Fire on Us from the Sky

Topic 1: War and Survival Question 1. Why did war come to Benson, Alepho and Benjamin's homeland? Who was fighting and why? How did the government and the rebel forces use propaganda (manipulating facts and media to achieve their goals) to further their position in the war? Why did war come to Benson, Alepho and Benjamin's homeland? In 1959, violence between the Tutsi and Hutu erupted. Hutus overthrew Tutsi rule, declared an independent republic and elected the first Hutu president, Greg wa Kayabanda. Mass killings of Tutsis occurred during the transition to Hutu rule.Who was fighting and why? The British colonists created a strict system of racial classification, the Tutsi were a superior group because they were more â€Å"white looking† The colonists believed that the Tutsi were natural rulers, so they put only Tutsis into positions of authority and discriminated against Hutus and Twa. The How did the government and the rebel forces use propaganda (manipulating facts and med ia to achieve their goals) to further their position in the war? They distributed lists of people who were to be targeted and killed.Messages of hate were broadcast over the radio, encouraging the killing of Tutsi and opponents to the Hutu regime. The messages portrayed Tutsis as evil cockroaches and rats. Question 2. What hardships did Benson, Alepho and Benjamin endure because of the war? What does the African proverb When two elephant’s fight, it is the grass that gets trampled mean to you? What hardships did Benson,Alepho, and Benjamin endure because of the War? Loosing their families, watching women get raped, their friends get killed, and just the overall affect that it causes to the brain.What does the African proverb When two elephant’s fight, it is the grass that gets trampled mean to you? It means to me that when two elephants or two powerful leaders fight, it injures the grass, or the middle and low class citizens. Question 3. What hardships did Benson, Alep ho and Benjamin want to keep going despite their horrible suffering, what coping techniques, personal attitudes, or strengths allowed each boy to survive? Which boy did you identify with most? why? Do you think you could have survived such ordeals The willingness to just survive and live, Maybe just get out of Africa maybe get a Visa to get to the United States.They tried to stick together as much as they could although they have been split up for a few years. They most likely figured that â€Å"hey i’ve made it this far, why quit† kind of attitude. I think I can relate to all of them because they are all related, I always know how my family thinks and acts in a certain situation. I do not think i would be able to survive because I do not know the land very well. And the fact that your best friend could be the one that ends up killing you. Question 1. What role did outside countries and organizations play in the war in Sudan?Should the U. S. or other countries have int ervened more or less? During the years leading up to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, international human rights groups documented and reported numerous human rights violations in Rwanda to the United Nations. Although the international community knew about the extremely brutal attacks taking place, they chose not to intervene. Indeed, the UN withdrew most of its troops and officially limited the actions of the tiny force of 450 soldiers who stayed behind, The should have intervened way more, possibly saving thousands of lives.Question 2. How were the lost boys treated by the communities and individuals they encountered on their journey? Why did people behave the way they did? How would you have treated the lost boys? They were treated like outcasts. They acted the way they did because they didn't know what the difference between right and wrong at they time they did what they thought was right in their tradition and culture. I would have treated them as my own family knowing what I kno w know about what happened in Sudan. Question 3.What role did outside countries and organizations play in the lives of Benson, Alepho and Benjamin and other refugees? What was life like in the refugee camps? Is there an international responsibility to help refugees? They played a big role in their lives, especially when it comes to giving them a place to stay. Life was hard in the camps they had little responsibility. Question 4. How did Benson, Alepho and Benjamin come to the United States? How did the elders left in the refugee camp react? Do the boys have any special responsibility ince they gained asylum? Should the U. S have given them asylum? Should we give more people asylum? They got to the United States by plane. The elders acted very plain to them The had a responsibility of taking care of each other I think the U. S. should have given them a temporary 3 month asylum. The U. S. should offer more people asylums because many of these people have no family and have no place t hey can really go. Question 1. Despite their hardships, the Lost Boys were still very much children. How do you see them grow up through the book?Can you relate to any of their experiences growing up? Any of the games they play? How do they view and interact with the opposite sex? How do their attitudes about education relate to your own? They grow up by making more adult decisions I can relate to loosing a family member for a very long time. The view the women as regular woman. Like them, I take my education very seriously, but even though it is a privilege and not a right to go to school they most likely view it as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

An Essay on Criticism

Intrigued by his essay, I wondered if what he had to say might hold true today, and whether Pope's words could/should play a part in how we judge things today. Pope's An Essay on Man is divided up into three parts. Of those three parts, two are in our textbook. Of those two parts, one is dedicated to describing how critic's criticism can be unjustified and harmful to the creator. The second part describes the birth of poor Judgment, naming pride and, from what I can tell, ignorance as the culprit parents of a poor critic. In Pope's time, the most commonly Judged works were iterative.Poems, plays, novels, and other readable sources were the mainstream source of entertainment back then. Today, we have a different type of visual media; we watch as oppose to read. TV shows, movies, and Internet videos are our main source of visual entertainment in these times. Music is also another large source of entertainment and probably an even bigger platform for Judgment and criticism if you consid er all the different genres and people's large variety of taste in music. In Lines 17-18, Pope says, â€Å"Authors are partial to their wit, ‘its true, /But are not critics to heir Judgment too? I took this to mean that while authors may not always be putting out gold or writing the next groundbreaking piece, critics arena always the ones to say what the next groundbreaking piece is, or whether it is even good or not. Critics can have biased opinions by human nature and will not like some things no matter how good they are in their own respects. In Lines 21-22 Pope says, â€Å"Nature affords at least a glimmering light,† meaning the author has some internal sense of direction with what they're doing. â€Å"The lines, though but touched faintly, are drawn right. I felt eke this meant that through informal skill and some ignorance, the creator has still managed to put out something worthwhile. Even if it IS bad, it could show some serious signs of potential. To the crea tor, it may be the best work they've ever done, but if allowed to continue creating, they may look back and wonder what the Hell made them think that was okay to call finished. I can personally relate to this because I'm in a terrible little band and I can remember writing songs that we thought were amazing, awesome, and would rock socks right off the feet of my audiences, but years eater, we don't even play those songs anymore.They are completely scrapped. We never really had any bad criticism, but along the way, we criticized ourselves decided to change direction. I'm not sure if I find criticism to be relevant today. Even back in Pope's day, a bad critic usually Just found themselves satirized in one of Pope's works. I think criticism is especially ineffective today because I think it used to be a tool people used to find what they should bother paying attention to, but now we have an almost unlimited source of entertainment outlets we can turn to that we're bound to mind somethi ng we like.I think today criticism either hurts someone's feelings or they'll Just curse you out in there head. I think it is more harmful than effective. Shelley Viscous, a life skills specialist and mind coach, says, â€Å"Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it is that, information we realize after something has already happened. We can then use that information for next time but we cannot change or alter what has happened. So criticism Just rubs salt into the wounds,† (Viscous).I think this is true because my band never had anyone tell us what we were making as good or bad, we simply evolved after saw what we were doing wasn't enough to make people interested in us. And we're still evolving. Right now we're writing songs we think are amazing, d ©J v, and I'm sure we'll once again look back and be borderline ashamed of what we're writing. I think criticism, good or bad, can tend to negatively affect humans psychologically. I'd be willing to bet that if the rankings for the King of the Beasts were dependent on psychological strength and not our ability to create and dominate, Mankind would be near the bottom.Humans are a atheistically weak race when it comes to psychological strength. You don't ever see any lions or tigers with social anxiety disorders or monkeys that are introverted or cry when they get called a loser. The dark realm humans throw themselves in when faced with criticism is called cognitive distortions. â€Å"These negative thinking styles are within psychology known as cognitive distortions. These inaccurate thoughts may seem rational and accurate but in reality they only serve to reinforce negative thinking or emotions, keeping us from feeling good about ourselves,† (Isakson).I'm not ring to act like I'm better than anyone. I know it sounds like I kind of am, but in the article Isakson lists four of the most common distortions, and I am certainly guilty on one of them. Polarize thinking is where, â€Å"you live in a universe where everything is either black-or-white, with no colors or shades of gray. You either look at yourself or others as perfect or as failures,† (Isakson). I very much do this with myself. I'm either in a state of bliss where I'm walking on sunshine, or I'm the scum of the Earth, I'm not worth the dead carcass you pass on the highway, and everyone rightly hates me.It's idiotic and one day I hope to look back on myself and wonder why I ever thought like this. All in all, I think criticism should be kept inside of people's heads. Think what you want to think, but keep it to yourself. Who are you to throw your opinion into someone's vision? That mostly goes to people who aren't professional critics. I think professional critics should have to read and re-read Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism because I feel like it does have some good insight on how to be mindful of when you're doing wrong. It's sort of like The Prince for criticism. I feel like that book fits into most situat ions.As for people trying to create something out of a vision or dream they have, I think criticism should either be ignored or lightly acknowledged. Success shouldn't be based on the opinions of the few, it should be measured by all the people that want something to do with whatever it is you're making. There's a quote I heard online once and I couldn't find where it was originally said so I won't be able to cite a source, but director Robert Rodriguez once said, â€Å"l think that everyone has at least a dozen or so bad movies in them; the sooner you get them out the better. † I relate this back to songs. An Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism Alexander Pope engraved his name in history by proving that the pen is mightier than the sword. Due to him being a Roman Catholic, he was unable to attend University, vote, or hold office. To add on to that, Pope was plagued with poor health from birth, suffering from tuberculosis of the bone. Pope wouldn't let these barricades stop him from becoming the writer he knew he could be and was encouraged by his father to be. At the age of 23, Pope wrote his first striking poetic piece, An Essay on Criticism.Intrigued by his essay, I wondered if what he had to say might hold true today, and whether Pope's words could/should play a part in how we judge things today. Pope's An Essay on Man is divided up into three parts. Of those three parts, two are in our textbook. Of those two parts, one is dedicated to describing how critic's criticism can be unjustified and harmful to the creator. The second part describes the birth of poor Judgment, naming pride and, from what I c an tell, ignorance as the culprit parents of a poor critic. In Pope's time, the most commonly Judged works were iterate.Poems, plays, novels, and other readable sources were the mainstream source of entertainment back then. Today, we have a different type of visual media; we watch as oppose to read. TV shows, movies, and Internet videos are our main source of visual entertainment in these times. Music is also another large source of entertainment and probably an even bigger platform for Judgment and criticism if you consider all the different genres and people's large variety of taste in music. In Lines 17-18, Pope says, â€Å"Authors are partial to their wit, ‘its true, /But are not critics to heir Judgment too? I took this to mean that while authors may not always be putting out gold or writing the next groundbreaking piece, critics aren't always the ones to say what the next groundbreaking piece is, or whether it is even good or not. Critics can have biased opinions by hum an nature and will not like some things no matter how good they are in their own respects. In Lines 21-22 Pope says, â€Å"Nature affords at least a glimmering light,† meaning the author has some internal sense of direction with what they're doing. â€Å"The lines, though but touched faintly, are drawn right. I felt eke this meant that through informal skill and some ignorance, the creator has still managed to put out something worthwhile. Even if it IS bad, it could show some serious signs of potential. To the creator, it may be the best work they've ever done, but if allowed to continue creating, they may look back and wonder what the Hell made them think that was okay to call finished. I can personally relate to this because I'm in a terrible little band and I can remember writing songs that we thought were amazing, awesome, and would rock socks right off the feet of my audiences, but years eater, we don't even play those songs anymore.They are completely scrapped. We nev er really had any bad criticism, but along the way, we criticized ourselves decided to change direction. I'm not sure if I find criticism to be relevant today. Even back in Pope's day, a bad critic usually Just found themselves satirized in one of Pope's works. I think criticism is especially ineffective today because I think it used to be a tool people used to find what they should bother paying attention to, but now we have an almost unlimited source of entertainment outlets we can turn to that we're bound to mind something we like.I think today criticism either hurts someone's feelings or they'll Just curse you out in there head. I think it is more harmful than effective. Shelley Viscous, a life skills specialist and mind coach, says, â€Å"Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it is that, information we realize after something has already happened. We can then use that information for next time but we cannot change or alter what has happened. So criticism Just rubs salt into the w ounds,† (Viscous).I think this is true because my band never had anyone tell us what we were making as good or bad, we simply evolved after saw what we were doing wasn't enough to make people interested in us. And we're still evolving. Right now we're writing songs we think are amazing, dJГ vi, and I'm sure we'll once again look back and be borderline ashamed of what we're writing. I think criticism, good or bad, can tend to negatively affect humans psychologically. I'd be willing to bet that if the rankings for the King of the Beasts were dependent on psychological strength and not our ability to create and dominate, Mankind would be near the bottom.Humans are a atheistically weak race when it comes to psychological strength. You don't ever see any lions or tigers with social anxiety disorders or monkeys that are introverted or cry when they get called a loser. The dark realm humans throw themselves in when faced with criticism is called cognitive distortions. â€Å"Thes e negative thinking styles are within psychology known as cognitive distortions. These inaccurate thoughts may seem rational and accurate but in reality they only serve to reinforce negative thinking or emotions, keeping us from feeling good about ourselves,† (Isakson).I'm not ring to act like I'm better than anyone. I know it sounds like I kind of am, but in the article Isakson lists four of the most common distortions, and I am certainly guilty on one of them. Polarize thinking is where, â€Å"you live in a universe where everything is either black-or-white, with no colors or shades of gray. You either look at yourself or others as perfect or as failures,† (Isakson). I very much do this with myself. I'm either in a state of bliss where I'm walking on sunshine, or I'm the scum of the Earth, I'm not worth the dead carcass you pass on the highway, and everyone rightly hates me.It's idiotic and one day I hope to look back on myself and wonder why I ever thought like this. All in all, I think criticism should be kept inside of people's heads. Think what you want to think, but keep it to yourself. Who are you to throw your opinion into someone's vision? That mostly goes to people who aren't professional critics. I think professional critics should have to read and re-read Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism because I feel like it does have some good insight on how to be mindful of when you're doing wrong. It's sort of like The Prince for criticism. I feel like that book fits into most situations.As for people trying to create something out of a vision or dream they have, I think criticism should either be ignored or lightly acknowledged. Success shouldn't be based on the opinions of the few, it should be measured by all the people that want something to do with whatever it is you're making. There's a quote I heard online once and I couldn't find where it was originally said so I won't be able to cite a source, but director Robert Rodriguez once sai d, â€Å"l think that everyone has at least a dozen or so bad movies in them; the sooner you get them out the better. † I relate this back to songs.I know I have a lot of bad songs in me, so I'm trying to get them out so I can get to the good stuff. The best part about that is the songs are good to me right now, they don't become bad until I write something new. I'll know I'm where I want to be when I look back at my old songs and still want to practice them alongside my new ones, not when a critic tells me,

Human Resources Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Human Resources Management - Essay Example Furthermore, if the members believe that a particular type of appraisal system will affect them positively whereas the new system may incorporate many different dimensions that may bring their weaknesses to the forefront, they may resist to the selection of a new appraisal system. Therefore there are a number of issues that affect the selection process. In order to design an effective appraisal system, it is important to consider a number of issues that may have an impact on the appraisal system. The management must make sure that the new system provides some quantitative measure of the employee’s performance to facilitate the process of evaluation (Robbins & Judge, 2004). First of all the human resource manager must decide on the criterion to be used for the appraisal mechanism. The ideal criteria would be the ability to deliver, to communicate effectively, quality of work, the ability to plan and set goals, to motivate, to lead and to complete the assigned tasks on time. Performance appraisals help organizations clarify expectations that it may have from the employees and build trust. Since it allows an organization to evaluate each employee’s contribution to the organization, it also helps in determining each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. The management can then assign tasks to employees based on their individual skills. Not only will this lead to better results but it will also lead to employee satisfaction because they will be doing what they are best at and enjoy the most (Daft, 2001). Also, it aids the organization in determining which employees are outstanding performers and hence it ties rewards, bonuses and other benefits with the employee performance and appraisal. Moreover, the appraisal mechanism allows the management to determine the level of satisfaction of employees. Through feedback after the appraisal, management can determine the problems faced by the

Why are the division of labour and the factory so controversial Essay

Why are the division of labour and the factory so controversial - Essay Example Division of labour is an approach used in completion of tasks. This normally involves the breaking down of a complex task, into many simpler tasks, which are then handled by different workers. These workers work on the parts of the task, which they are specialized in; as these are the tasks, they are assigned. According to Sabel (1982), division of labour has both positive and negative influences on workers and factories. These effects are both social and economic in nature. The controversy surrounding division of labour in factories has however, been a historical issue. In this paper, I will focus on the works of different scholars, including Adam Smith, Frederick Taylor, Karl Marx, among many others, whose contributions to the concept of division of labour contributes to the controversial debate on the issue. I will compare and contrast their approaches used to address division of labour in factories, and its effects. Adam Smith first used the term division of labour, in his work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. He defined division of labor as the process in industries, where the process of manufacturing is divided into simpler and specific operations that are assigned to particular workers to handle. Smith supported the process of division of labour, citing that this process is capable of more productivity in a factory, compared to those factories that do not employ division of labour in their operations. He also attributes division of labour to the increase of judgment and skill level in workers (Smith 1976). Although Adam Smith was not responsible for coining the term division of labour, or the first to address the concept, his ideas and thinking on the effects of division of labour had an impact on the other thinkers that came after him, including Karl Marx (Hill 2004). Different thinkers show different perceptions toward division of labour, which are both positive and negative. Adam Smith was positive about division of lab our, but did not focus on the long-term effects of division of labour (Hill 2004). The contribution of Adam Smith to the effects of division of labour remains important today. He focused on the analysis of the benefits of this process, based on its approach of job specialization. Smith argued that division of labour was beneficiary to both factories and workers, as it boosted independence of workers (Hill 2004). Smith considered specialization detrimental to workers. Although this serves to reduce the quantity of work, Smith identified other negative effects of specialization. First, he argued that when a worker is restricted to only particular aspects of a job, this also restricts their natural inventiveness. Additionally, this impairs the worker’s physical capabilities (Smith 1976). This also limits their use of physical strength in performing different duties, since they are physically programmed to perform only specific duties. Smith also notes that, this turns workers in to automated machines, as like machines; they only have one line of duty to perform. Smith did not however, recommend any solutions. He believed that specialization was a natural process, which cannot be avoided by humans, but which humans can adapt to (Smith 1976: Hill 2004). Smith (1976) considered division of labour as responsible for propagating social inequality and exploitation of workers. When masters are in disputes with their workers, the workers are the losers. However, Smith believed that in specialization, workers had the opportunity to be their own bosses, therefore, also had the chance to leave work in the factories, and go

Explain the transformation from the Grand Alliance of World War II to Essay

Explain the transformation from the Grand Alliance of World War II to the development of the Cold War. Why was it impossible to maintain the former Was the - Essay Example (Nordlinger, 5) With the US entering the Second World War following the attack on Pearl Harbour, the three world powers, the US, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were forced to come together to develop strategies to hold back and defeat the axis.(Greenfield, 3-23) At least as far as UK-US relations this strategy was a far easier task for the two nations. Despite the US’s isolationist position in the earlier stages of the war, it remained supportive of the UK. (Greenfield, 3-23) Essentially the Grand Alliance involved a series of common goals and understandings between the US, the UK and the Soviet Union. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour the three countries would both formally and informally negotiate and agree at wartime conferences, government meetings and summits on strategies to defeat Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy. (Stone, 20) The Soviet’s association with the Grand Alliance grew out of necessity following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, in June of 1941. (Stone, 15)Following which both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt pledged their countries’ support. Once the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour the Grand Alliance became a reality. In other words, the UK, the US and the Soviet Union faced a common threat and while the Grand Alliance was primarily focused on war time cooperation, the three nations recognized a common goal to ensure post war security on a global le vel by ascertaining that Germany and Japan would not remain a threat to world peace following the war. (Lewis, 178-241) On 4 February, 1945, the Soviet’s Joseph Stalin, US President Theodore Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill convened in Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula for what was one of three major war time conferences. The primary purpose of the meeting was to not only

Direct and e-Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Direct and e-Marketing - Essay Example One of the basic principles of the Direct Marketing is usage of a database for storing personal customer data and their purchase history. Roll notes that fundamental benefit to the business is that you are able to treat your existing customers in a different way to new prospects and thus create loyalty and maximize profitability. (Roll 2003) So the main purpose of the Direct and e-Marketing for Les Cadeaux Gourmets is to carry out an active strategy and to get more sales from the returned customers. Customer lifetime value (also variously referred to as lifetime customer value or just lifetime value, and abbreviated CLV, LCV, or LTV) is a marketing metric that projects the value of a customer over the entire history of that customer's relationship with a company. Use of customer lifetime value as a marketing metric tends to place greater emphasis on customer service and long-term customer satisfaction, rather than on maximizing short-term sales. (Wikipedia). As Les Cadeaux Gourmets spend some money for advertisement to attract a number of customers, it would be unreasoned to loose them. Calculating customer lifetime value will help company to know exactly how much each customer is worth in dollar terms and therefore exactly how much a marketing department should be willing to spend to acquire each customer. Thus it would be possible to range customers from the most profitable to the least ones and to concentrate the company's efforts on the most profitable customers. Use of customer lifetime value can also help to predict what customers will buy over years. For example, if Mary Smith buys a toy for a 4-year baby in 2005, she will probably order a toy for a 5-year baby in 2006. If Mr. Jones buys bath & body care pieces in March three years in a row, it's possible to make a conclusion that he makes presents for the birthday of his wife and send offering with new products to him in the next March. So Les Cadeaux Gourmets should truck its customers' purchases and use them for planning its advertising campaign. Also the company should monitor customers' responses over time for as long as the relationship with them lasts. Geodemographic profiling uses detailed information based on postcode to match differing lifestyle profiles to the customer database. Postcodes do not resolve down to individual addresses but provide pretty good targeting. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can use geodemographic division of customers into some categories and then offer its goods to each specific category. For example, customers ranking by nationality allows taking into consideration national traditions. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can congratulate customers from Israel with Hanukah, customers from the Middle East with Ramadan and wish other customers Merry Christmas. As a result of this national-specific proposals could be sent to each category. Use of external database with information about postcodes and countries also allows choosing seasonal proposals: in winter there is cold in the US and hot in Australia. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can use this information for advertising of clothes and other season-specific goods. Special databases cover such categories as consumer expenditure, crime statistics, business and employment, and many others. One of the more powerful special databases is called a segmentation system. A segmentation system is useful because it allows users to add another dimension by displaying lifestyle clusters

Resouces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Resouces - Essay Example This article provides a study case of Korean high-school students and how their level of stress can affect their food diet. The study case includes a comparison between two groups of student, the first group has low academic stress level and the second group has high academic stress level. The study found that students with high stress level tend to eat food that contains high amounts of sugar such as chocolate, flavored milk, breads and candies. The article will provide a clear example of how a person’s mental health or mood affects their food diet and how stress is related to nutrition. The article indicates that the Omega-3 fatty acids are highly used Acids in treating people with depression and mental disorder. In fact, the article shows a negative relationship between seafood and stress. In other words, in places where people consume seafood a lot, the level of stress is less than places where people consume less seafood. Indeed, the article includes different studies and hypothesis that discusses the role and the effect of Omega-3 fatty acids on mental health and how is it used as treatment to some diseases. This article helps to explain how minerals can improve people’s

Business Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business - Coursework Example 2). Teachings on active leadership associate goals through instituting power and enthusiasm by enforcing compliance of different people. Various theories provide ideas on the advancement of sufficient character. Sets of personality assure good leadership because of admired habits on the nature of effective leadership. Leaders choose across Americans by regular people rather than the scion of elite East Coast at Yale University. Leadership adopts group identity and presidents, especially chief executives, who employ various approaches to identities as the result of effective leadership. Besides, ideas on effective leadership were developed by Bush assistance during massive confusions of 9/11 (Reicher, Haslam & Platow, 2007, p. 2). Information concerning 9/11 promotes and assists different people in enhancing national unity. In addition, effective leadership is encouraged in activities of capitalism and the western world. 100 years ago, Max Weber, a renowned German social and political theorist, presented ideas on charismatic leadership. His ideas focused on the antidote of grim prognosis. The ideas dwelled on industrial society without including leadership priorities. The notion of charisma endured and attracted diverse challenges. The instabilities following World War 1 when a majority of scholars continued to viewing the effects that strong leadership brings in survival (Reicher, Haslam & Platow, 2007, p. 2). The majority of leaders changed against various notions that show and determine effectiveness in leadership qualities. The concepts represent changes of charisma to a consensus because attractions and resistance affects leadership qualities. Social identities of leadership in experiments attract BBC prison study. Investigations of social behavior assist in conducting simulated prison environments. Random assignments of volunteers include guards

Bonds Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bonds - Article Example As the matter of fact, bonds are viewed as the most secure form of investment though with a relatively low rate of return. In the light of recent crisis, investors became more risk-averse and reliant on these long-term financial instruments though not completely protected from the risk as interest rates are still subject to change. Bond is a long-term financial instrument that is mainly traded by large corporations and a government (Class PPT, 2009)1 for the purpose of raising money (Investopedia, 2009).2 Bonds are also issued by governments in order to provide secure long-term investments of individuals in such institutions as pension funds (Ming, 2009). A borrower (issuer) is obliged to pay principal and interest on a predetermined date (maturity) to an investor (bond holder) (Class PPT, 2009). In contrast to other financial instruments, bond's rate of return is lower due to lower perceived risk of default. However, in case of such an incident, investors still get lower return (Class PPT, 2009). That fact always makes investors cautious in choosing a reliable institution for investment. Moreover, the crisis emanated in March of 2007 made the current financial situation rather volatile and unpredictable. The situation discouraged business lending and stimulated the purchases of governmental Treasury notes (Hi lsenrath, 2009). Current financial situation stimulated investors' demand for greater security of their capital.

Ancient Rome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ancient Rome - Essay Example The paper tells that the wonders of ancient Rome are many. It is easy to understand why historians feel that this society was the highpoint of the ancient world. This opinion is supported by the fact that so much of ancient Rome is still alive today in the cultures of the West. One way that the ancient Romans have affected the world is through the invention of the republican form of government. Their conversion of Greek direct democracy into a system of government that allowed the masses to participate while incorporating checks and balances to protect against corruption is a marvel. Many of the liberal representative democracies in Europe and North America are based in some way on the Roman Republic. Consuls, tribunes and the senate have modern counterparts in the House of Representatives, Senate and President in the United States. This form of government has spread all over the world thanks to the focus on individual and human rights that must be protected in order for this sort of democracy to work. Another way the Romans influenced our current world is through their focus on the rule of law. Roman laws were codified in The Twelve Tables. This became a foundation for all of Roman law that was to be enacted throughout the empire. The Roman emphasis on the rule of law ensured that justice could be guaranteed for all Roman citizens throughout the Roman Empire. This security encouraged trade and travel all over the Empire. Establishing the rule of law helps many Western nations today ensure that all citizens are treated fairly regardless of race or religious affiliation. A final influence that can be seen in America specifically is the connection between religion and politics. It is campaign season in America, and even though the Constitution of the United States declares freedom of religion, the religious and moral beliefs of the candidates is of great importance. It is reported in the news almost daily. Roman politicians were among the first to manipulate the religious beliefs of the population in an effort to win votes. The modern politics of religion have their origins with the orators and politicians of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In class we talked about the ‘cradles of civilization’ we discussed four major ones, what are the similarities of these areas and are they the only ones? Along with the cradles of civilization what are the general characteristics of ‘complex societies or civilizations’? Physical geography is the major unifying feature of the ‘cradles of civilization’. Civilization started in geographic locations where a food surplus was easy to obtain. All of civilization is founded on the ability to raise more food than each individual farmer needs. This excess food leads to specialization of labor and provides the means for the beginnings of trade. All early civilizations started in places where some outstanding physical feature allowed for the creation of surplus food. I n the case of the earliest civilizations, the physical feature was a river valley. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia were supported by the Tigris and Euphrates, the Harappans had the Indus, the Egyptians had the Nile and the Chinese had the Huang He. Rivers provided a source of food through fishing and irrigation for crops. As civilization developed, they also provided a means of transportation. Physical geography also affected later civilizations such as the Greeks and the Romans. Access to fertile, grain producing regions in Sicily and Crimea caused much of the imperial expansion and diplomatic intrigue for both of these civilizations. As each of these river valley civilizations grew, they developed certain characteristics that all complex civilizations seem to share. The first of these is a means of social stratification that is possibly justified or explained through religious beliefs and teachings. This is seen in Egypt through the

Evolution of Polo Ralph Lauren Essay Example for Free

Evolution of Polo Ralph Lauren Essay Polo Ralph Lauren has become one of the most renounced clothing companies of the 20th and 21st century. The creator of Polo is a man named Ralph Lifschitz who was born on October 14, 1939 in New York, New York (Ralph Lauren). He was born to Fraydl Kotlar and Frank Lifshitz who were Ashkenazi Jewish from Belarus. In 1955, when Ralph was 16, he and his brother changed their last name to Lauren because they were made fun constantly for having a Jewish last name but his brother Lenny kept the last name (Ralph Lauren). At the age of 18 Ralph worked for various fashion stores such as: Bloomingdale’s, Brooks Brothers, and the Rivetz of Boston neckwear company as a salesman for all of the stores (Vogue). While he worked at all these jobs Ralph studied at the City College of New York for business. Three years later in 1960, Lauren was drafted in to the military and he joined the U.S. Army Reserves and he started basic training at Fort Dix (Vogue). Lauren once said â€Å"When I was growing up, officers in uniform were very impressive to me†¦ When you wear an old military jacket there’s some sort of connection to those qualities, the way the uniforms were made really inspired me for some of my designs that I made later on.† (Vogue). Four year later, in 1964 Ralph marries Ricky Low-Beer. Since Ralph had been around clothes so much-to be more correct neckties- he created his first line of neckties in 1967 but instead of using his name Ralph Lauren, he uses the alias Polo (Vogue). In 1968 Polo menswear launched and it featured English-cut suits, pleated pants, and Fair Isle sweaters (Vogue). Ralph told Vogue â€Å"none of the magazines even wrote about my new line, or came to my show†. The president of Bloomingdale-Marvin Traub-took notice of his new line and gave Ralph his own in-store boutique at the age of 29, it opened in 1969. The boutique was very successful and helped position Bloomingdale and Ralph as the new faces of menswear. In 1970 when Lauren was 30 he received an Coty Award for menswear after designing an unlined, â€Å"unconstructed† suit which is basically what most of the suits today look like. In 1971 Ralph puts the man playing polo on the cuff of the shirt instead of on the chest of the shirt like it is now (Vogue). There were some trademark issues which made it to where Ralph couldn’t just put Polo on his clothing. Since Ralph couldn’t do that he called it â€Å"Ralph Lauren† but later he will get the Polo trademark and call his brand Polo Ralph Lauren. By the end of the 1970’s Polo Ralph Lauren will have expanded from the little boutique in Bloomingdale’s to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, and Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida and this was the first sign to Ralph that his clothing company was going to be a big. When the collared shirts with the polo-player logo was introduced in 1972 it was released in 24 different colors. If you had a polo shirt at this time, it showed your class in the preppy world. Ralph Lauren was once asked â€Å"how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes?† and he replied with this â€Å"Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams. (Ralph Lauren). Women found his clothes fashionable because it gave them something different to wear than the traditional gypsy and hippie styles of clothing, after figuring out that women liked his clothing he started a womenswear line in 1972 and it was a huge success. Four year later, in 1976 at the age of thirty-seven Ralph Lauren wins another Coty award for womenswear and this makes him the first designer to win in both categories of menswear and womenswear. He also wins a Coty Hall of Fame award, and in celebration of the award The New York Times did an article on him and pictured him with model Patti Hansen in a Tux laughing with Lauren in a Tuxedo Jacket and jeans, both holding cigarettes, the title of the article was â€Å"I’m having a Black Tie Affair with Ralph Lauren.† (Vogue). This gave the brand of Ralph Lauren a huge push around the world because he had a supermodel pose with him in this article and the fact that he was in Time magazine which people all over the world read also put his name out there in the world. In the 1980’s and 1990’s is when Ralph Lauren gained most of his wealth of, 6.5 billion dollars (Ralph Lauren). In the 1980’s Ralph Lauren expanded his business to include children wear, eyewear, underwear, jeans, shoes, accessories, housewares, furs, luggage, and a plethora of other products (Ralph Lauren: American Classic). Even though most of the companies that expanded too fast like this suffered brand image dilution, Polo was actually made stronger because of many reasons. Mainly because Ralph designed everything himself and if he didn’t directly design the item he still had the last say on how the item looked and what material was put inside it. Another reason Polo stayed in high fashion is because retail never lowered and it was always a higher price. Ralph once said â€Å"I won’t lower my price for anyone. If you can’t buy my clothing than don’t buy it.† (Ralph Lauren: American Classic). In the 2000’s Ralph Lauren made a multimedia marketing joint venture with NBC and allies, and ValueVision, operator of Home Shopping Network. Polo Ralph Lauren became one of the first companies only to use advertisement through electronics, Polo.com was created in 2000 and this was one of the first fashion websites in history (Ralph Lauren: American Classic). In 2001 Polo made their first online magazine telling people all things celebrity, sport, art and culture about polo, th at same year Polo created Runway.Polo.com. this was made to provide fashion fans with a look behind the scenes in collection-development and fashion shows, while offering style and beauty tips (Ralph Lauren: American Classic). Through the 46 years Polo Ralph Lauren has had hundreds of fashion shows but never overseas until now. He’s chosen to do his first fashion show overseas at one of the most historic art schools in the world called École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France on October 8, 2013 (Ralph Lauren’s first..). Ralph Lifschitz was just a boy from a working class Orthodox Jewish family in the Bronx who started out selling neckties in many of the high fashion stores in New York. He came from the bottom just selling and making neckties in a small boutique in Bloomingdale to creating and breaking down barriers in the fashion industry. Ralph now has hundreds of stores across the world which has made him a billionaire. Polo Ralph Lauren was made to celebrate the pr eppy, sporty, wealthy, and traveled, while keeping a modern look. Polo has been around for 46 years and has never lost its value which is very rare for any company to do. Works Cited â€Å"Ralph Lauren. Biography† Bio. True Story. 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Ralph Lauren.† The World of Fashion in Voguepedia .2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Ralph Lauren: American Classic.† Eurbanista Brand Strategy, Sustainability and the Digital Revolution in Fashion, Luxury and Media. 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2013 â€Å"Ralph Lauren’s first international runway show honors Paris school restoration.† Luxury Daily. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013

Patient Satisfaction with Public Healthcare | Literature

Patient Satisfaction with Public Healthcare | Literature Literature Review: Alian A. Alrasheedy, Mohammed Azmi Hassali, et al., published a research study in Australasian Medical Journal, 2014 entitled as â€Å"Assessment of general public satisfaction with public healthcare services in Kedah, Malaysia†. They conducted a cross-sectional study to assess patients’ level of satisfaction with public healthcare services and to determine the factors that may affect patient satisfaction among convenience sample of general public. They developed a questionnaire which consists of five sections including demographic data, patients’ perceptions of their relationship and interaction with healthcare professionals in the public healthcare sector, patient perception of skills of healthcare professionals, patients’ assessment of the amenities, accessibility to and facilities available in the public healthcare sector and general satisfaction of patients with public healthcare services. To perform the statistics they used chi-square test and for it ems expected to have lower frequency, Fisher’s exact test was used. The findings showed that almost half of the participants were satisfied with current health care services in public hospitals and clinic. It shows a significant association between satisfaction and some participants’ characteristics such as age, gender, waiting time. Other factors influencing satisfaction level includes the length of consultations and process of patient registration. The limitation of the study is that illiterate people were not included in this study as it is a self-administered questionnaire. It concludes that improving the health services which leads to shorter waiting time may increase the patients’ satisfaction level. Krupal Joshi, Kishor Sochaliya, et al., performed a cross-sectioanl study to identify the factors that affect patient satisfaction regarding health care services. The study was entitled as â€Å"Patient satisfaction About Health Care Services: A Cross Sectional Study of Patients Who Visited the Outpatient Department of a Civil Hospital at Surendranagar, Gujarat† which was published in International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, 2013. The patient were interviewed using pre-structured questionnaires which can be replied in choices like satisfactory/unsatisfactory, yes/no, good/moderate/poor, adequate/inadequate. The study revealed that overall the patient satisfaction was good regarding the quality of the services provided by the hospital. But revealed mild to moderate satisfaction regarding waiting time and specialist availability. Patient satisfaction was considered to be important in both evaluation and shaping of health care. Mansour Alturki, Tahir M.Khan published a study entitled â€Å"A study investigating the level of satisfaction with the health services provided by the pharmacist at ENT hospital, Eastern Region Alahsah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia† in Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal,2013. They conducted a cross sectional study to evaluate the satisfaction of the patients related to pharmacy services provided to the patients at the hospital pharmacy. A self-administered 15-item questionnaire was used in the study which comprises of three sections which considered patient demographic data, information about health status of respondents, pharmacist-patient interaction level. The results were analyzed using independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. This study shows that the patient were majorly satisfied about the availability of the pharmacist and the explanations/clear labeling of drugs, politeness and prompt services of the pharmacist. The elderly patients were highly satisfied with the services p rovided by the pharmacy than the other age groups. But overall the satisfaction levels of the Saudi patients were least than that of the Egyptian and others and it may associate with the demographic features such as age, sex, and level of the education. Sumeet Singh, Paramjeet kaur, et al., conducted a study entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction levels in a tertiary care medical college hospital in Punjab, North India.† It has been published in International Journal of Research and Development of Health, 2013. The study was aimed to assess the patients’ satisfaction regarding care provided in the hospital, behaviour of medical, nursing and supportive staff and availability of necessary services and amenities in the hospital. A cross-sectional study based on a pre-designed and pre-tested Indoor Patient Feedback Form was done. This study shows that most of the patients were more satisfied with the behaviour of doctors. The major problem was found to be in identifying the location of various areas mainly labs in the hospital. Satisfaction regarding the service and the behaviour of the paramedical staff was found to be high. This study shows that assessing patient satisfaction is simple, easy and cost effective for evaluatio n of hospital services. Afolabi MO, Afolabi ERI, et al., published a study in African Health sciences, 2012, entitled as â€Å"Construct validation of an instrument to measure patient satisfaction with pharmacy services in Nigerian hospitals†. The study aimed to develop a questionnaire used to assess the quality of the pharmacy services provided by the hospitals and to define the scale construct validity with an opinion to identify the factors that affect the target users. First they developed a 35-item Patient Satisfaction Survey questionnaire and then based on the pilot study conducted to assess the internal consistency reliability there was a reduction of items on the scale to 25 items. They used Cronbach coefficient Alpha, Spermann Brown’s and Guttmann’s coefficients to determine the reliability of the scale and Scree plot was also carried out for the final 25-item scale. The reliability coefficients attained for the instrument by means of various methods were comparable and statist ically significant. The final scale which consists of 25 items showed stable and significant correlation coefficients and produced six consequent dimensions of patient satisfaction which includes attitude of pharmacy personnel, accessibility and convenience of pharmacy location, quality and cost of the drugs, conducive physical environment, and availability of prescribed drugs and timeliness of service delivery. This study established a scale to evaluate satisfaction of the patients regarding pharmaceutical services. Amany M. Abdelhafez, Lina Al Qurashi et al., published a study in American Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, 2012, entitled â€Å"Analysis of factors affecting the satisfaction levels of patients toward food services at general hospitals in Makkah, Saudi Arabia†. This study aims to determine the factors that the satisfaction levels of the patient with the food services in a sample of general hospitals. They performed a cross-sectional study using an interview questionnaire. Spearman correlation was used to identify the relationship between the various aspects of food and food services and the overall satisfaction. In this study the temperature of the food was one of the determinants of overall dissatisfaction. Overall satisfaction levels can be increased by increasing the quality of food and hospital food services. As hospital malnutrition is a main problem, so hospital services should be considered as an important part of the patient treatment plan and hence it is imp ortant to evaluate patient views to make sure that the expectations of the patients regarding the food services were achieved. M V Kulkarni, S Dasgupta, et al., had done a study entitled â€Å"Study of Satisfaction of Patients Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Nagpur† which was published in National Journal of Community Medicine, 2011. It states that patient satisfaction is one of the important tools to measure the success of the services provided in the hospital. They performed a hospital based cross sectional study to evaluate the satisfaction of the patients admitted in the hospital regarding behaviour of the medical, nursing, and supportive staff, and other services provided in the hospital. They used a pre-designed and pre-tested â€Å"Indoor Patient Feedback Form† which was filled up by the patient through an interview on the day of the discharge. They analyzed the data using Epi-Info statistical software by calculating chi-square test and proportions. Their study reveals that the most of the patients were satisfied with the provided hospital services, behaviour of the doctors but s howed dissatisfaction towards the cleanliness in the toilets, quality of the food. Leticia R. Moczygemba, Jamie C. Barner, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction with a pharmacist-provided telephone medication therapy management program† in Research in Social and administrative pharmacy, 2010. They conducted a non-experimental and cross sectional survey to measure the patient satisfaction with pharmacist-provided telephone MTM program. They mailed the questionnaire developed to measure the patient satisfaction on MTM program. Descriptive statistics have been used to calculate the patients’ responses. The study revealed that the patient were pleased about the services provided by the pharmacist during MTM consultation. And also the patients are willing for face-face to consultation to learn more about their medications. From this study it is proved that for some patients MTM program can be carried out in telephone without compromising patient satisfaction. Mehrnoosh Akhtari-Zavare, Mohd Yunus Abdullah, et al., performed a study entitled â€Å"Patient Satisfaction: Evaluating Nursing Care for Patients Hospitalized with Cancer in Tehran Teaching Hospitals, Iran† in Global Journal of Health Science, 2010. The study was aimed to assess the relationship between cancer patients’ satisfaction and the nursing care in order to assist nurses in defining more clearly their roles. They performed a cross-sectional study in which a proportional stratified sampling method was used to collect the data from face-to-face interviews based on validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. In this study, they conducted binary logistic regression to predict factors that influence the satisfaction level. It was seen that patients receiving chemotherapy were more satisfied with the nursing care than patients receiving other type of treatment such as radiotherapy, surgical etc. Though the study found that most of the patients were satisfied with t he nursing care, they suggested some improvements regarding interpersonal relationship which may improve patient satisfaction. Z Iliyasu, IS Abubakar, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Patients’ satisfaction with services obtained from Aminu Kano teaching hospital, Kano, Northern Nigeria† in Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice, 2010. Their study aimed to evaluate the patient satisfaction and their relatives with the hospital services. They considered satisfaction was from the perspectives such as ease with which patients’ accessed care, time of waiting, patient-health care provider relationship, payment and facilities provided by the hospital. The data was collected by a cross-sectional survey based on structured questionnaires which were distributed to the patients and focus group discussions with the patient relatives. The results shown that most of the patients were satisfied about the accessed care, patient provider relationship, inpatient services and the hospital facilities. And the patients were asked for the complaints which were mostly related to the waiting time and th e payment cost. In focus group discussions most of the patients relatives complained about the missing of laboratory data and delay in the laboratory data. Overall the satisfaction of the patients and patient relatives showed a high satisfaction level with the tertiary care services. Ranjeeta Kumari, MZ Tdris, et al., published a study entitled â€Å"Study on Patient Satisfaction in the Government Allopathic Health Facilities of Lucknow District, India† in Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2009. They performed a cross-sectional survey to detect the areas and reasons of low satisfaction among the patient and to suggest methods for improvement. By using a multi-stage stratified random sampling technique three representative hospitals (Tertiary level hospital, Secondary level hospital and a primary level hospital). A quantitative structured interview schedule was used to record information from the patients attending the health care facilities. Data was analyzed using Epi-info software (version 6). From the results it was seen that the most important factor for them to visit the secondary and tertiary level of health facilities was the trust on doctors or health facility, availability of the specialists whereas the closeness of the health facility to thei r homes, belief on doctors or health facility and cost-effectiveness were crucial at the primary level. They concluded that, there is a need to communicate effectively with patients about their disease and treatment and to clarity their doubts and fears to achieve good standards of health. Juan Francisco Marquez-Peiro, Carmen Perez-Peiro published a study entitled â€Å"Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction in Outpatient Pharmacy† in Farm Hosp in 2008. The main objective of this study is to identify the satisfaction and dissatisfaction levels among patients receiving care from the Outpatient pharmacy. Dissatisfaction has been defined as the lack of correspondence between the patient expectations and their final perception of the healthcare service provided. They conducted a cross-sectional study to establish patient satisfaction levels by using a valid questionnaire and patient dissatisfaction were established from the complaints made by the patients attending the outpatient pharmacy. The reasons for complaint were grouped based on the classification system created by Pichert et al and also on the items described in the patient satisfaction survey. Patient satisfaction was evaluated with the help of a patient satisfaction indicator Satisfaction index recognized by the Regional Ministry of Health for the Autonomous Community of Valencia. The results show the high patient satisfaction index with the services provided by the outpatient hospital pharmacy department. The aspects scoring least points in patient satisfaction were mainly dispensing area (waiting room and access to the OP) and the dispensing process (waiting time and the consultation hours) which were also the main reasons for dissatisfaction. Pharmacist’s technical expertise and professional attitude are the most valued aspect in the patient satisfaction survey. Pharmacist’s professional competence and the pharmacist-patient relationship were the reasons for complaints made by the patients to the Patient Service Department of the hospital. The features that require improvement are area and process at the dispensing and the increased structural and human resources required. They concluded that, although the satisfaction index high and is useful for identifying what impro vements are needed, it is also important to identify the reasons for dissatisfaction to complement this information. Maria Luz Traverso, Mercedes Salamano, et al., published a study in the journal International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2007, entitled â€Å"Questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care in Spanish language†. The main objective of their study was to design and validate a questionnaire in Spanish language, to assess patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care provided by the community pharmacies. A questionnaire of 27 items, with randomly assigned order consisting give dimensions which includes general satisfaction, explanation, managing therapy, consideration and setting was designed. The reliability of the instrument’s scale was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha and to determine the questionnaire construct validity, Mann-Whitney test was applied to compare the data form two groups of pharmacies. Although overall results of the construct validity test did not presented significant changes among the two groups of pharmacies in whic h one group provides pharmaceutical care and other group do not provide pharmaceutical care, but 23 items presented significant variances among the two groups of pharmacies. The results suggest that the developed questionnaire was found to be a reliable and valid instrument in Spanish to evaluate patient satisfaction related to pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies. R.K.Sharma, conducted a study to identify the patient satisfaction level in both out-patients and in-patients entitled â€Å"Patient satisfaction- A case study of zonal hospital† which was published in Nursing and Midwifery Research Journal, 2005. They assessed the patient satisfaction in terms of services and amenities. In this study it was observed that most of the indoor and outdoor patients were dissatisfied with most of the amenities. Most of the patients were satisfied with the behaviour and attention given by the doctors but were not satisfied with the behaviour of paramedical staff and other employees of the hospital. And most of the patients were not dissatisfied with the availability of the medicines in time. It concludes that frequent patient satisfaction surveys are essential to make necessary improvements on basis of opinions and suggestions given by patients. C Jenkinson, A coulter, et al., performed a study entitled â€Å"Patients’ experiences and satisfaction with health care: results of a questionnaire study of specific aspects of care† which was published in Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2002. The purpose of their study was to determine what aspects of health care provision are most likely to influence the satisfaction with care and willingness of the patient to recommend hospital services to others and also to determine the extent to which satisfaction is a significant indicator of patients’ experience of healthcare services. They had done a postal survey in which the questionnaires based on picker survey of patient experiences questionnaire was used. From the descriptive statistics it is evident that there is an association between the level of satisfaction and the number of item completed in the questionnaire. The study states that patient satisfaction scores and the related issues of willingness to recomm end a hospital to others present a limited and optimistic picture. It also suggests that detailed questions about specific aspects of patients’ experience are more beneficial for observing the performance of different departments of the hospitals and which helps in improving the health care delivery. Differences Between Leadership and Management | Tesco Differences Between Leadership and Management | Tesco Management is a function that must be exercised in any business (Maccoby, 2000, pp57-59) management is a process of planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, and controlling and it is a systematic way of doing things. According to Mullins (2010, p429) Fayol describes these elements as: Planning examining the future, deciding what needs to be achieved and developing a plan of action. Organising providing the material and human resources and building the structure to carry out the activities of the organisation. Command maintaining activity among personnel, getting the optimum return from all employees in the interest of the whole organisation. Co-ordination unifying and harmonising all activities and effort of the organisation to facilitate its working and success. Control verifying that everything occurs in accordance with plans, instructions, established principles and expressed command. Leadership is an attempt to influence group or individuals (Russell C, Richard J, 2002, p406) he further explains that leadership gets organizations and people to change. Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. Differences between Leadership and Management Mullins demonstrated the differences of leadership and management. Managers tend to adopt impersonal or passives attitudes towards goal. Leaders adopt a more personal and active attitude towards goals. In order to get people to accept solutions, the managers needs continually to co-ordinate and balance in order to compromise conflicting values. The leaders create excitement in work and develop choices that give substance to images that excite people. In their relationship with other people, managers maintain a low level of emotional involvement. Leaders have empathy with other people and give attention to what events and actions mean. (2010, p374) Leadership differs from management in a sense that: Management includes focus on function, authority relationship and creates stability. However, for a business to excel leadership is vital, because leaders motivate, secure commitment and inspire people. Relationship between Management and Leadership Leadership and management are the terms that are often considered synonymous. Leadership is defined as the potential to influence and drive the group efforts towards the accomplishment of goals. This influence may originate from formal sources, such as that provided by acquisition of managerial position in an organization. According to Mullins (2010, p374) Despite a continuing debate on differences between management and leadership, there is a close relationship between them and it is not easy to separate them as distinct activities. He further describes management and leadership, they overlap and you need both qualities. Increasingly, management and leadership are being seen as inextricably linked. It is one thing for a leader to propound a grand vision, but this is redundant unless the vision is managed so it becomes real achievement. A manager must have traits of a leader. Leaders develop strategies that build and sustain competitive advantage. Organizations require strong leadership and strong management for optimal organizational efficiency. Both managers and leaders aim to achieve goals, mobilize and utilize resource. Section 2 Managers have to perform many roles in an organization, how they handle various situations will depend on their style of management. According to Mullins (2010, p381), there are many dimensions to describe leadership style and he simplified three fold heading; The authoritarian (autocratic) Style: The manager alone exercises decision making and authority for determining policy, procedures for achieving goals, work tasks and relationships, control of rewards or punishments. The democratic Style: The leadership functions are shared with members of the group and the manager is more part of team. The group members have a greater say in decision making, determination of policy, implementation of systems and procedures. A laissez faire (genuine) style: The manager consciously makes a decision to pass the focus of power to members, to allow them freedom of action to do as they think best, and not to interfere; but is readily available if help needed. There is an often confusion over this style of leadership behavior. The word genuine is emphasized because this is to be contrasted with the manager who could not care, who deliberately keeps away from the trouble spots and does not want to get involved. From my own experience of working in ABA Beverages, management decided to implement HACCP using autocratic style of leadership style. This decision of quality control was taken to attract new customers and satisfy existing customers. According to Wikipedia (ONLINE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_analysis_and_critical_control_points) HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control points), is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that identifies physical, allergenic, chemical, and biological hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP is referred as the prevention of hazards rather than finished product inspection. A key role of the quality manager in the company is to maintain the food safety. He has vital responsibilities and challenges to achieve HACCP. In order to achieve HACCP, he uses autocratic style of leadership. This autocratic style was necessary because it is a matter of food safety. Employers view this safety principal as a critical, therefore use autocratic style. Employees must comply with instructions at all times. The positive impacts food safety is met, objective of customer satisfaction met. If they do not use autocratic style, quality would be compromised and customers would not be satisfied. Sri Lanka Red Cross Society SLRCS (Sri Lanka Red Cross Society) (ONLINE: http://beta.redcross.lk/vision-mission.asp) has operated since 1936. The SLRCS covers all 25 administrative districts of the Sri Lanka and the total membership 100,000.The total number of active volunteers 6,500. From my own experience of working in SLRCS, during the war in 2007 in Sri Lanka, it was involved to help victims who affected by war. They have divide teams and work under a coordinator. The coordinator gives freedom to the team leader to take appropriate actions within agreed boundaries (within set time limit and safety clearance). For example teams have to reach the camp and distribute all foods to beneficiaries. In case any problem arises team leaders have to make the decision. At this point Laissez Faire style help to achieve the scope of the organization. Here, team leader is trusted to make decision by the coordinator follows laissez faire style. On the other hand, when the team is in dangerous war zone, for the safety of team members team leader follows an autocratic style of leadership. For example if the supply not distributed on the agreed time limit or if the situation becomes dangerous, team leader take own decision either stay or leave for the camp and team members fol low his autocratic style of leadership. Tesco Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer in United Kingdom. One of the business objectives of Tesco is customer satisfaction. Tesco is a customer-orientated business. It aims to offer products that provide value for money for its customers and to deliver high quality service. Tesco wants to attract new customers, but it also wants to keep its existing customers happy. To keep at the top of its game and to maintain its number one spot in the market, the company needs skilled staff at all levels and in all roles. The style of leadership can vary depending on the task. Some managers allow teams to take charge of their own decision-making for many tasks. Team leaders will set the objectives but empower team members to decide how these objectives are achieved. This has several advantages. It helps to motivate individuals in the team and it draws on the expertise of the members of the team. Berian manages a team of 17 in a Tesco in-store bakery. One of the key challenges of Berians job is to ensure his team produces the right products to meet demand at key times. His usual management approach is to allow the team to take responsibility for achieving the desired result. In this way, the team not only buys into the activity, but also develops new skills. For example, when the bakery expanded its product range and Berian needed to ensure that all the products would be on the shelves by 8.00 am, rather than enforce a solution, he turned to the team for ideas. The team solved the problem by agreeing to split break times so that productivity could be maintained. Berians approach produced a positive outcome and increased team motivation. (ONLINE: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/developing-appropriate-leadership-styles/management-and-leadership.html#axzz2DWoXdm7O) Berian uses democratic style of leadership to achieve the target. This style encourages ideas, feedback, suggestion and team sprit from all team members. Words 525/ 1480

N1 Solutions LLC Business Technology Analysis

N1 Solutions LLC Business Technology Analysis Student: Suresh Barre COMPANY PROFILE N1 Solutions LLC. Provides in-depth experience and expertise in legacy application development, release management, and maintenance. We understand that Applications are the key point of any organization. N1 Solutions LLC. Offers VALUE ADD services for both internal and external facing client applications. Their resources come equipped with proven project management techniques, application development methodologies, and release / change management principles whether it is a single resource requirement or staffing up a complete project team, team N1 Solutions LLC has it all. N1 Solutions LLC capabilities help companies improve revenue, drive efficiencies and productivity improvements, automate key processes, reduce process/cycle times, and transform business data into valuable information. N1 Solutions LLC service spectrum consists of a range of technology offerings like: 1. Application Maintenance and Enhancement 2. Custom Application Development 3. Data Centric Services 4. Implementation Methodologies Total no. of Employees: 120 Financial synopsis N1 Solutions LLC is well-established in growth markets and aims to be the right partner for its customers. The company combines deep local knowledge with global capability. The company is trusted across its network for its standard of governance and its commitment to making a difference in the communities in which it operates. N1 Solutions LLC annual revenues more than 20M broke down roughly 20% license, 35% pro services, and 45% maintenance. For new sales, maintenance was 18-20% of license revenue and implementation services roughly equaled license revenue. Here are the few nuggets and features I found so far from this kind of work environment. Transparent Open Communication Give and Take policy Work-Life Balance Training Development-Focused Recognition for Hard Work Strong Team Spirit Clients: 3i InfoTech Walmart Cognizant Technology Solutions Intelligroup IGATE Robert Half Technology HCL Infosys OPPURTUNITIES The experience with N1 Solutions will provide me the opportunity to achieve the real world experience in the ground of Information Technology, Sales Force cloud computing technology and implementation. From the beginning I have been afford the opportunity to partake as an equal member of their internal process. Internship Technology: Salesforce Salesforce Inc. is a global cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Though best known for its customer relationship management (CRM) product. Internship objectives: Working as a salesforce intern, performing duties and activities and analyzing them in different perspectives. Here I am presenting few important internship objectives. To get familiarity with Apex code, Triggers and Visualforce. To Learn SOQL (salesforce object query language) and SOSL (salesforce object search language). To get experience with building salesforce apps and objects. To learn integration techniques using web services and APIs. To get experience in Salesforce customization. To learn Creating Apex business logics. To get salesforce 401 Developer Certification. Personnel Development Goals Observing and learning different projects. To improve business communication skills Planning and organizing client interaction. To develop reporting skills To get experience with managerial skills 3.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES During the course of my internship, I had a great and vivid exposure in Salesforce technology and implementation. I also had an opportunity to get familiarize with many programs and tools. Also had an opportunity to interrelate many real time Salesforce implementations and design. Programs and tools used and learned during the internship Salesforce Edition: Enterprise Features: Workflow approval automation Report history tracking Profiles and page layouts Custom app development Integration via web service API Salesforce Identity Salesforce Private AppExchange Project Management Tool: Smart sheet for sales force Features: Import from Microsoft Project or Excel Multiple levels of tasks Single sign-on from Salesforce Share project sheets and attached files with anyone inside or outside your Salesforce account IDE (Integrated Development Environment): Eclipse Helios Features: Market place client Open Implementation Package Name abbreviations Virtual Folders Compare Configurations Instance counts Support for Apache Tomcat 7 Other Tools: HTML, Java, .net, Visualforce, Saas and apex code. PROJECT I got an opportunity to involve in a real time project for an implementation of Salesforce architecture. Here is the snapshot of the project I was involved. By using cloud computing technologies the new way of building and running applications are being enabled where applications are accessible as utilities over Internet rather than different softwares running on server or desktop. This is a fairly common model for consumer applications like email etc., and also some business applications, such as customer relationship management. The website force.com platform as a service is the first of its kind in the world, which enables developers to create as well as deliver any type of business applications in the cloud, without software which is entirely on-demand. This technology is a breakthrough new concept. It makes businesses widely successful by making them translate their ideas into usable applications in a very short time. Developing and running these kind of business appliactions with regular software is a complex, not so fast and costly. To overcome these issues a new model, called cloud computing has been brought into existence. To stop buy and maintain hardware and software applications in the cloud are delivered as services. Salesforce.com, over the last decade helped and established this model with applications bussiness. More recently, force.com opened up and made it as open source so anyone can build and run bussiness applications on its server. Salesforce.com mastered this model with applications for business since ten years. Recently Force.com made available its proprietary technologies as open source for anyone who is building and developing bussiness applications and then running them on force platform. This platform allows you to store structured data, implement and run business logic with rules of workflow techniques, custom code and also custom codes and approval process, web browser support, integration with other applications as well. The overall scope of this project is all, but limited to To develop an application for sales forecast details. Provide the Sales forecast details of a company product. Ease of access and use. Secured analysis (confidentiality). Views about present status. PROPOSED SYSTEM In the previous CRM system, there are lot of problems, so a new technology is being used in this project called as cloud computing. To develop an application in the cloud computing environment and to deploy it and also launching it in the cloud is being proposed in this project. It is called as salesforce environment. A simple application developed and deployed in the cloud by using the tools and in the environment there itself. System Specifications User Requirements: A high-speed Internet Connection is needed as an interface between the service provider and User. User name and Password provided by the administrator is needed to the user to work with the application. Hardware Requirements: Processor: 32 bit Processor Ram: 512 Mb Hard Disk: 40 GB Internet: 512 Kbps high speed internet connection Software Requirements: OS: All OS supporting internet browsing. Environment: Force.com Environment Language: Visual Force Functional Requirements Understand the cloud environment provided by SalesForce.com Learning VISUALFORCE Developing an application using Visualforce in the SalesForce.Com Environment Deploying the application Providing the User accounts Accessing the application from user accounts and should work with the applications clearly. Other Non-functional Requirements: Performance Requirements: The performance will be fully based on the Internet connection. The user may not worry about their local system. The local system will be only used as a terminal. Safety Requirements: There are the possibilities of data loss due to the interruption of connection in Internet. So the user must ensure about his uninterrupted internet connection. Security Requirements: All the security issues will be provided by the service provider itself (SALESFORCE.COM). No users are allowed to enter and view the details without proper authentication (password protection). ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES       This role is more about learning people than coding new fields in Salesforce. One should have familiar with sales process and sales team in a company. Applying and acquiring Salesforce admin and developer skillset as required for project and assignments. Creating Salesforce customization like creating layouts and pages, learning user maintenance, database de-dumping and cleanup, creating reports and dashboards through Salesforce platform. To learn managed outsourced Salesforce implementation and development process. Apply and acquire technical analysis as required per each task, data extraction from old to new system. Salesforce Cloud Application Layout: Dashboard Reports Accounts creation Forecast 6.0 Learning experience Internship is a way to show you if that is the career is you really want. And have first hand experience on what youre going to do, if you choose the trade. This is an option to pay your dues early on. By gaining early experiences as an intern, earn myself a bit more of a leg-up to start. Internship given me exposure to new and professional situationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦with a safety net. They had given me real opportunities for practical application of skill, but are also there to catch me if there is a problem along the way. They provide you experience with a chance to grow. You just dont stop after some years in the trade. The open-minded mentality, Ive experienced, can differentiate successful, progressive professionals from the rest. My learning focus and implementing contribution for the project: Creating Workflow Rules: To automate organizations standard processes by configuring workflow rules. Every single workflow rule consists of: A criteria which determines when the software salesforce executes the workflow rule. And also any changes that causes any record to match this can trigger the workflow rule-it even changes it to hidden fields. The actions immediately to take, when this workflow rule executes. For an example, the software Salesforce sends automatically an email that notifies the opportunity team when a new high-value opportunity is created. There are Time-dependent actions which the Salesforce software queues when the workflow rule executes. Creating Page layouts and Field level security: Field-Level Security It restricts users to edit files and also view them by any means, which includes reports and search results, list views and related lists and email and also mail merge templates, with custom links, connect offline to the API and when also synchronizing data or importing personal data. It overrides any weak restrictive field access settings in the pages layouts and also mini page layout. For an example, if the field is required and read only in the page layout in the field level security settings, it overrides the page layout and the field will be read only for the user. It overrides low restrictive field settings in layouts of search. For example, if a field is visible in the search layout but hidden for certain users via the field-level security settings, the field-level security overrides the search layout and the field will be hidden for those users. For an example, if it is any field, which is visble Page Layouts It controls the layout, organization of detail and edit pages , related lists, which fields, custom link users see on detail and edit pages only. And also control standard and custom buttons display on detail pages as well as related lists. Page layout will determine whether fields are visible, read only, or required, on detail and edit pages only. In Personal category , by going into Contact Manager, and to Group, and Professional Editions, and to control which fields users can access in related lists, and to list views, reports, and to Connect Offline, and to email and mail merge templates, and to custom links, and when synchronizing data or importing personal data. In Professional category, by going into Enterprise, and to Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Editions, and to determine some aspects of mini page layouts, including record type and profile associations, related lists, fields, and field access settings. The visible fields and related lists of the mini page layout can be further customized, but the other items inherited from the associated page layout cannot be changed on the mini page layout itself. Mini page layouts display selected fields and related lists of records in the mini view of the console. It Should not be used to secure data, if we take an example, by removing the Edit button from a page layout, it doesnt prevent users from using inline editing to modify the already established or any records. And to prevent the users from editing data, it uses any number of combination of sharing rules, field-level security, page layout field properties, validation rules, object permissions, and Visualforce pages. Sandbox Testing: Sandboxes create copies of your organization in separate environments. Use them for development, testing, and training, without compromising the data and applications in your Salesforce production organization. Sandbox Types: Developer Sandbox These sandboxes are meant for using coding and testing to be in an isolated environment. These include production organizations configuration which is also known as metadata. Developer Pro Sandbox These are the sandboxes that are intended for developing and testing in the isolated environment. These include the metadata of the organization. These have more storage than developers sandboxes. This allows for more robust test data sets and enables the environment to handle development testing more. Partial Copy Sandbox These are intended for using as testing environments. These can be used for testing tasks like user acceptance testing, training and integration testing. These include metadata configuration, your production data as defined by this sandbox templates. Full Sandbox These sandboxes are intended to be used as testing environment. Only sandboxes support performance testing and load testing and staging. These are a replica of your production organization. This includes all data including metadata. Refresh interval length makes it difficult to use full sandboxes for development. When you create a Full sandbox, you also have to decide how much field tracking history and Chatter activity to include. The default is to omit field tracking, but you can include up to 180 days of field tracking. Specify fewer days to avoid generating an excessive amount of data if you track field history for many objects in your production organization. Chatter activity data can be extensive, which can add a significant amount of time to your Full sandbox copy. Validation Rules Validation rules verify that the data a user enters in a record meets the standards you specify before the user can save the record. A validation rule can contain a formula or expression that evaluates the data in one or more fields and returns a value of True or False. Validation rules also include an error message to display to the user when the rule returns a value of True due to an invalid value. Salesforce runs validation rules before creating records submitted via Web-to-Lead and Web-to-Case, and only creates records that have valid values. Validation rules continue to run on individual records if the owner is changed. If the Mass Transfer tool is used to change the ownership of multiple records, however, validation rules wont run on those records. Workflow Rules and Approvals: Each workflow rule consists of: The criteria that determines salesforce executes the workflow rule. And any change that causes the record to match the criteria triggers the workflow rule- it even changes to hidden fields. Workflow automates some types of actions which are as: Email Alerts-Send an email to one or more recipients. It can automatically send the sales management an email alert where the sales representative qualifies a large deal. Tasks-Assign a new task to a user, role, or record owner. It can automatically assign follow-up tasks to a support representative one week after a case is updated. Field Updates-This Updates the value of a field on a record. This will automatically change the Owner field on a contract 3 days before it expires. Flow Triggers-It Triggers an auto launched flow. It triggers the wrokflow actions, which are formerly available in a pilot programme, are superseded by using the process builder. Outbound Messages- this sends a secure configurable API message to a designated listener. For an example, this will automatically initiate a reimbursement process for the approved expense report after triggering an outbound API message to the external HR system. Approvals This is an automated process where the organization can use to approve salesforce records. This process explains in detail the steps necessary for the record, for the approval and also decides who has to approve it at each step. These steps can apply to each record in the process or certain defined by the administrator. It also specifies for any action taken in the records for approval. Apex code: Apex is an object-oriented programming language which allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Force.com server. It uses syntax that almost looks like java and this also acts like database stored procedures. Apex also enables developers for adding business logics and visualforce pages. This code can be started by web service requests and also from triggers on objects. Apex is: Integrated, Easy to use, Data focused, Rigorous, Hosted, Multitenant aware, automatically upgradeable, easy to test, Versioned. Visualforce Visualforce is a framework which allows developers to build fully sophisticated, custom UIs that can be hosted nativly on the Force.com platform. The Visualforce framework includes a tag-based markup language, similar to HTML, and a set of server-side standard controllers that make basic database operations, such as queries and saves, very simple to perform. In the Visualforce markup language, every Visualforce tag relates to a coarse or fine-grained UI component, such as a section of a page, a related list, or a field. The behavior of Visualforce components can either be controlled by the same logic that is used in standard Salesforce pages, or developers can relate their own logic with a controller class written in Apex. Visualforce page definition consists of two primary elements: Visualforce markup HTML, JavaScript, or any other Web-enabled code are tagged by visual embedded within a single tag. It defines user interface markup of components are to be included on the page, and they should appear the way they should. A Visualforce controller It is a set of procedural instructions that specifically tells what happens when the user starts to interact with the specified components in associated Visualforce markup, such as when a button or a link is clicked. They also provide access to data which should be displayed and can modify component behavior. A developer can use standard controller provided by the Force.com platform, or add some custom controller logic by using a class which is written in Apex: A standard controller which consists of the same functionality and logic used for a usually standard Salesforce page. For an example, if we use some standard Accounts controller, by clicking the Save button in the Visualforce page which results in the similar behavior by clicking Save on a standard Account edit page. Triggers Apex can be started through the use of triggers. A trigger is an Apex code which executes before or after the following types of operations: insert merge upsert upload delete undelete Relationship between the internship and my field of studies A primary objective of internship is to provide students with an opportunity to test abilities and attitudes toward particular material or career possibilities for the future For me classroom learning is important, but it does not provide me with real work experience to prepare me for a career after graduation. Exposure to the workplace environment is needed to bridge the gap between learning in the classroom and application in the work environment. Since I am doing MBA with Management Information Systems as my concentration, it is a great opportunity to get real time work exposure in multi-faceted environment. Salesforce objects and relationships Salesforce Development Life Cycle Stages 7.0 CONCLUSION In review the internship that I have been to work is an excellent and rewarding experience. I was fortunate to meet and work with many people that I am sure will be able to help me with opportunities in the future. The things I have learned from this internship are time management skills and self-motivation as well as work discipline. I never thought I could work eight hours straight everyday for five days in a week. When I realized that I planned my day and work ahead so I dont waste any of my working hours. I made myself to be ready with all the doubts, when it was the correct time to get feedback. This internship motivated me through work in the office continuously for many hours. I also suggested my share of ideas and proposed some proposals that the company is looking forward into using. In conclusion, the internship is an useful experience, I have find out what my strengths and weakness are; I gaining new knowledge and skills and met many new people, I am achieving many of my learning goals, however for some the conditions did not permit to achieve them as I wanted. This Internship is giving me new insights and motivation to pursue a career as a salesforce developer. To prepare myself for my future career I can improve several things. I can work on my communication skills so that I am able to present and express myself more confidently. 8.0 APPENDICES THANK YOU ******************************************************************

Government and Politics - Americas Addiction to War Essays -- Argumen

The United States is addicted to war. In the same way that the drug addict seeks a euphoria from heroin, America seeks the thrill of war and victory. Though there are dire consequences, and certain destruction, the thrill of the high is a prize to be won, no matter the cost. The euphoria of victory and the addiction to war are comparatively recent for the United States. America was a reluctant and late participant in World War One, and before that, wars were fought for the conquest of the continent, or for hemispheric objectives. The notable exception was the Civil War, which was terribly destructive, and which took place entirely on American soil (the only one; the Indian wars were about the conquest of land belonging to others). More American combatants lost their lives in the Civil War than in any other involving Americans. The United States of America was founded by people with a distrust of a large standing army, a distrust that lingered into the twentieth century. As economically powerful as the United States was by the beginning of the twentieth century, it was not a country with a huge military. Viewed as it was then, it was easy enough to defend the country, with friendly neighbours to the north and south, and great oceans between the US and the rest of the world. As the situation in Europe and Asia tended to become more dangerous in the 1930s, there was still very strong sentiment in the United States against getting involved in wars on other continents. The country was very reluctant to enter the First World War, and the hope was that it wouldn’t be sending anyone to war abroad again. Besides, the Civil War and its horrors were still part of living memory. The coming of World War Two, and the possibility of Amer... ...ar movement today is higher; especially amongst the younger elements of the movement, there is a greater realisation of the connections between war, capitalism, and globalisation. That consciousness can be found at ground level, too. It does not manifest itself only at the level of abstraction and theory. I am reminded of the Liberation Theologians’ principle of 'praxis-reflection-praxis', and the advantage of this 'orthopraxis' over 'orthodoxy' and 'practice'. I am also hopeful because, disconnected as it seems, SUV-loving Americans do seem to have in the back of their minds that oil is both finite and bad for the environment. Moreover, as the US moves reluctantly away from the oil economy, it may not have as many of the economic rationales described above to wage war, and war may even be kicked as an addiction. These are hopeful signs, and I am always one to hope.