Political Science Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Political Science - Research Paper Example Leaders use it to prove to the world that they are doing the right thing for their citizenry or nations. Do today’s governments embody the dictums that define democracy? This piece of work is written to explain the meaning of politics and democracy, as well as the roles they play in the present day society. The author has examined how the two, politics and democracy, present themselves in the U.S, and how they have shaped the country from as far as 200 years ago. The word politics comes from two Greek words; ‘polis,’ and ‘politikos.’ Polis means a self-governing city or state, while politikos means relating to people. Cities of ancient Greece are believed to be the origin of present day politics. They are the first points where noticeable governance structures can be established. For these reason, ideologies of most governments today borrow heavily from the cultural practices of the old Greek people. The Greek civilization dates back to over 4000 years (Marshall, 2011). According to one English philosopher; Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), in one of his works, the Leviathan (1651), life before civilization is believed to have been harsh, brutal and selfish. This is attributed to lack of laws to govern the code of conduct of people. As a result, people were only driven by their own selfish desires. Various individuals have strived to come up with definitions for politics. Due to its broad nature and ambiguity, it is hard to capture all that it entails in just one definition. Some of the most visible philosophers who endeavoured into defining politics include; Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, and Harold Lasswell. Politics is the ‘philosophy of human affairs.’ This is the view held by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in his Nicomachean Ethics (350 BCE). Aristotle claims that man is naturally a political animal, because politics is what brings happiness to man and to the community. In his definition, he draws the

Discuss the relationship between film score and narrative (story) Essay

Discuss the relationship between film score and narrative (story) - Essay Example It gives the feeling of the narration and helps carry along with the narrative the audience. Giving the feeling and tone of a narrative is very necessary to help the audience realize the message that the narrative is relaying to them. All narratives have their role which is supposed to educate and entertain the society. They try to remind people of the lost values that should be sort for proper cohesion of the people. In traditional societies before the coming of formal education, narratives were a source of education to young people. They were used to drive order and instill discipline in the young ones. This art has currently been perfected into different genres to include movies, dramas and other theatrics. With these improvements to modernize the field of art came music which has proved to be an integral part of narratives and movies and without music there could as well be no narratives or movies. An appropriate music has to be selected to accompany the narration. This will help to give meaning to the different scenes and themes that the narrator may want to pass across. Just by the background music, the audience may be in a position to predict what is likely to come next in the narration. Therefore, film score or film music helps in a great way to build a story in a narrative. The plot of the narration will basically be based on the content of the narration and the music that plays along the story (Green, 81). Film score also helps to catch attention of the audience hence breaking the monotony and boredom that may prevail were it for a mere narration without any support from music. Calm music often brings about somber moods in the narration, indicating that there could be a bad incident taking place in the story. A lively song gives an impression of a happy occurrence in the story. Therefore the choice of music should be correct to prevent a misleading incident where the audience may think about an occurrence

Mcdonalds Competition Against Burger King

Mcdonalds Competition Against Burger King McDonalds is one of the best global foodservice retailer which has more than 32,000 local restaurants serving more than 60 million people in 117 countries each day. More than 75% of McDonalds restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local public. The Company serves the world some of its favourite foods World Famous Fries, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Chicken McNuggets and Egg McMuffin. The history began with our founder, Ray Kroc. The strong foundation that he established continues today with McDonalds vision and the commitment of our talented executives to keep the shine on McDonalds Arches for years to come. . Its head office is located in Oak Brook United States. McDonalds Corporation is the worlds largest chain of fast food restaurants, working worldwide in 117 countries with 400000 workers. It has 60 Million customers with 32000 restaurants worldwide. A franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself operates every McDonalds restaurant. The corporations reve nues come from the rent, royalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. Its net operating income for the year ended 2010 is $7.673 Billion. The type of the company is public. Time Line: 1940: Dick and Mac McDonalds open MacDonalds Bar-B-Que restaurant on Fourteenth and E streets in San Bernardino, California 1948: Dick and Mac McDonalds opened the 1st drive thru restaurant in San Bernardino, California. 1949: French Fries replace potato chips on MacDonalds menu 1954: Ray Kroc becomes the first agent of franchise for the McDonalds brothers. 1955: Ray Kroc opens 1st McDonalds in Illinois. 1957: McDonalds started knowing for the motto QSC. 1959: McDonalds started billboard advertising. 1961: Ray Kroc acquires McDonald brothers for $2.7Million. 1963: Ronald McDonald made his debut in a way to attract more children and families. 1965: Television network advertising begins. 1969: The new design for the restaurants roof introduced to replace the red and white design. 1984: Training started providing for every level of McDonalds management worldwide for quality assurance. 1995: The new advertising theme have you had your break today? debuts. 2004: ISO 14000. 2005: 50th Anniversary. 2008: introduces the most broad global packaging design in the brands industry Burger King: Burger King is the 2nd largest fast-food chain, behind only McDonalds. The company franchises more than 10,400 restaurants and owns about 1,000 for a chain wide total exceeding 11,455, with locations in all 50 states and 56 countries. The company serves 15.7 million customers each day and over 2.4 billion Burger King hamburgers are sold each year across the world. In the late 1990s and into the new millennium, Burger King was plagued by falling sales and deteriorating franchisee relationships. Burger Kings parent, Diageo Plc, sold the company to a group of investors led by Texas Pacific Group in 2002. Miami entrepreneurs James McLamore and David Edgerton founded Burger King Corporation in 1954. Five years later, they were ready to get bigger their five Florida Burger Kings into a all over the country chain. By the time they sold their company to Pillsbury in 1967, Burger King had become the third largest fast-food chain in the country and was on its way to second place, after industry leader McDonalds. Time Line: 1954: James McLamore and David Edgerton establish Burger King Corporation. 1957: The Whopper is launched. 1959: The company begins to expand through franchising. 1963: First Burger King outside the U.S. in Puerto Rico 1967: Burger King is sold to Pillsbury. 1975: Burger King introduces the drive-through window 1977: Donald Smith is hired to restructure the firms franchise system. 1978: BKC introduces new line-up of sandwiches (fish, steak, chicken and ham) 1979: BKC introduce breakfast menu 1982: Burger King claims its grilled burgers are better than competitors McDonalds and Wendys fried burgers. 1983: BKC introduce The CroissanWich 1988: BKC launches We do it like youd do it add campaign 1989: Grand Metropolitan plc acquires Pillsbury. 1997: The firm launches a $70 million French fry advertising campaign; Grand Metropolitan merges with Guinness to form Diageo plc. 2002: A group of investors led by Texas Pacific Group acquire Burger King 2004:Subservient Chicken is launched 2005: BK Chicken Fries are introduced 2006: BK goes public limited company 2007: 50th anniversary of the WHOPPER SANDWICH Main Topic This report consists of different operations, research development of products, innovation, changes, and competitiveness of McDonalds and Burger King according to the requirement of this course work. How they do research and developing new products, how they manage their product and service quality, how they taking competitive priority on each others, and which systems and approaches they following to make their businesses successful in this competitive environment and satisfy their customers where expectations of the customers are very high and changing their needs rapidly. Compare and Contrast of Operations How They Cook The main difference can be seen in the kitchen of these two restaurants. How they prepare their burgers for customer like McDonalds cooks their burger by a batch process where as Burger king make their burger by a machine paced assembly process. McDonalds Batch Process McDonalds fries their burgers on a big platen in batches of up to twelve. Two ore more than two batches can be on platen at same time in different stages of cooking. When a worker in the back says Quarter Pounders Up a complete batch is ready at the same time Burger King Broiler Process Burger king cook their burger on continuous chain broiler. Semi prepared burgers are put on one end 80 second later they bring out the other end its cooked. This sort of machine paced assembly process is very common in industrial manufacturing processes. Teamwork VS Assembly Line As both of these companies following two different strategies of operations like Mcdonalds batch process and King Burger assembly line. As in McDonald 12 hamburger are prepared in same time. They are hand seared after 20 seconds on the grill, turned at sixty seconds and pulled at hundred seconds. When they come off workers over there must fastly add condiments wrap and shelve them. If there are two batches going there in different stages of cooking then its mean that speed is more essential part to keep production on going. So its mean the staff must be motivated or the process gums up. Staff must be cooperative and willing to help in another area in case of help required. Burger King Here in Burger King there is no matter at what speed burger are prepared once they are cooked the rate limiting step is the cooking itself. One burger in a time comes off the chain broiler at the rate of 8 per minute, maximum. The machine makes the process fast. As long as you can do your job of assembly process in seven and half seconds per burger that all which is required. Fast and Quick Service(Just In Time) How McDonald can stay on top? The answer id that when it is running good, the batch process allows for much greater throughput and faster speed of services. Speed plays an important role in the popularity of food store. The batch process of McDonald can prepared 300 burger in one hour where as 200 for the continuous chain broiler of Burger king. There are standard given by each restaurant for speed like McDonalds is faster than Burger king because prepared burger for 3 minutes where as McDonalds delivered only in 90 seconds. Capacity Planning McDonald McDonalds has a very strict standard for food preparation and its their goal to facilitate their customer as fast as they can. To meet this goal they set a plan of inventory of food production to meet surges in demand. There are strict limits how long the food can remain in inventory limits the amount of inventory can be made this food limit allow to McDonald create a level between its production and the workforce required. This sort of strategy is called level production. Burger King Burger king is using another sort of strategy. They once promoted their burger using a have it your way philosophy because Burger assemble burger when they receive an order, because product is made when the demand appears. So Burger King has variation in labour need and this is the reason for customer to have wait. They nevertheless provide a product geared according to the requirement of customer. This sort of strategy is known as chase demand. Quality Control Burger King: uses the customer and market oriented surveys to manage the quality of service on regular basis. HSSP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) program is the execution of strict operation and sanitation procedures. Our food safety program employs a broiler design and meat cooking procedures that fully cook products, killing any potentially harmful bacteria. McDonalds: Q.S.C. V. Provide good quality, services to customer. Uses a cleanliness environment when customer enjoys their meal. The value of food product makes every customer is smiling. Price: Burger King uses affordable prices for quality food strategy so that its prices are less than its competitors. McDonalds came up with very high prices. The Company has certain value pricing and bundling strategies such as happy meal, combo meal family meal etc to increase overall sales volumes. Product: McDonalds doesnt offer just burgers their well-diversified menu is also one of the key success factors. Burger King: Burger King is offered flame-grilled burgers and offering a variety of food and other products those fulfilling the demands of all segments of society. Layout of Restaurants: McDonalds: Restaurants have included a playground for children and advertising geared toward children. The new strategy of re-designing of layout of the braches create natural style with a particular emphasis on comfort introducing lounge areas and fireplaces and eliminating hard plastic chairs and tables. These facilities give comfort to customers and create satisfaction. Burger King: The lay out of the restaurants are very wide and people could comfortably spend time with their food. Branding: McDonalds: Has partnership globally with Coca Cola to sell their drink with their menu Burger King: Has also co branding contracts with Coca Cola worldwide. Innovation: Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful business. In modern times, demand and expectations of customers are high and looking for change. The companies have to act accordingly to beat the competition and their survival. McDonalds has continuously introduced new products. The introduction is time such that the new product does not cannibalize the product already in the maturity or growth stage. A perfect example of renewing a product in decline phase French Fries have been an important part of the McDonalds menu worldwide. In an attempt to revive the Fries, Macdonalds amend and re-launch it with new name and style Shake Fries. This is being served with spicy spice mix, which has resulted in increase in the sales of French Fries and has elevated it from to the decline stage. The company is also focusing on nutrition and healthy food options for their customers. Burger King innovations in nutrition, quality, value and taste are all important attributes that can help our guests and their children make choices that promote healthy living. In July 2007, BKC identified two cooking oils with zero trans-fat that passed our rigorous operational, supply and consumer criteria; allowing us to start providing all of our restaurants in the U.S. and Canada with zero trans-fat oils. In 2008, we initiated a limit of 600 milligrams or less of sodium in all of our Kids Meals advertised to children under 12 years old. In May 2009, we introduced lower sodium CHICKEN TENDERSÂ ®, reducing sodium by 36 percent. BKC has joined the American Heart Associations (AHA) Industry Nutrition Advisory Panel (INAP), a partnership between the AHA Nutrition Committee and food industry leaders. INAP brings together representatives from the food industry and science to share information and plan cooperative programs in the areas of diet and nutrition and cardiovascular disease. Maintain Quality, Value and Taste: Nutritionally balanced products should still taste good. If our foods are nutritious and taste great, parents will order, it and kids will eat it. The Burger King always searching new ways to develop new product not only for variety in term of quality of food and nutrition for health of their customers. The are some latest innovations from Burger King BK BURGER SHOTSÂ ®, with BKTM Fresh Apple Fries, MINUTE MAIDÂ ® apple juice, CHICKEN TENDERSÂ ® with BKTM Fresh Apple Fries, Hamburger with BKTM Fresh Apple Fries, Philosophy of McDonalds: McDonalds consider People its philosophy. They provide the best employment experience for our employees to achieve their goals of providing our valued customers with the worlds best quick-service restaurant experience. They strive to recruit the best, hire the best, and provide the best place to work. People: The Company is the well aware of value of both its employees and customers. It knows the reality that a happy employee can work well with conclude as a happy customer. Human resources continuously working on finding new ways to motivate their customers (employees). The company focuses on critical hiring, best training and motivating employees through best pay structure and benefits. Philosophy of Burger King: Philosophy of Burger King to give option to customer to choose the food and we innovate. Burger Kings goals seemed quite clear. They want to individualize each customers order and provide the fastest service possible. Burger King gives the customer many choices and to accurately and quickly provide whatever the customer chooses. This policy is reflected in their slogan, your way, right away. Operating under this policy makes it very easy to achieve their goals. To facilitate fast service Burger King takes customer orders on a continual basis. One employee takes the customers order, the customer then moves down the line where another employee is preparing the order. Customers also get their own drinks while they are waiting for their meal. Burger King providing the innovative and healthy food options to their customers. Problems: Burger King Corporation is the second largest fast food restaurant chain in the world and growing their franchise network through globally. The company needs to do a lot to sustain the performance in this competitive environment. Burger King has good operational systems designed to provide customers with efficient and responsive services. The success of the operational system of Burger King is directly related to the degree of co-operation and co-ordination among these three subsystems. Any attempt to improve the efficiency, quality and responsiveness of the operational system must focus on these subsystems and their interactions. On the other hand increasing customers demand and expectations are challenges. Burger King is facing the following some problems in operations which affecting the quality services as compare with competitors: Staff motivation Inventory systems Equipment upgrade Customer accessibility Recommendations: Based on the analysis we can conclude that The Company should start by solving their internal issues so that they could perform batter and could achieve their objectives: Staff Motivation: The turnover rate is high employee are not staying long due to lack of motivation. The company should focus on retaining their staff. The company should plan an internal marketing so that they could address these issues. For this the company should give their employees tailored made training to serve the customers and coordination between them. The structure of the pay should be revised as per market based and give them incentives and benefits on their best performance. They should organize the team building activities to create team bonding within the teams. Inventory Management Systems: The company is using inventory and supply chain systems those are not latest and affecting the efficiency of the company, due to this company is facing the inventory wastage and storage expenses. If the company do focus on improving, inventory systems that could reduce the cost of materials handling and waste. Equipment: The company is the second largest company and need to update about the technology and equipment those are using within the operations. The company is spending huge amount of money on marketing, innovation and employee but if the food processing equipments not giving desired out could lead to loss of revenue, service and resources. The company should up-grade the systems that will help the company to perform better. Customer Accessibility: Burger King is facing very fierce competition. The company has less accessible to their customers as compare with the competitors like MacDonalds that why company is losing the business. Although it could, addresses in long term but very necessary because if you spend on product development, sourcing material and advertisement globally then you need to reach the customers accordingly. In this contest, you are not getting the right business due to fewer stores geographically. Conclusion Burger King: This age is competition and innovation with better management of the resources. It is a very strong chain of fast food restaurants all over the world. Being in maturity stage it has high opportunities of introducing its new products and growth. In future, it will be expanding its chain by introducing more outlets in more countries. Although in McDonalds there may be more problems than Burger King but the fact is there cannot be a perfect one in the world. Every organization has its internal problems but Burger King is what it should not be. Because people rely on it hugely. Burger King should serve people with true spirit of the company vision. Personal Reflection: Personal Description and Expectation I would like to describe myself as a very pleasant, diverse, energetic and committed person. I think one of my most distinguishing characteristic is my professional experiences and the business degree I am carrying under my belt. Along with my business education, my experience with the contact centre industry, peoples management that provides me sufficient exposure to manage a team, focuses on the performance and peoples management and delivering quality services. The visionaries place the customer at the core of their organizations business systems. In fact, it takes a visionary to see the mass market, assemble the financial and human resources and be the winner at the market place. My previous experience of management and leadership push me to learn advance techniques of business from the best business school in London. I have known about the practical processes of the business but not have idea about the philosophies of the business and culture of the multinational organization around the world.. Learning Outcomes: When I have started this module in the college and start reading books and other readings found this a real practical course. The theory of quality services and operational strategies I have read were those we were practising in the office in routine. Then I start associating these theories and knowledge with my previous experience that helped me to learn and understand the practices in real world. Learning and Development: With the help of previous practical management experience and latest operational techniques up to date practices I feel very clear changes in my perception about operations. In the past, I was following the pattern, which was designed by the top management to implement the policies. I never challenged those policies and practices due to lack of knowledge and expertise. After completing these multinational corporations operational management approaches I feel very comfortable and confident to take new challenges and responsibilities in future. It gives me in-depth knowledge and practical exposure about the subjects, which help me to start analytical and critical thinking about the projects.

Is Translations about Language or Politics? Essay -- English Literatur

Is Translations about Language or politics? Friel famously said of Translations, â€Å"it is about language and only language.† However, the political statement which Friel denies need not be active, but passive, as seeking an understanding of the situation must consider politics, however Friel actively avoids political comment perhaps due to the volatile situation in the 1980s when the play was first put on. D.H. Lawrence famously said, â€Å" Never trust the teller, trust the tale† and with that in mind, I wish to explore the reasons why audiences and readers may perceive translations as a political play. The action of the play over three acts shows the profoundly disturbing influence of the English domination over the Baile Beag community and its life. Lenin once said, â€Å"politics is who whom† considering who acts and who is acted upon. Exploring politics from this point of view, one is easily able to perceive the numerous political aspects of the play. One such clearly political aspect of the play is the colonial force arriving from England. A movement of armies from one country to another, is a clearly political act, â€Å"a gesture†, â€Å"to indicate a presence† as was Doalty’s movement of the Theodolyte. On the other hand, if the play is about language (as Friel says) then perhaps it is about language on two levels. On the one hand it considers language on an international level (for example, the Irish and English languages) whilst on the other it considers language on an interpersonal level, the way perhaps we â€Å"interpret between privacies† or our choice of individual words in our speech. There are numerous ways in which one may consider the play to be about national language. Many would consider language as ... ...haracters acting as a mouthpiece for Friel’s political points of view, and because of this, I believe Friel’s play must concern politics to some degree. In conclusion I believe Friel is telling a half-truth, when he says the play is about â€Å"language and only language.† This is true insofar as the only issue the play is directly and aggressively considering is the importance of language. However, I believe Friel knew all to well that anyone watching of reading the play would have to consider politics, at least on a social level, in order to fully understand the importance of the social and national issues in the play. Therefore, Friel’s play is neither a play solely about language (as he asserts) or solely about politics; the two are inextricably linked leaving us with a socio-political play which emphasizes the importance of language as a political tool.

Air Asia Company Analysis

Accounting & Finance TP 023513 UC1F1007BMP (AF) Utari Asmelia Introduction of Management 08 Fall AirAsia Company Analysis Background of AirAsia Company Dato’ Tony Fernandez was the entrepreneur that brought up AirAsia to be the one of the award wining the largest low fare airlines that is currently well known for now in Asia. Since then it has been flying to over 61 domestic and international destination with 108 routes, and furthermore it operates over 400 flights daily from hubs that are basically located in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.Today if we look at their progress, AirAsia has flows over 55million guests across the region and continues to create more extensive route network through its associate companies. The company AirAsia furthermore belives in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires a specific element of high efficiency in every oart of their business. So, as we know, through the corporate philosophy whi ch stands that â€Å"Now Everyone Can Fly†.AirAsia Berhad is a Asia’s aeroplane largest low-fare, no frills airline and a pionner of low cost travel in Asia. AirAsia group operates scheduled domestic and international flights to over 400 destinations already spanning 25 countries. Its main hub is the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Its affilate airlines Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia respectively. AirAsia won the Skytrax World’s best low-cost airline award in 2009 and 2010. It has the world’s lowest operating costs at $0. 35/seat-kilometre in 2010. It is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless air travel system. THE HISTORY OF AIRASIA CO. AirAsia was established in 1993 and commenced operations on 18 November 1996. It was originally founded by a government-owned conglomerate DRB-Hincom. On 2 December 2001, the heabily-indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes’s company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit. This was after great deliberation was the initial offer was fifty sen.Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at breakneck speed, undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as RM 1 (US$0. 27). MEGA ENVIRONMENT i) International Elements Based on the history of these company, on August 2006, Airasia took over Malaysia Airlines’s Rural Air Service routes in Sabah and Sarawak, operating under the FlyAsianXpress brand, the routes were subsequently returned back to MASwings a year later citing commercial reasons.AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes subsequently unveiled a five-year plan to further enhance its presence in Asia. Today, AirAsia has strengthen and enhance its route network by connecting all the existing cities in the region and expanding further into Indochina, Indonesia, Southern China (Kun Ming), Xiamen, Shenzen) and India. The airline focused on developing its hubs in Bangkok and Jakarta through its sister companies, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia Airasia. Hence, with increase frequency and addition of new routes, AirAsia expects passenger volume to hit 18 million by end-2007.Now, AirAsia has some pathways and more wide network. For demography sectors, AirAsia has more than 558 million inhabitants (ASEAN countries) and over 3 billions with China and India. ii) Economic Elements AirAsia Economic Analysis A successful example of a Malaysian no frills airline is AirAsia. Revolutionized and Reinvented by Tony Fernandez in 2001, like I told before it is based on the low-cost, no-frills model of the US carrier Southwest. The concept of AirAsia is based on the belief that demands for short-haul air transport is price flexible.That means, if prices for flights are being reduced, more people will fly. Traditionally, airline concepts are based on the assumption that airline traffic grows in line with the economy and that cutting prices will only lead to a decrease in revenues. With the introduction of the ‘no frills’ concept to the Malaysian market, AirAsia has proven this theory wrong and goes from strength to strength by actually increasing the size of the market and more recently by taking away passengers from the major airline competitors.With its expending strategy as objectives to reach excellent standard around the world, marketing in Asia has been the key player to achieve success. AirAsia is one of the business that have successfully adopted cost leadership through operational effectiveness and efficiency. The cost advantages have enabled AirAsia to become the Asia’s leading low fare airline. AirAsia has successfully positioned itself in customer’s mind. Its net profit for the second quarter ending 31 December 2004 was reported RM 44. 4 million, a 323% increase over t he previous quarter.AirAsia until today has flown more than 55 million passengers in and around Asia. AirAsia has also ventured into other market that complemets with the airlines business. It has started franchises like the tunes hotels and red box couriers to gain maximum efficiency in and around the airline business. There’s economic aspects which AirAsia did: * AirAsia holds 49% of Thai AirAsia with 1% held by a Thai individual. The remaining 50% is held by Shin Corp. , owned by the former Thailand prime minster, Thaksin Shinawatra. Shin Corp. as financial strength, synergy in information technology and telecomunications, which support AirAsia Internet and mobile phone bookings. * National Trends: Malaysia’s economy may expand as little as 4 percent in 2009, growth will probably be between 5 percent and 5. 5 percent this year, below the official 2008 forecast of 5. 7 percent. * Real GDP % Growth forecast is from 5. 1 in 2008 to 1. 4 in 2009. * The inflation rate ma y fall below 4 percent before the second half of 2009 * Unemployment has remained constant at an average of 3. 6% in July 2008 to 3. 1% in Oct. 2008.However, the global credit crisis has raised fears that â€Å"the unemployment rate could double to 6 per cent by 2010 if global demand remains weak†> * International trends: * Malaysia ranks 20th for its ease of doing business out if a total of 181 economies surveyed in the World Bank Doing Business 2009 report. * International global credit crisis has resulted in increasing unemployment and ‘global trade will shrink by 9 percent this year’ * Asian governments are defending less national-flag carriers; in order to revitalize under used airports and increase tourism spending. ii) Technological element AirAsia Company has also used technological sectors to improve their quality work and give best services for all customers. If we can look at advertising side, AirAsia used information technology to make customers easy find the flight they wants. AirAsia has also used Online-Booking System to buy or just booking for flights. It has good way promotion and offers with the low-price surely, some information we can accessed as soon. All the things we need, we just can booking first such as foods and drinks, also available on during our flight.With this strategic move, AirAsia is able to focus on the factors that actually bring value to customer, such as point-to-point travel system, easy reservation system, and etc. This will help AIrAsia, reduce the cost and at the same time, increase the value for customers – Value Innovation. It has synergy in information technology and telecommunications, which support AirAsia Internet and mobile phone bookings. ShinCorp. allows subscribers of the Shin mobile phone flagship, Advanced Information Service, being able toreserve tickets through its short-messaging service (SMS).In aeroplane cabinet, AirAsia was used Airbuss, Boeing, ATR and others sizeable for flight. Technological aspect specifics are : * Ticket-less travel and ‘e-tickets’ have lowered distribution costs. * AirAsia has the youngest fleet in Asia with the new Airbus A330-300; allowing state-of-the-art technology and high fuel efficiency. * Information and communications technology (ICT) has allowed AirAsia to reduce operating costs and provide fast, efficient service in areas including: check flight schedules, book seats, electronic check-in, and pre-order meals. New low cost terminal to be opened in Labu, Malaysia by 2011 will incorporate modern technology, more shops and be privately owned, resulting inn lower airport taxes and fares and reduced government bureaucracy. iv) Sociocultural element AirAsia Company creating and developing a social culture takes time and effort and a new motive driven company such as AirAsia has to develop me method on how to connect with the society’s lifestyle , demographics, and media. For lifestyle sectors, AirAsia Com pany has a magazine, we can took at the flight, and their company.If we look at huge views, there’s another socialize point. They are as : * Demographics: * Ethnic: Malay50. 4% Chinese23. 7% Indigenous11% Indian7. 1% Others7. 8% * Religions: Muslim60. 4% Buddhist19. 2% Christian 9. 1% Hindu 6. 3% Other traditional Chinese 2. 6% Unknown 1. 5% None 0. 8% * Languages:Bahasa Malaysia (Official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai. * Air Asia operates in SE Asia with many countries and languages. SE Asian countries have diverse cultures and religions; troubles continue particularly on the Thai-Malaysian border and Indonesia. * Individualism is less common than cooperation in Asian business values. * Acceptance of laws and rules can vary; many Indonesians, for example, rarely abide to baggage allowance rules and these rules are seldom enforced due to corruption and indolence. * Urbanization: 7 out of the top 10 most populated cities in the world (>14 million) are predicted to be in Asia by 2015, according to the UN. Over 80% of AirAsia’s tickets are sold on-line; thus, eliminating travel agent fees.V) Political elements Political Analysis mainly states about the aviation acts and regulation which needed by aviation company such as AirAsia to operate their business. The political arena has a huge influence upon the regulation of businesses and the spending power of consumers and other businesses. Political stability is inessential to create a safe economy market that enables the market to grow. Political issues may cause problems in the outcome of the company. Some of the political factors that may affect a company are events that affect the operation of the company; therefore regarding an aviation company.It has happens as Air Asia. Air Asia political events will affect the results as well. Political aspects include some points by AirAsia Company. They are : * Political uncer tainty in Malaysia with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi set to step down in March 2009. * Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected to take over the ruling-coalition party, but with a cloud of allegations. * Political unrest in Thailand recently when anti-government protesters recently blocked flights for a week at Bangkok’s main airports. * ASEAN nations have been pushing Indonesia to scrap its Rp. million ‘Fiscal’ charge to all Indonesian citizens and expatriates when leaving the Republic of Indonesia either for business, education or tourism. * Resurgence of violence in Southern Thailand – Northern Malaysian border. * Malaysia granted exploration rights in oil-rich waters off the coast of Borneo; increased tensions with Indonesia. * Terrorism has occurred in Thailand and Indonesia, most notably the Bali bomb of 2002. A. WHY AIRASIA NEED TO CONSIDER A STRATEGY MANAGEMENT? The first reason is because the airline industry is a unique and complex industr y.Based on the statement, the complexity and unique of the airline industry, AirAsia need to come out with the greatest strategy to compete with their rival in the same industry. Without the right strategic management, its possible AirAsia could not be able be compete with the complex business environment the airline industry. Furthermore, the second reason why AirAsia need to consider a strategic management because in a company nowadays, general management which the process of achieving organizational goals by engaging in the four major functions. There are : * Planning * Organizing Leading * Controling It may not sufficient and supportive for the organization succed in the world of complex environments. It concerns about the process to manage the company internally but do not concentrate more on creating competitiveness regarding environments affecting the organization. In addition, the third reason, this is because strategic management becomes important in AirAsia due to the foll owing reasons. The first reason why strategic management becomes important is because the globalization. The globalization consideration impacts virtually all-strategic decisions in a company.The globalization also forced AirAsia Company to survival for business. Too see and appreciate the world from the perspective of others has become a matter of survival business. The current issues in AirAsia Company AirAsia Company are more focused in the competition of the cost among an airplane industry. AirAsia as an industry company which is more focusing in the low cost carrier airplane industry need to consider to make the lowest possible cost to compete with the other competitors in their airplane industry. To achieve the lowest possible cost, AirAsia Company has some strategy to achieve it.B. HOW TO IMPLEMENT AND ACHIEVE IT? With there believes to make a low possible fare for to the customer, AirAsia was cbecoming an Airline company that is chosen by so many customers. The best philosop hy of AirAsia ‘now everyone can fly’ means to giving an opportunity to all the people to flight with the lowest possible fare and making them can flight even the only have the less money. Why AirAsia more stressed to be low cost carrier in airline industry? * AirAsia believes to compete in the airline industry, it must be cost-efficient and profitable, and it must create value.Cost that do not add value must contained, reduced and even eliminated. * Demand for low cost carrier (LCC) industry will keep growing rapidly. * And than the best philosophy of AirAsia ‘now everyone can fly’ means to giving an opportunity all the people to flight with the lowest possible fare. AirAsia SWOT analysis The purpose of this analysis are for identify the internal and external factor that AirAsia need to consider to be low cost carrier in airplane industry. There are : 1. Strengths * AirAsia has a very strong management team with strong links with governments and airline ind ustry leaders. The management team is also very good in strategy formulation and execution. * AirAsia’s brand name is well established in Asia Pacific. * AirAsia is the low cost leader in Asia. * The excellent utilization of IT. 2. Weaknesses * AirAsia does not have its own maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility. * AirAsia receives a lot complaint from customers on their service. 3. Opportunities * There are 2 major events that are taking place now or going to take place in less than 6 months from now. * There is also some opportunity to partner with other low cost airlines. The population of Asian middle class will be reaching almost 700 million by 2010. 4. Threats * Certain rates like airport departure, security charges and landing charges are beyond the control of airline operators. * AirAsia’s profit margin is about 30% and this has already attracted many competitors. * Users perception that budget airlines may compromise safety to keep costs low. In concl usion, the SWOT analysis that AirAsia have is on of the major component to make AirAsia more strength in their business and can make they are able to compete with the same low cost carrier airline industry.The strategy that AirAsia was implementing to make they are being a successful in low cost carrier and can compete with other competitors in this field of business are : 1. Maximized IT and implementing E-commerce in AirAsia business. 2. Operation effectiveness and outstanding efficiency 3. Implemented outsourcing in their business Conclusion : The competition among airplane industries is very tough. Each of Airplanes Company in the world trying to conduct some strategies to compete with another competitor in their industry.To compete with their competitor in the business environment, a company needs to make a strategy to achieve their long terms objectives and can be successful for doing their business. The strategic management becomes important due to the following reason such a s globalization to survival their business, and than e-commerce become the critical success to the company nowadays. A company needs to consider the company ability and how to integrating it with the as well as main factor in the internal and external factor. DO YOU THINK THE CHOSEN ORGANIZATION WILL BE SUCCESSFUL UNDER THE CURRENT LEADER IN THE FUTURE? WHY OR WHY NOT?Absolutely yes, I believe AirAsia Company would be make some progress in the future. Based on the fact we know before, AirAsia Company has a lot achievement and awards until now. AirAsia is one of the leader to Low-Cost Carrier Airlines with its best slogan ‘ Now everyone can fly ‘. It such as, new innovation for business world today’s. Lets look at AirAsia statements for future plan. Forward-Looking AirAsia statements Such forward looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Group’s present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Group will operat e in the future.The AirAsia’s future overall business development and economic performance : * The Group’s estimated financial information regarding, and the future development and economic performance of, its business. * The Group’s future earnings, cash flow and liquidity * The Group’s potential growth opportunities, including its route expansion plans and potential joint ventures; the amount and nature of future fleet growth 9including the proposed acquisition of up to 80 new aircraft from Airbus or Boeing consisting of 40 purchase obligastions and 40 purchase options), airport investment and other capital expenditures required by the Group. The Group’s financing plans, business strategy, competitive position and effects of competition; the airline industry environment, including future prices and demand for air travel and future prices and supply of aircraft, jet fuel and spare parts * The regulatory environment and effects of the future regula tion, including the liberalization of the commercial aviation industry in Southeast Asia and the effects of future regulation. According to the forward-looking statements by AirAsia Company.It shown that AirAsia Company making some future plan for improve its business. We could look at AirAsia Company Strategic Management running so well. For additionally, if you haven’t really heard much about AirAsia yet, never fear: according to the CEO Dato’ Tony Fernandes, the whole world will be flying AirAsia soon. Fernandes really loves his airline and has huge plans for it. The first low cost carrier in Asia, coming out of Kuala Lumpur, AirAsia has been flying for over 10 years now and is ready to conquer the world.Fernandes dreams of making the AirAsia brand as big as Coca-Cola Company and the airline’s reach as significant as European LCC Ryanair. Thus, I think all his plan are possible to realize. And for me, AirAsia Company is good inspiration for who those want to improve or follow its business journey. HARVARD REFERENCING Based on, Amandak. , 2008, AirAsia Boss Has Really Big Plan [online], Malaysia, Available from http://www. jaunted. com/story/2008/3/24/201251/894/travel/AirAsia+Boss+Has+Really+Big+Plans, [Accessed 25th March 2008] Sen Ze & Jayne Ng 2008, Air Asia The Story, 2nd edition,

Reader’s Interest in The Crucible Essay

The Crucible takes place in Salem, a small town in seventeenth century Massachusetts, where religion, fear and hysteria ultimately lead to the famous witchcraft trials in 1692. At the time The Crucible was produced, Senator Joseph McCarthy was in power as the chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Due to relative events and the paranoid hunting of pro-communists, The Crucible is seen to be a metaphor for the McCarthy era. Throughout The Crucible, Miller employs several techniques and writing styles to create tension and suspense and to stimulate the audience’s interest. The most important reason why The Crucible retains the interest of the audience is because the plot maintains a slow burning, yet consistent pace. Act one is a prime example of how information is released gradually and atmospherically. The very start of the play leaves us oblivious to what has happened, with Parris praying over his inert daughter. This is a great method to grab the audience’s attention immediately as we are in the dark right from the start, and naturally are curious about what has happened. As the act progresses, patches of information are revealed, but the uncertainty and contradiction present engages the audience as they are forced to decipher for themselves the truth; at one point Abigail is denying all charges profusely: ‘We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it. ‘ However, later, as other charges are brought about, she concedes to them. This way the story keeps momentum as well as suspense. Act 2 employs the same technique to maintain tension when Mary Warren comes home and the information in reference to the court is informed to us. Acts 3 and 4 stay true to this structure and a good example is in act 4 when John Proctor is undecided over his confession, whether or not to sign it- ‘No, it is not the same! What others say and what I sign to is not the same! ‘ The audience is on tenterhooks, hoping he will sign (or perhaps not, in some cases). Another main element to The Crucible, which engrosses the audience, is the technique of dramatic irony. In The Crucible’s case, dramatic irony is where the audience is aware of something in the play that not all of the characters are. In The Crucible the dramatic irony is that we know that there is no witchcraft, and that Abigail and her friends are pretending, but most of the other characters believe it, or at least take advantage of it. Some of the characters must be left ignorant in order to form a basis to the theme of hysteria and madness, but the idea of dramatic irony is so that it creates the ironic and incredulous situations, and involves the audience more proactively as they know what is going on. In act 1 we think that the girls’ lies will be dismissed as they seem to us so ridiculous, but in Act 2 the true impact of the situation starts to take shape as information of arrests and trials is revealed. By Act 3 the original accusations have manifested into sheer madness which we, as the audience, can see, but the characters cannot. Act 4 does not utilize the tool quite as much as by then Abigail and her peers have unofficially been exposed. The dramatic irony concerning the presence of witchcraft helps to emphasise the theme of hysterical behaviour which, in that respect, has a larger impact on the audience and produces more interesting scenarios from the audience’s 0point of view. Another example of dramatic irony is during Act 3 when Elizabeth Proctor is asked to explain to the court her reasons for dismissing Abigail as her servant, unaware that John had just admitted his affair with her. This scene is perhaps the tensest in the entire play as the fate of Salem rested on Elizabeth confirming that Proctor was an adulterer. However, she lies and tells the court Proctor was not a lecher, not wanting to get him into trouble. ‘Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell’ This is said by Reverend Hale as he too is trying to stop this insanity, and the audience is also frustrated with the situation. Which is one of the key emotions that dramatic irony provokes to sustain the audience’s attention- frustration. Our hopes that the situation will be resolved and our almost angry views to some of the characters ignorance involves us in the plot and helps to share what John Proctor and some of the other characters must be feeling. In order to maintain the suspense and atmosphere in-between acts, Miller makes sure to end the first 3 acts with suspense and cliff-hangers and Act 4 with a big finale. In the ultimate scenes of Act 1, the tension created throughout the start of the play reaches its climax with Abigail and the other Girls accusing various Salem citizens of witchcraft to relieve themselves of attention. Miller has chosen a fantastic way to draw the Act to an unmistakeable close but still retaining the interest of the reader; it draws the events of the night together, satisfying the reader in one element, but has at the same time unleashed a larger and more complex crisis upon Salem, rousing the inquisitive eagerness experienced right from the very start of the play. Act 2 also ends dramatically with Elizabeth’s arrest after Abigail utilizes Mary’s poppet to frame Elizabeth. As in Act 1, it draws the night’s events to a satisfying climax with Elizabeth’s arrest, but also leaves the reader expectant of Act 3’s events with Proctor and Mary planning to expose Abigail. ‘My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me! ‘ This powerful sentence from Proctor gives the audience hope for Elizabeth and, at the same time, makes sure the audience knows that dramatic events are yet to come. Additional to suspense-filled endings, Miller employs the use of time lapses in-between acts in order to maintain the pace. Between both Acts 1 and 2, and Acts 3 and 4, there is a significant time jump. This way it stops the plot from appearing too dragged out and makes sure that the suspense doesn’t die down so the audience’s interest is still at its peak.

Culture-Specific Theories and Practices of Management The WritePass Journal

Culture-Specific Theories and Practices of Management Introduction Culture-Specific Theories and Practices of Management IntroductionThe Culture ConceptCulture and Business ManagementSmall vs. large power distance (PDI)Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV)Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS)Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance (UAI)Long vs. short term orientation (LTO)ConclusionReferencesRelated Introduction In the prevailing business environment which is marked by high level of competitiveness and a challenging international free market economy, business managers are required to have global cultural understanding skills in addition to their domestic cultural ones alone. Chen and Eastman (1997 p.454) mention: â€Å"despite differences in the level of analysis and standpoints of organizations versus subgroups, both the integration and differentiation perspectives on organizational culture are inadequate to address cultural conflicts associate with demographic diversity.† Considering the importance of cultural understanding in business management, this essay embarks on a quest to understand the characteristics of Chinese culture, which are relevant to management. It will highlight the implications of those characteristics for business managers. The essay will incorporate the author’s reflection upon two videos regarding life in China. The first one is titled â€Å"Shanghai Q uest† by Kim Taylor and the second is â€Å"Man Zou: From Beijing to Shanghai† by Ian Connors Jason Reid The Culture Concept Culture is complex and multi-dimensional. Culture is far too complex to be defined in simple terms (Hall, 1976). Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) have identified more than 160 different definitions of culture in their study. One of the earliest definition of culture in academia in that of Tylor (1887) who defines it as a â€Å"complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law customs and other capabilities, and habits acquired by a man as a member of a society†.   A recent and widely cited definition is that of Hofstede (1980). He defines culture as â€Å"the interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influence a group’s response to its environment.† He redefined culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group or category of people from another†¦..Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture† (Hofstede, 1984). Culture and Business Management The business culture of a society is not just an outcome of its economic system. More often, it is to the contrary i.e. the economic life is shaped by the cultural foundation of a society.   The videos viewed as part of this work, lead to that conclusion. All the three individuals in the documentary â€Å"Shanghai Quest† were struggling and trying to be successful entrepreneurs in their respective fields of interest in Shanghai, China. Shanghai’s quest towards urbanization and industrialization was an important cultural characteristic of the city that helped them throughout their way in seeking out opportunities. Geert Hofstede, a renowned management thinker was among the first researchers to conclude that culture impacts upon the management styles of different economies. According to Hofstede (1984, 1991), culture can be distinguished by five fundamental dimensions. Hofstede, who was a one-time employee at IBM, conducted a survey of more than 116,000 IBM employees across seventy two different countries spread across different regions in the world. He developed an index ranging from 0-100 for each of his five cultural dimensions in order to measure and compare cultural differences among different nations. His five cultural dimensions are:   power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculine/feminine and long-term versus short-term orientation. Small vs. large power distance (PDI): The extent to which less powerful people accept that power is distributed unequally, that others have more power Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): Individualism is the tendency of people to look after themselves; collectivism to look after the members of their society in exchange for loyalty Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS): Masculinity: dominant values are success, competition, and money Feminity: dominant values are caring for others Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance (UAI): The extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations and have created beliefs or institutions to avoid these feelings Long vs. short term orientation (LTO): The extent to which people attach value to their future against their past or their present. Long term oriented cultures give more value to actions and attitudes affecting the future in contrast to the short term oriented cultures.[1] China’s indices for these cultural dimensions are illustrated in the following figure (fig.1). (Source: www.geert-hofstede.com) Small vs. large power distance (PDI) China scores high in power distance index indicating that the country has a high cultural tendency to accept differencees in individuals’ powers within their society. It implies that in China, the respect for elders is widely ingrained in their culture and both the leaders as well as the followers endorse society’s level of inequality. In term of business management, seniority demands respect and obedience. Elders are more likely to become leaders and considered as substantial role models. In doing business with Chinese people, it would be vital to win the confidence of authoritative and significant personals and appease them. While communicating with them, it would be ideal to use specific titles, with a high emphasis on respect and consideration for hierarchy and authority. Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV) On the individualism index, China scores only 20 points indicating the country is highly collectivist. It implies that Chinese people have great consideration for others; they keep the interest of others in mind while doings things and encourage the phenomenon of unity. They believe that groups are primary unit of survival rather than individuals. The connotation ‘we’ is deeply ingrained in their psyche, determining an individual to be in a surrounding which he/she owns and incorporates with. Chinese people tend to do everything collectively. The ‘we’ awareness persists in their workplace and they would be most happy in doing team work and group work. Hofstede (1980) mentions that in societies with a high level of collectivism, people tend to depend emotionally upon their outer circle. In business, themes such as loyalty, community relations, national identity, and family are of great significance. The Chinese collectivism is reflected in the Shanghai Quest video when ‘Benji’ speaks with Chinese fellows in their native language. He is often seen to be positively remarked upon that. The Chinese people value the idea that a foreigner speaks to them in their native language fluently, as for them it reflects a sense of familiarity and unity. Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS) Masculinity index is often seen to correspond with the power distant index. Societies with a high power distance index usually have a higher masculinity index in which more emphasis is towards success, competition and wealth. China, and specially Shanghai, is on a verge of mass industrialization and urbanization. As mentioned in the second video â€Å"Man Zou: From Beijing to Shanghai†, Shanghai is the city that China wants to portray to the entire world as the country’s face due to its contribution to the rapidity of China’s urbanization and industrialization. The forces of urbanization and industrialization incur a higher level of masculinity in the city and overall country’s culture. Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance (UAI) In uncertainty avoidance index, China scores a low of 30 points. It implies that Chinese people are generally risk taking people and feel less threatened by ambiguous situations. They are willing to wander in uncharted waters, try new things, and experiment. This is clearly reflected in the case on the three individuals from the first video. One of them is from US, who has also lived in England for 6 years, and Australia for 2 years, before settling in China. He wants to be an American-Chinese pop star and a performing entertainer, having his foot in TV, videos, modeling, commercial etc. He mentions that it is pretty unusual and for the first time that an American wants to be a Chinese singer. It brings an element of uncertainty and risks. The second person portrayed in the videos in from Paris and was raised mostly in Britain and he being all over the world. He wants to be entrepreneur, exporting of the self item to buyers across the globe. The third one is a dancer, who provides hi s services as a party entertainer along with his girlfriend. The provision of opportunities for all these individuals reflects that cultural characteristics of China in accepting new phenomena, changes, versatility, adventuring and experimentation. Chinese people are adapting and entrepreneurial. The commentary of the second videos also coincides with the same view. The commentator mentions that â€Å"China makes you present all the time. It’s a country on a fast track towards urbanization and industrialization. It’s a Place to be. It’s a happening place.† Long vs. short term orientation (LTO) China’s high score on long term orientation index reflects its focus upon persistence and perseverance. In economic terms, it implies that investments and business decisions tend to base on the provision of long term stability and benefits. Their thinking ways focus on either complete or no-confidence rather than on probabilistic views. Conclusion The aforementioned cultural traits have a deep impact upon the Chinese economic system. They also impact upon how Chinese people conduct business in the international arena and how global businesses should engage with them.   Moreover, these cultural dimensions have implications for communication, leadership development, human resource management and decision making processes involving Chinese. References Chen, C. C., W. Eastman (1997). Toward a Civic Culture for Multicultural Organizations. Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, 33,454-470. Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Doubleday. New York Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill. Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultures consequences:   International differences in work related values. Sage. Newbury Park Hofstede, G. (1984). Cultures consequences:   International differences in work related values (Abridged ed.) CA: Sage. Beverly Hills, Kroeber, A. L and Kluckhohn,C. (1952) Culture: A critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.   Paper of Peobody Museum of American Archeology 47 (1) Tylor, E (1871) Origins of Culture. Harper and Row. NY. [1] These cultural differences are a representation of averages or tendencies and not the precise individual characteristics belonging to a society.

Financial Revolution in Australia in the 2004

Financial Revolution in Australia in the 2004 Fiscal Scenario in Australia Three different examinations have already been instated by the Government this year. These studies are expected to bring significant changes to the financial structure of Australia after a very long time. The last financial revolution in the country is dated back to the Financial Services Reform Act in 2004.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Financial Revolution in Australia in the 2004 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Ripoll Review Different views are coming in from different sections of the financial industry. The PJC chairman has summarized the precedence for the investigational inquiry. Ripoll thinks that the financial services licensing sector needs immense attention to draw out some conclusive results. Although the industry stakeholders agree that some kinds of reforms are important, they fear that the reforms might just make the system complex and imposes more constraints. Ripoll is confident; he says they’re planning to not only introduce reforms in the system, but to make it simpler and clearer. There are numerous issues prevailing in the industry that the PJC is concerned about. Some of these include understanding of PI and financial advice and tax deductions. Many people are hoping that these issues will be addressed in PJC’s report on November 23rd  (Papandrea, n.d). Henry Review The Henry Review conducted under the Secretary of Treasury is also on its way. Superannuation guarantees and the superannuation preservation of age caught a lot of attention of stakeholders. The Henry Report was released on 2nd May entitled â€Å"Australia’s Future Tax System†, includes 138 suggestions for long term reforms in tax and transfer system. At present, 125 taxes are obligatory by all levels of government in Australia. 90% of tax proceeds are attained from only 10 of these taxes. This has led to a conclusion in the taxation circles to bring in any reforms in taxation the best thing would be to increase these 10 taxes and eliminate all the 115 other taxes. A number of recommendations have been given in the report. Let’s take an overview of the major highlights of the report; Business taxation suggestions An overall reduction in company tax rate to 25%, reduction of compliance cost for small businesses, enhancement of capital allowance allowed for write off of income producing assets, updating of taxation rules regarding trusts, revision of small business capital gains tax rules and increase lifetime limit of retirement exemption.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Consumption taxes The report excludes consideration of GST but provides a few points which if implemented could be effective for the operation of GST. Land Natural Resources Taxes The highest attention gaining reform suggested by Henry r eport is the introduction of Resource Rent Tax RRT. It proposes replacing all current resource charging arrangements at both feederal and state levels and impose a uniform RRT imposed and administered by the federal government (Thompson, 2010). Government’s Response to Henry’s Report The government has announced that it will adopt a limited number of recommendations and some suggestions have been pointed out as potential misinterpretations of the recommendations which the government says it will not implement at any stage. Overall NO CHANGES have been intended to be made. The government has agreed to take up these changes immediately; company tax rate deduction from 30 to 29% in 2013-14 and 28% from onwards, tax off set for exploration companies where exploration expenditure results in tax loss. Offset will extend to geothermal exploration, improved downgrading for small businesses with an instant write off for assets worth $5000, increase in employer contribution from 9 to 12% by 2019-20. A new resource SUPER PROFITS TAX RSPT for mining projects at 40% from 1st July 2012 will be deductible against the company income tax. Some critics have raised fingers on the government considering only a few tax reforms suggested in the report. Cooper Review Most of the stakeholders are expecting this year’s investigation of the Coopers Review to outline a major breakthrough in the superannuation systems. The first phase of the review gathered 100 entries from the business sector. Some have argued that the current system is effective and should not be amended. Some are of the view that trustee model should not be changed, but major areas for its improvement have already been identified.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Financial Revolution in Australia in the 2004 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Other issues majorly addressed are the superannuation funds’ prudential requirements. A lot of debates have come up on this. Some groups think that the current liquidity and capital requirements are not enough. Preliminary results of the inquiry are expected to be shared soon. On the other hand, phase two of the inquiry has already begun. Overall View Some people are of the view that to live in Australia equities should be overweighed in the emerging markets. In the recent years, maximum equity funds have been entering the market from Asia. Addressing the insecurities of the stakeholders, and the suggestions coming up from the reviews should be addressed with the highest priorities. The Australian financial institutions seem to be undergoing a major change. Although all the suggested changes cannot be implemented it’s important that the stakeholders’ interests are safeguarded and that decisions are taken with full guidance to them. References Papandrea, V., n.d. Inquiries Galore. Inquiries and Reviews, IFA 483. Thompson, W.D., 2010. A long-term plan fo r Australian tax reform-the Henry report and the governments response. Professional Updates Taxation Law, 62(5), pp.305-08.

Application Of Driver State Monitoring Systems (Dms)

Application Of Driver State Monitoring Systems (Dms) The term ‘driver state’ has no specific universal definition and is loosely used in the fields of Psychology and Engineering. In general, driver state refers to a set of conditions that affect the driver in a specific instance. Drivers in an optimal state do not suffer from any condition. Vehicle control transition is very important for the success of Highly Automated Driving (HAD). In an ideal scenario, human driver will be attentive to the Driving scene during Take Over Request (TOR). Recent advancements, along with higher levels of automation has made it possible for the driver to be in distracted, inattentive, or even fatigued state. Under similar driving scenario and automation behavior, a driver with some sort of impairment will have poorer performance tackling the situation than when in ideal state. Researches showed that distracted drivers had higher difficulty to adjust speed to a critical event than attentive drivers. Driver State Monitoring Systems (DMS) monitors and collects observable information on the driver, which can be used to determine his/her driving state. It is used, among other things, for active safety, adaptive Human Machine Interface (HMI), and annoyance reduction for false positive notifications in HAD. Electrodermal Activity Electrodermal activity (EDA) is the autonomous changes in electrical properties of the skin, of which, skin conductance is the most widely used property. To measure skin conductance, an electrical potential is applied between two points on the skin, and the resulting current flow between them is measured. This includes both background tonic (Skin Conductance Level or SCL) and rapid phasic components (Skin Conductance Responses or SCRs) that result from sympathetic neuronal activity. It is useful in measuring sympathetic arousal that are tractable to emotional and cognitive states. It is associated with autonomic emotional and cognitive processing. Autonomous nervous system (ANS) generally controls the body’s unconscious actions. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) prepares body for intense physical activity and is responsible for fight or flight responses whereas parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) is generally associated with homeostasis and when the body is at rest, while being responsible for rest and digest functions. Some emotional responses may occur without conscious awareness or cognitive intend. EDA can be used to examine such responses (i.e., threat, anticipation, salience, novelty). Recent research has shown that EDA is also a useful indicator of attentional processing per-se, where salient stimuli and resource demanding tasks evoke increased EDA responses. There are two main components to EDA. The slower acting components the overall level, slow climbing, slow declinations over time) are known as general tonic EDA. Skin Conductance Level (SCL) is the most common measure for this and changes in the SCL are thought to reflect general changes in autonomic arousal. The faster changing elements of the signal correspond to the Phasic component, also known as Skin Conductance Response (SCR). SCRs are generally associated with startle reflex or startle response. Recent evidence suggests that both components are important and may rely on different neural mechanisms. Empatica E4 wrist band is the common device used in ITS Leeds for psychophysiological data collection, giving EDA.csv files with Unix timestamp and sampling frequency of 4 Hz. Post processing of the same is done using MATLAB R2016a and Ledalab v3.4.9. For the first study, no pre-filtering was implemented. Although it can be done to smoothen the raw signal, using EDA explorer or a low bypass filter like Butterworth filter. In EDA signal, there is generally a latency of 1-3 seconds (i.e. a delay of around 1-3 seconds from when the event occurs to when you see the change in SC levels). Continuous decomposition analysis (CDA) is generally used instead of Discrete Decomposition analysis. This method extracts the phasic (driver) information underlying EDA and aims at retrieving the signal characteristics of the underlying sudomotor nerve activity (SNA). SC data is deconvolved by the general response shape which results in a large increase of temporal precision. Then data is decomposed into continuous phasic and tonic components. It is the method generally recommended for the analysis of skin conductance data. It features the computation of several standard measures of phasic EDA. Moreover, straightforward measures such as the average (or integrated) phasic driver activity are provided. To find Event Related SCR (ER-SCR) and separate it from Non-Specific SCR (NS-SCR), the event files are loaded in and the Ev ent related SCR activity is exported. The most common minimum threshold amplitude is 0.01  µS. Peaks with amplitude below this value is not considered significant. Another key factor is to standardize the values so that it can be compared across participants. For SCL the standardization is done using the formula: ((SCL ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min) )/((ã€â€"SCLã€â€"_max –ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min)) equation 2.2 Where ã€â€" SCLã€â€"_min is the baseline SCL which is to be measured while keeping the participant at rest doing nothing for at least 10-15 mins and ã€â€"SCLã€â€"_max is the maximum value computed when the participant is aroused using loud noise/music for a short period of time. This is done to get the SCL range of the given participant. Since this was not done for the SM study, it can’t be implemented. This can be circumnavigated by finding the minimum non-zero SCL score and the max SCL score during the study for each participant and use this as a baseline. Some studies recommend transforming SCRs into Z-scores. This requires the mean and standard-deviation to be used instead of a hypothetical maximum (from the other methods above). This navigates around the problems associated with determining the maximum SCR response from range-corrected methods / maximal correction methods. Here each raw SCR, a mean SCR value and standard deviation of SCRs, are used to compute the Z-score which is normally distributed, has an average of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. From here one can transform these Z-scores into T-scores, which have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 (thus removing minus scores). The advantage to this approach here is that the resultant z-scores are based on unambiguous mathematical factors that represent the participants typical response level and not on unwarranted assumptions about maximum SCRs. Researchers further suggested that another useful transformation might be to divide each raw SCR, by the participants mean SCR thus providing a kind of standardized ratio. Final output is to obtain the ER-SCR activity window’s average SCR in T-score format, so that it can be compared across all the participants. From this, it might be possible to deduce suggestions/reasons for certain behavior during failure. Shimomura, et al. (2008) showed in his study that frequency domain analysis enabled detection of small differences in mental workload that could not be detected by traditional amplitude domain analysis. Here the signal is transformed from amplitude domain to frequency domain using techniques such as Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT). This technique enables real-time automatic analysis. Motion artifacts can cause the EDA signal to be quite noisy. If 90% of EDA value is zero or close to zero within a 5s window (a lower bound threshold of 0.001 µS can be used, it is probably caused by the sensors losing contact with the skin during that period and they can be removed. Generally, EDA levels are found to be not changing by more than 20% while increasing and 10% while decreasing, within a 1 second time window. A moving one second median filter can be used for initial interpolation to even out the signal. The resultant acceleration from accelerometer sensor can be used to find points/periods of high movements, and the EDA signal during that same period can be checked for motion artifacts, which can be removed if necessary. A bi-cubic interpolation of the signal can be done after the filtering to account for missing data points from the removal of motion artifacts. To summarize, skin conductance generally increases with arousal, stress, salience, mental workload, anticipation and overall increase in body temperature or physical activity. But measurements from palm of the hand or feet are generally highly sensitive emotional responses and can be distinguished from skin conductance spikes due to body temperature or physical activity. Heart rate variability Heart rate (HR) is the number of times the heart beats in a minute or â€Å"bpm†, and resting heart rate is the heart rate measured while being relaxed, but awake. Amongst the general population a resting heart rate of 60-80bpm is considered pretty good. But heartbeat intervals are irregular and there is variation in time between each heartbeat. Heart rate variability (HRV) is simply the measurement of variation between heartbeats. In general, a healthy functioning body will display a greater variability between beats than a poorly functioning one. Heart period is the time interval between two successive heart beats. The Sinoatrial node (SAN) can be seen on the top left side of the figure and the Atrioventricular node (AVN) to the right of SAN. The depolarization of SAN and AVN provides the electrical driving force that triggers the contraction of the heart. SAN’s spontaneous depolarization speed is typically faster than that of AVN, which is why it’s called natural pacemaker. Electrical impulses generated by SAN stimulates each beat of the heart, thereby dictating its rhythm. Sympathetic (SNS) and Parasympathetic (PSNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system are what mainly influence SAN. Hormone and immunity can have a role as well. According to Berntson, et al. (1997) â€Å"sympathetic activity tends to increase HR and decrease HRV, whereas parasympathetic activities tends to decrease HR and increase HRV†. HRV is closely related to emotional arousal. In HRV spectrum, there are both high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) signals. HF activity generally decreases under pressure, stress, strain, focused attention etc. High stress can cause reduction in LF values as well. Individuals who worry more have shown reduction in HRV. In PTSD patients, HRV and its HF component is reduced whilst the low-frequency (LF) component is elevated. Decrease in PSNS activity or increase in SNS activity results in reduced HRV. HF activity (0.15 to 0.40 Hz), especially, has been linked to PSNS activity. LF activity (0.04 to 0.15 Hz), which is generally associated with a mixture of both SNS and PSNS. So, it’s safe to summarize that during rest periods, HF HRV tends to be higher than when the driver is engaged, stressed, focused or strained/tired. To analyze HRV, either time domain or frequency domain analysis can be implemented. Time domain methods include â€Å"measures of the variance among heart period, the variance of the differences among heart periods, and geometric methods based on the shape characteristics of heart period distributions†. The most common method used to compute heart rate variability amongst time domain methods is the square root of the mean squared successive heart period differences or the RMSSD (Root Mean Square Successive Difference) statistic. It is based on the differences between adjacent heart periods and is nominally independent of basal heart period, although heart period level and heart period variability are themselves physiologically correlated. Because of the differences between adjacent heart periods sample HRV over relatively short periods of time (the duration of a heart period), the RMSSD resolves the total variance by filtering out LF signals. Consequently, the RMSSD has been a pplied as a measure of HF based HRV. The properties of RMSSD, including its cut-off frequency and its frequency-dependent transfer function vary as a function of basal heart period. A more systematic parsing of heart period variance into specific frequency components can be achieved by frequency domain methods. There are mainly two ways to measure HRV and HR. They are Electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings and Photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings. ECG recordings are collected by placing electrodes on the chest (near the heart), which measure electrical impulses for each cardiac cycle. QRS complex is the defining feature of ECG signal. QRS complex is the three graphical deflections seen on a typical ECG, which is Q wave (downward deflection right after P wave, which is IV.), R wave (upward deflection after Q wave) and S wave (downward deflection after R wave) which is represented by I., II. The heart’s electrical activation is measured directly by ECG recordings. It also generally shows a strong QRS complex presence in the resulting signal. Motion artifacts caused by sensor displacement due to participant movement is a common source of noise in ECG signals. These tend to fall in the same frequency range as the QRS-complexes, which can make it difficult to filter them without deforming the QRS complex. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings are a less invasive method to study cardiac cycle. They generally measure the discoloration of the skin as blood perfuses through the arteries and capillaries with each heartbeat, using optical sensors. PPG is typically measured at the fingertip or at the wrist. The PPG Heart Rate Analysis generally consists of a systolic peak, a dicrotic notch, and a secondary peak called a diastolic peak (2.5b-III). In recordings with very low amplitude the diastolic peak may be absent. The main advantages of PPG over ECG are low cost, ease of setting up and non-invasive methods. Ways of obtaining the PPG signal contactless through cameras have been proposed, further reducing intrusiveness. There is generally more amplitude variation over short time-intervals, more variation in waveform morphology, as well as more noise from various sources as opposed to ECG measurements. This makes analysis of PPG more difficult. The heart signal is often split into heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures. The distance between the detected heart beats (the RR-intervals, named because in the ECG, the largest amplitude peak is called the R-wave) are used to calculate them. The heart beats are represented by the peaks in both signals. Even though the measurement technique vary quite considerably between ECG and PPG, a high correlation (median 0.97) between RR-intervals extracted from ECG and PPG signals has been reported. This makes the PPG a valid alternative for human factors studies that require non-intrusive heart rate measurements, and hence will be the focus of this research. Researchers talked on how to remove motion artifacts and filter it out of EDA signal. This is explained in the last paragraph of the previous section. The same methodology can be applied to remove motion artifacts from the HR/HRV signal as well.

See describtion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

See describtion - Essay Example Inaccuracy is also evident in expressing judging personality. This is as a result of the fact that it describes judging personality as moderate and not distinctive. In reference to the personality depicted above, the expected management style is above average. The characteristic of being slightly introvert is particularly essential since it gives room from externals. This prevents one from shallow-mindedness, thus facilitating the making of informed decisions. Being distinctively intuitive is another factor that affects the management style. This leads to perception of truth and proper understanding that are acutely vital in the various management styles. Thinking is a fundamental element in the management. Shallow thinking adversely affects the management style since one should exercise critical thinking when making management decisions. However, intuition complements the arising gap and deficiency. The characteristic of being moderate in judging is decidedly vital since it determines the management style. It is an admirable virtue in management that leads to success of an organization (Judge 13). The management style is all rounded. It possesses various essential traits in management. One can recommend the style as it leads to successful implementation of a management style that leads to success of an entity. Ambiguity should not be tolerated in management. Thorough research and invitation of new ideas reduces ambiguity. Ambiguity should be avoided since it leads to poor management of an organization. This deters an organization from achieving its desired objectives (Judge 17). I possess type â€Å"A† personality. This expresses aggressiveness, ambitiousness, competitiveness, timeliness and business oriented traits. This personality portrays fundamental qualities in business management. This encompasses activities such coordination,

Hashing Algorithm Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Hashing Algorithm - Research Paper Example In fact, any value or even a single letter is changed in the input; then the values of hash value will also be changed. Additionally, same hash value can be used in calculation in order to find two different inputs; for that reason the hashing algorithms are used to determine the reliability and effectiveness of data (comprising digital signatures, authentication and so on). In some cases, these hash values are also acknowledged as a "message digest". In the past few years, the use of hashing algorithms in every walk of science has increased to massive extent. In fact, hashing algorithms are believed to be the most important technique in data structures and randomized algorithms, within a wide variety of applications and fields like that complexity theory, information retrieval, data mining, parallel algorithms and cryptology (Ostlin & Pagh, 2003). However, hashing algorithms are extensively utilized in the field of information security (Yang, Li, Tan, Yan, & Hou, 2012). In the field of information security, hashing algorithms play a significant role in cryptography and are utilized to achieve numerous security goals. For instance, these algorithms are extensively used to attain reliability and validity, authenticating users of computer systems, implementing efficient digital signatures, putting into practice pseudo random number generators, implementing digital time stamping, creating session keys and sometime for building block ciphers as well. In the history of hashing algorithms a large number of hash functions were created as well as the majority of them were effectively broken and some were to some extent breached, along with it a number of theoretical threats were as well propose (Sobti, Geetha, & Anand, 2012; Algredo-Badillo, Morales-Sandoval, Feregrino-Uribe, & Cumplido, 2012). This paper presents a detailed analysis of hashing algorithms. This paper will discuss the uses and applications of hashing algorithms. This paper will focus on some of the impo rtant hashing algorithms such as digital signatures algorithms, cryptography algorithms and various other techniques. Hashing Algorithms Basically, the process of hashing simplifies the search process by making use of computationally a few operations as compared to any other sequential basic search algorithm. In this scenario, a hash function is a mathematical process in which a number is mapped to a large value range into an additional number with a smaller range. Figure1 demonstrates the process of hashing in the detail. In this diagram, a database that consists of eight specified records (such as addresses in one application) are to be matched in opposition to any received record. In view of the fact that each record contains a huge amount of data as well as the entire database contains a large number of records under actual circumstances, in this scenario scanning all the records and searching through the complete database individually can be unfeasible. However, this problem co uld be resolved if a piece of the record (or on the whole) is chosen and a key is assigned to the target value (normally, this target value is based on a 3-bit value as demonstrated in the figure1) by making use of the hash function (operator). As shown in the figure1, this process has divided a complete database of eight records into smaller groups of records in accordance with their matching hash outputs. In addition, this searching process will be applied to all the searches, in which this

Whole Foods Market in 2008 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Whole Foods Market in 2008 - Case Study Example e firm realize that provision of nutritious food products to the consumers would enhance consumers’ preferences of its products and in turn would generate competitive position in the market. The strategy for Whole Foods Market has great compatibility with the present conditions prevailing in the section of organic and natural foods in the retail food industry. This compatibility can be proved from the huge success that the firm has generated over the previous two decades or so. One of its main strategic elements i.e. the people has accepted its performance across the world and the firm is now bestowed with both satisfied customers and satisfied team members (Thompson, 2008). John Mackey, the present CEO of Whole Foods Market is deemed to hold strong strategic vision for the firm. He has kept his performance level in line with his strategic vision throughout the several years of his reign in the organization. His achievement by maintaining high level of performance is evident from the firm’s products of higher quality, firm’s stores across the home country (US) and certain locations outside the country and enhanced incentives being offered to Whole Foods’ team members operating all over the stores chains (Thompson, 2008). Company’s success is heavily dependent on the perceptions and notions of the people within an organization and the core values play the most important role in motivating the people towards achieving success. It is important for an organization to effectively design its core values. The core values determine the path to be followed by the organization’s personnel and it is the core values which creates one common goal in the minds of every person within an organization. Core values are at times so effective that they lead the organization towards framing the long term strategic vision (Collins & Porras, 1996). Considering the financial performance of Whole Foods Market, during the year 2008, it can be stated that the firm was not in

Socrates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Socrates - Essay Example Socrates was truly one of the few philosophers in history to make a significant attempt to question and fundamentally change the methods and paradigms of philosophical examination. Although most of our current knowledge of Socrates comes down to us from second-hand sources, the nature of Socrates’ life as a man and as a philosopher seem to shine as brightly for any one man in throughout the course of history (Nails). Socrates’ trial and death seemingly mark the birth of philosophy—with his influence stretching far beyond the boundaries of the tradition. Socrates, as the founder of a grand tradition, exemplifies a life to many which is paradigmatic for the contemplative rational being. It is to this grand figure that we now turn an explorative eye, in order to grasp the truth about the man and the philosopher. The question is whether one must know the man first to get to know the philosopher, or to know the philosopher first to get to know the man. The arguments for either approach are compelling: in one respect, Socrates was a human being completely devoted to a life of contemplation and a search for truth—thus making him fundamentally a philosopher. But, as Aristotle would say, the existence of a philosopher is predicated of the existence of man, for without there being a man, there would be no philosopher. Accordingly, we will follow the second approach: to broach the topic of Socratic philosophy from the backside—getting straight the facts of Socrates’ life, and then moving on to the facts which define his contributions to philosophy as a whole. According to Socrates, and fellow critics, the governance of Athens had become crooked and disgracefully inept—in stark contrast to the Age of Pericles only a few years before. â€Å"Philosophical† quarrels had become mere demagoguery: ploys to convince others; aspirations for political power slowly supplanted justice.

Critical Analysis of the Research Designs in a Peer- Reviewed Article Essay

Critical Analysis of the Research Designs in a Peer- Reviewed Article - Essay Example It is an organized investigation into a subject in order to discover facts, to establish or revise theory, or to develop an action based on facts discovered (Encarta Dictionary, 2002, par. 1). The article entitled â€Å"Identifying the best research design to fit the question. Part 2: qualitative designs† written by Jenny Ploeg (1999) exemplifies research using the qualitative method identified to be crucial in providing answers to relevant nursing concerns. The article was chosen to be the appropriate example of a peer-reviewed discourse which explains a research design, specifically the qualitative method, as a means of furthering trends on nursing applications, a significant area of health science. The main problem statement or hypothesis of the discourse was stated as proffering the value of qualitative research in pinpointing crucial solutions to nursing concerns. Ploeg (1999) averred that â€Å"qualitative research methods have become increasingly important as ways of developing nursing knowledge for evidence-based nursing practice. This editorial provides an overview of qualitative research, describes 3 common types of qualitative research, and gives examples of their use in nursing† (par. 1). The article provided readers with the opportunity to be enlightened on the significance of the qualitative method as the research design most appropriate in seeking solutions to nursing dilemmas. By expounding on the common types of qualitative research (phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory), one is able to appreciate the kind of information provided by these types of research with the objective of understanding the process towards arriving at a particular result or outcome. Likewise, awareness of the differentiating factors or elements of each research type would enable practitioners to use the accurate kind of qualitative research for the identified purpose. Ploeg (1999) described the qualitative

Detective Graham in the Movie Crash Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Detective Graham in the Movie Crash - Essay Example The film literally bursts with the theme of racial prejudice as a multi-coloured cast careens in and out of the screen to make their presence felt. Each character has an issue to deal with regarding his or her ethnic background. For example, the overly- ethnocentric black car robber who constantly complains about how blacks are being unfairly discriminated upon in L.A. reflects a self-fulfilling prophecy. He believes that the white server in the restaurant ignored them because they were blacks and because blacks are not known to give tips, proved her right by not leaving a tip at all, justifying that they had poor service. A while later, he spots a victim in a white woman who avoids their direction. He knows she did so because she thought they were black muggers and was fearful they would rob her. And true to his â€Å"calling†, the black man and his companion do rob her and her lawyer-husband of their car. Society might have ingrained in these black people how to behave, and they automatically do so even if they think and feel deep down inside it is offensively unfair. However, they play the role society expects them to. It is pathetic to realize that one can be held helpless against societal expectations. These circumstances divide people and turn them against each other. The same goes for the scene where the American gun dealer who gets impatient with foreigners speaking their language in front of him, making him feel left out. Sensing that these Mediterranean customers are Arabs, he snaps at them by saying, â€Å"Play your jihad on your own time†. When the customer reacts angrily, saying he is an American citizen who has the same rights as everyone else, the dealer goes on his offensive oration on how these foreigners have no right to destroy America. He is suggesting that the customers are would-be terrorists, relating it to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The man is sent out of the store leaving her daughter behind while the dealer conti nues his hostile verbalizations. In doing so, he is unaware that he himself is terrorizing a lady. Why are people always so angry that they blame such negativity on others by finding faults? Is it true that we are always â€Å"behind metal and glass† walls that we are inaccessible and hence, untouchable to others? We rely on stereotypes to help us deal with people who are different from us because that is what society expects. Indeed, one can’t help but judge one another based on physical appearances and the stereotypes they represent. Gray (2012) discusses why racial stereotyping is destructive to American society in general. First, it means communicates to the majority of Americans that the negative actions of a few minorities are generalized to the collective values of the whole minority community. This is usually felt by Black American lower to middle-class people who are often adjudged as muggers or criminals. Another effect of stereotyping is that the stereotyped group begins to internalize such negative labels and actually mimic or act out the prejudiced behaviour. This behaviour becomes generalized as typical. The black men in the movie whose self-fulfilling prophecies ingrained by society were adjudged to be so as people are pushed to fulfil those prophecies such as being muggers or criminals. They feel that they have no chance of vindicating themselves from such an unfair perception that they must as well live it.