Top Glove Information

Tan Sri Dr. Lim Wee-Chai (Appointed Chairman in 2000, aged 49) Chairman Founded Top Glove in 1991, totalling 26 years of experience in the latex industry. Former president of the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers' Association (MARGMA), board member of the Malaysian Rubber Board, and Director of the Association of Malaysia Medical Industries. Tan Sri Datuk (Dr. ) Arshad Bin Ayub (Appointed in 2000, aged 79) Independent Non- Executive DirectorFormer Deputy Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, and current Chairman, President and member of various Malaysian rubber insitutions, namely the Malaysia Rubber Export Promotion Counci (MREPC)l, the Rubber Products Manufacturers Association and the Rubber Board. Puan Sri Tong Siew Bee (Appointed in 2000, aged 49) Executive Director Previously worked with United Overseas Bank and Utama Bank, with over 10 years of experience in operational systems in banking.Lim Hooi Sin (Appointed in 2003, aged 45) Executive Director Possesses more than 14 years o f sales experience with Metlife Financial Services in the US, and is the founder of one of Top Glove’s subsidiary companies, Top Glove Medicial USA. Sekarajasekaran a/l Arasaratnam (Appointed 2000, aged 79) Independent Non- Executive Director Has held various engineering positions in government public works and utilities departments over the span of 20 years, and the Board’s nvironmental engineering consutlant. Lau Boon Ann (Appointed 2000, aged 53) Non-Executive Director Involved in the real estate and property development setor, with over 10 years of marketing and consultancy experience with various property companies. Quah Chin Chye (Appointed 2001, aged 52) Independent Non- Executive Director Has held various senior management positions over his 10 years of work experience. Lee Kim Meow (Appointed 2000, aged 48)Executive Director Has more than 12 years of experience in financial services and credit control operations with OCBC Finance and Asia Commercial Finance. H e is currently a member of MARGMA, MREPC, as well the Asean Rubber Glove Manufacturers’ Association (ARGMA). Lim Cheong Guan (Joined in 2005, aged 42) Executive Director Responsible for the accounting, corporate finance and investor relations of the company, with over 10 years of accounting and auditing experience, including a stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger Essay

Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, strongly resembles the concepts of absurdism, the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe all fail because no such meaning exists. Life just has no meaning or purpose. Camus accepts one inevitable thing, death. The idea that everyone will meet death, then everyone’s life is equally meaningless. The inability to find meaning in life is not logical impossible but rather humanly impossible. The title, The Stranger, is significant towards Meursault’s character in the book because he sees himself as a â€Å"stranger† in the world. It seems to be a nickname for him. He only shares certain things and keeps everyone at a distance. Society does not appreciate him like their own; he does not conform to their ideas and rules. The title is also a reflection of the author because when he wrote the book, no one truly knew the philosophical views of the absurd. The idea that things sometimes happen for no reason, and that occasions sometimes have no meaning to anything in life is disruptive and threatening to society. Meursault seems to be the only one who thinks he has the freedom to do whatever he wants and therefore he does not preoccupy himself with what society has set as the norm. An interesting relationship is between Maman and Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Maman passed away and Meursault seemed to show no emotions towards her death. He accepted that she died and moved on. He knew that putting her in the Morengo Home was the best for her. Meursault tells his boss that is not his fault that Maman died. Throughout the novel, he contemplates memories of her and what he knew about her. When he is sentenced to a horrible fate, he understands his mother more than ever. Meursault knows why she wanted to be around people who cared and loved her when she died. He realizes that she understood what life was really like similar to him. At the end, he knows that she left this world just like he is going too, meaningless and purposeless. Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, strongly resembles the concepts of absurdism, the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe all fail because no such meaning exists. Life just has no meaning or purpose. Camus accepts one inevitable thing, death. The idea that everyone will meet death, then everyone’s life is equally meaningless. The inability to find meaning in life is not logical impossible but rather humanly impossible. The title, The Stranger, is significant towards Meursault’s character in the book because he sees himself as a â€Å"stranger† in the world. It seems to be a nickname for him. He only shares certain things and keeps everyone at a distance. Society does not appreciate him like their own; he does not conform to their ideas and rules. The title is also a reflection of the author because when he wrote the book, no one truly knew the philosophical views of the absurd. The idea that things sometimes happen for no reason, and that occasions sometimes have no meaning to anything in life is disruptive and threatening to society. Meursault seems to be the only one who thinks he has the freedom to do whatever he wants and therefore he does not preoccupy himself with what society has set as the norm. An interesting relationship is between Maman and Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Maman passed away and Meursault seemed to show no emotions towards her death. He accepted that she died and moved on. He knew that putting her in the Morengo Home was the best for her. Meursault tells his boss that is not his fault that Maman died. Throughout the novel, he contemplates memories of her and what he knew about her. When he is sentenced to a horrible fate, he understands his mother more than ever. Meursault knows why she wanted to be around people who cared and loved her when she died. He realizes that she understood what life was really like similar to him. At the end, he knows that she left this world just like he is going too, meaningless and purposeless.

Mystery City Report

Princess Elisabeth Research station (Belgium), Antarctica 71*57’ S-23*20’E. That is exactly where mystery city #7 is located. One of the clues the website journeynorth. com gave us was â€Å"We are located on a continent that is one of the coldest places on Earth. It is also one of the driest, considered to be mostly desert; but don’t expect to see sand. † This clue really helped because it pretty much told us our city was in Antarctica, but now we had to find out where in Antarctica. And clue number 2 kind of helped us with that. â€Å"We are located on part of a nunatak, almost 200 km from the coastline. We see petrels and skuas from time to time. Sorry we can't be more specific about the country we're located in — there are no countries here (or states, or cities)! † This clue really just told us that it was pretty close to the shore. But clue number 3 told us where in Antarctica our city was. â€Å"Down here our location isn't in a state or province, but Norway might say our location is within the boundaries of land which it claimed on this continent many decades ago. † We looked online at Norway claimed Antarctica and then knew where our city was around. The last Clue number 4 was the one that really helped. The clue was â€Å"Our place looks like a spaceship floating in a sea of white. We operate on renewable energy like wind and solar, so we are also green. † And a picture was involved. The picture helped us out so much because what we did was take our guesses and put it in Google images and if the picture matched the we knew we had it. And we did, we found it on our 3rd try. That’s how we found out our mystery city. Our photoperiod for mystery city number 7 increased by 14 hrs and 31 min! And our photoperiod compared to Franklin was actually almost around the same even though our city was in Antarctica. Our city is way far south from Franklin because we know it’s in Antarctica and Massachusetts is in the USA. So you can also tell that our city is in the southern hemisphere because of the latitude and longitude. We knew right away its was going to be somewhere cold because our first data we got was crazy which kind of gave us a general idea of where it was. All in all we have found out the our city is Princess Elisabeth Research station (Belgium), Antarctica and its absolute location is 71*57’ S-23*20’E.

Unilever Group - analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Unilever Group - analysis - Essay Example Unilever Group - analysis Dove gives equal attention to the skin care needs of men and women alike. Unilever is a proponent of hygiene and well being and due to this it targets house wives in order to make them believe that their families are safe and healthy with Unilever products. It’s ice cream brands such Ben & Jerry’s and Wall’s are for all age groups (children, young and elderly). Knorr’s noodles are enjoyed children mostly. St. Ives is a beauty products line that has scrubs, lotions and proteins etc. and caters to women of 18 years plus. Lipton is consumed in the Asian region majorly and so people from the age of 20+ are catered here, as children are not very fond of tea. Unilever targets its customers through its principles of health, hygiene, personal care and nutrition. It focuses on hygiene and personal care specifically and for this the average housewife is targeted (Brand Source, 2009). One of the Unilever’s founding companies was Level Bros and in 1980’s William Hesketh came up with the idea for Sunlight Soap, which later proved to be his revolutionary product in Victorian England in terms of hygiene and cleanliness. The idea was to promote cleanliness, make women’s work easier, and promote a culture of health and personal attractiveness in order to convey the message that people who used Unilever products were living a better life. Around this time, the term Corporate Mission was not there but these ideas would have come under it had it been there. The fact only women are responsible for doing housework has become trite and obsolete. Unilever USA is a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate, The Unilever Group (which has 10 companies operational as of now in the USA). Unilever USA is the largest company among the ten subsidiaries of the Unilever Group in USA and is primarily a consumer goods company distributing well known branded product s through grocery, drug, mass merchant and club channels. It has revenues worth $4 billion and if one of the top-notch fast moving consumer goods companies in the USA. However over the past ten years, profits for Unilever USA have not been very great. Due to an accounting change only, there was a profit last year (ConsultingCase, 2012). Unilever has a history that is three centuries old and remarkable events like economic boom, depression, world wars, changing consumer lifestyles and technological advancements have played an important role in it. This history is also marked by Unilever’s efforts to make life easier and enjoyable for its consumers by helping them save time (by reducing time spent on house work, nutritional concerns etc.). Besides that Unilever has also been able to balance its profits with care and social responsibility. During the 19th century, the founding companies of Unilever were the most charitable among others. They designed projects especially to impro ve their workers and their products were also designed in a manner such that they had social benefits. These products prioritized hygiene, personal care, and nutrition (was improved by adding vitamins to staple foods). Up till now, Unilever is a socially

Worksheet Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Worksheet - Article Example (5 pts) If the journal is independent, simply type â€Å"independent†. 7. Review the â€Å"About us† and the â€Å"Mission Statement† (statement of purpose) of the journal publication mentioned in question 4. If you located a scholarly society (per question 6), also review their mission and membership. Then, provide three reasons based on this review as to how you deem the information published or presented by the journal to be scientifically valid, accurate, and reliable. (10 pts) 8. Now that you have established that the information in your article is scientifically reliable (meaning that you can trust that it provides safe, useful health information for you) return to your URL (question 2) and read your article again for content. Type a 200-word summary of the content of your article without plagiarizing or quoting the article. Write solely in your own words. (12 pts) Research has shown that the ‘rotten egg’ gas known as hydrogen sulfide, also known as H2S, has been detected in the fluid of knee joints. The study compared amounts of hydrogen sulfide in those with two types of arthritis against subjects without arthritis. It was found that subjects with rheumatoid arthritis have significantly higher concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in their knee joints than subjects without rheumatoid arthritis. The research has opened the possibility that hydrogen sulfide could be used as a medication for those with inflammatory diseases. Further research is being conducted to figure out how to deliver safe levels of hydrogen sulfide to patients. Because anti-inflammatory drugs have many negative side-effects, delivery of hydrogen sulfide to those with inflammatory diseases would be a more natural option because hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in the body. Rheumatoid Arthritis, or RA, is the most significant inflammatory disease. Thousands are diagnosed with RA each year and many people

Individual Essay Virtual Teams Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Individual Virtual Teams - Essay Example 300). It is important to note that even though members of a virtual team may work from different branches of the same organization, their contribution to the team is expected to enable the organization reach a common goal. Body Before an organization decides to form a virtual team as a means of attaining organizational goals, it is critical to evaluate the pros and cons of such a team. Such an evaluation enables organizations to determine if a virtual team would be best suited to meet the needs and goals of the organization. Some of the advantages of such teams are outlined below. First, virtual teams are highly convenient because of the lack of time restrictions. Since the members of a virtual team often reside in different cities/ countries, members are aware, from the onset, that team meetings may be held at odd hours. The communication technology that is used by virtual teams is designed to be effective irrespective of time differences. The ability of such teams to work without t ime restrictions is very beneficial since essentially, a company can work for twenty-four hours a day (Hungwei & Heng-Yu, 2011, p. 83). This increases the amount of work that is accomplished in one day, which leads to increased productivity. The lack of restrictions on time also means that in most cases, virtual teams hold meetings when members have varying energy levels because of the time difference (Berry, 2011, p. 193). This is beneficial since team members are not likely to be exhausted at the same time, which makes the virtual team highly productive (Ofir & Zhang, 2010, p. 368). Another notable advantage of virtual teams is that they may cost the company less in terms of overhead. As noted in this paper, virtual team members do not necessarily have to be in the office to hold meetings. In fact some members may work for their homes on a full time basis because face to face meetings in the office may not be needed. As such, companies are able to save costs that they may otherwis e have incurred on things such as office space and other office amenities (Panteli & Tucker, 2009, p. 113). Virtual teams are also beneficial since they enable companies to acquire the best possible variety of employees that can steer the company to success. In some cases, companies may be unable to hire all the skills they need because they rely on local-based employees who can be able to report to the local office. By making use of virtual teams, companies can ensure that they do not compromise and hire minimally skilled employees (Jacques, Garger, & Brown, 2009, pp. 153-154). Virtual teams can comprise of members who are not able to relocate to the location of the actual office but who are just as skilled as or even more skilled than employees who work from the office. In addition to this, a virtual team is also advantageous since it leads to reliance on a result- based method of measuring employee performance. During the evaluation of the performance of employees who work from t he office, some companies may erroneously rate the performance of employees who stay longer in the office highly. However, just because an employee put more effort by staying in the office longer, this does not necessarily mean that such an employee contributes highly to the attainment of organizational goals. Since the performance

Gender in the Middle East Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Gender in the Middle East - Essay Example This paper shall now examine the concept of patriarchy as it operates within the family and the state. Specifically it will answer the question: how does patriarchy impact on the women, the family, and the state? Examples in relation to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia will be included in this discussion. First, an overview of the concept of patriarchy will be presented, followed by a discussion on the background of patriarchy in the Middle East. Patriarchy in relation to women and the family in the Middle East shall then be discussed. Patriarchy within the state shall follow such discussion. A conclusion will summarize and provide an overall evaluation of the article. Patriarchy refers to a system wherein the main authority figure is the father in the family, and in the case of social, political, and business organizations, the male leaders1. Within the political context, patriarchy can also refer to the centralized roles held by the ruler of the state over constituents or members. This situation would imply that fathers have full authority over women and children and the women are subordinated to such power2. In the traditional system, this patriarchal application has been seen in the social, legal, and political settings, not just in the Asian culture, but the Western traditional culture as well. Traditionally, leadership is associated with physical strength and males are physiologically built to be stronger than their female counterparts3. Hence, the responsibility of caring for the family and later the state has been burdened on men. The foundations of patriarchy are built on such premise. The Middle East region has traditionally been a patriarchal society. Its larger area, the Mediterranean region has housed three religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam4. At present, Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East.

An evaluation of the suitability of the Istisna contract to financing Essay

An evaluation of the suitability of the Istisna contract to financing small enterprises - Essay Example These banks offer services based on religious teachings and laws. The banks continue to provide innovative financial products aimed at filling the existing gaps in the financial industry. These banks have used a philanthropic approach, adopted from Islamic teaching, to offer high quality services to customers. One of these approaches has been the Istisna contract. Based on the Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) this contract has transformed the banking industry immensely (Mahlknecht, 2009). The use of this contract may be enormously beneficial to people seeking comprehensive funding for small businesses. The contract and its use by Islamic banks The Istisna contract falls under the category of manufacturing contracts. It was created by the Islamic Financial Institution in line with the Istisna believes. The contract is strongly related to the shariah. In Arabic, the word Istisna means making a request to someone to build, construct or manufacture something for another. This contract is based on the principle meaning of the word. The contract, therefore, involves agreements for sale and purchase between two individuals. The items under discussion in the contract agreements of Istisna are non-existent. This can be termed as the greatest difference between the Istisna and other financial contracts within the industry (Warde, 2000). This has led to the identification of the Istisna as a exceptional sale agreement. Within the scope of the Istisna contract, the agreement is normally based on trust between the parties. The asset in the agreement normally has to be constructed or manufactured in a later date. The parties normally a gree on the date in which the finished product should be delivered. The process of creating an Istisna contract needs to be handled with considerable care. The Shariah law dictates that a commodity intended for sale must in the hands on the seller when the sale is being made (Mahlknecht, 2009). The seller must also posses the ownership of the product intended for sale. A product to be sold must also have been gained through acceptable means by the Islamic law. The Istisna contract, however, seems to offer a slightly different ideology. In the Istisna contract, the products being sold are normally, not in their final form. The core aspect of the contract becomes the religious values attached to the agreement. All elements of the contract are based upon trust and belief in the ability of the manufacturing party to deliver items. The quality and quantity of the product is expected to meet the agreed upon standards. In the contract, the parties agree on the specifications of the goods t o be manufactured as well as the date of completion of the manufacturing process. The cost price of the items can also be another element agreed upon by the contracting parties. All these elements are done through agreements made by the contracting parties. Within the scope of the Istisna contract, the Islamic financial institutions are requested by customers to manufacture a product. The product is manufactured by the financial institution on behalf of the customer. Upon completion of the construction, the product is then delivered to the customer for payment. Trust becomes essential as the customer may not be able to cater for the payment of the products delivered. An important note to make here is that the contract terms cannot be changed once they have been agreed upon. This becomes essential in ensuring that each party delivers its part of the bargain. Failure by either party, though, immediately makes the contract obsolete. The

Self - evalation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Self - evalation - Essay Example In the absence of the person and nature of Jesus Christ as God incarnate, the message of Jesus would lose the uniqueness, authority and applicability to man attributed to it. The message of Jesus Christ in turn remains of crucial importance since liberation theology is centered on the message of Jesus Christ. As a sociopolitical movement which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ as being relational and key to emancipation from adverse or oppressive economic, political and social conditions. For instance, the Sermon on the Mountain places great emphasis on the poor and the less privileged, and thereby setting stage for liberation theology, given that liberation theology is deemed by its proponents as an interpretation of Christian teachings and faith through the hope, struggles and suffering of the poor. Normally, liberation theology critiques the society perceived to be oppressive, interprets the Christian message, through the worldview of the poor and is done by detractors such as Christianized Marxists. In this light, it becomes clear to me, that Christianity is far much interested in man's liberation. Another insight that I gleaned from classroom situation was the liberating power of the message of Christ. This was exemplified in the manner Christianity has been able to break forces, institutions and walls of segregation such as the caste system in India, the color bar in South Africa and racial discrimination and the use of racial discrimination in America, particularly, the slaveholding South. The eradication of these walls of separation is in turn underpinned by the manner in which the Christian doctrine intermarries readily with concepts such as universal brotherhood. The concept of universal brotherhood in the Christian doctrine is rested not only on humanity drawing from Adam as the first parent, but also from Christ, the second Adam bringing humanity into newness of spiritual life and oneness in the family of God. Another value that I gained from the classroom experience is the anthropocentric nature of Christianity and its teachings. Even Levin points out that so integrally woven into the benefit and wellness of man that the Gospel of Christ and the Christian message rest upon man’s welfare. Christ gives out His life in His own volition to secure man’s eternal destiny. Secondly, although salvation that Christ secures for mankind is free and a work of God’s grace, yet the anthropocentric nature of the Gospel is to be manifest in man being benevolent towards his brother, as a testimony to his conversion. Mathew 25: 34-46 and James 2:14-26 underscore the importance of dealing benevolently with the poor and the less privileged in the society as assign of true conversation. Charitable foundations such as Henry Dunant’s Red Cross and Red Crescent, and initiatives such as the ones carried out by St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa draw their inspiration from these lines of teaching (Levin, 25). Aga inst this backdrop, I can say confidently that the classroom experience has helped me gain a wider scope of the role Christianity plays in dispensing socioeconomic and political emancipation and empowerment. Part 2 Self -Evaluation about Community Based Learning Using the Reflections Paper Sent [1, 2 3 of Hallmarks (immigration justice)] One of the values that about community

Labor law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8750 words

Labor law - Essay Example However, the comparing will be in specific aspects, labor law background in both countries, minimum wage, woman working, and child working. Chapter I Background: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Unite Sate of America, which are the subject of comparison in this research, had, in various aspects of life such as politics, economy and law. Of course, there is different background in labor law in both countries.In this chapter we will refer to the historical stages of labor law in every state. (2) United States labor lawbackground: Employer took their labor trouble to court almost as soon as American became independent. Each state has its own court, and they often have disagreed with one another about labor cases.(3) Because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of association, the court did not outlaw unions as such. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a common union tactic was for union members to agree among themselves how much in wage they would accept from their employers; the members also refused to work in the same shop as any other worker who accepted less than union scale. However, the courts held that this tactic was a criminal conspiracy,(4) (will be case as example under minimum wage section below). By the end of the nineteenth century, prosecutions for criminal conspiracy had become ineffective in controlling labor unions. There were two reasons for this change. First, a criminal case was too slow. The work could not be punished until after an indictment was issued and the case had gone to trial. This process took several months, during which the strike or boycott was damaging the employer’s business. Second, jurieswrer increasingly made up of workers, not merely shopkeepers and landowners; andworkers were hesitant to find coworkers guilty of the crime peacefully trying to improve their wage and working condition. Employers, therefore, took their complaints to civil court, and here they found the perfect we apon for fighting unions: the injunction. In the past, the law permitted judges to issue injunctions against unions freely.(5) In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in order to control monopolies in business, but the wording of the law was so general that it could applied to labor unions as well. The statute outlawed â€Å" every . . . combination . . . or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states,† Al thought this act was not used against strikes over wages ad hours, it was used to control union organizing. (6) In the infamous DanburyHatters case, the union sought to organize all the fur hat makers of America by boycotting the products of nonunion manufactures. One manufactures sued, arguing that the boycott did diminish trade among the states and awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages payable by the individual workers.(7) Twenty-five years later, in 1914, Congress passed the Clayton Act which stated, â€Å" the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce† and â€Å" no . . . injunction shall be granted in any case between an employer and employees . . . growing out of a dispute concerning terms or conditions of employment,† Union leaders regarded the Clayton act as a great victory for organized labor. But court turned the victory into defeat by holding congress did not mean to permit boycotts in support of organizing campaigns.

ICT Coursework Essay Example for Free

ICT Coursework Essay Virus, a special program which can do destructive also annoying things, it is a very tricky thing, because there are lots of different viruses, some of them might format your hard disk or they can make copies of itself without the user knowing about itetc. they all have different behaviours but all of them do things that you may not like to see to your computer. Before we know how to protect ourselves, we need to know how viruses work. Viruses are very annoying, because they spread. But they are not spreading in a normal way which you can see; they hide in the boot sector of a storage device, and this storage device can either be a floppy disk or CD-ROM that youve just borrowed from your friend. After it gets into your computer, it will do what the designer of this virus told it to do, it can be make millions of copies, or format the hard disketc. If so, how can people get away from this thing that you can not see? For the problem like this, people have made those anti-virus programs to find the virus, I strongly recommend you to have an anti-virus program, because you may never know what it actually in the file you are looking. In a PC, if a virus gets in, it will begin to spread it self, and do damage to it. Can we stop it? Yes, virus has always been a big problem to PCs, and there are many solutions as well, its just whether people actually do it or not. We can like have regular whole system virus scan e.g. every week. We can also use the floppy disk or CD-ROM that you trust, but even if you trust the source of it, you will still need to have a virus scan before you open it. Be careful with all the files that you have downloaded from the internet, because you may never know is it a clean file. Regular anti-virus program update will do as well. And if we can actually do these things properly, there shall be less problem form the virus. For a business company or school network, a firewall and the anti-virus program is needed. Viruses do not only go from storage devices, they can also come form other computers in your network. So if a single computer in your network gets the virus, all the computers on the network are in danger. So again, regular virus scan, be careful with all the files that you get from other placesetc. should help to keep the damage to minimum. For me, I do have those anti-virus programs and I do all the things Ive said above, with the anti-virus program, I think the damage is kept to a minimum; but I found a problem, if a virus gets into the anti-virus program it self and changes the configuration of the system, nothing will be known because the anti-virus program it self is the virus! However, virus has always been a problem for us, but if we do be aware of it, I am sure that the person who made the virus will soon find there is no way of getting a virus into our system. Finally, do never forget a virus can do anything to your computer, things can really go wrong if you dont keep an eye on you computer.

Housing Statistics Essay Example for Free

Housing Statistics Essay The regression line is also known as the best fit line for the given data. The data points may not form a straight line. The line that best fits or best describes the relationship of the given dependent and independent variables is the line that would have the minimum perpendicular distance from the given data points. This line is used to analyze the relationship of the different variables given. It can also be used to predict or estimate other data points. In this paper, the regression line of the given data will be computed using a given tool from a certain website. The data will be analyzed to help in the decision making of the owner of the construction business. With the information given above, there is no question that the number of housing starts increases as the interest rate goes down. With the predictions of financial experts that mortgage rates will continue to dip in the next coming years, the housing construction business should be prepared in the possible increase in demands. Being the owner of a housing construction business, effective project planning should be in place. The employees should be prepared with the possible increase in the demand of housing construction projects as the interest rates continue to go down. A plan should be in place covering how to approach the possible increase in demands. Risks and uncertainties should also be identified as early as possible and there should be a detailed work breakdown structure to get ready for the coming projects. The plan should also encompass all aspects of the construction business from the materials procurement, subcontractors to employees who will be working on the projects. It should also include plans for the next coming years as the trend will probably continue as forecasted by financial experts. The data given should be used to forecast demands as accurate as possible. Using the data in the forecast, accurate measures can be implemented in terms of working with subcontractors and where to source materials. Decisions to be made with regard to projects will depend a lot on the data being forecasted by experts. Reference Ramat-Gan. (2003, June 30). Interest Rate Plunge Will Continue. Lecture Notes. Waner, S. Costenoble, S. (1999). Simple Regression. Retrieved August 2, 2006 from http://people. hofstra. edu/faculty/Stefan_Waner/newgraph/regressionframes. html

Limitations Of Anaerobic Power In Children Physical Education Essay

Limitations Of Anaerobic Power In Children Physical Education Essay There has been an increasing number of children and adolescents that are involving in resistance training for anaerobic power in schools, fitness centers, and sports training facilities. In addition to increasing muscular strength and power, regular exercise activity in pediatric resistance training may be beneficial. It can influence on ones body composition, bone health, and reduce the risk of sport-related injuries. Resistance training is targeted to improve low fitness levels and poor trunk strength as well as improve health and fitness benefits to young athletes. Pediatric resistance training programs need to be well-designed and supervised by qualified professionals who understand the physical and psychosocial uniqueness of children and adolescents. The different training methods along with the progression of the program over time should be challenging and enjoyable for the children. Introduction Anaerobic power is energy that is stored in muscles in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and can be accessed without the use of oxygen. There are two systems that conduct this type of power which are the phosphagen system and the lactic acid system. People use this form of energy in short bursts that cannot be sustained for no longer than about two minutes. The first stage of the anaerobic power is adenosine triphosphate phospho-creatine (ATP-PC), which only supplies energy for about one to six seconds, after that the phosphagen system takes place, and then the lactic acid system or glycolytic system, which begins by producing energy by breaking down carbohydrates. While these systems are running, the body is using more energy than it can replenish, which may lead to cramping, fatigue, and lactic acid buildup quickly. Individuals should train to improve their anaerobic power by building their capacity to use power systems that do not require oxygen. Measuring Anaerobic Power For adolescence, anaerobic capacity can be measured by using the Wingate test. In this test, a person pedals a mechanically braked bicycle for thirty seconds as fast as possible, and a flywheel is used to count revolutions. Testing an individuals capacity frequently ensures that his or her workout routines are improving their abilities. Direct measurements of the rate or capacity of anaerobic pathways for energy turnover presents several ethical and methodological difficulties. Therefore, rather than measuring energy supply, pediatric exercise scientists have concentrated on measuring short-term power output by means of standardized protocol tests such as short-term cycling power tests, running tests, or vertical jump tests. However, it is possible to measure by finding the levels of lactate on the pre-test and post-test phases as well as the individuals vital capacity. The level of lactate in blood (mmol per liter) is measured in accordance with a protocol that considers the analysi s of a 3mL sample of blood, using the calorimetric method and a lactate analyzer photometer (1). Vital capacity can be measured using a spirometer to measure the maximum amount of air that can be forcedly breath from the lungs after a maximum inspiration (1). As for children, findings have been reported by measuring mechanical force or power output files during sustained isometric maximal contractions or repeated bouts of high-intensity dynamic exercises (2). There is no perfect test, but it is important to acknowledge the benefits and limitations of each testing or training method. However, metabolic adaptations during exercise in children and adolescents have been rarely investigated using muscle biopsies, radioactive materials or arterial catheters. This is due to the invasiveness of these techniques. Ethically for children, measurements have to be relatively non-invasive, and certainly must carry minimal or no risk to health (2). Benefits Resistant training can offer many benefits for children and adolescents when it is properly prescribed and monitored. The potential benefits would be an increase in muscle strength, muscle power, local muscle endurance, enhanced motor skill and sports performance; also an improvement in bone mineral density, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and blood lipid profile as well as a reduced risk of sport-related injuries (3). Also, research concludes that caffeine seems to be ergogenic during high-intensity exercises and has effect on resistance training. High-intensity exercise seems to be favorable affected (i.e. sprinting, sprint cycling power) with methodologies employing protocols that mimic sport activities (i.e. 4-6 seconds) (4). Caffeine seems to be beneficial for athletes in sports such as soccer, rugby, lacrosse, and football (4). Limitations of Anaerobic Power There are limitations when training for anaerobic power. During childhood, children have an immature musculoskeletal system, which is structurally different than the mature system. When measuring, testing, or training for anaerobic power, it is important to recognize the limitations of the immature musculoskeletal system when designing training programs by modifying rules for sports and evaluating acute and sub acute injuries. The reason being of limitations is because of the high risks of children injuring themselves by overdoing their muscles during heavy weight training. Risks and Concerns Since anaerobic power involves explosive movements, there are some risks and concerns that one must take into consideration. Macrotrauma is a fast and sudden injury caused by a major force of action. For example, the injury could be due to a fall or hit during physical activity.   Macrotrauma can cause injuries such as fractures, sprains of ligaments, muscle strains, and bruises.   Also, there are risks of microtrauma, which is due to a repetitive injury over a long period of time. Types of injuries include stress fractures and many other syndromes. Macrotrauma can occur when performing in organized sports or during free play, and prevention of injuries requires adequate supervision, appropriate matching of competitors, and modification of rules as well. Also, there are concerns about youth resistant training due to the fact that there is potential injury to the physis or growth plate in a young lifters body (3). However, the risk levels for adolescents is slightly smaller, which is why they are able to compete effectively and safely in anaerobic events and competition with supervision and guidance that is responsive to their unique musculoskeletal. Guidelines for pediatric resistant training should be followed for the safety of the children from serious injuries. Training for Anaerobic Power For children, it is suggested that kids should not put a lot of stress or over stress their bodies when it comes to weight training. Specialists believe that sports such as track and field (throw and jump events), basketball and volleyball (vertical jump) include anaerobic power for kids when power training. As for adolescence, they are able to do a more concentrated and modified training for anaerobic power such as plyometrics, ballistics, explosive strength training, and heavy strength training. Although there is no minimum age requirement at which children can start to resistant train, all participants must be mentally and physically ready to comply with coaching instructions and undergo the stress of a training program and if a child is ready for participation in sport activities (generally age 7 or 8), then he or she is ready for some type of resistant training (3). When designing resistant training programs for young athletes, the acute program design variables that should be c onsidered when designing pediatric resistant training programs include 1) warm-up and cool-down, 2) selection and order of exercise, 3) training intensity and volume, 4) rest intervals between sets and exercises, and 5) repetition velocity (3). The warm-up and cool-down is designed to evaluate core body temperature, enhance motor unit excitability, improve kinesthetic awareness, and maximize active ranges of motion (3). In selection and order of exercise, the individual must start with simple exercises and gradually progress to more advanced workouts. Training intensity and volume is referred to as the amount of resistance used and total amount worked during a training session. As for rest intervals between sets and exercises, 2-3 minutes are recommended for adult lifters. However, children and adolescents can resist fatigue to a greater extent, which gives them a 1 minute rest interval when performing a moderate-intensity resistance exercise activity. In repetition velocity, as you th increase movement velocity during training, it is critical that technical performance of each exercise is mastered before progressing to more advanced movements (3). Child and Adult Differences According to research, it is said that children are able to resist fatigue better than adults during one or several repeated high-intensity exercise bouts (2). During growth and development, mass-related short-term power output increases dramatically, and the increase in peak blood lactate becomes lower. Adults who complete strenuous exercise are usually exhausted and need several hours to recover from their effort. In contrast, children often request to repeat high-intensity exercises 15-30 minutes after their completion because they think that they could improve their previous performance (2). This shows that the observed difference between children, adolescents, and adults during short-term power output testing may be due to neuromuscular and hormonal factors as well as improved motor coordination. Conclusion Anaerobic fitness is used every day during the pediatric stages of life and has been given the impression that it has the potential to offer observable health and fitness value to children and adolescents (3). During physical activity or sport, it is known that the child is more attracted to short-burst or fast-like movements than to long-term activities. Also, it is well known that in anaerobic activities such as sprint cycling, sprint running or sprint swimming, the childs performance is poorer than the adult. This is partly due to the childs slower ability to generate mechanical energy from chemical energy sources during short-term high-intensity work or exercise. There are many studies that people believe how anaerobic power plays a huge role and how anaerobic activity works as well as why people need it. Also, it is known that increasing your anaerobic capacity can give you significant improvements in the efficiency of your aerobic system. Information shows that as children start to transition into adolescence and into adulthood, their recovery time increases, they are able to tolerate a lot more stress, and be more efficient anaerobically making them able to last longer while doing an intense activity. Overuse injuries due to repetitive microtrauma represents a new spectrum of injury that has arisen with the rise in organized sport for adolescents. Injury prevention for overuse injuries requires recognition of the risk factors for injury, and an appropriate modification and diversification of training regimens, an optimization of mechanics with technique and equipment, and adequate conditioning.

Voiced Opinion :: essays research papers

Voiced Opinion There are several people in this plain west Texas town that are constantly turning up their noses at people who are contrasting to their high society cradle of humanity. It has gotten to where people can no longer express their individuality without having the proverbial finger shaken at them. If a person is not wearing the most elite of brands, then at best, that person will be ignored; in most cases, they will receive ridiculing looks and hatred filled words. Although these upper echelons are not necessarily of Christian faith, they carry a 'holier than thou'; attitude that portrays that they are better than everyone else. Quite a few people prefer to illustrate their individual personalities, instead of being 'just another sheep in the herd.'; They may choose to wear apparel that is, at the least, distinct from the population around them. The freethinking female may choose to embellish a long, black broomstick skirt, with her favorite Marilyn Manson T-shirt, accessorized by her over worn combat boots. She may also choose to wear darker make up to show her beauty in a gothic fashion. An open-minded male may adorn a pair of well-adapted denim jeans with holes in the knees. He might choose to wear an over-sized shirt that is garnished with the name of some eighties band that is of no importance to anyone other than himself. Unfortunately, individualists are banned from their choice of clothes in several areas of society. They are informed they can not wear their pieces of flair in malls or other public scenes because of the biased fear: if a human being looks unusual, that person is a threat to society. It is a shame that people who are so enormously creative and out going are chastise from showing themselves in genuine manner. If everyone were to share this yearning to be distinct, our terrestrial sphere would be a much more kaleidoscopic place to subside. Distinct individuals should be allowed to break out of their predetermined 'egg shell'; and should finally be able stand up for what they truly believe in.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is one other factor that does not support freedom of expression: there are no stores that allow a person to be one's self. Several stores in the area are said to bestow such freedoms. The Attic is made to sound as if it offers the world in a breadbasket, but instead it is selling clothes that would not have gone over well, even in the 'funked out'; seventies.

A Clockwork Orange Essay -- A Clockwork Orange Essays

A Clockwork Orange We are first introduced to Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in the company of his posse, strangely sipping drugged milk in a freakish bar with anatomically indiscrete manikins serving as tittie-taps and tables. The ensuing scenes flash from Alex and his three droogs brutally beating an old man to a violent rape scene to a semi-chaotic gang-brawl. The story is of Alex and his love of the old ultra-violence, his act of murder, his betrayal and imprisonment, and his cure (twice). Adapted from Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel, A Clockwork Orange is in part a response to psychological behaviorism and the age of classical conditioning. While in prison, Alex is selected for a special treatment that will cure him of his impulses to rape and brutalize. The treatment is in fact a simple conditioning process—Alex’s eyes are propped open and his body restrained so that he must watch a series of graphic images while experiencing an injection induced illness. The illness becomes his conditioned response to brutality, rape, and, accidentally, his much beloved Beethoven’s 9th symphony....

The Irreconcilable Donkeys and Elephants Essay --

The amber waves of grain sway in the wind. Majestic purple mountains rise like waves in the distance. The air is peaceful. The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution were the calm before the storm. Since the nineteenth century the two main political parties have been represented by the wrinkled elephant, and the furry donkey. Since the brawl began, it has never ceased. Is it a fight worth fighting? The elephants trunk crashes on the ass’s disproportionate head. With a kick, the donkey springs backwards as the large beast crumples in agony. If I lived in the 1800s, near or far from the amber waves of grain, I would be neither a Republican or a Federalist. The Republicans and Federalists have too conflictual objectives to make peace. The ring of peace is a crucial goal for democracy. The bell of peace and liberty has ceased to ring, therefore I refuse to commit myself to a Federalist or Republican party. The battle will rage eternally. On September 17, 1787, when the Constitution was adopted immediately strife arose. The Republicans and Federalists disagreed about what power the Constitution should have, and how to interpret it. Alexander Hamilton believed in a strong federal government, he was a Federalist. Controversially, Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, demanded a small local government. In this scenario, I regard both varieties of government strength being equally necessary. Jefferson had a narrow interpretation the Constitution, and Hamilton interpreted with a broad meaning of every word. He argued that the Constitution created a government to solve national problems. Although, he only wanted to give power to federal government. (Center for Civic Education.) The Republicans and Federalists views clashed on how much c... ...ts will fight beyond the death. Tails will whip, and stripes will blow away in turmoil. Stars just might fall from the sky, too. If I lived in 1800s, I wouldn’t be a Republican or a Federalist. Two parties that just couldn’t agree, I find hard to trust or take part in. The new generation of elephants and donkeys has the same problem. It is ingrained into the genetics of government. Even with the disgust, monotonous fighting, and tension between political parties we all fight for pursuing happiness. An â€Å"inalienable right†, as spoken by John Locke. There is yet another thing the elephants and donkeys agree on: where they fight is a pretty amazing culture and place. America has billions of flaws, but we’re doing a lot of things right, too. Everyone’s too caught up in conflicts to appreciate the amber waves of grain, the fruited plains, and the shining seas.

Local Literature Essay

Follow-up or tracer studies have enjoyed popularity in LIS training needs/ assessment analyses over the past 20 years in Africa in studies by scholars such as Anadiran (1988) in Nigeria; Alemna (1991, 1999) and Kisie du (1993) in Ghana; Rosenberg (1989, 1994) in Kenya; Ocholla (2001 and 2005) and Stilwell (2004) in South Africa Rugambwa (1998) and Mammo (2007) in Ethiopia; Aina and Moahi (1999) in Botswana; and Lutwana and Kigongo – Bukenya (2004) in Uganda. Mammo (2007) conducted a study on the status of LIS education in Ethiopia and the perceptions of graduates on the LIS program me. The study revealed that in one university ,the LIS program me changed to Information Systems because of university-wide changes ,while in another university, the LIS curriculum remained the same. Graduates indicated that they were not satisfied with the LIS programme. 2 Lutwana and Kigongo-Bukenya (2004) conducted a study on the appropriateness of the EASLIS (East Africa School of Library and Information Science) curriculum to professional practice in Library and Information Science field in Uganda. The purpose of the study was to establish where graduates worked, what they did, and whether their education met employers’ expectations. It further identified areas of curriculum revision. The study revealed that most graduates were employed in academic institutions, government departments, banks and NGO’s libraries, where they performed various professional activities. The study also revealed that employers complained about the lack of practical skills among the graduates, citing specialization through electives as inadequate . Aina and Moahi (1999) conducted a tracer study of graduates from the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Botswana. The aim of the study was to determine the curriculum of the Department of LIS at the University of Botswana. The study revealed that the graduates were employed in traditional library settings. The study also found that their training was relevant to the tasks that they performed, although they advocated the strengthening of the information technology component of the curriculum . Kaijage (n. d. conducted a tracer study on the skills and knowledge of B. Com graduates of the University of Dares Salaam. The study concluded that the knowledge and skills that the graduates obtained from the university were relevant to their jobs. But it also suggested that changes should be made to the program me. There are also many other tracer studies conducted all over the Africa and the rest of the world. In South Africa, Stilwell (2004) conducted a survey of alumni perceptions of thepost graduate ILS (Information and Library Science program me at the University of Natal). Critical issues, such as balancing the human centre approach with IT, were identified. The findings of the study indicated that the program me achieved its outcomes because it prepared alumni well for the work place. Ocholla’s (2001) tracer study of LIS graduates from 1996 -1997 determined whether the skills and attitudes they gained during their training at the University of Zululand applied in their jobs. The results of the study indicate that graduates obtained sufficient knowledge from the degree program me . These examples indicate that tracer studies are generally conducted to find out about the fates of departmental graduates or alumni. They investigate where graduates are, whether they are employed, and employers’ perceptions about the skills and knowledge that LIS graduates have. They are also used to obtain feedback from employed alumni and employers on the relevance of the program me offered by different departments. Like most tracer studies, this study addresses the same questions: Are the graduates employable? Is the curriculum relevant? What are the perceptions of graduates and employers about the graduates’ skills, knowledge and education? Local literature At the Palanca literary awards dinner the other Saturday, Mrs. Sylvia Palanca Quirino invited the new Tourism Secretary, Ramon Jimenez Jr. , to be the guest speaker. Jimenez was responsible for coining the latest tourism come-on, â€Å"It’s More Fun in the Philippines. † He talked about literature and how it can help the tourism industry which, as we all know, has yet to be fully exploited. So many countries in our part of the world, particularly Thailand, have reaped millions from the flood of tourists visiting these countries. We get only a trickle, for though we have great possibilities, there is not enough global interest in our country and its attractions. Much of this is due to our own myopia, of our leaders who do not understand or realize the myriad possibilities here if we only know how to use them! Jimenez should produce long-range programs. This is one common fault of government; a new administration takes over and new policies are made no continuity is pursued. Will the slogan, â€Å"It’s More Fun in the Philippines† last only three years from now.? Will it be replaced when a new administration takes over? This is a minor point; will initiatives today be continued in the future? Does the present administration accept the past administration program enough to pursue its good aspects? Will our tourism executives use them? Just consider this: how many visitors go to England, to visit Stratford-on-Avon because they have enjoyed William Shakespeare’s plays. Those tourists clambering up the hills in Greece how many of them are there because they read the Homeric classics? And Spain, which reaps so much from the thousands upon thousands of visitors every year, how many visit that country because they have read Cervantes, and Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and all those gory bullfight scenes in his fiction? Permit me to brag a bit. Once, I brought a busload of expats and some locals to the Ilokos because they wanted to see the setting of the Rosales saga. I was their tour guide. We went to my hometown, Rosales, and showed them two of the old houses which I used as models, and to that rundown barrio called Cabugawan where I was born, then on to Tayug where the Colorum rebelled in 1931, and to the Ilokos to see the old churches and finally to Cabugaw where the saga starts. And then one morning, more than a decade ago, a young man visited my bookshop. He was a schoolteacher in Holland; he had read Mass, the concluding novel in the Rosales saga which was published first in Dutch rather than in the English original. This was his first visit to Asia. Mass had appealed to him so much, he wanted to see its setting. I took him to Forbes Park first, then to Tondo, to Barrio Magsaysay and to Smokey Mountain which was still smoking then. Then we went to the university belt, to Recto and he saw all those young students milling about. And finally, that early evening we visited one of the massage parlors in Quezon City. Our National Hero, Jose Rizal he wrote the greatest Filipino novel why is there no literary tour based on his work and on his life? This literary tour will be more for Filipinos than for foreigners. It will impinge on our youth those virtues so terribly missing now the rectitude, the patriotism all the qualities which Rizal personified. Such a tour, led by a guide steeped in history, could start in the morning with a trip to Calamba, the Rizal house, the lake, and nearby Mt. Makiling. From there, back to Manila, to the Noli geography, the University of Santo Tomas, Binondo then Fort Santiago, the Luneta where Rizal was executed, and finally to Paco Cemetery where he was first buried. It could end with a view of the Manila sunset. Tourism for locals is growing it should be the way it is with Japan where the Japanese themselves are the best tourists in their own country. I told Jimenez to consider the movies. The Koreans are now producing epic historical movies, and those addictive telenovelas which have enthralled so many all over the world. My daughter-in-law, Lee Pai, who teaches history at the University of California at Santa Barbara happened to be visiting. She said those movies and telenovelas are scripted by Korea’s leading writers familiar with the literary classics of the West and East which explains the high quality of the telenovelas unlike the asinine and moronic serials produced by local TV. As evidenced by the Palanca awards, we are never short of literary talent. Why do our movie and TV people ignore them? Movie festivals are a great attraction in Europe and so are book fairs and literature meetings. Singapore has an international literary festival each year, India, too, and the annual Frankfurt Book Fair is one of the biggest attractions in this German city. Just concluded in Korea is the Annual PEN Congress an international meeting of writers. Writers attending this Congress will surely go home and write about Korea, further enlarging the global reach of that prosperous and booming country. Meanwhile, let me continue tossing encomiums at the Palancas for their perseverance, charity and goodwill in supporting the Awards for literature. I knew the founder, Carlos Palanca Jr. , personally he was very charming, debonair, with a wide circle of acquaintances in business and with the culturati. As far back as I can recall, it was the late NVM Gonzalez and Nick Joaquin who suggested to him the creation of the Awards to encourage literary excellence in the country. Sixty-two years three generations! I do not think such an effort has any equal in the region or in all of Asia. The vitality and continuing relevance of such effort requires organizational skills, massive expenditure and vision. It is a wonder to me why, up to now, this massive contribution of the Palancas to our culture and nation has not been publicly recognized. Filipino writers should be grateful to the children of Charlie Palanca who have not neglected their father’s vision. Sylvia Palanca Quirino leads them in plodding on. In the beginning, the awards were only for fiction and poetry in English and Tagalog they now include children’s stories, plays, novels, not just in these two languages but in Cebuano, Ilonggo and Ilokano. At the Awards dinner, Quirino also announced that the Awards will also recognize Filipino achievers. While the Palanca Awards promote creativity, it follows that media, particularly TV, can do so much by using the work of our best writers, as is done in Korea. Publishers can add to what the Palanca Awards have produced create literary sections in newspapers and magazines, publish those new and splendid works. May I also now suggest to Mrs. Socorro Ramos that her National Book Stores all over the country should exhibit in their show windows Filipino books, both fiction and non-fiction? They deserve exposure, a much wider audience. Do all these not because it is patriotic but because these good writers deserve a wider readership in their own country.

Decision making Essay

My personal ethics development has been a process and it has changed over the years from people influencing me and myself maturing. As a child, I was raised well by my mother who always taught me to do the right thing when no one was looking. She always made sure I respected my elders and had good manners. I went to a Catholic school when I was in grade school and high school. My family and I would go to church every Sunday and have dinner together every night. My family always taught me to have good values and morals, to be a part of the community in a productive way. The people that raised me in my earlier life played a huge importance on the man I have become. At this point of my life ,I thought my compass was true north as we heard Mr. O’Rourke talk about in the video lecture. I had strong values at all times or at least I thought I did. As my life went on I realized that my compass was north ,but it wasn’t true north. I still had room to grow and become more mature in my decision-making. Sometimes it can be very hard to judge how ethic you are like a person because you are judging yourself. I graduated high school and soon after that I decided that I was going to join the Army instead of going to college. I was 19 years old when I joined the United States Army and enlisted for four years. The minute I arrived to boot camp I was introduced to the seven Army values which are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. We had to memorize these army values ,as well as The Soldiers Creed and Warrior ethos. The warrior ethos is, I will always place the mission first, I will never quit, I will never accept defeat, and I will never leave a fallen comrade. Every morning we would stand information and have to repeat these creeds and Army values as a group. At the time ,I did not understand why it was suppose important memorize all these things. They would make us do team building exercises, where you would have to trust your fellow Soldiers. Then the next six years of my life will change how I looked at my moral decision making for the rest of my life. I went to Iraq when I was 20 for a 15-month tour and came back 22 years old. Within those six years ,I deployed to Iraq three deferent times for a total of 33 months. While you are deployed in a war situation you will be faced with unethical decisions on a daily basis this is where you got to separate your religious and personal ethics with your jobs ethics. Sometimes you need to make a decision based on a duty-based principal, were right and wrong is determined by an outside source. You do things you don’t necessarily believe in ,but it’s for the better of the workplace, work or in this case for the Army. I look back to the days of basic training and throughout the nine years I have been in the Army and I realize why the Army puts so must stress on values. We have classes all the time on ethics, decision-making and critical thinking. The Army prepares you for the hard decisions you are going to have to make with using sound judgment and values. All the training I received from the Army and them instilling values and standards in my brain helped me to always make ethical decisions in the most distraught instances. It helped me that I was raised with good ethics, morals, and values. It made the transition in the Army easier for myself than some of the other Soldiers. The Army is a perfect example of just because you were raised with bad ethics or values do not mean that you will always live that way. People are brought in from all over the world and have to work with each other on a daily basis and trust each other. The Army will teach you how to have good ethics and values. I see people change all the time over the course of time. They will make you have a role model character once they make you believe in the values and ethics. I am not saying everyone will change or will be able to change but if a person truly wants to change they can change with strong leaders in place with good characters. Ethics is crucial in the business world because there is so much room for corruption and misbehavior in the workplace. There is many chances to make unethical decisions in business that is why it is so important to have mandatory training and have people who believe in you work for you. Every company or business needs to come up with some policy such as code to ethics in the workplace environment. Just cause someone grew up a bad apple does not mean that the person is going to be a bad apple there whole life. People who impact them throughout their lives can change them or a certain job with high ethic standards could change their point of view. It could be as simple as one person who influences that person for them to change to the perspective on their ethics. Without ethics in organizations, there would be no sense of trust among employees and as well with customers. You want to know your employees are making ethical decisions because you cannot watch everyone that works for you all the time. You want them to act the same way whether you are in a room with them or a thousand miles away. It is your responsibility as a leader to influence these people and instill these values and ethics in them. You need to make your employees believe in you and your ideas. Throughout my life ,I feel I have had strong morals but many people have influenced me in a positive way. Most people just need positive influences in their life to shape them to have good strong ethics. I was just lucky enough to have these people in my life from an early age and throughout my life. I have never been the person who does things for entitlement-based, I do not find myself making decisions solely on the basis of what is best for myself.

Reflection on “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Essay

â€Å"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs. And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.† Closing the book, I just feel real and hopeful. I will not say this story is a tragedy, and I hate when people generalise it as a book where everyone died except for Laila, Tariq and their children. Indeed, a depressing and melancholy mood is seemed to be perpetuated throughout the book, which has a large time frame spanning over decades (making it also a thought-provoking historical fiction); we agonise over the misfortune of the many characters, over their fickle lives under the most evil torture of the human rights. It’s not the kind of affliction or anguish that is easy to resonate with, as lives as well as the social norms in Afghanistan are unfamiliar to most of us. But somehow, no matter how this book is portrayed as a fiction, from deep inside my heart, I know this must be the reality, the bare truth of a brutal period of modern history. The first reason, I assume, is that Hosseini is a master of story-telling. When I marvelled at Mariam’s courage to stand up against Rasheed, moved by Laila and Tariq’s unfading hope for a brighter future, I wonder, aren’t they just people who cannot be more ordinary? Every time when a person died in the story, especially those who are not the crucial roles and their deaths were merely mentioned in one line, it occurred to me that there must be thousands of Lailas, Tariqs and Mariams in Afghanistan. Each one of them had been the hero in his/her own story. That’s why at the end of the story, I felt so real and so empowered – I might be the hero of my own story. The second reason, is that every character is created so real that you cannot simply love or hate anyone. I was really surprised that I didn’t cry for many of the sad scenes until I read about Jalil’s Disney tape and his letter. Jalil, the one who deeply broke or, more precisely, devastate Mariam’s heart, who once been a cold businessman and gave away his daughter without a dither turned out to be a father who really cared for Mariam for all those years, who still regretted the Disney movie he didn’t take her to watch. He realised that at the end of his life, the thing that should be cherished most is the opportunity of being a father, the thing that should be embraced most tightly is his daughter. This person, is just so real. Even Rasheed, who is the major cause of the two women’s misfortune, has showed his fatherly love when Zalmai was born. Everyone in this story is a three-dimensional person; none of them is perfect, but each one of them can be a splendid sun shining in the sky of Afghanistan. â€Å"Real† is definitely not the only feeling I have after reading it, the most overwhelming one must be â€Å"hopeful†. Hosseini has never intended to depress anyone since the very first beginning when he wrote down the title of book – â€Å"A thousand splendid suns†. Though the walls may seemed to be ashen and rough, I can still see the thousand splendid suns hide behind the walls. This is exactly the motto, the spirit that inspired everyone in this book to keep on struggling. For Mariam, she was able to have â€Å"a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.† because she â€Å"has loved and been loved back†. For Laila and Tariq, their splendid suns are their children, children in Afghanistan and each other. For Laila’s Babi, his splendid suns are Laila and her Mammy. For Jalil, at the end of his life, he still possessed hope to take Mariam in his arms â€Å"as he should have all those years ago†. Even for Rasheed, he once lost a splendid sun in his life, that’s why he would never let it go once Zalmai was born, who turned out to be his new splendid sun. Yes, most of them died. But they were lucky; they died with hope. In the end, I feel so real and hopeful that I almost see a thousand splendid suns shining in the sky now.

The Price of Happiness

People all around the world work their hardest to ensure that they have a happy life for them and their families. Happiness as we know cannot be bought with money, but Ben L. Ashcraft states that everything in life comes with a price tag, including happiness, and through our choices we select the price we are willing to pay. Ashcraft refers to a quote by James E. Fraust who stated â€Å"If you're not willing to pay the price of success, you will pay the price of failure.†Ashcraft says that being successful will lead to a happy life, although success has an up-front fee where not all beings are willing to pay, as opposed to failure where you are allowed a grace period before you are required to begin paying. He suggests developing a â€Å"long-term vision† in which people may see the result of their actions down the road. So does happiness have a price? it does, the price is the choices we make in our lives, the choice to travel the road of success of failure.Happiness c annot be bought with money, as cliche as it sounds it is absolutely true. The price of happiness can be paid by the choices we make in life. People always state that we pay the price of our mistakes , but we also pay the price of happiness. Ashcraft writes that being responsible, admitting to mistakes, apologizing, getting an education, telling the truth, making changes, repairing relationships, etc†¦ are the cost of success. As simple and easy as they sound they might be truly difficult in some situations.For example, an employee in a company makes an unintentional error at his job that leads to a chain of mistakes throughout the place of work which causes major commotion and confusion. That employee, although being terrified of his mistake, admits the fault he has done, takes responsibility and becomes determined in fixing his blunder. By that difficult choice, he has shown that he can be a responsible and dependable being, which can be a major positive feature to his future in that company.However, most people will not own up to their mistakes which may begin their travel on the road of failure. Suppose that employee does not take responsibility of his error but instead be dishonest about the situation and inflict the damage he has done upon another worker where he aims to be clear out of any trouble, which at the time may have been an easier choice. Ashcraft calls that a grace period before you are required to begin paying, in this case paying for his mistakes.It is known that no mistake goes unpunished, when the company figures out that the employee responsible was deceitful and corrupt, they take severe actions toward him. Not only did he lose his job, but he lost his credibility and trust between his colleagues and other companies who have heard of his name and his procedures, thus making it tougher for him to find another job in his area of expertise. Ben L. Ashcraft suggests that â€Å"long-term vision† can be of magnificent help to avoid failure, which in my opinion can be a great benefit in our lives.He compares it to driving on a windy dark road with poor headlights. You could miss a curve or crash. Long-Term is like turning on the bright light and seeing what the results of your actions might be â€Å"down the road†. Although the price of success may be rather difficult in the beginning, or a certain amount or pressure may come with it, but in the long-term it will decrease tremendously and become easier to pay.Not so the price of failure, for it may stack up to enormous amounts, that will cause grief and despair in your life and those around you. There is no way to escape paying the price of your actions. Take that young man who took responsibility for his slip-up, he was clearly looking forward towards the future for he knew if he was untruthful that would be a vast hit to his career which may cause a great amount of unrest and instability in his life. Indeed there is a price to happiness, every choice w e make whether good or bad will affect it.As hard as paying up-front for success may be, we must always accomplish it or try our best to, for in the long-term we will reap the goodness out of that choice. On the other hand, we may have the option of taking a different path that may lead to failure. That path may be trouble-free and uncomplicated at first, but the problems will catch up to us, those we thought we were liberated from, and they will ruin our lives. We have the ability to decide what the price of our happiness is, how abundantly present it may be in our lives or the opposite. Choose wisely.

Analysis of the asia pacific airline industry

Analysis of the asia pacific airline industry There are many industries that the world has come to heavily rely on as globalization has become more widespread. The idea of national and continental boundaries being a limitation has gradually been overtaken by the innovations of mankind over the past few decades. The inventor of the airplane; Orville Wright is quoted as saying in 1908; â€Å"No airship will ever fly from New York to Paris.  That seems to me to be impossibleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the airship will always be a special messenger, never a load-carrier† (Smithsonian Education, 2010). What he could not have imagined was that a century later his invention would be at the centre of the globalisation movement taking place and that the airplanes would be the core of an industry which directly facilitates economic growth, world trade, international investment and tourism (Doganis, 2000). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts international air travel to grow by an average of 6.6% a year to the end of t he decade and over 5% a year from 2000 to 2010 (Stanford University; 2010). These rates correlate with the levels of profitability that have been noted over the past five years as illustrated in Figure-1, showing that the level of profitability in the industry has been steadily growing over the past 5 years. Figure-1: IATA, 2010 The Asia Pacific Airline Industry The most dynamic growth is centred on the Asia Pacific region, where fast-growing trade and investment are coupled with rising domestic prosperity. Home to more than 4 billion people and driven by two of the largest dynamic economies; India and China, the Asia-Pacific region carries more than 25% of global passenger traffic annually (IATA Annual Report, 2010). According to IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani, as of April 2010 the Asia Pacific region was deemed to be the world’s largest aviation market (IATA Annual Report 2010). High rates of economic growth in the emerging markets within the Asia Pacific have led to the rapid expansion of aviation industries serving Asia and The Pacific (Sumner et al. 1995). The Asia Pacific airline industry witnessed a boom in the 1990’s that can only be termed as remarkable especially when compared to the performance of other airline markets such as the USA and Europe (Sumner et al. 1995). The dynamic nature of this region places it as an area of economic interest and analysis. This paper will give an economic analysis which will present arguments of how the airline industry functions and the plausible economic justifications for the massive growth that has been seen in the Asia Pacific airline industry. To present a concise analysis we will focus on three major commercial airlines in the region namely; Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and All Nippon Airways as well as three market leaders in the Low Cost Carriers Sector (LCCs) namely; Cebu Pacific Air, Tiger Airways and Air Asia. 2. Asia Pacific Airline Industry: A Competitive Analysis Airline services categ orized as low cost carriers or LCC’s emerged in the airline industry in the South-East Asia region following deregulation in the early 2000’s and Air Asia pioneered low cost travelling (Arifin et al. 2010). Arifin et al. (2010) further highlight that as the number of LCC’s has grown; these airlines have begun to compete with one another in addition to the full service airlines. A competitive analysis of the Asia Pacific airline industry is therefore two-fold; firstly analysis on the basis of the competition between LCC’s themselves and secondly between LCC’s and full service airlines.

MGMT 459 Organizational Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

MGMT 459 Organizational Behavior - Essay Example The research identified that the various dimensions of employee motivation were given a practical meaning in the organizations operations from the interview with the leader. The interview created an important forum for the researcher to have a practical sense of the application of the content, process and reinforcement theories of motivation that manifested during the discussions with the leader. From the interview, the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory of motivation was evidently evaluated in a practical dimension from the information provided by the leader. The theory assumes a content perspective and stipulates that motivation comes as a result of the efforts by individual employees to satisfy their needs (Robbins, Judge & Campbell, 2010). Maslow postulates that there are five categories of needs that people aspire to meet. The lowest and the most fundamental are the physiological needs that constitute the need for shelter, food, water and other necessities. The research established that people obtain a self-drive to do their work so that in return for a salary they would meet these basic needs. Second in the rank is the safety needs. Here, the employees require safety and protection in the course of their day to day operations at the workplace. The leader demonstrated how the organization’s performance was bound to fluctuate with different levels of safety and protection in various work settings. Under the social needs category, the employees need love, affection and a sense of belonging to a human community (Robbins, Judge & Campbell, 2010). They too require self-esteem, prestige, recognition, respect and a personal sense of mastery and competence. Finally, individuals have the need for self-actualization. There is the need to grow, fulfill oneself and use ones abilities to the fullest. It was discovered from the interview

Topic 4-1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Topic 4-1 - Essay Example The student may interest in a given career such as teaching but depicting behaviors that are not appropriate for the teaching career. For example, the student may introvert and has low motivation to research. The student may also like doing things in isolation than group (Brown & Lent, 2013). When attending to such a student, a counselor applying the Social Cognitive Theory may train the student to develop extrovert behavior to enable open interaction with others. The counselor may also encourage and admit the student in tasks that require group participation so that the latter can develop skills and behaviors that support open socialization and corporation. The counselor may also urge the student to identify the best teacher and note the characters that make them perform to attract admiration. The counselor should then train and encourage the student to emulate and practice the behaviors of the role-model teacher (Brown & Lent, 2013). The choice of the Social Cognitive Theory relates to it ease to assist in effective counseling of career related problems. Focus on social interactions and environmental influences on human behavior provide immediate elements to check when attending a client. It is easier to analyze and influence behaviors of a client by studying the social and environmental forces that influence

How asian american are changing the face of america Research Paper

How asian american are changing the face of america - Research Paper Example 125-189) are just few of the many ethnic, ancestral and racial groups spread all over the United States. This paper tries to focus over the Asian Americans part with three prominent examples and dynamics involved with their lives and lifestyles. In addition, this paper also tries to understand the concepts of globalization, Trans-nationalism and multiracialism. Popular historian Yuji Ichioka deserves all the credit for inventing the term of Asian Americans. Before this term, people usually referred Asian Americans with the name of Orientals meaning the people from the east (Lott, pp. 46-192). It is not unusual to know that these were the social activists of the 1970’s that made this term popular within and outside America and all this was happening because of the social rights movement of that time for this community in the United states. According to the basic definition, â€Å"Asian Americans are those Americans who have an Asian origin at least from the side of one parent† (Min, pp. 11-29). The most common groups in Asian Americans are of â€Å"Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Pakistani Americans, Japanese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Filipino Americans† (Kitano, & Daniels, pp. 85-129) and other groups. â€Å"The demographics and data reveal that Asian Americans form the third largest racial minority group in the United States after the white Americans and African Americans† (Hune, pp. 256-387). In addition, studies have also revealed that Asian Americans are the ones with the highest levels of educational attainment and lowest poverty rate (Kitano, & Daniels, pp. 85-129). They also perform well when compared with others on the scales of household incomes and savings and personal incomes. Chinese Americans make the largest ethnic sub group followed by Filipino

Country Risk and Strategic Planning Analysis Paper Assignment

Country Risk and Strategic Planning Analysis Paper - Assignment Example Nice blend of coffee serving in presence of amusing environment should be accompanied by the highest serving quality. Price: Since Indian coffee market has a good history, its market is supposed to have few fearsome competitors for Starbucks. Pricing becomes very important in this respect. General attitude of locals towards pricing is very strict; thus lower the price, greater the market share. Place: Starbucks' most vulnerable market comprises of middle class Indians who live in high streets of posh and developing areas of large cities. Therefore, it is of immense value to target the market of Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, and Jaipur etc specially those places which are near colleges, bus stops, cinema theaters, railway stations etc. Distribution and Supply Chain Risks may be termed as the major risk factors for Starbucks in India. Effective resource planning becomes very crucial since distribution through independent sources may become highly cost effective. Abundance of highly educated manpower in this regard can be the key for solution. India is a mixture of various different societies comprising of thousands of ethnic, cultural, religious and social groups. Thus, social and cultural risks are very high due to immense differences in these groups.

Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Supply chain management - Essay Example In this regard, the essay helps in developing a better understanding of the various concepts related with the SCM and lean manufacturing through the effective analysis of the advantages as well as disadvantages related with the system. The current issue that are identifiable within the business is to enhance the efficiency of SCM that is operating within an organization. Organisations operating in the present domain are having different set of SCM processes and needs to be handled in a separate manner to enhance the ability of the same. The issues arising from operations of SCM is even different based on the varied organisational perspective. Some common issues faced within the domain of SCM are identified within the operational area of an organization. The major issues identifiable within an organisation are mostly in the operational areas related with the configuration of distribution network, inventory control and outsourcing. The effective maintenance and handling of the different processes of production is noted to be affecting the needs of the business and further hindering the operations of an organisation (Womack, & Jones, 1994). Lean manufacturing process includes a series of steps that are involved with value creation for the customers, continuous improvement as well as eliminating waste among others. Lean SCM could effectively handle specific issues related with production as well as other operations within the domain of SCM. Through the effective management of the production, cycle lean would help in developing the SCM that is operating within the domain of organisational operations (Holweg, 2007). To enhance the efficiency of lean, it should focus on the waste management of over effective production to ensure a sustainable development for organizations practising lean manufacturing. An organization needs to maintain its level of consumers and ensure the timely production of goods this could be effectively handled by

Sources of Law in the European Union Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sources of Law in the European Union - Thesis Example e European Union, particularly the Council of Ministers, the Commission, the European Parliament, and Court of Justice, can be studied in terms of their decision-making processes, which are governed by well laid laws and guidelines. This paper seeks to highlight the sources of EU laws and their integration to guide the union’s objectives. The sources of European Union law are crucial elements to foster cohesion and equality among member states. As such, laws are pooled from within member states and presented in a harmonized manner to govern the proceeding of the organization. The law is applied in courts within members as well as in territories held by the states and such they should be maintain the integrity of member states. The key sources of law are treaties, which are regarded as primary sources while legislation enacted by union organs by virtue of the powers given by member states is termed as secondary community law (Foster, 2007). Primary sources of the EU law are defined by the founding treaties stated as the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the EU; thus illustrating their dominance as reference. To this effect, the primary sources top the hierarchy of sources of EU law and their supremacy indicate that other sources remain subordinate. This superiority is strengthened by the prohibition of any revision on the treaties outside the set procedures of the treaties themselves (Kaczorowska, 2009). The treaties are aimed at dispensing competences between the organization and member states, which establish the powers assumed by institutions within the EU structure. In essence, the treaties serve to lay out the legal framework on which the union’s mandate is implemented; moreover, primary law also incorporates amended EU treaties and protocols annexed to the founding treaties as well as the amended treaties. For instance, amendments to the EU treaties were signed to establish an internal market within the union in 1986. In

Preservation of Biodiversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Preservation of Biodiversity - Essay Example In pre-Colombian times, this area supported an estimated 700,000 persons (a multiple of todays population) in a sustainable form† (Lutz, n.d.). Interest of human beings needs to be served first. All countries should not be held to the same standards in the preservation of endangered habitats and species because different countries have different levels of economic strength, and socioeconomic and political issues. It is not practicable to establish same standards of preservation in all countries because different countries give different priority to the conservation of biodiversity, and the stance of individual nations is governed by their cultural and religious beliefs, that often vary across nations. Traditional practices such as whaling and killing wildlife for ivory, tiger bones, and rhinoceros horns, etc. are not justifiable because there are better alternatives to these which are not only environment friendlier but also good for the well-being of animals. Conventionally, b ones retrieved from animals have been of little to no use for humans. Mostly, these bones have been used for ornamental purposes which can be lived

Poem and Short Story Essay Example for Free

Poem and Short Story Essay Mill of the Gods (Estrella Alfon) Among us who lived in Espeleta – that street that I love, about whose people I keep telling tales – among us, I say, there was one named Martha, and she was the daughter of Pio and Engracia. To all of us, life must seem like a road given us to travel, and it is up to Fate, that convenient blunderer, whether, that road be broad and unwinding, or whether it shall be a tortuous lane, its path a hard and twisted mat of dust and stones. And each road, whether lane or avenue, shall have its own landmarks, that only the traveller soul shall recognize and remember, and remembering, continue the journey again. To Martha, the gods gave this for a first memory: a first scar. She was a girl of twelve, and in every way she was but a child. A rather dull child, who always lagged behind the others of her age, whether in study or in play. Life had been so far a question of staying more years in a grade than the others, of being told she would have to apply herself a little harder if she didn’t want the infants catching up with her. But that was so dismal thing. She had gotten a little bit used to being always behind. To always being the biggest girl in her class. Even in play there was some part of her that never managed to take too great a part – she was so content if they always made her â€Å"it† in a game of tag, if only they would let her play. And when she had dolls, she was eager to lend them to other girls, if they would only include her in the fascinating games she could not play alone. This was she, then. Her hair hung in pigtails each side of her face, and already it irked a little to have her dresses too short. She could not help in her mother’s kitchen, and could be trusted to keep her room clean, but she was not ready for the thing her mother told her one night when she was awakened from sleep. It was a sleep untroubled by dreams, then all of a sudden there was an uproar in the house, and she could hear her mother’s frenzied sobbing, and it was not sobbing that held as much of sorrow as it did of anger. She lay still for a while, thinking perhaps she was dreaming, until she could hear her father’s grunted answers to the half – understood things her mother was mouthing at him. Then there were sounds that was clearly the sound of two bodies struggling in terrible fury with each other. She stood up, and like a child, cried into the night. Mother? She wailed the word, in her panic finding a little relief in her own wailing, Mother? And she heard her mother’s voice call her, panting out, saying, Martha, come quickly, come into this room! Martha got up and stood at the door of the room, hesitating about opening it, until her mother, the part of a terrible grasp, said Martha! So Martha pushed in the door, and found her mother and her father locked in an embrace n which both of them struggled and panted and had almost no breath left for words. Martha stood wide – eyed and frightened, not knowing what to do, just standing there, even though she had seen what it was they struggled for. A kitchen knife, blade held upwards in her mother’s hand. Her arms were pinioned to her sides by her husband, but her wild eyes, the frenzy with which she stamped her feet on his feet, and kicked him in the shins, and tried to bite him with her teeth, these were more terrible than the glint of that shining blade. It was her father who spoke to her saying urgently, Martha, reach for her knife, take it away. Yet Martha stood there and did not comprehend until her mother spoke, saying No, no; Martha, your father deserves to be killed. Then it was Martha who realized what she was to do, and slowly, hesitantly, she went near them, her fear of both of them in this terrible anger they now presented making her almost too afraid to reach up for the knife. But reach up she did, and with her child’s fingers, put her mother’s away from the weapon. And when she had it in her hands she did not know what to do with it, except look at it. It wasn’t a very sharp knife, but its blade was clean, and its hilt firm. And so she looked at it, until her father said. Throw it out of the window, Martha and without thinking, she went to a window, opened a casement and threw it away. Then her father released her mother, and once her mother had gotten her arms free, she swung back her hand, and wordlessly, slapped him; slapped him once, twice, three times, alternating with her hands, on alternate cheeks, until her father said. That’s enough, Engracia. And saying so, he took her hands in his, led her resisting to the bed, and made her sit down. And Martha was too young to wonder that her father, who was a big man, should have surrendered to the repeated slapping from her mother who was a very small frail woman. Her father said, â€Å"Aren’t you ashamed now Martha has seen? † And immediately her mother screamed to him, â€Å"Ashamed? Me, ashamed? I’ll tell Martha about you! † Her father looked at Martha still standing dumbly by the window out of which she had thrown the knife, and said, â€Å"No, Aciang, she is just a child. † And to her: â€Å"Martha, go back to bed. † But now her mother jumped up from the bed, and clutched at Martha, and brought her to bed with her. And deliberately without looking at Martha’s father, she said, Martha you are not too young to know. And so, the words falling from her lips with a terrible quiet, she told Martha. The words that were strange to her ears, Martha heard them, and listened to them, and looked from her mother to her father, and without knowing it, wetting her cheeks with her tears that fell. And then her mother stopped talking, and looking at her husband, she spat on him, and Martha saw the saliva spatter on the front of the dark shirt he wore. She watched while her father strode over them, and slowly, also deliberately, slapped her mother on the cheek. Martha watched his open palm as he did it, and felt the blow as though it had been she who had been hit. Then her father strode out of the room, saying nothing, leaving them alone. When her father had gone, Martha’s mother began to cry, saying brokenly to Martha, â€Å"It is that woman, that woman! † And making excuses to Martha for her father, saying it was never completely the man’s fault. And Martha listened bewildered, because this was so different from the venomous words her mother had told her while her father was in the room. And then her mother, still weeping, directed her to look for her father and Martha went out of the room. Her father was not in the house. The night was very dark as she peered out of the windows to see is she could find him outside, but he was nowhere. So she went back to her mother, and told her she could not find her father. Her mother cried silently, the tears coursing down her cheeks, and her sobs tearing through her throat. Martha cried with her, and caressed her mother’s back with her hands, but she had no words to offer, nothing to say. When her mother at last was able to talk again, she told Martha to go back to bed. But it wasn’t the child that entered who went out of that room. And yet the terror of that night was not so great because it was only a terror half – understood. It wasn’t until she was eighteen, that the hurt of that night was invested with its full measure. For when she was eighteen, she fell in love. She was a girl of placid appearance, in her eyes the dreaming stolid night of the unawakened. She still was slow to learn, still not prone to brilliance. And when she fell in love she chose the brightest boy of her limited acquaintance to fall in love with. He was slightly older than herself, a little too handsome, a trifle too given to laughter. Espeleta did not like him; he was too different from the other young me n on the street. But Martha loved him. You could see that in the way she looked at him, the way she listened to him. Martha’s pigtails had lengthened. She now wore her braids coiled on the top of her head like a coronet, and it went well with the placid features, the rather full figure. She was easily one of our prettier maidens. It was well that she was not too brilliant. That she did not have any too modern ideas. The air of shyness, the awkward lack of sparkling conversation suited her Madonna – like face and calm. And her seriousness with love was also part of the calm waiting nature. It did not enter her head that there are such things as play, and a game. And a man’s eagerness for sport. And so when she noticed that his attentions seemed to be wandering, even after he had admitted to a lot of people that they were engaged, she asked him, with the eager desperation of the inexperienced, about their marriage. He laughed at her. Laughed gently, teasingly, saying they could not get married for a long time yet; he must repay his parents first for all that they had done for him. He must first be sure to be able to afford the things she deserved. Well turned phrases he said his excuses with. Charming little evasions. And if she did not see through them while he spoke them, his frequent absences, where his visits had been as a habit; his excuses to stay away when once no amount of sending him off could make him stay away; these but made her see. And understand. And then the way neighbours will, they tried to be kind to her. For they could see her heart was breaking and they tried to say sweet things to her, things like her being far too good for him. And then they heard that he had married. Another girl. And they saw her grief, and thought it strange that a girl should grieve over an undeserving lover or so. She lost a little of the plumpness that was one of her charms. And into her eyes crept a hurt look to replace the dreaming. And Espeleta, with all the good people, strove to be even kinder to her. Watched her grief and pitied her. And told her that whatever mistakes she had committed to make her grieve so, to make her suffer so, they understood and forgave. And they did not blame her. But now that she had learned her lesson, she must beware. She knew her own father as much as they knew about him. And it was in the Fates that his sins must be paid for. If not by himself, then by whom but she who was begotten by him? So, didn’t she see? How careful she should be? Because you could, they said it to her gently, kindly, cruelly, because she could if she were careful, turn aside the vengeance of the implacable fates. And she believed them kind although she hated their suspicions. She believed them kind, and so she started, then, to hate her father. And that night long ago came back to her, and she wished she had not thrown that knife away. Espeleta saw Martha turn religious. More religious than Iya Andia and Iya Nesia, who were old and saw death coming close, and wanted to be assured of the easing of the gates of heaven. Espeleta approved. Because Espeleta did not know what she prayed for. Because they saw only the downcast eyes under the light veil, the coil of shining hair as it bowed over the communion rail. Yet Martha’s mother and father still lived together. They never had separated. Even after that night, when she was twelve years old and frightened, and she had called for him and looked for him and not found him. The next day he had come back, and between her mother and him there was a silence. They slept in the same bed, and spent the nights in the same room, and yet Martha and Espeleta knew he had another bed, another chamber. Espeleta praised Martha’s mother for being so patient. After Martha had fallen in love, when she began hating her father truly then also she began despising her mother. You did not know it to look at Martha. For her coil of braided hair was still there, and the shy way of speaking, and the charming awkwardness at conversation. And Martha made up her earlier lack of lustre by shining in her class now. She was eighteen and not through high school yet. But she made up for it by graduating with high honours. Espeleta clapped its hands when she graduated. Gave her flowers. Her mother and father were there, too. And they were proud. And to look at Martha, you would think she was proud too, if a little too shy still. Martha studied nursing. And started having visitors in her mother’s house again. Doctors this time. Older men, to whom her gravity of manner appealed, and the innate good sense that seemed so patient in her quiet demeanour. Espeleta was now rather proud of Martha. She seemed everything a girl should be, and they cited her as an example of what religion could do. Lift you out of the shadow of your inheritance. For look at Martha. See how different she is from what should be her father’s daughter. But what they did not know was that all of these doctors Martha had to choose someone slightly older than the rest. And where the girl of eighteen that she had been almost a child unschooled, now she was a woman wise and wary. Where the other nurses knew this doctor only as someone who did not like their dances as much as the younger ones, who did not speak as lightly, as flippantly of love as the younger ones, Martha knew why he didn’t. Between the two of them there had been, form the very start, a quick lifting of the pulse, an immediate quickening of the breath. From the very start. And where he could have concealed the secrets of life, he chose the very first time they were able to talk to each other, to tell her that he was not free. He had a wife, and whether he loved her or not, whether she was unfaithful to him or not, which she was, there had been the irrevocable ceremony to bind them, to always make his love for any other woman, if he ever fell in love again, something that must be hidden, something that might not see light. She was a woman now, Martha was. Wise and wary. But there is no wisdom, no weariness against love. Not the kind of deep love she knew she bore him. And as even she him, she found within herself the old deep – abiding secret hate. Against her father. Against the laws of man and church. Against the very fates that seemed rejoiced in making her pay for a sin she had not committed. She now learned of bitterness. Because she could not help thinking of that night, long ago, when her mother had sat on the bed, and in deliberate words told her just what kind of a father she had. It had been as though her mother had shifted on to her unwilling, unready shoulders the burden of the sorrows, the goad of the grief. Espeleta, that was so quick to censure, and to condemn; even Espeleta had taken the situation in Martha’s house as something that could not be helped. And as long as there was no open strife, Espeleta made excuses for a thing that, they said, had been designed by Fate. Martha’s father came home. Acted, on the surface, the good husband. And since he was married to Martha’s mother, so must Martha’s mother bear it, and welcome him home again. Because she would rather he came home, then went to the other one, wouldn’t she? Espeleta cited heavenly rewards. For Martha’s mother. And Martha went to church regularly, and was a good nurse. And still called her father, Father. You have heard that one of course, about the mill of the gods, how they â€Å"grind exceedingly fine, and grind exceedingly slow. † Espeleta hadn’t heard that one, nor had Martha. But Espeleta of course would have a more winded version of it. Anyhow, one day at the hospital, Martha was attendant nurse at an emergency case. A man had been shot. There were three bullets through his chest, but he was still alive. Martha laughed queerly to herself, saying I must be dreaming, I am imagining that man has my father’s face. It was the doctor she loved who was in charge. With a queer dreaming feeling, she raised her eyes to meet his, and was shocked to see him drop his gaze, and over his face steal a twist as of pain, as of pity. They were instantly their efficient selves again, cloaking themselves in the impersonal masks of physician and nurse. It was as if he who lay there beneath their instruments and their probing fingers was any man, the way it could be any man. Not her father. But all while, training and discipline unavailing. Martha said to herself, but it is my father. He died on the table. He never gained consciousness. Martha drew the sheet over his face and form. And watched as they wheeled him out of the room. She still had the instruments to put away and the room to put in order. But this did not take long and when she went out into the corridor, she found her mother weeping beside the shrouded form on the wheeled table. There was a policeman beside her awkwardly trying with gruff words to console the little woman over her loss. Beside the policeman stood also the doctor, who passed an arm around the shoulder of Martha’s mother, saying simply, we tried to save him. Martha joined them, knowing that she should be in tears, yet finding that she had none to shed. It would ease the tightness within her, would loosen the hard knot in her heart to cry. But you cannot summon tears when you feel no grief, and the pain you feel is not of sorrow but of the cruel justness of things. She could not even put her arms around her weeping mother. When the doctor told her that she would be excused from duty the rest of the day, that he would arrange it for her, she did not thank him. She did not say anything for indeed she no longer had any words, nor any emotions that required speech. Or should be given speech. For one cannot say, how right! How just! When one’s father has just died. Her mother and she took a taxi together to accompany the hearse that took her father home. There was a crowd awaiting them. Espeleta in tears. Espeleta crying condolence and opprobrium in the same breath. It was from them – their good neighbours, their kind neighbours – that Martha learned how â€Å"God’s justice had overtaken the sinner. † Colon is not as intimate as Espeleta. For it is a long street and broad street. But where the railroad crosses it, the houses group together in intimate warmth and neighbourly closeness and its families live each other’s lives almost as meddlingly as Espeleta does. And is as avid for scandals as Espeleta is. Among the people in Martha’s house were some from Colon. And it was they who supplied the grimmer details, the more lucid picture. In that other woman’s house – and Martha did not even know the other woman’s name there had existed the stalemate state of affairs that had existed in Martha’s house. Only where in Martha’s house it had been a wife who was patient, in that other woman’s house it had been the husband who had bided his time. And yet the neighbours had thought he had not cared. For indeed he had seemed like a man blind and deaf, and if he raised his voice against his wife, it was not so they could hear it. Yet today, he had come home, after he had said he was going away somewhere. And had come upon Martha’s father in the house, and had, without saying anything, taken out his revolver, and shot at him. Martha heard all these. And thought you know often life seems like an old – fashioned melodrama, guns and all. And yet the gun had not gone off. It had jammed, and Martha’s father had been able to run. And running, even as he seemed far enough from the house to be safe, the gun in the husband’s hand had come right again. The man had gone out in the street, aimed at the fleeing figure. That explained why the bullets had gone in through his back and out through his chest. They said that the street was spattered with blood and where he fell, there was a pool of gory red. The killer had surrendered himself at once. But everyone knew he would not pay with his life he had taken. For the woman was his wife and he had come upon them in his own home. Martha stayed with the kind condolers only a while. She left her mother for them to comfort as best as they could. They would have praises like â€Å"The good God knows best;† they would have words like, â€Å"Your grief is ended, let your other grief commence. † She went to look at her father lying well arranged now in his bier. Already in spite of the manner of his death, there were flowers for him. Death had left no glare in the eyes that the doctor at the hospital had mercifully closed, over the features lingered no evidence of pain. And Martha said, Death was kind to you. In Martha’s room there hung a crucifix. Upon the crossed wood was the agonized Christ, His eyes soft and deep and tender, even in his agony. But as Martha knelt, and lighted her candles, and prayed, in her eyes was no softness, and on her lips no words appealing for pity for him who had died. There was only the glitter of a justice meted out at last, and the thankfulness for a punishment fulfilled. So she gave thanks, very fervent thanks. For now, she hoped, she would cease to pay.