Snatch Theft

The Causes of Snatch Theft Cases in Malaysia Most of the people who involve in snatch theft cases are adolescents. They are probably poorly educated from their parents or even have a broken family. Parents play the most important role in character building and personality development of their children. In the age of information technology and globalization, they are always busy working until they forgot their true responsibility of educating and teaching children to be a perfect- educated human being. This is the main cause of moral decadence among teenagers.Children who are lack of love and attention from their parents will want to get their parents’ attention by involving themselves in snatch theft cases. They may also influence by the partner who was involved in the snatch theft cases because they choose the wrong friend. They will join their friends and also involved in snatch theft cases. This crisis was caused due to the lack of moral and religious education, especially for our younger generation. Moral and religious practices are increasingly forgotten by modern society's growing.If people have enough moral and religious knowledge, they will not be involving themselves in snatch theft cases. Deficiency causes a decrease in the religious aspect of a person's immunity to not commit crimes. So, thefts increase as our society has forgotten their religion. People who are involve in gambling and taking drug may also involve in snatch theft cases because they need to snatch other people’s bag and jewelry to get money for gambling and buying drugs. They will do what they can to get the money because they already addictive to the activities.Therefore they will take the risk and involve themselves in snatch theft cases. Moreover, the cause of the snatch theft cases is that victims of crime often walking alone in a quiet place. This will cause snatchers have the space and opportunity to snatch them. Typically, snatch cases did not plan in detail durin g a theft crime. Instead, the victim, the environmental and snatchers behavior itself that causes the snatch theft cases to happen. Factors such as a quiet environment and plenty of space to escape, have given the snatching opportunities to the snatchers to act quickly to snatch victim’s handbags or jewelry.This causes people not be able to hear the screams for help from the victim because the victim is in a quiet area alone. Actually snatch thefts became so rampant due to the attitude of society itself that does not concern about their safety aspects. Still many individuals in our society who loves to bring a lot of money in their wallet or handbag and are being targeted. Similarly, our attitude which fails to take safety precautions when returning from office alone, walking in a dark alley or credulous foreigners will make us be the targets of the snatchers easily.So, aspects of personal safety that are not being led snatching are increasingly becoming a common practice in this country. In fact, snatch thefts were also exacerbated by the global economic situation is in a recession so severe. Many factories and companies in the country had to reduce its employees because of lack of demand for their products drastically. Inability of the retrenched workers to find another job in the near future has led them to the brink of crime especially when thinking about their wife and children who need the money to survive. Therefore, snatch thefts cases rises as many workers do not have jobs.Last, the cause of the increasing snatch theft cases is the failure of the authorities to take effective preventive actions. Lack of closed-circuit cameras in high-risk areas (hotspot) causing the problem continues to worsen. If the government is putting more cameras, the snatchers will certainly think twice before they action. Thus, the lack of closed-circuit cameras have caused the problem persists, especially in the quiet environment and at night time. http://gerbangsejara ham. blogspot. com/2011/11/mengapa-jenayah-ragut-kian-meningkat. html http://5bestari-sivik. blogspot. com/2010/06/faktor-faktor-yang-menyebabkan-kes. html Snatch Theft The Causes of Snatch Theft Cases in Malaysia Most of the people who involve in snatch theft cases are adolescents. They are probably poorly educated from their parents or even have a broken family. Parents play the most important role in character building and personality development of their children. In the age of information technology and globalization, they are always busy working until they forgot their true responsibility of educating and teaching children to be a perfect- educated human being. This is the main cause of moral decadence among teenagers.Children who are lack of love and attention from their parents will want to get their parents’ attention by involving themselves in snatch theft cases. They may also influence by the partner who was involved in the snatch theft cases because they choose the wrong friend. They will join their friends and also involved in snatch theft cases. This crisis was caused due to the lack of moral and religious education, especially for our younger generation. Moral and religious practices are increasingly forgotten by modern society's growing.If people have enough moral and religious knowledge, they will not be involving themselves in snatch theft cases. Deficiency causes a decrease in the religious aspect of a person's immunity to not commit crimes. So, thefts increase as our society has forgotten their religion. People who are involve in gambling and taking drug may also involve in snatch theft cases because they need to snatch other people’s bag and jewelry to get money for gambling and buying drugs. They will do what they can to get the money because they already addictive to the activities.Therefore they will take the risk and involve themselves in snatch theft cases. Moreover, the cause of the snatch theft cases is that victims of crime often walking alone in a quiet place. This will cause snatchers have the space and opportunity to snatch them. Typically, snatch cases did not plan in detail durin g a theft crime. Instead, the victim, the environmental and snatchers behavior itself that causes the snatch theft cases to happen. Factors such as a quiet environment and plenty of space to escape, have given the snatching opportunities to the snatchers to act quickly to snatch victim’s handbags or jewelry.This causes people not be able to hear the screams for help from the victim because the victim is in a quiet area alone. Actually snatch thefts became so rampant due to the attitude of society itself that does not concern about their safety aspects. Still many individuals in our society who loves to bring a lot of money in their wallet or handbag and are being targeted. Similarly, our attitude which fails to take safety precautions when returning from office alone, walking in a dark alley or credulous foreigners will make us be the targets of the snatchers easily.So, aspects of personal safety that are not being led snatching are increasingly becoming a common practice in this country. In fact, snatch thefts were also exacerbated by the global economic situation is in a recession so severe. Many factories and companies in the country had to reduce its employees because of lack of demand for their products drastically. Inability of the retrenched workers to find another job in the near future has led them to the brink of crime especially when thinking about their wife and children who need the money to survive. Therefore, snatch thefts cases rises as many workers do not have jobs.Last, the cause of the increasing snatch theft cases is the failure of the authorities to take effective preventive actions. Lack of closed-circuit cameras in high-risk areas (hotspot) causing the problem continues to worsen. If the government is putting more cameras, the snatchers will certainly think twice before they action. Thus, the lack of closed-circuit cameras have caused the problem persists, especially in the quiet environment and at night time. http://gerbangsejara ham. blogspot. com/2011/11/mengapa-jenayah-ragut-kian-meningkat. html http://5bestari-sivik. blogspot. com/2010/06/faktor-faktor-yang-menyebabkan-kes. html

Case Study Darling Chocolate

22. 11. 12 Case Study Darling Chocolate (Group 7) 1. The population is very huge in St. Petersburg and therefore there is high sales potential. The population has experienced improvements in living conditions and material well-being; however the standard of living was not that high and incomes are still very low. The annual average growth of income was 23% and average annual inflation rate was only 12%. The average spending on food is about 56% of family budget. Only 2% of monthly expenditures for food are spent on chocolate and candy.Due to several reasons the attitude of Russian consumers is more or less negative towards imported (foreign) products. They perceive that domestic products are at least as good as foreign products. So, in general they prefer domestic products. Hence, it is not very easy to create brand awareness, because Russian consumers are very skeptical and don not trust advertising blindly. Chocolate is mass consumption product. Hence, all people are potential buye rs. Russian consumers were desiring and increasingly demanding more variety in all kinds.The market can be divided into two categories, box chocolates which are seen as more luxury products and are often used for gifts; and chocolate bars which are used for personal (more spontaneous) consumption. The market experiences seasonal ups and downs; for example Christmas and New Year Holiday season and Women’s Day are very important times for selling chocolate. The intensity of consumption is around 4 kilograms per person per year. Consumers can be divided into heavy, medium and light user. There are many companies, foreign and domestic, are competing on the market.Foreign companies had been very successful due to low prices and aggressive advertising, but in recent years most consumers prefer domestic brands. The top three Russian companies in this business are Krupskaya, Azart and Red October. One of the most important characteristics entering the market in St. Petersburg is the price because it for customers it is the main decision criteria for purchasing or not. The second one is the specific target group due to the fact that different groups prefer different tastes, ingredients and quality.Additionally, the competitors are very important to take into consideration. In order to achieve brand awareness and to get acceptance from the Russian customers as a foreign brand the advertising expenditures are very high. 2. It seems to be very difficult to succeed as a foreign company in the Russian market, because customers are quite price sensitive and focused on domestic brands. Therefore, we recommend entering the market with chocolate bars first in order to create higher brand awareness due to higher sales in volume.With those products the company has lower costs for production, experiences economies of scale and can offer lower selling prices. Additionally, the heavy users which spent the most amount of money on chocolate are targeted with this strategy. Besi des, customers rely on opinions of others word-of-mouth advertising could be a benefit. Finally, an aggressive and huge advertising campaign is useful. After having brand awareness, the introduction of higher priced (luxury) chocolate could be easier. However, a good quality is necessary. . The most appropriate customer is the Heavy User, because those people are buying chocolate continuously and spontaneously. More or less, the younger and mid-aged target group should be the aim, because older people rely on their experience and are very loyal to domestic products. Advertising depends on the available budget for this project. In general we would recommend a very aggressive advertising campaign using nearly every media that is available. One reason is that there is a high level of competition.Very important in this case is advertising on Metro-trains and busses as well as at Metro and bus stations. At those points a lot of people spent much time and recognize the ads repetitive. Mor eover, our aimed target group is usually using these opportunities of transport and people are often commuters. This kind of â€Å"travelling† enlarges repetition effects and reinforces brand awareness at no additional costs. Additionally, advertising on TV and Radio has to be done as well because those are very important media in Russia to reach the target and therefore to create brand awareness.However, TV is preferred over Radio (although it is more expensive) because you can sell your message easier by pictures. Adverts in newspapers are also important because 70% of households read a daily newspaper. It is also a good medium to offer coupons and give away. But in order to reach younger people and advertise colorful (brand awareness) magazine has to be used for advertising as well. 4. The most important thing could be to convince the people that a foreign company is able to fit the needs of the customers in Russia. Therefore, it is very important to sell products with hig h quality at an affordable price.In order to get a higher market in whole Russia the company has to spread to Moscow and other important cities. Additionally, the product portfolio has to be enlarged to reach more people. At first, the introduction of higher priced products (box chocolates) is necessary in St. Petersburg. Depending on the time this introduction could be most successful when there is Christmas Holiday or Mother’s Day when people are seeking for special gifts. Probably the company can think about a production plant in Russia, employing domestic people, lowering transportation costs etc. getting a more positive image.

Learning Experience Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Learning Experience Plan - Essay Example In my case, I needed an experience from operating in a nursing home. From the course I have the goal to achieve as much information and expertise as possible and create in myself a good nurse instructor. This learning experience will provide me the opportunity to apply my scholarly experience in a professional environment. My mentor gave me an overall goal of knowing how to relate to both my students and patients. Apart from this learning experience I have a future goal of operating in a renowned nursing educating institution. This goal will be given more professional support by the expertise I will gain from the learning experience. I will also aim to acquire the required skills and create a generation of skilled nurses from my class. At the end of 16 to 24 hours learning experience I will be able to acquire efficient tutoring schools from my instructor. As a nursing educator student I will be required to learn more than just acquiring medical information. I will be needed to acquir e tactics and skills to deliver lectures to student. At the end of the 16 to 24 hours learning experience I will be able to know more about the learning objectives in question. In my case, I chose ventilation pneumonia and congestive heart failure. I will be able to have the required medication and nursing tips when it comes to deal with patients diagnosed with the illnesses. An interview with my instructor pointed out my expectation from scholarships and teaching. From the scholarship expectations, I will be required to have acquired skills to enhance my career as nursing educator. To ensure I have attained these skills, I will be given a couple to tutoring classes to test my expertise and skills. Scholarships required a mandatory adherence to the 16 to 24 hours learning schedule which must be translated in writing. For the teaching and service expectations, the instructor pointed out that I had to provide educational roles to other learners in the facility. This will not only enha nce the learning skills in the nursing home but will also sharpen my skills as an educator. My instructor also had to relate the works of their nursing staff to our learning experience. Objectives for core measures protocol for congestive heart failure In this learning experience, I had to get the information to pass to my students on how to tackle this disease. Congestive heart failure is a chronic disease characterized by lapses in the normal heartbeat of humans (Ellen, Cecile & Martin, 2009). Older people have a high probability of contacting the disease. The weight of the patients also matter when it comes to detecting the symptoms. According to Nursing Skills (2012) keeping track of heartbeats of patients with the risk of having congestive heart failure help in the life saving life process since it keeps medics ready for any attack. For this learning outcome the objectives were based on the ability to suppress the effects of the disease and how to cater for patients with the di sease. For the medication, I had to learn how to interpret the ace inhibitors, diet, echo, diuretics and the beta blockers. The interpretation of these results is the main objectives and expectations for a nurse educator (Leslie, 2011). Objectives for evidence based practices for ventilator acquired pneumonia Ventilation acquired pneumonia is a respiratory disease associated with effects on the lungs. The disease causes effect on ones breathing

Health Care Reform (OBAMA) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care Reform (OBAMA) - Essay Example These two bills were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) that was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010. The second bill was the Health care and Education Reconciliation Act, which was also signed into law by President Obama on March 30th, 2010. There are further reforms intended for the future and have been proposed including a reduction fee for service medical care and single payer system. This paper seeks to discuss the impact of the two-abovementioned legislations on healthcare on doctors, coverage, access, costs, employees and its impact on businesses. A major characteristic of ObamaCare is that it is primarily targeted at low and middle-income families and businesses. ObamaCare also contains some obstacles for high earners, larger firms that do not insure their employees and certain sectors of the healthcare industry (Carrigan 81). As with any other law, ObamaCare poses a lot of benefits and gains for the average American and little disad vantages. High-income earners might criticize ObamaCare and large corporation for targeting them in what might seem a witch-hunt against corporate America. However, this is in an effort to cushion the average American who is at disadvantage because of their meagre income and they cannot afford health insurance. As an insured adult with an uninsured 22-year-old child, the new healthcare reforms are an added advantage. This is because it increases access and coverage for healthcare insurance and increased the maximum age for coverage from 22 years to 26 years (Carrigan 77). Through ObamaCare, insured adults with uninsured young adults as dependants will experience extended covers for up to the age of 26 years of age for the dependants (Ciocchetti np). This will result in an 82% increase in the number of insured adults through the availability and accessibility of low cost insurance and the availability of free healthcare insurance for qualifying adults. This new legislation will see t o the introduction of new rights and protection characteristic of guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions and the elimination of gender discrimination in the health care system (Carrigan 80). Despite that fact that medical insurance premiums are set to be higher, the quality of medical insurance will be of guaranteed quality and standard for all registered individuals. Obamacare will make it possible for millions of people to access affordable and quality medical health insurance through the marketplace (Ciocchetti np). This will be a boost to low income earners who did not have access to health insurance because it was inaccessible. The cost of healthcare will increase because of the widened coverage criteria, which will result in higher premiums for some sections of society. The cost implications of the healthcare reform will not affect me because I belong to the category being shielded by the legislation. This will be through increased coverage and access. ObamaCare is bo und to have different impacts on employees and employers, with some benefiting more than others. Their employers guarantee them a mandatory coverage over the period of tenure as employees of any firm. Small and medium scale enterprises and businesses will get tax credits for up to 50% of their employees’ health care insurance premium costs (Carrigan 78). This will translate to better working conditions and

Effects of Vietnam War on American Society Essay

Effects of Vietnam War on American Society - Essay Example However, 5 years after the fall of the Saigon, there seemed to be a renewal in the interest of the Vietnamese war. Network television, music and even Hollywood made the Vietnam War almost a part of the American culture. The veterans of the war together with journalists and scholars seemed to have immediately discovered a basis for their literature. Most of the messages that were conveyed from the materials produced on the war were pegged on the lessons gained from it as well as the legacies that it had left. The focus was on the extent of damage that the war had on the attitudes of the Americans, the institutions and on the foreign policies that the government had adopted. The Vietnam War was referred by some as the worst occurrence in the then 200 year history of the US. The immediate reaction of the nation was to evaluate the damage that the war had, not only in the physical sense, but also in terms of lost confidence and pride by the people who had long regarded their country as t he epitome of power and as an invincible force. The war was a very costly affair. The exact amount spent was estimated to have been $167 billion (Chambers 3). The economic woes that befell the decision by the then president, Lyndon B. Johnson, to finance the war and the Great Society were translated to the population in terms of increased taxes, double-digit figures in terms of inflation and an increase in the federal debt that was responsible for the lowering of the living standards of the citizens. The war had also served to weaken the political power and competence of the ruling class. The public lost faith in the government in the aftermath of the war. All forms of authority in the country at the time were treated with skeptism that almost resembled cynicism accompanied by high degrees of distrust and suspicion. After 5 years of silence, the public decided to voice their opinions and these were characterized by strong antiwar sentiments. In the wake of these events, the military suffered the worst effects as it was discredited and treated casually for a number of years. There is no other point in history where Americans had as low an opinion for public institutions as the period after the Vietnam War. The bipartisan consensus that America had enjoyed since the end of the Second World War and which supported its foreign policy was dissolved with the public became wary of any calls for the country to intervene in areas where democracy was lacking. There was uproar especially from members of the Democratic Party who questioned the role of America as the world?s policeman. The then democratic majority in congress passed a resolution that barred a president from sending any troops to war for a period beyond 90 days without the congressional consent. Congress further put a limit to the powers that the country could exercise in pursuit of objectives arising from foreign policy. The country struggled to avert the Vietnam syndrome that was associated with the negat ive effects that enfolded there. This syndrome came into play when President Reagan proposed intervention in Nicaragua and also when President Bush I decided to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Although the interventions were successful, the Vietnam syndrome had not completely left the minds of the American as was witnessed in the decision by President Clinton to send peacekeeping troops

Car industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Car industry - Essay Example choosing cars is because the automotive industry forms the economic sector that is most symbolic of the modern times as well as the environmental consequences of modernity. The effect of the automobile, as well as the auto-centered transport system on U.S.’s ecology and the world over has been large. From the production process to its end of life, automobiles consume resources; pollute land, air and water in addition to transforming space. The production of cars needs collecting many quantities of metals, plastic, glass and rubber plus other materials, and then assembling tens of thousands of vehicles through machine and human labor (McGranahan & Murray 2012, p. 45). This process of production itself uses gigantic amount of energy, plus the factory output creates its own range of pollutants. Once the automobile is on the road, they are the main consumers of gas and oil, which stimulates deeper drilling, transporting plus refining of petroleum products so as the meet the increasing demands. Because the internal combustion engine still dominates automobile propulsion, vehicles give out huge volumes of pollution in form of noise, air emission, disp osable parts and used oil (Melosi n.d., p. 1). Scrapped or derelict vehicles pile up once vehicles conclude their productive lives. Beyond their roles as artifacts and polluters, cars have transformed towns and the entire country more than any other technology ever created by human beings. In spite of their dramatic effect, the ecological history of automobile is hard to depict (Gasana et al., 2012, p. 36). This is because, over the years, vehicles have be considered both as a benefactor and also a threat, as a advantage to freedom, individualism and liberation and as the bane of contemporary society. By the turn of the 20th century what had only been a technical curiosity, a noise-belching menace to humans and a rich man’s plaything, started to gain acceptance (Melosi n.d., p. 1). Optimists touted the automobile as a

Element of Literature (theme, character, setting, conflicts, etc Essay

Element of Literature (theme, character, setting, conflicts, etc - Essay Example This paper examines all the similarities between these three works and establishes the commonality between the characters and their presentations. Tragedy has been a theme for playwrights since the beginning of literature, well explored by Greek poets like Sophocles, medieval English writers, and Elizabethan playwrights, of which Shakespeare is prominent. The most prominent cause of the tragedy in these plays would be the tragic hero fighting against his/her impending doom. ‘The tragic hero is divided "between imperative and impulse, between moral ordinance and unruly passion . . . between law and lust" (Heilman 207).’ (Brown, 2009). If we explore the similarities between the two Elizabethan dramas, Macbeth, Hamlet and the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus, we find that the protagonists have that fatal flaw which draws them to their downfall and all other elements that make a tragedy. When these protagonists live, they teach us many lessons with the mistakes that they commit in their life. They seem to exist to attain the ultimate goal of death.† We admire the daring, uncompromising spirit of the tragic hero wh ile recognizing that what he gains in intensity of life, he often pays for with its brevity.† (Brown, 2009). Shakespeare’s tragedies â€Å"follow a basic pattern of complication, crisis, and conclusion but with multiple variations.† (Brown, 2009). If we compare and seek similarities between the characters of the three works, we find that as mentioned above, all protagonists unconsciously seek their own fall. Hamlet muses far too much over his father’s death and even when his father has shown him the path of revenge, he fails to kill Claudius when he has the chance. Macbeth on the other hand, blinded easily by ambition and avarice, kills Duncan in haste without pondering over the consequences. Oedipus’s flaw is his colossal ego or Hubris. It does not bring about his misery directly but does lead to

Technology and Decision Making Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology and Decision Making - Research Paper Example Most doctors prescribe some type of drug to patients after visits. In the past the doctor would write the prescription and make a note in the patient’s medical record. Nowadays doctors used a computerized system to keep track of the different prescriptions that are prepared for the patients. The use of technology has improved the quality of patient care without adding any additional costs to the service from the perspective of the patient. Technology has revolutionized the way doctors’ deal with patient treatment. In the past if the doctors had any doubts about the right treatment for the patient the doctors had to dig through the collection of books and literature to find solutions for the patient. Technology has made books virtually obsolete as doctors can use technological devices such as PDA or smartphones to gain access to databases of medical information. The internet is another valuable technological resource doctors can use to gain access to valuable information that can be used to improve patient care. The invoicing function of doctors’ offices has become automated as doctors are using technology to achieve electronic billing. One of the advantages of electronic billing is that minimizes the work associated with medical invoicing and in theory this method will enable doctors to receive payment faster from the insurance companies. Some of the medical fields that will benefit from technology in the coming years include antiviral drugs, biotechnology, digital diagnostic technology, molecular diagnosis, tissues and organ transplantation (Suad, et al., 2009). Technology has helped humanity in many ways including major advancements in the diagnostic and treatment of diseases. 2. During the past 20 years the medical field has seen a lot of advances in the care patients receive due to advancements in technology. Technology has positively influence the health care field. Technology is used through the entire supply chain in the healthcare f ield. Pharmaceutical companies take advantage of technology in their research and development process of creating new drugs. It is estimated that every new drug cost over $800 million to produce. Technology has improved patient care in a variety of ways. One of the aspects of technology that has changed the way medicine is performed is diagnostic medicine. Hospital and doctors are using machines such as X-rays machines to make more accurate diagnostic of a patient’s conditions. Technology has also improved the labs test doctors prescribe in order to determine the possible causes of a disease. Today due to advancements in technology laboratory test are faster, cheaper, and more reliable than ever before. Doctors that have advanced degrees such as surgeons benefit from technology since the tools they use are highly advanced. Take for example doctors dedicated to performing laser surgery on the eyes. These types of procedures when it came out 20 years ago cost nearly $50,000. To day due to advancements in technology a person can receive the same treatment for a few thousand dollars. The treatment of many diseases such as cancer has come a long way due to technology. Cancer patients today due to technological advances can receive chimotherary to alleviate the condition and extend the patient’s life. A lot of other health conditions are now treatable due to technologi

PhD statement of purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PhD statement of purpose - Essay Example Together with others in the Society, I research and present papers. I believe myself to be capable of much more, which is why I wish to proceed by following a course of study such as is offered by the Ph.D. Program. There is much that I could contribute to the field of Marketing now and in the future. During my studies in Switzerland, I earned many awards and some of the highest marks. It was not merely these, nor the standing in my class which motivated me, rather, it was the chance to make a tangible difference in my field through writing and research. This is what encouraged and motivated me to study harder, and more importantly, to study smarter. The areas of study, namely tourism, travel the the hospitality industry aroused my interest in all matters concerning the service sector and consumer behavior, which is why my research has continuously focused on all aspects of these topics. I intend to pursue this as far as possible, with a view to applying results to the development of my country's tourist market. I have chosen to study Marketing in the Ph.D. program, which I would prefer to join as soon as possible. My main strengths lie with the mathematical sciences, because I enjoy working with numbers and determining their correct interpretation. I am also interested in related sciences, including marketing. The challenge of systematically collecting, studying and determining logical outcomes is something which has always interested and motivated me. I consider my ability to approach a puzzle or problem and find a rational solution to be a great asset which supports my research capabilities. I enjoy travelling to new places, seeing things that are exotic, which is why travel is very important to me. This is an activity that has given me much pleasure, as well as lessons I would not have learned elsewhere. My initial research experience was in consumer behavior. I learned among others, various marketing concepts to analyze customer behaviour, including relationship marketing, service recovery, value of customer/provider relationships. There is fundamental need to understand the differences between what customers really want and what business currently offer. Customers want a personal connection with the people and the organizations they do business with. This is to ensure that business outcomes are perceived as positive experiences, rather than a mere transaction. The more customers have such experiences in dealing with service providers, the more loyal they become and the more follow-on business they will engage in, in the future. If given the chance to be admitted to the Ph.D. program on Marketing, I shall focus on service sectors. I have made my career goal to be the marketing of tourism for my country, Taiwan. While striving to attain good grades, the patience required for studying, researching, and writing is my best attribute. Even in my younger student days, I was careful to accomplish tasks, which is reflected in my attention to detail and I always adopt a methodical approach to all my work. Should I be given the opportunity to continue studying, I would be able to apply results from earlier research studies, which were carried out by myself, or in collaboration with one of my professors. These research studies were concerned with the airline business, computer and mobile telecommunications marketing and I consider

Explore the significance of the past in the play Long Days Journey Into Night by Eugene ONeill Essay Example for Free

Explore the significance of the past in the play Long Days Journey Into Night by Eugene ONeill Essay At the very start of Long Days Journey Into Night, ONeill sets the scene for the theme of the past being integral to the play directly with the dedication to the love and tenderness of his wife which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all of the four haunted Tyrones. This admittance that the play was written as a sort of autobiography, a partial re- telling of ONeills personal history, means that it seems almost intrinsically connected to the past right from the beginning, the intimation from the author being that he wrote it as a form of catharsis in order to deal with the real events from his own life. Consequently the theme of the past is introduced before even the first Act has begun. The idea that he is facing his dead is a particularly apt one as at the time of writing the play, the people upon whom its characters are based ONeills family had all passed away some years before. His father, mother and elder brother Jamie are all portrayed in the same roles in the play as they had in real life, and with similar histories. The only alteration is that instead of the middle son being named Edmund, ONeill changes the babys name to his own, and calls it Eugene, having the fictional Edmund take the place of himself within the family. The main way in which the characters seem constantly to trap themselves in the past is through their constant blaming of the present upon past events. There is nothing in the present to which they do not attribute any blame, and none of them in any way seem to blame themselves for what has happened to them, preferring instead to blame each other. Consequently none of their conversations can be held without somehow referring to the past, as it is the past upon which they have built their relationships with each other. The relationship between Tyrone and Jamie for example is one in which Jamie blames Tyrone for his miserliness with his money, which he believes is what led to his mothers addiction to morphine, and her recent unhappiness which caused her to return to the drug. Tyrone blames his son for being an evil-minded loafer, and says thatsnotes he is responsible both for making nothing of his own life, and also for leading Edmund astray. In fact, the blame for these character defects does not lie within Tyrone or Jamie as personalities, but rather with the circumstances which caused these traits. For Jamie, his alcoholism and cynicism are largely to do with his discovery of his mothers drug addiction when he was younger it is made clear that prior to this discovery, Jamie was talented and enthusiastic, excelling at school and clearly liked by many people. He himself admits that the event had a large bearing on his life in just the same way that he has resorted to alcohol in order to purge himself of the same sort of knowledge about Edmund Christ, Id never dreamed before that any women but whores took dope! And then this stuff of you getting consumption. Its got me licked. Jamies cynicism clearly did not exist before he discovered that his mother used morphine, or at least not to the same degree, the fact that hed never dreamed of the idea effective in suggesting how completely distant it was from his mind and therefore how different his mind must have been from its present state of suspicion. The circumstance precipitating Tyrones miserliness were similarly ones which he himself did not contrive when he was only ten years old, his father abandoned the family and Tyrone was forced to go and find work, living a large part of his life in poverty. It is this which has made him so conservative with his money, and reluctant to expend more than is absolutely necessary, preferring to invest it in property, which he believes is the best way to keep it safe. The power of money over him is made particularly clear when the audience are told that, despite his obvious love of acting, he chose financial success over furthering his career, thereby ruining his chances of achieving his ultimate goals. This culture of blame without moving on from it, or attempting to understand the source of it is one of the key factors in preventing the family from escaping from their past rather every event in the present is related back to some previous action or accusation, without any hope of ever resolving it. This is encapsulated in Marys comment Its wrong to blame your brother. He cant help being what the past has made him. Any more than your father can. Or you. Or I. the idea that the whole family has been moulded by past events and cannotsnotes move on from them permeates every conversation, as they each hold the other somehow responsible for what has occurred and because they believe that they themselves should not be blamed for what they did, none of them will accept their portion of the responsibility, nor learn from what has happened. Throughout the play we see the same basic errors happening time and time again the nature of the tendency of each character to continually place blame for the present on something which another did in the past means that the occurrences of the past are constantly being bought forward into the present, and because no character will accept their blame, there seems to be no way to move forward into a future which is not largely concerned with what has happened before. What this ultimately leads to is a past which is largely cyclical. As no character will relinquish their grip on the past and what has happened before, by accepting blame from it, or learning from it, the same problems and occurrences repeat themselves. For example, Mary resumes taking her morphine, just as she had done before, and despite seeing the same signs leading up to it as before, the family, with the exception of Jamie, remain blind to it for some time. Tyrone is continually cheated out of money by McGuire, whose questionable skills as a property realtor hardly ever yield any profit to Tyrone himself and yet he does not learn from his past either, and continues to do the same thing at no gain to himself. Their sheer inability to take anything from the past, or to leave it alone, means that nothing in the play is occurring for the first time in a way, everything about the present in which the Tyrones are living is also the past. A quote from Mary The past is the present, isnt it? Its the future, too is particularly fitting to explain the way in which they are living. The structure of the novel echoes this confusion of times the play occurs all in the space of one day, and yet it deals with the problems both of the future and of the forty or so years previous. This idea that everything is simply a recurrence of something which has happened before -and what will continue to happen for the rest of time- is analogous to the title, in that everything could simply have happened in one Long Day, with the past, present and future simply merging into one twenty-four hour time periodsnotes Living ones life trapped in a repeating cycle of the past is not particularly conducive to being happy, as there is no real hope to look forward to when you are simply repeating the same things over and over again- as Jamie says, weary roads is right. Get you nowhere fast. Thats where Ive got-nowhere. Where everyone lands in the end, even if most of the suckers wont admit it, and so all of the characters have devised their own way of escaping, which controls the way in which they act throughout the play. For Jamie, the feeling that he hasnt actually achieved anything because he has never been able to move on is something that he only finally admits to when drunk, but which reveals the sense of hopelessness he feels from being stuck in a loop. Slightly later in the play he confides to Edmund Id begun to hope, if shed beaten the game, I could, too his hope that his mother had shrugged off her addiction, and that the future would no longer be a repetition of the past had been very important to him, as it offered a way out. However, that hope disappeared, and he resorted back to his usual escape of drinking alcohol, which is what he does for most of the duration of the play. Tyrone also drinks in order to escape the past, although unlike Jamie he also attempts to escape the repetition of the past by denying the fact that it is being repeated he refuses to recognise Marys symptoms until they are undeniably obvious, preferring to believe her lies rather than admit to what is going on. In that respect, he is unlike Jamie, whose cynicism prevents him from being able to overlook things as he chooses. Mary, however, does not attempt to escape the past in the same way that Jamie and Tyrone do, but prefers, though the use of morphine, to escape the present and return to the happiest phase of her life, during the early years of her marriage to Tyrone and her time at the convent, playing the piano. Reminders of the present, such as her hands, which have become unsightly due to rheumatoid arthritis, appal her, and as the play progresses and the morphine takes her over more and more, she regresses further and further back into the past. Her reaction to this re-living of the past is to attempt to return to her favoured part of it. Edmunds attempt to escape the past is most notable in that at one point, he actually did succeed during his time sailing, he says that he became drunk withsnotes the beauty and the singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself actually lost my life. I was set free!. The idea that he became drunk with it alludes to Tyrone and Jamies drunken attempts to escape the past, although where they used alcohol, it seems that he used nature he continues to refer to other occasions when he has felt free in a similar way, and all of them took place in a natural setting. For an audience, this liberation and sense of the natural world starkly contrasts with the three rooms and claustrophobic conversation in which the play is set, and so it is an excellent way to illustrate the total freedom which Edmund has attained. Edmund attempts to recreate this sensation by trying to express it through the use of poetry however, he says that he will never truly be able to express it how he would like to, saying that even what he just said was just stammering. Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people, is the way in which Edmund describes his inability to describe the feeling this reference to fog people is particularly interesting as throughout the play, the fog is almost a symbol of the past. As the day wears on, the fog returns to cloud over the landscape around them, and so Marys illness returns to cloud over the present and send her further back into the past. This pathetic fallacy of the weather responding to Marys haziness in her own mind is also effective in creating the sense of claustrophobia which comes from being trapped in the same circumstances over and over again just as the fog can be very claustrophobic and hide everything else from view, so the past traps the family in and prevents them from seeing the present clearly. Edmund also suggests in that quote that the whole family are native fog people almost that there is something about the way in which they live which they cannot help, but which they are genetically programmed to do. This is curious because it is perhaps the most impartial opinion expressed by one of the characters, and entirely without blame on any one of them. This perceptiveness of Edmund and the ability to reflect from a distance on what is going on is perhaps due to the fact that he is acting as the authors representation of himself. Another role of the past in the play is that it motivates the creation of an atmosphere of censorship and non-admittance. The audience is slow to find out snotes about the exact nature of Marys illness, for example, because the characters do not want to talk about the worse aspects of what happened before, and so as a topic of conversation it is forbidden by unvoiced consent until eventually Jamie faces up to the fact that she seems to be returning to her old condition. This state of affairs seems to have come about as a form of resistance as if by not speaking about something, they will somehow avoid it happening again and be able to continue as normal. Similarly Mary and Edmund attempt to pretend, to varying degrees, that his illness is other than it is Mary by calling it a cold and dismissing it, and Edmund to a lesser extent by calling it Malaria, which is more easily cursed, and continuing to drink as if he were not at risk of damaging his health. It is clear that the family refuse to talk about quite a number of incidents and feelings things which only really come out when they are under the effect of either alcohol or morphine such as the death of Eugene and Marys incident on the dock in her nightgown, because such events unlock emotions and feelings which they have hidden in order to protect each other. Mary doesnt talk about how she blames Jamie for giving Eugene the measles, or how she blames Edmund for her drug addiction when she is in her right state of mind, because she realises that those aspects of the past are too hurtful. Tyrone attempts to prevent her from continuing to speak of them when she does begin, in case one of the boys should hear. Although the past is virtually all that is discussed, there are certain sections of it which the family attempt to bury behind them. The main occurrence of the play is the return of Marys illness her return to taking morphine, and other than this very little else actually physically happens to any of the characters during the play. That her illness is actually characterised by a return to the past is particularly important as regards the past as a theme behind the play. It is quite clear to the audience that what Mary is experiencing this return to her past is an actual physical illness, and that something is definitely wrong with her mind. This leads to the consideration that the whole familys return to the past could also be deemed an illness, and without the presence of Marys actual illness it would not be as easy to see that the frame of mind in which the Tyrones live is somehow unhealthy. Marys snotes regression into her past also serves to reveal a great deal of truths about the other characters in the play and what had happened to them before, as well as a number of the deeper-held secrets which the family usually did not discuss, such as Eugenes death and where the blame for it lies. That the rest of the family seem ashamed that Mary would make such an accusation and blame it on her mental instability, when they are perfectly happy to blame and accuse each other all the time is rather ironic, and so Marys illness serves to highlight the problems with the rest of the family and the way in which they function. In terms of the message of the play, and what the audience take away with them, it seems that the past is also of significance, in that the play is something of a warning as to what the consequences might be if people never moved on. Of course, it is therefore quite appropriate that ONeill wrote it as a part of his own moving on, and his own way of putting the past behind him. The ending of the play is almost anticlimactic in that it just finishes, with no conclusion or rounding-off of the story simply that the end of the day has been reached, and this too mirrors the idea that there is no end and therefore no past when the past is relived as if it is the present and the future, too. Of all the themes in the play, the past is by far the most significant of them all, not least because the author wrote it as a semi-autobiographical work. It is the driving force behind the way the characters act, the way they interact and the way in which the atmosphere deteriorates from a rather hopeful one at the beginning of the play into one rather devoid of hope at the end, as the Long Days Journey Into Night is completed, with Mary fully under the influence of the morphine and the other characters having apparently given up on her salvation and also their own conversation. The feeling of being trapped in the past what ONeill was attempting to get rid of by facing his dead and writing it all down as a work of fiction dominates the atmosphere of the play, without which the power of the piece would be lost.

Relationship Between Culture and Economy

Relationship Between Culture and Economy Critically consider the relationship between culture and economy. To what extent is it true to suggest that decline of community and the growth of competitive individualism are produced by the shifting needs of the capitalist economy? INDIVIDUALISM independent self reliance a doctrine that bases morality on the interests of the individual a social theory maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative (Penguin English Dictionary, 2001) an economic system characterized by the profit motive and by private ownership and control of the means of production, distribution and exchange (Penguin English Dictionary, 2001) The 15th century saw the rise of humanism and the re-evaluation of the human condition in relation to his or her world. This was viewed as a journey from the dark ages of fear and oppression to the enlightened visions of individuality and hope. In reality, it was a journey that very few were privileged enough to afford. One arena for the exercise of this alternative approach was equating classical Greek and Roman cultures with what was then the rigours of contemporary religion. Already, the image of the individual is looking to another stereotype for definition. Yet how surprised these early scholars would be to find that with this individuality came loss of community spirit, apathy and destruction of the extended family in supposedly advanced societies. They would probably be less surprised to find that economics and politics are two of the tools which have been used to carve out and colour these new societies. The following essay looks at how specific these factors operate within this changing framework of postmodern (Featherstone, 1991) society. It extends its scope beyond classical economic and political theory, which is due more consideration that given here. It considered some of the literature available on the subject of culture and economics, but, in order to get a balanced view, it also tries to see what other elements contribute to the decline of community. To start with, it is necessary to understand the elements that go to make up contemporary society. To put it in Foucaultian (1983) terms, how are these discourses constructed and what are their requirements. How specific are they to each society? â€Å"They [discourses] offer us social positions and statuses: the capitalist economy makes us into ‘workers’, ‘employers’ or ‘unemployed’† (Burr, An Introduction to Social Constructivism, 1995, p.54) Culture and economics have been much studied, investigated and written about but the relationship between the two has been a difficult one to define. Guiso, Sapienza, Zingales, (2005) argue for a â€Å"heterogeneity of preferences† as affecting peoples economic choices. If one agrees with this, then the roots of this heterogeneity have to include culture. However, each of these elements of human society have only the stability of the time in which they are created. They are shifting sands and manipulated by both internal and external factors. For example, in a democracy where politicians are elected by the people, it can be supposed that they are saying what the people like to hear and promising to do what the people who elect them want. It may be a cynical view, but once in power, it appears that one form of manipulation gives way to another. As Chomsky (1992) says, propaganda is to democracies what power is to dictatorships. Political ‘spin’ both reacts and lead s. Yet, as the Frankfurt School of Philosophy shows, a depressingly negative conflict between applied reason and an ability for society to cope with, and adapt positively to, change. For example, the search for ‘panaceas’ (Horkheimer, 1987) disturbs explanations of society and economics. The panacea of the poor, as the saying goes, used to be religion. Theorists now point to consumerism as the new religion, yet it fails to provide the happiness it promises. Horkheimer (1987) explores the roots from which these questions arise and examines the success of individuality and autonomy. Why, when advanced technological societies seem to provide such levels of individual choice, is there such discontent? Could it be that an undermining of certain values has rendered us instinctively insecure? Could it be that there is truth in the statement that â€Å"every aspect of culture is in the process of commodification and linkage to the sale of goods† (Herman, 1995)? If so, is individuality an illusion and humans purely commodities to be sold to whether through cultural conformity or adherence to contemporary ideals? For the purpose of this essay, certain parameters need to be placed on the issues. For example, culture, as defined by the Penguin English Dictionary (2001), is a number of things. It is mental development, namely through education. It is the â€Å"intellectual and artistic enlightenment as distinguished from vocational and technical skills†. It is the customary beliefs and social forms of specific groups. Finally it is defined as â€Å"socially transmitted pattern of human behaviour that includes thought, speech, action, institutions and artefacts† (Penguin, 2001). This essay will mostly involve the last definition of culture. Economics seems simpler to define: â€Å"A social science concerned chiefly with the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services† (Penguin, 2001). However, even in these general terms it is easy to see how culture and economy inter-depend. For the purpose of this essay, culture and economics will be put in the context of capitalist economies. It will start with questioning what the needs are of a capitalist economy according to theory and actuality. It will then examine how community has changed and whether both the past society and present individuality are ideals rather than realities. This will then be put in the context of contemporary society. Whilst this essay has a specific focus, it is understood that there are many other forms of political, social and economic systems and these can have different effects depending on their societies. For example, as Paecher, in agreement with Burr’s quotation above, points out; â€Å"Different forms of discourse result in the prioritising of different forms of knowledge; change the power relations between discourses and the knowledge relations associated with them will change as well† (Paechter, Educating the Other: gender, power and schooling, 2001) This puts the issues within a cultural context. To do the same with regard to economics one could take the following example. Certain people who benefit from a technologically advanced capitalist economy would find survival extremely challenging in a subsistence economy. However, this is but one approach and one aspect of these issues. In order to see whether capitalism and the increase of individuality alone have been the reasons for a decline in the ideal of community, the ‘needs’ of all these elements of society have to be considered. The ‘needs’ of a capitalist economy can perhaps both be guided and led by the society they are integrated with. A ‘need’ to understand and quantify the changes that occur within these economies has led to works such as that done by Webber and Rigby (in Albritton et al, 2001, pp. 246-262). To take a factual analysis as typical of the more classical economics, they study the slow down in world economy that took place in the 1970’s. They concluded that a lowering profitability in the advanced economies was to blame for the slow down. They took this overview and quantified the results of economic change in order to assess what the reasons were from an analytical perspective. In reality, unemployment rose and wages, as Sennett shows, fell. He quotes a fall of 18% in American wages between 1973 and 1995 (Sennett, 1998, p.54). Whilst the division of rich and poor is as evident through history as today, the illusion that a capitalist society would benefit all individuals was dissolved. Discontent and disillusionment with political promises became part of the culture. It may be that the pressures felt by individuals to strive and survive through competitive application of business strategies has its roots in the depression and vulnerability of unemployment. Sennett talks about these changing pressures in terms of inequality within corporate structures. He has individuals required to out perform and increase skill diversity (p.55) in order to succeed. Work is therefore governed by economics on the one hand and culture on the other with politics as a mediator between desired forms of society and managed realities. In this light, the opposite of competitive indi vidualism is unemployment and whilst fear of the latter keeps the former competitive, the cost of the latter encourages methods of achieving full employment. For example, Featherstone uses the actions of Seattle (1996) to develop its image as a â€Å"quality of life capital† (p.107). The aim was to reduce its mass unemployment by making itself attractive both within the cultural sphere above and as a thriving economic entity. This postmodernisation (Cooke, 1988; Zukin, 1988b cited in Featherstone, 1996) is, once again, a form of self-publicisation and image production – something that this essay will return to later. To return to the UK situation. A percentage of the UK population became dependent on the Welfare State for survival and became known as the long-term unemployed. Politics and economics are at the forefront when it comes to paying for unemployment. Since the 70’s, politics has tried both a carrot and stick approach to reducing outgoings on the unemployed. Behind these initiatives is the Government budget and the premise that you can measure the success of a country by its National expenditure – this will be returned to later. Politics has continued to experiment with methods of cutting the costs of the Welfare State. Programs such as working for the dole were started. Limiting the time unemployment benefit is available for has been tried. Gradually, the programs and policies work there way back to education, the family and the community. For example the Back to Basics campaign could be seen as an attempt to introduce values that would apparently aid community cohesion. H owever, the ethics involved required a level of appreciation and agreement with the cultural capital (Bordieu, 1987, cited in Featherstone, 1991) of that discourse. Long-term unemployment undermined the expectation and value of educational cultural capital. Yet, â€Å"western governments [tended] to view education as a principal means for alleviating social disadvantage† (Webb, Schirato Danaher, 2002, p.111). Therefore politics had to try and create the values to aid economics. For a section of society, there was no educational habitus, as Bordieu would put it, or familiarity with ‘mind sets’ that make education familiar. Again, politics needed to create these as ‘natural’ expectations. This is one demonstration of the links between economics, culture and individuality and already it shows how the elements are forced both to react and interact. It also shows a necessity for illusion, created ideals, stereotypes and manipulations. A different approach looks at the ethics behind human society and puts parameters on the changes they incur. For example, market survival, success and failure through economic cycles brings in Sennett’s (1998) exploration of ‘flexibility’. Flexibility can take a global or local approach for businesses (and seems to be one of the manufactured ideals that consumerism needs to create within its target markets). When faced by falling profits in their domestic markets, the multi-nationals (cigarette firms, drinks etc) tend to expand into under-developed markets such as the third world, youth, specific racial groups (Herman, 1995). Other forms of flexibility worked on creating ‘needs’ in domestic markets (Sennett, 1998). They create niche markets and challenge the individual to be incomplete without compliance. These ‘needs’ may be defined as part of the basis of capitalist economies, but they also become part of the defining factors of their s ocieties, part of their history and therefore their culture. The next question is how is the actuality of ‘community’ affected by business. How do the ethics applied to financial success co-exist with a construction of community? A tendency to divide the community into constituent elements – business community, cultural community, class community etc has led to a range of definitions. Wenger (1998), for example, explains individual integration into business systems through the idea of a community of practise. The variables are at what level individuals are integrated into these systems and this is one way of viewing business and business community in contemporary society. It can also start to expose the isolation even within a workforce. For example an ITC worker can work from an office or home so long as the technology is in place. Although he or she is a member of this community of practise, they can be isolated from the control systems that lead it. Even if working from home, they are divided between which community they are contributing to. To return to consumerism, it would seem that rather than focus on the destruction of the family as a form of power, consumerism and the business community uses it as an expression of individuality. Likewise, politics appears, when faced by a population that is demanding reform, to come up with an ideal that no longer exists and re-creates it in the form it requires – the Nuclear family becomes a unit of modernity, essential services become community actions. The forms used to promote these needs range from local publicity to mass media, globalisation and spin politics. Herman (1995) looks at the affect of the market on culture. He identifies the tools of commercialisation on television, both in subliminal forms (brand placement) and straight-forward advertising. He looks at how commerce exploits certain pre-existing elements â€Å"which sell ´ (1995) (e.g. sex and violence). He suggests that the global popularity of American movies, music and escapisms â€Å"reflects the global decline in family and civil life, and loss of faith in politics.† (Herman, 1995, p.8) Whilst this has been a simplification of the intricacies of commercialisation, it agrees with those such as Slater who state that â€Å"culture as a whole has become consumer culture† (Slater, 1997, p121). In the introductory section questions were raised as to why discontent should exist in an apparently free society. So far, the dichotomy of appearance and actuality in a capitalist society has been alluded to rather than explored. At the essence of this duality is perhaps the recognition that the â€Å"fundamental unit of meaning in capitalist and economic thought is the object,, that is, capitalism relies on the creation of a consumer culture† (Hooker, 1996). An object is controllable and manipulatable. However, if the object is a human being then it is that person’s individual choice that has to be appealed to. As the roots of commerce tend not be the same ethically as those applied to society, appealing to individual choice requires a certain degree of basic undermining of community values. This ethical difference is shown by the types of programs Governments use to support business, which they must in a market economy, as opposed to the types of programs used to re- construct community. Whilst the former takes a business community approach, the latter tends to work on the individual. At one level, the individual is expected to rationalise, at the other to conform through consumerism and political acquiescence. Alexander (1997) explains that recognition of this duality of commerce and its society has existed for some time. In essence, he argues that an imbalance threatens society` when it becomes overly dominant and creates a â€Å"severed culture† (Alexander, 1997, p.209) and therefore artificially sustained. He quotes Disraeli and Snow as warning that a: â€Å"similar gulf continues everywhere between the mind of commerce and industry on the one hand, and the mind of non-commercial people – most people – on the other.† (Alexander, The Civilised Market, 1997, pp.208-209) If this is the case, one of the needs of a capitalist economy from its community is complicity and another is apathy. When the USA and the UK became enamoured with the market, they did not fully comprehend that business is based on profits and that â€Å"present profits are offsets to future costs† (Alexander, 1997, p.124). Governments supported markets at the cost of small business, competitiveness and ultimately high unemployment. To support an artificial ethic, society must either be too powerless, and at worst apathetic, to demand change, or too comfortable believing the ideals of individuality. The price of this redefinition of ‘self’ has been loss of community cohesion. This brings us to the means of capitalist power and whether loss of community values are the price to be paid for individuality. Slater examines how philosophies and theorists identify ‘alienation’ (Slater, 1997, p.104) of the individual where people become a commodity to be managed. For the majority, they no longer are integrated into a society within which they are part of the control system. It has been argued that there is the illusion of control maintained through choice (Slater, 1997). An idealistic example could be an individual in a self-sufficient but essentially subsistence economy such as a tribal village. Each person contributes to the survival of the whole village. Roles are understood. Culture is therefore a reflection of unity and survival. However, in the apparently ‘rich’, technologically advanced economies, the cult of the individual has placed specific values on success through materialism†¦ and perhaps best supported this through the illusion of choice. Slater further examines this illusion of choice and its production through the media and suggests that: â€Å"All consumption, but above all cultural consumption, has become compensatory, integrative and functional. It offers the illusions of freedom, choice and pleasure in exchange for the real loss of these qualities through alienated labour; it integrated people within the general system of exploitation by encouraging them to define their identities, desires and interests in terms of possessing commodities; and it is functional in that consumer culture offers experiences ideally designed to reproduce workers in the form of alienated labour.† (Slater, Consumer Culture and Modernity, 1997, p121) Slater comes to the above through his study of the development of political economics from Marx to Smith, the Frankfurt School to Soper (1981) and Doyal and Gough (1991). He uses the issue of modernity as his framework. In the above quote he talks of capitalism as essentially a cycle of loss. He also argues that culture produces the demand for this capitalism in the first place and that therefore if â€Å"all objects of consumption are meaningful [this] implicates them in the wider field of cultural reproduction† (Slater, 1997, p.5). The following looks briefly at this social reproduction from the perspective of Bourdieu and education. It does this in order to see how individuality and community actually fit within contemporary society. This gives an opportunity to see how political mechanisms use social structures for the production of specific communities. Bourdieu (1983, cited in Webb, Schirato Donaher, 2000) argues that schools are mechanisms for social reproduction. In this example, they are mechanisms for reproducing social inequalities through their policies and practises. For example, Mercier and Harold (2003) demonstrate that the religiously and culturally generated westernised ideal of the heterosexual family unit finds expression in school documentation. This raises the question of discrimination. Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy and Nosworthy (2004) list the forms of discrimination likely to be met in teaching ranging from race to academic ability. How each school accepts, rejects or translates these terms of reference seems to depend on its own cultural and educational version of Bourdieu’s habitus (Schirato Yell, 2000). For example, schools that respect difference may act firmly to stamp out evidence of sexism under the banner or anti-bullying. Their reaction may be just as firm against the somewhat more recognised discriminatory forms of racism (Lareau McNamara, 1999; Sandercock, 2003). In understanding the reactions to these issues, the values placed on social inclusion finds expression through applied social reproduction. For example, translation of another degree from another country into a qualification recognised abroad can take a renegotiation of Bourdieu’s cultural capital (Schirato Yell, 2000). If the issue to be re-evaluated is race or sexuality, the space for it in the culture determines the procedures necessary to move from isolation to inclusion. This can be empowered or disabled by the values pl aced upon it. To take this a step further would perhaps be to recognise this example as showing the vulnerability of individuality when it is beyond specific economic value systems. Social, economic and political discourses can perhaps be seen as reflecting and manipulating the value systems applied to educational institutions. As Robert Doherty (Journal of Educational Enquiry, 2003) puts it, social exclusion may be perpetuated through deliberate institutional, personal and political ambiguity. If there were an economic value to be placed on the people involved, the situation may be very different. Berger asserts that â€Å"capitalism does operate by the principle of self-interest† (Religion and Liberty interview, 2004). However, he then goes on to divide the situations individuals occupy. For example, a business person may well be a parent and apply different ethics and attitudes to each area. Therefore, whilst successful businesses require an underlying self-interest, the same person may have a more altruistic approach in other areas. When Broom and Selznick (1979) explain culture from a framework of social organisation, they show how different underlying values affect the individual. â€Å"Culture is the design and the prescription, the composite of guiding values and ideals† (Broom Selznick, Essentials of Sociology, 1979, p.57) And â€Å"Statements of need are by their very nature profoundly bound up with assumptions about how people would, could or should live in their society: needs are not only social but also political in that they involve statements about social interests and projects.† (Slater, Consumer Culture and Modernity, 1997, introduction) In this context, consumerism takes culture, re-designs or creates need and draws an illusion to create a contemporary image of individuality. The politics of a market economy apparently has to conform to support this in order to support its economy. However, one way of assessing how individualism stands in relation to a balance of power between culture and economics is to look at some of the recent studies into ‘downsizing’. Whilst not new this is an individual choice and a reaction to discontent with contemporary society. In Hamilton’s (2003) examination of what he terms a sickness derived from affluence, he sees down shifters as the â€Å"standard bearers in the revolt against consumerism† (p.207). They represent a move away from humans as consumerist ‘objects’ and return to values based not on how much they own and earn, but on their value as people. However, this is still an expression of individuality and it is not a return to community or family values. In this book Hamilton tracks the changes from the classical economist’s view of economy where the aim was to quantify how to develop a society’s wealth. He takes in the voices of dissent such as Veblen (1925) and Galbrai th (1958) that sought to warm against the growth of consumerism not as a panacea but more as a cultural poison. Other warnings came in the forms of nations approach to their pronunciations on economics. Where policy makers and politicians need seemingly factual tools to communicate with their electorate, economics can provide. However, Hamilton uses the example of Kuznets warnings regarding reducing a nation’s prosperity to a measurement based on national income (p.13). These provided something of a false floor above which consumerism and the individual continued to thrive but below which a widening gap was forming. It could be seen as a hollowing out, an undermining, of the values that had held people together, but perhaps that is too idealistic. When he comes to the unchallenged rise of ‘neo-liberalism’ (p.10) Hamilton uses the discontent within rich societies to demonstrate how wealth and consumerism have failed the individual. He points out the essential fact that individuals have to act in their own interests in order to support consumerism. From this point it is easy to make the jump to the illusion of the individual as some-one with free choice. These illusory factors are perhaps products in themselves. For example, Lasch (1978) looks at the human condition as predisposed to narcissism. If this is so then illusions and ideals, as recognised by Bordieu (1990), are allowed to distance themselves from reality through altering systems of belief. For example, Bordieu uses the example of social roles such as monarchy to show how culture endows roles within specific structures (1990) and creates the person in that image. He recognises â€Å"social functions are social fictions† (p.195). Yet again, images are presented in place of realities. Applied to this is change. Lasch states that the ‘degeneration of politics in spectacle† (1978, p.81) has led to the transformations of â€Å"policy making into publicity† (1978, p.81). He continues with identification of this distance between image production and reality. He explains how disempowerment, and alienation, occurs due to these images becoming the focal poin ts. Whilst these two points of view may diverge on other issues, they agree on idea that â€Å"images of power overshadow the reality† (Lasch, 1978, p.81). But where do these images and illusions find their genesis? In modernised reproduction of ideals? In the production of expected stereotypes? Is the notion of the family unit replaced not only by a unit of commercialism but by an image of itself and its role in social structures? Both Bordieu and Lasch recognise the impossibilities of endowing an illusion with responsibility. Another method of judging how the community fits with politics is to look what happens with migration, such as with the Italian culture. This is historically strongly networked, in part due to the city state mentality and late unification of the country. Amici, vicini, parenti (friends, neighbours, relatives) as the saying goes are still a composite force in Italian society. The answers as to why community spirit should have resisted degradation better than in many other technologically advanced societies has been much explored. One answer stems from the weakness of the political bodies and lack of trust in the ability of a politics to support the nation. These seem to be one of the fundamental causes of continued community interdependence. If this is true, then the link between politics and a consumer society is evidently very strong. Whilst Italy does not in any way lack consumerist ideals, it maintains the community through a distrust of political spin and lack of longevity (altho ugh Berlusconi has succeeded where many have failed – perhaps aided by owning some of the television stations). This can be taken further by looking at how Italian reacted to migration. For example, how did the Italians who migrated to America react? According to Gardaphe (undated), they were â€Å"constantly negotiating their relationship between the local cultures of their origin and of their land of immigration†. It is interesting to find that self-image of Italian American individuals is affected by whether they are integrated into the structures of power associated with that community: Where the local identities are strong is where Italian Americans are an integral part of political and social infrastructure; it is weak where there is little or no connection to that community. (Gardaphe, undated) This would agree with the idea that competitive individualism plays two roles in society. It could be said that an egocentric, consumerist attitude where the self is important above all else plays into the hands of the illusion of modern society. However, the above Italian American example seems to show that community needs to involve all aspects of society in order to provide a strong, cohesive balance of powers. To a degree, this essay has been broader in its approach than hoped. However, it has tried to substantiate the view that there are many elements responsible for community decline. It has looked at the rise of individuality from its roots as a part of historical community – the Enlightenment and Renaissance – to the extremes of alienation brought about by competitive individualism. The essay has looked briefly at education from the perspective of Bourdieu and his theories on social reproduction. It has also looked at migration to see what happens to a particular community then. In summary, the rise of competitive individualism seems to be more negative than positive. It has not provided the happiness that it promised, yet the illusion of freedom makes it worth while. Throughout the essay, illusion has been a focal point for both economy and culture. The essay has looked at propaganda and ‘spin’ as tools of the market place and politics and produces of illusi on. This emphasises the division between reality and illusion. Whilst the essay agrees with Bourdieu that the reality of social institutions is that they do attempt to reproduce the societies and cultures they come from, it also agrees that politics and the market create the ideal for their own ends. Therefore, competitive individualism is just one part of the re-definition of community. However, where culture will change in accordance with society, individualism is a basic essential of a capitalist economy without which the market cannot operate in the form we now know it. References Achbar, M Wintonick, P. (1992). Manufacturing Consent: Noem Chomsky and the Media. A feature documentary. Quebec, Canada: Necessary Illusions. Albritton, R., Itoh, M., Westra, R. Zeuge, A. (eds) (2001). Phases of Capitalist Development. Hampshire: Palgrave Alexander, I. (1997) The Civilized Market: Corporations, Conviction and the Real Business of Capitalism. Oxford, UK: Capstone Publishing Ltd. Allen, R. (consultant Ed) (2002). The Penguin Concise English Dictionary. London, UK: Penguin Books Bourdieu, P. (1990). In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology. Translated by M. Adamson. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Broom, L. Selznick, P. (1979). Essentials of Sociology. (2nd Ed) New York, NY: Harper and Row Doherty, R. (2003). Social exclusion: licence through ambiguity Journal of Educational Enquiry, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2003. University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom Carter, D. (Ed) (2004). The Ideas Market. Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London, UK: Sage Publications Foucault, M. (Oct-Nov. 1983). Discourse and Truth: The Problematiz

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton :: The Outsiders SE Hinton

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, published by puffin books in 2001. Pony boy is the little brother of Soda and Darry. Pony, Soda and Darry live together in the house, that their parents left them when they died in a car crash. Darry is 19 and a big muscly man who works two jobs to support his two little brothers. Soda is 16 going on 17 and looks a lot like a Greek god; he works at a car yard and dropped out of school because he needed to work to support the family. Pony is 14 and is an A student at school he likes to watch the sunset and is the narrator of this book.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Greasers are the poorest with not too much money at all. They drive fords and are much more laid back than the Soc’s. Greasers commit petty crimes and sometimes more serious ones. Greasers have long hair which they take great pride in; the Greasers wear older clothes and normally smoke far too much. The Greasers fight fair ‘â€Å"Skin fighting isn’t rough. It blows of steam better than anything.’† (p37) Greasers usually stick together but sometimes they can’t help throwing a punch or two. Soc’s are rich they have all the money and all the (cool) stuff. The Soc’s drive Mustangs and wear Madras ski jackets; they have social clubs and beat up people for the fun of it. Soc’s fight dirty and they drink and fight amongst themselves. They are the devils of society then its saviours. They are the presidents and the politicians when they get old and when there young, they get in trouble for crime and abuse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Å"I’ll bet you watch sunsets, too.† I nodded. â€Å"I used to watch them, too, before I got so busy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (p50) Cherry Valance (a socy cheerleader) and Pony boy both watch the same sunset. The Soc’s and the Greasers both live in Tulsa.

The Idealization of Women is Responsible for Tragic

Throughout history, women’s place and role in society has changed. Women are often seen as a lower status and have a need to be taken care of by men. There are conflicts with the idealization of women as they are often overlooked and viewed as secondary characters. This idealization is well established in the characters of Desdemona in Othello and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare‘s play Othello, Desdemona and Daisy are both responsible for their tragedies due to the manipulation and impact of the outsiders, their loss of innocence, and their vulnerability as women. The outsiders, Tom and Iago become influential puppeteers, as Daisy and Desdemona are their puppets. Their influences on each of the female protagonists, results in inevitable tragedy. In Othello, the antagonist Iago has a strong bitter hatred towards Othello. He envies that fact that Cassio is chosen to be lieutenant over him. In response, he resorts to manipulation and trickery to make Othello regret his decision. Desdemona is immensely affected by Iago’s plan because this leads to her tragic death. Iago manipulates Desdemona through other characters. An example of this can be seen through his wife, Emilia. Iago believes women â€Å"are pictures out of doors† (Shakespeare.2.1.121) and are more like workers than wives. Emilia is part of Iago’s scheme, as she is one of the closest people to Desdemona. Emilia has no idea what Iago is plotting until the very end. She is oblivious to Iago’s plan and it results in Desdemona’s death. Like Desdemona and Emilia, Daisy is also heavily influenced through other characters as well. Tom uses other characters to make an impact on Daisy and this can be seen through his altercation... ...lay weaknesses that make them too vulnerable for other characters to take advantage of. This vulnerability sends both Daisy and Desdemona through a never-ending fall towards their fate. Othello and The Great Gatsby, are the perfect exemplars of how an ideal innocent women, can face undoubtedly tragic fates. Despite much strength in their characters, both Daisy and Desdemona exhibit the vulnerability of their innocence, the ability for others to take advantage of them, and glaring weaknesses. They are unaware of their surroundings, which lead to questionable actions. Their inevitable tragedies occur because of how each character dealt with these situations placed in front of them. All in all, Daisy and Desdemona are responsible for their tragedies because they are women placed in unfamiliar positions and are unable to deal with situations placed in front of them.

Marijuana Legalization Essay examples -- Marijuana Law Reform, 2015

In the U.S. today, the use of recreational drugs and legislation concerning them revolves heavily around the most used illegal substance, marijuana. Marijuana is also known as cannabis, as well as a slew of other names, as it is derived from one of the three Cannabis plants: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. Cannabis’ popularity can largely be accredited to its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content. THC is the main psychoactive component found in cannabis that produces the â€Å"high† that marijuana users may experience. The drug is most commonly rolled into a â€Å"joint†, or weed cigarette, and smoked. While weed may provide its users a feeling a euphoria, it gives lawmakers headaches as it presents several social and legal difficulties. In the United States, laws regarding marijuana vary from state to state, but the drug is generally illegal throughout the country. Decriminalization in many states allows for freer cannabis consumption, and medical marijuana allows for patients to intake prescribed drugs without any issue. With the relative availability for marijuana despite its legal standing, obvious social constraints are placed upon members of society. Cannabis has long been used as a medicinal agent. The first uses of medical marijuana can be traced to the Chinese emperor Shen Neng, and this practice dates as far back as 2700 B.C.. The use of medical marijuana has spread from China to India, to ancient Rome, and then through Asia, Europe, and Africa. The plant was used to treat any number of ailments, including â€Å"gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and, curiously, poor memory† (Understanding Marijuana 11). Marijuana was also used as a painkiller, an anesthetic, and even as a cure for flatulence. Today, the ... ...om/time/nation/article/0,8599,1912113,00.html>. Nakaya, Andrea C. Marijuana. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint, 2007. Print. "National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction." Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . "Proposition 19." Voter Information Guide November 2, 2010 | California Secretary of State. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . Robison, Jennifer. "Decades of Drug Use: Data From the '60s and '70s." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 2 July 2002. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . "VOTES FOR AND AGAINST NOVEMBER 2, 2010, STATEWIDE BALLOT MEASURES." Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . Marijuana Legalization Essay examples -- Marijuana Law Reform, 2015 In the U.S. today, the use of recreational drugs and legislation concerning them revolves heavily around the most used illegal substance, marijuana. Marijuana is also known as cannabis, as well as a slew of other names, as it is derived from one of the three Cannabis plants: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. Cannabis’ popularity can largely be accredited to its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content. THC is the main psychoactive component found in cannabis that produces the â€Å"high† that marijuana users may experience. The drug is most commonly rolled into a â€Å"joint†, or weed cigarette, and smoked. While weed may provide its users a feeling a euphoria, it gives lawmakers headaches as it presents several social and legal difficulties. In the United States, laws regarding marijuana vary from state to state, but the drug is generally illegal throughout the country. Decriminalization in many states allows for freer cannabis consumption, and medical marijuana allows for patients to intake prescribed drugs without any issue. With the relative availability for marijuana despite its legal standing, obvious social constraints are placed upon members of society. Cannabis has long been used as a medicinal agent. The first uses of medical marijuana can be traced to the Chinese emperor Shen Neng, and this practice dates as far back as 2700 B.C.. The use of medical marijuana has spread from China to India, to ancient Rome, and then through Asia, Europe, and Africa. The plant was used to treat any number of ailments, including â€Å"gout, malaria, beriberi, rheumatism, and, curiously, poor memory† (Understanding Marijuana 11). Marijuana was also used as a painkiller, an anesthetic, and even as a cure for flatulence. Today, the ... ...om/time/nation/article/0,8599,1912113,00.html>. Nakaya, Andrea C. Marijuana. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint, 2007. Print. "National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction." Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . "Proposition 19." Voter Information Guide November 2, 2010 | California Secretary of State. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . Robison, Jennifer. "Decades of Drug Use: Data From the '60s and '70s." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 2 July 2002. Web. 30 Sept. 2011. . "VOTES FOR AND AGAINST NOVEMBER 2, 2010, STATEWIDE BALLOT MEASURES." Web. 30 Sept. 2011. .

Patient Profile

Mrs Mary Martins is an eight four year old lady who was admitted to a local community hospital after falling at home while going to the toilet in the early hours of the morning. Mrs Martins had sustained a chipped bone in her left foot, had no plaster cast in situ and was non weight bearing. Mrs Martins lives alone in her own bungalow; her husband had died 4 years earlier. She has a son and daughter who both live in the south of England and a granddaughter who lives close by. The granddaughter pops in every week to help her with the shopping and various other tasks that may need doing. She also has a very good neighbour who she sees every day and who helps out whenever needed with tasks such as shopping. Mrs Martins has been retired for a number of years now and enjoys driving her car very much and socialising with friends. She also used to play golf and travel to the United States of America (USA) every year to visit family. Mrs Martins main concern was her ability to drive her car again. Mrs Martins has never smoked, but does like to have the odd alcoholic drink of a night time. She has no past medical conditions and no medication history, although the doctor has put her on 1g of paracetamol to be taken four times a day or as and when required to help with the pain. Before the fall Mrs Martins was a fit and active lady who lived a very independent life.

Functional assessment of an elderly man at home Essay

According to NHS (2011), elderly people who have attained the age of 65 years and above usually spend an average of 10 hours and above daily sitting or lying down, making them the most sedentary group of people. Due to this apparent inactivity among the elderly, they are more prone to accidental falls, obesity, cardiovascular accidents, heart conditions and sudden death than the general population. In this interview, data was gathered from an elderly man in his early 80s through use of a semi-structured interview schedule that consisted of open-ended questions touching on the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and activities of daily living (ADL). The interview schedule provided an opportunity for the interviewer and interviewee to tackle the questions in detail through appropriate probing. Before commencement of the interview, an informed consent was obtained from the respondent where his anonymity and the confidentiality of the information sought from him were assured. The interviewee was asked to sign a consent form if he agreed to take part in the interview. The Rationale To ascertain that a person is able to independently live at home or community, the determination of the daily basic activities performed by the individual is necessary. These activities are referred to as Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). According to PayingForSeniorCare (2007), ADLs only serve as a yardstick of independence of individuals, whether or not they perform these basic activities on their own or get assistance. On the other hand, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) are the actions which are important but not a daily requirement for one to live independently. They usually used to determine what level of assistance is to be accorded to the elderly or disabled people in society. In the interview nschedule, three (3) ADLs and Three (3) IADLs were included. The ADLs included: Bed mobility, Toileting, and Eating. The IADLs were: Responsibility for own medication, Housekeeping, and Ability to use telephone. These activities and actions were included in the interview because they will in the very least point to the functional ability of the respondent given his advanced age. ADLs and IADLs are carried out because ‘ Measuring an individual’s ability to perform the ADLs and IADLs is important not just in determining the level of assistance required but as a metric for a variety of services and programs related to caring for the elderly and for those with disabilities (PayingForSeniorCare (2007, p. 1). Ethical considerations According to Fouka and Mantzorou (2011, p. 3), research ethics involve requirements on daily work, the protection of dignity of subjects and the publication of the information in the research. Research ethics are a set of principles that guide researchers and research organizations on how to conduct themselves when dealing with research participants, other researchers and colleagues, the users of their research and society in general. Among the ethical issues taken into consideration in research include: 1. Informed consent Informed consent is a major ethical issue in carrying out research. According to Armiger (1997), the participant must knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently, and in a clear and manifest way, give his/her consent. Informed consent confers autonomy to the respondent hence they are protected through self-determination. Through informed consent, the participant’s integrity, personal liberties and veracity are protected from violation by researchers. Informed consent enables individuals participate in research voluntarily after they have been provided with information on the potential risks and benefits of the research. Free and informed consent should incorporate an introduction to the study, its purpose, an explanation of the selection of the subjects and the procedures that shall be followed. It is essential to describe any physical harm or discomfort, any invasion of privacy and any threat to dignity as well as how the subjects will be compensated in that case. 2. Beneficence- do not harm This principle ensures that researchers exercise a professional mandate to carry out significant and effective research so as to serve and promote the welfare of the population. A researcher must consider all possible consequences of the research and balance the risks with proportionate benefit. The type, degree, and number of potential risks must be assessed and the risk benefit ratio can only be achieved by identifying these factors. If the risks outweigh the benefits, the study should be revised. It is important that debriefing of the participants is done at the end of the study. Debriefing refers to explaining the exact aim of the study and why certain disclosures were not done. According to Burns and Grove (2005) ‘if the subjects experienced a high level of discomfort, they should be debriefed or referred to appropriate professional intervention as necessary’. 3. Respect of anonymity and confidentiality Confidentiality and anonymity are closely linked with the rights of beneficence. The protection of anonymity is achieved when the researcher does not link a participants personal responses and his/her identity. The management of private information of the respondents must be ensured by the researcher in order to protect the participant’s identity. Confidentiality means that individuals can give and/or withhold as much information as they wish to the person they choose. 4. Respect of privacy Privacy is the freedom exercised by an individual in determining the time, extent, and general circumstances under which private information will be shared with or withheld from others. Therefore, private information shall not be shared with others without the knowledge of the participant. According to Treece and Treece (1982), a researcher must respect a decision by a respondent who considers reporting personal information a violation of privacy. Fauka and Mantzorou (2011, p. 7) state that ‘this may even apply to report of age, income, marital status, and other details that the subject may regard intimate. They also imply that privacy can be invaded when researchers study certain groups without their knowledge and without identifying themselves. 5. Concerns of vulnerable group of people Vulnerable group of people are the individuals who are unable to protect their own rights and welfare. Opinion is still divided as to whether they should be included in research studies or not due to their inability to give informed consent. They include prisoners, mentally ill people, the aged and children among others. They need further protection for they are vulnerable to being deceived, threatened or forced to participate in research studies they have no idea about. According to Burns and Grove (2005), the vulnerability of these individuals increases the need for justification for the use of such subjects in research studies. 6. Honesty, objectivity, integrity, legality and competence It is important to maintain honesty in research undertakings. Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Avoid any fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation of data. Do not deceive colleagues, granting agencies, or the public. To maintain objectivity, the researcher must avoid bias in study designs, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception. Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect research. Integrity should be ensured through keeping of promises and agreements. The researcher must act with sincerity, and maintain consistency of thought and action. Every researcher must ensure and improve his/her own professional competence and expertise through lifelong education and learning and steps must be taken towards the promotion of competence in science as a whole. Research studies are guided by the relevant rules and regulations that must be adhered to at all times, whether institutional or governmental. Research ethics play important roles in research studies as they; 1. Bring about respect for and cause no harm to the participants 2. They are a professional requirement in research studies 3. They are a requirement in obtaining funding for research undertaking 4. They ensure that research studies are conducted within the ethical guidelines provided by the Ethics Committee 5. Ensures that the research findings are acceptable to the research community and the public Interviewee current IADL/ADL practices According to Quinn et al. (2011), elderly individuals usually present with acute and chronic problems that adversely affect function, often defined by functional decline and loss of independence. This might eventually lead to institutional care for such individuals. The decreased function may be a pointer to occult pathologies which lead to increased mortalities (Schumacher, 2005). From the interview, it was found out that the respondent had limited capacity in carrying out daily activities. For instance, in determining the ADLs, in bed mobility, he needed other than two persons physical assist, had a limited physical assistance in toileting and limited assistance when eating. His actions too were limited as he scored lowly in IADLs. For instance, in responsibility for own medication, he only takes medication when it is prepared in advance and in right dosages, he answers the telephone only and cannot dial by himself, and finally he does not participate in any form of housekeeping. The respondents attributed all this to poor memory, fast failing eyesight, affliction by arthritis and advanced age. Conclusion Elderly individuals are afflicted by many ailments that lead to poor health, and as a consequence they are usually unable to undertake simple tasks that are geared towards maintaining good health. It is therefore imperative that functional assessment are done on such persons in order to put in place appropriate strategies that can help them lead at least ‘normal’ lives. Therefore, ADLs and IADLs are important towards this end and can help determine the kind of care to be provided to elderly individuals. This can be in the form of institutional care, family and friends care giving. References Armiger, B. (1997). Ethics in Nursing Research: Profile, Principles, Perspective. Nursing Research, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 330-333. Burns, N & Grove, S. (2005). The practice of nursing research: Conduct, critique, and utilization (5th ed.), St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier/ Saunders. Fauka, G &  Mantzorou, M. (2011). What are the major ethical issues in conducting research? Is there a conflict between the research ethics and the nature of nursing? Health Science Journal, 5(1), pp. 3-14. NHS (2011). The importance of exercise as you get older. Retrieved from: http://www.nhs.uk. Quinn, J, McArthur, Ellis, G & Stott, J. (2011). Functional assessment of older people. BMJ. doi: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4681 Schumacher, J. (2005). Emergency medicine and older adults: continuing challenges and opportunities. Am J Emerg Med, 23: pp. 556-60. Treece, E & Treece, J. (1982). Elements of research in Nursing. St-Louis: Mosby. Appendix Appendix A Informed consent letter My name is †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦., an undergraduate student at †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. University carrying out a study on ‘the importance of ADLs and IADLs’. All information provided in this study will be treated with confidentiality and your identity shall not be disclosed. All information provided in this study will be treated with confidentiality and your identity shall not be disclosed. The participation in this study is on voluntary basis, and therefore you are free to accept or decline to take part in the study. Your cooperation shall be of great importance in achieving this goal. If you agree to take part in this study, please append only your signature below ____________________________________ ______________________ Respondent Signature Date Interviewer signature Date Appendix B Interview schedule Part 1: ADLs 1. How will you describe your ability to move in bed while you lie on it? Any difficulties? 2. Please describe your ability to use the washrooms. Any important information worthy noting? 3. Can you please describe to me your eating habits? Are you able to cut chew and swallow food independently or with supervision? Part 2: IADLs 1. Are you responsible for taking your medications? Yes [ ] No [ ] If NO in the above question, please explain. 2. Do you perform housekeeping chores? 3. How will you describe your use of the telephone? any reasons for that?