Language and Communication in Psychology

Through detailed consideration of one selected area of investigation evaluate the progress made by researchers in developing explanations of key aspects of the psychology of language and communication. The study of language is frequently debated in different theories of human nature. The importance of language is relevant when it to comes to the work of philosophers, neuroscientist, humanist and psychologist. Language has been applicable to Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Locke, Freud and Skinner. This essay seeks in investigating the definition of language and communication. In doing so traditional language theories will be assessed, this will later be compared to modern progression by researchers in developing explanations of the psychology of language and communication. The development of language and language disorders will be evaluated in order to successfully investigate the modern approaches to language. Firstly, the evaluation of language, its origins, process and the use have been investigated in areas such as computational theory, cognitive neuroscience, evolutional and cultural psychology in contemporary studies of language. Language is usually seen as systems for example English, French and Italian even seen as systems of language it can be used to describe other things because of its broad definition, In describing music for instance or art. These areas can have its own language that needs to be learnt to understand and interpret music for example. Language in general can be used in any form of communication. Since language is broad it is important to study specific areas of language, instead of its general definition (Bloom, . P, 2007) . This is so that direct questions can be answered. As a result the narrow questioned being investigated can be generalised to other systems of language. It is known that some form of language is used everyday, linguistics is dedicated field of the scientific study of everyday language and even though the broad term is difficult to define, linguists believe that ‘language is a formal system of agreed rules that have to be followed by a speaker. In this system there is the addition of morphology also known as the formation of words, syntax the formation of phrases and phonology, sound systems (Fromkin 2000). Secondly, Charles Dawins works have been used as a platform in the belief that’ man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write’ Darwin (1871). This gives the idea that language comes natural, that humans have been biologically designed to speak. Neurological studies support the idea that language is part of the human nature through the investigations of dedicated parts of the brain for language. It is believed that this might explain why every human society has language. The idea has therefore raised questions as to whether language is innate or a cultural innovation. Language deficits and aphasia has been investigated in recent studies to prove what happens when these dedicated parts for language are damaged. The works of cognitive neuropsychologist is to use theoretical frameworks and methods to specific language impairments. During the initial stages of Cognitive neuropsychological (in the second half of the nineteenth century) neurologists such as Lichtheim, Wernicke and Bastian began to make assumption about the design of the brain and its fixed language processing systems (Coltheart, 2006) this brought about the box-and-arrow diagrams in an attempt to demonstrate the brain’s architecture. In taking this thought further, how these components in the brain were localised was also studied. Even though at the time the cognitive function of language was not proved, by the failed attempt of localising the brain, it was relevant in influencing the work of other psychologist, an example is the later simplified version conducted by Coltheart. The work of Lichtheim, Wernicke and Bastian, received a lot of criticism from neurologist that were not cognitively oriented such as Head (1926) this led to fall in cognitive neuropsychological and the rise of behaviourism. Shallice, (1988) have suggested that cognitive neuropsychological data are too â€Å"noisy† and there difficult in being used further than exploring the brains functional architecture. Others such as McCloskey & Caramazza, (1991) have argued against this point. Stating that there shouldn’t be a restriction on what data produced cognitive theory at ‘any arbitrary level of detail’. Thirdly, It was not until the mid twentieth century that there was a Cognitive revolution† with the work of Broadbent (1956), Chomsky, (1959) Miller, Galanter, & Pribram,(1960), also study from Marshall and Newcombe (1966, 1973) looking into cognitive neuropsychology of reading and from Shallice and Warrington (1970) memory. This also included the work into the development of researching sentence processing in aphasia, where linguistic and psycholinguistic theory were responsible for the analysis of aphasic symptoms (Caramazza & Zurif, 1976 ; Marin, Saffran, & Schwartz, 1976) . A substantial amount of evidence afterwards has been produced in showing modularity in the brain. This shows that even though language is specifically located in the brain it is split into separate stages that may selectively be disrupted. (Berndt, Basili and Caramazza 1987) it is therefore established that specific lesions (in specific parts of the brain dedicated to language) will not affect the entire language process. This might see a patient losing the ability to understand spoken word but retain the ability to repeat words, suggesting that there are separate modules responsible for separate actions in the brain. (Schwartz,Saffran, & Marin, 1980) Fodor (1983) was also in support of the modularity of the brain after incorporating some of the ideas that were developed in cognitive neuropsychological. Foder describes a module as a domain specific. This is where the brain stores information that is responsible for a specific mental representation. For instance speech perception uses a separate path then that used in different auditory analysis and controls only acoustic signals, perceived as utterances. D. Bishop (1997). Superior cognitive functions can not affect the processes of modules in the brain, known as ‘information encapsulation’. In this processing becomes fixed. The fact that modular processing can not be influenced by higher cognitive operations describes the term. It is difficult to take no notice of incoming speech—even if attention is not used for receiving speech, a response will take place one will immediately respond on hearing a relevant sound for instance a someone own name (Foder 1983). Fodor with the support of evolutionary arguments states that the brain complex system can be broken down into layers, through case studies of selective impaired patients having a particular effect on the process of language. He believes that language therefore is innate and pre- programmed in humans. Human studies have relied wholly on researches regarding nature. The main reasons for carrying out functional neuroimaging are to improve peoples take on the variable anatomical functions of language. This then leads on to the argument that’s the much debated Broca’s area which is linked to speech production can be subdivided into three regions, a posterior and superior region that is involved with sounds of language, an interior and ventral region that is involved with meaning of words and a regions between the other two that is involved with meaning conveyed by sentences. Research carried out during the analysis on the anatomy and physiological aspects of the auditory processing in animals, show specific revelations regarding how the human brain perceives and process speech. Ignoring the concerns of critics, Researchers studying this phenomenon have resorted to using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) (which was introduced as a basic tool for monitoring language and brain activities) with the exception of people affected by induced nervous disorders such as stroke, to produce valuable evaluation, with regards to how language is organised in the human brain. Critics believe this is another example of wasted effort especially with the exclusion of patients with neurological disorders as study showed that this illness affects mainly the social and professional lives of those affected and sometimes it is not enough to impair their speech recognition abilities. PET has four advantages for the study of language: (i) it does not lose sensitivity and spatial localisation in important anterior and medial temporal lobe structures, a (current) problem with fMRI due to susceptibility artefacts and geometric shifts4,,5; (ii) its lower spatial resolution makes it orders of magnitude less susceptible to movement artefacts time-locked to stimulus and response, as occurs with overt articulation (most fMRI studies of word retrieval use covert responses); (iii) it does not create the din that is a feature of data acquisition in an MR scanner, requiring special techniques when important acoustic features in auditory stimuli may be masked6; and (iv) in the serial study of aphasic patients, it is the author's anecdotal experience that patients are far more likely to agree to come back for a second PET scan than to go back into a MRI magnet, a much more intimidating environment. † Coltheart (2005). Technological development such as the scanning of the brain has been shown to be critical in the work of language processing. Since language is built into the brain PET scans is useful method in watching the brain at work with the use of basic words. The area of the brain that is activated during the process of language can be identified (recognition of words). Further studies on thought processing (especially with regards to language) shows that certain groups of people were not able to process language normally. â€Å"a group has to be anatomically normalized into the same stereotactic space. To allow for individual variations of gyral and sulcal anatomy, the image data have to be smoothed. This is because of the problem of lesion distribution. Ablation studies in non-human animals are placed with great care, and often post mortem examinations are performed after the behavioural experiments to confirm the boundaries of the lesion. The unsubtle lesions occurring as the consequence of cerebrovascular disease, necrotising viral infections, etc. may destroy cortex, local white matter connections, major white matter tracts connecting remote cortical regions, sub-cortical nuclei, and their reciprocal connections with cortical areas. No lesion experiment in a non-human animal, relating structure to function, would be accepted for publication if clipping of a major arterial branch produced the focal injury. † Coltheart (2005) It is clear that studies on the human brain have been dependant on nature experiments with the application of liberal scientific standard. This has therefore allowed certain syndromes to be associated to lesions. ‘This sometimes have been related to marked inter-subject distinction in the cortical organisation of function, which, would mean that studies of structure–function relationships in the human, other than early perceptual and motor processes, are meaningless. It would seem much more plausible that broadly similar clinical syndromes may result from very differently sited cortical, sub-cortical or tract lesions within distributed neural systems that are essentially similar between subjects with the same handedness and uneventful development. Coltheart (2005) The data from useful neuroimaging is a vital contribution to the perspective of language and its structure. It is therefore useful when used on normal subjects in pinpointing where modular language processors a re. The traditional Broca’s area in the left frontal gyrus can be divided further into three parts it has been argued: ‘one that is posterior and superior and is involved in the sound structure (phonology) of language; a second, anterior and ventral that is concerned with the meaning of words (semantics); and a third, lying in-between the first two regions, that is involved in meaning conveyed by sentence structure (syntax). Of particular clinical relevance is the ability to determine shifts of function after focal brain lesions and how these may be potentially modified or even induced by behavioural or drug therapy’. Caplan (2006) The recent cognitive studies have been useful in producing architecture and process of the brain but there are few studies that evaluate the technique of neuroimaging in a negative manner. Poeppel, (1996) states that neuroimaging so far has told us nothing about the mind so far. In support of this notion Orden and Paap (1997) agree that nothing has been learnt from neuroimaging and never will. It is believed that complexity of cognition can not produces evidence through this technique. Henson (2005) has provided a vital framework for considering the role of brainimaging data in cognitive psychology. He writes: â€Å"My main argument is that, provided one makes the assumption that there is some ‘systematic’mapping from psychological function to brain structure, then functional neuroimaging data simply comprise another dependent variable, along with behavioural data, that can be used to distinguish between competing psychological theories† (p. 194). This idea recognises that there is some systematic mapping from psychological function to the structure of the brain. To conclude, Cognitive neuropsychology can be easily seen as a branch of cognitive psychology which has been vital to study of language and how it is processed in the brain. It has been useful in creating theories through the study of subjects performance in which normal cognition are identified. There have been several studies in support of how the language is processed in the brain to further prove or disprove these theories. The studies of these damaged sections have been able to be looked at through the advancement of technology. These scans have been able to explain a range of questions about the processing of language in the brain for instance, the lateralized view of the human brain. This has also been observed in animals that also use sound for communication e. g. monkeys birds and dolphins. In this the control of sound production is usually in the left hemisphere also seen in humans. The two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for language are the Broca's area ,this is partially responsible for putting sentences together and using correct syntax secondly the Wernicke's area, which is partially responsible for language processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing them for syntax, inflection, etc. ). Broca aphasia is used to describe if the Broca areas is damaged. side effects show slow, hesitant speech that lack grammer. Typical Broca's aphasics can not words not essential to the significance of the sentence, such as the and and. When the Wernicke area is damaged then it is known as Wernicke's aphasia. It can be seen as opposite to Broca's aphasia. Wernicke's aphasics are able to make general sentences but they are often senseless and include made-up words. Wernicke's aphasics show signs of understanding others' speech, but have difficulty naming objects Other types of aphasia noted in brain-damaged patients can show even worse effects. If Wernicke's and Broca's area are disconnected, patients struggle to repeat sentence said out to them. This shows that there is the possibility Wernicke's area, which has processed the sentence heard, is unable to communicate it to Broca's area for repetition. In another type, Wernicke's and Broca's areas remain connected but cannot communicate with the rest of the brain. Patients can only repeat sentences but fail to speak on impulse speech (Pinker 1994).

Multicultural nature of the American nation Essay

In an in-depth interview with a subject of Japanese origin (twenty years old, living in the U. S. for three years) the differences between Western and Far-East cultures became evident. Given the multicultural nature of the American nation, the subject has not encountered any direct discrimination or intolerance; however, she had problems with adjusting to cultural norms and everyday lifestyle of Americans. In college, the subject was respected for her academic achievements, honesty, and desire to help. Unfortunately, she was unable to integrate fully in the social life of her classmates. She had problems making nodding acquaintance and starting small talks. At the same time, she truly treasured friendship and was spending long hours talking to her friends back in Japan on a messenger. This can be explained by the fact that Japanese society favors long-term orientation. Another problem with social integration was that the subject was not perceived as a party person. She was very anxious about breaking camp or traffic rules and preferred not to drink alcohol. Although the general attitude towards her was friendly, she could not develop a feeling of belonging. As concerns private life, the subject has only dated persons from her own cultural background (i. e. preferably Japanese but Asian in general). This can be attributed to the subject’s views on the role of woman in the society: Japan is a country where traditional masculine dominance is still preserved. Therefore, the subject is looking for stability and protection from the side of her partners, and few young American mean are able to deliver this, in her opinion. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that persons from other cultures encounter difficulties in the process of integrating in the American society.

Legalizing Assisted Suicide For Terminally Ill Patients

The highest value of a democratic society is human rights, which means first of all that a human being is the one who is in charge of his or her own life. The premise presupposes that a person has the right to take a decision about what to do with his or her life on the most global level – whether to go on living or stop living.That is why the state, which aim is to provide the execution of citizens rights, should pay careful attention to such a burning issue as helping terminally ill patients to die. The solution to the problem is legalizing euthanasia as a way of defending human rights alongside taking into consideration the possible moral challenges.Indeed, moral concerns have been the main factors which prevented the quick spread of euthanasia which could otherwise happen. It is first of all religious communities which oppress the adoption of the law, and the more religiously conservative the country is the stronger is the oppression to assisted suicide. Even if one doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t know which countries already have the relevant laws we can easily guess what they are by knowing their excessive tolerance to controversial issues like legalizing marijuana or gay marriages.Among them are first of all Scandinavian countries and Holland, some of them having adopted the law others at the brink of adoption. It was in 1994 when Oregon approved Ballot Measure, which would have legalized physician-assisted suicide under limited condition but the vote met the oppression of Federal Government.So, the United States seem to belong to the countries with the strongest moral and religious orthodoxy alongside with deeply Catholic countries as opposed to the tolerant Protestant European societies mentioned above. However, the statistics show it is not completely true. In 1999 Gallup organization held a national survey asking Americans the following question: â€Å"If you personally had a disease that could not be cured and were living in severe pain, would you consider c ommitting suicide or not?†.Forty percent answered â€Å"yes†, fifty one – â€Å"no† and nine were not sure. So, on the face of it, the community divided in halves, roughly speaking. But a there is crucially important detail which shouldn’t be missed: the respondents who took part are naturally not terminally ill and they don’t suffer severe pain. This fact distorts the real statistics which might arise in case they were suffering terrible tortures.But the controversy is not only about the rights of the patients but also about doctors who help their patients to die. The much-talked-of case of Dr.Kevorkian is the evidence of how ambiguous the interpretation of this or that action can be. â€Å"He has been hailed as the champion of the right-to-die movement and denounced as a ghoulish cheerleader for suicide† (Lesenberry, 1994) Jack Kevorkian, who helped twenty people to die on their request, was given a name Dr Death. The case demonstrat ed the controversy, the current system of law has – there is no legal differentiation between killing out of hate and killing out of mercy.There is a moral difference, however. And if we try to trace how the legal system has been historically formed, it becomes clear that it grew out of moral system of values, it was its reflection. Society has always been trying to match moral and law, and there have always been discrepancy between them which needed to be bridged. The historical process hasn’t stopped, and the gap needs to be overcome.But looking at the problem closer makes it evident that it is not so much a matter of the motivation of killing because it is not so much the formal â€Å"killer† we are talking about. The focus is actually on the person who chooses death; a doctor is just an instrument for performing his or her will. Everyone should realize that making euthanasia a legal option is not defending suicide but defending choice.Depriving people of the right to choose is a heavy violation of their human rights. The task of the state is to find a way how to protect the rights of one side without violating the rights of the other one. But the point is the right of all people are least protected when there is no legal definition of the issue at all.One of the arguments against euthanasia is the claimed immorality of making the relatives of the terminally ill patients decide if to keep them living, especially in case the are not able to decide themselves, like those in coma. Indeed, the issue is very sensitive, which the survey confirmed.The respondents were asked the question: â€Å"If a member of your family were terminally ill and wanted to die, would you be willing to help them?† Forty percent said yes, forty-six no, and fourteen percent were not sure. Indeed, this is a moral challenge for the relatives of the person but again it is a matter of having choice.Of course, it is easier for the relatives to have no choice in su ch cases because indeed, it must be the hardest choice a person can face in his or her life. On the other hand, it is questionable what is more immoral – to challenge the relatives with the decision or to let them shift responsibility by making the state decide instead of them.

Education and Code of Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Education and Code of Ethics - Essay Example The identified article emanates from the ethics of freedom of thought and expression. Allowing students to explore divergent, possibly antithetical points of view on a single issue is synonymous with allowing them to discard these views and arguments which they, as individuals, find unpersuasive and search for those which are more consistent with their own thoughts. Its ethical rationale further emanates from that set of precepts which dictate the imperatives of directing ad guiding students towards the exploration of multiple viewpoints both as a strategy for the development of critical thinking skills and as a means for providing them with the means by which they may formulate their own, independent, points of view (Fullan, 22007). Upon violating the said student right, teachers are not simply engaging in the violation of the Code but are undermining the very basis upon which creative and critical thought, on the one hand, are based, and that which the capacity to engage in freedom of expression is predicated upon, on the other (Fullan, 2007). The implication here is that not only are teachers violating their profession's espoused code of ethics but, in so doing, are stilting their intellectual curiosity and constraining their potential capacities for creativity. Accordingly, the violation of Article 3(a) of the code has far-reaching repercussions, both as regards individual students and society as a whole. Given the societal and student-centered consequences of violation, violators/professional teachers are confronted with disciplinary action should they "unreasonably deny a student access to diverse points of view" (The Code of Ethics, 3a). To ensure, however, that teachers/professional educators are fully cognizant of their responsibilities and are knowledgeable of student rights, on 25 September 1991, the ESC unanimously voting that training in the code and principles be required of all preservice teacher education programs and be included as a component of the Professional Orientation Program. The commission also made recommendations related to giving publicity to the code and principles and offering technical assistance to school districts for training of educators (Fullan, 1992, Haynes, 1998). The recommendations approved by the full commission directed the ESC and its staff to (a) produce a videotape about the code and principles for district use in training of personnel, (b) de velop and disseminate a brochure about the code and principles to students in preservice education and educators already in service, (c) develop a document summarizing cases related to each principle, and (d) provide training and materials to district personnel who will be providing inservice to educators within the district. All of these efforts focused on providing information and education to school personnel about the code and principles which govern their profession (Fullan, 1992). The EPC formed a rules committee during 1992 to examine the feasibility of establishing penalty guidelines based on past cases and penalties to assist teacher and administrator panels in their deliberations. During the public hearing held at the EPC meeting in Tampa on October 1, 1992, the committee reported its preliminary findings. Several commission members noted the committee only examined cases and

202#3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

202#3 - Assignment Example However, those confirmed guilty though to them being a difficult situation, I think ought to serve own respective sentences. Alternatively, if the sentences were lighter compared to what they are serving the respective authorities can review them to mention the appropriate sentences. Yes. I believe this is because many who find themselves in situations of this calibre do not exactly expound their actions similar to a reasonable person. However, legal systems due to their overreliance to psychiatrists’ reports, which may not reflect exact state of the involved party, end up convicted them unfairly (â€Å"Psyche Truth†) Since what most of them undergo is much and end up unmentioned or altogether disregarded by those supposed to help them lodge their cases. This is due to relying to psychiatrists who may err in undertaking their roles despite the legal system having numerous statutes claimed to protect each person based on his or her one is experiencing especially the ill patients who might have involved themselves in any

Management Organization Learning and Knowledge Essay

Management Organization Learning and Knowledge - Essay Example Services provided at this call centre have direct impact on business and customer satisfaction. In order to provide good service, a variety of skills such as call handling skills, communication, learning abilities, positive attitude, leadership, motivational skills, feedback etc are required at various levels. Learning and knowledge sharing are extremely significant in such businesses where customer demands keep changing and new products are continuously launched not only to meet customer needs but also to sustain competitiveness in the market, and attract more users as well as retain existing customers. Moreover, organisational structure is a team-based structure with each team leader responsible for a team of 10-15 executives. Review of literature: Peter Drucker was the first management pioneer to emphasize knowledge management and knowledge working as the 21st century challenge (2003). Newell et al. (2004) describe knowledge workers as those individuals with good competencies, ski lls and decision-making and problem-solving abilities. Their contributions help in effective knowledge management through their contribution in day-to-day activities; hence, such activities can be carried out by employees at all levels based on their work and opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills. Ambriola et al (2003; p.192) describe call centre workers as knowledge workers by stating, ‘the basic tenet is that work in call centres has to be conceptualized in terms of distributed knowledge. This means that only part of the knowledge needed to carry out any transaction is in the mind of the operator, important knowledge has to be distributed among colleagues in the organisation, available and accessible cognitive artifacts in the work environment, and clients. The way... This essay approves that Aspects of professional growth and opportunities for growth were assessed based on questions related to promotions, skill enhancement trainings, taking on additional responsibilities and learning opportunities etc. Front line executives reported dissatisfaction in terms of promotions and additional responsibilities. Team leaders were not aware of any growth opportunities planned. Managers felt their growth depended upon expansion of business. Divisional managers did not respond. Most of the team members felt the need for skill enhancement in spheres like call handling skills, time management skills, leadership skills, writing skills, and analytical skills. Team leaders felt leadership skills would help them manage team’s performance better. No double-loop learning was reported because front line executives and team members reported lack of time to take on additional responsibilities that will help in learning other skills. Double-loop learning breeds i nnovation, critical thinking, and thus better decision making. This report makes a conclusion that knowledge management has become the key to success of most of the organisations. Knowledge intensive firms rely on human capital than other capital for success and sustenance of performance and knowledge-based firms thrive on input of knowledge and learning into their human capital. Effective knowledge management should include effective communication, leadership, HRM, and organisational systems besides appropriate integration of operational objectives with strategic goals of the organisation. Situations that identify gaps in knowledge management in the present context can be addressed by modifying few management practices.

Scholarship Letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Letter - Scholarship Essay Example Though I have been a dedicated student in my school days, I now feel that I should have worked harder with more commitment, with a definite goal in my mind. In this area, I remained unsteady and I did not plan an integrated approach to the possible future challenges in life. What happened in the past cannot be undone, but I can definitely look forward for the future, to fulfill my ambition. The goal that I have set for me is to obtain my RN Degree with flying colors. When I do that, I know it will set a great example for my family and our well-wishers. I will be the first individual in the generation to enter the portals of the college and emerge as a graduate. They say, by educating an individual, you are enriching a generation. This is absolutely true in my case. I hope to pass on the knowledge to my children and they will have proper guidance, which unfortunately, I was not fortunate enough to get from my parents. Ambition is just one part of my inner urge. My RN Degree is the mission of my life now. Without doubt, it has the materialistic outlook, the reasons for which I will tender in the following paragraph, but the inner urge to serve the health needs of the patients, is my dominant urge. I have observed that the health care professional enjoys respect in the society, for this job provides the opportunity to boost the morale of the patients. Generally, the sick person and his immediate family members are down in spirits. With proper counseling and by providing true service to them, I expect to fulfill my spiritual aspirations. So, this fall is going to be the decisive period in my life when I hope to commence my nursing education. I recollect my past with mixed feelings. I have committed mistakes, by not applying the required time and patience for assiduous studies and engaged myself in other activities, at the cost of neglecting my studies. I did my homework, because I had to do it,

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Questions - Assignment Example This can be through a market consultant hired on behalf of the company. The collection should be targeted in a manner that enables the understanding of the global market information that can help reduce market uncertainties. The market analysis surveys should also be conducted through segments and in a systematic manner. However, the collection of data in the market surveys may be two front; primary and secondary data. In the case of primary market research, the data collection from the foreign markets can be through initiated phone interviews, market surveys or through a direct contact with the market representatives and targeted consumers. However, primary research is expensive and time consuming. For secondary research, the data may be collected from sources such as international market reports, global economic and trade statistics, and from trade agencies operating in the targeted market/country (Rogers, 2001.p.230-237). In this, the overall human population in the country will aid in the estimation of the market size in terms of buyers potentiality. The same also helps in outlining the number and levels of competition present for the market (Iacobucci & Churchill, 2010.p.162-173). This entails looking at the economic climate of the country, and whether it is thriving and suitable for business. A recess or growth in the economy is determined through the identification of the GDP over the duration of time. This is in relation to taxes and import regulations in place such as tariffs and the influence of local and foreign suppliers, the promotional activities and the representation of sales in the country. This relates to the political system governing the country and the effect of the same on the ability to import. Issues like the legal system in use and the tariffs and non-tariff barriers need to be researched, as well, and the adoption of the International

Does Kinaalda Ritual Have Lasting Impact on Person's Identity Essay

Does Kinaalda Ritual Have Lasting Impact on Person's Identity - Essay Example Today the ritual is fulfilled as in former times. Kinaalda is a rite of passage, any ritual or ceremony connected with the change of social status of the person or group of people, for example, burial, knighting, initiation, christening (in particular, fighting), etc. In this particular case a girl is initiated into the world of women. Rites of passage are not just ceremonies of moving from one approved state to the next but sometimes happened for attained statutes. As Keith (1964) described: "Kinaalda is a summary, or way of giving meaning to skills and values learned gradually in childhood". (p.35) In many collective cultures teenage years is a time to undertake appropriate social roles that are often related to tasks to family, kin, or tribe. Obviously, we described a ceremony that stand for attribution of a social identity unfolding that strengthens the vital feminine gender position in matrilineal way of life. The young woman takes part in rituals that make an impact on her role modelling (Changing women) who reflects the understanding of Navajo womanhood. It is the well-off expressiveness of rituals that induce improvement toward finest identity being a very exact ascription of a female identity. (Markstrom and Iborra 2003 p.418-419) The Changing woman was born by miracle and 4 d... Modelling of a body was a one of the most important parts of the ceremony. They say, that during this first ritual Kinaalda the changing woman herself modelled her body. It was done in order to honour the Sun and the Moon. The changing woman was "modelled" and got the perfect form. According to Markstrom and Iborra (2003), "the transition from preparation to separation and beginning of the rite of passage can be understood in psychological terms".(p. 412) It is shown in Erikson's (1968) statement: "Identity formation begins where the usefulness of identification ends" (p. 159). The ritual transformed the nature of social attitudes. In Kinaalda the young woman is not considered to be a child by the adult society but to be a full member. Therefore, the confirmation of her new position is of great importance. Those concerns that can appear again because of obtaining the liberty of this new position and new identity, but not yet having mastering role, are maybe facilitated by the new holding up of the group. As well it is accepted that girl in Kinaalda is beginning her way to adulthood and her family is expected to lead and direct her. Identify support happens during the next four days after the ritual in which the girl is to have some rest and reveal experiences. Such a break was compared to the rest on the seventh day in the Christianity. Identify reinforcement is shown in the act of giving the rinse water used in the ceremonial hair washing to the mother of the girl who took part in the ceremony. She is to pour it near their house so that her daughter would be drawn to home for all her life. The important issue to touch upon is the possible temporal effect of the ritual. It must not be forgotten that outcomes leading to the best identity shape

Role of Women in Russia Between 1928 and 1941 Essay Example for Free

Role of Women in Russia Between 1928 and 1941 Essay How far did the role of women in Russia change between 1928 and 1941 The role of women in 1928 was that of being part of the work industry; 3 million women were employed because of the demands of the Five-year plans. Though Soviet Russia was meant to be a ‘classless society’ there were still inequalities specifically between men and women. However by 1940 there were 13 million women working in the Russian industry which shows change nevertheless women spent an average of 5 times as longer on domestic responsibilities’ than men, this is an example of continuity. The domestic role for women was in in addition to working on collective farms or in Soviet industry they were expected to be responsible for household chores, such as cooking, cleaning and childcare. Furthermore another responsibility of women was to reproduce because the trauma of industrialisation and collectivisation had led to a dramatic decline in the birth rate in the early 1930s. The communist government then introduced polices to try and reverse this trend. In addition to these wives of party officials were expected not to work, but to devote themselves to managing ‘a well-ordered communist home’. In the 1920s it was common for communist families to employ nannies however by the mid-1930’s this was frowned upon, this shows a significant change between what is the more important role to play in this time period. Women were now expected to be ideal mothers and partners. Their homes were to be examples of ‘order, warmth and feminine comfort, and their husbands expected their wives to be caring and attentive. They were the men there jobs consisted of being party leaders and even though they had been liberated from their domestic duties, such as chopp ing wood and carry water, due to mechanisation, women had none of these advantages. Also in the 1930s Zhenotdel, a women’s branch of the Communist Central committee was closed down due to the fact that the Communist Party believed that sexuality had been achieved. Soviet authorities discouraged abortion in 1936, making it all but illegal. The law banned terminations except where they were necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. This forced women to have children they may or may not have wanted. Doctors who performed abortions on ‘underserving’ women could be sentenced to two years imprisonment. Husband who put pressure on their wives to terminate pregnancy would then face the same penalty. This was to promote the image of ‘a communist family life’ this consisted of the Stalin government reemphasising the value of marriage, they reintroduced wedding rings in 1936, and these had been banned in 1928. Also in 1936 the administration started printing marriage certificates on high quality paper to symbolise the importance of the union. Women were now getting married more and more frequently as the 1937 census showed that 82% of women aged 30 and 39 were married. The mid-1930s is when introducing traditional gender roles and sexual attitudes were reasserted across Russia. Making women stay at home and Communist husband were to be the main income earners in the family. Another way to promote ‘a communist family life’ was to control the sex that went on. In 1934 the government reintroduced a more traditional perspective on sexual morality. This was backed up by police action against young women who had an ‘immoral appearance’. This victimised woman as it was another rule to control their lives, in addition to this Soviet policy makers also turned against contraception. Another role of women that occurred during The ‘Great Retreat’ was the Soviet authorities recognising the important contribution made by women to Russian industry; they then increased the allocation of place in height or technical education available to women, from 30% in 1929 to 40% in 1940. This was also a significant change as women were allowed to further their education however they were still unequal to their male counterparts as the income of men was only 60-65% of the income of men doing the same job. Another area women excelled was the agricultural economy. By 1945, 80 of collected farm workers were women. They also represented the e Stakjanovite movementt in the countryside. The most celebrate rural Stakhanovite were both female,

History of Food

History of Food WILD FOOD HISTORY About 8000 BC gathering was the main basis of food. Round 10,000 BC, in the New Stone Age, people started farming, and then spent a smaller amount of period gathering. Present they cultivated grain as a replacement for gathering it. People also started to grow figs and lentils and parsnips and peas. But they kept back on pick many of other wild foods like berries, apples, pears, olives, and nuts. They collected snails from the bushes. By the Bronze Age (round 3000 BC) people planted many other kinds of food and collected less. People of Bronzed Age Cultivated grains and vegetables and also planted olive trees and fruit trees. Still, people pick berries, herbs, mushrooms, and nuts in the wild. Actually, the condition has not changed so much from past till now. Nowadays, so many people still collecting nuts and berries and they also still gather herbs and mushrooms. Its seem like collecting is a quite lazy, unsystematic kind of method to get foodstuff, and they dont want much information. But truly it is very complex. They have to knowledge about where are the plants like where the berry bushes and nut trees are developing. They have to know growing conductions of each of them will come ready (ripe), so that they dont miss to collect all the berries. They have to organize stuffs so that they are in the correct place at the correct time. Then also, they have to pick the berries they also have to preserve it and collect it in the store: they have to separate the dry the berries and the grains and herbs and the fruits, and pickle the olives. Mainly people who grow the most of their food from gathering and have a fixed way that they travel round every year, so that they will be at the right place at the right time period to get ripe nuts from the nut trees and at the olives when the olives become ready to collect. WILD STRAWBERRIES (Reference: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/201395414563255124/ ) BACKGROUND Non-commercial wild food contains fish, insects, animals and plants that are harvested or hunted for own feeding. Such collecting of wild food stuff is not matter to observing or risk organization in the way that commercially presented food. It is analysis of non-commercial wild food stuff undertaken by NZFSA. NZFSA decided that wild food is risk free to the public health in New Zealand. But, the review did expose a lack of information about harvesting and eating patterns of wild food and also how to safely harvest food (plants) and consume wild foodstuff, and also about the bacterias like the sources of foodborne illness. It is based on the presently available records. The three wild food groups with the maximum risk status are deer, shellfish and pigs. NZFSAs Strategy for Relating MÄ ori in the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Issues will support the application of the Wild Food Project for MÄ ori peoples. NZFSA has established the educational resources for the Mao ri communities a Wild Food Safety DVD and two opposite booklets, Food Safety for Seafood Gatherers and Food Safety for Hunters. NZFSA displays that the shellfish toxicity concluded the Marine Bio toxin Programmed, so that customers of non-commercial shellfish can be advised when shellfish in their zone then it is unsafe to have it and collect it. The other two foods (deer and pigs) that were recognized as potential high risk. (Reference: http://waterlegacy.org/saving-wild-rice-sulfide-mining-pollution ) CULTURE OF WILD FOOD Still there were associations tries to describe wild culture, there was not any accepted definition of it. Smith chosen his colleagues and audiences to find the meaning of wild cultures throughout the titles of the tasks in which it looked, where the social background was at play; that is, that it existed a serious-sounding and perchance honest academic magazine printed by a preserving culture with a lengthy name, all devoted to a topic no one recognized anything about. Assigning the serious and the non-serious in a method that made logic and interested became part of the artistes work. Previously there was Smiths fresh description of wild culture (the articulated ecotone between what people do and why they cant control in nature), no single clarification happened around which the S.P.W.C artists effort was completed. Some people said that it was the vagueness of the knowledge, the incapability to title it down that made it so eye-catching. In the lack of real explanation, Smith open a metaphor, which he has freshly changed: On the surface of a clear painting is the human physical reality that is portion of our ordinary life, and in the related are basics of nature, unseen and seen, that are very much active but that people arent always alert of, whether out of apathy, convenience, ignorance, or any state of blackout or selfishness that donates to the interruption from our original history and our current psychic hold on the home land. Wild culture is the two planes, background and foreground, seen together. (Reference: http://farmprogress.com/story-indian-country-bringing-revolution-wild-food-culture-9-120453 ) INNOVATIONS Sparkling soft drinks are also as a great demand in Africa. To build additional growth on this market, WILD tastes and Specialty Ingredients resents novelties featuring new flavor profiles created on its original fermentation equipment. WILD tastes and Specialty Ingredients ideas for still drinks also give builders possible for additional growth. Food drinks technology in Africa, WILD tastes and Specialty Ingredients shows its competency in this part with product ideas counting emulsion-based decisions as well as milk and juice variations. These answers meet the demands of customers in Africa who want premium-quality drinks which have a flavorful taste. The most popular flavors here are tropical fruits like guava and mango. In adding, WILD Flavors and Specialty Ingredients displays non-alcoholic border drink ideas such as juice-based drinks with pià ±a colada and sangria flavors. PRODUCTION METHOD The cultivated technique called Wild Farming. It is a growing different to factory farming. It consists of implanting crops that are extremely associated and kind to the natural ecosystem. It includes intercropping with inborn plants, resulting the contours and geography of the land, and backup to the local food chains. The goal is to produce large crop yields, while still indorsing a healthy environment. Wild farming is a reaction against the control of factory farming. Up till the mid-20th century, farming crop yields depend on natural inputs such as natural soil resources, rainfall patterns, built-in biological control mechanisms and recycling of organic matter. Presently, agricultural performs have been conventionalized to contain large mono cropped fields and use of synthetics: fertilizers and pesticides. Avoiding the conventional farming practices, wild farming adopts many practices from sustainable agricultural systems such as Greywater systems, permaculture, forest farming, a nd agroecology. SOCIAL INFLUENCES OF WILD FOOD Community effects have been shown to be very significant to overcome food neophobic in young children. But, there is no. experimental proof about whether social effects on food acceptance are specific, that. is if models eating the same food as the child are more effective in sponsoring food acceptance than .eating a different food. We measured childrens behavior towards novel foods when an adult model [A] was not eating (Presence condition), [B] was eating a food of a Different color (Different color condition), and [C] was eating a food of the same color (Same color condition). We tested 26 children (ages 2-5 years old) enrolled from The Pennsylvania State University day care amenities. Grades show that kids accepted and ate their novel food additionally in the same color form rather than different color and in the Presence conditions. Hence, in young children food acceptance is promoted by specific social influences. These data show that children are more love to eat new food if o thers are eating the same type of food than others are merely present or eating another kind of food.

High-tech Snooping Threatens Our Privacy :: Free Argumentative Essays

High-tech Snooping Threatens Our Privacy The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states: The right of the people to be secure in their person's houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The Fourth Amendment values privacy in the home and protects people's privacy from unlawful search and invasion. This topic interests me because I am concerned about the recent use of thermal imaging and the ways it could be used to invade the average citizen's privacy. Thermal imaging devices allows police to view heat as a visible light image. When police use this technique as a means of gathering evidence before a warrant is obtained, it can be said to violate our guaranteed Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution. In the recent Supreme Court case, Kyllo v. United Sates, "the Supreme Court held that police use of a thermal imaging device to scan a suspect's residence violated his right under the Fourth Amendment. The decision had reversed a federal appeals court ruling finding the scan lawful" (Is warrantless?). In the case cited, police suspected Kyllo was growing marijuana in his home. They used a thermal imaging device from across the street to scan Kyllo's home to see if the level of heat escaping from it was consistent with high-intensity lights used to grow marijuana indoors. The result of the scan showed that portions of Kyllo's home were relatively hot compared to the rest of his home. Using the result of the scan, as well as other information, police obtained a warrant to search Kyllo's home, and found a marijuana-growing operation in their search. When the trial court refused to suppress the evidence, Kyllo appealed to the federal court and challenged the legality of the search, saying a search warrant should have been obtained prior to using the thermal imaging device. Law-enforcement officials argued that a warrant was not required before a using technological surveillance device that merely records information about a home that is exposed to public view. The federal appeals court affirmed the trial court's decision, finding that Kyllo had no subjective expectation of privacy because he did not try to conceal the heat escaping from his home. Even if he had, the appeals court said, there was no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy because the thermal imager did not expose any intimate details of Kyllo's life, only vague hot spots on his home's exterior.

Chief Justice Earl Warren Essay -- essays research papers fc

Chief Justice Earl Warren Earl Warren was born March 19, 1891 in Los Angeles, California. Earl’s father was a Norwegian immigrant, which left him dealing with prejudice and equal rights at a very young age (Grace, 1). This lead to early indications that law would be Earl’s profession. Even before entering High School, he listened to criminal cases at the Kern County courthouse. Attending the University of California at Berkeley, Warren worked his way through college. He majored in political science for three years before entering the law school at UC. â€Å"He received his B.L. degree in 1912 and his J.D. degree in 1914. On May 14, 1915, he was admitted to the California bar. After graduation Warren worked in law offices in San Francisco and Oakland, the only time in his career when he was engaged in private practice† (White, 61). The young lawyer became a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, and eventually became district attorney in 1925 when is opponent decided to resign from th e race (Weaver, 40). He would go on to win the next four elections. â€Å"During his fourteen years as district attorney, Warren developed a reputation as a crime fighter. As a prosecutor Warren was sometimes accused of high-handedness in his methods, but in thirteen years and in thousands of cases ranging from murder to window-breaking, he never had a conviction reversed by a higher court† (Ely, 964). Warren served as attorney general from 1939-1943, enjoying the image of an effective foe of racketeers. In 1948, Warren was the Republican Party's nominee for vice-president of the United States. He and fellow republican Thomas Dewey would end up losing the race, the only election Warren ever lost, to Democratic candidate Harry S. Truman. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (Compston, 101). This new job would prove to be the most important and difficult job Warren had ever taken. â€Å"He inherited a court that was deeply divided between those justices who advocated a more active role for the court and those who supported judicial restraint† (Compston, 133). Among the Warren Court's most important decisions was the ruling that made racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The Brown vs. The Board of Education case dealt with the segregation of public schools. Although all the schools in a ... ... Brown vs. the Board of Ed. Case from this source. In addition, this book contain a lot of criticism that Warren faced because of his ruling. Weaver, John D. Warren: The Man, the Court, the Era. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book provided information about Warrens career early on, most importantly his becoming District Attorney of California. White, Edward G. Earl Warren: A Public Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. - This source had information about Warren’s accomplishments in school and his job right out of school. Internet Sources: Cray, Ed. â€Å"Landmark case Biography: Earl Warren†. Earl Warren/Brown vs. Board of Ed. Information page. 1997. 5 March 2005 < http://www. landmarkcases.org/brown/warren.html>   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  - This website contained a great deal of information about the Brown vs. Board of Ed. case. Grace, Roger M. â€Å"Earl Warren, Norwegian American†. Earl Warren Information Page. June 1998. 4 March, 2005 < http://www.mnc.net/norway/warren.htm> -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This website provided me with information about the end of Warren’s career and his retirement.

Hope Floats Essay -- essays research papers

Hope Floats   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie I decided to watch is called Hope Floats. This is a great movie, and it not only should be about love, but it showed me about life. Do you think you can fix your life and get it back on the right track all on your own? All you have to do is just have to give hope a chance and believe that everything will get better someday. There is always a time in everyone’s life when something horrible happens. Sometimes it something that changes your very course of life in an instant. Then life becomes difficult and it seems all you can do is give up on everything. But it does not have to be like that at all. Your life is not over, you just hit a rough spot along the way, and things are bound to get better, because it is easier to bounce higher once you have fallen. Birdee Calvert, played by Sandra Bullock, was a beauty queen, known as â€Å"Ms. Popular†. She was also a cheerleader and even prom queen when she was in high school. She married her high school sweet heart, Bill Calvert. They then moved to Chicago straight after high school and lived the perfect life together†¦so it seemed. Then things began to seem different for her and things did not seem so perfect after all. The whole movie starts when she appears on a Reality TV show. She thinks she’s there for a free make over or something that he best friend dragged her into doing. She soon realizes that’s not why she’s there at all. On this TV show, Birdee’s best friend admits and tells her she’s having an affair with her husband. Birdee and her young daughter, Bernice, decide to pack up and leave Bill. They move out and travel back to Birdee’s home town of Smithville, Texas. There she much live with her mother. She was never very close with her mother growing up, but now she has to live with her, she wants to start a new bond together. When she gets to Smithville her life becomes even more complicated than it was to begin with and she never thought it could quite be like this. After much debate, Birdee finally is convinced to start a new life, which involves getting a new job. There is a problem though, she must deal with something from her past. Most of the people she went to high school with still live in Smithville. Normally this would not be a problem for anyone else, but when you think about that fact that her and her friends teased everyone, it was a big problem... ... in the town saw her on TV. getting her heartbroken. That would be so bad, I can’t imagine how that would feel, she was probably embarrassed that everyone knew about it. She showed an enormous amount of strength and courage to be able to pick herself up and dust herself off. I respect her for that and would like to think that if that would ever happen to me that I would have the strength and power to keep going and not give up just like her. I think this is a powerful message to women. It is telling us never give up and keep a positive attitude, because you can do want ever you set your mind to it. I learned lot from this movie, and one thing I remember is that the beginnings are sometimes scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts most. That is true for a lot of things just in everyday life. I believe that I learn a lot from this movie and I would suggest anyone to see it. Just remember, when your life goes off track, you have to remember never give up and throw in the towel. It will get better, you need to realize that your life will not go back exactly the same, but everything changes. I also learned that everything will be ok, just give it time and faith.

Orhan Pamuk, The Art of Fiction Essay

Orhan Pamuk was born in 1952 in Istanbul, where he †¨continues to live. His family had made a fortune in railroad construction during the early days of the Turkish Republic and Pamuk attended Robert College, where the children of the city‟s privileged elite received a secular, Western-style education. Early in life he developed a passion for the visual arts, but after enrolling in college to study architecture he decided he wanted to write. He is now Turkey‟s most widely read author. His first novel, CevdetBey and His Sons, was published in 1982 and was followed by The Silent House (1983), The White Castle (1985/1991 in English translation), The Black Book(1990/1994), and The New Life (1994/1997). In 2003 Pamuk received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for My Name Is Red (1998/2001), a murder mystery set in sixteenth-century †¨Istanbul and narrated by multiple voices. The novel explores themes central to his fiction: the intricacies of identity in a country that straddles East and West, sibling rivalry, the existence of doubles, the value of beauty and originality, and the anxiety of cultural influence. Snow (2002/2004), which focuses on religious and political radicalism, was the first of his novels to confront political extremism in contemporary Turkey and it confirmed his standing abroad even as it divided opinion at home. Pamuk‟s most recent book is Istanbul: Memories and the City (2003/2005), a double portrait of himself—in childhood and youth—and of the place he comes from. This interview with OrhanPamuk was conducted in two sustained sessions in London and by correspondence. The first conversation occurred in May of 2004 at the time of the British publication of Snow. A special room had been booked for the meeting—a fluorescentlit, noisily air-conditioned corporate space in the hotel basement. Pamuk arrived, wearing a black corduroy jacket over a light-blue shirt and dark slacks, and observed, â€Å"We could die here and nobody would ever find us.† We retreated to a plush, quiet corner of the hotel lobby where we spoke for three hours, pausing only for coffee and a chicken sandwich. In April of 2005 Pamuk returned to London for the publication of †¨Istanbul and we settled into the same corner of the hotel lobby to speak for two hours. At first he seemed quite strained, and with reason. Two months earlier, in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Der Tages-Anzeiger, he had said of Turkey, â€Å"thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.† This remark set off a relentless campaign against Pamuk in the Turkish nationalist press. After all, the Turkish government persists in denying the 1915 genocidal slaughter of Armenians in Turkey and has imposed laws severely restricting discussion of the ongoing Kurdish conflict. Pamuk declined to discuss the controversy for the public record in the hope that it would soon fade. In August, however, Pamuk‟s remarks in the Swiss paper resulted in his being charged under Article 301/1 of the Turkish Penal Code with â€Å"public denigration† of Turkish identity—a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. Despite outraged international press coverage of his case, as well as vigorous protest to the Turkish government by members of the European Parliament and by International PEN, when this magazine went to press in midNovember Pamuk was still slated to stand trial on December 16, 2005. INTERVIEWER How do you feel about giving interviews? ORHAN PAMUK I sometimes feel nervous because I give stupid answers to certain pointless questions. It happens in Turkish as much as in English. I speak bad Turkish and utter stupid sentences. I OrhanPamuk, Interviewed by à ngelGurrà ­a-Quintana have been attacked in Turkey more for my interviews than for my books. Political polemicists and columnists do not read novels there. INTERVIEWER You‟ve generally received a positive response to your books in Europe and the United States. What is your critical reception in Turkey? PAMUK The good years are over now. When I was publishing my first books, the previous generation of authors was fading away, so I was welcomed because I was a new author. INTERVIEWER When you say the previous generation, whom do you have in mind? PAMUK The authors who felt a social responsibility, authors who felt that literature serves morality and politics. They were flat realists, not experimental. Like authors in so many poor countries, they wasted their talent on trying to serve their nation. I did not want to be like them, because even in my youth I had enjoyed Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, Proust—I had never aspired to the social-realist model of Steinbeck and Gorky. The literature produced in the sixties and seventies was becoming outmoded, so I was welcomed as an author of the new generation. After the mid-nineties, when my books began to sell in amounts that no one in Turkey had ever dreamed of, my honeymoon years with the Turkish press and intellectuals were over. From then on, critical reception was mostly a reaction to the publicity and sales, rather than the content of my books. Now, unfortunately, I am notorious for my political comments—most of which are picked up from international interviews and shamelessly manipulated by some Turkish nationalist journalists to make me look more radical and politically foolish than I really am. INTERVIEWER So there is a hostile reaction to your popularity? PAMUK My strong opinion is that it‟s a sort of punishment for my sales figures and political comments. But I don‟t want to continue saying this, because I sound defensive. I may be misrepresenting the whole picture. INTERVIEWER Where do you write? PAMUK I have always thought that the place where you sleep or the place you share with your partner should be separate from the place where you write. The domestic rituals and details somehow kill the imagination. They kill the demon in me. The domestic, tame daily routine makes the longing for the other world, which the imagination needs to operate, fade away. So for years I always had an office or a little place outside the house to work in. I always had different flats. But once I spent half a semester in the U.S. while my ex-wife was taking her Ph.D. at Columbia University. We were living in an apartment for married students and didn‟t have any space, so I had to sleep and write in the same place. Reminders of family life were all around. This upset me. In the mornings I used to say goodbye to my wife like someone going to work. I‟d leave the house, walk around a few blocks, and come back like a person arriving at the office. Ten years ago I found a flat overlooking the Bosphorus with a view of the old city. It has, perhaps, one of the best views of Istanbul. It is a twenty-five-minute walk from where I live. It is full of books and my desk looks out onto the view. Every day I spend, on average, some ten hours there. OrhanPamuk, Interviewed by à ngelGurrà ­a-Quintana INTERVIEWER Ten hours a day? PAMUK Yes, I‟m a hard worker. I enjoy it. People say I‟m ambitious, and maybe there‟s truth in that too. But I‟m in love with what I do. I enjoy sitting at my desk like a child playing with his toys. It‟s work, essentially, but it‟s fun and games also. INTERVIEWER Orhan, your namesake and the narrator of Snow, describes himself as a clerk who sits down at the same time every day. Do you have the same discipline for writing? PAMUK I was underlining the clerical nature of the novelist as opposed to that of the poet, who has an immensely prestigious tradition in Turkey. To be a poet is a popular and respected thing. Most of the Ottoman sultans and statesmen were poets. But not in the way we understand poets now. For hundreds of years it was a way of establishing yourself as an intellectual. Most of these people used to collect their poems in manuscripts called divans. In fact, Ottoman court poetry is called divan poetry. H alf of the Ottoman statesmen produced divans. It was a sophisticated and educated way of writing things, with many rules and rituals. Very conventional and very repetitive.†¨After Western ideas came to Turkey, this legacy was combined with the romantic and modern idea of the poet as a person who burns for truth. It added extra weight to the prestige of the poet. On the other hand, a novelist is essentially a person who covers distance through his patience, slowly, like an ant. A novelist impresses us not by his demonic and romantic vision, but by his patience. INTERVIEWER Have you ever written poetry? PAMUK I am often asked that. I did when I was eighteen and I published some poems in Turkey, but then I quit. My explanation is that I realized that a poet is someone through whom God is speaking. You have to be possessed by poetry. I tried my hand at poetry, but I realized after some time that God was not speaking to me. I was sorry about this and then I tried to imagine—if God were speaking through me, what would he be saying? I began to write very meticulously, slowly, trying to figure this out. That is prose writing, fiction writing. So I worked like a clerk. Some other writers consider this expression to be a bit of an insult. But I accept it; I work like a clerk. INTERVIEWER Would you say that writing prose has become easier for you over time? PAMUK Unfortunately not. Sometimes I feel my character should enter a room and I still don‟t know how to make him enter. I may have more self-confidence, which sometimes can be unhelpful because then you‟re not experimenting, you just write what comes to the tip of your pen. I‟ve been writing fiction for the last thirty years, so I should think that I‟ve improved a bit. And yet I still sometimes come to a dead end where I thought there never would be one. A character cannot enter a room, and I don‟t know what to do. Still! After thirty years. The division of a book into chapters is very important for my way of thinking. When writing a novel, if I know the whole story line in advance—and most of the time I do—I divide it into chapters and think up the details of what I‟d like to happen in each. I don‟t necessarily start with the first chapter and write all the others in order. When I‟m blocked, which is not a grave thing for me, I continue with whatever takes my fancy. I may write from the first to the fifth chapter, then if I‟m not enjoying it I skip to number fifteen and continue from there. INTERVIEWER 3 OrhanPamuk, Interviewed by à ngelGurrà ­a-Quintana Do you mean that you map out the entire book in advance? PAMUK Everything. My Name Is Red, for instance, has many characters, and to each character I assigned a certain number of chapters. When I was writing, sometimes I wanted to continue â€Å"being† one of the characters. So when I finished writing one of Shekure‟s chapters, perhaps chapter seven, I skipped to chapter eleven, which is her again. I liked being Shekure. Skipping from one character or persona to another can be depressing. But the final chapter I always write at the end. That is definite. I like to tease myself, ask myself what the ending should be. I can only execute the ending once. Towards the end, before finishing, I stop and rewrite most of the early chapters. INTERVIEWER Do you ever have a reader while you are working? PAMUK I always read my work to the person I share my life with. I‟m always grateful if that person says, Show me more, or, Show me what you have done today. Not only does that p rovide a bit of necessary pressure, but it‟s like having a mother or father pat you on the back and say, Well done. Occasionally, the person will say, Sorry, I don‟t buy this. Which is good. I like that ritual. I‟m always reminded of Thomas Mann, one of my role models. He used to bring the whole family together, his six children and his wife. He used to read to all his gathered family. I like that. Daddy telling a story. INTERVIEWER When you were young you wanted to be a painter. When did your love of painting give way to your love of writing? PAMUK At the age of twenty-two. Since I was seven I had wanted to be a painter, and my family had accepted this. They all thought that I would be a famous painter. But then something happened in my head—I realized that a screw was loose—and I stopped painting and immediately began writing my first novel. INTERVIEWER A screw was loose? PAMUK I can‟t say what my reasons were for doing this. I recently published a book calledIstanbul. Half of it is my autobiography until that moment and the other half is an essay about Istanbul, or more precisely, a child‟s vision of Istanbul. It‟s a combination of thinking about images and landscapes and the chemistry of a city, and a child‟s perception of that city, and that child‟s autobiography. The last sentence of the book reads, â€Å"„I don‟t want to be an artist,‟ I said. „I‟m going to be a writer.‟† And it‟s not explained. Although reading the whole book may explain something. INTERVIEWER Was your family happy about this decision? PAMUK My mother was upset. My father was somewhat more understanding because in his youth he wanted to be a poet and translated Valà ©ry into Turkish, but gave up when he was mocked by the upper-class circle to which he belonged. INTERVIEWER Your family accepted you being a painter, but not a novelist? PAMUK Yes, because they didn‟t think I would be a full-time painter. The family tradition was in civil engineering. My grandfather was a civil engineer who made lots of money building railroads. My uncles and my father lost the money, but they all went to the same engineering school, Istanbul Technical University. I was expected to go there and I said, All right, I will go there. But since I was the artist in the family, the notion was that I should become an architect. It seemed to be a satisfying solution for everyone. So I went to that university, but in the middle of architectural school I suddenly quit painting and began writing novels. INTERVIEWER Did you already have your first novel in mind when you decided to quit? Is that why you did it? PAMUK As far as I remember, I wanted to be a novelist before I knew what to write. In fact, when I did start writing I had two or three false starts. I still have the notebooks. But after about six months I started a major novel project that ultimately got published as CevdetBey and His Sons. INTERVIEWER That hasn‟t been translated into English. PAMUK It is essentially a family saga, like the Forsyte Saga or Thomas Mann ¸s Buddenbrooks. Not long after I finished it I began to regret having written something so outmoded, a very nineteenth-century novel. I regretted writing it because, around the age of twenty-five or twenty-six, I began to impose on myself the idea that I should be a modern author. By the time the novel was finally published, when I was thirty, my writing had become much more experimental. INTERVIEWER When you say you wanted to be more modern, experimental, did you have a model in mind? PAMUK At that time, the great writers for me were no longer Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Stendhal, or Thomas Mann. My heroes were Virginia Woolf and Faulkner. Now I would add Proust and Nabokov to that list. INTERVIEWER The opening line of The New Life is, â€Å"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.† Has any book had that effect on you? PAMUK The Sound and the Fury was very important to me when I was twenty-one or twentytwo. I bought a copy of the Penguin edition. It was hard to understand, especially with my poor English. But there was a wonderful translation of the book into Turkish, so I would to put the Turkish and the English together on the table and read half a paragraph from one and then go back to the other. That book left a mark on me. The residue was the voice that I developed. I soon began to write in the first person singular. Most of the time I feel better when I‟m impersonating someone else rather than writing in the third person. INTERVIEWER You say it took years to get your first novel published? PAMUK In my twenties I did not have any literary friendships; I didn‟t belong to any literary group in Istanbul. The only way to get my first book published was to submit it to a literary competition for unpublished manuscripts in Turkey. I did that and won the prize, which was to be published by a big, good publisher. At the time, Turkey‟s economy was in a bad state. They said, Yes, we‟ll give you a contract, but they delayed the novel‟s publication. INTERVIEWER Did your second novel go more easily—more quickly? PAMUK The second book was a political book. Not propaganda. I was already writing it while I waited for the first book to appear. I had given that book some two and a half years. Suddenly, one night there was a military coup. This was in 1980. The next day the would-be publisher of the first book, the CevdetBey book, said he wasn‟t going to publish it, even though we had a contract. I realized that even if I finished my second book—the political book—that day, I would not be able to publish it for five or six years because the military would not allow it. So my thoughts ran as follows: At the age of twenty-two I said I was going to be a novelist and wrote for seven years hoping to get something published in Turkey . . . and nothing. Now I‟m almost thirty and there‟s no possibility of publishing anything. I still have the two hundred and fifty pages of that unfinished political novel in one of my drawers. Immediately after the military coup, because I didn‟t want to get depressed, I started a third book—the book to which you referred, The Silent House. That‟s what I was working on in 1982 when the first book was finally published. Cevdet was well received, which meant that I could publish the book I was then writing. So the third book I wrote was the second to be published. INTERVIEWER What made your novel unpublishable under the military regime? PAMUK The characters were young upper-class Marxists. Their fathers and mothers would go to summer resorts, and they had big spacious rich houses and enjoyed being Marxists. They would fight and be jealous of each other and plot to blow up the prime minister. INTERVIEWER Gilded revolutionary circles? PAMUK Upper-class youngsters with rich people‟s habits, pretending to be ultraradical. But I was not making a moral judgment about that. Rather, I was romanticizing my youth, in a way. The idea of throwing a bomb at the prime minister would have been enough to get the book banned. So I didn‟t finish it. And you change as you write books. You cannot assume the same persona again. You cannot continue as before. Each book an author writes represents a period in his development. One‟s novels can be seen as the milestones in the development of one‟s spirit. So you cannot go back. Once the elasticity of fiction is dead, you cannot move it again. INTERVIEWER When you‟re experimenting with ideas, how do you choose the form of your novels? Do you start with an image, with a first sentence? PAMUK There is no constant formula. But I make it my business not to write two novels in the same mode. I try to change everything. This is why so many of my readers tell me, I liked this novel of yours, it‟s a shame you didn‟t write other novels like that, or, I never enjoyed one of your novels until you wrote that one—I‟ve heard that especially about The Black Book. In fact I hate to hear this. It‟s fun, and a challenge, to experiment with form and style, and language and mood and persona, and to think about each book differently. The subject matter of a book may come to me from various sources. With My Name Is Red, I wanted to write about my ambition to become a painter. I had a false start; I began to write a monographic book focused on one painter. Then I turned the painter into various painters worki ng together in an atelier. The point of view changed, because now there were other painters talking. At first I was thinking of writing about a contemporary painter, but then I thought this Turkish painter might be too derivative, too influenced by the West, so I went back in time to write about miniaturists. That was how I found my subject. Some subjects also necessitate certain formal innovations or storytelling strategies. Sometimes, for example, you‟ve just seen something, or read something, or been to a movie, or read a newspaper article, and then you think, I‟ll make a potato speak, or a dog, or a tree. Once you get the idea you start thinking about symmetry and continuity in the novel. And you feel, Wonderful, no one‟s done this before. Finally, I think of things for years. I may have ideas and then I tell them to my close friends. I keep lots of notebooks for possible novels I may write.Sometimes I don‟t write them, but if I open a notebook and begin taking notes for it, it is likely that I will write that novel. So when I‟m finishing one novel my heart may be set on one of these projects; and two months after finishing one I start writing the other. INTERVIEWER Many novelists will never discuss a work in progress. Do you also keep that a secret? PAMUK I never discuss the story. On formal occasions, when people ask what I‟m writing, I have a one-sentence stock reply: A novel that takes place in contemporary Turkey. I open up to very few people and only when I know they won‟t hurt me. What I do is talk about the gimmicks—I‟m going to make a cloud speak, for instance. I like to see how people react to them. It is a childish thing. I did this a lot when writing Istanbul. My mind is like that of a little playful child, trying to show his daddy how clever he is. INTERVIEWER The word gimmick has a negative connotation. PAMUK You begin with a gimmick, but if you believe in its literary and moral seriousness, in the end it turns into serious literary invention. It becomes a literary statement. INTERVIEWER Critics often characterize your novels as postmodern. It seems to me, however, that you draw your narrative t ricks primarily from traditional sources. You quote, for instance, fromTheThousand and One Nights and other classic texts in the Eastern tradition. PAMUK That began with The Black Book, though I had read Borges and Calvino earlier. I went with my wife to the United States in 1985, and there I first encountered the prominence and the immense richness of American culture. As a Turk coming from the Middle East, trying to establish himself as an author, I felt intimidated. So I regressed, went back to my â€Å"roots.† I realized that my generation had to invent a modern national literature. Borges and Calvino liberated me. The connotation of traditional Islamic literature was so reactionary, so political, and used by conservatives in such old-fashioned and foolish ways, that I never thought I could do anything with that material. But once I was in the United States, I realized I could go back to that material with a Calvinoesque or Borgesian mind frame. I had to begin by making a strong distinction between the religious and literary connotations of Islamic literature, so that I could easily appropriate its wealth of games, gimmicks, and parables. Turkey had a sophisticated tradition of highly refined ornamental literature. But then the socially committed writers emptied our literature of its innovative content. There are lots of allegories that repeat themselves in the various oral storytelling traditions—of China, India, Persia. I decided to use them and set them in contemporary Istanbul. It‟s an experiment—put everything together, like a Dadaist collage; The Black Bookhas this quality. Sometimes all these sources are fused together and something new emerges. So I set all these rewritten stories in Istanbul, added a detective plot, and out came The Black Book. But at its source was the full strength of American culture and my desire to be a serious experimental writer. I could not write a social commentary about Turkey‟s problems—I was intimidated by them. So I had to try something else. INTERVIEWER Were you ever interested in doing social commentary through literature? PAMUK No. I was reacting to the older generation of novelists, especially in the eighties. I say this with all due respect, but their subject matter was very narrow and parochial. INTERVIEWER Let‟s go back to before The Black Book. What inspired you to write †¨The White Castle? It‟s the first book where you employ a theme that recurs throughout the rest of your novels—impersonation. Why do you think this idea of becoming somebody else crops up so often in your fiction? PAMUK It‟s a very personal thing. I have a very competitive brother who is only eighteen months older than me. In a way, he was my father—my Freudian father, so to speak. It was he who became my alter ego, the representation of authority. On the other hand, we also had a competitive and brotherly comradeship. A very complicated relationship. I wrote extensively about this in Istanbul. I was a typical Turkish boy, good at soccer and enthusiastic about all sorts of games and competitions. He was very successful in school, better than me. I felt jealousy towards him, and he was jealous of me too. He was the reasonable and responsible person, the one our superiors addressed. While I was paying attention to games, he paid attention to rules. We were competing all the time. And I fancied being him, that kind of thing. It set a model. Envy, jealousy—these are heartfelt themes for me. I always worry about how much my brother‟s strength or his success might have influenced me. This is an essential part of my spirit. I am aware of that, so I put some distance between me and those feelings. I know they are bad, so I have a civilized person‟s determination to fight them. I‟m not saying I‟m a victim of jealousy. But this is the galaxy of nerve points that I try to deal with all the time. And of course, in the end, it becomes the subject matter of all my stories. In The White Castle, for instance, the almost sadomasochistic relationship between the two main characters is based on my relationship wi th my brother. On the other hand, this theme of impersonation is reflected in the fragility Turkey feels when faced with Western culture. After writing The White Castle, I realized that this jealousy—the anxiety about being influenced by someone else—resembles Turkey‟s position when it looks west. You know, aspiring to become Westernized and then being accused of not being authentic enough. Trying to grab the spirit of Europe and then feeling guilty about the imitative drive. The ups and downs of this mood are reminiscent of the relationship between competitive brothers. INTERVIEWER Do you believe the constant confrontation between Turkey‟s Eastern and Western impulses will ever be peacefully resolved? PAMUK I‟m an optimist. Turkey should not worry about having two spirits, belonging to two different cultures, having two souls. Schizophrenia makes you intelligent. You may lose your relation with reality—I‟m a fiction writer, so I don‟t think that‟s such a bad thing—but you shouldn‟t worry about your schizophrenia. If you worry too much about one part of you killing the other, you‟ll be left with a single spirit. That is worse than having the sickness. This is my theory. I try to propagate it in Turkish politics, among Turkish politicians who demand that the country should have one consistent soul—that it should belong to either the East or the West or be nationalistic. I‟m critical of that monistic outlook. INTERVIEWER How does that go down in Turkey? PAMUK The more the idea of a democratic, liberal Turkey is established, the more my thinking is accepted. Turkey can join the European Union only with this vision. It‟s a way of fighting against nationalism, of fighting the rhetoric of Us against Them. INTERVIEWER And yet in Istanbul, in the way you romanticize the city, you seem to mourn the loss of the Ottoman Empire. PAMUK I‟m not mourning the Ottoman Empire. I‟m a Westernizer. I‟m pleased that the Westernization process took place. I‟m just criticizing the limited way in which the ruling elite—meaning both the bureaucracy and the new rich—had conceived of Westernization. They lacked the confidence necessary to create a national culture rich in its own symbols and rituals. They did not strive to create an Istanbul culture that would be an organic combination of East and West; they just put Western and Eastern things together. There was, of course, a strong local Ottoman culture, but that was fading away little by little. What they had to do, and could not possibly do enough, was invent a strong local culture, which would be a combination—not an imitation—of the Eastern past and the Western present. I try to do the same kind of thing in my books. Probably new generations will do it, and entering the European Union will not destroy Turkish identity but make it flourish and give us more freedom and self-confidence to invent a new Turkish culture. Slavishly imitating the West or slavishly imitating the old dead Ottoman culture is not the solution. You have to do something with these things and shouldn‟t have anxiety about belonging to one of them too much. INTERVIEWER In Istanbul, however, you do seem to identify with the foreign, Weste rn gaze over your own city. PAMUK But I also explain why a Westernized Turkish intellectual can identify with the Western gaze—the making of Istanbul is a process of identification with the West. There is always this dichotomy, and you can easily identify with the Eastern anger too. Everyone is sometimes a Westerner and sometimes an Easterner—in fact a constant combination of the two. I like Edward Said‟s idea of Orientalism, but since Turkey was never a colony, the romanticizing of Turkey was never a problem for Turks. Western man did not humiliate the Turk in the same way he humiliated the Arab or Indian. Istanbul was invaded only for two years and the enemy boats left as they came, so this did not leave a deep scar in the spirit of the nation. What left a deep scar was the loss of the Ottoman Empire, so I don‟t have that anxiety, that feeling that Westerners look down on me. Though after the founding of the Republic, there was a sort of intimidation because Turks wanted to Westernize but couldn‟t go far enough, which left a feeling of cultural inferiority that we have to address and that I occasionally may have. On the other hand, the scars are not as deep as other nations that were occupied for two hundred years, colonized. Turks were never suppressed by Western powers. The suppression that Turks suffered was self-inflicted; we erased our own history because it was practical. In that suppression there is a sense of fragility. But that self-imposed Westernization also brought isolation. Indians saw their oppressors face-to-face. Turks were strangely isolated from the Western world they emulated. In the 1950s and even 1960s, when a foreigner came to stay at the Istanbul Hilton it would be noted in all the newspapers. Do you believe that there is a canon or that one should even exist? We have heard of a Western canon, but what about a non-Western canon? PAMUK Yes, there is another canon. It should be explored, developed, shared, criticized, and then accepted. Right now the so-called Eastern canon is in ruins. The glorious texts are all around but there is no will to put them together. From the Persian classics, through to all the Indian, Chinese, and Japanese texts, these things should be assessed critically. As it is now, the canon is in the hands of Western scholars. That is the center of distribution and communication. INTERVIEWER The novel is a very Western cultural form. Does it have any place in the Eastern tradition? PAMUK The modern novel, dissociated from the epic form, is essentially a non-Oriental thing. Because the novelist is a person who does not belong to a community, who does not share the basic instincts of community, and who is thinking and judging with a different culture than the one he is experiencing. Once his consciousness is different from that of the community he belongs to, he is an outsider, a loner. And the richness of his text comes from that outsider‟s voyeuristic vision. Once you develop the habit of looking at the world like that and writing about it in this fashion, you have the desire to disassociate from the community. This is the model I was thinking about in Snow. INTERVIEWER Snow is your most political book yet published. How did you conceive of it? PAMUK When I started becoming famous in Turkey in the mid-1990s, at a time when the war against Kurdish guerillas was strong, the old leftist authors and the new modern liberals wanted me to help them, to sign petitions—they began to ask me to do political things unrelated to my books. Soon the esta blishment counterattacked with a campaign of character assassination. They began calling me names. I was very angry. After a while I wondered, What if I wrote a political novel in which I explored my own spiritual dilemmas—coming from an uppermiddle-class family and feeling responsible for those who had no political representation? I believed in the art of the novel. It is a strange thing how that makes you an outsider. I told myself then, I will write a political novel. I started to write it as soon as I finished My Name Is Red. INTERVIEWER Why did you set it in the small town of Kars? PAMUK It is notoriously one of the coldest towns in Turkey. And one of the poorest. In the early eighties, the whole front page of one of the major newspapers was about the poverty of Kars. Someone had calculated that you could buy the entire town for around a million dollars. The political †¨climate was difficult when I wanted to go there. The vicinity of the town is mostly populated by Kurds, but the center is a combination of Kurds, people from Azerbaijan, Turks, and all other sorts. There used to be Russians and Germans too. There are religious differences as well, Shia and Sunni. The war the Turkish government was waging against the Kurdish guerillas was so fierce that it was impossible to go as a tourist. I knew I could not simply go there as a novelist, so I asked a newspaper editor with whom I‟d been in touch for a press pass to visit the area. He is influential and he personally called the mayor and the police chief to let them know I was coming.

School Uniform Should Not Be Abolished

Joanna Chong 06. 12. 2011 School Uniforms Should Not Be Abolished Good morning to all my friends. Imagine if you need to choose which clothes to wear to school every morning so that you will look pleasing to everyone in the school, how will you feel? Would you feel very troublesome? Our school plans to abolish school uniforms and allows students to wear any clothes to school. This issue becomes a talking-point in our school. I am totally against the idea as I think uniforms are totally necessary to build proper school culture. Today, I am here to convince you that school uniforms should not be abolished.The reasons why school uniforms should remain are because it brings a lot of advantages to students. First, school uniforms promote a sense of belonging and create good school culture. When all the students wear the same uniform, the spirit of learning in school will be uplifted. It shows that the school expects high standards and students respond with better behavior. Wearing school uniforms also can prevent students especially girls from wearing clothes which harsh to the eye such as miniskirt, sexy dress, short pants and so on.On the other hand, boys can focus on their study if girls wear proper uniforms in school. Besides, equality among students can be maintained in school. No matter what family background are the students having, they will wear the same uniform and the difference between rich and poor is smaller. A student who comes from less fortunate family does not need to worry about being bullied or being disdained in school just because he wears older clothes. Apart from that, students can save their time in the morning to do other things like having breakfast by just simply wearing school uniforms.This is because they do not have to waste time thinking of what to wear to school and how to decorate themselves by putting some decorations on their clothes. Moreover, school uniforms help students to focus on study instead of fashions and trendy clothes. Futhermore, wearing a uniform helps to prepare students for working in the future. This can help students to adapt with the condition of wearing uniforms to work in the future. People like nurses, doctors, the firemen and the policemen wear uniform as part of their job.Other working adults also wear suits to work. In conclusion, school uniforms should not be abolished. Reasons are that school uniforms give a sense of belonging to us, maintain equality among students, help students to focus on study and help them to prepare for working in the future. Therefore I urge all of you, my friends, to sign a petition to the school administration board so that they can take into consideration of the benefits of having us, students to wear school uniform. Thank you. (460 words)

Globalization and International Business Essay

Introduction 1. The meaning of globalization * Broadly: the widening set of interdependent relationships among people from different parts of a world that happens to be divided into nations. * Narrowly: the integration of world economies through the elimination of barriers to movements of goods, services, capital, technology, and people. A. How Does International Business Fit In? * International business consists of all commercial transactions between two or more countries. The goal of private business is to make profits; Governments may undertake them either for profit or for other reasons. a. The Study of International Business * Most managers need to approach their operating strategies from an international standpoint. * Managers in almost any industry need to consider (1) where to obtain the inputs they need of the required quality and at the best possible price and (2) where you can best sell the product or service you’ve put together from those inputs. * Studying IB is important because (1) most companies either are international or compete with international companies, (2) the best way of conducting business may differ by country, (3) an understanding helps you make better career decisions, and (4) an understanding helps you decide what governmental policies to support. b. Understanding the Environment/Operations Relationship The Forces Driving Globalization * Globalization (1) has been growing, (2) is less pervasive than generally thought, (3) has economic and non economic dimensions, and (4) is stimulated by several factors. * The A.T. Kearney / Foreign Policy Globalization Index: some countries are more globalized than others, and a given country may be highly globalized on one dimension and not another. This index ranks countries across four dimension; * Economic – international trade and investment * Technological – Internet connectivity * Personal contact- international travel and tourism, international telephone traffic, and personal transfers of funds abroad * Political – participation in international organizations and government monetary transfers A. Factors in Increased Globalization a. Increase in and Application of Technology * Population growth, Economic growth * Innovations in transportation mean that more countries can compete for sales to a given market. b. Liberalization of Cross-Border Trade and Resource Movements c. Development of Services That Support International Business * Converting one currency to another, insurance d. Growing Consumer Pressures e. Greater Global Competition * Born-global companies: start out with a global focus because of their founders’ international experience and because advances in communications give them a good idea of where global markets and supplies are. * Clustering or Agglomeration: the situation in which many new companies locate in areas with numerous competitors and suppliers; they quickly learn of foreign opportunities and gain easier access to the resources needed for international moves. f. Changing Political Situation * A major reason for growth in IB is the end of the schism between Communist countries and the rest of the world. g. Expanded Cross-National Cooperation * To gain reciprocal advantages * To attack problems jointly that one country acting alone cannot solve * The resources needed to solve the problem may be too great for one country to manage; sometimes no single country is willing to pay for a project that will also benefit another country. * One country’s policies may affect those of others. * To deal with areas of concern that lie outside the territory of any nation * Three global areas belong to no single country: the non-coastal areas of the oceans, outer space, and Antarctica. The Costs of Globalization * Critics of globalization claim (1) countries lose sovereignty, (2) the resultant growth hurts the environment, and (3) some people lose both relatively and absolutely. A. Threats to national sovereignty * Sovereignty: its freedom to â€Å"act locally† and without externally imposed restrictions. a. The Question of Local Objectives and Policies b. The Question of Small Economies’ Overdependence c. The Question of Cultural Homogeneity B. Economic Growth and Environmental Stress a. The Argument for Global Growth and Global cooperation C. Growing Income Inequality and Personal Stress a. Income Inequality(disparity) * Challenge: to maximize the gains from globalization while simultaneously minimizing the costs borne by the losers. b. Personal Stress * The growth of globalization goes hand in hand not only with increased insecurity about job and social status but also with costly social unrest. Why Companies Engage in International Business A. Expanding Sales B. Acquiring Resources (R&D, Design) * Foreign sources may give companies (1) lower costs, (2) new or better products, (3) additional operating knowledge. C. Reducing Risk (Sales, Price swings) * International operations may reduce operating risk by (1) smoothing sales and profits, (2) preventing competitors from gaining advantages. Modes of Operations in International Business A. Merchandise Exports and Imports * The export and import of goods are the major sources of international revenues and expenditures. B. Service Exports and Imports * For non-merchandise international earnings, we call it service exports & imports. a. Tourism and Transportation b. Service Performance * Turnkey operations: construction projects performed under contract and transferred to owners when they’re operational. * Management contracts: arrangements in which one company provides personnel to perform general or specialized management functions for another. c. Asset Use * Licensing agreements: when one company allows another to use its asset such as trademarks, patents, copyrights, or expertise under contracts known as licensing agreements, they receive earnings called royalties. * Franchising: a mode of business in which one party (the franchisor) allows another (the franchisee) to use a trademark as an essential asset of the franchisee’s business. Royalties also come from franchise contracts. C. Investments * Dividends and interest paid on foreign investments are also considered service exports and imports because they represent the use of assets (capital). * Foreign investment means ownership of foreign property in exchange for a financial return, such as interest and dividends, and it make take two forms: direct and portfolio. a. Direct Investment(foreign direct investment, FDI) * Investor takes a controlling interest in a foreign company * When two or more companies share ownership of an FDI, the operation is a joint venture. b. Portfolio Investment * Non-controlling financial interest in another entity. * It usually takes one of two forms: stock in a company or loans to a company in the form of bonds, bills, or notes purchased by the investor. D. Types of International Organizations * Collaborative arrangements: companies work together in joint ventures, licensing agreements, management contracts, minority ownership, and long-term contractual arrangements. * Strategic Alliance: is sometimes used to mean the same, but it usually refers either to an agreement that is of critical importance to one or more partners or to an agreement that does not involve joint ownership. a. Multinational Enterprise (MNE) * Any company with foreign direct investments. * Multinational corporation or multinational company (MNC), Transnational company (TNC) in US. Why International Business Differs from Domestic Business External environment that may affect international operations. A. Physical and Social Factors * Any of these factors may require a company to alter its operation abroad (compared to domestically) for the sake of efficiency. a. Geographic Influences * Geographic barriers often affect communications and distribution channels. * Population distribution and the impact of human activity on the environment may exert strong future influences on IB. b. Political Policies * A nation’s political policies influence how international business takes place within its borders. * Political disputes particularly military confrontations can disrupt trade and investment. c. Legal Policies * Legal law: includes both home- and host-country regulations on such matters as taxation, employment, and foreign-exchange transactions. * International law: in the form of legal agreements between countries, determines how earnings are taxed by all jurisdictions. It may also determine how companies can operate in certain places. d. Behavioral Factors * The related disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and sociology can help managers better understand different values, attitudes, and beliefs. In turn, such understanding can help mangers make operational decisions abroad. e. Economic Forces * Economics explains why countries exchange goods and services, why capital and people travel among countries in the course of business, and why one country’s currency has a certain value compared to another’s. B. The Competitive Environment a. Competitive Strategy for Products: Products compete by means of cost of differentiation strategies, the latter usually by: * Developing a favorable brand image, usually through advertising or from long-term consumer experience with the brand; or * Developing unique characteristics, such as through R&D efforts or different means of distribution. b. Company Resources and Experience * A company’s size and resources compared to those of its competitors. c. Competitors Faced in Each Market * Success in a market (whether domestic or foreign) often depends on whether the competition is also international or local.