A million little Osamas essays

A million little Osama's essays The Image of Arabs in American Popular Culture Hollywood is arguably the most important ISA (ideological state apparatus) in modern America. More than from parents, school or church do children get their ideas and values from the celluloid. This imposes on the movie industrys executives the great responsibility of not only entertaining people, but also to be the guardians of the set of values the Western world holds dear: equality, freedom and maybe most importantly, respect for one another. According to Professor Jack G. Shaheen, Hollywood is not taking this responsibility when it comes to one ethnic group: Arabs. For Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People, Shaheen screened over 900 films that have come from the Mecca of American film since 1898 and he came to a dazzling conclusion: Hollywood depicts Arabs as evil villains. They are either crazed terrorists who want to destroy America or wealthy oil-sheiks with large limousines, who aim at taking over America by simply buying it. Shaheens argument is in concordance with the writings of Edward Said, who in Orientalism showed how Westerners view Arab culture as a whole, neglecting the fact that it is as diverse as European culture, and collectively feel threatened by the Orient and its people: the other. When one looks through the eyes of Shaheen at films like True Lies (1996), The Siege (1998) and Rules of Engagement (2000), his conclusion seems valid. These films indeed seem to have been made for the sole purpose of representing the Arab people negatively. As Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said (about The Siege): Given how vulnerable Arab-Americans are to defamation, was this film really necessary? (Shaheen 430). To make a counterfactual link between Hollywoods vilification of Arabs (often wrongly used as a synonym for Muslims) and the hate crimes committed against Arab-Americans after 9/11 may be far...

In Country Out of this World essays

In Country Out of this World essays What do you think about when CNN network flashes across the screen; one thousand dead in bombing raid in Iran? You are probably thinking, Wow what a horrible thing to happen to those poor soldiers, whats for dinner? It may be easy for the people on the home front to dismiss the incident, but for the soldiers that are present is not so easily overcome. Bobbie Ann Masons In Country is a novel that deals with the Vietnam War on a personal level. It is told through the viewpoint of Sam Hughes, a teenage girl whose father was killed in Vietnam before she was born. Through her narration, readers learn that the Vietnam War affected everyone on some level, whether they were personally involved in it or not. Samantha Hughes's father died in Vietnam. Emmet Hughes, her uncle returned with deep scars from the experience. The novel centers on their close relationship; she tries to find out about her father and to understand the war; he is trying to create a life for himself. The story culminate s in a trip they take to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. M*A*S*H was and still is a very popular television show. However, its popularity is often questioned in the manner of; is it popular because its good, or is it because the veterans of war can relate to the show? I view M*A*S*H simply because it is a great show with a lot of good plot, with plenty of texture. On the other side, Emmet views M*A*S*H in a much different manner than I, he watches it because it is something that he can relate to. He tries to be like Clinger, a cross dressing freak, and dressing up just like he does. Emmet has a questionable sexuality problem, but Sam, his niece, quickly dismisses that by telling all that he is, indeed, straight. Sam, a bright-eyed girl who has a dark past, tries to piece her life together throughout the novel. Sam has discovered that her father, whom she has known only throu ...

Regional Politics (Africa, Middle East or East Asia) Essay - 1

Regional Politics (Africa, Middle East or East Asia) - Essay Example Culture is defined as a people’s way of thinking, behaving and handling different situations both common and common, all of which influences the ability of people within a country to accept different situations created by democracy. Democratic institutions are governmental and nongovernmental units created to operate with complete autonomy to deliver different needs to the people. Institutions in a country include the judiciary, the police services, the armed forces, aid organisations and other units created for the wellbeing of the society. In this paper, I will highlight how the development of democratic and dependent institutions of a country is influenced by cultural maturity. The different cultural environments within a number of countries in the middle east, Africa and other developing economies will be compared with the cultural environments found in first world countries (Hadenius & Teorell, 2005). Cultural maturity and progress differ in different countries and this h as enabled some regions to develop as compared to others for example the socialist Asia and former soviet and the capitalist west. The level of democratization of institution in these countries differs and this has been attributed to the way of life found among the different countries. Culture is a multifaceted domain that cannot be highlighted as a block in trying to determine its impacts of democratization of different institutions in different countries. According to Tabellini (2005), culture’s casual effect results from its ability to affect development in a country endogenously. This measure of impacts on economic development is similar to the impacts it can produce on the democratization of institutions and organs of a country’s governance system (Tabellini, 2005). A number of questions have however arose about these differences and authors have attempted to explain why this is not the case in African and other countries in the Middle East. The United Kingdom and the United States experienced political transformation in the early 18th to 20th century, a fact that is attributed to the development of these countries into republic and democratic countries. With the French revolution leading to the abolition of the monarch system, the French cultural practices changed with the embracement of democratic governance. This affected other institutions in the country that led to significant independence and democratization of these arms of government (Ichino, Bornhorst, Schlag & Winter, 2004). In contrast, the independence and democratization of institutions in china and other Asian and African countries has remained significantly below pace. This can be explained to the prevalent government control, coercion, intimidation and interference in the operations of these institutions. When the French revolution led to the replacement of the monarch system with a more democratic governance system, the continuous revolts in china led to the replacement of o ne monarch with the other. The monarchs were operated from one ideological principle that had no variation from the previous regimes, a process that further weakens the democratization process of the countries (Diermeier & Krehbiel, 2003). The African situation is fluid as compared to other

Quality of Food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Quality of Food - Essay Example Similarly when it comes to food products, customers normally prefer the quality of food and its taste. As the world is growing, people are demanding more and more changes in their living, eating and dressing habits. They are demanding not only for the low cost items but also demand to purchase a good quality product. When it comes to food products, consumers show a more sensitive attitude to buy a reputable product. The reputation of a food product is based on the quality and safety of the product. The reputation of a food product is mainly set up by the highest customer satisfaction and positive attitude towards the product. As found by Dickinson, Hobbs and Bailey that consumers of food products are willing to pay even more than the normal price only if they are assured that the food has passed the normal quality attributes. This paper would further explain the role of quality assurance in achieving the highest customer satisfaction and confidence in the food industry. Quality of a product depends on a number of factors like the selection of unprocessed material, processing techniques, packaging, techniques of storing material, security of sensitive products etc. All these factors may have a great positive or negative affect on the quality of the final product. Quality can be defined as a certain factor which exposes the degree of superiority of a product. The word quality has a greater role to play when it comes to food. Quality of food is dependent upon the phases that the food passes from and if or not the food is desirable to eat after passing through the different stages. ' Quality assurance is the concept which denies the concept that a good final product can be produced by a low-quality or poor raw material. In the food industry, it is believed that effective procedures must be used and carefully practiced to preserve the actual quality of the raw material. In simple words, it implies that useful procedures may help in saving time and reduce the normal losses (for example, Material wastage while transferring it from one process to another), however, no effective processing may improve the quality of raw material and hence of the final product. Quality assurance is necessary for the thriving progress of business and its goodwill. In order to make their distinguishable standard in the food industry, owners are required to maintain a constant standard of their products. Quality control bears importance as its aim is not just to produce a product which achieves the standards of quality which is already available in the market but also to maintain that quality in each piece of its product. Quality assurance sets its standards and then promises the customers to maintain and develop it throughout its business life (2). The point to ponder is that in the food industry the major step, to control the quality of food, can only be taken before putting the raw material in its first process. Once the raw material is added to the process it becomes difficult and almost impossible improve its quality. Quality assurance requires proper quality check from the very beginning of the production process. Without quality inspections at several stages it is impossible to assure the quality even after using the best possible way to reduce the cost price. Quality is

Crime Fiction Analysis Essay Example for Free

Crime Fiction Analysis Essay Paul Darnell is a convicted sex offender who is released from prison and just three months after his release, a young girl is found raped and murdered just around the corner from the ex-con’s childhood home. As the investigators discover that his childhood victim area is in the same town as the girl who was raped and killed, they decide to arrest him for questioning and receive a warrant to search his house. They find a pile of â€Å"self help† DVD cases, which in fact hides criminal porn discs in them; as a result, Darnell is put on trial as a suspect to the case. Darnell tries to convince the jury that he has changed and his new found love, Judy, has changed him to make him into a considerate man who can control himself and his urges. Darnell wins the case and pleads not guilty for both the murder and rape of the past -victim girl. The investigators are left furious as a number of instances have seem to of proven Darnell’s guilt (such as following two girls home from school and his past offences of raping three young teenagers) and not long after Paul pleads guilty, he is found dead in Judy’s apartment, after he tried to rape her seventeen year old daughter. The daughter shot Paul in the head twice in self-defense, after his wrapped a garbage bag over her head to strike again. How does your source reveal information, ideas and an increased understanding of the issues surrounding your area of study? The area of study, being crime, is revealed in different varieties through out this particular episode of â€Å"Law Order: UK. † Crime is a topic that is covered over a number issues such as theft, treason and rape + murder which is covered in this episode. There are many investigations, such as searching through the suspect’s house, going to his old neighborhood home etc. Interviews (with the suspect, witnesses, close acquaintances), identification (through photographs of both the victim and suspect) and court hearings (which occur quite frequently, which involve as many aspects as possible to help the jury decide whether Paul would be guilty or not) are all part of the tactics that the CSI team all go through to find the right person to fit the crime. According to medicine. com, a crime scene investigation (CSI) is defined as â€Å"the use of physical evidence at the scene of the crime and the use of deductive and inductive reasoning to gain knowledge of the events surrounding the crime. What are points of comparison between the source and your core text? * Between â€Å"Law Order: UK† and â€Å"The Big Sleep† both investigating teams have tactics in order to find the suspected criminal/s. These are interviewing numerous people, asking around and getting hands on, in actually getting out into the field and doing work themselves. * Both have similar crimes involved: most common being murder. * Both involve a particular male / female role which is being victimised and criminal. Name of the source: Gangster Squad Type of source: Movie Area of Study: Crime Fiction Basic summary of the source content: â€Å"Gangster Squad† is a movie set in the late forties based on a true story set in Los Angeles. Mickey Cohen has become the most powerful figure in California’s criminal underworld, he is ruthless and controlling on both the legal and illegal sides of Los Angeles; he is known to have an â€Å"iron grip† over L. A. as nobody is willing to stand up to him in fear of the threatening gangster crew he carries around him. Until one day, the chief of Police, Chief Parker, has the idea to create a unit specialising in taking Cohen down to keep the city safe. A team is formed around Sargent O’Mara, who then asks four other police officers and a World War II Veteran to join his â€Å"gangster squad unit†. Another officer (Wooters) is asked to join the force but declines, as he is disillusioned from the war and his time on the police force. Wooters does although keep a close eye on Cohen and in doing so, becomes infatuated with his girlfriend / etiquette coach. As the team bugs Cohen’s house and keep a close eye on his surroundings, Cohen finds out in the process, and in result, the veteran is sacrificed. Things heat up and the plot turns into a full throttle war between the two squads after Cohen shoots into O’Mara’s home where his pregnant wife is at the time. Most of Cohen’s team is killed and later on O’Mara and Cohen go head to head in a boxing match where O’Mara wins and choen is jailed. How does your source reveal information, ideas and an increased understanding of the issues surrounding your area of study? There are more issues covered in this movie to deal with crime. Things such as blackmail, abduction, attempted rape (at the start of the movie), murder, theft, treason, adultery etc. Although this movie was based on a true story, crime fiction is used for entertainment purposes, which this is played up for that purpose. All of these different crimes make up a greater understanding of what is needed in a crime fiction story (detective, hard-boiled detective, red herring, crime, crime scene), which all relate back to the core text â€Å"The Big Sleep†, as there may be a different story line, the structure and purpose of each story is the same.

Paul Laurence Dunbar and Edwin Arlington Robinson :: April Showers Douglass Luke Havergal

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" â€Å"April Showers† â€Å"Douglass† by Paul Laurence Dunbar â€Å"Luke Havergal† by Edwin Arlington Robinson 1.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used very effectively in her story. Situational irony is used to show the reader what is assumed to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to hint to the reader something is happening to the characters in the story that they do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Situational irony is used in "The Story of an Hour" through Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death and the description of the settings around her at this time. Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment". It appeared to everyone that as a result of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard was incredibly sad. She insisted upon being alone and retreated to her room. The sort of reaction she had seems like one typical to someone who had just lost a loved one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dramatic irony is used through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s return. His death had brought her such great sorrow but upon his return she died. Her death then created sorrier bringing in the irony of the beginning of the story where it was said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart was bad and she was tried not to be stressed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. The six major elements of plot are all displayed in â€Å"April Showers.† The first element of plot is the exposition. The exposition of this story is stated in the third paragraph of the story. The paragraph talks of her knowing that it would be difficult to obtain access to a paper with so many great authors writing to it. This sets the mood by indicating she has worked hard on this work and is nearing the end of a difficult experience with writing it and trying to have it published.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The conflict begins when she sends off her work and knows that it will be hard to get it published. The rising action follows as she finds her work is going to be published. The people of the town are amazed and as her for poems she had written as well as inquiring how she came about her great skills of writing.

Colgate Max Fresh: Global Brand Roll-Out Essay

Executive Summary The United States, Mexican and Chinese markets all took very different approaches to the release of Colgate-Palmolive’s (CP) newest oral care product in 2004-2005. The new toothpaste is called Colgate Max Fresh (CMF). It is a cavity preventing gel with breath-freshening strips suspended in it that dissolve while consumers brush their teeth. The technology behind the breath strips is patented, and Colgate was hoping the product would be a big success by providing unique freshness. In the United States, research was done and new bottling was designed to optimize the appearance of the new toothpaste. The advertising was also focused on the freshness that result from the breath strips and the product was very successful. CP then decided to release the product worldwide. In Mexico the ad campaign was changed as well as a few other minor changes, but not much was spent on altering the marketing mix for CMF. Colgate Max Fresh proved popular in Mexico and profits were seen in the firs t two years. In China, millions were spent on reconfiguring the marketing mix, and sales were not high enough to make up for the expenses in either of the first two years. In the first year alone, CMF saw a net loss of over $10 million. I have evaluated three options for reducing costs and increasing sales and have determined that the Chinese marketers decided to change the marketing mix too quickly. Instead of looking into what aspects of the U.S. marketing mix would and would not work in China, they made assumptions. The advertising campaign that they came up with was expensive and ineffective. Chinese consumer preferences should have been highlighted in the promotional campaign, and more elements from the original U.S. marketing mix that were costly to â€Å"improve† might not have needed to be changed at all. Current Situation Colgate-Palmolive (CP) is a worldwide company that specializes in oral, personal, and home care, as well as pet nutrition. Of particular interest in this case is oral care. Colgate is an oral care name that is known around the world. Colgate-Palmolive has the majority value share in the  United States, Mexico, and China. In each country, Procter and Gamble’s (P&G) Crest toothpastes are ranking second in market value share. In Mexico, the difference between PC and P&G is huge – PC has market share above 80%. However, in the U.S. and China the market shares are very close: In 2004, Colgate had 34.8% and Crest had 31.6% value shares in the U.S.; in China Colgate had 23.6%, Colgate through partnerships had an additional 8.5%, and Crest had 21.2% shares. CP management was pressured to compete hard against Crest’s new product called Crest Whitening Expressions (CWE). In August 2004 CP launched a new toothpaste product called Colgate Max Fresh (CMF) in the United States. CMF was advertised as premium toothpaste that would provide a â€Å"whole new dimension of freshness.† The product was so successful that CP decided to launch it worldwide. Colgate-Palmolive’s organizational structure is split up by geographic lines, each region having its own management. However, there is another split by category – there is one group responsible for oral care product strategy, resource allocation, and best-practices transfer between regions. This case focuses on the launches in the U.S., China and Mexico. In all three countries flavors varied and different strategies were used in packaging and promotion of Colgate Max Fresh, as described in the table below. Rock-star Jay Chow and â€Å"extreme living.†| â€Å"Snowsurfer† extreme living; provides â€Å"a joy ride for your mouth.†| Additional costs beyond initial product development and standard market testing| Base costs – first country to launch the product.| New flavors cost $200,000 to research and develop. New graphics, aesthetics, advertising campaign cost $1.5 million. New packaging (that failed) cost $1.5 million, and would have increased variable cost by 20%.New green color developed for $7,000.| New advertising campaign cost $500,000 total.Not many other expensive changes were mentioned. Package  size is different from the U.S., but with similar packaging types (and probably similar to other Colgate toothpaste packages).| In Mexico the promotional campaign was completely changed from the U.S. campaign and a third product flavor was introduced. The original two flavors were not changed, reducing costs compared to China. Costs in Mexico were kept low, and in the first two years Colgate saw a net profit in the Mexican market with Colgate Max Fresh. In China, however, many aspects of the marketing mix were changed, increasing costs tremendously. The product was changed by eliminating one of the two original flavors, changing the color of the other, and adding two new flavors. CP China’s management also tried a variety of packaging styles before choosing to use one that would increase the variable cost by 20% per unit. It turned out, however, that the design they chose was not up to CP’s global standards and after spending $1.5 million the idea was thrown out. The advertising campaign was changed to a riskier campaign – that could have been cancelled at any time at CP’s expense – that cost $1.5 million. Even the product name was changed in China. After all of these changes and additional costs, Colgate Max Fresh (Icy Fresh) was not profitable in its first two years. Instead, huge net losses were seen from this product. Problem Identification While CP Mexico made some minor changes to adapt Colgate Max Fresh to their market, CP China redesigned almost every aspect of the product besides the one feature that made it unique – the breath strips. These changes were costly and the product failed to make profits in its first two years in China. Instead, the expenses heavily outweighed the revenues. Instead of marketing like one company, CP China behaved as if it had purchased the rights to use the patented design of CMF and then created a marketing plan from scratch. Alternative Solutions Solution A: Test U.S. marketing plans. Start by testing the unaltered U.S. marketing plans. From the results of that testing, decide what areas need to be altered for the Chinese market. Instead of choosing to change a large variety of aspects of the marketing mix for the Chinese market (as described above), the CP Chinese marketing team could have selectively altered aspects that would have big impacts on sales. Solution B: Cut back on marketing research. Eliminate designing a brand new bottle to put the toothpaste in. Either use a slightly altered version of the U.S. packaging developed for CMF, or use a packaging type that has proven successful in China for previous Colgate toothpastes. Also scale back on color design. Instead of developing ten shades of green, develop only three. In every step of redesigning the marketing plan, try to cut costs by being reasonable. Solution C: Emphasize therapeutic attributes. Emphasize the therapeutic benefits of the Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste. CMF is designed to provide extreme freshness, and instead of focusing on the extremeness, focus on the freshness first and cavity-protection and other therapeutic advantages. These are the two most important features for toothpaste to the Chinese market. Although the concept statement mentions the cavity protection, it is overshadowed in the advertising by the â€Å"cooling crystals.† Breath strips have already proved unsuccessful in China, so the advertising should not focus on them. Instead, the focus should be on the features and aspects that make sense to consumers – freshness and cavity prevention. Evaluation of Alternatives Solution A: Test U.S. marketing plans. By evaluating the effectiveness of the already-produced marketing plan for Colgate Max Fresh, the marketing team would get insight into what works and what doesn’t – what enhances the product in consumers’ eyes and what needs to be re-done for the Chinese market. Money would be saved on marketing areas that can be directly transferred from the U.S. to China. If the ad campaign proved successful in test groups, up to $1.5 million could be saved. The down side to this plan is that only a finite amount can be saved, and this does very little to address sales (revenues). Solution B: Cut back on marketing research. Just by eliminating the packaging scheme, $1.5 million would be saved. A few  thousand may be saved by reducing the re-coloring efforts for the mint flavored toothpaste. Like solution A, this is a plan that would reduce costs, but that does not address revenues. It is unlikely that these reductions in cost would lead to a profitable first year in the Chinese market. Solution C: Emphasize therapeutic attributes. Although freshness is a growing market in China, breath strips never caught on and therapeutic toothpastes are big sellers. By emphasizing preferred features to the Chinese market, sales may be higher and the product may be successful. Of course, the marketing scheme would need to be tested first. In Exhibit 10A, Colgate Max Fresh ranked lower in the â€Å"Importance of Main Message† category. The main message should be important, so that people will remember it and in turn will remember to buy the new Colgate toothpaste. This solution does not address reducing costs, but instead addresses changing the message and increasing sales. Recommendation I recommend solution C, to change the advertisement message. The first two options would both decrease initial costs but would not decrease costs enough to make up for the low sales. According to Exhibit 13 in the case, in its first year Colgate Max Fresh had net sales of about $20 million and net expenses of about $30 million, leading to a $10 million loss. In the second year sales increased by about $3.5 million, expenses were reduced, and the net loss was only about $1.5 million. Any loss is bad, but at least there was a significant reduction in cost and the product was increasing in popularity. If the product had been more popular the first year, that would have made a big difference. I also recommend solution A, but I think C is more important. Reducing costs by eliminating unnecessary changes to the marketing plan already developed in conjunction with a promotion plan that emphasizes the product features that are most highly sought-after would be ideal for CP China. By reducing expenses and increasing sales, CMF may have been profitable in its second (if not first) year. Implementation An attitude change would need to be addressed first. It seems like the  Chinese Colgate-Palmolive oral care management team does not trust that anything the United States team creates will work in China. They created new, expensive schemes for various aspects of the marketing mix without first checking to see if it was necessary or even advisable. Corporate CP needs to get their Chinese team to understand that as part of a global brand, many features can be directly transferred from one country to another – especially successful ones. Next, the Chinese team must evaluate numerous aspects of the marketing mix for Colgate Max Fresh. A few things were evaluated properly, like the name of the product and the way the breath strips are described. CP China did their research to find out if the name â€Å"Colgate Max Fresh† with â€Å"breath strips† would mean anything to the Chinese market. Because it did not translate well, they changed the name. This is the approach the team should take to each aspect of the marketing mix. For instance, when evaluating the advertisements, they should first determine the effectiveness of the United States commercials. If the results are not favorable, they should change the ads to focus on that aspects that the Chinese consumers seek when choosing toothpastes – freshness and cavity prevention. After evaluating each aspect, the unsuccessful ones should be remade by the Chinese marketing team. Once the newly developed plans have been evaluated, they should be compared to the original plans. After that, the product should be ready for the market.

A Definition of the Word Trust Essay

When you think of a very special quality everyone should have, trust is the first thing that comes to my mind. Being able to trust someone is very important. We have to trust people in our lives every single day. Trust helps us to have relationships and friendships. Trust is defined as believing in someone in the dictionary. Although this seems simple, it is not that easy to understand and comprehend. Trust has a deep meaning as we continue to grow and change in life. We go through many things that make us change as we live, grow, and experience different challenges. Trust is believing in someone with your whole heart and believing that he or she will take care of it or appreciate it. There are so many types of trust. Three type of trust are: trusting in a family member, trusting in someone special, and trusting in friends. With our family members, we have deep trust. They have been through everything with us and most of deep dark secrets. They have been there for us during the good times and the bad. They watched us go through elementary, middle and high school. Your family has been there to watch you mature and become the person you are today. We have deep trust with them because they took care of us when we were sick or needed someone to cry on. Since we tell them everything, we are the most attached to them. They know when we are acting strange or weird and can tell when we are sad or ecstatic. They share all kinds of memories with us and understand what and where we have been. We let family know almost everything about us. We go back to them when we have nowhere else to go. We trust them with our lives because we know no matter what, that they will always love and care for us. Another kind of trust is trust in someone special or someone that we think is our true love. See more:Â  First Poem for You Essay We tell them everything about us because we believe that they really care. We tell him or her things that we keep to ourselves because we believe that he or she has committed to us. It takes a lot of time to have this kind of trust in a relationship. It takes a lot of time to confide our secrets and personal issues in someone else. When you have such a deep trust with him or her, there should be no secrets. There are no secrets when you truly love each other. This kind of trust is just part of the commitment to each other. In this commitment, you trust each other to be faithful, respectful and to always be there for each other. Another type of trust is the trust between friends. We let our friends know about some of our secrets. We keep the deep dark ones away from them. We also try to hide our past and do not trust them right away because we have had friends in the past betray and hurt us numerous times. We do not trust them right away because we do not know about their life or their past. We do not know where they come from or what they believe makes a good friend. So we as humans hide our feelings and do not trust them. It is only when we spend a lot of time and slowly open up to each other that we become closer and can eventually trust them. Trust cannot be given. It has to be earned. It is not as simple as believing. Trust is earned. When you earn trust, you realize that you can tell him or her anything and they will still be there for you. Trust is not easy to earn though. You have to really believe in the other person and know that they will not let you down. Therefore, trust is very important to humans everywhere. Trust is a huge factor of unity and without it people cannot live in unity. Only you can fully understand trust in your own way. Trust is having a special place in their heart and you having special place for them. Finally, trust is the base for all relationships and friendships. Without trust, we cannot find the true meaning of life. Trust is a must for everything in life.

How to Collaboratively Write a Business Report with Colleagues

How to Collaboratively Write a Business Report with Colleagues Do you collaboratively write reports with colleagues? Do you find it hard to keep a sense of coherence across the report and unity in the work team? Group writing is a logical and wise report writing practice because it captures the expertise of the right people on a project team. However, writing by group can often result in a report that feels patched together with no coherent tone. It can often require revision after revision as multiple writers interject their comments. Worse, resentments can simmer when the writers see the writing they labored over changed and egos clash. Let's make this process easier and ensure a better outcome. There is an easy to implement approach for collaborative report writing that will ensure expertise and content is captured. And, the report will present a unified tone to the reader. This technique requires three steps. Step #1: Group works together to 1) analyze the purpose and audience of the report and 2) develop the content that audience needs. Create a concept map of the report organization and content. Also, decide on the best tool to convey the report. (A report is typically written in MS Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.) By far, the best technique to capture this is a content map. A content map is simply a visual representation of the substance of a report, with the inter-related components delineated. By creating a visual map, each contributor understands the report whole and can easily draft his or her section because the thinking and analysis work is done. Most importantly, it allows the group to agree on the substance of the report at the start of the report writing process. This is critical for two reasons: If you can't map the structure of a report, it will never be more clear when the structure is longer and written out. The group must complete the planning before diving into the writing. The editing process is often a bit contentious in collaborative writing. Every writer clings to words they labored over. Egos come into play. If changes are requested later on in the editing portion of writing the business report, you will be able to separate changes of substance from changes in language by reviewing the concept map. It will allow you to fine tune the actual edits needed. It is much easier to verify the substance of the report when it is front and center in a concept map. Here is an example of a concept map for a report summarizing the outcomes of a training course: Step #2 Each person writes his or her appropriate section of the report. In this example, if applied here at Instructional Solutions, I would ask our client care manager to write the section on course data since she would know it best. I would ask the instructor most involved in the course to write the section on course evaluations and participant writing since she worked directly with the training group. I would write the course summary section since I typically manage training projects and work directly with our client project manager. This writing strategy ensures that the most qualified person is writing their area of expertise. Additionally, it will be easy for the writers to draft their respective sections because they have a plan and visual map to tether them to that plan. They simply need to unfold the map, and write it out in the right tool (MS Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, as determined by the group discussion.) Step #3 One person combines the sections following the content map structure, and edits the report. This ensures the report has unified style and tone. I see so many "Frankenstein reports" that feel like it was patched together, instead of developed strategically. One person must own the report and have final approval on language and substance. That said, the final editor/writer has two responsibilities: He or she has final say on the language choices.I have seen so many conflicts when too many people are allowed to edit a report. Truly, I've seen resentment between co-workers erupt over a simple word choice. When this happens, the conflict usually isn't about the word choice. It's really about control. Don't open this Pandora's box. Assign editorial control to one person. Choose a strong writer. However, the final writer/editor must discuss any changes in substance with the section writer. At this point, if the group planned the report appropriately in Step #1, substance should not change during an edit. Therefore, any substance changes here are a danger sign that content was not well planned from the start or the editor is making strategic changes. The key to successful collaborative report writing is planning content as a group and capturing it in a concept map, letting the right staff write appropriate sections, and giving one person the task of editing the report. A group can write a very strong report, and stay happy! Learn how to master all aspects of report writing in our Report Writing Course.

Punctuation Game

Punctuation Game Punctuation Game Punctuation Game By Sharon So you think you know your punctuation? Now you can put it to the test. Eats, Shoots and Leaves, reviewed by Maeve in July, has a punctuation game online. There are to questions on the placement of the apostrophe and comma, and at the end of the game you get a score showing how much of a stickler you are for correct punctuation use. Review our tips on punctuation, then take the quiz. Good luck! Come back and share your score in the comments. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and NumeralsWhat's a Male Mistress?Ulterior and Alterior

The Franco-American Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Franco-American Trade - Essay Example French exports stood at 1,427 billion francs ($285.4 billion) in 1995, 22% of GDP while the imports amounted to 1,322 billion francs ($264.4 billion). The figured showed a substantial increase in the surplus in durable goods (over 58 billion francs, $11.6 billion), a 20 billion-franc surplus ($4 billion) in farm products, a surplus of 31 billion francs ($6.2 billion) in agri-foodstuffs, a declining energy bill and a rise of 19% in electricity exports.(Stern 47) Being a member of the European Union results in a lot of internal trading between the EU countries, hence France's European Union partners absorb 64% of its trade. According to the survey carried out in the 1990s, the country had a trade surplus of 27 billion francs ($5.4 billion) with the EU in 1995. The main trading partners of France are Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain, along with the United States. As pointed out above France and United Kingdom are major trading partners. France is UK's third largest market and has been importing from Britain for the last twenty odd years. France has the distinction of being UK's third largest supplier providing 7.2% of UK imports only behind Germany (14.6%) and the USA (9.5%), while ahead of the Netherlands (7.1%) and China (6.8%). The United Kingdom is Frances's fourth export market making 8.3% total exports, after Germany (14.7%), Spain (9.9%) and Italy (9.5%). The United Kingdom is France's seventh supplier, as it pr... As Chinese products have flooded the global markets, the scenario has been similar for France who has been importing from China on an increasing rate. (Stern 51) On the other hand, United Kingdom has lost the France market and this is mostly explained by the downward trend in the oil exports by the UK to France. Other main category products whose export level has also suffered have been cars, electronic and electrical equipment, chemicals, clothing and meat. However, this has been slightly off set by increasing UK exports in sectors such as machinery (gas turbines), pharmaceuticals, aerospace, iron and other heavy metals, precious stones and beverages. The main categories or rather sectors which have been of prime trading importance between UK and France apart from the energy sector are: machinery, electrical equipment, transport, chemicals, food and consumer goods. According to the latest figures, the imports by France from UK include mostly machinery while France mostly exports transport equipment to the UK. (Gilbert 2004) Machinery constitutes the largest share in the bilateral trade by having nearly 80% representation while it is followed by the energy sector in UK exports at 11.7% and oil in UK imports at 5.9%. Energy's share in UK exports was 11.7% (10.6% being oil) and 5.9% in UK imports. Another important trading partner of France is the United States of America (USA). The foreign trade allows them to deepen the understanding of good faith that that the two countries have established. The foundation of their global trade is based on a solid arrangement. According to the latest figures published in the State publications, the average trading between the two nations is of 1 billion dollars -commercial activities and

Islamic Banking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Islamic Banking - Essay Example Islamic Banking is a type of banking that is constantly based on the Islamic or Shariah law and its implementation is through the growth of Islamic economics. This type of banking system prohibits the fixed payment interest on loaned money and it also shuns the investment in the business that cater goods and services that are considered unlawful in Islam. Today more than 200 Islamic financial institutions exist around the world (Iqbal and Llewellyn, 2002). Ahmad El Najjar pioneered the first Islamic bank that came into existence in Egypt, in 1963. Thus, when 1976 ended, there were nine banks in the country that were established on the same concept; however, previously in 1974 the Organization of Islamic Countries had established a bank called Islamic Development Bank that purely ran on the principles of Islam. Although the bank was not a commercial one, it did provide funds for the businesses in order to encourage economic growth. After recognizing the Islamic banking system, several banks came into existence, such as Dubai Islamic Bank, Faisal Islamic Bank of Sudan, and the Bahrain Islamic Bank (Shariah-Fortune, 2012). Despite the growing trend in the Islamic banking system, unfortunately the inception of Islamic Banking in Pakistan did not survive. ... The banks previously were more focused on interest free banking; however in 1985, the Organization of Islamic Conference affirmed takaful, or Islamic insurance, as Shariah compliant. Thus, this gave the Islamic banking sector a wider tangent that now covered capital markets, capital formation, and varied financial instruments and intermediaries (Shariah-Fortune, 2012). The development and growth of Islamic Banking has always been experimental. The pioneers of the Islamic Banking have faltered, failed, and learnt through mistakes over time. However, the system has been prolific to the economies. Several empirical studies entail that the performance and efficiency of Islamic banking are significantly good. One of the studies conducted by Iqbal in 2001 drew a sample from countries that had Islamic and conventional banking; he took 12 Islamic banks and 12 conventional banks from 10 countries in order to find out the productivity of the banks using a comparative framework. His study concl uded that the Islamic banking displayed higher rates of growth in key variables in comparison to the conventional banking system. It also highlighted that the Islamic banks apparently performed well and generally they yielded good profits and well capitalized; another factor that surfaced was that Islamic banks used resources more effectively, which were available to them. Moreover, when the conventional banks were studied alongside Islamic banks as a group, it turned out that they outperformed the conventional system in all areas. However, there were certain variations among the Islamic banks that surfaced during the studies in terms of growth and performance (Iqbal, 2011). Nevertheless, Samad in 1999 compared