A Room of One’s Own Critical Analysis

Many intelligent and creative women can make great contributions to the society if they are given space and time. However, for many years women have been viewed as less intelligent, merely mothers, and objects of ownership.In A Room of One’s Own, a novel by Virginia Woolf, the author argues that Shakespeare’s sister is as talented as her brother and that she can make great contributions to her society.In chapter, six Woolf clearly demonstrates her opinion and attitude towards patriarchal society. She portrays her judgment through use of language, narrative, style and other viewpoints about man, their dominance and female subservience.She uses sarcasm and irony combined with a lot humor to emphasize her argument as she contradicts the general opinions of men. She reminds women that what they want depends on them and that they should leave exhortations to men. She however criticizes women for lack of motivation and spirit by referring to them as â€Å"disgraceful ignoran t.†Through this the extract, the author gives hope to others but she is also realistic about the society developing a culture of equality. She tells women that it is very important to be their selves than to be anything else, a statement which contradicts men’s belief that women are objects of ownership and are merely mothers.Woolf seeks revenge against the society which is patriarchal through the characters of Mr. John Davies and Professor X. For example, Professor X is not given a name or identity (Davis).The author sarcastically calls men â€Å"great minds†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.are androgynous,† meaning that the part of the male’s mind should work together with women to create something that is original (Davis). She tells the writers that they should not think about their sex but should focus on the story that they are about to write.In conclusion, it is ironic that, in this book she does not talk about a matriarchal society but only talks about the society whe re women and men are equal.Works CitedDavis, C.   A Room of One's Own: Critical Response.   July 9 2010.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.dadooda.com/index.cfm/fa/library.detail/Library_ID/8016  

External environment of Singh’s Auto Rentals Company Limited Essay

Assignment Find an example of strategic management in an organisation in your country or region, from your own experience or from your reading. The example can relate to either a big or small business, or even to a public sector organisation. Which aspects of the example do you consider to be good or bad examples of some aspects of strategic management, using the principles covered in this subject as your guide? For example, you might discuss the good and bad examples in one or more of these areas: handling stakeholder expectations; communicating organisational purposes; external environment (PESTEL framework, five forces, opportunities and threats); strategic capability (value chain and value network, strengths and weaknesses); SWOT analysis; formulating a business’ strategy (bases of competitive advantage); implementing a business’ strategy (structural types, managing people); and/or corporate strategy (the two main portfolio approaches and extent of corporate diversity). THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK Executive summary Singh’s Auto Rentals Company Limited (Singh’s) was established in 1972 with a small fleet of only five (5) vehicles for rental. Singh’s hybrid corporate strategy embraces cost and differentiation in a market that is highly competitive, having expanded its customer base to incorporate the corporate society, the international sector and the community sector. The company has grown and is now one of the preferred clients of the Ministry of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago, offering a wide range of high-end vehicles and SUV’s for rental, buses for tours and retreats, executive cars with drivers for wedding parties and seven (7) seater vehicles for the family oriented customer. Business level challenges have over the years forced Singh’s to refocus their objectives on their MOST, with intense market development and penetration orientation, in an aggressive attempt to win market share, increase volume gains and build position quickly. In this assignment the external environment encompassing Porter’s 5 Forces and PESTEL are examined along with its’ impact and influence on Singh’s SWOT and stakeholders expectation. Examples of the good and bad of the external environment will also be highlighted to describe how the company can increase their competitive advantage and profitability. Table of Contents 1.Introduction â€Å"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.† ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War In discussing the positive and negative aspects of the external environment, the PESTEL, the SWOT and Porter’s 5 forces will be used to analyse where Singh’s Auto Rentals is at in the industry and where the company can hope to be in the next five (5) years. The car rental industry is a competitive industry and Singh’s competencies and capabilities will definitely keep them in the market and make them into leaders once they follow their objectives and tactics. â€Å"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved†. ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War 2.Company overview: Singh’s 2.1 Vision We aspire to become the leading light in the Auto Rentals industry through continuous service innovation and the expansion of our distribution networks. 2.2 Mission Utilizing our group’s strengths we aim to become a major force in the Car Rentals industry by offering innovative products, effective processes, extensive networks, and the recruitment of the brightest talent, we strive to achieve impressive profitability. 2.3 Objectives From the vision/mission statements given, it would seem that the objective of Singh’s Auto Rentals is to become leaders in the industry. It can also be derived that this company seeks to achieve the following objectives; To increase market share Remain close to its competitors Increase clientele Increase the fleet of vehicles To establish leadership in the market 2.4 Strategies Singh’s strategy for achieving these objectives might be a business strategy. Business strategy is concerned with deciding which markets and activities  the business should be involved in; where it wants to be; and how it is going to get there. Singh’s strategies may include; Satisfying customers (meeting customer needs) Running the business (organising resources in the most efficient and effective way) Beating the competition (strategies and tactics to gain competitive advantage) Achieving corporate objectives 2.5 Tactics Methods this company uses to achieve strategies, as written in the mission, are the introduction of support and complimentary services they provide namely; 24 hr FREE Roadside assistance Guarantee competitive rates and seasonal discounts A wide range of vehicles to choose from including the economy and SUV range. Free maintenance on all vehicles Air conditioned comfort 3. PESTEL analysis of Singh’s Awareness of the external environment and how they impact on the company can be summarised using the PESTEL framework. The PESTEL can define the key drivers of change. These key drivers of change have differential impacts on industries, markets and organisations. 3.1 Political Singh’s is a privately owned company but because the company buys and rents vehicles they would be involved with few governmental organizations for various purposes. Ministry of Transport for licensing of new vehicles For vehicle transfers Ministry of Finance To approve any tariffs Duties or charges for purchases Taxes (including staff salaries) Customs and Excise Importing, duties and clearance of all vehicles Ministry of Legal Affairs To register the company legally To ensure all licenses to operate as a limited liability company 3.2 Economical As a private owned company, Singh’s has to watch for what affect his company financially from the external environment. Key factors can be; Fuel rates – have rates gone increased or decreased, this would determine how to price the rentals. Exchange rates for foreign currency. Salary negotiations in the country- would the employees demand high wages as a result of salary negotiations for government workers. Available and accepted methods of payment – cheque, cash, VISA, MasterCard. Unemployment rates in the country . 3.3 Social These influences the length of time a vehicle would be rented for. Singh’s offers long term rentals (6 months to 3 years) and short term rentals (1 day to 6 months). Social factors include; Changing cultures – peak periods for local rentals (wedding and carnival) and peak periods for foreign rentals (tourists are drawn to the Caribbean during winter and summer). Demographics – age groups of drivers. Community interests – lobby groups, charitable organisations etc†¦ 3.4 Technological In a business such as Singh’s one would encourage technology to play a role in the data collection, storage and distribution of the company’s fleet of vehicles. Technological factors include’ Computerised scanning of vehicles under maintenance. Computerised database systems used for documentation, data collection, billing, accounting and ordering. Communication methods have to be of the highest quality in order to reach out to customers (the business to customer approach). Updated websites, facebook pages or other social search engines used to advertise the company. 3.5 Environmental Influences from the direct environment that may affect Singh’s might be Waste disposal – for waste disposal from the garage (oil, parts etc†¦) Energy consumption –the amount of energy or power used in a process or system. Weather conditions- may only affect the infrastructural aspect of Singh’s in terms of weathering on vehicles which are not kept covered over a long period. 3.6 Legal The legal aspects of the company and how it influences the strategies and objectives. Governmental laws – a law might state that no one under the age of 18 is allowed to drive. Policies – policies put in place by the board of directors and the key shareholders to determine how the business is going to operate. Rental contracts have to be done up and signed by each party for every transaction. Insurance companies vying to insure the fleet of vehicles. 4. Stakeholders Stakeholders can exist both internally and externally. In an industry such as the vehicle rental industry the stakeholders are very important. The expectations of the stakeholders are equally important to the development of Singh’s (see appendix III) 4.1 Internal: Board Of Directors or Management Investors/ Shareholders Employees Suppliers-contractors Service providers – maintenance crews, specialist garage crew 4.2 External: Business to business Clients Domestic Clients International Clients Government and regulatory industries Industry Associations Local Communities 5. SWOT (Internal / External Analysis of Singh’s) In an effort to ascertain its competitive environment a SWOT analysis of Singh’s can assist to devise a sound strategic plan. The intent is to exploit and maximize the strengths and opportunities; avert threatening circumstances through tactical responses and provide institutional upgrade to lessen weaknesses; all these towards a position of profitability and value creation. As defined by (Alzoubi 2004) SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is a general framework for directing and assisting strategic planners to identify the appropriate organizational strategies to achieve their goals. Managers look at SWOT analysis as a technique to help managers to identify and plan the business goals, and draw the strategies to achieve them (Alzoubi 2013 p.126). Internal Analysis Strengths Focused management and staff Location advantage Efficient customer service Skilled car care specialist and technicians. Weaknesses Lack of Human Resource best practices No clear strategic direction Lack of continuous training and development for staff Poor marketing skills External Analysis Opportunities To gain large profits To be a house hold name in the car rental business To serve a large customer group Potential for new services or products to be offered Threats Companies offering similar services coming on stream Turnover due to other companies offering better packages Loss of customers due poor service experience new and existing regulations new and existing competitors new technologies unstable political and legal systems in foreign markets External opportunities and threats can work both ways for the organisation for example new technologies can make one aspect of the company obsolete but enhance another aspect of the company all at the same time. 6. Singh’s Strategic Based Units (SBU’s) SBU’s allow large corporations such as Singh’s and SSS to vary their strategies according to the different needs of the various external markets they serve. For example- Corporate Leasing – leasing to companies on a special contract Short term and long term rental – to both corporate clients and immediate clients Executive driver services – airport to hotel and return, weddings, seminars Pre-owned vehicle sales- new to the company but very effective and brings in more profits Bus and driver tours for tourists 7. The effect of Porter’s 5 Forces on Singh’s Porter’s 5 forces analysis can be applied to Singh’s as a tool to analyse the competitive advantages of the company. According to Porter (1980), rivalry (competition) on the market is result of the five variables or main forces: rivalry level, bargaining power of customers and that of suppliers, the threat from new entrants and substitute products. The following was deduced from the analysis of the five forces: 7.1. Threat of New Entry Due to lack of policies to prevent new entry, the market is open for new entrants. Singh’s will now have to develop and maintain a cost advantage and differentiation of its services, to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Economies of scale – it would be expensive to for new entrants to match Singh’s because of the level the company has reached in the industry, it would be difficult for new entrants to match them. Experience – new entrants would be inexperienced in most of the ‘know how’ of this industry and that lack of experience can give Singh’s the advantage over a new entrant (See Appendix II). 7.2. Threat of Substitution Substitutes can come not only from within the industry but also from outside. Managers often focus on their own industry and neglect the threat posed by substitutes for the product or service. The price/performance ratio is critical. Even if the substitute is more expensive the substitute is still effective (see appendix II). 7.3. Buyer Power Singh’s needs to pay attention to the customers and the price they pay for the service. If the price is too high customers may seek to do business elsewhere which will force the company to drop prices, thus losing revenue (see appendix II). 7.4 Suppliers Power- It was recognised that the business can be adversely affected if suppliers drive up their prices, then the concept of low cost to gain competitive advantage will be affected (see appendix I1) 7.5 Competitive Rivalry- From the analysis it was evident that the company had rivals performing a similar service. To prevent customers from moving from Singh’s to the competitors, the company will need to provide unique services to its customers (see appendix II). 8. Competitors Singh’s entered the market as an entrepreneur in 1972, competitors from then to now would be companies established around or before that time penetrating the same market with similar objectives. One such example would be Southern Sales and Service Company Limited (SSS). Both companies entered the corporate market to try to gain market share. SSS has a larger vehicle fleet than Singh’s but SSS does not provide some of the tour guide services or 25 seat bus retreat services that Singh’s caters for. Even though they are in similar industries, they each cater to a different sector within the market. Refer to Appendix III for a visual on how competitive advantage works in an industry as Singh’s. 9. Competitive advantage Singh’s has over SSS: SSS Caters for company rentals and corporate rentals Provides car and driver services Provides maintenance for some vehicles and outsources the rest Cost- mostly high priced unit rental Energy consumption is high Singh’s Caters for tour groups and tourist transportation Provides car and driver services Provides transportation services from airport to hotel and return Provides rental packages for weddings with a driver Prices are relatively low and are negotiable Various branches throughout the country so customers can do business from any branch Customer service is ranked very high 10. Conclusion A strong networking capability (Strength) has lead to an expansion in the business activities of Singh’s (opportunity) and this has resulted in increased profits due to long term leasing by various ministries (strength). The strength of networking was cultivated over a period of time and once established, it can sustain Singh’s for the next five (5) years. Singh’s  external environment has room for new entrants and a lot of possible threats and opportunities that can arise, however, with proper strategic management and well trained staff this company can continue to push forward in this market and even make a breakthrough in a new one. Recommendations Continue to evaluate Singh’s regularly. Always know where the company is in relation to its competitors. Capitalise on new technologies and trade in old techniques. Monitor staff and their talents, do regular training to update them on the current techniques being used by competitors so that they can be brought up to speed or even one step ahead. Increase profitability by looking into marketing and advertising to the larger companies such as energy companies (BPTT and Atlantic LNG) to try to gain greater market share, this is an opportunity within their SWOT analysis. Consider upgrading the fleet and maybe adding some luxury type vehicles, look at the threat of buyers and see what the customers are asking for. Customers may be willing to spend their money on luxury cars from a rental company they trust. References Johnson, G, Whittington, R and Scholes, K 2011, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 9th edn, Pearson Education, London. Alzoubi, majed R. 2004, Strategic planning and building innovative organizations. Unpublished, PhD thesis, Amman Arab University for Graduate Studies, Jordan. Alzoubi, majed R. 2013, The Impact of Intellectual Capital or SWOT Analysis among Jordanian Banking Industry â€Å"Empirical Study† : International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 4 No. 2 pp. 123-137. Singh’s auto rental company limited, viewed 7 July 2014, http://www.singhs.com/about.html Southern Sales and Service Company Limited, about us, viewed on 7 July 2014, http://www.southernsalestt.com/corp_history.php Tutor2U, viewed on 9july 2014, http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/corporate_objectives_strategy.html Slideshare.com, http://www.slideshare.net/milesweaver/analysing-the-external-environment-of-business-ie-general-competitive, viewed on 12 July 2014

Operations Management in Insurance Sector

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A company constantly improves its operations to decrease the percentage of lapses in each period. Percentage of Total Lapses = Lapses/Policies Sold Average Time to Settle a Claim It measures the time it takes settle claims. A decreasing trend is favorable. Lower time to settle the claim defines higher operational efficiency of the company. Average Time to Settle a Claim = Total no. of days taken to settle all claims/ Total claims Quotas vs.Production It measures the effectiveness of sellers and agents at meeting their targets. It helps in identifying when target sales are below and taking corrective action. A ratio below 1 means targets is not being met. A higher than 1 ratio means brokers are exceeding the target and it is favorable for the organization. Quotas vs. Production = Total Rs. Quoted Business/Total Revenue Top Brokers in Sales Revenue I t ranks brokers based on sales revenue and no. of policies sold. It helps to identify top performers for each category of policies.It also helps to improve the performance of brokers who are lacking behind. Top Brokers in Sales Revenue = Rank top 3 or 10 brokers based on sales revenue Total Benefits as a percentage of premium It is an indicator of financial performance. This measure helps in pricing of insurance policies. It helps to know the risk factors associated with each policy and set fair premiums. Total paid benefits as a percentage of premium = Total paid benefits/Total premium earned Q. How to ensure quality in service business and how to enhance quality in service sector?Ans-There are several ways to ensure and enhance the quality of an insurance company. These are listed below. †¢Six Sigma concepts can be implemented to ensure quality and conform to consumer needs. 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This would allow to improve service and quality of claim processes as claims would be settled more quickly. †¢Online information should be used to provide policy holders with accounts that provide updated information regarding their claims and premium payments. †¢Insurance companies can get into an strategic partnership with mobile banking providers so that customers can pay their premiums through mobile banking †¢A chart showing the updated rankings of brokers should be available to all brokers.This would increase competition and let the brokers know how much they are lacking behind others. †¢Incentives for top performing brokers should also be announced in advance to keep the motivation level high throughout and improve services. †¢Regular training programs should be conducted for brokers in order to increase their marketing and selling skills †¢A complaint center should be established in the premises to deal with the complaints received from customers. The complaints should be discussed and a corrective action plan should be develop to deal with problem.The action plan should be implemented and results must be analyzed †¢A maximum time to act on a complaint should be decided within that time the department has to act on the complaint. The corrective action taken should be documented and implemented within the specified time †¢External benchmarking with other insurance companies might also be helpful in identifying short comings and improving services †¢Define to brokers the criteria of quality customer interaction and to led them act on it

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Christianity's success and Atheism's failure in explaining the origin of life - Research Paper Example For example, primeval people believed they were originated from a particular animal or a plant (depending on a tribe). These â€Å"origins† were associated with an under human power. Ancient polytheistic religions also had their explanations formulated in myth, tales etc. The belief in single God (monotheism) came later when the polytheistic worldview could no longer satisfy human curiosity and religious needs. Monotheistic religions (such as Christianity) had come to propose a new answer on a subject. The main word here is â€Å"belief†. To be a religious person means to have a particular system of believes which are determined by the religion. Christians believe in a specific number of theses which make their world picture. Those theses can be argued or accepted. It’s different with the atheistic world view. Firstly, it should be mentioned, that atheists do not deny the whole idea of believing. On the other side, one of the biggest myths about atheism is to consider it a religious system. â€Å"Atheism is not a belief system nor is it a religion† (American Atheists, n.d.). It’s a common delusion that atheists believe in â€Å"no God†. They really don’t. Atheists do not practice belief in Gods; they are disbelievers (Cline n.d.). Atheists say theists usually are responsible for these disillusions. â€Å"Where these preconceived ideas come from varies, but they tend to evolve from theistic influences or other sources† (American Atheists, n.d.). Indeed, theists tend to contrapose atheism and theism as these things are equal. But atheists are skeptical about all supernatural things’ existence (like ghosts and spirits), and the God who has created humankind from nothing (as Christianity puts it) is just one of those things. For their way of thinking atheists in West civilization are commonly considered to be Christians’ antagonists. Meanwhile, â€Å"the only common thread that ties all atheists together is a lack of

Role and Advantages of International and Home Trade Coursework

Role and Advantages of International and Home Trade - Coursework Example Commerce includes all those activities, which are connected with trade and auxiliaries to trade such as transport, warehousing, insurance, and banking and finance.   The trade involves buying and selling of goods and its purpose is to bridge the gap between persons, i.e. the producers and the consumers can concentrate on their own occupations and at the same time buy goods to satisfy their consumption needs. The farmers can both enjoy each other’s products with the help of traders. For example, there are different types of cotton; jute, hides, and skins are supplies to the producers of cotton textiles, gunny bags and shoes respectively. At the same time manufactured goods, which have been produced with the raw materials, are supplied to the consumers. Producers buy raw materials, machinery and equipment, as well as stores and spare parts for machinery fro trading agencies and consumers, buy practically all articles required for their daily use from traders.Goods are produced on a large scale in anticipation of demand.   The markets for products are now spread over the length and breadth of the country and even extended to countries acro ss the international borders. Hence direct sale of goods by the producers to the consumers is not possible. Without the help of traders and merchants engaged in trade, it would be impossible for the system of large-scale production to continue. The trader involved in the actual operation of purchasing goods from producers and selling them to consumers. Traders and consumers are interdependent.

Team Work Essay Example for Free

Team Work Essay Teamwork is the concept of people working together as a team to achieve the underlying objectives of the organization. The team  must have a clear vision of each of these short-term milestone goals as well as their impact on the long-term business goals of the organization. In many organizations today people working by themselves in achieving the overall objectives of the organization cannot accomplish certain goals and usually require people to work together with others due to its complexity, interrelatedness and the voluminous of the tasks undertaken. In fostering    there is no one individual who owns a work area or process all by themselves, people should be open and receptive to ideas and input from others in the TEAM. The values of teamwork should be shared among the members of the team while compensation and rewards should depend on collaborative practices as much as individual contribution and achievement. It is important to identify â€Å"† and thereby set a benchmark to the rest of the teams. However before embarking on   conflicts of all kinds should be resolved within the organization. Apart from the required technical expertise, a variety of social skills are essential for success in a culture. The Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model (Bruce Tuckman, 1965) takes the team through four stages of TEAM development. These phases are essential and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, plan the work effectively and deliver the end results. However there is a need to establish and develop collaboration and trust between team members vis a vis interactive exercises, team assessments which will enable teams to cultivate effective team building strengths amongst each other. Modern society and culture continues to become more dynamic and the factors contributing towards this include the communications revolution, the global market, specialization and division of labor. Thereby individuals are now required to work with many different groups of people in their working environment and also the personal lives. Successful   that creates effective, focused work teams requires attention to the following areas mentioned in Figure A. Figure A Empowerment is the process of giving an opportunity or authorizing an individual to take decisions, think creatively and have a control of his/her duties in an organization. It is the responsibility on the organization to create a work environment, which helps the desire of employees to act in empowered ways. Top management of organizations has a very important role to play in making employee empowerment successful. Initially the managers need to understand what empowerment really means; and thereby establish boundaries for empowerment, in the event of the managers absence, the decisions that could be made by staff members should be clearly defined; Managers should also build faith and trust on their decisions made by their employees; further managers should coach, train and provide necessary information and learning opportunities for staff to make effective decisions. They should tackle situations wisely and not blame or punish their staff for minute mistakes to avoid employees flee from empowerment, The organizations should ensure that they remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways. Employees should be motivated in terms of compensation, recognition and responsibility in order to drive success of empowerment. The Flow Chart below depicts the increasing role for employees and decreasing role for supervisors in the decision making process in today’s context. The supervisor makes the decision and cascades it to the staff The supervisor makes the decision and obtains commitment from staff The supervisor invites idea’s into a decision while retaining authority to make the final decision The supervisor invites employees to join him/her in order to make the final decision The supervisor delegates to another person to make the necessary decisions. This is only where empowerment steps in. Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) Limited continued it’s Sri Lankan operations and was incorporated in 1932. Between years of 1990 – 1994, a self assessment was conducted and CTC identified the following lacunas such as lack of overall direction, lack of awareness on business issues, discontinued management team, departments functioning in isolation and in disciplined environment. After which the management identified Key initiatives and actions such as knowledge management, people involvement, culture change, gaining confidence of unions/employees and improvements in productivity via practicing concepts of Teamwork, industrial harmony etc. During the period 1995 – 1996 CTC focused on building Trust within the company employees by adapting Teamwork throughout the organization, extensive training for shop floor employees, common time entry system, common recreation facilities, common social events etc. During 1997, shared vision and mission with focus business strategy, re-engineered business processes, multidisciplinary cross functional project teams, extensive training and education, creation of a winning culture, industrial and non industrial benchmarking and focus on continuous improvement.

The Exposed Problems Of Sexism In The Media Media Essay

The Exposed Problems Of Sexism In The Media Media Essay For many years now the media we are exposed to every day has been filled with gender inequality (sexism) even though we might not always notice it. Gender inequality is a problem we as humans have been facing for quite a few years now and more often than not the media has been part of the problem and not the solution. Problem statement: Does the media promote sexism and outdate views of male/female behaviour? What is media sexism? The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology defines sexism as being the unfair discrimination on the basis of sex. This kind of discrimination tends to operate in favour of men and against women; however the obverse is not entirely unheard of. From this we can assume that the term media sexism refers to discrimination on the basis of gender that we perceive from day to day in the media. As easy as the term may seem to be to grasp, its a much more abstract term in the way that we arent always aware of the sexism that takes place in the media. For example, the percentage of newsreaders covering important news stories that are male dominates the amount of female newsreaders covering important news stories. This is quite subtle and most people dont notice this, whereas the amount of female sex workers seen in the news is much more than the amount of male sex workers seen in the news. Sexism of any kind, including media sexism can occur on many different levels and range from being covert to being outright blatant. Yes the media promotes sexism and sexist behaviour From my point of view, yes, media does promote sexism and sexist behaviour. I say it does promote sexism because women, or to be more specific womens bodies and specific women body parts are used to advertise new products. How many adverts have we seen in magazines where new gadgets are being advertised with half naked woman holding it? Cars, TV, graphics card, cell phone, laptop, etc, are all being promoted and it is being associated with women and their body. The adverts on TV are mostly being advertised by women. And if look at these commercials most of them the women have nothing to do with the product that is being advertised, one of the example is the advert for fruit juice where woman were being splashed with different fruit and fruit juice. If we also look at the computer games and their characters we can clearly that its promoting sexism. As they make the women characters look very attractive and expose their bodies. This is not the only place where media promotes sexism, if have we look at the movies and series, we can see that the men are the ones playing the important roles in the movie and women are there just as the hot sex icon, we can take Transformers for example, where Megan Fox who is the one of the main characters in Transformers plays a sex icon in the movie. If we remember when the Transformers 1 and 2 came out many men went with their friends to cinemas to watch the movie not only for its great action and effects but went to go watch it to see Megan Fox. I can remember many of my friends talking of going to watch it just to see her. This clearly shows that women, in this case Megan Fox, are used to advertise the movie so that it can sell better. We can clearly see that media does promote sexism after we have given and discussed different fields of media where media sexism is being used. This is not good as there are many disadvantages from advertising women in such a way. Women are being used as objects. This has influence on mens mind, as it changes the way they view women and how they treat women in general. No The media does not promote sexism and sexist behaviour For many years the media has been dominated by male presenters, reporters, writers etc. Women were seen as inferior to men and their voices were not heard in the media. However, this has now come to pass According to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), a global survey that is taken every five years, in 2005, 57% of all television news presenters were female and throughout the world women are more frequently becoming strongly represented in newsrooms. These figures also remained stable during the 2010 survey. It showed that while men were more likely to report domestic news stories (70%), women were much more likely to report international news (61%). Also worth mentioning is that 83% of news stories focusing on women were also presented by female journalists. Their findings from 1995-2010 for reporting and presenting the news read as following: 1995 2000 2005 2010 %Men %Women %Men %Women %Men %Women %Men %Stories presented on TV and Radio 51 49 49 51 53 47 49 As can be seen from the above table taken from the GMMP 2010, the percentage of males and females presenting news stories on television and radio have been rather stable and more importantly, equal for the last 20 years. This is a good example of how gender inequality and stereotypes are starting to dissipate from the media we are exposed to in everyday life. This change was brought about thanks to various different approaches to the issue of gender equality in the media that include, but are not limited to: Bringing gender balance to the institution of media; Creating alternative media for women to tell their stories and to let their voice be heard; Empowering and hiring female journalists; These approaches arent mutually exclusive. They all play important roles in gender equality in the media today as well as the fair portrayal of females in the media. In conclusion, males and females are slowly but surely starting to enter a balance when it comes to equality in the media. The days of gender stereotypes are drawing to a close and we welcome female journalists and newsreaders into the previously male dominated field where they prove themselves to be equals to their male counterparts. How the media portrays men and women and the effects thereof Through sexism in the media, stereotypes of how men and women should act and the roles they should adhere to are developed. The media has the power to influence the masses and by communicating sexist ideas the media is creating stereotypes by which they expect the public to conform to. Adverting campaigns such as the Bar One Man launched by Bar One and Windhoeks Always Keep it Real advertising campaigns are typical examples of the media dictating how men should act. Women used for advertising and television programmes are most times abnormally thin and skinny. Women viewing this believe that this is the norm and are driven to unhealthy diets and eating disorders in order to obtain what the media has portrayed as the ideal body. Young girls and women can suffer from anorexia and bulimia while trying to conform to what the media has portrayed as the perfect body size. Men are portrayed as being very strong, masculine and muscular. Men spend hours at the gym trying to obtain what has been presented to them as the perfect body and sometimes turn to supplement such as steroids for help which damage ones health. As a result of not achieving the perfect body, people can suffer from anxiety, depression and a range of inner conflicting emotions. Men and women are glamorised and portrayed as completely flawless in the media, this prompts everyday people to waste large amounts of money on cosmetics so that they may conform to this flawless image. Women spend money on expensive make-up, perfumes, clothes, jewellery and accessories while men are prompted to buy colognes, after-shaves and other costly cosmetic products in order to make themselves look appealing to the opposite sex. Some people would go as far as to pay to have cosmetic surgery done to improve their bodies. In the media women are presented as sex objects to be used by men. This leads to decay in the self esteem of women as they begin to believe that the only way to get attention from men is to present themselves as sex objects. This also has a negative impact on men as they loose respect for women and are led to believe that there are many beautiful women in the world that are easy and willing sex partners. In the media men are often seen doing something stupid or potentially dangerous to gain the attention and approval of a woman. This is seen in a lot of First for Women advertisements on the television and in magazines. This encourages men to act recklessly to get a womans attention. The way the media portrays men and women is not an accurate representation of reality, but a false portrayal of how the media expects men and women to be. The way media portrays men and women creates an extremely high expectation of reality. People become obsessive about meeting that expectation and damage their health and emotions in the process. Men and women face disappointment when the opposite sex does not live up to the high expectation the media has created of them. Using sexism to help promote or sell products does not always work in the favour of the companies advertising. Sexist advertisements that appear in the media can often annoy and enrage the gender that is being exploited or ridiculed in order to promote the product. This causes negative feelings and emotions towards that advertisement. By using sexism in advertising a company can gain the attention of its audience but can also leave people feeling angered and opposed to buying that specific product. Group opinion After discussing the topic and considering all the information we gathered throughout this assignment we as a group decided that the media definitely promotes sexism and sexist behaviour particularly in favour of males. The female body is often being exploited to sell products; females are less frequently used to present important news and less than 30% of journalists covering important stories worldwide are female (GMMP, 2011). Hopefully in coming years this will become a thing of the past, but for the time being media sexism is a very real problem that we face. In conclusion It would appear that the media is still representing females as being inferior to males or at least to a certain degree. Despite this however, females are starting to fight back and are proving to be worthy equals to their male counterparts. Organisations such as the GMMP are trying to ensure gender equality in the media and are slowly, but surely achieving their goal. This is a mindset that might take many years to get out of, but it is a necessary change that will have to take place if we are to truly progress as a species. In our opinion, males and females are equal and it should be portrayed that way in the media and in any walks of life.

Avatars Will Replace Faces And Profiles :: Internet Net World Wide Web Media

I never thought when I started blogging that I would receive over fifty thousand views from one website alone. That is a big compliment for an old guy that lives in Brooklyn. I guess whatever I have to say must be stimulating. The lack of comments that I and most other male writers receive is not a sign of poor writing only a sign that women are not interested in a mans individuality or creative ability. I have seen many extremely boring and frivolous articles written by women receive over fifteen compliments. It is obvious that they are coming from lady friends that haven?t the talent to say anything more than ?Very Interesting?. Or ?I love it?. Most websites are dominated by groups of women that support one another. They are called ?Communities? by their directors. I call them ?Cabalas?. Fortunately I can gain popularity without joining any of them. The thousands of views I have received shows that I can stand alone. If I needed the support of groupies to be read, it would be t ime for me to stop writing and go fishing. I would like to remedy the situation and give the floor to those writers that really have something interesting to say but that is impossible. Popularity of the writer not the quality of what is written has always been the rule. A successful writer has to cater to the crowd. If a person chooses to read articles only by writers in their ethnic group nobody can interfere with their choice. Not all people are groupies and many of them are very fair. Their individuality deserves my respect. There is no way to appreciate or understand an article better than when it is written by an author who is represented by an avatar. Without a clue to the identity of the writer the reader is forced to pass judgment only on what is written. This poses no problem for a person that possesses the ability to analyze what is read. But for the groupie an article that does not identify the author creates a state of terror for them, because they must know the identity of the writer. Some groupies only feel comfortable reading an article written by a certain gender. Others demand to know the religion or racial group of the author before reading the article. These groupies by their practice censor the independent writer who attempts to approach a subject fairly.

Human Resources Development Strategies Essay -- Human Resources

This paper describes how to implement HR Strategies which are being formulated and planned for human resource of a company. Human resource is the most valuable part of the organization. It plays a crucial role in enhancing the productivity of the organization. Plans are prepared, but the implementation is the most important part. This paper gives guidelines of implementing various processes in Human resource. Guidelines for implementation of strategy related to Human Resource Development: People: It is important for people in the organization to have work life balance in order to lead a happy life, so the foremost work is to implement the actions for work life balance. Action that should be taken is to conduct a pressure profile audit; compliance audit to see working time pressure on employees. After completion of the audit, results must be evaluated and identify the need for Flexible Roster options. The action should be conducted by the committee whose head must be the Head of the Employment Practice (Human Resources Strategy: implementation plan, 2004). It is necessary to attract local members and youth to the organization for which the Student Support Officer within Human Resources and Young Promotion working group can come together to form a working committee to prepare promotional materials such as Choose a career which provide safety and growth folders. On-site visits can be conducted for students to introduce professional and technical jobs so that they can be attracted to work in the organization. Partnership with various schools and colleges can be established and training can be provided to those who are willing to join the organization. The organization can maintain an on-line database for summer student hire... ...e taken to overcome the delays. Hope the assistance provided by me is sufficient to address the queries. It will surely help you better understand the topic discussed and enhance your knowledge. I am also including the references, from where I found the content. At the end, I wish you happy learning. Sources Cited Human Resources Strategy: implementation plan. (2004). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://www.nhs24.com/content/mediaassets/board/2004-09-29%20Item%202.3%20HR%20Strategy%20App%202%20Imp%20Plan.pdf Implementation plan. (2004-09). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://www.hlthss.gov.nt.ca/pdf/reports/human_resources/2005/english/five_year_comprehensive_human_resource_implementation_plan.pdf Report on the Implementation of the New Human Resources Strategy. (2006). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://www.adb.org/adf/HRS-Paper-ADF-IX.pdf

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Oryx and Crake. Essay -- compare, contrast, c

The more thought that is put into the true nature of human beings, the clearer the realization seems to be that as a species, humans are inclined to challenge limits that are thought to be understood and transcend set boundaries. This truth of human nature is quite effectively revealed in both The Epic of Gilgamesh and the novel Oryx and Crake. The Epic of Gilgamesh reveals more about the human disposition to push mortal boundaries. It explores the desire to challenge religious boundaries, which hold extreme repercussions, as well as fears that were faced when dealing with the truth of human mortality. Oryx and Crake, on the other hand, deals more with the human desire to attain eternal youth, and the moral boundaries that are pushed and most certainly crossed in those endeavours. As each text presents evidence to prove the presence of such desires in human nature, both also seem to argue that boundaries are set for reasons, and that nothing fruitful can come from the endeavour of cr ossing them. The Epic of Gilgamesh immediately begins to deal with the human disposition to push limitations for the sport in it, even when there is no necessity which requires it. The reader immediately sees the main character, Gilgamesh, portrayed in an extreme fashion through â€Å"harrying the young men of Uruk beyond reason. Gilgamesh would leave no son to his father, day and night he would rampage fiercely.† Because he was of stronger stock, Gilgamesh found himself unable to resist demonstrating his greatness in comparison to others. Although utilizing ones abilities is clearly a good thing, doing so only through the waste of others when such force is not required is clearly a frivolous pursuit. Since Gilgamesh could find no proper means whereby to... ...fferent ventures in testing the limitations of human life, they both certainly convey a definite end concerning the degree in which humans can change their fates. Oryx and Crake very directly establishes this, with the statement â€Å"grief in the face of inevitable death, the wish to stop time. The human condition,† summing up the mortal limitation and the pursuits of the society in the book quite nicely. The Epic of Gilgamesh also leaves the reader with a similar image to view the quest of breaking limitations with. The city begins and ends in the same way â€Å"one square mile of city, one square mile of gardens, one square mile of clay pits, a half square mile of Ishtar's dwelling, three and a half miles is the measure of Uruk.† Nothing about his world or city is changed despite all the trial that Gilgamesh faced throughout to challenge the boundaries that were in place.

Language Planning and Language Development Essay

Language is a typically human phenomenon. In moving from the ‘natural being’ of animal existence to the ‘cultural being’ of human existence, language plays the decisive role. Language gives a sense of identity to an individual as well as a social group and, in the process, creates multiple identities. The maintenance, merger, clash and change in identities based on and reflected in the language change has prompted linguists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists to study language in its multifarious dimensions. Since economic and societal planning have to, of necessity, take into account the context of planning, there is no wonder that worldwide attention has been drawn towards language planning. Language is an asset and a primary instrument of human communication. However, language can become a problem and a barrier to communication, sometimes symbolically so, under conditions of multiplicity of ethnic groups, languages, dialects, styles, registers and scripts. These conditions may lead to one or more of the following situations which necessitate language planning : (i) Mutually unintelligible language, dialects or scripts competing for supremacy of dominance (ii) Mutually intelligible languages, dialects or scripts, (a) threatening mutual identity, (b) with mutually unfavorable attitudes. (iii) Existence of diglossia, triglossia or multiglossia. (iv) Existence of languages with dominant/minority relationship with a national frontier. (v) Social variables correlating with language use and creating communication zones. (vi) Official action in recognising official languages, distributing patronages for development of languages which may even have the remote implication of displacing or disturbing in reality or symbolically, the existing domains of language use. (vii) Language used by the politicised elite to retain their elitist privileges by restricting language use in education, administration and mass media. There is an urgent need for serious attention to language planning in a country like India. The following examples are illustrative of situations which demand the attention of educationists and planners to the crucial importance of language in society. 1. Sometime back, the Physics Department of the Aligarh University administered a standardised creativity test to the high achievers of the University. To their great surprise they found the result absolutely erratic. After hurried consultations among the scientists involved, it was decided to translate the test into Hindi—Urdu, the mother tongue of the students taking the test. It is only then that the test yielded the expected standard result2. 2. A very significant programme, the preparation of a Bridge Course in Kannada, was undertaken by the Central Institute of Indian Languages some years back. From experience and observation the Institute came to a few conclusions: 1. Language teaching, particularly that of teaching the mother tongue in the Indian schools, is defective 2. What is taught in the name of language is literature. 3. The teaching of literature is restricted to the teaching of ancient and medieval literature and seldom touches the contemporary. 4. Even in literature, more emphasis is given to teaching about literature than really teaching literary sensibility and critical judgment. 5. No attention is paid to the teaching of different registers. 6. As a result, there is a gap between the language attainment at the end of the school stage and the language requirement at the beginning of the college stage, particularly when taught through the mother tongue medium. As a result of this, the students cannot cope with their college studies. Some 900 students selected from three Universities of Karnataka were given a pre-test. A hundred-hour Bridge Course developed by the Institute was offered to an experimental group of about 400 students and a post-test given to all the 900. It was established that the hypotheses suggested by the institute were valid and that, pending revision of the school curriculum, the Bridge Course was of immediate necessity, particularly in the context of switchover to the mother tongue medium at the University stage (Upadhyaya 1972 and Dave 1974). 3. In Nagaland, there are 22 mutually unintelligible Naga languages, of which 16 recognised by the State Government. The language of communication among the people is Pidgin Naga, which is used even in the floor of the Assembly, though not an officially recognised language. In the absence of an acceptable common language, the State Government has adopted English as the State Language (Sreedhar 1974). This has not only created a wide gulf among the elite and the masses of people, but also deprived the common man from effectively participating in the processes of governance of the State. 4. The widespread radio network in the country has shrunk distances. The growing television network has demonstrated the potential of revolutionising communication in a very short time. However, out of the 1652 mother tongues of the country, broadcasting is not done even in 150. Broadcasting in languages other than the 15 major languages is meant mostly either for entertainment, or for purposes catering to peripheral interests of the listeners. The television is much more restricted in the coverage. Under these circumstances, in spite of all the outer-trappings, the message broadcast over the mass media reaches a very restricted audience (Pattanayak 1974). A study of the language of newspapers and that of the film is bound to reinforce the above conclusion. 5. Illiteracy is a major problem of the country (Pattanayak 1974). Out of 800 million illiterates in the world, India is credited to have 400 million . if in eradicating illiteracy the intention is to move from a ‘culture of silence’ to a ‘culture of thinking’ participation and the emphasis is on the creation of an intelligent task force for economic and industrial development, then, urgent and bold steps need to be taken in this area. Literacy in a multilingual must be based on the expressed needs of a people3. Secondly, the language of literacy has to be determined keeping in view the various contexts of language use and strategies linking the languages of literacy with that of education and administration. It would thus be quite clear that whether it is in the field of language use in education, language use in administration or in mass media, there is a constant need to weigh alternatives and plan action. The examples cited above are as true of any multi lingual country as they are of India. Such examples not only establish the necessity for language planning, but also the need to analyse its process and product. Before talking about language planning, one must understand the motivation and mechanisms of planning. Planning is not merely a catalogue of resources and the organisation and mobilization of these resources to reach a certain defined goal. Since the technocrat is seldom the decision maker, it is important that the planner provides alternatives and options are given, the goal is stated and the strategies are spelled out the politician-decision maker can take a decision. The two aims of planning are growth promotion and environment amelioration. Here, environment is not used merely in the physical ecological sense, but is used in the sense of sociocultural context of the individuals in society. It is most unfortunate that the pre-occupation with economics as the only discipline of concern of planning blinded the planners to its equally important second aspect of planning. Those who are obsessed with growth and economic development take the social and cultural imperatives for granted. Like the textbook and laboratory controlled experiments, where all other conditions being equal a certain conclusion flows out of it, the economic planner takes the context of planning for granted and concentrates on the economic planning. He forgets that in actual life all the conditions seldom remain equal and that the context in which social problems are nurtured is as important as the problems themselves. Planning is not merely a balance sheet of inputs and outputs. That input-output statements of growth have to be checked against cost benefit to the society, need to be emphasised more, if planning is not to defeat its own purpose. Language planning does not merely entail drawing a list of mother tongues spoken in a defined territory, nor does it merely mean listing of their actual and desired domains of use. Whether in a unilingual or in a plurilingual society, language planning is essential to deal with such problems of dialect, language standard, all aspects of language development and the contexts of language use are areas of concern of a language planner. It would be much more meaningful and sensible to talk of relatively unitary and pluralilstic societies, as the great divide seems to be unitary and pluralilstic rather than developed and developing in the context of language planning. In pluralistic societies, choices, options and alternatives are imperatives of planning, as the basis of pluralism is transparent and easily manipulated. Speaking of language development, Khubchandani (1975:102) offers the following framework which accepts the distinction between developed and undeveloped languages: Dimension Developed Language Undeveloped Language Range of communication Wide,Sometimes multinational. Limited to region. Ecological status. Spoken by dominant majorities. Spoken by dominant minorities. Domian of use. All. Restricted as with vernaculars. Writing system Present. May not be present. Literary status With literary traditions. Colloquial, bazar languages. Social prestige Standard language, acceptable to the elite. Non-standard or sub-standard: slangs, hybrids This is too simplistic a model. Following this one can argue that the major (scheduled) languages of India are both developed and un-developed and they are neither developed nor un-developed. One can say that, barring their restricted domain of use, they fulfill all the criteria of developed language. At the same time, looking at the situation from national and international perspective, one can say that, being diglossic, they have all the features of undeveloped, whereas in Latin America, the major language is developed and the minority (such as Indian) languages are undeveloped. If one takes the case of English alone, this scheme will lead to untenable conclusions. Actually such a schematic presentation conceals and confuses issues rather than clarifies them. Ferguson’s criteria (Fishman 1968 : 28) of a developed language, inter-translatablity with languages in the industrial society, is ethnocentric. One may wish to give the benefit of doubt by saying that the industrial so ciety probably has developed the most varied registers of the language used. But, in the agricultural society, certain contemplative disciplines have flourished which may not have found place in the industrial society. In any case, there is no reason why value judgement about a society need be bodily transferred into the discussion of language use without establishing its relevance to such discussions. What, then, is language development? Can a language be developed by a language planning society ? One popular notion of a developed language is its antiquity. Languages which are older are generally considered more developed. Scholars of history of language and literature in all Indian languages usually devote considerable space and time to this aspect of the question. Another popular notion is linked with the availability of creative literature in a language. Thus, a quarrel whether Bengali or Tamil is more developed has resulted in a lot of unproductive debate. A corollary of this stand is the rejection of spoken languages as languages and give them a grudging recognition as dialects. Scholars have even gone to the extent of saying that Saora has only 700 words, and therefore it does not deserve the status of a language, thus putting the premium on the vocabulary. Presentation of a norm or standard where competing varieties of a language exist is a primary step in language development. This can be achieved by standardising spelling, writing grammars, dictionaries, textbooks, etc. Developing a script for non-literate languages forms a legitimate concern of language is another major concern of language development. This is best achieved by promoting new registral writing, creating technical terminology, and encouraging translation, etc. In a multilingual society, allocation of domains of use to each language and ensuring its increased or decreased use for specific domains forms part of the study of language development. Language planning agencies, endowed with sufficient technical expertise, and executive power, and certainly do a great deal to influence language development, and, through planning, help reduce conflict and tension. The problems in a linguistically plural society are complex, the options are competitive and the goal is difficult to perceive, because of the volotile nature of the context of language use. It must be understood that no language or culture group is absolutely unitary or monolithic in nature. For example, all persons speaking English do neither speak a uniform language nor do they share a single culture. Even all English speakers in England or America cannot be so classified. Communication facilities, ethnicity, religious grouping, uneven opportunities leading to uneven education and cultural development are some of the parameters which account for regional linguistic differences even where a single language is dominant. In the past, linguists assumed a uniform and invariant structure of language. At the present moment it is generally accepted that the speech matrix of a community is constituted of varieties of varieties of the language. These are generally treated under rubrics of style, register, dialect, sociolect, etc. While in a single dominant language society, the different varieties tend to have specialised functions, in a multilingual society, in addition to varieties of mother tongue, one or more other languages share the communicative domain. When there are people using different languages and different varieties of a language, it is natural that they develop certain attit udes towards each other. These attitudes indicate social ranking and relative status of groups and also intergroup cohesiveness or lack of it within a broad framework. Each person considers his language to be the paragon of beauty and sweetest sounding of all. The neighbour’s language usually comes in for a drubbing. The neighbour with whom one comes in constant communication, competes for socio-economic advantages, trades and establishes other societal relationship, naturally exerts a lot of linguistic influence. The nature of this influence depends on many factors, the important one being the political-economic power of the communities concerned. A Telugu speaker calls Tamil by the given name ‘Aravam’, meaning ‘sound not sweet to hear’. The neighbour’s language is described in many languages as the sound of pebbles in a tin drum or sounds coming from a mouth filled with pan. One’s own language is like peeled sweet banana, sweet as sugar and like nectar. When so expressed the unconscious feelings are expressed as conscious attitudes. The epithet of Devabhasha ‘language of the gods’ brought out the retort from the Maharashtra saint poet, ‘If Sanskrit is the language of gods, is Prakrit the language of thieves ?’ All such overt attitudinal statements are grist in the mill of the linguist and the language planner. The above attitudes are not strictly confined to interlingual relationships. Attitudes of dialect speakers of one language towards each other may result either in consolidation and standardization of the language, or separation and split of a language. The notion of dialect may or may not have a pejorative connotation for the for the standard language speaker, but, for the dialect speaker, it is related to local pride. Any effort at standardisation must take this factor of local pride into consideration. A study of dialects of Hindi in India alone will provide examples of both consolidation and separation. As attitudes towards others’ language have serious sociolinguistic implications, so has one’s attitude towards one’s own language. A derogatory attitude or a sense of deficiency towards one’s own language results in the looking for an external standard, acceptance of a culture language or even language loss. The Canadian French speakers looking towards Parisian French, the Caribbean Hindi speaker, the Ceylonese Tamil speaker and the Malayalee settlers in Hon Kong looking towards India, for standards is the result of a feeling of deficiency by the speakers of those languages outside their homeland. Non-literate minority languages adopting a dominant language for almost all purposes other than home use, as in the case of Kannada for Tulu, Kodagu and Marathi or Kannada for Konkani in India, are examples of culture languages. Examples of loss of language due to weakened loyalty can be found almost in all parts of the world. In India various tribal languages which are lost because of the modernising thhrust of various dominant languages may be taken as examples. Sometimes loyalty towards one’s own language is shaken due to induced circumstances. For example, the team roller publicity in favour of American white English and standard is responsible not only for the lack of confidence in the native black and brown speakers of English about the standard of their mother tongue in the USA itself, but also for the lack of faith of the non-English world in Asia and Africa in the non-white speakers, including native speakers of English of Latin American origin in the USA as class room models. As would be clear by now, although language planning in some form is needed in al societies, the need for it is greater in a muitllingual society where the problem of communication is complex, and confronts the speaker with multiple options. Linguists have conceived of primary, secondary and tertiary speech communities on the basis of communicatory situations linking the National languagewith the secondary and the international language with tertiary (Haugen 1972:166). But such a simplified model is inadequate to explain the situation in multilingual societies in general and Indian situation in particular. Take for example, a group of Dravidian and Munda language speakers using a common code, Desia, for communication, which is a dialect of Oriya, an Indo-Aryan language. Oriya as a language has dialects which shade of into Marathi, Hindi or Bengali. If one measures the country in any direction on a straight line with points at short intervals, it will be quite evident that there is break in communication only at the extreme points of the scale. Viewed from on angle, there is ‘partial understanding’ among contiguous speech communities in India; viewed from the other, there is Switzerland – like tertiary speech communities among whom interpreters are needed as there is no of creation and change of primary language loyalties, the process of a group transcending the primordial linguistic loyalty through and identities, sub-national or national, is concealed in these simplified models. Because of ethnic cohesiveness and consequent density in communication, at the intermediate contiguous points even languages belonging to two different families are found to share a common grammar. Gumperz (1971 ; 255) has pointed out that the bilinguals in the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka operate with a single grammar and move from one language to the other through a set of transformation rules. It is not always that a third language is used as a common code. In the cases of Konkani : Marathi : Tulu : Kannada, the former has adopted the latter as culture languages, thus allocating the culture language the domain of formal commuinication. All these call for a re-examination of notions like national language, George Puttenham’s comment (1589) â€Å"After a speech is fully fashioned to the common understanding, and accepted by consent of a whole country and nation, it is called a language† is a poor definition both of nation and of language. In a nation like India, where there are languages of all India importance, languages of regional importance and languages of local importance, all the 1652 mother tongues, listed by the Census are national languages. This includes the so-called foreign mother tongues which have become part of the national cultural heritage of the country. It must be understood in this connection that ‘nation’ is a political concept. A political entity becoming a nation faces the challenge of developing a sense of nationalism among all the people inhabiting it. If already a majority of people have imbibed the spirit of nationalism, the task is to persuade the minority to accept the national goals set by the majority. In a nation inhabited by people of diverse ethnicity and language without a dominant group, a national outlook has to emerge through consensus. This requires coherence between the local group needs and national needs, between micro-planning, and macro-planning, and between economic development and political development. In short, it requires coherence between economic development through planning and socio-political context for such developmental planning. The ‘sons of soil theory’ as propounded in different regions of India has to be viewed in this general perspective. In fact, this phenomenon is not peculiar to India. The demands of the French in Canada, the Tamil in Sri Lanka, the Bengalis in the erstwhile Pakistan, the Flemings in Belgium, the various ethnic groups in Philippines, UK, USA and even in the USSR for equal national importance and equal share in development can be subsumed under this rubric. Such theories arise out of micro-planning at its narrowest application and is anti-national in both approach and content. India as a nation can be viewed as constituting a single soil, Maharshtra or Tamil Nadu may be viewed as disparate entities and independent soils. Within Maharashtra. Vidarbha and Marathwada claim independent soil status, whereas Marathas, not to speak of the backward classes, are not even given equal treatment with Brahmins in the same soil. Under these circumstances ‘sons of soil’ is n ot only a pernicious doctrine, but any planning based only on such considerations without reference to macro-planning is bound to defeat the very purpose of planning. Those who plead for sons of soil theory, often due to lsck of perspective, draw strength and support from notion such as situation-bound language planning (Khubchandani 1975). In a nation state with pluri-lingual society, it is important to be aware of the local needs as well as the national needs. Exclusive concern either with the dominant or the minority without reference to the other is bound to hurt both and destroy the society. Neighbourhood is important and of immediate relevance to all; but extension of the neighbourhood or at least the awareness of its extended frontiers so as to reach out to the national frontiers is of equal importance from the point of view of the existence of a nation. If there is no coherence between a speech area and a language area, then it is bound to create conflict. Language planning and language development, to be effective, must have the twin focus on micro and micro level needs, aspirations and resources. The Western view is liner and binary whereas the Eastern is cyclical and spiral. However, the westernised eastern elites, who are in charge of planning, follow essentially the Western world view. That is why, all language problems are reduced to binary oppositions such as English:Hindi; Hindi:Urdu; Hindi:Indian languages, etc; and all integrative solutions elude them. ‘Unity in diversity’ is so worn out through constant use that it is often rejected as a cliche. And yet if language planning is to be achieved without coercion in a multilingual, multi-ethnic society, it has to be viewed in the grand design offered by Gandhi in his concept of the ‘oceanic circle’. In this structure, composed of innumerable speech communities, â€Å"life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual†, always ready to defend and enrich his mother tongue, each speech community ready to defend and enrich the standard, the superposed or the culture language, each such group ready to defend, enrich and sacrifice for the regional dominant language and the latter ready to defend, enrich and sacrifice for the link language, national language or language and languages of national and international integration, â€Å"till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in arrogance, but ever humble, sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral unit†. NOTE 1. These multiple identities may be both multi-lingualism in the mother tongue and plurilingualism in the sense of different language use. See : wandruszka, Mario, Interlinguistics-Outlines of the New Linguistics. Education; Vol. 12. Institute for Scientific Co-operation, Tubingen, Landhausstr. 18, FRG, 76 ff. 2. Personal communication from Prof. Rais Ahmed, formerly Professor of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, and later Director, NCERT, New Delhi. 3. Ph.D. thesis of Daniel Moulton in the University of Texas based on his field work in Andhra Pradesh, India under supervision of the author.

Difference between capital and revenue items of expenditure and income Essay

Accounting involves any business, company or person recording their financial transactions, such as payments coming in or paying going out. It is very important for a business to record their transactions for a number of reasons: Economic decisions: If a company is going to succeed then it’s needs to be aware of what it can and cannot afford and how the resources available will be effectively used and not put to waste. Inventory: Knowing how much of a product you have can be save you from buying the same product again and wasting money on something you longer need. Stocking up on a certain product that is no longer making sales could make it more prone to damage or theft, therefore making the product un-sellable. By recording the amount of stock you have left you could save money and make a larger profit, this would then further secure the stakeholders you have investing in your business. Monitoring activity: during the process of buying or selling goods mistakes can be made and those mistakes can properly be identified and dealt with if it is kept on a record. Keeping an account of your stock would also prevent theft, damage or loss of property. Also if there are any products exported out to different countries then accounting for which countries buy more products would help you provide more stock for that country to maximize profits. Measuring financial performance: A business needs to know how well they are doing; this can benefit them in a number of ways. If in the first quarter a business is doing well but in the second quarter the profit dips then the problem can easily be assessed and dealt with. However this can only be accomplished if the business keeps a record of the intakes and ou ttakes.

Environmental Awareness Among Prospective Teachers

Environmental Awareness among Prospective Teachers of Himachal Pradesh Dr. Ajay Kumar Attri Lecturer, Deptt. Of Education, MLSM College Sundernagar, Mandi (HP) ABSTRACT The present study was undertaken to compare the environmental awareness of male and female, science and arts and rural and urban prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh. The sample comprised 260 (130 male and 130 female) prospective teachers. For the study Environment Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM) was developed and standardized by Parveen Kumar Jha (1998) consisted of 71 items was used. It was found that environmental awareness of prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh remains almost the same as far as effect of gender, stream and locale is concerned. This may be attributed to the fact that prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh were studying ‘Education for Human Value, Environment and Human Right’ as a compulsory subject during their B. Ed course. INTRODUCTION: India is one of the first countries where the constitution recognized the need for harmonizing environmental concerns with development. Article 48A specifically directs ‘The state shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forest and wildlife in the country’ and Article 51A (g) enjoins upon Indian citizens a fundamental duty ‘to protect and improve the natural. The concept environment can be understood in totally of all components surrounding the man i. e. environment is the sum of all social, biological, physical and chemical factors which compose the surroundings of man. Each component of these surroundings constitutes a resource on which man draws with a view of promoting human welfare. According to a Report of a Conference of African Education at Nairobi (1968) â€Å"Environmental Education is to create an awareness and understanding of the evolving social and physical environment as a whole, its natural, manmade, cultural, spiritual resources together with the rational use and conservation of these resources for development†. CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS: The issue of environmental awareness is becoming global in nature. It has also drawn the attention of common people as environmental degradation and pollution are causing a serious threat to survival of mankind. There are several factors like thinning of ozone layer, creation of ozone hole, over population of many developing countries, the ever-increasing natural and technological disasters and threat of chemical and radiation hazards are threatening to wipe out the humanity from the earth. There are four major and integrating components of environmental awareness–knowledge, real life situation, conservation and sustainable development. Himachal Pradesh Government is trying to promote the development of an economically and environmentally sound eco-system while endeavoring to improve the living standards of the people in the state. The government is conscious of the intrinsic value of the environment and of ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic values there of further the government of Himachal Pradesh is trying to conserve and enhance the environment and follow a policy of sustainable development. Being aware of its central role in directing the development on a sustainable matrix, it calls upon people of Panchayatiraj, Local bodies, institutions and the organs of state for extending their full cooperation in this effort. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCH: The number of research studies has been undertaken by investigators on environmental awareness of students at various levels of education and findings of the same are as: Shahnawaj (1990) found that a very high level of awareness existed on the part of teachers and students and also found that environmental awareness was more in urban groups than in the rural group. Santipapwiwatana (1991) concluded that awareness of students was satisfactory with respect to environment. Gopalkrishan (1992) inferred that children were inspired from nvironmental education. Patel (1994) observed that the male teachers with long school experience of urban area are more aware about the environment education. Vashisht (1995) inferred that the level of awareness was found to be higher in case of boys as compared to girls. Bala (1996) indicated that level of awareness of university students especially university boys were satisfactory with respect to environment. Kumari (1999) fo und that private school teachers were more aware about environment as compared to government school teachers. Sharma (2000) indicated that urban students were more aware about their environment, about forests and environment component as compared to rural students. Owena (2000) concluded that the environmental literacy of urban middle school teachers were almost satisfactory. Thakur (2003) concluded that at primary stage both the rural and urban students are not much aware about environmental situation. Biasan (2005) concluded that both government and private school students have the same level of environmental awareness. Nagra and Dhillon (2006) inferred that Science teachers showed higher environmental education awareness than art teachers. Nagra, et. al. (2007) showed that secondary school teachers showed significant variation in environmental education awareness than elementary school teachers. The male and female secondary school teacher showed significant variation in environmental educational awareness. OBJECTIVES: 1. To find out the significant difference between mean scores of Male and Female prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. 2. To investigate the significant difference between mean scores of Science and Arts prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. 3. To study the significant difference between mean scores of rural and urban prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. HYPOTHESES: 1. There will be no significant difference between mean scores of Male and Female prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. 2. There will be no significant difference between mean scores of Science and Arts prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. . There will be no significant difference between mean scores of rural and urban prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness. METHOD AND PROCEDURE: In the present study descriptive survey method of research was used and following method and procedure was used. POPULATION: All the prospective teachers of private B. Ed colleges of Himachal Pradesh constituted t he population of the study. SAMPLE: For the selection of 260 prospective teachers (130 male and 130 female) from the 8 private B. Ed colleges, method of convenient sampling was adopted. VARIABLE STRUCTURE: Gender, Stream and locale constituted the independent variables whereas Environmental awareness was the criterion variable. TOOLS USED IN THE STUDY: Environment Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM) was developed and standardized by Parveen Kumar Jha (1998) consisted of 71 items was used. The value of Reliability co-efficient varies between 0. 61 to 0. 84. It was quite valid as the items in it had already been treated and their content made relevant by incorporating the suggestions of the various experts. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: To test the hypothesis of the study t-test was performed on the scores of environmental awareness. The summary of the obtained results has been presented in Table-1. It is evident from the table-1 that the ‘t’-value testing the significance of mean difference among the Male and Female prospective teachers was calculated as 0. 15, which is non-significant both at 0. 05 and 0. 01 levels of confidence, which reflects that mean scores of Male and Female prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh do not differ significantly on environmental awareness. Thus, the null hypothesis that â€Å"There will be no significant difference between mean scores of total Male and total Female prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness† is accepted. Thus it may be concluded that Male and Female prospective teachers don’t differ significantly in their awareness toward environment. Table 1 Summary of the Statistical Calculations for Obtaining ‘t’-values with regard to Environmental Awareness among Prospective Teachers of Himachal Pradesh on Gender, Stream and Locale |Group |N |Mean |S. D. |t-value |Result | |(Prospective | | | | | | |Teachers) | | | | | | |Male |130 |44. 20 |4. 52 |0. 15 |Non-significant at | | | | | | |0. 05 level | |Female |130 |44. 12 |3. 91 | | | |Science |130 |44. 8 |4. 88 |0. 44 |Non-significant at | | | | | | |0. 05 level | |Arts |130 |44. 05 |3. 45 | | | |Rural |65 |43. 94 |5. 10 | |Non-significant at | | | | | |0. 66 |0. 05 level | |Urban |65 |44. 46 |3. 87 | | | Further, Table-1 indicates that the calculated ‘t’ value showing the significant difference in the mean scores of Science and Arts prospective teachers came out to be 0. 44, which is not significant even at 0. 05 level of confidence thereby, accepting the null hypothesis that â€Å"There will be no significant difference between mean scores of Science and Arts prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness†. Hence it may be concluded that Science and Arts prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh don’t differ significantly on environmental awareness i. e. they have almost similar awareness toward environment. Table-1 further shows that the‘t’-value reflecting the significance of mean difference among the rural and rural prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh was calculated as 0. 66, which is non-significant at 0. 05 level of confidence. Thus, the null hypothesis that â€Å"There will be no significant difference between mean scores of rural and urban prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh on environmental awareness† stands accepted. Thus, it may be concluded from the above interpretation that rural and urban prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh don’t differ significantly at environmental awareness i. . locale does not show much effect on environmental awareness of prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh. Thus, on the basis of the conclusions, it is inferred that environmental awareness of prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh remains almost the same as far as effect of gender, stream and locale is concerned thereby showing that gender, stream and loc ale do not show much impact on their environmental awareness. This may be attributed to the fact that environmental education has become the integral part of school as well as college curriculum. Same is the case with prospective teachers of Himachal Pradesh who study ‘Education for Human Value, Environment and Human Right’ as a compulsory subject. This gives them complete awareness about environment in relation to both stream and sex. Also, our findings get support from the study of Thakur (2003) which reflected that sex groups had equal awareness regarding the environment. REFERENCES: Bala, I. (1996) A Study of Environmental Awareness among University Students, M. Ed. Dissertation, Department of Education, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. Biasan, A. 2005) Comparative Study of Environmental Awareness Among Government and Private Secondary School Students in District Kangra of Himachal Pradesh, M. Ed. Dissertation, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla,. Constitution of India (Part IV Directive Principles of State Policy) †¦ Article 48A Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests. Gopal Krishan, S. (1992) An Impact of Environmenta l Education on Primary School Children, Fifth Survey of Research in Education (1988-92), Vol. II, NCERT, New Delhi. Kumari, S. (1999) A Study of Environmental Awareness among Elementary School Teachers. M. Ed Dissertation, Department of Education H. P. U, Shimla. Maheswari, B. K. and Sharma, B. L. (2004) Education for Values, Environment and Human Rights. Merrut: Surya Publication, PP. 1-4. Ministry of Education, Government of India (1985) Challenge of education: a policy perspective. Document C06370 Nagra, V. and Dhillion, S. Jaiswinder (2006) Environmental Education Awareness among Secondary School Teachers. Perspective in Education, Vol. 21, No. 3 Nagra Vipinder and Dhillion, S. Jaiswinder (2007) Environmental Education Awareness among School Teachers in Relation to Level and Gender. Perspective in Education, Vol. 3, No. 2 Nairobi(1968), Third Conference of Ministers of Education in African Member States (MINEDAF III) Owena and Marcia, A. (2001) The Environmental Literacy of Urban Middle School Teachers. Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol. 61. No. 4 Patel, Delip, G. , (1994) Environmental Awareness of Primary School Teachers in the Progress of Education, Dissertation Abstract s International, Vol. 58 (10-11), P. 234. Santipapwiwatana, Winyoo (1991), Knowledge and Opinions Concerning Environmental Conservation of Prathomsuksa, Six Students in Amphur, Chaiangkham, Phayao Province, Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol. 2. Shahnawaj, (1990) Environmental Awareness and Environmental Attitude of Secondary and Higher Secondary School Teachers and Students, Fifth Survey of Educational Research, Trend Reports, vol. I, New Delhi: NCERT. Sharma, Rajeshwar. (2000) A Study of Environmental Awareness among Primary School Students, M. Ed. Dissertation, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. Vashisht, K. Narinder (1995) A Study of Environmental Awareness among Adolescent Students, M. Ed. Dissertation, Department of Education, H. P. U. , Shimla.