Detailed analysis of school safety

Safety is an important factor in any learning institution that is focussed to achieving its mission, vision and goals in the future. So the most important thing to be enforced in such institutions is thus safety. Although there are other factors that contribute to the success of students in learning, safety form the core foundations for all activities that are undertaken by any learning institutions. The need to provide better learning environment to students begins with the provision of physical safety that leading to the provisions of emotional well being to the students. Atkinson, 1996) However, in the recent past years, many schools within the country have been faced with a number of problems which led to the compromising of schools safety. During last year’s perilous event that took place in our school, many of us as part of the school community were affected. Follow such consequences, the school administration formed a committee to research on the safety conditions and control measures in our school. The following is the report that was hand over to the administrators:- Outline of the issues: The rising indiscipline behaviour among the students The misuse of drugs and the utilization of illegal drugs within the school compound The rampant violence act among students and teachers The movement of outsiders and non- students as well as students within the school compound (Trump, 1997) While the above four issues were tackled into detail, it was clear that in the first matter, students were becoming uncouth and rowdy. There were many cases that involved students fighting in classes and outside classes. Furthermore, some of the sources indicated that some students had even blackmailed the name of our school to the outside communities by misbehaving in public. Some students have been alleged not to respect the elders and those in authorities while they are in public places. The second issues of using drug and illegal drugs indicated that most students have been caught by watchmen either drinking or drunk of alcohol, beer, or they have been found smoking cigarettes, marijuana and others addict able materials that may stimulates and affects the normal functioning of body or nervous systems. I think the applications of these substances are the consequences of the first and the third issue of rampant violence among the students and to the teachers. The most important matter that perhaps has lead to all these scaring actions is the lack of school fence. This has paralysed the efforts of the guards to regulating and control the movement of all the people getting in and out of the school ground. In fact this has given a great opportunity to drug traffics to access the clients within the school without much struggle or impairment while the same applies to the addicted students who would like to sneak out to go and obtain their materials. (Huff, 1996) Control measures To alleviate to the crooked ways of the students’ behaviour, the administrators being the closes guardians to the students should be taught guidance and counselling courses. They will then help them to mould the students and even rescue those who are drug addicts from the scathing killer drugs. While this is being implemented, the school can invite sociologists and religious leaders to give words of advices to the students periodically. Moreover, to accomplish their mission, there is need for the administration to coordinate with the parents and the local communities as well as the public in general to act as role models and to give corrective measures and check the behaviour of students. Final the school requires to be provided with a physical fence to check the intruders and students movements. (Trump, 1993)

Discovering the Identity behind History: Days of Awe Essay

Dealing with the past opens many opportunities in unveiling the mysteries that life is continuously giving us. By looking at the details where we can see the picture not only in a two dimensional perspective, but to all the sides that we can, a broader explanation and exploration can be made. This is an important part of humans’ experiences because it gives way for them to reveal the roots and explain the things that serve as a puzzle to them. Puzzle that gives question that many people think will never be answered. But, through the persistence of different forces, a new way of enlightening the path towards the truth will be open for them to be set free. As the story in Days of Awe written by Archy Obejas, dealing with the protagonist’s main conflict can be associated in our daily lives. We can see how she was able to find the real meanings behind her doubts and questions and how she was able to find the answers in her own queries. By putting into the consideration all the factors that she think might affect her perception in the things she know, she should be the one to first understand the things her own conflict with her own beliefs had made. This story teaches us a great lesson in life that can be applied in our daily interaction with different kind of people as we continue our own odyssey towards life’s great journey. This lesson is not new to us, but in fact, can be found even in the smallest things that we are doing but we are too distracted by our own personal attachments to certain things that forbid us to open up our selves in many opportunities that life is offering us. This lesson is in great value especially in dealing with the things that we know is too valuable for us to lose. By giving this importance, we will be successfully forge a deal that will benefit a greater part of humanity. This lesson is acceptance. Accepting the things that we know are real and existent although sometimes, it comes with a great deal of pain and suffering. Even though how much we suffer and realize that there are many hindrances in the world that make things more difficult and harder for us, we should not let it control our direction and lead us to another way, than listening to what our future discoveries can be. This is a challenge that had been made by various problems that hones our personality and our life’s point of view. By accepting that these things are part of the life of human society, we will be able to understand more the things that we don’t understand before. And in effect, will cost us a greater price that no one before had managed to do so. Brief Summary: Born in the New Year’s Day, year 1951, a girl named Alejandra San Jose was born in Havana where there are conflicts that had been arising due to the opposing powers and beliefs of the higher people in the place. And because of this, her parents decided to escape from the danger they foresee that will be brought by these opposing parties. Making this decision is not easy for her parents because they will not only leave their house but also their heritage that they treasured in many years. Their go to the shores of North America but later joined the group of Cuban Refugees in Chicago. This settlement gave them another opportunity for them to live their life as normal. Although she had knowledge in her home place in her childhood, she got distracted due to her youthful days but later on brought back her passion and curiosity in the said culture. In her teen age, where she learned different things through her father who was a linguist himself, she later on developed her skills in that field. As a translator, she had given an opportunity to go back to her homeland where she worked with her mage as an American and highly different from the natives living there. She had the notion that she does not belong there because of she think that she is really an American. Later on, she discovered that her ancestors were Jews and not as Catholics, as she always believed. Because of that, she learned different things in life. The essence of being a Catholic and Jews, the definition of difference between religion, the culture and beliefs and how it affects ones perspective in looking at life, these factors taught her the essence of life and its mysteries, as it gives people the chance to understand it, and the people have all the prerogative which lessons they want to pick. Historical Background: Jews, as defined by most scholars, are people who associate themselves as having a trace of their ancestry to the ancient Hebrews or people who converted themselves on the religion of Jews, which is Judaism. Talking about it, Judaism is one of the oldest religion in the world, and also, the mother religion of the world’s largest and most powerful religions, Islam and Christianity. It is a religion believed to be founded way back to history. Traditionally, one can be a Jew in two primary reasons. First, if her mother is a Jew and second, if he or she voluntarily converted him or herself to Judaism. If he or she satisfied any of the condition, he or she can freely call him or herself as a Jew. (Spector, 11-13) It is said that before, Jews are the people being said by the old scriptures and claims had been made that it is their contribution to the foundation of civilization. They are the first one who devised different rules that will govern not only their church but also their societies as well. In dealing with this, they had opened the opportunity to integrate the core values of their beliefs to the way of life of the people. By doing so, they had the utmost control to the flow of the society where people view them as sacred and too holy to be disregarded. In doing such, people had become connected with it at the same time, makes things possible for the religion to conquer their own beliefs and perceptions to their experiences. But, as the time passed by and many religions had made their way in being recognized by the people, and they become more and more established, Jews began to weaken its impact to the world. They became the minority group in almost all places where they fist began to explore and share their faith. And history had proven that some times, there are conflicts and bloody wars because of the Jews persistence to value their faith and their beliefs as their own heritage and the identity of their own cultural inclination. (Akiva & Gottlieb, 23-41) History marked the times when they are almost extinguished by people who want to eliminate their beliefs in the world. Some of these steps had ended the lives of millions of Jews all over the world. That is why, the number of Jews all over the world started to fall in number because of the many attempts to persecute them. Jews contribution to the human civilization is their rich culture and their beliefs in many aspects of life. They had developed certain guidelines that made them advanced compared to the other people living in the world. In having so, many people had misinterpreted their values in their beliefs making pre-judgment that affected their interactions with them. Many people had developed stereotypes and discriminated them in many ways that had affect their personal understanding to what is happening to his or her environment. This tragic interaction with the Jews and many other member of society became a social phenomenon, where the Jews are now living not only on their own standards but also, to the definition of the people watching their moves. Because of their drive to promote the teachings of their own beliefs and the way of life they want people to do so, they kept their traditional ways of life and adapt to their environment as the world is dynamically changing with regards to the modern things and elements that somehow interfere with their way of life. This is a condition where they had different outlook in life, as they give another meaning to the details of their actions and the people’s defined action to them. In looking this matter at a higher level of thinking, we can see that the social system which discriminated the people in their own personal environment spaces, had became a venue where they experience problems and conflicts, that should be a part of their pre-understanding of the world. (Barnavi, 18-21)

Career Progression Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Career Progression - Personal Statement Example Still I wanted to do more. So in late 2004 I decided to take leave and pursue my BA in Economics and Business Management at Hebrew University. Here is where I was intrigued by the field of consultancy. After graduating in 2007, this fascination led me to join A. Heifetz & Co, a consulting firm & investment bank. Honest work and innovative ideas helped me get promoted to chief analyst in just a year. Here I prepared evaluations for M&A purposes, took charge of all activities regarding our investment bank and conducted economic studies for the Israeli government. In 2008 MSMnetphone was making a loss and the owner asked me to become CEO. I agreed on the condition that I keep my job at A. Heifetz & Co. and in just four months I turned around the loss making organisation into earning profit. My work today is quite lucrative but what is important is my love for what I do. Life has been kind to me by giving me many opportunities which I used to the fullest. I realised that success comes not just by making bold decisions but also by making the right ones.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Value Maximization Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Value Maximization - Essay Example Effective management of a company entails making realistic financial decisions, which are in line with the firm, or company’s goals. The choice to maximize company shareholders stocks remain an important role of firm managers and acts as an indicator of the level of advancement. The wealth possessed by the shareholders can be determined by analyzing the market price or value of the company’s common stock. Maximizing of shareholders wealth should be a long-term goal of the firm, which can be achieved by maximizing short-term earnings and reducing the expenditures. However, the management should be careful not to cut down too much on the expenditure since research and development are crucial in enabling firms develop novel products which contribute to increased wealth. This paper focuses on why the primary objective of management should be to increase the wealth of shareholders and owners. Increment of shareholders wealth portrays improved or good management in different areas, which include risk management, income management, developments, tax rates as well as in research. The move to increase shareholders wealth helps create a favorable working environment since it helps motivate the shareholders. However, firms that may choose to focus solely on increasing the shareholders wealth and disregard corporate social responsibility risk been scrutinized negatively especially by neighboring communities. Shareholders Value Shareholders are the persons who own or have bought shares in a corporation or firm. Shareholders have certain right in a firm since they are considered the owners of the firm. Being the owners of the firm, shareholders are concerned with the performance of the firm. Additionally they are involved in the firm’s decision-making process through voting process especially when important decisions are being made. Since the shareholders have invested financially in a firm, they require the employees to work towards increasing the wealt h of the firm (Bejou, 2011, 1-6; Van Beurden & Gossling, 2008, 407-414). One of the major roles of financial managers in a firm is to acquire funds for the firm and make use of the money to fund projects that will increase or maximize the value of the shareholders as well as firm owner’s wealth. Shareholders value can be defined as the value or wealth due to the management’s capability to maximize on earnings, share prices, as well as the dividends. It is calculated by considering the number of outstanding shares and their market price. The shareholders’ value can be decreased by factors such as issuing shares (Fontaine, Haarman and Schmid, 2006, Web). On the other hands, dividend payments tend to augment the shareholders’ value. All the decision made by the management has the potential of affecting the firm’s ability to increase the wealth or the firm’s cash flow is regarded as shareholder value. Increasing shareholders value entails making responsible decision on the investments to make and the appropriate time to invest. One of the main factors that threaten the shareholders’

Economic Issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic Issue - Assignment Example In other words, as competition increases in the market, the cost of labor becomes of essence. Considering that the discriminatory employers would go for particular employees who necessarily do not guarantee the least cost of labor, the result is that their business is likely to have higher labor costs as compared to businesses of non-discriminatory employers. Eventually, labor discrimination will decline as business which discriminate find it hard to operate in a competitive market where cost of labor plays a critical role. Employer discrimination may still persist despite efforts to break down barriers and introduce competition for two main reasons. First, it is almost impractical to create perfectly competitive markets. This is based evidenced by the decade long continuity of labor market discrimination in high-income countries. As regards to developing counties, monopolistic power is quite of essence, which permits indulgence in market discrimination. Secondly, even though competition lives on in virtually all markets, it is not by itself a sufficient reason for the elimination of discrimination. Therefore, market discrimination in a competitive market will still exists as long as all the employers have a taste for

How best can transportation facilities be improved in Namibia,a Dissertation

How best can transportation facilities be improved in Namibia,a country of only 2million people - Dissertation Example The main objective of this study is to do a critical analysis of how a non performing transport sector affects the economy; understanding the challenges facing the different transport sectors by providing the necessary policy recommendations; outlining of other possible contributing factors; and, finally trying to find both long and short term solutions available to the sectors relative to the specific transportation challenges. There is not much research done in this area in the past which is the basic reason for my conducting this research. Background Namibia, then called South West Africa, became a German colony in the 1880’s. After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, the mandate to rule the territory was handed to South Africa, which by implication brought apartheid in Namibia. In 1990, Namibia gained its independence, after a brutal war of Independence from South Africa. Since independence, Namibia has been looking into increasing its exports in terms of its nat ural resources and products on the international front and it has advanced in this aspect. However, the biggest challenges hampering effectiveness of increased trade lies more towards the logistics aspect and the management of its respective SOEs. Namibia’s geographical position and transport infrastructure is such that it has become a transit country for Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, which are its bordering and surrounding countries. These countries carry out export and import business across overseas countries through Namibian maritime transport. Other coastal countries and regions to which Namibia provides its transport facilities for business purposes include the region of Gauteng in South Africa; the Kunene and Cuando provinces in Angola; the Katanga province and Lubumbashi town in Congo. Due to this fact, these challenges are hampering the performance of the transport sector, and the fact that the services are spiraling down it does not really help the situation. Accor ding to Bernan (p.80), â€Å"Namibia considers the development of transit transport as contributing to the overall economic development of the country† and due to this fact, the government of Namibia has invested tremendously in the maintenance of its transit transport infrastructure. Currently, Namibian transport sector faces challenges related to the â€Å"expansion, modernization, upgrading and maintenance of road, rail, air and maritime transport facilities†, affirms the National Planning Commission, Namibia (2004, p.478). Bernan (p.81) suggests that the railway should be extended into Botswana all the way to South Africa because the railway infrastructure is still limited to only a few hundred kilometers near the border of Botswana somewhere between Walvis Bay and Gobabis. The major challenges that Namibian transit transport faces is financing and managing the infrastructure, and harmonization of vehicle dimensions, overload control, custom procedures and user cha rges for transit transport. Namibia transport is also expensive and one of the biggest challenges is that the resources of the country are not ample enough to finance transport facilities. This study aims to find solutions to these challenges which could help lead to the proper solution implementations requiring less national budget going wasted in struggling rather than using it for national development purposes since a revived economy is vital to the future of the country. Research

Organ Donation in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organ Donation in the USA - Essay Example I have learned that in the United States only, there are more than 20,000 organ transplants performed every year, but this has not entirely solved the challenges facing organ donations in the medical field (Brezina, 2010). The first organ transplant experiments caused controversies where people who did not believe the procedure to be possible. Organ transplant is facing challenges from religion, philosophy, and politics and in the field of medicine. Quite a number of people are in need of organ transplants, for instance, in the United States, there are citizens in need of organ transplants such as people who have organ failure who may die, and this has raised questions about the organ donation system (Brezina, 2010). This led to the committee in charge of the organ donation to consider a number of approaches to increase the number of donors to sustain the need of patients suffering from organ failure. One of the approaches the committee had was the registration of the donor, intentio ns being to solve the issue of conflict between the next of kin and the medical committee avoiding time wasting (Price, 2000). The financial incentive for choosing to be a donor is another approach. Organs have diverse waiting times because their need varies and from statistics, kidneys have longer waiting times than another organ transplant. Research shows that there is a deficiency of obtainable organs including tissue transplants. Organ transplant involves a complex line of interactions. Among them are the patients, family members, medical professionals, organ procurement and transplant coordinators, the hospital where the donation takes place, the organ procurement organization that facilitates the acquisition and distribution of the organs, and the transplant center (Brezina, 2010). The organ donation system has focused mostly on deceased donors whose death has been determined by neurologic criteria.  

Departures (2008) Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Departures (2008) - Movie Review Example His boss at this new job was Sasaki, who acted more forcefully towards Daigo when he showed up for the interview. He first lied to his wife about the job who later discovered and despised the job. While almost all people despised the job, Daigo took pride in his work and perfected the profession acting as a gatekeeper between the deceased and their families. The film follows a profound but comical journey as Daigo uncovers the joy, the wonder, and the absolute meaning of life, family and love. The music in this film is balanced. Here, the music balances with the tones of the actors and balanced with the scene being depicted. In addition, the sound effects were also in accordance with the mood of the scene. The overall sound track was analytical in that it had details that could take the audience in an instantaneous mood according to the intended mood of the scene. Overall, the editing of the film was carefully done to bring the intended view and perception for the

Ethical Issues Essay Example for Free

Ethical Issues Essay Researchers found that 10 percent of employees at all levels report feeling pressured to compromise ethical standards in the workplace (Managing Business Ethics by Trevino and Nelson 2007). Ethical issues are faced by every industry in the business world as well as communities, public and private organizations and individuals. Leadership, internal practices, and training may impact the proper implementation of business ethics. Halliburton is one of the many large corporations involved in unethical business practices. This paper examines ethical issues faced by public sector employees and employees of private sector firms that conduct business with and for government agencies. The paper discusses Halliburton, a U. S. defense contractor (former vice president Dick Cheney’s old firm), ethical issues and the impact on stakeholders involved. The goal is to highlight the ethical issues and make recommendations for how prospective employees and managers can handle similar situations. Background Since 2001, energy services company Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root (KBR) have performed unspecified services to the United States military in Iraq, Kuwait, and several other countries under a no-bid, long-term global logistics contract, (LOGCAP). In February 2003, Halliburton received a five-year extension, $7 billion no-bid contract for services in Iraq. During the course of awarding and executing these contracts at least two people made the decision to become whistle blowers, a government employee, and a Halliburton/KBR procurement employee. The government employee disclosed that Halliburton/KBR was involved in closed-door meetings with the Army Corps of Engineers that resulted in the no-bid, multi-year, billion dollar contract awarded exclusively to Halliburton/KBR (Morning Edition October 29, 2004). The procurement employee disclosed the specific activities within Halliburton/KBR that resulted in overcharging the government and taxpayers for goods and services while simultaneously eliminating competition among potential vendors. Some allegations include soliciting higher priced products and services because the government pays a fee based on the total of goods/services procured and manipulating purchases orders to maintain a maximum of $2,500 to avoid the bidding process between prospective vendors. Specifically, Halliburtons subsidiary Kellogg, Brown Root hired a Kuwaiti company, Altanmia, to supply fuel at about twice the going rate, then added a markup, for an overcharge of at least $61 million, according to a December 2003 Pentagon audit. The only problem is that $61 million is taxpayer money. Perception of Unethical Practices of Dick Cheney From the beginning many American citizens raised an eyebrow towards the decision to have Halliburton as a U. S defense contractor. This public outrage stemmed from the former vice president’s former employment as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Halliburton from 1995 through August 2000. KBR, the companys former subsidiary has been the main government contractor working to restore Iraqs oil industry that was awarded without competitive bidding in 2001. According to Cheneys 2001 financial disclosure report, the vice presidents Halliburton benefits included three batches of stock options comprising 433,333 shares. He also has a 401(k) retirement account valued at between $1,001 and $15,000 dollars. His deferred compensation account was valued at between $500,000 and $1 million, and generated income of $50,000 to $100,000. Halliburton has contracts worth more than $1. 7 billion for its work in Iraq, and it could make hundreds of millions more from a no-bid contract. During Cheney’s tenure as the defense secretary, the Pentagon chose Halliburton’s subsidiary KBR to study the cost effectiveness of outsourcing some military operations to private contractors. Based on the results of the study, the Pentagon hired KBR to implement an outsourcing plan (Washington Post Sep 26, 2003). Many companies like Bechtel, Exxon, Blackwater and Halliburton have profited from the Iraq war. It is no secret that war creates wealth for those companies canny enough to exploit it, and not be killed by it. Is Dick Cheney one of these? After his departure from office former vice president Cheney will be free to profit in whatever way he feels. The ethical question is, however, has he ever really left it? And by not leaving it, was he in ethical violation of his oath of office, at the very least? Stakeholders The stakeholders in this situation are the client, which is the U. S. government and American taxpayers who are the investors or funders of the government; the vendors, who through the bidding process maintain a competitive and profitable business environment; and employees who make sure that their employers receive the best value for the services and products they procure. Ethical dilemmas The first ethical dilemmas is if employees should bring wrongdoing to the surface and if so, how? Will the decision violate the privacy of vendors or other employees? Is it legal to disclose certain activities related to defense contracts? Secondary ethical issues relate directly to the stakeholders. Is the U. S. government unfairly awarding contracts? Is that awarding process facilitating a culture of overcharging, which is absorbed by U. S. taxpayers? Are vendors intentionally overcharging Halliburton/KBR? Are Halliburton/KBR’s procurement practices eliminating competition in the marketplace? Analysis The primary issue in this situation is whistle blowing. â€Å"Whistle blowing means calling attention to wrongdoing that is occurring within an organization. †(Nadler and Schulman 2006) Halliburton is still under investigation by the FBI. Perhaps the negative publicity and the case caused the contract to be divided with Halliburton winning one of the parts in a public bid. The underlying secondary issues include exposing potentially fraudulent business activities, financial irresponsibility, and illegally profiting from public funding. The government employee wrote and spoke to superiors about the activities. The government employee sought legal counsel upon deciding to go public with their disclosure. Finally, both made their testimonies to the proper investigating bodies including the FBI, the U. S. House of Representatives Committees on Government Reform and Energy and Commerce. For their troubles, the government employee and Halliburton/KBR procurement employee were forced into a whistle-blowers protection program. Conclusion In the public sector, whistle blowers are often faced with the dilemma that their choice to disclose can constitute a criminal act. In both cases these employees called attention to suspected activities within their organizations before going outside or public. Employees faced with this dilemma must identify the stakeholders and ethical issues that concern them, and then make calculated decision whether or not to disclose. The facts surrounding whether or not the U. S. government are unfairly awarding contracts will be an ongoing issue. Despite all the measures set forth to regulate the procurement of contracts, greed for money will play a critical factor for the people that have weak ethical character. Whether you are the employee or employer being the standard bearer in ethical situations will earn the respect of others as well as keeping you out of big trouble. References Analysis: FBI investigates whether Pentagon officials committed fraud in their handling of a no-bid contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton before the Iraq War. (10:00-11:00 AM)(Broadcast transcript). (Oct 29, 2004). Morning Edition, p. NA. Retrieved February 08, 2009, from General OneFile via Gale. Donahue, J. (Nov-Dec 2005). Treading on the taxpayer. Multinational Monitor, 26, 11-12.p. 7(2). Retrieved February 08, 2009, from General OneFile via Gale. Nadler, J. Schulman, M. Whistle Blowing in the Public Sector. Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/f ocusareas/government_ethics/introductio n/whistleblowing. html. Profile: US Army will allow bidding for contract work in Iraq initially given to Halliburton. (10:00-11:00 AM)(Broadcast transcript). (Sept 8, 2004). Morning Edition, p. NA. Retrieved February 08, 2009, from General OneFile via Gale.

To identify these chemicals Essay Example for Free

To identify these chemicals Essay Problem: you are provided with 3 unknown chemicals which are labelled A, B, C, D and E. Carry out appropriate test to identify the chemicals. Method: to identify these chemicals I will carry out two types of test: Flame test and chemical test. Flame test:   To carry out the flame test I will dip the metal wire in the roaring Bunsen flame.   Then I dipped the wire in hydrochloric acid   Next I placed it into the sample and then I placed it into the roaring Bunsen Flame. After I recorded the colour of the flame Safety:   I wore goggles to protect my eyes from acid (hydrochloric acid is corrosive)   When I was not using the Bunsen burner, I put it on safety flame   I also used small amounts of acid and have a safety mat Test for cat ion: Chemical Flame colour Cat ion A Yellow Na+ B Lilac K+ C Green Cu2+ Test for an ion: Substance Test observation Sodium chloride Add Dilute hydrochloric acid It fizzes and carbon dioxide gas is produced. Copper carbonate Add Acidified silver nitrate White precipitate Potassium sulphate I added Acidified barium chloride solution White precipitate Evaluation: Flame test and chemical test tell us which chemicals are present. This is called a qualitative analysis. In industry, it is also very important to know how much of the chemical is present. The difference between my tests and the tests carried out in the industry is that they find the amount as well as the type of chemical.

History of Somalia: Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post Colonial

History of Somalia: Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post Colonial Chapter 1 Introduction The work pertains to the pre-colonial colonial and post colonial history of Somalia and the factors it does contain leading to the collapse of the state of Somalia. Furthermore research will demonstrate the fall out of the failure on the international and regional politics. It should be bear in mind that the Somali issue is complex in nature and hence at the end of the paper, the reader should understand the nature of Somalias tribulations. Note that one of the features of African politics is that it comprises what can be considered as the worst political weakness, that is: political disequilibrium, and state failure and Somalia are a case among others. Somalia is situated on the so-called Horn of Africa, with a total population of 15 to 17 million people and extending into the Indian Ocean, Somalias harbors are natural ports of call for traders sailing to and from India. So the coast of the region is much visited by foreigners, in particular Arabs and Persians. But in the interior the Somali are left to their own arrangements. It is bordered in the north by Djibouti, in the west by Ethiopia and in the south by Kenya. Chapter 1.1 Pre-colonial and colonial Somalia By the early 1800th European interests begins to crop up in Somalia, the coasts were used as a coaling station for ships to India. Somalia was an important port of call on the Indian trade route, but its aridity and hostility fueled hesitation on the colonization issue. In the 1880s, France, Britain, Italy and Ethiopia competed for the Somali territory, the four competitors agreed among them and shared the land, the northern part were shared among French and British(now Djibouti and Eritrea) and the coastal regions were annexed by Italian protectorate and Ethiopian. But their interests grew when the Suez Canal opened creating tension between Italy and Ethiopia, the repercussion of this tension were felt in the Ogaden region found between Ethiopia and the coastal part of Somalia; an active Italian region, which was finally granted tot eh Ethiopians. By 1920 the colonial compromises in Somalia began to weaken through upheavals in the British Somaliland, and in the Ogaden region by Fasc ist Italy. The World War II complicated the situation; as Italy violently acquired Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, then known as the Italian East Africa, which surrounded British and French Somaliland. Somalia got into a situation of constant colonial change until its independence in 1960. Chapter 1.2 Post-Independence Somalia and conflicts After independence, Somalia looked forward to reunite with three large Somali groups trapped in other states in French Somaliland, in Ethiopia and in northern Kenya. As Kenya and Ethiopia were in under the protection of the Western powers, Somalia turned towards the Soviet for help. But still Somalia kept a neutral stance in international affairs, but this soon changed when newly elected President M. Egal was assassinated (1969) and the accession to power by Siad Barre who sided on the Soviet side, he devoted himself to a brutal Marxist dictatorship and hence opposing clan ideology and the clan system; which was an inherent part of the Somali culture. In 1977 Somalia attacked Ethiopian garrisons in the Ogaden but his ally; that is the USSR soon turned on the Ethiopian side and Ethiopia used Soviet support to take back the Ogaden in 1978. Having lost its ally and with thousands of refugee coming back, Somalia headed towards a deep abyss where it still lies. To understand the collapse of the Somali state is a complex issue, but as a sum up of the issue it can be said that it was due to both, historical and cultural legacy. From a political point of view it can be said that during the 19th century, Somalia has been divided into five regions, namely: French Somaliland (Djibouti), British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia (Ogaden) and the Kenyan Northern Frontier District. But since its independence in July 1960, the main objective of the nationalist was to reunite the whole territory, thing which was difficult as it implied conflicts with its neighborhood. Such ideology represents also a constant threat to all the countries concerned, that is: Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. As a result, it weakened Somalias regional economic development and its diplomatic relations. Culturally speaking, it can be seen that Somalia is a complex body made up of several clan and sub-clans of nomads and pastorals. However the Somali believe that the clan system is their safeguard and protects them against foreigners, nevertheless, this belief is more complicated than it can appear. Moreover, above all they attach a deep affiliation to kinship and hence, for the Somali it can be sum up like the following: Families against families in a clan. Clan against clan in Somalia And Somalia against the World. The conflicts among clan is due spilling hereditary lineage and Siad Barre regime could maintain itself due to that Barre was able to play the game of rivalries between clans, furthermore, it is to be noted that major armed political groups are clan based. In the after effects of this disaster guerrilla groups, clan-based are formed in and around Somalia with the intention of bringing down Siads repressive and centralizing regime. By 1988 the result was a full-scale civil war, resulting in the overthrow of Barre in 1991. He joined his own clan, becoming one warlord among many in this increasingly chaotic nation. In 1991 the faction controlling the former British Somaliland confuses matters by declaring its independence as the republic of Somaliland. Unlike Somaliland, the south and central Somalia is under constant conflict and conquest by rival clans and establishment of de facto government(Ali Mahdi) but the question was not about how to rule but who rules as the tension revolved a round clan supremacy . Humanitarian turmoil reaches its peak and armed conflict generated food and health crisis but the situation is such that foreign intervention is difficult due to violent respons towards foreign aids. There is often a danger that fundamentalist peep into conflicts and tries to take advantage of the situation, the Islamic Courts Union confirmed the fundamentalists habit in Somalia extending its ideology. This Islamic fundamentalist group briefly tried to conquer Somalia. Chapter 1.3 Somalia economic overview â€Å"The economy has long been heavily dependent on livestock and agriculture. Stock rearing is practised throughout the country and accounted for about 40% of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and 65% of export earnings in 2000, according to World Food Programme (WFP) estimates. Most of the farmland lies between the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers in the south of the country. The small manufacturing sector is based on the processing of agricultural products. In the south, the absence of a central government has meant that no economic data have been produced by national sources since 1990. In Somaliland, by contrast, the government collects tax and duties levied on trade.[1]† This can give an overview of Somali economy, hence its vulnerability and dependency on foreign economic aid especially in Puntland region where the data concerning the economic activity are almost absent. And this also brings in the ecological factor which is not in favor of the Somalis a clear example is the great droughts of 2006 which has caused a major humanitarian in Somalia, which touched nearly 1.5 million people, displacing 400,000 people due to a fall in crop production in practically all regions under cultivation[2]. But still, the Somalis economy is said to have flourished after the collapse; because the absence of a state and its institutions, has given birth to a laissez faire economy controlled by private sector. Private newspapers and enterprises mushroomed creating one of the best telecommunication systems in Africa, with an approximate GDP of $5.524 billion, and Somalia natural resources are: Largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, uranium, co pper, salt, petroleum and natural gas. It produce also agricultural product such as banana, livestock, fish, corn, and has established markets(United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman) to export its product and imports petroleum products, food grain, construction material, etc†¦ from countries like Brazil, India, Kenya, Djibouti, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman. Furthermore, Somalia also benefit from foreign economic aid especially from the United States of America, the European Union etc.[3] Its impact on the regional and international politics is more disastrous: it can be said in one paragraph which will clarify the rest; Somalia has been noted as a failed state in the international sphere, arms embargo imposed by the UN security council since 1992 till now, removal of humanitarian aid due to violence against the humanitarian aid volunteers, (particularly in Puntland state), and reinforcement of security in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean due to high piracy level in the zone, there is also the problem of mass migration of Somalis to Yemen. Chapter 2 State and State failure State A state is a set of components and institution that enable it to survive. The main pillars of the state are: the Government, territory and population. While population and territory are physical in nature government is institutional and most important, failing to establish one of the basic institutions, a country can be said to have failed. States function can be classified as ideal state functions and real state functions. Ideal state functions are divided into social functions and economic functions; social functions being: controlling the peoples fundamental rights and liberty and economic functions being provision of goods and services and income redistribution. But the real state functions are different, they are divided into state natural functions: that is power and coercion, social functions: for example protection of rights and liberty and economic functions that is limited to provision of goods and services. The state is presented as a tangible political entity; and the sta te has different characteristics: that is: Sovereignty; each state is sovereign and that is what creates the contract between the states prevents the interference of one state into another states matter. Territory: land and sea defined by a boundary. Nation: the concept of nation is very important, sometimes a nation leads to the creation of a state and sometimes a state leads to the creation of a nation. Somalia is a state with one nation but divided through cans. The Somali societys features match with the features of a nation that is same language, same culture, same religion, but different clans. Characteristics of a state are that it has also diplomatic recognition, internal organization and internal loyalty from the part of its population. [4] Chapter 2.1 Why a state? State has two sets of definition, the organizational definitions; that define the state as a set of governmental institutions making rules, controlling and supervising different element of the country. The functional definition depicts the state according to its social, economic, political and legal functions. The origins of the state dates back to the ancient civilization and the most antique form of state known is the Greek city state which evolved through time to give way to the modern nation state. State is a common word nowadays, members from each governing institutions claim that they can serve it and manipulate it, for instance, judges claim that they can discern its interests and politicians claim that they know how to run it. Liberals believed that the state should be a referee, Marxist sinister perception see the state as an â€Å"instrument† and relist perceive the state as a elitist organization of manipulators. A broader definition would be that the state is mainl y regrouping of all powers relations in society which acts as an automatic machine supervising the legal, economic, political and social elements of a country. Diverse thinkers view the state differently and below are the principal thinkers view of the state. Therefore, all the definitions show that a state is important and needed. 2 Locke rejects any notion of subordination and with it the relationship that it maintains in relations between men and relationships between men and inferior creatures. There is no difference between them inherent among men, there is no hierarchy: they are all free and equal in the eyes of God. The natural liberty requires both independence and equality; it makes the political authority to consent. Locke argues that men are originally free and equal and that the origin of Governments is a free association. It therefore opposes the theory of divine right monarchy and absolutism. Montesquieu developed in the spirit of laws theory of forms of government (monarchy, despotism, aristocratic republic, democratic republic). Its doctrine is based on separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial) and opposes the speculative theory of natural law. There is no noble savage, but various companies where several elements govern men: climate, religion, morals. Thomas Hobbes sees the state as an institution whose individuals are self-centered in nature. Left on their own, they can create a state of war, as he called it. Hence, Hobbes upholds an absolute ruler to control the state. The will of the sovereign is the will of god and law of the state is the will of the sovereign, thus the sovereign or Leviathan, as he called it establishes the contract between various institutions and among individuals so as not to create chaos. The ruler is above law, the Leviathan is the state. So what can be deduced is that Hobbes defined the state as a primitive, individualist and anarchical institution where conflict of interest among individuals prevails and leads to collapse of the state, hence state must be a harsh institution which looks towards its survival, otherwise it would be the state of nature? But Jean Jacque Rousseau does not see the state as such. For him, the state and power is the evil that corrupts the good man. Rousseau corrects Hobbes by saying that it is state of nature is not just the removal of the governing body it is also the removal of all societal features; that is culture, belief, religion and even understanding of ones own self. Therefore it can be deduced that according to Rousseau, the state is a set of societal features, that is culture, religion belief, rational view of others and ones own self and governing institution. Marxist, view the state as something totally different: (The state) is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is cleft into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in sterile struggle, a power seemingly standing above society became necessary for the purpose of moderating the conflict, of keeping it within the bounds of order; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and increasingly alienating itself from it, is the state.[5] What Engels wants to explains is that the state is controlled by the economically dominant class, enabling it to maintain its control over the exploited classes. Although the state is usually the instrument of the economically dominant class, sometimes conflicting classes balance each other such that the state becomes somewhat independent. The state is part of the superstructure of society. Marx and Engels analyzed human society as divided into a material base and a superstructure that rests on it. The base is made up of the devices of production (machines, tools, and raw materials), the social classes, chiefly the exploiting and laboring classes, of the particular society, and the relations between these classes. The superstructure consists of political and cultural institutions, including the state, churches, schools, etc., as well as corresponding intellectual spheres: politics, religion, science, art, etc. The state is a major, if not the major, element of this superstructure as per the Marxists. As per principles of International Law, a state is a recognized and subject to international law only if it comprises of certain qualifications, that is: a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other states.[6] Comparing these features to Somalia, it can be deduced that Somalia lacks two of these qualifications, that is; capacity to enter in relations with other states and it has a weak government controlling limited territory. Therefore, Somalia is a state without its full managerial capacity, but still it is a sovereign state and is recognize as such by the international community, as defined by the Declaration on principles of international law Elements: b).: Each state enjoys the right inherent in full sovereignty and element c).: Each state has the duty to respect the personality of other states[7] Chapter 2.2 State failure A state does not collapse one day or another, a state weakens fails and then collapse. A weak state still have control on the majority of the country but cannot solve major issue or is illegitimate in the eyes of some portion of the population. In fact the strength of a state is judge on the level of obedience and legitimacy accorded to it by the nation. State failure is an instable state experiencing civil war or invasion, then, the state collapse; this situation is the total paralysis of all institution of the state that is; legal, economic, military and political. State failure is a sensible but tangible issue in Africa, moreover, before defining state failure and its implication in Africa, first of all there must be a kind and close comprehension of the subject and its various facets. State failure is two words with various definitions, because circumstances and factors leading to state failure vary from one country to another. Before looking into the core subject, definitions of the word state is important, moreover, the definitions of state also vary. State failure concerns essentially the interrelationship between models of authority, political control and institution building in a country. What makes Africa the appropriate model to examine state failure, is that it has experienced shifts of government, that is, from colonial to post colonial or from democracy to autocracy. The shift of power, from colonial to independent has created political instability in most country and in some state failure. In the case of Africa and particularly, Somalia, when the term state failure is coined, it, means the there is a failure to control and to promote human prospering. Government is normally formed of various institution to promote Culture, economic stability, security, rights, liberty, justice and what is more important is to respect the concept of rule of law on the territory by all civilians. Hence these values are under the responsibility of a governing body which delegates the particular responsibilities to institutions like; the Army, Supreme Court, ministries, police force etc†¦ in respect of a Constitution[8]. There are some fixed and variable symptoms indicating a state collapse; fixed symptoms being common symptoms present in all cases and variable symptoms being particular to the specific Country. Examples of fixed symptoms are failure in the provision of national and international security and the preservation of order, failure in the implementation of the rule of law, no existence of; institutions of political freedom, channels of commerce and communication, lack of provision of an economic institution to promote growth and prospe rity, and no presence of basic services such as medical services, power, running water, and control of the environmental commons, and civil war. Variable symptoms, here in the case of Somalia, would be piracy, but the issue of piracy is subject to debate because the state failure is not the only causes of piracy in Somalia, ecological factors are responsible too. Therefore, a state is weakens when it loses control one of these institutions or all, in other words the state failed to provide basic functions for its citizen. But state failure or collapse, is not an instant event, it is rather an event of long lasting decay of the state due to internal or external factors, which will be explained later. Hence, the fall out of state failure is that the economy becomes weak, provision of education and heath care disappear, proliferation of crime and violence and it also generates opposing groups often engaged in armed conflict, creating humanitarian crisis and often genocide, population shift, refugee crises and food shortage. Chapter 3 Causes of the collapse Causes of the collapse can be divided and hence would be better understood, there are the founding causes and the contributing causes. Founding causes are those causes which are at the origin of the collapse of the state and contributing causes are as important as founding causes but have contributed to the collapse not originate it. The conflicts are to be divided into three categories; it must be beard in mind that all these factors have contributed to the collapse of the Somali state, but at different stages and different way. This chapter is an attempt to demonstrate how each causes has its importance throughout the failing process. The causes or factors of collapse are classified as such: Original cause(initiation of collapse) instable Contributing causes (declining factors) weak Final blow collapse Original causes: these factors can also be referred to as the initiation to the state collapse: that is the factors which rendered the state instable, but did not knock out the state. What is meant by instable is that; those factors created a state of tension in the country that gave little chance for Somalia to progress, socially, economically, politically. Original causes are; colonial division of Somalia into five parts and offering Ethiopia in particular a great portion of the territory[9]; and social division of the Somali society into small clan-based mini-states that lacked an organizational skill to regroup themselves into a state. These two factors could be considered as the core factors of the collapse of the state by causing the formation of a weak and deformed state. But another core factor can be added to this that is: wrong management of the national resources and the fact that Somalia lack effectively trained human resources to substitute colonial administration in running state institutions. The historical period for this condition is preceding the independence of Somalia in 1960. There are also the transitional causes which caused the state to collapse. Transit causes are mid causes; these are for example the Barre Socialist regime, and the final blow which lead to the downfall of Somalia. Chapter 3.1 Clan system It should be bearded in mind the cultural traditions of Somalia do not allow the country to be accustomed to building a modern state. The clan system in Somalia is both unite and divide, as explained above, the characteristic that unites, that it is a common form of social organization in Somalia. But the sharing feature is that: there is hostility between clans and sub-clans. The clans are divided into two categories: there are pastoral nomads and livestock mainly southern clans. But the conflict is mainly between pastoral nomadic clans and clans farmed. There are four major clans of noble families; the Darood, Hawiye, Isaaq and Dir,. Minority groups and low-caste clans included the Bantu of Somalia (being the largest minority group), the Benadiri, Rer Hamar Brawanese, swahili, Fumal, Yibir, Yaxar, Madhiban, Hawrarsame, Muse Dheryo and Faqayaqub. One third of the population, approximately two million people are from minority groups. Intermarriage between these groups and noble clans is limited. Some of these groups have limited access to all social services that are available, including health and education. Minority groups had no armed militias and continue to be victims of murders, tortures, rapes, abductions and looting of land and property. These groups have continued to live in conditions of great poverty and suffer numerous forms of discrimination and exclusion.[10] As indicated in the JFFMR[11] March 2004, the delegation met Omar Abdiaziz Daad: Daad Omar, former Minister of the reconciliation of President Siad Barre from 1986 to 1990, said he is a Marehan himself and the nephew of Siad Barre and next to Siad Barre, the son closest. Daad Omar left Mogadishu in 1991 and returned several times since. Daad Omar said he works as a mediator in central Somalia and has been accredited for the peace process in Kenya to the Darood clan. Daad Omar explained it is too difficult for Marehan to live in Mogadishu, they are designed to be high because many of them used to work for the regime of Siad Barre. He stated that all members of the clan would Marehan to blame for the suffering caused by the SiadBarre regime and they risk being killed. Omada Daad estimated 200 people Marehan clan live in Mogadishu today that are able to stay there only because they were married with members of stronger clans. Marehan An independent could not live safely in Mogadishu and manage a business. Daad Omar said that Marehan who had worked for the regime of Siad Barre could not return to Mogadishu. Even members of the family of a Marehan who had worked for Siad Barre would have had problems today. Any other clan member (eg a Hawiye and Habr Gedir) who had worked in the administration (including police) Siad Barre have no problems returning to Mogadishu today. But members of the Darood clan and Majerteen will not be able to live safely in Mogadishu, the Hawiye clans regard them as a challenge to their power â€Å" The complexity of the Somali clan system, it is difficult to identify the clan, but it is easier to identify them when they fall into political factions. This complex political structure, where there is only way to rivalry and competition for resources and territorial control, can not make a good organization policy. Good organization policy refers here to standard policies every country, that is, establishment of a modern state through democratic principles. But what was so undemocratic about the clan system? The answer is simple; the clan system that has long existed in Somalia, as well as conflicts between clans, but these conflicts has been an obstacle to the unification of Somalia under a local body[12] (after independence). An obstacle to the unification of Somalia that the issue of creating a modern state was another thing, it was more difficult with increasing conflict between the clan, where the modern nation-state was not the priority, the unification of the clans is paramo unt. But the intellectual elite choose the wrong option, they created the modern state in Somalia first and then tried to accommodate the clan, what followed was chaos! We can not find details of Somalia without being troubled by the importance of clan in the Somali culture, and it is so omnipresent that it is causing the conflict in Somalia. What brings the clan system as a basic factor for the collapse of the state is that, as mentioned above, it is an integral part of Somali culture, and furthermore, it has generated the de facto state by clan rivalries on then basis of clan identity. Siad Barre could remain so long at the head of Somalia because he used a policy of divide and rule and created rivalries between clans, favorising his own clan the main armed political groups as well that is;USC, SSDF, SNM, SPF, SDA, SDM. United Somali Congress (USC). The USC was created by the Hawiye clan in central Somalia around Mogadishu. Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). The SSDF was created by the sub-clan of Darood Majerteen, who live in north-eastern Somalia. Somali National Movement (SNM). The SNM was created by the Issaq clan of north-west Somalia, it proclaimed the independence of Somaliland. Somali Patriotic Front (SPF). The SPF was established by the Ogaden sub-clan of Darood who live partly in the south and partly in central Somalia. Somali Democratic Movement (SDM). The SDM is the movement Rahanwein clan; they live in the south and west. Somali Democratic Association (SDA). The SDA is the advantage of living Dir clan in Somalias north-west. The question of invasion is also very important for the inter-clan conflicts. Unlike northern Somalia, also known as Somaliland, which consists of five districts, but primarily inhabited by people fro the Issaq clan, southern Somalia is not homogeneous. The regions south and central Somalia is under conquest and occupation of the armed forces different clan, who have no legitimacy on the cities and agricultural lands for which they fought and. Chapter 3.2 Colonial division of Somali territory The colonial history of Somalia do not let anyone believe that this nation can easily form an effective state, the question that comes to mind all the readers is that the colonial history of Somalia, how can be linked to the collapse of the state. The countries sharing the same culture with the various rival clans, and the problem does not stop there, the colonial powers divided the land into portions thereby creating a situation of standstill, paralyzing the nation. As mentioned at the beginning, Somalia was formed by the union of two former colonial territories, British Somaliland in the north and Italian Somaliland, which was more populous. But the colonial division affects the breakdown as follows: Somali irredentism and conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya. When Somalia was unified in 1959, before independence in 1960, only the British and Italian Somaliland, which has created the new Somalia, there were still some Somalis living in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. In fact, this could be unified has been unified and the rest was considered that there was a Somali nation in these countries, Somalia and the whole is not united. And thats where the problem laid, Somali irredentism was much more important than solving the rivalries of clans that has brought the country to failure and collapse. The colonial history of Somalia do not let anyone believe that this nation can easily form an effective state, the question that comes to mind all the readers is that how can the colonial history of Somalia, be linked to the collapse of the state. The countries sharing the same culture with the various rival clans, and the problem does not stop there, the colonial powers divided the land into portions thus creating a situation of standstill, paralyzing the nation. As mentioned at the beginning, Somalia was formed by the union of two former colonial territories, British Somaliland in the north and Italian Somaliland, which were more populous neglecting portions of Somali in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Therefore, the colonial division affects the collapse as follows: Somali irredentism leading to conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya. When Somalia was unified in 1959, before independence in 1960, only the British and Italian Somaliland had created the new Somalia, there were still some Somalis living in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. In fact, what could be unified has been unified and the rest was unconsidered, there was a Somali nation in these countries, Somalia as a whole was not united. And thats where the problem laid, Somali i rredentism was much more important than s Sainsburys: Competition With Other Supermarkets Sainsburys: Competition With Other Supermarkets J Sainsbury:  What will it take to make it ‘Great’ again? Contents (Jump to) Introduction Key Figures Products and Services Quality and Quantity Analysis Conclusion Bibliography Introduction The food and grocery retail sector is the United Kingdom’s largest employer, supplying 11% of all jobs in the UK, totaling in excess of 2.8 million people (IGD, 2004a) in a market that generates  £123.9 Billion in sales (IGD, 2006b). This traditionally British company dominated industry has been changed through the acquisition of ASDA by giant retailer Wal-Mart in late 1999, which then was the third largest supermarket with 229 stores and sales of  £8 billion. Wal-Mart’s entry into the UK food retailing sector and their low pricing retailing concept sparked a round of ‘full-scale food price wars’ as it embarked upon its strategy of gaining immediate market share increases (BBC News, 2001). This development represented a less than desirable market instance for J. Sainsbury’s, which at the time of the Wal-Mart invasion was number two in the UK market behind Tesco (BBC News, 2001). In fact, the troubles at Sainsbury’s were in progress before Wal-Mart’s entrance into the UK market as it lost its position as the number one food retailer to Tesco in 1995, and since ASDA’s acquisition by Wal-Mart the company has slide into third place (Food Business Review online, 2005). This examination shall seek to look into the overall United Kingdom supermarket industry as it relates to the large chains and identify factors acting upon as well as in it that have reversed the fortunes of Sainsbury’s from an internal as well as external standpoint. The question that said examination will endeavor to answer is â€Å"What will it take to make Sainsbury’s Great again?† The aim of this examination is to delve into the market forces, conditions, competitive influences and impacts within the United Kingdom grocery retail sector to gauge what has transpired since Sainsbury’s occupied the number one position in the market and why it has been supplanted. The historical perspective will provide an overview of how the market has changed from a consumer, competitive and internal standpoint of Sainsbury’s marketing, and market strategic planning and thus attempt to identify what the company either missed or failed to respond to with regard to the conditions that resulted in its losing significant market share and thus its leadership position. The objective is to uncover the salient and noteworthy market and competitive forces, inroads, developments and circumstances that enabled Tesco as well as ASDA to pass Sainsbury’s for the number one and two spots in the United Kingdom and what strategies, developments, changes and other factors which Sainsbury’s will need to consider and or implement to begin reclaiming significant market share. Key Figures As of October 2006 the Taylor Nelson Sofres study, which is also known as the TNSofres Superpanel, of the United Kingdom grocery retailing market showed the following (Answers.com, 2006) (Wikipedia, 2006): Table 1 – UK Grocery Retailing Market Share 13 August 2006 Table 2 – UK Grocery Retailing Market Share 2 January 2005 The foregoing indicates how much Sainsbury’s has slipped since the early 1990s when it was the undisputed market leader. An examination of accounting data for the company and or its competitors indicates that there is noting in this aspects that affects or has affected the abilities of the firms to either operate or obtain an advantage. The importance of market share, translates into customer traffic, the all important variable in generating sales. Products and Services The change in the UK grocery retiling sector to a more price competitive structure eroded Sainsbury’s advantage the existed prior to 1995, and the resulting price wars heated up with Tesco responding to the Wal-Mart / ASDA discounting strategy along with Safeway and Morrisons, which Sainsbury’s failed to respond to when this development hit the market (Food Business review online, 2005). This important misstep compounded consumer defections and eroded market share. Sainsbury’s heavy investment in private label brands did not provide the needed hedge as the consumer market shifted away from this prior initiative as they started buying lower price brand names offered by competitors (TNS, 2000). Another important factor in the decreased market share, which is a function of low store traffic is that Tesco, ASDA as well as Morrisons built or expanded to larger stores thus providing them the opportunity to stock non-food items thus making their locations more convenien t for one-stop shopping (Just Food, 2002). Sainsbury’s Savacentre format represented a subsidiary operation rather than a central format whereby it could not compete with the competitors’ number of stores in this format. The trend of grocery retailers into non food areas was not just a Wal-Mart innovation, as Carrefour also had moved in this direction. One stop shopping represents convenience for consumers, and this along with loyalty cards, big stores and lots of extras are what today’s more demanding consumer looks for, wants and expects. The preceding understandings as to the developments the occurred over time in the UK as well as in international grocery retailing segment are important to understanding not only what has happened to Sainsbury’s, but what it missed in terms of market developments and what it needs to concentrate on to return to its former greatness. Quality and Quantity Diversification has been the key to success for Tesco as well as ASDA in that their non-food items such as clothing, electrical items, appliances for the kitchen, soft toys and ceramics allow them to not only attract customers, it permits them to operate on lower margins in their food operations thus increasing the difficulty for Sainsbury’s (Food Business review online, 2005). The preceding diversification strategy represents the means via which Tesco as well as ASDA overtook Sainsbury’s, and thus indicates the path the company must take to not only hold its ground, but make up for lost customers. The preceding strategy permits these companies to offer a larger selection of items as a customer draw. The quantity of offerings represents a distinct advantage. The qualities of products as well as the environment in which they are sold are important points in attracting customers as well as keeping them, and is equal among competitors. Sainsbury’s 2005 Annual Report recognizes the preceding as the company stated â€Å"Our vision for Sainsbury’s is all about delivering great quality food at fair prices.† (Sainsbury’s, 2005). The company is committed to the importance of the low price position with regard to the UK market and has made this a center piece in its restructuring strategy (Sainsbury’s, 2005). In recognition of the importance of customer convenience, the company is expanding its non food mix which â€Å"†¦ includes items such as cards, gift-wrap, music and DVDs, and which for most customers are now a part of the weekly grocery shop† (Sainsbury’s, 2005). In this same vein, Sainsbury’s adds â€Å"Where space allows we will also sell clothing and home ware †¦Ã¢â‚¬  an d continues â€Å"We see a clear opportunity to grow sales by developing our non-food offer †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Sainsbury’s, 2005). Analysis Key to understating where Sainsbury’s and the grocery retailing sector market is today, is understanding where it was yesterday and the events that led to the company’s decline. The supermarket wars are nothing new as are the minor developments that signal competitiveness. Price cutting discounters were in the marketplace as far back as the late 1980s, yet Sainsbury’s continued to gain market share in spite of this (BBC Online Network, 1999). Tesco’s successful bid for supermarket chain William Low in 1994 provided it with a presence in the Scottish market, but does not represent a singular event that aided in its surpassing Sainsbury’s in the marketplace. In addition, Tesco introduced a highly successful marketing campaign, as well as its loyalty card well in advance of Sainsbury’s, which helped it to improve upon customer loyalty and repeat store visits (BBC Online Network, 1999). Other developments included Tesco’s â€Å"†¦ ow n label discount lines, as well as supermarket bank accounts (BBC Online Network, 1999). Correspondingly, Sainsbury’s 1994 Annual Report indicated that their prices were 3% below the other large chains (Sainsbury’s, 1994, p. 4), however this in and of itself did not counter Tesco’s more customer centric marketing strategies which increased customer loyalty and attracted new ones. By 1995 it was official, Tesco had achieved the status of the number one grocery retailer. And while Sainsbury’s also operated Savacentre hypermarkets which sold a broad array of goods, including clothing, the company’s focus on expansion into the United States through its acquisition of the Giant food retailing chains and modest opening of 20 new U.K. stores ran contrary (Sainsbury’s, 1995, pp. 10-12) to Tesco’s focus of expanding in the large store multi product mix format in the U.K. Table 3 – UK Annual Grocery Retailer Sales 1998 – 2000 (TNS, 2000) % Share The SWOT analysis of Sainsbury’s reveals: (S)trengths The Sainsbury’s name and reputation represents a strong advantage and strength for this British company serving its domestic market as well as the fact that it has learned the lessons and importance of non-food items, larger stores and customer loyalty programs from the successes of its rivals which it has implemented in it restructuring strategies (Sainsbury’s, 2005). (W)eaknesses The company’s weaknesses are its lack of superstores to match the strength of ASDA and Tesco who are and have benefited from the increased number of non-food items these types of locations can carry and the lost customers the company must win back. (O)pportunities The well known format of pricing has been inoculated into the company’s structure through cost cutting and paring down personnel, thus putting it in the position to do battle on this front. In addition, the proven successful strategies in internal operations as well as winning customers as learned from rivals provides it with the position and structure to now attack these areas. Opportunities exist in the acquisition of key superstores from other smaller competitors as well as a strategic acquisition. (T)hreats Continued discounting, and new superstores by the company’s competitors represent its biggest threats as well as the potential acquisition of smaller chains by rivals to increase their store placements. A Porter’s Five Forces analysis of Sainsbury’s reveals the following: Rivalry Tesco and ASDA hold market share leads over Sainsbury’s, and their size, strength and placements in the market provides them with a strong positioning that the company must not simply match, but exceed in order to gain market share from them as well as smaller firms. The high rivalry in the industry makes the preceding proposition difficult as the format is based on pricing for which there is little room to maneuver. Threat of substitutes The threat of substitutes is low as the extremely high cost of entry owing to real estate, store and other relationships rules out new players in the market except through the acquisition of existing firms. In addition the high degree of managerial savvy to operate in this environment represents another inhibiting factor. Buyer power Buyer power is strong in that the stores in this sector control to a great degree their supplier relationships through long standing agreements or out right ownership and control. Supplier power Supplier power is weak as a result of the number of competitive firms in the market all having long established existing relationships. Changing to new firms means an intense round of cost cutting measures to either replace or fit in with the chains supplier structures. Barriers to Entry and Threat of Entry The barriers to entry in this industry sector are represented by the extremely high cost of either starting up, acquisition and securing qualified management and store manager talent. The threat of entry is extremely low for the same reasons. In addition, the market is full of top line players thus making it improbable that an outside firm would be interested in entering this extremely tough competitive environment. Conclusion What it will take to make Sainsbury’s great again is the continued commitment by management and employees to surpass the service levels offered by its rivals as the company has already embarked upon the immediate and long internal, location and non-food formats that have proven successful for competitors. The all important ingredient in the entire strategy and marketing mix is the customer, as pricing and product mix are keenly watched, modified and adjusted by all competitors to either maintain parity or achieve it. Store layouts, modern designs, non-food items, convenience, location and size are all key aspects of the company’s plan as contained in its Annual Report to achieve market position gains by 2008 (Sainsbury’s, 2005). These things being equalizers in terms of the company putting its facilities and locations on a par with competitors is not enough, in and of themselves, as the key to the industry sector are its customers and their weekly shopping habits and needs. Sainsbury’s must forge an increased personal relationship with its customers in terms of product selections, quality, locations, convenience and deft utilization of customer relationship management to identify spending and shopping patterns and craft unique loyalty programs that respond to individual customer preferences, needs and desires. In an industry with little to differentiate one firm from another, the difference is in the interpersonal relationships and contact with a company’s staff that spells an advantage. Friendliness, personable, helpful and most of all key customer relationship management to present offers, are factors that appeal to customers. Despite all of the investment in facilities, stock and the like, the grocery retailing industry is a service industry, as such is the most important front via which to attract, retain and increase store visits. All of the facility designs, stock and related aspects go with this formula, but, it is the customer shopping experience that is the key to winning their attitudes. Bibliography Answers.com (2006) ASDA. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://www.answers.com/topic/asda BBC Online Network (1999) Business: The Company File, A tale of two supermarkets. 12 April 1999. Retrieved on 26 November 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_company_file/317325.stm BBC News (2001) UK poised for supermarket wars. 28 August, 2001. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1512847.stm Just Food (2002) UK: Food retailers lead the way in product, store innovation. 22 July 2002. Retrieved on 26 November 2006 from http://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?art=50664type=1 Food Business review online (2005) UK supermarkets: diversify or die. 5 April 2005. Retrieved on 26 November 2006 from http://www.food-business-review.com/article_feature_print.asp?guid=F7002651-4884-4DDA-BE2C-CAE9A7C11D3C IGD (2004a) Employment in the Food Grocery Industry. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://www.igd.com/CIR.asp?menuid=146cirid=1433 IGD (2006b) UK Grocery Retailing. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://www.igd.com/cir.asp?menuid=51cirid=114 Sainsbury’s (1994) Annual Report. Retrieved on 26 November 2006 from http://www.jsainsbury.co.uk/files/reports/ar1994.pdf Sainsbury’s (1995) Annual Report. Retrieved on 26 November 2006 from http://www.jsainsbury.co.uk/files/reports/ar1995.pdf Sainsbury’s (2005)Annual Report. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/ar05/files/report05.pdf TNS (2000) Sainsbury’s Case History. Retrieved on 267 November 2006 from http://superpanel.tns-global.com/superpanel/Library/retailer_casehist_sainsbury.asp Wikipedia (2006) TNS Superpanel. Retrieved on 25 November 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNS_Superpanel

The Laptop Computer :: Mobile Computing Portable

"Alan Kay has remarked that had Vannevar Bush enjoyed working in all-night coffee shops, he would have invented the portable computer." (Press, 1993, p.31) The laptop computer has had a tremendous impact in the areas of business, education, government, and personal use. The emergence of portable computing and the laptop computer can be traced to the introduction of the personal computer itself. In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 was introduced. The Altair is recognized as being the first commercially successful personal computer and the launching point for the personal computer revolution (Sysop, n.d.). Almost simultaneously, the idea of portability (in particular for the business-person) became a major focus in the industry. This new desire for computing portability introduced a number of new challenges. Factors such as cost, weight, power source, screen & keyboard size, overall size, and included software presented great challenges to computer system designers. There is some debate regarding which machine holds claim to being the first portable computer, as portable was a relative term used quite liberally. The earliest portables, while heavy by today’s standards, shared the common characteristic of integrating a keyboard, memory, processor(s), display, and expandability potential into a single unit able to be transported. In 1975, about one month after the Altair’s debut, IBM introduced the 5100 – dubbed the IBM Portable PC. There were few personal computers available around this time, making the powerful 5100 very attractive as a complete portable system (Sysop, n.d.). At almost 60 pounds and a cost of $9,000-$20,000 however, it was attractive to a small audience. It was designed specifically for professional and scientific problem-solvers. Several years later saw the introduction of what most historians refer to as the first truly portable computer, the Osborne 1 (Bellis, 2005). Released in 1981, the Osborne 1 weighed about 24 pounds and sold for $1795. While the unit itself was still rather bulky, it contained a fold-out keyboard, 5 inch monitor, and two floppy disk drives. Its biggest value however, was the $1500 worth of software that came with it. Unlike the IBM 5100, the Osborne 1 optionally ran on battery packs, enabling true portability. Advances in technology sa w the decrease in size of portable computers, as well as an increase in computing power.

what is rap :: essays research papers

Many schools of history begin the story of rap music as a mutation of southern soap-box blues. Using the basics of the blues style of music, rap is all about emotions and the personal interpretation of reality by the author of the song. Rap, then, should be considered as a definition essay of sort. What is rap? Rap music is an American minority artist creation. Unfortunately, rap music is not perceived by many Americans as an art form, but as a fad which they hope will soon fade away, one can trace the history of rap back to the West African professional singers/storytellers known as Griots. Rap is spoken word, rap is slang from the street corners of your brain. Rap is smoking herb, rappers recite truthful social bombs, preachers even rap it just comes out in a religious form. Rap is the heart and soul of citizens in the tall cold walls of property. Rap is the story of the time when people lost all control. Rap is regional, descriptive, and ethnic. Rap is regional, much like dialects. Different parts of the nation live in different manners. Every regional has its own story to tell, so in rap a song should tell the story of its region. Whenever a group of people is locked within the margins of American social discourse, that community may find it necessary to scream or chant or rap to be heard. It should come as no surprise, then, that alienation serves to be the medium for counter-cultural movements. Discontentment is only the beginning. Each region should have its on flare, its on personality. Genuine rap informs its listeners about the current social climate. For example, if the mayor of a city has recently been convicted for misusing public funds, it would surely be in a rap song. If a guy went into a courtroom and shot the judge, bailiff, and the court reporter it would most likely be in a rap song. Unlike most of the lyrics out on the market today, genuine rap contains meaning and it sends a message to the listeners. Although those messages might have bad words, and show images of things that are socially wrong, that’s actually what is going on where they are from. Their music represents their area and their people, and it is no different from a farmer singing about his cows and chickens out in farmland.

Major Works Data Sheet Essay

Plot summary: Heart of Darkness begins on the Thames river and told by an unknown narrator. He and several other men are on the deck of a ship when Marlow, a captain, begins to speak. Marlow had always wanted to travel to Africa and up the snakelike Congo River. With the help of his aunt in Brussels, Marlow gets a job as a boat captain on the river with a Dutch trading company that deals in ivory. After getting his assignment at the office in Brussels, he travels to the mouth of the Congo River in a French steamer, which drops off soldiers and clerks at many stations along the African coast. The site of a French man-of-war firing at nothing puzzles Marlow. When Marlow arrives at the mouth of the Congo, a Swedish captain takes him to the company’s Inner Station on a smaller boat. Outside of the station he sees Africans chained and working hard at worthless projects, with others nearby dying slowly. Marlow is impressed with the competence and dress of the accountant who works at this station. It is here that he firsts learns of Kurtz, an exceptional trader who is destined for great things. Marlow then travels to the company’s Central Station, walking two hundred miles inland with a sick, overweight white man who had to be carried by Africans, until they tired of it and abandoned him. Once at the station, Marlow meets the General Manager, a hollow man who got his job not by virtue of his merit but simply by remaining alive. His only talent is making people feel uneasy. The boat Marlow was supposed to captain had been torn up in an accident just before he arrived, so Marlow spends months at the station making repairs and waiting for rivets. During this time, Marlow watches many of the white men do no work and walk aimlessly. One day a building caught fire and they decided to punish an African for it. Marlow then meets another  hollow man, the brick maker, who has no mater ials to build bricks. The brick maker questions Marlow about his connections in Europe, and Marlow learns more about Kurtz, who is besides being an excellent trader, an artist and in Africa for the purpose of bringing light to the natives. Marlow determines that the brick maker is a spy for the manager and that neither likes Kurtz. The mysterious Kurtz increasingly intrigues Marlow. He overhears the manager and the manager’s corrupt uncle express their hatred and jealousy towards Kurtz, who is rumored to be ill. With the repairs complete, Marlow captained the boat upriver, manager on board, towards Kurtz’s station. He employed the help of a group of cannibals, whore frained from eating anyone in his presence. Just before arriving at Kurtz’s station, a tribe of Africans attacked the ship, and his African helmsman was killed, having lost his self-control. At this point Marlow worries that he may never meet Kurtz, but they find Kurtz’s station upriver. Greeted by a young Russian, Marlow finds out that Kurtz is very ill. He also finds out that Kurtz convinced a tribe he was a deity to use them to get more ivory. Kurtz goes crazy and runs for the woods, devoid of all restraint. Marlow finds him and helps him back to his bed. Kurtz gives Marlow some papers to give to people in Europe. Kurtz eventually dies, saying â€Å"The horror, the horror.† Marlow returns to Europe, delivers the papers, and eventually talks to Kurtz’s fiancà ©. She is still very idealistic and he cannot tell her about Kurtz’s last words, saying instead Kurtz uttered her name before dying.

Positive Thinking and Its Power

POSITIVE THINKING and ITS POWER Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind, thoughts, words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favourable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds. Not everyone accepts or believes in positive thinking. Some consider the subject as just nonsense, and others scoff at people who believe and accept it.Among the people who accept it, not many know how to use it effectively to get results. Yet, it seems that many are becoming attracted to this subject, as evidenced by the many books, lectures and courses about it. This is a subject that is gaining popularity. It is quite common to hear people say: â€Å"Think positive! † to someone who feels down and worried. Most people do not take these words seriously, as they do not know what they really mea n, or do not consider them as useful and effectiveWhen the attitude is positive we entertain pleasant feelings and constructive images, and see in our mind's eye what we really want to happen. This brings brightness to the eyes, more energy and happiness. The whole being broadcasts good will, happiness and success. We walk tall and the voice is more powerful. Our body language shows the way you feel inside. In order to turn the mind toward the positive, inner work and training are required. Attitude and thoughts do not change overnight. Think about its benefits and persuade yourself to try it.The power of thoughts is a mighty power that is always shaping our life. This shaping is usually done subconsciously, but it is possible to make the process a conscious one. Even if the idea seems strange give it a try, as you have nothing to lose, but only to gain. Ignore what others might say or think about you, if they discover that you are changing the way you think. Always visualize only f avourable and beneficial situations. Use positive words in your inner dialogues or when talking with others.Smile :)))) a little more, as this helps to think positively. Disregard any feelings of laziness or a desire to quit. If you persevere, you will transform the way your mind thinks. Once a negative thought enters your mind, you have to be aware of it and endeavour to replace it with a constructive one. The negative thought will try again to enter your mind, and then you have to replace it again with a positive one. It is as if there are two pictures in front of you, and you choose to look at one of them and disregard the other.Persistence will eventually teach your mind to think positively and ignore negative thoughts. In case you feel any inner resistance when replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, do not give up, but keep looking only at the beneficial, good and happy thoughts in your mind. So dear friends It really does not matter what your circumstances are at the present moment†¦. Think positively, expect only favourable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. It may take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they will take place†¦!!!!

It Happened One Night: Screwball Comedy Essay

It Happened One Night set the place for the â€Å"screwball† comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position. Through one of the greatest romantic comedies in film history, Frank Copra shows the outlandish nature of the rich and the nature of man being the controller in relationships as well as in society. It is the reversal of the Cinderella story, a modern tale with light hearted sex appeal in which courtship and love triumph over class conflicts, socio-economic differences, and verbal battles of wit. The fighting and struggles between the two main characters showed the man taking care of the woman, the social norms of how men and women should act around each other in that era. But the fighting and the banter also show a strong-minded and intelligent woman. The two strong-willed main characters balanced each other out. One of the most famous scenes in the movie is the one in which, on their travels, Ellie and Peter are forced to share a one-room motel cabin overnight and Peter hangs a blanket on some rope to provide the debutante the privacy and respectability she demands. The by-play of Ellie and Peter’s reactions on the separate sides of the blanket are brilliant evocations of what lies behind the facade men and women show one another in romantic situations. Along their journey, Ellie falls in love with Peter; but when he vanishes from the motel where they are lodged and contacts her father later; she believes he was only interested in the reward. The escapist theme of the film is the story of the unlikely romantic pairing of a mismatched couple, which is appropriate during the Depression Era, of an indifferent and recently-fired newspaper man and a snobbish, superior-acting heiress a runaway on the lam. After discovering Ellie’s true identity, Peter decides to help her so that he can get an exclusive story about her life, her marriage, and her escape. As they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, who loses her initial disdain for him, begins to fall in love. The movie is considered a â€Å"screwball† comedy because the dynamic between Ellie and Peter, because it is not all one-sided. Although Peter is quite bossy, Ellie sometimes gets the better of him. In the hitchhiking scene, for instance, it is Ellie, not Peter, who succeeds in getting the car to stop to pick them up. She remains herself, a bright, intelligent, strong-minded woman. The film is composed of a road trip by bus, car, foot, and by thumb in locales such as bus depots or interiors of buses, and the open road throughout the film by the social-class-unmatched couple. From the very beginning of the story, these two characters have been down each other’s throats because their personalities are so different from the other one. Some of the most classic scenes were made: the â€Å"Wall of Jericho† scene in an auto-camp bungalow so that they can sleep in the same room, the doughnuts-dunking lesson, the hitchhiking scene, the night-time scene on a haystack in a deserted barn, and the dramatic wedding scene. Ellie and Peter argued over everything from getting the seat on the bus in the beginning to the time when they were trying to find a place to sleep in the middle of the night when the bus broke down. Despite the witty remarks towards one another, they find themselves through all the fighting along with each other as a romantic relationship starts to bloom. Love triumphs in the end of the movie and the wall of Jericho falls down. Peter’s personality is completely different from Ellie’s personality. Peter does not let things bother him, or at least does not let it show. Peter is constantly â€Å"playing it cool† when he is around Ellie, when actually he is just as desperate as Ellie is. Although Ellie and Peter have completely opposite personalities and tend to not get along very well, they begin to see the bright side of one another and fall in love. Even though the two are fighting, with no money, and no hope, they still are traveling trying to survive, but in the end everything tends to happen for a reason.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Madeline of the House of Usher Role-playing games are a great past time for literature enthusiasts. A player sits down, creates a character with quirks and a personality, usually special abilities, and meets with other people who have done the same. They sit at tables, in couches, on porches all around the world. They sit down to hear and participate in a story, a story told by the storyteller. The storyteller creates a scenario, a background, extra characters (NPCs), and certain rules. Once the story begins, control is a relative term.The storyteller knows the story, but the characters are free to move about and unknowingly change the story as they go. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† the storyteller and characters interact in a very strange way. The storyteller tries to maintain control and the characters try to free themselves. It is a struggle against two aspects, the oppressor and the oppressed, masculine and feminine. Madeli ne Usher, the sole female character in the story, is kept in the background, but holds her own by being the main drive for much of the plot.Roderick Usher, the male descendant of the Usher household, has qualities of the feminine, but introduces a powerfully masculine identity into the house. The line of triumph of the oppressed feminine over the oppressive masculine is blurry and leaves much to be desired. The first key to the house as a story and backdrop is the connection often attributed to Roderick and the house. The idea that the house deteriorates with the last wielder of the Usher name has been argued before. Roderick’s slow descent into madness is marked by cracks in the foundation of the house.This theory holds good merit from textual evidence. The story itself follows that line; Roderick describes the house as having â€Å"an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence† (119). But this is just one influence the characters have over the plot and vice versa. This view of the house and the connection to the family is shaded by a masculine identity. Surely the last male heir of the Usher house must be the cause for the decay, regardless of the feminine Usher remaining.It is easy to label Madeline Usher as a weak character. Not only is her lack of presence in the story noted, but her physical descriptions are that of a weak girl. Roderick explains to the narrator that she suffers from an unknown disease, â€Å"[a] settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (119). Madeline suffers from an unknown illness and is kept indoors in case she becomes the victim of her own frailty.The narrator sees her only briefly before her burial later in the story, and soon after her appearance, she is confined to her bed. The char acter of Madeline Usher is subjugated. She is kept in the background. Her family line is given to Roderick, her twin brother, as was the custom at the time. Within the story, she could be representative of other women in the nineteenth century: left in the home with no rights. Madeline can also represent one of the more important aspects of the feminine as a whole, the idea of death and rebirth in her premature burial and subsequent escape from her tomb.Beverly Voloshin makes note of another point of Madeline’s femininity through color association. â€Å"Madeline matches her brother’s pallor, but her special mark is red†¦blood red being the token of both life and death† (14). Not only is she often introduced with the color red, a generally accepted color for the feminine, but her actions in the story speak directly to the idea brought about by that color. Madeline is, essentially, the feminine half of the Usher family. Roderick Usher, Madeline’s twin and the masculine half of the Usher family, is the initial, obvious oppressor.As Leila May explains as historical background in her essay, â€Å"’Sympathies of a Scarcely Intelligible Nature': The Brother-Sister Bond in Poe's ‘Fall of the House of Usher’,† the social and political authority over the household was given to the men (389). As far as the outside world is concerned, Roderick is the head of the household, putting him in a legal and social position over his sister. Diane Hoevler makes some very sound arguments for the idea of Roderick as an oppressor in her essay â€Å"The Hidden God and the Abjected Woman in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. She points out Poe’s own frustration with women and the idea that Roderick strives for a world, a â€Å"purely masculine universe, a fortress where males engage in discourse without the intrusion of the female in any form –living or dead: ‘Us’ versus ‘her†™: ‘Us/her’† (388). Legally, Roderick is the superior half of the last vestiges of the Usher family. It was Roderick, after all, who invited the male narrator to the house. The narrator explains that the two had been friends before and Roderick had recently sent a letter insisting that he come to the house (Poe 114).It is Roderick’s decision in the story to entomb his deceased sister in the vaults underneath the house before her burial. This burial can be viewed as an attempt by the masculine identity to rid itself of the female identity, Roderick making a final struggle against his sister. However, as Cynthia Jordan argues, â€Å"he is but a character in the story himself, and his actions are at least in part the product of his narrator’s construction† (6). The idea of plot control being in the narrator’s hands puts the narrator in the sole position of masculine oppressor and not just over Madeline Usher.The narrator in â€Å"The Fa ll of the House of Usher† views, or at least tries to explain, everything from a distanced point-of-view. His logical take on what happens at the house paints a picture with traditionally masculine tones. He also is focused on the masculine half of the Usher twins. His focus is so centered on Roderick that he would as soon dismiss Madeline from his story entirely. Jordan notes this striving towards sole masculinity influence in her essay â€Å"Poe’s Re-Vision†¦Ã¢â‚¬ : â€Å"The narrator’s first encounter with Madeline confirms the conflict between the male storyteller and the lady of the house† (7).His first encounter with Madeline is almost half way through the story. He describes her briefly, almost as a wraith, when Roderick mentions her. â€Å"I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings† (Poe 119). His reaction to the feminine aspect of the Usher household is obviously negative, describing his emotions of shock and fear in the face of Roderick’s sister. After this brief mention, he leaves her out of the story once again, citing that she succumbed to her bed after his almost encounter and that he would not see her again alive (120).Jordan notes that this absence of Madeline is an attempt on the narrator’s part to keep Madeline out of the story: â€Å"the narrator uses language covertly to relegate Madeline to a passive position in relation to himself† (7). Roderick, in this case is not the masculine oppressor; the narrator is. The irony of the situation, though, is that in trying to suppress Madeline, the female twin and the object that the narrator prescribes to femininity, he lets that feminine essence flourish. By the end of the story, the narrator is forced to face that he cannot create a solely masculine story.As Raymond Benoit, a voice in Explicator’s long series of essays on â€Å"Usher,† point s out, the narrator is forced to face the feminine through the reading of â€Å"Mad Trist† at the end of the story: â€Å"a mad story that parallels what is occurring in the house and reflects and even enables the awakening of the feminine side thought to have been laid to rest in the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment and by Roderick/narrator† (80). The narrator cannot ignore the strong feminine influence in the house, much as he tries.Perhaps this is because the source of the feminine influence is sitting beside him. Throughout the story, Roderick appears as a romantic and an artist. He reads romance and gothic novels and is emotional to the point of hysteria at times. Beverly Voloshin enters her theory in the series shared with Benoit and others on â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† in Explicator. Her theory follows the lines of Roderick being the feminine half of the Usher twins. â€Å"Roderick is associated with the abstract, atemporal, and ideal† (14). These attributes are generally feminine in nature, gentle and imaginative.In a usually feminine role, Roderick’s actions are often reactions to other characters, showing subordination. His madness is spurred by the supposed death of Madeline, an irrational and emotional reaction to an action of another character. Roderick’s death, often attributed with the ultimate fall of the house itself, is a reaction to the return and death of Madeline. His death is a reaction to the death of a feminine character, which gives power to the feminine over the masculine. Poe is known to have sickly seraph types in his stories, but these seemingly weak female characters speak to his fondness for women.Poe’s life was filled with women who were taken away by illness, making them physically weak: his mother, his cousin and wife. But the women in Poe’s life were often the source of his strength, making them spiritually and often mentally strong. The experien ce of physically weak, spiritually strong women in his life greatly influenced his portrayal of women in his stories and poetry; Anabelle Lee comes to mind. Similarly, Madeline follows the guidelines for Poe’s memory of women. In a strange way, Poe often put these women on pedestals.Madeline’s presence is very rarely in the foreground of Poe’s short story, but the times when she does appear, it is her appearance that changes the mood of the scene. Madeline owns every scene in which she appears. Her actions are catalysts. The character is weak, but Poe puts her in a position of power beyond character; Poe gives Madeline a position of power over the plot. While the ultimate portrayal of Madeline might be a slap in the face against feminists, her role in the story is large enough to create a strong female influence.Poe follows his own guidelines in the character of Madeline Usher. She fits his ideal for true beauty. John H. Timmerman helps lead the way towards view ing Madeline in this light by explaining Poe’s reasoning. He explains Poe’s drive towards creating beauty in his writing, a beauty that he believed could only be achieved through sadness (232). Because of this connection and his past with women, Poe comes to the conclusion that â€Å"the most sad thing, and therefore the most beautiful, is the death of a beautiful woman† (232).Madeline, though pale and sickly, is one of these beautiful women. Her death, then, is a thing of beauty in Poe’s eyes. The concept is not a very enthusiastic one, nor is it useful in citing Poe as an advocate for women, but that he put emphasis on women is a step in the right direction. From his idea that a beautiful woman’s death is indeed the most beautiful occurrence in nature, he spurned the male characters in his stories to help reclaim the feminine within his stories. The male counterparts to these tragic women are the main argument for Cythia Jordan.In her essay †Å"Poe's Re-Vision: The Recovery of the Second Story,† Jordan argues that Roderick Usher and C. Auguste Dupin are male characters who attempt to bring to light the feminine or â€Å"second† story. While the narrator has ultimate control over the plot of â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† Jordan points out times when Roderick tries to wrestle that control from him and reassert Madeline as a prominent figure in the story. The final scene of â€Å"Usher† is where Roderick gets that victory, â€Å"Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door! † (130).Jordan explains that this marks a moment in which Roderick takes control of the narrative long enough to call the narrator out on his oppression and to bring Madeline out into the spotlight (11). Roderick proves again that he is not the male oppressor but is instead a supporter if not aspect of the feminine. The question becomes, then, why would Roderick want to bring Madeline to the forefront ? The sole reason being that she is his twin is likely not enough. The idea of them being two aspects of the same being, or two sides of the same face is more concrete.But consider that Roderick is an artist, not only placing him in a feminine role, which would be cause enough to help the feminine thrive, but as an artist he must meet that ultimate goal that Poe put forth for himself: to create beauty. If Poe’s characters follow his own guidelines, then, Roderick’s only way to express that which is most beautiful in the world is to bring his beautiful sister’s death to the forefront of the story. Thus, in Roderick’s moment of control over the plot, in revealing the â€Å"second story† of Madeline, he follows those rules of an artist so avidly produced by his own author.The end result is not just Poe’s ideal of beauty, it also gives voice to the silenced feminine within the story –both Madeline’s and possibly Roderick’s o wn. The connection between Madeline and Roderick as twins is an interesting part of their mixed and almost non-existent gender roles. It has been suggested that their relationship is an incestuous affair, bringing together that mixed-gendered ambiguity into an even more scrambled position. Voloshin and others regard the twin connection, Voloshin looking specifically at the dichotomies apparent within that connection. †¦[T]he Usher twins also represent the duality of culture and nature, or more precisely, that they correspond to many cultural constructions of masculine and feminine, which divide the genders along the axis of culture and nature† (14). The fact that Poe decided to use twins pushes the idea that such dichotomies exist. Roderick, similar to Madeline, is afflicted with an ailment, one that is â€Å"a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy –a mere nervous affection† (118). This nervous condition is display ed throughout the story in his outbursts and personality shifts.It is suggested that the ailment, being a family curse, is close to if not the same as Madeline’s. Madeline, however, shows strength in that she did not succumb to the illness before the narrator arrives. Madeline is given credit for being the stronger of the two, a masculine trait. The dichotomy does not fit what society would expect from gender roles. The male is the feminine and the female is the masculine. It has been suggested that Roderick and Madeline are the same person, or aspects of the same person. Hoeveler plays with this idea in her essay on the â€Å"Abjected Woman. She discusses the idea that Madeline is in fact the feminine half of Roderick that has escaped to become an alter-ego (391). Not only would physical evidence within the text dispute that idea –the fact that the narrator sees Madeline during a conversation with Roderick –but why, then, would Roderick assume so many feminine traits of his own? And why would Madeline seem to uphold those traits generally accepted as masculine? The rest of the essay is another key: the idea of dualities in religion, the goddess and the god. The duality returns to the twin idea, and the twin concept requires a semblance of balance.If Roderick is the feminine role, Madeline must step in to play the role of the masculine. Traditionally, in feminist readings, the masculine identity can be discovered by its subjugation and subordination of the feminine identity. Madeline is buried in the vault, making her symbolically subordinated, but in the end, it is she who buries Roderick: â€Å"†¦with a low moaning cry, fell heavily upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated† (Poe 131).The first item of note is the fact that Roderick’s name is not mentioned once in his death scene. Roderick is placed in the passive part of the sentence, â€Å"upon the person of her brother,† rather than given an active death. His name is not mentioned, instead he is listed as the brother of Madeline. He is also noted as being a victim, a position often associated with the feminine. Here, Roderick is not only stripped of identity of his own, but is made the passive victim of a violent force against him. The idea of Madeline as a violent or at least controlling force over Roderick is used in the somewhat popular vampire theory.Lyle Kendall discusses this theory and cites examples from the text to help prove it. He suggests that Roderick asks the narrator to come to the house to aid him in the destruction of his oppressor, the vampire, Madeline (451). J. O. Bailey goes into more depth, citing the history and mythology behind the vampire theory. He, however, notes that both of the twins seem to exhibit traits of one who has been attacked by a vampire, but that Madeline was the one whose body is inhabited by a vampiric entity (Bailey 458).Vampires in stories have been male and female –there is no prescription for the sex of these mythological creatures. The idea of the vampire, though, of one who comes and sucks the life out of others fits the mold for a control aspect. The masculine identity is the controlling identity, and if Madeline is indeed a vampire, then she becomes that controlling identity; Madeline becomes the oppressor and Roderick the oppressed. Another supposedly masculine trait is the sense of structure and order.Robinson brings the dichotomy of order/disorder into play in his formalist reading of the short story in his essay â€Å"Order and Sentience in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. † Robinson writes, â€Å"[t]he progress of the story sees Usher, his house, and his sister Madeline changing from an organized to a disorganized state, until finally all sink together† (69). Robinson also brings to light the notion that Madel ine’s physical senses dim through the story while Usher’s heighten (75). Roderick becomes more sensitive where his sister becomes less so.Their traits become intermingled, masculine and feminine twisting their positions to the opposite sex until finally it all comes back together into a union. The final union between the masculine and the feminine is the destruction of the house, according to Robinson, when the house and the story fall into a state of disorganization. The final scene in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† seems to be a culmination of all that is feminine within the work. Roderick sits and listens to his favorite romantic story, â€Å"Mad Trist,† which brings the feminine back into the plot.During this reading, Roderick comes into a position to speak against the narrator, for the narrator, when he calls him a â€Å"madman,† and reveals Madeline standing outside the door. When Madeline appears for her final scene, her coup de grace , she is in her burial shroud with blood on her, a symbol of rebirth. The walking symbol of the feminine falls upon Usher, who without a fight, falls to the ground, and the two die. The narrator flees the fall of the house of Usher, and watches as the house behind him is mysteriously destroyed.The story comes together, finally, with a seeming grand finale of femininity. Symbols, romanticism, disorganization, all of those ideals that have been attributed to feminism culminate. But looking back once again on Roderick’s death, there is the passivity. Madeline, in the midst of this fantastic moment of feminine symbolism, takes on the role of a masculine identity, pressing Roderick beneath her and putting him into a passive state. Are the symbols enough for this story to triumph over masculine influence?Or has the narrator put his foot down on the final scene to ensure that some semblance of masculine oppressiveness remained in the story? Regardless of masculine or feminine traits , at the end of the story, as the world of the narrator collapses into romantic idealism, it is the woman, the female half of the Usher family, that finally oppresses the man. Madeline triumphs, but only when put into a masculine gender role. Leo Spitzer, author of â€Å"A Reinterpretation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,† also notes the near necessity for the two to die as one.He first shines light on the importance of Madeline, citing her as a deuteragonist and pointing out the eerie timing of her appearances, and he goes on to say that â€Å"Roderick and Madeline, twins chained to each other by incestuous love, suffering separately but dying together, represent the male and the female principle in that decaying family whose members, by the law of sterility and destruction which rules them, must exterminate each other† (352). They do destroy one another at the end, leaving the narrator to escape.And, as Jordan points out, the narrator gets the last w ord, â€Å"for his final act of ‘sentencing’ is to dispatch Madeline and her too-familiar twin into the ‘silent tarn,’ out of mind and out of language one last time† (12). Despite this triumphant climax for Madeline and Roderick, the narrator clings tightly to his story. The narrator, or storyteller, in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† fights for control over the characters within the story, both female and feminine. He takes on, ultimately, the role of masculinity.Whether, within the house, Madeline was oppressed or Roderick was matters very little –their aspects were in sync with on another and bound to come together eventually. But their ultimate victory and freedom from the masculine narrator is achieved only in their deaths, and the storyteller condemns the last vestiges of the feminine. In this story at least, the victory of femininity is short-lived and ultimately futile. Works Cited Bailey, J. O. â€Å"What Happens in â₠¬Ëœthe Fall of the House of Usher'? † American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 35. (1964): 445-66. Benoit, Raymond. â€Å"Poe's ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † Explicator 58. 2 (2000): 79-81. Hoeveler, Diane Long. â€Å"The Hidden God and the Abjected Woman in the Fall of the House of Usher. † Studies in Short Fiction 29. 3 (1992): 385-95. Jordan, Cynthia S. â€Å"Poe's Re-Vision: The Recovery of the Second Story. † American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 59. 1 (1987): 1-19. Kendall, Lyle H. ,Jr. â€Å"The Vampire Motif in ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † College English 24. 6 (1963): 450-3. May, Leila S. ‘Sympathies of a Scarcely Intelligible Nature': The Brother-Sister Bond in Poe's ‘Fall of the House of Usher'. † Studies in Short Fiction 30. 3 (1993): 387-96. Robinson, E. Arthur. â€Å"Order and Sentience in â€Å"the Fall of the House of Usher†. † PMLA 76. 1 (1961): 68-81. . Spitzer, Leo. â€Å"A Reinterpretation of â€Å"the Fall of the House of Usher†. † Comparative Literature 4. 4 (1952): 351-63. . Timmerman, John H. â€Å"House of Mirrors: Edgar Allan Poe's ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 39. (2003): 227-44. Voloshin, Beverly R. â€Å"Poe's ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † Explicator 46. 3 (1988): 13-5. Works Referenced Obuchowski, Peter. â€Å"Unity of Effect in Poe's ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † Studies in Short Fiction 12 (1975): 407-12. . Peeples, Scott. â€Å"Poe's ‘Constructiveness' and ‘the Fall of the House of Usher'. † The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2002. 178-190. Stein, William Bysshe. â€Å"The Twin Motif in ‘the Fall of the Hou se of Usher'. † Modern Language Notes 75. 2 (1960): 109-11. .