News Analysis

This article by Caren Bohan is entitled â€Å"Clinton, Obama prepare for battle in Wisconsin.† The newsworthiness of the piece has been determined by the fact that it immediately concerns the American people. It also involves proximate issues that have to do with the up-coming presidential elections and is concerned with the selection of the two persons who will vie for the presidency later in this year. The conflict level of the situation is high. Hilary Clinton, who had been in the lead for the democratic candidacy, has now lost that lead as Obama has recently won in eight states in a row (Bohan 2008). The story, found on a Canadian website (Canada.com) is placed in the world news section as a high-priority story. This has been determined by the fact that as a close neighbor who shares a border, the political news that highly concerns United States citizens is also of great concern to the readers of this news site. The headline is clear and to the point, depicting precisely the next step in the battle between the two candidates. The image of Barack Obama is found within the article, and is well-placed at the top. Another image, one of Hilary Clinton, is also readily accessible by clicking on links associated with â€Å"more pictures† (Bohan, 2008). The candidates’ business in Wisconsin is given in detail, but only Hilary Clinton is strictly quoted in the article, as it was indicated that Obama tried to avoid the press. However, quotations are given concerning Obama’s business as identified by his spokesman Bill Burton. The overall impact of the story is that Obama’s popularity in the United States is strengthening, leaving Hilary Clinton feeling threatened. The reporters refer to her strongly appealing for the help of some of her supporters, and imply that her statement â€Å"I’m feeling good today† represents a concealment of her anxiety. Because this democratic race represents a major political event, it can be noticed that care is taken to provide in-depth analysis of the candidates’ positions and what that might mean for their prospects. The story also had an eye to the future, with predictions made (or suggested) about up-coming and related political events. This demonstrates the impact that the outcome of this important political event is likely to have on the future of America. Reference Bohan, Caren. â€Å"Clinton, Obama prepare for battle in Wisconsin.† Canada.com: where   Ã‚   perspectives connect. Canwest Publishing.

Horror Story Example Essay

The girl stumbled and rolled down the grassy hill, pulling her fiance with her. For a few minutes they fell, rolling on top of each other before landing in a heap on the soft sand below. The woman looked at the man below her, affection filling her eyes as she smiled subconsciously. â€Å"What are you smiling at? † He inquired flipping her over so he was on top of her. â€Å"Just wondering if why on earth I’m marrying someone as ugly as you; do you think it’s too late to pull out? † The girl answered giggling. â€Å"Oh really!† Her fiance answered standing up, grabbing the girl’s waist and spinning her around. â€Å"And yes, it is too late to pull out. The wedding is in two days whether you like it or not. † He added defiantly, placing the dizzy woman on the ground. She hiccupped, trying to gain her balance. Her fiance let out a thunderous laugh, she glared at him. â€Å"Don’t laugh at me! It’s your fault! † She groaned, folding her arms across her chest. â€Å"The alcohol’s got to your head then? Oh well, more fun for me! † He said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. She rolled her eyes and ran in the direction of the sea. â€Å"Race you to the water! † She called over her shoulder childishly. She heard her fiance chuckle from behind her as she reached the water. She started walking further out to sea; her heart skipped a beat as her fiance tackled her to the ground. She yelped, a sudden spark of pain running through her foot. â€Å"Ow! Adam, you’ve made me cut my foot! Thanks! † The woman complained, playfully slapping Adam’s chest. He looked at her, a mischievous glint in his eye. â€Å"Oh, I’m sorry Nicky. Should I kiss it better?† Her fiance asked, grabbing her leg with tender hands. â€Å"No you should not! Help me up and let’s swim! † Nicky said excitedly. Adam lifted her out of the shallow water and carried her the rest of the way out, before very carefully dropping her back into the water. Together they swam around in the salty, inky black sea. Nicky felt a strong force knock her left foot from below her. â€Å"Adam, did you just knock my foot? † She asked him, worried something was under her. â€Å"Nope wasn’t me! I wouldn’t worry about it my love. Nothing out here can hurt you.† He swam over to her, grabbing her hand in his. All thoughts and worries disappeared from thought as they kissed passionately in the moonlight. â€Å"I love you Nicky foster. † Her fiance stated truthfully, gazing into her eyes. â€Å"I lo-â€Å"Suddenly they were pulled under water. Nicky let go of Adams hand and swam to the surface, looking around her frantically for her fiance. She quickly regained her breath before going back under water but he couldn’t see a thing in the murky, dark depths of the sea. Nicky resurfaced. Panic clouding her mind. Unexpectedly a hand rose out of the water, she let out a gasp of shock as she pulled at the hand and screamed, pure horror now coursing through her veins. The object in her hands belonged on her Adam’s arm. The bone was exposed, muscle and flesh was ragged and torn, fresh warm blood was dripping onto Nicky’s hand. Salty tears ran down her face, mixing with the gentle current. She threw the hand into the sea and tried to swim for shore, but her left leg was searing with pain. A wave of nausea passed over her as Nicky, teary eyed and heartbroken felt down her leg. To her utter terror, her leg had been ripped to shreds, blood pulsing from the stub. She panicked, thrashing around in the cold water. Swiftly a great force pulled her under. She could feel her bones being crunched, her organs being squished. The sea around her turned red with her blood. She screamed, only small bubbles of precious oxygen escaping her bloodless lips. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine Adam, the sweet loving man she was going to marry. Instead all she could think of was images of his ripped, lifeless body. These images haunted her to her death.

Motivation Letter

N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2200, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA 4 October, 2010 Dear Sir/Madam, Sub: Motivation letter for applying ISTAT Scholarship. My diligence towards academics helped me to secure higher grades in my high school. I was very much interested to take up a career in aeronautical engineering and wanted to explore the entire world through my aeronautical knowledge. To put forward by views in my way In June 2006 I have started my Bachelors in Aeronautical engineering, Anna University, Chennai.To upgrade my knowledge in this field I have taken up MSc Aerospace in TUDelft. Currently I am in the first year of study. In my curriculum I have done aircraft design project titled as â€Å"Designing of 75-100 seater regional jetliner airplane†. This gave me more basic knowledge to design an aircraft and to increase its performance. I have completed designing courses and gained knowledge in many CAD & FEM tools such as AUTO CAD ,PRO-E,CATIA and ANSYS.To apply my knowledge in design field I have taken up CSWA exam and i have secured 70% in it . Now i am a certified solid works associate(CSWA). I have also done paper presentation in â€Å"Design of Handheld Vaccum Cleaner†,which I have been shortlisted as a finalist in the national event at SHAASTRA ,IIT MADRAS. I have also done another project in â€Å"Designing of Multiple disc brake † at a state level event conducted by Barry Wehmiller International Resources.Added to this, I have done my undergraduate project in â€Å"Confinement of snag and implementation of failsafe Design for IGV Actuator of TM-3332B2 Engine† at HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. Another exciting and learning phase had been my experience in representing my college in AERO INDIA 2009, Bangalore Air show. There I had an great exposure to the world aviation market and this instilled me how to work for the constructive future. Currently I am involved in designing a Very light Aircraft (VLA) under the SS VOBB, in the Aerospace Engineering Department, TU Delft.Since I am from a developing country (India), my parents belong to lower socio economic status and will find it difficult to pay my tuition fees which is enormous when converted to Indian rupees. I have obtained bank loan for which interest rates are very high and my parents will be able to pay back only part of the amount that itself will take a long time. To minimize their burden and to continue my studies , I have applied for ISTAT Scholarship which will help me to fulfil my dreams in the fields of aviation. Yours Sincerely Vivekanandhan Sindhamani Motivation Letter Dear Madam/Sir The Programme Director of the M. A. (Terrorism, Safety & Security), C. S. U. Australia. My name is SURENDER SINGH. With this letter I hereby wish to state my interest for a place in Master of Arts in Terrorism, Safety & Security. I am convinced that the Master’s in Terrorism study corresponds with my future plans of building a career as counter-terrorism analyst. It is my dream & ambition to be admitted and pursue my post-graduate study in the field of counter-terrorism & international security in order to develop a career that leads to working across the world. I am graduated from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (INDIA) and received my degree in Bachelor of Arts with Mathematics & Economics as Major. 2nd time I was graduated in June 1994 from the University of Kurukshetra (INDIA) Faculty of Law and acquired my Bachelor of Laws (Professional) degree. During my schooling & tertiary education my motherland i. e. Punjab (India) was burning in the fire of terrorism. During my law study Punjab was facing post Sikh-terrorism period. I felt, faced and saw the dreaded psychological, economic, social, political impacts of terrorism on people, society, state & on nation. In December 1994 I started to work in the High Court of Punjab, Republic of India as a criminal lawyer. Being criminal lawyer I deal a wide variety of criminal cases of Murder, Narcotics, Corruption, Drugs, Money Laundering, Frauds under Indian Penal Code AND cases under TADA (Terrorist And Disruptive Act) both on prosecution & defence sides. This position provided me to identify causes, reasons behind crimes and give a chance to pip into the dark world of organized crimes & terrorism. The most valuable experience of understanding crimes for me has been started when I was selected in the year 2000 as Judge for very prestigious Punjab State Judicial Service. In my court many hardcore criminals, smugglers & terrorists appeared and stand up before me for criminal proceedings & trials. As Judge I able to understand & analyzed their behaviors, crime minds i. e. Mens rea, modus oparndi and causes behind their criminals acts, whether those are political, social, economic, deliberate or cross-boarder etc. I would finally like to add some professional qualities which I have developed in me as a permanent taste of competitiveness. Being Judicial Officer I joined number of Justice Department courses on law, crimes, computer forensic & e-governance etc. Keeping in mind the changing scenario of world, I also devoted my time for study of cyber crimes and passed the world class certifications MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) & Unix+. I also upgrade my knowledge about Organized crimes, money laundering & financing of terrorism. I am presently also member of ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners). Of an exceptional motivation, I strongly imply myself in my academic & professional activities to carry out my objectives. My communication skills (oral & written) are unmatchable. I am excellent in English language as the medium of instruction & examination of my degrees (both B. A. and LL. B. ) is English. Since 1994 I am working in English only, as the proceedings of courts under Punjab High Courts are English. Besides this I also perfect in Hindi, Urdu & Punjabi languages. Years ago I choose to build my future in India and do all I can to make a difference in my society. Now, I want to put my best efforts in the Global war against terrorism and want to save & secure my Australian brothers & sisters. The ambition which I have just exposed to you would not be realized without a solid theoretical background and a strong real world experience specialized in the field of counter-terrorism. A completion of this Master’s from C. S. U. will be an excellent springboard for my future career and will provide me the knowledge, confidence and contacts to realize my dreams. Thank you very much for considering my request. I look forward to your positive response. Sincerely yours, SURENDER SINGH. Motivation Letter Motivation letter Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to express my interest in applying for †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. starting in September †¦.. I believe my educational background would enable me to make a strong contribution at the University. I mention that I have graduate in year†¦.. from the †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ and got a bachelor degree in †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. My academic performance was always on top of class. I have been an active member of the student Union where I have been involved in the development of several engineering and projects.Moreover I can say that I would like to continue my studies in order to gain knowledge and experiences by academic research and I believe a Master Degree Programme in†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ would offer me the possibility of receiving the complete picture of all aspects of this field. The reason for choosing this specific Master Programme comes from the fact that in the near future I would like to get to know more things regarding the fundamental disciplines of †¦.. and acquire a broad overview of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..I already got some ideas in my head, but unfortunately until now I did not have the right knowledge and the right tools for putting them in practice and that is why I know that this Master Programme would be an excellent starting point for me. Also if I will get selected for this program I will have the opportunity to learn from the best and the fact that I will study in an international environment will give me the privilege to create new relationships with people from different cultures.I am also aware of the kind of dedication and perseverance I will need to have for achieving the best results in the field and I believe my background will qualify me for such a Master Programme. Finally I can say that I look forward to join this Master Degree Programme †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. in order to prove my abilities and gain new skills and I will be patiently waiting for a positive reply. Motivation Letter N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2200, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA 4 October, 2010 Dear Sir/Madam, Sub: Motivation letter for applying ISTAT Scholarship. My diligence towards academics helped me to secure higher grades in my high school. I was very much interested to take up a career in aeronautical engineering and wanted to explore the entire world through my aeronautical knowledge. To put forward by views in my way In June 2006 I have started my Bachelors in Aeronautical engineering, Anna University, Chennai.To upgrade my knowledge in this field I have taken up MSc Aerospace in TUDelft. Currently I am in the first year of study. In my curriculum I have done aircraft design project titled as â€Å"Designing of 75-100 seater regional jetliner airplane†. This gave me more basic knowledge to design an aircraft and to increase its performance. I have completed designing courses and gained knowledge in many CAD & FEM tools such as AUTO CAD ,PRO-E,CATIA and ANSYS.To apply my knowledge in design field I have taken up CSWA exam and i have secured 70% in it . Now i am a certified solid works associate(CSWA). I have also done paper presentation in â€Å"Design of Handheld Vaccum Cleaner†,which I have been shortlisted as a finalist in the national event at SHAASTRA ,IIT MADRAS. I have also done another project in â€Å"Designing of Multiple disc brake † at a state level event conducted by Barry Wehmiller International Resources.Added to this, I have done my undergraduate project in â€Å"Confinement of snag and implementation of failsafe Design for IGV Actuator of TM-3332B2 Engine† at HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. Another exciting and learning phase had been my experience in representing my college in AERO INDIA 2009, Bangalore Air show. There I had an great exposure to the world aviation market and this instilled me how to work for the constructive future. Currently I am involved in designing a Very light Aircraft (VLA) under the SS VOBB, in the Aerospace Engineering Department, TU Delft.Since I am from a developing country (India), my parents belong to lower socio economic status and will find it difficult to pay my tuition fees which is enormous when converted to Indian rupees. I have obtained bank loan for which interest rates are very high and my parents will be able to pay back only part of the amount that itself will take a long time. To minimize their burden and to continue my studies , I have applied for ISTAT Scholarship which will help me to fulfil my dreams in the fields of aviation. Yours Sincerely Vivekanandhan Sindhamani Motivation Letter Dear, Global Youth Ambassador ProgramWith this letter, I would like to express my interest in joining Global Youth Ambassador Program. As student who joining an organization, I am typical person who interest to challenge my self to discover new experience with a different world from my comfort zone life. Beside looking new experience, I like make a friends, I can build a good climates with other people . People know me as friendly person, but become a friendly person there is negative impact that gain from my self. Sometimes I wonder that people is not comfort stay beside me because I am a person who interest in talking, but being a fussy person is the way making friends for me. In an organization life, I strive for having ability to communicate with others and also well time organize is the important one that I must apply in my organization life.Discover a new challenge in life is my typical, when my friends telling me that AISEC held a program which is travel across the world to go through a cultural learning experience while working for project and NGO’s that purpose to build positive impact in society, I feel so challenged to join this program. As I ever experienced in one of President University Charity Club’s program that is teaching especially for English lesson to children in rural area, I want to involved more my social project by joining this Global Youth Ambassador Program. I will dedicate my hard work to succeed this this program by participating in every activities held by this program. I believe I can meet the requirement, and I hope for positive reply. you can contact me via telephone +6285324875757 or email : [email  protected].comSincerely,Hani Widiya Oktaviani Motivation Letter Knowing more about how objects around us function has always enthralled me. My childhood dream job was to become a pilot; but as I matured, I realized that my dream is to see an airplane, that I have designed, fly. I have found nothing to be more amazing than to make plans, combine parts and at the end watch, what I have built, work. I am always ready to learn new things, especially those that represent a challenge for me. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering in the branch of industrial engineering from Vel Tech Dr. RR & Dr. SR Technical University.I did my mini project on engine the theme â€Å"To decrease the heat losses in engine using ceramic coating to increase the thermal efficiency and fuel efficiency of the engine†. I am doing my main project in production industry â€Å"Shardlow India limited† which is crankshaft manufacturing industry using hot forging. I did my project in increasing the efficiency of furnace. The theme was â€Å"To increase the efficiency of oil-fired furnace by recovering the waste heat and preheating the combustion air† to reduce the fuel consumption and inducing a waste heat recovery system.Meanwhile I have started my internship at Brakes India Limited a leading manufacturing of brakes in world. During my internship, I have learnt about various responsibilities including analyzing customers’ needs, interpreting demands to working systems based on braking, running feasibility studies and providing new solutions for higher efficiency in systems. I have taken part in workshops and training courses in order to extend my knowledge on manufacturing systems. I believe that my experience as an intern at Brakes India Limited is the main reason that drives me to study in Europe.I have acquired sound knowledge of leading edge engineering principles, tools, practices with emphasis on designing, building and testing systems and now these experiences push me forward to learn more and to take a new horizon to gain more experience. Studying Mechanical Engineering in a country, which is the cradle of this science and origin of technological wonders, is a good opportunity for me to improve my knowledge both practically and theoretically. I expect that this master program provides me chance to get to know with mechanical systems andaffiliates me to the industries, which are living examples of the art of mechanics. I hope that I can gain more experience in dealing with situations, people, systems, demands that will be of a great help to me for my future career. Studying at your multicultural university enables me to improve my interpersonal talents. I would be learning in one of the best universities in Europe. Besides, I will have the opportunity to develop myself in an international environment giving me the privilege to meet new people with different points of view.That would be very enriching experience for me. I realize the highly competitive demands of the program, but I have the ability, ambition and motivation to exceed the requirements and to excel at the university. I am eager to gain new experiences, and, in my opinion, this program is the best way to achieve that. I am positive that the Aalto University, Finland and especially the mechanical engineering master program would be an excellent start for an ambitious business career. Therefore, I would be very proud and happy if I could be a part of this prestigious university. Motivation Letter Motivation letter Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to express my interest in applying for †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. starting in September †¦.. I believe my educational background would enable me to make a strong contribution at the University. I mention that I have graduate in year†¦.. from the †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ and got a bachelor degree in †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. My academic performance was always on top of class. I have been an active member of the student Union where I have been involved in the development of several engineering and projects.Moreover I can say that I would like to continue my studies in order to gain knowledge and experiences by academic research and I believe a Master Degree Programme in†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ would offer me the possibility of receiving the complete picture of all aspects of this field. The reason for choosing this specific Master Programme comes from the fact that in the near future I would like to get to know more things regarding the fundamental disciplines of †¦.. and acquire a broad overview of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..I already got some ideas in my head, but unfortunately until now I did not have the right knowledge and the right tools for putting them in practice and that is why I know that this Master Programme would be an excellent starting point for me. Also if I will get selected for this program I will have the opportunity to learn from the best and the fact that I will study in an international environment will give me the privilege to create new relationships with people from different cultures.I am also aware of the kind of dedication and perseverance I will need to have for achieving the best results in the field and I believe my background will qualify me for such a Master Programme. Finally I can say that I look forward to join this Master Degree Programme †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. in order to prove my abilities and gain new skills and I will be patiently waiting for a positive reply. Motivation Letter N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2200, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA 4 October, 2010 Dear Sir/Madam, Sub: Motivation letter for applying ISTAT Scholarship. My diligence towards academics helped me to secure higher grades in my high school. I was very much interested to take up a career in aeronautical engineering and wanted to explore the entire world through my aeronautical knowledge. To put forward by views in my way In June 2006 I have started my Bachelors in Aeronautical engineering, Anna University, Chennai.To upgrade my knowledge in this field I have taken up MSc Aerospace in TUDelft. Currently I am in the first year of study. In my curriculum I have done aircraft design project titled as â€Å"Designing of 75-100 seater regional jetliner airplane†. This gave me more basic knowledge to design an aircraft and to increase its performance. I have completed designing courses and gained knowledge in many CAD & FEM tools such as AUTO CAD ,PRO-E,CATIA and ANSYS.To apply my knowledge in design field I have taken up CSWA exam and i have secured 70% in it . Now i am a certified solid works associate(CSWA). I have also done paper presentation in â€Å"Design of Handheld Vaccum Cleaner†,which I have been shortlisted as a finalist in the national event at SHAASTRA ,IIT MADRAS. I have also done another project in â€Å"Designing of Multiple disc brake † at a state level event conducted by Barry Wehmiller International Resources.Added to this, I have done my undergraduate project in â€Å"Confinement of snag and implementation of failsafe Design for IGV Actuator of TM-3332B2 Engine† at HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. Another exciting and learning phase had been my experience in representing my college in AERO INDIA 2009, Bangalore Air show. There I had an great exposure to the world aviation market and this instilled me how to work for the constructive future. Currently I am involved in designing a Very light Aircraft (VLA) under the SS VOBB, in the Aerospace Engineering Department, TU Delft.Since I am from a developing country (India), my parents belong to lower socio economic status and will find it difficult to pay my tuition fees which is enormous when converted to Indian rupees. I have obtained bank loan for which interest rates are very high and my parents will be able to pay back only part of the amount that itself will take a long time. To minimize their burden and to continue my studies , I have applied for ISTAT Scholarship which will help me to fulfil my dreams in the fields of aviation. Yours Sincerely Vivekanandhan Sindhamani

The War on drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

The War on drugs - Essay Example The article uses seven explanatory variables which include the Drug Enforcement Agency and suggests that the incarceration of drug offenders merely causes a crowding-out effect in prisons, releasing the non-drug offenders and thus, potentially increasing, rather than decreasing, crime. The author talks about many views representing the history and the principles of facts on this issue. He represents the view that he believes is unknown to many and should be presented to everyone. As this is one of the major misperceptions according to him as mentioned in the article. It is also discussed in the article that suggestions and recommendations should be made to stop the use of drugs and the spread of drug offenders in a wise and logical way. This article is for those who believe that incarcerating the drug offenders will reduce the crime. Thus the evidence is also being shown through statistics. Critique: The authors have supported the government view in this article as they talk about the economics and politics of the drug offenders. The authors cover some major issues regarding the war on drugs and the crime rates which were profoundly unknown. They have provided an unbiased research in which they analyze all the aspects related to the topic. They cover the previous research done on the topic regarding the battle of US government with the drug offenders since years, and how they focused on the criminalization of drugs rather just proposing anti-drug policies. The authors clearly gave examples regarding the definitions of imprisonment and incarcerating with the help of many examples, and related it to the negativity caused by the act. The authors have used reliable sources to support their arguments with information from all the sides and then supporting their view. With the use of previous research on imprisonment, incarcerating and the drug offenders, to the presentation of the models and the variables, the authors had made it very clear for the reader to understand their view. They have also presented authentic calculations and contrasted them to make their view authentic, and prove how crime rate has increased due to the incarcerating of drug offenders. There is enough evidence shown by the authors to describe and prove their viewpoint. The evidence is taken from reliable sources as they have proper calculations taken from the statistics published by the government and law department. Although the article has provided economical and political views as per the nature of the journal, I think it has still provided enough information to understand the desired objects. 2. Unmapping the Golden Triangle or the World on Drugs ? Title Unmapping the Golden Triangle or the World on Drugs Author Neilson Brett Date 2000 Source Passages: Interdisciplinary Journal of Global Studies Stakeholder Business Summary: This article focuses on the operation of the global drug economy and how fast it has been increasing. It also shows the mode of production of drugs in the Golden Triangle, the Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the article talks about the contradictory relations between the capitalist globalization and the underground drug economy. Also talks about the inconsistency on the spatial relations constituting the Golden Triangle, and the severe impact of globalization on the business of heroine trafficking. These aspects are covered in the article in the literary point

Implementing and Managing Budgets Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Implementing and Managing Budgets - Case Study Example Omega College is a private institution in the Midwest that experiences budgetary challenges because of their limited number of students and resources. The college experience many challenges because they rely on the tuition fees paid by the students to meet their daily operational costs whilst the number of students is not adequately high. For instance international students enroll at the college and study for only a semester then return to their hometowns. The college did not meet their enrolment targets in the last four years and students in other colleges were transferred to the State University to complete their Bachelor’s Degrees. Omega College relies on the generosity of the alumni, friends, and board members to assist finance the annual operating budget. I would recommend the institution in the short term to advertise the programs offered at Omega College at fair prices using various forms of media such as newspapers, televisions, radio stations, and social network sites such as Facebook, which is the most popular social site. Advertising will promote awareness in the society and hence individuals will be aware of the existence of the college and consider enrolling their children at the college. The college can get other additional revenues from projects such as clean water projects and renewable energy projects where they can generate biomass and solar energy and sell to the communities in the area hence generating more finances. I will conduct interviews with the community members to gather data to find out if the options being considered are viable and cost effective. The college will need to work with the master budget to summarize all their projected activities by the way of cash budget, budgeted balance sheet, and the budgeted income statement. Zierdt (2009) noted that the master budget is an all-inclusive projection of how the management plans to conduct all their activities over the fiscal year of the budget period. The college will

Should abortion be legal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Should abortion be legal - Essay Example We do not have the right to kill a fetus in the womb, no one can do it. It is a sin and will always remain so. The unborn child hardly has options; it was not the child who was asking to be born, when they do not have a choice why should the parents have the choice of aborting them? From religious perspective also abortion is a very big sin because an embryo is completely helpless and killing someone helpless is a very big sin and should never be done. There are several health risks for women which are involved when it comes to aborting a child. Making it legal will encourage more and more women to undergo it and may end up taking away several lives which surely no one would want. Doctors are very well respected because their duty is to save as many lives as plausible but people will stop respecting them when they start killing helpless embryos in the womb. They would continue to be respected should they keep saving lives, which is also their duty. A woman who chooses to abort her unborn baby goes through a lot of mental trauma, many more women would go through the same should abortion be made legal. The world has changed drastically over the past few years; the culture across the globe has drastically changed. There are far too many abortions taking place these days when compared to the previous years. Abortion is mainly chosen by women who choose to avoid becoming pregnant and most of such women are unmarried women. Undergoing abortion is a very difficult step to take for any woman and it takes a lot of guts to take the decision. Abortion according to many is a very big sin, killing the unborn is an unmerciful act. The irresponsible people in the society, without thinking about the circumstances put themselves in a situation which is extremely undesirable. Everyone must act and behave responsibly to avoid a situation which is undesirable and abortion is without

Databases Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Databases - Coursework Example Relational databases use specific integrity rules to facilitate accurate collection of data and to make that data accessible. Firstly, the rows in a relational database must all be unique. In case of duplicate rows problems can crop up when resolving which of the two likely selections is the right one. For most DBMSs (databases management systems) users are able to specify that duplicate rows are not permitted, and when that is done the DBMS will block the addition of any rows that are identical to an existing one. Another integrity rule of relational databases is that column values should not be repeating arrays or groups. The third involves the logic of a null value. A database handles situations where information may not be available by employing a null value to show that a value is absent (Pathak, 2008). It is not equal to a blank or zero; a blank is equal to another blank and a zero is only equal to another zero. Two null values are not equal. When each row in a table is unique, it is possible to use one or more columns to mark a specific row. This distinct column or group of columns is referred to as a primary key. Any column that forms a primary key cannot be null; in any case it were the primary key which it is a part of would cease to be a complete identifier. This rule is known as entity integrity. Relational databases can greatly enhance the quality control and accessibility to organizations’ sensitive and valuable information materials. It can contribute towards a competitive edge by facilitating business analysis that can help to determine methods of improving products and services (Pathak, 2008). In comparison to non-relational database settings, relational databases are more flexible hence easily adapt to dynamic business needs. In addition, unlimited access to sensitive data means better data for more effective decision-making. Relational databases can also have a huge positive impact on numerous MIS

Criminal and civil litigation; Mental Health Law Coursework

Criminal and civil litigation; Mental Health Law - Coursework Example In every criminal situation, the Mens Rea concept has to be present, which in simply terms is the Latin word for â€Å"a guilty mind.† Consequently, the concept of Mens Rea carries out an in-depth analysis of the mind of the defendant in the moment preceding the crime. This goes to explore the thoughts and intentions of the defendant during the committing of a crime as this plays a great role in determining the culpability of a defendant. As such, the concept of Mens Rea enables the criminal justice system to differentiate between an individual who did not plan or mean to commit a crime, and an individual who planned and set out intentionally to commit a given crime. This concept rules out crimes that were intentional from crimes that were accidental, even if the results of the crime were the same1. For example, in the event of a murder case, the attorneys of law can evaluate the case to determine whether it was pure murder case or manslaughter. The difference in these two legal terms is that the former was an intentional crime whereby the defendant plotted to kill the victim and actually executed his or her plan. On the other hand, the latter is an accidental crime whereby the defendant accidentally killed the victim without prior intentions to end their victim’s life, such as a case of self-defense, a stray bullet, or a riot stampede. The charges for both cases also differs depending on the legal position established by the judge, as well as, the prosecution team on the guilty mind of the defendant in the moments preceding the commitment of a given crime. For instance, the above case has the same charge, which is death of an individual, whether committed intentionally or otherwise. As such, the guilty party has to face the charges of the crime committed, and the extent of the punishment vented against him or her for the crime depends on their guilty conscience

Dependence of Man on the Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Dependence of Man on the Environment - Essay Example As human beings it is our responsibility to take good care of our nature and our environment. Some people also argue that environment has been created for man and he can use it in any way he wants to. Both have become banners for different power bases, making the arguments itself almost irrelevant. Human beings have the ability to use their actions in a positive way which can be useful for both the environment and their own selves. The idea of working with environmental circumstances rather than trying to control the surroundings must be the motivating idea behind any changes in the relationship with mother earth. Dependence of man on environment is a two-way link; helped in essence by the input that man has manifested within the reigns of the environment itself. The clear cut methodology for having an environmental friendly atmosphere is dependent on the actions (and inactions) of man alone. The development of new and advanced technologies is based on the idea that man can control nature to some extent and thus use it for his defensive ideologies. These changes can range from weather maps to electronic meters, and natural disasters to the natural development of the human race itself. For example, one of the most common motivating factors behind technological development is the environmental aspect of isolated expanding human populations which is, of course, war. Mankind was made and has always been supported by the environment. Both the Bible and the theory of evolution agree with this fact nonetheless. According to Bible, God has created this world and produced human beings. He is the one to have sent Adam as the caretaker of the world as well as its environment. The theory of evolution says that man appeared because he occupied a niche in the environmental scheme of things. The Bible and the theory of evolution agree on other issues as well. They both have concluded t hat mankind can only survive if it cooperates with the environment that exists

Reflection paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reflection paper - Assignment Example sation with the other group members. I was thrilled and excited at the start but with the passage of time, it became hard when I had to conduct meetings with other group members without hearing their voices or looking at their faces. The discussion topic revolved around â€Å"Feminism and Pop Culture.† This topic was created from the chapter 13 of the book â€Å"Feminism and Pop Culture† written by â€Å"Andi Zeisler.† I agree the fact that women are using what they have to their advantage like Madonna and other rock stars. Over the period of time, pop culture has portrayed women as sexual objects and with the passage of time, it has adopted the worst shapes than ever. At the time of creating this topic, I was all focused to read and discuss more about that why women are always projected as â€Å"feast for eyes† in all pop videos and songs and not as â€Å"element of respect† or â€Å"exemplary models† through these videos. I would say that we should not blame any other person but the female singers themselves have projected their womanhood as a â€Å"symbol of sex appeal† in the media. From Madonna to Brittany Spears and from Christina Aguilera to Miley Cyrus; al l women have projected their beauty on the screen through their songs in a negative way. They have influenced a huge number of teenage girls in a negative manner. I was very nervous before my discussion went live. My team did not response to my invitation for chat. When met on the chat for the first time, I was the one who initiated the chat with all the group members and involved each one of them into the discussion. My team members appreciated my efforts but what disappointed me most was the involvement and interest of the members in the discussion thread. They just reviewed and approved my work without commenting or giving their opinions on the work I did. I completed the discussion topic. I was bit nervous and at the same time, I was little upset with the work as well. I had no idea that whatever the work

American football and sound Intellectual thinking Essay Example for Free

American football and sound Intellectual thinking Essay Ive always been told i was too small, Im not big enough, not fast enough and that i dont have what it takes. But to stay there for four years straight was necessary, blood was necessary and the occasional tear as necessary/ But on the field i prepare so no one can make up my mind but myself. And once my mind is made up NOBODY can stop me. You can try any move you want and even try to out run me but i can promise you one thing, that as long as Im on the field your only destination is the turf. Football is not something you take lightly its a Mans Game. The only thing that will get you hurt is playing stupid and being soft. Benefits of playing football: It is one of the most popular and widespread games in the world It is provin by sports specialists that football players are the ones with the strongest extremities and very sound intellectual thinking, to be successful on the field but also in life. You have to have discipline , passion and commitment with everything you do , and football will hep you with that. Concentration is also another thing mastered when you play football. Its also the top most vital element that we need in life. For Example: When we are preparing for a test When we are out on the field Football will not only help with competitive and efficiency as a player also teach you the right and appropriate attitude to have. Communication is a major benefit when playing football: No communication= Fail ! So if you dont communicate you will fail and if you fail that means your not hungry for greatness and if your not hungry for greatness it means your ok with being mediocre. And if that was the case for me.. i wouldnt be standing here with these trophies. This is what success looks like.

Capitalization Exercise Essay Example for Free

Capitalization Exercise Essay The patient is a 55-year-old African American, who speaks French and Chinese, presenting with a chief complain of chest pain. He has been having mild chest pain since early autumn, but it has been increasing recently, especially over the holidays. He has been taking Dyazide for blood pressure and also uses ibuprofen occasionally. On Sunday, New Year’s Day, he called his insurance company and was referred to South Side Hospital. The patient presented to the emergency department for evaluation and was noted to have T-wave inversions on his ECG. Chest x-ray showed no pneumonia or pulmonary edema.

Project Based Organization (PBO) Analysis

Project Based Organization (PBO) Analysis In todays turbulent market, a lot of organizations is still seeking for a strategic advantage over others and a lot of them has actually seek Project Based Organization (PBO) as a way to propel them for greater height and thus, gain a strategic advantage over other companies. However, there are still questions how they can best make use of this new organization structure approach to create a synergy between company business mission, strategy, and project as well as portfolio management PBOs refer to organizational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of project tasks or activities. PBOs are gaining increased attention as an emerging organizational form, but there is very little knowledge on how PBO function in practice and what value or benefits in adopting the practice of PBOs. Needless to say, there are not many findings on how the extensive use of unique and temporary endeavors like projects can help influence the strategy and organizations design. By making using of project management best practices, PBO will help organization to become more dynamic, flexible and responsive when dealing with a turbulent environment. This PBO approach will ensure organization to be more creative and innovative when coping and responding quickly to the ever changing market demand. EMPLOYING PROJECT BASED ORGANIZATIONS In order to deploy project based management more effectively and efficiently, organization need to engage the top management to recognize this new approach of embracing project management best practices. They need to engage the right attitudes throughout the organization. In doing so, it will help the organization to fully reap the benefits of this new formidable and competitive weapon so as to fight for continue business growth and making sure the corporate will gain a better chance to survive in todays highly competitive market. Establishing executive ownership and responsibility for project based management with the organization is equated with authority in organization structures, the closer something is to the top, the higher its level of authority, acceptance, adoption and autonomy is perceived to be by the organization. It has to be a top-down approach whereby we need to engaged CEO, senior management of the company and sell them the ideas of how PBOs concept is able to propel the company to greater height. Positioning the project based management function at the top in a hierarchical organizational structure establishes its autonomy and thus ownership of the responsibility for setting up, distributing, supporting, and managing the application of project management best practices. Enterprise-wide adoption of project based management best management called for single ownership of the function. Establishing common practices across an organization at all levels is difficult, if not impossible, without a clearly established sole ownership. We do believe, however that establishing a PBO is the right thing to do, because global competition in the marketplace will continue to increase. Therefore, project based management is one of the best answers for surviving global competition. We need to first identify the roles, responsibilities of senior management team and their business function when structuring the PBO. Once we have identified their function focus and agreed upon their roles, we will then need to proceed to clarify relationships between these functions, like who is leading, supporting and following. This will help to ensure clarification on how these units can work or function together in a team. For example, typical teams in IT might include a strategic management team, an innovation management team, a project/program management team and a product management team. Each team is comprised of more than one unit and there are overlaps between the teams. The objective of this structure is to create team accountability. TRADITIONAL AND PROJECT BASED ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND OPERATION TRADITIONAL ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND OPERATION Traditional management has been applied since twenty century and is well developed on the core principles of standardization, specialization, common goal, hierarchy organization, planning and control and external-reward (Hamel et al., 2007). A traditional organization is constructed based on those core principles of traditional management and functioned through vertical and horizontal operations which are a hierarchic structure with various functional departments as the vertical operation and a work process designed for specific generalized task models by using Standard Operating Procedural to link individual functional. DISADVANTAGES Project members from each project teams are dispatched from functional departments; this normally causes conflicts between functional departments and project teams when the resources and priority of urgency are conflicting. Hard to assess employee performance since employee can belong to functional department and project teams. This will always cause confusion and unhappiness to employees involved. What project he/she participates is decided by the project manager and department head instead of self-actualization, which reduces the performance of both personal development and organizational learning. Hierarchy structure, functional department operation model and Standard Operating Procedure are characteristics of a traditional organization, which makes its disable in dealing with changes. Contention of resources between functional department and project team, which will develop conflicts within organizations, resulting in disharmony and distrust. No organizational synergy due to lack of inadaptable interactive relations between functional departments. Lack of ability to adapt to changes in related to market uncertainty or other external factors. This is caused by rigid, stagnant Standard Operating Procedures which are regulated according to generalized task model and therefore not capable of responding to any changes conditions timely. THE PBO STRUCTURE AND OPERATION A project based organization is a structure that facilitates the coordination and implementation of project activities. Its main reason is to create an environment that helps enhance interactions between team members with a minimal disruptions, overlaps and conflict. One of the important decisions of project management is the type of organizational structure that will be used for the project. Every project has its unique characteristics and the design of an organizational structure should consider the organizational environment, the project characteristics in which it will operate, and the level of authority the project manager is given. One of the main objectives of the structure is to reduce uncertainty and confusion that typically occurs at the project initiation phase. The structure defines the relationships among members of the project management and the relationships with the external environment. In PBO project managers have a high level of authority to manage and control the project resources. The project manager in this structure has total authority over the project and can acquire resources needed to accomplish project objectives from within or outside the parent organization, bind only to the scope, quality, and budget constraints identified in the project. In the PBO, project members are assigned specifically to the project and report directly to the project manager. The project manager is responsible for the performance appraisal and career progression of all project team members while on the project. This leads to increased project loyalty. Complete line authority over project efforts affords the project manager strong project controls and centralized lines of communication. This leads to rapid reaction time and improved project based organizations are more common among large and complicated projects. PBO KEY TO SUCCESS FOR TODAY ORGANIZATION INNOVATION ENABLER 10 Tips by the Worlds Best Innovators Organize yourself globally because it beats local Life treasures through communication Turn â€Å"not invented here† into a quality seal Focus on Big Ideas (there are enough small ones) Think platform Minimize time-to-test Appoint your customers as your boss Leverage design Take care of the jewel innovation organization culture that reacts to changes Use business model innovations as the turbo PROJECTS AND INNOVATION HOW THEY INTERLINKED WITH ONE ANOTHER What does PBO has to do with Innovation? We will start by defining both innovation and projects and identifying common ground in their concepts. Projects and Innovation share common roots in their definitions, both are: Temporary: they end when they become integrated to the normal routine of operations Produce unique results: the end product or service should be, in some way, different than the existing. Characterized by progressive elaboration: they cannot be understood entirely at, or before, the start, therefore the decision-making and realization phases are iterative. Many statements concerning innovation can be applied to projects and vice versa; to a certain degree, many of the characteristics of both are interchangeable. Classic definitions of innovation include: The process of making improvements by introducing something new (Wikipedia, 2007) It seems reasonable from above description that projects and innovation share a natural conceptual background. It would be hard to imagine how a traditional organization would be able to innovate since their structure only has roots in routine, repetitive works and a much predictable work output and stagnant culture. The whole philosophy and the historical background of both projects and innovation seem interlinked. A strong project outlook with proper governance structures would typically help to promote strategic goals that call for development of innovation. In their quest for innovation, many organizations have felt the need to establish social networks; the project approach has the advantage of proposing an internal network between projects if properly enhanced through program management, as well as involvement of stakeholders. Since Schumpeter (1947), many researchers have demonstrated that innovations are most often â€Å"new combinations† of existing technology. â€Å"Thus, individuals or divisions within a firm must be both able and willing to share their capabilities or resources with other parts of the organization. This author also mentions that organizations need to create common language, otherwise the ability to share knowledge will be hampered (Sampson, 2007). To counteract some of these pitfalls, several companies have found it useful to introduce systems where staff from all levels of the business can input their ideas. An interesting example of the usefulness of such systems comes from Paul Sloan (2006) â€Å"A copy-machine operator at Kinkos, a chain of copying and document services stores, noticed that customer demand for copying dropped off in December. People were too preoccupied with Christmas presents to do much copying for the office. So he came up with a creative idea: allow customers to use Kinkos color copying and binding facilities to create their own customized calendars using personal photos for each of the months. He prototyped the idea in the store and it proved popular. The operator phoned the founder and chief executive of Kinkos, Paul Orfalea, and explained the idea. Orfalea was so excited by it that he rushed it out as a service in all outlets. It was very successful and a new product custom calendars and a new revenue stream were created.† Corporate recognize that their organizations are always in danger of developing products and services with little or no market appeal. Some organizations are great at innovation like 3-M that produces 30% of its revenues from products that did not exist 4 years ago. However, others are really very bad at innovating such as Xerox who is famous for innovations it did not exploit, like fax machines and laser printers. Others, like Procter and Gamble have successfully reversed a 40 years innovation slump from their last major breakthrough (Pampers in 1961) with recent innovative products like â€Å"Swiffer† and Crests â€Å"Whitestrip† (Brooker, 1999; Moss-Kanter, 2006). Other companies just struggle with innovation like Motorola when it resisted going from analog to digital and lost its lead in cellular phones, or Kodak, when it lost its share of the camera market to Canon and Sony for having miscalculated the impact of digital camera in the mid 90s. Although organizational innovation needs more than just taking up a project view, we have to examine if the project management approach, when well integrated and focused on the broader view of project, could possibly promote principles that are conducive to innovation. Rosabeth Moss-Kanter (2006) describes four major reasons for failure to innovate: Strategy: Lack of sound innovative investment spread between breakthrough and incremental Process: Tight controls that strangle innovation and refusal of deviations from plan Structure: Lack of connections between innovation areas and the rest of the business Skills: Lack of networkers, communicators or connectors and relationships Most traditional organizations are better suited to stable environments and employ a top down approach to innovation. Strategy is formulated at the top along with the major initiatives for achieving it. Some of these initiatives will be innovative in nature, related to the development of an innovative process, product or service and often led within an RD Department, independently from the rest of the business. Top down approaches may solicit input from deeper in the organization, but the formulation of the innovative ideas remains at the top or within one of the organizational silos. Many of these organizational models are encouraging excessive control and reporting and, as Holmstrom, (1989) argued: bureaucracy, sometimes symbolic of the old hierarchical organization, can be hostile to innovation. We have seen that organizational structure and governance are determining factors in the development of human and organizational innovation and that PBOs change the nature of the traditional organizational structure. We can therefore ask ourselves: â€Å"How can a PBO structure influence innovation (either positively or negatively)?† Three recent empirical studies (Bresnen Goussevskaia Swan, 2004; Lindkvist, 2004; Dovey Fennech, 2007), have recognized that organizations that adopt a project management approach in a traditional mechanistic context, often have to deal with a choice between the flexibility and dynamism of the project approach and the desire of firms functional and strategic stakeholders to exercise control at organizational level. The authors have already reported on a case study that demonstrates evidence of such a division when an organization is moving from a more traditional model to the PBO model: â€Å"This very diverse and competent group of people had approached a new task in a most conventional manner, which seemed coherent with the ingrained performance paradigm, still a remaining legacy of the organizations historical culture and values. It was felt that one of the important emergen needs of the group was to â€Å"develop lateral, more creative thought processes and encourage a bit less conformity† to foster use of available potential and growth in this new work environment.† (Thiry, Deguire, 2004) Sampson (2007, p.382-383) argues that â€Å"the effect of the organization on innovative performance is contingent on absorptive capacity.† A program approach where strategic decisions are implemented through a series of related and interdependent projects (Thiry, 2004a, OGC, 2003) would support this approach, as change and innovative initiatives will be broken down into projects manageable, not only in technical terms, but also in absorption capability terms. The selection of investment activities through portfolio management is also essential, for example, at Apple in 1996, after Steve Jobs was reinstated as CEO, he led a massive review of the RD effort. As a result, Apple focused its resources on projects that had the greatest potential, and eventually produced the iMac, iBook, iPod, and iTunes (Vise Malseed, 2005). Most traditional organizations experience communication and resource allocation problems, especially between functional managers and project managers (Alsene, 1999; Bishop, 1999; Payne, 1993); this generates issues at the executive level, when conflicts are escalated and disturb the â€Å"political harmony† of the organization (Dovey Fenech, 2006). This last empirical study showed that even when the value of a â€Å"projectized† approach to deliver strategy is demonstrated, it can still be challenged by the organizations establishment. Many authors have confirmed that â€Å"the environment in a project-oriented organization is more dynamic and discontinuous.† (Huemann, Turner Keegan, 2004) and that the role of the project manager has evolved from that of a single person with specific technical skills to that of a team of individuals which exercise a wide ‘function that spans from strategic to technical (Frame, 2002).. The project management (PM) function is now evolving towards a co-managed business-technical partnership (Frame, 2002), which gives it authority over strategic level resources and therefore true decision-making power (Spradlin, 2004). We feel that given the nature of the project/program approach, PBOs can significantly contribute to the development of a distributed network that forms inside the organization and takes on the role of much of the innovation work. Through projects and programs, individuals become connected to the network and generate their own ideas, conduct experiments, do their own findings, build support, and help transition some of the ideas to formal pilots or direct implementation. An interesting example is Harley-Davidson, Inc. Management at Harley-Davidson has been recognized worldwide for its successful use of progressive, cutting-edge management techniques (Certo, 2003). This company has long developed its use of cross-functional teams to design new products and representatives from engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, and marketing have always had some influence on the future direction of new products. In order to achieve this, management has been committed to cross-functional teams and these team members work together daily and are totally dedicated to the new product development process on a full-time basis. We have therefore seen that innovation, for most companies, depends upon the individual and collective expertise of employees and it seems to have become more important for an organization to be cross-functionally excellent than functionally excellent. In addition to formal planning at the business level, best-practice companies are using cross enterprise initiatives on major issues in order to challenge assumptions and open up the organization to new thinking. This further enhances innovation as organizations are, for example, able to match their technological developments with complementary expertise in other areas of their business, such as manufacturing, distribution, human resources, marketing, and customer relationships. To lead these development efforts, cross-functional teams need to be formed and PBOs would make a significant difference in developing both the culture and necessary structures to help businesses in their quest towards innovation. As reported by Dhyani and Singh (2006) in the following case, most traditional mechanistic models do not endorse an innovative philosophy: â€Å"Service Delivery is based on standards, repeatability, reference architectures, proven and robust technology, guaranteed quality, efficiency and meeting SLAs. The resulting culture is inherently in conflict with innovation, which inescapably entails increased risk. SD has no processes or targets for regularly engaging in Client Innovation. It does not employ people for this purpose and has no measurements or incentive programs to perform this task and indeed expects the opposite behavior.† PBO through the consistent use of cross-functional teams presents a clear organizational advantage over the more traditional mechanistic organization as it supports individuals in its effort by policies, practices and resources that acknowledge this risk and provides space for experimentation. The organization shoulders some risk as do individuals and teams. Everyone in the innovation culture strives for success and learns from failures by documenting them and hearing about them from others. Given that this is a necessary condition for empowering different players and that sharing failures can be difficult for human beings with sensitive egos. The team setting provided by PBOs most probably allows the diffusion and publication of failure with minimal harm to individual egos and enhances organizational learning that can be used towards future innovative initiatives. If we accept the view that innovation can be seen as an organizational means to reach strategic goals, it would be interesting to explore and understand the link between the implementation of a PBO structure and culture and organizational innovation and to compare it to more traditional settings. In particular, we can refer to the fact that, since Burns and Stalker (1961), many authors recognize that traditional mechanistic organizations are struggling to adapt in todays turbulent environments. Nevertheless, in order to sustain innovation, PBOs need to be structured to foster creative synergy between vision and mission, strategy, portfolio, program and project management and be framed in a project-based governance approach; they also need to generate tangible value for the stakeholders. Rosabeth Moss-Kanter, who has conducted research and advised companies during what she terms: â€Å"four major waves of competitive challenges† (2006, p.74) since the 70s claims that successful innovation requires â€Å"flexible organizational structures, in which teams across functions or disciplines organize around solutions, [which] can facilitate good connections.† (2006, p.82) â€Å"[Innovation] is among the essential processes for success, survival, and renewal of organizations, particularly for firms in either fast-paced or competitive markets† (Brown Eisenhardt, 1995, p.344) â€Å"‘Innovation refers to a phenomenon where a new idea has been implemented into action.† (Taatila, 2005). the recognition that project management practice can and will influence organizational practices and, in so doing; that an alternate position may open a door for a redefinition of organizations through projects by supporting the adoption of new challenging organizational theories for project-based organizations; that the adoption of these new organizational models could generate higher stakeholder involvement, create more value and enable better integration between projects and strategy to sustaining innovation. CHALLENGES FACED BY IMPLEMENTING A PBO To adopt a project-based organization presents some challenges to senior managers: Project Manager has little or no â€Å"position power.† The position power which is so prominent in functional organizations will change when project-based organization is implemented. Project Manager will have minimal control over the career path of project members. Instead, project members require an independent career path over which they themselves have control and to which the project work can contribute. Senior managers need to develop project managers and project management so that the project managers can lead based on influence rather than positional authority. Conflicts arise over project member time and resource requirements. Thus senior managers must have a good plan and work schedule priority. Alternatively, senior manager need to come out with special reward scheme to allocate scarce resources-individuals that will help to maximize the value of the project. No clear Organizational boundaries. Project management often requires seamless cooperation among organizational units. If project managers/members see evidence that cooperation is not valued, then achieving cooperation is going to very hard. Senior management needs to create a structure where cooperation is rewarded Time and organizational pressures abound. Senior management must be ready to support the best practices that will help to reduce project time. This includes forming a core team system, having a project goal vision, allowing more time for project planning so as it wont interfere with project operations, facilitating communication with customers, and supplying necessary resources. Project members do not know one another. Effective project teams require a high level of trust and openness. The climate of trust and openness will need to be a top-down approach. If senior managers are not trustworthy, truthful, and open with each other, there is little chance that project members will be so with one another. Trust and openness are the antithesis of most bureaucratic organizations. Senior managers coming from a less trusting organization will have difficulty developing high levels of trust. CONCLUSIONS Having knowing that successful innovation needs flexible organizational structures, in which cross-functional teams or disciplines organize around solutions, PBOs could be a possible answer when their structures provide horizontal integration from business strategy to operational benefits and vertical integration between corporate objectives and the prioritized portfolio of projects. It is also very likely that the adoption of an integrated wide-scale project approach could enhance an organizations capacity for innovation for the following reasons: Given the nature of the project/program approach, PBOs can significantly contribute to the development of a distributed network that forms inside the organization and takes on the role of much of the innovation work. Along with these basic innovation processes, in a, PBO structure locus of control and decision making is normally decentralized through the creation of program and project teams in order to modify aspects of the culture so employees receive consistent and positive messages about initiating and implementing change and innovation. In PBO structures, the stakeholder approach is combined to the concept of value and permeates all levels of the organization by increasing the reach of both stakeholder and value concepts. An integrated vision of projects would directly link projects and programs to governance and strategy, encouraging social networks and value creation. In conclusion, we would argue that the sensible adoption of an integrated project approach should not only encourage the emergence and enactment of new organizational dynamics, but develop a stakeholder approach and innovative concepts leading to increased value creation. Finally, we can also conclude that it is not enough to set up a PBO if we use a mechanistic framework. In order to foster innovation, all the project and organizational elements must be integrated from start to realization. REFERENCES Alsene, E. (1999). Internal Changes and Project Management Structures Within Enterprises, International Journal of Project Management. 17(6): 367-377. Bishop, S. K. (1999). Cross-functional Project Teams in Functionally Aligned Organizations. Project Management Journal. 30(3): 6-10. Bresnen, M., Goussevskaia, A., and Swan, J. (2004). Embedding new management knowledge in project-based organizations. Organization Studies, 25(9), 1535-1555. Brooker, K. (1999) Can Procter Gamble Change Its Culture, Protect Its Market Share, and Find the Next Tide? Fortune, April 26, 1999, pp. 146-50, 152. Brown, S. L. and Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MACerto, S.C. (2002). Modern Management, 9th Ed. Burns, T., Stalker, G. M. (1961). The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock Publications. Dovey, K. and Fenech, B. (2007). The role of enterprise logic in the failure of organizations to learn and transform: a case from the financial services industry. In print: Management Learning: The Journal for Managerial and Organizational Learning, Sage Publications. 38(3). Dhyani, A. and Singh, R. (2006) â€Å"Risk and Innovation Case for Building a Methodology Tool to Assist Informed Decision Making for Managers† (July 22, 2006). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=919180 Frame, J. D. (2002) PMNetwork, Project Management Institute. PA: Da Sylva. Gann, D.M., Salter, A.J. (2000) Innovation in project-based, service-enhanced firms: The construction of complex products and systems. Research Policy, 29, 955-972. Hamel, G. (1996). Strategy as Revolution. Harvard Business Review. July/August 1996. Holmstrom, B. (1989). Agency costs and innovation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 12: 305-327. Huemann, M., Turner, R. and Keegan, A. (2004). The Role of Human Resource Management in Project-Oriented Organizations. Proceedings of the 3rd PMI Research Conference, London, July 2004. Lindkvist, L (2004). Governing Project-based Firms: Promoting Market-like Processes within Hierarchies. Journal of Management and Governance. 8: 3-25. Moss Kanter, R. (1990) â€Å"Follow-up and Follow-through,† Harvard Business Review, March/ April 1990, p. 8. Moss-Kanter, R. (2006) Innovation: The Classic Traps. Harvard Business Review, November 2006, pp.73-83) Payne, J. (1993). Introducing Formal Project Management into a Traditional Functionally Structured Organization. International Journal of Project Management. 11(4): 239-243. Sampson, R.G. (2007). RD Alliances And Firm Performance: The Impact Of Technological Diversity And Alliance Organization On Innovation. Academy of Management Journal. 50-2; 364-386. Schumpeter, J. A. (1947). The creative response in economic history. Journal of Economic History, 7: 149-159. Sloane, P. (2006) The inspiration for innovation. Computing Business 20 Jul 2006 Spradlin, T., (2004) A Lexicon of Decision Making, DSSResources.COM, 03/05/2004. Extracted from: http://dssresources.com/papers/features/spradlin/spradlin03052004.html on 12 Jan 2007 Sydow, J., Lindkvist, L. and DeFillippi, R. (2004). Project-Based Organizations, Embeddedness and Repositories of Knowledge: Editorial. Organization Studies 25(9): 1475-1489. Taatila, T.(2005) Innovation Mechanisms in Network Economy, SoL 2nd Global Forum, Vienna September 2005. Thiry, M. (2001) â€Å"Sensemaking in Value Management Practice† International Journal of Project Management, Elseveir Science, Oxford (Feb. 2001) 19 (2); 71-78 Thiry. M. (2002). The Development of a Strategic Decision Management Model: An Analytic Induction research process based on the combination of project and value management. Thiry, M. (2004a). Program management: A strategic decision management process. Thiry, M. (2004b) How can the benefits of PM Training Programs be improved? Thiry, M. and Deguire, M. (2004). Program Management as an Emergent Order Vise, D. A. Malseed, M. (2005) The Google Story. Delacorte Press. Weber, Max. (1904 [2002])

Symbols and Symbolism Essay - Symbolism in The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby Symbolism is what makes a story complete. And it is used through "The Great Gatsby." Virtually anything in the novel can be taken as a symbol, from the weather, to the colors of clothing the characters wear. There are three major symbolic elements used in the novel, they are water, colors, and religion. Water to me seems to mean "wasted, and or lost time." I believe this because of several reasons. One being that he is separated from Daisy by an island sound. Gatsby wishes that the island sound be gone so that there will be no obstacle between him and Daisy, and he also wishes for time to be gone, the island sound seems to represent the distance of "lost time." Another is that in one of Gatsby's parties people start dancing in the water, displaying how they waste their time day after day with no real purpose. Gatsby's only purpose and ambition in life was to get back with Daisy, but after he starts to realize that it will not happen and that he has been consumed by wasted time he goes for a swim inside a pool he had never before used and is murdered. Another symbolic element is color. Several colors if not all are symbolic in the great Gatsby the more noticeable being white, green, and yellow. The first time Nick meets his cousin Daisy at Tom's and Daisy's home, she was dressed totally in white. So as the house and its furnishings are also tuned in light shades. This fact might be interpreted as beauty, cleanliness, wealth, innocence, virginity and also laziness. Daisy's color is white, she wears white dresses and recalls her "white girlhood", and this use of color helps her to characterize her as the unattainable "enchanted princess" who becomes personified as Gatsby' s dream. The green light at the end of Daisy's Buchanan' s dock, becomes a key image in "The Great Gatsby." The initial appearance of the green light occurs when Carraway sees Gatsby for the first time, standing in front of his mansion and stretching out his arms to `a single green light, minute and far away that might have been the end of dock' (p.

African American and Latina Women and the Criminal Justice System :: essays research papers

African American and Latina Women and the Criminal Justice System Sentencing disparities are an equally inequitable derivative of mandatory sentencing which requires increased sentences for crack cocaine violations, while offering flexible alternatives in cases arising from powder cocaine arrests. Powder cocaine is used by predominantly white middle-class or suburban defendants. More than 71 percent of women in federal prison and 35 percent of female state inmates have been convicted of drug offenses, usually involving crack cocaine, which carries mandatory sentences as long as 25 years for first time offenders. Moreover, large numbers of women of color convicted of crack offenses have been charged because of relationships with boyfriends, husbands or other significant males who themselves are statistically more vulnerable to police apprehension and racial profiling. Two cases exemplify the numerous other instances of young African American women doing hard time for minor drug involvement. Kimba Smith, a first time offender in Virginia, was unable to bargain with prosecutors because she could offer no information about the drug dealer with whom she was romantically involved. She was sentenced to federal prison for 24 years without possibility of parole--one year for each of her 24 years of age. Dorothy Gaines, a mother of two minor children and guardian of two grandchildren, is serving a 19-year, seven-month federal sentence without possibility of parole. Many believe she was convicted not because of the scant evidence but because she had no information to offer against her live-in male companion. The Prison Industrial Complex, driven by the momentum of privatized prison construction as an effective rural economic development tool, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It encourages more convictions, larger prison populations and longer prison sentences, even though these prisons increasingly have become warehouses for the mothers of black and brown children. In 1995, over $5.1 billion was allocated for new prison construction by federal and state governments, at an average cost of $58,000 for a medium security cell.

There Are No Children Here Essays: Style -- There are No Children Here

Style of There Are No Children Here There Are No Children Here In Kotlowitz's description of the harsh realities of the Chicago projects, three stylistic elements stand out: his precise narration, his bluntness, and his questionable objectivity. These three elements blend to form a unique style that is particularly well-suited for There Are No Children Here. If there is one thing on which critics agree when discussing this book, it is that Kotlowitz is a brilliant narrator. He has a keen eye for the daily particulars of this dangerous neighborhood. Adding to this strength is the fact that he spent years in one particular Chicago project, earning the trust of his informants. What ensues is a story that is told masterfully. Kotlowitz conveys not only the hardships that Lafeyette and Pharaoh face, but the effect of those hardships on the boys, as well. For example, after the two children dive under cover during a drive-by shooting, both are visibly affected. The younger brother, Pharaoh, laments, "I worry about dying, dying at a young age." The older of the two, Lafeyett...

Blood Brothers

The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense. Blood Brothers The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense.