Indian Ocean Trade Essay

During the time period between 300 CE and 1450 CE the Indian Ocean Trade was consistent of its spread of goods, religion, and the growth of trade route under different empires. On the other hand, the significant changes were the ways of trade, diffusion of religion, and empires controlling the trade route. Economically, the Indian Ocean Trade stayed the same in the way of spreading goods, but changed in the means of trading. Around the fifth century CE long- distant trade by land was mostly used. Trade of exotic products for the elite, such as; silk, spices, and gems, were spread all throughout the trade network and were incorporated into local markets. This is because there were new markets being built and goods spread. Methods of trade changed for the better. Land travel was no longer the only method of transporting goods. Ships in the thirteenth century could only travel by monsoon winds. With the introduction of maneuverable sails, ships like the dhow and junk were able to move goods under many wind conditions. This helped a great deal because the people would not have to wait as long for the delivery of trade goods. Culturally, the Indian Ocean Trade was consistent in the spread of religion and ideas, a change was the diffusion of cultures by religion. The Muslims were a prime example of this continuity. They were a big religion, and as their merchants traded, their religion spread as well. On the other hand, Islam is a great example of the change. Islam came into regions that didn’t have a big religious base. As people converted, their old culture diffused. From this, regions lost their identity because people were converting, whether it was by force of new leaders or by choice. Politically, a continuity of the Indian Ocean Trade is growing while under different empires, and a change in which empires controlled the trade  network. An example of the continuity would be the Mongols, how they made trade much easier and made it grow. Many merchants benefited from the Yuan Dynasty, around the fourteenth century. This ties to the change, because from 300 CE to 1450 CE there were different empires, such as, Sui and Tang Dynasty, Swahili States, Mongols, and Islamic Caliphates. The different empires made trade grow and spread. As the empires grew the routes changed, connecting trade routes to the; Trans- Sahara, Silk Road, South Asian, and Mediterranean routes. During 300 CE and 1450 CE changes involving the Indian Ocean included how goods were transported, cultures were diffused due to new religions, and the empires that controlled. Trade on the Indian Ocean steadily increased the spread of goods and religion even though it was controlled by different empires.

Book Review – Servant Leader

As I started reading this book I couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu. Why were the thoughts and ideas being shared so familiar? Then I realized something, much like the author’s recollection of what his grandmother said. Many of these ideas were things that I had heard from my parents when I was growing up. I cannot count the number of times my father has encouraged me to be myself and true to myself and follow the right path regardless of the adversities that might come my way.Or the number of times my mother has asked me to see others as I would want them to see me and accept others for who they are. After all there is a reason why everyone isn’t alike, it would be real boring if you were to turn around and all you’d see were reflections of yourself. Why is it then that I (we) needed a book to remind me (us) of things that could be just basic common sense?Unfortunately years and years of school and college followed up with years of working in a dog -eat-dog environment has conditioned to not think about these basic things. We are trained to run as fast as we can for if we slow down someone else might take our place, we concentrate so much on running that we forget to stop and slow down once in a while to notice the important things. This book serves to remind us of the basics, to show that it is not always about win-lose, it helps us take what is common sense and helps us make it common practice.There were many things I learned from this book, but there are a few concepts that stand out. I quote the author â€Å"Leadership begins on the inside with self-awareness and self esteem and the process of leadership involves regular and intense reflection and introspection†. The order of responsibility for a servant leader should be; 1. the employee involved, 2. the affected employees and finally 3. the organization. I believe the â€Å"regenerative circle of prosperity† is a great thought.This is where the customer, the sales associate, the vendors/suppliers and the stockholders are all in a loop and mutually connected. The customer gets a quality product at a good price, the sales associate has the personal and financial gains of making a sale, the vendors get a good price for these supplies from the company and the stockholders get good returns. The returns can be reinvested to research better products for the customers and the loop continues.Finally the concept of loyalty is also handled and treated very well in the book. The author’s interpretation of the word that makes so much sense in today’s environment. I quote the author again; â€Å"Loyalty, for an employee is simply doing the job that is agreed upon and doing it to the best of one’s ability with honestly and integrity. It is being sensitive to, and acting in, the best interest of the organization, colleagues and peers†. I will carry the insights from this book throughout my career.

Learning styles - the Theory of Multiple Intelligences Research Paper

Learning styles - the Theory of Multiple Intelligences - Research Paper Example In the modern education setting, students are aware of what they are expected to learn in a particular unit of study. Learning styles also determine the learning assessment system used in measuring whether a student has learnt what is expected of him or her after a certain period. Based on the learning styles, assessment of students involves comparing a student’s performance with set standards and communication of results and learning outcomes to the parents and students. There exists numerous learning styles that encompass various approaches of explaining how students learn (Reza and Reza, 2010). In order to understand learning styles, this paper will Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a learning style. Howard Gardner originally developed the theory of multiple intelligences in the year 1983. Gardner viewed intelligence as the ability and capacity in solving problems and fashioning products that are valued in cultural setting(s). He believed that there was n eed for paradigm shift in learning (Gardner and Seana, 2006). According to him, intelligence of a human being should not be equated with linguistic intelligence or logical-mathematical only. Gardner’s theory emerged from recent studies and research that have found out that students possessed different minds and therefore have the ability of learning, performing, comprehending, and remembering in different ways (Gardner, 1999). Gardner developed a list of intelligences that all individuals are able to know. The list argues that individuals differ in the strength of these intelligences, as well as in ways through which such intelligences are combined and invoked in solving different problems, carrying out diverse tasks and progressing in different domains. He argues that this new paradigm challenges the conventional educational system which makes an assumption that all individuals have the ability of learning the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal meas ure suffices while testing students’ learning (Gardner and Seana, 2006). The theory of multiple intelligences as developed by Gardner further postulates that the educational system is biased towards linguistic and logical-quantitative modes of instruction and assessment (Gardner, 1999). Based on this background, Gardner developed a set of intelligences that are more likely to be effective in learning and education in general. The first one is Visual-spatial intelligence; it involves thinking in terms of physical space. Learners who possess this intelligence are very aware of their environments and they like drawing and reading maps. Sailors and architects are example of people possessing this intelligence (Gardner and Moran, 2006). The second one is Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, which involves effective use of the body. It has been found out that individuals possessing this intelligence have immense sense of body awareness and are very comfortable with movements. Dancers a nd athletes are examples of people possessing this intelligence. The third intelligence is musical intelligence which largely relates to sensitivity to rhythm and sound. Learners who possess this intelligence are sensitive to sounds in their environment and love music. They mostly use tools such as stereo, musical instruments, multimedia and CD-ROM (Reza and Reza, 2010). In addition, Gardner identifies Linguistic intelligence that involves ability of effectively using words.

Accounting Scandal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Accounting Scandal - Research Paper Example â€Å"In 2000, Enron donated $1.76 million to the presidential campaign of the Republican George W Bush† (Davis, 2007, p83). This showed an unhealthy connection between the public sector and the private sector and this came back to haunt the firm and attempt to tarnish the image of some public figures. Kenneth Lay, the chairman of the board of directors and founder of Enron contributed more to George Bushs campaign more than any other person. Although no evidence was found that proved that there was direct bribery from the staff and management of Enron to public officials, many of them were found guilty for their involvement in what became a scandal. This is mainly connected to the overrides of the reporting requirements and expectations that were put in place. Enron maintained a complicated account structure and there was the difficulty of external stakeholders to demand more information and transparency. The management therefore got away with a lot of issues that were unreported and the scandal was eventually exposed by a whistleblower who reported the issue and matter to the authorities for prompt action. Enron used very inappropriate and wrong methods and procedures to record its accounts. Due to the fact that the firm had an influence over the political arena, Enron was able to get away with a lot of its poor and negative accounting practices. Enron used various techniques to provide misleading reports and information about their trading position. Basically, they used the revenue model and this sought to record revenue only and did very little concerning other important and relevant aspects of reporting (Campbell, 2008). This is know as the â€Å"agent† and â€Å"merchant† models of accounting. To this end, Enron created a system through which they set up false and other puppet entities to act as their agents. In this quest, the â€Å"agents† signed contracts and undertook very risky ventures in the name of Enron. These

Fashion Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Fashion Portfolio - Essay Example The essay "Fashion Portfolio" focuses on the fashion design portfolio. Once I am familiar with the type of fashion industry companies I want to design for, I will then think about what they want to see from me. The research methodology of my paper will include publications, surveys and other techniques in which events like trade shows, forecasting, publications, and cultural events will be visited to gather relevant information. The processes intricate in designing fresh ranges and collections usually begin with researching and gathering information. Fashion designers have inadequate training in research methods and rarely carry out studies thus resulting in intuitive and subjective judgements. Contributing to such problems is the inadequate amount of time existing to do the research and heavy costs of designers gathering information. As a result, research methods which can be used by fashion designers include trade shows, forecasting, publications, and cultural events. In essence, d esigners require drawing upon a varied range of information so as to inform their decision-making in the process of planning and development of design portfolio. In trade shows, I expected to gain knowledge of fashion products and fabrics such as garments. These fashion shows are prearranged by garment and textile fashion companies to present new garment or fabric ranges and the aim is to sell out their products to the fashion designers and buyers. The advantages of appearing in trade shows seemed to be connected to networking.

Critical Thinking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical Thinking - Assignment Example God created the seven heavens and the Earth solely for humanity. The question of identity: The Quran accounts that Allah created human beings in a unique way, giving them special gifts and knowledge. The creation of man started with that of two people, Adam and Eve, male and female respectively, who then multiplied to bring forth generations of the Earth. For Weirder and Gutierrez (2011), they state that Allah created man as a responsible and dignified agent to meet the purpose of his creator. The question of morality: Through the adherence to study of Quran, the Muslims acclimatize with the ways of living of a moral life in their society. The world view has it that every aspect of life has three common goals: practicality, balance and moderation. Apart from the Islamic teachings, every Muslim has to choose what is tolerable for oneself and the society as a whole (Winter, 2008). The Islamic teachings account that the meaning of the existence of humanity is revealed through worshipping and obeying the teachings of Allah. Further, every Muslim has a purpose of involving in good deeds towards offsetting the bad deeds and correcting the mistakes made. Besides, the world view also offers its follower five pillars which acts as a platform for discerning their obedience. The world view presents Paradise and Hell as the destiny of man, depending on dominance of bad or good deeds. Essentially, A Muslim achieves Paradise by having good deeds outweighing his bad deeds. Only after death does a Muslim determines the level of his good or bad deeds. Hell is a destiny for the individual who do not follow Allah’s teachings besides not recognizing him as the one god. The question of origin: Both of the world views agree that God is the creator of everything in the World. Islam accounts for theistic evolution as part of God’s creation plan while Christianity refutes this theory, evolution,

View to the Amalfi Coast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

View to the Amalfi Coast - Essay Example Helping along with his brother’s profession as a glass engraver, young Carl had already demonstrated his skills in art. His talent in painting was later on discovered and enhanced when he also helped in the studio of another painter named Hilker. Finally, studying art with the best and the most popular artists in Denmark such as Peter Kristian Skoovgaard (â€Å"Carl Frederick† and â€Å"View from Amalfi Coast†), he was able to master his craft and develop his own distinct painting style. Eventually perfecting his craft, Aargaard exhibited his work for the first time in 1857, marking the beginning of his successful career in realism landscape painting. Unlike other artists during his time, Aargaard’s career took off immediately after his first exhibition. Thus, he was referred to as one of the most influential artists during the Copenhagen’s Golden Age. Until recently, one of Aargaard’s most famous paintings is the Amalfi Coast, which is one a mong the many landscape paintings he had created during his time (â€Å"Carl Frederick†). Using oil as a medium on a cloth as a canvass, this 50 by 71 centimeters work of art was among the most loved paintings of all time. A combination of warm and cool colors is obvious in this particular painting of Aargaard. Yellow, orange, and brown are mixed along with blue and green. Using the genuine colors of nature emphasizes the reality that the painting would like to show off to its viewers. The different hues of yellow and green on the leaves make it appear more alive on the foreground. The non-living structures for which these leaves of what looks like bougainvillea enhances the color of the leaves due to its simpler monochromatic hues. The ocean and other structures in the background stay quiet as they do not show extremely different colors from the others. They blended together in a way that the weight of their colors does not go as far away from the others on the foreground. Apparently, as a

Value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism Essay

Value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism context - Essay Example The purpose of this review is to evaluateWilliam and Soutar’s research paper, â€Å"Value, Satisfaction and Behavioural Intentions in an Adventure Tourism Context† published in an Elsevier Journal in 2009, from an utilitarian perspective and therefore to assess their investigations’ contribution to the ongoing research on adventure tourism. Further this review will critically evaluate the validity and eligibility, in particular, of their research. In this regard, especially the literature review, method and analysis sections will be assesses and evaluated critically in search of any anomalies misinterpretations on the researchers’ side that might affect their findings. In their article, Williams and Soutar have investigated into the impacts of the adventure tourists’ value and satisfaction on the consumers’ consumption, decision-making and future intentions for the product of adventure tourism. In William and Soutar’s own words, the st udy is â€Å"an attempt to answer some of these questions and used a recognized services marketing framework to examine the relationships between adventure tourists’ perceptions of value, satisfaction and future intentions† (414). Though William and Soutar’s exploration into the interrelations between the adventure â€Å"tourists’ perceptions of value, satisfaction and future intentions† in both theoretical and practical frameworks from a â€Å"Multidimensional Perspective of Customer Value† perspective is not any novel exploration into the adventure tourism from the consumers’ perspective... The major trend of the scholars’ researches on adventure tourism remains focused on the achievement of the consumers’ attention through quality of service. But the consumers’ value as well as their perception of adventure tourism has remained unexplored. Referring to scholars like Baker and Crompton (2000), Botterill and Crompton (1996), Jayanti and Ghosh (1996) and others, William and Soutar contend that a significant number of studies on the â€Å"intangibility, dynamism and subjectivity† of the tourists’ consumptions as well as on the â€Å"functional, objective and tangible components† of consumerism in a tourist destination have been led by the researchers in the past years, there is a â€Å"lack of understanding about the nature of these experiences or their relationship with marketing constructs, such as service quality, customer value or satisfaction† (415). Being inspired by this research gap, William and Soutar attempt to pro vide his readers with a deeper insight into the behavioural nature of a tourist’s intention and choice for adventure tourism. For this research, William and Soutar mainly depended on the quantitative analysis of the data converted into numeric values. The collected the consumer value, satisfaction and intentions related data from on-spot adventure tourists who traveled â€Å"on four-wheel drive adventure tours to the Pinnacles in Western Australia† (419). They especially put emphasis on the particular functional and objective features, of the adventure tourist spot, such as the spatial and durational length of the tours, geophysical nature of the spot, safety and security, insurance for

Five Guys Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Five Guys - Case Study Example The restaurant did not need to spend heavily for advertising the restaurant in order to gain more customers as the marketing of the restaurant was done through word of mouth. The satisfied customers were quite impressed by the way the food quality was maintained and the food itself made them market the product amongst their relatives which helped in increasing the number of customers. During 2002, the company decided to franchise their business with a plan of expanding at a very high rate of opening more than one thousand franchises towards the late 2011. The business even made a plan of making over one billion US dollars in sales. The plan was made along with the idea of maintaining the same quality of food and service in all the outlets they planned to start. Five Guys started operating as a restaurant and developed into chain of food business and the specialty of the business included French fries, hotdogs and hamburgers. The business is recognized as a fast casual dining business because of the quality service, food and rates they offer in their outlets. Casual fast dining is referred to those restaurants that offer high quality service and food but they do not offer full table service as regular restaurants. The ingredients used to produce food are of very high quality and their clean and tidy kitchen area is easily visible to the customers. The restaurant is renowned to offer an essence of the diners of the period of 50s along with the taste of homemade food of the same era. They have a restricted menu which allows them to focus on the quality of their specialty offering rather than diversifying their offerings and compromising the quality of their specialty items. The atmosphere and the food they are offering is such that they get the customer gets the comfort of sitting in an atmosphere of a dinning along with food that falls in the category of fast food, this technique of Five Guys is highly appreciated and attracts customers who are living in an

Child Abuse Essay Example for Free

Child Abuse Essay In order to curb the cases of child abuse, effective education and awareness campaign should be conducted in schools and communities. Through this education and awareness campaign, children will learn about their rights and activities that may be construed as child abuse. Knowledge about rights and any activities that may resemble abuse will certainly help children deal with the issue if they come face to face with it. The paper will look into effective means of promoting awareness about child abuse among children in the community. Secondly, it will look at the risk factor that contributes to the situation of child abuse. Lastly, the study will prescribe an awareness and education campaign for implementation. Previous education and awareness campaigns will also be considered in the paper. Library research and interviews will be conducted. One of the challenges that will beset the study will be the view that educational campaigns, especially those conducted using mass media will have limited effect or impact on the proliferation of child abuse. The validity of this argument will be addressed by presenting studies dealing with the impact of mass media on child abuse awareness campaigns. Furthermore, the study can present a case study that will deal directly with the challenges posed. While the argument may have certain validity, a single means of promoting awareness and education campaign is bound to fail. Hence, additional communication channels should be identified for the campaign. Reference Teicher, M. H. (2002). Scars that Won’t Heal: The Neurobiology of Child Abuse. Scientific American, 286 (3), 54-61. This journal article presents the difficult processes that victims of child abuse go through. It is an indictment of child abuse. At the same time, the author presents interesting recommendations on how child abuse victims can be dealt with so they can cope with pain and trauma. This also provides important insight into the manner of prevention of child abuse. Glaser, D. (2000). Child Abuse and Neglect and the Brain – A Review. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 41, 97-116. The mental and emotional impact of child abuse is difficult to deal with. Hence, this study helps researchers and other people interested in child abuse to look at these impacts and how to arrive at sound policies for intervention and information campaign.

Childhood Obesity And Obesity Epidemic Health And Social Care Essay

Childhood Obesity And Obesity Epidemic Health And Social Care Essay Han et al. (2010) identified that the global prevalence of childhood obesity has significantly increased over the last ten years. Story et al. (2009) note that adolescent obesity as a significant global challenge for health in the 21st century, noting that the prevalence in the United States had quadrupled from 1966 to 2003-2006. In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control postulates that the American society has become obesogenic (CDC website). Moffat (2010) notes that as early as the beginning of the twenty first century the obesity epidemic was legitimately acknowledged as both a medical and societal problem. Health professionals continue to sound the alarm that obesity is a serious health concern for children and adolescents and places them at risk for a myriad of health problems, not only during their youth but also as adults. Freedman et al. (2007) posit that childhood obesity increases the risk for cardiovascular disease during adolescence and adulthood. Further to th at, they went on to argue that outside of the health risks that childhood obesity poses, the magnitude of the problem is often overlooked from the economic costs perspective. Trasande and Chatterjee (2009) noted that in 2009 in the United States, increased health-care and utilization and expenditures were concentrated among adolescents. They went on to underscore that the immediate economic consequences of childhood obesity are much greater than previously realized and emphasized that there needs to be continued concerted efforts made to reduce the burden of this major co-morbidity. The burden is not isolated to just childhood and adolescence as Serdula et al. (1993) purport the view that obese children and adolescents are more likely to become obese as adults, a view later reinforced by Whitaker et al. (1997). In one study they identified that it was estimated that eighty percent (80%) of children who were overweight at aged ten to fifteen years were obese adults at age twenty-five . In a subsequent study Freedman et al. (2001) found that twenty-five percent (25%) of obese adults were overweight as children. Moffat (2010) notes that a number of studies conducted in the United States indicate that there exists an association between childhood obesity and low household income and food insecurity. As a result, she notes that children of low socio-economic status are the ones who bear the brunt of the obesity epidemic. It is also well documented that there is a higher prevalence of childhood obesity among ethnic minorities and immigrant children. Gordon-Larsen et al. (2003) and Sorof et al. (2004) noted that the prevalence of obese children was higher among Hispanics and African-Americans, who predominantly made up the low socio-economic status bracket of the United States. Poverty in the United States is highest among children, 20% of all children in the United States live in poverty, Kotch (2005), and consequently if poverty serves as a risk factor for obesity, they are going to be the population most affected. It is important to note that while at-risk populations are relatively easily identified, the very factors contributing to the obesity epidemic remain complex and not well understood. Basch (1999) identifies poverty as the single underlying cause for most diseases in the world today. Kumanyika Grier (2006) argue that low income communities or households may find it increasingly difficult to provide the resources or funds needed to provide children with nutritious meals or opportunities for sufficient exercise. The availability, affordability and appeal of foods that are low in nutritional value, but high in fat, sugar and calories, means that those in the lower socio-economic bracket find it easier to afford that meal plan. Further to that, persons in the low socio-economic bracket do not have access to food stores that sell healthy foods. In the United States, Powell and Chaloupka (2009), note that while the prices for low nutrition foods have been decreasing over the past few decades, the cost for healthy foods has been increasing, directly impacting the food options for the poor. Poverty affects not only the eating habits of minority groups but also influences their physical activity. Children, who live in poor households, normally live in poor or low income communities with crowded streets, marked by a lack of safe outdoor space or facilities in which they can play, Dwyer et al. (2006) and Franzini et al. (2009). A lack of physical activity or even a decrease in physical activity, coupled with increased fat and calorie intake are factors that can influence weight and lead to obesity in children. Other researchers, while they concur with the view that low socio-economic status is a determinant of childhood obesity, they go to note that other cultural and environmental factors exist, (Gordon-Larsen et al. 2003; Wang et al. 2007). Culture as a contributing factor must be considered in terms of its ability to influence behavioural patterns. Earlier arguments posited on stigmatization of excess body fat. However, children and adolescents in ethnic minorities find excess body fat and obesity to be less stigmatizing and less associated with a dissatisfaction of body types, Stice et al. (2006). Further to that, among Hispanics for example, a situation with which we can identify in the Caribbean, children who are small are considered to be sick or malnourished. In other low-income communities, such as African Americans, thin is associated with drug addiction or poverty, Jain et al. (2001). Here we see the stigma being attached to thin or small body types, creating an environment wher e obesity is acceptable, even preferred. Further to that, societal changes have also led to an adoption of sedentary lifestyles; a lifestyle that often times appear to be more pronounced among the minority groups. They are found to own more televisions than non-ethnic minority children and consequently spend more time watching television, and being exposed to advertising for high fat diets, Kain et al. (2004) and Kumanyika and Grier (2006). Having had discourse on the causes and aetiology of obesity in children and adolescents, identifying it as epidemic in the United States with long term implications for health, the question on prevention becomes more pertinent and leads to the identification of interventions. From the ongoing debate it seems that prevention of childhood obesity needs to incorporate a change in societal status, change in behavioural and cultural patterns as well as addressing the biological factors of obesity. McClaskey (2010) notes that with the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States, efforts at prevention must aim at protecting children, especially the vulnerable groups. She noted that some health centres in the US, are employing the use of a modified version of the national obesity programme We Can, to implement childhood obesity clinics, in an effort geared at reaching an underserved patient population. From the literature reviewed, it seems that while physicians are aware of the growing epidemic and its implications for health, Hall (2010) found that few actually initiated interventions on weight management with children. The impact of obesity among children and adolescents on morbidity, mortality and cost for healthcare, means that there is a need to engage not only the at-risk groups, but physicians as well on the need to overcome barriers to the resolution of this public health concern. Foremost in prevention and intervention is the need for education as re lates to the development and management of obesity. Healthcare professionals can and should be used in health promotions. The Institute of Medicine recommends that prevention of obesity should be encouraged in children and adolescents by tracking patients BMI, providing evidence-based counselling, and having healthcare teams act as role models, (IMO, 2005). This they argued, provides the opportunity to identify persons at risk and to provide opportunistic lifestyle advice, as well as provide pro-active care such as referral to a nutritionist or other actions geared at improving the nutritional and physical activity habits of the identified children. Hebebrand (2010) notes that efforts aimed at prevention should seek to incorporate the schools as school settings have proven important for health behaviour interventions. Such interventions in the US have seen the removal of vending machines from school compounds as well as prohibiting sale of sodas to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. The food industry in the United States has also responded to the need to modify diets by making products lower in caloric density. They have also developed foods with components claimed to assist in weight loss, (Gaullier et al. 2005) Roberto et al. (2010) noted in a study conducted, that childrens snack preferences can be influenced by the use of licensed characters such as Elmo being placed on the packages. As a result, they concluded that as a means of reducing childhood obesity, licensed characters to advertise junk food to children should be restricted. One of the most notable arguments for prevention indicates a need for prevention to begin in the early stages of the life of a child. Aranceta et al. (2009) underscore the need for the adequate nutritional status of the mother during pregnancy. At the community level, education on nutrition has been incorporated into the maternal care given to women. It serves to ensure their nutritional health as well as the future nutritional health of the infant. In 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama joined the campaign to fight childhood obesity. Her Lets Move Campaign is seeking to raise the nutritional level of school meals and improve access to healthier foods in deprived communities. That campaign has seen the inclusion and use of mobile food markets, in states such as Virginia. Further to that, parents are encouraged to enrol their children in extra-curricular activities. President Obama has also called for an additional one billion dollars to fund child nutrition programmes. Champions for Change, another campaign group, is advocating making changes in kitchens, homes, schools and neighbourhoods across America. It purports the need for more fruits and vegetables, more activity, which means less television, and more voices raised for healthy changes. Against this backdrop, from a public health perspective primary prevention of childhood obesity requires a population-wide approach that is multifaceted and that aims at promoting healthier eating practices, an active lifestyle and access and provision of care to children to ensure early detection of risk and thereby increase prevention. In 2004 the WHO approved the Global Strategy on Diet and Physical activity, encouraging all of its member states to develop and implement national action plans aimed at a reduction in obesity rates. Obesity, as previously noted, can have adverse health, social and emotional effects. It also increases the risk among adolescents for disability and premature death as adults. Story et al. (2005) notes that there are metabolic and physiological abnormalities associated with adolescent obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemias, orthopedic problems and type 2diabetes. Cowie et al., (2006) Ogden et al.(2006) and Reininger et al. (2009) have all documented findings that postulate that in the United States, underprivileged Hispanics have excessively higher rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer as compared to whites; diseases for which obesity has been noted to be a risk factor. The life-long consequences of this rising epidemic are or should be a serious concern for health planners. Increased morbidity means increased utilization of health service, increased supply of health care for example pharmaceuticals, which translates into increased cost of healthcare and notably, the at-risk population is the one least likely to be able to afford access to the required health services. That places an additional burden on social security. Research suggests that obesity-related chronic diseases previously found in adults such as hypertension and osteoarthritis are now appearing in minority children (Frenn et al., 2003; Kumanyika Grier, 2006; McCarthy et al., 2008). Therefore, addressing obesity during childhood, particularly in ethnic minority populations, is a priority in preventing escalating co-morbidities in adulthood and the adverse health outcomes associated with such co-morbidities. A review of the plethora of literature that deliberates on the topic childhood and adolescent obesity presents not solutions to this growing epidemic but points to a need for continued research aimed at identifying effectual prevention interventions for that age group. It highlights a void in the data on socially accepted, sustainable, and culturally appropriate interventions for the at-risk population, minority groups. All of these possible interventions, if they are to be successful, can only be integrated into mainstream society if they are a part of a coordinated system that includes multi-sectoral participation and involvement of all of the stakeholders.

Free Hamlet Essays: Freud and Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet Essay:   Freud and Hamlet    Freud believed that Hamlet did not kill Claudius the first time he saw him because Hamlet saw himself as the enemy. This sounds like a solid reason to me.   Who am I to say that it is not?   However,   I also find   Samuel Taylor Coleridge's   reasoning very interesting.   He believed that Hamlet did not kill Claudius the first time because he was praying.   This sounds almost too easy, although very legitimate.   Now, I am not one to say which interpretation is right, or even ponder if either is right; however, they both come credible critics. So, who is right and who is wrong--that is the question?   No?   Maybe both are right to an extent. We do not actually know what Shakespeare was feeling when writing Hamlet.     Ã‚   This brings me to the point Chris Early made previously.   I, like Chris, do not believe that works should only be investigated on the surface, but it is difficult to uncover every meaning of every aspect of every work.   Is there always something bigger and more meaningful than the original words?   Sometimes I would say yes, and sometimes no.   So, this leads me to my next question: how does one know if the words mean something bigger or not?   I believe that there is no actual way to know if something has hidden meaning or not; therefore, almost everything is scrutinized as if it does.   I am not trying to make silly excuses;   I am being completely serious.   No one, even the great critics, know what is symbolic and what is not; therefore everything is considered symbolic in the beginning, causing some sort of symbolism to be uncovered.  Ã‚   Whether this symbolism is correct, no one will actually know.   As Chris touched on, who knows what Shakespeare was thinking when writing Hamlet?   We can only make educated guesses at what Hamlet was thinking when he withdrew from killing Claudius the first time.   These educated guesses come from what the reader thinks, along with what critics have interpreted and written.

Edar Allan Poe Essay -- essays research papers

A Reflection of the Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Edgar Allan Poe is a name even the literary illiterate know, but not many people know Edgar Allan Poe the person. When reading the works of this poetic genius many might think that he had a vivid imagination or just a morbid soul. The truth is that the works of Poe are based on his own life, the life of an orphan who suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder and who eventually became diseased by alcoholism. Understanding Poe the man, who had true medical problems that caused erratic behavior and depression among many other things, is to have an understanding of the true meaning hidden behind the words of his poetry.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Poe earned his place as a major figure in American letters for his tales of the bizarre and fantastic, short stories that are structurally brilliant and considered precursors of many forms and themes in subsequent American and European literature (Bloom, Harold p.491). Born of impoverished parents and orphaned at the age of two, Poe lived a brief and tragic life: a life whose legend has often proved an overpowering influence on the critical reception of his work (Bloom, Harold p.491). Before Poe was three years old both of his parents died, and he was raised in the house of John Allan, a prosperous exporter from Richmond, Virginia, who never legally adopted his foster son. Poe attended many of the best schools at that time. At the University of Virginia he distinguished himself academically, but after little more than only one year he had to leave because of financial debt and lack of adequate funds from Allan. Poe went on to enlist himself in the army where he finished and published his first poetry collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. These works received no recognition. When his second set of works appeared in 1829, it received only slight attention. Also in 1829 Poe was honorably discharged from the army, having attained the rank of regimental sergeant major, and was then admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point (Gale Research p.1). However because Allan would neither provide Poe with sufficient funds to maintain himself as a cadet nor giv e the consent necessary to resign from the Academy, Poe gained a dismissal by ignoring his duties and violating regulations (Gale Research p.1). H... ...roversy over the sanity, or at best the maturity of Poe (Paul Elmer More called him â€Å"the poet of unripe boys and unsound men†), it was the question of the value of Poe’s works as serious literature (Gale Research p.5). Edgar Allan Poe’s personal life, especially the stories surrounding his drinking and early death, are dealt with extensively by Poe’s contemporary critics as well as those writing in the twentieth century (Bloom, Harold p. 491). In their confusion of the man and his literary creations, certain critics have ascribed to Poe a morbidity of character and a cruel and unnatural temperament. (Bloom, Harold p. 491). This critical attitude was adumbrated by the publication of Poe’s letters under the direction of R.W. Griswold, his literary executor (Bloom, Harold p.491). Griswold, for reasons unknown, sought to defame Poe by falsifying his letters and printing forged material that portrayed Poe as a bizarre and menacing character (Bloom, Harold p. 491). Although he was ultimately vindicated through the scholarship of A.H. Quinn and others, it has been the work of modern scholars to reestablish Poe’s reputation based on the work and not the man (Bloom, Harold p. 491 ). Edar Allan Poe Essay -- essays research papers A Reflection of the Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Edgar Allan Poe is a name even the literary illiterate know, but not many people know Edgar Allan Poe the person. When reading the works of this poetic genius many might think that he had a vivid imagination or just a morbid soul. The truth is that the works of Poe are based on his own life, the life of an orphan who suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder and who eventually became diseased by alcoholism. Understanding Poe the man, who had true medical problems that caused erratic behavior and depression among many other things, is to have an understanding of the true meaning hidden behind the words of his poetry.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Poe earned his place as a major figure in American letters for his tales of the bizarre and fantastic, short stories that are structurally brilliant and considered precursors of many forms and themes in subsequent American and European literature (Bloom, Harold p.491). Born of impoverished parents and orphaned at the age of two, Poe lived a brief and tragic life: a life whose legend has often proved an overpowering influence on the critical reception of his work (Bloom, Harold p.491). Before Poe was three years old both of his parents died, and he was raised in the house of John Allan, a prosperous exporter from Richmond, Virginia, who never legally adopted his foster son. Poe attended many of the best schools at that time. At the University of Virginia he distinguished himself academically, but after little more than only one year he had to leave because of financial debt and lack of adequate funds from Allan. Poe went on to enlist himself in the army where he finished and published his first poetry collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. These works received no recognition. When his second set of works appeared in 1829, it received only slight attention. Also in 1829 Poe was honorably discharged from the army, having attained the rank of regimental sergeant major, and was then admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point (Gale Research p.1). However because Allan would neither provide Poe with sufficient funds to maintain himself as a cadet nor giv e the consent necessary to resign from the Academy, Poe gained a dismissal by ignoring his duties and violating regulations (Gale Research p.1). H... ...roversy over the sanity, or at best the maturity of Poe (Paul Elmer More called him â€Å"the poet of unripe boys and unsound men†), it was the question of the value of Poe’s works as serious literature (Gale Research p.5). Edgar Allan Poe’s personal life, especially the stories surrounding his drinking and early death, are dealt with extensively by Poe’s contemporary critics as well as those writing in the twentieth century (Bloom, Harold p. 491). In their confusion of the man and his literary creations, certain critics have ascribed to Poe a morbidity of character and a cruel and unnatural temperament. (Bloom, Harold p. 491). This critical attitude was adumbrated by the publication of Poe’s letters under the direction of R.W. Griswold, his literary executor (Bloom, Harold p.491). Griswold, for reasons unknown, sought to defame Poe by falsifying his letters and printing forged material that portrayed Poe as a bizarre and menacing character (Bloom, Harold p. 491). Although he was ultimately vindicated through the scholarship of A.H. Quinn and others, it has been the work of modern scholars to reestablish Poe’s reputation based on the work and not the man (Bloom, Harold p. 491 ).

Hamlet as a Tragic Hero :: Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

Hamlet as a Tragic Hero William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright of the English language, wrote a total of 37 plays in his lifetime, all of which can be categorized under tragedy, comedy, or history. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare's most popular and greatest tragedy, displays his genius as a playwright, as literary critics and academic commentators have found an unusual number of themes and literary techniques present in Hamlet. Hamlet concerns the murder of the king of Denmark and the murdered king's son's quest for revenge. Its main character, Hamlet, possesses a tragic flaw which obstructs his desire for revenge and ultimately brings about his death. This tragic flaw makes him a tragic hero, a character who is destroyed because of a major weakness, as his death at the end could possibly have been avoided were it not for his tragic flaw. Hamlet's flaw of irresolution, the uncertainty on how to act or proceed, is shown when Hamlet sees a play and the passion the actors had, after Hamlet's third soliloquy, in Hamlet's fourth soliloquy, and in Hamlet's indecisive pursuit in avenging his father's death. First, Hamlet's flaw of irresolution is shown when he sees a play and the passion one particular actor had. A group of players has arrived and Hamlet arranges a personal viewing of The Murder of Gonzago with a small portion of his own lines inserted. Hamlet then observes one portion of the play in which one of the players put on a great display of emotion. Hamlet, besieged by guilt and self-contempt, remarks in his second soliloquy of Hamlet of the emotion this player showed despite the fact that the player had nothing to be emotional about. Hamlet observed that he himself had all the reason in the world to react with great emotion and sorrow, yet he failed to show any that could compare with the act of the player. Hamlet calls himself a "rogue and peasant slave" and a "dull and muddy-mettled rascal" who, like a "John-a-dreams", can take no action. Hamlet continues his fiery speech by degrading himself and resoluting to take some sort of action to revenge his father's death. Next, Hamlet's flaw of irresolution is shown after his third soliloquy, the famed "To be or not to be†¦" lines. Hamlet directly identifies his own tragic flaw, remarking of his own inability to act. Hamlet, unsure whether or not the his uncle Claudius was responsible for his father's murder, schemes to have The Murder of Gonzago presented to the royal court, with a few minor changes, so its

Whats Eating Gilbert Grape

In my opinion the three main themes are marginalization, tolerance of difference and the urban/rural divide. Gilbert’s mother is obese and his brother, Arnie, has a brain disorder. However, Arnie is more accepted by the town and is not frowned upon like his mother. His mum has not left the house in seven years because of how ashamed she is of herself. She says so to Gilbert: ‘I know what a burden I am. I know that you are ashamed of me. I never meant to be like this. I never wanted to be a joke. † At the beginning of the film Gilbert is ashamed of his mother and describes her as a â€Å"beached whale. His view changes towards the end of the film when his mother goes to get Arnie from the police station. When she dies he wants to make sure that she is not a â€Å"joke. † So instead of people lifting her out with a crane he burns the house down. There is a clear urban/ rural divide. Gilbert works in a very small grocery store called Lamson’s Grocery an d just outside Endora there is a huge supermarket called FoodLand. At the beginning of the film he says â€Å"Lamson’s Grocery is where I work and miles out of town on the interstate, there’s Foodland†¦. where everyone else shops. Gilbert is trapped in Endora because of his responsibilities; his whole family counts on him. Whenever they need something done they always call him, even with all his responsibilities his family are constantly telling him to â€Å"do better. † It is very clear he wants to leave Endora because he says at the beginning of the film that his older brother managed to â€Å"get away, † at this point he sounds disappointed that he didn’t manage to get away. Endora is very small, the streets are never busy and nothing exciting ever happens. According to Gilbert, â€Å"Living in Endora is like dancing to no music. † Whats Eating Gilbert Grape In my opinion the three main themes are marginalization, tolerance of difference and the urban/rural divide. Gilbert’s mother is obese and his brother, Arnie, has a brain disorder. However, Arnie is more accepted by the town and is not frowned upon like his mother. His mum has not left the house in seven years because of how ashamed she is of herself. She says so to Gilbert: ‘I know what a burden I am. I know that you are ashamed of me. I never meant to be like this. I never wanted to be a joke. † At the beginning of the film Gilbert is ashamed of his mother and describes her as a â€Å"beached whale. His view changes towards the end of the film when his mother goes to get Arnie from the police station. When she dies he wants to make sure that she is not a â€Å"joke. † So instead of people lifting her out with a crane he burns the house down. There is a clear urban/ rural divide. Gilbert works in a very small grocery store called Lamson’s Grocery an d just outside Endora there is a huge supermarket called FoodLand. At the beginning of the film he says â€Å"Lamson’s Grocery is where I work and miles out of town on the interstate, there’s Foodland†¦. where everyone else shops. Gilbert is trapped in Endora because of his responsibilities; his whole family counts on him. Whenever they need something done they always call him, even with all his responsibilities his family are constantly telling him to â€Å"do better. † It is very clear he wants to leave Endora because he says at the beginning of the film that his older brother managed to â€Å"get away, † at this point he sounds disappointed that he didn’t manage to get away. Endora is very small, the streets are never busy and nothing exciting ever happens. According to Gilbert, â€Å"Living in Endora is like dancing to no music. †

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 2~3

Two The Sea Beast The cooling pipes at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant were all fashioned from the finest stainless steel. Before they were installed, they were x-rayed, ultrasounded, and pressure-tested to be sure that they could never break, and after being welded into place, the welds were also x-rayed and tested. The radioactive steam from the core left its heat in the pipes, which leached it off into a seawater cooling pond, where it was safely vented to the Pacific. But Diablo had been built on a breakneck schedule during the energy scare of the seventies. The welders worked double and triple shifts, driven by greed and cocaine, and the inspectors who ran the X-ray machines were on the same schedule. And they missed one. Not a major mistake. Just a tiny leak. Barely noticeable. A minuscule stream of harmless, low-level radiation wafted out with the tide and drifted over the continental shelf, dissipating as it went, until even the most sensitive instruments would have missed it. Yet the le ak didn't go totally undetected. In the deep trench off California, near a submerged volcano where the waters ran to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit and black smokers spewed clouds of mineral soup, a creature was roused from a long slumber. Eyes the size of dinner platters winked out the sediment and sleep of years. It was instinct, sense, and memory: the Sea Beast's brain. It remembered eating the remains of a sunken Russian nuclear submarine: beefy little sailors tenderized by the pressure of the depths and spiced with piquant radioactive marinade. Memory woke the beast, and like a child lured from under the covers on a snowy morning by the smell of bacon frying, it flicked its great tail, broke free from the ocean floor, and began a slow ascent into the current of tasty treats. A current that ran along the shore of Pine Cove. Mavis Mavis tossed back a shot of Bushmills to take the edge off her frustration at not being able to whack anyone with her baseball bat. She wasn't really angry that Molly had bitten a customer. After all, he was a tourist and rated above the mice in the walls only because he carried cash. Maybe the fact that something had actually happened in the Slug would bring in a little business. People would come in to hear the story, and Mavis could stretch, speculate, and dramatize most stories into at least three drinks a tell. Business had been slowing over the last couple of years. People didn't seem to want to bring their problems into a bar. Time was, on any given afternoon, you'd have three or four guys at the bar, pouring down beers as they poured out their hearts, so filled with self-loathing that they'd snap a vertebra to avoid catching their own reflection in the big mirror behind the bar. On a given evening, the stools would be full of people who whined and growled and bitched all night long, pausing only long enough to stagger to the bathroom or to sacrifice a quarter to the jukebox's extensive self-pity selection. Sadness sold a lot of alcohol, and it had been in short supply these last few years. Mavis blamed the booming economy, Val Riordan, and vegetables in the diet for the sadness shortage, and she fought the insidious invaders by running two-for-one happy hours with fatty meat snacks (The whole point of happy hour was to purge happiness, wasn't it?), but all her efforts only served to cut her profits in half. If Pine Cove could no longer produce sadness, she would import some, so she advertised for a Blues singer. The old Black man wore sunglasses, a leather fedora, a tattered black wool suit that was too heavy for the weather, red suspenders over a Hawaiian shirt that sported topless hula girls, and creaky black-on-white wing tips. He set his guitar case on the bar and climbed onto a stool. Mavis eyed him suspiciously and lit a Tarryton 100. She'd been taught as a girl not to trust Black people. â€Å"Name your poison,† she said. He took off his fedora, revealing a gleaming brown baldness that shone like polished walnut. â€Å"You gots some wine?† â€Å"Cheap-shit red or cheap-shit white?† Mavis cocked a hip, gears and machinery clicked. â€Å"Them cheap-shit boys done expanded. Used to be jus' one flavor.† â€Å"Red or white?† â€Å"Whatever sweetest, sweetness.† Mavis slammed a tumbler onto the bar and filled it with yellow liquid from an icy jug in the well. â€Å"That'll be three bucks.† The Black man reached out – thick sharp nails skating the bar surface, long fingers waving like tentacles, searching, the hand like a sea creature caught in a tidal wash – and missed the glass by four inches. Mavis pushed the glass into his hand. â€Å"You blind?† â€Å"No, it be dark in here.† â€Å"Take off your sunglasses, idjit.† â€Å"I can't do that, ma'am. Shades go with the trade.† â€Å"What trade? Don't you try to sell pencils in here. I don't tolerate beggars.† â€Å"I'm a Bluesman, ma'am. I hear ya'll lookin for one.† Mavis looked at the guitar case on the bar, at the Black man in shades, at the long fingernails of his right hand, the short nails and knobby gray calluses on the fingertips of his left, and she said, â€Å"I should have guessed. Do you have any experience?† He laughed, a laugh that started deep down and shook his shoulders on the way up and chugged out of his throat like a steam engine leaving a tunnel. â€Å"Sweetness, I got me more experience than a busload o' hos. Ain't no dust settled a day on Catfish Jefferson since God done first dropped him on this big ol' ball o' dust. That's me, call me Catfish.† He shook hands like a sissy, Mavis thought, just let her have the tips of his fingers. She used to do that before she had her arthritic finger joints replaced. She didn't want any arthritic old Blues singer. â€Å"I'm going to need someone through Christmas. Can you stay that long or would your dust settle?† â€Å"I ‘spose I could slow down a bit. Too cold to go back East.† He looked around the bar, trying to take in the dinge and smoke through his dark glasses, then turned back to her. â€Å"Yeah, I might be able to clear my schedule if† – and here he grinned and Mavis could see a gold tooth there with a musical note cut in it – â€Å"if the money is right,† he said. â€Å"You'll get room and board and a percentage of the bar. You bring 'em in, you'll make money.† He considered, scratched his cheek where white stubble sounded like a toothbrush against sandpaper, and said, â€Å"No, sweetness, you bring 'em in. Once they hear Catfish play, they come back. Now what percentage did you have in mind?† Mavis stroked her chin hair, pulled it straight to its full three inches. â€Å"I'll need to hear you play.† Catfish nodded. â€Å"I can play.† He flipped the latches on his guitar case and pulled out a gleaming National steel body guitar. From his pocket he pulled a cutoff bottleneck and with a twist it fell onto the little finger of his left hand. He played a chord to test tune, pulled the bottleneck from the fifth to the ninth and danced it there, high and wailing. Mavis could smell something like mildew, moss maybe, a change in humidity. She sniffed and looked around. She hadn't been able to smell anything for fifteen years. Catfish grinned. â€Å"The Delta,† he said. He launched into a twelve-bar Blues, playing the bass line with his thumb, squealing the high notes with the slide, rocking back and forth on the bar stool, the light of the neon Coors sign behind the bar playing colors in the reflection of sunglasses and his bald head. The daytime regulars looked up from their drinks, stopped lying for a second, and Slick McCall missed a straight-in eight-ball shot on the quarter table, which he almost never did. And Catfish sang, starting high and haunting, going low and gritty. â€Å"They's a mean ol' woman run a bar out on the Coast. I'm telling you, they's a mean ol' woman run a bar out on the Coast. But when she gets you under the covers, That ol' woman turn your buttered bread to toast.† And then he stopped. â€Å"You're hired,† Mavis said. She pulled the jug of white cheap-shit out of the well and sloshed some into Catfish's glass. â€Å"On the house.† Just then the door opened and a blast of sunlight cut through the dinge and smoke and residual Blues and Vance McNally, the EMT, walked in and set his radio on the bar. â€Å"Guess what?† he said to everyone and no one in particular. â€Å"That pilgrim woman hung herself.† A low mumble passed through the regulars. Catfish put his guitar in its case and picked up his wine. â€Å"Sho' 'nuff a sad day startin early in this little town. Sho' 'nuff.† â€Å"Sho' 'nuff,† said Mavis with a cackle like a stainless-steel hyena. Valerie Riordan Depression has a mortality rate of fifteen percent. Fifteen percent of all patients with major depression will take their own lives. Statistics. Hard numbers in a very squishy science. Fifteen percent. Dead. Val Riordan had been repeating the figures to herself since Theophilus Crowe had called, but it wasn't helping her feel any better about what Bess Leander had done. Val had never lost a patient before. And Bess Leander hadn't really been depressed, had she? Bess didn't fit into the fifteen percent. Val went to the office in the back of her house and pulled Bess Leander's file, then went back to the living room to wait for Constable Crowe. At least it was the local guy, not the county sheriffs. And she could always fall back on patient confidentiality. Truth was, she had no idea why Bess Leander might have hung herself. She had only seen Bess once, and then for only half an hour. Val had made the diagnosis, written the scrip, and collected a check for the full hour session. Bess had called in twice, talked for a few minutes, and Val had sent her a bill for the time rounded to the next quarter hour. Time was money. Val Riordan liked nice things. The doorbell rang, Westminster chimes. Val crossed the living room to the marble foyer. A thin tall figure was refracted through the door's beveled glass panels: Theophilus Crowe. Val had never met him, but she knew of him. Three of his ex-girlfriends were her patients. She opened the door. He was dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a gray shirt with black epaulets that might have been part of a uniform at one time. He was clean-shaven, with long sandy hair tied neatly into a ponytail. A good-looking guy in an Ichabod Crane sort of way. Val guessed he was stoned. His girlfriends had talked about his habits. â€Å"Dr.Riordan,† he said. â€Å"Theo Crowe.† He offered his hand. She shook hands. â€Å"Everyone calls me Val,† she said. â€Å"Nice to meet you. Come in.† She pointed to the living room. â€Å"Nice to meet you too,† Theo said, almost as an afterthought. â€Å"Sorry about the circumstances.† He stood at the edge of the marble foyer, as if afraid to step on the white carpet. She walked past him and sat down on the couch. â€Å"Please,† she said, pointing to one of a set of Hepplewhite chairs. â€Å"Sit.† He sat. â€Å"I'm not exactly sure why I'm here, except that Joseph Leander doesn't seem to know why Bess did it.† â€Å"No note?† Val asked. â€Å"No. Nothing. Joseph went downstairs for breakfast this morning and found her hanging in the dining room.† Val felt her stomach lurch. She had never really formed a mental picture of Bess Leander's death. It had been words on the phone until now. She looked away from Theo, looked around the room for something that would erase the picture. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Theo said. â€Å"This must be hard for you. I'm just wondering if there was anything that Bess might have said in therapy that would give a clue.† Fifteen percent, Val thought. She said, â€Å"Most suicides don't leave a note. By the time they have gone that far into depression, they aren't interested in what happens after their death. They just want the pain to end.† Theo nodded. â€Å"Then Bess was depressed? Joseph said that she appeared to be getting better.† Val cast around her training for an answer. She hadn't really diagnosed Bess Leander, she had just prescribed what she thought would make Bess feel better. She said, â€Å"Diagnosis in psychiatry isn't always that exact, Theo. Bess Leander was a complex case. Without compromising doctor-patient confidentiality, I can tell you that Bess suffered from a borderline case of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. I was treating her for that.† Theo pulled a prescription bottle out of his shirt pocket and looked at the label. â€Å"Zoloft. Isn't that an anti-depressant? I only know because I used to date a woman who was on it.† Right, Val thought. Actually, you used to date at least three women who were on it. She said, â€Å"Zoloft is an SSRI like Prozac. It's prescribed for a number of conditions. With OCD the dosage is higher.† That's it, get clinical. Baffle him with clinical bullshit. Theo shook the bottle. â€Å"Could someone O.D. on it or something? I heard somewhere that people do crazy things sometimes on these drugs.† â€Å"That's not necessarily true. SSRIs like Zoloft are often prescribed to people with major depression. Fifteen percent of all depressed patients commit suicide.† There, she said it. â€Å"Antidepressants are a tool, along with talk therapy, that psychiatrists use to help patients. Sometimes the tools don't work. As with any therapy, a third get better, a third get worse, and a third stay the same. Antidepressants aren't a panacea.† But you treat them like they are, don't you, Val? â€Å"But you said that Bess Leander had OCD, not depression.† â€Å"Constable, have you ever had a stomachache and a runny nose at the same time?† â€Å"So you're saying she was depressed?† â€Å"Yes, she was depressed, as well as having OCD.† â€Å"And it couldn't have been the drugs?† â€Å"To be honest with you, I don't even know if she was taking the drug. Have you counted them?† â€Å"Uh, no.† â€Å"Patients don't always take their medicine. We don't order blood level tests for SSRIs.† â€Å"Right,† Theo said. â€Å"I guess we'll know when they do the autopsy.† Another horrendous picture flashed in Val's mind: Bess Leander on an autopsy table. The viscera of medicine had always been too much for her. She stood. â€Å"I wish I could help you more, but to be honest, Bess Leander never gave me any indication that she was suicidal.† At least that was true. Theo took her cue and stood. â€Å"Well, thank you. I'm sorry to have bothered you. If you think of anything, you know, anything that I can tell Joseph that might make it easier on him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm sorry. That's all I know.† Fifteen percent. Fifteen percent. Fifteen percent. She led him to the door. He turned before leaving. â€Å"One more thing. Molly Michon is one of your patients, isn't she?† â€Å"Yes. Actually, she's a county patient, but I agreed to treat her at a reduced rate because all the county facilities are so far away.† â€Å"You might want to check on her. She attacked a guy at the Head of the Slug this morning.† â€Å"Is she in County?† â€Å"No, I took her home. She calmed down.† â€Å"Thank you, Constable. I'll call her.† â€Å"Well, then. I'll be going.† â€Å"Constable,† she called after him. â€Å"Those pills you have – Zoloft isn't a recreational drug.† Theo stumbled on the steps, then composed himself. â€Å"Right, Doctor, I figured that out when I saw the body hanging in the dining room. I'll try not to eat the evidence.† â€Å"Good-bye,† Val said. She closed the door behind him and burst into tears. Fifteen percent. She had fifteen hundred patients in Pine Cove on some form of antidepressant or another. Fifteen percent would be more than two hundred people dead. She couldn't do that. She wouldn't let an-other of her patients die because of her noninvolvement. If antidepressants wouldn't save them, then maybe she could. Three Theo Theophilus Crowe wrote bad free-verse poetry and played a jimbai drum while sitting on a rock by the ocean. He could play sixteen chords on the guitar and knew five Bob Dylan songs all the way through, allowing for a dampening buzz any time he had to play a bar chord. He had tried his hand at painting, sculpture, and pottery and had even played a minor part in the Pine Cove Little Theater's revival of Arsenic and Old Lace. In all these endeavors, he had experienced a meteoric rise to mediocrity and quit before total embarrassment and self-loathing set in. Theo was cursed with an artist's soul but no talent. He possessed the angst and the inspiration, but not the means to create. If there was any single thing at which Theo excelled, it was empathy. He always seemed to be able to understand someone's point of view, no matter how singular or farfetched, and in turn could convey it to others with a succinctness and clarity that he seldom found in expressing his own thoughts. He was a born mediator, a peacemaker, and it was this talent, after breaking up numerous fights at the Head of the Slug Saloon, that got Theo elected constable. That and heavy-handed endorsement of Sheriff John Burton. Burton was a hard-line right-wing politico who could spout law and order (accent on order) over brunch with the Rotarians, lunch with the NRA, and dinner with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and wolf down dry banquet chicken like it was manna from the gods every time. He wore expensive suits, a gold Rolex, and drove a pearl-black Eldor-ado that shone like a starry night on wheels (rapt attention and copious coats of carnuba from the grunts in the county motor pool). He had been sheriff of San Junipero County for sixteen years, and in that time the crime rate had dropped steadily until it was the lowest, per capita, of any county in California. His endorsement of Theophilus Crowe, someone with no law enforcement experience, had come as more than somewhat of a surprise to the people of Pine Cove, especially since Theo's opponent was a retired Los Angeles policeman who'd put in a highly decorated five and twenty. What the people of Pine Cove did not know was that Sheriff Burton not only e ndorsed Theo, he had forced him to run in the first place. Theophilus Crowe was a quiet man, and Sheriff John Burton had his reasons for not wanting to hear a peep out of the little North County burg of Pine Cove, so when Theo walked into his little two-room cabin, he wasn't surprised to see a red seven blinking on his answering machine. He punched the button and listened to Burton's assistant insisting that he call right away – seven times. Burton never called the cell phone. Theo had come home to shower and ponder his meeting with Val Riordan. The fact that she had treated at least three of his ex-girlfriends bothered him. He wanted to try and figure out what the women had told her. Obviously, they'd mention that he got high occasionally. Well, more than occasionally. But like any man, it worried him that they might have said something about his sexual performance. For some reason, it didn't bother him nearly as much that Val Riordan think him a loser and a drug fiend as it did that she might think he was bad in the rack. He wanted to ponder the possibilities, think away the paranoia, but instead he dialed the sheriff's private number and was put right through. â€Å"What in the hell is the matter with you, Crowe? You stoned?† â€Å"No more than usual,† Theo said. â€Å"What's the problem?† â€Å"The problem is you removed evidence from a crime scene.† â€Å"I did?† Talking to the sheriff could drain all of Theo's energy instantly. He fell into a beanbag chair that expectorated Styrofoam beads from a failing seam with a sigh. â€Å"What evidence? What scene?† â€Å"The pills, Crowe. The suicide's husband said you took the pills with you. I want them back at the scene in ten minutes. I want my men out of there in half an hour. The M.E. will do the autopsy this afternoon and this case will close by dinnertime, got it? Run-of-the-mill suicide. Obit page only. No news. You understand?† â€Å"I was just checking on her condition with her psychiatrist. See if there were any indications she might be suicidal.† â€Å"Crowe, you must resist the urge to play investigator or pretend that you are a law enforcement officer. The woman hung herself. She was de-pressed and she ended it all. The husband wasn't cheating, there was no money motive, and Mommy and Daddy weren't fighting.† â€Å"They talked to the kids?† â€Å"Of course they talked to the kids. They're detectives. They investigate things. Now get over there and get them out of North County. I'd send them over to get the pills from you, but I wouldn't want them to find your little victory garden, would you?† â€Å"I'm leaving now,† Theo said. â€Å"This is the last I will hear of this,† Burton said. He hung up. Theo hung up the phone, closed his eyes, and turned into a human puddle in the beanbag chair. Forty-one years old and he still lived like a college student. His books were stacked between bricks and boards, his bed pulled out of a sofa, his refrigerator was empty but for a slice of pizza going green, and the grounds around his cabin were overgrown with weeds and brambles. Behind the cabin, in the middle of a nest of blackberry vines, stood his victory garden: ten bushy marijuana plants, sticky with buds that smelled of skunk and spice. Not a day passed that he didn't want to plow them under and sterilize the ground they grew in. And not a day passed that he didn't work his way through the brambles and lovingly harvest the sticky green that would sustain his habit through the day. The researchers said that marijuana was only psychologically addictive. Theo had read all the papers. They only mentioned the night sweats and mental spiders of withdrawal in passing, as if they were no more unpleasant than a tetanus shot. But Theo had tried to quit. He'd wrung out three sets of sheets in one night and paced the cabin looking for distraction until he thought his head might explode, only to give up and suck the piquant smoke from his Sneaky Pete so he could find sleep. The researchers obvi-ously didn't get it, but Sheriff John Burton did. He understood Theo's weakness and held it over him like the proverbial sword. That Burton had his own Achilles' heel and more to lose from its discovery didn't seem to matter. Logically, Theo had him in a standoff. But emotionally, Burton had the upper hand. Theo was always the one to blink. He snatched Sneaky Pete off his orange crate coffee table and headed out the door to return Bess Leander's pills to the scene of the crime. Valerie Dr. Valerie Riordan sat at her desk, looking at the icons of her life: a tiny digital stock ticker that she would surreptitiously glance down at during appointments; a gold Mont Blanc desk set, the pens jutting from the jade base like the antennae of a goldbug; a set of bookends fashioned in the likenesses of Freud and Jung, bracing leather-bound copies of The Psychology of the Unconscious, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), The Interpretation of Dreams, and The Physician's Desk Reference; and a plaster-cast bust of Hippocrates that dispensed Post-it notes from the base. Hippocrates, that wily Greek who turned medicine from magic to science. The author of the famous oath that Val had uttered twenty years ago on that sunny summer day in Ann Arbor when she graduated from med school: â€Å"I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not give poison to anyone though a sked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan.† The oath had seemed so silly, so antiquated then. What doctor, in their right mind, would give poison to a patient? â€Å"But in purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art.† It had seemed so obvious and easy then. Now she guarded her life and her art with a custom security system and a Glock 9 mm. stashed in the nightstand. â€Å"I will not use the knife on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.† She'd never had a problem with that part of the oath. She was loathe to use the knife. She'd gone into psychiatry because she couldn't handle the messy parts of medicine. Her father, a surgeon himself, had been only mildly disappointed. At least she was a doctor, of sorts. She'd done her internship and residency in a rehab center where movie stars and rock idols learned to be responsible by making their own beds, while Val distributed Valium like a flight attendant passing out peanuts. One wing of the Sunrise Center was druggies, the other eating disorders. She preferred the eating disorders. â€Å"You haven't lived until you've force-fed minestrone to a supermodel through a tube,† she told her father. â€Å"Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will do so to help the sick, keeping myself free from all intentional wrongdoing and harm, especially from fornication with woman or man, bond or free.† Well, abstinence from fornication hadn't been a problem, had it? She hadn't had sex since Richard left five years ago. Richard had given her the bust of Hippocrates as a joke, he said, but she'd put it on her desk just the same. She'd given him a statue of Blind Justice wearing a garter belt and fishnets the year before to display at his law office. He'd brought her here to this little village, passing up offers from corporate law firms to follow his dream of being a country lawyer whose daily docket would include disagreements over pig paternity or the odd pension dispute. He wanted to be Atticus Finch, Pudd'nhead Wilson, a Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda character who was paid in fresh-baked bread and baskets of avocados. Well, he'd gotten that part; Val's practice had supported them for most of their marriage. She'd be paying him alimony now if they'd actually divorced. Country lawyer indeed. He left her to go to Sacramento to lobby the California Coastal Commission for a consortium of golf course developers. His job was to convince the commission that sea otters and elephant seals would enjoy nothing better than to watch Japanese businessmen slice Titleists into the Pacific and that what nature needed was one long fairway from Santa Barbara to San Francisco (maybe sand traps at the Pismo and Carmel dunes). He carried a pocket watch, for Christ's sake, a gold chain with a jade fob carved into the shape of an endangered brown pelican. He played his front-porch, rocking-chair-wise, country lawyer against their Botany 500 sophistication and pulled down over two hundred grand a year in the bargain. He lived with one of his clerks, an earnest doe-eyed Stanfordite with surfer girl hair and a figure that mocked gravity. Richard had introduced Val to the girl (Ashley, or Brie, or Jordan) and it had been oh-so-adult and oh-so-gracious and later, when Val cal led Richard to clear up a tax matter, she asked, â€Å"So how'd you screen the candidates, Richard? First one to suck-start your Lexus?† â€Å"Maybe we should start thinking about making our separation official,† Richard had said. Val had hung up on him. If she couldn't have a happy marriage, she'd have everything else. Everything. And so had begun her revolving door policy of hustling appointments, prescribing the appropriate meds, and shopping for clothes and antiques. Hippocrates glowered at her from the desk. â€Å"I didn't intentionally do harm,† Val said. â€Å"Not intentionally, you old buggerer. Fifteen percent of all depressives commit suicide, treated or not.† â€Å"Whatsoever in the course of practice I see or hear (or even outside my practice in social intercourse) that ought never to be published abroad, I will not divulge, but consider such things to be holy secrets.† â€Å"Holy secrets or do no harm?† Val asked, envisioning the hanging body of Bess Leander with a shudder. â€Å"Which is it?† Hippocrates sat on his Post-its, saying nothing. Was Bess Leander's death her fault? If she had talked to Bess instead of put her on antidepressants, would that have saved her? It was possible, and it was also possible that if she kept to her policy of a â€Å"pill for every problem,† someone else was going to die. She couldn't risk it. If using talk therapy instead of drugs could save one life, it was worth a try. Val grabbed the phone and hit the speed dial button that connected her to the town's only pharmacy, Pine Cove Drug and Gift. One of the clerks answered. Val asked to speak to Winston Krauss, the pharmacist. Winston was one of her patients. He was fifty-three, unmarried, and eighty pounds overweight. His holy secret, which he shared with Val during a session, was that he had an unnatural sexual fascination with marine mammals, dolphins in particular. He'd confessed that he'd never been able to watch â€Å"Flipper† without getting an erection and that he'd watched so many Jacques Cousteau specials that a French accent made him break into a sweat. He kept an anatomically correct inflatable porpoise, which he violated nightly in his bathtub. Val had cured him of wearing a scuba mask and snorkel around the house, so gradually the red gasket ring around his face had cleared up, but he still did the dolphin nightly and confessed it to her once a month. â€Å"Winston, Val Riordan here. I need a favor.† â€Å"Sure, Dr. Val, you need me to deliver something to Molly? I heard she went off in the Slug this morning.† Gossip surpassed the speed of light in Pine Cove. â€Å"No, Winston, you know that company that carries all the look-alike placebos? We used them in college. I need you to order look-alikes for all the antidepressants I prescribe: Prozac, Zoloft, Serzone, Effexor, the whole bunch, all the dosages. Order in quantity.† â€Å"I don't get it, Val, what for?† Val cleared her throat. â€Å"I want you to fill all of my prescriptions with the placebos.† â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"I'm not kidding, Winston. As of today, I don't want a single one of my patients getting the real thing. Not one.† â€Å"Are you doing some sort of experiment? Control group or something?† â€Å"Something like that.† â€Å"And you want me to charge them the normal price?† â€Å"Of course. Our usual arrangement.† Val got a twenty percent kickback from the pharmacy. She was going to be working a lot harder, she deserved to get paid. Winston paused. She could hear him going through the glass door into the back of the pharmacy. Finally he said, â€Å"I can't do that, Val. That's unethical. I could lose my license, go to jail.† Val had really hoped it wouldn't come to this. â€Å"Winston, you'll do it. You'll do it or the Pine Cove Gazette will run a front-page story about you being a fish-fucker.† â€Å"That's illegal. You can't divulge something I told you in therapy.† â€Å"Quit telling me what's illegal, Winston. I'm married to a lawyer.† â€Å"I'd really rather not do this, Val. Can't you send them down to the Thrifty Mart in San Junipero? I could say that I can't get the pills anymore.† â€Å"That wouldn't work, would it, Winston? The people at the Thrifty Mart don't have your little problem.† â€Å"You're going to have some withdrawal reactions. How are you going to explain that?† â€Å"Let me worry about that. I'm quadrupling my sessions. I want to see these people get better, not mask their problems.† â€Å"This is about Bess Leander's suicide, isn't it?† â€Å"I'm not going to lose another one, Winston.† â€Å"Antidepressants don't increase the incidence of suicide or violence. Eli Lilly proved that in court.† â€Å"Yes and O.J. walked. Court is one thing, Winston, the reality of losing a patient is another. I'm taking charge of my practice. Now order the pills. I'm sure the profit margin is going to be quite a bit higher on sugar pills than it is on Prozac.† â€Å"I could go to the Florida Keys. There's a place down there where they let you swim with bottlenose dolphins.† â€Å"You can't go, Winston. You can't miss your therapy sessions. I want to see you at least once a week.† â€Å"You bitch.† â€Å"I'm trying to do the right thing. What day is good for you?† â€Å"I'll call you back.† â€Å"Don't push me, Winston.† â€Å"I have to make this order,† he said. Then, after a second, he said, â€Å"Dr. Val?† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Do I have to go off the Serzone?† â€Å"We'll talk about it in therapy.† She hung up and pulled a Post-it out of Hippocrates' chest. â€Å"Now if I keep this oath, and break it not, may I enjoy honor, in my life and art, among all men for all time; but if I transgress and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.† Does that mean dishonor for all time? she wondered. I'm just trying to do the right thing here. Finally. She made a note to call Winston back and schedule his appointments.

Planning Human Resource Essay

Human resource planning has a major role to meet the company objectives in professional and efficient comportment. In this case study planning process is to meet the short term, by having the right people and the right skills of workforce to supply demands of the new contract at the same time to adjust staffing change for long term objectives. As an HR manager main role is to meet business needs through workforce planning. Part of the planning is to investigate and gather information where the company stands now where we want to take it and how to do that. I can employ the Manpower requirement approach for Human resource planning, to analyse the current situation and estimate future needs and implement the new strategy. The manpower requirement approach enables the HR to investigate the quality and the quantity of the existing workforce and analyse the company situation, forecast an adequate number of skilled manpower to satisfy future needs and achieve targets. 1- Analyse the current workforce: to learn about employees profile, expertise, age education, roles and gather information about staff rotation, this data base permit the company to evaluate the core competences and the power of it is human capital, identify surplus or shortage for short term and long term targets and measure it up with the company objectives and capabilities to appraise the current productivity, Moreover to evaluate the corporate strategy alignment with the vision and mission. 2- Forecast future manpower: identify supply and demand. Expect the quantity and characteristics of the manpower in demand for future needs based on projecting employer past trends. Using previous trends of employment of a specific qualifications and expertise employed earlier in the past years by the company to ensure productivity. â€Å"In this approach an attempt is made to forecast future requirements of educated manpower to fulfil a future target of Gross National Product (GNP) or specified targets of industrial production†. (According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010) Predict directions and development in each size of individual sectors of the economy. Use series of data and historical trends to acquire the ratio between the growth of the skills of the workforce and output growth. This method allow to associate experienced manpower and their productivity influencing the economic growth in a specific sector. According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010, â€Å"the fundamental axioms of manpower requirements approach is that there is a definite link between the education and the economic growth and the lack of skilled manpower in required number impedes growth†. Analyse and estimate the requirements of educated manpower to develop and advance, by assessing different factors engagement level, wastage and recession rate. Estimate the level of labour force participants by comparing the participant’s rates and the number of graduates for a specific occupation. The main strengths of this method are estimating and comparing the demand and supply over a period of time in a specific economy and correlate this with the total population level of employment and production. Moreover this approach helps the company to identify future needs for development and training allowing them to categorise. According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010,† this approach assess the skill requirements to achieve any predetermined economic growth, and to gear the expansion of educational system to provide the needed education and training† However there are some flaws in the Manpower Requirements approaches. The first limitation: The Manpower requirement approach, link skilled manpower to a specific occupation task, however it’s limited to be valid since it is not including the price and the cost of formal training and education to produce such educated level required, and it can only be relevant to developing countries, where high proportion of manpower have obtained these skills through informal learning and job experience. According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010, â€Å"in the Indian context, it has been observed that over 30 percent of the manpower do not have the basic minimum qualification. They have reached these levels through on-the-job training and such other informal training in the requisite skills.† The second limitation: This method confirms that there are no replacements for the required skilled manpower; however we cannot expect to find in one country all jobs requiring a specific skill to be executed by manpower having the same category of education. According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010, â€Å"the educated manpower of different types are used in fixed proportions and that there no substitutions possibilities among the various categories of educated manpower†. The future is uncertain, technological and economical factors constantly changing affect the patterns of demands predicted in an earlier stage, since estimated skilled or unskilled labour force is derived from the patterns of services or goods in demand, this approach is relatively unreliable for future for long turn estimates and can produce large errors. According to Mahapatro, et al. 2010, â€Å"Any error in judgment, in this regard, will seriously affect manpower balances at a later date resulting in either excess supply or excess demand†. Flexibility For example the Audit Commission, they have developed different type of employment to meet their business needs. â€Å"†These different contracts help the Audit Commission to cope with all of its changing needs. They also help it to be flexible.† (The Times 100, 2013) The Audit Commission is constantly faced with peaks and troughs in the workload that cannot be met simply by having its employees on full-time contracts. There are situations where they need either more staff or fewer staff. By increasing or reducing staff in these situations the Audit Commission has developed numerical flexibility. (The Times 100, 2013) As we know the organisation had some success stories and some unstable situation, HR planning at this phase after winning a new contract is extremely crucial. We can learn from the Audit Commission and apply flexibility to be able to meet future business needs without raising employment cost and by avoiding downsizing. I can suggest developing and applying flexible working patterns by introducing different type of employment contracts. The internal labour market 350 employees 95% of them have permanent contract consisting the core group of the organization having the skills and knowledge to work in many roles, the abovementioned manpower enable the organisation to run the daily operation having the expertise the knowhow of the company production standards and quality, and they can meet the enquiries in an efficient ways. However the company has recently won a new contract that might implicate needs for recruitment. The existing 95% will remain on permanent contracts and will consist the 75% of the company new structure, as for the new workforce joining the company we can introduce different type of contract to hire them in order to maintain the flexibility of the organisation. They consists the first peripheral and the second peripheral. In the company situation we are examining to hire the first peripheral group that is numerically flexible and the second peripheral group that include employees on short-terms or contractors from agencies, where the organisation needs more staff, that will not by necessary after the production demands of the new contracts are met. As for a construction company that have just signed a new hotel construction project that will end in 5 years, they cannot afford to hire employees on permanent contracts for the new project, as they will have surplus after the hotel is build. In this situation by applying the new working patterns the manufacturing company can meet the new contract needs and ensure that we will not have a manpower surplus after the project is done, it is always easy to increases the number of the workforce but not simple to reduce it. Since the company have liabilities toward their workforce. The cost is extremely high to offer all its employees benefits, health insurance, schooling, bonuses and end of service indemnities. Question 2: As we have discussed before temporary workers play a significant role in current fast pace evolving industries, no matter how skilled or unskilled they are, a certain amount of training is required to make sure they can perform well the assigned tasks. We have to plan the training process and identify the gaps. According to Gomez-Mejia et al, 2012 â€Å"The trainng process consists of three phases: (1) needs assessment, (2) development and conduct of training, and (3) evaluation.† 2.1 Assessment Needs: The type of training should be linked to the organisation goals, in our organisation situation the company needs to meet the new project production needs on time efficiently without compromising the quality. By hiring the new temporary workforce, the company is not looking to develop them or invest in them, as they are only hired to assure the production for a certain period. However we need their contribution to achieve company goals and meet business demand, the required training should enable them to acquire the skills and the knowledge, by identifying a certain type of training that will ensure they are prepared to do the assigned tasks and have the complete knowledge of the company procedures and safety related issue. 2.2 Development and conduct of training We can refer to Aldi’s company case study that was experiencing a rapid expansion and needed to recruit more than 4,000 employees. It is not so easy to involve a large number of employees and engage them to the company objectives, we can examine below how Aldi’s planned to train the new workforce and make them committed to their new roles. They have chosen to provide the on-the-job-training. â€Å"On-the-job training is training that takes place while employees are actually working. It means that skills can be gained while trainees are carrying out their jobs. This benefits both employees and the business. Employees learn in the real work environment and gain experience dealing with the tasks and challenges that they will meet during a normal working day. The business benefits by ensuring that the training is specific to the job. It also does not have to meet the additional costs of providing off-the-job training or losing working time†. (The Times 100, 2013) we can use the same training approach to apply it to our organisation, as we have to be careful about the cost. At the beginning we have to introduce them to the work place they are joining, an induction training should be provided to familiarize the new group joining to the company and colleagues, this orientation ensure their understanding to the company structure and the corporate culture and we can gain their involvement from day one to the organisation objectives and goals. We are examining here the instrumental learning type. On job training approach is applicable in this case study as it is considered cost effective and does not require an expert trainer to be hired from outside the company to teach them specific skills or to provide a certain knowledge. â€Å"OJT also spares the organisation the expense of taking employees out of the work environment for training and usually the cost of hiring outside trainer, because employees generally are capable of doing the training† †. (Gomez-Mejia et al, 2012) At the same it can deliver a clear message about the company expectation while saving time, as senior skilled staff can train new employees divided in groups depending on job requirement and the group can actually learn the required skill while conducting day-to-day activities, it allow them to observe and try. One of benefits for the company will be having skilled employees that will need less supervision to perform tasks in the future, furthermore that will increase the loyalty to the employer and employees relationships, since they will be interacting closely with the senior staff for the training period. In addition they can get guidance and learn new technologies practically rather than theorist, where most of the times theories are not so clear to be applicable. â€Å"The guided on the-job training approach helps build relationships†. (Gomez-Mejia et al, 2012). The informal training or the OJT can enhance relationships between the workforce interacting together to acquire skills and learn better about our organisation, it can be also considered as socializing activity since they can be more open and communicate easily with no barrier, this process will make effective the on-boarding new employees. â€Å"Socialization is not a single event. Rather, socialisation is the iterative process between the new employee and the organisation as the individual develop skills, knowledge, role behaviour, and adjustment to norms and values in response to needs and expectations of organisation. (Jolton et al, 2010). For the employees it helps them to be more motivated and self confident about the job, where they can gain more skills in a practical way. They can get guidance and learn new technologies practically rather than theorist, where most of the times theories are not so clear to be applicable. We have to plan carefully the On-the-Job-Training, to allow immediate benefits and reduce the unproductive breaking-in period of the new joiners. If we leave them to learn through unplanned methods employees may feel anxious unmotivated as they are not confident about their job roles and performance. Since we are aiming for temporary manpower and flexible working patterns this method is considered efficient to make them productive as quickly as possible. In addition the OJT permit to examine at early stage employees basic skills problems, for this scenario we can plan for further training for a certain group, simply it can eliminate skills deficiency. Question 3: 3.1 Benefits of Diversity at the workplace. a. Internal advantages. Emerging economy, constantly changes in lifestyle and social demands stimulate people to move from their native countries to a better place, society are becoming more diverse. One car type cannot fit to one population; diversity in choice can make a difference and appeal to everyone. By recruiting a diverse workforce we won’t be only addressing legislation or avoiding discrimination lawsuits, but we ensure engaging our stakeholders’ demands. Avoiding the stereotype in recruitment is the key success for the company to become an employer of choice. Diversity at the workplace can bring a pool of creativity and new ideas; contribution from people coming from different background can advance work and give the ability to the company to comprehend better our stakeholders’ needs and demands. People having different cultural perspectives and lifestyle can give different ideas about the same subject and convey wider exposure for the company. According to Gomez-Mejia et al, 2012, â€Å"to survive and prosper in an increasingly heterogeneous society, organisations must capitalize on employee diversity as a source of competitive advantage†. Regardless that managing employee diversity is politically correct, diverse workforce enhance better problem solving, in our manufacturing company people tend to work in groups, interacting together can solve occurring problems easier as their life experience is dissimilar and they will approach the arising problems differently. Demographic and Cultural diversity can draw more flexibility to the company culture; sharing different experiences can make the work smoother and enjoyable, since learning is wider and more open. b. External advantages A team of different people sharing life experiences and values can improve our corporate culture to become a multicultural organisation having the experience to understand better international market, this advantage can aid the company to generate more profits and widen our market. Talented people are not limited to one culture, certain age or religion, our aim is to match the right people to the right job, so why to slim our choices since we can recruit from a pool of talents. By offering equal opportunity and overlooking differences we can focus better on having the right skills, Cultural diversity at the workplace can promote competitive advantage over rivals, Moreover respecting individual diversities in recruitment can increase productivity and promote the business image. Diversity at the workplace is the key to stay competitive and to be able to cope to the fast changing economy. â€Å"Given the global nature of business today, organisations have to create very specific and effective recruitment efforts to build a deep reservoir of global as well local talent to staff all their organisational levels. (Jolton et al, 2010) As example we can spot the light to Tesco operating in UK where people from different culture and background lives. â€Å"Tesco recognises that every person is different and will bring unique talents and experiences to a role†. (The Times 100, 2013). According to Tesco; â€Å"Difference can be our strength because talent and diversity are two sides of the same coin. To focus on one while ignoring the other is like trying to run a store with no customers – it just won’t work’†. (The Times 100, 2013). 3.2 Employee Diversity Challenges. However some challenges can draw, if diversity is not correctly managed in our organisation, as we can face negative outcomes in communication and productivity Resistance to change from majority and cultural clashes may occur, people tend not to accept each other easily especially if they consider minority inferior, or not as qualified to compete for a promotion or a career development. Cultural diversity may create a barrier between majority and minorities what can affect teamwork and participation. Communication flow might be distracted; people tend to be more involved in relationships with colleagues having the same culture and background, as they share same point of view and lifestyle, minorities can be left out of the company mainstream. Minorities will start to be unmotivated and not satisfied in the work environment and significant turnover and absenteeism can face the company. Diversity can enhance creativity, however minorities being ignored and less valued, will affect their enthusiasm and involvement in the company goals and achievement, and they won’t be able to perform efficiently and effectively due to the low morale. â€Å"Conversely, the proponents of relativity argue that failure to adapt HR practices to the needs of a diverse population may alienate much of the workforce and reduce their potential contributions†. (Gomez-Mejia et al, 2012) References: 1- Mahapatro,. Bhussan,B., 2010. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: New Age International Limited. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com [Accessed 30 June 2013]. 2- The Times 100 Business Case Studies, 2013. Flexible working patterns An Audit Commission Case Study. The Times 100. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/audit-commission/flexible-working-patterns/conclusion.html#axzz2Z2peExn1 [Accessed 3 July 2013]. 3- Gomez-Mejia,L., Balkin,D., and Cardy,R,. 2012. Managing Human Resources. Seventh Edition. United States of America. Pearson Education, Inc. 4- Jolton,J,. Lundby, K,. 2010. Going Global: Practical Applications and Recommendations for HR and OD Professionals in the Global Workplace. United States of America: Jossey-Bass. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com [Accessed 16 June 2013].