For the tourist and the foreigner

A Dying Colonialism is a story of how Fanon, during the Algerian Revolution, described how people changed the century-old cultural ways and adopted a certain practice that was designed to destroy the so called â€Å"tyrants† during that time.On the first part of the book, Fanon devoted many pages to the veil and its political importance:â€Å"For the tourist and the foreigner, the veil demarcates both Algerian society and its feminine counterpart.† (A dying colonialism, pg. 35-36)There is a certain complexity of the role of the veil in the Algerian revolution. There have been issues with European bosses trying to put their male Algerian employees on the corner by demanding that they bring their wives to company functions. So the dilemma is that if they agree to do as their bosses wish, they are going against their cultural ruling out against women being on display but if they decline, they would be risking their jobs they risked losing their jobs.† And so, as Fano n has stated,â€Å"The rape of the Algerian woman in the dream of a European†¦is always preceded by a rending of the veil.† (A Dying Colonialism, pg. 45)On the first part of the book, one could see that Fanon emphasized the fact how women are distinguished during those times. The veil distinguishes an Algerian from a foreigner, and was stated in the page of the book below, one could see that Fanon took care in reiterating the fact that there are very clear distinctions on the society during those times.â€Å"In the case of an Algerian man, on the other hand, regional medications can be noted: the fez in urban centers, turbans, and djellabas in the countryside. The masculine garb allows a certain, margin of choice, a modicum of heterogeneity. The woman seen in her white veil unifies the perception that one has of Algerian feminine society. Obviously, what we have here is a uniform which tolerates no modifications, no variant.The haik very clearly demarcates the Algerian colonized society. it is of course possible to remain hesitant before a little girl, but all uncertainty vanishes at the time of puberty. With the veil, the things become well-defined and ordered. The Algerian woman in the eyes of the observer, Is unmistakably â€Å"she who hides behind the veil† (A Dying Colonialism, pg. 36)From the phrases above, one could see that there are certain way accepted way on how people should go about things. And that is what they wanted to change. They wanted to change the image of a traditional woman and they have transformed and defined women in a different light.That was why their political doctrine at that time was that â€Å"If we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, its capacity for resistance, we must first conquer the women; we must go and find them behind their veil where they hide themselves and in the houses where men keep them out of sight† (pg.38) It was a very striking and very meaningful phrase such that it im plies the power that women have that they think they haven’t explored yet.By finding these women behind their veil, it not only implies letting them know what they really are and should be, but it is also an implication that there are options that are yet to be explored in the governance of a country as rigid as Algeria during those times. If women can be conquered and put to use, there is so much unexpected things that can happen. The mind of a woman is yet to be explored and exploited and by un-inhibiting them from self-expression, the possibilities of changing the Algerian society are infinite.A Dying Colonialism is a story of the liberation and newly discovered power Fanon claims that the Algerian women have struggled for and succeeded through their active involvement in the Algerian. It was also implied in the book that Fanon believed that the recent victory of women for respect and equality held by the prominent women was permanent, an indication of the outlook on †Å"modern,† socialist, revolutionary Algeria.

A Comparative Study of Norman Holland and David Bleich Essay

Reader Response criticism is a general term that refers to different approaches of modern criticism and literary theory that focuses on the responses of readers and their reactions to the literary text. It also, in M.H Abrams’ words, â€Å"does not designate any one critical theory, but a focus on the process of reading a literary text that is shared by many of the critical modes†(268). Reader Response criticism is described as a group of approaches to understanding literature that explicitly emphasize the reader’s role in creating the meaning an experience of a literary work. It refers to a group of critics who study, not a literary work, but readers or audiences responding to that literary work. It has no single starting point. They seriously challenge the dominancy of the text-oriented theories such as New Criticism and Formalism. Reader Response theory holds that the reader is a necessary third part in the author-text-reader relationship that constitutes the literary work. The relationship between readers and text is highly evaluated. The text does not exist without a reader; they are complementary to each other. A text sitting on a shelf does nothing. It does not come alive until the reader conceives it. Reader Response criticism encompasses various approaches or types. Of theses types is the ‘Subjectivist’ Reader Response criticism, which embraces critics such as David Bleich, Norman Holland, who are my focus in this paper, and Robert Crossman. Those critics view the reader’s response not as one guided by text but as one motivated by a deep-seated, personal psychological needs. They also are called ‘Individualists’. As they think that the reader’s response is guided by his psychological needs, therefore some of them, like Norman Holland, have a psychoanalytic view of that response. In the psychoanalytic view the reader responses to the literary work in a highly personal way. The real meaning of the text is the meaning created by the individual’s psyche. Lawrence Shaffer defines Psychoanalytic Criticism as â€Å"an approach to literary criticism, influenced by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, which views a literary work as an expression of the unconscious- of the individual psyche of its author or of the collective unconscious of a society or of the whole human race† (44). Reader Response critics have applied the psychoanalytical view to their analysis of the experience of reading a work. Namely; they focus on the psyche of the reader. Prominent among those who applied the psychoanalytical view is the American critic Norman Holland. Born in Manhattan in1927, Holland is an American literary critic and theorist who has focused on human responses to literature, film, and other arts. He is known for his work in Psychoanalytic criticism and Reader Response criticism. Holland began his Psychoanalytic writings with Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare (1966). In which he made a survey of what psychoanalytic writers has said about Shakespeare. He urged psychoanalytic critics to study real people, the audience and readers of literature, rather than imaginary characters. His contribution to Reader Response criticism was great. He has written about† the way self (reader) interacts with world (text) in four books: The Dynamics of Literary Response (1968), Poems in Persons (1973), 5 Readers Reading (1979), and Laughing: A Psychology of Humor (1982)† (Berg 266). According to Holland there are three explanation-models in Reader Response Theory. First, ‘text-active’ model, in which â€Å"the text defines the response†. The second model he calls â€Å"reader-active†, in which readers create meanings, and undergo the reading experience by exploring the text and all its items. â€Å"Word forms, word meanings, syntax, grammar, on up to complex individual ideas about character, plot, genre, themes, or values†(Holland). Thus the reader explores and interprets the text. Most who pioneered this view like Holland are Americans such as David Bleich, Stanley Fish, and Louise Rosenblatt. The third model is a compromise, and Holland calls it ‘bi-active’, in which the text causes part of the response and the reader the rest. Holland thinks that a ‘reader-active’ model is right. He believes that it explains likeness and difference in reading. â€Å"Similarities come from similar hypotheses formed by gender, class, education, race, age, or ‘interpretive community'† (Holland). While the difference come from differing hypotheses that result from individual beliefs, opinions and values, i.e. one’s ‘identity’. Holland considers a ‘test-active’ model is wrong, and therefore a ‘bi-active’ model is also wrong as it is half wrong and consequently all wrong. Holland suggests that â€Å"when we interpret a text, we unconsciously † react to our identity themes. To defend ourselves against our † fears and wishes, we transform the work in order to relieve psychic pressures† (Shaffer 48). Literature allows us to recreate our identities and to know ourselves as Holland deduced after the ‘Delphi seminar’, in which he worked at the State University of New York at Buffalo with other critics such as Robert Rogers, David Willbern and others. The ‘ Delphi seminar’ was designed to get students know themselves. The reader’s re-creation of his identity could happen when he transact with the text in four ways: â€Å"defense, expectation, fantasy, and transformation, which Holland reduces to the acronym ‘DEFT’ † (Newton, Interpreting Text 144). Defenses are ways of copying with inner and outer reality, particularly conflicts between different psychic agencies and reality. Holland thinks that we defend in many ways; we repress our fears and our painful thoughts or feelings, we deny sensory evidence or we isolate one emotion or idea from another. Expectations are our fears and wishes.Fantacies is what the individual puts out from himself into the outside world. In the ‘Delphi seminar’ Holland and the rest of critics â€Å"help[ed] students discover how they each bring a personal style (identity) to reading, writing, learning, and teaching† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 208). The seminar discussed the texts and also their associations, but focused on the associations. Students mastered the subject matter, and also saw how people re-create or develop a personal ‘identity’. Each student had great insight to himself, and his characteristic ways with text and people. Holland thinks that † just as the existence of a child constitutes the existence of a mother and the existence of a mother constitutes the existence of a child, so, in identity theory, all selves and objects constitute one another† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 208). So, I think the existence of a text constitutes the existence of a reader and vice versa, and the understanding of the text constitutes an understanding of self as well. In The Dynamics of Literary Response (1968), Holland was interested in the fact that texts embody fantasies. Later on, his thinking about texts reversed and he inferred that it is the reader who makes fantasies which [s]he transforms or projects onto the literary text. â€Å"People internalize differently because they internalize †¦ according to a core identity theme† (Berg 267). In Poems in Persons (1973), Holland explains that readers create the text, and he also questions the objectivity of the text. In this book Holland suggests that a poem â€Å"is nothing but specks of carbon black on dried wood pulp†, and suggests that these specks have nothing to do with people, yet â€Å"people who do thing to these specks† (Berg 267). When we â€Å"introject literary work we create in ourselves a psychological transformation†, where we feel as if it were within the text or the work yet it is not. This takes us to Holland’s ‘transactional’ model in which the reader initiates and creates the response. Holland saw that reading is a ‘transactional’ process in which the reader and the text mesh together. And it is a â€Å"personal transaction of the reader with the text in which there is no fundamental division between the text’s role and the reader’s role† (Newton, Interpreting Text 142), so the roles of the text dovetails with that of the reader. Holland has hired a group of students for an experiment. They read short stories and discussed them with him in interviews in which he asked questions and elicited associations. Their responses showed a more variety than he could explain. â€Å"Different readers might interpret a poem or a story differently at the level of meaning, morals, or aesthetic value. The text itself, however, was a fixed entity that elicited fairly fixed responses† (Holland). He regards the text as an objective entity and has no role in the process of interpretation. But in his next book 5 Readers Reading (1979) he gives more evidence of the subjective creation of the reader. He tried his model on actual readers. Five readers read ‘A Rose for Emily’ by Faulkner, and in the process of reading they create very different stories, â€Å"stories which inevitably reflect the identity themes of their creators† (Berg 267). When he listened to their understandings of a given character or event or phrase, he found them invariably different. Their emotional responses were diverse. So, the idea that there is a fixed or appropriate response was an illusion. Holland deduces that fantasies, structures, and forms do not exist in a literary work as he previously conceived, but they exist in the individual reader’s re-creation of the text. Holland thinks that â€Å"each person reads differently, and this difference stems from personality† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 204). Holland found that he could understand the reader’s differing responses by reading their identities. And he could explain their different reactions to the poem or short story by looking to their identity themes, as their patters of defences, expectations, fantasies, and transformations will help. The transformational model of his Dynamics was correct, but it was the reader who does the transformation and not the text. The text was only a raw material. So Holland arrives at the deduction that people who have fantasies after his previous assumption that text embody fantasies. Holland’s thinking about texts reversed after David Bleich’s proddi ng who insisted that texts do not have fantasies, people do. To understand a literary work, Holland claims that you should perceive it through the lens of some human perception, either your own experience, or someone else, or even a critic’s analysis of the work. These perceptions vary from individual to individual, from community to community, and from culture to culture. He thinks that one cannot perceive the raw, naked text, as he can only perceive it through some one else’s process of perception. Thus Holland claims that â€Å"if readers’ free responses to texts are collected they [will] have virtually nothing in common† (Newton, Interpreting Text 143). According to Holland the relation between the ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ is undifferentiated and can not be separated. For there is a ‘transactional’ process of interpretation where the roles of the reader and the text are intertwined, and the line dividing them blurs and dissolves. He thinks that readers should accept interpretation as a ‘transaction’ between the reader’s unique ‘identity’ and the text. Holland, however, does not want to take the side of the objective or that of the subjective, yet he is looking for a vanishing point between them, and wants to make both text and reader meet at an intersection of interpretation. David Bleich (1936-) is a Jewish critic, a son of a rabbi, a professor of Talmud, and a Subjectivist Reader Response critic. In Subjective Reader Response, the text is subordinated to the individual reader. The subject becomes the individual reader as he reacts to the text and reveals himself in the act of reading. For example, when a reader is addressed with a story of a father who ignores his child, then the intensity of that reader’s reaction may lay it his/her conflicted relation with his own father. Subjective criticism has been attacked as being too relativistic. Defenders of this approach point out that literature must work on a personal, emotional level to move us powerfully. David Bleich takes an approach differs from Holland’s. H is primary concern in his book Readings and Feelings is pedagogy rather than psychology. He thinks that â€Å"reading is a wholly subjective process†(Rabinowitz 86), and that the different or competing interpretation can be negotiated and settled. He examines the ways in which meanings or interpretations are constructed in a class room community, â€Å"with particular emphasis on the ways in which a group can negotiate among competing interpretations†(86). In Readings and Feelings, Bleich presents† a detailed account of his teaching techniques during a typical semester†(Berg 269). That’s why he is concerned with pedagogy and not psychology. He introduces himself to his class and discusses the way he wants his students to look at literature. The first preliminary sessions were designed to help students be acquainted with their subjective feelings, and how to depict them. Even the â€Å"idiosyncratic personal responses† of the students are accepted and discussed sympathetically. With the students Bleich plunges into different literary genres including poetry, short story, and novel. Yet before discussing these genres, â€Å"Bleich wants his students to be as personal as possible when they discuss poetry. He wants their affective responses, their free associations, any anecdotal material that occurs to them† (Berg 269). Bleich focuses on questions such as what is â€Å"the most important word, the most important passage, or the most important aspect of a story† (269). Thus, he believes that his students move from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the social. The cause of these movements is not â€Å"the change in genre†¦; but the tenor of the questions Bleich asks†(269) is what guides the movement. Shaffer says that â€Å"In Subjective Criticism (1978), Bleich assumes that ‘each person’s most urgent motivations are to understand himself’ and that all ‘objective’ interpretations are derived ultimately from subjective responses† (Shaffer 48). Like Norman Holland, Bleich focuses on the subconscious responses of the readers to the text, including his â€Å"emotional responses, our infantile, adolescent, or simply ‘gut’ responses† (Berg 268). According to Bleich the interpretation of texts or the personal responses to texts are in a way or another motivated. Namely; we are motivated by certain things to make a certain interpretation or response to a literary work in particular or a work of art in general. Our interpretations are a motivated activities, and â€Å"any act of interpretation, or meaning-conferring activity is motivated, and†¦it is important for us to understand the motives behind our interpretations†(270). Bleich suggests that only way to figure out and determine these motivations behind our interpretations of texts is to â€Å"took our subjective responses to texts †¦where each reader’s response receives the same respect†(270). A sheer desire to self-understanding and self-knowledge is what motivates us as readers. We interpret in order to gain â€Å"some kind of knowledge which will resolve some difficulty†, or we do it to â€Å"explain something that was puzzling us†(270). Bleich goes further and says that â€Å"if a certain set or school of interpretation prevails; it is not because it is closer to an objective truth about art†(Newton, Twentieth-Century 234). If a community of students agreed upon certain interpretation to a given text, then â€Å"the standard truth†¦can only devolve upon the community of students†(234). So, when students come up with a consensus reading of a certain text, and agree unanimously upon its interpretation, then their subjective feeling and values are the same. Thus the literary text â€Å"must come under the control of subjectivity; either an individual’s subjectivity or the collective subjectivity of a group†(233). The group comes up with a consensus after discussing their personal responses with each other and negotiates ideas and individual responses. This idea of negotiation that Bleich introduces helps the group weighs and discusses each one’s own responses â€Å"in order to come to a group decision†(Berg 271). Then Bleich says that† critics and their audiences assume interpretive knowledge to be†¦as objective as formulaic knowledge†(Newton 232). The assumption of the objectivity of a text is almost â€Å"a game played by critics (232). Critics know the fallacy of the objectivity of a text, and believe in critical pluralism, namely; allowing multiple interpretations of the same work. Bleich does not ignore or deny the objectivity of the text or a work of literature. But text is an object that is different from other objects as it is a ‘symbolic’ object. A text is not just a group o words written in ink on a sheet of paper. It, unlike other objects, has no function in its material existence. For example, an apple is an object that its existence does not depend on whether someone eats it or sees it, however, a text’s or a book’s existence â€Å"does depend on whether someone writes it and reads it† (Newton 233). The work of literature is a response to the author’s life experience, and the interpretation of the reader the response to his reading experience. The reader’s subjective interpretation creates an understanding to the text. Through this transaction between the reader and the text, I think we can come across with an understanding of literature and of people as well. This artistic transaction helps to blur and dissolve the dividing line between the subjective and objective. It is idle as Bleich found â€Å"to imagine that we can avoid the entanglements of subjective reactions and motives†(Newton, Twentieth-Century 235). As our motive in our subjective interpretations is our desire to self-knowledge and self-understanding, then the study of ourselves and the study of the literary work are ultimately a single enterprise. Though Holland and Bleich are Individualist Reader Response critics, they have different views in particular issues. Norman Holland thinks that in order to understand a student’s or a reader’s interpretation of a text he should examine his psyche and uncover his ‘identity theme’. Bleich takes a different position. He is concerned with pedagogy rather that psychology, therefore he examines the ways in which meanings are constructed, and how a group of readers could negotiate interpretations. Holland suggests that the reader’s role is intermingling with that of the text. The reader re-creates the text influenced by his/her subjective responses and introjects his/her fantasies on the literary work. Through this transaction with the text we re-create our identities, and our identity themes provide individual differences in interpretations, and the result is a wide array of interpretations that allow us to explore many responses. Bleich denies Holland’s ‘identity theme’. He thinks that interpretations are not an outcome of our differing identity themes, but they are a result of our motives, feelings, and preoccupations. Holland’s Delphi seminar helped students or readers know their selves and discover that each one of them can bring a personal style (identity) to reading. So, the issue of self-discovery or self-knowledge is agreed upon by Holland and Bleich as well, however their ways of achieving it differ. Holland does not side with either the subjective or the objective split, yet he is looking for a vanishing point between them. In his Dynamics he used to consider the text as an objective reality, or a raw material. Yet the role of the reader combines that of the text in a transactional process of reading and interpretation. Thus there is no fundamental division between the roles of both the reader and the text, they dovetail with each other. For Bleich, the text is a ‘symbolic object’ that has no function in its material existence. The existence of text depends on whether someone writes it or reads it. So, the existence of the text and the existence of the reader is interdependent. Holland holds the same view when he says that the existence of a mother constitutes the existence of a child and vice versa, also the existence of selves constitutes the existence of objects. Thereby, the dividing line between the objective and subjective blurs and dissolves. This constitutes that we cannot ignore the entanglements of subjective reactions and motives to the objective text or to be accurate, the text which is a ‘symbolic’ object. Both critics agree on the idea of the transactional process of reading, whether by Holland’s identity themes which help reader interpret the text and understand himself, or by Bleich’s desire to self-knowledge that motivates reader to interpret the text and understand it. Both apply a transaction that leads to an understanding and interpretation of a text along with the reader’s own self. This aim of gaining knowledge and this study of ourselves and of art are ultimately a single enterprise. I think that Holland does not agree that there could be a consensus interpretation which is agreed upon by a group of readers. He thinks that each reader has his own personality or identity theme, and thereby interpretations will be multiple and diverse. While Bleich’s idea of ‘negotiation’ among readers can lead to a unanimous decision about the meaning of the literary work. The negotiation among readers enable them to express their personal feelings freely and depict their responses without the fear of being rejected. For instance, in David Bleich’s class, there is a democracy. Each reader’s response receives the same respect, and there is no underestimation of their idiosyncrasies. This helped them develop from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the social. While in Holland’s view, there can be no unanimous interpretation of a given work of art. For each reader is influenced by his/her identity theme. Also, â€Å"Holland’s subjects report their responses in terms of ‘the clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s of the various subcultures and cultural discourses work to constitute the consciousness of American college students’†¦. [Holland concludes that not] the individuality of his students but†¦the way their ‘individuality’ is in fact a’ product’ of their cultural situation†(Rabinowitz 86). In conclusion, â€Å"Holland and Bleich did not [in a way or another] negotiate a consensus; rather, by some irritated leap, Holland becomes convinced of what Bleich had to tell him†(Berg 271). Works Cited Abrams, M.H. â€Å"Reader-Response Criticism.† Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th Ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Berg, Temma F. â€Å"Psychologies of Reading.† Tracing Literary Theory. Ed. Joseph Natoli. Urbana and Chicago: Illinois UP, 1987. 248-274. Holland, Norman N. â€Å"Reader-Response already is Cognitive Criticism.† Bridging the Gap. 8 Apr. 1995. Stanford University. 26 Dec. 2007 . —, â€Å"The Story of a Psychoanalytic Critic.† An Intellectual. 26 Dec. 2007 . Laga, Barry. â€Å"Reading with an Eye on Reading: An Introduction to Reader-Response.† Reader Response. 1999. 23 Dec. 2007 . Newton, K. M. â€Å"Reader Response Criticism.† Interpreting the Text: A Critical Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Literary Interpretation. Great Britain: Billing and Sons, 1990. 141-153. —, ed. â€Å"Norman Holland: Reading and Identity: A Psychoanalytic Revolution.† Twentieth-Century Literary Theory. London: Macmillan, 1989. 204-209. —, â€Å"David Bleich: The Subjective Character of The Critical Interpretation.† Twentieth-Century Literary Theory. London: Macmillan, 1989. 231-235. Rabinowitz, Peter J. â€Å"Whirl without End: Audience-Oriented Criticism.† Contemporary Literary Theory. Ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Laura Morrow. USA: Macmillan UP, 1989. 81-85. Shaffer, Lawrence. â€Å"Psychoanalytic Criticism.† Literary Criticism. 1sted. New Delhi: IVY Publishing House, 2001. 44-48.

Evaluating a Website for Credibility Essay

A search for men’s health related website conducted using the public search engine Google.com. Men’s Health Network (MHN), http://www.menshealthnetwork.org, is a nonprofit organization reaching out to males and their families focusing on the growing health crisis that affect the premature mortality of men (Men’s Health Network, 2014). Approximately 50% of the population is male; evaluating the sites credibility is important when using it as an educational tool for male patients related to prevention and management of health. Evaluation of website MHN is comprised of spokespersons and advisory board. The website discloses a limited list of spokespersons with title and areas of educational focus. The site states, â€Å"†¦there are over 800 physicians, mental health experts, and other key thought leaders among the MHN Board of Advisors†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Men’s Health Network, 2014). The readability of the website is not technical, the average person will be able to read the information on the site and be able to understand the intent of the organizations message. The information that is presented is accurate but referencing to studies and citations are lacking or difficult to find. Brief explanations of diseases are summarized followed by links to outside sources such as the American Urology Association, National Institute of Health, or Journal of Men’s Health for additional information. MHN is sponsored by monetary donations from the public as well as internships to promote education to the public and policy makers related to men’s health (Men’s Health Network, 2014). Partnerships are publicly display at the bottom of the website and range from for-profit drug companies such as Glaxo Smith Kline, Bayer and Pfizer as well as nonprofit organizations such as Boy Scouts of America and Veterans Health Council. Since the number of for-profit partnerships with MHN supersedes the  nonprofit partnerships, one can view the information provided on MHN as favoring the for profit companies despite MHN having links to outside sources for information on diseases. MHN website navigation is user friendly with headings at the top of the web pages that are identical on every page. The font utilized is clear, easy to read, and not strenuous on the eyes. All links in headings are operational and link phrases are clearly described to target page. MHN security link states commitment to ensuring user privacy and that any information collected is used only in accordance to the November 2012 policy (Men’s Health Network, 2014). MHN informs that the website will request permission to place â€Å"cookies† on user’s computer. The term â€Å"cookie† is defined and gives the user informed consent. MHN clearly states that clicking links to partnerships and outside sources link takes the user away from MHN site and states, â€Å"we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.† (Men’s Health Network, 2014). Empirical evidence Building credibility for a website requires providing links to reputable organizations which increase traffic, thereby increasing its relevance in search outcomes (Calabro, 2010). MHN achieves this with a banner containing links to other organizations for the reader to get additional information, but the sites that the reader is linked to do not always reciprocate a link back. Calabro (2010) suggests that updating the home page regularly with updated graphics, information, and testimonials are vital to enhancing the websites presence on the internet. MHN, compared to www.nih.org which publicly displays the sites last revision, information contained on the site doesn’t display last revision although there is updating to the site by evidence of seminar announcements, online flyers, and press releases. In a study of 1,442 acute care nurses employed in one large hospital system with readily available library sources, 43% reported starting a search with Google. Of that group 64% reported success in obtaining results using a general search engine such as Google. While 49% started a search using CINAHL or MEDLINE, a much smaller percentage reported successful searching (20% and 24% respectively) of these professional databases. (Miller, Graves, Jones, & Sievert, 2010, p. 3) Not having a subscription to CINAHL or  MEDLINE, according to (Miller et al., 2010), should not hinder knowledgeable nurses in using public search engines for credible information as a tool to educate patients and families. Application to nursing practice Evaluating information found on the internet is important to properly educate patients as MHN provides educational material for men, boys, women and families. The professional nurse can utilize the site resources to aide families to cope with ailments that affect their male loved ones. Nurses can resource MHN to provide information to families to co-pay card programs to curb the high cost of health insurance. Summary MHN demonstrates credibility by the use of expert advising board and links to creditable organizations which have done studies to support their mission. The site is easy to find on public search engines, easy to read for the lay person while giving links to more detailed information for the healthcare professional. References Calabro A 2010 Endhave your presensce on the internet with an improved website.Calabro, A. (2010). Enhance your presence on the internet with an improved website. O&P Business News, 19(12), 18. 201409201149291993026019 Mens Health NetworkMen’s Health Network. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2014, from http://www.menshealthnetwork.org 201409161816071882827044 Miller L C Graves R S Jones B B Sievert M C 2010 Beyond Google: Finding and evaluating web-based information for community-based nursing practice.Miller, L. C., Graves, R. S., Jones, B. B., & Sievert, M. C. (2010). Beyond Google: Finding and evaluating web-based information for community-based nursing practice. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 7(1), 1-16. doi:10.2202/1548-923X.1961 201409201214161550333619

Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Supply chain management - Essay Example Supply chain management, on the other side is viewed as a management philosophy (Mentzer, 2001). Supply chain management can be defined as the encompassment of management and planning of various activities that are involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion as well as various other activities regarding logistics. The most important aspect of SCM is that it includes collaboration and co-ordination of different channel partners including suppliers, intermediaries and customers. In simple words, SCM integrates the demand and supply management across and within the companies (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, n.d.). The SCM concept views all the channel partners as a ‘single entity’ instead of considering them fragmented parts. According to Stevens, main objective of maintaining the supply chain is synchronizing the flow of goods and services with the needs of the customers so as to manage the balance among the high customer service, low unit cost and low inventory management (Mentzer, 2001). Monczka opined that SCM’s primary objective is managing and integrating the source, flow as well as the control of materials by using a perspective of ‘total system’ across different tiers of suppliers and different functions (Mentzer, 2001).

Multinational Corporation Expansion Research Paper

Multinational Corporation Expansion - Research Paper Example After examining the international market most favorable for expansion, Abercrombie and Fitch should consider entering the Brazilian market as this chosen market maintains national economic policy and market conditions that will provide A&F with considerable opportunities for revenue growth. The first dimension of international finance favorable for Abercrombie & Fitch in Brazil is the movement of financial institutions across international borders, including securities firms, banks and various investment companies. Brazil currently maintains an annual GDP growth rate of five percent annually, influenced by growth in financial institutions both domestic and related to foreign direct investment. Brazil maintains membership with a variety of economic institutions including Mercosur, G20, the World Trade Organization and the Cairns Group, giving the market more exposure in Europe as a viable market for financial investment and institutional development. High volumes of financial lenders and a strong stock market provide economic sustainability that provides for commercial business development and support from governmental leadership. The only legitimate risk in this dimension is that the majority of investment institutions stem from foreign markets and are not being developed by domestic financial institutions that would not be reliant on significant exchange rate differences that impact pricing for exported products. Secondly, Brazil has positive movement of capital across its borders triggered by rising interest in foreign direct investment into Brazil. The International Monetary Fund identified billions of dollars of investment moving into Brazil, including derivatives and new corporate capital development projects. The growth in capital movements into Brazil provide for a more enhanced distribution and supply infrastructure that will benefit Abercrombie and Fitch in relation to marketing expenses and retail center distribution. The risk in this dimension of int ernational finance is that these improvements are private constructions not controlled by governmental regulators whereby a corporate pull-out of investment could limit the scope of infrastructure growth during a period where Brazil is working through a long-lasting economic recovery affecting domestic investment potential and opportunities. The third dimension of international finance relevant to Abercrombie is the regulatory system currently in place that guides economic policy. In the 1990s, Brazil was plagued with considerable inflation (approximately 15 percent annually) that caused a supplementary increase in utility costs, fuel and oil costs, and up to 25 percent interest on corporate and personal credit cards (Selva, 2010). The government has been more adept in recent years at changing index prices and employee wages as well as a variety of consumer price freezes to stimulate spending (Selva, 2010). Continuing governmental influence in economic policy and monetary stimulatio n tactics have reduced risks of ongoing inflation on the consumer price index that will provide A&F with a more stable consumer market where real wages are in-line with expectations for a consumer price index equalized with real GDP. The risk to this dimension of international finance is that not all efforts to curb inflation in certain supply sectors has been achieved, thus adding potential burden to supply budgets in a price-inflated value and supply chain. Brazil is currently the eighth largest economy

Observing .... ( write observing whom it depends who you are Essay

Observing .... ( write observing whom it depends who you are interviewing ) - Essay Example Introduction Over the weekend, I decided to attend a musical event hosted the Samba Reggae School of Michigan. The event was held on November 17, 2013 along the famous Grand Haven beach of Lake Michigan. It was organized by the Samba Reggae School in collaboration with local fans. It was a daytime event taking place between 12pm to 7pm in the evening. Since I had no opportunity of purchasing advanced tickets, I decided to get rush tickets at the beach, which were retailing at a price of $11.50. This event was a Samba Reggae concert meant for ceremonial and entertainment purposes. The guest artist was Luis Vieira, one of the most popular Samba Reggae artists in South America. The ceremonial event started with a rehearsal by a local percussion team followed by dances and major performance by the guest artist. The entire program for the concert was available at the gate free of charge. Samba Reggae Music At this juncture, we will evaluate integral aspects of Samba Reggae music as used w ithin the context of Brazilian traditional practices. First, it is worth acknowledging the fact that Samba Reggae derives its roots from a combination of Brazilian Samba genre and the Jamaican Reggae music (Pessanha and McGowan 23). A proportional blend between these two distinct genres gave birth to Samba Reggae, a music characterized by moderate tempo instrumentals with frequency ranging from 90-120 beats per minute. Samba Reggae is known for its close association with Carnival ceremony in Brazil, which involves dancers parading through residential villages while dressed in artifacts representing society’s values. It was originally an African ceremony brought into South America by slaves from West Africa. Currently, Samba Reggae is one of the most popular musical genres in Brazil and other Southern nations like Colombia. Personal Experience on the Event Prior to attending the music concert, I was not thoroughly conversant with events taking place in a Samba Reggae concert. I was used to seeing street dancers in television dressed in colorful attire and making magnificent patterns in their dancing formations. Therefore, this concert was my perfect opportunity to experience a Brazilian ceremonial event marked by musical performances. Chronological happenings in the beach were initiated by entrance by the two hosts carrying Samba Reggae flags followed by a short rehearsal performance by two local Samba bands. After the rehearsal, the drum session started preparing for the eagerly awaited Samba parade. The colorful parade which featured approximately 100 dancers of both genders lasted for about 2 hours. Finally, the guest artist, Luis Vieira, was invited to give his 1-hour energetic performance featuring top ten of his best tunes. After experiencing a Samba Reggae concert in person, I developed a high-spirited attitude towards involvement in such colorful events. In the past, I was used to experience Samba Reggae music in recorded videos or audio versions . However, attending an actual concert inspired me to start learning detailed concepts about Brazilian traditional ceremonies, especially the role of music in those ceremonies. In conventional context, I used to lose interest after listening to tunes from this genre for a consecutive 20 minutes. However, the concert was not only fun but also thrilling. Watching real people performing dancing moves

A critical analysis of Uk Teaching standard 2 Essay - 1

A critical analysis of Uk Teaching standard 2 - Essay Example This means that the teacher needs to be aware of the capabilities of the pupils and their prior knowledge (McBer, 2012). From this, the teacher then builds a teaching plan to incorporate these capabilities and prior knowledge of the pupils. The teacher also has to guide his or her pupils on the progress made and focus on the needs that emerge, in the long run. This will enable the teachers to demonstrate knowledge and the overall understanding of the learning of these pupils and how it impacts on teaching. The teacher will also be in a position to take responsibility and a conscientious attitude towards their own work and their study. This mode of teaching is strengthened by the constructivist theory of learning. The theory indicates that learning starts with issues that revolve around the students trying to construct meaning. Thus, for the teacher to teach well, they have to understand mental models for the students to use to perceive the world and all the assumptions to support such models (Coe, 2014). Thus, students have to construct their own meaning not just memorising the correct answers. The teachers also have to demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of the subject and the curriculum. The teachers have to exercise knowledge of relevant subjects and areas of the curriculum and foster and maintain the interest of the pupils on the subject and take care of their misunderstandings. The teachers should demonstrate a critical understanding of the developments in their subject and the areas of the curriculum that will be important in enabling a better understanding for the pupils (Trainees, 2012). It is important for the teachers to understand relevant concepts in the curriculum that will be beneficial for the oval understanding and knowledge of the pupils. The teachers must develop high level of literacy for the pupils and articulacy in addition to using correct Standard

Evolution Versus Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Evolution Versus Religion - Essay Example The most famous case that dealt with this issue set the scene for the debate that would follow. The Scopes Trial held in Tennessee in 1925 challenged the Butler Act which made it illegal "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." A schoolteacher was charged and put on trial for the crime of teaching Darwin. Although the teacher, Scopes, was eventually found guilty—and made to pay a fine—the Supreme Court of the United States eventually overturned the ban on teaching evolution in 1968, saying that such a ban would violate the constitution since it would be to the benefit of religion. Nevertheless, this trial turned into a circus and was a huge spectacle as it pitted passionate believers of religion and evolution against one another. Amazingly, the debate continues to this day, most recently in the last ten years with the rise of what is called Intelligent Design.The debate between evolution and creationism came back into the public sphere with a vengeance following a big fight on a school board in rural Pennsylvania. Here a number of advocacy groups had gone out of their way to repackage creationism which was seen to be explicitly religious in a format which they claimed was more secular: Intelligent Design, a theory which held that the world is simply too complicated to have occurred randomly without a directing hand. Often proponents of ID would quote scientists to this effect. They were in a manner trying to use science to prove the existence of God. On various school boards across the United States proponents of ID would not ask to ban teaching evolution; instead, they would argue that there was more than one viewpoint on the matter and that schools should also teach ID or â€Å"teach the controversy.†

Why did Isaac Newton say he was able “to stand on the shoulders Essay

Why did Isaac Newton say he was able â€Å"to stand on the shoulders of giants† to construct his view of the universe - Essay Example d at Trinity College Cambridge where Aristotelian philosophy was the preferred mode of instruction, but Newton was more interested in the pioneering ideas of philosophers lying like Descartes, and the astronomers Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus. His landmark work ‘Principia† is a compendium on physics and contains the laws of motion that were to revolutionize physical theories. In this pursuit of mechanics, i.e. gravity and its effect on the orbits of planets, he was guided by the work of Kepler’s third law, and his law of attraction was an elaboration of Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens theory of centripetal acceleration of a body moving in a circle. He even consulted with his contemporaries like Edmund Halley on the problem of orbits suggesting an ellipse shape about which he wrote to the astronomer in â€Å"a curious treatise de motu.†(Westfall, Richard) Newton put the seal of justification on his concept of attraction, by acknowledging that the ancients had already known of the law of gravitation and for him, â€Å"they represented a deeper penetration into the prisca sapientia, possible only when the preliminary work has been accomplished through experience.† (J. E. McGuire and P. M. Rattansi, Newton and the ‘Pipes of Pan’, pp. 137) Newton also gave an analytical account of the speed of sound in air which was based on Boyle’s law. Newtons three laws of motion represents a conscious diversion from Aristotles physics, and is more universal in nature, capable of being applied to the motion of a planet as to the fall of a stone. His theory of vortices moved away from that of Descartes’. (Ball 1908, p. 337) The reflecting telescope built by Newton was a further exposition of the ideas of Scottish mathematician James Gregory, who in 1663 had proposed the design. Before this Hans Lippershey, a German lens - maker who lived in the early 17th century had already applied for a patent for an optical retracting telescope, while Galileo was looking at the

To advise on a suitable investment portfolio and investment management Essay

To advise on a suitable investment portfolio and investment management strategy - Essay Example uilding, specifically of a denomination with an Episcopal hierarchy (such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican churches), which serves as the central church of a bishopric. As cathedrals are often particularly impressive edifices, the term is sometimes also used loosely as a designation for any large important church. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral) For decades, the Wyechester Cathedral has been playing an important role in our society. Like every organization, it also needs funds to operate in an effective and efficient manner. Primarily, churches are the responsibly of our government to bear their expenses. But, generally, they receive donations from individuals and organizations to run their business. For the betterment of people and our society, the Wyechester Cathedral has been involved in several activities; it ties to focus on all the important aspects of our society such as environment, people, services, art and heritage. The Wyechester Cathedral raised an appeal for funding and received a significant amount of  £7 million in a short period. As soon as it received the funds, the cathedral has invested in a few very important projects that need to be started as soon as possible. The amount of the investment was  £3 million. Now, the cathedral only has  £4.5 million that need to be invested in a proper manner so that it can run their operations and bear the expenses, including the bishop’s palace expense, throughout the year. The church has also bought a building at an ideal location for its priceless collection of ancient books and manuscripts. The cost of the deal was  £1.8 million – a pretty low cost as compared to the current market value. In order to run its operation, the cathedral should have a solid investment portfolio to survive on its own. â€Å"A portfolio is merely a combination of resources. Portfolio theory illustrates how an investor can attain his best possible portfolio position. Portfolio theory is depends upon the statement

Competing Values Framework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Competing Values Framework - Essay Example However, for successful implementation of this strategy, leaders have to do so by keeping the organizational culture in mind as well as understanding that the daily tensions that exist in the within their organization greatly affect their plans (Hartnell & Kinicki, 2011). The competing values framework comprises of these competing positive tensions, divided into four quadrants. For over 5 years of research and testing, results prove that competing values framework is a successful way of fostering good leadership, improving organizational effectiveness and promoting value creation. According to model, the four quadrants comprise of four hotly competing values within every organization which include collaborate, create, compete and control. In an organization’s limited resources including time, finances and labour, these four values really compete with each (Thakor, 2010). How effectively the leaders of the organization allocate for these resources determine their level of succe ss as business leaders. Their ability to respond to the tensions created by these competing values shapes the organization’s culture, practices, products and its efficiency in growing its operations (Rai, 2011). AÂ   Competing Values Framework Questionnaire developed for this purpose measures three important organizational aspects; purposes, people and practices. Purpose measures the future outcomes that a company hopes to achieve in future, practices measures the current organizational practices while people determine the individual leadership approach.... Their ability to respond to the tensions created by these competing values shapes the organization’s culture, practices, products and its efficiency in growing its operations (Rai, 2011). A Â  Competing Values Framework Questionnaire developed for this purpose measures three important organizational aspects; purposes, people and practices. Purpose measures the future outcomes that a company hopes to achieve in future, practices measures the current organizational practices while people determine the individual leadership approach of all members of the organization in their respective capacities (Moore, Kizer, & Jeon, 2011). According to Sharimllah et al (2011),the developers of the model urge business leaders to use the CVF model in measuring their level of effectiveness. Although there are different ways of defining organizational effectiveness as the competitive value model points out, companies ought to align themselves in the right definition of effectiveness. After align ing themselves, companies can thereby find an innovative potential in achieving their desired growth and outcomes. There are two ways of measuring the competing values assessment. One is at the individual level and the other at the team level. Individually, assessment focuses on the personal development and career planning ability while at the team level assessment focuses on the team development and creating a shared vision and shared valued among the group members. The initial step in competitive value framework is completion of the competing value assessment, which takes place either by the entire organizational members or by strategic business units. After

Political Violence and Gangsters Essay Example for Free

Political Violence and Gangsters Essay Eventually, due to many reports of violence and killings being associated with D’Andrea, he decided to withdraw from politics instead of his political ambitions being linked with blood shedding. Immediately after his withdrawal from politics, he and his friend started receiving death threats. On May 11, 1921, as D’Andrea was moving to his home with who used to be his bodyguard, they parted well and on reaching his doorsteps, he was attacked and suffered internal bleeding. Other incidences of violence which were politically oriented were witnessed in Chicago city after Merriam Charles who was a professor lost in the elections of Chicago reforms. He made it clear that Chicago was the most corrupt city in America. Until the times of Cermark, the issue of one monolithic was no more, but instead establishment of a collection of mini machines. Such machineries were controlled by prominent political factotums who dispensed their jobs in favor to their home constituents in return due to their loyalty on the material election date. An alderman’s clout purely depended on liability of political structures and schemes to have his vote delivered. In this city, the question of either winning or losing never rose to the politicians but the organizations definitely won the battles through all means because always the court was based on pluralities. (Write here Author’s name)Could you write here author’s name please? Introduction. The Chicago’s criminal reputation preceded long the wars between beer and Al Capone. Although they were born during the same year as sensationalists, American’s new and penny press fear of a masteries working class, the city was perceived even to its earliest observers as a hotbed of immorality and criminal events. Cases of theft murder, rape and crimson among other mayhems became the town’s breaking news in most of the media services. According to the cities complain that the business stealing horses had been reduced to a regular system in 1840, the tribune echoed the perception of the countless Chicagoans (Wirth 1965, p.77). Within the course of the same year, around 2,500 cities’s first hangings were reportedly and confirmed. As the time went on, observers from both beyond and within the city continued to note the existence of identifiable events of crime under ward. In the democrat ward, it was still getting to be notorious fact that pickpockets, thimble, robbers, three-shell game players and broad cases of sly tricks application to cheat become perfectly in the city. The criminal reputation in the city was enhanced by the visibility of vice (Brumer 1969, p.28). Within a half century’s period, more cases of gambling were reported in the city than the larger city of Philadelphia and more per capita than in New York. The vice was first concentrated in a certain area along the river of Chicago known as the ‘patches’ where by the tribune interpreted it as the most beastly sensuality and darkest place of criminal events. The city’s reputation was also wicked as many people witnessed the fire of that time as divine retribution which was against a modern day of Sodom and Gomorrah. The case of lawlessness after the conflagration provided no cause for optimism. One of the newspapers called the city reported that the entire city was infested with groups of burglars, thieves and cut-throat, bent on plunder and also murdered. The fire did not show any sense of redemption whereby the Chicago’s reputation darkened with time. As a result of existence of the image of lawlessness, violent labor dispute crisis increased especially with the Hay market crisis (Davis 1960, p.78). Understanding Political Violence. There is more to the modern political regions than the political religions and rituals sematics as it is assumed regarding to National Socialism and other regimes in totalitarian. Political style and other ideologies do not matter although they provide an answer to as how dead certainty came to be achieved by the ultimate mission. The revolutionary terror furies and sacrifice of the national revivalism give provision that in the current world, it is the region that is in violence but not the violence in region. Human rights violations, including the torture, kidnappings and murder were the daily phenomenon in Chicago city in 1920th. It had become a normal issue that disappearances and murder of labor leaders, kidnapping, union organizers and leftists to be increase especially during the events of politics. According to the research, many people were assassinated as a result of politically motivated killings in the country. Political violence and social change should be considered as the major factor as a breeding ground for violence. The focus should be to the armed organizations mainly the terror perpetrators who are not within the military operations. The aspect of how the political and economic situations in different social strata and how they link with violence should also is considered. Both armed organizations and terror contribute to economic decline. Armed conflicts are more common in the transitional societies like Chicago than in advanced countries (Green 19995, p.65 ). The killing of the vice leader by the name Jim Colosimo in the year 1920 which was the first year of prohibition, indicated a new phase in Chicago’s violence. The violent bloodily a beer wars between the year 1924 and 1930 made Al Capone very famous and the city synonymous with a new phenomenon of gangsterism. Notoriety in Chicago city grew due to series of violent incidences including; the 194 violent shooting of gang leader Dion O. Banion in his flower shop in North side, 1926 machine gunning of Hymie Weiss near the Holy Name Cathedral, 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day massacre which was done to seven people in a clerk street garage. These cases were very widely reported in the international press and also became the incidents of subjects of the popular contemporary plays and books (Haller 1973, p.254). Political Violence and Gangsters. To outline how politics contributed to violence activities in Chicago in 1920th, Chicago’s Union Siciliana elaborates how the decade was marked with series of slaughter. The organization of Unione siciliana was like a mafia group which was very mysterious. It was composed of the Camorra and the Black Hand. This organization was among thousands of fraternal organizations established in America for the purpose of mutual benefit in the societies. It was organized in the Chicago city and had limitations in membership. Depending with the organizations rules, the natives from other countries were interested to join and they were allowed, whereby at the end of first world war, there were many lodges of non Sicilians among them being Tuscan lodge, the Ventiam lodge, the Roman lodge and many more (Mc Garry 2004, p.556). The Union had no leadership but only membership. The leadership of Unione siciliana was exclusivity a stone in the shoe in most infamous gangs always. Al Capone whose heritage was in Neapolitan was associated with the responsibility of the killings of the most Unione Siciliana leaders during the 1920s due to their gang allegiances. Within the decade of 1920s, Anthony D’Andrea was appointed as the leader of the Chicago’s Unione Siciliana. Being born in Sicily, Anthony was a graduate from Palermo University who was a linguist and at the same time, he had studied priesthood. In the year 1902, he was convicted due to counterfeiting and forced to serve 13 months in the prison. In 1903, a former student of D’Andrea interceded on his behalf whereby Anthony was pardoned by the president Theodore Roosevelt. In Chicago, Anthony D’Andrea was known as the former power in the old red light district because in his early teens he was linked as being in connection to a certain gang of Italian counterfeiters and also bank robberies that based operations throughout the country. During this time, Ignacio who was also called Lupo the wolf Saietta was put under arrest in the city of New York and imprisoned. On the other hand Anthony and Frank Milano were also involved in counterfeiting and apprehended in Cleveland and both charged. This indicated that the Italian underworld criminals may have been networking together for long time prior to prohibition (Merriam 1929, p.78). When Anthony D’Andrea was released from prison in the year 1903, he proceeded to Chicago and settled in the so called 19th ward. He was interested with politics and joined local unions. D’Andrea’s Brother Joseph who was the president in the Sewer Diggers was later involved in the Peon system of extorting money from the Italian robberies. As a result, he was murdered on the canal street during a labor quarrel as they were budding the Union’ station. Consequently, it was noted that his brother Anthony D’Andrea would take his position of a presidency. John powers had been the Alderman and the democratic political boss in the 19th ward since the year 1888 had won the Alderman’s post in the ward for 16 elections consecutively (Shapiro 1988, p.143). It is from this time when the ward transformed from predominately Irish to around 80 percent Italian. Most of the democrats started to look for Italian democrat to represent them whereby Diamond Joe was the representative of Italian republican voters within the ward. Earliest on, the split between powers and D’Andrea had been noticed in 1915. The difference was due to each one of them supporting a different mayor candidate. In 1916, D’Andrea presented himself for the Democratic nominations against powers picked candidate James Bowler. In the same year, a Bowler supporter was killed in a Taylor street saloon. Police from streets of Maxwell claimed Lombardi Bowler’s killing as being just the latest addition to Black Hand toll. On the same month, Chicago’s daily tribune printed an article with title that, police on guard in two homes in Mafia terror (Hagan 1978, p.112). According to the article, it indicated that police had full confidence that the killing was as a result of Sicilian feud as it was opposed to the 19th ward political war. According to John Landesco with organized crime in Chicago, he declared that D’Andrea was the elected as the Unione Siciliana’s president which was one of the strongest organizations of foreign groups in America. When power noticed his defeat, he tired to make peace with D’Andrea whereby D’Andrea accepted to support powers for adreman’s position. The Supreme Court of Illinois however voided the election results and Powers took the position. When these events turned, there was a declaration of political war to the death (Gosnell 1937, p.432). On September 28, 1920, an explosion of bomb was witnessed on the porch of Alderman Power’s residence. Powers political rivals claimed that, Powers was keeping the house on Alister place so they intended him to claim residency within his 19th ward. Sometime after the explosion, Anthony D’Andrea was recorded announcing his candidacy as a non partisan for alderman’s position in that 9th ward. On the Feb. 11, 1921 just eleven days before the elections of the aldermanic, another powerful explosion of bomb was evident at Anthony D’Andrea’s political rally in the building on the Avenue of Blue Islands. After the incidence, Alderman Powers was the most sympathetic man. In response to these incidences, the Illinois state’s Attorney Robert E. who for long had proved to be a person of integrity reacted to the bombing incidences through vowing to have new state bill. He declared that, whoever was to be caught with bombing cases would serve for 25 years in penitentiary with death sentence as the maximum punishment. He also added that whoever who was to be caught placing a bomb where it can endanger children or women would be hanged. Chicago city had very tough and terrible conditions in the nineteenth ward. The gunmen were patrolling all over in the streets. Many bump off and kidnapping threats were being offered to D’Andrea while his supporters were being threatened and slugged. Gunmen and cutthroats had been imported from Buffalo and New York due to campaign intimidation. Within less than one week later, on the Feb. 18th, an explosion was made at the home of D’Andrea’s territorial area which adversely spoiled D’Adrea’s political offices of campaign headquarter. Immediately after each occurrence of bombing, Powers covered himself through posting $2,000 as a reward to capture and arrest the concerned perpetrators (Lesswell 1939, p.87). On the elections day in Feb. 22, 1920, security officers were ready very early in full force throughout Chicago city. They succeeded to arrest around 150 men during the day time. The most notorious one was Edward O Donnell who was the leader of a certain gang in southern sides. The day’s biggest catch included that of dynamite. In the area where the law enforcement officers called the headquarter for pre-election bomb outrage in the 19th ward, the security officers managed to raid a certain farm near the 71st street and the Avenue Central park. They were able to collect around 200 pounds of uncovered dynamite and many sacks of blasting powder indicating that those were the major bomb manufacturing centers. From the residence, two men were arrested (Wirth 1973, p.99). Within the 19th ward, more than 450 police officers were stationed. Before noon on the same day, 50 violators were under the police custody. In surprise, despite the fact that many security officers were put in place, three people from the camp of powers including the election judge and the precinct captain had already been kidnapped in the morning section. Power emerged as the winner by a slim margin of only 435 votes. This however did not put to an end the criminal activities and war. In less than just three weeks after conducting the elections, two precinct captains of Powers where killed mercilessly by gangsters. On March 9th, 1920 at around 9 in the morning section, Bailiff A. who was a municipal court Deputy was attack by two bandits as he walked to work. Just a few distant from that scene the same man was attacked again and hit nine times to death. After the murder of Bailiff A, another man by the name Raimond was also murdered while in his store of cigar on Taylor Street. After the incidence, two of the killers ran from the store and dropped one of the murder weapons on sidewalk. It was immediately speculated that most of the gunmen who were involved in the two killing were imported from New York. On April, 12 of the same year, D’Andrea who used to carry a gun for his own safety purposes was arrested after a social club was raided where the gun was found in his pocket. Also several men were arrested for being found gambling in the club (Woodiwiss 2001, p.71). Eventually, due to many reports of violence and killings being associated with D’Andrea, he decided to withdraw from politics instead of his political ambitions being linked with blood shedding. Immediately after his withdrawal from politics, he and his friend started receiving death threats. On May 11, 1921, as D’Andrea was moving to his home with who used to be his bodyguard, they parted well and on reaching his doorsteps, he was attacked and suffered internal bleeding. Other incidences of violence which were politically oriented were witnessed in Chicago city after Merriam Charles who was a professor lost in the elections of Chicago reforms. He made it clear that Chicago was the most corrupt city in America. Until the times of Cermark, the issue of one monolithic was no more, but instead establishment of a collection of mini machines. Such machineries were controlled by prominent political factotums who dispensed their jobs in favor to their home constituents in return due to their loyalty on the material election date. An alderman’s clout purely depended on liability of political structures and schemes to have his vote delivered. In this city, the question of either winning or losing never rose to the politicians but the organizations definitely won the battles through all means because always the court was based on pluralities. (Landesco,1973) During the Election Day, a message was being sent stating that the enemy should be punished and destroyed such that he can never think of politics again in future. The end justified the resulting means in time of insuring a victory decisive in the often grim Darwinistic struggle for life and death. Threat campaigns, brass knuckles, and even murder came to be the only preferred tactics methods especially when the normal ways of using propaganda and persuading voters seemed not to work. The violence associated with Al Capone and the terror campaigns during the election eve in 1923, he waged against the other political bosses of Cicero. Al Capone tried to invade the blue-collar factory in Chicago town when things proved to be too not for him. Capone was the only piker in the town. Intimidation and violence was the Chicago’s way out, and its roots historically extended very much in those times as compared to the rollicking era of Big Fellow and the bathtub gin. Chicagoans much involvement was in the political elections results not considering distractions of the professional sports televisions and other diversions of 20th century than today. In every ward, there was organization of social clubs which aimed to boost the areas preferred candidates. In the city, there were pageantry of colorful parades, torch light rallies, bombastic oratory emissions of sets of smoke were all over the meeting halls and also scattered all over the city (Adamic 1931, p.56). All these events were to show important senses ethnic pride hopes neighborhood identity, fears and also prejudices which vested in candidate’s fortune and enough courage to descend out of the same dominant nationality which was found within the wards. At times a Republican club or the Democratic club engaged in rival organizations which represented some other districts and the ethnic groups in woolly and wild free for alls which were often settled by bats, bricks and also pavement stones. In 1928, Aiello Capone war was still controlled by Unione Siciliana in Chicago. In April, 1928 elections, Capone supporters were heavily backing their Uniuone Siciliana candidate Bernard Barasa. This group had been associated with a number of explosions in connection with his campaigns although he lost the battle to the incumbent with more than 100, 000 votes. Immediately after the primary elections, Capone left for Miami Beach. In late June 1928, other leaders who included Fischetti Charley, Dab Serritella and Jake Guzik visited the boss. Soon they were accompanied by the famous machine gun jack and other killing twins who had been associated with murder of two Chicago killings of police officers. They discussed the fate of Frank Uale, who was the national president of Unione Siciliana in the state of New York. The next visit of Capone to Chicago was to attend the funeral of Lombardo Anthony, who was the Capone; sponsored president in Chicago.Lombardo had been killed by Aiello forces. As Capone was leaving Chicago, he met Lollordo and discovered that he could be threat to him in aspirating the presidential seat. On January, 8, 1929, Lolordo was shot with .38 Caliber guns without any warning (Landesco 1931, p.68). Conclusion. Some few years later, the long awaited reformist aim of shadowy conspirators who were seeking for control of Chicago’s violence situation got the public attention in the city when vice entrepreneur and boot legging Al Capone and Torrio John rose and prominence shocking violence. Their main agenda discussed about the earliest depictions of the criminal events which oriented from election activities during the boot legging time. They ignored many illegal businesses from international liquor trading networks t neighborhood soft drinks parlors. It also ignored public demands for booze which focused on competition in violence among the gangs in dominations of the illegal trading especially in urban space. Their illustrations also show the fuzzy and ever shifting turf of major gangsters around 1925 which suggests that no Chicagoan could control some of the gang. Generally these criminal events indicated that the city of Chicago had no well established rules to govern the country’s activities. It is also noted that most of the organizations associated with violence were supported and funded by the prominent political aspirant’s. At the same time, more groups of gangs formed due to the advantage of political crisis. For instance, the robberies, arson, rape among other evil events. All these symbolized government’s failure to provide enough security force to curb the problem. References. Adamic L, (1931), Dynamite: The story of classic violence in America, London. Asbury H, (2002).The Gungs of New York.London. Brumer H, (1969), Symbolic Interactionsm.Berkly. Davis H, (1960).Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics: New York Gosnell H, (1937).Machine Politics: Chicago Model. Chicago. Green P, (1995).The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition. Carbondale. Hagan J, (1978).Modern Criminology. New York. Haller M, (1973).Organized Crime in Chicago Part iii of the Illions crime survey 1929.Chicago. Landesco J, (1973), Organized Crime in Chicago: Part iii of the Illions Crime Survey 1929.Chicago. Lasswell H, (1939).World Revolutionary Propaganda: A Chicago Study. New York. McGarry j, (2004).The Northern Ireland Conflict: Consociational Engagements. Oxford. Merriam C, (1929).Chicago: A More Intimate View of Urban Politics.New York. Shapiro H, (1988).White Violence and Black Response: Amherst. Wirth L, (1965).On Cities and social life.Chicago. Woodiwiss M, (2001), Organized Crime and American Power. Toronto.

Importance of Companion Animals in Human Societies

Importance of Companion Animals in Human Societies Naomi Smallcalder Abstract Animals have been used throughout history as companions especially for people who mental and physical health problems. Even Florris Nightingale discussed the effects that birds had on patients that were confined to one room. However throughout history the same has applied to our relationship with animals. People will decide whether they want to have a companion animal in their life, and the relationship will begin. But how does this relationship effect the animals involved? Is our relationship with animals a symbiotic one or do we use them for our own needs? Introduction The Oxford English Dictionary defines a pet as: ‘Any animal that is domesticated or tamed and kept as favourite, or treated with indulgence and fondness.’ (Oxford University Press, 2014). This word is commonly used to describes animals that are kept for no obvious practical or economic purpose – i.e. pets, as apposed to livestock or working animals. Throughout history animals have been kept for symbolic purposes, they are used as status symbols, and were even used as toys, (Tuan, 1984). Pets are often referred to as ‘companion animals’, scientists believe that the human and animal bond can produce a positive and an affectionate relationship which is mutually beneficial for both, (One Kind, 2010a). History of Pet Keeping The keeping of dogs, cats and other species as household pets is so widespread in Western countries that it is usually taken for granted. It is believed that half of the households in Britain contain at least one pet animal, the number of pets is higher in countries such as France and the United States, (Serpell, 1986). In Australia the Aborigines kept Dingoes, Wallabies, Possums, Bandicoots and even frogs as pets, (Meggit, 1965). In Southeast Asia indigenous tribes would keep dogs, cats, pigs and monkeys, (Evans, 1937; Cipriani, 1966). North American tribes would keep a variety of animals such as deer, wolves, turkeys and a variety of small wild mammals and birds, (Elmendorf Kroeber 1960). Tribes inhabiting the American Basin, the keeping and taming of wild animals became a minor industry. Henry Walter Bates, an English Naturalist, was the first to record a list of twenty-two unidentified mammals which were living tame in Indian Settlements, (Galton, 1883a). Even though pet keeping was seen throughout Western cultures, it would be considered indecent in modern Europe or North America if a women was to allow a puppy or kitten to suckle at her breast. Yet in many tribal societies allowing young animals to suckle is considered normal and natural. Several years ago it was found that many North American tribes were extremely fond of pets but would also bring the animals up, (Galton, 1883a). In all societies people pamper, talk and name their pets. They even grief when they die or are separated from them. (Galton, 1883a). Impact and Significance of Pet Keeping for Humans Many scientists and people believe that they and others develop health benefits from relationships with their animal companions, several scientific studies produced over the past 25 years support these beliefs, (Allen et al, 2007a). Evidence has shown that animals are able to improve human cardiovascular health, reduce stress, decrease loneliness and depression, and provide social interactions between people who have pets, (Allen et al, 2007a). People who are terminally ill or pregnant are advised to not interact with companion animals due to risk of zoonosis. Although giving up their animals can have a detrimental rather than beneficial effect on their overall health, (Allen et al, 2007a). Research dating back to the 1980’s showed that pet ownership has positive benefits on human health. These benefits ranged from higher survival rates from myocardial infection; a reduced risk of asthma in children; a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and physical wellbeing in older people, (Friedmannm et al, 1980). As early as the 18th century William Tuke, a Quaker Philanthropist who ran an asylum for people with severe mental disorders, he discovered that his patients gained health benefits from being around animals. Thus the courtyards of the asylum were stocked with rabbits, seagulls and poultry in the hope it would give the people greater responsibility and self-control. It was recommended by the British Charity Commissioners that sheep, hares, monkeys and other domestic animals should be added to these institutions, to create a less hostile, more attractive environment. Florence Nightingale, wrote in her ‘Notes of Nursing’ (1880) suggested that people that were confined to the same room because of medical problems gained pleasure from the presence of a bird, (The British Psychological Society, 2011). Physiological Benefits There have been numerous studies which indicate that pets provide their owners with physiological benefits. Whether pet interaction is active or passive, it reduces the anxiety levels in people and reduces the progression of stress-related conditions, (Wilson, 1991). Blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate was recorded between 3 and 9 minutes and this was recorded in 24 subjects. They were recorded petting an unknown dog, a dog whom they had a bond with, or they read quietly. They discovered there was significant differences in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure between petting a dog where a companion bond had been established and petting a dog where there was no bond. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure decrease when petting a dog, (Baun, et al, 1984). Cardiovascular benefits It has also been noted that owning a dog can reduce an owners blood pressure, (Allen, 2001). Contact with any animal, even watching fish in an aquarium, can provide cardiovascular benefits. Health benefits are associated with animal companionship when the animal being cared for does not pose a burden to the person and the animals behaviour is acceptable to the person, (Friedmann et al, 1995). A three study by the Baker Medical Research Institute involving over 5,000 participants showed that pet owners had lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels than non-pet owners, even after smoking and weight was taken into consideration. Another study by Erika Friedmann, University of Maryland School of Nursing found that pet owners who experienced heart attacks had increased their survival rates compared to those who without companion animals, (Hering, 2008). Children and Animals Researchers have identified that kids who grew up with a pet, like a dog or cat, or who lived on a farm with plenty of livestock are less likely to develop asthma or allergies. From this they produced a ‘hygiene hypothesis’ – the idea that modern lifestyles are too clean, therefore our immune systems are not exposed to enough bacteria, viruses and parasites, (Fujimura et al, 2013a). A team of researchers from the University of Michigan exposed a group of mice to dust particles produced by a dog, the other group of mice they left. Both groups were then exposed to dust which triggered asthma. They found that the mice that had been exposed to the dogs dust showed a lower inflammation in their airways compared to other group of mice, (Fujimura et al, 2013a). The views of pets are completely different across the world. In Islamic culture dogs are seen as impure, several injunctions warn Muslims against contact with dogs, they believe dogs are not hygienic are therefore not kept in the house, (Banderker, 2014). America, Canada, Europe, Southern parts of Africa and Oceania, mainly Christians. Dogs are more popular in these areas of the world. Whereas in places such as Arabia, North Africa and parts of Asia, are mostly Muslims, dogs are not popular pets. In regions that are mostly Hindu, pets are very popular due to their importance in their religion. There is not a lot of evidence which backs up the importance of pets in Buddhism, (Bousfield and Brown, 2010). Impact and Significance to Animals The main studies have been conducted on how animals affect their owner’s lives, but not a lot of research has been conducted on the impact of animals kept as pets. Many people consider their pets to be members of the family. People who own animals suggest that the feeling is mutual, as their pets seek attention from their owners. Pets provide unconditional love to their owners, (Lin, 2014a). There are several arguments that suggest that cats, dogs and other pets suffer at the hands of their owners. Another argument is the relationship is inherently flawed and it is believed that humans are unable to provide the full lives that these animals deserve. This is because they are bred to be dependent on us, the basic relationship between human and animals is weak, (Lin, 2014a; Smith, 2014). Animals lives are restricted to the homes they live in, they must obey commands and are restricted on what they are allowed to do. It is believed that domestic animals retain many of their basic instincts, however it is not ethically acceptable to allow a dog to wonder on their own, as it is detrimental to their heath and others, (PETA, 2014). As domestic animals depend on humans for their survival, it would be cruel to allow them to live on the streets, (Lina, 2014a). There are too many situations where an animal derives no benefit being kept as a pet. Some animals such as ‘status dogs’ are acquired and traded more as trophies rather than kept as friends. In some homes pets are neglected or even ill-treated by their owners, (One Kind, 2010a). There are several pets which are exploited in the commercial trade. Breeding pedigree animals as pets can lead to severe health problems. There are many pet animals which have been selectively bred, which can cause dogs to have eye problems, heart, respiratory and skin conditions, and hereditary diseases, which is all connected to specialised breeding, such as the Pug and the Hairless Cat, both these designers animals have been exploited by humans for the benefit of humans. (Advocates for Animals, 2006). Many exotic species are unsuited for domestic life which is why a lot of research has been conducted on keeping exotic animals as pets. Exotic animals that are used in the pet trade are taken from Australia, Africa and Brazil, they are subjected to cruel transport. Parrots often have their beaks and feet taped and can be stuffed into plastic tubes, some animals are hidden in luggage and concealed in special vests so that couriers can bypass x-ray machines at airports, (PETA, 2014a). There is increasing evidence that the import of exotic species for the pet trade threatens not only the survival of wild species but can also risk the health of humans, domestic animals and native wildlife. Many exotic species suffer because owners do not know how to care for them properly. As these animals mature, they can become expensive to maintain, they soon develop behavioural problems and can become a long-term commitment. Owners then feel they can no longer handle the animal. Consequently these animals are often neglected, euthanized or released into the wild, (Schuppli and Faser, 2000). Conclusion Companion animals, play a very significant role in the lives of many humans. They advance psychological and physical well-being to their human companions. The basis of their relationship is that humans decide to keep animals. Some animals may choose to seek the company of humans. Although some humans change their lives to accommodate an animal they still have the power to maintain or break the relationship – by selling the animal, placing the animal in a shelter or euthanizing that animal. When someone decides to keep a companion animal, the animals life will be controlled by humans to suit humans needs. Animals are affected by legislation – under laws animals are generally seen as possessions. Therefore the relationship between humans and animals, is more a form of animal use rather than a symbiotic relationship, (Sandoe and Christiansen, 2008). References Advocates for Animals (2006) ‘The Price of a Pedigree: Dog breed standards and breed-related illness’ [Online] Available from Advocates for Animals, http://www.onekind.org/uploads/publications/price-of-a-pedigree.pdf, Accessed 19/05/2014 at 12:05 Allen, K. (2001) Pet ownership, but Not ACE Inhibitor Therapy, Blunts Home Blood Pressure Response. Hypertension, 38; 815 Allen, K. Barker, S. Beck, A. Bell, D. Frederickson, M. Freng, J. Gerbasi, K. Gordon, E. Hart, L. Johnson, R. Ng, Z. Odendaal, J. O’Connor, A. Salman, M and Wong, B (2007a) ‘The Health Benefits of Companion Animals’ [Online] Available from Pets are Wonderful Support, http://www.pawssf.org/document.doc?id=15, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:19 Banderker, A.M (2014) ‘Animal Abuse and Welfare in Islam’ [Online] Available from IslamicConcern.com, http://www.islamicconcern.com/dogs.asp, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:53 Baun, MM. Bergstrom, N. Langston, NF. And Thoma, L (1984) ‘Physiological effects of human/companion animal bonding’ [Online] Available from NCBI, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6563527, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:38 Bousfield, B and Brown, R (2010) ‘What is Animal Welfare’ [Online] Available from Animal Welfare, https://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/quarantine/qua_vb/files/AW8.pdf, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:55 Cipriani, L. (1966) The Andaman islanders. London: Times Books Elmendorf, W.W Kroeber, K.L (1960) The structure of Twana culture with comparative notes on the structure of Yurok culture. Washington University Research Studies, Monograph 2, 1-28. Evans, I.H.N (1937) The Negritos of Malaysia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Friedmann E, Katcher AH, Lynch JJ, Thomas S (1980) Animal companions and one year survival of patients after discharge from a coronary care unit. Public Health Rep; 95: 30712 Friedmann, E and Thomas, S.A, (1995) Pet ownership, social support and one year survival among post-mycardial infarction patients in the cardiac arrhythmia suppression trial (CAST) Am J Cardiology 76; 1213 1217 Friedmann, E.A, Katcher, S.A, Lynch, T.J.J and Messent, P.R (1983a) Interaction and blood pressure; influence of animal companions. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 171, 461-5 Fujimura, K.E. Demoor, T. Rauch, M. Faruqi, A.A. Jang, S. Johnson, C.C. Boushey, H.A. Zoratti, E. Ownby, D. Lukacs, N.W and Lynch, S.V (2013a) ‘House dust exposure mediates gut microbiome Lactobacillus enrichment and airway immune defense against allergens and virus infection’ [Online] Available from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/13/1310750111, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:51 Galton, F. (1883a) Inquiry into human faculty and its development. London: Macmillan Hering, C (2008) ‘Health Benefits of Companion Animals’ [Online] Available from Health Insights Today, http://www.healthinsightstoday.com/articles/v1i2/animals_p1.html, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:46 Lin, D (2014a) ‘What are the Arguments For and Against Keeping Pets?’ [Online] Available from About.com, http://animalrights.about.com/od/companionanimalspets/a/Keeping_Pets.htm, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:58 Meggit, M.J. (1965) The association between Australian Aborigines and dingoes. In. Man, culture and animals, A. Leeds A. Vayda (eds). Washington DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science One Kind (2010a) ‘Should animals ever be kept as pets or are we simply exploiting sentient individuals for our own convenience and pleasure?’ [Online] Available from One Kind, http://www.onekind.org/take_action/campaigns/pet_origins/the_pet_keeping_debate/, Accessed 18/04/2014 at 12:22 Oxford University Press (2014) ‘Pets’ [Online] Available from Oxford University Press, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pet, Accessed 18/04/2014 at 12:43 PETA (2014a) ‘Exotic Animals as ‘Pets’ [Online] Available from PETA, http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/exotic-animals-pets/, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 12:07 Sandoe, P and Christians, S.B (2008) ‘Companion Animals’ [Online] Available from Danish Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment, http://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/22431780/CompanionAnimals.pdf, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 12:15 Schuppli, C and Faser, D (2000) A Framework for Assessing the Suitability of Different Species as Companion Animals. Animal Welfare, Vol. 9, 359 – 372 Schuppli, C and Fraser, D (2000), ‘A Framework for Assessing the Suitability of Different Species as Companion Animals’, Animal Welfare, Vol.9, p.359-372 Serpell, J.A. (1986) In the company of animals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Smith, M A (2014) ‘Why It’s Cruel to Keep Dogs as Pets’ [Online] Available from Hub Pages, http://melissaasmith.hubpages.com/hub/dogssuffer, Accessed 18/04/2014 at 14:41 The British Psychological Society (2011) ‘The Value of Pets for Human Health’ [Online] Available from The British Psychological Society, http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=24editionID=198ArticleID=1812, Accessed 19/04/2014 at 11:32 Tuan, Yi-Fu (1984) Dominance and affection: the making of pets. New Haven: Yale University Press. Wilson, C.C. (1991) The pet as an anxiolytic intervention, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 179; 482-489

Exchange Rate Risk and Impact on Foreign Trade

Exchange Rate Risk and Impact on Foreign Trade This paper uses real world application of exchange rate fluctuations, its causes and impact on the economy, risks associated with it and their management, in terms of Chinese economy to show the importance on these financial concepts and their requirement of understanding one to understand the other, all in wake of gaining he knowledge that will help in making transactions decisions that affect the economy on a global scale. Going for a bigger leap by learning to take smaller steps. Introduction The incontrovertible evidence of understanding the importance of the exchange rate fluctuation mechanism and the types and magnitude of risk, attached to the international trading affecting those who are involved in transaction across border globally deems necessary the acquisition of knowledge by those who are involved in day to day market transactions. The global economy is reliant upon the study of economic and other socio-political variable affecting the exchange rate in the international market influence the terms of trade of the trading countries and consequently inducing changes in the budget restructuring and trading quantities that are contributed to the international market by individual countries. Thus the realization of the need for this paper came upon as a research topic. This report takes into account several articles and write ups related to foreign exchange rates, their risks, exposure, and tries to plug them in with the conventional concepts of these financial instruments in order to enhance the understanding and the knowledge of exchange rate mechanism, its determinants and how it impacts any countrys economy specifically that of china. The literature support backs up the implication of the concepts applied here for the better grasp if the points that are attempting to be made noticeable. The main theme of the paper revolves around the arena of foreign exchange rates; How they impact the economy, what causes them to fluctuate, the impact of these fluctuations; How they affect the country with a changing value of currency in relative terms, a mention of the recent effects that the economies of the countries have gone into having had been affected in terms of it economy and foreign trade sector, the risk exposure associated with the fluctuating exchange rates and how does hedging help in reducing that risk. Even though the main theme would give an impression of a broad topic discussion, however we will remain confined to narrowed discussion limited within our topics only touching the subject in light of its practical application extracted from evidence presented in news articles and periodicals. This stance has been adopted, induced by the goal achieving grasp on the concepts and not on mere conventional definitions to these applicable financial-economic concepts. The paper also sees through and explains the methods of conduction of research in terms of our sources of data and our approach. Graphs and charts relevant to the topic have been provided to further clear the ideas built upon the physical evidence by analysis of these statistical data sets. Eventually reaching to base where we design a cohesive note on the findings of all the efforts put into this research and thus helping us to reach to a conclusion based upon all the facts and evidence provided in the literature review and by the statistical data charts and graphs. Literature Review This section imparts knowledge using empirical evidence that is published in newspaper journals and articles and is related to our topic of interest, to augment the understanding of the financial concepts and phenomena that take place in the economy. Following are some critical reviews of articles pertaining to topic: Exchange rate risk, determinants and its impact on foreign trade. Exchange Rate Fluctuations and its Causes. The issue of the undervalued currency of China (Renminbi).and not just undervalued the word substantial puts the emphasize on the meaning shedding curious gazes as to what might be the reason behind this, has been presented by the corporate author (Business Asia, 2007).However, the year 2007 and the year following that were expected to bring appreciation according to the author. The low valued currency helped in the exports volume increment but at the same time incurred costs in other sectors. The so expected appreciation would bring prosperity to the economy, indicating an economic growth or a path led to success. On the other hand, the appreciated currency would, by all means, even if little, impact the exporting sector negatively making the goods sold to foreign countries less cheaper and making the existence of Chinese goods in the competitive market all the more tougher (Business Asia, 2007). El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed (2007), further takes the discussion forward with appreciating Chinese currency and at the same time the threat of protectionist trade measures and the falling dollar. He sheds light upon the problem of falling dollar and how it would be a problem being a constraint upon the Federal Reserve Bank to take measure against the economic down turns led by the crisis in the real estate. On the other hand, the Chinese Yuan has been allowed to appreciate modestly in the past two year from the time the article was written keeping an eye for the threat of protectionist measures (Business Asia, 2007). Already the appreciation had caused much apprehension for the Chinese; dollar falling further would be putting too much on their plate. The Depreciation of Dollar would imply further appreciation in Chinese currency which would threat the exports sector much. Nevertheless the depreciation of dollar by and large is a development for the world economy despite some negative consequences it may have on trade. And the circumstances are much more predictive for the weak dollar than the reality assumes, and it sure is likely to remain that way (El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed, 2007). The important issues discussed by the corporate author diverts our attention towards the sterilization efforts, issuance of liabilities and Sino-US relation that are the main factors affecting the pace of the appreciation expected (Business Asia, 2007). The so long undervalued Chinese currencys expectation to rise was induced by the central banks intention of sterilization for the manipulation of exchange rate, however all depended upon the success of this effort. The central bank can control the exchange rate by buying or selling the currency and hence stimulation and increase or a decrease respectively in the relative supply of the currency in circulation. Furthermore in sterilizing it insulates itself from the foreign exchange operations in order to prevent potentially adverse impacts of capital inflow or outflow. Thus in order to appreciate the Chinese Renminbi against US dollar the central bank of china would buy the domestic currency and create a shortage of supply, therefore i ncreasing its value and it would sell the American dollar for the reverse effect. Hence, the Chinese currency would appreciate. (Business Asia, 2007) El-Erian (El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed, 2007), taking a step further, reasoned the apprehensive condition of the Chinese, to see the falling dollar after all their efforts to keep the appreciation of their own currency modest. The threat of declining exports leading to broadening of trade balance was imminent. And to top it off the depreciating dollar only sought to be a cause for an augmentation of risk in the painstakingly controlled economy (El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed, 2007). The article but also points out that despite the negative consequences of the weakening dollar on trade given the predictable circumstances of a likely depreciation, it also implies a development of world economy against US. Because depreciation of dollar would in effect mean appreciation of the currencies that it must be held against which includes all the other countries of the world. Thus from the perspective of other countries an appreciation would be taking place implying a growth affec t in their respective economies and indicating a surge of development in those countries (El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed, 2007). The Negative and the Positive Impacts Corporate author contributed in the same line of argument, though his inclination was towards the impacts then cause. His argument is in resonance to the arguments of El-Erian critically analyzed above. The author specifically talks about the strong appreciation of most Asian currencies against USD while there being still others, which were weaker than they were before the global financial crisis (Business Asia, 2009). The appreciation of other currencies has put the undervalued currency under pressure to appreciate further. China in this respect has continued to keep its currency undervalued. A rapid appreciation would imply a slower accumulation of foreign reserves. This brings two aspects under concern. First is the rising threat of protectionism from European countries and the US and the other is the giving full control of monetary policy back to Government (Business Asia, 2009). The corporate author of Business Asia (Business Asia, 2009) also forces us to contemplate upon the issue, which is the rapid appreciation of currencies in Asia, especially in China, who has been keeping a modest appreciation rate in light of the threat of protectionism from EU and US. The weaker currency if allowed to appreciate rapidly would instigate protectionism from EU and US on now not so cheap goods owing to the devaluation of USD itself as well as the appreciation Asian currencies. However this would also imply developmental growth in other countries (referring to China) relative to the US (Business Asia, 2007). Furthermore another incentive for letting the currency appreciate for China and other Asian countries would be that letting the exchange rate fluctuate on its own terms, the Government will finally be free to use the monetary instruments to manipulate and reshape their monetary policy which otherwise had been committed to keeping the exchange rate fluctuations in chec k (Business Asia, 2009). From the discussions regarding the exchange rate by different authors so far, it has been an enlightening experience to contemplate upon the issues faced in the real world by the real economies regarding the Foreign exchange rate fluctuations, how they are affected differently by the conditions of the economy in different countries, and the what reactions it induce in the effected economies. The Exchange rate fluctuation is now better understood in terms of two countries respected currency values. We can see a number of different impacting factors changing the rate which include the loosening of monetary policy in to let the Chinese currency appreciate against all currencies and on the other hand the devaluation of dollar appreciated the Chinese currency even further. Resultantly changing the relative development indicators of the countries effected (Business Asia, 2007). Furthermore, the effects on the foreign exchange rate we also saw the application of the effects that the fluctuations of FOREX have on the economies, which is an exposure to the risk of losing trade as mentioned in our literature review (Business Asia, 2009). The rapidly increasing currency value also come forth rapidly rising prices of exports goods which would induce a fall in demand or worse, protectionist policies, in the importing countries for the exported goods of the country experiencing currency appreciation (Business Asia, 2007). Besides the risk of protectionism and other changing exchange rates negative impacts the positive impacts include in the likely situation of appreciation as mentioned above, loosening of control on exchange rates frees the monetary policy to concentrate on the other sectors of the economy. Also the appreciating value of the currency creates major attraction for short-term and high-return investment seekers (Huang, 2010). This can be explained bett er by Ying Huangs argument on the main reason of speculative fund inflow to China. Huang (2010) attempts to decipher the main reason for the inflow of funds into Chinese economy. The massive overseas funds inflow, according to the author, is primarily due to the appreciation in the Chinese Currency which makes it attractive to investors. These funds aim to earn a higher comparative return on short term basis due to high interest rates offered in China as Opposed to that of the United States. And, although, the housing and the stock market appear to be the main attraction of investments since funds may appear to target investment in these markets, however, the attractive appreciating Chinese currency is the major reason of the speculative inflow of funds and not these markets (Huang, 2010). An appreciating value of Chinese currency shows promising future to the investors who seek high returns in a very short period. The reason being that, in spite of the high interest rates offered to the investors the appreciating value of currency increases the return by an even larger total than just with the high returns. The high returns and increasing value by the virtue of increasing Foreign exchange rate is major attraction for investors. The article pointed out the fact that even though the housing and stock market appear to be the investment targets reeling in the major influx of funds from overseas, however the main star of the speculative flow is the attractive currency of Chinese owing to its appreciating nature. The housing and stock market do not cause this major influx, however they do become the target investments eventually directly or indirectly (Huang, 2010). This pretty much elaborates our discussion on foreign exchange rate; however, we still need further evidence upon the risk exposures that have been mentioned as an effect to these fluctuations in terms of their impact on economy or investors and why or why not investors decide to take precautionary measures in taking shelters from this kind of risk exposure Risk Exposure- Avoid it or Avoid Avoiding it? A decent explanation can be induced by analyzing the perspective of Georgina Lee (Lee, 2009). Lee talks about the increased scrutiny that Chinese state owned businesses have to face now. The derivatives market used to hedge the investments against interest, currency and commodity risk are put under surveillance in order to put constraints on this phenomena and discourage these market transactions that would eventually lead to too much hedging that all the risk averse investors would start using these financial instrument to secure their investments. The State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission was spurred into action after several State-owned Enterprises, their subsidiaries and affiliates suffered high losses due to failed foreign exchange, fuel and interest rate hedging contracts (Lee, 2009). Although, according to Georgina Lee, the use of derivate securities as financial instruments to hedge the investments against certain kind of risks may be a very attractive phenomenon of wisely securing your assets against risk, but it brings forth the new kind of risk associated with it, that is the probability of losing profits in case unexpected adverse circumstances would come into play (Lee, 2009). The article discusses the new limitations and regulations put to scrutinize the state-owned businesses and restrain them from using derivative securities. After observing several high profile losses incurred to state-owned enterprises, the SASAC came into action to prevent further losses due to failed foreign exchange, interest and fuel hedging contracts (Lee, 2009). Lees discussion merely elaborates why Chinese Supervision Commission had to keep in check the derivative markets in order to prevent another experience like past of failed securities. However, it is more of a choice in other countries than of a legislative measure, which is made after analyzing the costs incurred in using the financial hedging instruments (Larry Kirschner, 2009). Larry Kirschner elaborates upon the Foreign Exchange Rate risk exposure and how and why different companies manipulate the financial derivatives as instrument to manage their risk. Also they write that a few companies would rather not address the foreign exchange risk exposure at all. According to the authors, it requires a great deal of understanding, assessment and prioritization of the exposures before they can apply these any hedging instrument to gain from such investments (Larry Kirschner, 2009).They observe that where many companies have become complacent with their foreign exchange risk management practices, there exist other companies that would rather condone addressing to such exposures. There are many things to consider and much effort required before utilizing any instrument to manage against such risk exposures (Larry Kirschner, 2009). The implication by the authors enlightens us about the importance of better understanding of the foreign exchange rate fluctuations and risk exposure before they can be manipulated into profit extraction or general hedging against an expected risk of adverse circumstances. The reason for some companies being comfortable with their hedging or risk management practices stands that they understand the further risks attached to it and after having properly assessed, analyzed and derived from the given risks and they have weighed their expectations of gains with current condoning alternative and have reached to a conclusion to generate expectations of comparatively more gains through hedging (Larry Kirschner, 2009). These preliminary requirements are basic necessity and incur some cost as well which discourages other companies from using financial instrument to their own advantage. Thus it can be derived that although risk exposure management may be beneficial for companies to hedge again st exchange rate risk, however, it requires careful analysis of international exposures with due consideration given to internal control by the companies (Larry Kirschner, 2009). The analysis above provides quite an insight on the choices faced by the investors and the reason why they chose to or chose not to use financial derivatives to hedge against the foreign risk. At the end it all depends of your weighted analysis of cost and benefits and risk involved that contribute in the final decision making process (Larry Kirschner, 2009). Despite all these discussions we know from intuition that we as humans would prefer lesser risk. Putting this natural instinct upon financial intuition it should be an understood fact that investors would go for a stable investment of low risk provided he choice is a decision made after thorough analytical efforts. However in light of all the above analysis and our major intuition we should see that due to the depreciating dollar value, many countries investors should have switched to a more stable currency as a reserve currency but we observe that dollar still remains to be the reserve currency all over uncontested with the exc eption of the challenging statement delivered by Governor of Peoples bank of China (Montecillo, 2009). Montecillo (2009) reflects the view of the Governor of Peoples Bank of China, Zhou Xiao Chan, that current global financial system faces vulnerability and systematic risks. He also emphasized that reform must create an international reserve currency with stable value, rule based issuance and manageable supply. The article further illustrates on the point made that they are serving as a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“unit of accountà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and as a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“medium of exchangeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Moreover its à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“store of valueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? is also considered from the perspective of both the government and the private sectors. Following the perspective Governor of peoples Bank of China actually challenged the statement of BSP(the Bangko Sentralng Pilipinas ) that despite declining value of dollar (from 72.7% in end- June2001 to 62.8% as of end- June 2009: the article quotes) dollar will remain the world most widely used currency-Uncontested reserve currency- as no alternative existed as then (Montecillo, 2009). Another type of risk associated with the foreign exchange rate fluctuation has been thoroughly highlighted in this article enlightened by the challenging statement of Governor of Peoples Bank of China. With the declining value of dollar with respect to other currencies, in effect appreciating them against the USD, the risk associated with them puts the investors in reserve currency at exposure (Montecillo, 2009). The stable foreign reserve currency is the requirement for foreign transactions and for investment purposes. However, a fluctuating reserve currency would create imbalance of gains and losses and putting the market players at a high risk of losing money who have invested in a currency with declining value, for example, and need to pay in other currency that would have appreciated against the reserve currency in effect. Thus the declining value of Dollar though may not have challenged its world-wide demand as a reserve currency, but China has contested that perspective in ter m of demanding a relatively stable alternative and seek shelter from the exposure this foreign exchange rate fluctuation risk (Montecillo, 2009). Data Analysis Figure 1: Foreign Direct Investment in China Untitled.png (The World Bank, 2010) The figure shows foreign direct investment in China which is increasing over the period at an increasing rate (The World Bank, 2010). The reason can be explained as an induction due to attraction of high interest rates and constantly increasing value of Chinese currency (Huang, 2010). The appreciating Chinese currency is a major attraction for short term foreign investors seeking high returns on their investments. Thus, the increase in the foreign direct investment can be justified by the increase in the Chinese currency against other currencies and also the deprecation of dollar against Asian currencies (Business Asia, 2009). Figure 2: Growth in Money Supply (percentage change) Untitled2.png (The World Bank, 2010) The increase in the money supply can be seen as an effort to prevent the adverse consequences expected to be brought up by the simultaneous increase in the value of Chinese Currency against US dollar and the Depreciation of US dollar against Asian currencies (Business Asia, 2009). it is only by selling out domestic currency and buying the foreign currency, that the central bank of china would be able to keep the demand for Chinese currency low and hence low value and keep the foreign reserves high to keep the foreign currency to depreciate against their own currency to avoid the risk of protectionism (Business Asia, 2007). The Foreign reserves record can be observed in figure 2. Figure 3: Chinas Foreign Reserves (includes Gold, Current US$) Untitled3.png (The World bank, 2010) The figure above shows the increase in the foreign reserve currency ( US dollars) which further supports our claim of China having had used protective measure to keep the appreciation of its currency modest by buying in foreign reserves and selling our domestic currency (The World Bank, 2010). Clearly these efforts have been put into play after 2004 since the foreign direct investment had a peaking high rate of increment till that year as can be observed in the Figure 1 (The World Bank, 2010). And since the value of currency has been attempted to put under control, the threat of protectionist policies against Chinese exports receded as he prices of exports against started to fall as can be observed in the figure 3 (The World bank, 2010). Figure 4: USD-CNY Untitled.png (Yahoo, 2010) We see the appreciating Chinese currency against USD but till 2005 mid a very stable exchange rate points towards the mentioned efforts on behalf of Chinese government by manipulating the money supply to keep the Foreign exchange rate from appreciating (The World Bank, 2010). However, during the period of constant exchange rate or say merely constant keeping a moderate change allowed, the currency did come under pressure (Business Asia, 2009) for its own increasing value to be taken care of while also managing the impact of depreciation of dollar on the Chinese currency and eventually its exports (Business Asia, 2007). After 2006 the monetary policy seems to have been allowed to let lose the exchange rate to be able to concentrate on the other sectors as well (Business Asia, 2007). Methodology The way to go about the research conducted for this term paper is known as the methodology. The method pursued in gathering the required material and data for the paper comprises mostly follows a general type in terms of the form and efforts put in to acquire it. There are majorly three type data sources used for research reports or gathering relevant data on the topic of interest (Lombard, 2010).But our concern is with the Secondary Research or Data Collection method. This includes data and observational facts as already recorded by previous researchers. The provided datasets have already been analyzed and shaped before by previous writers and authors with copyrights protecting their work. The material from the secondary source is further manipulated and used to assist in making points of information with proper referencing and credits paid to the original workers. As readily available data sets they are a persons prior choice to any other method. Some negative aspects, however, are associated with the Secondary data sets as well. Despite the time saving and cost saving features of Secondary data sets, there is no guarantee of them meeting the exact requirements of the researcher seeking evidence to support his theories or claims. Furthermore the validity and reliability of the researched data sets may be in question and source can project dubious impressions unless the researches are conducted by reliable sources as government agencies (Lombard, 2010) Purpose of Research The purpose of research is to help make the understanding of concepts of foreign exchange rate fluctuations. and its causes and effects and the hedging and investment against these fluctuations easy in light of evidence from Chinese currency revaluation against US Dollars, the investment it induced, and the negative and the positive aspects of the Chinese currency revaluation. Research Approach and Strategy Given the purpose of the research and the types of the research explained it comes down to putting it down to defining our Strategy and deciding which approach to adopt (Lombard, 2010). Bearing in mind the scale and the scope of our topic and the limited resources, the best and most efficient approach for us to have, which we adopted, is to gather data from secondary research source upon the evidence of Chinese economy to explain the different aspects of the foreign exchange rate role in the economy. All our research material refers to a secondary data source, which consists of point of views of different authors publishing their research or findings in articles appearing in periodicals. Our strategy remains to manipulate this secondary source material and mold them to help up support our own claims and concepts without changing the main framework and the meaning of ideas associated with the empirical evidence. This approach not only proved the strategy to be cost effective but also very efficient in term of time saving and with proper citation the sources can tracked back to authenticate their reliability and validity. Data Collection and Analysis Provided with the theoretical concepts from different authors point of views (referring to the Literature review), relevant data including charts/data sets recording foreign exchange rate fluctuations in Chinese currency against US Dollar and its induction of investment and other impacts are provided in the section covering statistical data for better analysis of our concepts in view of empirical evidence. Findings The course of writing this term paper has helped us find and clear quite a few things which need to be summarized in this section. The findings of this research includes the following important concepts Foreign Exchange Rate Fluctuations and Causes Chinas Foreign exchange rate had been increasing moderately owing to their controlled efforts. The efforts of controlling the exchange rate from fluctuating was in line due to risk of protectionist policies against Chinese exports from EU and US countries because of rapidly increasing value of currency relative to other currencies (Business Asia, 2007). Also there was pressure due to depreciating value of dollar against the Asian currencies which made matters worse and the need for control bigger. The foreign exchange rate was stabilized by diverting monetary policy into manipulating the money supply accordingly to set the foreign exchange rate at fixed level (El-Erian, ONeill, Bergsten, Mohamed, 2007). Besides the threat of protectionism there was also a positive impact of being included under the impression of having hit a developmental hike. Foreign Exchange Rate Risk and its Management The exchange rate fluctuations bring about its own pros and cons. In the case of china, the appreciating value of Chinese currency brought about major investment incentives and a major attraction for short term high return seeking investors (Huang, 2010). And with investment opportunities come forth the risk associated with these investments and its management (Lee, 2009) which in turn brings forth more risks of losing money by using investment derivatives without proper calculation of risk involved in the investment related to the exchange rate fluctuation and correctly predicting FOREX forecast. It is very important to first analyze the risks associated before deciding whether or not to hedge against it or if it is even worth hedging against (Lee, 2009). Anomalies Despite what we expect based upon our calculative procedure of forecasting and weighting and comparing alternatives, there is always a chance for an anomaly to exist within all kinds circumstances. With all our observation of increasing Chinese currency value and dollar being instable, we would have expected the world to shift to a more stable and risk free currency as their reserve currency. However, we see that with the exception of challenging statement from the governor of Peoples Bank of China, Dollar remains as the reserve currency of most of the countries uncontested (Montecillo, 2009). Conclusion We conclude our term paper with summarizing the findings during the course of our research and finally stating the end result to what our findings led us to extract as our conclusion. We found that Fluctuating exchange rates have impacts, both positive and negative on, on different sectors of the economy, especially trade and investment. We also found that investment brings along a lot of risks and it requires a very careful and analyzed decision whether to hedge against these risk or not and using which derivative. We learned that despite our careful calculations, not everything works out according to our predictions and there is always some chance of error in calculations or an unpredictable situation taking over. The reason for slow appreciation in Chinese Currency against other currency, especially US Dollar, in the first half of the current decade can be credited to the efforts put in to keep the exchange rate from appreciating, which projected a threat of protectionist policies from trading partners against the Chinese exports that were becoming less cheap (Business Asia, 2007). The, efforts however, involved binding the monetary policy to exchange rate fluctuations and keep it from being used for other sectors. On the other hand, if the Chinese had let the exchange rate fluctuate freely, it would free th