rather than accentuate them (Porter, 1996, pg. 63). Japanese culture and Toyotas centralized decision-making structure made it difficult for U.S. based employees to offer ideas, suggestions for improvements, or to elevate critical problems to upper management in Japan. Toyotas upper management, in their minds, let the U.S. employees do what they do best, which is supposedly marketing and selling. The process used by Toyota to communicate foreign employees ideas to upper management was heard, but not listened to. Even the process of internal communication between management had its breakdowns because of the perception by family-oriented managers of nonfamily managers in that nonfamily members didnt have such thoughts as safety and quality in the forefront of their minds. Overall, the communication process seemed to be that ideas were submitted from employees, whether by Japanese or foreign employees, to management and ideas were reviewed and pushed up the management chain when it was appropriate. However, ideas that might have some bearing on engineering, manufacturing or financing were largely ignored when the source of the ideas were from U.S.-based employees and this violated the Toyota Way. To add to the complexity, the process for communicating ideas became more convoluted depending on the audience, nonfamily or family-based managers. To sum this up into a problem statement: Toyota has violated their founding philosophy of employee empowerment, especially for non-Japanese employees, and continues to make important business decisions without any regard to concerns or ideas from foreign employees when appropriate. Employees may have ideas that could be used in the decision-making process to achieve better quality solutions. Toyota needs a better mechanism or improvement to this internal communication process to capture the knowledge and ideas of all employees and to share these ideas across the organization. All in all, its to improve the internal communication process bet ween employees and management in order to support the idea of continuous improvement and quality. CONTEXT OF SELECTED PROCESS FOR IMPROVEMENT The _Toyota Way_ mandates planning for the long term; highlighting problems  instead of hiding them; encouraging team work with colleagues and suppliers; and, perhaps most importantly, instilling a self-critical culture that fosters continuous and unrelenting improvement (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 3). Two cores ideas from the statement above are the idea of team work and most importantly employee empowerment. These two values are what made Toyota into a successful global corporation during their fast rise in the 1980s. Employees were encouraged to offer ideas for improvement for any process within the organization and this helped with continuing the idea of continuous improvement. An important part of making business decisions is having real-time and critical information. The selected process for improvement: improving the communication of ideas and concerns and the sharing of foreign employees ideas to Toyotas Japanese management team needs to be addressed immediately. The process selected for improvement is the process used to capture the ideas of all employees, U.S.-based included, and to have these ideas be properly represented and presented to management for review in real-time. You know the joke that every bank branch has a president well, every Toyota facility has a president, and one cant tell another what to do (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 8). This statement touches the surface of why the internal management communication process needs improvement at Toyota. The way the process is currently being represented in Toyotas organization is a complete violation of their founding philosophy. During the 2000s, Toyota pushed for a lot of initiatives that in hindsight were either short-term profit driven or too ambitious. For example, despite the savings of more than US $10 billion over the six years since CC21s inception, Watanabe set out to achieve even more cost savings through the new VI (Value Innovation) strategy (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 5). This was a business decision made to further drive up profits despite the respectable amount of savings already made financially. If the knowledge, ideas and concerns of employees were properly captured and communicated to management, it could have prevented some of the poor business decision-making made and the impact of these decisions on engineering and manufacturing. Two impacts of the poor decision-making was the decision to become leaner with the manufacturing process and  overstretching existing resources in trying to supplant GM as number on in the automobile industry. Toyotas has employees in many different markets who most likely had concerns regarding these decisions or ideas on how to improve the ideas and _communicated_ these ideas but these ideas werent being heard in time or heard at all by management. To put this all into context, the process for communicating ideas and concerns internally is impacted by the culture and internal structure of Toyota. These are both tough things to change but the process used to capture and represent ideas to management is something easy to improve. IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS If the current internal communication process continues as is, there will continue to be a breakdown in the communication of potentially important ideas and concerns from employees to management. If employees feel as if their input isnt listened to or even heard, they will become apathetic or not even bother trying to communicate important ideas or concerns. As a result, this can lead to the cycle of poor business decisions being made resulting in more damage to the company. Even worse, this will continue to cause Toyota to stray away from the core values of the Toyota Way that made them a successful global corporation. Already what has happened as a result of the ignoring of ideas and making business decisions with only the goal of short-term profits in mind is that Toyota during the oil sludge crisis had to pay millions of dollars as a result of class action lawsuits and took a hit to their business image. Fast forward to the accelerator crisis, Toyota experienced losing $2 billion dollars during the recall, had to pay a $16.4 million dollar civil penalty under U.S. law, experienced a customer relations nightmare and even had some of their car models dropped from Consumer Reports. The dollar amount lost due to the alienation of customers, lack of accountability at first by Toyota, and corporate reputation and image hit is immeasurable. Implementing some mechanism to improve the communication process between  employees and management and even management can be improved with the use of something such as a knowledge management system. Effective knowledge management tools can help firms reduce internal costs of maintaining electronic filing systems and reduce the administrative expense of locating documents. Second, just as efficiency can improve profitability, leverage can have the same effect where knowledge transfer enhances the quality of work performance, and therefore, its value. In this context, leverage is the ability to delegate work to the most cost-effective resource. The transfer of knowledge is, in fact, the essence of knowledge management (Martin, 2002, pg. 1). Although it is a large internal expense, the benefits of a KM system would have a great effect on the general business results and business relationships of Toyota with its employees, management and even their supply chain. POTENTIAL OUTCOMES OF IMPROVING THE PROCESS Improving the current internal communication process of ideas and concern helps to improve employee relations between management and their reports. It helps to re-establish a culture of knowledge sharing and representing that captured knowledge in such a way that it can help to improve the business decision-making by upper management. Any important business decisions made by upper management have a direct impact on the shareholders. So any improvement in the process that results in better business decisions being made will have a direct positive impact for the shareholders. The current decision-making and straying away from the founding principles of the Toyota Way has damaged the company and continuing down this path will only make the future worse for Toyota. So having an internal mechanism to capture ideas and improve communication such as a KM system can only improve the situation. Employees would feel like their ideas are being heard and will continue to offer suggestions for continual improvement. An improvement in communication can help to break down the false perceptions that family-oriented managers have of nonfamily managers. For example, a family-based manager might come across an idea from an unexpected source, a nonfamily manager, and come to respect that person for their knowledge. In a  way, this could help to improve the Japanese culture way of making decisions internally. Toyota is almost in the top of their market, so they are their own worst enemy when it comes to being competitive. So an improvement in their internal decision-making around all important financial, engineering and manufacturing decisions will only help to sustain and further their current competitive edge. Sometimes an organization has to make a large internal expense in order to position themselves differently from their competitors. Strategic positioning means performing _different_ activities from rivals or performing similar activities in _different_ ways (Porter, 1996, pg. 62). So collecting ideas internally and using them to make better business decisions will help Toyota to strategically position themselves even further away from their competition. SUMMARY Overall, Toyota is its own worst enemy with the current decision-making process they have in place internally. Even though the centralized decision-making structure is what Toyota currently has in place, the decision-making needs to take into account employee input, whether foreign or not. Employee input has been a cornerstone of the Toyota Way and Toyota has strayed from this founding principle. The implications of continuing down this path will result in more crises which in turn results in loss business, damaged business reputation, lawsuits and losing the competitive edge. Improving this process will result in better employee relations; establish a knowledge sharing culture which is needed for an environment that is striving for continual improvement and better business decisions being made. REFERENCES Greto, M., Schotter, A., Teagarden, M. (2010). Toyota: The accelerator crisis. Thunderbird School of Global Management. Martin, K. (2002). Features Show Me the Money Measuring the Return on Knowledge Management. LLRX. Retrieved from http://www.llrx.com/features/kmroi.htm Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? _Harvard Business Review, 74_(6), 61-78. Russell, R.S., Taylor, B.W. (2011). _Operations management: Creating value along the supply chain_ (7th ed.)_._ Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons. ISBN: 9780470525906

Argument for the Abolishment of the Death Penalty

Argument for the Abolishment of the Death Penalty Alvin Soo Death penalty is the capital punishment that has authorization to kill someone as the crimes punishment. The first country that started the death penalty is Babylon. It established the death penalty law at eighteenth century. There are many methods of death penalty that develop over the centuries such as shooting, poisoning, hanging, and others. In the modern century, there are many countries are using the death penalty in the law punishment such as Malaysia, China, and others. According to the website, theguardian, China has the most number of people sentenced to death and its most common death penalty method is shooting. The murderers eyes are covered and their back is facing the shooter. Then the shooters will start firing until the murderers are dead. Death penalty has been a popular discussion since some countries are taking the lead to abolish death penalty. People are debating whether the death penalty should be abolished. In this era, death penalty need to be abolished from t he law because it has negative effects on society, family, and economy. First of all, death penalty is encouraging the racial discrimination. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, most of the death punishments are sentenced to the minority races such as African-American. It is a norm that the society has racial discrimination because people like to be in a group, which has people of similar race or culture. When there is an outsider that doesnt have similarity, they will neglect that outsider and may treat him differently. This is not just happening in the society; it also happens in court. When the judge and jury are making decision in front of the justice, they are still having bias when deciding the punishment because everyone has prejudice and discrimination. Based on NAACP Criminal Justice Department (2017), the death penalty will affect the victims race especially white. This proves that the death penalty is supporting the racial discrimination. Secondly, death penalty is not eliminating the devious from the society. In the modern society, everyone is educated to follow the rules to avoid from committing the crime. However, everyone is not educated to be forgiving sin. Although crimes happened, the murderers are deserved to be given another chance to change their bad behavior and thinking. The devious cannot be stopped by killing the murderers. Instead, the murderers needed be educated in prison to gain the forgiveness and decrease the crime rate. Besides that, death penalty also increases the crime rate. Originally, death penalty is used to discourage the people committing crime by making them scare because one of the humans fears is death. Death penalty also can save other lives by eliminated the people who committed crime but it doesnt help to decreasing the crime rate. Article by Bonner and Fessenden (2000) supports that the states that have no death penalty are having lower of slaughter rate. This is because the death p enalty is replaced by culture and religion. Thirdly, death penalty is having negative effect on moral ethnicity. Moral ethnicity is teaching about the principle of moral. It lets people know that everyone is equal and they are given the same human right even though they committed crime. However, death penalty is giving the wrong ethnicity to the society and family. It is promoting a concept, which the murderers are deserved to have deaths sentence because they committed crime. When that concept is spread into the society, the people will be influenced and may cause more crime happens. The reason is because people will choose to do the death sentence to the murderer without authorization and legal process. In the other hand, it is not right to take over other people life no matter who they are. Slaughter people are against the law; death sentence is also slaughtering people. The only difference between these two is on is illegal and other one is legal. In the view of morality, both are the same because killing people is an amor ality. Fourthly, death penalty is impacting the family education negatively. Family is an important thing in life because everything is started from that first. If death penalty is not abolished, the children will become more extreme with aggressive family education. As mentioned above, death penalty will affect the society and family. If the perspective of death penalty can regulate the society and family. There will be more aggressive family appears and cause the violent crime arise. For an example, if children are having the aggressive punishment because they did the non-moral things like stealing, fighting, and others. Are the parents going to say that they are deserve to have that punishment? Definitely no, because parents have the responsibility to let the children know that whats wrong with that attitude and admit it instead of using the extreme and aggressive punishment to make them afraid. Moreover, death penalty is also affecting the family to be broken. When the murders are sentenced to death, their families are going to be the victim. Death penalty is going to bring the unhappiness to the murderers family and cause the family falls apart eventually. When one of the family members is executed, the rest are going to have tough life especially children. If the children dont have their parents in their childhood, they are more likely to commit crime when they grow up. Based on the news that written by Steve Doughty, the incomplete familys children more likely to fall into the society devious. This proves that the death penalty can cause negative effect on family. In addition, death penalty will also affect the country. Death penalty will give the country bad impression. A mentioned in introduction, death penalty is already existed in 18th century. This law is old and not efficient to control the safety of country. Instead, government should use other law to substitute the death penalty. If the country can abolish the death penalty, it will give a good impression to the international community. That will cause the relationship between the country become better. When there is a country taking the lead to abolish the death penalty, the other countries in the international community will follow it. This will encourage the countries to have globalization within each other. Globalization is the process that the organization develop international influence such as international trade. Country can use the globalization to make its economy become better. It can use international trade to export the produced goods and services. This will increase the G ross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the countrys economy. Death penalty is also costly to the government expenses. According to Chammah(2014), cost of capital punishment is increasing because the wage is increasing. The government needs to hire the worker to in charge of the death penalty. This recruitment is not just hire one worker. Instead, government is going to hire a group of people. Therefore, this will cause the government expenses to increase. When the government needs to find more resources to cover the expense. It will either increase the tax or decrease the other expenses. Increasing taxes will increase the burden of taxpayer and decrease the other expanses will decrease the benefit such as unemployment benefit. Both of this method will decrease the economy. In some peoples perspective, death penalty should be remained because the murderers have no right to decide whether they are sentenced to death. Lets think this in different view point. If one of the murderers is the family member, the perspective of death penalty will be different. The murderers family will appeal to the death penalty because it is too cruel to take away their lives. As the previous paragraph mentioned, everyone should be treated as same and have equal right. Therefore, death penalty should be eliminated from law. In conclusion, I agree and totally support to abolishment of death penalty because death penalty is negatively affecting the family, society, economy, and country. It is also having the bad influence on morality and culture. In order to make the children and countrys future better, death penalty have to be eliminated. References Part I: History of the Death Penalty. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2017, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty NAACP Death Penalty Fact Sheet. (2017, January 18). Retrieved February 07, 2017, from http://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-death-penalty-fact-sheet/ Bonner, R., Fessenden, F. (2000, September 21). ABSENCE OF EXECUTIONS: A special report.; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates. Retrieved February 07, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/us/absence-executions-special-report-states-with-no-death-penalty-share-lower.html Doughty, S. (2008, October 21). Broken home children are five times more likely to suffer mental troubles Broken home children are five times more likely to suffer mental troubles . Retrieved February 7, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079510/Children-broken-homes-times-likely-suffer-mental-troubles-says-Government-study.html Dieter, R.C. (1998). The Death of Penalty in America: Current Controversies. H. A. Bedau (Ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Super Service Essay -- essays research papers

I am reviewing the book Super Service, by Jeff and Valerie Gee. I was initially attracted to this book due to the subtitle, â€Å"Seven keys to delivering great customer service†¦ Even when you don’t feel like it! †¦ Even when they don’t deserve it!† The book promises to bring a new upbeat approach to serving customers on the front line and to make this job more meaningful to those who do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Upon first glance, the book looks overly simplified. I discovered, however, that it is well written, and makes its points clearly without unnecessarily delving into complicated theories. This book encourages readers to see customer service from a different perspective: you are not performing solely for the customer or the company, but for your own sense of satisfaction. In this way, it functions as a motivational tool for those of us in the business of working directly with customers. The authors offer seven critical ideas for providing outstanding customer service. Each one builds upon the premise of the previous one, making these lessons sensible and natural to put into practice. The book illustrates each key with case scenarios, checklists, cartoons, and exercises. The result is the creation of an interactive learning experience. Super Service is written in an easy-to-read, conversational style. The authors neither talk down to the reader nor take on the boring tone of an employee manual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most striking difference I discovered is the straightforward techniques the authors reveal to help you put their concepts into practice. For example, anyone can tell you that the secret to serving customers well is to: â€Å"Have the right attitude,† â€Å"Listen with an open mind,† or â€Å"Seek a win-win situation.† This book teaches you easy ways to do those very things. How are you supposed to have a good attitude about serving customers? You won’t change your attitude simply because someone tells you that you should. Super Service gives you reasons why you should be happy to serve your customers. Similar to information you might get from other sources, the authors of this book stress what it costs you every time you lose a customer and how difficult it is to get those customers back. However, these authors take the next step by motivating you to enjoy serving your customers. They teach you that serving is about being â€Å"â⠂¬ ¦ a giver instead ... ...If you consider the costs of losing a customer, maintaining customer loyalty is, in itself, a money-making practice. For example Club Med found that one lost customer costs the company at least $2,400. Additionally, a study done for the US Office of Consumer Affairs discovered that in households that had service problems with potential costs of over $100, 54% of customers would maintain brand loyalty if the problem was resolved. Only 19% of these customers reported that they would continue doing business with the company if the problem was not resolved to their satisfaction.6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a whole, I think Super Service’s take on customer service is an extremely useful tool for employees who participate in direct interaction with customers. Overall, I found their ideas easy to implement, and motivational. I also thought the authors would benefit by discussing customer service topics such as: exceeding customers’ expectations, â€Å"moments of truth,† empowering the front line, and service recovery. By combining these principles with their motivational system for great customer service, I believe they could cover virtually every aspect of interacting with customers.

The Poet Essay -- Essay s Papers

The Poet The Poet is about a search for a serial killer that the FBI names â€Å"The Poet† due to this person’s signature of forcing the victims to write suicide notes in the form of a quote from Edgar Allen Poe. Jack McEvoy, a newspaper reporter from Denver, is the brother of a victim who was killed by the Poet. In an attempt to avenge his brother’s death McEvoy, and the FBI, form a nation-wide manhunt in search of this cunning illusive killer. The Poet begins with the Rocky Mountain Newspaper reporter Jack McEvoy being informed of his twin brother’s suicide. As two of the detectives from the Denver police department who also worked with Sean McEvoy in the Crimes Against Persons unit inform McEvoy of the incident, he immediately has doubts about his twin’s alleged suicide. Seeking to better understand what his brother did and what the Denver PD says his brother did, Jack McEvoy decides to write a story for the paper about his brother. From this point on McEvoy began to learn about evil in a new way. Sean McEvoy was discovered in his car in a parking lot at Bear Lake, and the park ranger who discovered him came immediately after he heard the gunshot to find him dead. The investigators came up with the information that Sean had placed the gun inside his mouth and killed himself. Due to the high stress that Sean’s co-workers and therapist had experienced him in due to the current homicide investigation, the case was closed and it was ruled a suicide. Jack investigated his brothers death and the further he got into the case the more clues he found suggesting foul play. The final line written on the inside of the windshield by Sean McEvoy was ‘Out of Space out of Time.’ Jack linked the epitaph with the final entry in the chronological record of the case his brother was working on which read simply that he’d received a call from an unknown source and then: RUSHER was written. The connection was made by McEvoy to a similar suicide case in Chicago where a detective’s last words written on a pad were ‘Through the pale door’ taken from an Edgar Allen Poe story titled â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† in which the main character is Rodrick Usher. As McEvoy used this information about RUSHER, he also related his brother’s line ‘Out of Space out of Time’ to a Edgar Allen Poe poem called â€Å"Dream-Land.† Sean McEvoy was deeply involved with the investiga... ... the shower. Also, Backus’ former bride to be stated that he would make her shower immediately before and after making love. Another insight into how Backus worked was the letter the FBI received from The Poet written to Bob Backus. Clearly acknowledging that there were two separate individuals within Backus. Backus also must have thought that he was smarter than everyone to think he could commit these crimes and not get caught. McEvoy’s theory of why he thought Rachel was The Poet could also lead to an understanding of why Backus possibly did what he did. He knew Rachel and Backus interviewed Horace and Gladden in prison and the killing could have started because he was punishing Beltran for creating Gladden. The questions of location of the crimes, and of manner of the crimes can be theorized that Backus was very learned in crime scene investigation and he was making the incident look like a suicide, while still sexually and emotionally gratifying himself with each of the victims. All the while covering his back with Gladden as his scapegoat. A very smart and controlled man covered a very disturbed individual’s fantasies to the point when he couldn’t not act on them.

Our Declining Education System :: essays research papers

Our Declining Education System According to "A Nation at Risk", the American education system has declined due to a " rising tide of mediocrity" in our schools. States such as New York have responded to the findings and recommendations of the report by implementing such strategies as the "Regents Action Plan" and the "New Compact for Learning". In the early 1980's, President Regan ordered a national commission to study our education system. The findings of this commission were that, compared with other industrialized nations, our education system is grossly inadequate in meeting the standards of education that many other countries have developed. At one time, America was the world leader in technology, service, and industry, but overconfidence based on a historical belief in our superiority has caused our nation to fall behind the rapidly growing competitive market in the world with regard to education. The report in some respects is an unfair comparison of our education system, which does not have a national standard for goals, curriculum, or regulations, with other countries that do, but the findings nevertheless reflect the need for change. Our education system at this time is regulated by states which implement their own curriculum, set their own goals and have their own requirements for teacher preparation. Combined with this is the fact that we have lowered our expectations in these areas, thus we are not providing an equal or quality education to all students across the country. The commission findings generated recommendations to improve the content of education and raise the standards of student achievement, particularly in testing, increase the time spent on education and provide incentives to encourage more individuals to enter the field of education as well as improving teacher preparation. N.Y. State responded to these recommendations by first implementing the Regents Action Plan; an eight year plan designed to raise the standards of education. This plan changed the requirements for graduation by raising the number of credits needed for graduation, raising the number of required core curriculum classes such as social studies, and introduced technology and computer science. The plan also introduced the Regents Minimum Competency Tests, which requires a student to pass tests in five major categories; math, science, reading, writing, and two areas of social studies. Although the plan achieved many of its goals in raising standards of education in N.Y. State, the general consensus is that we need to continue to improve our education system rather than being satisfied with the achievements we have made thus far. Therefore, N.Y. adopted "The New Compact for Learning". This plan is based on the principles that all children can learn. Our Declining Education System :: essays research papers Our Declining Education System According to "A Nation at Risk", the American education system has declined due to a " rising tide of mediocrity" in our schools. States such as New York have responded to the findings and recommendations of the report by implementing such strategies as the "Regents Action Plan" and the "New Compact for Learning". In the early 1980's, President Regan ordered a national commission to study our education system. The findings of this commission were that, compared with other industrialized nations, our education system is grossly inadequate in meeting the standards of education that many other countries have developed. At one time, America was the world leader in technology, service, and industry, but overconfidence based on a historical belief in our superiority has caused our nation to fall behind the rapidly growing competitive market in the world with regard to education. The report in some respects is an unfair comparison of our education system, which does not have a national standard for goals, curriculum, or regulations, with other countries that do, but the findings nevertheless reflect the need for change. Our education system at this time is regulated by states which implement their own curriculum, set their own goals and have their own requirements for teacher preparation. Combined with this is the fact that we have lowered our expectations in these areas, thus we are not providing an equal or quality education to all students across the country. The commission findings generated recommendations to improve the content of education and raise the standards of student achievement, particularly in testing, increase the time spent on education and provide incentives to encourage more individuals to enter the field of education as well as improving teacher preparation. N.Y. State responded to these recommendations by first implementing the Regents Action Plan; an eight year plan designed to raise the standards of education. This plan changed the requirements for graduation by raising the number of credits needed for graduation, raising the number of required core curriculum classes such as social studies, and introduced technology and computer science. The plan also introduced the Regents Minimum Competency Tests, which requires a student to pass tests in five major categories; math, science, reading, writing, and two areas of social studies. Although the plan achieved many of its goals in raising standards of education in N.Y. State, the general consensus is that we need to continue to improve our education system rather than being satisfied with the achievements we have made thus far. Therefore, N.Y. adopted "The New Compact for Learning". This plan is based on the principles that all children can learn.

Heritage Assessment

Heritage Assessment NRS-429V | Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion John Thomas 3/24/13 The Heritage Assessment tool is primarily used as a device to evaluate health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration of a person’s cultural beliefs and values (Spector, 2006). This assessment helps aid in providing quality patient care in that it helps to meet and respect the needs of different types of people and their respective backgrounds (Spector, 2002).This particular paper serves to compare and contrast the ethnicities of Indian, Caucasian, and Arabic families using health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration as evaluation markers. The purpose was to identify and isolate different groups of people and their unique health practices and traditions that were based off their heritage or background. An assessment of these ethnicities led to several discoveries that I believe could truly improve our methods of health care. Cultural awareness is an essential part of life, especially in this country that is considered to be the melting pot of the world.Cultural awareness can be defined as understanding and appreciation the difference between oneself and people of other backgrounds and cultural beliefs (Shen, 2004). Cultural competence is a term used to refer to awareness and skill acquired to be able to care for people of different ethnicities and cultures (Purnell, 2002). The heritage assessment tool serves as a questionnaire of sorts that is used by personnel in management or care-providing positions in order to gain a better familiarity of a patient/client’s values before providing care (Spector, 2002).These can include questions about everything from their childhood experiences to varying health practices carried out in their homes. These all contribute in helping the nurse/caregiver to be culturally sensitive and utilize the questionnaire to provide quality care to the patient without unknowingly overstepping any boundaries. The Indian family I observed and talked to was my own. Growing up in India had a huge impact on my life and the choices I still make today. Upon working out the Heritage Assessment tool, I found that I still hold deeply rooted ties to my homeland and that I have tried to raise my children in the ame way. Though lifestyles are completely different when comparing the person living actually in India to the individual with an Indian background, a plethora of factors pertaining to health still carry over. Indian families tend to eat foods that are heavy with spices and capsaicin. Studies have shown that these have a number of health benefits including weight loss. When looking into some of the decisions that my family has made that seem to stand out from my friends of different background, diet and religion seem to stand out the most.Indian families are acutely aware of balance and moderation and this can be seen in the average meal. Religion is also a key factor in heal th protection. I have found that families will turn to God to keep their loved ones safe. Being from an Indian Catholic family, I am painfully aware this can also have its down side. For example, Catholicism discourages the use of contraceptives. This is a serious issue when understanding how this affects the growth of the AIDS epidemic not only among Indians but the rest of the world.In terms of restoration, there are more herbal remedies and natural medicines involved than antibiotics and pills. My wife still makes an array of teas and extracts for our children before resorting to taking them to a doctor. The Arabic family I talked to had a surprising number of parallels to my own. They were also driven by religion when it came to health protection. An illness was often considered to be unlucky and a curse from Allah for your sins. The diet high in spices and vegetables seemed a reasonable method of health maintenance.The values of the Arabic values were much stricter than the oth er families I talked to. An incident comes to mind of when it is very important to keep the values and traditions of the patient in mind. A Muslim woman was pregnant and nearing her due date. When it came time for her delivery, the only available Gynecologist was male and went through with the standard procedure and she delivered a healthy baby boy. The woman however, was shunned from her community because the doctor was a man who was not her husband.Situations such as these are important to keep in mind when providing care to patients. The Arabic family also was more open to natural medicine and homeopathic medicine and sought to find a way to cure themselves before seeking outside help at a medical facility. Lastly, the Caucasian family that were my neighbors seemed the most different from the families that I had talked to but the most open and attentive to the world around them. Though their diet was not the best, they seemed more inclined towards exercise and consumption of vita mins to maintain their health and protection of their health.They were also much better about keeping up with regular doctors’ visits and checkups and opted for more immunizations and vaccinations. They seemed more up to date and modernized in all aspects of health. They were also more trusting of modern medicines and prescriptions. They heavily relied on the healthcare system for health restoration even for the simplest medical issues. In conclusion, all three ethnicities have varying lifestyles that contribute to their current status of health. It is important to keep in mind that this is not an accurate report of that general culture.Rather it is an extremely small sample that I found to compare to other families in a somewhat suburban town. I found it very interesting that even with drastically different beliefs and values, all three cultures seemed to value their immensely, even though each had their own traditions and methods so as to preserve that state of health. From the stories and experiences I have heard in talking with these people, I believe it is more imperative than ever that nurses direct more attention to the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment tool.References Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of transcultural nursing,  13(3), 193-196. Shen, Z. (2004). Cultural competence models in nursing. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  15(4), 317-322. Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  13(3), 197-199. Spector, R. E. (2004). Culture care: guide to heritage assessment and health traditions. Prentice Hall. Heritage Assessment Heritage Assessment Cultural competency is an essential part of nursing. Catering to the population of the United States as a nurse, one must embrace the cultures of others to provide competent care that will address the needs of the patient in a holistic manner. Beliefs of health management and care differ for all cultures. Being familiar with all backgrounds and cultures is a key factor in providing culturally appropriate care for patients. Illness and the care for illness and disease is viewed differently from culture to culture.The ability to understand and respect the differences among all cultures needs to be utilized by all healthcare providers. Since the perception of illness and disease and their causes varies by culture, these individual preferences affect the approaches to health care. Culture also influences how people seek health care and how they behave toward health care providers (Cultural Diversity, 2012). As health care providers we must learn how to take the proper steps in assessing cultural backgrounds of patients.Asking the appropriate questions can help create a treatment plan that will provide quality care that tends to the patients cultural beliefs as well. In assessment of three cultures: Filipino, Chinese, and Asian-Indians although they share similar views on health care they also have some differences as well. Health beliefs of the Chinese culture are centered on harmony and how to achieve it. Influences of this harmony involved, Yin/Yang, Relationship of elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water, Psychosomatic Integration, Buddhism, and Taoism.In all the listed influences balance is the key factor that they share. Knowledge of historical experiences of Filipino cohort groups may provide health care providers with additional insights into an older person and the family members’ responses to clinical encounters and the recommended plan of care (McBride, 1996). Indigenous health beliefs of the Filipino culture like the Chinese culture centered on balance. The Filipino people call it â€Å"timbang† which is translated into balance. The belief that a rapid shift from hot to cold will end in illness for the individual, thus causing the body to be imbalanced.For Asian-Indians Hinduism is a social system as well as a religion; therefore customs and practices are closely interwoven. â€Å"Karma† is a law of behavior and consequences in which actions of past life affects the circumstances in which one is born and lives in this life. Despite complete understanding of biological causes of illness, it is often believed that the illness is caused by â€Å"Karma† (Alagiakrishnan, 1996). They believe that the body was connected and looked at as a whole. Mind, body and spirit are one and health is highly tied to all factors of the whole being.Asian- Indians also believe in balance that needs to be attained mentally, physically and spiritually to achieve balance within the entire being. Health prote ction for the Chinese culture derives from traditional Chinese treatments such as acupuncture to help realign the energy of the body, herbology to protect the body from illness or to get rid of the illness in the body and correct the â€Å"chi† within the individual. The most common is the use of yin/yang. Some Chinese elders will avoid food that can be considered cold food because of fear that it will throw their body off balance and diminish the harmony.Meditation and prayer is a form a protection used by the Filipino, Chinese and Asian-Indian Culture. Meditation is most often seen in Chinese and Asian-Indian culture than the Filipino cultures. Religion plays a huge role in cultural beliefs in health protection. Although all cultures believe in different forms of a higher being or power, nonetheless traditional elders of the cultures seek faith as a form of protection from illness and disease. Health restoration among the Filipino, Chinese and Asian-Indian cultures share th e similarity of balance.Just like the focus of health promotion, restoration is also centered around a form of balance, depending on the culture that is being addressed. The Chinese culture use methods of yin/yang and cupping with the use of heated bamboo cups to reduce stress of the mind and body. The Filipino culture uses â€Å"heating† which acts as a balancing tool to achieve harmony. Filipino cultures uses healers to aid in removing illness from the body through methods of herbs, prayer and rituals. The Asian- Indian culture also uses elder healers to restore health back into the body.Since the cultures being compared are all of Asian descent. The cultures show significant similarities as far as the goals they are trying to achieve: promote, maintain and restore health to the body. The balance of all aspects of the body showed grave importance in all cultures. The methods however are different in the sense of rituals that are preformed, the Gods that are prayed to for pr otection, and the types of herbs that are used to create medicine. The ancient and traditional methods mentioned are practiced and exercised more by the elder generations of the cultures.As more generations are being born here in the United States it seems as if the rituals and methods of healthcare are becoming fused with western medicine as well. Incorporating was has been passed down from generation to generation as well as things learned from physicians and nurses here, the younger generation of the cultures somewhat pick and choose cultural practices and methods that they feel would best suit the issue that is being experienced. In a situation such as a minor cold is starting to become an issue, the families will use traditional methods such as hot teas, soups or broths to restore the balance.On the other hand if the issue is too great to be just treated on a traditional level, they will seek medical attention and take the proper medicine to get better. The Conclusion Although the genetic makeups of all the cultures are distinctly different, all the cultures still share similar ties in tradition. The Filipino and Chinese culture share more similarities but knowing the history of the two countries one can see that the Filipino people was taken over by the Chinese for sometime. Thus, their influences are seen in many traditions of the Filipino culture. ReferencesMelen McBride, RN, PhD (1996). HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF FILIPINO AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/filipino. html. [Last Accessed 22 February 13]. Linda Ann S. H. Tom, M. D. (1996). Health and Health Care for CHINESE-AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/chinese. html. [Last Accessed 22 Februray 13]. Kannayiram Alagiakrishnan, M. D. (1996). HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE OF ASIAN INDIAN AMERICAN ELDERS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. stanford. edu/group/ethnoger/asianindian. html. [Last Accessed 22 Februray 13]. Heritage Assessment Heritage Assessment NRS-429V | Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion John Thomas 3/24/13 The Heritage Assessment tool is primarily used as a device to evaluate health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration of a person’s cultural beliefs and values (Spector, 2006). This assessment helps aid in providing quality patient care in that it helps to meet and respect the needs of different types of people and their respective backgrounds (Spector, 2002).This particular paper serves to compare and contrast the ethnicities of Indian, Caucasian, and Arabic families using health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration as evaluation markers. The purpose was to identify and isolate different groups of people and their unique health practices and traditions that were based off their heritage or background. An assessment of these ethnicities led to several discoveries that I believe could truly improve our methods of health care. Cultural awareness is an essential part of life, especially in this country that is considered to be the melting pot of the world.Cultural awareness can be defined as understanding and appreciation the difference between oneself and people of other backgrounds and cultural beliefs (Shen, 2004). Cultural competence is a term used to refer to awareness and skill acquired to be able to care for people of different ethnicities and cultures (Purnell, 2002). The heritage assessment tool serves as a questionnaire of sorts that is used by personnel in management or care-providing positions in order to gain a better familiarity of a patient/client’s values before providing care (Spector, 2002).These can include questions about everything from their childhood experiences to varying health practices carried out in their homes. These all contribute in helping the nurse/caregiver to be culturally sensitive and utilize the questionnaire to provide quality care to the patient without unknowingly overstepping any boundaries. The Indian family I observed and talked to was my own. Growing up in India had a huge impact on my life and the choices I still make today. Upon working out the Heritage Assessment tool, I found that I still hold deeply rooted ties to my homeland and that I have tried to raise my children in the ame way. Though lifestyles are completely different when comparing the person living actually in India to the individual with an Indian background, a plethora of factors pertaining to health still carry over. Indian families tend to eat foods that are heavy with spices and capsaicin. Studies have shown that these have a number of health benefits including weight loss. When looking into some of the decisions that my family has made that seem to stand out from my friends of different background, diet and religion seem to stand out the most.Indian families are acutely aware of balance and moderation and this can be seen in the average meal. Religion is also a key factor in heal th protection. I have found that families will turn to God to keep their loved ones safe. Being from an Indian Catholic family, I am painfully aware this can also have its down side. For example, Catholicism discourages the use of contraceptives. This is a serious issue when understanding how this affects the growth of the AIDS epidemic not only among Indians but the rest of the world.In terms of restoration, there are more herbal remedies and natural medicines involved than antibiotics and pills. My wife still makes an array of teas and extracts for our children before resorting to taking them to a doctor. The Arabic family I talked to had a surprising number of parallels to my own. They were also driven by religion when it came to health protection. An illness was often considered to be unlucky and a curse from Allah for your sins. The diet high in spices and vegetables seemed a reasonable method of health maintenance.The values of the Arabic values were much stricter than the oth er families I talked to. An incident comes to mind of when it is very important to keep the values and traditions of the patient in mind. A Muslim woman was pregnant and nearing her due date. When it came time for her delivery, the only available Gynecologist was male and went through with the standard procedure and she delivered a healthy baby boy. The woman however, was shunned from her community because the doctor was a man who was not her husband.Situations such as these are important to keep in mind when providing care to patients. The Arabic family also was more open to natural medicine and homeopathic medicine and sought to find a way to cure themselves before seeking outside help at a medical facility. Lastly, the Caucasian family that were my neighbors seemed the most different from the families that I had talked to but the most open and attentive to the world around them. Though their diet was not the best, they seemed more inclined towards exercise and consumption of vita mins to maintain their health and protection of their health.They were also much better about keeping up with regular doctors’ visits and checkups and opted for more immunizations and vaccinations. They seemed more up to date and modernized in all aspects of health. They were also more trusting of modern medicines and prescriptions. They heavily relied on the healthcare system for health restoration even for the simplest medical issues. In conclusion, all three ethnicities have varying lifestyles that contribute to their current status of health. It is important to keep in mind that this is not an accurate report of that general culture.Rather it is an extremely small sample that I found to compare to other families in a somewhat suburban town. I found it very interesting that even with drastically different beliefs and values, all three cultures seemed to value their immensely, even though each had their own traditions and methods so as to preserve that state of health. From the stories and experiences I have heard in talking with these people, I believe it is more imperative than ever that nurses direct more attention to the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment tool.References Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of transcultural nursing,  13(3), 193-196. Shen, Z. (2004). Cultural competence models in nursing. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  15(4), 317-322. Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,  13(3), 197-199. Spector, R. E. (2004). Culture care: guide to heritage assessment and health traditions. Prentice Hall.