Genesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Genesis - Essay Example This Biblical assertion triggers in the mind of every Christian that there is given beginning for everything that exists on earth. It makes it clear and easy to believe that God had a plan for His creation since He decided to begin with the heaven and earth. Each step made by God in the process of creation was typically methodical. Verse two of chapter one says that, â€Å"the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters† (New International Version, Gen.1.2). This case provides the way God is really powerful. Both the first and second verses have created the impression that God has no definite beginning. This is because everything started from his creation. He could even see what to do even before light was created. This further implies that whatever God did was meant to be a blessing to the product of His work of creation, especially to human beings. This is seen in the case where he comm ands that, â€Å"Let there be light: and there was light† (New International Version, Gen.1.3). The creation story in the Christian religion is unique from other religions and scientific interpretations. In essence, various aspects or happenings found in Genesis have been attracting the attention of scientific institutions. In this regard, some institutions seem to oppose some creation stories while others aim at providing some geological and biological evidence about the stories of creation and Noah’s Flood (New International Version, Gen.9.16). The various scientific explanations and mythologies of creation and Noah’s flood have been presented in the world today, but are often accompanied with their inconsistencies and fallacies in the attempt to disagree with the Christian Bible. Nevertheless, the flood happens due to Gods anger towards human beings. The book of Genesis says that, â€Å"Never again will I curse

Policy Issues in Mental Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Policy Issues in Mental Health - Essay Example One such issue is the mental needs of baby boomers. This is because this generation of the American population offers a Unique challenge to the American medical system, in that the system is not adequately prepared to address the mental health needs of this demographic. This can, however, be remedied with the appropriate policy implementation to ensure that Medicare is in a position to adequately contain the mental health needs of the baby boomer generation. This is because the members of these demographic are likely to suffer from mental problems like depression leading to suicides, as they advance in age (MedlinePlus, 2009). Although mental health is being recognized as a health problem in America, the Medicare system needs policy implementations, ad hoc the needs of the baby boomer generations mental health needs. Background After the WW2, The demographic of the American population that comprised of young adults had a symbolic significance to the population as the face of optimism and the nations driving force. In the modern times, however, as this generation has advanced age wise, there has been growing concerns concerning their health. This is because there are fears that the health care system is inadequate to handle the mental needs of this generation, to ensure they live healthily. The society has been slow to recognize mental health as an illness, and this has made the field lag behind as compared to the other areas in mainstream healthcare. This shortfall has been made apparent by the challenges in mental healthcare for the baby boomers. The healthcare policies that have been introduced recently have highlighted the shortage in terms of carte providers of geriatric mental health cases. Statistics on the issue collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) depicted an increase in the suicide rates by 20%, among the age demographic of between 45 to 54 years, in the period between 1999 and 2005 (Conger, 2009). Though exploration into th e matter has not yielded a definite cause for this increase, the most logical hypothesis has been cited as being due to the depression affecting this demographic. Use of prescription drugs and hormone replacements to counter menopause have been proposed as possible causes (Chopvisky, 2011). Other experts have varied citing it simply portrayed the natural receding of the population numbers. White Women have a slightly higher increase than their male compatriots, with a figure of 3.9 percent increase being recorded. The increase in suicide rates was also evident across the board with minority groups also recording an upward trend in suicide cases. The complexity of the health needs with relation to their mental wellbeing is made critical by the actuality that this demographic comprises of 78 million individuals. The gravity of the situation is further reiterated with the fact that 10 million baby boomer are likely to suffer from Alzheimer cases. There are also indications that cases o f dementia have a strong prevalence among the group (Kapes, 2006). The society has tried to ensure that this generation lives comfortably, and there have been initiatives concerning this in various areas including social security and geriatric care, but there has been a shortcoming in

Customer Lifecyle Case Study: Toyota and HP

Customer Lifecyle Case Study: Toyota and HP Let us raise a question what is the main goal of a business company? What is the common aim of all its internal units? The answer did not change from the old times till nowadays its simply a profit or the rise of the wealth owned by its shareholders. But as the years went by, the business theories improved, and the ways to approach companys goals developed as well. During the years of experience smart entrepreneurs understood, that there is something behind seeking the profit, something more then numbers and rational decisions. That something turns out to be a companys relationship with customers. Customer relationship management is a concept that became very popular during the 1990s. It offered long term changes and benefits to businesses that chose to use it. The reason for this is because it allowed companies to interact with their customers on a whole new level. There are few different strategies of CRM. We are going to discuss more specifically about one the customer lifecycle. Customer lifecycle is the behavior of a customer with a company over the time. A high knowledge in this theory of CRM is a great tool for a company to reach its goals and surpass the competition. We have chosen this topic because we see a great importance of it in business life and it is very handy for us as business students to expand our knowledge in this specific subject. For grounding the theory and our ideas we have chosen two different companies HP and Toyota. HP is providing other enterprises with CRM decisions. We are going to disclose briefly the background of HP enterprice services as a company and talk a bit more specifically about their services and attitude about the importance of CRM and customer lifecycle. Toyota is a multinational automaker. We are going to present its CRM strategy and show their practical experience of following the customers lifecycle. Customer lifecycle and CRM theory As mentioned before, in this part we are going to briefly answer the question what is Customer Relationship Management, and talk more specifically about the Customer Lifecycle. What is Customer Relationship Management? In few steps we can assume that Customer Relationship Management is about finding new customers, collecting info about them along the way and using that info to enhance their experience and foster long-term relationships. The focus on the customer is the main characteristic of CRM and two are the most important questions that a Customer Relationship manager has to keep in mind: what are the customers needs? And do we offer programs/products in response to their needs? Customer relationship management is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a companys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes (principally sales activities, marketing, customer service, and technical support). The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Customer Relationship Management designs t he company business strategy including customer -interface departments as well as other departments. CRM is a term that is often referred to marketing. However, there is no complete agreement upon a single definition. This is because CRM can be considered from a number of perspectives. In summary, the three perspectives are: Information Technology (IT) perspective Business Strategy perspective The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) perspective Whereas our topic is focused on Customer lifecycle, we are going to explain and go deeply inside only in the third perspective. Customer Life Cycle For a better explanation about the Customer Lifecycle, we want to introduce firstly the concept of a Product Life Cycle: PLC is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Here is the general product lifecycle which normally follows these 5 steps: Research Development, Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. The graphic (shown in illustration 1 below) shows how the sales change during the PLC. Ilustration 1. Product Life Cycle The PLC can also be divided in 5 stages which represent the kind of customers who makes use of the product during the lifecycle: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. So what is a Customer Lifecycle? Just like a product of a certain company, a company itself has a lifecycle as well. It is simply the behavior of a customer with a company over the time. Customers begin a relationship with a company, and over the time, either decide to continue this relationship, or end it. The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) has obvious similarities with the Product Life Cycle (PLC). However, CLC focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer (looking at the products or services that customers need throughout their lives). It is marketing orientated rather than product orientated, and embodies the marketing concept. Essentially, CLC is a summary of the key stages in a customers relationship within an organization. The problem is that every organization offer different product, which makes it impossible to draw out a single Life Cycle that is the same for every organization. The illustration below shows the course of the relationship between customer and supplier: Ilustration 2 Due to the graph, there are four phases in a customer lifecycle: exploration, growth, saturation and decline. During the Exploration phase the customer starts to see the promises made during communication for the first time; the level of satisfaction is relatively low, the customer have no experience about the products and the services offered by the supplier and the switching costs are still low in this stage. During the Growth phase there usually is a sharp rise in purchases; the customer now knows the advantages offered by the supplier, satisfactions with goods and services increase; the supplier is examined more for its performance than for its reputation or image. The Saturation phase is characterized by the highest number of purchases and the highest degree of commitment (function of satisfaction, attractiveness and switching costs); the relation has taken shape. Satisfaction is still increasing in all the aspects and so do the trust. The appeal of the relationship improves and the switching costs increase slightly. The Decline phase starts as soon as the number of transactions starts to drop; This phase can occur at any time (even after the exploration phase); the most common reason is the reduction in the need for the products and services provide by the suppliers. At any point in this Lifecycle, the customer is either becoming more or less likely to continue maintaining a relationship with a company, and demonstrates this likelihood through their interactions with you. If a company collects data from these interactions, it can use this data to predict where the customer is in his Lifecycle (is the customer becoming more or less likely to maintain a relationship?) If a company can predict where the customers are in the Lifecycle, it can maximize ones Return on Investment (ROI) by targeting customers most likely to buy, trying to save customers who have declining interest, and not wasting money on customers unlikely to continue relationship. Toyota Case Toyota Motors Corporation, commonly known simply as Toyota, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota City, Japan. The company founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 has snatched the title of worlds largest automaker from General Motors in 2008 for the first time in 77 years. TMC workforce around the world is about 320.590 people (total in affiliated companies in 2009). Toyota is also known by has revolutionized the automotive production with the Just-in-Time system, the quality of its products and the healthy relationship with the stakeholders. These aspects have made Toyota a reference within the automotive manufacturing environment and its personal approach over the customers during the last years seems keeping Toyotas brand in the spotlight of the automotive business. A huge part of the success of Toyota is credited by the obsession with its customers. Beyond the manufacturing strategy it is needed to take care about the non-manufacturing environment. Everything Toyota does is done with customers in mind and it is clear to all staff that totally satisfied customers are the source of good results. It made TMC develop the Lean CRM in response to the growing volume of customer information collected at the many touch-points during the customer lifecycle. The Lean CRM allows Toyota to sense changes in individual customers behaviour, following their current lifecycle status and responding in a way to increases customer satisfaction. It has enabled Toyota to predict what customer wants even before the customer knows he wants it, to sell significantly more vehicles, with a shorter trade cycle and higher repurchase rate (over 60%), at significantly lower costs. CUSTOMER PULL By knowing how often a typical customer use to replace his vehicle, Toyotas process guides how different touch-points over customer lifecycle are delivered and how employees should respond to customer-initiated touch-points and deliver Toyota-initiated ones. The process starts when the customer is thinking about buying a new vehicle. It is a job to the marketing department to guide these prospective buyers to the Toyota website and gather as much information as possible. The process of requesting information is an example of customer pull, where the company responds directly to the customer. It is the first contact at which the customer becomes known to Toyota, and it triggers a check to see if Toyota already knows the customer. The gathered data about the customer provides information to manage how future touch-points to that customer will be delivered. TOYOTA PUSH What Toyota already knows about the prospective customer will determine how Toyota communicates with that customer. Vehicle information which is sent out is tailored to the prospective customers known preferences. Toyota may even offer a customized deal or pre-approved credit to the prospective customer. Where the prospective customer is not previously known, Lean CRM uses statistical models and data analysis to determine which models are likely to be most appealing to each prospective customer, as well as the type of information each person is likely to value. At the moment the customer buys a new Toyota vehicle and enters the ownership lifecycle, Toyota keep trying to sense customer to pull and maintain a conversation with the company along the years. At this way, it is possible to offer the right product at the right moment to the customers. It is this combination of pull and push that guides each customer step by step during the customer lifecycle and toward the customers next purchase. It is the backbone of the lifetime conversation between the customer and Toyota. CUSTOMER DNA Just as a real DNA influences how an individual behave in determined environment, Customer DNA influences how each touch-point between Toyota and the customer is carried out. It defines the relationship that Toyota and its customers will hold along the years and how each touch-point will be faced. The touch-point trigger, the touch-point delivery process, previous or subsequent touch-points, the roles and responsibilities involved and the business rules that control how the touch-point is executed are all contained within the touch-point definition. The best way to execute the touch-points which depends of persons Customer DNA is assigned as soon as the customer is identified. Using the Unica Affiniun Campaign Management System (CMS) is possible to Toyota to manage the variability of customers, the distinct touch-points and their implementation. This process automatically reviews the data about each customer and decides whether a touch-point should be trigged. If more than one touch-point is appropriate at the same time, it also decides which one has priority and what should happen to the other. Similarly, if the customer requests information about a new model, the request will automatically trigger a review process to identify the best touch-point and which touch-points should be triggered as a follow-up. INCREASING SALES AND FREQUENCY, AT LOWER COST This Lean CRM approach has been developed in close cooperation with one of Toyotas European sales companies and its dealers and has been piloted in touch-points during the customer lifecycle. Comparing a recent before and after marketing campaign it is found a 70 percent reduction of non-target customers being mailed, an 80 percent reduction in campaign costs, a 50 percent reduction in campaign development time and a 60 percent increase in campaign ROI. In other words, the Lean CRM approach has enabled Toyota to sell significantly more vehicles, with a shorter trade cycle and a higher repurchase rate, at significantly lower cost. This strategy of approaching the customer according his lifecycle will contribute between $5 million and $10 million (in U.S. dollars) of additional revenues each year to the sales company. And also, Toyota has shown clearly that Lean CRM really provides benefits for customers and for itself despite the doubts about the functionality of lean principles developed in manufacturing to sales and marketing. As it was said in the beginning, Toyota knows that its success depend of total customer satisfaction and staff does not save efforts to reach this goal.Formularbeginn HP Enterprise Services Nowadays more and more successful companies are trying to implement CRM strategies in order to build the customer loyalty. In order to improve your companies CRM strategy you can use the services of certain enterprise service companies, such as HP enterprice service. We are going to disclose briefly the background of HP enterprice services as a company and talk more specifically about their services for enterprices. HP Enterprise Services (HP ES) is the global business and technology services division of Hewlett Packards HP Enterprise Business strategic business unit. It provides enterprices with CRM solutions, which help to support the customers through the entire customer life cycle. It was formed by the combination of HPs legacy services consulting business and the integration of acquired Electronic Data Systems, which had defined the outsourcing business when it was established in 1962 by H. Ross Perot. As the saying goes, all customers are not created equal. Some are no doubt more valuable than others and represent a reliable source of profitable revenue, while others do not justify the cost of attracting or retaining them. And then there are all those other diverse segments of customers somewhere in the middle. As HP ES states, a company must address the unique needs and preferences of all members of these customer segments as they proceed through the different stages of the customer life cycle. Each company is therefore challenged to strike a delicate balance in running its business: minimize the cost of attracting, retaining and rewarding their best customers and maximize the customer experience from Marketing through Sales to Customer Service to create loyal and satisfied patrons and advocates. Companies who achieve this balance are rewarded with profitable growth and increased market share. For those who struggle with this, HP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Services provides a proven approach to catch and surpass the competition. As shown in a picture below, the customers progress through the steps of this life cycle (inner blue) as they engage with a company through the various interaction channels they choose (gray). Successful companies support each life cycle step with reciprocating front office functions (green) to optimize the customer experience. Ilustration 3 For over 30 years, HP ES has been successfully designing and delivering to clients around the world CRM solutions ranging from customer-facing operations management, contact center technology management, and global fulfillment and logistics. The companys solutions are based on this comprehensive suite of offerings: 1. Contact Center Outsourcing Services Contact Center Outsourcing Services is a tool which provides you to reached outcomes such as growth, cost reduction, improved customer retention, and mitigated risk. Ilustration 4 HP has more than 30 years of Contact center experience which supports entire customer life cycle. HP Contact Center Outsourcing Services ensures the management and operation of your outbound and inbound contact centers handling high value, complex customer interactions. Whether embedded in an industry-specific solution or standalone, companys contact center services support customers with multiple channels for voice and non-voice interactions throughout the entire customer life cycle from marketing to sales to service. 2. CRM Managed Services CRM Managed Services is a universal hosted and managed contact center infrastructure service that enables clients to virtualize their telephony and contact center technologies and springboard off end-of-life and disparate systems environments to a state of the art, world class, stable and secure platform. 3. Consumer Direct Services Consumer Direct Services is a tool with which you can provide an end-to-end solution that facilitates the flow of information from order to delivery. The HP Company uses this tool for trying to keep it customer. Hewlett-Packard Company captures customer intelligence, handles sales and service inquiries, works with sales requests and warehouses, and distributes products for direct-to-consumer companies around the globe. It is also possible that company integrates online, catalog, direct media and other channels a seamless environment to give you a single view of your customers. Plus, no matter where you go or how fast you move, HP has the scale to grow with you. 4. Software Publishing Services Software Publishing Services offers a complete business processing solution for logistics of software publishing and distribution. As it is mentioned before, HP has about 30 years of experience in delivering full product lifecycle management services, so it offers the most state-of-the-art solutions in the software publishing industry today. The company provides a fully integrated solution that includes end-to-end order processing and fulfillment from service delivery centers. HP also operates contact centers, distribution centers, payment centers and technology centers on a global basis. Key Features of HP Software Publishing Services include: Software kit replication and fulfillment (CDs, documentation and licenses) Physical software kit fulfillment and electronic software distribution (ESD) services Training materials/kit printing and fulfillment Documentation printing and fulfillment (marketing collateral printing and fulfillment) Physical fulfillment Global facilities Kitting Strong inventory management/controls Electronic fulfillment 5. Warranty Services Warranty Services provides a comprehensive, Web-based solution for reliable, real-time warranty claims management. HP services include claim processing, extended warranty management, parts order and tracking, service effectiveness reporting, swap stock management, and RMA creation and tracking. HP CRM offerings address your critical customer-related business outcomes. Moreover, by exploiting the synergies of HPs customer analytics services, you can refine your customer segmentation schemes and use predictive analytics to fine tune marketing campaigns and cross-sell promotions and offers to the most receptive customers. These powerful CRM solutions enable you to: Refocus critical and scare resources away from tactical operations issues and toward more strategic business opportunities Increase revenues and accelerate growth through improved cross- and up-selling based on optimized segmentation and personalized treatment Improve customer satisfaction, retention and share of wallet Enhance brand recognition and equity Reduce operational costs and capital avoidance Scale your business up or down to meet fluctuating business demands Better manage end-of-life or disparate contact center technology environments supporting in-house and/or multiple outsource providers. Conclusion Nowadays modern and successful companies are able to see beyond simple ways of seeking the profit and be creative in building a relationship with its customers. As one can see from the Toyota case, which we took as an example, this way of thinking and focusing on customer relationship management is a beneficial method for building a clever strategy. Following the customers lifecycle has become more and more handy tool of CRM. If a company can predict where the customers are in the Lifecycle, it can maximize ones Return on Investment (ROI) and rise the profit. We mentioned the HP services to show, that CRM can be provided as a service and we have been basically grounding the theory with the case of Toyota, which is following the customer lifecycle very carefully and gaining success. During the process of working on this report we raised ourselves a goal, which was to expand our knowledge in a very interesting and handy topic. Successfully, at the end we can say we truly reached our goal with a help of literature research, productive work, and good team. Literature http://www.toyota.com/ http://www.toyota-global.com http://www.customerthink.com/article/lean_crm_toyota_strategy_that_works http://www.helium.com/items/1869467-a-look-at-toyotas-customer-retention-strategies http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012101216.html http://h10134.www1.hp.com/services/contactcenteroutsourcing/ http://www.jimnovo.com/CRM-Lifecycles.htm http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-customer-life-cycle.html Customer Relationship Management, Ed Peelen, Prentice Hall, 2005

Christian Dior and the House of Dior: Luxury and Brilliant Style Combin

â€Å"When I opened my couture house I decided to dress only the most fashionable women from the first ranks of society.† –Christian Dior Christian Dior impacted fashion by establishing the house of Dior, and creating the New Look in 1947. When Dior created his designs, he looked back on his French country heritage and childhood for inspiration. The House of Dior still incorporates Christian Dior’s past into modern day designs and honors his traditions. (De Racogne) The New Look shocked people out of World War II and austerity and into a new era of elegant fashion. Dior’s New Look made him, the House of Dior, and Paris, the recognized fashion icons, which have also been influential in modern times. The House of Dior is one of the most recognized luxury brands in fashion. Christian Dior, the original genius behind the brand, massively changed the fashion world by introducing his New Look in 1947. His design changed a world of dreariness and sacrifice of World War II into one with a bright future, especially in fashion. Many people loved the gentle curves of the silhouette, emphasizing the women’s hi ps and small waist. The New Look trickled down to the mass markets at a lower cost. Everyone had access to the basic design of the New Look. Even in today’s House of Dior, luxury and heritage is a priority. Monsieur Dior always tied his designs back to his childhood, which designers still do today. Every piece of an outfit has a meaning to it from Christian Dior’s life. Luxury is also supremacy in the House of Dior, much like it was for Mr. Dior. Overall, without Christian Dior, the world may still be in an unfashionable rut. His New Look shocked everyone out of the war and into a prosperous future. His house carries his legacy today. Chr... ...ten work in the garden. Also, when he was older, and needed inspiration, he would visit his summer home to â€Å"be one with nature†. â€Å"Happiness pink† is a term Dior created to describe a light, soft pink. In stands for the color of his childhood home in Granville, which is now a museum. Black, red, and gray are also very common colors, which Dior thinks flatter almost everyone. â€Å"Red is the magical color that has created the strongest link between Dior and Galliano.† Finally, three other common fabrics are houndstooth, Prince of Wales plaid, and lace. (Offices of the House of Dior) Designers must study these stories, in order to create a true Dior-esque collection. Famous lines from the house of Dior are the Zig-zag, in 1948, the Vertical, in 1950, the Tulip, in 1953, the H-line, in 1954, the A-line, in 1955, the Y-line, in 1955, and the Spindle line in 1957. (Krebs)

Kaleidoscopic: An Analysis of “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot Essay

T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† is known for its kaleidoscopic and fragmented form, with the converging of different styles from different movements of poetry; the employment of a wide range of metaphorical devices (from allusions to the decidedly Christian quest for the Holy Grail, to references about ancient Greece, and more pagan origins – the diversity of allusions from different cultures only serves to raise the universality of the poem’s theme); and the wealth of convolutions of the poem as a whole, jumping from one scene to another in an abrupt and disconcerting lack of traditional cohesion. There are rapid shifts not only in imagery and perspective, but also in setting, and in subject. And yet the poem is unified by its overall theme of despair – despair and futility in the midst and at the inevitable end of man’s search for peace and contentment. Man subjects himself to a baffled search for spiritual peace, when, in the end, he must be resigned that the search is, after all that time, futile, even never-ending. It is this futility and despair that grounds the â€Å"fragments† of the poem, the so-called â€Å"bigger picture,† making it into that which the poem strives to attain. A technique that Eliot employs is the deliberate â€Å"scattering† of connected passages that discuss one subject. As an exploration of the theme, he carries it further by â€Å"dissecting† the subject, offering hints and foreshadowing in earlier parts of the poem, then places the other divisions into a variation of sections. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane, in their introductory essay â€Å"Name and Nature of Modernism† for Modernism, 1890-1930, encapsulates the fragmented form of the poem: â€Å"Modernist works frequently tend to be ordered, then, not on the sequence of historical time or the evolving sequence of character, from history or story, as in realism and naturalism; they tend to work spatially through layers of consciousness, working towards a logic of metaphor or form† (p.50). The Modernist poem’s multiplicity in layers exploits the poetic form in that insights and epiphanies are not procured at face value, that the reader must take it upon himself to discover and explore the layers and exposition. Also, the collage-like quality of this Modernist poem tore through the traditional forms of poetry and poetics, in its audacious experimentation. Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris in their introductory essay for Poems for the Millennium say, â€Å"A characteristic of modern art (and poetry) so defined . . . has been the questioning of art itself as a discrete and bounded category† (p.8). The poet and the poem continue to push at the boundaries, insisting that the boundaries should not even be existent – an intention that â€Å"The Wasteland† succeeds in carrying out. Although the many convolutions and intricacies in â€Å"The Wasteland† evoke the initial impression of fragmentation, there are interlocking themes and content, if not passages reminiscent of others, found throughout the poem. Part of Eliot’s poetics is, underneath all the references from other fragments of literature and all levels of allusions, there are images that shall mirror another, and then another, though they may be as subtle as a single word in a line, through they may be scattered throughout the entire length of the poem. One example of this resonance can be found in Eliot’s mention of drowning, or death by water. The â€Å"narrative† is prophesied near the beginning of the poem, lines 46 and 47 say, â€Å"Here, said she, / Is your card, the drowned Phoenician sailor,† followed with the ominous statement, â€Å"Fear death by water† in line 55, found in the same section. It is essential to note that among the ancient Mediterranean people, it was the Phoenicians who became known for expertise in sailing and navigation, mastering the rather challenging task of sailing against the wind, making headway little by little, by tacking back and forth (Black). Eliot provides this information through a prophesy by one of the many characters in the poem, Madame Sosostris, a clairvoyant. This adds another dimension to the resonance of the passage because, as well as being part of a group of references, its very position as being the first the readers encounter in the poem provides and carries out its intention of foretelling the future. Eliot then continues to explore this theme, in almost teasing narrative, throughout the poem. The next reference is found in part three, or The Fire Sermon. In line 220 – 221, the sailor is mentioned again in, â€Å"At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives / Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea.† Interestingly, this is imparted in the form of another prophecy of sorts – this time from the blind seer Tiresias. This passage offers a kind of build-up by narrating the usual routine of a sailor in one of his less tragic days at work. The statement is an aside, a mere commentary at the larger picture painted by The Fire Sermon, although in its simplicity and subtlety, the passage succeeds in presenting that the Phoenician sailor is supposed to come home from a hard day (and night’s) work at the sea. Which makes it all the more tragic, as these resonant images culminate, fittingly enough, in part four, titled Death by Water. Everything comes together in this part of the poem. The skilled yet unfortunate Phoenician sailor is named, Phlebas, and we witness his fate, that which has long been hinted at from different parts of the poem. Phlebas dies, â€Å". . . a current under sea / Picked his bones in whispers (line 315).† And he dies, not for want of expertise in his profession, but by forgetting â€Å". . . the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell / and the profit and loss (lines 313 to 314)† – readers get the impression that Phlebas was preoccupied, in reflection of matters known only to him. In him readers behold another character of Eliot’s, who emulates a theme of the poem, that human beings are in a continuous search for some sort of peace or contentment, yet they must resign ourselves to a life of futility and despair. Death by Water concludes with a note, some words of caution, still reminding the reader of the Phoenician sailor’s skill, his promise, regardless of his tragic death: â€Å"O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.† Aside from being a critique of traditional form and the very definition of art and poetry, the poem also became a critique of the current social condition. Published in the aftermath of World War I, which had been the most destructive war in history at that point, many believed that the poem was an â€Å"indictment of post-war European culture and as an expression of disillusionment in contemporary society, which Eliot believed to be culturally barren.† Despair was the consensual mood of nations, and salvation seemed bleak at the time. â€Å"The Wasteland† encapsulated that consensus, that attitude, displaying one of the characteristic of Modernism, which â€Å"is the one art that responds to the scenario of our chaos† (Bradbury and McFarlane, 27). And the stylized fragmentation of the poem serves to thrust that aim further, form functioning to serve the subject matter. â€Å"The Wasteland† as a Modernist poem employs daring experimentation of style, from sudden shifts in form and style and subject, to the division of narrative style and exposition. Passages reminiscent of each other are found throughout the poem, carrying with it the theme of the poem like an interconnection of veins throughout a human body. It is a critique of the times, and of the times before that had shaped the current situation. As Rothenberg and Joris state, â€Å"The most interesting works of poetry and art are those that question their own shapes and forms, and by implication the shapes and forms of whatever preceded them† (p. 11). Works Cited Black, Bob. â€Å"Borne by the Wind: The Lure and Lore of Sailing.† Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. Bradbury, Malcolm and James McFarlane. Modernism, 1890-1930. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1879. Harmon, William. â€Å"T.S. Eliot.† Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003.   Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, eds. Poems for the Millenium: the University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Wonen in US military Essays

Wonen in US military Essays Wonen in US military Essay Wonen in US military Essay Essay Topic: Zone One Status and role of women in the US Army has been always considered as controversial and highly debated issue. The events of 9/11 are often understood as representing a fundamental shift within the nation, irrevocably changing the course of events in the US.   Along with other changes that are still unrecognized by national consciousness, September 2001 is a significant moment in American history precisely because, even if it led to a reification of some traditional gender roles, it also presents an important opportunity to reconsider womens role in the nation, and in the US Military particularly. On one level, the nation and the media have turned to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity to make sense of the ideological and political chaos following the attacks and expanded by the uncertainties of both the legitimacy and the usefulness of Americas war in Iraq. On another level, political and cultural discourses reflect an increased preoccupation w ith the role of women in war due to a visible collapse of traditional binaries and responsibilities in war. In the contemporary politics of representation, the figure of the female soldier is a challenge to the traditional war story, and also a transformative site in which traditional boundaries of public and private obligations to the nation are blurred and reconfigured.   This paper aims to discuss historical, political and social aspects surrounding the roles, functions and challenges of women in the US Army.HISTORICAL PHASES OF WOMEN’S STATUS CHANGE IN THE US MILITARYFrom the historical literature perspective, there are several enduring factors governing the evolution of womens roles in the United States Army. Foremost among these are cultural attitudes - the prevailing societal norms that determine the appropriate roles for women. In 1917 when women were first enlisted into the US Military, social norms dictated that a womans place was in the private sphere where her primary obligation was to her spouse and her children (Jones D., 1997). Fulfillment of this obligation was regarded as a fundamental cornerstone of society and the state. Therefore any woman who sought fulfillment outside of the narrowly prescribed confines of the home became a subject of suspicion and ridicule. Since the primary function of women was to produce and nurture children, any divergence from this socially-prescribed path brought with it an assumption of sexual deviancy. Such attitudes are remarkable in both their persistence and consistency to the present day. Cultural attitudes are in turn affected and informed by the next four factors. Political trends, such as the consequences of political enfranchisement of women and their greater participation in public life have helped to redefine the nature of the relationship of women to the state and to society.The first was militarization, the act of enlisting women in the armed service which took place between 1917 and 1947. W omen were permitted to serve in the army in strictly limited roles and in sex-segregated reserve organizations. The navy established the Yeomen (F) during the First World War and the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) in the Second World War. Public acceptance of the unprecedented idea of women in the military was mitigated by the exigent circumstances of the prevailing national emergency and strong feelings of patriotism (Jones D., 1997). The second phase of womens service in the army, occurring between 1948 and 1966 was characterized by marginalization. The Women in the Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 incorporated women into the regular branches of the armed forces, but there were restrictions on the number allowed to serve (no more than 2% of the overall manpower strength); restrictions on rank and enlisted ratings (job specialties) and a prohibition against service on ships and aircraft or in any duty with the potential to expose them to combat (Jones D., 1997).A great deal of effort was directed toward cultivating public acceptance of military service for women in peacetime. The third phase was a transitional period between 1967 and 1993 when policies towards women in the army evolved in response to the end of conscription and the creation of the all-volunteer military; federal judicial rulings and legislation that struck down long-standing assignment policies, and two highly publicized scandals (USS SAFEGUARD in 1987 and Tailhook in 1991) prompted comprehensive reassessments of internal attitudes and policies towards women in the US Military (Jones D., 1997). During this phase, much of the progress made by army women was the result of military leadership reacting to public and congressional pressure.The final phase is an integration, which only began with the passage of the Defense Authorization Act of 1994 repealing the combat exclusion laws. Although navy women are now allowed to serve in the warfare specialties of surface wa rfare, aviation and special operations, they are still precluded from serving with the submarine and special warfare communities. The majority of women with warfare specialties and enlisted qualifications serve in the Surface Warfare community. Although women now constitute more than fourteen percent of the total manpower strength of the U.S. Navy, their representation in the warfare communities is only a fraction of that. Integration continues to be an incremental and ongoing process.CONTEMPORARY STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE US ARMY: ANALYSISDuring the 1960s and 1970s, subsequent creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1967, and the National Womans political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971, culminated in the favorable vote for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Subsequently, the Supreme Court decided in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113) that women had a right to an abortion, and more importantly, the principal right over their own bodies and their reproduction (Jones D ., 1997).   The majority of social science specialists points to the tremendous impact that feminist concerns with issues of economic equality, womens reproductive rights, and labor concerns have had on contemporary gender relations.   1960s and 1970s women experienced a transformation in their self-perceptions and their anticipations for their future roles in the nation. In the military, women took on the gender discriminatory dimensions of the policies regarding pregnancy and motherhood and by 1975, the Executive Order (EO 10240) giving the military permission to discharge a woman if she became pregnant, or a parent (by adoption or as a stepparent), was eliminated by the Secretary of Defense. In May 1974, Congress changed the minimum age for the enlistment of women to age 17, the same as for men, and on October 7, 1975, President Ford signed Public Law 94-106, permitting women to be admitted to all service academies beginning in 1976† (Jones K., 1990:129).   In 1996, B aldwin (1996) in the research aiming to reveal glass ceiling practices in the US Army collected data from 123,000 army candidates for promotion. Baldwin’s findings (1996) indicated that women were still underrepresented in middle officer ranks, were promoted at lower rates than males, and moreover their promotion rate differences did not increase consistency with rank.In January 2005, President Bush re-affirmed his administrations policy on women in war by publicly stating, No women in combat. But, in a context in which recruitment and retention numbers are low, and the end of the war against terrorism is far from sight, the ban on women in certain position in the armed forces has larger repercussions that go beyond the politics of gender and the role of women. In support of the administration a House Subcommittee led by the Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee in May 2005 proposed a measure that would add to a previous 1994 rule and bar women from forward support un its that could lead to direct combat (Neroni, 2005). Critics argued that in a time when reportedly more than 200,000 women are on active duty in the US Army, and an additional 150,000 serve in the US Guard and the Reserves the measure would result in 22,000 military jobs being closed to female military personnel (Neroni, 2005).   In contrast to this measure, some advocated implementing a collocation policy (Hartsock, 1982) that deploys mixed-sex noncombatant units alongside all-male combat brigades which, while in conflict with the military policy banning women from combat zones, would solve the problem of finding enough personnel to fill the ranks as political instability and military situation in the Middle East continues.The Center for Military Readiness, represented by its President Elaine Donnelly, critiqued the collocation policy arguing, The United States Army plans to force female soldiers into land combat units, despite current regulations and a law requiring prior notice to Congress (Dowler, 2002: 160).   Even as the possible elimination of the collocation policy is still being debated, members of the House Republicans abandoned the measure that would add to the 1994 ban on women in combat soon after it passed on a 61-1 vote in the House. Arguably the abandonment of the measure should not be interpreted as a sign of support for women in combat; rather it is a clear indication of the political significance of the figure of the female soldier.;

Essays on the Intranet

Essays on the Intranet Essays on the Intranet Essays on the Intranet Intranet is a private computer network used by a limited number of people who have access to it. The perfect example of intranet is a school computer system. Intranet is a system based on the Internet technologies but the sharing of information is more protected due to the limited number of users and the specifics of the operational systems. If you are writing essays on the intranet, this article is useful for you. Essays on the Intranet Facts In this section you will find some basic facts about the intranet to be including in the introductory or background section of your paper. Intranet is built upon the same technologies as the Internet (client-server computing) Intranet is the private or restricted version of the internet confined to the specific institution, organization, or a group of people Intranet appeared in early 1990s in universities Intranet has restricted access even though it may also be accessible for any approved party Intranet does not necessary has access to the Internet Intranet is believed to foster collaboration and used as a corporate platform in all major corporations Topics Ideas for Essays on Intranet If you are not sure how to start writing an essay on intranet, read the following topics ideas. In addition, you may review the list of good essay topics and topics for a research paper on our blog. What are the benefits of Intranet for companies? What is the function of Intranet at university or college? What is more secure: Intranet or Internet? Does intranet contribute to more timely decisions? Is Intranet a powerful tool for communication? What is the history of Intranet emergence? What are the differences and similarities of the Intranet and the Internet? Essays on the Intranet Custom Writing Not every personal is able to become a gifted surgeon and not every student is able to write award-winning essays. We understand that many students are struggling with essay writing and offer an effective and reliable solution - custom paper writing. Our services are not offered to do your homework instead of your but rather to help you with the research and writing. As our client, you receive custom written essay on the Intranet created from scratch in full accordance to the instruction. We reference all sources in the format you specify and provide you with free outline and bibliography list. We do not copy/paste and we guarantee originality of every single sentence in written essay. You may check more free tips on essay writing, research paper, term paper, coursework, and problem and solution essay writing:http://.com/blog/problem-and-solution-essay Read also: Dissertation Proposal Dissertation Help APA Thesis Writers of Term Papers Term Schools Papers about Gospel Music