Building the Cuyahoga River Valley Organizations

MBA 563: Organizational Assessment and Intervention Case Study #2: Building the Cuyahoga River Valley Organization Edie Druktenis March 28, 2013 This case focuses on the development of the Cuyahoga River Valley Organization (CRVO) which is charged with caring out the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI). The initiation of this organization began with an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2000.The article discussed the history, natural beauty, and industry in the Cuyahoga Valley located in northeastern Ohio. The valley is rich in natural resources and allows for access to land and water transportation networks that helped it to be positioned as a center for many of America’s early industries such as Quaker Oats, B. F. Goodrich, and Firestone. Much of this industry that was located in the valley generated toxic waste leaving the Cuyahoga River like a dump.The area is on the mend after the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 but it struggles economically due to the loss of j obs and the movement of the middle class away from the urban areas of the valley to the suburbs. Because of the value of the natural resources and remaining industry in the Cuyahoga River Valley area, an idea was started by the Cuyahoga Valley County Planning Commission after reading to article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer to create an initiative involving many regional resources to transform and regenerate the valley.This effort is called the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI). Paul Alsenas, Cuyahoga County Ohio Planning Commission Director, engaged Sally Parker, founder and principle of Currere, a company specializing in organizational strategy and development. Parker’s objective was to engage community leaders, organizations, and industries in discussions to help determine the type of organization needed to take on the CVI. Parker’s first move was to engage members of the community in dialogue to find out the best way to design the CVI.Through multiple interviews, a design team was established that ultimately determined the appropriate structure of the new organization would consist of a networked system of people and organizations. Since the essential element of the system was coordination, the valley would be comprised of four different networks of organizational capacity working together to in partnership to effect change (Cummings & Worley, 2009, pg. 734). To administer these partnerships, the Cuyahoga River Valley Organization (CRVO) was created.The CRVO would be the administrative oversight for the work of the triad (consisting of government, business, and foundation representatives), the Network Partners (consisting of organizations and individuals committed to enable the work of the valleys transformation), and the valley projects (chosen and awarded to address the most pressing needs of the valley). Parker’s next task was to form a new entity that would become the CRVO. In reviewing the case and information from other class sour ces, I believe I would have handled the creation of the CRVO in much the same way the CVI was formed.I would have suggested that the first step would be to create a shared vision because this is considered one of the key elements in most leadership frameworks. After a vision was established, it will be important to establish the core ideology of the organization as this would be the basis for the organizations basic beliefs. Then it would be important to construct a future for the organization that could be envisioned those employed by or associated within the CRVO. The envisioned future would consist of establishing expected outcomes and a desired future state.Another important initiative at the onset of establishing the CRVO would be to develop political support. This had already been done with the CVI but to establish the CRVO and the entities it was to administer, Parker needs to gain support from key stakeholders and influencers. She needed to identify who she thought could be the best influencers and assess their change agent power then engage them on the â€Å"sale† of the CRVO entity to outside organizations and future stakeholders.Establishing a process to move from the current state of the organization, in this case, nonexistent, to a newly formed structure would require the management of a transition. To do this a road map for the establishment of the new organization would be created citing the specific activities and events that had to occur. After the establishment of the road map, planning a method for commitment to the organization’s development would be done. Once the commitment is established, structures to manage the change would need to be created.This would involve looking for people who have the power to mobilize resources and promote change and of course, people who were willing to stay the course during the rough times that often occur when change is happening. Staying the course would require the CRVO to provide a system to support the change agents and influencers in the CVI community helping them to develop new competencies and skills to generate support for the mission and reinforce behaviors required to maintain the vision and mission of the CVI.Decision making during and after the establishment of the CRVO would have to be more open and engaging than in most traditional organizations. Since the CRVO is being established to assist with a vision of a much larger community effort, decisions can’t be made without the buy in and acceptance of the main stakeholders. The main office of the CRVO could be established and the function of this office could be managed much like any other office, more bureaucratic.However, the decisions that would be made that would impact the triad, network partners, and valley projects would require decision making efforts that were more exploratory and required the acceptance of trial and error outcomes. The CRVO would implement decisions made by the stakeholders that focused on the implementation of initiatives, projects and other interests of member organizations. Because there are so many stakeholders and entities involved in the mission of the CVI, the CRVO would likely work best with an organizational structure that resembled a vertical market network.These networks are typically composed of many organizations linked to a focal organization that coordinates the movement of the activities of all involved. In the case of the CRVO, it is being established to do just that, coordinate the activities of the triad, network partners, and projects. The advantage of network based forms of organizations include flexible and dynamic response to dynamic environments, allows for focusing of resources on the customer and market needs, permits rapid expansion, and can produce synergistic results (Cummings & Worley, 2009, pg. 31). Given the large number of entities involved in the CVI that the CRVO will be providing administrative oversight of, it is cr itical that the organizational form of the CRVO be flexible and this is easier to do in a networked environment. Since the organization will consist of groups of individuals who will come together to discuss issues and come to resolutions, the human resource processes will need to focus on interpersonal and group interactions. To do this, the most critical areas to focus will be the communication processes.Establishing clear lines of communication from the CRVO to the areas is administers will ensure everyone is on the same page. Since there are so many different entities involved in the CVI, to ensure collaboration and completion of objectives that will likely be short term, self managed teams composed of representatives from member organizations could be established. These teams could come together to focus on specific tasks or projects for which they would be in control of the structure needed to gain the outcome. Very little oversight would be needed by the leadership of the CRV O.That is why I think establishing the use of self managed teams is important. Teams can be established to focus on projects and initiatives decided by stakeholders that do not need to be paid employees. These teams can be volunteers assigned tasks that are given deadlines and objectives by the management of the CRVO but do not need direct supervision and direction. The leadership of the CRVO should consist of a board of directors comprised of members of the community, the triad, and network partners. I believe this is essential to the success of the CRVO.Engagement of the stakeholders is critical to success so having representatives from each of the organizations that would benefit from the establishment of the CRVO is critical. A Chief Operating Officer or Chief Executive Officer should be recruited to oversee the operations of the CRVO. This individual would serve as the main catalyst for ensuring all stakeholder needs are met. It would have to be a charismatic individual who cou ld easily establish relationships with the CVI partners and understood the vision well enough to ensure projects approved were appropriate and that communication to all parties was clear and meaningful.The obstacles to establishment of the CRVO are numerous. Because there are so many entities involved in the CVI, issues relating to power and coordination could arise. Because so many of those involved are from positions of power within companies and local government, conceding that power when performing work associated with the CRVO could pose and issue if the individual is unable to let go. Coordiation among stakeholders could also be an issue as many of the folks are going to already have jobs or other commitments that make getting together to serve on teams difficult.Another area to consider is that member organizations and companies could have policies and laws that conflict thus making collaboration and consensus hard to come to. Last, keeping the autonomy of the CRVO might also be an issue. Again, the number of individual entities related to this organization each with its own agenda could make the establishment of an independent organization with its own objectives hard. While obstacles are always going to exist with any new effort, there will also be facilitators to help move the effort forward. In my opinion, the stakeholders of the CRVO are the biggest facilitators in the effort.All involved in this effort have a vested interest in making it work. By committing to the mission and vision of the CVI and consequently the administrative arm, the CRVO, these stakeholders are stating that they believe in what they are trying to do and will support it. They will be able to use their association with the CRVO to promote and encourage its growth. The design team that helped establish the format for the CVI will also serve as facilitators to the establishment of the CRVO as they were the creators of the original ideas and can promote its virtues to others in th e community. My concerns in conducting this task are numerous.First, there are so many entities involved in the establishment of the CVI. While they all believe in the same outcome, they all will not want to commit to getting there the same way. It would also be a concern that all also have personal, business, or government agendas they want to meet and these agenda items could easily be mixed into their contributions to the CVI creating issues for the overall mission. I would also be very concerned about communication. Again, the involvement of so many entities over such a large area means communication has to be tailored to ensure the message is being heard the same all over.Lack of proper communication can ruin well intended efforts. I would hope that this task would result in an organization that is flexible, proactive, and nimble that can respond quickly to stakeholder needs. I would also want to ensure that the mission of the CRVO is communicated effectively to all involved an d the communities it will impact to ensure buy in of the mission and objectives. WORKS CITED Cummings, T. & Worley, C. (2009). Organization Development and Change. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Gossamer Book Report

Gossamer Plot Gossamer begins with the protagonist, Littlest being taught how to give people dreams by her instructor Fastidious. Littlest’s childish and playful nature annoys Fastidious greatly. At their home, the Heap, Fastidious complains about her student to Most Ancient, who is the leader. Most Ancient and Fastidious decide that Thin Elderly will become Littlest’s mentor. Littlest is part of a small colony of dream-givers. Through touching, they gather fragments such as colors, words, sounds, and scents. They then combine the fragments to become dreams, and give the dreams to humans, and sometimes pets.The giving of dreams is called the bestowal. Thin Elderly explains to be gentle in the touching and not to touch too deeply, because a dream-giver who picks up bad fragments of a memory becomes a Sinisteed, a horse-like creature who inflicts nightmares. Thin Elderly gladly discovers that Littlest has the â€Å"gossamer touch†, the ability to gather and bestow gently. An elderly woman and her dog Toby live in the house Littlest and Thin Elderly are assigned to. The woman decides that she is going to take an eight-year-old boy named John into her household. The social workers describe him as â€Å"angry. Another dreamgiver, Strapping, is assinged to give dreams to the boys mother. She was an intelligent woman, but was forbidden to participate in social and intellectual events by Duane, her abusive ex husband. John was taken away from her because it was not a good environment for a child. When John arrives at the woman's home, he acts violent and angry. The woman acts kind and tries to be understanding. At the dream-givers' Heap, Most Ancient reports that the Sinisteeds are gathering, intent on a particular victim. That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly hear a Sinisteed enter through the walls of the house. It inflicts John with a nightmare.He cries out in his sleep, and the woman calms him by reminding him of a happy memory. after, Littles t and Thin Elderly gather comforting fragments to help strengthen him after the nightmare. During the day, john’s mother talks on the phone, asking to have a receptionist's job and salary. She tells the listener to tell her son that he will be back home soon; that she loved him; and that she dreamed of him last night. H That night, Littlest decides she must touch the dog, trying to get fragments from him. Thin Elderly protests, because they aren’t supposed to touch living creatures, but allows her to do so.Littlest notices how attatched John was to a pink seashell, to Toby, and to a chrysalis he had found.. She gathers fragments from Toby, and bestows them as part of a dream. Thin Elderly is proud of Littlest's bestowal, because John is happy in his dreams. Littlest explains that the fragments she collected had a bit of a story in each one, which she put together in her mind. Johns mother begins working a school. She reflects on how bad her old life was for her son, Jo hn, because of Duane. She has hope now of making friends, which Duane had not allowed her to do. Strapping is satisfied with his work.Strapping discovers he has a liking and a hope for the woman. Accordingly he gives her dreams of hope, and of a future with her son. John tells a story to the woman about a young boy who ate dog food, because he had been ordered to by his father, who had seen the boy run naked through the house and pee on the floor. The father had accused the son of acting like a dog, and gave him dog food for all his meals. The woman realizes that John is telling a story about himself, explaining his past abuse. T That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly discover that a Horde of Sinisteeds are going to give nightmares to John and the woman.They respond by bestowing strengthening dreams. They are nearly killed in the stampede of the Horde. That is the story's climax. John begins school, and has become a much happier child. Littlest is given a medal for her work. She is t old that she is to be reassigned. She wishes to remain assigned to John, whom she has come to love and cherish, but is told that dream-givers are not allowed to feel human emotions. Littlest One's experience with the boy has helped her grow more mature, and as a result she is given the name Gossamer and given a new dream-giver, New Littlest One, to train.

In Broad Daylight: Message and Moral Essay

After hunger, sex is the most powerful drive in humans. In the event of non-fulfillment of this drive, one may turn to evil ways of life by which is meant resorting to actions not considered right and attendant with unpleasant consequences. Though the story â€Å"In Broad Daylight† is not purposely intended to be a story with strong social message, its author, Ha Jin, unwittingly establishes a universal truth that evil begets evil. The term evil has two connotations, one at purely personal and individual level and the second at collective and societal level. On an individual level, human emotions and desires demand freedom of satisfaction. One does not mind defying customs and systems and wants absolute rights as a human being. Mu Ying, principal character of Ha Jin’s story and a lady past her prime, indulges in prostitution as she has been dissatisfied with the physical aspects of her relationship with her husband Meng Su (Jin 84). She pleads with other woman to consider her case on human basis (Jin 84). Physical gratification is a matter of personal choice but it comes into conflict with regulatory aspect of society which to promote a stable system denounces physical gratification outside wedlock and makes it punishable as adultery. The more primitive and backward the society, like China during times of Communist Revolution, the more barbaric the punishment. Mu Ying’s thrashing a red guard for not paying her money results in her public humiliation and atrocious death at the hands of Red Guards and suicide of her husband (Jin 88) – evil begetting evil. The author Ha Jing has not raised any question of morality. He has simply described the incompatible conduct of a person and its disastrous repercussions.

Attentional Spotlights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Attentional Spotlights - Essay Example In the study conducted by Vargha-Khadem and his associates in 2005, they have concluded that the ability to focus, organize and correlate information is important in the development of the communication and social skills that eventually set our species apart from other primates. These evolutionary developments include molecular neurological activities related to visual attention that has streamlined the brain into the identified activity centers (Mangun, 1995). According to Tong (2004), the "longstanding notion that spatial attention cannot be divided stems from the assumptions of early philosophers, such as Descartes, that consciousness itself is unitary and indivisible" is being challenged by neuroimages chronicling the neural activities that occur in the brain's retinotopic visual areas (p. 524). An important element in these changing perspectives is the technology that is becoming available for researches. There has been progression inclination towards the existence of multiple attention points in recent years. There has been evidence that attention spotlights are active concurrently at various areas of the brain given a common stimuli (Mller et al, 2003). At the same time, there are some researches that also point out that these concurrent activities many not necessarily be attention spotlights but rather are independent and unrelated cognitive neural activity (LaBerge et al, 1997). There is significant divergence in the consensus regarding the function of selective visual attention in attentional spotlight. Opinions mainly diverge on the prevalence, degree and significance of attentional spotlight. However, there is a universal realization that existing technologies and knowledge needs is still not enough to be deterministic. Current studies indicate that selective visual attention affords for flexibility and efficiency to facilitate between high level process and low sensory information. The role of spotlight serves as an accelerator of the highlighted information or stimulus (Spratling and Johnson, 2004). In the process of spotlighting, information is illuminated by the attention spotlight which has then the effect of streamlining perscotion of the said elements. However, when spatial shifting takes place, the spotlight turns off to be able to focus anew. This means that in the process of going thorugh spotlight A to spotlight B, the current consensus is that attentional spotlight does not exist. Concept Appraisal Understanding selective attention in the process of visual perception requires the recognition of the different attention mechanisms that are involved in the identification of a stimulus versus those that are involved after the process of perception (Vecera & Rizzo, 2003). Modern cognitive neuroscience experts in particular are emphasizing the need to further understand the components of selective visual attention to an attentional spotlight considering neuroanatomy and timing (Hopf et al, 2000). This is in view of its significance not only in the process of p[perception but also in the development of language and speech skills that in humans has been identified to depend significantly on the said factors (Vargha-Khadem et al, 2005). According to Chris Chatam (2006), "The spotlight metaphor of attention accords with our subjective experience: as

Nutrigenetics the relation between Genes and nutrition APOA2 Dissertation

Nutrigenetics the relation between Genes and nutrition APOA2 concerning cardiovescular diseases - Dissertation Example Within the nutrition-related disorder context, the variations in genetics underline the varying risks of the diseases, in response to interventions or treatments, as well as in the successful prevention chances. In addition to knowledge of the specific responsible genes, nutrigenetics provides an explanation on how and to which level the nutrition-related disorders and traits are determined by the variations in genetics. Therefore, the major concern in this is the need to answer the question of which particular genes are responsible for a trait, as well as the particular variation in functional identity by which individuals exhibit differences for trait, and the ideal way through which the gained knowledge can be beneficial to the population. Nutrigenetics refers to the effect of variations in genetics on an individual’s optimal dietary requirements. Therefore, nutrigenetics can be regarded as the retrospective study of how variations in genetics, which include single nucleoti de polymorphisms (SNPs) in individuals, result in varied responses to particular nutrients. Researchers have always defined the candidate genes for a given disorder or trait and eventually went ahead to search for the variation in genes, and the approach has been referred to as ‘hypothesis-driven’ method, since the gene selection is done based on their respective functions, just like the lipoprotein genes is regarded as candidates for obesity disorder; whereas the genes for signaling insulin are considered to be candidates for diabetes.

Compare certain aspect of India and China Dissertation

Compare certain aspect of India and China - Dissertation Example Detailed research in this direction would throw more light on HDI utility. Therefore, review of contemporary register of cultural and political events become essential. The processes that may be adopted to develop the utility of HDI is attempted to foresee in the light of strength and weakness of the people of these two countries. Five areas of focus were identified and studied. Data collected on these five areas were analyzed and found that future research would promote devising new parameters to measure human development. I. Introduction: With the purpose of this paper in view, that is to compare certain aspects of India and China, we rely chiefly on Human Development Index. In the light of HDI the attempts made to compare these two countries are necessarily confined to a few areas of development alone. HDI data currently available do not cover some areas like human rights, government and conflicts, a few cultural and social impacts and governance factors. As these two countries re present the biggest populated areas of the world, our study of these countries is expected to provide ample chances to explore various aspects of human development. Human Development Index was hitherto based on GDP of a nation. GDP is mainly dealing with the income and the purchase power of people. This economic data are in fact essential to measure the development of a nation. However, this alone can not be called human development. Human development comprises several aspects of human life sphere. Economic growth is one among those aspects. While it is easy to measure economic growth or fall in terms of data translated in to numbers, there are some areas, which can not be translated into numbers. Inclusion of other areas of human life sphere thus becomes necessary to be included in HDI. Improving the utility strategy of HDI is therefore essential to compare national level developments. The study of constrains and concessions, joy and sorrow, wealth and poverty ill and healthy, lite racy and illiteracy of men and women of densely populated countries is bound to open a floodgate of focus areas. These focus areas will represent the human life style of the place, the measurement of which will give out a clear picture of the entire nation. Thus the population study of India and China is expected to bring out many areas of their life sphere which have impacts on their overall national development. Several focus areas came across, out of which some five were picked for the present study. The data gleaned were applied to the area of focus and a test of match and mismatch with the core of the focus areas was performed. While the matching statistics were found to confirm the hypothesis, the mismatching data were allocated for future research. Confirmatory data in respect of a country although go along with the hypothesis, are found to contradict with hypothesis in respect of other country. II. Rationale of the study with hypothesis: With HDI as the chief tool of human d evelopment measurement, we try to compare two nations namely China and India. As far as population is concerned, these two countries represent the world’s densest areas. In order to near the research questions the following hypothesis is framed. With the current tool of HDI in hand, comparing these two countries on the basis of similar population density provide a picture of their developments with ups and downs: - Taking only the manpower of

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 20

Research - Essay Example One of his discoveries, that high vacuums can be created by using cooled charcoal, was quite useful in the field of atomic physics. The purpose behind the creation of the Dewar flask was to serve as an aid while working with liquid gases. The Dewar flask is a container to stores substances like liquid air in the hot or cold form. There is vacuum in between the two flasks it contains, which serves to prevent a change in temperature by reducing the transfer of heat. The glass walls are not strong heat conductors and the transfer of heat by radiation is further reduced by lining the walls with a reflective metal like silver. The flask is seated on a spring with a container made of metal or plastic to absorb shock. The air between the container and the flask serves to insulate the setup. Sir James Dewar had not manufactured the vacuum flask for commercial use. Two German glass blowers in 1904 formed Thermos GmbH (Bellis 2015). The concept of vacuum flask has been used in the making of insulated bottles. The well-known name Thermos was not registered until 1906 when William B. Walker learned of the innovation of Paalen, Burger, and Aschenbrenner and gained the rights of exclusive manufacturing and marketing of thermoses in the US (Bryk 2015). The thermos insulated bottle became popular all across the US in no time. The picture of the glass-lined aluminum vacuum sealed bottle is shown as follows: The bottle shown in the picture was made in 1915 by the â€Å"American Thermos Bottle Co. of Norwich, Connecticut† (Bryk 2015). In 1959, the company was named King Seeley Thermos (KST). The bottles were particularly used by outdoor laborers like construction crews who needed to keep the drinks hot or cold for extended periods of time. The raw materials mainly used to make thermos include stainless steel or plastic and glass. Stainless steel or plastic is used to make the outer cup whereas glass is used to make the inner cup. Nowadays, thermoses

Biographical essay on General William O. Darby for a Arkansas History

Biographical on General William O. Darby for a Arkansas History class - Essay Example He gradually became cadet company commander and Darby, though later was known to be one of the greatest infantrymen that the country had ever seen, graduated from West Point in June 1933 as a second lieutenant with artillery as his choice of career. From west point he later was assigned for duty in the 82nd field artillery which belonged to the 1st cavalry division and was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas. At the time that Darby joined the division, it was the only artillery unit remaining in the army which was on horse back. After serving some time there he was promoted to the rank of captain in October of 1940 and thereafter received amphibious training. Darby was soon assigned to be the aide-de-camp to Major General Russell P. Hartle who was the commander of the thirty-fourth infantry division2. Soon the bombing by the Japanese of Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to the deployment of the division to Northern Ireland in January of 1942 and Darby was also deployed. In Northern Ireland Darby was to meet General Lucian K. Truscott, who was put in charge of acquiring volunteers from the 34th infantry and the 1st armored division for the establishment of a new unit of elite commandos. These were to be acquired from the already thin contingency of troops who were in the United Kingdom at the time which was not much to work with. Furthermore, the new unit did not have any commanding officer and through one sly maneuver on the part of the chief of staff of the division at the time, Colonel Edmond Leavey3 Darby was given the opportunity to be the new commander of the Rangers. In no time Darby was the new commanding officer of his small number of soldiers who were then dubbed as Darby’s Rangers. William Darby was then promoted to the rank of a major and after the official setting up of the United States first army ranger battalion in 1942 he was made its commanding

2009 Stimulus Bill Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

2009 Stimulus Bill - Research Paper Example The day that President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he made a speech in Denver, which was city where he accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency. President Obama addressed the mayors regarding the stimulus plan and he highlighted the important aspects of the plan similar to his speech that he gave in Denver. President Obama had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada and took the opportunity, during the press conference to discuss the benefits of the stimulus plan. When Congress authorized the $787 billion economic stimulus package, not one House Republican voted for the stimulus plan. House Minority Leader John Boehner indicated that the plan would only make larger bureaucracies and not create jobs. Bill overview The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill was the first essential step by the government to produce and preserve three to four million jobs, start up the economy, and start transforming the economy for the 21st c entury with $787.2 billion in economic improvement tax cuts and directed priority investments (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan allows for unparalleled supervision, responsibility, and clearness to make certain that taxpayer dollars are invested successfully and efficiently (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). ... The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan seeks to put individuals in employment to cut down America’s reliance on foreign oil by strengthening attempts aimed at increasing renewable energy manufacture and modernize public structures to make them more energy efficient.  (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). The plan will invest more than $30 billion to alter the country’s energy diffusion, delivery, and creation systems and investing $5 billion to weatherize middle class homes (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). The stimulus plan will invest $15 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation and $7.2 billion to expand broadband internet access in attempt to help companies compete in a global economy.  (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will invest $27.5 billion for highway construction, $16.5 billion to renew federal and other public infrastructure, $18.8 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration, and $17.7 billion for transportation initiatives to cut down traffic congestion and gas use (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). To facilitate children to be taught in 21st century schoolrooms, the stimulus plan will invest $26 billion in school districts, $53.6 billion in state fiscal aid to avoid cutbacks to vital services, and $15.6 billion to enlarge the Pell grant (Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill, 2009). In an effort to keep jobs, money, and lives, the stimulus plan will invest $19 billion for health information technology to avert medical errors, supply enhanced care to patients and establish cost-saving efficiencies and $2 billion to offer preventative care and to assess the most efficient healthcare treatments (Summary of Economic

Importance of Emotion and Alignment Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Importance of Emotion and Alignment Paper - Essay Example However, the culture clash was expected to be between the French way of leadership and his new Japanese employees. The Japanese were conservative and this made Ghosn to accept their culture and operate their way. The financial situations at Nissan forced the management to bring Ghosn so that he could make some difference. Supporters and critics built confidence in Ghosn in circumstances when Nissan had a lot of losses that led to more debts of about $22 billion. The situation led to consumers developing a weakened mind about the brand of Nissan (Millikin, & Fu, 2005). Also, the products’ portfolio consisted fully of older models than what the other competitors had. It was for Ghosn to understand the atmosphere and use it to bring change to the company. Ghosn instilled fear into people by declaring his wish to step down in case Nissan fails to meet the target. Happiness was felt after just eighteen months in charge, and it led to shock to both supporters critics when Nissan started to make profit. The people around Ghosn started to practice transparency since they believed what the leader says, and also think is right. The owners of Michelin felt threatened and denied any one especially Ghosn a chance to be the president of the firm on the ground that it was a family-run company. Therefore, Ghosn understood their denial emotion and decided to resign so that he can make a change somewhere else. Moreover, Renault had confidence in Ghosn and he used that trust to build his empire and became the Executive Vice President. The top and middle management personnel at Renault nicknamed Ghosn â€Å"Le Cost-Killer†. He was given that name because of his hard work in improving cost efficiency by focusing on increasing margin. The management appreciated Ghosn and gave him the role of Nissan COO when Nissan formed an alliance with Renault. The trust built in Ghosn was enough to turn things around faster the same way it was done

The Most Challenging Aspects of Today's Global Business Environment Essay

The Most Challenging Aspects of Today's Global Business Environment - Essay Example Today, social networks have created an information age, where businesses need to be part of the evolving network to succeed (Castells, 2010). In with the changes, the paper seeks to identify the most challenging aspects of today’s global business environment and the opportunities that exist in them for business operatives. Johansson and Leigh (2011) cited the penetration levels of multinational companies into the BRIC markets as a typical scenario of the growing importance of emerging markets in today’s global business environment. As a result of the concentration, business leaders are forced to follow the new flow of social influence by also making meaningful impacts in emerging markets (Dholakia and Talukda, 2004). On the opportunities that emerging markets present, Wilson and Purushothaman (2003) made mention of conducive political provisions that exist in most of these markets as a way of making them globalised destinations for foreign direct investments. There are also economic incentives including tax holidays and access to government supported loans (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki, 2002). Even more, consumers in emerging markets have become part of a global consolidation that has developed a new twist to consumer behavior, where the preference for quality forces companies to optimise thei r potentials (Gupta, 2011). The opportunities notwithstanding, there are key challenges that most emerging markets present multinational companies and other companies in the global business environment. For example, the use of superimposition, which for a long time was seen to be a major advantage for companies have been cautioned by Featherstone (1991) as having major disadvantages in any competitive global engagement. Again, the economic growth pattern of most of these emerging markets has been questioned by Smith (2014) and The Economist (2013) as being unsustainable but rather short-lived. This is because in

Holy and right Essay Example for Free

Holy and right Essay A Sufi seeker has to brace for self realization and that can only be done if one finds his/her beloved self. The journey to self realization is not easy since one has to work through their weaknesses and fight them through love and sacrifice. In other words one cannot attain higher levels of morality if they do not love their God, themselves and the people around them. Following and knowing the principles of Allah through the Quran is just but one stage in the spiritual life however to follow the principles of Quran is another challenge all together. The principles to be followed by Muslims calls for one to not only have the zeal but the interest in Islam so that their hearts can be purified. Religion should be such that religious principles are comprehended as right and not questioned after all the supreme being Allah is supposed to be Holy and right 2. In other words, though Muslims have never met Allah in person, they have to have faith in His religion and His teachings disseminated through prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). In the above light, faith should be such that principles of religion are followed through reasoning and analysis2. For example, people should not just follow Islam faith because many people are following it since they will not tolerate the mode of discipline and principles to be followed by the religion followers. Studies show that religions that don’t challenge their followers to analyze their religion are not true religions 2 Perhaps the reason why there are so many cults around the world is because of such followers not questioning the principles behind their religion and ultimately may end up committing suicide thinking they are going to their ‘supreme being’. In this light Sufism is about analyzing and reasoning about the Islam religion so that a Muslim is able to derive meaning from the religious teachings and practices. Knowledge of any kind is usually disseminated through writings and teachings of people so that people can store the knowledge in their minds and analyze the information 3. People cannot be able to know the truth if they don’t have information. As stated earlier in this paper, Islam faith is all about submission and finding one self so that they can find Allah who is the Supreme Being. The information people gather from Islam religious books and teachings is coupled with analysis and testing to find if it makes sense to the follower. People religious decisions are influenced by other people’s thoughts and writings. For instance, as truths come out from the Quran Islam followers are able to follow through and find themselves in the religious believes they believe in. According to Shah Naqshband, if a follower is confused about something that his Sheikh has said or even done, one should be patient until they get to understand what they have not understood. For a Sufi follower, the acquired knowledge is what is more important since understanding is the one that leads to the self development of a person. The Islam faith is about realizing the truth of its teachings and principles 3. The same way, Sufism is also about finding the truth through ones experiences. For example, as one follows the principles of Islam, they get to realize the truth in those principles they follow. For instance, There are reasons why Muslims attend Hajji and seek to have pure hearts and life. The whole experience of Hajji ensures that a Muslim ends up finding himself and gaining a higher level of maturity. Studies show that finding the truth of Islam principles comes through ones experiences since one cannot be taught to find the truth without working hard to find out such principles. A person finds the meaning of what they believe in if they can effectively analyze and reason through what they are thinking about. For example a Muslim cannot know the essence of visiting Hajji if they don’t visit Mecca and follow all the procedures into achieving their self actualization in the religion they believe in. However, this paper notes that Sufism does not mean that Muslims find the truth about their religion as single entities but through teachers who help them see the truth in Islamic teaching. 3 Sufism is about humbling oneself in a bid to appease the supreme being while at the same time ensuring spiritual and moral growth. For example to be a successful Sufi, one should practice Hosh dar Dam and ensure that remain in Gods presence with every breath4. In that manner, a seeker of truth will be able to spend all their life and time doing what is right and avoiding sin. To be able to stay in Gods presence that means seekers have to seek forgiveness all the time so that they stay in unison with Gods teachings. In other words obedience is not an option in a successful Muslim which is also a core ingredient of Islam teachings. There are also other Islamic principles which constitute the actualization of a Sufi. For example, Nazar bar Kadam which means that one should not follow in paths which derail ones spiritual progress4. Sufism is about perfecting ones spiritual life through ensuring that they lead a straight light. For example a sufi should be able to practice Khilawat dar Anjuman which means that one secludes himself away from people and spends time in remembrance of his God4. As Islam faithful have time in remembrance of their God they develop deeper insights of the relationship with God. Consequently, Sufis should practice Safar dar Watan so that they achieve Gods characteristics and banish their worldly desires. For example, they should not create doubts in their minds about their God but instead believe in His teaching and follow them accordingly. Other studies show that spiritual knowledge cannot be transmitted through words 4. That means that knowledge is passed through heart to heart experiences. Sufism insists that seekers have to meet a physical master at least once. The master is to help the seeker in finding the truth. A Sufi master should be merciful when disseminating knowledge to the seeker which should be done in love4. When analyzing the Islamic faith, sheikhs usually teach Islam followers with love and passion which is not any different from the principles of Sufism. Sufi seekers are Muslims who make a decision to go a step further and draw towards God by ensuring that they don’t defy God since they love and seek Him. Drawing Gods presence close to oneself then also calls for actions and commitment to following righteous paths. Sufism insists on following Islamic ways. This study found out Sufism cannot be found in books but self experiences through seeking higher levels of morality. With such in mind, it can be asserted that Islam faith cannot be separated from Sufism since it also seeks for growth and development of Muslims. The essence of a supreme being is such that, He does not need wealth since He created wealth at His own wish 4. In this light, Sufis do not have to crave for worldly wealth but instead seek to live in Godly ways. An analysis of why Sufism came to be shows that, many Muslim leaders had become entangled with the worldly desires and sought to live in impunity, and at the same time generate a lot of wealth. In the eyes of other Muslims who wanted to acquire higher levels of morality, they sought to seek and follow the truth instead of seeking for worldly desires. Studies show that Muslim leaders who are philanthropists of Sufism started off as humble and pure of heart Muslims who would not follow the example of other selfish Muslim leaders. 5 Sufism is about being humble and seeking the ways of God so that one can live in unity with him. After all the wealth of this world is just temporary and seizes when one dies and goes to paradise. Islam faith does not in any way teach its followers to follow the ways of the world or haram but instead asks its followers to be decisive in following the teachings of Allah and Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him). Conclusion This study found that there are many controversies surrounding the concept of Sufism in the Islam faith. For example there are those who believe that the concept was coined by followers outside the teachings of Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) and the Quran. However, a analysis of the history and origin of Sufism states that, the concept came to be as a result of seekers of truth who wanted to achieve higher levels of morality. The essence of Muslim faith is to be submissive and at the same time find truth in the teachings of Islam. In this light Sufism cannot be separated from the teachings of Islam. On the other hand, this study also found out that Sufism is about analyzing and reasoning Islam religious teachings to be able to find the truth. People seek a religion because they believe in it and love the Supreme Being associated with it. In this light, to achieve higher levels or morality and to be able to understand the truths of the religion it is mandatory be able to experience the truths in such teachings. Sufism cannot be learned in books but rather can be experienced through following disciplined routines and practices as dictated in the Islamic Quran. Hence in conclusion, it can be argued that Sufism is the heart of Islam and it cannot be separated from Islamic teachings and principles. Reference list Geocites (2009). Sufi Principles and Practices. Retrieved on 22nd February, 2009 from http://www. geocities. com/sufisaints/Principles. htm. Muhammad E (2008). Laws of the Heart: A Practical Introduction to the Sufi Path, Shifa Publishers.

Methods to Plan an Operation Strategy

Methods to Plan an Operation Strategy Strategy can be defined as a method focus on utilize the limited resources and energies of an organization to come out with a plan of action which can lead the organization to achieve its goals and also compete with other competitors. Therefore, for the operation strategy it can be classify as a method or plan implement within an organization operations function, to control and maintain all its operation aspect which eventually to support organizations overall strategies and achieve its goals (Stevenson, 2009). Fast food industries as the literally mention, it emphasize in fast which is the speed required to convenient the consumers to come again to consume its goods and services. According to this theory, the fast food restaurant will set up its operation strategies base on this main objective which is the time-based strategies to make sure that the consumers are satisfy with its services provided and then achieve its organization goals. In general, the operation strategies are cons ists of 10 decision areas but in this fast food industry there are 7 decision areas will be discuss. The first one would be the product and services design, to compete through operation strategy in this area the fast food restaurant need to create a way to aware people of its services and food provided which could through advertising. A proper advertising is a good way to spread the good image of the restaurant to the public, such as emphasizes the family spirit in the advertising of fast food. Beside, for the service design the fast food restaurant needs to build up a strong customer relationship as its strategy because in a service industry, customer satisfaction is vital for a business to success. For the second one would be the quality decision area, toward this area fast food restaurant will implement operation strategies such as increase the nutrition level, portion size and high quality of food. As we know that, the public impression towards fast food was bad, base on this point to compete through operation the fast food organization need to improve this area by implement the operation strategy of maintain the standard quality and safety of food ingredient to make sure the consumers are comfortable to having the food provided by the organization. Besides, provide the details and information about the nutrition of the meal of fast food restaurant provided to attract new consumers who are interested in healthy lifestyle (Frydman, 1985). Third one will be discuss the operation strategies decision area of location, strategy location is vital for a business to gain the crowds which are the chances of consumers to come and consume at there. Therefore, compete through the location strategy the fast food restaurant must open its outlet according difference location and specify area, such as business areas to get the working class consumer to dine-in have their breakfast or lunch, and also shopping areas to get difference classes of consumer to having their meals anytime when they are hungry. This operation strategy is good in term of provide convenient to the consumers which achieve the main purpose of all fast food restaurant. Next, for the layout design of operation strategies decision area would discuss about the exterior and interior design of fast food restaurant. In this strategy, fast food restaurant will create a standardize image strategy on all of its outlets in the world wide both exterior and interior but it m ight have some difference in size which according to the location. For the interior design it emphasize in create a comfortable environment to both the consumers and workers. This strategy provides brand recognition because of homogeneity exterior and interior design on its outlets which can place a strong brand image on the consumers mind. To compete through human resource this area of operation strategy, fast food restaurant will create strategy emphasize on right person on right job. Fast food organization will utilize the human resources to separate department to complete difference job and function. Beside, provide training opportunity to the workers which enhance job satisfaction to prevent overturn rate increase. This strategy will increase the efficiency of the fast food restaurant to complete their task which also achieve its objectives of the speed is fast and the service provided is good at the same time. Supply chain management of operation strategy decision area is important for fast food restaurant because this strategy determines what to purchase and to make become the goods which the restaurant want to provide to the customers. This strategy emphasize in the inventory system to maintain the raw materials are fresh and good. So that, just in time inventory system is fulfill the need of restaurant to make sure the quality of food is fresh. Beside, to maintain no perishable food of inventory level is also a good operation strategy to compete with other competitors, because without perishable food in the store which means that the organization is well in manage and utilize the resources, it could save a huge amount of the cost of raw materials eventually. For the flexibility, to compete through this point the fast food restaurant need to provide an operation strategy which emphasize in corresponding kitchen arrangement to support it operation function to increase the flexibility. Last, the maintenance process as an operation strategy is emphasize on the maintenance of product quality, layout design, its location and human resources. A proper maintenance process is needed to increase fast food restaurant good will and reputation continuously. Reference: Fast food restaurant business plan. Retrieved March 20, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.bplans.com/fast_food_restaurant_business_plan/strategy_and_implementation_summary_fc.cfm Frydman, K. (1985), Healthy fast-food chains banking on fitness craze. Nations Restaurant News, March 11, 1985. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_v19/ai_3680221/ Louisville, kentucky. Fast foods yummy secret: Americas second-biggest fast-food group is as successful as it is little known. The economist print edition. August 25, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4316138 Paul W. Larson. The Myrddin group. LLC. 2004. Retrieved from http://www.myrddingroup.com/pdf/operations.pdf Stevenson, W.J. Operations Management, 10th Ed. America: McGraw Hill. 2009 Strategy. In Wikipedia. Retrived March 20, 2010. Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy

Malaysia Fatal Road Accidents

Malaysia Fatal Road Accidents Introduction Background Latest accident data records, findings the fatal of road accident in Malaysia. The accident increase cause road death of it increase, it makes the tourist outsider afraid to drive and indirectly cause the negative effect in economy. The problem of deaths and injury as a result of road accidents is now acknowledged to be a global phenomenon with authorities in virtually all countries of the world concerned about the growth in the number of people killed and seriously injured on their roads. In recent years, the government of Malaysia has been one of the most fatal road accidents among the world. The main sources of data used for this study were United Nation Status Paper on Road Safety 2009, Malaysia and blog spot of Malaysia driving school. We study the fatal rate of road accident in Malaysia and national statistics published through online and other sources. We identify the research question in order to solve our management dilemma. That is â€Å"What are the causes of fatal road accidents in Malaysia?† Road safety considered as one of the social responsibilities of the Malaysian Government. In the sight of this responsibilities, various bodies concern about the road safety have been created within the government departments, voluntary organization and private agencies. http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/roadsafety/Reports2006/Malaysia_RSpaper.pdf Road death statistics in our country are at a very critical level. The number of road fatalities in our country has reached an â€Å"alarming† level, said Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) [director-general Prof Dr Ahmad FarhanSadullah] He was commenting on a report by the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF) which ranked Malaysia among 33 countries which had the highest road deaths at 23.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants last year.The accident increase cause road death of it increase, it makes the tourist outsider afraid to drive and indirectly cause the negative effect in economy. Habit such as failing to give the correct signals when turning, speaking on mobile phone when driving smoking are some of the reason.† by transport ministry parliamentary secretary Donald Lim Siang Chai http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2010%2F9%2F18%2Fnation%2F7061384sec=nation Expertise on relevant research ESCAPs mandate was broadened in 1977 by the General Assembly. The regional commissions have since then been the main UN economic and social development centres within the five different regions. The research comes with UN Status Paper on Road Safety 2009, Malaysia. TheUnited Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. With a membership of 62 Governments, 58 of which are in the region, and a geographical scope that stretches from Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south, ESCAP is the most comprehensive of the United Nations five regional commissions. It is also the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region with over 600 staff. Established in 1947 with its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, ESCAP seeks to overcome some of the regions greatest challenges. It carries out work in the following areas: Macroeconomic Policy and Development Statistics Sub regional activities for development Trade and Investment Transport Environment and sustainable development Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Social Development Research Problem/Dilemma The accident increase cause road death of it increase, it makes the tourist outsider afraid to drive and indirectly cause the negative effect in economy. From the data recorded road death per 100000 inhabitant Malaysia get 23.8 people of death rate compare to KOREA 12.0, US 11.1 UK 3.8.Road death statistic in our country is at very criteria level. Malaysia is one of the highest death rates on road accident among the world. Research Objective Objectives The objectives of this report overview the fatal road accident in Malaysia. As we know that the accidents rate in Malaysia are rising, in order to solve the problem, we had identify the factor had cause the road accident. Road accident can be cause by driver behavior, equipment failure, roadway design, and poor roadway maintenance. Road accident can be cause by driver behavior, equipment failure, roadway design, and poor roadway maintenance. The major common reason of causing road accident in Malaysia is the driver behavior. Example, drinking alcohol is one of the main causes road deaths in Malaysia. Driving alcohol affects the driving skills and the driver may become fuzzy after drinking so that they will not able to concentrate when they are driving. Speed kill is also a serious case probably will cause by the young generation because most of them are immature. For example, when a car cut into their road land or provoke them, they will try to against it. Poor road maintenance can be a problem causing the road accidents and is the responsibility of the local highway departments because when there was a faded road sign at crossroads, turning point or others, it may confuse the driver go into the wrong way. Uneven surface of the road will also be the problem causes accident. Car equipment failure will also cause the road accident. Some of the cars does not maintain or repair especially tires. The pattern of the tires is use to resistance sliding. If the tires is old or spoil, this easily make the car lost control. Therefore, engine and break system is also an important part for the car. By not taking care of engine will cause car explore and break down of breaking system. Road designs will cause accident when there is a big flow of car and cause many places traffic jam during holidays. Therefore, the driver which has cannot slowly to wait for it. They are trying to turn left and right to cross the car and it cause accident and made heavier jam for the road. Search and verify the information throughout literature review Death Rate per 10,000 vehicles and per 100,000 people (2005-2009) 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total Vehicle* 14,816,407 15,790,732 16,825,150 17,733,084 19,020,000 Population** 26,130,000 26,640,000 27,173,600 27,728,700 28,310,000 Death/ 10,000 vehicles 4.18 3.98 3.73 3.68 3.55 Death/ 100,000 people 23.73 23.60 23.12 23.54 23.83 Pedestrian Death Rate per 10,000 vehicles and per 100,000 peoples (2005 2009) User Injury Type 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Pedestrian Fatal 601 595 636 598 593 Serious Injury 747 711 672 617 613 Light Injury 2,175 1,493 1,430 1,184 1,171 Total registered vehicles and total population Total Registered Vehicle* 14,816,407 15,790,732 16,825,150 17,733,084 18,020,000 Population** 26,130,000 26,640,000 27,173,600 27,728,700 28,310,000 Pedestrian Deaths Rate Death/ 10,000 vehicles 0.40 0.38 0.37 0.33 0.31 Death/ 100,000 people 2.30 2.23 2.34 2.16 2.09 Collect data to verify the existing dilemma The data of death rate per 10,000 vehicles and per 100,000 peoples was collected from 2005 to 2009. The death rate per 10,000 vehicles was decrease from 4.18 to 3.55. And the death rate per 100,000 peoples was decrease from 23.73 to 23.83. Our group prepare power point slide to show that why there are a lot of accident causes in Malaysia, the reason is the driver, road, car and traffic problems. We analyze the cause of road accident show why driver, road, car and traffic problems causes accident. We also search and verify the information throughout literature review to prove the true to shows that accident causes a lot of life death in accident. We also collect data to verify the existing dilemma to shows how many people death in road accident. Literature Review Causes of accident in Malaysia 1.) Driver Driver is most causes of the accident, it because some driver who are tired, sleepy and feeling emotional should in fact not be driving at all. Its call Driver attitude. , drinking alcohol is one of the main causes road deaths in Malaysia. Driving alcohol affects the driving skills and the driver may become fuzzy after drinking so that they will not able to concentrate when they are driving. Speed kill is also a serious case probably will cause by the young generation because most of them are immature. Especially the person who drinking alcohol or taking drugs after, should not driving the car. Because when after drinking the alcohol or taking the drugs will feel unconscious, so in the way driving is very dangerous. Some of the driver turning a corner without giving the correct signal to mention the turning way, this may confused other driver suspicion is turning left or right. In this way, when other side car coming and does not know you want to turn, will causes the accident happen. The action when driver driving the car and pick up the call to speak and smoking is a big causes of accident. It is because when talking the phone or smoking, the driving concentration will switch to other action driver doing, so when not concentration driving may make mistake at the blind spot, the accident may happen easily. 2.) Road Not only the driver causes the accident, some of the accident is making by the road. It is because in Malaysia when you driving to anywhere sure can meet up some hold on the road, because the road long time using by the bigger lorry carrying with the heaver thing like container. So at the long time pass by on the road, the road will sink and become a hold. The government does not care about it the problem and when raining the water rush the soil under the road make the hold become bigger. When the night time, if the road got hold and does not put the signboard mention in front got a hold, driver did not know in front got a hold and may become high percent getting the accident. 3.) Car Condition of the car self also is a way cause of accident. When the car using a long period time, the part of the brakes, lights, signals lights, horn and other does not working well will make lose control. 4.) Traffic When come to the Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas or some specially public holiday, we can see the traffic jam at anyway. This time all family want rush back to hometown meet up with their family and sharing the happiness, but at the same time driver starting cannot waiting for the long time in the traffic jam and try to left and right continually cutting the car, so easily get accident too. Research Design It is a Pure research Purpose is explanatory Conduct the research by suing website, related research by professional. Time frame: 2000-2009 Environment: Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) Instrumental development: Qualitative research to explore the nature of problem. Data collection design sempling design Research schedule At the April 18 our group leader starting distributes the part to every group mates. After giving the part to everyone, all go back home and find all the information about the research. In the April 22 leader collection all the information and data to check the information are correct or not or suitable for using in this assignment or not. At May 2 added all the information into the assignment, we start to meeting with doing survey and analyses the data. After done the assignment leader send a soft copy to all group mates and inform us doing self part of the power point to present. In the end of the last stage, at May 4 combined all the power point together and do a normal simple design on the every slide.

Radical Feminism and Hip Hop Essay examples -- Music Analysis

Since its emergence in the South Bronx in the 1970’s, hip hop has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world. Once an underground genre of music, it is seen in commercials, movies, television shows, etc. It has transformed from music and expanded into a full culture. It has even made its way into fashion and art. Men have always been on the front line of Hip Hop. However, the lyrics and images have changed tremendously. Lyrics and images that once spoke upon the injustices and empowerment for the African American people is now filled with money, cars, jewelry, and of course women. Today’s hip hop generation is criticized for its negative portrayal of women. Every music video that is produced features scantily clad women with dancing sensually. Feminists speak against them because they are continuing to sexualize the female form, degrade women by using terms such as â€Å"bitch† and â€Å"hoe† to describe them, and in all continuing to make them second class citizens. Radical feminism focuses on such oppression in society and the existence of patriarchy/male dominance. All of which is evident in Hip Hop. Patriarchy creates a social division. It is often used to describe the power between a male and a woman. This idea is important in Radical Feminism. Seen as the root of female oppression, Radical Feminists recognize that patriarchy is everywhere. Radical feminist came about because they were not happy with the course of action taken by the first wave of feminists. Radical feminists wanted a revolution, not just reform; they wanted to do things their way as opposed to following â€Å"the system†. So they came up with their own theories that fit their way of thinking and often were at odds with the reformer feminists... ...lackademics.org. Word Press, 2006. Web. 01 May 2012. . Burke, Colleen. "Women and Militarism." Women and Militarism. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Web. 05 May 2012. . Hooks, Bell. "Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap?" Race & Ethnicity. Web. 06 May 2012. . Hooks, Bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge, 2004. Mgadmi, Mahassen. "Black Women’s Identity: Stereotypes, Respectability and Passionlessness (1890-1930)." LISA E-Journal. Web. 06 May 2012. . Zieber, Maureen. "Definition of Radical Feminism." Suite101.com. Web. 08 May 2012. .

Ambrose Bierces An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Essay example -- Bi

Ambrose Bierce's â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,† by Ambrose Bierce, is the story of the hanging of a Civil War era Southern gentleman by the name of Peyton Farquhar. The story begins with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. He is then identified as Peyton Farquhar, a man who attempted to destroy the very bridge they are standing on based on information he was given by a Federal scout posing as a Confederate soldier. As he is dropped from the bridge to hang, the rope snaps and he falls into the river. After freeing himself and returning to the surface of the river, he realizes that his senses are all much heightened and he even â€Å"noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass† (153). Peyton then begins to swim downstream as he is being shot at by the soldiers and a cannon as well. He soon pulls himself ashore and begins the long journey home. After walking all day and night, to the point where â€Å"his tongue was swollen with thirst† and â€Å"he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet† he finally makes it to his home (155). Just as he is about to embrace his wife he feels a sharp pain in his neck and hears a loud snap. He is dead from the hanging, and all this was just a dream. â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† shows the potential strength that a person’s will to live can have, and that we often don’t appreciate...

Milan Sanitation Department Essay

1) What are the strengths and weakness of the system that Mr. Sponza developed for the control repair facility? Strengths a) By changing eight department they called shops as a â€Å"Profit Center† change the work attitudes of the workers. Since they’re now profit oriented, their productivity increase thus increase profits. b) By having this concept every each departments form a spirit of competitiveness, they compete each other even comparing to private sector. Having profit motives in every individual mind increase productivity thus increase profits. Weakness a) The concept doesn’t work in Engine Department due to cost to rebuilt engine was as much as the cost to buy new engine. b) Clocking actual time to do jobs will create uneasy to the workers because whenever they beat the clock they afraid they have to do more works. Without having an ability to trace the individual time, it’s difficult to do performance measure as well as to determine the cost. 2) Records on performance by individual or on costs for individual jobs were discontinued. Do you agree with this policy? No, somehow every each individual need to be assessed on their performance. Without records on performance the government will later having difficulty to do performance appraisal. Thus, no promotion, no increment on salary and no yearly bonus. 3) What recommendations, if any, would you make to Mr. Sponza concerning the system he has developed? How might you improve on it? Mr. Sponza needs to implement a â€Å"Performance Management Framework† such as setting up a Key Performance Index and Balanced Score Card where every each individual can be assed based on many factors not only on how fast they can do the jobs or profitability of every individual department. By implementing Balanced Score card, Mr. Sponza and management will be able to analyse four separate areas that need to be analysed: (1) learning and growth, (2) business processes, (3) customers, and (4) finance.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea: A better version of The Little Mermaid Essay

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, written, directed and animated by Hayao Miyazaki, in the year 2009 was an animated movie aimed at young audiences and their parents. He took Hans Christian Andersen’s short story The Little Mermaid as a blueprint for portraying this poetic, fantastic work using adorable pictures with interesting and impressive storyline to attract audiences. I would personally consider the movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as an improved version of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid because Miyazaki had introduced a lot of new elements to make the story look more realistic and interesting by considering the current preferences of children’s. In this movie, Miyazaki has not only described the love between people and people, but he has also highlighted the relationship between creatures and people using a simple story line. Generally, I would perceive Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as a great animated movie because it contains various outstanding features such as simple but attractive story, visually appealing animated pictures which are far better compared to other animated movies released recently and the music in the movie is quite pleasant touching people’s soul. In the following part of the essay, I am going to describe how Miyazaki successfully captivated the audiences’ likenesses through his new movie: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. There is a huge difference between the Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Mermaid and the Miyazaki’s movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. In the Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, there were so many children who got upset on her demise and her infatuation towards the prince. While suffering with great pain, she drank the potion and the Little Mermaid lost her tongue in exchange for her tongue, which was considered as the most beautiful part of the story, but still her sacrifice could not get the prince’s love. At last, her body turned into foam and it never existed again. According to Robinson, â€Å"the story’s agony and tragedy [actually loses] the people’s heart† (Robinson). Such a pathetic story used to break the children’s dreams. However, I would consider Hayao Miyazaki’s movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as an ameliorated story of The Little Mermaid because he slightly modified the ending of the story and introduced a lot of exciting elements to make the story more closely related with children’s preferences. Miyazaki has drawn several cute scenes about the main character girl Ponyo, such as eating noodles with her lover Sosuke and playing around with her pinky sisters. These scenes attracted the current generation of young audiences and made them fall in love into this adorable character and hence got them emotionally attached towards the movie. In addition to that, the climax of the movie was slightly changed that the Ponyo gets transformed into a little girl from a fish, so that she can be with Sosuke forever and it can be considered as one of the major difference when compared to the climax of The Little Mermaid’s. Therefore, I would personally consider the happy ending, the way of presentation and depicting characters as major elements making Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea better than The Little Mermaid. People regard Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, not only as a better version of The Little Mermaid, but also consider it as a great animation movie due to its simple and attractive storyline. Although there are people who criticize that the story sounds weird, and like many of Miyazaki’s previous films, Ponyo is also written from a child’s perspective and with a child’s sense of logic (Rodriguez). Miyazaki has raised the complexity of the movie’s theme to a higher level, enabling both children and adults to think and enjoy. The audiences are provided with three ways to observe the main theme of the story, which is the love between people, families, and creatures. First the audiences could feel the love and the relationship between Ponyo and her father Fujimoto. In the story, their relationship is not so well due to the busy schedule of Fujimoto, which reduced the time spent by him to understand his daughters and vice-versa. As her mother was also busy and hardly available at home, Ponyo had very less time for interacting with her parents. Even though Fujimoto tried his best to take care of Ponyo, such as providing clean food and taking them out for sightseeing at the sea, she didn’t care much about her father’s feelings. The only thing that she wanted to do was to get away from her father. What Ponyo did was immature and completely understandable, because she was just a 5 year-old girl at that time. But I believe that Miyazaki wanted to stress the issue that there does exist children who are bound do the same thing with their parents as well, and he wanted the young audiences to understand that whatever their parents are doing is only for the love they have towards their children. Secondly, the audiences may notice how Sosuke loved his mother. Although his father used to leave him and his mother at home while going for fishing, he realized how to take good care of his mother and carry the responsibilities of the family as a whole. I do remember a scene, when Sosuke’s father called to apologize for not coming back for dinner which left Sosuke’s mother crying about that. At that time, Sosuke’s passes her a napkin, consoling her not to get sad about that. Sosuke doesn’t know the reason for her mother being upset, but his actions represent the second type of love, which indicates how the younger generation shows their love towards their parents. Finally Miyazaki wanted to express the pure love between the main characters, Ponyo and Sosuke to the audiences as the third kind of love. One of the scenes comprised of a test that Nereus had given to Sosuke. Without anybody’s help, any ship to drive, and any lights to walk in the tunnel, Sosuke builds his courage to take care of Ponyo, the one whom he loves a lot and he overcomes all the hurdles that come in his way. These scenes inspired me to think about the children of this era. It is common that children would cry and call for their parents when they encounter difficult situations; however, despite the worry about his mother’s disappearance at that moment, Sosuke tactfully handled all these challenges physically and mentally encouraging Ponyo too to be strong. Therefore, I personally think that the act of the 5 year-old boy, Sosuke should be highly appreciated because it is really not an easy task for a normal child to either handle or accomplish it. The only reason why Sosuke could do it is all because of the love he had towards Ponyo, which gave him the power to raise his courage to get through all the challenges. The factors that decide whether an animated movie was successful or not doesn’t purely depend on the storyline or content that the director wants to emphasize, but it also depends on the way the movie was filmed that embellishes the movie with eye-catchy and enthralling features. When compared with the Disney film The Little Mermaid, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea didn’t involve any Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) work, which meant that the whole film was drawn by animators, and this further heightens the film’s natural characteristics. â€Å"In Miyazaki’s fertile imagination, the ordinary and magical worlds blend into each other; both are full of marvels† (Young). Young adds that Miyazaki’s movie provided softer and more realistic pictures to the audiences as all the things were hand-made. For example, I would personally consider the sea to be the most imaginative part of the movie. Miyazaki used his abundant imaginations in transforming the sea into a living character that can represent the mind of Ponyo’s father Fujimoto. One of the scenes is that, Fujimoto uses his magic to transform the sea into a living creature to chase Ponyo, but the sea couldn’t catch her and it fiercely outbursted onto the land. In addition to the much hyped imaginative scenes, Miyazaki had asked Joe Hisaishi to compose the background music for the movie. The movie became additionally attractive, as Hisaishi had used children to sing all the songs. Hence, these specialties made Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea so special that it induced people to come and enjoy. In summary, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea possesses nice elements for being considered as a great animated movie. First of all, being structured similar to the traditional tale The Little Mermaid, Miyazaki’s movie is more appreciated by the audiences of this era as it had a better climax than the story and the more updated elements are provided to meet the expectations and interests of children. Secondly, the complexity of the movie initiates audiences to deeply think about how people should interpret love and relationship between people, families, or even lovers. Thirdly, with the inclusion of more animated pictures and intoxicated music, audiences felt emotionally attached to the movie, trying to feel the happiness and sadness of the characters in the movie. Even though there are people criticizing the movie, but I believe that it has already qualified as a good animation movie because Miyazaki has designed it to become approachable by both adults and children. I personally feel that people can get inspired by the love of the story, trying to practice it in the real world, and very soon the society will become more harmonious. People would become friendlier to each other, making the world a better place to live on. Works Cited Robinson, Tasha. â€Å"Ponyo. † 13 Aug. 2009. The Onion Inc. A. V. Club. 2 May 2010 . Rodriguez, Rene. â€Å"Review : Ponyo. † 14 Aug 2009. The Miami Herald. Miami Herald Media Co. 02 May 2010 . Young, Deborah. â€Å"Film Review: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. † 30 Aug. 2008. The Hollywood Reporter. 2 May 2010. .

Privacy on Social Networks

Network Sites (SNS) are websites that allow users to upload information to a public profile, create a list of online friends, and browse the profiles of other users of the SNS. The websites have membership rules and community standards. Users disclose identity-relevant information via their profile to others. This information is referential, directly referring to a person, or attributive, describing attributes to the data subject. Although most laws and regulations restrict the access to referential information, attributive information is not protected as such. However, the aggregation of large amounts of attributive information on SNS profiles poses new privacy risks, disclose identity-relevant information via their profile to others. Also, the privacy options in social networking sites do not work out in the way they are supposed to do. Keep your private life private! What does social network do? In real life, you have a circle of your friends. But what about their friends? And the friends of the friends of your friends? You can get to know people from literally any part of the world. That means you are sharing information with them. And that also means you are sharing a lot of information that you don't want to share! Information spreads faster through a Social Network Site than through a real? life network. Information might be disclosed to a group of people unexpectedly, because the digital information is easily copied, can be stored indefinitely and is searchable. It especially harms users when information travels through different social spheres, and ends up with people whom it was not intended for. People have been fired, missed out on job interviews and academic opportunities, and been suspended from school for instant messages, wall posts and other messages they mistakenly thought were like private real world conversations with friends. Do not post anything in social networks that you won't want to shout out in public. You can send private emails for that, but NEVER social networks. Social network is a place where you never know whom you are sharing private information with unless you yourself created the network! So be careful, stay safe! Applications and external links on social networking sites Have you ever used the ‘applications' of facebook, myspace or any other social networking sites? Did you read the policies of that site about those applications? In most cases, the games or applications owners have access to almost all of your information that you provided in your social networking account. Moreover, they may also use them for commercial purposes. Some of these applications may offer you to participate in a survey to earn ‘credits' or virtual ‘money'. You might, for example, earn some quick Farmville cash by answering a brief survey. Sounds a lot better than using your credit card, right? But you're probably safer breaking out your wallet. TechCruch cites one instance in which players could win currency if they filled out such a survey. At the end of the survey, they would be asked to provide their phone number so that they can receive a PIN via text to get the results. Once they've entered that PIN into the site, they're subscribed to a horoscope service for $9. 99 per month–something they won't know unless they diligently read all the fine print. Ouch. The victims could immediately try to cancel the subscription, of course, but they could still end up being charged. Unwanted charges aren't the only thing players are susceptible to: Social networking games make you a target for viruses and hackers as well. You will find a couple of threads in Zynga's community forums in which moderators warn users against accepting any gifts or invitations within a certain game on Facebook. (They didn't specify exactly what would happen if users accepted these buggy gifts or requests! ) Sometimes users also claim that a bug in the game wiped out all of their game progress. That can be pretty devastating for someone who has dedicated lots of time and money to it. Laws to minimize privacy threats Not all threats for privacy in Social Network Sites materialize and damage users in the same way. A risk analysis approach is needed to incorporate these insecurities into the analysis. The experts identified multiple threats for users of Social Network Sites. When these threats materialize, they become incidents that affect a certain amount of people. However, not all of these incidents damage users in the same way. The damage incurred depends on the type of threat and the perception of the user. Laws are directed at preventing the threats from materializing. More specifically, American tort laws create means for people to find compensations against the damages they incurred. Experts rate to what extent the tort laws address the threats for privacy and resulting damages they identified. The ratings of the various tort laws are depicted in illustration below. In 1986, Congress passed the Stored Communications Act as part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to address privacy issues attendant to the advent of the internet. Through the SCA, Congress intended to restrict disclosure of private communications by providers of electronic communications services. However, when Congress passed the SCA, the internet was in its infancy. The few networks available to consumers, such as Prodigy and America Online, were self-contained, and most people had never heard of the term e-mail, let alone utilized the limited form of electronic messaging that existed at the time. The World Wide Web did not yet exist, and it would be nearly a decade before the introduction of the web browser in the mid-1990s. Do you think the social networking sites abide by laws? Just because they are popular and big-game websites, doesn't mean their policies are always convenient for you. The Privacy Policies of popular social networking sites were found contradictory to the Canadian privacy law. In July 2009, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada issued a report on an in-depth investigation triggered by a complaint from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. Third-party application developers Deactivation of accounts Personal information of non-users Accounts of deceased users Uses of user information Facebook did agree to change their privacy policies to avoid being banned or may be sued by Canadian government. But did that really make any difference? The Privacy Commissioner herself expressed dissatisfaction with the result. â€Å"While Facebook took some steps to resolve privacy concerns, the Commissioner remained dissatisfied by Facebook’s response at the end of the investigation. She was particularly concerned about the risks posed by the over-sharing of personal information with third-party developers of Facebook applications such as games and quizzes. † [Source: News release from Privacy Commission of Canada; Ottawa, August 27, 2009: ‘Facebook agrees to address Privacy Commissioner's concerns'] As having access to other people's private information is getting easier, laws can do a very little to protect us. We, ourselves have to be aware of where our information is going and who can have access to it.

Space design considerations for an architecture school

And teaching staff in newly approved Institution / Program. Then it gives detailed time schedule for processing of applications . Page- 72 : It provides further information about Unapproved Institutions, detailed points to be carried out Action in case of violation of Regulations. It provides objectives , eligibility , processing fee and procedure for approval, conditions for approval regarding Collaboration & Twining Program between Indian and Foreign Universities or Institutions in the field of Technical Education, Research and Training .Peg 73- 81 : It gives information about the program , duration and eligibility for students o be considered while giving admission to under graduate degree program, Post Graduate Degree and Post Graduate Diploma Programs (Full Time), Diploma Program, Post Diploma Programs . Page- 107 : It lists the approved Nomenclature of Courses of 400 courses taught under CACTI. It gives information in tabular form regarding the Norms for Intake & Peggy-111 .Num ber of Courses / Divisions in the Technical Institutions of under graduate level, Post Graduate Degree and Post Graduate Diploma Level, Private Limited or Public Limited Company/laundry Establishing Diploma or UnderGraduate or Post Graduate Institute. Peg 12- : it describes the Norms for Land requirement and Building Space for Technical Institution , like the land requirement in acres in Other than Rural places(Competent Authority to certify that the place is not located in a rural area) and Rural Places as defined by Competent Authority.It gives detailed requirements of built-up area divided in 1 . Instructional area (NINA, carpet area in sq. M. ), Administrative area (DAD, carpet area in sq. M. ), Amenities area (AMA, carpet area in sq. 2. Circulation area (CIA) is equal to 0. 250 (NINA+DAD+AMA). M. ). , 3. Total built up area in sq. M. Is equal to (NINA+DAD+AMA)

Realism in Sweat Essay

In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story â€Å"Sweat† the author uses rhythm and repetition to shape her theme of survival and empowerment by simulating labored and conscious footsteps, rhythmic pounding of sledge hammers along a chain gang, and the loud beats of an anxious and overworked heart. This rhythm and repetition builds tension as Delia, the protagonist, finds within herself the strength necessary to survive and overcome the abuse with which she lives, and eventually conquering her abusive husband, Sykes, by allowing a snake’s venom to take over his blood stream, killing him. The rhythm and repetition found in the short story â€Å"Sweat† simulate the echoes of someone repeating to herself the motivational words necessary to her survival. It is the author’s use of rhythm and repetition that create detailed characters, plausible events, and the comprehensive and complex detail of banal activities of everyday life representative of realism in literature. In â€Å"Sweat,† Hurston tells the story of Delia, a middle-aged, black woman who works very hard washing clothes for white people to support her cheating, unemployed husband, Sykes, who continually berates her during bouts of physical abuse. Hurston uses accents in her rhythm to accurately and realistically simulate the sounds and actions of a washer woman bringing to life the torturous and necessary day to day activities of Delia. According to Kennedy, readers â€Å"favor a stressed syllable with a little more breath and emphasis† (429), and the author uses this technique to simulate in detail Delia’s mind and heart. True to the realism movement, Delia describes her life as, â€Å"Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat† (233), as she works to grow beyond the poverty of her past. In reading this, one can hear Delia’s feet drag and pound, drag and pound, drag and pound. The author’s attention to detail allows the reader to hear and feel both rhythm and repetition with these phrases consisting of three words, each word being one syllable, and each phrase ending with, â€Å"and sweat. It is both the fact that Delia speaks to herself, as well as the words she uses, that inform the reader that Delia is pushing herself through the plausible life of a post Civil War washer woman in hopes for something better, and at the same time fighting for her survival. With the words â€Å"work† and â€Å"pray† the reader learns that the story’s protagonist is fighting for survival, hoping for survival, and begging her God for the assistance necessary for her survival . Delia’s life is one of begrudging hard work necessary for survival. When reading Delia’s words to her selfish husband, â€Å"Sweat, sweat, sweat† (233), the reader pictures the swinging sledgehammer of a southern slave sweating through life as he works endlessly in the heat of the sun. It is the rhythm of her words that allows the reader to envision an enslaved man swing the hammer back, up and over his head, and then come crashing down as the business end of the heavy tool connects with the rock at the very instant the reader hears Delia say, â€Å"Sweat. Despite the abolition of slavery, Delia’s life is one of servitude. Her master is Sykes. Her sledge hammer is â€Å"her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands† (234). The reader feels the anxious dread of Delia as she works day in and day out at a hideous, painstaking job in order to earn the money necessary to feed herself and her husband, as she knows that the reality of her life is that she is the only person on whom she can depend to prevent her from becomin g homeless and/or dying from starvation. One begins to wonder how Delia survives the torment and abuse she receives from her husband, but she does. Delia accepts the abuse, and it strengthens her. The reader can feel and hear the rhythmic, â€Å"duh DUM, duh DUM, duh DUM,† pattern of Delia’s heart beat stronger and stronger in the author’s words, â€Å"Her tears, her sweat, her blood† (234). Her heart is tired. Her heart is overworked. Delia knows this. She feels this. She wants it to end. She works hard, and like other muscles, her heart gets stronger as it works. Delia continues to work her mind and body as endures the long, hard hours of work, as well as the physical and mental abuse of her husband. She will not succumb to the endless pain and suffering. The reader knows she is fighting in that she cries and works. One who is going to give into difficulty does not continue to work. Instead a person who wishes to give in lies down to die. Delia wants to survive. She fights for her survival everyday as she works, bleeds, cries, prays, and sweats. It is this drive to overcome that motivates Delia to continue existing in a Hell she hopes to someday escape. Hurston uses rhythm and repetition to create realistic details of the life of Delia as she shapes the theme of empowerment and survival in her short story â€Å"Sweat. † The author describes in detail the back breaking day to day reality of a Post Civil War woman as she strives with every ounce of her being to overcome the poverty of her past, and escape the bonds of slavery held by her husband.

Outlining on hove smartphones improved Americans live Essay

Outlining on hove smartphones improved Americans live - Essay Example The use of smartphone applications has helped healthcare professionals and laypersons in the following ways, which include; The work environment has been made more palatable through the increased acceptance of smartphones. Most companies have integrated the smartphones as integral tools for assessment, information gathering, communication and training, and transacting with clients (Pitichat 5). The specific tasks performed by the smartphones to make the functions of organizations seamless include; c. Smartphones have made it easier for employees to get in contact with clients and complete transactions offsite. This has been enhanced by the use of video conferencing capabilities of the smartphones. This platform can also be used by the management to contact their employees and amongst the employees themselves. Socialization and the entertainment of Americans have also benefited from the increased use of smartphones. The ability of phones to get Wi-Fi and the increased ability to get 4G network capabilities has enabled people to access the internet Sarwar and Soomro (223). The increased access to the internet has brought increased use of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and online entertainment such as the Apple Store. Entertainment has also benefited through the increased ease in accessing information and facilities such as concerts and ticketing. Pitichat, T. Smartphones in the workplace: Changing organizational behavior, transforming the future. LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research fromClaremont Graduate University, 3 (1). P. 1-10, 2013.

How successful have Chinese social policy reforms been since 1978 Essay

How successful have Chinese social policy reforms been since 1978 - Essay Example There are two groups of scholars who hold conflicting opinions on the success or failure of China’s social policy reform since 1978; the first is the group of western scholars who are familiar with their own countries social welfare policy and therefore dissatisfied with China’s contribution to the welfare policy. Then there are scholars mainly from mainland china who are of the opinion that the country has contributed significantly in improving the social welfare progress, they consider that the administrations have succeeded in the social policy reforms (Jones 2003, p.41). This paper explores the china’s social policy reforms, the paper further analyses the success if any of the social reforms with respect to prevailing circumstances. Economic reform and social policies In the later years, most mainland Chinese scholars have concluded that china’s welfare provision increased considerably, they cite several examples that show this point of view. First, th e per capita area of housing in urban areas, the floor area per capita in urbanized areas stood at 28.3 square meters in the year 2011 rising from 6.7 square meters in 1978 (Man, 2011). In the same breadth, the average housing per head in the same period rose from 6.7square meters to a high of 29.7 square meters. Home and car ownership have increased over the years, a 2011 survey on homeownership revealed that up to 93 percents of the respondents were homeowners and 97 per cent home ownership in the rural areas( Zhao and Guoli 2009, p.192). Secondly, the human development issues have vastly improved over the years, such reducing illiteracy levels, rise in life expectancy, drop in infant mortality rates, and soaring Human Development Index. The average number of years that youths attend school between the ages of 15 to 24 has increased, rising from a low of 5.8 in the year 1985 and a high of 7.57 in the year 2000. The rate of life expectancy has interestingly improved in the last twe nty eight years, reaching 73.27 in the year 2010 from 66.50 in 1978, consequently, infant mortality rates have steeply declined over the same period of time, and in 1978 the number of deaths was 48 falling to a low of 13 in 2010 ( Jeffries 2011, p.30). Finally, China’s Human Development Index Ranking was 0.699 in the year 2012 having leaped by a whole 0.010 from the previous year and showing a trend of always rising over the years, in the year 2012 main land China was ranked at number 101(National Bureau of Statistics, 2012). The most important factor that fuelled and propelled Chin’s economy into such greater heights is urbanization and rapid industrialization. Over the last two and a half decade, china has shifted from a rural agrarian economy to an industrializing urban economy. The move also implied a move from the state control and command economy to an open market based economy, this movement led to high number of farmers abandoning their farms and heading to urb an areas to perform odd labour jobs. Just before the reform process began in 1978, about 80.9 percent of China’s population lived in the rural areas, and by 2010 only about 50.5 per cent of the population lived in the rural area (OECD 2012, p.150). The number of people who lived in the urban areas by 2010 had surpassed those living in the rural areas, of the 1.333 billion people in China; those who were living in the urban