The Power of Language

Language is considered to be one of the most important components of culture since it is through language that human beings are able to communicate with each other.   However, there are many different languages for many different parts of the world.   This makes it hard for people from different parts of any culture with different language to communicate with each other.   Thus, studying or learning another’s language is as much a part of us as reading books is. Learning a new language is an integral part of becoming at home in a new or another country.   Stepping into another country or territory wherein another language is used, you feel as if you are the only person who can understand yourself.   You feel like an alien.   You feel alone. But when you finally learn the language, it makes you feel happy and satisfied, as if you have just received an award or finished the most difficult project you have encountered.   But your contentment doubles when you learn to use it effectively when communicating with other people.   You no longer feel alone.   You feel that, at last, someone understands what you are trying to say. Amy Tan’s article, Mother Tongue, talks about how her mother’s â€Å"broken† English finally led her to realize that the more important thing in learning a language is not speaking or writing it perfectly, with all the difficult words and grammatical correctness.   She realized that the more important thing is to speak or write a language wherein most people can understand it. When she wrote her novel The Joy Luck Club, she intended to use difficult words, phrases and metaphors because she thought this is how she can prove to most people that second-language learners do not just excel in sciences or mathematics wherein there is a common language use.   However, as she went on writing, she began to realize that she should think about the readers and how they would feel or think about her stories.   She envisioned that reader to be her mother. This is the point when she finally understands that she should â€Å"water down† the English she is using to make her mother understand what she was trying to say.   That is, it is more important to capture the essence of what her mother’s language ability cannot reveal — the intent, passion and imagery her mother was trying to get across. Tan summarizes her personal experience and feelings in learning English in her last paragraph in Mother Tongue: Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: â€Å"So easy to read.† (476) Another article that tells a story of how difficult it is to learn a new language is Malcolm X’s Coming to an Awareness of Language.   To Malcolm X, what makes it harder is to learn to communicate it to people effectively.   In this brief autobiography, he mentioned how he would write to hustlers, presidents, and people in the streets to communicate about Allah.   He gives speeches and talks in conferences.   One look from him and you’d think that he went to school and got beyond eighth grade.   But he attributes all his knowledge in the English language to his serving his time in prison. Malcom X tells how hard he tried to learn the English language.   All of his motivation to learn the English language came from his envy to Bimbi.   He tried to emulate him by conversing with him in English and reading books in English.   But then, he cannot understand most of the words and sentences in the books he picked.   He would skip the difficult words so he ended up not understanding what the book really said.   What he did is that he got hold of a dictionary and started to write everything each day from each page. This is how he learned not just new and difficult words but some history and facts as well.   Malcom X’s autobiography tries to tell us that no matter how hard it is to learn a new language (or just to learn something), it makes you feel satisfied and free after you know you have finally understood it. David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day also describes how he painstakingly learned a new language — the French language this time.   He enrolled in Alliance Francaise to study French only to discover that his teacher is, as he called it, a wild animal.   It was only the first day of class and he and his classmates were already grilled in using the French they knew about by telling about themselves in French. All of them were called to introduce themselves but not one of them was saved by the sadistic teacher who made fun of their French.   His fears and discomfort that he felt as a child all came running back to him as if he was being a kindergarten all over again.   But then, no matter how his teacher tried to insult his laziness, he would only be studying more. Learning a new language can be tricky and very difficult especially for first-timers.   There are times when, as Sedaris described, we would prefer to hide behind stores and cash registers and avoid asking trivial questions in another language.   But all this is learning.   Learning is, indeed hard and tricky, but when we finally learned, it is very satisfying.   In learning a new language, it is very satisfying in the sense that when we finally learned and mastered another language, we know that more people can understand us.   We feel gratified that we have earned the rewards of the hardships we have experienced.   And most of all, we feel a sense of belongingness. Works Cited Malcom X. â€Å"Coming to an Awareness of Language.† Sedaris, David. â€Å"Me Talk Pretty One Day.† 2000. Tan, Amy. â€Å"Mother Tongue.† The Power of Language Language is considered to be one of the most important components of culture since it is through language that human beings are able to communicate with each other.   However, there are many different languages for many different parts of the world.   This makes it hard for people from different parts of any culture with different language to communicate with each other.   Thus, studying or learning another’s language is as much a part of us as reading books is. Learning a new language is an integral part of becoming at home in a new or another country.   Stepping into another country or territory wherein another language is used, you feel as if you are the only person who can understand yourself.   You feel like an alien.   You feel alone. But when you finally learn the language, it makes you feel happy and satisfied, as if you have just received an award or finished the most difficult project you have encountered.   But your contentment doubles when you learn to use it effectively when communicating with other people.   You no longer feel alone.   You feel that, at last, someone understands what you are trying to say. Amy Tan’s article, Mother Tongue, talks about how her mother’s â€Å"broken† English finally led her to realize that the more important thing in learning a language is not speaking or writing it perfectly, with all the difficult words and grammatical correctness.   She realized that the more important thing is to speak or write a language wherein most people can understand it. When she wrote her novel The Joy Luck Club, she intended to use difficult words, phrases and metaphors because she thought this is how she can prove to most people that second-language learners do not just excel in sciences or mathematics wherein there is a common language use.   However, as she went on writing, she began to realize that she should think about the readers and how they would feel or think about her stories.   She envisioned that reader to be her mother. This is the point when she finally understands that she should â€Å"water down† the English she is using to make her mother understand what she was trying to say.   That is, it is more important to capture the essence of what her mother’s language ability cannot reveal — the intent, passion and imagery her mother was trying to get across. Tan summarizes her personal experience and feelings in learning English in her last paragraph in Mother Tongue: Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: â€Å"So easy to read.† (476) Another article that tells a story of how difficult it is to learn a new language is Malcolm X’s Coming to an Awareness of Language.   To Malcolm X, what makes it harder is to learn to communicate it to people effectively.   In this brief autobiography, he mentioned how he would write to hustlers, presidents, and people in the streets to communicate about Allah.   He gives speeches and talks in conferences.   One look from him and you’d think that he went to school and got beyond eighth grade.   But he attributes all his knowledge in the English language to his serving his time in prison. Malcom X tells how hard he tried to learn the English language.   All of his motivation to learn the English language came from his envy to Bimbi.   He tried to emulate him by conversing with him in English and reading books in English.   But then, he cannot understand most of the words and sentences in the books he picked.   He would skip the difficult words so he ended up not understanding what the book really said.   What he did is that he got hold of a dictionary and started to write everything each day from each page. This is how he learned not just new and difficult words but some history and facts as well.   Malcom X’s autobiography tries to tell us that no matter how hard it is to learn a new language (or just to learn something), it makes you feel satisfied and free after you know you have finally understood it. David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day also describes how he painstakingly learned a new language — the French language this time.   He enrolled in Alliance Francaise to study French only to discover that his teacher is, as he called it, a wild animal.   It was only the first day of class and he and his classmates were already grilled in using the French they knew about by telling about themselves in French. All of them were called to introduce themselves but not one of them was saved by the sadistic teacher who made fun of their French.   His fears and discomfort that he felt as a child all came running back to him as if he was being a kindergarten all over again.   But then, no matter how his teacher tried to insult his laziness, he would only be studying more. Learning a new language can be tricky and very difficult especially for first-timers.   There are times when, as Sedaris described, we would prefer to hide behind stores and cash registers and avoid asking trivial questions in another language.   But all this is learning.   Learning is, indeed hard and tricky, but when we finally learned, it is very satisfying.   In learning a new language, it is very satisfying in the sense that when we finally learned and mastered another language, we know that more people can understand us.   We feel gratified that we have earned the rewards of the hardships we have experienced.   And most of all, we feel a sense of belongingness. Works Cited Malcom X. â€Å"Coming to an Awareness of Language.† Sedaris, David. â€Å"Me Talk Pretty One Day.† 2000. Tan, Amy. â€Å"Mother Tongue.†

Canadian Culture Essay

Canada is located in the northern portion of the continent of North America, extending, in general, from the 49th parallel northward to the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Its eastern and western boundaries are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively. Its land area totals 3,851,809 square miles (9,976,185 square kilometers). The easternmost portion of the country is a riverine and maritime environment, consisting of the provinces of Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. The central portion of the country, in its southern areas, is primarily boreal forest (the provinces of Ontario and Quebec). This forest region extends across the entire country from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains through to the Atlantic coast, and is dominated by coniferous trees. These variations have had important social and cultural effects. The largest segment of the population resides in the central Carolinian region, which has the richest and most varied agricultural land and, because the Great Lakes waterway system dominates the central portion of the country, is also where most of the major manufacturing is located. The savanna or prairie region is more sparsely populated, with several large urban centers in a network across the region, which is dominated by grain farming, cattle and other livestock production, and more recently, oil and natural gas extraction. The two coastal regions, which have some agricultural production, are best characterized by the dominance of port cities through which import and export goods move. In the northern section of the center of the country, also sparsely populated, resource extraction of minerals and lumber, has predominated. The effect of this concentration of the population, employment, and productive power in the central region of the country has been the concentration of political power in this region, as well as the development over time of intense regional rivalries and disparities in quality of life. Equally important, as employment in the center came to dominate gross national production, immigration has tended to flow into the center. This has created a diverse cultural mix in the central region of the country, while the prairie and the eastern maritime region have stabilized ethnically and culturally. The consequence of these diverse geographies has been the development of a rhetoric of regional cultures: Prairie, Maritime, Central, and because of its special isolation, West Coast. A final differentiation is between urban and rural. Local cultural identity is often marked by expressions of contrasting values in which rural residents characterize themselves as harder working, more honest, and more deeply committed to community cooperation, in contrast to urban dwellers [pic] Canada who are characterized by rural residents as greedy, dishonest, arrogant, and self-interested. Urban dwellers express their own identities as more modern and forward looking, more sophisticated, and more liberal in their overall social values, and perceive rural residents as conservative, overdependent on outmoded traditions, unsophisticated, and simple minded. This distinction is most explicit in Quebec, but also plays a key role in political, social, and cultural contentions in Ontario. Demography . The official population at the last census calculation, in 1996, was 29,672,000, an increase over the previous census in 1991 of about 6 percent in five years. The previous five-year increase was almost 7 percent. There has been a slowing population increase in Canada over the last several decades, fueled in part by a decline in the crude birthrate. This slowing of growth has been offset somewhat by an increase in immigration over the last two decades of the twentieth century, coupled with a slowing of emigration. Statistics Canada, the government Census management organization, is projecting a population increase of as much as 8 percent between 2001 and 2005, mostly through increased immigration. Language Canada is bilingual, with English and French as the official languages. English takes precedence in statutory proceedings outside of Quebec, with English versions of all statutes serving as the final arbiter in disputes over interpretation. As of 1996, the proportion of Canadians reporting English as their mother tongue was just under 60 percent while those reporting French as their mother tongue was slightly less than 24 percent. The percentage of native English speakers had risen over the previous decade, while that of French speakers had declined. At the same time, about 17 percent of all Canadians could speak both official languages, though this is a regionalized phenomenon. In those provinces with the largest number of native French speakers (Quebec and New Brunswick), 38 percent and 33 percent respectively were bilingual, numbers that had been increasing steadily over the previous twenty years. In contrast, Ontario, which accounts for more than 30 percent of the total population of Canada, had an English-French bilingualism rate of about 12 percent. This is in part a result of the immigration patterns over time, which sees the majority of all immigrants gravitating to Ontario, and in part because all official and commercial services in Ontario are conducted in English, even though French is available by law, if not by practice. English-French bilingualism is less important in the everyday lives of those living outside of Quebec and New Brunswick. First Nations language groups make up a significant, if small, portion of the nonofficial bilingual speakers in Canada, a fact with political and cultural importance as First Nations groups assert greater and more compelling claims on political and cultural sovereignty. The three largest First Nations languages in 1996 were Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibway, though incomplete census data on First Nations peoples continues to plague assessments of the extent and importance of these mother tongues. Immigration and cultures Changing immigration patterns following World War II affected linguistic affiliation. In the period, from 1961 to 1970, for example, only 54 percent of immigrants had a nonofficial language as mother tongue, with more than two-thirds of this group born in Europe. Almost a quarter of them reported Italian, German, or Greek as mother tongue. In contrast, 80 percent of the 1,039,000 immigrants who came to Canada between 1991 and 1996 reported a nonofficial language as mother tongue, with over half from Asia and the Middle East. Chinese was the mother tongue of just under 25 percent, while Arabic, Punjabi, Tagalog, Tamil, and Persian together accounted for about 20 percent. In 1971, the three largest nonofficial mother tongue groups were German, Italian, and Ukrainian, reflecting patterns of non-English and non-French immigration that have remained relatively constant through most of the twentieth century. In the period ending in 1996, this had changed, with the rank order shifting to Chinese, Italian, and German. This is reflected in regional concentrations, with Italians concentrated heavily in Ontario, Germans in both Ontario and the Prairie regions, and Chinese and other Asians most heavily represented in southern Ontario and in British Columbia. A gradual decline in out-migration from Europe, coupled with political changes in China and throughout Asia, leading to increased out-migration from these areas, is changing the ethnic and linguistic makeup of Canada. It should be stressed, however, that these changes are concentrated in two or three key urban centers, while linguistic affiliation elsewhere in the country remains stable. This is likely to change in the early twenty-first century as an aging cohort of European immigrants declines and out-migration from Europe continues to decrease. These shifts will come to have increasingly important cultural effects as immigrants from Asia and, most recently, from certain areas throughout the continent of Africa, come to influence the political and social life of the core urban centers in which they settle. Symbolism. This is an area of considerable dispute in Canada, in large part because of the country’s longstanding history of biculturalism (English and French) and perhaps most importantly because of its proximity to the United States, whose symbolic and rhetorical influence is both unavoidable and openly resisted. Ethnic and cultural diversity in Canada, in which different cultural groups were expected to maintain their distinctiveness rather than subsume it to some larger national culture, which is the historical effect of the English-French biculturalism built into the Canadian confederation, means that national symbols in Canada tend to be either somewhat superficial or regionalized. There are, however, certain symbols that are deployed at both official and unofficial events and functions which are generally shared across the entire country, and can be seen as general cultural symbols, even if their uses may not always be serious. The core values that inform these symbols are cooperation, industriousness, and patience—that is, a kind of national politeness. The Canadian symbolic order is dominated by a concern for order and stability, which marks Canadian identity as something communal rather than individualistic. Canada throughout its history might best be described as a nation of nations. Two European colonial powers dominate the history of Canada and its emergence as a nation: France and Great Britain. In time Britain emerged as the dominant political and cultural force in Canada, but that emergence exemplifies the sense of compromise and cooperation on which Canadian social identity is founded. While Britain, and later English Canada, came to be and remain the most powerful part of the Canadian cultural landscape, this dominance and power exists in a system of joint cultural identity, with French Canada, in Quebec and in other parts of eastern Canada, remaining a singular and distinctive cultural entity in its own right. This complex antagonism, which has been a thread throughout Canada’s emergence as a nation, has also led to a particular kind of nation. Most important, the development of the Canadian nation, however uneven the power of the English and the French, has been characterized by discussion, planning, and compromise. The gradual opening of all of Canada to European control, and its coming together in 1867 as a national entity, was not the result of war or revolution but instead, of negotiation and reconciliation. It was an orderly transition managed almost like a business venture, through which Canada obtained a degree of sovereignty and Great Britain continued to hold Canada’s allegiance as a member of the British Empire. When, in the early 1980s Canada would take the final step towards political independence by adopting its own constitution, it would do so through negotiation as well, and again, the antagonism between English and French Canada, which resulted in the Government of Quebec refusing to sign the constitutional enabling agreement would provide both the drama of the moment, and its fundamental character, one of compromise and collaboration. Leading up to and following the emergence of Canada as an independent political state in 1867, English Canada and English identity dominated the political and cultural landscape. The remaining French presence, in Quebec and throughout the eastern part of the country, while a strong cultural entity in itself, exercised only limited influence and effect at the national level. English symbols, the English language, and the values of loyalty to the English crown prevailed throughout the nation as the core underpinnings of national identity. The dominance of English Canada in terms of national identity, especially in a federal system in which binationalism and biculturalism were enshrined in the founding legislation of the country, exercised a powerful effect on ethnic relations, but that effect was not ethnic homogenization. Instead, the dominance of English Canada served as a major locus of ongoing tension between the two national identities of Canada, a tension which, in he period from the 1960s onward, has come to be expressed in growing French-Canadian nationalism and so far unsuccessful attempts on the part of French Canada to secede from the Canadian confederation. This tension—which is built into the principles of the confederation itself, which recognizes the duality of Canadian national identity— while regularly threatening the unity of the federation, has also had a mollifying effect on ethnic divisions more generally. The main exception to this has been the relationship between the dominant Fren ch-English state and aboriginal peoples. Colonial relations with indigenous ethnic groups worldwide have often been marked by violent conquest. While violence did play a role in these relationships in Canada, more often than not aboriginal peoples simply had their ethnic and cultural identities erased. The use of forced schooling, including the removal of children from their families, for example, sought to annul aboriginal cultural identities Food in Daily Life . The agricultural and ethnic richness of Canada has led to two distinctive characteristics of everyday food consumption. The first is its scale. Canadians are â€Å"big eaters,† with meat portions in particular dominating the Canadian meal. There are generally three regular meals in a given day. Breakfast, often large and important in rural areas, but less so in urban areas, is most often not eaten in a group. Lunch, at midday, is most often a snack in urban areas, but remains a substantial meal in rural centers. Dinner, the final formal meal of the day, is also the meal most likely to be eaten by a residential group as a whole, and it is the largest and the most socially important meal of the day. It is the meal most often used as a social event or to which invitations to nonfamily members are extended, in contrast with lunch which is often, for adults, shared with coworkers. Meat plays a key role in all three of the formal meals, but with increasing importance at breakfast and dinner. Dinner should have some special, and most often, large, meat portion as its key component. Each of these three meals can be, and often are, very substantial. There are general rules concerning appropriate foods for each meal, rules that can be quite complex. For example, pork can figure in each meal, but only particular kinds of pork would be considered appropriate. Pork at breakfast may appear as bacon, or sausage, in small portions. Both of these products are made with the least valuable portion of the pig. At lunch, pork may appear in a sandwich in the form of processed meats, also made from the least valuable portion of the pig. For dinner, pork appears in large and more highly valued forms, such as roasts or hams, which require often elaborate preparation and which are presented to diners in a way that highlights their value and size. The other main feature of Canadian food is diversity. The complex ethnic landscape of Canada and the tendency of ethnic groups to retain a dual cultural orientation have meant that Canadian cuisine is quite diverse in its content, with many ethnic dishes seen as somehow quintessentially Canadian as well. Whether pizza or chow mein, cabbage rolls or plum pudding, Canadian cuisine is best characterized as eclectic rather than consistent in content. There are a small number of food items that are considered distinctively Canadian, such as maple syrup, but overall the Canadian diet is drawn from a panoply of ethnic sources. Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Ceremonial food does not generally differ greatly in content from everyday foods. What distinguishes food in ceremonial settings, such as state dinners, is not the type of food but the amount of food served and the complexity of its presentation and consumption. Ceremonial dinners are often made up of a long list of dishes served in a rigid sequence, eaten with utensils specified for each portion, and presented in often elaborate arrangement either generally, on the table as a whole, or in the particular portions placed on each diner’s plate. The same general consideration applies to meals for more private special occasions, such as those marking important religious holidays such as Christmas. The number of discrete dishes is usually quite large, the preparation of each is often specialized and involved, and portions consumed are more often than not greater than what one would consume under other circumstances. These more private special occasion meals often involve entire extended families sharing in both preparing and eating the meal. There is another special meal worth mentioning, the potluck. Potluck† is derived from the word potlatch, a special occasion of many West Coast First Nations peoples. The potluck involves each guest preparing and bringing a dish to the event, to be shared by all the diners. The key component of this particular kind of meal is food sharing among friends as opposed to food making for family. In general, potluck meals are meals shared by friends or coworkers. They express the symbolic im portance of the meal as a part of the moral geography of social relations among nonkin, but distinguish this meal as an act of food sharing rather than an act of food preparation. That is, the potluck meal expresses a sense of community and kindness, while the family meal expresses a sense of service, duty, and family solidarity. Basic Economy. Canada is a resource rich, but land and people poor, country. While physically vast, there are geographic limitations on where people can live such that most of the population is located around the Great Lakes, and in the Saint Lawrence River Valley. This has meant, however, that the natural resources throughout the country can be exploited more fully. Key to Canada’s basic economy is its role as a resource base, not only for its own manufacturing, but for export as well. Minerals and ore, forestry products, and in particular in the twentieth century, oil and gas, have been the foundation of the Canadian economy since European conquest of the area. Farming is also key to the Canadian economy, although most of Canada’s agricultural production The single largest area of economic growth in Canada since the 1970s has been in the â€Å"service† sector, the part of the economy which provides services rather than goods for sale. r Trade. Canada exports around the world, but its most important export and import trading partner is the United States. The manufacturing and export of large equipment, and in particular farm equipment, is the second largest component of Canadian manufacturing and trade. At the same time, Canada remains a major resource exporter. In particular, Canada exports raw materials such as petro-chemi cals and oil, minerals and ores, and forestry products. Division of Labor. Labor in Canada is unevenly divided between skilled professional, skilled manufacturing, and general unskilled such as service workers. With increased manufacturing efficiency, the skilled manufacturing labor force has declined in size, though not in economic impact, while the general unskilled labor force has increased; at the same time skilled professionals—whether doctors, computer programmers, and other new economy professionals—has also increased. Access to different jobs is determined in part by education and training and in part by social networks.

Best Buy company in 2012

Best Buy company in 2012 The company best buy was facing several issues in 2012. To improve its financial position, the company launched a strategic plan it called â€Å"renew blue†. The plan called for strengthening relationships with vendors, revamping stores, increasing same-store sales, eliminating unnecessary costs, and ramping up Best Buy’s online business. The company has been able to reduce cost by closing underperforming stores, shrinking its workforce, and making supply chain efficiencies. It aims to reduce cost further by reducing product returns, replacements, and damages, and by streamlining its logistics and supply chain, as well as its procurement process. To mitigate competition, Best Buy has arranged to open stores-within-a-store with certain key suppliers. In response to competition with Amazon, Best Buy is now highly focused on growing its online business. The company has extended its online sales distribution network with its ship-from-store concept. As part of its turnaround strategy, Best Buy is also revamping its stores and trying to encourage more robust store traffic. Best Buy is closing underperforming stores, optimizing space, and improving the ease with which customers can shop in stores. One of Best Buy’s optimization goals is to avoid out-of-stock situations online, especially during holiday season. Best Buy increased inventory availability by rolling out its ship-from-store concept. This has helped boost online sales, as previously, products were shipped only from select stores. Best buy announced that it would fight show rooming by offering low-price guarantees online as well as at its retail stores. Best Buy sp ent millions of dollars on a holiday TV campaign to combat show rooming. Thus Best Buy is aggressively implementing restructuring initiatives to take back market share. Some of these initiatives include cost-reduction measures, online business expansion, and the sale of underperforming stores.Tyco was accused of corporate fraud in 2002. Its top management was accused of misusing the company’s loan system and misrepresenting the company’s financial status. The first thing the company did in its effort to transformation is the replacement of executive position. The entire corporate management team needed to be changed. They established new systems, hired new talent, and set a new strategic direction for the company. The company followed the highest standards of business practices and ethics, which made it easier to recruit high-quality talent. Many of the former board members had had strong financial, rather than operational, backgrounds. There weren’t clear delineations between finance and operations management. as a part of the restructuring process the audit function reports directly to the board’s audit committee rather than to the CFO; utilizes a more formalized risk-based planning process; and leverages rigorous audit techniques to better monitor internal controls, the integrity of the company’s financial information, and compliance with company policies and procedures. With a mix of board members who have run large public and private organizations, and who have financial and accounting expertise, today the company have a stronger orientation toward operations and toward a philosophy of controllership and accountability.

Safety Legislation,safety profession Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Safety Legislation,safety profession - Essay Example The first major step I would adopt in assuring that my organisation complies with OSHA is to initiate a health communication standard. Through this standard, I will ensure that the employees and the management team are aware of the hazardous chemicals in the work place and how to protect against their adverse effects. This will entail complying with the rules as outlined by the 29 CFR 1910.1200. Secondly, I would initiate an emergency action plan standard. This involves describing the actions that employees should emulate to ensure their safety during emergencies. Thirdly, my focus will be to establish a fire safety. Through a fire safety prevention plan, I will ensure that any accident that arises as a result of fire is avoided. Fourthly, I would establish an exit route. This will be inline with the OSHA requirement that all organisations must establish exit route within their premises. Fifthly, I would initiate a walking and walking surfaces (United States Department of labor 24). In this way, accidents related to slips, falls and trips will be significantly reduced. Sixthly, I would establish a medical and first aid kit. In this way, all accidents within the work place will be addressed. Question 2 Safety profession entails protection of harm to employees, environment as well as the properties that are vital in day to day running of an organisation. Using key principles that are drawn from various fields such as engineering, health, management, physics, education and psychology among others, safety professionals are focused at preventing accidents and illnesses among other incidents that can affect the operations of a company.

Where the female convicts worse that the male convicts Essay

Where the female convicts worse that the male convicts - Essay Example Other historians emphasize that the events that took part in Australia at that particular point in time cannot be forgotten not in the decades to come since the suffering that the Australian women went through is almost unheard of. This work shall aim at conducting an intense research on the sufferings that women went through in the era of colonization; thereafter comparing it with that of men, and taking a stand that the women actually went through immense suffering. In the research conducted by Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand Conference, Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (2001) the period of colonization in Australia saw the breeding of slaves in the form of women, as compared to wives, as nature depicts. Additionally, a huge percentage of women at that time were reduced to prostitutes especially in the first fifty years of colonization. In specific dates, the period between 1788–1840 marked women as mere prostitutes to the colonizers (Daniels, 1998; Robson, 1993). This was based on the fact that all women that had been transported to Britain were mere slaves and objects of the colonizers. In light to this argument, therefore, the colonizers justified themselves as having the full right and obligation to do what they wanted with the women of that particular period of time. Under the punitive colony of the time, the white women were categorized as convicts of the time; as well as the social stratification of the time subjected the women to such tough circumstances. In fact, the concept of women being slaves and objects of the time became a stereotype. The same was applied to a great percentage of women who were transported to the colony at that particular time. With this change of status of women being free beings to objects, the extent of suffering on them under the punitive colony can simply not be interpreted in words, but in the feeling one gets as they browse throug h the films and works of historians of the time. In the research conducted by Barker and Chalus (2005), the convicts that were transported to Australia comprised 11% of women. The women have been indicated to perform numerous jobs like needlework, worked as maids for the masters, servants amongst other factors. The conditions in which these women worked were not appealing at all. Having been conversant with these skills, the women were expected to work at odd hours of the day and night so as to always please the colonial masters. Worse still, the women were expected to adapt to the environmental conditions in their new homes, no matter how difficult it was for majority of the women. In contrast to 89% of the men who arrived in Australia, the 11% cannot be ignored especially being the women subjected to hard labor and torture (Damousi, 1997). Generally, the women were simply stacked together like boxes and regarded as whores who were useless. The term being stamped and repeated in th e history of Australia means that the extent of torture and degradation of the women was indeed not to be ignored. By 1841, studies indicate that the number of female convicts stood at over three thousand as compared to that of twenty eight thousand. In comparison to the 188 convict females in 1788, and 529 males, it is evident that the number of women convicts increased as much as that of the men (Daniels, 1998). The women are indicated to suffer twice as much as that of the men, with the demand for their services augmenting. In the colonies, there existed factories run by women. This is yet evidence that explains women

Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Obesity - Essay Example Children spend little or no time outside playing and running around because of video games. The pharmaceutical companies provide the population with pills to lose weight and this increases passive lifestyle because psychologically people will always choose swallowing pill over exercises because it’s easy (Flegal et al., 2010). I strongly believe that lifestyle and environmental factors are the major causes and it can be seen that from 1980 the breakthrough in modern technologies in all spheres of life. The dietary habit of people changed as fast foods replaced home foods; people adopted the consumption of fast foods which contain a lot of calories and sugars. This saves time and sometimes money but in reality it comes with serious health consequences. The spread of fast food like wildfire led to increase consumption of high calories and increase in machinery reduced physical activities, in the big picture children spend more time indoors with video games and eating high fatty foods which leads to obesity and the same is seen in adults who spend so much time working. The consumption of fast food relieves them of the â€Å"stress† of cooking and putting into account decrease in physical activities due to machinery. In the developing countries where western lifestyle is being adopted it’s seen that obesity is also increasing. To turn the trend of obesity certain measures need be taken, such as 1) encouraging physical exercises 2) control of appetite by educating the people on the dangers of unhealthy eating, 3) regulating the activities of fast food companies and 4) building of parks and providing free outdoor exercise facilities (Flegal et al., 2010). I will advise him to firstly decrease the consumption of high calorie intake especially in fast food and increase intake of vegetables and fruits, control of appetite and try to exercise at least 3 times in a week with the intensity of the exercise increasing

Ethics Concern in Criminal Justice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ethics Concern in Criminal Justice - Term Paper Example This fact has led to a lot of misunderstanding between students and the disciplinary faculties of institutions. These cases have become common since some of the academic ethics tend to contradict the students' rights, thus, resulting in some form of a dilemma (Hendrick 2000). These situations always make students find it difficult to differentiate between what is right and wrong. For instance, one of the academic ethics states that students should not cheat during any exam or test. Cheating here includes things like plagiarism among others. It is notable that a student might have done his personal research on the Internet and got the right answers. But it may be because he never cited his work properly the instructor might declare his work plagiarized. This action taken by the instructor might go against the student’s right to fair treatment due to the fact that the student got the question right, but the instructor degraded him because of improper citations. The other aspect might also come as a fact that the student was a slow learner and never got the concept of citation during the class time, yet the instructor assumed that every student understood the concept. Ethics Applied to Social Behavior Different people from various kinds of walks do have different behaviors. It is also notable that some behavior might affect other people negatively. This negative effect might then force the need of coming up with a solution for the affected ones. However, as much as there will be a need for coming up with a measure to control this behavior, the right of an individual to have a fond behavior should also not be violated (Bergman-Rosaman & Phythian 2011). A perfect example is that of smokers. It is clear that the law allows them to smoke, yet not everyone is ok with the smell of the cigarette smoke. This will then imply that as much as the law allows them to smoke cigarettes, they will need to ethically behave when smoking by isolating themselves in the smoking zones. Consequently, the act of isolating themselves when smoking tends to deny their right to free movement implying that the act is unfair to them (Sutch, 2001). Ethical Injustices that Might Arise When an Individual Is on I nternship Individuals are often subjected to more ethical dilemmas when they change places of work or when they join a new institution or organization. This is mainly because they might be unaware of the cultures and routines of these new environments. The main reason for this is always because some ethical behavior that they might have been used to in their initial institutions or organization might be immoral to the new organization, thus, making them face a dilemma (Bergman-Rosaman & Phythian 2011). Eventually they might forget that they are in a new environment and behave in accordance with their previous institution’s ethics which might be immoral to the new institution. This might then force the institution to subject them to harsh consequences just because of their ignorance or forgetful human nature. This can tend to be unfair to them. For instance, an individual who is used to a casual outfit might find it difficult to adapt to

One page summary 2011 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

One page summary 2011 - Essay Example The scatter diagram simply provides graphical evidence that there is an existing relationship and will also provide some idea regarding the strength of the relationship. A scatter diagram is constructed by plotting the values of one variable on the horizontal axis, and the corresponding value of the other variable on the vertical axis. The strength of the relationship is determined by the variability of the cluster of points relative to a mathematical expression describing the association. A run chart is a time-ordered chart, that is, individual measurements are plotted in the order in which they occur, and then connecting the points for ease in interpretation. It is best used to identify sustained shifts or trends in the process average. A control chart is a run chart with control limits. These limits represent the maximum and minimum allowable values for any individual plotted point. Any point that exceeds these limits provides statistical evidence that the process average has changed and that the chart’s centerline is no longer a reliable approximation. Thus, a control chart tests the statistical stability of the

Research Paper on Perfect Competion Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

On Perfect Competion - Research Paper Example They all sell identical products, and the seller is a price taker, not price maker† (Jain & Trehan, pp. 243). The characteristic of ‘price taker’ signifies that the price is set by the interaction of demand and supply in the industry, and no individual firm can increase or decrease the price (Jain & Trehan, pp. 243). As mentioned above, perfect competition is mainly based on certain assumptions and as such, it does not exist widely in the real world (Dwivedi, pp.294). Perfect competition is based on the assumption of ‘perfect mobility’. The model assumes that there is perfect mobility of factors of production between firms. There are, therefore, no restrictions on the movement of labor from one firm to another and there is no trade union either. In addition, no firm can control industrial input; hence, there is perfect mobility of capital as well. Another concept common to perfect competition is the free entry and exit of firms in the industry. This sh eds light to the fact that there are no legal, financial or market barrier for any firm to enter or exit the industry. Firms can choose to enter or exit at their free will. When the industry is enjoying abnormal profits, that is when the short run average cost is less than the price, and then firms enter the industry. However, when the abnormal profits are transferred into normal profits or losses, then firms leave the industry (Dwivedi, pp. 297, 298). This model makes a further assumption that there is ‘perfect knowledge’. This suggests that there is no uncertainty in the market, and information regarding the market is readily available and is free of cost. In addition, firms act independently and they do not collude with each other in any way. Furthermore, there is no government intervention in perfect competition. There are no discriminatory taxes or subsidies, government does not put up a maximum or minimum price and does not have any sort of direct or indirect cont rol. Such characteristics make this model unique (Dwivedi, pp. 297). â€Å"The demand curve of a perfectly competitive firm is horizontal; this signifies that the firm can sell as much as it wants at the prevailing market price† (Dwivedi, pp. 298-300). Any firm in perfect competition is so insignificant that it absolutely has no influence over price. The diagram is shown below. (McEachern, pp. 23-25) This characteristic of perfect competition also makes it unique in all types of market structures. In addition to that, perfect competition is used as a ‘useful benchmark’ to judge the efficiency of markets. There are two broad concepts of efficiency, allocative efficiency and productive efficiency. Productive efficiency occurs when the firm is producing at the minimum of its long run average cost curve (LRAC). This signifies that the cost is less than the market price of a certain product. In perfect competition, output is produced at the minimum of average cost in the long run. Allocative efficiency, on the other hand, ensures that producers are making the right things that consumers actually want. The market in perfect competition is left to the forces of demand and supply. These forces ensure that what the consumers want, they would get. This avoids wastage of resources. In economic technicality, allocative effi

Social Biases Essay Example for Free

Social Biases Essay Dr. Deirdre Teaford Abstract People behave differently toward other culture and groups and discriminate in many forms of social bias. These biases can impact harshly an individuals career and social life. Discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes can influence adversely an individuals quality of life. The concept is more prevalent in society that most people realize. This problem could be unfavorable to group cohesion, cooperation, and the success of society. Humans prefer to go with the flow of a crowd. When an idea is chosen by the masses (an entire nations or a small group), the individualized brain enters a kind of hive mind mentality. This causes social norms and behaviors to propagate among the individuals regardless of the evidence in support. This type of social bias is built with the desire to conform or fit in. Social biases have been a barrier humans have experienced from generation to generation. They take short cuts to make sense of the world. Humans have made rash decisions or discriminatory practices based on gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, political preferences, and socioeconomic tatus. Humans have become fallible and has been subjected to their many flaws by making errors in Judgment, memory, and social attribution. Social psychologists have claimed these biases can be eliminated if the individuals have the motivation and capacity to change their attitude. According to Fiske (2010), Some people think bias is a thing of the past, and others think it is a real and present danger that targets diverse social groups (p. 28). Moreover, there are subtle and obvious misunderstandings among groups of individuals that affects the bias of people in heir lives, but strategies for change are possible (Fiske, 2010). In this analysis, the concept of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination will be defined. In the same aspect, the analysis will describe the differences between blatant and subtle bias while identifyi ng some common biases that may affect the lives of individuals and Stereotyping, and Discrimination Gender and ethnic stereotypes are inevitable. In the context of affirmative action, the inevitability has played an important practical implication. One arguments against affirmative action is that employers and educational administrators should be ender-blind and colorblind in their hiring and recruiting process (Stewart, Weeks, Lupfer, 2003). Individuals are often hurt by discriminatory and prejudicial behaviors and attitudes. The current laws cannot halt prejudicial or stereotyping attitudes, but they can address instances of discrimination. Discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice are somewhat similar, but they are very different. Prejudice The operational definition involves reacting fervently to an individual on the basis of ones feelings about the group (Fiske, 2010). It is a belief that formulated without considering the facts. It is also an unwarranted or negative attitude toward a person based on his or her association of a social group. Stereotyping The operational definition entails an individuals cognitive associations and expectations about a group. These expectations will encompass the beliefs about the characteristics of a group (Fiske, 2010). Moreover, it is an indiscriminate belief about a class of people or particular group. Advantage: It allows the individual to respond hastily to certain situations because he or she may had a related experience. Disadvantage: It will make us ignore the differences between people. Discrimination The operational definition involves acting on the basis of ones prejudices and stereotypes, rebuffing equality of treatment that individuals wish to have (Fiske, 2010). Moreover, it is the negative behavior, or actions toward a group of people or individual on the basis of social/race/gender class. In this context, discrimination can be either blatant or subtle. Subtle and Blatant Bias In the last two decades, there is no doubt that women have made strides in the fight for equality. Many can recognize that women have overcome the many prejudices against their participation in the workforce (Earnshaw, 1993). In our society, blatant bias is being replaced by subtle bias to decrease the broad- mindedness for obviously biased behavior. Subtle bias is also acknowledged as modern prejudice. This does not mean that women do not get discriminated at work even though they have achieved equality of opportunity (Earnshaw, 1993). The first generation bias was more hostile towards women who needed to be in home with the children. On this second generation bias, for example, women may get more narrative praise than the male co-workers but low rating point related to Job performance (Earnshaw, 1993). Subtle Bias This particular modern bias is indirect and is manifested by withholding respect and sympathy. It is ambiguous and sometimes involves positive and hostile feelings that can cause extreme responses (Fiske, 2010). Blatant Bias This old-fashioned bias ensues as a result of threats to the struggle for positive group identity. They include segregation, physical attack, extermination, avoidance, opinion clearly in regard to a particular individual or group. Impact of Social Bias The lives of individuals can be influenced by social biases. Negative outcomes like neglect, hostile environment, or avoidance may be created by discrimination. When a biased individual interacts with an outgroup members, the expressed behavior of the individual will solicit negative and ill attitudes. Prejudice will influence the individuals lives with instances of ageism, sexism, and racism that will affect their career and social life. According to Vaish, Grossman, and Woodward (2008), When adults display a negative bias across an array of psychological situations, they will use the negative information instead of the positive one (p. 383). Moreover, the negativity bias may serves as an evolutionary adaptive purpose of helping individuals afely explore and examine the environment to avoid harmful situations (Vaish et. al. , 2008). Two Strategies to Overcome Social Biases There are several strategies to minimize social biases, such as affirmative action, and equal opportunity laws. The majority of these strategies involve constant intergroup contact. The key term for a biased individual is change. Old habits die hard but and individual can break those habits. According to Fiske (2010), Intergroup contact and mutual differentiation are two possible strategies to minimize the bias. Intergroup Contact These are interactions between members of different social groups. During the contact, there is equal status in the groups, there are common goals, and there is no competition but cooperation. They are not easy to meet, but they make complete sense (Fiske, 2010). Mutual Differentiation In this context, mutual differentiation is important for two reasons: (1) People retain awareness of individuals social identity in the contact situation, and (2) Individuals seem typical in the sense that they represent their own groups (Fiske, 2010). In Conclusion The motivation of change is the key to steer away from social biases. The bias will be the individuals preference toward a peculiar way of viewing or thinking omething. This behavior will be influenced by a certain prejudice.

Concepts of Accounting for Goodwill | Literature Review

Concepts of Accounting for Goodwill | Literature Review Accounting Goodwill Treatment Introduction Arnold, J., Egginton, D., Kirkham, L., Macve, R. and Peasnell, K., ‘Theoretical Considerations’, in Goodwill and Other Intangibles, The Research Board, London, pp3-18. According to the authors, financial reporting of goodwill has assumed importance just recently. In its earlier definition goodwill just meant customer loyalty. They attribute two main reasons for the increase in goodwill’s importance. First is the increase in merger and acquisition (MA) activities in the market and second is the rising stock market. This has created a wide gap between the book value and market value and also between the fair value and paid value of assets of a firm. As a result, the increasing importance of recognition, valuing and accounting of goodwill was widely felt. Definition Catlett, G. and Olson, N. 1968, ‘Accounting Research Study no 10’, Accounting for Goodwill, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York, pp.1-21. The authors have taken Accounting Research Study no.5 by the Accounting Principles Board as a base for their study on Accounting for Goodwill. In their study, they say that the definition of goodwill has evolved and changed over time to reflect the true picture of its nature. Goodwill is difficult to measure and its accounting treatment is also very controversial. They have included the definition of goodwill from the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. It defines goodwill as ‘the capitalized value of the excess of estimated future profits of a business over the rate of return on capital considered normal in the related industry’. In general, goodwill is a result of good reputation of the firm in the market. Superior quality goods and customer service, integrity and efficiency of management, good employee relations and many other factors helps a company earn goodwill. Nowadays, technological advantages, efficient manufacturing process, ability to raise finance also assume great importance. The earning power of goodwill is the most relevant concept as of today. Different Concepts Gynther, R. 1969, [Abstract of ‘Some â€Å"Conceptualizing† on Goodwill’, The Accounting Review, vol. 44, no. 2, pp.247-255], [Electronic], Available: JSTOR [2007, Nov 11]. Gynther has cited two main concepts of goodwill, the ‘residuum concept’ and the ‘future excess profits concept’. Under the residuum concept, goodwill is measured as a difference between purchase price and book value of a company’s assets. Goodwill is the residual value after taking into account all the tangible and identifiable intangible assets. According to future excess profits concept, goodwill is the present value of all the excess profits expected in the future, over and above the normal/average profits in the industry. It is difficult to measure goodwill using this concept as there is no certainty of the future profits. Nature and Characteristics Arnold, J., Egginton D., Kirkham, L., Macve, R. and Peasnell, K., ‘Theoretical Considerations’, in Goodwill and Other Intangibles, The Research Board, London, pp.18. Goodwill can be of two types. Goodwill can either be internally generated or purchased. Goodwill is said to be internally generated when a firm earns super profits. On the other hand, purchased goodwill is a result of merger and acquisition activities. However, goodwill is accounted only when a business is purchased or sold. Internally generated goodwill cannot be accounted otherwise. Catlett, G. and Olson, N. 1968, ‘Accounting Research Study no 10’, Accounting for Goodwill, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York, pp.20-21. The value of goodwill cannot be directly attributed to a particular cost. Goodwill is sometimes created due to favorable conditions and certain other factors, and sometimes even without any efforts by a company. The value of goodwill is directly attached to a business. It cannot be separated and sold differently. Several factors can affect the value of goodwill. As such, the value of goodwill may rise or fall due to changes in those factors. The investors’ perception reflected in the stock prices forms the base for calculating goodwill. Treatments of goodwill Non-purchased goodwill Walker, G. T. 1938, [Abstract of ‘Non-purchased Goodwill’, The Accounting Review, Vol. 13, No. 3. pp. 253-259], [Electronic], Available: JSTOR Arts and Sciences 4 [2007, Nov 11]. In this paper Walker argued that almost all the accountants agree that non-purchased goodwill should not be recognized in account. â€Å"They are fully aware that goodwill created by a concern is just as valuable and in most instances, more valuable- to that concern than to the firm which might make a specific purchase of that goodwill†. Montgomery has pointed out this view in his Financial Handbook that goodwill may have economic value even without being purchased by another entity. But it was considered to be bad practice to record goodwill on the books since many frauds happened in the early days, when the term goodwill was freely used. Seetharaman, A., Balachandra, M. and Saravanan, A.S. 2004, [Abstract of ‘Accounting treatment of goodwill: yesterday, today and tomorrow: Problems and prospects in the international perspective’, Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 131-153], [Electronic], Available: Proquest ABI/INFORM [2007, Nov 11]. Seetharaman also argued in the article that only purchased goodwill is acknowledged for accounting purpose. Although, in reality, with the development of the relationship with suppliers, customers and the work force, all the business generate internal goodwill as they grow. But it seems that no attempt was made to account for non-purchased goodwill. Lee (2004) gave the reasons why there is no accounting for non-purchase goodwill: (1) The accountants adopt conservative view, together with the fear that internally generated goodwill may turn out to be a fictitious asset in order to make the balance sheet look better. (2) Certain accounting rules such as historical cost, objectivity and verifiability are extremely difficult to apply in accounting for non-purchased goodwill in practice. (3) It is difficult to revalue non-purchased goodwill annually. Some assumptions have been made to carry out the test, such as the estimation of future profits and of what should be a reasonable rate of return for a particular business. (4) The business costs which attribute to the value of goodwill are difficult to measure. For instance, it is difficult to bifurcate which part of the cost of RD or advertising expenditure contributed to the sales that in turn generated goodwill. Purchased goodwill 1. Immediately write off For: Hughes, H, P. 1982, ‘Goodwill in Accounting: A History of the Issues and Problems’, United States of America. Under this method, goodwill is immediately written off against an account in the equity part, generally retained earnings. Hughes presented in this book that the fundamental concern about immediately write off treatment is that goodwill was not an asset. Spacek expressed the view that the total expenditure of buying an entity or business over the fair value of the company is â€Å"a cost to the buyer of earning over and above the cost of the assets required to produce those earnings†. And Spacek points out that goodwill may generate future economic benefits, but those benefits are not secured (Cited in Hughes, 1982). Massoud, F. 2003, [Abstract of ‘Accounting for goodwill: Are we better off?’] Review of Business,Vol.24, Iss.2, p.26], [Electronic],Available: Proquest ABI/INFORM [2007, Nov 11] Spacek’s view is supported by the idea that goodwill is neither something that can be really used, nor it can produce earnings. But, it represented the investors’ appraisals of earnings or expectations of earnings. In such case, goodwill carried a risk of facing wide fluctuations which related to the investors’ decision. Therefore, the value of goodwill has no reliable or continuing relation to costs incurred in its creation, its purchase or its maintenance.

Sustainable Development Essay example -- Environment Ecology Essays Pa

Sustainable Development Sustainable development was defined in the Bruntland Report in 1983 as â€Å"development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† (Dresner, 31) This is a satisfactory definition for most people, however, when it comes down to the policies of sustainable development, the definition given proves dangerously vague. Interpretations that stem from it can range from ‘do not touch any of the earth’s natural resources ever again’ to ‘use them up as quickly as possible.’ There are three main philosophies behind sustainability: weak, strong, and environmental. Weak sustainability states that the total capital of the earth must not decrease. That means that the natural capital (oil, coal, forests, etc.) can decrease as long as the sum of physical (produced means of production; technology) and human (people’s physical ability to do work) capital increase at the same rate or higher. Thus, this approach assumes that most, if not all, natural capital can be substituted by technology. Strong sustainability differs from this in that it assumes that very little natural capital can be substituted. It deems human-made capital and natural capital separate entities, thus the natural capital must not decline. Economists have trouble with this idea because it seems like it is hindering the current generation in order for future generations to become vastly more wealthy assuming that the physical capital will increase with time. While they might furrow their brow at this theory, any self-respecting economist gets short of breath at the thought of environmental sustainability. This approach calls for natural resources to be left alone. It says... .... â€Å"Education is the catalyst for helping everyone understand the dynamic nature of the interrelationship† of ecology/environment, economy/employment, and equity/equality. (Edwards, 23) The environment is to be preserved as much as possible while still strengthening the economy and achieving the sense of community that goes along with controlling population and energy use with equity. Works Cited Beckerman, Wilfred. A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2003. Dresner, Simon. The Principles of Sustainability. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2002. Edwards, Andres R. Sustianability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift. Canada: New Society, 2005. Smith, Lee. "The Next Big Thing." Fortune 25 Dec. 2006: 24. Stronberg, Joel B. "More Than Solar." Solar Today Sept. 2005: 8.

The Neurological Causes of Stuttering :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The Neurological Causes of Stuttering There are 55 million people all over the world who suffer from stuttering and about 3 million live in the Unites States. This disability has been misunderstood for hundreds of years, but it affects more men then women and it often runs in the family. People who stutter when they speak are sometimes considered to be slower, mentally, then people who can speak fluently. Although research has made some progress in diagnosing the causes of stuttering, people still have preconceptions about stutterers. There are new studies being done to find genetic and neural links to explain and perhaps help cure this potentially isolating disorder. One of the problems that stutterers face in society is the fast pace that people talk. When trying to talk in public, people will often try and finish a sentence for someone who is stuttering. This seemingly harmless act can often cause the stuttering to be worse, because the person who stutters will be more conscious of the fact that they are talking slowly and they will try to speed up, only to trip and stumble on more words. This disability is interesting because it is not always present in a stutterers daily activities. It has been found that talking to pets, singing, acting and whispering often make the disability disappear (4). On the other hand when the person has to talk to someone of authority or try to impress someone, the stuttering becomes a severe speech block (3). This dramatic variation in speech ability lead to the investigation of the causes of stuttering. People who stutter, obviously don’t lack the ability to talk fluently but rather have an interference in that ability (3). To find out if there was a neurological link in the brain that caused people to stutter, a PET imaging study was performed comparing stutterers’ brains and non-stutterers’ brains. This study showed that stutterers may be using the right hemisphere of their brain when they are talking, which means that the left hemisphere (the one usually responsible for speech) is being interrupted (4). Stutterers still complain that when they do have to talk, they feel a lot of nervousness and stress, but doctors are now starting to think that these feelings don’t start the stuttering but rather aggravate the problem (4). The interesting thing with the brain patterns is that they are present even when the stutterers aren’t talking.

Problems of Standardized Tests for Writing Teachers Essay -- Standardiz

As a teacher of English at the High School level, and therefore an instructor of writing, one is faced with a myriad of problems that seem to fester in the teacher’s mind without answer. The problems, or shall we say challenges, that a writing instructor faces can include, but are not limited to, the validity of standard assessment tools, state regulations for the style of composition taught, institutional standards set forth by the particular district one teaches in, the common problem of structure versus content in assessment, and the unchangeable issues students deal with at home and in their previous writing courses. Each of the problems stated offer the instructor a series of challenges that can grow to seem insurmountable, though the most difficult of all of the challenges, especially in my young career as a teacher of writing, is the state mandated Regents and English Language Arts examinations. While the standardized tests are designed as benchmarks for a grade level t o have met, they are problematic for the writing teacher in several ways. Aside from the problems one faces due to the pressure of the exams, the writing instructor must also deal with the inevitable question of why should writing be taught, and how should it be taught with the inherent roadblocks built into the current New York State education system? On one hand, the application of various pedagogies is essential to examine, though if the instructor has not decided why he or she should be teaching the material in the first place, the actual instruction will collapse. In other words, the teacher must know why he or she is teaching writing before that teacher examines how to teach writing. My intentions, though, are not to convince anyone of my philosophie... ...hing of literature, character, expository writing, persuasive writing, personal writing, creative writing, and all other tasks lumped into what the state refers to as English Language Arts. At this point in my career as a teacher, just one full year experience, I find more often than not that I have not come up with answers for the many questions involved with the realm of writing in the shadow of the exam. Furthermore, the answers that I do test seem to always fall short in one respect or another. Thus my education continues. Most teachers denounce the test as something to deal with in a most unfortunate way, though in my optimistic youthful career, I hope to find a way to use the exam as a tool to foster writers. Complaining about the exam won’t change the fact that it exists, so we as writing teachers must accept the challenges we face as opportunities to succeed. Problems of Standardized Tests for Writing Teachers Essay -- Standardiz As a teacher of English at the High School level, and therefore an instructor of writing, one is faced with a myriad of problems that seem to fester in the teacher’s mind without answer. The problems, or shall we say challenges, that a writing instructor faces can include, but are not limited to, the validity of standard assessment tools, state regulations for the style of composition taught, institutional standards set forth by the particular district one teaches in, the common problem of structure versus content in assessment, and the unchangeable issues students deal with at home and in their previous writing courses. Each of the problems stated offer the instructor a series of challenges that can grow to seem insurmountable, though the most difficult of all of the challenges, especially in my young career as a teacher of writing, is the state mandated Regents and English Language Arts examinations. While the standardized tests are designed as benchmarks for a grade level t o have met, they are problematic for the writing teacher in several ways. Aside from the problems one faces due to the pressure of the exams, the writing instructor must also deal with the inevitable question of why should writing be taught, and how should it be taught with the inherent roadblocks built into the current New York State education system? On one hand, the application of various pedagogies is essential to examine, though if the instructor has not decided why he or she should be teaching the material in the first place, the actual instruction will collapse. In other words, the teacher must know why he or she is teaching writing before that teacher examines how to teach writing. My intentions, though, are not to convince anyone of my philosophie... ...hing of literature, character, expository writing, persuasive writing, personal writing, creative writing, and all other tasks lumped into what the state refers to as English Language Arts. At this point in my career as a teacher, just one full year experience, I find more often than not that I have not come up with answers for the many questions involved with the realm of writing in the shadow of the exam. Furthermore, the answers that I do test seem to always fall short in one respect or another. Thus my education continues. Most teachers denounce the test as something to deal with in a most unfortunate way, though in my optimistic youthful career, I hope to find a way to use the exam as a tool to foster writers. Complaining about the exam won’t change the fact that it exists, so we as writing teachers must accept the challenges we face as opportunities to succeed.

Luxury Brand Essay

Introduction One can describe as luxury all that exceeds the bare essential. It covers all that one considers superfluous and useless. But in the usual direction, luxury means ostentation and refinement in the manners of living (art of the table, elegant toilet, sumptuous decoration ? ). The luxury discusses and is acquired by great expenditure. The philosophers of the Lights had divergent opinions concerning the luxury. Voltaire considered that that represented an essential support of the economy. Rousseau as for him saw the luxury like a principle of exploitation of the small people and the spring of all perversions, because the luxury is made to be admired, it dazzles. We will see through our study how much industry luxury is a singular world in our economy: with very consequent sales turnovers, actors gathered in great powerful groups. We will also be interested in the luxury brands: with the identity of brands, the targets of those. Finally we will analyze the risks for the luxury brand to fall into the hands of standard population. Isn’t the luxury in the street for the greatest number, recent phenomenon, likely you it not to carry damage to the brands? These problems deserve to be posed because it returns to the identity and the image which the luxury brand wishes to give to itself? PART I The industry of the luxury Until the Middle Ages the writings tell us luxury which it was the reflection of the religious mystery which pushes the man to be exceeded by an offering or a sign. We will see how much the concept of going beyond remains, still today for the man, important when it is a question of having luxury. But the blessed time of the luxury is without any doubt: the Rebirth (XVth and XVIth centuries), period of literary, artistic and scientific flowering. This time represents the tangible explosion of the luxury: sail of the sumptuous architecture inspired of Italy, progress of the ornaments of jewels. Also furniture becomes more luxurious; the art of the table avoids refinement. The luxury articles then remain rare objects, related exclusively on the Aristocracy and the Court. With the Rebirth the luxury has a contrasted position. But thereafter it will become the prerogative of the Middle-class. It will take intellectual connotations, results of the great voyages from the time. It is also of this time that dates the luxury for the books, thanks to the work of the bookbinders. Another strong time for the luxury: the XVIIIth century and the positive role of the Encyclopedia. This one treated in its chapters thoroughly: technical and industrial aspects of clothing and the accessories. The trades related to the industry of the luxury can then be shown with the eyes of all as to mean that the luxury is however reserved for elite. At the XIXth century, the economic influence results in new forms of manufacture and distribution. The industry of the luxury is then made up brotherhoods of craftsmen, all having their distinctive signs. From this time one will retain especially, as Zola in â€Å"With the Happiness of the Ladies tells it†, the opening of department stores symbolizes the democratization of the luxury. XXth century will have to be waited, to see flowering in Paris, a multitude of small workshops of craftsmen, devoted to the trades of the luxury. In 1929, in spite of the economic crisis, the intellectual radiation of our country is preserved and Coconut Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Louis Cartier are the kings and the queens that the â€Å"large ones† are torn off to get dressed or buy jewels. But the war of 1939-1945 will carry a new blow to France and the development of the industry of the luxury. France will take again its place of leader of the industry of the luxury only per hour of the Release, thanks to: fashion in particular of Christian Dior and the â€Å"new look†, per hour of the revolution zazou and the existentialism. In the post-war period it will really be necessary to wait, the years 1950 and them assistances of the Marshall plan so that manufactures take again their activities. The textile comes then at the head from exports with nearly 20% to the value to the exported products, thanks to Parisian creations very appreciated on the other side of the Atlantic. The period from May 68 reminds all, concerning the luxury, that it should not make forget the great technological stakes of the XXe century. Industrial development is from now on priority and proof is made by it by Pompidou itself: â€Å"Dear old France! Good kitchen! Madness-Shepherdesses! Merry-Paris! The High-Seam (?. )! It is finished. France started and largely started an industrial revolution†. The Seventies were wiser years, years of centering. Fashion is enough conformist, nothing of shocking and nothing eccentric. These years of oil crisis were the period when the Arab emirs invade the jewelers and the large dressmakers. The striking fact of the Eighties is at the level of the consumer of the luxury. The young people discover the luxury thanks to the accessories. We will see further in our study how much this phenomenon is still of topicality today. End of the year the 80 shops will multiply. The actors of the industry of the luxury are from now on conscious of the risk of competition. It becomes necessary to occupy all the crenels; to conquer new territories for fear the competitor does not occupy them. The rather morose Nineties, years, did not save the luxury, which passed through a crisis however more psychological than economic. That will engage a true thoughtfulness on the bases of the luxury. One directs oneself step by step towards a new luxury: of quality, deeper, more spiritual, and more moral. XXIe century is not as certain experts had predicted it, the era of the obliteration of the luxury. In spite of major events: on September 11, 2001, the war of the gulf which amplified an economic crisis in the sector of the luxury, this one holds good while drawing the conclusions necessary. The sector of the luxury is more sensitive than other sectors to the risks of the economic situation. Once the crises passed, the luxury finds all its heat then. 2. General characteristics of the luxury We will approach the luxury here in the broad sense. This definition will help us in the continuation of our study to better including/understanding the relation which is tied between the consumer and luxury brands. Initially we talk about luxury which is characteristic of a civilization and men who compose it. The luxury, eternal, is a valve essential to the human activity as well as the relaxation, the sport, the thinking and the love. It is a considerable share of dream, a manner of appeasing our phantasms. The luxury is a universe, separately, governs by codes, rules, signs. The luxury is a considerable world market, strongly concentrated in Europe and North America. France is a leader in the sector of the luxury, with about half of the production. The luxury is the second economic sector in France thanks in particular to the fact that it is addressed to broader customers and knew periods of strong growths on a world level. Today, the industry of the luxury is somewhat weakened by the reversal of the economic situation world: the fall of tourism, the stock exchange crisis, which touches mainly occasional customers. But the luxury resists while being pressed on solids structural elements. This sector can rely in particular: on the growing proportion of the classes with high incomes in the population, the conquest of new markets such as China, and the development of travels. Broadly the European goods of luxury have a place of choice: they profit from a certain standardization of the modes, universalization and hardly suffer from the competition of the other continents. The sector is addressed to increasingly many customers, this which present important prospects for growth for the next years. One of the paramount characteristics of the luxury is that it has its lines, its forms, its configuration. It transmits its codes of beauty which can even surprise to shock. But the luxury articles are not aesthetically neutral. The creator and the owner incarnate themselves in the luxury article. The choice of this one is thus never indifferent: it signs our personality and fact of us refined beings. Three components develop the luxury: – The object corresponds to a personalized step, – the object is technically perfect, – The object is aesthetically beautiful. In the luxury, the desire is higher than the need insofar as it nourishes our psychic in the same way that the satisfaction of the needs corresponds to our physiological life. One seeks by the means of the luxury article with: to allure, give or give pleasure. Dependent on the beauty, the luxury calls upon the five directions but also with individual passion (search constant and personalized) and with freedom (to rise with the top of its condition). All the actors of the luxury must keep in mind the rules which govern industry of the luxury and particularly during the introduction of products on the market. The first rule, that we will re-examine in the ultimate part of this work, it is to respect the aspirations of the consumers and to even include/understand them to anticipate them in order to ensure the marks of luxury, certain perenniality. We can observe that the market from now on is characterized by the bursting of the request. The offer is today the territory of large owners groups various large marks delivering a keen war. Initially, let us recall that the luxury is a sector gathering various activities. We will present one of typologies here allowing bettering analyzing these activities: – The cultural market (market of Art) – Means of transport (car, yacht, private aircrafts) – Equipment of the person (high-seam, perfumery, leather working, shoes, cosmetics, clock industry, jewelry) – Leisure (cruising, sports of luxury, hotel trade of luxury) – Equipment of the house (art of the table) – Habitat (residences of luxury, decoration of luxury) – Food (wines and spirits, grocer and restaurant of luxury) All these activities form the industry of the luxury. This industry returns to products of high quality, at a concentrated market, gravitational, much targeted and much segmented. Some brands rhyme with luxury and pleasure. Behind these names are however powerful groups, very skilful, which compete unceasingly as regards management of the marks, creativity, communication and distribution. The tendency has been for a few years with the concentration: operation consisting in integrating into a great group, detached houses. In addition, the large actors of the luxury reinforce their positions with international and are more and more obliged to increase their visibility. The current economic situation forced the industrialists of the luxury to engage of the modifications in their policy. Thus we observed on behalf of the great groups a real will to free of debts ourselves. Recent evolutions allowed: an increase in the financial capacity, a modernization of the production equipments, a development of the sales networks, more creation and of innovation. 3. Actors of the luxury – Manpower: 125. 000 people – Sales turnover: 10 billion Euros In 2002, the world market, it were evaluated to 90 billion Euros (HT wholesale price). This market is today in a phase of deceleration. The most flourishing period, because of economic situation quasi-euphoria, is located between the years 1998 and 2000, where the progression of the market bordered to them + 16%. From now on, the growth does not turn any more but around + the 10%. As regards luxury, Paris remains the center of creation, the decision and the definition of the strategy of the companies. On the other hand the manufacturers are present on all the French territory. The leader of the market of the luxury is group LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy)1. The challenger is the group PR (Pinault Spring Redoute). These two groups are French. The other principal actors are: the Richemont group (Swiss) and groups it Prada (Italy). These large financial groups and industrialists in common have the possession of the wallets of luxury brands which have a history founder, which is necessary to exploit. They understood that a brand needs to have a starting point, a human history, even old or remote. In our second part we will approach the luxury brands and beyond they are the strategies of the great groups which will take shape in filigree. PART 2 Marks of luxury And general public 1. Identity of brand The name of a brand or its logo is only the visible part of a more complex reality. These visible signs ensure the mediation between the identity of the company (essential values that it conveys) and its image (perceptions which the customers have of this mark). The concept brand identity remains still too little used by the managers. However this identity constitutes the base and the federator element of all the manifestations of the brand. In term of brands’ management, the concept of identity can appear as a capital importance. Thus if there are â€Å"richer† brand than others, it is that this one profit from a potential evocation more important and more easily mobile. With regard to the sector of the luxury, the identity of brands is a considerable strategic data. It can moreover confer a competing advantage on brand and represent a very pointed strategic tool for the managers of the mark. It should be noted that the identity of brand does not make it possible to intervene directly on the choices of the offers’ structure, of customer, margin and price determination target? It is on the other hand a major resource and a reference brand in the development of the total strategy of the company. The identity of brand will thus affect creation and the communication like on the distribution, the production?. The identity reasoning will be able to thus have an influence more or less pronounced on the strategy of the company and in return the identity of the brand itself will be affected by decisions taken in other functions. In other words, the identity is the substance of the brands and one will see further in our study than it arrives sometimes than this identity, if it is badly perceived by the consumers, perhaps the cause of a crisis of brand. Brands can be considered like vector of direction: it communicates a speech, a message with recipients. Each brand creates a speech which is clean for him, in relation to its products, its history, its projects, the tastes of its customers. The brands take part then in the process of communication because one finds: a transmitter (the company), a recipient (the consumer, the customer), a message. The identity can also be conveyed by a personality which brings all its size to the mark. From there has come for a few years an intensive use famous character to represent the brand: Ex: Ines Sastre for Lancome, Carole Bouquet for Chanel, Kate Moss for Calvin Klein But the identity of brand can be reinforced by talented personalities which carry to end of brand’s arm arm the mark, ex: Tom Ford for Gucci, or Giorgio Armani, Pierre Cardin, Yves SAINT LAURENT, Jean-Paul Gaultier †¦ For considerable luxury brand, it is nowadays dominating to know to perpetuate the identity of the brand, in spite of: the disappearance of the creator or the departure of the personality which characterized it? The goal is to not perturb the customer: it is for example the problem that has recently to face the mark Gucci after the departure of emblematic the fashion designer Tom Ford and chairman of the brand, Domenico de Sole The articulation of a horizon of value makes it possible for brands to connect two distant universes: that of the products and that of the consumers. This contact transforms this relation: on the one hand the brand makes possible to invest the universe of the products with values symbolic systems and imaginary; and in addition it makes it possible to represent and consider the consumer, according to various visions: commercial, industrial or economic. The consumer is considered, as we already specified, like recipient. Brands, by using a language of values, are addressed more to the individual, apprehended in totality its being, of its personality, of its needs, that with the consumer. In the sector of the luxury, consumption is done through a context of life and the identity of mark does nothing but reinforce this context. In short to be a mark with success, it is necessary that the identity of the brand is built starting from various points: 1 In 2004: Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole announced their departure of Gucci group and do not renew its contract with PR. All wonder which is the future of the Gucci mark without the Genious creator . ? A genetic code : a history founder. A mark absolutely requires for a starting point, a history of man, even if it is old. ? Know-how: it can be transmitted in a subjective way without technical relationship to reality of today. But this know-how is a pledge of quality and professionalism and confers on the mark all its reputation. ? Distinctive signs: they are essential. It can be a question of the logotype (certain companies go until selling their logotype1), but also of services, products, the design, color (ex: the red Ferrari)? ? A language of the brand : this one will be able to be thus found in the communications of the mark. ? A distribution network : this one will have to evolve/move with the behavior of the consumers. ? A spirit of idiot searches : the territory of the brand is defined by the most representative of the company which has the role of projecting the mark in a anticipative vision. ? Charisma: a luxury brand must imperatively have a charismatic dimension. It is a credit of image which is the first step towards an identity strong and impossible to circumvent. We saw throughout this part that a brand needs a strong identity to be visible and gravitational with the eyes of the consumers. To be visible, it is thus necessary for the luxury brand to have adequate communications. 2. Communication of the luxury brands The universe of the luxury, intended either for the ornament of the individual, or the embellishment of its personal environment, answers a series of needs, desires, wishes, dreams. ? Targets of the luxury brands The products of the marks luxury brands, as we specified before, must tell a history which must correspond to waiting of the customers. Customers, heart of target, present of the particular characteristics of which first are that they are consumers to financial means much more important than average (the highest CSP). This social category, elite, has a very particular motivation: it is necessary to meet their desires and not their needs. It will be a question of playing on the mental one more than on the material. Hedonists, less and less faithful to the marks, they await always more quality, of safety and especially of immaterial added value: services, citizenship, ecology, environmental protection? For customers , heart of target: the request should be caused. Generally the creator imposes his tastes. This category of affluent continues by choosing the most selective luxury articles, newest and most inaccessible. It is eager to mark its social status. Its completely distinctive life style, is an escape ahead, in order to escape the correction from the â€Å"new classes: rich person and avid of modernity â€Å". The luxury is for them a bench brand, a brand of membership of a club which they want relatively selective. The principal target gathers it, of the classes of â€Å"new rich person†, rather young person who acquired a social status raised thanks to incomes resulting from the business world, industries of high technology? With regard to the characteristics of the targets: it acts people of more than 25 years having a social status raised certainly, which have good taste but which sees especially the luxury as a universe which reflects their aesthetic choices like their personality. We are in a society, whose modes of consumption to the wire of the decades changed. Yesterday, one consumed necessary. Today it is not any more the case and the modification of the behaviors also had effects on the consumption of the luxury. More than ever, today there is a search for pleasure above all. In our company, there is from now on a â€Å"social legitimating of the pleasure†1, which leads the individuals to want what there is best and of more beautiful for them. Via the communication and the media we receive messages more and more, praising the benefits and the legitimacy of personal blooming. Legitimate targets inaccessible luxury, are not with a view to consumption to conclusive dimension. For these raised categories, the luxury is an ordinary consumption exceptional people. And yet the report has not been pus also Net for a few years. We will see in our ultimate under-part that the luxury can also be an exceptional consumption ordinary people. But our report will go, on the consequences, of this last tendency, for the marks. ? The Positioning of the marks of luxury Each mark of luxury wishes to give to the public an image, of it and its products, which aims at being strongly anchored in the spirit of the customers. Thus the stake is to dissociate itself, to be distinct from competition. Examples of positioning: – Vuitton : Louis Vuitton, give heart to your desires. – Gucci: Gucci, to play the chart of the ultra seduction. – Chanel: Elegant and modern: you are so much Chanel. ? Objectives of communication of the marks of luxury We will take the example of the objectives of communication of the Louis Vuitton brand. These objectives are very representative of those of the other marks of luxury. – It is necessary to develop a more human image, less centered on the research of the immediate profit, nearer to the consumers of the mark, while keeping an elitist tone, obliged symbol of the marks of luxury. – It is necessary to make known the various lines of goods and to make like the products. – It is necessary to propose the know-how house of the products, but also the aspects innovating, the matters design? – It is necessary to be different from competition in the spirit of the consumers, while being affirmed like a credible mark in all its actions and able to give satisfaction to customers with very different waiting. Each brand as we have already seen contains values as well as a capital of evocation which it is a question of registering in the spirits of the consumers. It is the role of the communication which to make so that the consumers are to attract by such or such public image. ? Strategy of the means of communication of the marks of luxury It is of primary importance for a mark of luxury: to control its image. That implies on behalf of the seat to take account of the information brought by actors present on the ground: subsidiary companies and distributors. The marks must be permanently held with listening of all the markets of the house to optimize the effectiveness of the communication campaigns. It is regularly necessary to go in each country, where the mark holds of the shops to take the temperature of the market. The subsidiary companies have an active role in the development of the advertising campaigns, being precisely on the ground. The marks leave them certain flexibility, in particular on the choice of the products to be proposed like on the most relevant interpretation making pass by the words of the international advertising concept. A country can also have a direct action via initiatives the editorial ones in the local magazines. As regards communication of the products of luxury there is homogeneity of the campaigns. In general for a product or a mark, the campaigns are international and no distinct according to countries’. However, it can happen that the cultural factor is determining in the design of products of luxury. It is noted for example that the woman Chinese or Japanese uses much more beauty products than the Western woman, which can push the houses of luxury (ex : Lancome) to vary the products according to the characteristics of the various countries where the mark is established. All that will thus affect the communication campaigns, which will be able to then vary according to markets’ (Europe, the United States or Asia). The globalization allows a â€Å"interbreeding† of the tastes. Today, the marks do not propose any more one single reference to the markets of the whole world but adapt the products to the request. The strategy of communication of the brand of luxury is before a whole strategy of image. The codes of the communication of the luxury aim at creating diktats of marks. Publicities are often minimalists. The majority show the product alone resting on no support. This representation is supposed to show the perfection of this one. The product and its mark are the message and do not have no need, seems you it of development. In the majority of the cases one recalls the existence of the product and the mark, without necessarily putting them in scene. The communication of luxury composes with three paramount elements: – the quality of the product – The dream and public image – For certain brands, the quality of service The means of communication usually used are: the press, the event-driven one, sponsoring. The magazine: of two great types – the female press magazine, of mode: It, Cosmopolitan, Pace1†¦. Press multi-local, more expensive than the national but more flexible press. – the press European, international: Time, Newsweek?. Allows capitalizing on a total image, The event-driven one/sponsoring When a mark of luxury engages in sponsoring, sportsman for example, his goal is to improve his notoriety and his public image. For that most interesting and the least expensive for a mark is to associate its name a prestigious sporting event, which makes dream. Ex: Cut of America and Louis Vuitton. For the sport, it is of primary importance that the event conveys positive values close to those of the luxury: purity, beauty, exclusiveness. But today, in front of the exacerbated competition that the actors of the luxury and with inaccuracy of the customers deliver themselves who follow a fashion in perpetual change, all these marks seek to be dissociated even more, from/to each other and with becoming even more single. This tendency will also touch the actions of sponsoring. Thus the mark of luxury will not be satisfied to affix its name with an event; it will become a quasi fusion partner. The mark will communicate on the event in which it takes part in its points of sale and will use the public relations in order to it mediates to the maximum. A tendency emerges on behalf of the large houses of luxury: to touch a younger public, in order to widen their customers. For that the means of communication used will be: Internet and the event-driven one. 3. Luxury and general public Initially let us point out the problems which were the discussion thread of this work: which are the risks and consequences for a mark, which multiply occasions to be to have by the greatest number? These problems will bring us, in this part to question us on the luxury and general public. As we endeavored to show it throughout this work, the luxury is not a sector like the others, a long time it was the territory of the â€Å"happy few† (target population of the luxury having the incomes more raised)1. During twenty last years, the luxury was democratized considerably. The products and services of luxury are gradually descended in the street and from now on, by ex: the perfume of luxury brand, certain products (like the accessories) are occasionally consumed by the greatest number. To make flash back the prestige top of range, on more accessible products in order to better sell them?certain houses of luxury did not hesitate to democratize their offer in order to widen their customers, thus hoping to make volume. Thus the greatest number will be able to be scented with Must of Cartier, to get dressed with a tee-shirt DKNY (Karan gave), to put its keys in a small trousseau at the monogram LV (Louis Vuitton)? The prosperity of the companies of luxury rests a paradox: to put in scene products glamour reserved at the elite, for better selling standardized products with the greatest number. â€Å"The widening of the customers for twenty years has been the great success of the sector â€Å". To arrive to this widening, the houses of luxury followed two directions: – Diversification This method consists in for a mark becoming multi segment by granting licenses, sometimes to all goes. Ex: Gucci, leather dealer at the beginning. Since 1995, the mark had multiplied the licences. Lighters were found Gucci as well as bottom-of-the-range products, distributed everywhere. – The variation That consists in creating products or signs of entry of range. Ex: Christian Lacroix, propose a Bazar line with articles with less than 150 euros. Ex: Louis Vuitton, propose toners, very cheap. Some follow even the two tracks. Ex: Giorgio Armani : its top-of-the-range claw gave rise to less expensive sub-brands (ofEmporio Armani with Armani Jean). But the diversification and the variation of the claws of luxury, are not without risk. A true strategic interrogation is posed: how much products a mark can it carry without galvauder? The marks must take care to keep their positioning luxates. The products of luxury, supposed being inaccessible, are qualified products phantasms. If they are standardized, made common, with the range of the greatest number, the products of luxury are likely to lose will have to them. A whole of risks watches for the marks which are engulfed in the methods of diversification and variation: – Loss of the imaginary character of the marks – mental loss in value of the products – vulgarizing of the mark – devalorization of the mark – Dilution of the mark about competition – deterioration of the public image The disappointment of a customer on an article of entry of range quickly made fade on the image of the unit. It seems of thus be likely to multiply the occasions of entry of range to satisfy the passion with general public for the luxury. Finally the largest risk for a mark would be more not to be regarded as marks of luxury. Ex: Gucci. The company had multiplied the licenses so much, that in 1995 one did not regard it any more as one mark of luxury. It will be necessary, to find a strong statute of mark of luxury, to give up the strategy of diversification and to count on the genius of the creator Tom Ford and on the ingeniousness of the chairman Domenico de Sole. But is thus to answer the passion of general public that the marks launched out in these strategies like acquiring a planetary stature. But today with the risks of vulgarizing, the marks prefer to control their production and their distribution. It is besides by using a distribution in selective network that the marks of luxury will be able to touch the public which agrees to them. Conclusion In strong progression, in spite of the international events of these last years, the sector of the luxury continues its change on multiple axes: reinforcement of the groups, widening of the territories of mark, atomization of the customers, need for conquest of rising generation, evolutions of the distribution networks and political news of communication? These transformations require quite informed actors in order to make the best decisions. General public occasionally seeks to get products of luxury. But contrary to the most affluent classes, it is a step of demonstration of the marks. One wants to show with the eyes of all which one has would be this only one accessory of a large mark. The passion of general public for the products of luxury led a phenomenon to develop at speed large V: the counterfeit of marks. There is a request as regards luxury and the offer is done by products of counterfeit. There it is not a question of vulgar copy, quickly uncovered by the authorities. The marks must from now on face a counterfeit with the identical one, which sows the doubt in the spirit of the consumer. The consequence first is that certain marks go down in the street. It was the case for the mark Burberry. The second consequence is that the mark saw its image deteriorating near its target public so much so that it decided to take legal measures to fight against the counterfeit. It was also necessary to centre its products in a very top-of-the-range positioning. As we saw throughout this work, the importa.