Criminal Prosecution and Competencies

Through movies, we get the impression that police officers have all the right to arrest someone and bring him to court. But the underlying fact in this is that there are some things that must be done before a trial can be reached. For instance, an offender is arrested for committing a crime. There are steps in a criminal prosecution which leads to sentencing. During the arrest, the offender is handcuffed and taken to jail. The offender is then taken for booking wherein his photograph and fingerprints will be taken and he will be searched. A strip-search may be necessary at some point.Then, the police will ask about the offender’s personal information such as name, address, date of birth and social security number (American Hunt Saboteurs Association, n. d. ). The next step would be arraignment, which signals the court appearance for a felony or misdemeanor. During this process, the charges to be filed and the penalty applicable once convicted, and the Constitutional rights are recited to the defendant (Nichols, n. d. ). The offender also pleads guilty or not guilty during arraignment, after which the pretrial, readiness hearing and trial dates are set.If the offender does not plead guilty, the next step would be the pretrial hearing. This is the time for both parties to file pretrial motions or issues. Then there would be the discovery. Discovery refers to the information needed for the parties to prepare the case. The next step is motions, wherein both parties can present testimonies or arguments. The readiness hearing will follow. This hearing is mainly held to find out if both parties are ready to proceed (City of Oak, 2003). After these steps, the trial follows.For an offender who pleads not guilty, he will be tried and convicted by either a judge or a jury (American Hunt Saboteurs Association, n. d. ). The judge or the jury decides upon the verdict. This leads to the final step, which is the sentencing. In some areas in the United States, sentencing can be delivered in an expedite manner, or the defendant can return to be sentenced. Before a judge or a jury can put down a sentence, the judge must first hear the sides of the prosecution, victims or their representatives, the defendant and the defense attorney (City of Oak, 2003).Foundational and Decisional Competencies Foundational competencies, which are sometimes called Work Readiness Competencies, refer to competencies which serve as foundation for success whether in the workplace or school. Having foundational skills is very essential especially for workers to be able to learn new industry-specific skills. Foundational competencies are considered fundamental in occupations and industries (State of Minnesota, 2009). Foundational competencies transcend many other forms of competencies, such as ethical competencies, personal effectiveness, work place competencies and so on.Individual and cultural diversity and professional development are also classified as foundational. Take academic competencies as example. The critical competencies that people have learned in an academic setting such as communication, reading and writing, and basic computer skills are necessary in order to succeed in one’s chosen career. Academic competencies are the foundation for other competencies such as occupation and industry specific competencies. Decisional competencies, on the other hand, are categorized under workplace competencies. Possessing excellent decision-making skills is critical in both work place and school.Decisional competencies aid an individual in functioning â€Å"in an organizational setting† (Long Island University, n. d. ). Foundational and decisional competencies can be related in criminal cases, especially ones wherein the defendant suffers from a mental disorder. Foundational competencies can include the defendant’s basic knowledge of the charges and the adversary system as a whole. They also include the ability to â€Å"disclose re levant information to counsel. † Decisional competencies, on the other hand, would include one’s ability to understand legal alternatives and choose among these when necessary (Skeem, et.al, 2004). References American Hunt Saboteurs Association. (n. d. ). Arrest. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. huntsab. org/arrest. htm City of Oak. (2003). Steps in a criminal case. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. oakharbor. org/subcategory. cfm? id=12&sid=19 Long Island University. (n. d. ). The practitioner scholar model: Program competencies, goals and objectives. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. cwpost. liu. edu/cwis/cwp/clas/psych/doctoral/forms/PractitionerScholarModel. pdf Nichols, W. P. (n. d. ). Steps in a criminal case.Office of Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. co. monroe. mi. us/Monroe/default. aspx? PageId=387 Skeem, J. , Golding, S.. L. & Emke-Francis,P. (2004). Assessing adjudicative competency: Using l egal and empirical principles to inform practice. In Donohue, W. T. & Levensky, E. R. (Eds. ). Forensic psychology: A handbook for mental health and legal professionals. New York: Academic Press. State of Minnesota. (2009). â€Å"Building blocks† for competency models. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. careeronestop. org/CompetencyModel/pyramid_definition. aspx

Beer Wars-Documentary Review Essay

Introduction Beer Wars was a very eye-opening documentary. It was interesting to see how the market share of the largest beer company, Anheiser-Busch, has grown throughout the years. In 1965, Anheiser-Busch had a meager market share of twelve percent. As marketing on television grew in popularity, Anheiser-Busch’s market share grew as well. By 1985, Anheiser-Busch’s market share had grew to thirty-seven percent. By 2005, Anheiser-Busch’s market share had grown to an enormous forty-nine percent. This was very shocking to me that one company could control almost one-half of the market share of a $97 billion industry. Also, in 1985, the other two largest beer makers, Miller and Coors, made up about twenty-six percent of the market share. Thus, in 2005, major beer companies made up seventy-five percent of the beer sales in the United States. Which tells us that craft breweries only had twenty-five percent of the market share. How the Large Got/Stay Large In the beginning, all beers were craft beers, until the big three companies wanted to grow, and grow they did. Unfortunately, as the three largest beer companies in the United States grew, the beer-drinking public that was buying their beer were actually the people who were suffering. The reason that I say this is because of the way the large beer manufacturers got to this point. The large beer manufacturers were not very concerned about the quality of their beers as much as they were about the number of sales that were created. The way that the large beer companies did this was through their advertising campaigns. The large beer companies were/are millions and millions of dollars during different sporting functions and on every day television. Beer Wars told us that, on average, there is about $1. 5 billion spent on advertising by the large beer companies every single year. That number is astounding to me, considering how popular their beers are. I think if they were to cut back their advertisements by about 50%, they would still maintain a stranglehold on the beer market in the United States. Another way that large beer companies tend to stay on top of the market is through shelf space at different locations. The large beer companies tend to make many different varieties of beers and thus are afforded more space on the shelves and local markets and liquor stores. This leaves a very small area for craft beers to be displayed, especially when it is very difficult to determine if a beer is a craft beer or made by one of the large beer companies. I will talk more about this later in the discussion. Why Light is King The large beer companies tend to market light lager beers, and for good reason. About eighty-five percent of the beer consumed in the United States is light lager. So, Miller Lite, Coors Light and Bud-Light are very good money makers for the large beer companies. I would not blame the companies for pushing and selling what the people want, or is this what people want? Craft Beer Facts Well, craft beers haven’t fully caught on in the beer markets. NPR. org tells us that craft beers only make up about five percent of the total beer market. According to NPR. org, there are currently over two thousand breweries in the United States. Of those two thousand, about 1,950 of those breweries are considered craft beer breweries. That’s another very interesting point. Ninety-five percent of the breweries in the United States are brewing about five percent of the beer that is sold in the United States. That really doesn’t seem right, but NPR. org goes on to tell us that in order to be a craft brewery, the breweries cannot brew more than 6 million barrels of beer every year. According to texaswatchdog. org, Anheiser-Busch alone brewed over one hundred million barrels of beer in 2011. That is an amazingly large amount of beer for one company to sell. This also tells us that the hope is not nearly lost for craft brewers. If all of the 1,950 craft brewers produced only ? million barrels of beer each year, they could easily cripple the large beer manufacturers with an influx of 975 million barrels of beer flooding the marketplace. But, the vast majority of craft brewers would never want to do that. The Craft Beer Way The craft brewers in the United States and around the world have a completely different take on what it means to brew beer. Dogfish Head craft beer was said to only have . 0002% of the market share of beer sales in the United States. According to brewersassociation. org, Dogfish Head craft beer ranked 12th in the nation in 2011, based upon the number of sales for a craft brewery. That is truly amazing, how a company ranked 12th in the whole country in craft beer sales still only has . 0002% of the total market share of the beer industry. However, the owner of the company said that he would never want to grow like the large beer companies have. He is more concerned about each and every bottle of beer being the best beer possible, rather than worrying too much about how many cases he is able to send out the door. As a whole, craft beer makers try to capture their piece of the market through differentiation of their products and not through advertising like the large beer companies. Craft beer makers still try to do new and interesting things with beer, but they do their best not to lose focus on the most important factor, a good quality brew. Spreading the News Beer Wars told us that one event that allows craft breweries to get their name out to the public is the great American beer festival. This is an event where brewers go to from all over the world for people to sample and try different beers that the craft brewers make. This is a great way for the small breweries to get their name out to the market. Unfortunately, Beer Wars told us that even the large beer companies are starting to attend this event. Large Feeling the Effects The large beer companies have now started feeling the effects of small craft beers in the marketplace. According to brewerassociation. org, craft brew beer sales have increased from about one percent to about six percent of market share in the past fifteen years. This is the only portion of the beer industry to have any sign growth in that timeframe. Once again, the large beer companies are using their financial advantage to combat this trend. Anheiser-Busch has gone out and purchased several small beer company names and have been selling them as craft beers, where in fact they are mass produced at one of many Anheiser-Busch’s factories. Another way that large beer companies are flexing their monetary muscles is through lawsuits. Beer Wars described how one craft brewer was being sued by Anheiser-Busch for using a name that the brewer had used for years. The problem with this is that Anheiser-Busch had not been using that name for very long. Another issue with this is that craft brewers do not have the financial means to be able to hold off many lawsuits from large beer manufacturers. The reason that this is difficult for craft beer makers is the fact that funding for craft breweries is very hard to come by. Usually investors either invest in very large ventures or very small ventures. Most of the time, craft beer makers are somewhere in the middle as far as their funding needs go. Because of this oddity, gaining funds for the production facilities for a craft brewery is very hard to obtain through normal financing. Political Issues Some of the other challenges for the craft beer manufacturers is found in Washington, D. C. Beer Wars tells us that beer lobbyists are one of the most powerful group of lobbyists in Washington. The main focus of these lobbyists is ensuring that the three-tier system of distribution is held intact. The three-tier distribution system basically splits up the beer manufacturers, the beer distributors and the beer retailers. This rule was put in after prohibition to make sure that beer sales would be fair across all persons involved. Basically, so the large beer makers couldn’t prevent others from getting their product onto store shelves. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening. Distributors tend to lend favor to the large beer companies, because they are paid by how much beer they deliver, and as we saw from Beer Wars, the large beer manufacturers still control that volume of beer sales. So, when the distributors are putting the beer on the shelves of the retailer, they will basically give the large beer companies whatever kind of shelving presence that they desire, basically because they are getting incentivized to do so. I definitely think that the three-tier system needs to be looked at and revamped to meet the needs of today’s marketplace. Conclusion Overall, this documentary was a very interesting look into the beer manufacturer marketplace. I never realized before how devious the large beer manufacturers are when it comes to protecting their market share. With both the lawsuits over naming rights and the basic control of beer distributors, it’s amazing that any craft beer makers even stand a chance of holding any portion of market share. I believe that the large beer manufacturers are scared of what could happen very quickly if they do not do something to respond to the expanding requirements for quality beer in the marketplace. This documentary definitely made me change my mind on how I thought about craft beers. I always figured it was just some fad that would eventually fade away. I see now that this is not the case at all. Craft brews are just being produced to give the marketplace a much higher quality, even if they have to pay a little more. I have a much greater respect for craft beer manufacturers. I would hope to someday be able to brew my own beer just to see how fulfilling it can be. I will definitely start drinking more craft beers because of this documentary. References (Other Than Beer Wars) 1. â€Å"BREWERS ASSOCIATION RELEASES TOP 50 BREWERIES IN 2011. † Brewers Association. Brewers Association, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. . 2. Chappell, Bill. â€Å"U. S. Craft Beer Brewers Thrive, Despite Small Share Of The Market. † NPR. org. NPR, 18 May 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. . 3. Lisheron, Mark. â€Å"Anheuser-Busch InBev Roars against Craft Breweries Bill in Texas Legislature. † Texas Watchdog | Investigating Government Waste, Fraud and.

A Dirty Job Chapter 2

After that, it was a memory out of a sleepwalk, scenes filmed from a zombie’s eye socket, as he ambled undead through explanations, accusations, preparations, and ceremony. â€Å"It’s called a cerebral thromboembolism,† the doctor had said. â€Å"A blood clot forms in the legs or pelvis during labor, then moves to the brain, cutting off the blood supply. It’s very rare, but it happens. There was nothing we could do. Even if the crash team had been able to revive her, she’d have had massive brain damage. There was no pain. She probably just felt sleepy and passed.† Charlie whispered to keep from screaming, â€Å"The man in mint green! He did something to her. He injected her with something. He was there and he knew that she was dying. I saw him when I brought her CD back.† They showed him the security tapes – the nurse, the doctor, the hospital’s administrators and lawyers – they all watched the black-and-white images of him leaving Rachel’s room, of the empty hallway, of his returning to her room. No tall black man dressed in mint green. They didn’t even find the CD. Sleep deprivation, they said. Hallucination brought on by exhaustion. Trauma. They gave him drugs to sleep, drugs for anxiety, drugs for depression, and they sent him home with his baby daughter. Charlie’s older sister, Jane, held baby Sophie as they spoke over Rachel and buried her on the second day. He didn’t remember picking out a casket or making arrangements. It was more of the somnambulant dream: his in-laws moving to and fro in black, like tottering specters, spouting the inadequate clichs of condolence: We’re so sorry. She was so young. What a tragedy. If there’s anything we can do†¦ Rachel’s father and mother held him, their heads pressed together in the apex of a tripod. The slate floor in the funeral-home foyer spotted with their tears. Every time Charlie felt the shoulders of the older man heave with a sob, he felt his own heart break again. Saul took Charlie’s face in his hands and said, â€Å"You can’t imagine, because I can’t imagine.† But Charlie could imagine, because he was a Beta Male, and imagination was his curse; and he could imagine because he had lost Rachel and now he had a daughter, that tiny stranger sleeping in his sister’s arms. He could imagine the man in mint green taking her. Charlie looked at the tear-spotted floor and said, â€Å"That’s why most funeral homes are carpeted. Someone could slip.† â€Å"Poor boy,† said Rachel’s mother. â€Å"We’ll sit shivah with you, of course.† Charlie made his way across the room to his sister, Jane, who wore a man’s double-breasted suit in charcoal pinstripe gabardine, that along with her severe eighties pop-star hairstyle and the infant in the pink blanket that she held, made her appear not so much androgynous as confused. Charlie thought the suit actually looked better on her than it did on him, but she should have asked him for permission to wear it nonetheless. â€Å"I can’t do this,† he said. He let himself fall forward until the receded peninsula of dark hair touched her gelled Flock of Seagulls platinum flip. It seemed like the best posture for sharing grief, this forehead lean, and it reminded him of standing drunkenly at a urinal and falling forward until his head hit the wall. Despair. â€Å"You’re doing fine,† Jane said. â€Å"Nobody’s good at this.† â€Å"What the fuck’s a shivah?† â€Å"I think it’s that Hindu god with all the arms.† â€Å"That can’t be right. The Goldsteins are going to sit on it with me.† â€Å"Didn’t Rachel teach you anything about being Jewish?† â€Å"I wasn’t paying attention. I thought we had time.† Jane adjusted baby Sophie into a half-back, one-armed carry and put her free hand on the back of Charlie’s neck. â€Å"You’ll be okay, kid.† Seven,† said Mrs. Goldstein. â€Å"Shivah means ‘seven.’ We used to sit for seven days, grieving for the dead, praying. That’s Orthodox, now most people just sit for three.† They sat shivah in Charlie and Rachel’s apartment that overlooked the cable-car line at the corner of Mason and Vallejo Streets. The building was a four-story brick Edwardian (architecturally, not quite the grand courtesan couture of the Victorians, but enough tarty trim and trash to toss off a sailor down a side street) built after the earthquake and fire of 1906 had leveled the whole area of what was now North Beach, Russian Hill, and Chinatown. Charlie and Jane had inherited the building, along with the thrift shop that occupied the ground floor, when their father died four years before. Charlie got the business, the large, double apartment they’d grown up in, and the upkeep on the old building, while Jane got half the rental income and one of the apartments on the top floor with a Bay Bridge view. At the instruction of Mrs. Goldstein, all the mirrors in the house were draped with black fabric and a large candle was placed on the coffee table in the center of the living room. They were supposed to sit on low benches or cushions, neither of which Charlie had in the house, so, for the first time since Rachel’s death, he went downstairs into the thrift shop looking for something they could use. The back stairs descended from a pantry behind the kitchen into the stockroom, where Charlie kept his office among boxes of merchandise waiting to be sorted, priced, and placed in the store. The shop was dark except for the light that filtered in the front window from the streetlights out on Mason Street. Charlie stood there at the foot of the stairs, his hand on the light switch, just staring. Amid the shelves of knickknacks and books, the piles of old radios, the racks of clothes, all of them dark, just lumpy shapes in the dark, he could see objects glowing a dull red, nearly pulsing, like beating hearts. A sweater in the racks, a porcelain figure of a frog in a curio case, out by the front window an old Coca-Cola tray, a pair of shoes – all glowing red. Charlie flipped the switch, fluorescent tubes fired to life across the ceiling, flickering at first, and the shop lit up. The red glow disappeared. â€Å"Okaaaaaaay,† he said to himself, calmly, like everything was just fine now. He flipped off the lights. Glowing red stuff. On the counter, close to where he stood, there was a brass business-card holder cast in the shape of a whooping crane, glowing dull red. He took a second to study it, just to make sure there wasn’t some red light source from outside refracting around the room and making him uneasy for no reason. He stepped into the dark shop, took a closer look, got an angle on the brass cranes. Nope, the brass was definitely pulsing red. He turned and ran back up the steps as fast as he could. He nearly ran over Jane, who stood in the kitchen, rocking Sophie gently in her arms, talking baby talk under her breath. â€Å"What?† Jane said. â€Å"I know you have some big cushions down in the shop somewhere.† â€Å"I can’t,† Charlie said. â€Å"I’m on drugs.† He backed against the refrigerator, like he was holding it hostage. â€Å"I’ll go get them. Here, hold the baby.† â€Å"I can’t, I’m on drugs. I’m hallucinating.† Jane cradled the baby in the crook of her right arm and put a free arm around her younger brother. â€Å"Charlie, you are on antidepressants and antianxiety drugs, not acid. Look around this apartment, there’s not a person here that’s not on something.† Charlie looked through the kitchen pass-through: women in black, most of them middle-aged or older, shaking their heads, men looking stoic, standing around the perimeter of the living room, each holding a stout tumbler of liquor and staring into space. â€Å"See, they’re all fucked up.† â€Å"What about Mom?† Charlie nodded to their mother, who stood out among the other gray-haired women in black because she was draped in silver Navaho jewelry and was so darkly tanned that she appeared to be melting into her old-fashioned when she took a sip. â€Å"Especially Mom,† Jane said. â€Å"I’ll go look for something to sit shivah on. I don’t know why you can’t just use the couches. Now take your daughter.† â€Å"I can’t. I can’t be trusted with her.† â€Å"Take her, bitch!† Jane barked in Charlie’s ear – sort of a whisper bark. It had long ago been determined who was the Alpha Male between them and it was not Charlie. She handed off the baby and cut to the stairs. â€Å"Jane,† Charlie called after her. â€Å"Look around before you turn on the lights. See if you see anything weird, okay?† â€Å"Right. Weird.† She left him standing there in the kitchen, studying his daughter, thinking that her head might be a little oblong, but despite that, she looked a little like Rachel. â€Å"Your mommy loved Aunt Jane,† he said. â€Å"They used to gang up on me in Risk – and Monopoly – and arguments – and cooking.† He slid down the fridge door, sat splayed-legged on the floor, and buried his face in Sophie’s blanket. In the dark, Jane barked her shin on a wooden box full of old telephones. â€Å"Well, this is just stupid,† she said to herself, and flipped on the lights. Nothing weird. Then, because Charlie was many things, but one of them was not crazy, she turned off the lights again, just to be sure that she hadn’t missed something. â€Å"Right. Weird.† There was nothing weird about the store except that she was standing there in the dark rubbing her shin. But then, right before she turned on the light again, she saw someone peering in the front window, making a cup around his eyes to see through the reflection of the streetlights. A homeless guy or drunken tourist, she thought. She moved through the dark shop, between columns of comic books stacked on the floor, to a spot behind a rack of jackets where she could get a clear view of the window, which was filled with cheap cameras, vases, belt buckles, and all manner of objects that Charlie had judged worthy of interest, but obviously not worthy of a smash-and-grab. The guy looked tall, and not homeless, nicely dressed, but all in a single light color, she thought it might be yellow, but it was hard to tell under the streetlights. Could be light green. â€Å"We’re closed,† Jane said, loud enough to be heard through the glass. The man outside peered around the shop, but couldn’t spot her. He stepped back from the window and she could see that he was, indeed, tall. Very tall. The streetlight caught the line of his cheek as he turned. He was also very thin and very black. â€Å"I was looking for the owner,† the tall man said. â€Å"I have something I need to show him.† â€Å"There’s been a death in the family,† Jane said. â€Å"We’ll be closed for the week. Can you come back in a week?† The tall man nodded, looking up and down the street as he did. He rocked on one foot like he was about to bolt, but kept stopping himself, like a sprinter straining against the starting blocks. Jane didn’t move. There were always people out on the street, and it wasn’t even late yet, but this guy was too anxious for the situation. â€Å"Look, if you need to get something appraised – â€Å" â€Å"No,† he cut her off. â€Å"No. Just tell him she’s, no – tell him to look for a package in the mail. I’m not sure when.† Jane smiled to herself. This guy had something – a brooch, a coin, a book – something that he thought was worth some money, maybe something he’d found in his grandmother’s closet. She’d seen it a dozen times. They acted like they’ve found the lost city of Eldorado – they’d come in with it tucked in their coats, or wrapped in a thousand layers of tissue paper and tape. (The more tape, generally, the more worthless the item would turn out to be – there was an equation there somewhere.) Nine times out of ten it was crap. She’d watched her father try to finesse their ego and gently lower the owners into disappointment, convince them that the sentimental value made it priceless, and that he, a lowly secondhand-store owner, couldn’t presume to put a value on it. Charlie, on the other hand, would just tell them that he didn’t know about brooches, or coins, or whatever they had and let someone else bear the b ad news. â€Å"Okay, I’ll tell him,† Jane said from her cover behind the coats. With that, the tall man was away, taking great praying-mantis strides up the street and out of view. Jane shrugged, went back and turned on the lights, then proceeded to search for cushions among the piles. It was a big store, taking up nearly the whole bottom floor of the building, and not particularly well organized, as each system that Charlie adopted seemed to collapse after a few weeks under its own weight, and the result was not so much a patchwork of organizational systems, but a garden of mismatched piles. Lily, the maroon-haired Goth girl who worked for Charlie three afternoons a week, said that the fact that they ever found anything at all was proof of the chaos theory at work, then she would walk away muttering and go out in the alley to smoke clove cigarettes and stare into the Abyss. (Although Charlie noted that the Abyss looked an awful lot like a Dumpster.) It took Jane ten minutes to navigate the aisles and find three cushions that looked wide enough and thick enough that they might work for sitting shivah, and when she returned to Charlie’s apartment she found her brother curled into the fetal position around baby Sophie, asleep on the kitchen floor. The other mourners had completely forgotten about him. â€Å"Hey, doofus.† She nudged his shoulder with her toe and he rolled onto his back, the baby still in his arms. â€Å"These okay?† â€Å"Did you see anything glowing?† Jane dropped the stack of cushions on the floor. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Glowing red. Did you see things in the shop glowing, like pulsating red?† â€Å"No. Did you?† â€Å"Kind of.† â€Å"Give ’em up.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"The drugs. Hand them over. They’re obviously much better than you led me to believe.† â€Å"But you said they were just antianxiety.† â€Å"Give up the drugs. I’ll watch the kid while you shivah.† â€Å"You can’t watch my daughter if you’re on drugs.† â€Å"Fine. Surrender the crumb snatcher and go sit.† Charlie handed the baby up to Jane. â€Å"You have to keep Mom out of the way, too.† â€Å"Oh no, not without drugs.† â€Å"They’re in the medicine cabinet in the master bath. Bottom shelf.† He was sitting on the floor now, rubbing his forehead as if to stretch the skin out over his pain. She kneed him in the shoulder. â€Å"Hey, kid, I’m sorry, you know that, right? Goes without saying, right?† â€Å"Yeah.† A weak smile. She held the baby up by her face, then looked down in adoration, Mother of Jesus style. â€Å"What do you think? I should get one of these, huh?† â€Å"You can borrow mine whenever you need to.† â€Å"Nah, I should get my own. I already feel bad about borrowing your wife.† â€Å"Jane!† â€Å"Kidding! Jeez. You’re such a wuss sometimes. Go sit shivah. Go. Go. Go.† Charlie gathered the cushions and went to the living room to grieve with his in-laws, nervous because the only prayer he knew was â€Å"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,† and he wasn’t sure that was going to cut it for three full days. Jane forgot to mention the tall guy from the shop. A Dirty Job Chapter 2 After that, it was a memory out of a sleepwalk, scenes filmed from a zombie’s eye socket, as he ambled undead through explanations, accusations, preparations, and ceremony. â€Å"It’s called a cerebral thromboembolism,† the doctor had said. â€Å"A blood clot forms in the legs or pelvis during labor, then moves to the brain, cutting off the blood supply. It’s very rare, but it happens. There was nothing we could do. Even if the crash team had been able to revive her, she’d have had massive brain damage. There was no pain. She probably just felt sleepy and passed.† Charlie whispered to keep from screaming, â€Å"The man in mint green! He did something to her. He injected her with something. He was there and he knew that she was dying. I saw him when I brought her CD back.† They showed him the security tapes – the nurse, the doctor, the hospital’s administrators and lawyers – they all watched the black-and-white images of him leaving Rachel’s room, of the empty hallway, of his returning to her room. No tall black man dressed in mint green. They didn’t even find the CD. Sleep deprivation, they said. Hallucination brought on by exhaustion. Trauma. They gave him drugs to sleep, drugs for anxiety, drugs for depression, and they sent him home with his baby daughter. Charlie’s older sister, Jane, held baby Sophie as they spoke over Rachel and buried her on the second day. He didn’t remember picking out a casket or making arrangements. It was more of the somnambulant dream: his in-laws moving to and fro in black, like tottering specters, spouting the inadequate clichs of condolence: We’re so sorry. She was so young. What a tragedy. If there’s anything we can do†¦ Rachel’s father and mother held him, their heads pressed together in the apex of a tripod. The slate floor in the funeral-home foyer spotted with their tears. Every time Charlie felt the shoulders of the older man heave with a sob, he felt his own heart break again. Saul took Charlie’s face in his hands and said, â€Å"You can’t imagine, because I can’t imagine.† But Charlie could imagine, because he was a Beta Male, and imagination was his curse; and he could imagine because he had lost Rachel and now he had a daughter, that tiny stranger sleeping in his sister’s arms. He could imagine the man in mint green taking her. Charlie looked at the tear-spotted floor and said, â€Å"That’s why most funeral homes are carpeted. Someone could slip.† â€Å"Poor boy,† said Rachel’s mother. â€Å"We’ll sit shivah with you, of course.† Charlie made his way across the room to his sister, Jane, who wore a man’s double-breasted suit in charcoal pinstripe gabardine, that along with her severe eighties pop-star hairstyle and the infant in the pink blanket that she held, made her appear not so much androgynous as confused. Charlie thought the suit actually looked better on her than it did on him, but she should have asked him for permission to wear it nonetheless. â€Å"I can’t do this,† he said. He let himself fall forward until the receded peninsula of dark hair touched her gelled Flock of Seagulls platinum flip. It seemed like the best posture for sharing grief, this forehead lean, and it reminded him of standing drunkenly at a urinal and falling forward until his head hit the wall. Despair. â€Å"You’re doing fine,† Jane said. â€Å"Nobody’s good at this.† â€Å"What the fuck’s a shivah?† â€Å"I think it’s that Hindu god with all the arms.† â€Å"That can’t be right. The Goldsteins are going to sit on it with me.† â€Å"Didn’t Rachel teach you anything about being Jewish?† â€Å"I wasn’t paying attention. I thought we had time.† Jane adjusted baby Sophie into a half-back, one-armed carry and put her free hand on the back of Charlie’s neck. â€Å"You’ll be okay, kid.† Seven,† said Mrs. Goldstein. â€Å"Shivah means ‘seven.’ We used to sit for seven days, grieving for the dead, praying. That’s Orthodox, now most people just sit for three.† They sat shivah in Charlie and Rachel’s apartment that overlooked the cable-car line at the corner of Mason and Vallejo Streets. The building was a four-story brick Edwardian (architecturally, not quite the grand courtesan couture of the Victorians, but enough tarty trim and trash to toss off a sailor down a side street) built after the earthquake and fire of 1906 had leveled the whole area of what was now North Beach, Russian Hill, and Chinatown. Charlie and Jane had inherited the building, along with the thrift shop that occupied the ground floor, when their father died four years before. Charlie got the business, the large, double apartment they’d grown up in, and the upkeep on the old building, while Jane got half the rental income and one of the apartments on the top floor with a Bay Bridge view. At the instruction of Mrs. Goldstein, all the mirrors in the house were draped with black fabric and a large candle was placed on the coffee table in the center of the living room. They were supposed to sit on low benches or cushions, neither of which Charlie had in the house, so, for the first time since Rachel’s death, he went downstairs into the thrift shop looking for something they could use. The back stairs descended from a pantry behind the kitchen into the stockroom, where Charlie kept his office among boxes of merchandise waiting to be sorted, priced, and placed in the store. The shop was dark except for the light that filtered in the front window from the streetlights out on Mason Street. Charlie stood there at the foot of the stairs, his hand on the light switch, just staring. Amid the shelves of knickknacks and books, the piles of old radios, the racks of clothes, all of them dark, just lumpy shapes in the dark, he could see objects glowing a dull red, nearly pulsing, like beating hearts. A sweater in the racks, a porcelain figure of a frog in a curio case, out by the front window an old Coca-Cola tray, a pair of shoes – all glowing red. Charlie flipped the switch, fluorescent tubes fired to life across the ceiling, flickering at first, and the shop lit up. The red glow disappeared. â€Å"Okaaaaaaay,† he said to himself, calmly, like everything was just fine now. He flipped off the lights. Glowing red stuff. On the counter, close to where he stood, there was a brass business-card holder cast in the shape of a whooping crane, glowing dull red. He took a second to study it, just to make sure there wasn’t some red light source from outside refracting around the room and making him uneasy for no reason. He stepped into the dark shop, took a closer look, got an angle on the brass cranes. Nope, the brass was definitely pulsing red. He turned and ran back up the steps as fast as he could. He nearly ran over Jane, who stood in the kitchen, rocking Sophie gently in her arms, talking baby talk under her breath. â€Å"What?† Jane said. â€Å"I know you have some big cushions down in the shop somewhere.† â€Å"I can’t,† Charlie said. â€Å"I’m on drugs.† He backed against the refrigerator, like he was holding it hostage. â€Å"I’ll go get them. Here, hold the baby.† â€Å"I can’t, I’m on drugs. I’m hallucinating.† Jane cradled the baby in the crook of her right arm and put a free arm around her younger brother. â€Å"Charlie, you are on antidepressants and antianxiety drugs, not acid. Look around this apartment, there’s not a person here that’s not on something.† Charlie looked through the kitchen pass-through: women in black, most of them middle-aged or older, shaking their heads, men looking stoic, standing around the perimeter of the living room, each holding a stout tumbler of liquor and staring into space. â€Å"See, they’re all fucked up.† â€Å"What about Mom?† Charlie nodded to their mother, who stood out among the other gray-haired women in black because she was draped in silver Navaho jewelry and was so darkly tanned that she appeared to be melting into her old-fashioned when she took a sip. â€Å"Especially Mom,† Jane said. â€Å"I’ll go look for something to sit shivah on. I don’t know why you can’t just use the couches. Now take your daughter.† â€Å"I can’t. I can’t be trusted with her.† â€Å"Take her, bitch!† Jane barked in Charlie’s ear – sort of a whisper bark. It had long ago been determined who was the Alpha Male between them and it was not Charlie. She handed off the baby and cut to the stairs. â€Å"Jane,† Charlie called after her. â€Å"Look around before you turn on the lights. See if you see anything weird, okay?† â€Å"Right. Weird.† She left him standing there in the kitchen, studying his daughter, thinking that her head might be a little oblong, but despite that, she looked a little like Rachel. â€Å"Your mommy loved Aunt Jane,† he said. â€Å"They used to gang up on me in Risk – and Monopoly – and arguments – and cooking.† He slid down the fridge door, sat splayed-legged on the floor, and buried his face in Sophie’s blanket. In the dark, Jane barked her shin on a wooden box full of old telephones. â€Å"Well, this is just stupid,† she said to herself, and flipped on the lights. Nothing weird. Then, because Charlie was many things, but one of them was not crazy, she turned off the lights again, just to be sure that she hadn’t missed something. â€Å"Right. Weird.† There was nothing weird about the store except that she was standing there in the dark rubbing her shin. But then, right before she turned on the light again, she saw someone peering in the front window, making a cup around his eyes to see through the reflection of the streetlights. A homeless guy or drunken tourist, she thought. She moved through the dark shop, between columns of comic books stacked on the floor, to a spot behind a rack of jackets where she could get a clear view of the window, which was filled with cheap cameras, vases, belt buckles, and all manner of objects that Charlie had judged worthy of interest, but obviously not worthy of a smash-and-grab. The guy looked tall, and not homeless, nicely dressed, but all in a single light color, she thought it might be yellow, but it was hard to tell under the streetlights. Could be light green. â€Å"We’re closed,† Jane said, loud enough to be heard through the glass. The man outside peered around the shop, but couldn’t spot her. He stepped back from the window and she could see that he was, indeed, tall. Very tall. The streetlight caught the line of his cheek as he turned. He was also very thin and very black. â€Å"I was looking for the owner,† the tall man said. â€Å"I have something I need to show him.† â€Å"There’s been a death in the family,† Jane said. â€Å"We’ll be closed for the week. Can you come back in a week?† The tall man nodded, looking up and down the street as he did. He rocked on one foot like he was about to bolt, but kept stopping himself, like a sprinter straining against the starting blocks. Jane didn’t move. There were always people out on the street, and it wasn’t even late yet, but this guy was too anxious for the situation. â€Å"Look, if you need to get something appraised – â€Å" â€Å"No,† he cut her off. â€Å"No. Just tell him she’s, no – tell him to look for a package in the mail. I’m not sure when.† Jane smiled to herself. This guy had something – a brooch, a coin, a book – something that he thought was worth some money, maybe something he’d found in his grandmother’s closet. She’d seen it a dozen times. They acted like they’ve found the lost city of Eldorado – they’d come in with it tucked in their coats, or wrapped in a thousand layers of tissue paper and tape. (The more tape, generally, the more worthless the item would turn out to be – there was an equation there somewhere.) Nine times out of ten it was crap. She’d watched her father try to finesse their ego and gently lower the owners into disappointment, convince them that the sentimental value made it priceless, and that he, a lowly secondhand-store owner, couldn’t presume to put a value on it. Charlie, on the other hand, would just tell them that he didn’t know about brooches, or coins, or whatever they had and let someone else bear the b ad news. â€Å"Okay, I’ll tell him,† Jane said from her cover behind the coats. With that, the tall man was away, taking great praying-mantis strides up the street and out of view. Jane shrugged, went back and turned on the lights, then proceeded to search for cushions among the piles. It was a big store, taking up nearly the whole bottom floor of the building, and not particularly well organized, as each system that Charlie adopted seemed to collapse after a few weeks under its own weight, and the result was not so much a patchwork of organizational systems, but a garden of mismatched piles. Lily, the maroon-haired Goth girl who worked for Charlie three afternoons a week, said that the fact that they ever found anything at all was proof of the chaos theory at work, then she would walk away muttering and go out in the alley to smoke clove cigarettes and stare into the Abyss. (Although Charlie noted that the Abyss looked an awful lot like a Dumpster.) It took Jane ten minutes to navigate the aisles and find three cushions that looked wide enough and thick enough that they might work for sitting shivah, and when she returned to Charlie’s apartment she found her brother curled into the fetal position around baby Sophie, asleep on the kitchen floor. The other mourners had completely forgotten about him. â€Å"Hey, doofus.† She nudged his shoulder with her toe and he rolled onto his back, the baby still in his arms. â€Å"These okay?† â€Å"Did you see anything glowing?† Jane dropped the stack of cushions on the floor. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Glowing red. Did you see things in the shop glowing, like pulsating red?† â€Å"No. Did you?† â€Å"Kind of.† â€Å"Give ’em up.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"The drugs. Hand them over. They’re obviously much better than you led me to believe.† â€Å"But you said they were just antianxiety.† â€Å"Give up the drugs. I’ll watch the kid while you shivah.† â€Å"You can’t watch my daughter if you’re on drugs.† â€Å"Fine. Surrender the crumb snatcher and go sit.† Charlie handed the baby up to Jane. â€Å"You have to keep Mom out of the way, too.† â€Å"Oh no, not without drugs.† â€Å"They’re in the medicine cabinet in the master bath. Bottom shelf.† He was sitting on the floor now, rubbing his forehead as if to stretch the skin out over his pain. She kneed him in the shoulder. â€Å"Hey, kid, I’m sorry, you know that, right? Goes without saying, right?† â€Å"Yeah.† A weak smile. She held the baby up by her face, then looked down in adoration, Mother of Jesus style. â€Å"What do you think? I should get one of these, huh?† â€Å"You can borrow mine whenever you need to.† â€Å"Nah, I should get my own. I already feel bad about borrowing your wife.† â€Å"Jane!† â€Å"Kidding! Jeez. You’re such a wuss sometimes. Go sit shivah. Go. Go. Go.† Charlie gathered the cushions and went to the living room to grieve with his in-laws, nervous because the only prayer he knew was â€Å"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,† and he wasn’t sure that was going to cut it for three full days. Jane forgot to mention the tall guy from the shop.

Current Best Practices That Are Followed When Undertaking Surveys Essay

Current Best Practices That Are Followed When Undertaking Surveys - Essay Example Market surveys identify what appeals to the customers, when customers make purchases, the preferred distribution and promotional outlets of the products. Secondary data is usually available in either electronic or publicized form and includes company reports, newspaper articles and government agencies data. Primary data is collected purposely for solving the marketing problem and involves use of surveys, focus groups, interviews and experiments. Aims The main aim of the research paper is to identify different types of marketing surveys, their advantages and disadvantages in collecting primary data that is useful in market research. The paper also aims at outlining several survey strategies and examples of multiple choice and open-ended questions in surveys. The paper includes the use of rating scales, bar charts, pie charts in data analysis. Methodology The paper has utilized previous literature in order to identify different types of marketing surveys. Surveys are the most common method used by organizations in primary data collection and include mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys, and face-to-face surveys or interviews. The less formal methods of surveys include informal interviews and observation. The selection of survey method will depend on factors such as the budget, the purpose of the study, the characteristics of target population and time availability. Mail surveys reach a large population and surveyor mails the written questions to the sampled population. The mailing list can be prepared from local phone book, yellow pages or past customer contacts. The main disadvantage of mail surveys is that many respondents may not return the completed survey. Telephone surveys entail calling the individuals and responses can be analyzed immediately as the caller will encourage the respondent to provide more details. However, telephone interviews are expensive for small companies. face-to-face surveys entail in-person interviews, but may require a lot of personnel thus are expensive. Internet surveys reach large random population and some web surveys offers tools for data analysis. Observation entails taking note of consumers shopping behavior in order to determine their preferred products. Survey strategies involves having a focus group or pilot surveys that identify if the questions are worded correctly. Conclusion The purpose of the above paper is to offer insight of survey methods and primary data analysis for marketing research. Critique paper Title: conducting market research using primary data Authors: Kyunda R. Curtis, Ph.D. (Department of Resource economics, University of Nevada) Published: The above research paper fails in outlining the best practices that are involved in conducting marketing research. I believe the first step entails defining the problem and objectives of the survey. The researcher must specify the sources of data and information that will be used in the research. The researcher should assess the time and cost involved in carrying out the research through a cost-benefit analysis before committing huge resources towards the study. The knowledge of objectives makes it easier to generate the survey questions and choice the target population (Ferrell & Pride, 2012). The researcher should also select a sample among the target population. The researcher should consider the expected margin of error and costs in selecting the size of the sample (Smith & Albaum, 2005). The researcher s

Market Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Market Research - Essay Example 2. Research Approach and Methodology This section of the report elaborates on the intended approach and rationale for the research and how it is useful for the achievement of the above objectives. 3. Research Design This is an essential part of the proposed research as it highlights the practical aspects of the sample selection, data collection and data analysis. This section provides the overview of the research approach, methods and design and the suitability if the selection to serve the purpose of the intended research. 4. Benefits to be derived from the Research This section of the report details the benefits that the proposed research entails for Balmas Institute (BI) and will also discuss the scope of the proposed research to guide the planning for the intended expansion of Balmas Institute into the overseas market. ... The profile of the customers can be generated using the existing market research and survey reports, news, websites of different people intensive organizations and government publications. This research objective is therefore expected to reveal who the prospective clients are and in also assessing if customer segmentation is needed on the basis of the paying capacity or the need of the customers. Segmentation is a strategy that is found useful for foreign entry as it allows the entring organization to concentrate on the most profitable or easily attainable section of the customers and hence to gain a steady ground in the new market (McDonald and Malcolm McDonald (Author) †º Visit Amazon's Malcolm McDonald Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Dunbar, 2004) 2.2 To Understand the Market Dynamics and Competitive Forces In order to assess the scope of the aspired project of expanding into the overseas management training market, it is essential that an assessment of the market be made. The overseas market is currently growing at a fast pace as the effects of globalization and liberalization policies of various countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa have led to mass employment opportunities in these countries and hence for the corresponding needs for training and development of employees. As international companies set up their offices in overseas regions, they rely on the local labour and employees for the conduction of their local business, and as such, there is a vast market available for training and development organizations. The overseasmarket is

Human Growth and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Human Growth and development - Essay Example Researchers have examined and proved a positive link between play and cognitive development in a child (Ginsburg, 182). All work makes Jack a dull boy, play leads to learning, growth and development in a child. Playing helps a child by developing mutual relationships and bonds. A child bonds well with his parents, peer group and teachers during play. It develop leadership traits- Children mimic, create scenes, stand up to be a leader and this is how they learn. The child grows in social skills. He moulds into a social person when he plays with other children. His intra-personal skills grow. It showcases talents and interests. During unstructured free time, children tend to do what they are passionate about- be it singing, dancing, playing instruments, clay modelling, painting, swimming and so on. It helps build academic skills. Gross motor and fine motor skill development takes place during the process of playing along with development of language skills. Mathematical concepts are un derstood as children play. Whatever is learnt during play is retained for a long time to come. Play is the best method to stimulate learning. It increases attention span. Playing outdoors just 30 minutes a day increases a child’s ability to focus and pay attention.

International Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Accounting - Essay Example The objectives of this standard are to give a framework on how to incorporate foreign currency transactions and foreign operations or subsidiaries in the financial statement of the parent company. It also shows how to translate financial statement into presentation currency. The most critical thing in this concept is to determine which exchange rate or rates to use and how to account for the exchange difference in the financial statement. The standard requires the entire initial foreign transaction to be recorded on the bases of the prevailing exchange rate, however, it recognizes the use of average exchange rate to numerous transactions occurring during the year (Doupnik & Perera, 2011). The basis for translation can either be current method or temporal method. Temporal method uses the exchange rate that prevailed when the asset and liabilities were acquired. If the assets are based on historical cost the correct exchange rate to use is also historical. Consequently if liabilities a nd assets are based on current cost the rate to use is also the current one. ... Companies listed in Australia stock exchange reflect the present performance thus, they are the most suitable to influence decision making by stakeholders. With application of IAS 21 it is possible to compare company performance in the two stock exchanges. Companies of the same size in Europe are more profitable than Australian companies simply because exchange rate in ? is higher than â‚ ¬. With financial exchange translation there is either again or a loss in the exchange difference. This component is treated as component of finances in the statement of financial position. Works Cited Books, LLC. (2010). International Accounting Standards:International Financial Reporting Standards, International Public Sector Accounting Standards. Memphis, : Books LLC. Choi, F., & Meek, G. K. (2010). International Accounting. New York: PRENTICE HALL. Doupnik, T., & Perera, H. (2011). International Accounting. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc.,. Melville, A. (2009). International Financial Re porting. New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Previts, G. (2008). Research in Accounting Regulation, Volume 20. Oxford:

Selection of Theme for your Virtual Art Gallery Tour Assignment

Selection of Theme for your Virtual Art Gallery Tour - Assignment Example Young girls may love artworks about pretty flowers and butterflies while their male counterparts may be interested in trees, mountains and horses. Adults may be interested in vast seas, the fields or the universe and other complexities of nature. Nature actually has a wide scope so it is easy to collect materials for any audience. However, for this tour, I choose to have pre-teenagers for my audience ranging from the age of nine to twelve. At this age, the children are already old enough to think critically and share their ideas with their peers and other people. This would be an interesting interaction as I could be able to have another angle of perception through the eyes of my audience. In addition, they are still young enough to be concerned about the reactions of their friends if they speak out their thoughts. This will lead to a more interesting and open sharing of ideas. Since the theme is about nature, one could easily identify with what is being

Litreview for easy topci--business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Litreview for easy topci--business - Essay Example Her major areas of research under this branch of study, revolved around estimating the costs of foodborne illnesses; assessing the legal initiatives for firms to produce safer food; as well as analyzing and studying international trade and food safety issues (USDA, 2011a). Dr. Fred Gale, is a senior economist, with extensive experience in the field of U.S. farm structure, rural economy as well as manufacturing employment issues. He has conducted extensive research in the field of market analysis of Chinese agricultural practices as well as international trade. His current field of work include analysis of Chinese food consumption patterns; exploring the agricultural finance trends in China etc among others (USDA, 2011b). Critical review of their work The article discusses the safety risks associated with food imports from China in the U.S. The authors have tried to explore various critical issues such as the potential safety hazards of food imports from the region in the U.S.; the ty pe of food imported from the region; and the causes behind FDA's rejection of food items imported from China. They have also critically assessed the Chinese food production system, and suggested measures to improve food safety in China.

The Causes of Occupational Stress and Its Effects on Overall Dissertation

The Causes of Occupational Stress and Its Effects on Overall Performance within Oil and Gas Industry - Dissertation Example Stress can be described as a reaction or feeling that an individual experiences. The examples of workplace stressor include being overworked and time pressures. It is a condition or difficult situation that disturb or is expected to upset the normal physiological functioning of an individual. It is the response of a body which is harmful in nature that tends to disturb its physiological equilibrium (Cooper & Et. Al., 2010). Response Based Stress Response based stress is the form of strain, pressure and tension. The approach of response based stress is to understand stress which appears to describe an intangible happening hence it can be analysed as outcome. In research terms, it can be explained as dependant variable, where the major hypothetical field is the sign of stress (Cooper & Et. Al., 2010). . Occupational Stress There is a negative upsetting experience within an individual in a workplace which is complex as well as dynamic process and directly or indirectly affects the physiological factors of individuals such as gastrointestinal disorders, mental trauma, musculoskeletal pain and cardiovascular diseases. It is risky to work in a stressful environment as it may be physically harmful which is called as symptom for psychological distress (Clarke & Cooper, 2004). According to National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the number of cumulative trauma of the US employees has increased and there were large number of personal injuries in the United Kingdom. The cumulative trauma mentally affects a person due to continuous exposure to occupational stress (Clarke & Cooper, 2004). A various number of studies in the earlier days have shown that occupational stress has been considered as the prime risky aspect for mental illness among the workers in an occupation. It has been analysed by Stansfeld and Candy that combining high demands with low decision latitude along with high efforts with low rewards were eventually a factor which causes mental disorders (Stansfeld & Candy, 2006). Causes The cause of stress depends upon structure of the workplace and type of job that an individual does in an organisation. The stress is caused due to following reasons: Demand: The demand factor is the main cause for stress; it depends upon workload of an in dividual. The work can expose an individual to different physical risks such as fire, noise, chemicals and others. Control: An individual gets involved in making decision and influences others in a workplace. Relationship: The bad relationship with team members,

Panopticism he states that the development of discipline Essay Example for Free

Panopticism he states that the development of discipline Essay In Michel Foucaults (1975) excerpt, Panopticism he states that the development of discipline in the 18th and 19th centuries came from he emergence of prison as the form of punishment for every crime. During these times the major crimes committed were from the French Revolution and the major riots and civil unrest in the French society. In these prisons the Panopticon puts the inmates in a different state in which each one is there own separate individual. Foucault states that the major effect of these Panopticon are that they â€Å"induce the inmate in a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. † †Such a structure allows individuals to be seen and restricts their ability to communicate with the security, the warden, or other prisoners. In this case, crowds are nonexistent and each person is confined to their cell where they can be viewed by the watcher. He states that this new form of punishment lead to the development of a whole new kind of individuality for bodies. The brilliance of this prison is that the Panopticon forces blindness onto the prisoner where he or she is never sure if someone’s watching or not, inducing a harmless form of paranoia, keeping people in place. When a person is accused of a crime, society finds upon itself the responsibility of punishing him or her. The question of morality, however, is finding the perfect punishment in compensation of the crime that was committed. With the Panopticon, rather than breaking them down physically by using tortures like the thumbscrew or whips, prisoners can be broken down mentally, which allows the reconstruction of their mentality. This entire theory is effective due to the natural desire that people in general have to conform to society’s pressures. After all, it is ingrained in the natural being of humans to know that in order to survive, everyone needs a place in society whether it is as the businessman or as a joker. The fear of complete abandonment from this institution allows the system to work properly. Next, the Panopticon is essential to society in its ability to give a prisoner the chance of redeeming himself or herself to become a crucial part of society again. Instead of seeing revenge on the prisoners, this system allows them to be reformed through a force of habit. As prisoners get used to the idea that they’re being watched at all times with or without their knowledge, they adjust their behavior to meet society’s standards and norms. Thus, with a strong sense of paranoia, once the prisoner comes out of the Panopticon, he or she will rethink any decisions of breaking the rules. Once the person goes through that phase of the Panopticon imprisonment, he or she is set for a regular life in the real world with human interaction. In addition, with the Panopticon, power isn’t centralized in the hands of the warden or prison guards. The mere concept of being spied on causes others to display normal behavior, one that they want to portray to society. The real punishment that the prisoner goes through is one within his or her own mind where due to paranoia, the person shapes up to meet the rules of society in what is right rather than wrong. In this case, no one has power over another and even the amount of guards can be lessened; the prisoner is unable to tell the difference as to who is watching or how many people are watching. Power isn’t given to people but is within the architecture of the Panopticon. There will be no more vicious beatings of prisoners and no more degradation of them. In the end, they’re like everyone else, another everyday person in today’s world. Panopticism creates self-discipline forced into play through one’s own mentality of paranoia and fear, allowing criminals to be broken down mentally instead of physically, to redeem themselves as a part of society again, and to allow power to not be centralized in the hands of the warden or prison guards. It’s not only an effective system but it’s also efficient in the way that those separated from society may still have the ability to blend back in after undergoing this type of imprisonment. As a result, the concept of a Panopticon would certainly be better than the status quo where punishment is used and people are locked away behind bars without given a chance to prove that they’re reformed. Any cruel and unusual punishments that may occur are abolished and finally, for those who have made a mistake or two, redemption is finally possible.

The Importance Of IHRM Management Essay

The Importance Of IHRM Management Essay Introduction Increasingly, companies are being wooed to expand into foreign lands and globalisation; a word so commonly hear nowadays till it seems to be a facet of modern business model. Some underlying reasons for companies to go global are technologies advancement, cost efficiency and trade specialisation. The above mentioned are just the tip of an iceberg as there are much more incentives which attract companies to globalize. However, as organisations reach outward for the market, many failed to recognise the importance of international human resource management (IHRM). Those organisations which hold little regard or no importance for IHRM often suffered setbacks and chain effect consequences. According to Stening et al (1997), while internationalisation of business has increased opportunities for organisations and staff, it has inevitability created a myriad of Human resource management (HRM) challenges related to multicultural workforce that is diverse. More then often, these challenges prove to be much complex and subtle in nature. In this essay, we will first look into the disparity between domestic and international HRM, the factors and elements that impetus the importance of IHRM and the knowledge and skill that are so relevant, yet scarce in our modern organisations structure. On top of that, we will be looking into the areas of problems and challenges that HR managers and the expatriates constantly faced. Disparity between Domestic and International HRM (IHRM) Many organisations often have a misconception when it comes to IHRM. They often think that they could simply applied domestic HRM policies overseas and attaining the same desire result back home. As a matter of fact, there is a vast difference between domestic HRM and IHRM, where the latter being much more complex and challenging. According to Stone(2008), domestic HRM is being defined as: HRM as practised within the geographical boundaries of one country. Its focus is the management of people in a single-country context While International HRM is being defined as: HRM as practised by multinational organisations. Its focus is the management of people in a multi-country context From Stones definitions, we can roughly tell the difference between domestic HRM and IHRM. Where domestic HRM is only practical in a single-country context, IHRM is applicable globally. Conceptualisation of International HRM policies Deriving from the basic of Human Resource Management (HRM), International HRM can be view as add on to the already existing HRM policies. Stone(2008), posed some valid questions with regard to developing international HRM policies. Some examples were: what kind of organisation are we looking at? Are we looking at a home country organisation, a multinational organisation or a truly global organisation? What are the organisations mission and vision? What is the organisation core business and how can the organisation be successful? And lastly, what type of culture is desired in the organisation. By answering Stone questions, HR managers can then conceptualise the basic foundation of the organisation, so as to set and streamline their HR policies to the organisation objectives. With that, we will be able to ensure that the organisation and their people are moving in the same direction. Challenges faced by International HRM Practising HRM in a different environment, culture and ethics background is sure challenging. Nevertheless, if IHRM is being executed appropriately, the reward reaped will contribute to the organisations growth indirectly. Some typical challenges that the HR managers faced are cross-cultural issues; training and development, remuneration package, performance appraisal and international staffing process. To fulfil these challenges, it is imperative that the HR managers are sensitive to the people and adaptable to the environment while their organisation establishes foothold globally. Cross-cultural issues Cross-cultural issues can turn disastrous if the HR managers are ignorant or refuse to spend efforts to understand the situations. Often so, this is the starting point where most misunderstanding and problems spawn. We will examine the few aspect of cross-cultural issues namely: communications, ethics and management style. Cross-cultural communications According to Stone(2008), cross-cultural communications occur when a person from one culture communicates with a person from another culture. Simple gestures, facial expressions and words can turn out to be very different in meaning, depending on the individual culture and priority they have for what and how things are being said or written. Stone went on further to break cross-cultural communications into two parts, high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Quoting from Stone(2008), high-context cultures can be defined as: Cultures where non-verbal communications (such as body language and gestures) and indirect language are use to transfer meaning And low-context cultures are being defined as: Cultures where verbal communications are explicit and direct. What is said is what is meant. High-context cultures can be commonly found in Asia countries where great importance is being placed in personal relationship like family relationship and friendships. It is crucial for HR managers to interpret the true meaning of what is being said over what the other party actually mean. Failure to do so will lead to unnecessary misunderstanding and confusion. Low-context cultures on the other hand are straight forward and simple. This culture is most prevalence in the western country where YES mean yes and NO simply mean no. HR managers should not beat around the bush when handling such situations. A direct and concise approach will lead to the progression of the matters on hand. Ethics Ethics can be explained as the ability to differentiate between right and wrong. It is a moral value instilled in one since young, and changes constantly due to environmental, religion influences and education level. What may seem right to you may be a big taboo to the others. As there are many grey areas where ethics is concern, extra sensitivity should always be bear in mind. This is especially so in situations where organisation do business in places where bribery and corruption are the key to business success or should organisation exploits the workers to their advantage when there is no worker union remains unanswered. HR managers should always refer back to the organisation values and direction so as to align their own judgment and ethics to the best of the organisation. Management style Management style can be greatly influence by the culture and the organisation structure. For example in Singapore Arm Forces (SAF), a military organisation; the management style has to be a top-down approach. When the commander has given a specific instruction, the rest will follow with no question asked and this management style is extremely critical especially during war time. Interestingly, this top-down approach or autocratic style is very common in Asia, mainly due to the respect and trust a subordinate has for their superiors, a clear display of cultural influence. Another management style which is a contrast to the top-down approach is the paternalistic style. This particular management style allows subordinates and their superiors to be on equal ground, allowing decision making to be distributed equally. This kind of management thrives in sectors where collative ideas are imperative to the success of the organisation. A good example will be the engineering or research sectors where there might be chances of a better idea coming from the subordinates instead. This kind of management style is widely practice in the western countries like United States, where children are taught to ask questions whenever they dont understand. Whichever management style to be apply will have to depend on the host country and their cultural background as well as the organisation core business. HR managers will have to be open minded and flexible as there is no one medicine that cure all illness. Training and development Training and development in foreign country can be a tricky issue. According to Stone(2008), diversity of the workforce, language and cultural differences will influence how the training and development program be structured. A very good example will be the language of the program to be conducted, should English or the host-country language be used? Are there any taboo topics which should be avoided? Which type of leaning style will attain the most desired result, instructional or facilitative style? These are the few areas of concerns that HR managers will tend to encounter frequently. As a general rule of thumb, new and innovative training and development can be good, but at the same time it should not deviate too much from the cultural norms. So as to ensure that the best end result can be achieve while not creating confusion and difficulties for the participants. Remuneration package National culture is an important consideration in strategic remuneration (Stone, 2008) Remuneration package will varies in different part of the world, depending heavily on the cultural environment of the host country. In places where seniority is valued, the remuneration style will be based on the rank and the number of years in service to the companies. Such remuneration style is prevalent in Asia countries and in organisation that adopt the hierarchy concept. A stark difference to this will be the meritocracy concept of remuneration package, where remuneration will be based on the individual achievement and contribution to the organisation. This style of remuneration is widely practice in the western country and in organisation where achievement and contribution can be quantified. Adopting the right remuneration package will not only spur employees to give their best but more importantly, it can retain the talents and boost the organisations reputation. Performance Appraisal Conventionally, performance appraisal was considered as a knotty problem in the HR function and internationalisation of organisation simply complicate this function further. Different cultures will have different appreciation for performance and it is virtually impossible to set a standard for performance. For example, to get a good performance appraisal in China, one will need to have good personal relationship with their superiors. (Lu et al, 1998) Knowing strong and influential people will also ensure a smooth work life. But this might not be the case in organisation where good performance simply mean high sales figure or other factors which can be quantified. Performance appraisal for expatriate is much more elaborated. The scarcity of resources available( eg. Poor infrastructure and communication) and the expatriate soft skill( eg. Adaptability and resourcefulness) must also be taken into account when doing their performance appraisal so as to establish a system of fairness to the expatriate. A reliable method to ensure that a professional and unbiased performance appraisal is being carried out is to have a set of guiding questions. These questions will act as a guide as to how a performance appraisal should be done. Stone(2008), listed a few questions which is fundamental to performance appraisal. Questions akin to definition of performance; what is the performance criteria; will the same criteria be use across all level of in the organisation and will the performance appraisal be assessed on a group or individual basis. International staffing process International staffing can also be term as international recruitment process. Organisations typically have three options of candidates namely the home country nationals, host country nationals and third country nationals. The home country nationals are the natural choice when it comes to international staffing as they are much well versed in the organisation goals, objectives and culture. Expatriate are constantly employed in global organisations. But what are the problems faced when employing expatriate? We can broadly classify the problems into expatriate selection and expatriate failure. Expatriate selection process Expatriate selection can be very complex in nature. Expatriate are constantly being expose to a spectrum of social and personal problems examples language barrier, culture differences and physical environment. If these are unanswered, it will ultimately lead to the failure of the expatriate. Organisation often perceive that a high flyer back home will do equally well in a foreign country, therefore emphasis is always on the expatriates work experience and capability rather than focusing on the expatriate ability to blend into the new environment. Stone (2008) did a survey from different HR managers all over the world. Stones survey was to determine the essential selection criteria on expatriate. Stones study revealed that different countries HR managers have different emphasis on the selection criteria, Stone went on further to suggested that this may be due to the different cultural values which the HR managers held. Stone concluded a list of desired selection criteria for expatriate and here are some of the criteria: effective communication; listening skill; stress tolerance; empathy; flexibility in dealing with foreign cultures; political skill and previous international experience. Expatriate failure Expatriate often fail due to their partner and their inability to adapt. (Stone, 2008) Adaptability seems to be the determinant factor for expatriate to make or break. Other factors include sub-standard performance, poor healthcare, safety implication and unattractive remuneration. (Insch et al, 2002) Such situations can be reduced if organisations have some pre-departure programs for their expatriates and families. Programs like cross cultural orientation where expatriate will gain knowledge of the cultural aspect of the host country so as to avoid cultural shock. Allowing the expatriates and their families to stay in the host country for about a month will enable the expatriates to adapt to the physical environment and slowly immense themselves into the countrys culture. To add on, providing a factual job scope and environment description to the expatriates will have them prepared mentally. All these will give the expatriates an expectation of the host country and avoid any unnecessary shock. Conclusion With the increasing of globalisation, international human resource management (IHRM) plays an important role in achieving the organisations goals. Organisations which recognise the importance of IHRM will definitely benefit than those who do not. They will be more ready to move their operations into another country and effectively manage their employees to achieve smooth operations of the organisations. As a HR manager, one has to be very sensitive and flexible to the cultural aspects. Besides that, having a good knowledge and positive attitude towards the host country will make the HR managers job less tedious. Organisations which rely heavily on expatriate must know the expatriate selection criteria well so as to send the best candidate out and reduce the chances of an expatriate failure. Comprehensive expatriate program must also be implemented in order to assist and prepare the expatriates for their long and scabrous journey. By preparing the expatriates adequately in terms of both physically and mentally will ensure that a pleasant job experience for the expatriate while maximising the expatriate capability and contributions to the organisation.

Management style to fit employee needs

Management style to fit employee needs Examine the argument that managers need to be able to adapt their management style to fit the needs of the employees. Your essay must include a minimum of six citations and two examples from different texts to support your arguments. No late, or partial, submissions will be accepted. There are several people said that managers need to change their style to be able to deal with different situation, but some people are not. Changing management style can help managers gain numerous of advantages such as to be more successful, be able to communicate more effectively with employees to understand what the employees are expecting from their manager. The purpose of this essay is to examine whether managers need to change their management style to fit the needs of the employees. This essay is divided into two sections which are the first is counter arguments that purpose managers do not need to change their style and the second is arguments that managers should change their style to fit the needs of the employees. This essay will argue that management style change depends on situation, people can change it, and they are not fixed. It can be argued that managers do not need to change their management style to be competent to deal with any situations and to be able to fit the needs of the employees, due to some reasons. First of all there are some structures and circumstances that have to maintain one style of management to work more effectively such as military structure or urgent circumstances. Indeed, in the military and other urgent circumstances, people tend to be told what to do next rather than wasting time on asking for some ideas (Shah, 2010). For instance, there is a terrorist attack at some place or soldiers have to rescue victims from there, it will take time and the mission may fail if a leader is democratic and ask so many people to give solutions (Kartha, 2011). In addition, employees may prefer a leader makes a decision and tell them what to do than having a discussion, when time is stressful. To be reducing stressful some employees are willing to become children and follow exactly what autocrati c leaders said (Cloke and Goldsmith, 2002 cited in J. Mullins, 2007). Another reason why managers do not need to change their style is contingency theory. Contingency theory argues that organizations should not expect that their leaders are able to lead in every situation; companies should place their leaders in situations that are ideal with their leadership style (Northouse, 2010). Thus, it can be seen that if leaders are in the wrong situations, organization should move the leader to another context that leaders are able to solve. Furthermore, Fiedler (1967 cited in Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008) stated that there are only two ways to improve leader successful that are change the situation to fit the leader and change the leader to fit the situation. Hence, managers do not have to change their style when they have to deal with different situations. According to contingency if a leader cannot deal with a group situation, company should change a leader who is competent to solve that task. For instance, if the group was rated as highly unfa vorable but was led by a relationship-oriented leader, the group should replace that person with a task-oriented leader (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). On the other hand, there are also some reasons that recommend managers should change their style to fit the needs of the employees. Firstly, managers should change their style when they move from a culture to another. It can be seen that each organizational has different culture, so managers cannot use the same management style to all the culture. Indeed, organizations are different, face different situations and require different ways of managing (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). In addition, the contingency approach said that in multicultural organizations, leader should understand that there is no one best way of communicating, effective communication is depends on the situation. Effective communication is the precondition to leaders understands their employees and knows what employees are expecting. For instance, during a crisis manager may prefer to tell subordinates exactly what to do to avoid discussion; however, discussion between the manager and employees might be accepted if time is more tranquil (E. Hynes, 2011). E. Hynes (2011) also claimed that different cultures possess different work values and communication styles. Therefore, managers must adjust their style to be able to communicate with employees of all culture to fit the needs of their employees. Moreover, national culture is an important factor that might help recognize which leadership style will be most effective (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). Successful leader do not use a style to all situation. They adjust their style depend on the situation to work more successful. For instance, works in China might not be effective in Australia or France (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). Hersey (1988) argued that successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style, which is contingent on the level of the followers readiness. In this case, followers readiness as defined by Hersey is people who are competent and confidence to accomplish a specific work (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). Hersey invented four leadership styles that are telling, selling, participating and delegating to match with four kind of readiness that are unable and unwilling, unable but willing, able but willing and able and willing. According to situation leadership model managers should adjust their style base on followers readiness to become more successful leader. In the same line of argument Mullins (2007) argued that managers should help subordinates to develop in readiness by adjusting leadership styles through the four styles of telling, selling, participating and delegating. For instance, if followers are unable and unwilling to do a task, leaders need to c hange their style into telling style; if employees are able and willing, leaders can change their style into delegating style (Hersey, 1988 cited in Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). Contingency theory seems to be recommending that managers do not need to change their style to be able to fit the needs of the employees. Contingency theory stresses that managers are not effective in all situation. Hence, there are two ways to improve leaders successful that organization should change a leader to fit the situation by another leader who is able to solve it, and organization also can change the situation to fit a leader by restructuring tasks (Fiedler, 1967). However, from the evidence provided organizations are different, face different situations and require different ways of managing (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2008). According to situation leadership model managers should adjust their style base on followers readiness to become more successful leader. Thus, as a consequence, managers still need to adapt their management style to fit the needs of the employees. This essay has attempted to examine whether managers need to be able to adapt their management style to fit the needs of the employees. While the evidence expresses that manager does not need to change their style because manager is not effective in all situations and organizations can improve leaders effective by change the situation to fit the manager or change the leader to fit the situation, the reasons managers should change their style can arise from organizations are different, face different situations and require different ways of managing and successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style, which is contingent on the level of the followers readiness. As a consequence, I consider that managers need to change their style to be more successful and be able to fit the needs of the employees.

The Feminist Movement and Adrienne Richs Power :: Womens Studies

The Feminist Movement and Adrienne Rich's Power "Power," which was written in 1978 by Adrienne Rich, parallels the Feminist Movement that went into full swing roughly ten years earlier. The poem asks that we revise the traditions regarding the roles of women and relates it to Marie Curie, a famous scientist who preceded the Feminist Movement by about 100 years. The bottle and earth described in the first six lines parallel the struggle for women's rights and those who were refusing to accept change. The poem begins describing an excavation: "a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth" a bottle of "tonic/ for living on this earth in the winters of this climate" (lines2-5). The fact that this specific tool used to uncover the bottle indicates that much of the earth around it had already been taken away, and the remaining soil had to be removed bit by bit as to preserve the tonic and free it wholly. This, too, can be said for the Feminist Movement of the 60s; the final success of the movement was a result of the distinction of what particularly had to be changed. The larger pieces of earth removed are the successes of women before them, such as the recognition of women's rights. The final bits of earth are the individual rights of women, such as abortion rights and equal rights. The earth stands for those who are not willing to foreg o tradition and accept change. What specifically does the tonic describe? "Tonic" means "an invigorating, refreshing, or restorative agent" ("tonic"). It makes sense that this "restorative" agent be rediscovered because its very meaning implies that something be brought back. This again makes sense in comparison to the Feminist Movement of the 60s because the predecessor's work for women's rights reemerged as they campaigned for individual rights. When Marie Curie is described later, the connection can be made between her and the excavation because she represents those who had freed up much of the barriers women faced, especially because Marie Curie's career as a physicist was unprecedented&emdash;she was the only woman at the 1911 Berlin Conference, and not even a man had won two Nobel Peace Prizes at that time (Gioia and Kennedy, 1247). Marie Curie's determination to work with the dangerous elements that destroyed her body can be likened again to the Feminist Movement. She strove to attain understanding of elements until it killed her.

The role of culture in the economic development of countries Essay

Introduction: The role of culture in the economic development of countries is often overlooked by economists, yet it can significantly affect a country’s economic development. Culture generates assets, such as skills, products, expression, and insight that contribute to the social and economic well being of the community. I will show the benefit of culture’s impact on economic development through tourism, social capital, and corporate governance. In contrast, culture can produce negative outcomes in economic development. Cultural issues, such as gender inequality, lack of social capital, and diminishing cultural heritages, contribute to a downgrading economy. To understand culture’s impact on a country’s economic development, it is important to understand what culture is: a system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living (Hill 98). Furthermore, it is about the way the people live, and how the quality of their lives can be improved. It shapes â€Å"the way things are done† and our understanding of why this should be so. Culture is concerned with identity, aspiration, symbolic exchange, coordination, and structures and practices that serve relational ends, such as ethnicity, rituals, heritage, norms, meanings, and beliefs. It is not a set of primitive wonders permanently embedded within national, religious, or other groups, but rather a set of contested attributes, constantly changing, both shaping and being shaped by social and economic aspects of human interaction. Economic development is fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacity, such as land, labor, capital, and technology, of a national, state, or local economy, as stated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Economic development influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance economic well-being. We experience economic growth when our standard of living is rising. Rather than being a simplistic process, economic development typically is a range of influences aimed at achieving objectives like creating jobs and wealth and improving the quality of life. It incorporates coordinated initiatives targeted at expanding infrastructure and increasing the volume and/or quality of goods and services produced by a community. A common measure of economic development is a country’s gross national ... ...Business Today. 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2004. Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay, and Pablo Zoido-Lobaton. Governance Matters. The World Bank Development Research Group Macroeconomics and Growth and World Bank Institute Governance, Regulation and Finance, October 1999. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Improving Business Behavior: Why we need Corporate Governance. Oct. 2004. OECD. The National Conference of State Legislatures. Cultural Policy Working Group. Investing In Culture: Innovations In State Policy. The National Conference of State Legislatures: 2003. â€Å"Tourism sector plays key role in economic development.† Economics. Radio the Voice of Vietnam. 2004 United Nations. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. Gender Mainstreaming. United Nations: Oct. 2004 United States. Department of Commerce. Economic Development Administration. United States: May 2002. Woolcock, Michael, and Deepa Narayan. Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy. World Bank, Jan 1999. World Bank. Gender and Development Group. Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals. 4 April 2003 The role of culture in the economic development of countries Essay Introduction: The role of culture in the economic development of countries is often overlooked by economists, yet it can significantly affect a country’s economic development. Culture generates assets, such as skills, products, expression, and insight that contribute to the social and economic well being of the community. I will show the benefit of culture’s impact on economic development through tourism, social capital, and corporate governance. In contrast, culture can produce negative outcomes in economic development. Cultural issues, such as gender inequality, lack of social capital, and diminishing cultural heritages, contribute to a downgrading economy. To understand culture’s impact on a country’s economic development, it is important to understand what culture is: a system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living (Hill 98). Furthermore, it is about the way the people live, and how the quality of their lives can be improved. It shapes â€Å"the way things are done† and our understanding of why this should be so. Culture is concerned with identity, aspiration, symbolic exchange, coordination, and structures and practices that serve relational ends, such as ethnicity, rituals, heritage, norms, meanings, and beliefs. It is not a set of primitive wonders permanently embedded within national, religious, or other groups, but rather a set of contested attributes, constantly changing, both shaping and being shaped by social and economic aspects of human interaction. Economic development is fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacity, such as land, labor, capital, and technology, of a national, state, or local economy, as stated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Economic development influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance economic well-being. We experience economic growth when our standard of living is rising. Rather than being a simplistic process, economic development typically is a range of influences aimed at achieving objectives like creating jobs and wealth and improving the quality of life. It incorporates coordinated initiatives targeted at expanding infrastructure and increasing the volume and/or quality of goods and services produced by a community. A common measure of economic development is a country’s gross national ... ...Business Today. 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2004. Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay, and Pablo Zoido-Lobaton. Governance Matters. The World Bank Development Research Group Macroeconomics and Growth and World Bank Institute Governance, Regulation and Finance, October 1999. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Improving Business Behavior: Why we need Corporate Governance. Oct. 2004. OECD. The National Conference of State Legislatures. Cultural Policy Working Group. Investing In Culture: Innovations In State Policy. The National Conference of State Legislatures: 2003. â€Å"Tourism sector plays key role in economic development.† Economics. Radio the Voice of Vietnam. 2004 United Nations. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. Gender Mainstreaming. United Nations: Oct. 2004 United States. Department of Commerce. Economic Development Administration. United States: May 2002. Woolcock, Michael, and Deepa Narayan. Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy. World Bank, Jan 1999. World Bank. Gender and Development Group. Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals. 4 April 2003