Rolls Royce Essay Example for Free

Rolls Royce Essay a) Company Information. Rolls Royce PLC is the second largest multinational organisation that produces power integrated systems after GE Aviation. Rolls Royce operates in four different types of economic markets which are the civil and defence aerospace market as well as the marine and energy markets. The company makes engines for jets, helicopters, and turboprop aircraft not only do they produce engines but they also install these systems. Rolls Royce PLC has 50,000 engines in service with 500 major airlines. Rolls Royce PLC is a global company that is known in over 50 countries, the name Rolls Royce comes from the last names of its founders, Henry Royce and Charles rolls. The company was initially formed in 1904 to produce cars and car engines. In 1914 it also produced its first aircraft engine, as the company expanded in 1971 it became a PLC, the company was then split into two and sold to a BMW company that is now known as Rolls Royce motor cars LTD. Rolls Royce PLC retained the right of its trademarks so it can use it to operate in the markets it does. Rolls Royce has invested a sufficient amount of money into research n development of its products and technology it uses to produce them. It also invests somewhat  £300 million a year on capital projects. In recent events Rolls Royce was awarded a contract by the ministry of defence to supply those engines for their aircrafts for the next five years, they also secured more than $1 billion worth of orders from an recent air show. b) Information required to aid managers. Managers need to plan ahead they require important information to enable them to run the day to day and future operations of the company. Depending on where your company stands in the economic market and its needs at that particular time it wants to be able to sift through information selecting what is relevant and applying it to the company. Rolls Royce understands how important it is for management data as this coupled with their knowledge and expertise helps them to maximise their operational expertise. Rolls Royce needs information such as income, expenditure and capital employed to be able to plan and prepare budgets for the future this information is very important to Rolls Royce as for example it can help them to work out any repair costs to engines being produced and how many extra components that maybe needed. Forecast is very important for Rolls Royce, as it can help them predict how many contracts they may receive and what companies to target in certain circumstances for example wars are predicted, this means the demand for military aircrafts will increase this will aid Rolls Royce to keep up with changing economic environments. Information such as pricing is also very important to Rolls Royce as they are the second largest company supplying engines to the aviation market they need to be able to set prices ahead of their competitors so they can win large contracts to stay in the game. Feedback from customers is very important not just from the customers Rolls Royce provides to but even to the extent of feedback from the public for example; emirates airlines customers expected more leg room in their planes, not only this the airline through research predicted more first class passengers if there planes where designed with more room and better bathroom facilities for the high class passengers. All this information could help Rolls Royce design and produce larger planes which require larger more complicated engines not only this it could set a new trend of better travel. 2. Management accounting techniques are necessary to run a business effectively. These techniques primarily affect costs and prices within the corporation. I. Budgeting A budget is developed to plan for the future. A company as big as Rolls Royce needs a master budget to predict costs and revenues for the year. Budgets can also be used to control stock levels, predict the amount of staff required on particular projects and how many hours they are required to work. These budgets can be compared with financial statements at the year end to see how consistent they have been in maintaining the budget and targets. Finally, budgets should include funds for investment opportunities, so when these opportunities arise Rolls Royce can take swift action for example Rolls Royce receives an order of 100 engines from an airline to be able to carry out such an order budgeting can help predict how much it may cost to produce these engines not only this but the number of new staff required. II. Benefits As I mentioned budgets can provide objectives and goals. These can motivate people to perform effectively, especially if the workforce was asked to contribute when the budget was set. Budgets can also force managers to make accurate use of Rolls Royces capital. Ultimately, Rolls Royce can organise the organisation because the budget affects all departments not just one due to business activities existing throughout the company. III. Limitation Budgets can reduce motivation in the workforce at Rolls Royce because staff will be under pressure to maintain targets of the budgets. Effects such as these result in stressful staff which may lead to them taking sick leave. Therefore, Rolls Royce will be short staffed in certain situations. A major issue that may arise due to budgets is that of conflict. Conflict can be good and bad in a workforce. In the case of Rolls Royce there might be departments arguing about unfair resources allocation, which is bad conflict. Therefore, if targets are not met, departments will blame each other and this will result in more conflict and a poor organisational culture. Budgets can encourage managers to overestimate costs so that they are not blamed if there is any overspending. Rolls Royce could lose out on lucrative deals if they do not budget for investment opportunities. b: I. Standard Costing Standard costing sets levels of costs and revenues which ought to be achievable when reasonable levels of performance are used, together with efficient working practices, to manufacture a product†. (Harrison, 1998:228) This management technique is very useful for Rolls Royce because they produce their own Engines. This costing method compares predetermined costs of products with actual costs incurred. Rolls Royce can calculate many variances, such as material, labour and overheads. The materials variance will show Rolls Royce how well they use their materials and how cheap they are purchasing materials. E.g. Rolls Royce budget to purchase 10,000kg of materials at  £2.00 per kg totalling to  £20,000, but really purchase 10,000kg at  £1.50 per kg totalling to  £15,000, there is a  £5000 favourable variance. This means that the purchase price of the materials was cheaper than expected. The labour variance will show the rate being paid to workers, and how efficiently the employees have been working. Finally, the overhead variances will show Rolls Royce the difference between overhead rates charged and budgeted on production. II. Benefits By setting standards Rolls Royce can identify weaknesses in the manufacturing system. This will allow them to rectify problems and produce effectively. Setting standards will also motivate people to maintain targets. If targets are not being met managers will be encouraged to review methods to reduce costs. This method represents the correct cost of a product and can inspire managers and employees to improve from year to year on saving costs. III. Limitations To have a well maintained system it will be costly for Rolls Royce but will be worthwhile. Due to prices changing frequently because of inflation, the system will need to be updated frequently which can be time consuming and therefore distracts managers/employees from production. If targets are not achieved, employees can lose motivation and this could affect the performance of the workforce. c) I. Pricing One of the most crucial decisions a company must make is the price of a product. Two main features that must be considered when setting a price on a product is the cost and revenue maximisation. There are three pricing methods; cost based pricing, going rate, and pricing policies. There are various methods of applying cost based pricing, but the most relevant for Rolls Royce is considering total costs. This method covers a profit margin and the cost of the product. This is very important to Rolls Royce as they are not the first largest company providing power systems to the aviation market by setting a price which is lower than GE Aviation its competitor they may be able to attract more contracts for example if GE Aviation Sold 20 engines at $20million Rolls Royce could sell the same amount of engines for $19.5 Million helping them achieve more sales and attract more customers. II. Benefits. Rolls Royce can benefit from cost plus pricing by many ways. Firstly, managers can set a mark up to their desire, there is no fixed limit on mark up but it must be reasonable and competitive. Baxter and Oxenfeldt (1961) state, cost plus pricing â€Å"offer a means by which plausible prices can be found with ease and speed, no matter how many products the firm handles†. (Drury, 2004:432) Finally, if all firms in the market have similar mark up and cost structures to Rolls Royce, there will be price stability, which is good for customers. Rolls Royce can benefit from the going rate because customers will buy from them due to their reputation as they operate in four different markets providing power system even though competitors will have the same price. Loss leader pricing is useful for Rolls Royce because when customers are attracted by a low price of aircraft or engine, it is almost certain that consumers will purchase a higher quantity of these systems. This compensates for the low mark up as more items are sold. III. Limitations. The main limitation of cost plus pricing is that the demand for the product is not taken into account. The going rate on products can be difficult to compare with competitors because; some companies might have lower production costs than others. Using a loss leader strategy to sell items can cause problems if you dont sell all the stock. If this occurs, prices can only be reduced further to clear out remaining stock, which subsequently leads to further losses. d) I. Long Term Decisions (Investment Appraisal) Rolls Royce will need to use investment appraisal techniques to decide whether certain investments will be worthwhile, e.g. supplying 20 Airbus A330 jets to air china. The most convenient method for these examples would be ‘payback. Payback is, â€Å"The time required for the cash inflows from a capital investment project to equal the cash outflows†. (Lucey, 2002:352) E.g. supplying air china 20 airbus A330 jets will cost  £500 million, and the turnover is  £100 million per year, therefore the payback period is 5 years. This method can also be used to decide between two investments, e.g. supplying Air China 20 Airbus A330 or supplying Singapore airlines 30 airbus A330. Depending on the payback period resulting from projected inflows and outflows, the company can decide which airline to supply too. The best choice will be the one that has the quickest payback period. II. Benefits. Payback is the most simple investment appraisal technique to calculate. This will be good for Rolls Royce when swift decisions are required. This method will be easy to understand at all levels of the company. Another benefit of this method is that it will prevent cash flow problems because money is recovered as soon as possible. III. Limitations. The major limitation of payback is that once the initial investment has been recovered, all future cash flows are ignored. This method also assumes that if the payback period is long the investment will not be successful. Hence, if Rolls Royce decides to supply engines to air china instead of Singapore airlines there will be a gradual payback period, does that mean the investment will not be successful? Finally, this method does not account for time value of money. Therefore, an investment now could be worth more in ten years. Read more: http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/accounting/rolls-royce-plc.php#ixzz2LvPZSk6S

Risk Assessment And Treatment Of Paedophiles Criminology Essay

Risk Assessment And Treatment Of Paedophiles Criminology Essay An essential aspect of dealing with paedophiles, for the government and the public as well, is risk assessment. This means calculating the probability of the occurrence of a harmful behavior and its impact on the target and all that will be affected (Kemshall, 2001). The assessment is based in observing and evaluating the factors that are indicators of the likeliness of offending or re offending as well as those propensities that endure in known or probable offenders. There are two approaches to risk assessment: the actuarial, a statistical calculation of probabilities, and the clinical, based on the observation of factors that proved to have resulted in sex offences. Actuarial methods The most well established scales of actuarial tools are: The Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offence Recidivism (RRASOR) Static 99 The Risk Matrix 2000 (RM 2000) and The Sex Offence Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG). The RRASOR (Grubin, 1998) comprises of the evaluation of prior sexual arrests age targeting male victims relation of the victims to the offender. RRASOR succeeds in identifying large groups of low risk offenders with low probability of recidivism and small groups of high risk offenders with high probability of recidivism. Static 99 is a combination of RRASOR and SACJ and considers static risk factors. It has a strong validity for male sex offenders who have been already served in prison. The items of Static 99 are: male victims never married offences that didnt involve contact victims that are unrelated victims that are strangers other sex offences other than sexual current types of violence more than 4 sentencing dates age that vary between 18 and 24.9 years. The Prison, Probation and Police Services in England and Wales use the Risk Matrix 2000. Its uniqueness compared to the other tools is that it can be used for whichever type of violence, sexual or non sexual. The RM 2000 has two stages. Stage 1 age at the commencement of risk number of appearances in court for sex offence related issues number of appearances in court for other offences than sexual Evaluation of these factors leads in placement in four groups: low, medium, high or very high risk. Stage 2 history of offences against male victims history of stranger sexual offence victim history of non contact sexual offences lack of long term intimate relationship If any subject has one of these factors, moves up one group on the previous ranking. If all four factors are present, the subject moves two groups upwards. The Sex Offence Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG) was developed in Canada by a sample of inmates of a high secure psychiatric hospital. It is used widely to predict violence committed by sexual offenders but it is also quite popular on non psychiatric offenders. It comprises of 14 items: living with biological parents until the age of 16 maladjustment in elementary school history of alcohol related problems evidence of sustained intimate relationship criminal activity with absence of violence criminal activity with violence prior convictions regarding sexual offences convicted sexual offences against girls under 14 years failure in achieving conditional release age at index offence personality disorder criteria from DSM-III are met schizophrenia criteria from DSM III are met evident deviant sexual preferences evident psychopathy. Clinical methods Clinical methods are conducted in psychiatric hospitals by interviewing and evaluating the responses of known sex offenders. They are not considered as reliable as the actuarial methods, yet they can provide structured behavioural rating scales as aid to the actuarial tools (Kemshall, 2001). Clinical methods can estimate successfully the impact of environmental factors on harmful behavior. Clinical methods can be categorized in unstructured and structured methods (Shaw, 2011). The psychoanalytic approach proposed by the unstructured model relies heavily on the human factor and so, it is considered to be outdated and highly subjective. On the other hand, the structured models are well respected and, subsequently, used as they combine psychoanalysis with statistical tools. The structured clinical methods that are most frequently used are: Psychopathy Checklist Revised (RCL-R) Historical, Clinical, Risk 20 (HCR 20) Sexual Violence Risk 20 (SVR 20) Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY). Managing risk In order to manage the risk posed to society by sex offenders there have been established agencies all over the United Kingdom. For risk management to e effective there has to be a solid information base and strong coordination between all the participants involved in the task of control and prevention of sex offences. It is an ongoing procedure that must be kept up to speed with the developments, apply new strategies and measure the efficacy of the actions taken. In Scotland the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) has been established since the Management of Offenders Act 2005. The aim of MAPPA is to aid the work of criminal justice organizations in association with social services, so as they can reduce the acts of sex offenders and prevent recidivism of know offenders (MAPPA Annual Report 2009/2010). In England and Wales the Probation Service uses the Offender Assessment System to estimate the likelihood of re offending and re conviction. The Offender Assessment System uses the gathered information to alert the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). MAPPA was established under the umbrella of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Treatment of paedophiles Since the causes of paedophilia are yet unknown, it is a difficult task to determine the right course of treatment. At the moment, as there is no cohesive approach for the definition of paedophilia or its causes, there is a lack of the necessary consistency to the corresponding actions in regard of treating paedophiles as well. It is open to debate whether paedophiles exhibit mental disorder and if they are in need of treatment or their actions are of a sane person and are in need of punishment (Gordon Grubin, 2004). However, the main common goal for all the approaches of treatment is to reduce the danger of recidivism (Perkins et al, 1998). Treatment of paedophiles has changed its course many times over the years. The surgical castration(Perkins et al, 1998) that was used as a means of treating paedophiles and other convicted sex offenders, was abandoned by the 70s (Gordon Grubin, 2004), as hormonal therapy was gaining ground. Hormonal treatment included giving oestrogens but had high rates of side effects, such as thrombosis of carcinogenesis. Oestrogens gave their place to cyproterone acetate and medroxy progesterone acetate (Gordon Grubin, 2004). The drug treatment managed to reduce recidivism as only 15% of the users relapsed as opposed to the 68% of the non users (Perkins et al, 1998).Currently, dynamic psychotherapy is widely used for sex offenders (Gordon Grubin, 2004). The first step towards treatment is for the sex offenders to admit to their guilt. This is important as the treatment will try to persuade the offender to understand and empathize with the victim, while the psychological and physiological characteristics of paedophilia will be quelled. However, those who do not admit guilt can still be included in the treatment, although it will be an even more demanding task. At the same time, monitoring high risk factors and using a support system can avert re offending behavior (Hanson Harris, 2000). Most of the attempts in treating paedophiles involve the restoration of the cognitive process. The distortion of cognition is considered to be a coping mechanism, that the offenders tend to develop before or after they offend (Sheldon Howitt, 2007). The cognitive behavioural therapy is used to help paedophiles find a way to avoid sexual arousal from abnormal situations (Perkins et al, 1998). What is necessary for those who provide the treatment is to understand that each individual sex offender has different treatment needs and that a combined methods approach is more likely to be successful. The Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) is a well established programmed of treatment for sex offenders and is widely used around the world. It is being managed by the Prison Offending Behaviour Programmes Unit and has been developed by the British Prison Service. The most significant criteria, SOTP is based upon, are application of treatment methods that have proved to be effective, an empirically based model and treatment in accordance to the severity of each case (Perkins et al, 1998). Reintegration of Paedophiles Although still in a small scale, there have been schemes towards reintegrating released paedophiles. Starting by forming and application in Canada and the United States, schemes, such as the Stop It Now Program, started to be applied also in the United Kingdom and Ireland (McAlinden, 2006). The Stop It Now Program offers a professional assistance to those who have offended, those who are close to offending and those who suspect that there has been foul play in their environment. The most widely used program in reintegration of sex offenders is the Circles of Support and Accountability that has been running in England for a few years. In this program the offender is the core of a circle of volunteers. These volunteers help the offender in solving practical job and boarding related issues. At the same time they hold the offender accountable for his actions and behavior in general, while at the time they are obligated to report any suspicion of re offending to the authorities. Although the pilots are ready to be executed, they are not yet active. In some areas the difficulties lay in funding the project and in other cases it is extremely difficult to find volunteers (Armstrong et al, 2008). Due to the obstacles these schemes keep finding suggestions are made that the particular programs or other initiatives could work under the umbrella of inter agency risk assessment and management procedures (McAlinden, 2006). In addition to the pre existing policies, this kind of schemes can help the goal of making re integration more effective. Public disclosure High profile cases, such as the Sarah Payne abduction and murder by a known paedophile, resulted in the name and shame campaign from the media and especially the News of the World. The campaign started with the initiative of the newspaper (Moyes, 2000), promoting the naming of all convicted paedophiles, and received much attention from the public and the authorities as well. The publics wishes, accentuated by the media pressure, for disclosure for all sex offenders were met by the government to a pilot scheme where anyone could report someone else with access without supervision to their child. The scheme was implemented by Home Office in 2009 in four police areas in England and one area in Scotland and by 2010 it was set to run nationally. However, as other schemes, it didnt find the anticipated participation (Kemshall et al, 2010), pointing out in a divergence between what the government provided and what the public actually demanded for (Kemsall Weaver, 2012). The reasons for this were multiple. Primarily, the public perceives these kinds of schemes, run through the police, as an increase in policing the everyday life, when they should be assumed by other agencies. Moreover, they are thought as a way to push the responsibility onto the public instead of the proper authorities (McCartan, 2010). It has also been established (McCartan, 2010) that the public views sex offenders as a complex issue, with child sex offenders being the most dangerous, so there is the need of differentiation in disclosure schemes. Publicizing the schemes is an important tool for the successful implementation of them. They are to be explicitly explained to the public so as to be efficient (Kemshall Weaver, 2012). In addition to this, public needs evidence that the schemes are actually beneficiary and result in child protection (Kemshall et al, 2010).

Eat Pray Love Moving Metaphysical Journey English Literature Essay

Eat Pray Love Moving Metaphysical Journey English Literature Essay This paper considers the contentious space between self-affirmation and self-preoccupation in Elizabeth Gilberts popular travel memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. Following the surveillance of the female confessant, the female traveller has recently come under close scrutiny and public suspicion. She is accused of walking a fine line between critical self-insight and obsessive self-importance and her travel narratives are branded as accounts of navel gazing that are less concerned with what is seen than with who is doing the seeing. These tales of inward journeys, which are typical of New Age travel writing, necessitate thinking about representations of the other, as they call into question the conflicting aspects of authorship, privacy and the subjectivity of truth. The recurring emergence of these themes in womens travel not only reflects an absorbing feminist interest in questions of identity and existence, but also highlight continued anxieties about ontological questions such as Who am I? and What am I to believe? In reading these questions against the backdrop of womens travel, the possibility arises that the culture of narcissism is increasingly read as a female discursive practice. Following the backlash against Elizabeth Gilberts best-selling travel memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, the polar responses to the text from its female readership exemplify this problematic. The novel, which has been praised by some as the ultimate guide to balanced living and dismissed by others as self-serving junk, poses questions about the requisites in Western culture for being a female traveller and for telling a story that focuses primarily on the self. At present, womens travel writing is intersecting new spatial hybridities that have not been crossed before. The genre of travel is still considered a suspect site of exclusionary practices in which masculinist ideology has dictated the formal and epistemological terms of the genre. The genre of self-help, however, is increasingly read as a female discursive practice that is more concerned with ontological questions of being. What we are seeing increasingly, however, is not a separation of the two, but a blending and stretching of the rules and conventions of both. The result of this fusion is the emergence of new kind of hybrid writing, which one academic from Park University calls, the middled-aged narrative (Wood 2006). The middle-aged travel narrative follows the traditional quest of the male hero who leaves home as a rite of passage, except the prototype of the protagonist has changed. The narrator is now a restless female who is writing at mature age and usually, in the midst or aftermath of an existential crisis. This crisis is often knotted in the restraints of domestic duty. Her narrative, which emphasises a desire for personal growth and balance, employs travel as the register for this self-realisation. She typically embarks on a travel adventure that is based on undermining the decisions she has made in the past, in an attempt to facilitate activism and change in the future (ibid). The obvious implication of this, as Wood explains, is that if gender is a performance which defines identity, then identity can be changed, or redefined by new performances that may or may not still have the same gendered meaning (2006, 4). On leaving home, for example, the female travel writer assumes two positions that have traditionally been cast as male roles-the traveller and the writer. While travelling, she may perform multiple roles in an attempt to resist the self that has been previously imposed upon her. In doing so, she attempts to develop an autonomous female identity, and then, to give voice to that process afterwards. In considering this trend, and its social and cultural implications, it is difficult to move past the recent global success of Elizabeth Gilberts travel memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. At the time of writing, the book has sold more than 8 million copies world-wide on a seemingly simple premise: One Womans Search for Everything in Italy, India and Indonesia (Gilbert 2006). The memoir, which spent 155 weeks on the number one spot of the New York Times bestseller list, found its success on the story of a once happily married woman, who reeling from a contentious divorce, takes off around the world in search of what Bitch magazine calls an international safari of self-actualization (2010, par 5). The work, which has been translated into thirty languages, has spawned multiple lines of Eat, Pray, Love merchandise, including goat pillows, prayer shawls (which retail at $350 dollars), a Republic of Tea blend, a digital reader which comes preloaded with the book, a collection of fragrances and a fas hion line by designer Sue Wong. The film adaptation, directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Julia Roberts, opened in August this year to mostly unfavourable reviews. The film also has its own official travel partners, namely Lonely Planet (who sell pre-planned Eat, Pray, Love travel packages) and STA Travel, who advertise various trips to the cities featured in the film. For high-end travellers, there are also invitations from more luxurious tour companies, such as Micato Safaris Inspiration Tour, which encourages Eat, Pray, Love pilgrims or true devotees, to trace Gilberts steps in India for just under $20 000. The memoir then, which has become a global business phenomenon as well as a tourist mecca, appeals to a readership that is just as interested in self as with other. In the opening chapters, the novels narrator, Liz, a professional American woman in her mid-thirties, begins to question the performative roles that have defined her. She tells the reader, I dont want to be married anymore. I dont want to live in this big house. I dont want to have a baby (Gilbert 2006, 10). She explains that she is tired of being the primary breadwinner, the housekeeper, the social coordinator, the dog-walker, the wife and the soon-to-be-mother (ibid, 11). Similar to Rita Golden-Gelmans travel narrative, Tales of a Female Nomad, Gilbert also opens with divorce (Wood 2006, 8). She writes, On September 9, 2001, I met with my husband face-to-face for the last time, not realizing that every future meeting would necessitate lawyers between us, to mediate. We had dinner in a restaurant. I tried to talk about our separation, but all we did was fight. He let me know that I was a liar and a traitor and that he hated me and would never speak to me again. Two mornings later I woke up after a troubled nights sleep to find that hijacked airplanes were crashing into the two tallest buildings of my city, as everything invincible that had once stood together now became a smoldering avalanche of ruin. I called my husband to make sure he was safe and we wept together over this disaster, but I did not go to him. During that week, when everyone in New York City dropped animosity in deference to the larger tragedy at hand, I still did not go back to my husband. Which is how we both knew it was very, very over (Gilbert 2006, 5). Newly single, though not for long, Gilbert brands herself as a woman on the brink of becoming a self-governing individual. She decides she would like a spiritual teacher and constructs a fantasy about what it would be like to have one. She writes, I imagined that this radiantly beautiful Indian woman would come to my apartment a few evenings a week and we would sit and drink tea and talk about divinity, and she would give me reading assignments and explain the significance of the strange sensations I was feeling during meditation (ibid, 7). From the outset then, Gilbert articulates a desire to use (or misuse) travel as the vehicle for what she believes is her search for spiritual fulfilment. She decides she will spend a year travelling in three countries and goes onto establish an explicit reason for visiting each-Italy (to explore the art of pleasure), India (to explore the art of devotion) and Indonesia (to learn the art of balancing both). It was only later, Gilbert writes, after admitting this dream, that I noticed the happy coincidence that all these countries began with the letter I (ibid, 10). In Gilberts case, this constant reference to the e/motional I is particularly telling of the preoccupations of New Age Travel. Increasingly, women are using travel to pose questions such as, Who am I? Why am I here? and What am I to believe? These questions not only reflect an absorbing feminist interest in questions of identity, but also highlight continued anxieties about a collective female experience, which Bitch Magazi ne describes as wealthy, whiney and white (2010, par 5). The hybrid text that arises is more concerned with a search for self than with a search for an authentic travel experience. That is, the travel writing is less preoccupied with what is seen than with who is doing the seeing. What we are finding repeatedly in the work of Western women travel writers, is a resurgence in the obsession with the self which has less interest in the other. At its worst, this kind of writing can be self-obsessive, self-important and self-serving, but at its best it can create a richness and intimacy which is lacking in more objective travel texts. The middle-aged travel narrative, in particular, focuses on travel as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. It is rarely, if ever, framed as an objective investigation into an unknown culture. As the travel that emerges then, is imagined rather than reported, and creative rather than journalistic, the inward looking eye becomes more important than the outward. The central problematic then, in many books sold as travel memoirs, is that they actually minimalise and even dilute the travels they seek to voice. In Eat, Pray, Love, this usually happens in one of two ways. Either the place Elizabeth Gilbert ventures to (for example, the Balinese village of Ubud) is romanticised as an exotic other, or it is reduced, in the case of Naples and Mumbai, to a backdrop in her personal dramas. As a result, the memoir pushes the boundaries between self-insight and self-preoccupation. The consequence of this pushing is that the female travel writer has come under close scrutiny and supervision. She is dismissed as a pulp producer, a pawn under industry pressures and an over-exuberant performer whose work emerges, in what Jonathan Raban calls, literatures red-light district (1987). The consequence of this surveillance for the travel memoir, is that its reception draws polar responses from the reading public. Since its debut, the novel has been accused of being self-absorbed and sexist, and even branded by the New York Post as narcissistic New Age reading, curated by [Oprah] Winfrey (Callahan 2007, par 13). According to Karlyn Crowley, in The Oprahfication of American Culture, Winfrey is a mainstream spokesperson for this kind of writing, as she marries the intimacy and individuality of the New Age movement with the adulation and power of a 700 Club-like ministry (2010, 35). In recent interviews with guests, Oprah announces to her audience, Live your best life! She promotes the message again on her website, in her magazine and during her book club. But according to some critics, much of Oprahs advice actually moves women away from political, economic, and emotional agency by promoting materialism and dependency masked as empowerment (Barnes-Brown and Sanders 2010, par 3). Much of the backlash against the book then, is tied up in what readers perceive as Gilberts own privilege, as well as annoyances they have with her everyday travel complaints and her preoccupation with sacrificing everything for David-a New York actor who she dates after divorcing her husband. On a trip to Bali, in which Gilbert is commissioned to write a story about Yoga vacations, she is invited to visit a ninth-generation medicine man. Gilbert, spends significant narrative time grappling over what she will ask him. She writes, Our Yoga teach had told us in advance that we could each bring one question or problem to the medicine man, and he would try to help us with our troubles. Id been thinking for days of what to ask him. My initial ideas were so lame. Will you make my husband give me a divorce? Will you make David be sexually attracted to me again? (Gilbert 2006, 9). Later, Gilbert admits, I was rightly ashamed of myself for these thoughts: who travels all the way around the world to meet an ancient medicine man in Indonesia, only to ask him to intercede in boy trouble? (ibid). Many readers (who obviously agreed with Gilbert on the matter) voiced their own complaints online. Who does this woman think she is? one blogger asks, Anyone should be so lucky to eat a pizza in Naples off their publishers pay check. If she thinks she has something to complain about, writes another, (under the alias Eat, Pray, Shove), then she should try raising a child alone. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gilbert told how she has stopped going online to read her reviews. All you end up doing is defending yourself to people who you dont know, she said. Two weeks later youre on a lovely walk in the woods with your dog and youre having an argument in your head with somebody from Amazon.com (Valby 2010, par 6). Perhaps the most gender-specific retaliation to Eat, Pray, Love is Andrew Gottliebs travel memoir, Drink, Play, [emailprotected]#k, which sold itself on the premise of One Mans Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas and Thailand (Gottlieb 2008). In the book, Bob Sullivan, a jilted husband, embarks on a quest to find meaning amongst the glitz and glamour of Vegas, rediscover his passion for drinking in Ireland, and finally, to experience the hedonistic pleasure palaces of Thailand. As the blurb reads, After a life time of playing it safe, Mr. Sullivan finally follows his heart and lives out everyones deepest fantasies. For who among us hasnt dreamed of standing stark naked, head upturned, and mouth agape beneath a cascading torrent of Guinness Stout? What could be more exhilarating than losing every penny you have because Charlie Weiss went for a meaningless last-second field goal? And what sensate creature could ever doubt that the greatest pleasure known to man can be found in a leaky bamboo shack filled with glassy-eyed, bruised Asian hookers? Bob Sullivan has a lot to teach us about life. Lets just pray we have the wisdom to put aside our preoccupations and listen (ibid). Others, however, praise Eat, Pray, Love, as an everyday womans guide to balanced living. A shared message that many female readers seem to distil from the novel is that a woman should not have to apologise for writing a travel story that is primarily about herself. As one bloggers explains, Gilbert has written about what she feels is the most important and defining time of her life, and millions of women like me, have found it useful and stirring. Despite this sense of belonging, or collective appreciation, Gilbert constantly wonders throughout the novel, how she will fit into some sort of community after she returns from her travels. Much of Gilberts angst seems to originate from a sense of alienation from both herself and those around her. As her mother explains to her, You have to understand how little I was raised to expect that I deserved in life, honey. Remember-I come from a different time and place than you do (Gilbert 2006, 29). According to Wood, Gilbert then attempts to answer the difficult questions of her life with the knowledge that, unlike Cinderella, she can choose not to go the ball (2006, 11). It seems her struggle is, essentially, one of choice. In India, she finally finds a place for herself, not at a physical location, but in language-or more specifically, in the Sanskrit word antevasin which Gilbert translates as one who lives at the border (ibid, 70). She writes, When I read this description of the antevasin, I got so excited I gave a little bark of recognition. Thats my word, baby!Im just a slippery antevasin-betwixt and between-a student on the ever-shifting border near the wonderful, scary forest of the new (ibid). In a recent interview with the Borders Book Club, Gilbert also describes how many women have attempted to follow her journey, literally. Every once and a while, I get a letter from somebody who says, Okay, so I went to Italy, I found the gelataria where you ate that gelato and then I went to Naples and I found that pizzeria, and I had the pizza, and now I want to go to India. Can you tell me the name of your Ashram? (2010) This idea that happiness can be packaged through anothers travel experience is not without consequence. Should readers of Eat, Pray, Love fail, the genre holds them accountable for not being ready to get serious, not wanting it enough, or not putting themselves first (Barnes-Brown and Sanders 2010, par 7). Gilbert herself seems to acknowledge this, and affirm it, with a proclamation of what she calls The Physics of the Quest. If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared-most of all-to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourselfthen the truth will not be withheld from you. Whether or not the book is the ultimate spiritual guide to balanced living or just self-serving junk, the central question that the memoir poses is perhaps more important than its reception. What is the requisite for being a female traveller and for telling a story that is focussed primarily, perhaps even extravagantly, on the self?

My Spirit Is Christian, My Logic is Not :: Religion Faith Religious Essays Personal Narrativ

My Spirit Is Christian, My Logic is Not If I assume God exists, I must also assume the existence of extraterrestrials, unicorns, dragons, and so on. It is a cold, lightless and bitter feeling to think that death is the very end. Be that as it may, this is the feeling that I struggle with almost everyday of my life. I wish I could honestly with all my heart say that God does exist, but I cannot. I long for answers to my nightly prayers, but there never are any. I yearn for a peace within my spiritual being that I can never find. For numerous months I have been going to the "Christian Bible" for answers. The truth is, the more I peruse the Bible, the more I accept it. However, I still question the many contradictions between the Old and the New Testaments and at times find its writing deceptive and improbable. Do I have no faith, or have I just not been conditioned? I was not brought up in a religious family. I never attended church, never prayed, and never talked about the mere existence of God. My claim is that if one man was able to Nazify a whole country, just imagine how parents can manipulate their child's actions, understand ing, and, most easily, their beliefs. I reach out to God because there is something within me that cries out for satisfaction, for hope, something only God can fulfill. However, it is the incomprehensible stories in the Bible and the practices of religion that keep me away from spiritual completion. What inspired me to even open the Bible were the words of a close friend who two years ago told me, " The Bible might be a letter your father has written to you. Don't you think you ought to at least read it?" However, after having looked through the Bible, I have found a curious piece of prejudice in my heart against God's words that needs an explanation. I have a hard time believing a superior and loving power exists above us when there is so much atrociousness in this world. Bad things happen to good people: an accident they couldn't prevent, an illness they couldn't avoid, a misfortune they didn't foresee. I do not believe that is God; I believe that's life. Some are poor, some are rich, some are white, some are black, and some live great lives, and others come to the point of suicide.

Technology is Good :: Computer Science Technology

Technology is scientific developments that aid in problem solving and extend human capabilities. Its purpose is to help mankind, but often it has a negative effect. Guns were developed as a tool to protect oneself by killing the enemy. However, they?re often used for murder and on innocent people. Many more people die from the gun than are protected by it. Is the gun something that is harming the human race? Many argue that it is ?people who kill people?, not guns. Even if there weren?t guns, people would kill each other with different means. Although, the invention of something decidedly a weapon cannot be viewed as positive. Leaps and bounds have been made in the medicinal area of technology. Inventions of differing medicines and drugs have promoted the health of millions of people and even saved many of our lives. We no longer fear that influenza will be the death of us, nor any epidemics like the bubonic plague. This does not include third-world countries, which have been neglected and left behind. Not to mention that not all drugs turned out to be good. Many have horrible side effects and have been labeled ?bad? such as marijuana, cocaine, and LSD. Thousands of people are hooked to the stuff in ever downward-spiraling addictions. The internet is a wonderful communication network that connects the world and gives anyone access to billions of faucets of information anytime! With no effort at all you can talk to someone on the other side of the globe or buy something quite easily from an online store. The negative side, however, is that it can be dangerous, too. With lurking viruses and spy ware, are people out to steal your identity always looming. A great trafficker of porn and tons of false information, the internet can be highly addictive. The piracy rates have soared with free music downloads and software and such. Finally, one inarguably good invention is the refrigerator. It stores food like a cabinet and cools it to keep it from rotting days after it normally would. So, it saves food and garbage and money.

Organizing, Researching, and Illustrating your Materials Essay

1. Last month, four clients complained the Roanoke Branch due to low quality of work produced. 2. Three months ago, Roanoke Branch’s Art Director and Account Executive left the agency. Also, three graphic designers and four copywriters wanted to quit due to internal problems. 3. The branch accepts new clients without any form of evaluation that may affect new accounts of the workload that the branch produces. 4. The administrative group is being insensitive to the needs of its employees in terms of their benefits and good performance. The branch became focus on the internal problem of the company that manifest within their production of work. Facts and Causes: The administrative group us being insensitive to the needs of its employees in terms of their benefits and good performance. †¢ As what Mr. Forest said in his elaboration of the internal problem of the branch, some of the employees (especially those who are the branch’s best producers) left the company. †¢ Based on the surveys that were conducted, the employees were not given good benefits and opportunities once they have good performance. †¢ The most important thing in the company is profit and not on how to manage both employees and clients. Impact and Effects: Because of the company’s insensitivity to the needs of its employees, the quality of the production declined from 89% to 63% quarterly. It was seen in the survey that the employees could not have their good performances due to internal problem of the company that caused them trouble in both professional and financial problems. In terms of professional problems the case increases to 78% this year from 43% last year. When it comes to financial problems, the annual production went down to $167,000 in 2006 from $256,000 in 2005. Because of this, both professional and financial stability are having trouble due to employee and client production and communication. Solutions: 1. The administration must conduct a new philosophy when it comes to their employees’ needs and benefits because the company lives because of the employees who produce the works. 2. There must be a quarterly reviews and inspections in order to discuss the situation and problems of the company so that it could solve the problem immediately. 3. The administration should also provide any liable agreements and justifications to any form of action that they wanted to do especially if it could affect their employees to avoid circumstances and misunderstandings between them and their employees. Illustration The probable illustration that can be use in this research is table in order to compare and contrast the difference of production and cost of production from the recent years to the present year along with the employees’ performance and circulation. Work Cited Robert G. Turner. Organizing, Researching, and Illustrating your Material.

President Andrew Jackson Vetoes Bank Bill

Ernesto Hernandez Rodriguez Deacon Orr Economics October 9, 2012 President Andrew Jackson Vetoes Bank Bill—July 10, 1832 President Andrew Jackson veto against the bank bill is truly a communication to Congress but it is also like a political manifesto. He states that the privileges possessed by the bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. In McCuloch v Maryland, the court turned to the â€Å"necessary† and â€Å"proper† clause which grants Congress enumerated powers which include the power to regulate collect taxes.President Jackson explains the necessity in regards to the functions that the bank is trying to fulfill: The â€Å"degree of its necessity,† involving all the details of a banking institution, is a question exclusively for legislative consideration (Jackson). It is not question for the judicial department. As stated in the Constitution the one that has the jo b to determine what is â€Å"necessary† in cases where the law is not prohibited or really calculated, is the legislative department. President Jackson gives major points in describing the reason why the bank was not â€Å"necessary† and â€Å"proper†.At first the bank was established by Congress because of the power to determine what was necessary. But in the years 1816 and 1832 Congress proposed and took away from their successors the power of establishing banks for twenty years and then for fifteen years more. This contradiction that Congress did of bartering away or divesting itself from the powers is unconstitutional because of using discretion upon itself; Congress was limiting the discretion of their successors. And the Constitution does not grant Congress the power to inflict this in itself. The bank affected the rights of the Sates in a subversive way.It gave up, surrendered the right of the States to tax the banking institutions. Under the operation of this act resident stockholders and citizens would be taxed 1 per cent. Stock held in the States would be subject to taxation, meanwhile stocks from the branches and those foreign stockholders would have been exempted from this burden. Their annual profits would be 1 per cent more than the citizen stockholders. As annual dividends of the bank estimated at 7 per cent, the stock would be worth 10 or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to citizens of the United States.Another important aspect was the benefits foreign stockholders received through this act. Not only citizens received bounty from government, more than eight millions of the stock was held by foreigners. And the bank act would not permit competition in the purchase of this monopoly. A fourth part of the stock is held by foreigners and the residue is held by a few hundredths of US citizens, chiefly of the richest class. As annual dividends of the bank estimated at 7 per cent, the stock would be worth 10 or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to citizens of the United States.Of the twenty-eight millions of private stock in the corporation, $8,405,500 was held by foreigners, mostly Great Britain. The amount of specie drawn from those States through its branches within two years was about $6,000,000. More than a half a million of this amount passes on to Europe to pay the dividends of the foreign stockholders. When by a tax on resident stockholders the stock of this bank was made worth 10 or 15 per cent more to foreigners than to residents. The bank would have sent across the Atlantic from two to five millions of specie every year to pay the bank dividends.Shockingly almost one third of foreign stock that was not represented in elections curtails the suffrage of the directors. The entire stock would have serious chances to fall into the hands of few citizen stockholders causing temptation to secure the control in their own hands by monopolizing the remaining stock. There was also a danger that a presiden t and directors would then reelect themselves from year to year without the responsibility to control manage the whole concerns of the bank. The American people would have suffered an adverse effect in many ways. This ct excludes the whole American people from competition in the purchase of this monopoly and dispose of it for many millions less than it is worth. The fourth section provision secures to the State banks a legal privilege in the Bank of the United States which is withheld from all private citizens. There was a lack of equality when paying with notes. A State bank that had notes by a particular branch could pay the dept to the Bank of the United States with those notes, but a citizen couldn’t pay with those notes but must have sold them at a discount or sent them to the branch to be cashed.This does not measure out equal justice to the high and the low, the rich and the poor. The president of the bank said that most of the State banks existed by its forbearance, t he abstention of enforcing the payment of the debt. The influence of the self elected directory which is identified with those of the foreign stockholders may become concentered in a particular interest that could affect the purity of elections and the independence of the country when it goes to war.Their influence could have been so great as to influence elections and control the affairs of the nation. Works Cited Jackson, Andrew.  «Miller Center.  » 10 de July de 1832. Miller Center. Monday October 2012. . McBride, Alex.  «pbs.  » s. f. The Supreme Court. Monday October 2012. .