Analysis of the Origin of the marriage rituals, traditions, practices Research Paper

Analysis of the Origin of the marriage rituals, traditions, practices of Jewish weddings in Orthodox communities - Research Paper Example Marriage is a social institution in which two individuals are united in holy matrimony. The institution of marriage, as we see it today, has grown over many centuries. Traditionally viewed as the union of a man and a woman, this concept has become more complex today owing to the increased sophistication and civilisation of modern societies. Thoroughly immersed in customs, traditions, religion and civil regulations, many of the conventional rites have perished over time to yield place for new ones. The rituals, traditions and practices of marriage differ greatly across diverse cultures, religions, countries, ethnic communities and social strata. Majority of the traditional marriage ceremonies comprise an exchange of nuptial vows by the couple, offering of gifts and a public announcement of the marriage by an authority figure. Some other commonly incorporated elements in a wedding ceremony are traditional music, recital of poetry, chanting of prayers or readings from religious texts. A ll of these marriage customs have their roots firmly embedded in the beliefs and customs of the society in which they are conceived. In Judaism, marriage is regarded as the ultimate state of mankind and a man without a wife or a woman without a husband are regarded as incomplete. As Isaac Klein quotes from Leviticus 34a in his book "A man who does not marry is not a complete person." (Klein, 1979, p. 381) It is also believed that "Any man who has no wife lives without joy, without blessing, and without goodness." (Garland, 2003, p.276) In Jewish literature, the term that denotes marriage is â€Å"kiddushin†, which in English means "sanctification".

Propaganda, P.R., and the News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Propaganda, P.R., and the News - Essay Example It will also explain the propaganda techniques used by the U.S government in post war 1 and discuss why some techniques were too arrogant towards government’s action. The First World War popularized the word propaganda and provided it with a negative implication; since all the key nations participated in the war used new approaches of modern propaganda to organize their populations for the conflict. In the US, the effort was chaired by President Woodrow Wilson in the development of the CPI (Committee on Public Information) as a key propaganda ministry. The major theme of the Committee on Public Information was to improve the United States involvement into the war with the aim of establishing a world which is secure for democracy. This notion was particularly established by the leading scholar of the period, Walter Lippmann, who was 25 years old by then. Lippmann was interested majorly with the upholding of the nation’s capitalist system in the face of increased resistan ce, ideological opposition, and unrest, feeling that the field of science would require being employed to democracy, where social scientist and social engineers would give the current with a background upon which a latest stability might be achieved. Because of this, Lippmann proposed the need for information and intelligence control in what he referred the development of consent. The major intellectual of the period then became mainly concerned with the matter of propaganda during time of peace, having experienced its success during war. According to Lippmann, propaganda has desirable and legitimate role to play in the democratic system. He further noted that public was a confused herd of meddlesome and ignorant outsiders, who must be maintained as interested spectators of activities, and separated from the actors and the powerful themselves. Edward Bernays, the founder of public relations got his beginning with Wilson’s Committee on Public Information during the First World War, asserted that the intelligent and conscious manipulation of the organized opinions and habits of the masses is a crucial element in the democratic society. According to him, those who control this unseen approach of society form an imperceptible government that is the true proper ruling power of the nation. Bernays pointed out that modern society was conquered by few number of individual who understand the social patterns and mental processes of the masses. This was consistent with the Lippmann assertion of a sequential result of the manner in which the current democratic society s arranged. Hence Barneys borrowed from Lippmann the concept of engineering of consent. According to Lippmann, influencing nations thinking with propaganda is not an easy task; it takes a higher ability concerning how public opinion works and how such opinions can be made to unite beliefs. Therefore, the political leaders should use the propanda techniques to achieve their political desires the same w ay American did. During the First World War, the CPI (Communication on Public Opinion) attained this through making planned emotional appeals, demonizing Germany by connecting the warfare to the aims of different social groups and through lying outright. The CPI propaganda naturally appeals to the heart but not mind. Emotional protest is a preferred technique of propagandist, since every emotion

The efficient market hypothesis and behavioral finance

The efficient market hypothesis and behavioral finance The efficient market hypothesis is directly related to the behaviour of prices in asset markets. Initially the term efficient market applied only to the stock market, but later it was generalised to other asset markets. The efficient market hypothesis is seen as the turning point of the modern finance (Fama, 1965) and in his classic paper, Fama (1970) defined efficient market as one in which security always fully reflect the available information [p.383]. Market efficiency is known as the speed and accuracy where the current market prices reflect the investor expectations. When the market is efficient, all the available information is fully and automatically reflected in the price, gaining profit by using this information is seen impossible. Efficient market hypothesis predicts that market price should incorporate all available information at any point in time. According to Pesaran, Hashem M (2010) The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) evolved in the 1960s from the random walk theory of asset prices advanced by Samuelson (1965). Samuelson showed that in an informationally efficient market hypothesis, price changes must be unforecastable. Kendall (1953), Cowles (1960), Osborne (1959), Osborne (1962), and many others had already provided statistical evidence on the random nature of equity price changes. Samuel-sons contribution was, however, instrumental in providing academic respectability for the hypothesis, despite the fact that the random walk model had been around for many years; having been originally discovered by Louis Bachelier, a French statistician, back in 1900. One important implication is that security prices will change only when there is arrival of new information that was not considered during the formation of current market prices. Yet the information will be evaluate and process this information efficiently and immediately incorporate into the security prices. The crucial questions here is the relevant information because it needs careful analysis and the conclusion about market efficiency could be there or extracted from the information set. A standard classification for different compositions or information set was outlined by Fama (1970) as weak form, semi-strong form and strong form. On the other hand, new empirical studies of security prices have reversed some of the earlier findings related to EMH. The traditional finance school named these observation anomalies due to the unexplainable in the neoclassical framework. Due to the increasing numbers of puzzles, the new approach of behavioural finance emerged. This approach focus on the investors behaviour in making decision in investment. This approach assumes that agents may be unreasonable during interpreting new information and thus lead to making wrong judgement in investment. This paper will discuss the definition and concept of efficient market hypothesis and behavior finance in general. I will be look into market issues for countries of Malaysia, USA, Africa and Jordan. I would then like to highlight the issues on this area for future research. Efficient Market Hypothesis Definition and Concept The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is an investment theory that stated it is impossible to compete with the market when stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information. According to the EMH, stocks are always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges. Investors will face difficulties or even impossible in either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. The possible way for investors to obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investment and they have to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing. Forms of Efficient Market Hypothesis There are three forms of Efficient Market Hypothesis where the key to all the three forms remain that is intense competition among investors to gain profit from any new information. There are three versions of EMH, namely the Weak From EMH, Semi Strong EMH and Strong EMH. The weak form EMH is based on past history of prices where the past information is used to analyze for profit return. This method is called technical analysis. The value retrieved from technical analysis is strong and consistent. On the other hand in semi strong form, the current stock price has fully taken into consideration all publicly information that is available. However, the information in the semi strong form is available to all the investors; one is expected not to gain much profit with such information. But this form is stronger than the weak form. Whereas strong form of EMH is taking the current price fully incorporates all existing inside information, both public and private. When the information set us limited to past price and return, the market is said to be weak-from efficient and there is correlation between current return on security and the return over a previous period. However the return is purely unpredictable from the past information. In semi strong Efficient Market Hypothesis, all publicly available information is reflected in the stock market. Investment Managers claim that mutual fund managers are skilled in analyzing publicly available information but empirical evidence do not support. Market Efficiency and security prices reflect all available information whereas new information is expected to be converted into price changes. Efficient Capital Market participants will react immediately and in an unbiased manner. Important of Efficient Market Hypothesis There are common misconceptions of Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). EMH claims that investors cannot outperform the market but there are analysts who have succeed in outperformed. So EMH is seen to be incorrect. EMH claims that one should not be expected to outperform the market predictably or consistently. EMH said that financial analysis is pointless and investors are wasting time if doing research in security price. But everyone knows that financial analyst is still needed in the market. Again EMH is found to be incorrect. EMH sees new information as always fully reflected in market places and yet prices fluctuated every day, every hour and minutes. EMH must be incorrect. EMH presumes that all investors are technically expert but in reality it is otherwise. EMH is incorrect again. Criticism towards Efficient Market Hypothesis There are several opinions against the EMH. First is the over reaction and under reaction of investors. EMH claims that the investor react quickly and in an unbiased manner to new information but it was contradicted to De Bont and Thaler. EMH claims that investors react very fast and in an unbiased manner when they received information but De Bond and Thaler said otherwise. They said that stock with long term past return tend to have a higher future returns and vice versa and empirical observation shows that stock prices respond to earning about a year after the announcement. Secondly, the value versus growth where value strategy is able to outperform the market consistently. Finally is the small firm effects where average return on small stocks were too large to be justified by the CAPM while the average returns on large stocks were too low. There are also implications of Market Efficient for Investors where the EM, investors have little to gain from active management strategies; should follow passive investment strategy and no attempts to beat the market but to optimize returns through diversification and asset allocation. Behavioral Finance Definition and Concept The behavioural finance is an area in finance that highlighted on the investors behaviour and how they make their decision in understanding the pricing of assets and also explain the decisions of investors as rational actors. The rational actors are seeking for their self-interest, given the sometimes inefficient nature of the market. EMH revolves around the preferences and behaviour. Psychologist and also experiment economics found out that there is a departure from the normal paradigm of the investors in making their investments. Behaviour finance emerged since 1980 where it incorporates more behaviour science into finance decision making. Due to the excess volatility, dividend puzzle, equity premium and future returns in the capital market is seen as consistent in an efficient market but the truth is inconsistency do happen. According to behaviour finance good year performance may not lead to another good year but it could be otherwise. Issues in Behavioral Finance Behavioral finance has emerged due to the problems faced in the traditional theory in explaining why some financial phenomena happened. It is said that agents may be irrational in with their own reactions to new information and investment decisions. To undo mispricing created by the irrational investors may be difficult. Due to that, market is seen to inefficient. Psychological sees these in many views. People make mistakes when they perceive information and form their belief. Extensive evidence shows that individuals are overconfident in their judgement (Odean (1998), Barber ODean (2001)). When investors are overconfident, they tend to invest more and intensively. Due to greed, overconfident and also overreact to new information, investors would tend to make heavy losses. What make it difficult it when investors stick to their own conclusion interpreting the information. Once people have formed an opinion, they often stick to it and inadequately update their beliefs in the lieu of new information (Edwards (1968)). Human emotions and moods are also said to influence investors behavior. When investors are in the good mood they are willing to take higher risks compared to when they are in bad mood. In fact market returns are found to be higher on days of good weather than on days with heavy clouds and rain. Social influence and interaction with other investors are also coherent to th e behavior. Investors tend to follow others in making their investment, they tend to follow each other like in a herd. Herding leads more on the situation when an investor focuses more on other investors participation rather than evaluating the information of the particular security. Behavior finance changes the way how we look at capital markets. It is a new approach that has direct impact not only to investors but also others such as corporate finance, market regulators and policy makers. In behavior finance, the investors should not consistently expect to beat the market even at times when they succeed in getting abnormal returns from their investment. According to behavior finance, market is not always efficient. Good return may due to the available information. However, it is advised to actually spend some of the return and study the cause of mispricing that have cause the market to fluctuates. It is said that achieving higher returns is not only due to good analysis strategies but a better self control. Primary contribution of behavior finance is its potential help in beating the market. Summary of Researches This section will discuss the research finding from Malaysia ( KP Lim., Liew KS., and Wong HT, 2003), Africa (C Mlambo and N Biekpe, 2007) United States America (Jae H. Kim 2009) and Jordan (Mahdi M. Hadi, 2006) The first research which was done by Lim et. al, 2003 was the weak form EMH that generally holds in KLSE Malaysia and the existence of the linear and the non-linear dependencies. These dependencies appear at very random intervals for a short of time but then disappear again even before investors have the chance to exploit it. As we know efficient market hypothesis is a fair game where the prices changes in the security is reflected by any new information which was not taken into consideration earlier during the forming of current market price. The paper by Lim et al, 2003 focused on the weak form EMH where the historical price is the only determinant of the security prices. The price movement in a weak form occur randomly and successive price changes are independent of one another, i.e. random walk theory. Past price analysis has no meaning since the patterns observed in the past occurred purely by chance. The weak form Efficient Market Hypothesis has been studied since many years in KLSE. Malaysian stock market is inefficient in the weak form when weekly data were used but efficiency exist when monthly data were used. Test done by Von Nehmanns suggested that information that is based on historical prices is fully reflected in current price within a week but may not be fully impounded in current price within a day which conclude that Second Board of KLSE is weak form efficient with respect to weekly data. But when weekly data were used the efficiency of the Malaysian stock market has improved from a weak form inefficient market in mid 1980s to weak form efficient by late 80s and early 90s. Empirical evidence from various statistical test found out that the low trading volumes in most stocks and the possible price manipulations by those investors who own majority of the stocks might help to explain the findings of the runs test. The reason for departure from random walk is due to the presence of non-linear dependencies in the underlying data generating process which is now widely accepted as a salient feature of financial returns in general and stock returns series in particular. Non linearity has strong implication on the weak form EMH for it implies the potential of predictability in financial returns. Lim et. al (2003b.d) and Lim and Tan (2003) provided convincing evidence that non-linearity has a high effect in the underlying dynamics of the Malaysian stock market. Ko and Lee (1991:224) If the Random Walk Theory hypothesis holds, the weak form of efficient market but not vice versa. Thus evidence supporting the random walk model is the evidence of market efficiency. But violation of the random walk model need not be evidence of market inefficiency in the weak form. Kok and Lee (1994) and Kok and Goh (1995) argued that though daily price series are found to be serially correlated, the magnitude of their c orrelations is not large enough for any mechanical trading rules to be devised for profitable investment timing. In connection to the existence of linear/non-linear dependency structures to the concept of information arrival and market reactions to that information will prove to enlightening. It is said that if the market is efficient and the new information is useful then it shall be reflected quickly and unbiasedly into market prices. There is a rationalization the correlation between the weak-form EMH and behavioural finance in KLSE. The statistical properties of random walk, linear and non-linear dependencies are interpreted in the context of information arrival and how the market react to that information. The second research was done by C Mlambo and N Biekpe, 2007 with regard the weak form in the African Stock Market. Johannesburg Stock Exchange is found to be weak form efficient but using weekly data it is not weak form efficient. Studies that have used data on individual stocks used either monthly or weekly data rather than daily data due to non availability of computerised databases. Another argument for using data measured over longer time intervals in the problem of thin trading. Increasing the time interval is argued to reduce the potential biases associated with thin-trading by increasing the probability of having at least one trade in the interval. (Dickinson and Muragu, 1994). This paper studies the weak form efficiency of ten African stock markets using the serial correlation and runs tests African stock market emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the latest in 2003. African stock exchanges are also the smallest in the world in terms of both number of listed stocks and market capitalisation. The majority of stock markets in Africa trade daily from Monday to Friday. The portfolio inflows to Africa have been disappointing due to unfavourable scenario is that acquisition of shares by foreigners is limited on some African stock markets. The Market Regulator was established on the back of poor regulatory and legislative frameworks. African stock markets are also known to be illiquid and characterised by thin trading (Mlambo and Biekpe, 2005) in comparison to stock markets in other regions. The delay market is perceived by African governments to be an indication of integration into the global economy. It is considered to be a sign of international legitimacy and a measure of a countrys modernisation and commitment to private sector-led development (Moss, 2004). The d ata used in this study are daily closing stock prices and volume traded for individual stocks. The markets in this study exhibit serious thin-trading for the periods under investigation. Positive serial correlation is usually considered to be a predictability phenomenon of the short run, while negative serial correlation is mostly a long run predictability phenomenon. The positive serial correlation on African Stock markets might also be a result of institutions imitating spreading their trades over several days to lessen the impact of trades in large volumes on the market (Asal, 2000). The weak market form efficiency if the NSX can probably be explained by the markets positive correlation with the JSE due to the significant number of stocks that are dual-listed on both markets. The efficiency of the NSX can thus be said to be spill over from, or a reflection of, the weak-form efficiency of the JSE. The weak form efficiency of the NSX was attributed to its correlation with the JSE. Kenya and Zimbabwe were also concluded as generally weak form efficient, since a significant number of stocks conformed to the random walk. The stock prices on the Mauritius market tend to deviate from the random walk hypothesis. The same conclusion was made for Ghana. The run test used here only tests for the existence of a linear relationship which makes it inadequate as a testing method on African stock markets where the return generating processes are assumed to be nonlinear. The use of linear models would thus lead to wrong inferences being drawn. Thus further research is required to test the random walk hypothesis. The third research that I would like to discuss is the market hypothesis in the United States America. Kim et al., (2009), study return predictability of the daily and weekly Dow-Jones Industrial Average indices from 1900 to 2009. The degree of return predictability is estimated using two autocorrelation test (variance ratio and portmanteau) statistics, implementing moving sub-sample windows of different lengths. They found strong evidence that changing of market condition has lead to return predictability. In particular, during market crashes (1929 and 1987), it was observed that return in unpredictable and when it is predictable it is very much associate with high level of doubt. When there is economic crisis, the return from the stock is very predictable even with moderate degree of uncertainty. Whereas during economic bubbles, return predictability and its uncertainty have been smaller than normal times. Our results are in strong support of the adaptive markets hypothesis, which claim that changing market conditions drive the key market features such as the return predictability. They examine the degree of return predictability of the U.S. stock market using the century-long Dow-Jones industrial index. As measures of return predictability, they used their findings and complements with the recent study by Neely et al. (2009) who report the evidence in favour of the adaptive markets hypothesis for the foreign exchange market in the context of profitability of technical trading rules. The statistics from the automatic variance ratio and automatic portmanteau tests. To detect possible non-linear dependence in stock return, the generalized spectral test has been implemented. They obtain monthly time-varying measures of return predictability by applying these tests to moving sub-sample windows over monthly grids. A regression analysis is conducted to determine how these measures of return predictability are related to changing market conditions and economic fundamentals. They also find evidence for cyclical evolution of return predictability, in which changing market conditions are important factors for the degree of return predictability. It is found that, during market crashes, no return predictability is evident but its uncertainty has been exceptionally high. However, during economic and political crises, a high degree of return predictability is observed, but only with moderate degree of uncertainty. During bubble times, the return predictability and its uncertainty are found to be lower than normal times. Contrary to the general findings of past empirical and survey studies, we have found evidence the U.S. market has become more efficient after 1980. This is convincing given that the U.S. market has implemented a various measures of market innovations in the 1960s and 19070s, and that US macroeconomic fundamentals have become much more stable since 1980. In addition, there have been fewer occurrences of economic and political crises after 1980 than before. Our finding is a manifestation of the adaptive markets hypothesis, which argues that dynamic market conditions govern the degree of stock market efficiency. Finally this paper will discuss on efficient market hypothesis in Jordan capital market. This paper by M. Hadi (2006) noted that the objective of accounting numbers is to provide the financial data about the performance of certain enterprise in order to help the managers, investors, shareholders and government authorities in making their decisions. On the other hand, the purpose of accounting research is to estimate the value of accounting data to all investors and other users. Furthermore, the purpose of capital market research is to examine the association between accounting numbers and security return and to test whether or not accounting data carry any information content to security market, and if so it should be impounded in the security price, the results show the security market reacted with mixed signal on releasing profitability, liquidly, and solvency information. This paper identified EMH and provided some detail on the types of EMH, as well as identifying the empirical research that tested weak, semi-strong and strong forms of market efficiency. Accounting market based research more often assumes that market is efficient in semi-strong form, and the reason for this is that financial reports are considered public information once they are released to the market. In this paper empirical evidence has been provided from Jordanian market, and it shows the security market reacted with mixed signal on releasing profitability, liquidly, and solvency information. The selection of the relevant pricing model is very critical in market-based research. Brown and Warner (1980) investigate how different methods performed when some abnormal performance was present. They conclude that There is no evidence that more complicated methodology conveys any benefit. (Brown and Warner, 1980). Also, they argue that using more complicated models will make the researc her worse off. Furthermore, the use of the market model or even simple models such as mean adjusted return is better than more complicated models like control portfolio. 5.0 Conclusion The relationship between finance and other social sciences that has become known as behavioural finance has led to a strong and deepen of our knowledge of financial market. In judging the impact of behavioural finance to date, there is still no exact one method that can make an investors gain high profit. For instance in situation where efficient markets theory may lead to drastically incorrect interpretations of events such as major stock market bubbles. . Indeed, we have to divert our presumption that financial markets always work well and that price changes always reflect genuine information. Evidence from behavioral finance helps us to understand, for example, that the recent worldwide stock market boom, and then crash after 2000, had its origins in human foibles and arbitrary feedback relations and must have generated a real and substantial misallocation of resources. The challenge for economists is to make this reality a better part of their models. It is found that in Malaysia, there is co existence of weak form EMH and behavioural finance. Unlike in Africa, there are mix of two findings where conforms to the random walk theory and also deviate from the theory. Whereas in United States, it is claim that return predictability and market efficiency and investors behaviour are considered as highly context dependent and dynamic by changing market conditions. Whereas in Jordanian market shows the security market reacted with mixed signal on releasing profitability, liquidly, and solvency information. Further research is suggested in Malaysia to incorporate the issue of model adequacy where the characteristic was found in the returns series and can be used to construct a better economic model. Whereas in Africa it is suggested to test on the existence of linear relationship in the stock markets where the return generating processes are assumed to be linear. In Kuwait, a few research has been investigated in market efficiency in strong form, it is suggested that for future research test for insider information should be investigated.

The Unresolved Bridge Problem Essay -- Philosopher Karl Popper

Philosopher Karl Popper, an inductive skeptic, is criticized by his objection to confirmation. Rather than using the term confirmation to describe a theory that has continued to be proven correctly, Popper created his own term. Popper says that corroboration is a term used to describe theories that have been tested and not yet falsified. According to Peter Godfrey-Smith (G-S), â€Å"Popper can say why we should prefer to use a theory that has not been falsified over a theory that has been falsified† (Smith 68). The problem with Popper lies when he is presented with two theories, neither of which has been falsified. This is when Popper has difficulty choosing one theory over another. This situation can be better understood by looking at the bridge problem. I will argue that Popper is unable to solve the bridge problem using corroboration because the term is synonymous with confirmation. There are two theories (T1: Theory One) and (T2: Theory Two) that have different implications for how to build a bridge. These two theories are similar because they both have not been falsified however they differ because one has been tested and the other has not. The theories are stated explicitly below. T1: Theory that has been tested many times and has never been falsified T2: Theory that has never been tested and has never been falsified Next we can formally reconstruct the argument in modus ponens form as follows: (P1) If T1 is corroborated, then T1 is rational (P2) T1 is corroborated (C) T1 is rational Before I say what is wrong with the argument, I want to explain the bridge objection. In â€Å"Theory and Reality,† G-S presents the bridge problem, which is a response to Popper made by inductivist’s. I chose to explain this... ...t his term corroboration is synonymous to confirmation. In conclusion, I have argued that Popper is unable to solve the volleyball problem using corroboration because the term is synonymous with corroboration and Popper denies confirmation. Granted, there must be more to what Popper thinks of corroboration, we have no reason from the readings to see why the two terms corroboration and confirmation differ. Until Popper says more about corroboration we are entitled to treat the term as equivalent in meaning to confirmation Work Cited Blackmon, James. â€Å"Lecture #13: â€Å"Confirmation.† Philosophy 30. UC DAVIS. Davis, 5 Nov 2013. Blackmon, James. â€Å"Lecture #17: â€Å"Popper’s Bridge.† Philosophy 30. UC DAVIS. Davis, 26 Nov 2013. Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003. Print.

Weimar Republic – Political, Social and Economic Issues

Political, economic and social issues in the Weimar Republic to 1929 Year 12 Modern History 2013 * Mrs Lynch Jenni Hamilton Due Date; 26th of March 2013 Word Count; 1,665 The collapsement of the Weimar Republic was due to many social, political and economical issues within. From its birth it faced numerous political problems, for which the causes were many and varied. These problems included political instability, deep divisions within society and economic crisis; problems were constantly appearing for the new government.The Weimar Republic never really had a stable political party, having a whole six different parties between 1924-1928 does not create stability. Many of these parties were also narrowly sectioned, with messed up priorities such as to look after the interests of class area of religion that they represented within the Weimar Republic, loyalty to democracy was of least importance. In 1929 the misery that had aided the efforts of Weimar’s enemies in the early 20s had been relieved by five years of economic growth and rising incomes.Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations and is once more an accepted member of the international community. The bitterness at Germany's defeat in the Great War and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles had not been forgotten but most Germans appear to have come to terms with the new Republic and its leaders. Gustav Stresemann had decided to take on the job of leading a battle for a policy he felt was in his nation’s vital interest even though he was tired and ill and knew that the opposition would be stubborn. Stresemann was the major force in negotiating and guiding the Young Plan through a ‘plebiscite’.This plan although opposed by those on the right-wing won majority approval and further reduced Germany’s reparations payments. The Weimar Republic was a bold experiment. It was Germany's first democracy, a state in which elected representatives had real power. The new W eimar constitution attempted to blend the European parliamentary system with the American presidential system. In the pre- World War I period, only men twenty-five years of age and older had the right to vote, and their elected representatives had very little power. The Weimar constitution gave all men and women twenty years of age the right to vote.Women made up more than 52% of the potential electorate, and their support was vital to the new Republic. From a ballot, which often had thirty or more parties on it, Germans chose legislators who would make the policies that shaped their lives. Parties spanning a broad political spectrum from Communists on the far left to National Socialists (Nazis) on the far right competed in the Weimar elections. The Chancellor and the Cabinet needed to be approved by the Reichstag (legislature) and needed the Reichstag's continued support to stay in power.Although the constitution makers expected the Chancellor to be the head of government, they inc luded emergency provisions that would ultimately undermine the Republic. Gustav Stresemann was briefly Chancellor in 1923 and for six years foreign minister and close advisor to Chancellors. The constitution gave emergency powers to the directly elected President and made him the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. In times of crisis, these presidential powers would prove decisive.During the stable periods, Weimar Chancellors formed legislative majorities based on coalitions primarily of the Social Democrats, the Democratic Party, and the Catholic Center Party, all moderate parties that supported the Republic. As the economic situation deteriorated in 1930, and many disillusioned voters turned to extremist parties, the Republic's supporters could no longer command a majority. German democracy could no longer function as its creators had hoped. Ironically by 1932, Adolf Hitler, a dedicated enemy of the Weimar Republic, was the only political leader capable of commanding a legisla tive majority.On January 30, 1933, an aged President von Hindenburg reluctantly named Hitler Chancellor of the Republic. Using his legislative majority and the support of Hindenburg's emergency presidential powers, Hitler proceeded to destroy the Weimar Republic. Germany emerged from World War I with huge debts incurred to finance a costly war for almost five years. The treasury was empty, the currency was losing value, and Germany needed to pay its war debts and the huge reparations bill imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war.The treaty also deprived Germany of territory, natural resources, and even ships, trains, and factory equipment. Germany’s population was undernourished and contained many widows, orphans, and disabled veterans living in poverty. The new German government struggled to deal with these crises, which had produced a serious hyperinflation. By 1924, after years of crisis management and attempts at tax and finance reform, th e economy was stabilised with the help of foreign, particularly American, loans. This relative â€Å"golden age† was reflected in the strong support for moderate pro-Weimar political parties in the 1928 elections.However, economic disaster struck with the onset of the world depression in 1929. The American stock market crash and bank failures led to a recall of American loans to Germany. This development added to Germany's economic hardship. Mass unemployment and suffering followed. Many Germans became increasingly disillusioned with the Weimar Republic and began to turn toward radical anti-democratic parties whose representatives promised to relieve their economic hardships. The government no longer had sufficient resources to support the German economy, but continued to print paper money.This caused rapid inflation, which Germany used as an excuse for not being able to pay its second instalment towards the reparations. The French government, however, decided to force German y to pay. It did this by sending French and Belgian troops to the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr to collect reparations still owing to them, but the German Chancellor called for â€Å"passive resistance† by the workers of the Ruhr; a refusal to co-operate with the troops. This, however, led to the collapse of the German economy, as the government was forced to print more paper money in order to pay the striking workers in the Ruhr.This caused hyperinflation as Germany was not producing anything; its industrial heartland had been destroyed and yet the number of notes in its economy was increasing. The German currency soon became worthless and prices were constantly rising (For example, an American dollar in July 1914 was worth about 4 marks, whilst in November 1923, its equivalent in marks was 4,000,000,000,000 marks). This struggle is then proved by Gustav Stresemann in the following source; â€Å"We in Germany in recent years have lived on borrowed money, if a cr isis ever hits us and the American withdraw their short-term credits then we would be bankrupt †¦ e are not only militarily disarmed, we are also financially disarmed† The social effects of this hyperinflation were disastrous, particularly for the German middle classes who had lost all their savings and pensions as a result. Then, in September 1923, Gustav Stresemann called for the end of passive resistance in order to begin the restoration of the German economy. This led to great political humiliation however, as it showed that Germany had been forced to do what the French wanted.This led to the Munich Putsch, which was an attempt by the Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler to overthrow the government; Hitler was determined to show the German people that not all Germans were going to accept what the French had forced the German government to do. Bavarian police broke up the revolt however and Hitler was arrested. In Saxony, there was another revolt against the republic, but t his was a communist revolt and a communist government was set up, but Stresemann ordered this government to resign or else it would face military action.Therefore, the Ruhr Crisis led to economic collapse, political humiliation, dissatisfaction within society, further opposition to the Weimar Republic and finally, it’s devastating effects caused people to start looking towards extreme solutions. The Weimar Republic, in spite of all its problems, did survive the crisis that had befallen it between 1919 and 1923; even though it had inspired violent political opposition from right and left wing groups, it had faced a devastating economic situation creating a high level of discontent within society, and had brought about serious political humiliation upon itself, it had still managed to survive.All these problems contributed to the political difficulties which Weimar faced during its first few years; a general hatred amongst Germans of the new system and constant opposition towar ds it. The political issue of the Treaty of Versailles was probably the most important individual cause of Weimar's crisis however. It had been the Treaty of Versailles that caused nationalist opposition to Weimar and theGerman nation to step down to a second class power, losing much of its territory, having extreme military restrictions imposed on it, and it had been the treaty of Versailles that had brought about reparations, leading Germany into an extremely difficult economic situation causing further social tensions, and it had been this treaty that had inspired communist opposition by bringing about the need to get Germany back to work, causing the majority socialists (SPD) to cooperate with the old order.It can be argued that this treaty was responsible for most of the hatred of the German people towards Weimar between 1919 and 1923, but on the other hand, Germany would not have been able to negotiate peace had they not signed the treaty. Germany managed to survive this crisi s of economic collapse, political humiliation and dissatisfaction within society. Bibliography; Secondary Sources – * Republic to Reich, A history of Germany 1918-1939 Third Edition: K J Mason; Published 2007 * http://www. ohndclare. net/weimar5_affleck. htm Primary Source – * Republic to Reich, A history of Germany 1918-1939 Third Edition: K J Mason; Published 2007 Gustav Stresemann – page 43 â€Å"We in Germany in recent years have lived on borrowed money, if a crisis ever hits us and the American withdraw their short-term credits then we would be bankrupt †¦ we are not only militarily disarmed, we are also financially disarmed†

Living In America During the Mid-to-Late 1800’s Essay

America was not a great place to be in the late 1800’s, especially if you were a Native American, immigrant, or African-American. The Native Americans’ homelands were brutally taken over, and they were forced to live on reservations. The immigrants had to deal with the terrible living conditions in the cities and the persecution against them because of their appearance. The African-Americans, despite being declared all the rights of a citizen, were segregated, and voting in the South was made nearly impossible. During this time, living in America would have been a negative experience. One of the things that made life in America hard for the Native Americans was the Dawes Act of 1887. The Dawes Act stated that the Native Americans would be given 160 acres of land per household, and that they had to farm it. The Act was a failure. The Native American people were not farmers, and couldn’t farm the land well. They also weren’t given the proper farming equipment. They were also not given the proper medical attention, and the teachers provided to them were poorly trained. The Dawes Act was a negative thing in Native American life. Many immigrants expected to find the streets paved with gold in America, but found that city conditions were terrible. Diseases the cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, and typhoid were common. Tenements, which were cheap places to live, were extremely overcrowded and unsanitary. Crime flourished in the cities. The horrible living conditions in the cities made living in America a negative experience for immigrants. Life was especially difficult for Asian immigrants. Americans made fun of the Chinese hair and dress, and gave them the name ‘coolies’. Japanese immigrants were dubbed â€Å"The Yellow Peril†. Because the Chinese were good workers who were willing to work for less, American workers complained and the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to prevent Chinese immigration. The Alien Land Law was passed to prevent noncitizen Asians from owning land. Between the persecution from the American people and the American government, life in America for Asians was a very negative experience. Despite the rights they had just been given after the Civil War, African-Americans in this time found new unfair laws being passed. The Jim Crow laws required separation of African-Americans in schools, parks, hospitals, public buildings, water fountains, and other places. In the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities for whites and African-Americans were allowed, as long as they were equal, but the facilities for African-Americans were always inferior to those of the whites. Being an African-American in America at this time was a negative experience. New laws designed to prevent African-Americans from voting were also passed in the late 1800’s. Despite being given the right to vote, many southern states required that African-Americans must own land and pay a poll tax in order to vote, which was very difficult for African-Americans to achieve during this time. Many southern states also required voters to take a literacy test, but the test given to African-Americans was a lot harder than the one given to whites. Just to make sure that no whites were being prevented from voting by these laws, a law was passed that anyone who could vote before the new laws were passed were exempt from them. These unfair laws ensured that African-Americans didn’t have a voice in government, which made life during this time a negative experience for them. Whether it was living conditions, unfair laws passed by the U.S. government, or racism by other American citizens, life during this time was made very difficult for African-Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. The African-Americans and Native Americans were abused by the American government, while immigrants were being made fun of and taken advantage of by the American people. Life in this time for these people was a very negative experience.

buy custom New Product Pricing Strategy essay

buy custom New Product Pricing Strategy essay What is the product name? Describe the product.NEXT is to launch a brand extension to its Online Director (online store) with the name of NEXTs Chit Chat Chic Club or C4. This is a unique service offering that combines online shopping with online social networking that stimulates shopping experience with friends in a virtual set up. It is designed and targeted specifically for young females, who enjoy shopping with their girl friends and like discussing fashion products before making purchases. NEXTs Chit Chat Chic Club will function as a website service with design features that stimulate a real shopping environment with options to chat, polling, take and share pictures and, of course, shopping.The success of NEXTs Directory in the online retail industry and the key trends in the fashion retail industry are the two main reasons which frame the need for this service brand extension followed by the internal strengths of NEXT in the form of the minimum financial muscle and capital inve stments required to execute this service. The e-store is to sell four product lines: Super Girl, Party Chic, Trendy Casual, Simply Casual and Humble Styler.The fashion industry trends that are being referred to here are: (1) the fashion retailers expansion to online selling to cover a much broader market of consumers and target using behavioral marketing techniques and specific social trends prevalent amongst the consumers and furthering refinement of segmentation and positioning; (2) the extensive use of online advertising incorporating the clever use of social networking and social marketing; (3) fashion retailers use of viral advertising to get their message across to a broad range of audience in the form of videos, and acquire trial through the most cheapest tool of promotion; (4) owing to the economic meltdown, the frequent use of sales offers that condemn the retailers to sell most of their product lines in cheap prices; and finally (5) the use of celebrity endorsements and us e of in-house designers as part of the effective supply chain and creation of unique brand identities, most importantly (Berman 210).Explain how you are segmenting the market. Why did you choose this method of customer segmentation? Please be specific.The present service idea incorporates the combination of two basics of segmentation. For the females the brand is to target at: demographic and psychographic models (Kotler and Keller 370). Demographic segmentation entails the use of income, gender, age, physical location and family size to differentiate different customer groups. Inthe present case, the females belonging to the age group of 18 to 30, living in US are to be used.On the other hand, there is a very wide range of population that accounts for this segment and to further refine the segmentation, the service brand uses the model of psychographic variables (Hines 130). These include the personality and behavioral characteristics and the likes and dislikes to differentiate th e potential from the customers who are not likely to ever purchase the service offering of NEXTs Chit Chat Chic Club. The specific personality types most suited for the service offering are consumers who are social, out-going and are fashion followers and innovators.Who is the target market?The target market is based on the segmentation identified using two key variables. The following profile of potential customers may be drawn, as shown in Table 4 below. Table 4: Most Attractive Customer Segment to Target Age 18-30 Occupation Student or Young professional Income to Spare on Shopping Up to $100 per month Social Position Fashion Innovator, Fashion Follower What are your products benefits to the target market?A key trend in the fashion retail is using social networking websites to link fashion follow-up with the latest trends offered by the fashion retailers to attract not only online shoppers, but also those who are highly influenced by social groups and peers with regard to shopping (Newman and Patel 780). This is what the idea of NEXTs C4 is based on. The cultural aspect of fashion purchase behavior underpinned in the concept of the plan of NEXT C4 is related towards the need for social belongingness amongst the female gender. The website triggers their need to relate with other females and get influenced with others style.At what price will your product be introduced? Why?Each product line corresponds to a different price range. Price ranges are set differently to allow consumers to identify the most affordable product line for them. Product lines are prriced up to $100, the distribution is shown below.Super Girl $100Party Chic $7 0Trendy Casual -$50Simply Casual $35Humble Styler $15What pricing strategy are you using? Why?Value based pricing and price skimming are the two pricing models to be used for NEXTs C4. Value based pricing will be based on the added services the website offers in the form of a social environment; together with that, initially higher prices will be introduced (which will be affordable nonetheless), followed by discounts and cheaper offers. In six months after, the bottom line profitability is attained. Discounts are to be offered quarterly once the initial stock is sold generating breakeven and a preliminary profit.What objectives will be accomplished by using this strategy? Be specific.The pricing strategy would allow the brand to position itself as an affordable fashion retail location in the online market and attract consumers. Discounts are offered for the products priced above 40. This strategy is used to remove risk of hampering the price based market positioning of the compan y if all products are offered for sale using promotional pricing. This will restrain the company to charge higher later on as customers are looking for cheaper deals (Smith 240). The shop is to position itself in the middle market and low priced market, so that customers perceived it to be offering value deals and did not expect further discounts, as sales discounts are offered mainly because of seasonal trends such as holidays.What is the product worth this price?The price is, actually, underpriced based on the fact that the product is a unique and innovative idea that no other fashion retailer is selling. The price is set at a standard rate which incorporates the pricing strategy of affordable product lines in the brick-and-mortar outlets of NEXT. But at the same time, the price allows the potential consumers to know that the e-store is for people looking for affordable fashion only.Identity and explain what prices you should charge at each stage of the PLC?The prices will be incr eased by 5 pounds in the third year of the product life cycle as the website enters to maturity. During the growth stage, the prices will remain stagnant so that the positioning as desired by the company for the e-store was perceived as affordable and trendy. As the technology industry and fashion retail market change at a fast pace, the product life cycle is quite short. Due to inflation, the prices will increase. However, the brand has to evoke further innovation into the service. Buy custom New Product Pricing Strategy essay

St George essays

St George essays Saint George of Cappadocia was known as a great soldier, and a martyr. Much of Saint Georges life was surrounded in myth and legend, so much so that there isnt much truth to be told about Saint George, and what is known is hard to decipher what is fact and what is fiction. The reason for this is Acta Sancti Georgii Gelasius, or the acts of Saint George were outlawed by the Pope in 496 AD. However, it is known that he was a very strong martyr and he eventually died because of his strong belief in Christianity. St. George was born in Cappadocia, which was the first kingdom of Anatolia. Although the year of his birth is not known, the estimated year of his death is 305 AD. At one point in his life he served as a high ranking officer in the Roman army. There are several legends that surround Saint George; however the most well known one is about George and the Dragon. The dragon was terrorizing the people near the town of Dilena, Libya. He ate the towns sheep when mutton was scarce. After all the sheep were devoured, the dragon substituted people for the sheep. The townspeople decided to sacrifice the princess to the dragon with hopes of satisfying him. When St. George heard of this he rode to the princesss rescue and murdered the dragon with a single thrust of his mighty lance and returned the princess to the king. As a reward the king gave him a large amount of gold which he distributed to the poor people of the town. George was one determined martyr. Because he was a Christi an, he was subjected to all kinds of cruel tortures. He was thrown into prison; where Christ appeared to him and predicted a seven year tribulation. During his tribulation, he drank a cup of poison, had his head pulled off, was bound to a wheel which the angels broke, had 60 nails driven into his head, was quartered by horses, had his hands and feed cut off, he healed a man possessed by the devil, had his body sawn up, ...

A Study on the Benefit of Children’s Exposure to Violence in Media as Described by Gerard Jones in His Book, Violent Media Is Good For Kids

A Study on the Benefit of Children’s Exposure to Violence in Media as Described by Gerard Jones in His Book, Violent Media Is Good For Kids Who better to help the younger generations through the angst and frustration that comes with the burden of growing up than a comic book artist? In â€Å"Violent Media is Good for Kids†, Gerard Jones writes about the positive aspects exposing children to violent media. Opening the essay with his personal experience and the outlet it allowed him as he was growing up, he slowly transitions into discussing other children’s similarly positive encounters. Jones argues that in most instances, it is helpful and healthy for a child to be exposed to violent media. The audience that Jones is trying to persuade seems to be very clear after initially reading the essay. Digging a little deeper, the essay was first published on the magazine Mother Jones’s website. In the â€Å"about† section on the Mother Jones website their mission is described as, â€Å"a strong voice for social justice: Racial discrimination, womens rights, environmental justice, and the plight of immigrant farmworkers are all issues you will find covered in the magazine from its first year of publication to the present† (Hochschild, Mother Jones: The Magazine). Learning about what the purpose of this publication stands for, it becomes even more apparent which audience that Jones is speaking to. As a very left-wing publication, Jones seems to be trying to persuade new parents of the same political views that raising their children around some violent media is okay. Gerard Jones spends the essay supporting his argument to these parents with minimal use of log os but great use of pathos and ethos. Gerard Jones opens his essay with the use of ethos, constructing his credibility by describing his childhood and how violent media positively helped him maneuver through his road to adulthood. Jones explains that as he was growing up, his parents taught him the same thing that many others are taught as children, that violence is not the correct way to handle conflict and that anger is a feeling to be left out of matters. Jones describes his childhood in the first paragraph, â€Å"My parents, not trusting the violent world of the late 1960s, built a wall between me and the crudest elements of American pop culture† (199). Although his parents made great attempts at stifling their child into a pacifist young adult, Jones discovered the wonderful world of Marvel and the Hulk. Identifying most with the Hulk, Jones imagined himself following his â€Å"fantasy self† which allowed him to do whatever he wanted, without a care of what disapproval may follow. Being an angry child that was able to channel his rage through comic books helps Jones solidify his position that violent media is not always as terrible as it is made out to be. As an adult, Jones is not only a comic book writer, but also an advocate for exposing children to violent media. Working alongside Melanie Moore, a psychologist, the two of them study the way violent stories help children develop in a healthy way. Demonstrating logos, Jones quotes his colleague, Moore, Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of ourselves that we try not to experience in our lives but often want, even need, to experience vicariously through stories of others. Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that theyve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient selfhood (201). Adding a psychologist’s perspective, Jones is setting his point more firmly by bringing in an outside authority. Completing his method of relating his credibility to the reader, Jones turns the reader’s attention to facts from a person in the field of understanding the way the bra in works and habits of human beings. Delving deeper into his reasoning for being a credible source on the subject of children and violent media, Jones returns to the use of ethos to further establish not only his authority, but Moore’s. After discussing his history with the reader and establishing some scientific background, Jones gives some slight overview of the work that he does with the help of Moore. Jones states that he started a program called â€Å"Power Play† where he helps â€Å"young people improve their self-knowledge and sense of potency through heroic, combative storytelling† (201). Establishing that his is a topic he not only studies but is heavily involved in helps the reader believe that what he is saying is true. Jones is not only reading charts, answers from a survey, or however he and Moore conduct their research but is, instead, actively involving himself with children and including violent stories into their development. Giving the reader an understanding of how violence in med ia can help children, Jones is persuading the reader with examples of his work. Transitioning from heavy use of ethos, Jones turns to pathos near the end of his piece. Once he got the reader to understand him as an author, Jones seems to have set about getting the reader to understand the reason behind his passion. Telling the tale of a young girl he worked with, Jones describes that although her home life is not an ideal situation, listening to rap as helped her find â€Å"a theater of the mind in which she could be powerful, ruthless, invulnerable† (202). Jones explains that she went to college and became a writer while avoiding the use of the drugs her peers were using (202). He seems to be trying to put the reader into the mind of a struggling adolescent to feel empathy for the children who are not blessed with a peaceful life at home. Reminding the reader, possibly, of times when life was confusing and messy assists Jones in giving the reader a second to consider that maybe things would have been easier had they had an outlet to give their rage over to. This placement of the reader into the shoes of an angry adolescent is vital in Jones’ argument. Gerard Jones is a clear writer in thoughts and example, building a solid case in favor of letting children experience violent media. Jones makes great examples of real people to further his point because it gives the reader something solid to relate to. Additionally, his and Moore’s credentials gives the reader a writer that they can trust. There is a really strong building of trust between the reader and the writer throughout the entire piece with Jones spending most of his time establishing himself as a reliable source for the subject. At the end of this piece, it is hard to believe that most people will not be swayed into letting their children partake in an hour of Power Rangers.

Michael Bleaney Planners and enterprises (5 other sources to choose Lab Report

Michael Bleaney Planners and enterprises (5 other sources to choose from) - Lab Report Example According to Stigler (1951, 187) Adam Smith explains this concept with his famous example of pin-making. If one person were to make pins, he would probably be able to make just one pin in a day. However, if the pin making process is divided into 18 stages and in all 10 workers split these tasks among themselves, each doing just one type of job, together they were able to produce 48000 pins. This is because as the task is divided each labor becomes proficient and specialized in that task as he is concentrating on just one type of work and therefore the human mind discovers the most efficient way of doing that task. Thus with division of labor, there is an increase in the production, skill and efficiency of time giving rise to the invention of machines. However, Adam Smith recognizes the disadvantages of division of labor and says that with specialization, when a man spends his whole life performing a few simple tasks he becomes stupid and ignorant. At the same time however, he also says that division of labor causes inventions and technological advancements. The contradiction is that when the division of labor makes the worker and in turn society as a whole stupid, then how can there be technological advancement and inventions in the same society (Stigler 187-188). Many economists according to Stigler (1951, 189) have held this against Adam Smith and have found his theory to be contradictory. However, upon closer scrutiny we see that when Smith said that the workman who spends his life doing a few simple tasks has no opportunity to implement his understanding and innovations as his work is too mechanical. He has no need to attempt to remove difficulties that never occur. He thus automatically loses the habit of exerting and generally becomes stupid and ignorant. Thus according to Smith his deftness at his own particular work is at the expense

Movie Gattaca Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Gattaca - Movie Review Example to second-class citizen status and find that they cannot reach their goals, and their dreams severely impeded because society just cannot tolerate them and will obstruct their every hope and aspiration. They also suffer psychologically and emotionally because society not only treats them as pariahs but look at them as pitiful and scornful creatures. But this society itself is grossly myopic because it fails to see defect such as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who suffered polio and yet campaigned and won the presidency or heptathlete Jackie Joyner Kersee who was asthmatic and yet ruled them all in Olympic heptathlon and the long jump for decades. The list is long and includes Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller. The list goes on and on and probably include our own ancestors who shone and stood out despite physical limitations stressing the point that the most valuable thing is not what is evident to the eyes. MOVIE SYNOPSIS It is in the above backdrop that Vincent (Ethan Hawke), who was born In-Valid, meaning that because of poverty his parents could not afford to allow the foetal Vincent to undergo pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and DNA selection and thus be genetically engineered with superlative traits from both mother and father, was caught in a trying situation. As such, Vincent cannot qualify for professional jobs such as being an astronaut, which he dearly desired but had to content himself with menial jobs such as the cleaning job at Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, the NASA type of the future era. Unlike his brother Anton, who has the whole world in front of him, Vincent found out that because society practically shut the door in front of him, he had to work double time- learning, working and dreaming to remove the barriers placed before him. Instead of resigning himself to his fate, he saved money, led a frugal life while scavenging

Operational Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Operational Management - Essay Example The company should also be focused on material flow and this increases the liquidity of assets and hence reduces the chance of obsolesce. This can also be dealt with by reducing defects and this ensures that fewer cars are taken back to the factories to rectify the defects. Aligning the metrics in any company has been seen to be crucial in ensuring efficient production. This was demonstrated well by Alfred Sloan where managing the cost of production is key. Having a lean organization where all the resources are used to the maximum is the driving force of success. Currently GM produces approximately 6.1 million unit products annually. If the company takes measure to improve the inventory turnover ratio, this can boost production making the company to increase productivity with 25%. It could thus be possible for GM to produce 7.625 million unit products with its current resources. This would result in increased sales turnovers as their automotives do not stay in stock for a long

Summary of the Article - Government and Poverty Research Paper

Summary of the Article - Government and Poverty - Research Paper Example In the scenario, the author also makes a mention of the more recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The author defines poverty as the dearth of the necessary resources that enable the people to meet their basic needs and extends the commensurate statistics regarding the urban, suburban and rural incidence of poverty. The author does support the extension of government aid to the deserving, while taciturnly mentioning that many people suffer from poverty because they are lazy. The writer also blames the indulgence in substance abuse like tobacco and alcohol as the reason as to why the poor remain poor. Yet, the writer again contradicts one’s assertion by saying that a great number of the poor receiving the government aid do tend to be employed. In the end, the writer conclusively asserts that the government should spend money on imparting skills and education to the poor, rather than wasting the taxpayers’ money on extending nutrition, health and housing. Overall the approach of the writer seems to be discernible against the government funding of the poverty alleviation programs. The poor tend to remain poor because they simply do not have a place in the national financial chain and many times, as said by the author, they lack the skills, education and connections to be able to fit into the national financial dynamics. Hence the government spending on the poverty alleviation programs is the most efficient way to make way for the allocation of the national wealth in favor of the impoverished segments of the society. The government has a self-interest in doing so in the sense that allowing the poverty to rise beyond a certain limit could lead to an unstable society marred by political unrest and crime (Lal & Myint 8). It is rightly said that the hungry minds are angry minds. Hence, state expenditure in poverty alleviation programs allows the government to channelize the skills, abilities and energy of poor sections of the society towards self-development and nation-building. State sponsoring of the poverty alleviation programs is not a choice but an important n ecessity and requisite. Hence, there is no scope or possibility for casting doubts on the relevance or necessity of the government spending on the poor or poverty alleviation programs. The writer himself conveyed that a majority of the poor people receiving government help does have jobs and they tend to work. Hence, the tongue in cheek assertion that the poor people are poor because they happen to be lazy is utterly nonsensical and biased. Poor people, in fact, happen to be poor because they do not have a say in the national and international policy-making procedures and frameworks, where they could chalk out the apt policies that would help them have a share in the process of wealth generation and allocation (Global Issues 1).

Shame Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shame - Essay Example According to Piaget’s theory of moral reasoning, children come to better learn morality when they work in groups with others. Piaget advanced that there is a way in which kids align to societal norms in terms expectations and the process is active. He also observed that young children will look at issues in terms of how certain actions affect them or what the outcomes of actions are. On the other hand much older children are more interested in the motive behind any action as opposed to the results of the particular action. The environment we grow up in or our developmental history is therefore a very important factor that influences our moral development. In the case study for instance, Dick Gregory had to go to school in order to learn hate. As a young boy he fell in love with Helene who is from a different social class but well mannered, clean and presentable. As a result of the friendship, Dick tries as much as possible to also look presentable, â€Å"I think I went to school then mostly to look at her. I brushed my hair and even got me a little old handkerchief. It was a ladys handkerchief, but I didnt want Helene to see me wipe my nose on my hand.† There is no doubt in taking all the sacrifices, Dick is trying to conform to the expectations of the new society expectations as dictated by the environment in the school. Considering that our development history and environment crucially influence our moral development process, it is therefore important to appreciate that our actions affect the way other people develop. The teacher’s attitudes in the case study greatly affected the two little children i.e. Dick and Helene. By turning off Dicks hard worked for contribution and referring to him in derogatory terms, â€Å"We are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your Daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief,† Helene felt for her friend and even cried. On the other hand

Operational Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Operational Management - Essay Example The company should also be focused on material flow and this increases the liquidity of assets and hence reduces the chance of obsolesce. This can also be dealt with by reducing defects and this ensures that fewer cars are taken back to the factories to rectify the defects. Aligning the metrics in any company has been seen to be crucial in ensuring efficient production. This was demonstrated well by Alfred Sloan where managing the cost of production is key. Having a lean organization where all the resources are used to the maximum is the driving force of success. Currently GM produces approximately 6.1 million unit products annually. If the company takes measure to improve the inventory turnover ratio, this can boost production making the company to increase productivity with 25%. It could thus be possible for GM to produce 7.625 million unit products with its current resources. This would result in increased sales turnovers as their automotives do not stay in stock for a long

Shame Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shame - Essay Example According to Piaget’s theory of moral reasoning, children come to better learn morality when they work in groups with others. Piaget advanced that there is a way in which kids align to societal norms in terms expectations and the process is active. He also observed that young children will look at issues in terms of how certain actions affect them or what the outcomes of actions are. On the other hand much older children are more interested in the motive behind any action as opposed to the results of the particular action. The environment we grow up in or our developmental history is therefore a very important factor that influences our moral development. In the case study for instance, Dick Gregory had to go to school in order to learn hate. As a young boy he fell in love with Helene who is from a different social class but well mannered, clean and presentable. As a result of the friendship, Dick tries as much as possible to also look presentable, â€Å"I think I went to school then mostly to look at her. I brushed my hair and even got me a little old handkerchief. It was a ladys handkerchief, but I didnt want Helene to see me wipe my nose on my hand.† There is no doubt in taking all the sacrifices, Dick is trying to conform to the expectations of the new society expectations as dictated by the environment in the school. Considering that our development history and environment crucially influence our moral development process, it is therefore important to appreciate that our actions affect the way other people develop. The teacher’s attitudes in the case study greatly affected the two little children i.e. Dick and Helene. By turning off Dicks hard worked for contribution and referring to him in derogatory terms, â€Å"We are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your Daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief,† Helene felt for her friend and even cried. On the other hand

Rhetorical Devices and Literary Techniques Essay Example for Free

Rhetorical Devices and Literary Techniques Essay Rhetorical devices and literary techniques are closely related to tone and style. In fact, an author’s style partly consists of selecting and using certain devices; an author’s tone is partially determined by the type of techniques an author uses. Many SAT books will list lots of Greek terms you don’t need to know, such as synecdoche and anaphora. But the Critical Reading section won’t require that you know the names of rhetorical devices or literary techniques. Rather than bombard you with dozens of unfamiliar terms, we’ll categorize and clump the most common types of devices and techniques below and provide some examples and commentary. As we said, you won’t be specifically tested on these concepts, but they do lurk beneath the surface in the passages. Having a solid understanding of these devices and techniques will improve your ability to handle RPs. Focus on absorbing the similarities and differences between and among them. As you read through the list, note the one key feature all of these techniques and devices share: they allow words and sentences to carry more than only their literal meaning. Here is a list of the most important devices and techniques. We’ve included examples along with commentary on each one: Hyperbole I’m as hungry as a starving lion. Hyperbole is a synonym for exaggeration. Clearly, the speaker is not really as hungry as a starving lion. A hyperbole is just a figure of speech we use to emphasize a point. The opposite device is understatement: I’m a little tired is a purposeful understatement if the speaker has been up for 48 hours. Repetition Duty does not trump honesty. Duty does not trump common sense. And duty, my friends, does not trump morality. Repetition is the conscious and purposeful replication of words or phrases in order to make a point. In this example, it’s clear that the limits of duty are being sketched out. The speaker is trying to show that duty is not the only or even the most important virtue. Imagery and Figurative Language Simile Her eyes were like stars. Her eyes are literally human eyes. Figuratively, they are being compared to stars, meaning, most likely, that they are bright and shiny and cause wonderment. This is an example of a simile. Similes use like and as to make explicit comparisons between unlike things, such as eyes and stars. Metaphor Her eyes were pools of liquid light. Again, her eyes are literally human eyes. Figuratively, they are being compared to pools of liquid light. However, the comparison is implied, not stated. This is an example of a metaphor. Unlike similes, metaphors compare unlike things without explicitly stating the comparison with â€Å"like† or â€Å"as. † Personification Her eyes followed me up the stairs. Can eyes follow someone up the stairs? Not literally, but in this case an eye—which is not a person—is given a person’s abilities, namely, following someone else up the stairs. This is an example of personification. Symbolism Her eyes looked but did not see. All was dark. Literally speaking, eyes either see (healthy eyes) or they don’t see (blind eyes). An eye that looks but does not see is blind in a figurative sense. Very often, vision and light are symbols for understanding and enlightenment. In this example, the woman is most likely unaware of—or â€Å"in the dark†Ã¢â‚¬â€about something. This is an example of symbolism. Sound Patterns Her eyes were rippling pools of liquid light in which I splashed playfully. This metaphor also uses sound patterns to underscore its meaning. Note that the letters l and p repeat: rippling pools of liquid light†¦splashed playfully. The author may have repeated â€Å"l† and â€Å"p† sounds to evoke the sound of water (like in the word splash itself) or simply to link together the words that make up the metaphor—or both. There are many types of sound-pattern devices, each with its own difficult Greek name that you certainly won’t need to know. Rhetorical Questions Can poverty ever be eradicated? Rhetorical questions are not meant to be answered. A rhetorical question is used to present what’s taken to be an unanswerable question, such as these questions: Can a repeat offender ever be trusted not to commit another crime? Can a person ever have too much love? A rhetorical question can also be one in which the author’s answer is clearly intended to be â€Å"no† or â€Å"yes. † In these two examples, the author’s answer is clearly intended to be â€Å"no† (whether you agree with those answers or not). Idioms and Cliches That’ll cost you an arm and a leg. Idioms are inherited quirks of language that native speakers understand without question but which cause nonnative speakers endless trouble. Only a native speaker knows that if something costs an arm and a leg that means it’s expensive, not that you actually need to lose your limbs to purchase it. Many overused idioms and symbols are cliches, and cliches themselves can be used ironically (see irony below). Irony [Said to a mean boss]: â€Å"You’ve been so kind to me. † The SAT loves irony. A statement is ironic if it expresses something different from or opposite to the literal meaning of the words. This example is called verbal irony or sarcasm, which can be thought of as â€Å"heavy-handed irony†: The overuse of antibiotics has led to the rise of resistant strains of many diseases. A statement or situation can be ironic or paradoxical when the words accurately report events that seem to be contradictory but which have actually occurred, as in this example: A soldier has returned from a war. He crashes his motorcycle and dies. His war experiences are told in flashback. Whenever he thinks about death, a motorcycle drives by. A specific literary use of irony is called dramatic irony. In the example above, the audience knows that the soldier will die in a motorcycle crash. The soldier himself, of course, doesn’t know how he will die. (A flashback, by the way, is another literary device made popular by the movies. Flashbacks jump back in the story’s chronology to give background information. For example, the opening scene of the film Lord of the Rings: Return of the King shows Gollum before he found the ring. ) Foreshadowing A soldier goes to war. He survives many brutal battles, just barely missing being killed several times. The soldier becomes obsessed with his â€Å"good luck†Ã¢â‚¬â€why does he survive when so many others die? Every time the soldier has a brush with death, the author makes some subtle mention of a black motorcycle. Eventually, the soldier’s best friend is killed in a motorcycle crash the day after the war has ended. The soldier himself comes home and not too long afterward, he dies by crashing his motorcycle. In this example, the audience and character are equally ignorant about the outcome of the story. However, by using foreshadowing, the author begins to clue in his audience. The character’s fate is slowly revealed to the audience but not necessarily to the character himself. Note that the ending to this story is doubly ironic—was the soldier â€Å"meant† to die in a motorcycle crash or did he bring it about through his own guilt about surviving while others perished? The theme of free will versus predetermination underlies this little story. Motif The motorcycle in the last two examples. A motif is a symbol that is carried through an entire work of fiction. The motorcycle symbolized death throughout both stories. In the Lord of the Rings, the One Ring is a motif for the corrupting nature of power. Now that you have all these concepts under your belt, it’s time to learn the most efficient way to use your knowledge on testlike items and sets.

The Contingency Of Identity In Trainspotting Philosophy Essay

The Contingency Of Identity In Trainspotting Philosophy Essay The perimeters of someones body are often thought to signify the enclosure of a stable perception of the world. For example, mainstream Western society perceives corporeal limits as the impenetrable barrier between subjectivity and external forces. This model emphasizes the subject as regulator over what external forces influence their subjectivity, and in turn implies that the subject is autonomous in choosing or being her own identity. Philosophical projects such as the Enlightenment and the American dream expound on the Cartesian Isi assertion that anyone has the agency to construct an original, autonomous identity. These philosophies have helped bind Western ontology to a concept of mind over matter. However, 20th century thinkers have challenged this notion. Philosopher and sociologist Michael Foucault posits the body is transformed into an instrument for political power, and that conceptualizing subjectivity as a stable construct is crucial to the preservation of the state For Foucault, any notion of autonomy is an articulation of political agenda. Correspondingly, Psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva shows that restricting subjectivity to an epidermal container oppresses an entire means of understanding subjectivity. Kristeva asks the reader to consider a perception of subjectivity that contingently and provisionally fluctuates in its relation to the bodys perceived borders. She claims subjectivity and the body are entwined in an ontology based on the transgression of borders, not the establishment of them. Instead of agreeing with the Wests claim that citizens conduct their selfhood within epidermal boundaries, Kristeva argues that subjectivity is unstable, fragmented, and dispersed across various relations with the body. Therefore, subjectivity has the capacity to transform and be transformed through engagement with the body. Toward this end, I will investigate the ever-fluctuating bodies and identities in Irvine Welshs multimedia text Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996; Welsh, 1996). The film and novel epitomize the permeable, fluctuating nature of subjectivity as conceived by Kristeva, and thus highlight the fact that selfhood depends on a transgression rather than an establishment of borders. Foucault and Doeile Bodies Michael Foucaults term body politics refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body. Institutional power expressed in government and laws is the power at play in body politics (Body Politics). Foucault says that Western societys false ontology makes citizens think they have stable identities because of the governments regulation of the physical body through institutions and laws. In short, citizens perceive themselves as autonomous subjects because of the states emphasis on hygiene and cleanliness. Foucault says this ontology is the effect of political power, and that any selfhood a proper citizen assumes is an articulation of this power. Associate Professor Nick Mansfield, head of the cultural studies department at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, specializes in Foucaultian theory, and his book on subjectivity lends a nice segue as to how body politics and self-hood coincide: Our philosophies of science, our theories of the organization of society, our sense of morality, purpose and truth all partake of the same emphasis on the individual not only as a social quantity, but as the point where all meaning and value can be judged. This individuality is described as freedom, and we still direct our most serious political ambitions towards perfecting that freedom. It also operates as a duty, however. (60) Foucault focuses on the implicit sense of duty that is entailed with citizenship. He sees civic duty as the submission of ones body to forces of political power. Critically acclaimed Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben has stated that one of the most persistent features of Foucaults work is its decisive abandonment of the traditional approach to the problem of power, which is based on juridico-institutional models (the definition of sovereignty, the theory of the State), in favor of an unprejudiced analysis of the concrete ways in which power penetrates subjects very bodies and forms of life (5). Foucaults critical studies of social institutions reveal that institutional surveillance of the body-specifically in delineating what is the clean and proper body-designates citizens corporal existence as a docile state. Foucault supports this claim with his concept of processes of subjectivization, These processes under-thematize and universalize the body until it can be treated as inert or disordered; in other words, until physicality obtains a docile classification. Similarly, as cultural theorist Elizabeth Grosz argues, the body historically has been conceived of as a vehicle for the expression of an otherwise sealed and self-contained, incommunicable psyche. It is through the body that [people] _ .. can receive, code, and translate the inputs of the external world (9). Once I established how a favorable perception of the docility is impressed upon populations, I will discuss how Trainspotting characters refute this platform with their own counter-culture philosophies and behavior. The characters struggle with the implications of properness and duty that Foucault sees as essential to the function of a citizen. They are good examples of the insight that Julia Kristeva gleans from Foucaults work: a society and state that glorifies corporeal purity is thus dependent on sources of misery and degradation in order to have a standard to judge what is clean or unclean, appropriate or unfitting. But first, I will establish how body hygiene becomes such an important factor for citizens to view themselves as autonomous subjects. As mentioned, Foucault points to state institutions that enact processes of subjectivization. Processes of subjectivization refer to government programs that exemplify epidermal perimeters as impenetrable borders that contain the supposed autonomous nature of citizens These processes bring the individual to bind himself to his own identity and consciousness, and, at the same time, to an external power (Agamben 5). Mansield elucidates, in our fantasy of autonomous selfhood, we normally imagine our subjectivity to be identified with the uniqueness and separateness of our individual bodies. We draw an imaginary line around the perimeters of our bodies and define our subjectivity as the unique density of matter contained within that line. When we operate in society as voters, taxpayers, welfare recipients and consumers, our identity seems to be married to this autonomy: we front up for interviews, check ups and interrogations as the content of our bodies. (82) The tangible presence bodies provide people with is taken to be absolute and final validation of who they are. When someone appears for a doctors appointment or a cotut trial she ceases being a name on a paper and appears as herself These processes of subjectivization imply not only the notion that someones tangible borders give them a real identity, but also that that identity maintains its own agency. When analyzing state systems from Foucaults perspective, it becomes apparent that citizenship designates citizens as autonomous. Foucault insists that when institutions seek to control and know the subject, they manipulate the body, fixing it strictly in place, watching and measuring it; this in turn gives citizens the sense that they are anything but a carefully monitored, social denomination. But in reality, the state has a vested interest in its citizens health that is expressed by institutional programs emphasis on autonomy. Through subjectivization processes, an inherent notion of cleanliness is attached in the definition of citizen, and the upkeep of clean borders is expected to entail some sort of autonomy. In contrast, Foucault claims that institutions endorsing corporeal cleanliness ensures a specific type of docility in the citizenry. If citizens believe that they are the agents merely because of their hygiene, then the institutions have succeeded in transforming its citizens bodies into inert entities that can be prescribed or delineating in any way the state sees fit. The sense of autonomy is therefore revealed to preserve state power. Foucaults second example of subjectivization processes, that of policing strategies, explains this more explicitly. Foucault states that the laws of the penal system, which were once isolated in the form of a public event (e.g.: a criminal dismembered in the marketplace), have become instilled into normative ontology with the creation of prisons. Firstly, the prison does not simply incarcerate people arbitrarily. It depends on a system of proper proceedings that in turn must be justified by codes of law or legal precedent. When someone is convicted of a crime, she or he goes from being a person to being a phenomenon. As a type, the individual becomes subject to analysis according to scientific models. Questions begin to be asked, like, what personality traits make this person a criminal? What social conditions lead to his or her crime? Here, the individual is not free and autonomous, but the focal point of larger forces, analyzed by systems of knowledge in what they claim is impartial truth (Lyon 7). Foucault uses the prison model of liberal economist and social reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) to help explain the casual yet compulsory paranoid lifestyle that is instilled in prisons and reflected in society. According to Foucault, the panopticon is typical of the processes of subjectivization that govern modern life. A panopticon is a circular prison with an empty area in the middle where a guard tower is placed. All of the prisoners cell face inward, and one guard can effectively keep survelliance over all the inmates at once. Furthermore, is an opaque sheet of one-way visible glass is installed in the guard tower, the guard herself would not have to necessarily be present to enact a monitoring system. Likewise, state power organizes the population into individual units that are then subject to monitoring in a system of maximum visibility through implicit accountability. This works most effectively in institutions where schools, hospitals, banks, and departments of social security and tax all keep files on us. People forget about these records, or accept them as a necessary and inevitable part of institutions operations (Lyon 8-9). However, these files are our effective social reality, and contain truths about us that can be manipulated outside of our control. These files and the truth they contain are not our property, and they enhance the state of docility imposed on citizens bodies. Foucault believes that power and the knowledge coincide to ensure the state maintains its docile influence, and in turn preserves its efficiency. Therefore, every institution operates according to its own theories of peoples subjectivity: the unruly adolescent, the remedial reader, the hysterical patient, the credit risk-these are all types of subjectivity that people may or may not occupy, sometimes without even knowing it. Every institution has classes of persons into which everyone who deals with them is distributed. The apparently simple and necessary logic of this categorisation-it is not a conspiracy to oppress us, our common sense says, how could these institutions operate otherwise?- already separates us from one another, isolating us, opening up and closing off opportunities, destining us for certain rewards and punishments. The system of truth on which each institution depends is always already a power at work on us. (Mansfield 62) Thus, individuality is not the highest expression of human life, but the thing social institutions need people to feel they are, so that people remain vulnerable to the truths the state has contrived for its own efficiency. As a result, the self constantly problematizes its place in the world and its relationship to others and to inherited codes of behavior. Therefore, the subject does not simply rely on some unknowable of pure natural subjectivity, but rather produces itself endlessly as a response to its relationship to other and to its cultural and historical context (Mansfield 63). Foucaults ideas encourage an earnestly skeptical attitude towards subjectivity, one that is embodied in Trainspottings main character, Mark Renton. Renton can be seen as anti- subjective because he sees any statement that claims to speak the truth about human subjectivity as an imposition, a technique of power and social administration. Renton voices his reservations: Society invents spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whaes behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah knew the pros and cons, know that ahm gaunnae hav a short life, am ay sotmd mind, etcetera, etcetera, but still want tae use smack? They wont let ya dae it. They wont let ye dae it, because its seen as a sign of thair ain failure. The fact is ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting on a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stufting fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats yeve produced. Choose life. Well, ah choose no tae choose life. If the cunts cant handle that, its thair fuckin problem (Welsh 187-9). Renton, like Foucault, sees subjectivity as a mode of social organization and administration. For Renton, the state is inherently dependent on its citizens to cultivate a notion of sanctity regarding their lives. Upon this foundation of natural life, the State builds concepts of morality and truth that are articulations of power structures (Agamben 2). Therefore, Renton and his mates seek a subjectivity that does not privilege the sanctity of life. As actor and critic Lewis MacLeod puts it, Welshs characters are not at all interested in the rule of parasite politicians (Welsh 228). Instead they operate on a highly idiosyncratic cultural logic that frequently inverts conventional values (90). The characters experimental subjectivity prioritizes desire and addiction as the most important achievements in life, and the screenplays adaptation of the above quote l elucidates this point. ln the theatrical version, Renton explains: Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked up brats that youve spawned to replace yourselves . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when youve got heroin? Renton has lost faith in any type of subjectivity, and considers a life on heroin just as pointless as a life of gainful employment. From a Foucaultian perspective his reasoning can obtain some credence in that institutions will inevitably wrest all agency away from its citizens. It is interesting to note Welshs novels title describes a pointless exercise enacted within societys establishments. Renton can clearly see the absurdity of society and the meaninglessness of his life, yet his choice is ultimately self-defeating, for as the title of the book suggests, heroin addiction, like trainspotting grown men watching locomotives and noting their identification numbers -is effectively a pointless exercise (Bishop 221-22). Similarly, in Peter Corliss review of the cinematic adaptation of Trainspotting, Welsh and John Hodge explain the importance of the metaphor: Trainspotting, Welsh explains, is the compulsive collection of locomotive engine numbers from the British railway system. But you cant do anything with the numbers once youve collected them. Says Hodge, who culled the brilliant screenplay from Welshs anecdotal novel. Its a nice metaphor for doing something that gives your life a bit of structure but its ultimately pointless. So is the intravenous injection of drugs a palpable pleasure that wastes time, and often, life (85). In his PhD Doctorate entitled The Diminished Subject, Professor Geoffrey Bishop looks at the T rainspotting texts to see how the characters attempt to exercise a new type of subjectivity. Bishop writes, For Renton, heroin use is a determinedly philosophical decision to adopt a counter-discursive practice in order to retreat from a society that makes him an outsider, and threatens his attempts to simplify his existence (ZI9). As I shall show in the following analysis, through the selfish pleasure of drug use Renton attempts to avoid the docility that Foucault talks about In an interview with film critic Andrew OHagan, it is apparent that T rainspotting s director and screenwriter were not attempting to display Kristevas theories in their film. But, as I will discuss, the filmic adaptation of the novel lends itself very well to Kristevian philosophy. Kristeva, Posthumanist Practice, and Trainspotting Julia Kristeva argues that subjectivity depends on someones relation to outside forces. Kristevas ontology is based on a transgression, rather than an establishment, of borders. Likewise, the bodies in Trainsporting illustrate a significant alternative to traditional conceptions of the body as stable and self-contained. I propose that the film calls for a critical approach that attends to bodies as products and producers of posthuman discourses. Posthumanist practice questions the genealogy of moral norms rather than accepting and perpetuating them, and much of Kristevas theory is an enactment of posthuman discourse. In critical theory, the posthuman is a speculative being that represents or seeks to enact a re-writing of what is generally conceived of as human. Posthumanist criticism critically questions Renaissance humanism, which is a branch of humanist philosophy that claims human nature is a universal state from which the human being emerges, and it stresses that human nature is autonomous, rational, capable of free will, and unified in itself as the apex of existence. Thus, the posthuman recognizes imperfectability and disunity within him or herself Instead of a humanist perspective, a posthuman perception understands the world through context and heterogeneous perspectives while maintaining intellectual rigor and a dedication to objective observations of the world. Key to this posthuman practice is the ability to fluidly change perspectives and manifest oneself through different identities. The posthuman, for critical theorists of the subject, has an emergent ontology rather than a stable one; in other words, the posthuman is not a singular, defined individual, but rather one who can become or embody different identities and understand the world from multiple, heterogeneous perspectives (Haraway 3). In what follows, I discuss how body fluids in the film illustrate the instability of corporeal limits as conceived by Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. Through the lens of these theorists, the characters in Trainspotting can become producers of posthurnan discourses. But tirst, I will briefly discuss the critical reception of the film, inasmuch as responses to it characterize the kind of moralizing judgment that so often I denies another perception like Kristevas. _ In 1996, Danny Boyles film adaptation of Irvine Welshs bestselling novel became the highest grossing British-made film in the United Kingdom in history (Callahan 39). Although other films have addressed the subject of heroin addiction most have done so from a stance of such moral disdain that the characters became little more than exaggerations of an addicted underclass that remains safely Other to mainstream film audiences. In contrast, Trainspotting, even though it portrays the desperation and horrors of drug addiction, the film never grants its audience the privilege of certain moral judgment. It invites audiences to engage with its characters in their own world as they struggle between the desperate need and the always- temporary satisfaction that characterizes life on heroin. The cinematic release of Trainspozling came right after a controversial trend in the fashion industry known as heroin chic, a trend that earned its name by popularizing images of thin, glassy-eyed models who were apparently strung-out in dirty bathrooms or cheap, dingy motels (Craik 19). President Clinton even raised the issue in a widely reported address to magazine editors, charging that the glorification of heroin is not creative Its destructive. Its not beautiful. It is ugly. And this is not about art. Its about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society (Clinton). Cultural critic Henry Giroux describes the images associated with heroin chic as nothing more than inspiration for a type of cultural slumming that produces attitudes and actions in which well-to-do yuppies aestheticize the pain and suffering of underprivileged youths (27). Some critics have made similar claims about Trainspotting. One reviewer, for example, said the film belongs to an unoriginal, voyeuristic genre that caters to an addiction to addiction- watching (Kauffmann 38). Other critics dismiss the film and other such films as mere slumfests for the bored upper classes, virtual petting zoos they can visit anytime they want to feel like theyre down with the kids (Callahan 39). Although the films graphic portrayal of self- depravation and misery is at times difficult to watch, other critics claim that the films uncritical, even sympathetic portrayal of junkies overtly glamorizes heroin use. Despite the fact that such arguments allude to possible real world dangers of drug culture and the celebration of its images, they remain anchored in a discourse of negativity. They designate the rhetorical critic to the psychoanalytic position of searching for a lack, whether it is of morals, health, or life. In other words, such arguments can only analyze the  ¬Ã‚ lm based on its failure to do something it presumably should do: adhere to moral norms. A moral argument based on whether Trainspotting does or does not glamorize heroin useand whether or not that is good or badneglects a compelling line of analysis: how the pervasive physicality of the  ¬Ã‚ lm functions rhetorically. The  ¬Ã‚ lmmakers are careful to illustrate both the pain and the pleasure of heroin use, but this evenhandedness seems less the depiction of a moral judgment than an investigation or even a meditation on the transgression of boundaries. Indeed, in an interview, director Damiy Boyle says that the  ¬Ã‚ lm is about being a transgressor Its about doing something that everybody says will kill youyou will kill yourself And the thing that nobody understands is, its not that you dont hear that message, its just that its irrelevant. The  ¬Ã‚ lm isnt about heroin. Its about an attitude, and thats why we wanted the  ¬Ã‚ lm to pulse, to pulse like you do in your twenties (Callahan 39). This pulsing, or this incessant transgressing that Boyle refers to provides a key metaphor for this discussion of corporeality in Trainspotting. A pulse is not characterized by stability or even an interplay between opposite forces. Rather, a pulse is a constant  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uctuation, what William Burroughs describes as an interdependent relationship between systolic and diastolic movement (Naked Lunch iii). It is in this sense that I conceive of transgression not as an eradication or a crossing of boundaries, but as a recon ¬Ã‚ guration that occurs through continual engagement and response. Bodies connecting and expanding within an economy of bodily  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids enact the pulse of the  ¬Ã‚ lm. Bodily Refuse and Identity Julia Kristevas theoretical work on the concept of abj ection has done much to trouble a humanist conception of the discrete, autonomous individual. According to the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, abjection means a state of misery or degradation. Kristeva develops this de ¬Ã‚ nition of the abject by arguing that the signi ¬Ã‚ cance of abj ection lies in its role as an operation through which we continually distinguish ourselves as individuals. She describes abject as a jettisoned object that is opposed to 1 and is radically excluded; the abject draws me toward the place where meaning collapses (Powers 1-2). For example, an image of the emaciated body of a person living with AIDS may evoke sympathy, or in, in some cases, fear, but it also ful ¬Ã‚ lls the role of the abject, infected Other that enables the healthy to feel clean, vital, and even morally superior. Similarly, the starving bodies of third-world countries serve as boundaries or limits that contribute to this countrys sense of nationhood. According to this logic, American identity depends on what America precisely is not (Debrix 1 158). Kristevas notion of a disorganized, abject body challenging the concept of order itself aids to an understanding of Trainspotting in which the characters experiment with a unique ontology based on the transgression of corporeal terms. Rather than quietly remaining outside of the mainstream at designated margins, the abject, as the heroin bodies exhibited in Trainspotting, breaks apart the sanctity and homogeneity of rational public space. Kristeva indicates that bodily boundaries are never  ¬Ã‚ nal and neither are the identities that depend on them. She argues that the self depends on the abject to constitute its border, to be that which lies outside, beyond the set (Powers 2). But she also notes that from its place of banishment, the abject does not cease challenging its master (Powers 2). In this sense, the abject Other never remains at the margins. The abject never remains stagnant, creating stable boundaries for the self. Kristeva thus introduces a dynamism into the concept of identity that depends on a subjects ability to recognize and reject the abject asit gets articulated and rearticulated through the selfs interaction with the Other. In other words, the Cartesian I becomes destabilized to the extent that the humanist emphasis on the mind/body split has been sufficiently troubled with regard to how we construct or acquire a sense of self. Foucault shows how someones perceived autonomy is often merely an extension of state power, and this is important when observing how the characters in Trainspotting both celebrate and struggle for the release of moral or hygienic ideologies that treat them as docile bodies. As Bishop has recently noted, Although Trainspotting was attacked for romanticising drug use, glamorising heroin chic, and over the validity of Welshs description of heroin addiction, such literalist readings not only failed to see past the subject matter, they ignored the possibility of political and philosophical content (219). Kristeva suggests an ontology that is grounded in relations to others rather than in the conscious mind, and when her theories are used in an analysis of Trainspotting they can certainly produce philosophical insight into the concept of subjectivity. Judith Butler links much of her work in Bodies that Matter to Kristevas consideration of the abject. Our self-identi ¬Ã‚ cation, Butler argues, operates within what she calls an exclusionary matrix that relates subjects and necessitates a simultaneous production of a domain of abject beings, those who are not yet subjects, but who form the constitutive outside to the domain of the subject (3 ). She agrees with Kristeva that the abject zone of uninhabitability that de ¬Ã‚ nes the boundaries of the subject will constitute that site of dreaded identi ¬Ã‚ cation against which and by virtue of whichthe domain of the subject will circumscribe its own claim to autonomy and to life (3). However, Butler builds upon Kristevas argument with a point that is essential for this discussion of the abject bodies in Trainspotting. According to Butler, the abjected through abj ection instead of inherently possessing autonomy. Therefore, Renton can be seen as existential explorer of subjectivity, and there are no guarantees in this novel, no happy endings, and no transcendence of the characters into holistic self-present subjects (Bishop 223). g Although Butlers introduction of permeability is helpful, I want to offer another important perspective before continuing. Butler posits a concept of subjectivity based on the repudiation of abj ection. As I have suggested and will explore further throughout this discussion, subjects in the  ¬Ã‚ lm do not and cannot sufficiently negate the abject. Rather, the abject is integral to pulsing-or, what William S. Burroughs might call a constant state of kicking-on which subjectivity depends (Junky xvi). Trainspotting s Alternative Subjectivity The cinematic adaptation of Trainspotting has some key scenes that should elucidate the ontological force of abjection. Depictions of body  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids in the  ¬Ã‚ lm illustrate the  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uctuating, permeable corporeality that Butler describes. The  ¬Ã‚ lm seems to attack any trace of morality or cleanliness inherent in Foucaults analysis, as images abound of body  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids contaminating spaces in the most inappropriate of manners. Film critic Andrew OHagan notes that for the young characters shi