Montessori's Educational Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Montessori's Educational Philosophy - Essay Example On hindsight, I surmised that to a certain extent, the teachers that I had assisted probably applied bits and pieces of Montessori’s teaching philosophy, approach, or perspective. However, I was not conscious of them. William Crain’s narration in â€Å"Montessori’s Educational Philosophy† probably synthesized what seems to be a fundamental facet of what Montessori education is. Through Crain’s â€Å"Montessori’s Educational Philosophy† the idea of children as undergoing â€Å"sensitive periods† was impressed to me. Of course, having been exposed to children between four to seven as well as older children between twelve to thirteen years old, the idea of children having periods of sensitivity on certain dimensions should be â€Å"obvious† to me but, unfortunately, this was not the case. I had taken for granted my experiences, unmindful of the important implications of what should have been obvious. Crain’s article allowed me to review my experience with a new eye or from a new perspective. At the same time, it allowed me to see the Montessori perspective as the correct one, the largely correct one, or at least a USEFUL perspective in childhood education. Education, of course, is not an ideology but a commitment as well as a science of leading or facilitating the young ones to explore and seek knowledge and, in the p rocess, be taught by their interaction with their world. As a science, some of Montessori’s â€Å"theory† or perspective will probably be seen in a better light in future and some facets of the Montessori MAY be even proven by scientific or education research to be misguided. However, what is more important is that the Montessori perspective or â€Å"theory† will be seen as forward advance in how we must conduct education in children. Further, what is most important is that the Montessori perspective fulfills an important role in advancing the science of educating

The Word Essay Example for Free

The Word Essay It is probably the hurtful racial word ever created. It is a word known primarily as a means to degrade African Americans. The word packs such power to represent overt racial hatred; most people regardless of race will not even say it. In the dictionary the word nigger means, usually offensive, a member of any dark-skinned race and ignorant. The n word is word used to cause pain to African American people it is used to offend us so use it. It is a degrading word; a word that whit people used to as they use to say put us in our place. So why do we think it is ok to us it as a term of endearment. It was used as a word that brought our ancestors so much pain so why do we feel it ok to use it when they fought so hard to end the use of the word against them. The NAACP had a funeral for the N as a way to put an end of use of the word, as a way to show the world that the word had no more meaning or pain when used as a put down, but the world still uses the word. Some people don’t even know the meaning of the word but still use it thinking its cool or the thing to do. Since the meaning of the word changed in the African American community people think its ok to use if you change the ending of the word from â€Å"er† to an â€Å"a† it is still the same word and in turn has the same meaning and should still not be used. Most people do not even know what the word means. t a word that brings pain to African American people and remind us that we are inferior and beneath white people. And we use it as a term of love, endearment. Changing the meaning dose not erase the pain it caused to our ancestors. The word should not be used especially by African American people in college because being in college shows that you are educated to get this far and the word means you are ignorant not educated, and in turn degrading yourself .

A study on the britvic group

A study on the britvic group The Britvic Group was established in 1986 by Bass, Whitebread and Allied Breweries. The three merged their respective soft drinks businesses to form Britannia Soft Drinks Limited. And now Britvic is the parent company of Britannia Soft Drinks Limited. Britivic was originally established to act as the soft drinks supplier to the pub estates of these three shareholders. Britvic finished the acquisition of the brand like Tango, Robinsons, Orchid Drinks, Red Devil brand, water source one after another. The company cooperates with Pepsi and enters into an exclusive bottling arrangement for Pepsi and 7up in Great Britain. And Distribution of Lipton Ice Tea in Great Britain awarded to Britivic in 2009. Britivic becomes an independent company by listing in the London Stock Exchange in 2005. And the company has become one of the two leading soft drinks businesses in Great Britain. Successful new products developments, like J2O and Fruit Shoot, make Britvic become the largest supplier of brand ed still soft drinks, the faster growing category in the soft drinks market, while remaining the number two supplier of branded carbonates. The Britvic Group operates in Great Britain and Ireland.The Company finishes acquisition of a soft drinks business in Ireland on 29 August 2007 ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2010 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. In 2006, Britvic sold 1.4 billion liters of soft drinks in hundreds of different flavors, shapes and sizes and delivers to over 4,000 customers and approximately 200,000 points of distribution. The company turnover around  £680 million a year, and the company have approximately 2,700 employees based either at the main offices in Chelmsford and Solihull or at one of seven factories and network of depots around the country ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2006 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. For the GB soft drink take home market, the main market players are Coca-cola Enterprises, Britivic, GlaxoSmithKline, Danone, and Tropicana. For the GB soft drink licensed on-trade market, the main market players are Coca-cola Enterprises, Britivic, Redbull. The Britvic Group has strong market positions. The GB soft drink take home market share is around 11% in year 2006, 2007, 2008, and in 2009 that number up to 12%. The total sale of the soft drink take home is around 6billion a year. The GB soft drink licensed on-trade market share is 44% in year 2006 and 2007, 45% in year 2008, and the number up to 48% in year 2009. The total sale of the soft drink licensed on-trade is around 2.3billion a year. From the date above, we can see that Britvic Group has solid and strong market position, and the market share is increased moderately. Market share positions products Take home Licensed on-trade Total sales Market share Total sales Market share 2006 ( £5.8bn) 11% ( £2.3bn) 44% 2007 ( £6.0bn) 11% ( £2.4bn) 44% 2008 ( £6.1bn) 11% ( £2.3bn) 45% 2009 ( £6.1bn) 12% ( £2.4bn) 48% Source: Summarized from Britvic plc Annual Report 2006,2007,2008,2009 For Ireland market, the Britvic Ireland is Ireland second largest branded soft drinks business by volume. Britvic Ireland has similar brand and category profile to Britvic GB, and sold 253 million liters in the year to September 2008. Britvic Ireland have around 800 employees, one carbs/stills factory, one water factory and two distribution centers ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2010 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. The soft drink take home market share of the company is around 29%, and the soft drink Licensed on-trade market share is around 37% ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2010 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. The company has grown market share and revenue across all of the categories with a strong performance, despite difficult trading conditions. The Britvic cooperate with recycling companies in the UK to introduce plastic bottles containing PET which has been recycled from British households. Currently recycled material is made from imported material. The main commodity price risk arises in the purchases of prime materials, being PET, sugar, cans and frozen concentrated orange juice. Where it is considered commercially advantageous, the group enters into fixed price contracts with suppliers to hedge against unfavourable commodity price changes. Financial analyses Financial date 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total asset  £492.4M  £467.1 M  £694.6M  £741.1M  £853.5M Total Liabilities  £470.2M  £524.8M  £690.3 M  £732.0 M  £856.0 M Interest bearing loans and borrowings  £301.8M  £233.2M  £414.3M  £430.9 M  £450.7 M Debit ratio 95.5% 110.2% 99.3% 98.7% 100.2 % Total Revenue  £695.8M  £677.7M  £716.3M  £926.5 M  £978.8 M Operating profit  £73.3M  £73.7M  £80.0M  £96.7M  £110.1 M Full year dividend 10.0p 11.0p 12.6p 15.0p Earnings Per share 18.5p 18.4p 20.4p 24.8p 29.9p Free cash flow  £(10.3)m  £48.9m  £65.3m  £66.2m  £69.7m Source: Summarized from Britvic plc Annual Report 2006,2007,2008,2009 A. Gearing Gearing is a measure of financial leverage, demonstrating the degree to which a firms activities are funded by owners funds versus creditors funds. The best known examples of gearing ratios include the debt-to-equity ratio (total debt / total equity), and debt ratio (total debt / total assets). Then we choose the debt ratio to measure the financial leverage. The debt ratio of the company is 95.5% in 2005, 110.2% in 2006, 99.3% in 2007, 98.7% in 2008, and 100.2% in 2009. And the debt ratio of company is around 100% in the five financial years. To some extent, the high debt ratio is risky for the company. So we can see that the company greatly relies on borrowing to support operation. Britvic Group with high gearing is more vulnerable to downturns in the business cycle because the company must continue to service its debt regardless of how bad sales are. And the interest bearing loans and borrowings is the main component of the liability, and the Proportion is 64.1% in 2005, 44.4% in 2 006, 60.0% in 2007, 58.8% in 2008, and 53.0% in 2009. So we can see that the company greatly relies on borrowing to support operation. Britvic Group with high gearing is more vulnerable to downturns in the business cycle because the company must continue to service its debt regardless of how bad sales are. If the loan interest rate is higher than Margin, the company should reduce the loans and borrowings in the coming financial years and enhance the capacity of managing liquidity risk. B. Cash flow Free cash flow is the amount of cash that a company has left over after it has paid all of its expenses, including investments. It is considered to be a proper indicator of a companys financial health. The amount of free cash flow of Britvic Group is negative in year 2005, and it becomes active since 2006, Chief Executive Paul Moody (2006) said that full deployment of both SAP and Siebel software has enabled us to reduce the demand on working capital and so improve our free cash flow. As we can see from the table, the number is increasing year by year, and reaches  £69.7m in year 2009. The enough cash flow indicates that the solvency of the company. And the good performance of the revenue and operating profit contribute to the free cash flow increase. The company overhead cost savings achieved through a range of initiatives including centralization and automation of indirect procurement. The revenue and the operating profit are both increasing for 5 financial years. Comparing with year 2007, the operating profit in 2009 is up by 20.8%, the revenue in 2008 is up by 29.3%. Although during the economic recession, Comparing with year 2008, the operating profit in 2009 is up by 13.8%, the revenue in 2009 is up by 5.6%. We can expect that the trend of the profit in future is promising. C. Earning per share and dividend policy Because the operating profit is increasing, the Earning per share increases moderately during the 5 financial years. The EPS is 18.5pence in year 2005, 18.4pence in year 2006, 20.4pence in year 2007, 24.8pence in year 2008, 29.9pence in year 2009. And compare with year 2008, the EPS increased by 20.5% in year 2009. And the company spent about 50% EPS to the shareholders. Full year dividend of the company is also increases moderately with EPS year by year. The full year dividend per share is 10.0pence in year 2006, 11.0pence in year 2007, 12.6pence in year 2008, 15.0pence in year 2009.That indicates Britvic Groups strong capacity to earn profit. And that can consolidate the confidence of the shareholders, also helps company financing through issuing shares other than loans and borrowings. SWOT analyses A. Strength In the past, the company focused on acquisition. Through finishing the acquisition of the brand like Tango, Robinsons, Orchid Drinks, Red Devil brand, water source one after another, Britvic Group develop quickly. The Britvic Group has a clear strategy for growth now. First, the company support and grow the core brands like Pepsi, fruit shoot, tango, Robinsons, j2o, 7up; second the company support the new band for tomorrow like drench, Gatorade, Pepsi raw, V water, Lipton iced tea; third, the company try to improving free cash flow and margins; fourth, the company try to operate internationally and expand into Europe. The acquisition of a soft drinks business in Ireland on 29 August 2007 represented an important step in the strategic development of Britvic ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2007 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. And also the company focused on innovation. In 2008, the company launches two innovations Gatorade and Drench, and both have performed extremely well. The company promotes healthy lifestyle and provides a wide variety of soft drinks to meet customers needs, helping them make informed choices, marketing the drinks responsibly and promoting health, wellbeing and nutrition. As we discussed above, the Britvic Group holds strong market positions in Great Brittan and Ireland. And in this area, the customers like the brands of the company. Britvic have lots distribution within the Great Britain soft drinks market, and the distribution net are nearly every where in the country. And the company also holds good relationship with the resource suppliers. From the balance sheet, the trade and other payables is  £244.3 m in 2008,  £291.6 m in 2009 ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2009 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °, indicate that the Britvic has good reputation and the resource suppliers provide credit to the Britvic. B. Weakness Although the Britvic Group operates well in Great Britain and Ireland, compare with the transnational corporation in this industry like coca-cola enterprises, the size and the market of the Britvic is relatively limited. During the international development, the Britvic Group pays less attention to the local culture. That means in different area, an international company should operate locally. And in Ireland market, there are Category gaps, and the Britvic should launch more brands in Ireland market. And the Britvic Group has lots of brands, and that increase the difficult of operation. The marketing section have to focus the brands separately, that is really a challenge for the company. From the financial analyses, the debt ratio of the company is relatively high. And that indicate the company is prefer financing by borrowings and loans, and that may let the company in a risky conditions and may be more vulnerable to downturns in the business cycle. C Opportunity Over the next 20-25 years, the British population is expected to reach 70m from the current population of around 60m, and that indicates a growing market for the company ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2008 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. Comparing with the past generation, Younger generations drink more purchased soft drinks less tea, coffee, alcohol, dairy drinks and tap water. European fast food culture and the carbonated drinks quite fit. So the company should seize the opportunity to launch more innovations to attract the new generation, Now the consumers pay more attention to healthy lifestyle, and that also provides a good opportunity for the company. The Britvic should launch more unique products to cultivate the customer loyalty. The company penetrate into European counties gradually, The Britvic Launch in-market activities in Holland, strong Robinsons squash activity in the Nordics, and Fruit Shoot in Sweden. The company also penetrates to Turkey and Bulgaria market. The company has new travel contracts in the airline and shipping sectors. And through the already successful Britvic International business, the company should explore ways to extend the availability of Britvics wholly-owned brands worldwide through franchising arrangements. D. Threat For the soft drink market in Great Britain and Ireland, there full of competition. Besides Britvic, for the GB soft drink take home market, the main market players are Coca-cola Enterprises, Britivic, GlaxoSmithKline, Danone, and Tropicana. For the GB soft drink licensed on-trade market, the main market players are Coca-cola Enterprises, Britivic, Redbull. In year 2009, the GB soft drink take home market share of Britvic is 12%, and the Coca-cola Enterprises market share is 27% ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2009 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. The number of market share of Britvic in Europe almost increase a little. And for the global economic conditions, the 2008 crisis let the economy into recession. Lots of consumers is lost their job and in debt. So for the European market, also go through recession. How to conquer the recession, and hold the market position, is a challenging work to do for Britvic. Also the company faces financial risk that includes commodity price risk, interest rate risk, exchange rate risk, liquidity risk and credit risk. And the company operate internationally in the future will face the political and country risk. Risk management A. Foreign currency risk management Foreign currency risk is related to exposure to fluctuations to the sterling-US dollar and sterling-euro exchange rate. The group operates in euro-denominated countries and finances these partly through the use of foreign currency borrowings. Additionally cash generation from euro-denominated operations can be utilized to meet euro payment obligations in sterling denominated companies, providing a natural hedge. The group also has transactional exposures, which are from purchases of prime materials or commercial assets in currencies. Such purchases are made by euros and US dollars. On 27 September 2009, through forward foreign exchange contracts, the company hedged 48% of forecast exposures 12 months in advance, and the number in 2008 is 71% ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2009 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. Where funding is raised in a currency other than the currency ultimately required by the Britvic, cross currency interest rate swaps are used. That can convert the cash flows to the required currency. These swaps have the same duration and other critical terms as the underlying borrowing. B. Country and Political risk management More and more countries in Europe pay more attention to the environment protection. If a company without awareness of that may face the risk of local government regulations. And Britvic has adopted an Environmental Management System which is certified to the international standard ISO 14001. The company also use recycled materials for packaging. Conflict between employer and employees in Europe market is a risk faced by any company. The strike of the employee can hinder the normal productions, so Britvic pay more attention to the employ welfares. And Britvic has reduced its accident frequency rate by 68% over the last 5 years ¼Ã‹â€ Britvic plc. 2009 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. Recommendations A. International strategy Based on Great Britain, the Britvic should target broad market. The company should walk out the Europe gradually. Through the already successful Britvic International business, the company should explore ways to extend the availability of Britvics own brands worldwide through franchising and licensing. Britvic also should target the emerging Asian market like China, India and so on. The population of China is largest in the world, and the new generation prefers soft drinks to traditional tea. So the company can competes with coca-cola in China market with the unique brand of healthy lifestyle. During the international development period, the company should learn the local culture first, and launch special designed products to the local market. That means operate locally. B. Qualified personnel and Innovation In the past, the company achieves success through innovation. The Britvic group should keep the spirit of innovation, and win more property right in the design of products. That is the winning points of the company for the future development. And the human resource sector should prepare qualified personnel for the group future construction.

Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Great Expectations What techniques does Dickens use to present the characters? Dicken’s uses a variety of techniques in order to present his characters. By doing this it gives us a better and a clearer image of the characters. The first technique I’ll consider is his use of language which he uses very well. This technique is used to present his characters very effectively. Dickens aim is to show how physically and mentally destroyed Ms. Havisham is. He does this by surrounding her with images and language of death. The phrase ‘corpse-like’ tells us this. It shows the audience that Ms. Havisham is half alive yet half dead. That she looks like a corpse. The words ‘corpse-like’ suggests that Ms. Havisham is the living dead. By using this language it will give the reader an image and idea on how Ms. Havisham looks and feels. Dickens also tells us that she has, ‘a dead lull upon her’. This is implying that she no longer has life or energy. She looks like as if she is dying. Almost life less. It suggests that Ms. Havisham is very calm and quiet. Dickens uses these words to illustrate that Ms. Havisham is dying and her mental state is or has been destroyed. ‘Grave clothes’ is also showing the audience that she has an appearance of a person dead. He continues to use this because he is using languages of death and images of death and by using this it will give the reader an even better impression of Ms. Havisham. Dickens knows that nobody wears grave clothes apart from people who are dead and buried. It is as if she has buried herself alive in the house because her heart has been ‘broken’. Dickens also uses languages of loss. The words ‘once white, now yellow’ is implying she had a prime, and now she is past it. It also suggests that Ms. Havishams belongings were ‘once white, now yellow’ as well. Dickens wants to show the readers that his protagonist has nothing left, therefore he links Ms. Havisham to the idea of loss, ‘she has lost its lustre’, she has even lost her human structure, and ‘chest had dropped’. Her fiancà © has left her and she cannot carry on with her life. Dickens is emphasizing that his character has lost everything. She was attractive, bright but now has lost her life shine, radiance and therefore is now dull and old. The readers see that Ms. Havisham is a lost soul and cannot carry on with her life. ‘Nothing would ever lift it up again’ helps support this. It is saying that whatever is done she would never recover and she will never be

Faamatai: Traditional Religious System

It also alms to define and determine religious connections between the Mat system and the tabulate (Indigenous religion). Last but not least, it also focuses on how the system changed after Christianity arrived. Many people define the term mat in different ways. For example, Via and Tintinnabulation define mat as a â€Å"member of the nun (village) and a leader of an alga potato (extended family) with a complex network of fall (diffuse cultural connections'. Pall's offers another deflation which states that mat evolves from two words â€Å"mat† (eye or seeing) and â€Å"l† (towards or at).When two words are put together, It creates a traditional definition, the â€Å"act of looking towards or at someone or something†. In other words, a mat is the â€Å"eyes† of the family. He or she is the role model of the family. Family members look up to him or her as a strong leader and effective decision maker. To understand the framework of the mat system, one must first review the Samoan culture characteristics. The Samoan identify their culture as the Fashion way of life according to custom.Pall's described the term Fashion as referring to â€Å"the ancient ways of life Inherited from the ancestors†. The rod FAA means â€Å"in the manner of†, so the Samoan made it blend in with certain words in order to contrast the different ways of doing things. Traditionally, there are no laws in the context of the Samoan culture. However, Samoan people respected the decisions made by their own mat. To further understand the Samoan way of life, one must understand the village structure In the Samoan culture.The (nun) village Infrastructure Is made up of all extended females and relatives who reside In that particular village. They are Individual heirs and descendents of the mat such as father, mother, brother sister and etc†¦ In the alga, all can be related whether by blood as traceable to a common ancestor, through marriage ties or eve n adopted connections. At the head of each alga was a mat. He was the one who held the family title until it was passed on by choice rather than by inheritance. The first stage in becoming a mat was to serve as a tattletale's (untitled man).A tattletale's Is defined as an untitled man who serves his mat with honor and diligently. Being In this level requires a lot of patience and caring. Each tattletale's has one goal in life which was taut (serve) as further explained by Applied as follows: â€Å"A fulfill mat a Samoa faithful muumuu maim lava lee tag as taut Elli I lee mat male alga ma lee nun. O taut a lee tuna's e mama maim AI fumigant's ‘see's. A iii SE e via Oho I lee tutelage pull, all e taut, AAU o lee ala I lee pull o lee taut†. When a chief was chosen, a person who served the chief, family and village well Is most likely the primary he must first serve because the path to leadership is service) When a mat was sought, each alga would agree on a candidate and th en all would decide on one who would be worthy to succeed to the title. Once receiving the title of mat, he is responsible for the leadership of the whole family. In the fond o lee nun (council of chief), the mat was the one who represented the whole family.The authority of the mat was freely expressed by him in all matters, but most of the time he is free in so far as what he does was for the good of the family. In this respectful way, it could be seen, that the role of the mat was not merely authoritative, but it was also one of serving. It was then seen that all behavior was conditioned by the loyalty and devotion not only of the mat but the whole family. It was the pride of one's family which seemed to be the basis of the Samoan culture. This has been an initiating factor by which â€Å"law and order† was kept.In the Fashion, the extended family is the basic component of the village. Like I mentioned earlier, the village infrastructure is made up of all extended families which headed by a senior chief. Without the extended families and their chiefs, there would be no council of chiefs in the traditional village structure. The village itself became a factor in keeping the strong bond within the society. Socially, each village was embraced by a common pupilages (traditional greeting of mat titles in seniority).Mauve stated that a pupilages is a rotational formula which contained all the dignity accorded to the village especially to the principle chiefs, stating their relationship to the broader royal lineages of Samoa. In the olden times, Samoan lived in a hierarchical society. In all levels of its political structure including the mat system, it was so clear for it to be seen. Through all these levels, there was one of unifying force at work in the maintenance of â€Å"law and order† such as loyalty and devotion, being part of the family, and villages and districts connecting to the royal line.Politically, with the hierarchical structure of so ciety, it could be seen that the ancient gods were also structured in such a way. It was the case that authority was delegated from the top to the bottom. If there was a need to carry out a proposal or any new ideas, it was first to be approved by the higher authorities. Permission had to be sought from the chiefs. Although these different levels still existed in the Samoan society, but there was still the awareness of the necessity to function together as a corporate unity in order to survive.The socio-political structure of the mat system was believed to have great importance. Many believed the importance again lies within the idea that it was probably within such a social structure and that the structuring and the understanding of the gods had originated. According to Mauve, he stated: In Samoan society, there were â€Å"As† such as the As Militate, As Loyola or As Amiga. The â€Å"As† gives the meaning of being very high in rank within the Samoan society. The full meaning of this word would not be expressed if only the word honorable was used.The meaning of the word was not only â€Å"honorable† but took up other meanings such as sacredness and holiness in the ensue of been higher above all others in society. In this sense, As would really refer to the Alai(high or paramount chief). An Alai(high chief) was considered as the head of the village and its council of chiefs. Telltale (high talking chief) were orators and they spoke on the behalf of the Alai. According to Applied, mat were always the ruling powers in the society. Their authority is still strong today.Their authority was to be chiefs were, it was always to be carried out by the magma(group of tattletale's or untitled men). What can be said at this point is that in the structural set up of the Samoan society, there is a clear distinction between the higher and lower classes. The structure of the society and the distinctions could have been the basis of the religious structurin g and understanding of the ancient gods. In fact, the Samoan indigenous religion also had a structure where there was the recognition of higher gods and lower gods.In such a structure, there were responsibilities and functions performed by the gods that coincided with the responsibilities set out in the social life of the people. If the high chiefs were seen to rule and grant permission, then the higher gods were seen to posses more power. The higher gods would then be sought for the granting of the things that the society wanted. In this section, I will focus on the religious connection between the Mat system and a more detailed study of the traditional religious beliefs and other cultural practices.I strongly believe that much of these beliefs and practices had great affect on the way Samoan had accepted Christianity. Before Europeans had ever set foot on the islands, Samoan had their own beliefs of deities believed to be divine. According to Melissa, he stated â€Å"Samoan relig ion as it generally understood refers to a system of beliefs, the ceremonial and tall activities that are associated with it, and the worship of a supernatural being or beings. † In addition, Samoan had no national religion. This was a time of myths and what has often been referred to as a time of superstitious beliefs.It was at this early stage that these myths and the history of Samoa were preserved in memories and through oral traditions. According to traditional beliefs, every individual had his own â€Å"tutu†(guardian spirit). It was the case that the families had minor gods and villages had their own local deities. These deities such as fire, rain, agriculture and etc†¦ Were insider sacred and important to the Samoan. In the next couple of paragraphs, I will briefly explain the religious connections of the mat system and the indigenous religion through many traditional beliefs such as the Toga myths, man, spirits, and other various gods.One of the most popul ar beliefs in Samoan society was the Toxicological creation myth. In the alga, the head of the family is considered as the mat which was closely similar to the Toxicological and his rule. According to one myth, it stated that Toxicological existed as the main source in space and created the heavens. He was also known as the superior being or leader. I believe these creation stories had influenced many traditional world views of the Samoan and its mat system. In fact, the mentality about Toga creating Samoa still exists.The variety of these creation stories has led to the idea that traditional beliefs had been elaborately connected in Samoa. In this case, the Samoan culture was produced in distinction of ranks and indigenous religion enforces it by giving the high ranks a special place in it. As also stated by Isaiah: The Samoan ranking system and cultural structure appears deceptively simple on the surface at first glance, but a deeper look into it vales a very competitive, complica ted and rigid system. The religious beliefs of the people played a very important part in society.As I mentioned earlier, the Titus (guardian spirit) had influenced many Samoan greatly especially the mat. The tutu is sometimes considered as a god of an individual. In most cases, mat are considered as the god of their own family. They believe the spirit of an ancestor is links the mat system to the indigenous religion is the concept of man (invisible living force) which responsible for all the startling occurrences and effects beyond the human mind. In the Samoan culture, if a mat was able to defeat another mat at war, then he was said to have possessed more quantities of â€Å"man† than the man he defeated.This concept was always associated within the mat system. The traditional belief of man(power) that a mat had to protect the family physically and his ability to supply materially had been a strong qualification for becoming a leader. Man, however was also known in the prim itive world as the abundant special supernatural forces that could present in a man. In Samoan society, man was that force behind anything which was impossible for man to do. In this case, Samoan believe man and gaga(spirits) have strong relations.It can be noted that for a man or mat to receive man, it would be possessed through favor of the gods or the passing of it to him by another man who had it before him. Many scholars saw this concept as a way for the gods to communicate their will to the people. Many believe that Samoan were also committed to polytheistic beliefs. Applied stated that the life of the people depended greatly on the gods in which they recognized as having strong powers over them. It was the gods that they would always call upon in times of difficulties.Some of these various gods such as Laminas, Lethally, and Fee were believed to help many people avoid sickness, war and death. Laminas was defined as the child of the moon. This particular god was identified wit h the moon. In worshipping this god, there was much feasting and prayers. The head of the family or mat would pray that the god would help their family to prevent disease and death from entering their home. In other cases, such as war, this god was also asked to help that particular family or chief. It has been noted that this god was one of the inferior gods in the traditional beliefs of theSamoan society. Another particular god which many believe to be one of the well known house- hold gods was Lethally. This god was known to be embodied in the form of the centipede. In worshipping this god, people would often seek it in a tree that was usually near the house. If a person within the family was very sick, this god was called upon as to determine whether this person would die or become well again. In this particular belief, the mat would take a mat outside and await the coming of this god. The mat would be under close observation.If the god did come, and was seen to eave crawled und er the mat, this meant that the sick person would die. If the god came and crawled on the mat, this meant that sick person's health would be restored. One of the most famous gods which was also well known to the Samoan people was the Fee (octopus). This god was often worshipped as the warrior's god. It was believed that this god had its resting place on the island of Western Samoa. According to Melissa, it showed that before any war, the chiefs would seek this god and receive his blessings.In receiving the blessing of this god, there was the renewal of strength among the warriors. As a matter of fact, the main point behind all these traditional beliefs is that these gods really had much affect on the lives of the people. Not only the gods helped wartime or other ceremonial events. This proved to me that many of these gods were considered as important factors behind keeping the law and order in the Samoan society and also the mat system. Samoan also had strong affection towards many cultural practices such as the outage, VA ceremony, biogas, sofa's and etc†¦In the next part of the research, I will explain the relationship of the mat system and each cultural practice that Samoan hared and believed in since ancient times. Earlier, I mentioned that the framework of the Samoan society was revolved around the mat. These mat were responsible for all lands and matters pertaining to the alga. They also served as main decision makers for the alga or village. They also had man(power) that could cause any injury to anyone in society. In this matter, the power of the chiefs and traditional beliefs of the gods was believed to bring law and order in unity.It also brought strong ties and cultural connection between the gods and chiefs. One of the most important cultural practices that Samoan dealt with was known s outage (oath). According to Mauve, outage is one of the scariest and most sacred practices that chief ever gathered in the olden time. In this practice, the ac cused offender goes before the village councils and admits his guilt. This was where the fear of the gods came in to help solve a problem within society. This method was strictly practiced and enforced by the chiefs.According to the practice, if a crime was committed and the person who committed the crime was not known, all the villagers would be gathered by the chiefs of the village. Each person was asked to sake the outage(oath) and swear by the name of their own family god or village god. The chiefs then asked the curses of the gods to be on that person if he was the one. It was often the case that the curse would include one's family member to become very ill if the person lied. It was the fear of these curses by the chiefs that would lead the guilty person to confess. In fact, many believe these cultural practices hardly failed.The reason for this is because the guilty individual really feared the possibility of offending the gods and he could not at any time compromise the rep utation of the await to which he belonged. Another important cultural practice that Samoan still carried on today was the ‘VA ceremony. ‘VA ceremony is a traditional ceremony in which formal speeches are present among the chiefs. This ceremony usually held during the welcoming of the amalgam(traveled group). The religious part of this ceremony is when a chief partake his ‘VA cup. Before each chief take his cup, a portion of the ‘VA was poured out of the cup.This was considered as an offering to the gods. It was also a sign of respect to acknowledge the help of the gods in bringing the Amalgam to their destination. To clearly explain the meaning of it, Tubule stated: The spilling of a few drops of VA on the floor before drinking would seem to have the same significance as do many of the ceremonies in/the various religions of the world – incense burning – sprinkling of holy water – offering libations of wine – and the offering of sac rifices varying from pound notes to lizards eggs – all are offered with the idea of placating or seeking the assistance of some God.We are apt, perhaps, to view the custom of the Samoan as being merely the prostration of the intellect at the thresh-hold of the unknown, but re not all sacrifices by whomsoever offered, Just this. Mauve also stated that among the chiefs. For example, a chief would say: â€Å"o lee ‘VA linen o lee ‘VA o taut, la mania lee auto ambulant† It means this VA, it is for the gods, bless our gathering. In all, I found out that most of these traditional practices shared an important relationship between religion and social life of the Samoan people.It was so clear that Samoan had to live in a society where religion was seen as an important aspect in the culture. It was also clear that many of these cultural beliefs and traditional practices were considered as a set stage for Christianity. In this stage, it pointed out two important key elements that summarized the whole relationship between the mat systems and indigenous religion. One key element was the recognition of one great god above all gods, which was Toxicological.It was this god that was so superior and was given such high respect. This reveals that even though Samoan were viewed as polytheists, there was still the recognition of one god, Toga. Secondly, Fear for the gods and spirits was another key element in the Samoan indigenous religion. This element explains the fact that gods could bring disaster to the people o matter what the case is. It can be said that the people in fearing had imagine the awful punishments that could take place because of disobeying the chiefs and the gods.With all the tradition beliefs and cultural practices that Samoan shared in their society, I can now have a clear mind of what the early missionaries had walked into. Last but not least, this section focuses on the new changes of the mat system when Christianity arrived in Sa moa. During my research, I found many ways of how the traditional and cultural beliefs were adapted to accept and embed Christianity without losing its value. I also found out how the mat system was easily led to the process of accepting the new religion.There are many reasons why Christianity was easily accepted in Samoan society. Some of those reasons can be willingly determined while other reasons are more difficult to discover. To look deeply in those reasons, I trace it back to the importance and significance of the cultural and traditional beliefs that I mentioned earlier in the research. A fact that is now to be noted is that many of these beliefs and practices are still kept by the people. Though there have been many changes that have taken place, the practices of the past can till be noticed in the present.In the mat system or political structure of Samoa, mat were always heading the families or villages. Within any villages, there was an Alai (high chief) that holds a high er rank. The fact is that there is only one Alai for a village and his authority becomes highly respected and recognized. According to Applied,'Alai would hold the authority to express what to do and forbid the things that should not be done. This political structure is very similar to those that Christianity shared.This was one of the few reasons why Samoan easily accepted the Christian god because of the reactive of owing respect and obedience to anything that the chief ordered. Another reason that linked the mat system to the new religion was the creation myth of Toxicological. During ancient times, Toga was referred as the creator of the heaven and earth. I personally believe that the knowledge of these myths created a clear path for Samoan to easily accept the new Christian God. It seems that what the new religion was teaching to the people was nothing new.Same goes to the concept of man and spirits. I also mentioned earlier that Chiefs were also believed and strength. Chief al so held the roles of expressing the will of the gods. In this concept, it has a very strong relation to the new religion. Christianity believed missionaries were looked upon as priests receiving power from God to preach out the new religion. For what has already been mentioned, I can now see a strong relationship between the traditional beliefs in the mat system and Christianity. Today, mat system played an important part in the new religion.In the pre- Christianity era, chiefs were believed to have powers that can meditate with the ancient gods. When missionaries arrived, they assumed new roles. They became deacons in the church. It was so obvious that many of these traditional practices and beliefs have helped greatly in accepting and understanding Christianity. I believe the Samoan society was always flexible ever since the start of their civilization. With this flexibility, Christianity was able to integrate with the traditional Samoan beliefs.As a result, it seems the new relig ion had to be taken up and practiced as if it was truly part of the ancient Samoan society. In conclusion, I believe the structural set up of the mat system served as a basis for the continuing strength of the Fashion (Samoan way). The continuing strength f the Fashion was to a great extent due to fact that an authority did not come to bear all the weight of the emotional, political, social and religious attachment to the people to their culture.The culture and the religious beliefs had helped making the people remain Samoan. I also believe the mat system had a strong relation and religious connection to the ancient indigenous religion. After gathering all the necessary information and specific evidence, it proved me that the mat system not only had similarities with Christianity, it was very easy for the people to accept the new religion into their indigenous society.

Beyond Europe

The Roaring Twenties brought forth a new musical style in the United States. Piercing together the complex blend of European and African American musical traditions, merging the soulfulness of the blues and the syncopated rhythms resulted in a unique, rhythmic compelling music that is known as jazz. It is a music dominated by improvisations and a definitive beat (Kamien, 1998, p. 359). This popular music has produced some of the best American musical figures- Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.Indeed, it has become one of the more popular music the world has known and continues to enjoy today. There are two clear-cut jazz features: syncopation and rhythmic swing. It boasts of lively rhythm that is oftentimes hard to describe but easy to recognize and listen to. Its call and response feature, wherein a voice is answered by an instrument or an instrument is answered by another instrument arose from the African American church services where the congregation responds voc ally to the preacher’s call (p. 360).But more than the percussive sounds, improvisations, call and respond, and the performance techniques that accompany jazz music, jazz music is popularly known as the â€Å"only truly American contribution to the world of music† (Wright, 1996, p. 390). While jazz music is an amalgam of different musical streams, it is in America where jazz was planted and flourished. There is no contest about that. There is no concrete record that show when jazz started or how it first sounded because the music was only heard; hence no musical notations were traced.However, its origin was placed somewhere in 1900 (Kamien, 1998, p. 359). What was certain about jazz music though was where it was first heard: in southern and Midwestern cities. Jazz music was first heard in the streets, bars, brothels and dance halls in New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago (Wright, 19976 p. 390). Furthermore, it was in New Orleans where many jazz legends began - Armstrong, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton (p. 391). One of Oliver’s finest works is the Dippermouth Blues, which showcase instrumental blues in its unique New Orleans style.This style is usually rooted on a march, a church melody or a ragtime piece (p. 365). On the other hand, Armstrong was best known as the inventor of scat singing, warbling nonsense syllables like dat-a-bat—a-dip-da (p. 365). He was also an outstanding jazz trumpeter and his performance of Hotter than That with this group The Hot Fives focused on the improvisatory solos. When the Spanish-American War ended, there was a surplus of military band instruments sold at a cheap price. Many black musicians brought instruments and took up employment in bars and brothels (Wright, 1996, p.391). Band instruments were instrumental (pardon the pun) in shaping jazz music. It was a reflection of the African Americans’ love of music and importantly, their determination to succeed. The precursors of jazz m usic were ragtime and the blues which existed in the 1890s to 1915 (Kamien, 1998 p. 360). Ragtime was generally played by black pianists (Wright, 1996p. 390). Black pianists experienced difficulties looking for employment so they were reduced to playing in brothels, saloons, and dancehalls. Despite that, the popularity of ragtime music could not be discounted.By the end of World War I, roughly two thousand piano sheets of piano ragtime music were sold (p. 390). Scott Joplin, the man behind famous pieces like Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer was the best-known composer of ragtime music. Similar to ragtime music, blues was another music that grew out of the African Americans. It is said that blues were a kind of black folk song that originated in the 1880s-1890s in the South (Wright, 1996, p. 387). It was developed out of the work songs, spirituals and field hollers of the black slaves (p. 387).Typical blues subjects were of poverty, loneliness, oppression, and melancholy. By 1912, the blues were printed as sheet music (p. 387). Ragtime music, with its upbeat sound, and the blues, which reflected the hard life and the tough-minded humor of the African Americans, helped uplift peoples’ spirits. The Progressive Era, which covered 1900s up to the First World War, was a period of marked changes in the country. Problems on capital, labor, immigration, and corruption in politics pervaded the country (Jordan and Litwack, 1991, pp. 570-594).Adding more reason to be depressive was the aftermath of the First World War. Repression and intolerance pervaded the country. The post-war years brought despair for many African Americans. With the Jim Crow restrictions, the lynching, beatings, and revival of the Ku Klux Klan, Americans, especially the African Americans, turned to music for comfort. Their desolate living unleashed their creativity. Out of ragtime and the blues came the expressive, raspy style that became the jazz. The end of the war and the great black migr ation made it possible for jazz music to spread in America.As aforementioned, jazz became the rage in the 20s. Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald even dubbed the time as the â€Å"Jazz Age† (Wright, 1996, p. 394). Jazz music became so popular that it was now performed in large dancehalls and even in movie houses (p. 394). In the years to follow, jazz developed into a rich sub styles such as swing, bebop, cool jazz, free jazz and rock fusion. Ellington was one of the most revered composer, arranger and conductor in the swing era. Some of his works include Ko-Ko, Air shaft, and Blue Serge (Kamien, 1998, p. 367).Other notable jazz piece is the bebop-syled Bloomdido performed by alto saxophonist Charlie â€Å"Bird† Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bass player Curly Russell, pianist Thelonious Monk and percussionist Buddy Rich (p. 368). Meanwhile, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down from trumpeter Miles Davis exemplifies jazz rock. No doubt, jazz music is one of the most important Ameri can contributions to twentieth century popular culture. At the heart of jazz is improvisation. Looking back, people were probably drawn to jazz music precisely because of this.Through music, they had the freedom to follow their own flights of fancy. It is this appeal that made it popular with people during that time. Jazz music became a diversion, bit at the same time, an aspiration that perhaps one day, they would do more than make do. References Kamien, R. (1998). Music An Appreciation 3rd ed. USA: McGraw-Hill. Jordan, W. and Litwack, L. (1991). The United States Combined Edition 7th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Wright, C. (1996). Listening to Music 2nd ed. Minnesota: West Publishing Company.

Marketing Plan for Rain at the Palms †Business Paper

Marketing Plan for Rain at the Palms – Business Paper Free Online Research Papers Marketing Plan for Rain at the Palms Business Paper Overview: Rain nightclub is located in the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a 25,000 sq. ft. nightclub with six bars, and two floors. It employs over 250 people, with me being one of them. On the top level it has six skyboxes which overlook the whole club, and come equipped with couches and a TV, and can easily fit a party of 15-20 people. One level down there are six cabanas for parties of 8-10 people, and than one more down are our water booth tables for parties of 4-6. The rest of the club can pack in 3600 dancing maniacs on the main floor. Rain is one of the top competitors in Las Vegas for this market but over the years the numbers at the doors has been declining dramatically. Life expectancy in this line of business is very short, and they are very fortunate to have lasted this long, but now it is the time to do some drastic changes to regenerate some more business. The plan will increase the attendance at Rain and increase table sales, as well as inform our tar get market of 21-35 year old tourists with money to spend about all the events and changes coming up. Environmental Factors: There are a select few other competitors that have opened in the past two years that have affected Rain’s business. There is Pure inside Caesar’s Palace and Tao at the Venetian. These are our two main competitors that took a huge percentage of our clientele away. In the next month Jet, a new nightclub in the Mirage, opens for New Years Eve so now is the time that a plan of action needs to come together. One environmental factor that hurts business a little is the fact that Rain which is inside of the Palms is located off the tourist filled strip. The people would rather take a $2 cab ride to a closer venue than to pay $5, or what ever it is, to leave the strip. The hotel is always filling their rooms up, and even the people staying at the Palms are getting in cabs and going to other nightclub venues besides the one rite downstairs. Target Market: Our ideal targeted customers would be 21-35 years old, single males and female tourists, and locals with a yearly income of $30,000 –whatever. People in this age bracket that come into Vegas are not coming just for the shows and the gambling any more. A majority of them are coming specifically for the nightlife. They sleep all day, get up and go to dinner, and than hit a club. This is ideal for Rain because they can do some package deal with their restaurant the N9NE Steakhouse. I chose this market because lets be real†¦.mom and dad do not go out to the clubs together, and grandma and grandpa definitely do not, only on rare occasions and they are getting laughed at. Objectives: The objective of this marketing plan is to increase numbers at the door and to increase table (bottle) sales. Goal is to increase the number of people coming in to the club 25%. So if we do 2000 people on a Friday night, than after the plan is in affect we should expect 2500 guests. As for bottle sales the goal is to increase the number of bottles sold a night by 15%. If 30 bottles are sold on Thursday, than 35 should be sold the following Thursday after the plan has been put into action. Product: The product is liquor plain and simple. How you get them in there and make them want to stay is the atmosphere of the club itself and the crowd. We can provide the atmosphere, but we have to entice the crowd to come in. People go to nightclubs depending on the crowd. If there is a line outside the club than people are curious as to what is happening inside. So your customers at the same time of being customers they are also the product that is selling your club. People want to go to the clubs where the beautiful people are. As far as the liquor goes, we offer every type from the low end choices to the $5,000 dollar bottle of Louis XIII. Also the entertainment value, and the music we play can be our product because another main reason why people choose the clubs they go to is to listen to music and dance. Rain plays a little of every type of music. They cater to every type of music preference and have a humongous dance floor to get down on. Price: This market is definitely price sensitive and low priced items would be preferred over high priced items. Liquor is liquor and depending on where you are drinking it the prices will vary. A beer at the local pub is around two to three bucks. In any given popular nightclub in town its about 6-7 dollars. A shot of well vodka goes for about 10 bucks in the club and 5 in a local bar. That is if you’re just buying drinks at the bar. If you have a table you have to do bottle service, which policies differ in every club, but usually when you do this you not only have to purchase the bottle of liquor that you and your party will be drinking, but you have to buy the actual table as well. Now the bottle prices in every club for a bottle of Grey Goose lets say goes for $350 dollars, including juices and excluding red bulls. And for every two more people in your party after 4 people you have to buy another bottle of liquor. If we were to drop the price just a little and changed some of those policies we could sell a lot more tables. Than there is also cover charge which recently was raised from 20 a head to 25. Place: Location is great for locals and bad for tourists. It is located a few blocks west of the strip on Flamingo across from the Rio. This is convenient for locals that come see a concert at this venue and don’t have to put up with the traffic of the strip. As I mentioned earlier though tourists tend to like to stay on the strip near the hotel that they are staying at. Overall though, it is an excellent location for a nightclub, especially the Palms because they cater to our target market as well. Promotion: This is a large FB company that has venues nationwide so I know they have some dollars for some promotions. One that is very cost effective though is to hire an e-mail girl to get the contact information of our guests coming in so we can send them all of our up coming parties and events. As I mentioned earlier maybe doing some cross promotions with the steakhouse. Like bring your receipt from dinner at N9NEto the cashier at Rain for free entry. Give passes to the guests staying at the Palms for free admission. Drop the bottle prices on Thursdays to regenerate some table reservations. Buy one get one free bottles on Thursdays. Promote a locals night once a week where all locals get in for free to start generating more word of mouth within the city. Hire a promotions street team to go out earlier in the day Thur-Sat passing out fliers in all the major casinos. Run radio ads in Vegas and L.A. since half of our customer base is young adults driving into Vegas from Los Angeles. Hand out punch cards for our bottle service guests like a subway card. Buy 6 bottles get one free. Ghostbar at the palms is owned and operated by the same company two but they are two different venues with two different covers. Maybe on one of the slow days a week like Thursday do a two for one cover of $25 for both clubs. Marketing Control: The e-mail girl at the front would really help out keeping our focus on the type of customers frequenting our club and allows us to have access to them directly for promotions. Also for complaints because when we e mail them our up and coming events there will be a link to our website where they can post complaints, or remarks. There are not many budgetary constraints with this company. Also when getting their contact info to include their zip code so we can keep track of the locals and to know where the majority of our customers are coming from so we can run ads in their parts to constantly re-inform them of the fun they had here. Target Market ? Dual income couples with kids that live in the Seven Hills, Anthem area. This group has high income, little discretionary time, and propensity to want to eat out (but not necessarily fast food). This market demands convenience, high quality, freshness. Healthy items should be available as well to especially appeal to mothers. Objectives The objective of this marketing plan is to increase awareness of Rocco’s NY Deli, and through increasing awareness impact sales. Goal is for sales to increase 20% over the next 3 months, and then sustain through the year. Dips in sales will be responded to with promotional offers. Next year the plan will be reassessed Strategy: Marketing Mix ? Product: current product offering is good, maybe offer a few healthy items to appeal to the â€Å"Moms,† definitely move on the alcohol license and get a credit card/debit machine. Currently have a case of frozen foods, add a case with ready-made items in the refrigerated section. ? Price: this market is not necessarily price sensitive, and higher quality items would be preferred over low cost items. Marketing Mix ? Place: location is great, right on the way home from work for many working parents, perhaps making a delivery option available too. Need an Internet site where they can see the menu and place an order from home or work. ? Promotion: this is a Mom and Pop organization so limited dollars, consider placing bouncing arrows to increase attention to the restaurant, pass out fliers in the karate, dance and learning centers offering families a price promotion and also magnets that families can place on their refrigerators that have the phone number; blanket the area homes with promotional fliers, and if any formal advertising is done, focus on the Henderson area, maybe in the View section of the RJ. Have â€Å"awards† for patrons that bring in new patrons (discounts on pizzas, etc) to help increase word-of-mouth. Marketing Control ? Every customer will be greeted on entry to the deli. Sometime within their visit they will be asked â€Å"how did you hear about us.† There will be a list behind the counter to keep track of those responses. Additionally, all promotional fliers and coupons (and advertising) will need to be collected in order to receive the discount so we can determine which promotion is directly getting the customer in-the-door. The sales during an â€Å"arrow† day will be compared to a similar non-arrow day to see whether that is an effective tool. If advertising is done in the RJ a similar comparison will be done to determine if it is â€Å"worth† the cost. The word of mouth offers will also be tracked and efforts will be made to establish relationships with those patrons. Research Papers on Marketing Plan for Rain at the Palms - Business PaperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Fifth HorsemanIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalDefinition of Export QuotasTwilight of the UAWThe Project Managment Office SystemHip-Hop is ArtGenetic EngineeringNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceWhere Wild and West Meet

Analization of There are no Children Here essays

Analization of There are no Children Here essays You do not fully know a man until you have walked around in his shoes Social isolation due to economical disadvantages is the criteria of which Alex Kotlowitz novel There Are No Children Here is based upon. It is a true story in which free lance journalist, Kotlowitz followed the lives of two children, there mother and the rest of their siblings growing up in government project home in Chicagos west side ghetto. The main characters of the story are Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers and their mother La Joe and how they survive the hardship and struggles of an impoverished life and non existence to the rest of the world. The first thing that La Joe mentions to Kotlowitz when she agrees to let him follow and live in their footsteps is the following comment, "But you know, there are no children here," she told him. "They've seen too much to be children.", and it is here that we receive the title of this sentimental and heart felt novel. The predicament that the people of this socially separated, violence reigning, horrendous poverty stricken urban community saw on a daily basis gave them no hope for the future. The people learned to become accustomed to and accept that there was little they could do to change the views of the upper class citizens to help them in their dilemma of living out there daily lives. The children are always caught in the grasps of gangs exchanging gun fire and letting out there anger and may not even live to see a new day as a result of it. A way to ignore a problem that exist is to not acknowledge that there is one or try and understand it. Early off in the beginning of the novel Lafeyette and Pharoah along with a couple of the other neighborhood children go to the railroad tracks in the attempt to discover a snake. Upon hearing the people on the train arriving the children flee for cover because of rumors they have heard of the passengers carrying weapons for their safety. The passe ngers...

The Kid with a Bike Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Kid with a Bike - Movie Review Example This paper is a review of the film â€Å"The Kid with a Bike† Directed by Jean Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. The film is about the one sided yet blissful blood bond relation between a father and an eleven year old who is abandoned by his father and lives in a foster home and is being told by the father that he would have to live there for only a short while. With hopes in heart that he would return to his father soon, the distracted boy is never able to relate to life without his father and his desired bicycle. He runs in search of the bike which he considers a special symbol of attachment to his father. To his small childish memory he runs tracing his father in all the places he can image. He visits the place where his father lived, but much to his disappointment, he finds out that his father has moved out.The very first scene of the movie tells us about the boy’s state of mind who is lacking the peace and it is evident through an encounter with the counselor of th e foster home where the boy hopes to find out about his father. He often tries to flee the foster home in hope of going to his real home which was promised by his father to him. While in pursuit of his little dream, and peace, along with hope of finding the bicycle and his father again, his life and future days take a turn for the good when he comes across a generous hairdresser who would later on adopt him. The Theme is based on the attempt of interpretation of the boy’s distracted mind which he suffers due to one of his parent’s unstable social standing.... While in pursuit of his little dream, and peace, along with hope of finding the bicycle and his father again, his life and future days take a turn for the good when he comes across a generous hairdresser who would later on adopt him. The Theme is based on the attempt of interpretation of the boy’s distracted mind which he suffers due to one of his parent’s unstable social standing. Being not able to bring him up, he falsely tells his young son that the stay at foster home would be a brief one; however, in real the things are gloomier for the ill fated boy. The theme is a very apt one considering the modern day unstable social standings of number of parents in various societies across the world, and it equally applies to the American Society and parents as well. It lives up to the expectations and delivers the message in a very calculated manner and warns all those with such intentions that abandoning their kids is the last best option available for their kids. Early day s of life are the days where the kid needs proper attention and their parents guard. Even the toys and other childhood kits do not mean as much to the kids as much as their own parents. This has been shown in a very skill full manner where the kid considers the bicycle as a symbol of his father’s love towards him. The movie will definitely leave a spark in the minds and hearts of all those parents who are going through the thick of times and have even for once thought over similar lines of foster homes for their children. They would get to know what these actions could have in offer for the young ones if sent away from home. What three or four sequences are most important in the film? Why?   There are number of scenes that would give the viewers goose bumps on any given day, and those moments were

How have the different types of propaganda (white, black, grey) been Essay

How have the different types of propaganda (white, black, grey) been used to manipulate opinion - Essay Example In this context, two views can be positioned in contrast. The first is the view of the civil libertarian, which posits the rights of the individual to be most important and subsequently seeks to maximize individual freedom and minimize State control of all activities pertaining to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In contrast to this are societal forces, fascist in their most extreme form, that seek organization to limit and control others as a form of governance, either for minority social, cultural, and economic interests or for personal gain, power, ego, and other self-motivating factors, often using organized political violence as a tool to further ideological ends. Control is opposed to liberty, but organization in this context is ironically more associated with the controlling aspects of power than freedom as historically conceived. Indeed, as societal structures such as those in the military and government agencies of superpower States grow to unprecedented technolo gical and economic prowess, the absence of such agencies of control still exemplifies the libertarian approach. Within this duality is the traditional duel between Marxist critics and the apologists of Capitalism, with the â€Å"Western† ideal firmly based in the historical tradition of Greece and Rome, including both democracy and imperialism in the ideal Republic. In the context of critical theory and post-modernism, the historical approach can be used to deconstruct architectures of power to delineate types of State control through the analysis of media operations and propaganda techniques found both in totalitarian regimes and liberal democracies, to see what joins and differentiates the two approaches to government and media communications. The initial discussion of personal bias and political ideology when constructing an ideal by which to judge a process such as government communications or the proper end goals of society highlights that absolute objectivity or complet ely dispassionate review is not entirely possible in the context of political analysis, contrary to the appearance of historical fact. In order to judge and analyze the activities and processes involved in media operations of governments, there must be an a priori establishment of legitimacy and this inevitably involves a decision that introduces political bias into the argumentation. As such, the humanistic context of shared social and cultural values are assumed to be the base from which â€Å"true† judgment proceeds, as these are viewed as the best of historical values shared by diverse cultures across numerous countries in the course of the evolution of civilization, as well as those that are the most fair, egalitarian, and progressive for building the future of mass-society. Yet, at the very moment when these ideals are viewed as universal, critical inquiry based in Marxist philosophy particularly challenges whether these so-called Western ideals of supposed Greek and Ro man origin are really truth as universal and divinely ordinate, or actually another form of propaganda masking the â€Å"true†

Cultural Stereotypes as Reflected in Literature Essay

Cultural Stereotypes as Reflected in Literature - Essay Example In the same way as the concept of stereotyping had been introduced in the first paragraph, stereotyping is defined as â€Å"making generalizations or assumptions about the characteristics of all members of a group based on an image (often wrong) about what people in that group are like,† (Burger and Els 105). Certain observed qualities have been used to describe a certain group of objects or people and that is stereotyping. It is possible that a person had just seen some people wearing glasses study very hard and that person might generalize that all people are nerds. In reality, that is not the case as people may get blurry eyes due to aging, computer eye strain and other eye diseases. In such practice, a person or people are placed in certain categories using certain criteria like a color of the skin, nationality, religion, ethnic race and even gender and sexual orientation (Cook and Cusack 10). In using categories to group people with the prevailing image, discrimination is inevitable. In line with discrimination come prejudices and pains. As discrimination becomes rampant because of stereotyping, the treatment balance among people have been subjected to several stresses and strains as people are judged for qualities that do not make up their whole selves. People are judged for skin color like black, discriminated for their sexual orientation like being gay, offended for being immigrants, punished for practicing their religious rituals, and hurt for on-going wars where peace is not an option (Kruhm and Wirths 1).

Employee Re-sourcing & Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Employee Re-sourcing & Development - Essay Example Since January Safeway have refocused their activities on managing change and over 120 staff members have participated in these courses to date. Safeway's normal skills training for store staff, launching apprenticeship programmes for butchers, fishmongers and florists. Additionally, 210 bakers completed the craft baking NVQ, while over 7,000 of Safeway's people have now received craft skills and systems training at one of Safeway's three regional training centres. (Beardwell, 2001-58-62) Delivering the best customer service continues to be a high priority. During the year Safeway extended Safeway's Star Service programme to include a new initiative designed to help Safeway become the "friendliest store in town". Safeway's people in stores have been asked to concentrate on "smiling, greeting, helping and thanking" customers every time they have contact with them. High standards are expected and by the end of the year independent monitoring showed that over 90% of Safeway's stores were either meeting or close to meeting all of these targets. (Corbridge, 1998, 78-86) Safeway employs approximately 85,000 people in stores, depots and offices across the UK. Through Safeways employment policy Safeway aim to provide fair treatment for all colleagues, invest in their development, protect their well-being and keep them both informed and involved. In 2004/05 Safeway defined 12 employment and training targets to ensure that these aims were achieved. For example: Safeway encourages open and honest communication through a range of initiatives. Safeway conduct a 6-monthly survey of Safeways colleagues, "Survey for Everyone", which allows every individual to give feedback on their job, their manager, their location, Safeway as a place to work and their perception of the Company's performance. At local level, teams of colleagues are empowered to take action on anything arising from the survey results. Other initiatives such as focus groups and Safeways intranet facility ("Grapevine") are referred to in the Chief Executive's review. Safeway have established a Colleague Council for the Hayes site, with representatives elected from all Head Office divisions. The meetings have opened up a valuable channel for two-way communication with employees to discuss how Safeway can improve the way in which Safeway work together. Such has been their success that Safeway have already begun to roll this out to other areas of the business. Safeway's centralized recruitment centre at Warrington is now fully operational and receives an average of over 11,000 hotline calls per week. Safeway also receive over 800 job applications through Safeways website every week. Safeway have enjoyed ongoing success in working with the Investors in People framework, with several divisions achieving recognition and a significant proportion of Safeways store colleagues working towards accreditation. Storebrand Investment's assessment of 86 retailers worldwide in 2005, which included Safeway in the top 30% "best in class" of its sample. Safeway are pleased with these results and will continue to work with all these

Question is below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Question is below - Essay Example Still, we wonder at the real enormity of freedom granted to the people that have been tempered by the government’s implementation of rules and regulations which effectively shrank the people’s rights. A closer look on lobbying for the public’s freedom has on the other hand, generated so much confusion. This is probably because the people do not really have a cohesive stand on issues concerning rights, privileges, limitations and violations. So now, after lapping in the comforts of the information age for years, we come at another crucial but definitely interesting point of contention. What limits should be set by law on the freedom of expression of communication and publication via the internet? We need to highlight on censorship not only of indecent materials via the internet but also of other forms of psychological abuse towards humanity. This is due to the fact that news reports have illustrated examples of alarming crimes directly or vicariously connected from having accessed materials published virtually. If it has spawned criminal behavior, of that we need empirical evidence but the truth remains that misbehaviors have been learned and continuously so, through the web. We draw the line at child and explicit adult pornography. We draw the line at extreme graphic violence and psychologically damaging elements. We draw the line at unlimited access particularly for children of sites that are too exploitative or too destructive to the over-all well-being and dignity of each person. Restrictions are primordially important since we have struggled to espouse special protection for women and children from the laws that have been enacted. Yet, from the sites available on the internet alone, we see horrendous and crippling images of the marginalized members of the society that we have sworn to protect. Furthermore, numerous libelous statements have genuinely defamed entities because of lack or inconsistent interpretation of statutes concerning

Leadership interview business paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership interview business paper - Essay Example He carried along on the same lines, often doing two jobs in a day to support his family and education. Davis graduated with a degree in electronics engineering and went ahead to do his MBA. Throughout his education, he was always working part-time to take care of his siblings and mother. Right now, he has his own small company which is growing at an enormous pace and is already perceived to become more successful. With such great experience and personality aspects, I found him an ideal candidate for this interview. The questions I asked him were: His answers to my questions were all very brief, yet highly powerful. All of his answers were supported from practical knowledge and exposure and had no text-book touch to them. According to him, a leader is somebody who is standing in front of his people and controlling and directing them. A leader cannot be a person who sits in isolation in a corner. He needs to be there among people all the time. This is highly essential in gaining popularity and trust with his people. Having been a leader of a successful organization since 8 years, he considers this to be the major difference between leaders and managers. I learnt that leadership traits do not occur in a person by birth but are developed, since childhood, with the help of the environment around. If, at a very young age, a person is thrown up with difficult obstacles and told to cross them, this develops leadership skills in him. Moreover, when a person assumes responsibility of something, be it a house, younger siblings or a company, he automatically assumes the role of a leader. He believes training and education cannot make a successful leader, but can only polish the existing leadership skills in a person. An important point I learnt was that a leader needs to be loved by his people. The love can only come when the people trust him, respect him and are fond of him. A strict

Employee Re-sourcing & Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Employee Re-sourcing & Development - Essay Example Since January Safeway have refocused their activities on managing change and over 120 staff members have participated in these courses to date. Safeway's normal skills training for store staff, launching apprenticeship programmes for butchers, fishmongers and florists. Additionally, 210 bakers completed the craft baking NVQ, while over 7,000 of Safeway's people have now received craft skills and systems training at one of Safeway's three regional training centres. (Beardwell, 2001-58-62) Delivering the best customer service continues to be a high priority. During the year Safeway extended Safeway's Star Service programme to include a new initiative designed to help Safeway become the "friendliest store in town". Safeway's people in stores have been asked to concentrate on "smiling, greeting, helping and thanking" customers every time they have contact with them. High standards are expected and by the end of the year independent monitoring showed that over 90% of Safeway's stores were either meeting or close to meeting all of these targets. (Corbridge, 1998, 78-86) Safeway employs approximately 85,000 people in stores, depots and offices across the UK. Through Safeways employment policy Safeway aim to provide fair treatment for all colleagues, invest in their development, protect their well-being and keep them both informed and involved. In 2004/05 Safeway defined 12 employment and training targets to ensure that these aims were achieved. For example: Safeway encourages open and honest communication through a range of initiatives. Safeway conduct a 6-monthly survey of Safeways colleagues, "Survey for Everyone", which allows every individual to give feedback on their job, their manager, their location, Safeway as a place to work and their perception of the Company's performance. At local level, teams of colleagues are empowered to take action on anything arising from the survey results. Other initiatives such as focus groups and Safeways intranet facility ("Grapevine") are referred to in the Chief Executive's review. Safeway have established a Colleague Council for the Hayes site, with representatives elected from all Head Office divisions. The meetings have opened up a valuable channel for two-way communication with employees to discuss how Safeway can improve the way in which Safeway work together. Such has been their success that Safeway have already begun to roll this out to other areas of the business. Safeway's centralized recruitment centre at Warrington is now fully operational and receives an average of over 11,000 hotline calls per week. Safeway also receive over 800 job applications through Safeways website every week. Safeway have enjoyed ongoing success in working with the Investors in People framework, with several divisions achieving recognition and a significant proportion of Safeways store colleagues working towards accreditation. Storebrand Investment's assessment of 86 retailers worldwide in 2005, which included Safeway in the top 30% "best in class" of its sample. Safeway are pleased with these results and will continue to work with all these

Leadership interview business paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership interview business paper - Essay Example He carried along on the same lines, often doing two jobs in a day to support his family and education. Davis graduated with a degree in electronics engineering and went ahead to do his MBA. Throughout his education, he was always working part-time to take care of his siblings and mother. Right now, he has his own small company which is growing at an enormous pace and is already perceived to become more successful. With such great experience and personality aspects, I found him an ideal candidate for this interview. The questions I asked him were: His answers to my questions were all very brief, yet highly powerful. All of his answers were supported from practical knowledge and exposure and had no text-book touch to them. According to him, a leader is somebody who is standing in front of his people and controlling and directing them. A leader cannot be a person who sits in isolation in a corner. He needs to be there among people all the time. This is highly essential in gaining popularity and trust with his people. Having been a leader of a successful organization since 8 years, he considers this to be the major difference between leaders and managers. I learnt that leadership traits do not occur in a person by birth but are developed, since childhood, with the help of the environment around. If, at a very young age, a person is thrown up with difficult obstacles and told to cross them, this develops leadership skills in him. Moreover, when a person assumes responsibility of something, be it a house, younger siblings or a company, he automatically assumes the role of a leader. He believes training and education cannot make a successful leader, but can only polish the existing leadership skills in a person. An important point I learnt was that a leader needs to be loved by his people. The love can only come when the people trust him, respect him and are fond of him. A strict

Tree Plantation Essay Example for Free

Tree Plantation Essay Introduction: Since the dawn of civilization man has a close relation with nature. Man has made friendship with nature. Nature helps us in many ways. Similarly trees are closely related with our life. They are our friends. They play an important role in our life and economy. Proper place for plantation: In Bangladesh June and July are the best time for tree plantation. Bangladesh is a lower riparian country. So, Upper levels are the best suitable places to plant trees. Sea beaches and low lying unused lands can be used for tree plantation. There are many roads and highways in our country. We can plant trees on the both sides of these roads and highways. Again in the villages there are many proper places which can be used for tree plantation. The sides and areas that are lying unused can be used too. Our role to make the tree plantation program effective: Tree plantation program should be expanded to the remote corner of the country. The officers connected with this program should take proper steps and needful measures to make it a success. They should try to make it popular all over the country. Most of the people of our village are illiterate. They have no knowledge about the importance of trees. Attempt should be made to make them aware of the importance of trees. Role of trees for our living: Without oxygen we cannot live for a moment even. Without oxygen, the animal world will die away. Trees make the oxygen and spread it in the air. While inhaling air we take the oxygen with it into our bodies and live in life. Carbon dioxide makes our atmosphere or rather our environment poisonous for us. Trees consume this carbon dioxide and thereby make our environment safe for us. Trees provide us with furniture: Trees are our constant companies in our day to day life. We use them for various purposes. We cannot think of our homes, houses, residence etc, without trees. We use trees to make furniture, windows and doors for our domestic use. Again valuable furniture is made from these trees. We also sell some of the valuable furniture to foreign countries. Trees provide us with food and vitamins: Trees are a great source of food and vitamins. There are various kinds of fruit trees. They give us various kinds of fruits which are rich in food value and vitamins. They meet up our need and keep our body fit and sound. Again we export fruits to many other countries and earn a lot of foreign exchange. Its impact on climate: Trees bear a great impact on the climate. If we destroy trees at random, one day the country will turn into a great desert. The country will bear the consequences of green house effect. Again there will be no rain and as a result the country will face a great crisis because ours is an agricultural country. And our economy is dependent on agriculture. Again our agriculture is dependent on rain. So trees play a vital role on our climate. Trees also save us from flood and many other natural calamities. Conclusion: It is needless to speak the importance of trees. It is not possible to describe the importance and uses of trees in words. They are part and parcel in our day to day life. We cannot think of our existence without them. So, we should not use and destroy trees at random. Rather we should plant more trees for a better, happier and healthier life.

History of Tobacco Laws

History of Tobacco Laws Coffins of Black In 1775, Percivall Pott, a surgeon at St. Bartholomews Hospital in England, noticed a marked rise in cases of scrotal cancer in his clinic. His patients were mostly chimney sweeps, who spent a lot of time in contact with grime and ash. He noted that the minute invisible particle of soot could be found under their skin for days, and that scrotal cancer bust out of a superficial skin wound called a soot wart. Based on these observations, Pitt suspected that it was the chimney soot that caused the scrotal cancers. That would mean that the cancer was potentially preventable. But removing the carcinogen was perhaps difficult to achieve. But with the embarrassing plight of chimney sweeps exposed, social reformers sought to create laws to regulate the occupation. The Chimney Sweepers Act was passed in 1788 to prevent master sweeps from using children under eight. In 1834, the age was increased to fourteen. By 1875, the use of young climbing boys was forbidden. In 1761, an amateur scientist in London, John Hill, claimed that he had found one carcinogen tabacco could cause lip, mouth, and throat cancer. In England, tobacco was rapidly escalating into a national addiction. Cigarette smoking soon spread through Europe and across the Atlantic to the United States. As cigarette consumption became a national addiction, it would be difficult to discern an association with cancer. The Emperors Nylon Stockings In the United Kingdom, government statisticians alerted the Ministry of Health in January 1947 that an unexpected epidemic of lung cancer was emerging in the country: Lung cancer morbidity had increased fifteen-fold in the prior two decades. In February, the ministry asked the Medical Research Council to organize a conference of experts to study this inexplicable rise of lung cancer rates and to find the cause. The experts at the conference pointed to every breathable form of toxin except cigarette smoke. Without any consensus, the council appointed Austin Bradford Hill, an eminent biostatistician, to devise a systematic study to identify the risk factor for lung cancer. Hill recruited Richard Doll, a 36-year-old medical researcher who had no experience in performing a study of this scale. *** In the United States, a medical student name Ernst Wynder encountered a case of 42-year-old man who died of cancer of the airways of the lung. The man was a smoker with tar-stained bronchi and soot-blackened lungs. Wynder had never seen such a case before, so he applied to the medical school for money to study the connection between smoking and lung cancer. But he was bluntly told that the effort would be futile. He wrote to the U.S. Surgeon General, but was told that he could prove nothing. So Wynder approached his mentor Evarts Graham, the great heart surgeon in St Louis. Graham was a heavy smoker and didnt believe the connection between cancer and smoking. But he agreed to help Wynder with the study in part to disprove the link and lay the issue at rest. The Case-Control Studies In St Louis, Wynder and Graham followed a simple method. They recruited a group of lung cancer patients and a control group without cancer and asked them about their smoking habits. They used smokers to nonsmokers ratio within each group to determine the smoking-cancer connection. In the UK, Doll and Hill followed a similar method in their study. They asked social workers in the hospital to interview the two groups of patients in and around London. To counteract biases, they included other questions such as how often they eat fried fish into the survey. By May 1, 1948, the result of their study was: The one and only statistical association with lung cancer was cigarette smoking. They published their study in September 1956. Meanwhile, Wynder and Graham in St Louis had also arrived at the same conclusion. The published their studies a few months earlier. The Prospective Cohort Study It might appear that Doll, Hill, Wynder and Graham proved the link between lung cancer and smoking. But they had proved something else. In a case-control study, the risk is estimated post hoc by asking lung cancer patients whether they had smoked. The interviewer could have unconsciously probed lung cancer patients about their smoking habits more aggressively than control group. In the early 1940s, an Oxford geneticist named Edmund Ford faced a similar notion. The solution was to follow a cohort to capture the change over time. Doll and Hill followed Fords work with deep interest. There was a centralized registry of all doctors in Britain that could be used for a cohort study. Every time a doctor in the registry died, the registrar was noticed with a detail description of the cause of death. On October 31, 1951, Doll and Hill sent out survey letters to about 60,000 doctors. About 41,000 of them responded. Doll and Hill used the data to create a master list, dividing it into smokers and nonsmokers. Each time a death was reported, they found out the cause of death from the registrars office. Between October 1951 and March 1954, 789 deaths were reported, and 36 were attributed to lung cancer. All these 36 deaths had occurred in the smokers category, showing a strong correlation between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. A thief in the Night In 1956, the percentage of smokers in the US adult population had reached an all-time peak of 45 percent. Cigarette sales had climbed to stratospheric heights and the tobacco industry had transformed their advertising by targeting their advertising to selected segments of the population. By the early 1960s, an average American consumed eleven cigarettes per day, nearly one for each waking hour. In the mid-1950s, public health organizations in America were undisturbed by the link between tobacco and cancer. But the tobacco industry was worried that the link would scare consumers away. In 1953, three years before Dolls prospective study was public, the heads of several tobacco companies met in New York to prepare a counterattack. They saturated the news media in 1954 with an advertisement titled A Frank Statement, obfuscating facts and creating doubts about the connection between lung cancer and tobacco. They had already formed a committee called Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) to act as an intermediary between the hostile academy, the embattled tobacco industry, and the confused consumer. The director of the committee was Clarence Cook Little, who the Laskerites had deposed as president of ASCC. Little was a strong proponent that lung cancer was hereditary. Studies had shown a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer. But correlation, Little argued, could not be equated with cause. To counter that argument, Bradford Hill prepared a list of nine criteria that could prove a causal relationship. No single item in that list proved causality, but scientists could pick criteria from the list to strengthen or weaken the causal relationship. In the February 1957, Evart Graham died from bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma. Two weeks before he died, Graham wrote to his friend Alton Ochsner: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma sneaked up on me like a thief in the nightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦You know I quit smoking more than five years ago, but the trouble is that I smoked for 50 years. In 1954, in a book entitled Smoking and Cancer, Graham had wondered whether it was time for the US Public Health Service to at least issue a statement of warning. A Statement of Warning In the summer of 1963, a team of three men visited the laboratory of Oscar Auerbach in East Orange, New Jersey. Oscar Auerbach was a lung pathologist who believed that cancer grew from a precursor lesion precancer to its full-blown form slowly, and methodically, over a long period of time. Long before lung cancer became symptomatic, he found, the lung tissues contained layers of precancerous lesions in various stages of development. He had recently completed a monumental study comparing lung specimens of nonsmokers and smokers, which was considered a landmark in the understanding of the genesis of lung cancer. The three visitors were William Cochran, Peter Hamill, and Emmanuel Farber. They were three of the ten-member advisory committee appointed by the US surgeon general. The   mandate (of the committee) was to review the evidence connecting tobacco to cancer so that the surgeon general could issue an official report. US Surgeon Generals Report In 1961, the American Cancer Society, the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Heart Association had sent a joint letter to President Kennedy urging him to appoint a national commission to investigate the link between tobacco and cancer. Kennedy assigned it to his surgeon general, Luther Terry. Terry appointed ten members to his advisory committee. Each member brought insight to a unique piece of the puzzle. Piece by piece, a consistent picture emerged. The committee found the relationship between smoking and lung cancer was one of the strongest in history. Luther Terry released his 387-page report on January 11, 1964. The report was released on a Saturday in part to minimize its effect on the stock market. It was front page news and a leading story on every television and radio stations in the United States and abroad. The FTC Action The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was a federal agency whose mandate was to regulate advertisements and claims made by various products. Given the link between cigarettes and cancer, as acknowledged by the surgeon generals report, the FTC recommended that cigarette makers would need to acknowledge this directly in advertising their products. The FTC recommended to imprint the message into the product itself. Cigarette packages and all advertisements were to be labeled with Caution: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Health. It May Cause Death from Cancer and Other Disease. The proposed action from the FTC spread panic through the tobacco industry. Rather than being regulated by the FTC, the tobacco industry voluntarily requested regulation by Congress. In Congress, the FTCs recommendation was diluted as it changed hands from hearing to hearing, leading to an amended bill called the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) of 1965. It changed the FTCs warning label to Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. The words cancer, cause, and deaths were removed from the original label. Battle on Cigarette Advertising In late 1966, a young attorney named John Banzhaf asked a local television station to provide airtime for anti-smoking announcements. The station refused. In the summer of 1967, Banzhaf filed a complaint with the FCC. The FCCs fairness doctrine required public media to provide free air time to opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. The FCC announced responded that its fairness doctrine applied to the request for anti-smoking announcements. With the FTC consent, Banzhaf sued the TV station. The suit went to trial in 1968. The court ruled that proportional airtime had to be given to pro-tobacco and anti-tobacco advertising. In February 1969, the FCC announced that they would rigorously police the proportional air time clause.   A barrage of anti-smoking advertisements appeared on television. In late 1970, faced with the daily brunt of negative publicity, tobacco manufacturers voluntarily withdrew cigarette advertising from broadcast media. Lawsuits Against Tobacco Manufacturers Rose Cipollone started smoking when she was a teenager in 1942. She tried to quit, but relapsed later with greater dependency. In her quest for the safe cigarette, she had switched brands and tried new filters periodically. In 1981, Cipollone was diagnosed with lung cancer. By August 1983, the cancer metastasized all over her body. She started chemotherapy, but had a poor response. She died on October 21, 1984 at age 58. Marc Edell, a New Jersey attorney, heard of Cipollones diagnosis in the summer of 1983. He sued for the Cipollones against three tobacco manufacturers whose products Rose had used Liggette, Lorillard, and Philip Morris. In previous lawsuits against the tobacco companies, the tobacco industry had all declared victory. Edell acknowledged that Rose Cipollone had read the warning labels and knew of the risks of smoking. But what matter was what the cigarette manufacturers knew, and how much of the cancer risk they had revealed to consumers. Edell asked the courts for unprecedented access to the internal files of the three tobacco companies. These documents showed that the tobacco companies knew smoking was linked to cancer, and the struggles within the industry to conceal the risks. In 1987, after four long years, the court decided that Rose Cipollone was 80 percent at fault. Only Liggett was liable for the remaining 20 percent, as Rose Cipollone smoked their cigarettes before the 1966 warning labels. Lorillard and Philip Morris got off without punishment. The jury awarded $400,000 in damages to Antonio Cipollone. Lawsuits by the States In 1994, Mississippi was the first state to sue the tobacco industry to recover its public healthcare outlays linked to smoking. Several other states soon followed. Faced with the prospect of defending multiple actions nationwide, the four largest cigarette makers proposed a global agreement in June 1997. In 1998, 46 states signed the Master Settlement Agreement with the four companies. Since 1998, an additional 47 cigarette makers have joined the agreement, making it one of the largest liability settlements in the United States.