Saturday, November 30, 2019

Role of Women in Things Fall Apart Essay Example

Role of Women in Things Fall Apart Essay Women in the Ibo society are lower in the hierarchy than men; however, they are still holders of very important roles in the Ibo society. Women seem to be useless and without any power, but at a further look into their role, a bigger significance is revealed. Even though wife beating is allowed and women are discriminated in several other ways, they still possess significant roles, such as householders, educators of the children and caretakers of crops. Women also function as spiritual leaders and other important roles in the Ibo religion. Women in â€Å"Things Fall Apart† are in general thought of as the weaker sex. At a first glance, women are the laborers, and the producers of children. They are not respected as real people, but are more just the men’s property. All they have to do is to be good housewives, and make sure to please their husband at all times. For this reason, women have no identity of their own; but are defined by the status or position of their husband. Women are discriminated in several ways throughout the novel. As an example on page 21, Okonkwo beats up his first wife for not returning home to cook the afternoon meal. We will write a custom essay sample on Role of Women in Things Fall Apart specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Role of Women in Things Fall Apart specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Role of Women in Things Fall Apart specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In this specific example, he has to pay a penalty for beating up his wife during the ‘week of peace’, although it seems perfectly normal and acceptable for the men to beat up their wives on other times of the year. Similarly, it is okay for the men to talk down to the women, and treat them however they want. The men are in control, and women have no say when it comes to decision-making around the house. It is an insult for a man to be called a woman. For instance, Okonkwo call his own father, Unoka, a woman because of the way he lived, taking loans and surviving in debts. He is ashamed of him and of being his son, so Unoka is only worth the title of a female. Another example is where Okonkwo kills his new ‘son’, Ikemefuma and command himself to not â€Å"become like a shivering old woman. † (45) He doesn’t want to appear weak to the people, and ‘a shivering old woman’ is the equivalent of weak. But, women have important roles in the society as well, so the characterization made so far is rather limiting. Women are, first off, the primary educators of the children. Through storytelling and using their own experiences, they educate the kids and socialize them at the same time. They are also the only labor when it comes to cooking and taking care of the household. In addition to these roles, we also observe women doing other stuff of importance throughout the novel. As an example, â€Å"the women weeded the farm three times at definite periods in the life of the yams, neither early or late. (24) This is a really important job, because if it’s done incorrectly, the yam harvest will fail. Sometimes women take spiritual roles in the novel. Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the hill and the Caves (49) is a good example of this. She is the priestess in the novel, and her authority is unquestioned. When she comes to pick up Enzinma, Okonkwo asks her to come back the next day instead, but she disagrees; Beware Okonkwo! she warned. Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware! (71) She is not only going against Okonkwo’s will, but also threatening him at the same time. As a respond, Okonkwo does nothing but accepts it and shows respect because of her spiritual role as priestess. This is the only time in the novel that Okonkwo plead with anyone, male or female. Another example of a woman possessing a spiritual role in the Ibo religion could be the earth goddess, Ani. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. And what more, she was in close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth. † (26) It doesn’t make any sense that a society who views women as the weakest, would present their most powerful deity as a woman. Ani is very important to the Ibo society. The week of peace, for instance, is only to honor the earth goddess, so the crops will be okay. This statement is strongly supported by Okonkwo’s example when he breaks the peace of Ani and beats his wife. It all goes down to honor the women. On the whole, there’s a strong sense of repression of the women, but they still have great significance to the Ibo society. They fill out roles that the men are not able to fill out. They provide their labor to the household in form of cooking and cleaning, they teach the kids through storytelling and they help out in the crop fields as well. In religion they are honored more than men. Chielo and Ani’s roles as priestess and earth goddess, respectively, are of great contribution to the importance of women in the Ibo culture. To sum up, the culture and the religion wouldn’t survive without the women.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Working with GIF images in Delphi

Working with GIF images in Delphi Even though Delphi does not natively support GIF image files formats (like BMP or JPEG), there are a few great (free source) components available on the Net, which add the ability to display and manipulate GIF images at run as well as at design time to any Delphi application. Natively, Delphi supports BMP, ICO, WMF, and JPG images. These can be loaded into a graphics-compatible component (such as TImage) and used in an application. Its important to note that, as of Delphi version 2006, GIF format is supported by the VCL. To use animated GIF images you would still need a third-party control. GIFsor Graphics Interchange Formatsare the most widely supported (bitmap) graphics format on the Web, both for still images and for animations. Using in Delphi Natively, Delphi (until version 2007) does not support GIF images, due to some legal copyright issues. What this means, is that when you drop a TImage component on a form, use the Picture Editor (click the ellipsis button in the Value column for properties, such as the Picture property of TImage) to load an image into the TImage, you will not have an option to load GIF images. Fortunately, there are a few third-party implementations on the Internet that provide full support for the GIF format: TGIFImage: free with source (a version of Anders Melanders TGIFImage ported to Delphi 7). Full TGraphic implementation of the GIF graphics format. Reads, writes and displays animated and transparent GIFs and can convert to and from any format supported by TGraphic (e.g TBitmap, TJPEGImage, TIcon, TMetaFile, etc.). Implements the complete GIF87a and GIF89a specification and most common GIF extensions. Advanced features include:Integrates with TPicture to add GIF support to the TImage, TOpenPictureDialog and TSavePictureDialog components. Also works at design time.Imports images with more than 256 colors using color quantization and 6 different dithering methods (e.g. Floyd-​Steinberg).Multi-threaded drawing engine.GIF optimizer reduces the size of your GIFs.GIF to AVI and AVI to GIF converter.GraphicEx image library: an addendum to Delphis Graphics.pas to enable your application to load many common image formats. This library is primarily designed to load images as background ( buttons, forms, toolbars) and textures (DirectX, OpenGL) or for image browsing and editing purposes as long as you dont need to save images. Currently, only TTargaGraphic also supports saving an image. GraphicEx is open source under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Thats about it. Now all you have to do is to download one of the components and start using gif images in your applications.You can, for example: Store GIF images in a database table. Youll need the GIF images magic numbers.Show GIF graphics as Glyph on a SpeedButton.Store GIF graphics and an HTML file as a  resource  inside am exe.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Cause And Effect Of Procrastination

problem runs rampant particularly among college students in the form of procrastination. Procrastination is the art of putting something off until the very last possible time that one still has the ability to achieve it. Procrastination often has very negative effects and can cause underachievement, stress, and lack of sleep. However, some people would argue that they work best under the pressure of a deadline, so procrastination may be capable of helping to produce good results in these cases. Some†¦ Procrastination Cause and Effects Doing things at the last-minute is a trait that many people do not wish to have, but have done at one point or another. Putting things off or procrastinating is an idea that someone puts a certain task or chore aside until it is urgent. It is common among people who do not feel like completing the task at that very moment. Procrastinating can have many effects on someone’s life in more than one way. One effect that procrastination can have on a person’s life is†¦ some research conducted on the effect of academic procrastination with either self-determination theory or subjective well-being. However, there is not much research on procrastination with both self-determination theory and well-being together. These topics are of interest because the literature shows that these two factors appear to be related to each other in some way. It makes sense that an individual 's level of motivation and happiness would have some effect on whether or not they procrastinate†¦ down, but by then it is too late. Procrastination becomes a part of a routine- a habit. An individual can prevent it once he or she puts his or her mind to it and desires to change. More specifically, college students develop this pattern of putting assignments off to the side until the very last minute. There are numerous reasons as to why students procrastinate, but there are also ways to be more productive and avoid it. Although it may seem like procrastination is more satisfying and more convenient†¦ Procrastination Oh, how I am absolutely notorious with this.. My bittersweet, guilty pleasure! And at most times completely unaware that I do it or that I 'm subconsciously sabotaging myself to defer whatever it is that I should be doing. To procrastinate is to delay or postpone action. Some might even use the word lazy to describe someone that has a habit of this. A procrastinator rarely ever does nothing but rather always doing something (little, tedious, time consuming, mostly unimportant things)†¦ Topic: Procrastination Purpose: To inform audience about the facts, causes, and drawbacks or procrastination Introduction: As students we value our time and know that every bit of our time cost something. We chose to attend school in hopes of bettering our future. With this amazing opportunity we are granted the freedom of making our own decisions including what to wear, eat, or when to do our work. Having this freedom we often decide that since no one is making us do the work that we have time†¦ guilty of it at one time or another; We have been victims of procrastinating, especially as students. Procrastination is defined as â€Å"putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention† (Harper, 2015). This can include putting off assignments, papers, and projects. As you can imagine, the outcome of doing this is always negative. Procrastinating not only has psychological effects, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, but it additionally takes a toll on your body. Students†¦ Just about every person in the world has faced procrastination before in their lives. Procrastination is one of the things that I hate because I procrastinate with many things in my life. One of the main things I personally procrastinate most frequently on is school work. I know just about every college student can relate. There are many different reasons why people procrastinate, maybe they do not enjoy the task at hand, maybe they are afraid of failure, or maybe they are just lazy. There are a†¦ date. This action is called procrastination. Procrastination is the action of postponing or delaying a task. Everyone does it and sometimes people do it without even noticing. There are many reasons why people procrastinate, and it is not hard to control. The following paragraphs will explain reasons people procrastinate and strategies on how to deal with procrastination, ways to overcome procrastination, statistics about procrastination, and side effects of procrastination. One of the reasons why†¦ will explain the consequences of students procrastinating in college. The consequences discussed will be how procrastinating affects students grades, as well as students who do not procrastinate on a regular basis. Later on, solutions to reduce procrastination in college that can also be applied to your life in general. Holding students accountable for submitting work on time and holding instructors accountable for enforcing these standards will also be discussed. How colleges can help students quit†¦

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Information Systems Design and sociotechnical systems Essay

Information Systems Design and sociotechnical systems - Essay Example The authors appreciate the need for proper systems to model and analyze the interaction and composition of software and hardware components with organizational and human actors. The authors evaluate and select the right trade-off between social and technical dimensions. They propose tool-supported procedures of requirement analysis for technical-social systems that adopt planning schemes for exploring the range of requirement alternatives in addition to a number of social criteria for their assessment. The authors illustrate the proposed approach using a case study. The publication proposes a systematic, tool-supported procedure that aims at supporting the designer in evaluating and exploring alternative configurations and frameworks of socio-technical system delegations. It supposes that the accomplishment of such processes be done through Artificial Intelligence planning techniques in constructing design alternatives. It also gives a set of assessment criteria for evaluating and comparing the available options (Volha, Paolo, & Mylopoulos, 2012, p. 7). The paper has presented the presented schemed process that supports the proposed approach. It also gives the outline of the planning, discussion and formalization of the concrete set of evaluation criteria. The white paper has reported on the assessment of the proposal through a number of case studies in addition to a series of scalable experiments. Bert, P. (2011, June 3). Sicio-Technocal Design of Knowledge Work & IT; A Case Study. Retrieved Feb 12, 2014, from Independent Consulting Social Scientist: http://moderntimesworkplace.com/good_reading/GRNewTech/STS.Design.of.KnowledgeWork_IT.v2.pdf The author uses a case study of E-File introduction into the system of an insurance company as an imperfect, but powerful example of the challenges and the potentials of designing technical and social elements of knowledge work interactively and concurrently. Bert explores a case study of a public insurance

Monday, November 18, 2019

Global Warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 10

Global Warming - Essay Example Erosion and urbanization continue to be the main culprit that has destroyed livestock. Peterson (2005)Agriculture demands in have slowly exponentially have to be in compliance with the environmental rules that propagated the cause for deforestation. As a matter of fact, this article is firm to promote an organic approach that would diminish integrated pest management and safe use of insecticide, pesticides, weedicide, and herbicides. As a result, water resources are scarce because of obvious human development as water pollution and corrosion continue to plague the eco system. Water resources depend on the hydrologic cycle, on climate change, and to some degree on fossil water in the ground. Peterson (2005) The constant depletion of natural resources are building up atmospheric pressure that is detrimental to the environment. As a result, the massive amount of population growth and the associated increase in agriculture, which has incite to utilize groundwater resources. It is evident that water scarcity will be an issue. Hence, this poses a serious problem of seeking other sources for energy, which results in burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels is a detriment to the environment because it forces climate change. This is a mitigation risk that needs to be embedded. One of the high focal points that has been emphasized over the years as an alternative approach for energy source has been solar energy in this realm. The utilization of a solar initiative can be a very robust solution that can be utilized for powering residential and industrial purposes. One of the many advantages that solar energy offer is substantial reduction in pollution since no waste product is yielded. The production of energy is being derived from use of fossil fuel. Another great facet that solar energy offers is the fact that it can harness electricity in

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Debut albums - Life Essay Example for Free

Debut albums Life Essay This is a phrase, a philosophy phrase that is about living, daily living. But what do you think it really means or should we say what is the hidden meaning about it? Why just living is not enough? Living is not enough because we need to experience all the things we can. Simple as to explore the world or the things that was given to us by our beloved GOD. We need to experience all good, better and best, bad, worse and worst. From worst to best to know what the word LIFE truly means. It also doesnt mean we need to do crimes in order to experience bad things, its just like problems, wounds and etc. We and I consider it as bad things because I dont like any of that happen to me. Just living is not enough†¦. We need to explore and find the true meaning of life. He who hesitates is probably right. This is a philosophy that we can use daily, why? Because this is about decision making. And we always make decision in every aspect of our life. As a student I can relate in this because of our recitations in school. We always hesitate before we raise our hands to answer. We will suddenly know that our or my answer is right because someone answers it. And its too late to get the credit. The philosophy above is trying to teach or to tell us that if we have ideas, share it, tell it, explain it because we will never know if our ideas is right if we dont try it. Not only for students but all individuals around the globe. Human life is purely a matter of deciding whats important to you. This Philosophy is saying human life always choose whats important to you. But why? All individuals are different from each other, different tastes, likes, dislikes and many more. But we all have similarities, we always choose whats important to us in every problem that comes in our life. For some instances, family problems like marriage and your family doesn’t want your fiance or fiancee, you will decide whats MORE important to you your family or your love one? If you choose your family, then go and its also the same if you choose your love one. I understand in this philosophy that this our instict that we always choose whats important to us but it never assures us that what is important will be the best for us. Only friends can answer your calls everytime of day that matter. This is a simple philosophy that is about friendship. If we first read it, we will quickly understand what it means. But what do we understand? We all know we have many friends in our life, friends in school, friends in the neighborhood and many more. We also know not all friends are real, just like this saying says Some friends are gold and some friends are silver. The philosophy above is trying to tell us that only TRUE and REAL friends can answer your calls no matter what your problem is. The friends that are there for you no matter what. No matter what time of day it is, you could call them and theyd be there for you. And its true, they are the ones that matter. The people who you can really rely on to be there for you are the ones that should matter in your life.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Illegal Immigrants of American Society Essay -- essays research papers

Illegal Immigrants of American Society A Realistic Approach At present, the U.S. immigration system is burdened both by policy and implementation challenges. It is barely able to meet the commitments required by law and policy and is ill-prepared to address new challenges and mandates. Agreement that the system is broken may be the only point of consensus among many diverse stakeholders. The Task Force believes that immigration laws and policies are broken in four ways: . There is an increasing disconnection between law and reality that undermines the rule of law, breeds disrespect for American values and institutions, and makes it more difficult to garner domestic support for immigration and advance U.S. values overseas. . Some immigration policies hamper rather than encourage economic growth, impeding responses to global economic changes and cyclical industry needs. . Immigration policies have not adequately addressed threats to national security. . Immigration integration policy is nearly nonexistent, especially at the federal level, leaving state and local governments to absorb the consequences of federally established immigration policy. According to Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, immigrants long have been part of the American landscape, reflecting our country's values and traditions. During the last decade the Midwest has seen a resurgence of its long-established tradition of immigration. Nine of twelve Midwest states had foreign-born populations that grew faster than the national average during the 1990s. These immigrants are preventing population decline, reinvigorating economic growth, and contributing to cultural diversity. Unfortunately, most immigration discussions tend to overlook the heartland of the country and our long and continuing experience with immigrants. Some in the Midwest believe that immigration here, important in itself, also is a microcosm for what is occurring across the country. They thus believe that observations, conclusions, and recommendations resonate nationwide. As I found on www.dallasfed.org, meat packing drew thousands of immigrants to the Midwest, and poultry processing did the same in the South Atlantic states. Jobs in these two industries exemplify the type of jobs new immigrants commonly fill—low-skill, blue-collar jobs. This is because a large percentage of immigrants have less than a high... ...t is evident, however in the instance that our country allows amnesty and allows the immigrants to pay legal taxes, our system may not be so burdened by these citizens.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   English first. Legislation that establishes English as the required and preeminent language throughout the United States. Public and private sectors cannot be required to provide services in alternative languages.We need to declare English as the official language of the Government of the United States. I believe that making English the official language will help immigrants assimilate and take full advantage of the economic, occupational and educational opportunities in the United States, where English is the common language. I do not believe that other countries would be teaching us their language if we moved to their country. . In conclusion, I feel that if we allow amnesty or guest worker programs in our country with chances of citizenship, I feel that we will not see increased illegal immigrants in the future because we allow them to come over legally and in a control system. I see the future role of LEGAL immigrants as assets to our country and not just burdens to our society.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Alcohol intoxication and edgar allan poe’s ‘the haunted palace’

It is unfair to immediately conclude something of a poem because as is normal with poetry, such is given to various interpretations.   While common interpretations of Poe’s ‘The Haunted Palace’ seem to assert confirmedly that the poem describes somebody dying with tuberculosis, this particular interpretation seems to be very faulty in many aspects because it is an interpretation that concretizes the already concrete images in the poem.In poetry, emotions and abstractions are concretized using tangible images, in which case, the interpretation of any piece of poetry should be dependent on the emotions that these concrete images convey and not on the additional concrete images that can be gleaned for the existing imagery in the poem, otherwise, this would cause ambiguity in the reading.   This is what happened with the ‘tuberculosis’ interpretation – another concrete image was read into the already concrete imagery in the poem.   It would b e wise to offer another reading of the poem, in this case, it has to be argued that instead of the tuberculosis interpretation a more accurate reading of the poem would be to consider alcohol intoxication, after all, other than just the images in the poem, the author, Poe was also given to alcoholism after the various tragedies in his life.To start this argument, it would first be best to consider why the previous interpretation of death by tuberculosis is faulty.   The reason for this faultiness is that an initial general reading of the poem was applied, and some of the finer details were disregarded in favor of the general reading.   To illustrate these further, take for instance the passage, â€Å"Through which came flowing/†¦A troop of echoes,/ whose sweet duty was but to sing† (27-30) – most readers interpret this as blood spit, however, there is nothing in these lines that present an image of one coughing out blood; these lines are more accurately alludi ng to someone who is talking gibberish, hence, the follow-up lines, â€Å"In voices of surpassing beauty,/the wit and wisdom of their king† (31-32)Most readers interpret this as being someone who is coughing up blood, but if read again carefully, the lines actually speak of someone who is incomprehensible, talking without ‘wit and wisdom’. (32)Another instance in the poem where a faulty reading is made is with the fifth stanza, this stanza is actually where the ‘haunting’ begins in the poem because this stanza talks about how the ‘monarch’ (34) dies.   There are readings of the poem that interpret this as the plague that killed the ‘monarch’ (34), however, if the lines are perused slowly, no such plague can be read into the poem.Others would argue that, â€Å"But evil things, in robes of sorrow† (33) personify the sickness of the king, but if this line is dissected it has to be noticed that what is being referred to here are ‘things’ (33), perhaps to mock the integrity of those whom this line is intended; and these ‘things’ (33) are in ‘robes of sorrow’ (33); the only ones who wore robes during the era of chivalry were knights and other nobility.These lines show how faultily the poem was interpreted by those who interpreted it as being the description of a head or someone dying with tuberculosis.Moving on, the next step would be to fortify the argument that, indeed, the poem is about drunkenness.   There are many details in the poem that point this particular subject matter out.Initially, let us consider the general theme of the poem – reading through it, it may be interpreted to be about someone who was initially a man of the people, and eventually, after succumbing to alcoholism, becomes introvert, depressed, and isolated from society.   The ‘death’ in the poem may be interpreted not as physical death but the death of a particula r aspect of a human person, such as his social affiliations, his sanity, or his soul.   This is validated in the end of the poem as will be explained in detail shortly.To begin the discussion of the poem and alcoholism, let us first consider the narrative of the poem which is shown in the first three stanzas.   In these stanzas, which are mostly descriptions of the palace, various allusions are noticed.For instance, in the second stanza, â€Å"Banners yellow, glorious, golden/on its roof did float and flow† (9-10); as opposed to the common interpretation of this being representative of the blond hair of the king in the poem, a more accurate interpretation would come from the Puritan tradition.Yellow ribbons have their origins in the English Civil War when members of the Puritan Army of English Parliament wore yellow ribbons.   This is also the origin of the ‘yellow-ribbon-tied-around-a-tree’ tradition which represents waiting for someone.Therefore, these pa ssages may just simply allude to the Puritan background of the poem, or perhaps, to the fact that the occupant of the palace is waiting for someone’s return.The parenthesized lines, â€Å"(This-all this-was in the olden/Time long ago,)† (11-12)   So, with these lines, it is easily concluded that the occupant of the palace has been waiting for someone for a very long time, which perhaps could be the reason for the development of melancholy, â€Å"Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,/A winged odor went away.†(15-16) The ‘spirits’ (14) in the third stanza do not refer to the ‘ghost’ that we might suppose them to be, but to actual persons – just as it might be used in the idiomatic expression ‘there was not a single soul in sight†.It is clear from the three stanzas of the narrative of the poem that there is nothing that talks about ‘tuberculosis’ or ‘death’.   These first three stanzas simpl y set the tone for a paradox as the poem progresses.   The poem is a mini story and as such, it has all the elements of a piece of prose, only rendered in poetry.   The images are very vivid and it is quite surprising that anyone would interpret it as something else more than just what it is actually saying.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Marketing Plan for Microsoft Xbox in Gaming Console Market in India

Marketing Plan for Microsoft Xbox in Gaming Console Market in India Group 10: Ankur Chaudhary (1211326)Gaurav Parashar (1211340) Nikhil Wasnik (1211398)Shanthosh P (1211381) Saakshi Mahajan (1211378) Backdrop: The current gaming console market in India is around INR 900 crores . The most prominent players in this industry comprise of Sony (PS Series), Nintendo (Wii Series) and Microsoft (XBOX Series).The market share of Xbox in India is 23% by sales, compared to PS Series’ share of 40%-45% , which is in contrast to the global statistics where Xbox enjoys a market share of around 45%-47% compared to PS Series’ share of around 25-28%. The stark difference in the market share is a case for assessing the lag Xbox suffers, with regard to its marketing strategy in India. Project Details: In this project, we aim to study the gaming console market in India, specifically looking at current marketing of Microsoft Xbox in India and compare it with global markets (US and other deve loped markets).We will explore the performance of Xbox v/s the Sony Play station (current market leader in India) The market which we are studying is urban teenagers/young adults (age 10-25) and gaming consoles Gaming consoles in India have a market penetration of only 2% but with the increase in sales of big screen TV's and leisure wants of the urban teenager, the market is expected to grow at a fast pace in the next decade. We will explore the current marketing process of Microsoft Xbox in terms of integrated marketing mix and the customer ; partner relations.Gaming consoles belong to the hedonic category of products where rationalizing evaluation of alternatives by the shopper is important. The purchase for gaming consoles is typical approved by the parent and the user is the teenager. We aim to explore the decision pattern used individually by the parent and teenager. Some of the factors affecting consumer behavior in India are unique because of traditionally lesser spending on games, piracy in PC games and parental fear that games interfere in studies. We aim to do qualitative analysis the market, through surveys and interviews.The gaming console market has been segmented into customers using PS2 (cheaper old technology but still a step up for gaming in India), PS3 (premium cutting edge gaming) and PSP (gaming on the go primarily for the kids). We aim to study Microsoft's market segmentation, targeting and position in terms of its offerings like XBOX, XBOX 360 and Kinect. Overall we would address how Microsoft should reposition its gaming consoles in Indian markets to gain more market share and build profitable customer relationships.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Challenges in State and Local Public Finance Essays

Challenges in State and Local Public Finance Essays Challenges in State and Local Public Finance Essay Challenges in State and Local Public Finance Essay The government is one of the many institutions that greatly affect our everyday life. Most of the services that we get to avail of are financed by the state and local government. These services include road maintenance, water supply, environmental protection, etc (Bish). Public finance or government finance is a branch of economics that deals with the allocation of budget in revenues and expenditures of a public sector. This public sector we are referring to is, oftentimes, the government.There are a lot of challenges facing state and local public finance. One of them are local taxes. Inequalities in local sales taxes are worsening in local government finance. Also, competition may emerge involving sales tax revenues in certain municipalities of a country. Another problem with taxes is that some municipalities rely on them for economic expansion which is not its real purpose. The second challenge facing public finance is the allocation function of the governme nt. Its allocation function includes the existence of public goods. Public goods can be a problem in public finance since it is impossible or inefficient to exclude individuals in availing a certain good. The problem with public goods is that its payment is voluntary.Because of this, some goods will not be supplied by the market or if supplied, quantities will be insufficient. One of the solutions with this problem would be ballot voting. Another problem that one might encounter in public finance is the government’s stabilization function. This function of the government requires them to think of effective policies that are needed to attain full employment and price stability which is not easy. Implementing policies will never be effective if it is not thought based on the current situation of the economy of a certain area. Another would-be problem is externalities. This kind of market failure arises when market transactions between economic agents generate external effects. Goods with negative externalities will be over provided (in the sense of efficiency) and goods with positive externalities will be under provided. Regulations, Taxes, and rewards are the possible solutions to this problem. Lastly, the distribution function of the government can also be a problem in public finance. Since everybody wants fair distribution, government expenditures must be distributed equally in different classes or groups. The problem is that the concept of â€Å"fairness† is subjective. What is fair to one might not be fair to another.Reference:Bish, Robert L. Local Government Finance Issues in the Unoted States.   2002.   University of Victoria. December 13 2006. http://web.uvic.ca/padm/cpss/lgi/pdfs/bbish/lgf_us.pdf.

Monday, November 4, 2019

HR needs of Natural Knibbles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

HR needs of Natural Knibbles - Essay Example Aside from Furthermore, the same technology can be used to enable Cherrie to manage employee benefit packages that are effective in terms of motivating its existing employees to support the challenges the company is about to encounter. Among the HR issues and challenges that Natural Knibbles need to address includes: (1) the need to implement human resource information management system (HRIMS) that is tailored to the company’s current HR needs (Matthews: 140); (2) risk of facing the business consequences caused by resistance-to-change; (3) need to establish a strong organizational culture that strongly supports organizational learning, work flexibility and adaptation to organizational change; (4) significance of transformational leadership skills in the implementation of new HR strategies; and (5) importance of establishing a new organizational vision and mission. The problem with implementing HRIMS lies behind the possibility wherein some of the company’s existing employee may find it difficult to learn how to use new technologies. Although the use of HRIMS could enhance employees ability to improve the quality of their products and services rendered to the customers (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2012: 54), the success of implementing HRIMS is highly dependent on the willingness of its employees to embrace change. Because of their fear of changing their usual working practices, some of them may refuse to adapt to the required organizational change. Because of the risk wherein, Brandon and Cherrie would face business consequences associated with resistance-to-change, Cherrie should be able to establish a strong organizational culture that strongly supports organizational learning, work flexibility and adaptation to organizational change. With this in mind, the process of making organizational learning such as peer coaching and work flexibility a part of the company’s culture can make its employees more open to organizational changes  (Richardson 2009: 138; Zepeda 2007: 227; Zepada & Mayers 2004: 33).

Saturday, November 2, 2019

No selected topic yet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

No selected topic yet - Essay Example Extreme heat waves is one of the many health effects of global warming. For instance in 2003, it claimed 70,000 lives in Europe alone. Bad air, allergy and asthma are part of the health issues. Global warming increases smog pollution some areas and intensify pollen allergies and asthma. Other issue associated with global warming are infectious diseases, food and waterborne infection outbreaks. Warming temperatures, irregular periods of deluges and droughts, as well as ecosystem disruptions have contributed to more extensive outbreaks of contagious diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, which at any point affects the economy of the country in one way or the other. Rising global temperatures speed up the melting of ice caps and glaciers and cause premature ice thaw on rivers and seas. This causes a rise in sea level, hence flooding is increased, which, affects living organisms dearly (Archer, 10). Global warming is a problem to be addressed seriously by all countries and governments in the world. Failure to put serious, practical measures to end the situation may result into long-term effects to both human beings, wildlife, and the environment at